Bennett says, ‘One bombing attack’ could have stopped Auschwitz

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the Israeli government representative at the 29th March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on Monday, observed, “There’s only 4 gas chambers, 4. The allies, they knew exactly where they are…One bombing attack could have stopped the killing.”

CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN OF MEMBERS OF SS: MARCH OF THE LIVING

From August 19 - 24, 270 international participants from Germany, the US, and Israel will walk together with 150 participants from Poland a distance of 2200 kilometers all across Poland. Over 50 members of the German delegation are descendants of members of Wehrmacht, police, or SS, who were directly involved in the war of annihilation and the Holocaust in Poland. Memorial Ceremonies will take place at historic memorial sites, such as Auschwitz, Kielce and Treblinka. On August 23, the Keynote Ceremony will take place in Warsaw in the presence of representatives of the spheres of politics and society both from Poland and Israel, among them the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, MK Lia Shemtov. Following the principle of Remembering, Reconciling and Shaping the Future in Friendship, the participants want to honor the survivors of the Holocaust with this reconciliation march, and make a statement for Israel and against anti-Semitism.
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In January 1942 the Berlin Wannsee Conference led to the systematic genocide of approximately six million Jews in the Holocaust -- and of these more than four million Jews lost their lives in Poland. But the murderous schemes of the Nazis not only affected Jews: of the six million Polish citizens who were murdered during WWII, three million were of non-Jewish decent. Fuelled by fanatical Nazi racial hatred, Poland became a land of unspeakable suffering during WWII.

Seventy years later, in August 2012, around 400 descendants of the perpetrators and the victims of the Holocaust -- including Germans, Poles and Jews -- will walk together along a route of 1300 miles across Poland, where the Holocaust and the destruction through WWII have left some of the country's deepest wounds. The route of the reconciliation march will connect six of the former death camps in the shape of a Star of David. Memorial services will be held in Warsaw, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno and Sobibor. 

50 members of the German delegation are descendants of members of Wehrmacht, police, or SS, who were directly involved in the war of annihilation and the Holocaust in Poland. At the historic sites of German atrocities, they want to find the words that their fathers and grandfathers never found. But more than anything else, they want to honor the survivors of the Holocaust and listen to the voices of the victims and their descendants in those places where their ancestors brought death and destruction.

The March of Life in Poland is an initiative of Jobst and Charlotte Bittner and TOS Ministries in Tübingen, Germany. The in itiative is supported by the Israeli Knesset - Vice Speaker, Helping Hand Coalition, Jewish Community of Poland, Association of Ghetto and Holocaust Survivors, Veterans' Union of World War II (Israel), Fighters Against Nazism, the Association of Wounded Soldiers and Partisans who Fought the Nazis - Israel, Christen an der Seite Israels - Germany, European Coalition for Israel, Pentecostal Church in Poland, Baptist Church in Poland, Kościół Chrześcijan Wiary Ewangelicznej, Poland for Jesus, Shalom Ministry Association in Oświęcim and Olive Tree Ministries, Poland.

Similar Marches have taken place in more than 80 cities in twelve countries -- including Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine and Germany where National Socialism has left its mark as well as many cities in the US and Latin America. These reconciliation marches include large events with official representatives with thousands of participants. In November 2011 the March of Life initiative was honored by the Israeli Knesset for its special support for Holocaust survivors. For the time between 2013 and 2015 plans have been made for further memorial events and reconciliation marches in cooperation with Polish churches and congregations.

Grandpa, who helped install the gas chambersLike many before her, Barbel Pfeiffer participated in an emotional visit to Auschwitz and other death camps last week. What was extraordinary is that she and 50 others on the ‘March of Life’ are descendants of Nazis and Nazi collaborators

Like many of the visitors who cry at Auschwitz, Barbel Pfeiffer has a deeply personal connection to the Holocaust. But in Pfeiffer’s case, the relative who spent time at the infamous death camp wasn’t a prisoner. It was her grandfather, and he helped to build it.

“I have been in Auschwitz five times already, but every time I go, it makes me cry again,” says Pfeiffer, whose grandfather was one of those who installed the camp‘s electrical system and gas chambers.

For her latest visit, which took place last week, the 42-year-old German traveled to the camp as part of a 420-member delegation — an international group from countries including Israel, Poland and the United States.

Named the March of Life, the itinerary bore a close resemblance to the similarly titled March of the Living, the long-running program that brings Jews to Holocaust sites in Poland before wrapping up their travels in Israel.

