Major Crimes and True Crime

After surviving nearly two years in a concentration camp and a grueling death march, all Eva Ostwalt could think about was being reunited with her daughter.  Eva's daughter, Heide, avoided deportation because she was living with her non-Jewish father in Dresden at the time. Eva was finally liberated in May 1945.  "When the trains were running again, I wanted to go to Dresden where my daughter stayed." However, their reunion never happened. "I didn't have any idea about the air raid of Dresden, which happened almost at the end of the war." Eva arrived in Dresden and learned that most of the city had been destroyed. In mid-February 1945, the Allies bombed Dresden, killing Heide along with 25,000 other Germans. Eva was devastated by Heide's death and years later still struggled to speak of that time.  Pictured are Eva and Heide in 1932. Photo: USHMM, gift of Eva Guttsmann Ostwalt #Holocaust #History #OnThisDay #OTD less

 Joël Nommick never got the chance to meet his father, who was arrested and deported in 1942. Only later would he piece together the story of his father’s imprisonment at Auschwitz and numerous other camps and prisons.  This Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET, hear Joël share how he, his mother, and his two brothers, with the help of their neighbors, managed to stay alive in France while in constant danger of discovery.   Photos: Courtesy of Joël Nommick #Holocaust #History #HolocaustSurvivor less

 "I don't want to have lived in vain like most people," Anne Frank wrote in her diary. "I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!" Annelies Marie Frank, one of the best-known victims of the Holocaust, died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 80 years ago—in February or March 1945, shortly before the camp's liberation.  Anne's father, Otto, was the only surviving member of their immediate family. After the war, he preserved Anne's legacy by publishing her diary. Anne was one of more than 1.5 million children who were murdered during the Holocaust. She has come to symbolize all of its victims' lost promise and dreams cut short. What might have become of this girl who was already such a gifted writer? Photo: Anne Frank House #AnneFrank #Holocaust #History #WWII less

Nothing could have prepared 20-year-old Leon Bass for the horrors he witnessed at the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945, just two years after he enlisted in the segregated US Army.  "I saw human beings ... that had been beaten, they’d been starved, they’d been tortured. They’d been denied everything, everything that would make anyone’s life livable.” Leon would never forget what he saw. Watch his story by clicking the link in our bio. Photo 1: Leon is pictured fourth from the left; USHMM, courtesy of William Alexander Scott III Photos 2 & 3: USHMM, courtesy of Leon Bass #Holocaust #BlackHistoryMonth less

 “Christian relatives demonstrated outside for days. … Just total unity,” said Gad Beck, expressing his gratitude for those who participated in the Rosenstrasse protest, which took place #OnThisDay in 1943. Gad, pictured above, was born in Vienna in 1923 to a Protestant father and a Jewish mother. Since he fell into the category the Nazis deemed “mixed race,” he was initially exempt from Jewish roundups in Berlin. But this did not last long.  On February 17, 1943, Gad was ordered to report to the former Jewish community building on a street known as Rosenstrasse. He was held there with 2,000 others—mostly sons with one Jewish parent and the Jewish husbands of non-Jewish German women. Upon hearing that the men were being held at Rosenstrasse, 200 German women—mostly non-Jewish wives and other female relatives—demonstrated on Rosenstrasse. These family members of those incarcerated believed the Nazis would send their loved ones to German-occupied Poland, based on recent deportat...

Polish pharmacist Thadeusz Pankiewicz saved countless lives by running the only pharmacy within the Krakow ghetto. When the ghetto was established #OnThisDay in 1941, the Nazis offered to relocate Pankiewicz, as his pharmacy happened to be within the ghetto walls. He refused, choosing to stay in the ghetto until its destruction in March 1943. Pankiewicz’s pharmacy aided Jews in multiple ways, such as by distributing hair dye to make the elderly look younger. This was helpful because Jews deemed unfit for labor—such as the elderly and the very young—were often the first deported “to the East,” the Nazi euphemism for killing centers in German-occupied Poland. Pankiewicz and his assistants also gave parents tranquilizers to quiet babies when being hidden or smuggled out of the ghetto. The pharmacy handed out bandages and medications, and Pankiewicz served as a liaison between Jews living in the ghetto and those outside its walls.  Due to its location, the pharmacy was often the last s...

