Last night, I watched the CNN special, entitled Voices of Auschwitz. The show featured a select group of survivors of Auschwitz, who triumphed over the evil Nazis, by going on to become rich and famous. One of the survivors who was featured, very prominently, in the show was 81-year-old Eva Moses Kor, the twin sister of Miriam Moses, who died at an early age after she was liberated from Auschwitz, 70 years ago, on January 27, 1945. When the CNN show starts, we see a recent color close-up photo of the face of Eva Moses Kor.
I previously blogged about the killing of the Hungarian Jews on this blog post: https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/update-on-oskar-groening-the-ss-guard-at-auschwitz-who-didt-kill-with-his-hands-but-was-part-of-that-killing-machinery/
Very early in my blogging career, five years ago, I blogged about how some of the incoming Jews were marched to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, while others were marched to the showers: https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/the-people-who-walked-on-at-auschwitz-birkenau/
Arbeit Macht Frei sign over the main Auschwitz camp
Then we see a photo of the famous sign that says “Arbeit Macht Frei” which is now the slogan of the Jews when they complain about the evil perpetrated by the Nazis in the Holocaust. I blogged about the meaning of this sign at https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/arbeit-macht-frei-slogan-hi-jacked-by-holocaust-historians/ The Arbeit Macht Frei sign is over the gate into the Auschwitz main camp, which was a Class I camp for resistance fighters or illegal combatants. The famous “death camp” where Jews were gassed was Auschwitz-Birkeanau, which did not have this sign.
The “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign was used only at Class I camps, so it was not over the gate into the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where Eva Moses Kor was a prisoner. However, she claims, in the Voices of Auschwitz show, that she was taken to Block 10 in the main camp, where Dr. Mengele did experiments on her and her twin sister.
Block 10 at Auschwitz main camp where Dr. Mengele did experiments on twins
Block 10, where Dr. Mengele allegedly did his experiments, has been off limits to tourists for many years, and the windows are blocked out. During last night’s show on CNN, Eva Moses Kor took Wolf Blitzer into an empty room in a building, which might have been a room inside Block 10.
Very early in the show, Eva Moses Kor takes Wolf Blitzer to the place where she says that she got off a cattle car when she arrived at Auschwitz. She shows him the very cattle car on which she arrived. I have a photo of this same cattle car on my website at http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Birkenau/Judenrampe.html
My 2005 photo of an original train car that brought prisoners to Auschwitz at the Judenrampe
Wolf Blitzer is apparently not an expert on the Holocaust, or he would have known that when the Hungarian Jews, including Eva Moses, were brought to Auschwitz-Birkeanu, starting in May 1944, the train tracks had been extended INSIDE the Birkeanau camp and the Judenrampe was no longer being used.
My 2005 photo of the train tracks entering the Birkenau camp
Very early in the show, last night, Wolf Blitzer says that the Nazis “had a plan to wipe out the Jews.” Then why were the Jews, who are featured in this show, allowed to survive Hitler’s evil plan? Why didn’t Hitler carry out his plan? The answer might lie in the story of Anita Lasker Waldfisch, who played violin in the orchestra at the main Auschwitz camp; she was later sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she also survived.
Hitler loved music and there were several orchestras at Auschwitz, including an orchestra which played near the Krema III gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau, as the prisoners were marching inside to be gassed.
I blogged about this at https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/the-orchestra-that-played-at-birkenau-as-the-jews-marched-to-the-gas-chamber/ I previously blogged about Anita Lasker Walffisch at https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/tag/orchestra-at-auschwitz/
Orchestra at main Auschwitz camp, in which Jewish prisoners played
Early in the show, Eva Moses Kor tells Wolf Blitzer that she “was crawling and couldn’t walk” on the day that she was liberated by Soviet soldiers on January 27, 1945. By February 1945, she had recovered to the point that she was leading the liberated prisoners out of the camp, along with her twin sister.
Eva Moses Kor and her twin sister Miriam lead the prisoners as they are marched out of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 (click on photo to enlarge)
Eva Moses Kor as she looks today and as she points to herself in an old photo taken in February 1945 marching out of Auschwitz-Bkirenau
One thing that was brought out in the CNN film is that the Jews had had a “wonderful life” before Hitler came along. We see photos of the Jews before the Holocaust, as the Jews explain that they had a “happy childhood” and “beautiful homes.”
Life was good for the Jews in Germany until 1938 when we see a photo of a store window that had the word “Juden” painted on the window. This was a photo taken at the event known as “Krisstallnacht” when the Germans boycotted Jewish stores in Germany. This was the beginning of the end for the Jews in Germany. Soon life was over for the Jews: Eva Moses Kor summed it up, on the show, when she said: “In 1944, [the Nazis] came on horses to get the Jews [in Hungary where she lived].”
