Major Crimes and True Crime

Hélène Zeligfeld was the French-Jewish daughter of Jacob and Perla (née Ruck). She was born in Metz on the 28th of September 1932. She had 3 sisters: Anne (1922), Esther (1924) and Simone (1940) and 2 brothers: Salomon (1923) and Henri (1928). Her parents were Polish Jews. Salomon, Anna and Esther were born in Plauen, Germany as Perla and Jacob emigrated there in the 1920s.  The rest were born in France. In September 1939, Jacob was arrested and interned at Vernet camp where he perished on the 4th of April 1941. Simone was born on the 30th of June 1940, which meant that Perla was only just pregnant with Simone when Jacob was taken away. Most likely she never got to tell him that she was going to have another child as she probably didn't know until it was too late. In May 1940, Perla and her children were evacuated to La Rochelle where little Simone was born a month later. They were then moved to Poitiers Vienne. Anne and Esther were deported by convoy 8 from Angers to Auschwitz on ...

This little girl’s first name has been forgotten. Her last name was Langsam, and she was the daughter of Hirsh Langsam. She was born in 1929 in Trzebinia, Poland. Ms. Langsam and her entire family were murdered during the Holocaust. She was killed in Auschwitz in 1942, along with her parents. A friend of her father had this photo of her and submitted it to the archives of Yad Vashem.  Even though her name and her story is not known to us, she was a real person who suffered because of her Jewish religion. She was around thirteen. May her memory be a blessing. ❤️ REMEMBER MS. LANGSAM.  #holocaust #shoah #wwii #ww2 #jewish #neveragain #neverforget #remembering #history less

Angels_ofthe_holocaust Franz Spindler was the German-Romani son of Peter and Johanna (née Winter) Spindler. He was born in Herbolzheim on the 30th of July 1926. He had 10 siblings; 6 sisters: Angela (1914), Helena (1916), Lwdwiga (1921), Paula (1931), Liselotte (1934) and Luise (1937) and he also had 4 brothers: August (1910), Peter (1913), Friedrich (1925) and Lorenz (1928). His parents were German Roma. The Spindler family lived on the road in their wagon from the 1920s until 1934. From the 5th of June 1934, the Spindlers were forced to permanently settle in Herbolzheim. This meant they could no longer own their keep with their usual activities of basket mending and collecting and selling scrap metal: the traveling was what allowed them to do this. As "compensation", they were given 5 Reichmarks per month, which had to feed a family of 13. In November 1935, the Spindlers began receiving visits from racial researchers from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology. These ...

Fani Grinwald (née Hirschberger) was born in the small Czech of Radvanec in 1869. She was Jewish, the daughter of Meir and Malka Hirschberger.  Most of Fani’s life was peaceful. She married Mor Grinwald and moved to Uzhhorod to start her family. At the time, Uzhhorod belonged to Hungary. From 1919-1938, it was considered a part of Czechoslovakia. After this, the land was returned to Hungary.  Needless to say, Fani was in the center of a political mess and a horrific war. She was one of 9,576 Jews in the city. On March 19, 1944, the Nazis entered the city. In May, nearly all of the Jewish residents were deported to Auschwitz. Fani and her family were included in this.  Fani was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz at age seventy-five. May her memory be a blessing.  REMEMBER FANI GRINWALD.  #holocaust #shoah #wwii #ww2 #jewish #history #auschwitz #remembering less

Have you heard about the medical experiments performed on twin children during the Holocaust? Among the darkest stories of Holocaust perpetrators is that of Josef Mengele, a doctor who was the architect of cruel and unnecessary procedures. Mengele earned the nickname “Angel of Death" at Auschwitz, where he worked shifts on the arrivals ramp, deciding which Jewish people would be gassed immediately and which would be temporarily allowed to live. Even when he was not on duty, Mengele could be spotted at the ramp, searching for twins. Mengele performed legitimate research on twins prior to World War II. But at Auschwitz, the normal medical ethics did not apply. Mengele was not concerned if his experiments killed the young Jewish or Romani twins who were the subjects. Sometimes both twins were forced to undergo painful and unnecessary medical procedures. Other times one twin was kept unharmed to be compared against the other. The twins in these photos were subjects of Mengele's ex...

Did you know that Audrey Hepburn helped the Dutch resistance during the Holocaust?  Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels, Belgium, on May 4, 1929. Her mother was a Dutch noblewoman and so she grew up in the Netherlands, mainly in Amsterdam. When the Nazis invaded Amsterdam, Audrey went by the name “Edda van Heemstra” as having an English sounding name was dangerous under occupation.  In 1942, her uncle was executed by the Nazis and her half brother was deported to a concentration camp. Her other half brother went into hiding shortly thereafter. Audrey witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust from the outside. After the war, she said: “more than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too big for him, and he stepped on the train. I was a child observing a child.”...

