Poland
-
The Netherlands is the country with the relatively highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe. Of the 140,000 Jews, 107,000 were deported. Five thousand people returned from the camps, and approximately 20,000 survived in other ways, most of them in hiding. The persecution and murder of the Jews during the Second World War is…
-
We are in the middle of the FIFA Worldcup , and I thought it would be a good idea to look at some European footballers who were murdered during the Holocaust. György Szeder, born György Silberstein, this left winger used a different name to disguise his Jewish identity. He was just 19 when he joined…
-
On June 20, 1942, the SS guard at the Auschwitz exit was visibly shaken. In front of him idled the car of Rudolf Höss, commandant of the notorious concentration camp. Inside were four armed SS men. One of them—a second lieutenant, or Untersturmführer—was shouting and cursing furiously. “Wake up, you buggers!” he bellowed in German.…
-
Delphine Anja Jennifer Drielsma Delphine was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 19 June 1939. and murdered in Auschwitz, Poland, on 24 September 1942. She reached the age of three. A 3-year-old enemy of the state. Which state, though? In a world where shadows linger, cold and gray,A tender soul was taken far away,Innocence wrapped…
-
Mordechai Santilhano was a Dutch-Jewish performing artist. He was born on 11 January 1905. He was murdered in or near Auschwitz on 12 October 1944. He used the artist name Max Santiel or simply Oom Max-Uncle Max. I could say quite a lot about him, but I have decided to leave his own words to…
-
The history of World War II is usually written in the sweeping movements of armies, the strategic decisions of generals, and the devastating statistics of ruined cities. Yet, some of the most profound battles of that dark era were fought in total silence, within the hidden recesses of the human soul. Among these quiet victories…
-
It is often said that the “Holocaust by bullets” is the forgotten Holocaust, and I agree. However, in my opinion, it is not the only forgotten aspect of the Holocaust. I believe the deportations themselves also belong in that category. While we know a great deal about what happened after the transports arrived at the…
-
I was struggling with the title but to be honest I can’t think of another way of describing it. An estimated 1.5 to 2 million children were killed during the Holocaust. How many were killed in Auschwitz is not clear but if you consider that for example on October 10,1944 800 gypsy children were gassed,…
-
The one thing that always puzzled me is why did the Nazi’s insist in having such a thorough administration? If you are planning to eradicate millions, why document it? I just don’t understand the psyche of it. Of course the Nazi’s didn’t see “the final solution” as a crime but only a method of getting…
-
History rarely writes scripts as pure or as devastating as the life and death of Captain Witold Pilecki. In the grand, tragic theater of twentieth-century Europe, his name stands as a solitary monument to human courage—and an indictment of totalitarian cruelty. Pilecki is famously remembered as the Polish cavalry officer who intentionally got himself captured…
