Link to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial: http://www.yadvashem.org/
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Children of the Holocaust (1.5 million)
Youtube video uploaded April 2015 Never ever - ever forget the unimaginable evil mankind can inflict upon another human being in the name of a political ideology. The children depicted here are Jewish children, Gypsy children, children with disabilities... children of racial backgrounds that didn't fit with Hitler's 'pure Aryan race' ideal. To deny the Holocaust is to add to the absolute horror these precious children suffered. And indeed also the children being brutalised, starved and murdered currently in 2014/15. Who could ever have imagined that in just 70 years after the Holocaust, the world would again be witnessing the rise of such evil? |
Shadows of Shoah
Perry and Sheree Trotter, founders of Shadows of Shoah
Shadows of Shoah is an artistic educational project, communicating the gravity and significance of the Holocaust in a unique way. Using photography and original music, selected episodes from survivors' experiences are presented in a brief, compelling format. To reach a generation for whom the Holocaust holds little relevance or significance, Shadows of Shoah strives to produce powerful and evocative art while carefully maintaining historical accuracy.
http://shadowsofshoah.com/
http://shadowsofshoah.com/
Use the following link for some interesting information regarding the holocaust:
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/the-holocaust
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/the-holocaust
The English text of former President Shimon Peres' address at Yad Vashem on Monday 28 April 2014:
ISRAEL IS A DETERRANCE AGAINST ANY ATTEMPT AT ANOTHER HOLOCAUST
My brothers and sisters, at this very moment I see before my eyes a heartbreaking image.
Tens of thousands of people; young and old, male and female, all concentrated on the banks of the Danube River. They are all under orders to face the river, each one tied to the next. Behind them stand Nazi storm troopers, Germans and locals, who cut them down with bullets to the back. To save bullets they tied weights and stones to them so that the dead will drag the living down with them. Children were tied to their mothers, the young to the elderly. The bodies of the victims are pushed into the chilling, foaming waters of the Danube. Their cries rise to the heavens and are left without an echo. The perpetrators stand with smiles on their faces, as if they carried an act of heroism and won a brave battle. The blue Danube is painted red, in a single moment it became a floating grave, innocent victims, innocent people. Itamar Yaoz-Kest, a Jewish poet born in Hungary and sent to Bergen-Belsen, screams in one of his poems, "What is there to drink? They tell me people. Water with blood?"
It happened in Hungary.
But then another image comes to my mind.
A photo of the town where I was born and spent the first decade of my life. Vishneva. In Vishneva the Nazis used a different technique. They didn't shoot the Jews. They burnt them alive. The Nazis, Germans and locals, gathered up all the Jews left in Vishneva, (half had already emigrated to Israel) and forced them to march to the synagogue which was made of wood. My grandfather, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, stood at the head of the march, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer may peace be upon his soul. The same prayer shawl that I huddled under every Yom Kippur to listen to him recite the Kol Nidre prayer in his beautiful voice. They locked the doors of the synagogue and set it on fire with all the Jews still inside. No-one survived. Nothing was left of the synagogue. I can still hear the Kol Nidre prayer, which my grandfather would recite, in my heart. I visited Vishneva when I was Foreign Minister of Israel and I was accompanied by the Foreign Minister of Belarus, a delegation of senior government officials, and a honor motorcade. On the way to Vishneva we passed the train station at Bogdanov. The station still operates but during the war years the rails were heaving with carriages packed with Jews on the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I imagined hearing the trains. The contradiction between the noise of the motorcade and the screams of help from the trains was ghastly. This station, from which we travelled to Israel, is the station that took my people to the death camps. What happened to them could have happened to me. It could have happened to many of us here tonight.
"Saved" wrote Wislawa Szymborska, "because you were first, saved because you were last, because to the left, to the right, because it rained, because a shadow fell." Everything was by chance.
The murdered live in our hearts. Each of us carries in our hearts the grief of his brothers and sisters who perished, like we carry the genius of the creation of Israel. Israel is a monument of grief for their deaths, a monument of genius for their memory, in our homeland.
The question still reverberates in our head, which has no answer and which I doubt will ever be answered, "Where were these murderers born? Where were they educated? How did the landscape of cultured Europe transform into a harsh jungle in which wild beasts walked? We know the geographical answer; the human answer does not exist.