At age 27, with no prior trial experience, Ben Ferencz prosecuted what was then called “the biggest murder trial in history.” He secured guilty verdicts against 22 perpetrators, including Nazi officials, at the Nuremberg trials. They were tried for the murder of over a million people, most of whom were Jewish. Ben was a recent Harvard Law graduate when he was tasked with helping to set up the United States’ first war crimes branch in Europe. He collected evidence of Nazi crimes as the Allies liberated concentration camps. "I had peered into hell," Ben said of what he witnessed. Ben became a prosecutor only because no one else was available when new evidence was uncovered.  After the trials, he devoted his life to fighting for peace and justice.  Photos 1 and 2: USHMM, courtesy of Benjamin Ferencz #OTD #Holocaust #Birthday

During the Holocaust, many heroic women resisted the Nazis in any way they could. Some fought the Nazis directly, while others offered covert help to those in harm's way, assisted with rescue efforts, or aided the underground resistance. After escaping the Lenin ghetto, photographer Faye Schulman joined a partisan group and documented its activities through her photographs. A non-Jewish Danish woman, Ebba Lund, helped smuggle Jews by boat out of German-occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden. In the Netherlands, Frieda Belinfante produced convincing fake ID cards for those hiding from persecution. Ala Gertner paid with her life after trying to help destroy a crematorium in Auschwitz. While imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto, Vladka Meed smuggled information, forged documents, weapons, and more between the ghetto and the outside world. We honor these women and the many others who spoke out and fought back against the Nazis. Click the link in our bio to learn more about one of these brave ...

Even with their lives on the line, these Jews stood up to the Nazis.  Nearly half a million Jews had been trapped inside the Warsaw ghetto since fall 1940, living and dying in terrible conditions. Over the following years, hundreds of thousands were sent to be killed. In the winter of 1943, sensing that the Nazis wanted to deport everyone left in the ghetto, Jewish resistance forces planned to fight back. #OnThisDay in 1943, their armed resistance against the Nazis began. Armed with pistols, homemade grenades, and a few automatic weapons, about 700 ghetto fighters—mostly young adults—held off Nazi forces for 27 days. The Nazis were shocked by the strength of their resistance. Eventually, Nazi forces took back control of the ghetto by burning it down block by block.  By the end of the uprising, more than 7,000 Jews had been killed. Nearly 50,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps and killing centers where most were killed. As the first large Jewish armed uprising during Worl...

In 1943, Stefania Podgórska, a young Polish woman, made the riskiest decision of her life—to hide 13 Jews in German-occupied Poland. As a teen, Stefania began working at a local grocery store owned by the Diamant family. She quickly became close with them. The Diamants and other Jews from their town were forced to live in a ghetto. Despite the danger, Stefania helped the family by exchanging their valuables for food.  In summer 1943, fearing the Germans would soon liquidate the ghetto, Josef, one of the remaining Diamant family members, asked Stefania if she would be willing to find a larger home to hide him and other Jews. She quickly found a cottage with a large attic, and Josef became the first of 13 Jews to find refuge there.  Stefania and her younger sister, Helena, cared for the hidden Jews throughout the war. The sisters brought them food, washed their clothing, and made sure they didn’t raise suspicion—especially when Germans forcefully moved into their home for severa...

While imprisoned in Auschwitz, Dr. Otto Wolken made a daring decision—he risked his life to help save a 12-year-old boy.  Despite having his medical degree stripped by the Nazi regime, Otto was selected to work as a camp doctor. He tried to help those whom he could, but many of his patients died from disease or were sent to the gas chambers. "There are ... incidents that remain with me, which I have not been able to forget," Otto reflected.  In 1944, a young Italian Jewish boy, Luigi Ferri, arrived in Auschwitz, where he met Otto. Determined to keep Luigi alive, Otto first hid him in the barracks for weeks. Luigi was later put to work as an errand boy, protecting him from the gas chambers. When the camp was evacuated and its prisoners placed on death marches in early 1945, Luigi hid once again, this time with Otto. They survived, and are pictured here after their liberation. Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Frieda Fisz Greenspan #Holocaust #History #NationalDoctorsDay

Horrifying Nazi Experiments Conducted On Humans For those born after the Cold War era, it's hard to imagine a time when the entire world wasn't aware of the medical experiments conducted in World War II-era Germany. When looking back on the medical experiments of WWII, it may be easy to feel like we're reading science fiction. However, the actions committed by military scientists in WWII Germany were very real. Decades later, researchers still debate whether or not there's a moral quandary in using the findings of Third Reich scientists in modern medicine. From seemingly innocuous experiments on eye pigmentation to procedures involving the creation of conjoined twins and the examination of internal organs, all of the worst experiments the Nazis conducted on people are on this list. Artificial Insemination Heinrich Himmler, a leading SS member, ordered Dr. Carl Clauberg  to artificially inseminate concentration camp prisoners through various e...

Woman who survived Auschwitz when gas ran out is about to turn 101 Klara Marcus was a 30-year-old Auschwitz prisoner in 1944 when she was forced to strip naked and march into the gas chamber — only there was no more gas left. “God was watching over me that day,” said Marcus, who is about to celebrate her 101st birthday, the Central European News reported. “I was chosen towards the end of the day with a large group of other women and we were made ready for the gas chamber,” said Marcus, of Sighetu Marmatiej in northern Romania. “But when they put us inside and went to turn the gas on, they found they had run out,” she said. “One of the guards joked that it was our lucky day because they had already killed so many, they didn’t have any gas left for us.” She then managed to escape from the infamous Nazi death camp in southern Poland, where more than a million people were killed. “After I got free, I managed to make my way back to my home to look for my family,” said Marcus — but she disco...