"Our zoo was full of life," wrote Antonina Żabińska.  After being orphaned at a young age, Antonina found comfort in the company of animals. It was this shared affection for animals that brought her and her husband, Jan, together. At the time of the German invasion of Poland, Jan served as the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and the couple lived on its grounds. The war was devastating for the zoo. German bombings killed many animals and destroyed structures during the siege of Warsaw. But in the wake of this destruction, Jan and Antonina found a new purpose for their zoo. In 1940, they began risking their lives to help Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto. Later, they helped smuggle Jews out of the ghetto, hiding them in their home and on the zoo grounds.  Antonina described their new guests as “people stripped of everything but their lives.” More than shelter, Antonina provided a sense of peace to the guests. "They desperately needed hope that a safe haven even existed, tha...

A sign on the shoe factory bulletin board prompted Harry Harrison and his wife, Dot, a Christian couple, to take in a little Jewish girl fleeing Nazi Germany.   When Esther Starobin arrived by boat in England, she was just two years old. Her desperate parents had agreed to send their youngest child to live with strangers in the hopes of saving her. What began as a good deed blossomed into bonds that lasted a lifetime. Over eight years, Esther came to see the Harrisons and their son, Alan, as a second family. “That was really the happiest time of my childhood," she remembered. Esther later learned that her parents had been murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. Alan and Esther are still close today. Photos: Esther, Esther's family, Esther's foster family Credit: USHMM, Esther Rosenfeld Starobin #Holocaust #History #Survivor #NationalFosterCareMonth less

You may have seen these photos, but do you know their story? These images show the dehumanizing process Jews faced as they arrived at Auschwitz: getting out of overcrowded trains, being sorted into lines, and waiting to be sent to their death. The photos were taken by the Nazis in May 1944, at the start of the Hungarian deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After liberation, Holocaust survivor Lili Jacob discovered an album containing these photographs in an abandoned SS barrack. As she flipped through the album, Lili discovered a photo of herself, along with many of her neighbors and relatives. She was shocked. To this day, we do not know why the album was created or who the original owner was. Some think it was created by the SS to document the efficiency of Auschwitz. It may also have belonged to Richard Baer, the last commandant of Auschwitz and the commander of Dora-Mittelbau, the camp where Lili discovered it. Photos: Yad Vashem #OnThisDay #Auschwitz #Holocaust less

István Domonkos looked up to his older brother, Péter. "He was a much better student than I was," István admitted. "He was an excellent mathematician."  But Péter graduated high school just as Hungary passed the first of three major anti-Jewish laws in May 1938. As a result of these laws, tens of thousands of Jews lost their jobs, businesses, or livelihoods. “In that world with the anti-Jewish laws one couldn’t get a decent job,” recalled István.  During World War II, the Hungarian government required Péter to perform forced labor because he was Jewish. His forced labor unit was sent to the warfront in summer 1942.  Less than a year later, Péter’s father received a note that read, “We inform you that Péter Domonkos, forced laborer, who was born in 1919 in Budapest, mother’s name Gabriella Rózsa, died in January 1943 at Marki and was buried on the site.” Both István and his father survived the Holocaust. Photo: USHMM, Centropa Collection #Holocaust #History less

“In the end they brought us to Mauthausen,” remembered Yona Dickmann. More than 80 years have passed since Yona first walked through the gates of Mauthausen concentration camp with her aunt Hela.  “My aunt was very weak," recalled Yona. "She said, ‘Leave me here.' So I started to cry. I said, ‘No, you have to go. We have to walk.’” For several days, Yona and Hela lived with little food and water in dangerously overcrowded conditions. Both women were liberated by the US Army #OnThisDay in 1945. They were two of the 197,464 prisoners to pass through Mauthausen. At least 95,000 prisoners died in the camp.  Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Yona Dickmann #OTD #Holocaust #History less

