Auschwitz

  • I don’t want to be a burden to anyone, just put me in a sandpit and I’ll be happy. I am not a danger to anyone, how could I be, I am only three. All I want to do is to play with my toys, just like any other boy my age. I don’t think…

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  • I don’t hate you..

    I don’t hate you. I don’t even understand what that word means. There are things I don’t like, like Spinach. I’d rather have an ice cream or a lolly pop. Hate is a concept made by grown ups, not by children like me. I only see the good in people. Why should I hate you?…

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  • Amid the unimaginable suffering endured by European Jewry under Nazi rule, music emerged as a profound means of resistance, remembrance, and resilience. In the ghettos and concentration camps, music gave expression to a humanity that could not be extinguished. It provided a spiritual escape, a voice for longing and defiance, and a source of collective…

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  • Holocaust Diaries

    Bizarrely enough diaries were not always used or recognized as evidence or as study material for the Holocaust. researchers tended to dismiss Jewish diaries as subjective and unreliable. Only in the last few decades the value of diaries have been acknowledged. To me there is nothing more powerful of the words of those who lived…

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  • Before sharing the story of Frits Philips, I’d like to first touch on his family’s background The patriarch of the Philips family is Philip Philips, a Jewish merchant from North Rhine-Westphalia who came to the Netherlands. Little is known about him. He was married to Rebecca van Crefelt. Lion Philips (Zaltbommel, October 29, 1794 –…

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  • On May 30, 1943, the SS assigned Josef Mengele to Auschwitz, reportedly at his own request. He served as one of the camp physicians at Auschwitz-Birkenau—the largest of the Auschwitz complex—which also functioned as a primary killing center for Jews deported from across Europe. Among his various duties, Mengele was responsible for overseeing the Zigeunerlager…

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  • Mengele

    Yesterday, I received an email from a Mengele admirer. His name is Eric Sissu. I don’t know him personally, but I imagine he’s the type who sits in his parents’ basement, in his dirty underwear, fantasizing about Josef Mengele while doing little else with his time. He probably wrote that email from the same basement,…

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  • I did post about the Ovitz family before but because it is such a remarkable story, I thought it a good idea to do another one. Before I get into the main story, I have to explain that I mean no disrespect with the title— it was how the family gained recognition. The Ovitz family…

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  • On July 24, 1922, the Council of the League of Nations — the predecessor to the United Nations Security Council — formally approved the British Mandate for Palestine, marking one of the earliest legal steps toward the eventual establishment of the State of Israel. This decision came in the aftermath of World War I and…

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  • On May 20, 1940, the first group of prisoners arrived at Auschwitz: approximately 30 German inmates classified by the SS as “professional criminals.” They had been selected from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Less than a month later, on June 14, 728 Polish prisoners were deported by German authorities from a prison in Tarnów,…

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