Let us not forget 9 year old Henio
Zytomirski, every year on March 25 and November 9. He was murdered at the age
of 9 in a gas chamber at Majdanek concentration camp, during the German Nazi
occupation of Poland. We made him one of The
82 murdered children of Unit 1012 and Janusz
Korczak’s 190+ children where we will not forget him.
One way to remember him on his
birthday is looking at his Facebook Profile.
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Henio Zytomirski at the entrance to P.K.O
bank in Lublin (5 July 1939)
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Henio Zytomirski (Polish: Henio
Żytomirski,
Hebrew: הניו ז'יטומירסקי; 25 March 1933 – 9 November 1942) was a
Polish Jew born in Lublin, Poland who was murdered at the age of 9 in a gas
chamber at Majdanek concentration camp, during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. Henio became
an icon of the Holocaust, not only in Lublin but all over Poland. His life
story became a part of the curriculum which is learnt in the general education
system in Poland. The "Letters to Henio" project is held in Lublin
since 2005. Henio Zytomirski is one of the heroes of "The Primer"
permanent exhibition at barrack 53 of the Majdanek
Museum, an exhibition which is dedicated to children who were in the camp.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/7157366/Holocaust-victim-has-3000-friends-on-Facebook.html
Holocaust
victim has 3,000 friends on Facebook
A six year
old boy who died in the Holocaust has been 'brought back to life' on Facebook.
11:25PM GMT 04 Feb 2010
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Henio Zytomirski's Facebook profile
picture Photo: AP
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The Facebook page of holocaust victim Henio
Zytomirski was created by a group in his home town to breathe virtual life into
a stolen childhood.
Residents of Lublin in Poland created
the page as a memorial to Henio, whose black and white profile picture taken in
1939 shows him standing in an old-fashioned buttoned-up T-shirt and shorts.
At some point in 1942 Henio and his
father Szmuel were sent to the nearby Majdanek death camp, and it is believed
they died there by early 1943.
Facebook and MySpace users have long
been creating memorial pages for friends and family, but these new projects aim
to rekindle lives of the more distant dead who might otherwise be forgotten.
Henio's Facebook page has 3,000
"friends" and includes postings from Henio's cousin and other
administrators in the voice of the dead boy.
Neta Zytomirski Avidar, a cousin of
Henio's who lives in Israel and has helped build the site, wrote: "Henio was an eyewitness and a victim to the Nazis'
actions. Because he was murdered, he could never provide his testimony.
"We try to guess what
might have been his testimony."
One of Henio's pictures shows a
Hebrew-language book with the caption in Polish: "It
will be September soon. I will go to school. I wonder what's it like at school.
I'm a bit afraid. Daddy says there is no need to be afraid. After all – he is a
teacher. Today I saw my textbook."
But some question the morality of
putting words into the mouth of a long-deceased person.
Adam Kopciowski, a historian at
Lublin's Marie Curie-Sklodowska University who specialises in Jewish studies,
described posts as "abuse toward a child that has been dead for the past
70 years."
"This is an act of
pretending to be a person that has died, but we cannot be sure whether he spoke
that way, whether he thought that way, whether he acted that way," Kopciowski said.
Others argue that anything that keeps
the memory of the victims of the Holocaust alive is worthwhile.
Piotr Kadlcik, the leader of Poland's
Jewish community, said: "Absolutely all forms that
help us spread information about the past should be used and encouraged.
"These are not times
for honouring people with huge marble monuments and official ceremonies."
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