Pfeiffer’s visit shared much in common with the older program, but differed significantly in one way: its inclusion of 50 other descendants of Nazis and Nazi collaborators.

“Our aim is to show the Jewish people that we are standing by their side, and that we will not keep silent when someone threatens to destroy the Jewish people,” says Heinz Reuss, a participant from Tubingen, Germany.

A leader of TOS Ministries, the network of Protestant churches that organized the March, Reuss says the program evolved from discussions among members of TOS‘s Tubingen church, where he and other congregants explored their family histories to learn about their relatives’ roles in World War II.

“Almost all of them found that their ancestors were involved somehow in the Nazi regime,” says Reuss, whose father, an 18-year-old at the end of the war, served in Germany’s air protection services.

“It’s true that there is still anti-Semitism in Germany, but there are also a lot of people who stand against anti-Semitism and support Israel,” Reuss says.

More striking for him, he says, was the behavior of his grandfather, who was too old to fight but cut ties with his Jewish acquaintances. “This is something I don’t want to do. I want to stand with my Jewish friends,” says Reuss, who views the trip as a way to show solidarity with Israel and demonstrate that his own country has changed.

“It’s true that there is still anti-Semitism in Germany, but there are also a lot of people who stand against anti-Semitism and support Israel,” he says. “This is very much what the March of Life is about: We want to break the silence not only about our family histories, but also to speak loud against anti-Semitism.”

Unfolding along a 1,300-mile route, the group’s journey included memorial programs at five death camps — Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno and Sobibor — and concluded Thursday with a commemoration service in Warsaw. Members of the German delegation included descendants of Wehrmacht soldiers, SS officers and others involved in the genocide.

Pfeiffer’s grandfather, a German factory worker who avoided military service because of health problems, ended up at Auschwitz on a work project coordinated by his bosses. After the war, he avoided talking about his experiences — family members didn’t press him — and never met his granddaughter, the younger Pfeiffer says.

The granddaughter of an Auschwitz worker, German visitor Barbel Pfeiffer spoke to survivors and other descendants of Nazi collaborators during a visit to the death camp last week. (Photo credit: Heinz Reuss/TOS Ministries)

His connection to Auschwitz “came to light when my parents saw how much I researched my family history, and how badly I wanted to know what happened during that time,” Pfeiffer recalls. “They wanted to help me in every way they could.”

Pfeiffer’s father hadn’t been aware of his own father’s activities during the war, and learned from a relative who was surprised he didn’t know.

With her own children, Barbel Pfeiffer says, that sort of ignorance has come to an end. While she didn’t bring her two sons on this trip — her husband accompanied her instead — she considers it vital to educate them about the past.

“I called my sons from Auschwitz and told them how I felt,” she says. “They asked me, ‘Mother, are you crying?,’ and I said yes. I think it is very important to talk with them about it, and we do.”

“I called my sons from Auschwitz and told them how I felt,” Pfeiffer says. “I think it is very important to talk with them about it, and we do.”

Speaking at the March of Life‘s concluding ceremony in Warsaw, Knesset member Lia Shemtov told listeners that post-war generations needn’t feel guilty about the past, but that descendants of perpetrators nevertheless have a special responsibility toward Jews.

“They say children should not bear the sins of their parents as a mark of Cain,” Shemtov told her audience. “Unfortunately, the memory of the Holocaust haunts you today when you, second and third generations, are exposed to rising anti-Semitism in Europe [and] radical Islam’s hatred.”

For Pfeiffer, it’s a message that resonates powerfully. “We have just come from Auschwitz,” she says. “I told the Holocaust survivors, their children and their grandchildren, they are very precious people for me.”

2012 March of the Living - Dudu Fisher and Children's Choir Sing Partisan Song in Auschwitz

Reflections from an unlikely witnessA Protestant woman from Hong Kong joins the 2012 March of the Living to ‘feel’ the Holocaust, not just remember

HONG KONG – Linda Cheung’s journey to the 2012 March of the Living began five years ago when the Hong Kong Jewish community sent its first delegation. The Protestant convert, in processing the paperwork for the delegation as an employee of the Hong Kong Jewish Community Center, was curious and spoke to the community’s assistant rabbi about it. On her own she also looked at the website and shared it with her friends, eventually coming to the realization that she could not understand the impact of the Holocaust by “just looking.” “Feeling” was the step she needed to take.