This year is seventy years since the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. The Nazis invaded on March 19th 1944, a year before the end of the Second World War, and four years before the creation of the State of Israel. They almost immediately set about destroying the Jews. They did it with brutal efficiency. Within a month all the Jews were labeled with yellow stars and concentrated in the ghettos. No-one allowed in, no-one allowed out. The hunger and epidemics preceded the bullets and the gas. Within another month all the rest were sent to the death camps. To Auschwitz-Birkenau. Close to half a million Jews were murdered for no reason. We won't forget the Hungarian Righteous Among the Gentiles, who risked their lives to save Jewish lives. They are few in number but they carried with courage the image of humanity. The President of Hungary will take part tomorrow in the March of the Living in Poland, a gesture worth of admiration. However, we must not ignore any occurrence of anti-Semitism, any desecration of a synagogue, any tomb stone smashed in a cemetery in which our families are buried. We must not ignore the rise of extreme right wing parties with neo-Nazi tendencies who are a danger to each of us and a threat to every nation.
The State of Israel of today is not only the only possible memorial standing for our perished brothers and sisters. Israel is a deterrence against any attempt at another Holocaust. A strong Israel is our response to the horrors of anti-Semitism but it does not excuse the rest of the world from its responsibility to prevent this disease from returning to their own homes. Allow me to say, based on 90 years of experience, that without a state of our own we would continue to live on our weakness rather than, as we do today, live on our historic and contemporary abilities. The State of Israel is not a passing event; it is based upon 4000 years of life. The history of the Jewish people contains no lack of anguish but it is filled with hope – the eternity of Israel will not lie. Israel seeks peace. Between people and between nations. Peace with nations near and far. We pursue peace because we pursue justice for all regardless of origin, regardless of faith. The right to peace is the right to life. I say with confidence – we are strong enough to repel dangers, we should not be scared of threats and we must not give up on peace.
As a member of the Jewish people I may not and I cannot forget the horrors of the Holocaust. As a citizen of Israel I will do everything in my power to ensure that the Nazis will not rise again. As a human being I will do everything in my power to bring peace between peoples. Between races. Between religions. Between nations.
We lost the best of our parents and the best of our children. But our faith that victories are temporary and values are eternal never erred. We will forever be a people who believe in values of man and values of heaven. In the name of the six million, among them one and a half million children, we will carry the torch of Jewish independence. The torch of freedom. The light of man. The belief that we will know an enlightened world in which every person treats the other as a fellow human being. And in which we are all born in the image of the Lord. May their memories be blessed.
ISRAEL IS A DETERRANCE AGAINST ANY ATTEMPT AT ANOTHER HOLOCAUST
My brothers and sisters, at this very moment I see before my eyes a heartbreaking image.
Tens of thousands of people; young and old, male and female, all concentrated on the banks of the Danube River. They are all under orders to face the river, each one tied to the next. Behind them stand Nazi storm troopers, Germans and locals, who cut them down with bullets to the back. To save bullets they tied weights and stones to them so that the dead will drag the living down with them. Children were tied to their mothers, the young to the elderly. The bodies of the victims are pushed into the chilling, foaming waters of the Danube. Their cries rise to the heavens and are left without an echo. The perpetrators stand with smiles on their faces, as if they carried an act of heroism and won a brave battle. The blue Danube is painted red, in a single moment it became a floating grave, innocent victims, innocent people. Itamar Yaoz-Kest, a Jewish poet born in Hungary and sent to Bergen-Belsen, screams in one of his poems, "What is there to drink? They tell me people. Water with blood?"
It happened in Hungary.
But then another image comes to my mind.
A photo of the town where I was born and spent the first decade of my life. Vishneva. In Vishneva the Nazis used a different technique. They didn't shoot the Jews. They burnt them alive. The Nazis, Germans and locals, gathered up all the Jews left in Vishneva, (half had already emigrated to Israel) and forced them to march to the synagogue which was made of wood. My grandfather, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, stood at the head of the march, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer may peace be upon his soul. The same prayer shawl that I huddled under every Yom Kippur to listen to him recite the Kol Nidre prayer in his beautiful voice. They locked the doors of the synagogue and set it on fire with all the Jews still inside. No-one survived. Nothing was left of the synagogue. I can still hear the Kol Nidre prayer, which my grandfather would recite, in my heart. I visited Vishneva when I was Foreign Minister of Israel and I was accompanied by the Foreign Minister of Belarus, a delegation of senior government officials, and a honor motorcade. On the way to Vishneva we passed the train station at Bogdanov. The station still operates but during the war years the rails were heaving with carriages packed with Jews on the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I imagined hearing the trains. The contradiction between the noise of the motorcade and the screams of help from the trains was ghastly. This station, from which we travelled to Israel, is the station that took my people to the death camps. What happened to them could have happened to me. It could have happened to many of us here tonight.