“It’s one of those things that took place—no question about it,” reflected George Oiye. “And we were there.” Japanese American soldier George Oiye was a firsthand witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. In May 1945, his unit liberated a subcamp of Dachau. He is pictured here with newly freed concentration camp prisoners.  George vividly remembers discovering prisoners’ bodies in the late spring snow. Years later, he was able to process his reaction, saying, “I had a tremendous feeling of guilt. And my guilt wasn’t for me—I didn’t do that. But my guilt was for mankind … .” George and his unit fought for their country in Europe, even while the US government targeted their community back home as potential enemies. George’s sister and her husband were two of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry—including US citizens—who were forced into so-called “relocation camps.” Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Eric Saul #History #Holocaust #WWII less

Most chose to look the other way. Irene didn’t. Why? Irene Gut Opdyke grew up in a Polish Catholic household. Her family was not particularly religious—they didn’t attend church every Sunday. But Irene’s mother raised her children to care for others.  “In my family, there was no difference between religion or race,” remembered Irene. “My mother taught us to have an open heart, open ears, and open hands to help people that need help.” That's exactly what Irene did. While working for a major in the German army, Irene assisted Jewish people in the nearby ghetto however she could. When she told them that the ghetto was about to be destroyed, they begged her to help them. “But what could I do?” Irene remembered thinking. “I did not have a home. I did not have family.” She also knew that the punishment for assisting Jews in German-occupied Poland was death. “But I could not let them die,” she said.  Taking an incredible risk, Irene hid 12 Jewish people in the basement of the major’s...

No one believed Moshe’s warnings. “They take me for a madman,” he told a teenage Elie Wiesel.  Moshe told anyone who would listen what had happened to him after he was deported. He had barely escaped a mass killing in which he was forced to dig his own grave and shot at by the Nazis. But the town ignored Moshe’s pleas.  “I did not believe him myself,” wrote Elie. This cautionary tale was how Elie opened his memoir “Night.” In his other writings, Elie refers to Moshe as “the madman, the beadle, the beggar.” Moshe also played an important spiritual role in Elie’s life as a religious mentor.  In mid-May 1944, 15-year-old Elie was deported with his family to Auschwitz. His arrival at Auschwitz marked the beginning of the night that turned his life into "one long night seven times sealed.” Of the approximately 14,000 Jews deported from his town of Sighet, Elie was one of several hundred survivors. Later reflecting on Moshe’s significance in his life, Elie wrote, “He lived our ...

Nothing could convince Gudrun Himmler of her father’s crimes during the Holocaust. No amount of evidence—not a tour of Dachau concentration camp nor testimony during postwar trials—changed her mind. To her death, she defended Heinrich Himmler, one of the cruelest and most notorious Nazi leaders.  Gudrun was born in 1929, the same year that Adolf Hitler appointed her father to lead the SS, then a unit of bodyguards for the Nazi Party leader. After Hitler became chancellor, Himmler eventually rose to become one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. Himmler transformed the SS into a deadly institution that ran the concentration camp system and carried out the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. After Germany's surrender, Himmler was captured by Soviet soldiers. He was wearing a disguise, and the Soviets turned him over to the British, not realizing who he was. After confessing his identity, Himmler killed himself on this day in 1945, biting into a cyanide capsule he had concealed. After...

Jewish American soldier Sydney Goodman was taken prisoner by the Nazis in December 1944, just over a year after enlisting in the US Army. During his time as a POW, Sydney wrote on the back of the family photographs he kept with him. He documented his experiences and kept records of those who died in captivity. In his dated entries, Sydney described the unusually terrible conditions he experienced at the camp, including the lack of food and basic resources. Despite the extraordinary challenges of life in the camp, Sydney was determined to survive.  He wrote, “‘When I get home,’ sounds like a fairy story or dream now but soon it will be a reality.” In April 1945, Sydney and other American POWs were forced on a march south from the labor camp where they were imprisoned. US Army forces eventually intercepted their route, and Sydney was liberated. While Sydney survived the war, we remember the heroic efforts of the US servicemen who died. Sydney is pictured in the first photo on the rig...

