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This blog only contains 2 pictures. A picture of a broken doll and a picture of some children’s shoes. Both were called pictures of Auschwitz artifacts, now I know the description is not meant disrespectful and was meant with the best intention and perhaps it is the only way to describe them. But the word…
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Dina Pronicheva (born Dina Mironovna Wasserman) was a Jewish actress at the Kyiv Puppet Theatre and one of the very few people—fewer than 30—who survived the mass executions at the Babi Yar ravine. Her detailed testimony remains one of the most significant eyewitness accounts of the atrocity carried out by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen and local…
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This is a fictional letter, but it is a letter I envisage I may have written to Margot, if I had been a friend or schoolmate. Dear Margot, I hope this letter finds you well, though I understand the circumstances surrounding us are far from what any of us could call “well.” It is strange…
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On June 23, 1944, a delegation comprising two representatives from the International Red Cross and one from the Danish Red Cross conducted an inspection of Theresienstadt, accompanied by SS First Lieutenant Karl Rahm, the camp commandant, and one of his deputies. During the visit, the delegations were treated to an opera by Jewish composer Hans…
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When I hear that wind blowAll across the Wicklow mountainsIs it you, I hear a calling?Johnny boy, oh Johnny boy When I look to the westAll across the river ShannonI can still see you smilingJohnny boy, oh Johnny boy When the leaves have turned to brownAnd winter is dueAs I watch the sun go downI’ll…
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I have written quite extensively about the failure of the Dutch to protect their Jewish neighbors and even resist the Nazi occupiers in general. However, on February 24, 1941, the Dutch communist party called for a nationwide strike to protest against the treatment of Jews as well as the forced labor in Germany. The Communist…
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Where did you go when the room fell still, Beyond the quiet window sill? Why did the clock keep ticking on, When all your light was suddenly gone? Who will carry the stories now, Or remember the laughter, and tell us how To speak of youth in the past tense, Or make this heavy silence…
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The picture is of a page in a poetry album which belonged to a friend of Hedi Metzger. The text is in German and it says. “Forget me not, trust in G-d. Speaking is silver, and silence is gold. This from your memories, Hedi Metzger, Amsterdam 19-4-1939.” Less than 2.5 years later she would be…
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In the 1920s, it was not uncommon in the Catholic south of the Netherlands for one or two children in a family to join a monastery or convent. However, having six out of eight children devote themselves to religious life was extraordinarily rare. What makes the Löb siblings’ story even more remarkable is that their…
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