"Saved" wrote Wislawa Szymborska, "because you were first, saved because you were last, because to the left, to the right, because it rained, because a shadow fell." Everything was by chance.
The murdered live in our hearts. Each of us carries in our hearts the grief of his brothers and sisters who perished, like we carry the genius of the creation of Israel. Israel is a monument of grief for their deaths, a monument of genius for their memory, in our homeland.
The question still reverberates in our head, which has no answer and which I doubt will ever be answered, "Where were these murderers born? Where were they educated? How did the landscape of cultured Europe transform into a harsh jungle in which wild beasts walked? We know the geographical answer; the human answer does not exist.
This year is seventy years since the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. The Nazis invaded on March 19th 1944, a year before the end of the Second World War, and four years before the creation of the State of Israel. They almost immediately set about destroying the Jews. They did it with brutal efficiency. Within a month all the Jews were labeled with yellow stars and concentrated in the ghettos. No-one allowed in, no-one allowed out. The hunger and epidemics preceded the bullets and the gas. Within another month all the rest were sent to the death camps. To Auschwitz-Birkenau. Close to half a million Jews were murdered for no reason. We won't forget the Hungarian Righteous Among the Gentiles, who risked their lives to save Jewish lives. They are few in number but they carried with courage the image of humanity. The President of Hungary will take part tomorrow in the March of the Living in Poland, a gesture worth of admiration. However, we must not ignore any occurrence of anti-Semitism, any desecration of a synagogue, any tomb stone smashed in a cemetery in which our families are buried. We must not ignore the rise of extreme right wing parties with neo-Nazi tendencies who are a danger to each of us and a threat to every nation.
The State of Israel of today is not only the only possible memorial standing for our perished brothers and sisters. Israel is a deterrence against any attempt at another Holocaust. A strong Israel is our response to the horrors of anti-Semitism but it does not excuse the rest of the world from its responsibility to prevent this disease from returning to their own homes. Allow me to say, based on 90 years of experience, that without a state of our own we would continue to live on our weakness rather than, as we do today, live on our historic and contemporary abilities. The State of Israel is not a passing event; it is based upon 4000 years of life. The history of the Jewish people contains no lack of anguish but it is filled with hope – the eternity of Israel will not lie. Israel seeks peace. Between people and between nations. Peace with nations near and far. We pursue peace because we pursue justice for all regardless of origin, regardless of faith. The right to peace is the right to life. I say with confidence – we are strong enough to repel dangers, we should not be scared of threats and we must not give up on peace.
As a member of the Jewish people I may not and I cannot forget the horrors of the Holocaust. As a citizen of Israel I will do everything in my power to ensure that the Nazis will not rise again. As a human being I will do everything in my power to bring peace between peoples. Between races. Between religions. Between nations.
We lost the best of our parents and the best of our children. But our faith that victories are temporary and values are eternal never erred. We will forever be a people who believe in values of man and values of heaven. In the name of the six million, among them one and a half million children, we will carry the torch of Jewish independence. The torch of freedom. The light of man. The belief that we will know an enlightened world in which every person treats the other as a fellow human being. And in which we are all born in the image of the Lord. May their memories be blessed.
Israeli former President Shimon Peres speaking at Yad Vashem on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 07/04/2013
כ"ז ניסן תשע"ג
Dear Holocaust survivors,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein,
President of the Supreme Court, Justice Asher Grunis
Chief Rabbi's, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger
Our dear friend Prime Minister Tony Blair,
Our dear friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, John Baird,
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev
Righteous Among the Nations
Honored guests
The Holocaust will not sink into the dark hole of history. It is here with us, burning, real.
It resonates as we step on the stones of the ghettos.
It floats like a ghost in the barracks of the camps.
It cries from the prayer shawls, the hair, the shoes that we see with our own eyes.
It whispers from the tears that dried before we said goodbye.
It is reflected in the photographs of the babies in their mothers' arms.
The noise of those murderous trains which have ceased stills rings in our ears.
The smoke which has not faded as it drifted into the sky above.
