The following quote is from a news article which you can read in full at http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/053017aaa.html
Student enters the former Dachau camp
The following is a quote from the news article:
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This morning, we started the final day of our trip in Munich. The [volleyball] team had a great breakfast at the hotel before we took a bus ride about 10 miles out of town to Dachau. Our visit to the concentration camp memorial was a short trip, but it was nice to see it, and something I think everyone should experience. I think if you’re going to make the trip, or visit that concentration camp, it’s in your best interest to take at least a couple of hours instead of just one hour. It’s a really heavy experience and it’s really emotional; and I think in order to really appreciate it and have respect for the place itself, you do need to take a couple more hours and really take in what it may have been like to be there as someone who was a prisoner of that camp. It was rough though. I cried a couple of times and I know that Brittany [Abercrombie] almost threw up because it was all just very gnarly. There’s really not a lot to visually take it that would otherwise make you emotionally or physically sick, but it’s more of the reading and realizing throughout the experience that this is what people were doing or living through on a daily basis. It was really hot out today; about 77 to 80 degrees out, and I just remember walking through there and thinking to myself, “wow, I can’t wait until we get back to air conditioning.” But then, to think of the people who were there, the prisoners of this war, and in that camp specifically… there was no A/C. Many of them died from heat exhaustion, and were working in extreme conditions, whether it was cold in the winter or hot in the summers. Seeing the gas chambers with the gurneys in them, I was just like, “oh my god.” Reading that they would put two or three bodies in there [an oven] at a time was just incredible. Looking around at all of my teammates and other people at the camp, it was impossible to imagine that human beings were treated like objects. It wasn’t even that long ago. It was less than 100 years ago. Our visit to the barracks with the bunk beds and how they were all really confined in spaces was really gnarly. I’ve had a hard time rooming with one other person and in two separate beds. I can’t even imagine being one of four or more people in one small space together. It was literally just enough for someone to lie flat on his or her back and you’re probably right next to someone, and there’s zero privacy. People were there for years on end. It’s so hard to fathom and wrap my mind around something like that. Thinking about it, we’re so spoiled now with what we have. It’s just crazy that people’s lives were stripped of their humanity and people were treated like animals. It basically felt like they were chickens in chicken coops and that’s pretty much how these people were living everyday. I don’t even know how to describe it. The men who were running these concentration camps… to completely just look at other people as animals and not as human beings; and to do the things that they did to them; beat them to death, murder them on the spot, and put them in these gas chambers, and burn them alive, it’s a really, really heavy thing. Throughout history in general, we learn from it and hope to not make the same mistakes later in life. I think it’s amazing that the camp is still there for people to go visit as a living example of the past. It’s huge for people to go see it and to use it as an experience and to learn from it so that we don’t repeat history or repeat something like this. Visiting this camp at the end of the trip was interesting. Throughout our 12-day trip, we were all exhausted, because it was day in and day out getting up early and being on the go; just constantly moving. I know a lot of us may have complained at some point about doing certain things or about how tired we were, but visiting Dachau at the end of our trip really put things in perspective, and I hope it made an impression on all of our girls. At the end of the day, we do all get to go home, and we do get to rest and feel comfortable where we are. That’s something the people imprisoned at that camp could never have done and some never even imagined. We were traveling for 12 days, and I mean, these people were there for years. It’s just crazy. I wish that we had more time there to really experience the whole thing. As far as volleyball goes, I felt this trip helped us learn how to work together; work out some of the kinks that we’ve had. We tried a couple of our different rotations and we learned different things about different players. For instance, I feel like at the end of this trip, my hitters learned how to trust me more, and I can feel that. It showed as we progressed throughout the trip. Spending time together in general, we learned more about each other and we learned how to be more comfortable with each other. In any team sport, it’s much more difficult to work with a bunch of people if you don’t really get to know each other or if you don’t really hang out together. It’s about learning to trust each other off the court and translating that to trusting each other on the court. I think it just creates this gelling environment and I think it flows right into when we move on to the fall. This whole trip is an experience that I will not soon forget, but I will definitely remember the camp at Dachau today. I want to come back at some point to properly visit it. Something else I will never forget is the alpine sled that we rode down in Maribor. End quote Why am I quoting this article about a visit to Dachau, you ask? I find it remarkable that these students had no idea why certain people were put in camps while a war was going on. They thought that the Nazis were bad people who were being mean to people for no reason. |
May 31, 2017
The Theresienstadt gas chamber
Did Theresienstadt have a gas chamber? According to this news article, it did.
My photo of the place where the alleged gas chamber was located at Theresienstadt
The following is a quote from the news article:
Begin quote
YORKVILLE, IL – Holocaust survivor Steen Metz shared his story with sixth-grade students at Autumn Creek Elementary School in Yorkville.
Metz was 8-years-old on Oct. 2, 1943 when he was taken from his home in Odense, Denmark. He was arrested with his family and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp for being Jewish. In the camps, Metz said there was constant hunger, brutal living conditions, and death all around.
About 15,000 children passed through the Theresienstadt concentration camp and most were killed. Metz was only one of the less than 1,500 who survived.