I wrote about the Hungarian Jews on this page of my website: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/HungarianJews.html
Eva Moses Kor was saved only because she was a twin. She explained to Wolf Blitzer that, when she got off the train at Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele asked her mother if her two girls were twins. Her mother then asked Dr. Mengele if being twins were a good thing, and he said “Yes”.
The mother was sent straight to the gas chamber, but Eva and Miriam were saved, because Dr. Mengele wanted to do evil experiments on twins.
At this point in the show, we hear the story of Renee Firestone. I wrote about Renee Firestone in this previous blog post: https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/renee-firestones-shoah-testimony/
On the CNN show, Renee says that she was sent, by Dr. Mengele (who else) to the right, and her mother to the left “and straight to the gas chamber.” At this point, we see young girls frolicking in bathing suits. What does this have to do with anything? My interpretation of the scene was that these were Jewish girls living the good life before the Nazis came along and sent them to concentration camps.
Just after the bathing suits scene, we see photos of the tracks going into Aushwitz-Birkenau with scenes of ominous looking railroad switches. Jews are getting off the trains with lots of suitcases.
My interpretation of these scenes is that the Jews were rich and living the good life — until the evil Nazis interrupted their lives and sent them to Auschwitz for no reason at all. The Jews had everything, before the Holocaust, except their own country. Now they have a country, but they are flocking back to Germany. I wrote about this on this blog post: https://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/jews-flocking-back-to-germany/
At this point in the CNN documentary, we see a photo of the Brausebad sign at Dachau. Wait a minute! Were the Jews, who were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, taken to Dachau to be gassed in the shower room there? As far as I know, the gas chambers at Auschwitz did not have a sign that said Brausebad.
Sign over the door into the shower room at Dachau
Just after the Brausebad sign at Dachau was shown in the CNN show, we see a photo of Hungarian women, wearing dresses, marching toward the women’s camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Hungarian women march toward the women’s camp at Birkeanu after having a shower
At this point in the CNN show, it should have been explained that these women had been given a shower, in a shower room at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and their heads had been shaved to get rid of any possible lice that spreads typhus. Instead, we are led to believe that the Nazis humiliated these women by forcing them to wear plain dresses, not even letting them wear blue and white striped clothing.
Finally, we get to the segment about Rene Firestone. It turns out that Rene was a talented dress designer before she was sent to Auschwitz. We see some of her sketches of women’s dresses. The black and white photo, shown above, was in this segment of the show. The photo shows how the women at Auschwitz-Birkeanu were humiliated by being forced to wear plain dresses. Would it have killed the Germans to have provided stylish dresses for the women at Auschwitz?
After she was liberated from Auschwitz, Renee went to Budapest where she became a dress designer.
The next part of the show is about Martin Greenfield. We see the Arbeit Macht Frei sign again as the narrator explains that Greenfield was sent to the main camp to work as a tailor for the Nazis. He was just 15 years old.
Martin’s first job at Auschwitz was washing the shirts of the SS men. He ripped a shirt while he was scrubbing the shirt with a brush. He thought that he would be killed because of this, but the Nazis let him live. We see a scene taken at Dachau, when former prisoners walked out of the camp, followed by a scene which showed Martin’s tailor’s shop in America with his name on the top of the building.
Martin Greenfield wrote a book, entitled Measure of a Man, in which he told about his success in dressing several Presidents in hand-sown suits.
Finally, we get to the story of Anita Lasker Wafisch; we see a recent photo of her walking out of her nice home. Then we see the famous Arbeit Macht Frei sign in the main Auschwitz camp. Anita was sent to the main camp, where she played in the orchestra there. We see the photo of the orchestra at the main Auschwitz camp, which I included in the first part of this blog post. We hear the band playing march music.
Then we see a photo of the Sauna at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where incoming prisoners had to take a shower. Anita explained that the prisoners had to stay in the “quarantine camp” near the entrance to the Birkenau camp. Previously, in the CNN show, we had seen Eva Moses Kor showing the barracks in the quarantine camp, while she claimed that these were the barracks where she had to live. Is Eva Kor losing her memory? The photo below shows the barracks in the quarantine camp which are open to visitors. Eva Kor did not live in the quarantine barracks, shown in my 2005 photo below.
Quarantine barracks near the entrance to the Aschwitz Birkeanau camp
Steven Spielberg was shown in the CNN show, as he says: “Auschwitz was an efficient killing machine.” This show was about SURVIVORS of Auschwitz, who went on to fame and fortune, not about prisoners who were killed.
We see Spielberg as he walks under the Arbeit Macht Frei sign; he puts his hand in some mud, and then says that he has the “remains of mass murder on his hand.”
Then we hear Renee Firestone say that Auschwitz was the “worst atrocity in human history.” There have been numerous atrocities in human history, and this CNN show is one of them.
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