Mara Coblic was born in Chișinău, Romania (now, Moldova) in 1936. She was Jewish, the daughter of Ithac and Braka.  When Mara was four years old, Chișinău was annexed by the USSR. The next year, after much bombing and fighting, the city was captured by the Nazis, who collaborated with Romania. On July 25, 1941, the Chișinău ghetto was established. Mara and her family were forced to live there under horrific conditions.  Most of the eleven thousand Jews in the ghetto were extremely poor. They suffered starvation, illness, and intense brutality from the Nazis that patrolled the ghetto. Sometime in 1941 or 1942, Mara died in the ghetto because of the sickening conditions. She was only around six years old. May her memory be a blessing.  REMEMBER MARA COBLIC.  #neveragain #Chișinău #shoah #holocaust #jewish #wwii #ww2 #remembering #history less

Yoachim Gerstl was born on June 27, 1936. He was Jewish, born in Veľké Kapušany, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia). His parents were Elisabeth and Nathan Gerstl. The Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938, and soon after Yoachim’s family fled to Uzhgorod, Hungary (now Ukraine).  They had a few happy years in Uzhgorod, but those ended on March 19, 1944, when the Nazis occupied Hungary. That May and June, all ten thousand of Uzhgorod’s Jews were deported to Auschwitz, where almost all were killed. Yoachim and his parents were killed on June 5, 1944. Yoachim was not yet seven years old. May his memory be a blessing.  REMEMBER YOACHIM GERSTL.  #holocaust #shoah #wwii #ww2 #jewish #neveragain #neverforget less

Maria Teresa Bartnik was born in Wołomin, Poland, on March 10, 1931. She was the daughter of Edmund and Irena (née Borysoglebska). She had an older brother, Jerzy. Maria was a Christian.  In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Maria’s family was extremely patriotic and deeply opposed the Nazis. Her father was arrested in late 1939 for partisan activities. He was sent to Stutthof, where he was killed. Maria’s mother and aunt were also a part of the Polish underground. Life was difficult for them during the war, but the family maintained their resistance work.  In the spring of 1943, Maria’s mother and aunt were betrayed and arrested. The two women and their children were sent to prison and investigated. The children (Maria, Jerzy, and their five year old cousin) were released eventually. Their mothers were sent to Auschwitz and murdered. By age twelve, Maria had been orphaned by the Nazis.  In the summer of 1944, the Warsaw Uprising began. Maria and her brother both joined in ...

Ernst Simon Oppenheim was the German-Jewish son of Gustav and Flora (née Ullmann) Oppenheim. He was born in Düsseldorf on the 22nd of July 1925. He had a brother, Hans (1927). His parents were German Jews. Gustav passed away on the 2nd of November 1935. Ernst arrived as a Jewish refugee in Arnhem on the 28th of July 1933. His brother had arrived on the 24th. As of 1941, Ernst lived at the Villa Catharinahoeve, a Jewish youth farm in Gouda. Before that, he had been living in a Jewish children's home in Utrecht. Since 1940 until 1943, his brother had been living at home with the children's mother. Before that he had been living at a children’s home in Den Haag. Ernst and Hans probably never saw each other again after they arrived in the Netherlands. Ernst was deported from the Catharinahoeve to Westerbork. He was murdered in Auschwitz on the 31st of March 1944 at the age of 18. Unbeknownst to him, 15 year old Hans had been deported and already murdered on the 19th of November 194...

