Auschwitz-Birkenau

  • On April 10, 1944 (some reports say April 7), two men escaped from Auschwitz: Rudolph Vrba (Vrba was born Walter Rosenberg in Topoľčany, Czechoslovakia. He took the name Rudolf Vrba in April 1944 after his escape, and changed his name legally after the war.) and Alfred Wetzler. They made contact with Slovak resistance forces and produced a substantive…

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  • Gustav Mahler is one of the most famous classical music composers and conductors of all time. Yet, his music was considered as degenerate by the Nazi regime, and was therefore banned in Germany and all the occupies territories. It was not because Mahler was a bad composer but because he was Jewish. However the Nazis…

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  • The photograph above is of Celestinus Steinbach. He was born in Heerlen, the Netherlands, on February 13, 1929. The SS murdered him at Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 27, 1944. He was 15 years old. He posed for the photo when he was seven years old. Celestinus, aka Willy, was a member of the Steinbach family, a…

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  • Teardrops on the Fire

    In Auschwitz fields where shadows lay,Beneath a sky once soft and gray,The burning pits, an open grave,Consuming all the souls they gave. The earth, a pyre of endless pain,Where ash fell down like bitter rain.The flames roared in hell’s desire,And teardrops trembled on the fire. The faces lost, the names erased,Humanity’s heart is cruelly displaced.The…

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  • I have to warn you up front, this is not an easy read. I will try to stick to the facts and keep my emotions out of it, regardless on how difficult that will be. And I will keep it only to the experiments and the post war situation for Horst Schumann. Horst Schumann  was…

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  • There were many evil men in the SS, some appeared to have more joy in their evil deeds than others. Otto Moll was arrested on April 29, 1945, when the US Army liberated Dachau. Before his role in Dachau, he had several positions in Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau. He was in charge of the crematoria…

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  • On 16 November 1941, Betje Weijl-van Praag died from what appears to be suicide. The police report does not mention suicide, but the circumstances indicate that probably was what happened. “Notification is given by telephone that something has probably happened to the resident of plot Schuttersweg 88 because she has not been seen all day.…

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  • Human Being

    This is Eva Feldmannova , a human being. This is Eva Feldmannova. a human being like any other human being on earth. This is Eva Feldmannova. a human being with the same needs, same desires like any other human being on earth. This is Eva Feldmannova. a human being. a young girl who wanted education,…

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  • David Friedmann’s story is not just a story of dealing with the horrors of the Holocaust but also a story of a second chance and hopes despite immense grief and hardships. The artist David Friedmann was born in Mährisch Ostrau, Austria (now Ostrava, Czech Republic), but moved to Berlin in 1911. In 1944, Friedman was…

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  • The title is taken from a  letter written by Marcel Nadjari ,a Jewish-Greek survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau. Marcel  was a member of the Sonderkommando in Birkenau from May 1944 to November 1944. The letter is an eye witness account of his experiences as a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz Birkenau. He had the task of of removing…

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