News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Last Auschwitz survivors speak: 'We haven't won, but we've taught our grandkids'

Heart-wrenching testimonies from survivors living in Israel, as the Jewish state prepares to host world leaders on the 75th anniversary of the death camp's liberation

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account minimizes Polish complicity for the Holocaust

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

Poland has launched a massive campaign to portray Poles as victims of the Holocaust no less than Jews, and even goes so far as to claim that the Poles were “heroes” of the Holocaust who spent most of the war attempting to rescue Jews. Amazingly, the Auschwitz Museum is complicit in this.

News | Antisemitism

Polish school show gives horrific nod to Nazi gas chambers

A school in eastern Poland recently put on a play with children in concentration camp uniforms being executed in Auschwitz

News | Antisemitism Watch

Beyond Offensive- My Letter to the Manufacturer of “Auschwitz Ash” Offensive Crayons – Gina Raphael

December 21, 2019 Ms. Alice Cichon Offensive Crayons, LLC 1820 Avenue M Unit #370 Brooklyn, NY 11230 info@offensivecrayons.com Dear Ms. Cichon, Congratulations on starting a new Company. As someone who has been in  marketing & merchandising for over 30 ye

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Poland Asks Netflix to Make Changes to Documentary About Nazi Death Camp Guard

Convicted Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk leaves a courtroom in Munich after the verdict in his case, May 12, …

I am SO sick of Holocaust revisionism and revisionists. Hitler placed dozens of camps in Poland because he knew that the Poles were even more antisemitic than the Germans. There were pogroms in Poland AFTER the Holocaust. So the idea that the poor Poles were also unwitting victims of the Nazis is absolutely false. Poland’s history of vehement and disgusting antisemitism goes back centuries.

Politics | Opinion

Why Be Nice About the Horrors of the Holocaust? (Judean Rose)

Should we have been more understanding of a teacher who threatened her students with the gas chamber?

Miscellaneous | Judaism

A Psychotherapist’s Shema in Auschwitz - Vaetchanan

What is it about the Shema Yisroel prayer that has inspired so many through the most trying of times and has provided such meaning and purpose to help us survive even the most despairing circumstances?

History | History

Holocaust survivor owes her life to a Nazi officer’s Great Dane

Nina Dinar, 93, has loved dogs since childhood and that saved her in a Nazi labor camp in Poland

I wasn’t sure if this belonged in Jewish Community, History or Dogs. What a fascinating story. I didn’t know about this at all.

Politics | Politics

Milano Comes Under Fire After Comparing Pence to Himmler

Actress Alyssa Milano came under fire on Sunday after comparing Vice President Mike Pence to the architect of the Holocaust, Heinrich Himmler, with side-by-side pictures on Twitter.

I am incredibly sick of people exploiting the Holocaust for political gain, especially by ignorant ex child actors who know less about history than a low IQ bunny.

Politics | POLITICS

Holocaust survivor: AOC 'should be removed from Congress'

93-year-old Holocaust survivor Ed Mosberg has no time for Rep. ­Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s statements last week, when she called the southern border’s migrant detention centers “concentration camps.”

I agree completely.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

The Long Legacy of the Shoah in Scandinavia – Tablet Magazine

Within the Northern European countries that make up Scandinavia there has been a revival of active scholarship and popular interest into the treatment of Jews during World War II. The subject is very much alive in these countries and much more so than in

This is fascinating, although I am disappointed that the story of the Danish King confronting the Nazis is basically not true. The bottom line is that if other occupied countries had acted differently: millions more of us would have survived. The stories of Denmark and Sweden, but not Norway, name that clear.

Politics | Politics

MENKEN: AOC Is Dividing Americans And Inciting Anti-Semitism

After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) used “concentration camps” and “Never Again” together — a unique reference to the Nazi death camps — and then retweeted leftist Jews hoping to justify the linkage while she simultaneously denied that she ever connected them in the first instance, I honestly thought it couldn’t get worse.

Do people even comprehend why so many of us take this so seriously? Jews, especially over the past few years, have been subjected continually to a rising barrage of antisemitism, physical attacks, an anti-Israel movement that uses propaganda to increasingly mainstream the lie that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, and a never ending exploitation of OUR history to legitimize any number of political agendas. The reason why the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Yad Vashem, the Auschwitz Museum & the US Holocaust Museum stepped in is because hijacking the language of the Holocaust has been a tool of Holocaust deniers for a very long time. So whether people defending "AOC" understand this or not, there is NO valid use of Holocaust imagery absent literal genocide. That is exactly why no one had a problem applying Holocaust imagery to Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia etc., however applying that imagery to detention centers run by the United States, only serves to trivialize the absolute nightmare of genocide.

