Auschwitz
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2731 was the inmate number given to this girl. Nothing else is known about her, except that it is very unlikely that she survived. My heart broke when I saw this picture. A life wiped out only a picture that remains. Not a picture of a young girl dressed in a gown. Or a picture…
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Oswald Kaduk was born on 26 August 1906. I think a line from an Iron Maiden song applies to him, “All the evil seem to live forever.” He died on 31 May 1997. He was a German SS member and served as Rapportführer at Auschwitz. He was on trial during the second Auschwitz trial. Kaduk…
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On 15 November 1943, Himmler ordered that Romani and “part-Romanies” were to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.” Between 1933 and 1945, Roma and Sinti in Europe were targets of Nazi persecution. The Nazi regime, building on long-held prejudices, viewed Roma as “a-socials” (outside “normal” society) and as…
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Before I go into the main story, I just want to point out the most disturbing aspect of the picture above. At the very front is a lady carrying a baby. We know now what her fate would have been. It is a disturbing sight on an old photograph, so just imagine how disturbing this…
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I know this blog may not sit comfortably with everyone, but I believe it’s important to look at the Holocaust from every possible angle if we are to understand its full story. What follows is a glimpse into that story, seen through the words of a man who once stood guard at Auschwitz. The letter,…
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The title is a line from a song by Gary Moore and Phil Lynott, “Out in the Fields.” Although the song has nothing to do with the Holocaust, the particular line I used for this title was a reality for millions. Millions were murdered for no reason other than hate and a warped sense of…
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Some lives are difficult to describe without resorting to words such as hero, martyr, or saint. Maximilian Kolbe is certainly one of them. Yet I use the word martyr reluctantly, not because the word is inappropriate, but because it can sometimes carry connotations that obscure the extraordinary nature of what Kolbe actually did. He did…
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Education is often seen as a human right and it really should be, but so often it is a privilege taken away from many. Moshe Flinker was a teenager born in the Hague, in the Netherlands on October 9, 1926. He had a particular talent for language,he studied eight languages including Hebrew. The language he…
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I know it is easy to call people like Rudolf Höss and others who worked in Auschwitz monsters, and to en extent I can understand that, I have done so in the past. However when you call them monsters you take the risk of given them an excuse for their acts, because we only expect…
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There are no photographs of the two babies—just death certificates. Elisabeth Jeanne Petzal was born with her twin brother Robert Harry on 10 August 1943 in Camp Westerbork. They were children of Werner Petzal and Fanny Betsy Oppenheim. Both were murdered in Auschwitz on 18 October 1944. They were just a year old when they…
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