Poland

  • 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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  • Van der Klein

    My last name is a bit of a mystery. A distant cousin started a family tree several years ago and at some stage he got stuck, because our family name seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He could trace it back to somewhere in the late 19th century. There are plenty of Klein’s but

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  • A working day in Auschwitz

    Every aspect in Auschwitz was designed for either extermination or dehumanization of the prisoners, mainly Jewish prisoners. For those young and fit enough to work there was a daily roll call, sometimes these could last for hours. Prisoner were forced to stand still, wearing very thin clothing regardless what weather condition ,even the slightest movement

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  • Awful atrocities were carried out at the Janowska concentration camp and surrounding Lvov (aka Lwow and Lviv) by the Nazis, Soviet troops and Ukrainian nationalists. In September 1941, the Germans set up a factory on Janowska Street in the northwestern suburbs of Lvov, in southeastern Poland(today Lviv in Ukraine). This factory became part of a

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  • At first, I was reluctant to use the word beauty in the title because we now live in an era where some people might find that offensive, and they will scream about it. I pity them because they lose out on so much. Etty Hillesum was a beauty in every sense of the word. It

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  • Hans Frank was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, serving as Adolf Hitler’s personal legal advisor and later as the Governor-General of occupied Poland. Born on May 23, 1900, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Frank was initially trained as a lawyer, joining the Nazi Party in 1923. He quickly rose through the ranks by aligning himself closely

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  • The Budy Massacre of October 5–6, 1942, remains one of the lesser-known atrocities of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Within the women’s penal company (Frauenstrafkompanie) at the Budy subcamp, approximately ninety French-Jewish women were beaten to death by SS guards and prisoner functionaries. This essay reconstructs the event, examines its causes and aftermath, and situates

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  • Coping by Using Humour

    A few years ago, on the 22nd of June 2016, to be precise I wrote a blog titled “Holocaust and Humour.” I received loads of criticism for it. The thing I found extraordinary the criticism didn’t come from people who read the blog, but only from people who read the title. I didn’t mean to

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  • I never met Lia, in fact today is the first time I came across her picture. It would have been her 93rd birthday two days ago. She was born in Amsterdam, 20 September 1932 . And murdered in Sobibor, 2 July 1943. Reached the age of 10 years. When I was born she would have

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