Survivors walk among us, the Holocaust and its horrors are with them every day.
Their blood flows through our veins.
Their bravery accompanies every step of our lives.
There was no greater horror in the history of mankind.
Nothing can remove the greatest darkness that mankind has known
The 74 years which have passed are more biography than history.
Millions of names are still missing, of parents and children, of whole Jewish communities who were murdered. There is no substitute for the culture, for the values, for the talents which were and are no longer. They remain as an open wound.
We will not stop searching for every scrap of information, for a name yet to be identified, for a photograph that has been blurred. A third of our people, six million, were murdered with no reason.
The Jewish people today are fewer in number then on the eve of World War Two.
We decreased in number, but not in spirit.
We are working with all our might to fill the void. Physically and spiritually.
To grow out of the ashes, to create out of nothing, to build protection.
To build a new independence, and not tire from working for a better world, for Tikkun Olam
The Holocaust is an orphan with no comfort and a moral responsibility without compromise. It does not permit us, the Jewish people, to turn a blind eye. It must always be a warning to the entire human family.
The map of Europe stills contains local stains of anti-Semitism. Racism erupted on that land in the last century and dragged it down to its lowest point. Ultimately the murder which came from her, damaged her.
To our shame, there remain some who learnt nothing.
Young skinheads. False scientists dressed in false suits.
Yes! There remain those who forget the Holocaust, those who deny it.
Not all the flames have been extinguished. Crises are once again exploited to form Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous. Sickening anti-Semitic cartoons are published allegedly in the name of press freedom.
The journey for justice and freedom is not yet over. When I hear the four words, 'Let My People Go' I feel again and again that the journey out of the house of slavery, which began in our people and has not yet ended, must not stop. It must not stop until slavery, in all its forms, is stopped. In every place, in every situation. Until the winds of freedom blow away the stench of racism and decimate the evil smoke.
The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust.
Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations.
The Jewish people are a small nation in number but large in spirit. That spirit cannot be burned in the ovens. From the ashes of the Holocaust rose spiritual redemption and political rebirth. We rose and we built a state of our own.
We lost possessions, but retained our values.
We returned to our ancient homeland. We renewed our moral legacy.
We returned to independence.
We returned to creating, to educating and we returned to hope.
We built a defensive force capable of dealing with dangers, new and old.
The Israel Defence Forces, which was formed in response to the attempt to annihilate the Jewish State which had just been created, is also the right lesson from the Holocaust. It is founded upon the bravery of Jews in the Holocaust.
Today, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day is also the memorial day for 70 years since the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. There was a never a rebellion like it. They were so few and their bravery remained as a model for so many. From now and forever. Today we salute their bravery with the flags flying in the wind of freedom. These are flags of exaltation, not only of grief.
A clear line exists between the resistance in the ghettos, in the camps and in the forests and the rebirth and bravery of the State of Israel. It is a line of dignity, of renewed independence, of mutual responsibility, of exalting Gods name. As a ray of hope which was not extinguished even during terrible anguish. The ghetto fighters sought life even when circumstance screamed despair.
A few days ago Peretz Hochman passed away. The small tobacco seller who became a great hero. Peretz Hochman came home to Israel and fought in Israel's wars with the courage which typified him. He passed away only a few days before he was meant to stand with us, here today, on this stage and light the torch. His light will continue to illuminate.
Raising the heroism of the fighters is not just a matter of doing justice to their bravery. It is an existential need, for each of us, for all us as a people. It is time. We did not always listen to the beat of their hearts. To the health. The time has come to repair.
The history of the Holocaust is not just a lesson from the past, it is also a lesson for the future. That we will know to defend ourselves against dangers and intercept them before time.
That we can rely on ourselves.
That we must maintain our moral legacy, which withstood even impossible situations. That we can maintain friendship with friends, and work with them to foster a better future, for every person, for every nation, for all nations.
And to guard against humanity ever losing its humanity again.
We'll ensure that every person will have the right to be different, different and equal.
We will never despair. After all, we were commanded; "Do not fear, my servant Jacob" because "The Lord will give strength to his people."
http://www.president.gov.il/English/ThePresident/Speeches/Pages/news_070413_02.aspx
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein,
President of the Supreme Court, Justice Asher Grunis
Chief Rabbi's, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger
Our dear friend Prime Minister Tony Blair,
Our dear friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, John Baird,
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev
Righteous Among the Nations
Honored guests
The Holocaust will not sink into the dark hole of history. It is here with us, burning, real.