AOC knows this, so does Ilhan Omar. The fact that some Jews, unfortunately, agree with them is a sign of their own devotion to ideology or ignorance of the Holocaust, and our own history (unfortunately, neither is unusual), NOT evidence of authority on the subject. Being born Jewish, or having relatives murdered during WWII, does not automatically imbue you with an authoritative understanding of the Shoah or anything else. Legitimate criticism of the border situation deserves a serious public discussion, you can do that without appropriating the worst genocide in human history, and more importantly, without exploiting the memory of its victims.

News | Antisemitism Watch

The DC Holocaust Museum Has Now Weighed in on Ocasio-Cortez's Comments

We were all waiting for this one. While it was encouraging to see both Republican and Democratic lawmakers resoundingly reject Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) comparison between immigration detention centers and Holocaust concentration camps, now that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has weighed in, we may finally be able to put an end to this mess.

So now the list of organizations telling “AOC” she’s absolutely wrong on this includes the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Auschwitz Museum, Yad Vashem, and the US Holocaust Museum and she STILL won’t admit she’s wrong. What does that say about the kind of person she is?

News | Antisemitism Watch

WATCH: Holocaust Survivors To AOC: ‘You Are Insulting Every Victim Of The Holocaust’

Two Holocaust survivors slammed socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in a video filmed by Turning Point USA over Ocasio-Cortez's recent remarks about the Holocaust, saying that she was "insulting every victim of the Holocaust."

Politics | Politics

Concentration Camps? Stop Hijacking Jewish History | The Jerusalem post

US media has now joined the debate about concentration camps.

“The agenda in the US is clear: in order to critique the current administration’s policy, a term often associated with Auschwitz and the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust has been appropriated to score a few political points. In a few months there will be a new controversy, and Jewish history will be hijacked again in a US debate to fit the narrative of whatever group needs to conjure up the Nazi era for their own benefit.

Increasingly in the US every day, the Holocaust is watered down and universalized in order to become an American event. Last year the former National Security Agency and CIA head Michael Hayden compared the US separating families at the border to Auschwitz.”

News | Antisemitism

Yad Vashem to AOC: Learn about concentration camps | The Jerusalem post

“I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday. “If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps - not the nomenclature.”

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Wiesenthal Center Calls AOC’s Concentration Camp Remarks ‘Insult to Victims of the Shoah’

When the Wiesenthal Center, Yad Vashem, The Auschwitz Museum etc. are all calling you out as insulting and offensive: it’s time to apologize. She won’t because she is ignorant and an egomaniac with the maturity of an adolescent.

News | Antisemitism Watch

Americans Against Antisemitism produces handy comparison chart for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The lengths people will go to to protect our freshman class from their own words are astounding.

Politics | The "Squad"

Rashida Tlaib slammed by House GOP over statement that Holocaust gives her 'kind of a calming feeling'

House Republican leaders called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to "take action" against Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Sunday after Tlaib said that thinking about the Holocaust gave her "kind of a calming feeling."

It’s a serious challenge to decide who’s the most repellant human: Tlaib or Omar.

Politics | Antisemitism

History repeating itself, Holocaust survivors warn before March of the Living | The Times of Israel

News | Pallywood

Palestinian Television Claims Images of Holocaust Victims Show Arabs Killed by Jews

A composite image of victims at the Nazi concentration camp of Nordhausen (right) and the same image broadcast by Palestinian …

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

On Yom Hashoah - look for YOUR name in the Yad Vashem database, and light a candle for you

To make the Shoah a little more real for you, look up your (Hebrew) name in the Yad Vashem database of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

News | News

92-Year-Old Ex-Nazi Guard Charged With 5,230 Counts Of Accessory To Murder

German prosecutors say they have charged a former Nazi concentration camp guard with 5,230 counts of accessory to murder. The 92-year-old suspect, whose name wasn’t released, is accused of assistin…

Good. There is no statue of limitations on justice.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Passover Seder to be held in Warsaw Ghetto for first time in 76 years | The Jerusalem post

Before the Holocaust, approximately one-third of Warsaw was Jewish.

This is truly amazing and poignant. I wish that I could be there.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Study Shows a Third of Americans Think Holocaust Murders Exaggerated

The “Hall of Names” commemorating victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Photo: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons. …

It’s a absolutely apalling how ignorant Americans, and the rest of the planet, is about the Holocaust.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Allies knew of Holocaust in 1942, 2 years before previously assumed, UN documents prove | The Times of Israel

UK, US, Russia were aware of millions killed by Nazis, new book says, shedding damning light on refusal to take in refugees or try to halt slaughter

History | History

‘The Invisibles’ Tells the Amazing Tale of Four Holocaust Survivors

A scene from “The Invisibles.” Photo: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment. When death knocked at her door, Hanni Weissenberg refused to …

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Outrage ensues over sausage-museum, hotel and theater plans at site of Buchenwald

Rikola-Gunnar Luettgenau of the Buchenwald memorial foundation said this plan shows a “lack of sensitivity” and a “lack of historical awareness.”

