Auschwitz
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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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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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As I’ve said before: a picture tells a thousand words, but never the full story. That’s one of the reasons I choose to limit the use of graphic images. Words can leave a deeper impact—they require time, attention, and reflection. A picture allows you to quickly decide whether or not to engage, but a story…
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The photograph above is of a selection in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It looks horrendous enough when you look at it, but if you analyze it, the horrors become so real. Firstly, it is clear that the line on the left will not show the end of that day. They are doomed to go into the gas chambers.…
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Flóra Klein was just a teenager when the world around her began to fall apart. She was born to a modest Jewish family in Jánd, a small Hungarian village. Life was hard but filled with love—her parents kept traditions alive, the Sabbath was a sacred time, and music often floated from the kitchen as her…
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Many Eastern European nations are diverting their guilt in the Holocaust by saying that they were occupied. To me, that is like the German Nazis saying “We didn’t know.” Croatia cannot claim they were occupied. The Independent State of Croatia was ruled by the Croatian fascist Ustaša movement. The Ustaša immediately embarked on a campaign…
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When the gates of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Mauthausen and other Nazi concentration camps were finally unshackled in 1945, the world watched as skeletal survivors stumbled out of hell. The war was ending, and freedom had come. But for thousands of victims, it came too late. These are the stories we don’t always hear—the stories of…
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On April 16, 1947, in the shadow of Auschwitz—a name now synonymous with human suffering and industrial-scale murder—justice was served in one of the most symbolically powerful moments of the post-war reckoning. Rudolf Höss, the former commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust, was executed by hanging. The…
History of Sorts 
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