It resonates as we step on the stones of the ghettos.
It floats like a ghost in the barracks of the camps.
It cries from the prayer shawls, the hair, the shoes that we see with our own eyes.
It whispers from the tears that dried before we said goodbye.
It is reflected in the photographs of the babies in their mothers' arms.
The noise of those murderous trains which have ceased stills rings in our ears.
The smoke which has not faded as it drifted into the sky above.
Survivors walk among us, the Holocaust and its horrors are with them every day.
Their blood flows through our veins.
Their bravery accompanies every step of our lives.
There was no greater horror in the history of mankind.
Nothing can remove the greatest darkness that mankind has known
The 74 years which have passed are more biography than history.
Millions of names are still missing, of parents and children, of whole Jewish communities who were murdered. There is no substitute for the culture, for the values, for the talents which were and are no longer. They remain as an open wound.
We will not stop searching for every scrap of information, for a name yet to be identified, for a photograph that has been blurred. A third of our people, six million, were murdered with no reason.
The Jewish people today are fewer in number then on the eve of World War Two.
We decreased in number, but not in spirit.
We are working with all our might to fill the void. Physically and spiritually.
To grow out of the ashes, to create out of nothing, to build protection.
To build a new independence, and not tire from working for a better world, for Tikkun Olam
The Holocaust is an orphan with no comfort and a moral responsibility without compromise. It does not permit us, the Jewish people, to turn a blind eye. It must always be a warning to the entire human family.
The map of Europe stills contains local stains of anti-Semitism. Racism erupted on that land in the last century and dragged it down to its lowest point. Ultimately the murder which came from her, damaged her.
To our shame, there remain some who learnt nothing.
Young skinheads. False scientists dressed in false suits.
Yes! There remain those who forget the Holocaust, those who deny it.
Not all the flames have been extinguished. Crises are once again exploited to form Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous. Sickening anti-Semitic cartoons are published allegedly in the name of press freedom.
The journey for justice and freedom is not yet over. When I hear the four words, 'Let My People Go' I feel again and again that the journey out of the house of slavery, which began in our people and has not yet ended, must not stop. It must not stop until slavery, in all its forms, is stopped. In every place, in every situation. Until the winds of freedom blow away the stench of racism and decimate the evil smoke.
The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust.
Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations.
The Jewish people are a small nation in number but large in spirit. That spirit cannot be burned in the ovens. From the ashes of the Holocaust rose spiritual redemption and political rebirth. We rose and we built a state of our own.
We lost possessions, but retained our values.
We returned to our ancient homeland. We renewed our moral legacy.
We returned to independence.
We returned to creating, to educating and we returned to hope.
We built a defensive force capable of dealing with dangers, new and old.
The Israel Defence Forces, which was formed in response to the attempt to annihilate the Jewish State which had just been created, is also the right lesson from the Holocaust. It is founded upon the bravery of Jews in the Holocaust.
Today, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day is also the memorial day for 70 years since the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. There was a never a rebellion like it. They were so few and their bravery remained as a model for so many. From now and forever. Today we salute their bravery with the flags flying in the wind of freedom. These are flags of exaltation, not only of grief.
A clear line exists between the resistance in the ghettos, in the camps and in the forests and the rebirth and bravery of the State of Israel. It is a line of dignity, of renewed independence, of mutual responsibility, of exalting Gods name. As a ray of hope which was not extinguished even during terrible anguish. The ghetto fighters sought life even when circumstance screamed despair.
A few days ago Peretz Hochman passed away. The small tobacco seller who became a great hero. Peretz Hochman came home to Israel and fought in Israel's wars with the courage which typified him. He passed away only a few days before he was meant to stand with us, here today, on this stage and light the torch. His light will continue to illuminate.
Raising the heroism of the fighters is not just a matter of doing justice to their bravery. It is an existential need, for each of us, for all us as a people. It is time. We did not always listen to the beat of their hearts. To the health. The time has come to repair.
The history of the Holocaust is not just a lesson from the past, it is also a lesson for the future. That we will know to defend ourselves against dangers and intercept them before time.
That we can rely on ourselves.
That we must maintain our moral legacy, which withstood even impossible situations. That we can maintain friendship with friends, and work with them to foster a better future, for every person, for every nation, for all nations.
And to guard against humanity ever losing its humanity again.
