Auschwitz

  • The Eyes of an Angel

    A baby with the eyes of an angel. Edith Poppelsdorf was born in Amsterdam on 28 December 1941. She was murdered at Auschwitz on 16 August 1942. She reached the age of 7 months. Someone looked into those eyes and decided to send her to the gas chambers. That’s all I really can say about Edith.…

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  • Daughters of Silence

    For Anne and Margot Frank In secret rooms where daylight thinned,Two sisters lived, two hearts were pinnedTo dreams too vast for walls to bind—They wrote, they watched, they stayed behind. Margot, firstborn, quiet flame,A scholar’s grace, a whispered name.With pages neat and eyes downcast,She traced her prayers, she held them fast.A life of duty, still…

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  • This Is…

    This is Margot Jany, eight-years-old when she was murdered in Auschwitz-Birenk. This is Ernest Frydman, age nine from Paris, France deported and murdered in Auschwitz on August 1942. This is Mina and Joseph Kiszelewski, murdered in the gas chamber on August 26, 1942, at ages nine and six. This is Bernard Gutman, age eight, from…

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  • People sometimes think that Mengele was the only doctor at Auschwitz, but in fact, there were more than 30 physicians working there. Mengele, however, was the most notorious one. He also seemed to be the most enthusiastic scientist. He had a particularly evil mind. I will not write about his experiments because I have written about…

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  • 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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