The title is a translation of a line from the Dutch song Blauw (“Blue”). I was listening to it in my car today, and this particular line stayed with me.
That line perfectly captures what I experience every time I write about the youngest victims of the Holocaust. Seeing their faces—just a fleeting moment captured in a photograph—takes only a second, but the thoughts they leave behind last forever. I’ve seen countless images of these children, and their faces never fade from my mind.
The picture above is of Rolf Dirk Ullmann. He was born on March 31, 1943, in Westerbork, the Netherlands, and was murdered in Auschwitz on October 8, 1944. He was just 18 months old.
His short life was spent entirely in captivity. He was first transported to Theresienstadt on January 20, 1944. On October 6, he was sent to Auschwitz, where he arrived on October 8 and was murdered upon arrival.
His first steps were taken in a concentration camp. His first words, if he ever spoke any, were uttered in a concentration camp. His first and last meals were given to him in a concentration camp. He knew nothing but confinement and the cruelty of those who placed him there.
His mother, Edith Ullmann-Fleischmann, was born in Ebeslbach, Bavaria, Germany, on October 31, 1912. Though I cannot say for certain, she likely fled Germany when the Nazis took power. Many Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria found temporary shelter in Westerbork before World War II, only to be trapped there when it became a transit camp during the war.
Edith had another child, Ellen Wilhelmina Ullmann, born in the Netherlands on September 15, 1939, in Oud-Beijerland—a name that translates to “Old Bavaria Land.”
Ellen was also murdered in Auschwitz on October 8, 1944, just weeks after her fifth birthday.
Edith Ullmann-Fleischmann was murdered a day later, on October 9, 1944, in Auschwitz-Birkenau. I do not know why she was killed a day after her children. Perhaps, after witnessing their deaths, she lost the will to live. As a parent, I can understand that.
These three innocent souls are just a few of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Six million lives lost—one for every second in 69 days. But as the title says, for me, seeing each picture takes only a second, yet the thoughts will last forever.
It is up to all of us to ensure that there is never another Holocaust. Never again.
sources
https://map.stolpersteine.app/en/utrecht/locations/handelstraat-48
https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/personen/156474/edith-ullmann-fleischmann
https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Rolf-Dirk-Ullmann/01/36729
https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/41302/rolf-dirk-ullmann
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