We'll ensure that every person will have the right to be different, different and equal.
We will never despair. After all, we were commanded; "Do not fear, my servant Jacob" because "The Lord will give strength to his people."
http://www.president.gov.il/English/ThePresident/Speeches/Pages/news_070413_02.aspx
A Brief History of the Holocaust
Elie Weisel
(30 September 1928-02 July 2016)
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who dedicated his life to documenting Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, once wrote, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. […] Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. […]Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as G-d Himself. Never!”
As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, it is absolutely critical to remember the slaughter of six million innocent Jews, of whom 1.5 million were merely children, during the darkest hour in human history. These six million Jewish lives represent two-thirds of the European Jewish community and one third of the world Jewish population at that period of time. Six million Jews being murdered is the equivalent of almost all of the Jews in Israel or the United States being slaughtered within a period of twelve years! Indeed, the Holocaust was the worst genocide recorded in human history, yet even this is a gross understatement, for no words can accurately describe the magnitude of the horrors experienced by the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
At first, the Nazis prepared the ground for genocide by enacting a series of restrictive legislations against the Jewish people, which resulted in stripping Jews of their human dignity and citizenship rights, while simultaneously educating the populations under their control that the Jewish people are subhuman creatures who don’t deserve to be permitted to live. Der Strumer frequently proclaimed, “The Jews are our misfortune” and published dehumanizing cartoons of Jews, comparing Jews to satanic figures. The educational system similarly taught children to hate Jews and many young children joined the Hitler Youth movement, which further reinforced the Nazis propaganda against the Jewish people.
Thus, from the day the Nazis came to power, the Jewish people suffered immensely.
As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, it is absolutely critical to remember the slaughter of six million innocent Jews, of whom 1.5 million were merely children, during the darkest hour in human history. These six million Jewish lives represent two-thirds of the European Jewish community and one third of the world Jewish population at that period of time. Six million Jews being murdered is the equivalent of almost all of the Jews in Israel or the United States being slaughtered within a period of twelve years! Indeed, the Holocaust was the worst genocide recorded in human history, yet even this is a gross understatement, for no words can accurately describe the magnitude of the horrors experienced by the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
At first, the Nazis prepared the ground for genocide by enacting a series of restrictive legislations against the Jewish people, which resulted in stripping Jews of their human dignity and citizenship rights, while simultaneously educating the populations under their control that the Jewish people are subhuman creatures who don’t deserve to be permitted to live. Der Strumer frequently proclaimed, “The Jews are our misfortune” and published dehumanizing cartoons of Jews, comparing Jews to satanic figures. The educational system similarly taught children to hate Jews and many young children joined the Hitler Youth movement, which further reinforced the Nazis propaganda against the Jewish people.
Thus, from the day the Nazis came to power, the Jewish people suffered immensely.
Anne Frank (1929-1945)
As Anne Frank described regarding this period of time, “Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use street cars; Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 PM; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 PM and 6 AM; Jews were forbidden to go to theaters, movies, or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools.”
Yet, what Anne Frank described was only the beginning. Soon after that, Jews were forced into ghettos, where the conditions were even worse. Shimon Srebrnik, a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, asserted regarding the humanitarian situation: “We got a loaf of bread and twenty grams of coffee. You couldn’t live on that. That’s why people collapsed in the streets and died. Died, died, died! Many died in the ghettos!” Tola Walach Meltzer, another survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, described the horrible fate of a neighbor of hers within the ghetto, “A family with a girl named Hanechka lived on my street. She was very sick. She had tuberculosis. She was all skin, bones and eyes. I loved her very much and I paid her a visit. Before I left, her mother told me that she asks for nothing, she doesn’t ask for food, she doesn’t cry, and she asked every one who came to kiss her. Every one kissed her and then she died.” In addition to the lack of food, the sanitary conditions within the ghetto combined with the exhaustion caused by being forced to engage in slave labor caused many to perish within the ghettos. This does not even include the cases where the Nazis murdered Jews for resisting their oppression, breaking ghetto rules in order to enhance their chances of survival, or just to be cruel.