His father died of starvation after less than six months in the camp. He spent about 18 months in the concentration camp with his mother before it was liberated on April 15, 1945 by the Red Cross – only one month before the scheduled launch of the camp’s newly installed gas chamber. Metz returned to Denmark and completed high school and business college in Copenhagen.
End quote
On my scrapbookpages website, I wrote about Theresienstadt and I mentioned the gas chamber on this page: https://www.scrapbookpages.com/CzechRepublic/Theresienstadt/TheresienstadtGhetto/History/GhettoHistory.html
May 30, 2017
The disinfection chambers for clothing at Dachau
It has come to my attention that there are still people who believe that the clothing disinfection chambers at Dachau were used for gassing the prisoners.
My photo of doors into clothing disinfection chambers at Dachau
When the American soldiers liberated Dachau, one of the first buildings that they saw was the building where the clothing of the prisoners had been disinfected to kill the lice that spreads typhus. The soldiers thought that the prisoners were told to take off their clothes, hang the clothes neatly on hangers and then step into the gas chamber to be killed, a few at a time.
At that time, in 1945, few people knew what an actual gas chamber looked like. When the American soldiers saw the door with the word “Gaszeit” on the door, they assumed that this was a room where the Dachau prisoners had been gassed.
Clothing hung up outside the “gas chamber” door at Dachau
The American soldiers who liberated Dachau had never seen a homicidal gas chamber, as I had. I had seen the real gas chamber in Jefferson City, MO when I was a child. The American soldiers thought that the prisoners were told to take off their clothing and hang everything neatly outside the homicidal gas chamber before going into a small room to be killed with poison gas.
These American soldiers had never before heard of using poison gas to kill lice. At that time, America was using DDT for this purpose. Typhus had been completely wiped out in America and most of these soldiers had never heard of it; they didn’t know that typhus is a contagious disease spread by body lice.
They saw the word “gas” written on the 4 disinfection chamber doors, and assumed that these were the infamous gas chambers used for killing the Jews, which they had heard about. They saw the deloused clothing hung up and assumed that the prisoners had been forced to undress and hang their clothing neatly on a hanger before entering the disinfection chambers to be killed.
It had been common knowledge throughout the world since June 1942 that the Nazis were murdering millions of Jews in gas chambers.
The photograph below, which was taken by T/4 Sidney Blau on April 30, 1945, shows a US soldier standing in front of one of the disinfection chamber doors. Note the word “Gaszeit” on the door, which has since been repainted. Gaszeit is a German word that means gas time in English.
The photograph below, which was taken by T/4 Sidney Blau on April 30, 1945, shows a US soldier standing in front of one of the disinfection chamber doors. Note the word “Gaszeit” on the door, which has since been repainted. Gaszeit means gas time in English.
American soldier poses in front of what he thinks is a homicidal gas chamber at Dachau
These American soldiers had never heard of using poison gas to kill lice. At that time, America was using DDT for this purpose. Typhus had been completely wiped out in America and most of these soldiers had never heard of it; they didn’t know that typhus is a contagious disease spread by body lice.
May 13, 2017
More about the alleged gas chamber at Hartheim Castle
On this page of my website, you can read more about the alleged gas chamber at Hartheim Castle and see my photos of it:
May 12, 2017
My photo which has been incorrectly identified
My photo taken at Hartheim Castle
I saw my photo above in a recent news article, which claimed that this is a photo of a gas chamber. I can’t find the news article — maybe it has already been taken down.
My photo shows the room at Hartheim Castle, where a crematory oven once stood; a light shines on the spot where the oven was located. On the right, there is a hole in the floor covered with glass. Note the vaulted ceiling which shows how the ceiling of the alleged gas chamber looked before a passageway for a ramp was cut through the walls. This photo does not show a gas chamber, as many people have mistakenly identified it.
April 24, 2017
Have you ever seen a gas chamber?
I’m not talking about the gas chamber in Jefferson City, MO which is a two-seater, in which two people can be gassed at one time. No, I’m talking about the famous gas chambers in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where a large room full of Jews were gassed at one time with Zyklon-B gas, the same gas that was used to kill lice in the clothing of the prisoners. [God forbid the Jews should die of typhus which is spread by lice.]
My 2005 photo of an alleged gas chamber in the main Auschwitz concentration camp
You can read about the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers on these pages of my website:
https://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Birkenau/RuinsII03.html
https://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Birkenau/RuinsII02.html
https://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Birkenau/RuinsII01A.html
You can read the latest news about the alleged Nazi gas chambers at
The following quote is from the news article cited above:
Begin quote
ROM to reveal architecture of the Holocaust with exhibit created at University of Waterloo
In 2000, Prof. van Pelt’s testimony was a key factor in a libel suit in which the false assertion that Auschwitz had no gas chambers and the Holocaust had never happened played a central role. The book based on his testimony was published in 2002.
Now there is another book, The Evidence Room, written by Prof. van Pelt and three colleagues – Donald McKay, Anne Bordeleau and Sascha Hastings – to supplement the exhibition.
