"The Holocaust, which established the standard for absolute evil, is the universal heritage of all civilized people"
- Our Living Legacy
Every year on January 27, we, the
comrades of Unit 1012 will remember those who died in the Holocaust during
World War II. The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is held on January 27
every year as on that date, in 1945, when the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau,
was liberated by Soviet troops.
This year, 2015, is the 70th
anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. We
will remember those Jews who died during the Holocaust, those who survived, the
Righteous among the Nations and also those Jews who were killed on the orders of Stalin. Unit 1012 will never forget them and we will always honor and
remember this event.
The Hall of Names containing Pages of
Testimony commemorating the millions of Jews who were murdered during the
Holocaust.
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Here
are some of the victims we remember who died during the Holocaust:
Janusz
Korczak, the pen name of Henryk
Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – August 1942), was a Polish-Jewish
educator, children's author, and pediatrician known as Pan Doktor
("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor ("Old Doctor"). After
spending many years working as director of an orphanage in Warsaw, he refused
freedom and stayed with his orphans when the institution was sent from the
Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp, during the Grossaktion Warsaw of 1942.
Anne Frank pictured in May 1942
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Anne Frank
A.K.A Annelies Marie "Anne"
Frank (Dutch pronunciation: [ɑnəˈlis
ˈɑnə maˈri frɑŋk], German pronunciation: [anəliːs ˈanə maˈʁiː
fʁaŋk], pronunciation (help·info);
12 June 1929 – early March 1945) is one of the most discussed Jewish victims of
the Holocaust. Her wartime diary The Diary of a Young Girl has been the
basis for several plays and films. Born in the city of Frankfurt in Weimar
Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941. She gained
international fame posthumously after her diary was published. It documents her
experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War
II.
Remember those Jews murdered by the Einsatzgruppen.
The surviving teenage
son of this murdered family is brought up to the murder site. He was then
murdered by a shot to the neck by the German officer standing behind him.
Zboriv, Ukraine, 5 July 1941.
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Einsatzgruppe
A members shoot Jews on the outskirts of Kovno, 1941-1942. Novosti Press,
Moscow
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Hungarian
Jews on the Judenrampe (Jewish ramp) after disembarking from the transport
trains. To be sent rechts!—to the right—meant the person had been
chosen as a laborer; links!—to the left—meant death in the gas
chambers. Photo from the Auschwitz
Album (May 1944).
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Hungarian Jews not
selected as laborers were murdered in the gas chambers almost immediately after
arrival. Photo from the Auschwitz Album (May 1944).
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Here are some Russian Jews who were murdered under
the orders of Joseph Stalin:
Solomon Mikhoels
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.kinoglaz.fr/u_fiche_person.php?lang=fr&num=5236]
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Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (16 March [O.S. 4
March] 1890 – 13 January 1948) was a Soviet Jewish actor and the artistic
director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater. Mikhoels
served as the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee during the Second
World War. However, as Joseph Stalin pursued an increasingly anti-Semitic
line after the War, Mikhoels' position as a leader of the Jewish community
led to increasing persecution from the Soviet state. In 1948, Mikhoels was
murdered on the orders of Stalin and his body was run over to create the
impression of a traffic accident.
Night
of the Murdered Poets
Clockwise from top left: Peretz Markish, Itsik
Feffer, Leyb Kvitko, Dovid Hofshteyn and Dovid Bergelson
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On this
date, August 12, 1952, 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in
Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. This case is also known as The Night of The Murdered Poets.
Let us hear from several Holocaust Survivors:
Simon
Wiesenthal on history repeating.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/197820]
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Simon Wiesenthal, KBE (31 December
1908 – 20 September 2005) was an Austrian writer and Nazi hunter. He was a
Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his
work as a Nazi hunter.
Elie Wiesel on surviving the Holocaust
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/197773]
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Eliezer
"Elie" Wiesel
KBE (born September 30, 1928) is a Romanian-born
Jewish-American professor and political activist. He is the author of 57 books,
including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration
camps. Wiesel is also the Advisory Board chairman of the newspaper Algemeiner
Journal.
When Wiesel
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Norwegian Nobel Committee called
him a "messenger to mankind," stating that through his struggle to
come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and
of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps," as well
as his "practical work in the cause of peace," Wiesel had delivered a
powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity.
Let us remember those awarded the Righteous Among
The Nations:
“Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe"(Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5)
Righteous Among the Nations medals and diplomas handed over during a ceremony in the Polish Senate on 17th April 2012 |
"In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted an attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care. These few men and women were vulnerable, afraid, helpless - what made them different from their fellow citizens?… Why were there so few?… Let us remember: What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander…. Let us not forget, after all, there is always a moment when moral choice is made…. And so we must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them."- Elie Wiesel, in Carol Rittner, Sandra Meyers, Courage To Care - Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, NYU Press, 1986. P. 2]
What Oskar Schindler said to the 300 women he
saved on their return to his factory.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/265166]
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Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was an ethnic
German industrialist, German spy, and member of the Nazi party who is credited
with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his
enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland
and the Czech Republic respectively. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark, and the subsequent
1993 film Schindler's List,
which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit who
came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, and dedication in order to
save the lives of his Jewish employees.
Quote
by Chiune Sugihara (杉原
千畝 Sugihara Chiune)
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Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 Sugihara Chiune, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as
Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he
helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to
Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who
escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania.
Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000
Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's
lives. Sugihara had told the refugees to call him "Sempo", the
Sino-Japanese reading of the characters in his first name, discovering it was
much easier for Western people to pronounce. In 1985, Israel honored him as
Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.
Irena Sendler [PHOTO SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/265881]
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Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska, also referred to
as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, Nom de guerre Jolanta; 15
February 1910 – 12 May 2008) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served
in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children's
section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied
Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some
2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with
false identity documents and with housing outside the Ghetto, saving those
children during the Holocaust.
The Nazis
eventually discovered her activities, tortured her, and sentenced her to death,
but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. In 1965, Sendler was
recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations. Late in
life she was awarded Poland's highest honor for her wartime humanitarian
efforts. She appears on a silver 2008 Polish commemorative coin honoring some
of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.
Yad
Vashem: Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future
Uploaded on Apr 30, 2009
Containing
the world's largest repository of information on the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is a
leader in Holocaust education, commemoration, research and documentation.
Located in Jerusalem, Israel, Yad Vashem's 45 acre campus comprises museums,
exhibitions, memorials, sculptures, gardens, and world class research and
education centers. Millions each year access Yad Vashem's vast resources in order
to study, teach and commemorate the Holocaust.
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X6ku8KNsOw
OTHER LINKS:
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/media-room/stories/international-holocaust-remembrance-day-2015
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