Yet, what Anne Frank described was only the beginning. Soon after that, Jews were forced into ghettos, where the conditions were even worse. Shimon Srebrnik, a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, asserted regarding the humanitarian situation: “We got a loaf of bread and twenty grams of coffee. You couldn’t live on that. That’s why people collapsed in the streets and died. Died, died, died! Many died in the ghettos!” Tola Walach Meltzer, another survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, described the horrible fate of a neighbor of hers within the ghetto, “A family with a girl named Hanechka lived on my street. She was very sick. She had tuberculosis. She was all skin, bones and eyes. I loved her very much and I paid her a visit. Before I left, her mother told me that she asks for nothing, she doesn’t ask for food, she doesn’t cry, and she asked every one who came to kiss her. Every one kissed her and then she died.” In addition to the lack of food, the sanitary conditions within the ghetto combined with the exhaustion caused by being forced to engage in slave labor caused many to perish within the ghettos. This does not even include the cases where the Nazis murdered Jews for resisting their oppression, breaking ghetto rules in order to enhance their chances of survival, or just to be cruel.
Survivors from Mauthausen
However, as bad as the ghettos were, the concentration camps made survival virtually impossible. Indeed, the concentration camps were designed specifically to kill Jews. Countless Jews were gassed to death upon arrival, while others were utilized brutally for slave labor until they too perished after suffering unspeakable horrors. Within the camps, the Jews who were selected to live not only were robbed of their belongings and slowly worked to death, yet were also cruelly tortured in countless instances. Nazi doctors conducted experiments on many Jewish bodies and numerous Jewish women were sterilized, thus preventing some survivors from having children. Despite Nazis racial laws, countless women were also violently raped by the Nazis, which is another type of physical torture that Jewish women endured during the Holocaust.
Most of the Jews who entered these camps did not walk out alive. As Primo Levy once wrote, “You who live safe; In your warm houses; You who find warm food; And friendly faces when you return home. Consider if this is a man; Who works in mud; Who knows no peace; Who fights for a crust of bread; Who dies by a yes or no. Consider if this is a woman; Without hair, Without name; Without the strength to remember, Empty are her eyes, cold her womb, Like a frog in winter. Never forget that this has happened. Remember these words. Engrave them in your hearts, when at home or in the street, when lying down, when getting up. Repeat them to your children.”
Most of the Jews who entered these camps did not walk out alive. As Primo Levy once wrote, “You who live safe; In your warm houses; You who find warm food; And friendly faces when you return home. Consider if this is a man; Who works in mud; Who knows no peace; Who fights for a crust of bread; Who dies by a yes or no. Consider if this is a woman; Without hair, Without name; Without the strength to remember, Empty are her eyes, cold her womb, Like a frog in winter. Never forget that this has happened. Remember these words. Engrave them in your hearts, when at home or in the street, when lying down, when getting up. Repeat them to your children.”
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Nigel Woodley's Book - Holocaust Exposed The Bible Enigma
Recommended Reading: Please follow the link below for information and ordering direct.
http://www.holocaustexposed.co.nz/Buy_or_Contact.php
The Biblical Account of the Jewish Tragedy ' - A Must Read For All! NZD$15.00 each
WHY THE HOLOCAUST? 283 pages + plus photographs
The question of the twentieth-century is answered in Holocaust Exposed. This book is a first in that it offers a comprehensive Biblical account and answer to the greatest tragedy in human history. Whereas many have spoken before on the horrors of the Holocaust, this book gives opportunity for the Keeper of Israel to have His say.
The lessons of the Holocaust can only be fully understood in the light of the Holy Scriptures. This book will teach you:
WHY THE HOLOCAUST? 283 pages + plus photographs
The question of the twentieth-century is answered in Holocaust Exposed. This book is a first in that it offers a comprehensive Biblical account and answer to the greatest tragedy in human history. Whereas many have spoken before on the horrors of the Holocaust, this book gives opportunity for the Keeper of Israel to have His say.
The lessons of the Holocaust can only be fully understood in the light of the Holy Scriptures. This book will teach you:
- The tragedy was no surprise to the prophets of Israel
- The Lord gave clear warning in advance
- The outrage that occurred was not because of divine retribution against the Jews, but rather it was a sinister plot of satanic forces who wanted to destroy the embryonic Jewish State before it was born
- The death throes of a people became the birth pains of their statehood
- The resurrection of Israel in 1948 heralded the soon return of Jesus Christ
- And much more..."The ground that was soaked with so much Jewish blood has become sacred ground. The era of this enormous tragedy has also become sacred. I have received a mandate from Heaven to report comprehensively on what God has to say about that era. It is my duty to God to report on the Holocaust from His book." - Pastor Nigel Woodley