Poland
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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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Mara Ginic (now Kraus) was born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1925. At the age of 3 or 4 she moved with her grandparents to Osijek, Slavonia(Nowadays in Croatia). When she was five years old her parents divorced and her mother moved to Belgrade, but she stayed with her father and grand parents in Osijek. When…
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The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 left the world not only devastated by years of total war but also confronted with the unparalleled crimes of the Holocaust. Among the many perpetrators brought before courts in the immediate aftermath was Amon Leopold Göth, the Austrian SS officer who had served as commandant of the Płaszów…
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You don’t have to be a history buff to know that 1 September 1939 was the date when the Germans invaded their neighbour, Poland. What often is forgotten is that it wasn’t only the Germans who invaded Poland on that day. The Germans got a helping hand from the newly formed Republic of Slovakia. And…
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Graphic photos of the Holocaust often tell such harrowing stories, but sometimes it takes just an inventory list of everyday items that are more shocking because it tells the story of people like you and me. They ate the same food, wore the same clothes, and used identical cups and plates. It was only because…
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One of the most disturbing aspects of the Holocaust is the “wholesale murder” approach the Nazis took, the industrialization of death. The gassing already started in 1939 as part of the T4 program, the murder of the disabled. What is really sickening is the fact that the first of such killings was at the request…
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Amon Göeth was sentenced to death and was hanged on 13 September 1946 at the Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp, the camp he had been in charge of until two years, to the date, prior to his execution. On 13 September 1944, he was relieved of his…
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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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Henio Zytomirski was a 9-year-old boy who was gassed at Majdanek Concentration Camp in Poland on November 9, 1942. In 2005, a project called “Letters to Henio” was started in Lubin, Poland. Each year on April 19, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Poland, pupils and citizens of Lublin are asked to send letters addressed to Henio…
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This blog is not intended to pass judgment. However, when writing about the Holocaust, it’s important not to shy away from its more controversial aspects. As I mentioned at the beginning, my goal is not to judge anyone—because the truth is, I cannot say with certainty how I would have acted in a similar situation.…
History of Sorts 
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