Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27
The Holocaust is not ancient history. It’s not something that happened a million years ago. It’s not something that only exist in books.
My grandmothers, my uncles, my aunts, my first cousins were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Their only crime was they were Jewish.
Look at the photo above. There are seven family members. Only two survived.
Out of the 23 people from my family who I identified as being in Europe during the Holocaust, only five people made it through.
Auschwitz was not a concentration camp. It was a place to murder people. It was where my family was taken, gassed, and burned.
My first cousin Thomas Kohn was forced onto a cattle car and brought to Auschwitz. He was taken from his mother and led to the gas chambers. Thomas was undressed. He was led into the showers. Gas poured down and for the next several minutes he was slowly suffocated until he was dead. Thomas’ body was then carted off to the crematorium and burned. He was nine-years-old.
Thomas’ mother, my Aunt Eva, survived Auschwitz. When she died, Aunt Eva was cremated. It was her wish to be burned like her son.
My grandmother on my father’s side was also murdered when she was brought to Auschwitz. Her daughter, my Aunt Izabella, refused to leave her mother and was also murdered.
My Uncle Lipot and Aunt Johanna along with my three first cousins, Eva, Zikmund, and Abraham, were murdered at Auschwitz.
My Uncle Izrael was rounded up in Belgium, then murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was finally liberated.
January 27 is now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
We Remember Our Family’s Heroes.
May Hashem Avenge Their Blood - השם יקום דמם
My Grandmother Hanni Brandstädter - Murdered by Nazis.
My Grandmother Sura Feiga Veisz - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Aunt Izabella Klein - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Cousin Thomas Kohn - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Aunt Hani Josovic - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Cousin Eva Klein - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Cousin Zikmund Klein - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Cousin Abraham Klein - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Uncle Izrael Klein - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Uncle's Father Adolf Kohn - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Uncle's Mother Berta Rapaport - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Uncle's Sister Georgette Kohn - Imprisoned at Auschwitz.
My Aunt's Nephew Robbie Neufeld - Murdered at Auschwitz.
My Mother's First Husband Bunne Pasternak - Murdered by Nazis.
My Mother's Aunt Chaja Lea Weiser - Murdered by Nazis.
My Mother's Uncle Moritz Moses Meinhardt - Murdered by Nazis.
My Mother's Uncle's Father Bernhard Meinhardt - Murdered at Theresienstadt.
My Mother Erika Klein - Imprisoned at Auschwitz.
My Father Menhard Klein - Imprisoned in a Labor Camp.
My Aunt Eva Kohn - Imprisoned at Auschwitz.
My Uncle Nicholas Kohn - Imprisoned in a Labor Camp.
My Uncle's Cousin Tibor Rubin - Imprisoned at Mauthausen and United States Medal Of Honor Recipient for his heroism during the Korean War.