Mose Ratowski was born on August 11, 1933. He was the son of Jewish parents Luba and Benyamin in Šiauliai, Lithuania. There were about 8,000 Jews living in the town before the war. In 1941, the Nazis invaded and established a ghetto. Mose and his family were held in the ghetto. Conditions there were deplorable.  The ghetto was partially liquidated in October 1943. Only some residents were allowed to stay, including Mose and his family. They were later deported in July 1944. The remaining residents were sent to labor camps in Germany rather than to the extermination camps due to the fact that the USSR army was approaching. Mose was killed in Dachau in early spring of 1945. He liked died of starvation, sickness, or exposure. He was twelve. May his memory be a blessing.  REMEMBER MOSE RATOWSKI.  #holocaust #shoah #neveragain #neverforget #jewish #remembering #history #wwii less

Ida Fensterszab was born on November 18, 1929. Ida was born in France to Jewish parents. Ida’s story is different from the ones I usually post, as she is given the rare chance to tell her own story. As Ida remembers it…  “I was detained at midnight on January 30, 1944, by two French gendarmes in the little village of Jeune Lie, in the Deux-Sevres. I was fourteen years old. My parents had hidden me with a French family beginning in June 1940. The night of my arrest, I was hoping to escape through the door-window of my room, but the woman who was taking care of me told me that the gendarmes had orders to take her husband if they didn’t find me. Many neighbors, including a member of the local council, tried to convince the gendarmes not to take me. In vain. So I left with my little bundle and a few provisions in the black Citroen that was supposed to take me to police headquarters in Melle. As we drove off, one of the two gendarmes wiped his forehead and said, “What a terrible job!” B...

Jiřina Steinerová was the Czech-Jewish daughter of Leo Steiner and Johanna Steinerová (née Utitzová). She was born in Prague on the 24th of January 1942.  Her parents were Czech Jews. Leo was once the star of a popular band in Prague but was banned from performing as of 1940 due to being the only Jewish member. He was involved with Jewish and non-Jewish men who passed out clothing and food stamps to people who shouldn't have received them officially, the Jews and Roma. The group was reported to the Gestapo by a jealous ex-lover whom Leo once had an affair with until his wife became pregnant. In 1941, Leo was arrested with the other group members and taken to Dresden where he was executed on the 24th of February 1942. He never met his daughter. His wife and daughter were deported to Terezín on the 3rd of August 1942, and then to Auschwitz where they were murdered in late 1942/1943. Jiřina was under a year old The following is Leo's last letter to his family: “Dresden, 23.2.1942 ...

Maria Orlicka was the daughter of a poor Polish family. She was born in Jaworzno on the 2nd of July 1928. Maria took care of the house while her parents worked. In 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and Jaworzno was taken over by German troops, more particularly so because it was in an area that was formerly part of German territory.  In 1942, Maria was arrested at the age of 14 for using black-market ration cards to get food, accusing her of selling it off for profiting. She was deported to Auschwitz and from the 2nd of April 1943, she was a prisoner in Auschwitz under the prisoner number 39849. She was kept in Bunker 11 where prisoners were chosen to be executed and murdered by firing squad at the infamous "death wall". However, rather than executing her, she was deported to a slave labour camp for children in Łódź ghetto, also called Litzmannstadt by the Germans. Her parents were told she'd been executed, resulting in her father's death from a heart attack. 16 year o...

Rieka van Emden was the Dutch-Jewish daughter of Salomon van Emden and Frouktje van Emden-van Coevorden. She was born in Groningen on the 19th of July 1933. She had a brother, Schilo (1935) and an unnamed sibling that died at birth in 1941. On the 19th of October 1942, 9 year old Rieka and 7 year old Schilo were murdered in Auschwitz with their mother. Their father passed selection but perished in February 1943. Although we will never see what Schilo looked like, this is the only photo that remains of Rieka, one that was taken 9 years before her death, and just months after her birth. Those of us here in the future see this beautiful little girl and know she will only live for 9 years. At the time it was taken, no-one knew what was to come. Remember Rieka van Emden and her family. May their memories be a blessing ✡ #theholocaust #rip #auschwitz #holocaustvictims #annefrank #rememberthem #ww2 #history #auschwitzmemorial #jewishhistory #murder less

