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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Remember Holocaust NAZI Death Camps

John R. Houk
© January 27, 2015

Today – January 27, 2015 – is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the NAZI death camp of Auschwitz located in Poland. January 27 is the infamous day commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.



Published by euronews (in English) 
Published on Jan 27, 2015

When he was 21, Ivan Martynushkin was a lieutenant in the Soviet Red Army, commanding a machine-gun unit. By the start of 1945 they had walked thousands of kilometres in Stalin's drive to defeat Hitler, in this war where civilians suffered untold brutalities.

On January 27 the troops were in Poland.

Martynushkin: "We were moving around Krakow. We didn't know a thing about any concentration camps in Auschwitz. Our unit had just been told to go to a certain line and set up our position. After …

Auschwitz was the worst death toll of murdered people under the German NAZI superiority policy:

… A complex of camps, Auschwitz included a concentration camp, killing center, and forced-labor camps. It was located 37 miles west of Krakow (Cracow), near the prewar German-Polish border.

… Nearly 60,000 prisoners were forced to march west from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the days before these death marches began. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to march to the city of Wodzislaw in the western part of Upper Silesia. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure on these marches. More than 15,000 died during the death marches from Auschwitz. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. It is estimated that at minimum 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million were murdered.


The Holocaust was a horrific occurrence aimed primarily Jews but also included Gypsies (Romani), homosexuals, various Slavs and the physically and mentally challenged. Here is a Youtube video showing explicit original filmography of Holocaust survivors (a little than 14 minutes):



Published on Feb 23, 2012

Shannon Ward writing as a guest blogger on Danny Jeffrey’s blog Fixed Bayonets has an awesome post that reminds the world Antisemitism is again a growing fixture of prejudice. It’s as if no one learns from the mistakes history has shown a light on.

JRH 1/27/15
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Arbeit Macht Frei
[Work Will Set You Free]

By Guest Blogger Shannon Ward
January 27, 2015 5:43 AM
Auschwitz gate - Arbeit Macht Frei

"Work will set you free." This was above the gate at Auschwitz 1. Why do we remember what has happened so long ago? Why do we explore the evil that exists in the minds of men? Because to forget is to lose the ability to learn from history. History has a habit of repeating itself. If we, as a people, do not learn from the history we are doomed to repeat it, be it good or bad.
On January 27th, 1945, Soviet troops of the First Army of the Ukrainian Front, happened upon the gates of Auschwitz. Auschwitz is a name that is synonymous with the evil that was Nazi Germany. What horrors were found by the troops as they and other allied units came upon camp after camp established by the SS to deal with those that were deemed "racially undesirable." Those who had been left as 'survivors' were nothing but walking skeletons. Emaciated human beings, some with blank stares, with obvious signs of disease present.

The bodies of those who died horrible inhuman deaths were stacked like cord wood. Other victims, in mass graves bore witness to the inhumanity that was suffered by so many. The stench of the living, and of the dead. Seeing for themselves the inhumanity that was perpetrated on others because they were deemed inferior because of their race, religion, and other reasons that marked them as needing to be eradicated from the earth.

Information had leaked out as early as 1942 if not before that these camps were operating in the countries of Europe under German occupation. "Relocation" of whole families from throughout Europe meant that many would be used as slave labor, horrible experiments such as what was done by SS officers such as Joseph Mengele. As one of many camps that the Germans established as a place to carry out the "final solution" in the extermination of those the Nazis deemed substandard.

Many camps, including Auschwitz, were located in the country of Poland. The deaths of Jews, Gypsies, and those who were deemed "racially undesirable" from throughout Europe, met evil at the hands of those who hated them. Some were dissidents who objected to the evils of the Nazis. Some were mentally unfit, the physically handicapped. Some died because of ethnic origins.

Anne Frank, a German born Jew who had lived in the Netherlands for most of her life and her sister Margo existed in the horrors ofAnne Frank Auschwitz, were evacuated to another camp in late 1944 and died just weeks prior to the liberation of the camps throughout Europe. 

Approximately 1,200 camps were running throughout Europe. Some camps had sub-camps, camps such as Auschwitz had areas that were for the slave labor and other areas for the extermination of of those who were too young or too old to be of use. An estimated 15 to 20 million people were interned in the camps, many of them never experienced freedom again. Auschwitz was just one camp, but represents through its name what we know of that era. 

We are now living in a time when we see a repeating hatred of Jews. The anti-Semitic rhetoric we are seeing now in countries across the world including in our own country is disheartening. It exhibits that the memories of what happened not so long ago are not being remembered by our civilization. That we have forgotten the horrors of not only WWII but other times of persecution of people. After WWII many said we will never forget. Then they said we should never never forget.
 Holocaust Survivors

Now it is evident that we have forgotten.  Many deny that it occurred, others say that they got what they deserved. Still others will say that it doesn't concern them. Well it does concern each of us, and humanity as a whole. We should never forget what has occurred to millions of men, women and children starting as early as the late 1930s until the end of WWII.   

January 27, 1945 is a date that we should remember. January 27, 2015 marks 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. It is also recognized as the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust. For all those who died; for those who survived; we must remember! We need to educate those who do not know what happened during those years. There are many books, and movies that are recorded history of what was endured. There still are some who are survivors of a terrible time in history.  For all of those living and long dead, we must never forget.
 Mountain of shoes from Auschwitz

Shoes! Countless thousands of shoes that form a small mountain at Auschwitz. Those shoes are still there, standing as a mute reminder of the men, women, and children, that once wore them. Yes, the shoes remain long after their owners died as victims of the Final Solution. If they could only speak!

Editor's [Danny Jeffrey] note... Want to know more?
The biggest prisoner escape of WWII occurred at the secretive extermination camp in Sobibor Poland. While no movie can accurately portray the horrors these people knew, this movie goes a long way as a voice for the dead.

Escape From Sobibor [1987 (2:22:41)]
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[Blog Editor: the below info is from the Youtube video above not posted by Danny Jeffrey.]

Published by yekoya
Published on Oct 2, 2012

Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt www.sobibor.info
Selected material by Thomas Toivi Blatt.

The facts presented on this website are the Historical research and first-hand account of Holocaust survivor Thomas 'Toivi' Blatt, who escaped from the Nazi death camp Sobibor during the prisoner-led Revolt on October 14, 1943. The Sobibor revolt was the most successful revolt and escape from any Nazi camp during World War II. In his search for the truth about Sobibor, Mr. Blatt has extensively researched, investigated and written about its history - the results of which are also presented in two extraordinary books Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt and From The Ashes of Sobibor. Additionally, the story of the revolt was told in Escape From Sobibor, the award-winning Chrysler Corporation film special of 1987.

Synopsis et détails
Le 14 octobre 1943, la révolte éclate à Sobibor, l'un des plus terribles camps d'extermination nazi. Seuls 300 prisonniers réussiront à en en échapper...

[Blog Editor: Google Translate from French –

Synopsis and details

On 14 October 1943 the revolt broke out in Sobibor, one of the worst Nazi death camps. Only 300 prisoners manage to escape in …]


Sgt. Frenzel Kurt Raab
Capt. Franz Reichleitner Eric P. Caspar
Sgt. Hurst Klaus Grünberg
Lt. Niemann Henry Stolow
Eda Patti Love
Mundek David Miller (II)
Naomi Sara Sugarman
Kapo Sturm Peter Jonfield

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Holocaust Remembrance Day 2015
John R. Houk
© January 27, 2015
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Arbeit Macht Frei

Shannon Ward

Edited by John R. Houk with spellcheck

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