A sausage factory? Things are truly reverting to the way they were before the Holocaust. The lessons of the Shoah aren’t quickly being forgotten because most people just don’t care. Antisemitism isn’t a problem to them. That is particularly true in Europe.

Music | Music

Facebook teams up with Yad Vashem to commemorate Shoah victims online

New project lets online users be randomly matched to one of the 4,800,000 names recorded in Yad Vashem’s central database of Shoah victims.

Not always a fan of Facebook-but I applaud this and Yad Vashem ALWAYS does good work.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

The possibility of a new Holocaust with the reincarnation of antisemitism

The era of “never again” is ending in Western Europe, fading in North America and never penetrated the Middle East.

The era of “never again” is ending in Western Europe, fading in North America and never penetrated the Middle East.

History | History

When Jews caught “Syndrome K,” the Nazis wanted NOTHING to do with them

Jewish lives were saved in World War II due to a brilliant plan by Professor Giovanni Borremeo. "The lessons of my experience were that we have to act not for the sake of self-interest, but for principles." - Dr. Adriano Ossicini, inventor of Sy

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Steven Spielberg urges mandatory Holocaust education

Director, actors, recall filming ‘Schindler’s List’ at special 25th anniversary screening

He is very obviously correct about this.

News | News

One-Third of Americans Don't Believe 6 Million Jews Were Murdered During the Holocaust

Seventy percent of Americans believe people care less about the Holocaust than they used to.

News | News

Polish government cancels scheduled Bennett visit over Holocaust remarks - International news - Jerusalem Post

“The blood of Polish Jews cries from the ground, and no law will silence it. The Government of Poland cancelled my visit, because I mentioned the crimes of its people. I am honored.”

That the Poles were complicit in the Holocaust HISTORY, not a subjective claim. Hitler CHOSE Poalnd because he knew the POles were even more antisemtic than the Germans. And, in fact, Poles continued to murder Jews even AFTER the war ended. This is just one more piece of proof that Europe's inherent antisemitism has never waned, it was just better hidden for a few generations. Poland is just as disgusting as ever.

"Now, the next generation has an important lesson about the Holocaust of our people, and I will ensure that they learn it,” he said, adding that the decision by the Polish government “has a role to play in Holocaust education, even if they intended it to achieve something else.”

"The Polish bill would impose up to three years of jail time for using the term “Polish death camps,” when describing such death machines as Auschwitz and Treblinka, or for implying complicity of the Polish nation in the Nazi murder of millions of Jews and other minorities during WWII."

History | HISTORY

Why this Holocaust survivor still wears his concentration camp uniform | New York Post

Ed Mosberg’s hands stay steady as he slips into the striped cotton jacket and matching cap — an outfit identical to one he was issued 75 years ago, as a...

“They took the infant out of the mother’s hand and smashed it against walls and it was killed instantly,” Mosberg recalled...He remembers when officers told prisoners with canes to abandon the aids, promising that whoever could cross the square would be free: “They were crawling on their hands and knees. When they got [to the other side] they were shot.”

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

102-year-old Holocaust survivor reunites with newly discovered nephew | The Times of Israel

Eliahu Pietruszka believed his brother, who escaped Warsaw ghetto, had died in a Russian labor camp, but, generations later, a Yad Vashem genealogy project led to incredible news

Such a touching story. People need to understand that the Shoah (the Holocaust) was a blip in time ago. That's one of the many reasons that forgetting that it happened, or minimizing it, is so disgraceful.

History | History

Auschwitz-Birkenau: 4 out of 10 German students don′t know what it was | News | DW | 28.09.2017

Just 47 percent of 14- to 16-year-olds in Germany know that Auschwitz-Birkenau was a Nazi death camp, a survey shows. Its authors cite fewer history lessons as a reason.

When I was in my 20s, I knew Germans in their 30s who knew next to nothing about the Holocaust. These were people who grew up in its immediate aftermath. Germany is still schizophrenic about Holocaust education and that only feeds the deniers in their despicable attempts.

History | History

Reconstructed Auschwitz prisoner text details ′unimaginable′ suffering | Germany | DW | 09.10.2017

A newly reconstructed document written in 1944 by a Greek Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz tells of misery "the human mind can not imagine." The text was discovered buried in the ground at the Nazi extermination camp.