holocaust.victims: Grietje van der Kar-Posno was born in Rotterdam on December 9, 1911. She was Jewish, the daughter of Heintje Snoek-Canes and David van der Kar. Her father died when she was a small child. She had six siblings and was married to Marinus Arie Posno.  Grietje had six children with her husband. Marinus sadly died in 1940. Their children were Marinus Johannes Cornelis (1933), Hendrika (1934), Cornelia (1936), David (1937), Arie (1939) and daughter Matje (1940). Grietje was a single mother of six, which at the time was extremely difficult and the family lived poorly. Cornelia and Hendrika were removed from their mother’s care in 1941 and sent to live in a Jewish medical institution in Apeloorn. On January 21, 1943, the Nazis chased more than a thousand patients out of their beds and sent them on cattle cars to Auschwitz, including Grietje’s two small children. Hendrika and Cornelia were killed in Auschwitz on January 25, at ages seven and eight.  Meanwhile, Grietj...

Lea Dragica Deutsch was a child actress who was murdered in the Holocaust. She was born on March 18, 1927 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). She was Jewish, the daughter of Stjepan and Ivka. She had a little brother, Saša.   As a child, Lea had a charmed life. She lived in a three story home, which was located at Gundulićeva street 39. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was an educated housewife. She started off with small roles in professional productions of Shakespeare plays, and soon became a well known dancer and actress in films. She was nicknamed „The Croatian Shirley Temple” and even had a short documentary made about her.  In 1941, the Independent State of Croatia began the implementation of race laws which prevented her from acting. Immediately after the establishment of the NDH, she was banned from the theater where she performed and later from her school. After the war, her friend Relja Bašić said: „She used to sit motionless on a bench across from the theater...

On the banks of the Danube River in Budapest, not far from the Hungarian Parliament building, sit sixty pairs of old-fashioned shoes, the type people wore in the 1940s. There are women's shoes, there are men's shoes and there are children's shoes. They sit at the edge of the water, scattered and abandoned, as though their owners had just stepped out of them and left them there. If you look more closely, you see that the shoes are rusted, made of iron and set into the concrete of the embankment. They are a memorial and a monument to the Hungarian Jews who, in the winter of 1944-1945, were shot on the banks of the Danube River by the members of the Arrow Cross Party. Known as "The Shoes on the Danube Promenade", the memorial was conceptualized by film director Can Togay, and was created by Togay together with the sculptor Gyula Pauer. It was installed on the Pest bank of the Danube River in Budapest in 2005. At three separate places on the memorial, cast iron signs ...

Lyusya Turiyan was the Ukrainian-Jewish daughter of Katerina (née?) And Rakhmiel Turiyan. She was born in Kiev in 1937. She had a sister, Galina (?). In September 1941, 5 year old Lyusya and her mother were murdered during the Babi Yar massacre. 33,771 Jews were shot to death in Babi Yar ravine by Nazi soldiers and voluntary Ukrainian auxiliaries. Her father may have survived. Her sister survived Remember Lyusya Turiyan and her family. May their memories be a blessing ✡  #theholocaust #rip #auschwitz #holocaustvictims #annefrank #rememberthem #ww2 #history #auschwitzmemorial #jewishhistory #murder less

Dina Laffi was the Italian daughter of Ettore and Maria (née Ventura) Laffi. She was born in Castel d'Aiano on the 16th of July 1933. She had 4 brothers: Pietro (1941), Giovanni (1944), Fernando (1935) and Italo (1938) and a sister, Marina (1931). Her parents were Italians and the family lived in Marzabotto. 11 year old Dina was murdered in the Marzabotto massacre on the 30th of September 1944, when the Germans rounded up the Laffi family plus 4 displaced people and killed them in the farmyard of Collula di Sotto house. The survivors found the charred corpses along the barn wall and the half-collapsed house. The dead included her parents, Marina (13), Fernando (8), Italo (6), Pietro (3) and Giovanni (4 weeks) as well as her 3 cousins, Primo (7), Demetrio (5) and Massimo (3 months), her aunt and uncle and grandparents. Her grandfather Giuseppe was forced to watch the murder of his family before he was killed by the SS. The other 4 people included 2 children and their mother as well ...