Cheung has been an employee of the Hong Kong Jewish Community Center since 1995, but her connection to the Jewish community runs much deeper: It is a matter of faith. Though not born Christian, Cheung was educated in a Christian school in Hong Kong where she was taught that the Jews are the Chosen People and that she should “love the people of the Torah.” Before secondary school, she said she had accepted Christianity and with it came her understanding that the Old Testament is proof that Christians should love Jews and the State of Israel.

Generally speaking, the average Hong Kong Chinese has little to no understanding of Jewish history or practice, or the Holocaust, according to Cheung. And when it comes to anti-Semitism, she explains, this idea doesn’t even exist in Chinese thought. There is simply no awareness of it.

Essentially, the only local Chinese with real information about Jews, Jewish history and Israel are those that were educated abroad

As for the Chinese views about the Jews living in their midst, Cheung explains that absent the “Protestian” [Protestant] values she has internalized, Jews are understood simply as one of many groups of foreigners living in Hong Kong. Essentially, the only local Chinese with real information about Jews, Jewish history and Israel are those, as Cheung explains, who were educated abroad.

But Cheung, with her reverence for the “people of the Bible’s Old Testament” coupled with her exposure to Jews through her position in the community center, has a thirst for knowledge. In 2011, this self-described history buff took part in the Hong Kong Jewish Historical Society’s heritage tour of Harbin, a northeastern city which had a large Jewish population before World War II.

But prior to the Harbin expedition, in 2006 she made her first trip to Israel followed by a second in 2009. Though she visited Yad Vashem while there, for her this was not enough. “The more I learn [about the Holocaust], the more I understand that what I know is not enough,” she explains.

For the past year and a half, Cheung has also been studying Hebrew under the tutelage of an Israeli expat in Hong Kong. She bashfully reports that she is “only still learning the past tense,” underselling her abilities to send messages in Hebrew to members of the community, recognize vocabulary in a Siddur and memorize a number of songs including “Hatikva.”

While in Poland, in addition to participating in the three-kilometer group march from Auschwitz to Birkenau that retraces the steps the victims took on the Death March, Cheung’s trip also included visits to the concentration camps of Treblinka and Majdanek and Jewish historic sites in Warsaw, Lublin and Krakow.

She explains that the impact of seeing piles of discarded clothing, bags, shoes, old toothbrushes and handicap equipment was able to take her so far, but walking the steps the victims walked took her much closer to feeling the pain. “I wanted to walk with them here, not just work with papers. This is real life.”

‘When we visited a place, like a crematorium, we all took part in a group memorial service. This isn’t something you can get from books or local guides. It was an authentic experience’

She explains that the trip wasn’t a mere history tour. “When we visited a place, like a crematorium, we all took part in a group memorial service. This isn’t something you can get from books or local guides. It was an authentic experience.”

An entire near-forgotten world opened to her: A Jewish university student was standing outside a camp gate. He reached out to her, put his hand on her shoulder, and with tears in his eyes said, “I am afraid to go alone.” Together they walked inside and she talks about feeling the pain with him.

Armed with the memory of the trip, she feels that she is now a witness and has the duty to share this legacy with others. While Yad Vashem was informative, Cheung explains, “it was a museum. Poland was real.” There she gained a fuller understanding of what was lost by expanding her knowledge of the richness of Jewish life in Europe before World War II.

Linda Cheung (far right), with UK Holocaust survivor Harry Fox and another member of the Hong Kong mission to March of the Living. (photo credit: Courtesy)

Cheung is looking for ways to share this experience with others. In addition to posting her photos on her Facebook page, she hopes to do more. She feels that this information needs to be disseminated “bit by bit” with her community, and they “will slowly open to it.” She sees Holocaust films as a great introduction to the history, but there is no substitute for the actual March experience. “I too worry about the legacy. People might not remember. They need to feel.”

As to why Cheung and her friends didn’t choose a Christian group to pair with for this experience, she indicated that they quite frankly were unaware that such a delegation existed. In retrospect though, she wouldn’t trade the experience she had and thought it was made more authentic by the group she shared it with, a delegation that included four survivors. She gained invaluable benefits from their personal struggles for survival and was able to come closer to understanding the meaning of these places. “It was more in depth than if we had a local guide” and with the group, “it was very moving.”

