Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts

Friday, June 13, 2014

In Memory of Anne Frank - 85 Years After Her BIrth



Anne Frank
Eighty-five years ago yesterday, Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born.
Anne won our hearts through the teenage journal she kept during WW II that was later made into a book, The Diary of a Young Girl.

Anne was born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany to a Jewish couple, Otto Frank and his wife Edith. In 1933, Ann’s family moved to Amsterdam; the same year the Nazis took over Germany.


Nazi Germany
Adolph Hitler
By 1940 Europe had changed: Adolph Hitler was dictator and Jews were being “removed” from society. Anne and her family were trapped in the Netherlands along with thousands of other Jewish families. In 1942 when Anne’s older sister Margot received orders to report to a work camp, the Franks went into hiding.


Bookcase The Hid Doorway to Annex
Inside Secret Annex
The family hid in what was called the “Secret Annex” with another family, the Van Pels; two small rooms located on the second floor of a building that had housed her father’s former business. A ladder to the attic offered them a chance to get up on the roof and take in fresh air at night.

Nazis Occupation
As a teenager during the war years, Anne wrote about her life, her family’s struggles, and their experiences while hiding from the Nazis during the German occupation.

Peter van Pels
She shared her problems about dealing with her mother, the gradual understanding that developed between her and her older sister, her feelings of irritation toward the other family sharing their secret rooms, and her infatuation, and first kiss with Peter van Pels.



Anne Writing
It was during this time that Anne realized she wanted to be a journalist. Her entry on Wednesday, April 5, 1944 stated in part: “When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that's a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?”



 

Concentration Camp
Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
In August 1944, the Frank family was betrayed to the Nazis, taken to a concentration camp and sentenced to hard labor. After arriving at the camp, half the passengers were taken directly to the gas chambers. Anne and her sister were spared because they were young and could work. The Frank sisters were forced to haul rocks and dig holes along with hundreds of other women and girls.




Anne Frank
Margot Frank
Anne, and her sister Margot, died of typhus in March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; victims of the Holocaust. Anne was 15-years-old. Just a few weeks later, on April 15, the camp was liberated by Allied troops.


Otto Frank
1st Edition in Dutch
The story could have ended there but Anne’s father, Otto Frank, (the only member of the family to survive) was given her notes retrieved by family friends from the secret annex. Moved by her wishes to become a published journalist, her father used her original diary and her edited version to create her book. The diary, and book, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 (her 13th birthday) to August 1, 1944.

Due to Otto Frank’s devoted efforts, Anne’s diary was published in the Netherlands in 1947. Soon after, the book was released in Germany and France, with publication in Britain and the U.S. in 1952. The world learned of what had happened to so many millions of people – through the voice of one young girl.

Anne’s personal thoughts and unguarded words about life, war, suffering, and social persecution under the Nazis regime has touched generations and made those injustices come alive as few others could.

In a passage in Anne’s diary she states, “I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

And, indeed she has. Her words and her legacy live on - 69 years later …

~ Joy



Friday, November 9, 2012

The November Pogrom (Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass)


Marching Nazis
Seventy-four years ago tonight, the German Nazi party took their first steps toward instigating the beginning of what was to become the Holocaust. 


SS Raid
Ransacked Jewish Home
On November 9, 1938, the SS, SA storm troopers, and Hitler Youth took to the streets in Germany and Austria, destroying synagogues, desecrating Jewish cemeteries, and damaging Jewish homes and businesses.

The pogrom (a state organized and executed act of terror) was triggered by the assignation of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan. 

Polish Jews Being Expelled
Hershel Grynszpan
Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew living in France, was trying to draw the world’s attention to the Nazi’s treatment of over 12,000 Polish-born Jews.  On October 28, 1938, Hitler had ordered them expelled from Germany within 24 hours.  Grynszpan’s family was part of the expulsion.


German Embassy
Ernst vom Rath
After Grynszpan received a postcard from his sister, detailing their flight from Germany, and Poland’s refusal to allow them entry, he purchased a gun.  On the morning of November 7, Grynszpan went to the Germany Embassy in Paris, and requested to see a
Herschel Grynszpan in Custody
German official.  When he was ushered into the office of Ernst vom Rath, Grynszpan shot him three times.  Grynszpan then waited for the French police to arrive and arrest him. In his pocket he carried a postcard he had written to his parents.  It read, “May God forgive me… I must protest so that the whole world hears my protest, and that I will do.” *


Joseph Goebbels
Broken Shop Windows
On November 9, 1938, vom Rath died of his wounds. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels saw an opportunity to act against Jewish citizens. Goebbels issued instructions letting party leaders know that they could organize “spontaneous demonstrations” against the Jews in retaliation to vom Rath’s death. 

Damaged Storefront
Hitler Youth
These riots, led by storm troopers, the SS, German police, and Hitler Youth, began about 10:30 P.M. By morning, Nazi officials reported 91 Jews were killed, 1,000 Jews had been arrested, and 25,000 Jewish men - one third of all Jewish men in Germany - had been rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where, according to Nazi figures, more than 1,000 of them later died. 


Marched Through Town
The actual number of those killed is unknown. Some reports state the number could have been close to 1,000. It was reported that 30,000 Jewish men, between the ages of 16 and 60, were arrested and taken to concentration camps.  Over 2,000 died there within the next three months.
Map of Synagogues Destroyed

Official Nazi damage figures released the next day showed that 191 synagogues were demolished, and 815 Jewish businesses were destroyed.



Synagogue Ablaze
Destroyed Synagogue
Actual figures showed that 276 synagogues were set on fire that night, and over 1,670 synagogues were damaged or destroyed. Over 7,500 Jewish businesses and homes were obliterated.  In Vienna, Austria, 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed.


Burning Synagogue
Desecrated Cemetery
An unknown number of Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and destroyed, most located next to synagogues.  Among those was Schmieheim Cemetery in West Baden, the largest Jewish cemetery in Germany.  According to the United States Consul in Leipzig, the violence and vandalism reigned on the sacred sites and cemeteries were described as “approaching the ghoulish.”  Tombstones were damaged and uprooted.  Graves were dug up and violated.

Looted and Damaged Shop
50 Million Reichmark
On November 12, the Jewish community was fined 1 billion reichmarks for the damages incurred. In addition, another 4 million marks was demanded to repair shop windows.

German Citizens Hurry Past
Although Nazi officials thought that German citizens would take part in the
Jews Marched to Camps
destruction of Jewish synagogues, homes and businesses on November 9th, few did.  Citizens seemed to find it prudent to stand aside, or stay home with their windows closed and doors locked. But Nazi officials did realize that 60-million Germans had shown personal fear, or indifference to the plight of the Jews on the night of the pogrom.  Information worth knowing…

Hermann Goring
On November 12, Hermann Göring spoke at a formal government meeting, stating, “I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me.”

 
The Holocaust had begun.

~ Joy




Hershel Grynszpan
*Herschel Grynszpan was held by the French government until 1940 when the Vichy government turned him over to the Nazis.  He spent time in several prisons and concentrations camps.  Then, sometime after 1942, Grynszpan vanished - without a trace.