Sha’anan Lent was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate for Palestine (now, Tel Aviv, Israel) in 1926. He was the son of Girsh and an unknown mother. When Sha’anan was very young, his parents immigrated to Poland, where they settled in Warsaw.  He had a happy childhood in Warsaw and was a student. In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. In 1940, all Jews were forced to live in a very small section of the city, which was dubbed the Warsaw ghetto. Thousands of people died in the ghetto due to the extremely crowded and disgusting conditions and lack of food.  In April of 1943, a group of teenagers and young adults started an uprising against the Nazis. Sha’anan was a part of this group. For nearly a month, the Jewish fighters were able to fight the Nazis with smuggled arms and homemade explosives. Unfortunately, the uprising was crushed and nearly all the fighters were killed.  Sha’anan fell during the fighting on May 3, 1943, after shooting three Nazis. He was able to pass his rifle...

viInes Alcabes was born on April 15, 1916 Demotika, Greece. Ines was Jewish, the daughter of Esther and Nissim. She and her parents moved to Paris, France, when she was very young. She was single and worked as a secretary. She surely had a happy life, until the Nazis invaded in 1940. Sometime in January or February of 1943, she was deported to the Drancy internment camp. Just a little while later, she was deported to Auschwitz (on February 12, 1943). She arrived in the camp a few days later. She did not survive. She was murdered under unknown circumstances in the camp around age twenty-seven. May her memory be a blessing. Her mother was also murdered in Auschwitz.  REMEMBER INES ALCABES.  #holocaust #shoah #wwii #jewish #auschwitz #paris #neveragain less

The man in this picture is Adolf Eichmann. He was the Nazi who worked to convince the Jewish people to get on trains, and he worked out the logistics of getting them to the concentration camps. At the end of World War II, he fled to Argentina, where he worked in an automobile factory and lived in near poverty until May 11, 1960, when he was captured by Israeli Mossad agents Eichmann was snuck out of Argentina and taken to Israel where he would stand trial. On May 31, 1962, he was executed for his crimes. go through the link in my profile to read the full article #ww2 #worldwar2 #worldwartwo #secondworldwar #war #battle #bulge #belgium #europe #soldier #german #germany #axis #thirdreich #usa #america #unitedstates #infantry #hitler #adolfhitler #historyphoto #history #oldphoto #ww2history #executed less

Kazimiera Mika (née Kostewicz) was just ten years old when her most painful moment became international news. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1929, Kazimiera and her older sister Anna (born 1925) lived a happy life on the outskirts of the city. On September 13, 1939, (just twelve days after the beginning of WWII) Kazimiera and her sister were gathering potatoes from a field along with some of their friends. Suddenly, a nearby home was bombed. The women in the field fell flat, hoping they wouldn’t be seen. As the German bombers flew away, they resumed working, thinking that the threat had passed.  However, just a few minutes later, two German Luftwaffe pilots returned to the home they had just bombed. The flew very low to the ground, and were able to see that there were only women and children in the field. Despite this, they opened fire with machine guns, killing two of the seven women. Kazimiera’s fourteen-year-old sister was one of those killed. American journalist, Julien Bryan, was n...

OnThisDay in 1942, Reinhard Heydrich—one of the chief architects of the Holocaust—drove through Prague on his regular route. But this time, two Czechoslovak agents were waiting for him.  They ambushed Heydrich on his drive and rolled an explosive under his car. Heydrich died from his injuries a few days later. In retaliation for Heydrich's death, the Nazis unleashed a wave of terror in the occupied Czech lands.  The assassins, Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, were eventually discovered by the Nazis. Both men died before they could be captured. They are remembered today for their role in the resistance to the Nazis. Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Atlantic Foto Verlag Berlin #Holocaust #History #OTD less