‘I’ve often wondered if non-Jews can really understand the Holocaust. Having Linda and her friends with us proved that they can, and do’

For the group as a whole, Cheung in turn added another dimension to the experience for them as well. A Hong Kong March of the Living participant, Dale Biteen, explained, “I’ve often wondered if non-Jews can really understand the Holocaust. Having Linda and her friends with us proved that they can, and do.”

Biteen adds that for her, “the absolute highlight of the week was standing next to Linda and listening to her beautiful voice proudly singing ‘Hatikva’ along with 11,000 people at the end of the ceremony at Birkenau.”

CIVIL TRIAL ATTORNEY BARUCH C. COHEN BLESSING HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR MAX WEBB AT THE MARCH OF THE LIVING BANQUET

Jewish teenagers join Auschwitz march

'Be proud that you have defied those that tried to wipe us out' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells March of the Living participants, "Today you bear witness to the most horrific time in the life of the Jewish people ... but you also bear witness to a time of triumph and hope."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells March of the Living participants, "Today you bear witness to the most horrific time in the life of the Jewish people ... but you also bear witness to a time of triumph and hope."

Something to see here. Israel Police chief Yochanan Danino at Auschwitz, leading the Israeli delegation to the March of the Living, 2012.  |  Photo credit: GPO

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech over vide on Thursday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to participants of the 2012 March of the Living. "Today you bear witness to the most horrific time in the life of the Jewish people, a time when we were murdered by the millions and the world stood silent. But you also bear witness to a time of triumph and hope, a time when the Jewish people have a state of their own and the power to defend themselves," Netanyahu said.

Eighteen thousand teens and adults from over 40 countries participated in the March of the Living in Poland on Thursday, marching from Auschwitz to the Birkenau death camps to remember the more than 6 million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu spoke to an audience at the Warsaw Ghetto Square at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum to honor the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust. Netanyahu said that Iran represents" an existential threat to Israel."

Netanyahu defended his policy of linking the Holocaust to the Iranian threat, saying, "To cower from speaking the uncomfortable truth – that today like then, there are those who want to destroy millions of Jewish people – that is to belittle the Holocaust, that is to offend its victims and that is to ignore the lessons."

YNET: Thousands take part in March of the Living For 21st time, teens, WWII veterans, Jews, non-Jews all march together in commemoration of death marches between Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps

Thousands of marchers on Thursday reconstructed the journey taken by the prisoners of the Auschwitz extermination camp to the adjacent Birkenau camp in Poland.

Dozens of delegations from around the world, comprised of Jews and non-Jews took part in the march which is being held for the 21st time in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau who took part in the march said: "We are talking about six million, 1.5 million children. These numbers are so large that we can barely imagine it.

"How can we identify with murder on such a large scale, astronomical numbers? We need to talk about the community and the families. We need to talk about the essence of one man as if he were many."

Among the delegations was one from Israel's Justice Ministry, which was joined by delegations from Australia, the US and Europe. This year, some 2,000 Polish teens also joined the march; they were accompanied by World War II veterans from the US and Canada who took part in the liberation of the concentration camps.

Speaking at the event Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino noted: "67 years ago my commander the late David Kraus who lost many member's of his family, walked out of this camp, Auschwitz. He survived the Nazi killing machine and made aliyah, 40 years later he became the police commissioner of Israel's police department."

A two-minute siren sounded across the country at 10 am on Thursday in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

The siren kicked off memorial services nationwide, including a wreath-laying ceremony at Jerusalem's Benjamin Netanyahu, President Benny Gantz were among the officials to lay wreaths in memory of the Nazis' victims.

The Holocaust Remembrance Day events will draw to a close at 8 pm with a service at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. Chief of Staff Benny Gantz will be present at the closing ceremonies there and at The Ghetto Fighters' House which will mark 70 years since the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen at the March of the Living Banquet

 

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets attorney Richard Heideman at the March of the Living Banquet

In February 2004 attorney Richard Heideman served as Chief Trial Counsel for Israeli victims of terrorism at hearings convened on behalf of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies by the Dutch Center for Information and Documentation on Israel coincident with the International Court of Justice Hearings at The Hague, and authored the brief filed with the International Court of Justice regarding legal issues arising from Israel’s construction of its terrorism prevention security fence. 
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Monday, 23-Feb-2004 00:00