History | History

In film, survivor searches for US soldier who liberated him at Dachau | The Times of Israel

New documentary centers on Steve Ross, who was 'transformed' as a boy by an act of kindness in the concentration camp

History | History

The Holocaust's Great Escape | History | Smithsonian

A remarkable discovery in Lithuania brings a legendary tale of survival back to life

News | Interesting Stories

The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking - The New York Times

The Germans had vastly more work camps and ghettos than anyone knew.

Miscellaneous | Other Stuff

Charles Krauthammer: The Holocaust and American Jews - NY Daily News

Bernie Sanders is the most successful Jewish candidate for the presidency ever.

Krauthammer is absolutely correct. The Jewish community does itself a VERY significant disservice by focusing on the Holocaust as a primary source of Jewish identity. There is so much more to being Jewish. The Holocaust is, obviously, a key event for all of us. But we can't let it define us without losing much of the richness of our heritage.

History | History

The BBC Flew A Drone Over Auschwitz. What They Caught On Film Sent Chills Down My Spine | Greenville Gazette

Recently, a drone flown by the BBC was flown over the remains of Auschwitz. This was one of the most infamous concentration camps from WWII and the release of the footage is timely, as the

This is literally chilling. You don't understand how large this death factory was until you see it. THIS is why the Shoah (the Holocaust) is different. At no other other time in history was this massive of an effort make to eliminate an entire people (remember that Auschwitz was one of MANY camps). There is no other incidence of genocide in history that was like this, on this scale. Shame on people like Justin Trudeau for their failure to acknowledge that it was the Jews that were the primary target, and victims, of the absolute horror that this video gives you a just a "mere" glimpse of.

"The images revealed by the BBC’s drone are disturbing. While one can walk into Auschwitz and take a tour, these bird’s eye view pictures give a sense for the enormity of the atrocity taking place."

History | History

Israel's Anthem Played on Salvaged Holocaust Violins | The Jewish Standard

Musical instruments stolen and damaged during the Holocaust was a common occurrence, oft forgotten due to the magnitude of the atrocities committed overall upon humans.

Miscellaneous | Jewish

The indelible mark on the Jewish people - Blogs - Jerusalem Post

Yad Vashem, our constant reminder. From year to year, the hard to describe events of the Holocaust are distancing from the present. The people who survived the Concentration Camps, the Crematoria and the unimaginable atrocities, are in the process of leaving this world to take their place next to the Almighty’s heavens.

News | News

SS 'accountant of Auschwitz' going on trial in Germany | The Times of Israel

Oskar Groening, 93, recalls the 'atrocities,' admits feeling they were 'necessary,' and now faces 300,000 counts of accessory to murder

The world has a responsibility to track down every last one of these guys. The shame of it is that, in some cases, it took this long.

Politics | Media Bias

On Holocaust Memorial Day, BBC Asks 'Is it Time to Lay Holocaust to Rest?

On Int'l Holocaust Memorial Day BBC Tweet suggests it's time to forget the Holocaust; 'BBC has no moral compass regarding Jews or Israel.'

Disgusting. This was AFTER asking if Jewish citizens of the UK have too much power in government. Like I keep saying: NOTHING has changed in Europe. They acted like they learned their lesson, but really, they were just ashamed because the Holocaust happening in their part of the world. But the attitudes that allowed it to happen are still the same.

History | History

Holocaust survivor and American rescuer have touching reunion after 70 years

Jewish Scene: Images capture emotional moment as former Dachau prisoner salutes soldier who liberated him; 'I am eternally grateful.'

This is incredibly touching.

"Images capture emotional moment as former Dachau prisoner salutes soldier who liberated him; 'I am eternally grateful.'

News | NEWS

Holocaust survivor ADOPTS the grandson of Nazi commandant Rudolf Hoess seventy years after he murdered her parents and s

Eva Mozes Kor, 80, who lives in Indiana in the US, has found the compassion to forgive her Nazi tormentors - and has even unofficially adopted the grandson of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Hoess.

This is an insanely unlikely story, but it is also touching...

History | History

Auschwitz prisoner No. A7733 finally finds his family - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews

Jewish Scene: Menachem Bodner, a twin survivor of the Mengele experiments, lost his entire family when he was just a little boy. He is still searching for his twin brother, but recently found his first cousins in California thanks to a persistent genealo

This is a great story!

News | News

What happened to Anne Frank after the Secret Annex? | The Times of Israel

70 years after their capture, the Frank girls' last seven months in camps is well documented, but still rarely discussed

This is the extremely heartbreaking (or, even more heartbreaking) part of the story that is rarely told.

History | History

Why the Holocaust Occurred in Germany, and Why So Few Resisted (REVIEW) | Jewish

It’s hard to make a new contribution to the field of Holocaust studies,  but German historian Götz Aly accomplishes just that in Why the Germans, Why the Jews? His premise is that the origins of the Holocaust were rooted in the specific anti-Semitism