Lithuania

  • The massacre that took place in Slonim on November 14, 1941, stands as one of the many tragic and brutal episodes in the systematic annihilation of Jewish communities across Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Located in what is now western Belarus, Slonim was home to a vibrant and historically significant Jewish population before the German

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  • Introduction General Walter Stahlecker’s report, officially known as The Stahlecker Report, stands as one of the most chilling and revealing documents from World War II. Written in 1941, it provides a detailed account of the early activities of Einsatzgruppe A, a Nazi mobile killing unit operating in the Baltic states and parts of the Soviet

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  • Holocaust Diaries

    Bizarrely enough diaries were not always used or recognized as evidence or as study material for the Holocaust. researchers tended to dismiss Jewish diaries as subjective and unreliable. Only in the last few decades the value of diaries have been acknowledged. To me there is nothing more powerful of the words of those who lived

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  • Truth At Last

    Grant Gochin is actively involved in Jewish affairs, focusing on historical justice. He has spent the past thirty years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania. He has served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania, which mapped/inventoried/documented /restored over fifty abandoned and neglected Jewish cemeteries. Gochin is the author of

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  • The photograph above is of a child-size violin that belonged to 13-year-old Boruch Golden, who the Nazis murdered in the massacres at Ponary in September 1943. Baruch began playing the violin when he was six years old. His sister, Niusia (Anna), saved the violin. She survived the war in hiding. Following the invasion of Soviet

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  • The vow: David whispered in Dora’s ear. “No matter where they take us, we will meet back here in the Square, when this is over. Stay strong my Love, and know my thoughts and prayers are with you.” ​Dora replied with tears in her eyes. “I love you David and I will pray every night

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  • A Baby Shoe

    A baby shoe and a date— Not a birth date, The date she died. Today 8 April 2023, is the day I cried. Why? I don’t know. I did not know the baby, nor did I know the parents. On 27 March 1944, this baby was murdered. Today I cry. I did not know her,

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  • The title of this post, I’m Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust, is from a 2005 documentary produced by MTV (yes, MTV). It starred several famous actors reading excerpts from diaries of young people who lived during the Holocaust—most murdered. I’ve mentioned the full-length movies in this post. I also picked

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  • Holocaust Letters

    This is just my opinion and there is no scientific research done on this, at least not as far as I am aware, but I think the Holocaust can be categorized as organized randomness. On a large scale the industrialized murder of millions was organized efficiently, however on smaller scales the treatment of mainly Jews,

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  • In general I am always careful to put all the blame on the Germans when it comes to the Holocaust. There is no denying that the bulk of the responsibility lies with them, but there were many other who enabled them and actively and willingly participated in the mass murder. I also try not to

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