Poland confirms Minnesota man as Nazi commander Poland will seek the arrest and extradition of a Minnesota man exposed by The Associated Press as a former commander in an SS-led unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians in World War II, prosecutors said Monday. Prosecutor Robert Janicki said evidence gathered over years of investigation into U.S. citizen Michael K. confirmed "100 percent" that he was a commander of a unit in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion. He did not release the last name, in line with Poland's privacy laws, but the AP has identified the man as 98-year-old Michael Karkoc, from Minneapolis. "All the pieces of evidence interwoven together allow us to say the person who lives in the U.S. is Michael K., who commanded the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion which carried out the pacification of Polish villages in the Lublin region," Janicki said. The decision in Poland comes four years after the AP published a story establishing that ...

Execution by guillotine of Sister Maria Restituta Kafka for refusing to remove the crucifix by nazis Execution by guillotine of Sister Maria Restituta Kafka strongly criticizes Nazi regime  Maria Restituta Kafka working as a nurse at the municipal hospital in the Lainz Hospital. she met members of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity and joined their community at the age of 20 and was given the religious name of Maria Restituta. During World War 1, Kafka serve as a nurse in the hospital. she was called 'Sister Resolute'. after the Anschluss in which Germany annexed Austria. Kafka strongly criticize the Nazi government and against the implementing the Nuremberg Laws. The Nazi authorities demanded that the crosses to be removed, but she refused. she was arrested by the Gestapo, the Nazi Secret police for hanging the crucifixes, and  also of having writing a poem mocking Hitler. she was sentenced to death by the guillotine for conspiracy to commit treason. She was beheaded...

Eva Mozes remembers waking up in Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945. "It was quiet," Eva recalls. "It was very eerie to have such a quiet morning. We thought maybe this would be the day that we would be free." That afternoon, Soviet troops arrived, liberating the remaining prisoners. In footage taken after the camp's liberation, Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, can be seen walking hand in hand out of Auschwitz. Eva and Miriam were born in a small village in Romania in 1934. When the twins were just six years old, their town was annexed by Hungary, and when they were 10, it was occupied by Nazi Germany. Hungarian and German authorities sent Eva, Miriam, their parents, and their two older sisters to a ghetto in the nearby town of Szilágysomlyó (Simleu Silvaniei) in 1944. From there, they were then deported to Auschwitz. Upon their arrival, Eva and Miriam were separated from their family and selected by SS doctor Josef Mengele for his notorious experimentation ...

In the fall of 1944, ten-year-old Thomas Buergenthal found himself all alone in Auschwitz, destined for the gas chamber. Thomas had already survived the Kielce ghetto and a forced labor camp by the time German authorities deported him and his parents to Auschwitz in August 1944. Typically, children were taken on arrival and murdered in the gas chambers, but, because there was no selection when Thomas and his family arrived there, he managed to survive. His mother was taken to the women's section of the camp, but Thomas and his father remained together. However, Thomas remained in grave danger. The SS guards regularly selected prisoners to be murdered in the gas chambers and as a child Thomas stood out. While he had survived a number of selections by hiding, this time, Thomas had been caught. "They saw me as a child, and they motioned me to go one way, and my father go the other way," Thomas remembered. "And that's the last I saw of ... my father." Thomas and...

Agi Geva’s mother made her promise never to remove the tattoo inked on her arm at Auschwitz-Birkenau. “This is proof of us being there,” she told her daughter. “The letter A and the number.” At age 14, Agi was registered as a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and was forcibly tattooed with her prisoner number. For Agi, the pain of receiving the tattoo was surpassed by the pain of being stripped of her identity. “They kept on telling us, "You have no names from today. You are just numbers." Agi, her mother, and sister survived four camps, forced labor, and a death march before they were liberated by American troops in April 1945. During the Holocaust, Auschwitz was the only camp where prisoner numbers were tattooed. After liberation, Auschwitz survivors were able to shed the uniforms, but the tattoos remained. #HolocaustSurvivor #HolocaustRemembranceDay #HolocaustMemorialDay

“In Auschwitz, I never cried, and people around me never cried.” Irene Weiss was just a teenager when she learned to turn off her feelings in order to survive. When a Nazi officer selected Irene to perform forced labor at Auschwitz-Birkenau, it gave her a chance to survive that was denied to her mother and younger siblings, who were murdered upon arrival. She was assigned to a unit responsible for sorting through the stolen personal belongings of Jews. The storage barracks where she worked were next to one of Auschwitz's gas chambers. Irene often saw the faces of those unknowingly headed toward their deaths. Sometimes they would stop and talk to her. Other times, she heard their screams. “When we worked night shifts … this place was close enough to the train platform that you could hear in the night the whistle of the train and then you would hear the humming noise of large crowds. You could hear people in the distance. Within a few minutes or so the large column of young women, mo...