Auschwitz

  •   Will this be the last Sun light I see? I did see the sunbeams through the cracks on the train. They shone on the people in the wagon, Some did not move, They were asleep my mother said, but I don’t believe her Will this be the last fresh air I breathe? On the

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  • No longer will I walk my dog

    No longer will I walk my dog or ride my bike No longer will I read a book or write a card No longer will I do what everyone else my age does. No longer will I be loved or no longer will I love. Not because I am a bad person or because I

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  • Sjelomo Hamburger

    This is the aspect of the Holocaust I struggle most with. How can anyone look at this child and perceive him to be a threat to the nation. How can they look at his face and decide that he needs to be killed immediately. Sjelomo Hamburger would have celebrated his 80th birthday today. But he

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  • Christmas in Westerbork

    At first glance when you look at the picture it doesn’t appear to be extraordinary. There is an officer clearly giving a speech. There are a few Christmas trees at the back so it appears to be some sort of Christmas do. The officer is Albert Konrad Gemmeker he was a German SS-Obersturmführer and camp

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  • Josef Mengele-Angel of Death

    Josef Mengele was born in Günzburg on 16 March 1911, the oldest of three sons of Walburga (née Hupfauer) and Karl Mengele. His two younger brothers were Karl Jr. and Alois. There is an eerie coincidence here, Alois was also the name of the Father of the man he came to admire and serve, Adolf

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  • Jawischowitz-Auschwitz Subcamp

    Jawischowitz was a sub-camp located in the village of Jawiszowice (German: Jawischowitz). Prisoners held there were forced to work in two shafts of the Brzeszcze coal mine, situated in Jawiszowice and Brzeszcze. The camp began operating in mid-August 1942, when 150 French Jews arrived under an agreement between the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office

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  • The Journey of No Return

    The above photograph is a rail track I pass over nearly every day. Yesterday, when I passed it, I had to think of all those who went on train journeys and never returned. The trains that travel over this rail track are comfortable, They have soft seats you can sit on, and some even have

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  • The story of Emma van Essen-Frankenstein is a story of desperation. Her maiden name is also the name of a famous horror story, but Emma’s story is more horrific than that of her fictional namesake. She was born in Salzderkilden, Germany on 18 March 1862. In May 1893 she married Dutchman, Abraham Levie van Essen,

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  • There were three groups of people in the Holocaust: The criminals who tortured and murdered; The victims murdered; and those who survived and were scarred for life—mentally and physically. The helpers were the people who helped the Jews and others to escape and survive. These are just examples of each group. The Criminal Hildegard Lachert

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  • Margard (Marga) Kaufmann, born in Gronau, Germany 10 November 1928. Murdered in Auschwitz on 3 September 1943, reached the age of 14 years. Marga’s parents were married in 1923 in Gronau, where her mother, Adele, had taken over her grandmother’s grocery store in 1918. Marga never knew her grandparents, Zilversmit. Her mother had four brothers,

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