Black markers identify the ash pond at Auschwitz-Birkenau

On this website, you can see a photo of the four black markers at the ash pond near Krema II at Auschwitz-Birkenau:

http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/rabbis-world/yom-hashoah-reflections-2016-5776

I have a similar photo on my scrapbookpages.com website, which you can see below.

Black markers at Birkenau ash pond

My photo of the ruins of Krema II

My photo below shows the ruins of Krema II where the ash pond is located, although the ash pond is not shown in this view. The brick building in the background is the kitchen in the women’s camp.

My photo of the ruins of Krema II

The following quote is from the news article in the link above:

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For my column this week, I would like to share with you the comments I made at our synagogue’s annual Yom Hashoah program on Wednesday evening. They are, in every way, what I would want to say to all of you on this occasion…

If the Passover Haggadah, commemorating a historical event that took place thousands of years ago, drove our imaginations with four questions, a relatively meager text and some clever if enigmatic songs, then what might we possibly say about the Shoah that would be adequate to the task at hand?

The quick answer to that question is, of course, nothing– nothing at all. At the risk of descending quickly into cliché, there simply are no words that are adequate to the task of recounting the myriad horrors that were perpetrated by the Nazis and their sympathizers against our people, the Jewish people, simply because they were Jewish. That is the quickest answer to the question, and certainly the most accurate. The problem with it, however, is that saying “there’s nothing to say” says nothing, and the reason why we are here is because of the categorical imperative to say something– to remember what was done to us, and to pass those memories on. We may not be able to explain it, and certainly not understand it or even adequately describe it, but remembering the Shoah is not- cannot- be a silent activity. It demands words, poetry, music, prayer, and yes, silence – all of which we engage in this evening.

Read more at http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/rabbis-world/yom-hashoah-reflections-2016-5776#TjrEeoRTYFRhdDPh.99

End quote

My photo of another view of Krema II ruins

Krema II was constructed by the Huta Corporation, according to a design by Architect Georg Werkmann, which was modified by Walter Dejaco.

In 1972, Walter Dejaco was tried in a German court on a charge of aiding and abetting mass murder; he was acquitted of this charge. He claimed that he did not know that the morgue room, called Leichenkeller 1 on the building blueprint, was actually intended to be used as a gas chamber. The undressing room was called Leichenkeller 2 on the blueprint of the building. Leichenkeller is the German word for Corpse Cellar. On the blueprints of Krema IV and Krema V, also designed by Walter Dejaco, the gas chambers are called shower rooms.

 

 

subsisting on bread mixed with sawdust and drinking nothing but melting snow

The title of my blog post today comes from a news article which you can read in full at http://www.app.com/story/news/local/people/2016/05/07/holocaust-sol-lurie/84067026/

The following quote is from the news article, cited above:

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Crammed inside a dark room, with other Jewish prisoners, 14-year-old Sol Lurie did not know he was about to be murdered by the Nazis in the gas chambers during the Holocaust.

More than 70 years later, Lurie can only describe what occurred next as “a miracle.”

Even though he was placed in the chamber, Lurie said his life was spared because of a 48-hour moratorium the Nazis placed on killing their prisoners while they attempted to negotiate receiving supplies from the Allies.

About 20 minutes later, he was released from the chamber, alive, but certainly not free.

That was one of the chilling anecdotes the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor shared from the 1,388 days he “lived in hell” at a Holocaust Remembrance ceremony in the Center for Jewish Life on Thursday night.

End quote

I don’t think that he “lived in hell” at a Holocaust Remembrance ceremony. I don’t even think that he threw Mama from the train a kiss.

So why am I making fun of this poor old guy who made it out of a ghetto in Europe and into the good life in America? I can’t help myself — I’ve heard too many of these stories.

Here is another quote from news article:

[Sol] Lurie stands barely over 5 feet tall, but said he stuffed straw in his shoes to appear slightly taller the day the Nazis were selecting workers, who had a better chance of survival.
“I always had willpower to survive and never gave up hope,” he said. “I outlived Hitler. Now I can tell people about him [Hitler] and what he did to us.”

It paid off. He was selected and transferred from Birkenau, where he said fewer than 5,000 Jews survived, and transferred to a different camp.

Michelle Ilishayeva, 14, of Marlboro said hearing Lurie’s tale was both impactful and educational.

“It was hard to hear how they just killed without caring…and to learn about the past and know how people were treated and how disrespectful people were to do this to each other,” she said.

End quote

The news article includes a photo of him, which you can BUY if you would like to have his photo.

The news article continues with this quote:

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Lurie, who now lives in Monroe, first shared his story publicly about 12 years ago. He said he donates whatever speaking fees he gets to a charity that benefits wounded Israeli soldiers. In all, he estimates he’s donated more than $35,000 in the last decade.

End quote

Why would the Nazis want to get rid of such nice people, who never did them any harm? Oh, the humanity!