Auschwitz
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Remembering Emma de Lange although I never met her or even knew her. Remembering Emma de Lange, who went to the Sionsschool in the Celebesstraat in Groningen, the Netherlands. Remembering Emma de Lange or rather the reason why we have to remember her, By remembering her, we also remember the other 1.5 million children who…
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There were 40 defendants at the Auschwitz trial. 39 were sentenced and 1 was acquitted.Of the 39 sentences there were 23 death sentences, 2 of which were later commuted to life imprisonment. The other sentences varied from life to 3 years imprisonment. 39 People convicted even though there had been close to 10,000 in the Auschwitz garrison.…
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The picture is of a vacant building in the town center of Geleen in the Netherlands. The building wasn’t always empty. It used to be a clothes shop called “Modehuis” or Fashion House. It was a shop that catered more for the older ladies, my mother liked to shop there A few doors next to…
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Paedagogium Achisomog was an institution for Jewish children with intellectual disabilities. The institution was opened in 1925 and was a subsidiary of the Apeldoornsche Bosch. At Paedagogium Achisomog about 75 children lived in small groups. On the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, Paedagogium Achisomog was evacuated together with the Apeldoornsche Bosch. On 10…
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In the corner, worn and scuffed, it lay,A silent witness to a world gone gray.Its leather cracked, its latches weak,It held the echoes no voice could speak. Ingrid de Vries, a child so small,Born in Amsterdam, one crisp fall.Her laughter danced in the autumn air,A fleeting joy—beyond despair. Her suitcase—packed with careful hands,By those who…
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No one of us can ever imagine how it felt to be in Auschwitz. Except for those who survived it. Below are just some quotes from survivors Silvia Vesela -Slovak Jewish Auschwitz Survivor “It’s a really humiliating feeling when your personality is being taken away. I don’t know whether you can understand it. You suddenly…
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While Jewish identity was traditionally defined by religious beliefs and cultural heritage, the Nazi regime considered Jewishness a racial characteristic, making conversion to Christianity irrelevant in terms of escaping persecution. Many Jews sought refuge in Catholicism, hoping that baptism would provide protection from Nazi oppression. However, in most cases, conversion did not shield them from…
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Nowadays, people often complain when a train is running late, me included, by the way. However, recently, I have changed my way of thinking about that. Throughout Europe during World War II, the military used the railways to accommodate an industrialized scale of murder. It could only work if the trains ran on time. The…
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A vital element of the Holocaust’s industrial-scale genocide was the efficient logistics system that transported millions of people to their deaths in concentration and extermination camps. The Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German national railway company, played a central role in this process. By providing the means of transportation for the deportation of Jews and other victims,…
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Prisoners in Auschwitz were given a number, which was tattooed on their arm. Marking people with a number makes it easier to treat them as objects rather than human beings. However, not everyone got a number, and there were occasions when they ran out of ink. More people were killed in Auschwitz than the combined…
History of Sorts 