Poland
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Johanna Langefeld (née May, 5 March 1900 – 26 January 1974) remains one of the most intriguing and morally complex figures among the female staff of Nazi concentration camps. Rising from a modest background as a domestic-economy instructor to become an Oberaufseherin (senior female overseer), she served at Lichtenburg, Ravensbrück, and the women’s section of…
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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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Philip Wallage was born in Groningen on 12 July 1927. He was murdered at Sobibor on 26 March 1943. He was 15 years old upon his death. Rosalien Wallage was born in Groningen on 15 May 1932. She was murdered at Sobibor on 26 March 1943. She reached 10 years of age. Elisabeth Wallage was…
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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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When you look at the picture you might think that it is an innocent portrayal , of a street somewhere in the Netherlands. A typical Dutch scene. Someone cycling, two bikes parked against a sign. What could be hateful here? It is actually the sign itself that has a message of hate. It says “Jews…
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The Roma Holocaust, also known as the Porajmos (meaning “the Devouring” in Romani) or the Samudaripen (“Mass Killing”), refers to the systematic persecution and extermination of Roma people by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. This genocide, part of the broader Holocaust, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Roma…
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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…