“It is difficult to imagine the details of a gas chamber, where humans were locked in to die,” says one Holocaust survivor, quoted in the new book. Published by New Jewish Press, a Toronto firm, it will be available at select bookstores during the ROM run.
“One has to feel the double grates that protected the bucket filled with poison pellets from the desperate hands of the condemned, peer into the bucket, imagine the pellets melting away, the poison oozing out of them,” says the survivor. “Only then can real awareness arise in the soul and place the viewer inside the gas chamber.”
[…]
The exhibit provides a reconstruction of the steel mesh gas column through which the Zyklon B pellets were lowered into the chamber. Viewers also examine a reproduction of original architectural drawings. Among the details: the door of the gas chamber with a tight seal around the edge.
The entire exhibit is in white, the colour of innocence, which contrasts with the blackness of the evil subject matter.
The most compelling feature of the exhibition is its tactile character, says a survivor of the death camp at Dachau.
“By removing colour, sound and interpretation from The Evidence Room, we are forced to rely on touch to elicit its meaning.”
End quote
March 28, 2017
Bronia Brandman watched two of her sisters being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau
The title of my blog post today is a quote from a news article which you can read in full here: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/holocaust-survivor-86-returning-to-auschwitz-with-idf-officers/2017/03/28/
The following quote is from the news article:
Begin quote
Forty supporters of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) from across the US will embark on an unprecedented mission to Poland and Israel on April 24 to May 3, with IDF soldiers and officers, as well as Holocaust survivors – one of whom is returning to Auschwitz for the first time since her liberation.
Bronia Brandman, 86, who was born in Jaworzno, Poland, watched two of her sisters being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Except for her older brother and cousin, who also reside in the United States, her entire family perished in the Holocaust.
End quote
Can you believe this! Those cruel Germans sent two girls to the gas chamber and made a third girl watch as her sisters marched to the gas chamber!!!
My photo of Talbrucktor tower above the gate into Marienplatz in Munich
As I have written several times, I lived in Germany for 20 months, after World War II was over. I met many German men and women who were all very nice to me. I was amazed that the German people never got upset about anything. Maybe it was different during the war, and maybe Jews were treated differently by the Germans.
Brandia is the girl on the right in the front row
Begin quote from news article:
“I came to Auschwitz in 1943 as a child of 12,” Brandman said. “My parents and four siblings were consigned to the gas chambers. The daily bestiality and dehumanization was beyond words, and the world’s silence was deafening. I never wished to return to that place of our degradation and annihilation, but to return in the company of our noblest, bravest of the brave – our IDF soldiers, makes my spirit soar with pride and hope.”
End quote
Bronia Brandman did not give any explanation for why her parents and four siblings were sent to the gas chambers, but she was spared. It seems that the Nazis made sure that there were child survivors, who would live a long time, and tell the world about the gas chambers where 6 million Jews were killed.
“Into the valley of death rode the 6 million.”
March 12, 2017
Once a week she washed herself in showers that on alternate days gassed people
The title of this blog post is a sentence from a news story which you can read in full here: http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/A-Holocaust-surviver-talks-about-prejudice-to-10966943.php
This is the full quote from the news story:
Begin quote
GREENWICH — She saw the worst of humanity: mankind moved to enslave, execute and exterminate because of prejudice.
She rode for days locked in a cattle car packed with men, women and children, some dead, some insane.
She was sent to years of hard labor, one nonentity out of many in a long line of women facing a man [Josef Mengele] she described as an “Angel of Death” who chose her [to be gassed] and made her family walk the other way.
My photo of a shower nozzle at Dachau
Once a week she washed herself in showers that on alternate days gassed people. She subsisted on a sip of soup a day. She dragged the exhausted long miles of the Death March from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen while laggers were shot.
She survived.
End quote from news article
You have to admire the German people. If anyone could design a room that provided showers, and on alternate days, gassed people, the Germans could do it.
Josef Mengele
You can read about Josef Mengele on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele
I wrote about Josef Mengele on my website at http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/Selection.html
Very nice gallery of photos of Auschwitz main camp
Here is what you will see if you visit the Auschwitz main camp with a group of High School students:
You can see my photos of the Auschwitz main camp on this section of my website:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Auschwitz1/index.html
February 28, 2017
Don’t shade your eyes — plagiarize
Years ago, Carolyn Yeager wrote a book which she entitled
Auschwitz: The Underground Guided Tour
She wrote this book after a whirlwind guided tour of Auschwitz, during which she took no photos. Where did she get the photos that she used in her book? She got them from my scrapbookpages.com website.
Check out her book at http://carolynyeager.net/auschwitz-underground-guided-tour and let me know if you spot any photos that are not on my website.
The two photos below were taken, by me, at Dachau, not Auschwitz.
Photo of a page in Carolyn Yeager’s book. The photo on the left is my photo of the SS hospital across the street from the alleged Dachau gas chamber. The photo on the right is a photo of the alleged gas chamber which is across the street from the Dachau SS hospital.
There are many other photos in Carolyn’s book, which were copied from my website and used without my permission. Now she has the nerve to write comments that are critical of me. No more! She has been kicked to the curb.
Scrapbookpages Blog 