Topic: Anne Frank

[medic09]

Another hero leaves us bereft of model and memory:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1254827721470&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

And so, we have to make do, and be our own heroic models.

[cb750k7]

My father in law (RIP, passed four months ago) was in BUNA and Auschwitz concentration camps during 1942-1945. Escaped during the last Death March in January 1945.
It was a miracle he survived.  For decades he refused even to talk about the camps.  Only after my daughter was born,  he started to reveal his personal experience in the camps. He wrote a book but unfortunately we could not find any one interested to publish it.
I do have the book in English German and Hebrew versions and would be more than happy to share it with you, (Word version),  just send me your Email.

Here is the first chapter,


1.  A short introduction

In May of 1940 a concentration camp was set up at Oswiecim (Auschwitz),  a small town in western Poland,  32 miles west of Cracow near the Czech border.  Some time later the adjacent hamlet of Birkenau was converted into a barbed-wire enclosure large enough to hold 100,000 inmates.  The two concentration camps covered a 15-square miles area,  and were also known as Auschwitz I Central and Auschwitz II Birkenau.  
The first inmates arrived in June 1940 and the mass extermination by gassing started by May 1942.  Auschwitz III Monowitz-Buna started to function  in summer 1942.  This is the story of my personal experience of six weeks in annihilation camp Auschwitz II Birkenau,  November 43 till mid-December 43 and about a year in Auschwitz III  Monowitz-Buna.  
 

Jona

[lordmoonpie]

One of my ex-girlfriend's' father way back was one of the first of the allies in to Belsen and had to clear the bodies and pile them in pits with quicklime. There ar efilms of this I've seen a long time ago on TV and it is horrific.

He was a British Jew and could not bring himself to talk about it. He'd just mutter and walk away. Must have been a soul destroying experience...

[Ecosse]

jona, i wonder if you can do some online publishing. i haven't looked into my self (i can barely read  ) but my understanding is one can publish online and folks buy to download. i assume there's a promotional component to it which i see as a tool for educational awareness.

medic, thanks for the heads up. in all my scanning of the news i crossed that but forgot to link onto the story. thanks again, his passing is surely a cause for reflection.

"And so, we have to make do, and be our own heroic models."

well said. wouldn't this be a better place if we all aspired to a nobler existence?

[cb750k7]

Bill,
Thank you.

Sent the book to your Email.

Jona

[Ecosse]

Bill,
Thank you.

Sent the book to your Email.

Jona

just got it jona. and i thank you for your generosity.

[ChrisR]

There have been a few programmes on telly here in UK dealing with the holocaust and one of the points that came up was the one of survivors and eyewitnesses dying off and how those events are now more open to 'appropriation' and distortion. The recording and researching of those times has become more urgent.
Jona - it must have taken a great deal of courage for your father in law to write down his memories but very important that he did so.
I was in Norway for a stone carving festival at the cathedral in Trondheim over the summer and my father had just died ( he was Liberal Jewish) and I went to the synagogue opposite the cathedral to say a prayer for him and came across a little museum about the Norwegian Jews and their story during the war. There weren't very many in Norway before the war - about 70,000 - but most of them were killed or managed to escape before the Nazis arrived. Very few of those that escaped returned after the war. Ben, the young guy looking after the place (interestingly doing a degree in Medieval history at Glasgow Uni) said there are barely enough people to have a service and keep the synagogue going but they feel it's important to have a memorial to all the people that suffered in the war not just Jews.
I'm not particularly religious but I was grateful that they keep this little museum going for us all and to warn us against creating scapegoats and 'enemies' to frighten and anger us. It is the oldest trick in a dictator's book for controlling populations. Divide and Rule. It only works if we are not aware of it.

Sorry - rambling a bit - early morning here in UK and I'm taking my son and his friend to Legoland for his birthday treat today and not looking forward to the puke-inducing rides.

Also sad to relate that I sold my last CB550 - as is always the case, I'd just got it going great when it was time to sell. Wife is always worried when I'm riding it so guilt starts to creep in and spoil the fun of riding. So I'm not really one of the club anymore.
I need to concentrate on doing a few jobs on my VW Beetle which I use for work but have been keeping half an eye out for a small old Honda to tinker with. Once bitten.