The Hague - ICJ Hearings on Israel's Security FenceIsraeli barrier challenged at World Court  By MICHAEL MATZA / Philadelphia Inquirer  THE HAGUE, Netherlands - It was a day for pomp and spectacle at the World Court Monday. Pomp, inside the oak-paneled International Court of Justice, where lawyers in wigs and waistcoats challenged the construction of Israel's controversial separation barrier. Spectacle, outside the palatial court compound, where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators took opposing cases to the street with vivid displays of the heavy price they've paid for their bitter conflict.  "When you wall people into ghettoes ... you are creating a situation that will combust," Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestine Liberation Organization delegate to the United Nations told the 15-judge tribunal. "This wall is not about security. It's about entrenching the occupation" of West Bank land.  Although Israel submitted in writing a detailed brief defending the barrier as a security necessity, it opposes the court's jurisdiction on a matter it maintains is essentially political not legal.  Outside the court, around 1,500 supporters of Israel, aided by an Israeli government press team, gathered to lend their voice in pushing hard to sway world public opinion. "We're here to tell the stories we see everyday," said Yaron Hyrowski, 30, an Israeli medic from Haifa, who has rescued victims of suicide bombings. "We're not here to speak in favor or against the wall. That's for the politicians. We just want people to see the whole picture."  As part of that effort, Israel put the soot-stained shell of a bombed-out bus on display amid the demonstrators.  Israel, which has occupied the Palestinian-populated West Bank to varying degrees since the 1967 Six Day War, says the network of fences, concrete walls and trenches it began building two years ago is designed to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers whose attacks have killed hundreds of Israelis in the past three years.  Palestinians say the projected 450-mile barrier, which in places cuts deeply into the West Bank, illegally confiscates occupied territory on which they hope to build a future state. With just one quarter of the barrier completed, they say, it has already harmed tens of thousands of Palestinians by hindering access to schools, farm fields and medical services.  Twelve countries and two confederations of Arab and Islamic states are participating in the three days of oral argument that commenced Monday. The demonstrations took place on a plaza outside the Baroque gates of the Peace Palace, where the International Court of Justice holds its sessions. Orly Shmuel, 24, an Israeli lawyer, said she objected to the World Court hearing because it lacks context. "I saw the legal question presented to the court and the word `terror' is not mentioned. The court can't be asked half a question," she said. She lives in Yokne'am, a town in northern Israel, where soldiers recently captured a would-be bomber on his way to attack the high school her sister Lauren attends.  Because the northern section of the barrier is complete, Shmuel said, the attacker, who came from the West Bank city of Jenin, was forced to take a longer route that gave troops enough time to trap him.  "We have this on a daily basis," she said. "We don't need lawyers saying it. We need citizens."  Arnold Roth's daughter Malka, 15, was killed in the suicide bombing of a Jerusalem pizza shop three years ago.  "To turn the fence into a mock trial of Israel is deeply offensive to me," he said, holding his daughter's portrait. "I don't say the fence will protect us perfectly. But it's one of many things we must do to look after our families."  To limit the possibility of clashes, police in the Hague scheduled the opposing demonstrations hours apart. At the Palestinian demonstration, several hundred protesters carried Palestinian flags and entered the plaza chanting, "This wall must fall. Occupation has to go."  http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/8023062.htm

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets Phil Blazer of Jewish Television and Stephen Smith of the Shoah Foundation at the March of the Living Banquet

 

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets Professor David Machlis at the March of the Living Banquet

 

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets David Siegel, Consul General of Israel at the March of the Living Banquet

 

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets Rabbi David Wolpe at the March of the Living Banquet

 

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch Cohen meets Sgt Rick Carrier, US Army (Ret) World War 2 Veteran & Liberator of Buchenwald Concentration Camp at the March of the Living Banquet

 

The quote below is from the Jewish Tribune, a newspaper in Canada:

Carrier was an assault reconnaissance combat engineer attached to General Patton’s Third Army during World War II. He was following the advancing American infantry in the German city of Weimar on April 10, 1945, tasked with finding and securing engineering equipment, vehicles such as trucks and cement mixers, and road- and bridge-building supplies left behind by the Nazis. He had to find the materials, map them and get the information to his superiors.

Churches were always a good place to go for information, Carrier had learned, so when he spotted the spire of a cathedral, he “drove over the rubble to find that church,” he told the Tribune. People at the church told him about a stone quarry and lumber mill at the site of a prison camp nearby and offered to take him there.

One of them told Carrier that Russian prisoners had overpowered camp guards following the evacuation, just a few weeks earlier, of thousands of Jewish prisoners who were taken on a forced death march to Auschwitz.

It seems that the “people at the church” in Weimar were misinformed about the Buchenwald camp which was 5 miles from the city.  Why would “thousands of Jewish prisoners” have been taken on a forced death march to Auschwitz in April 1945?  The Auschwitz camp had been abandoned by the Germans on January 18, 1945 and 60,000 prisoners had been taken on “a forced forced death march” to Buchenwald and other camps in Germany. 

The photo below shows the church in Weimar which is still standing in the rubble after the town was bombed on February 9, 1945 by American planes.

City of Weimar after it was bombed on Feb. 9, 1945

When the soldiers of the American 80th Infantry Division arrived in Weimar on April 12, 1945, the bodies of German civilians were still buried under the fallen buildings and the stench was unbearable. The classic building, where Germany’s Weimar Republic was born, lay in ruins; the 18th century homes of Goethe and Schiller, both of which had been preserved as national shrines, were severely damaged. All the historic buildings on the north side of the main town square had been demolished, and the rest of the buildings were damaged.

The Buchenwald camp had been liberated by the Communist prisoners, who were in charge of the camp, at 3:15 p.m. on April 11, 1945.  The photo below shows the gatehouse with the clock on top permanently stopped at 3:15 p.m., the time of the liberation.  The first Americans did not arrive in Buchenwald until around 5 p.m. that day.

Gatehouse at Buchenwald with clock stopped at 3:15 p.m.

Among the first American soldiers to enter the Buchenwald concentration camp was First Lieutenant Edward A. Tenenbaum, who spoke “American German,” according to The Buchenwald Report. He arrived on April 11th, along with a civilian named Egon W. Fleck, at 5:30 p.m. in an American jeep. The two men stayed in Buchenwald that night in Block 50, the medical building.

Fleck and Tenenbaum wrote a detailed report on what their lengthy investigation of the camp had revealed. Alfred Toombs, who was Tenenbaum’s commanding officer, wrote a preface to the report, in which he mentioned how “the prisoners themselves organized a deadly terror within the Nazi terror.”

The following quote from Fleck and Tenenbaum’s report describes the power exercised by the German Communist prisoners at Buchenwald:

The trusties, who in time became almost exclusively Communist Germans, had the power of life and death over all other inmates. They could sentence a man or a group to almost certain death … The Communist trusties were directly responsible for a large part of the brutalities at Buchenwald.

According to The Buchenwald Report, the bible of the camp written by a special intelligence team of the American Army, led by Albert G. Rosenberg, it was not until Friday the 13th that the rest of Patton’s troops arrived, accompanied by Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton.

Although the Buchenwald Report says that the three top American generals saw the camp on April 13, Patton himself wrote that it was not until April 14, 1945 that he heard some of the gory details about Buchenwald from General Gay and Colonels Pfann and Codman, who had visited it.

Patton wrote in his book that he immediately called General Eisenhower, even before seeing the camp himself, and suggested that he send photographers and members of the press “to get the horrid details.” General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley had visited the Ohrdruf sub-camp of Buchenwald, along with General Patton, on April 12, 1945 but neither Eisenhower nor Bradley ever bothered to visit the Buchenwald main camp.

General Patton’s impression of the camp being controlled by the inmates was confirmed by Colonel Donald B. Robinson, chief historian of the American military occupation in Germany, who wrote an article for an American magazine after the war about the report of Fleck and Tenenbaum: “It appeared that the prisoners who agreed with the Communists ate; those who didn’t starved to death.”

Getting back to the story in the Jewish Tribune, this quote tells more about how Frederick (Rick) Goss Carrier blew up the lock on the Buchenwald gate to free the Buchenwald prisoners:

Carrier spent part of the night at the church in Weimer, then returned to Buchenwald and took refuge high in a guard tower at the edge of the camp where he waited until morning, “watching for dawn.”
He met the US armoured guard at the gate. He wrapped explosives around the heavy padlock and chain, ignited it, and opened the gate. More horrible discoveries awaited them inside the campgrounds. Carrier had served under General Dwight Eisenhower on D-Day and “was used to seeing corpses lying around but never people who had been tormented and starved to death. The look in their eyes! When I first saw it I upchucked; I couldn’t handle it.”
Thanks to Carrier’s discovery and actions, Buchenwald was liberated by the Americans the day after his 20th birthday.
“The war was fought for a purpose and we achieved that purpose: we defeated the Nazis.”
This year, Carrier will be one of a delegation of from 80 to 100 WWII liberators who will join the 25th annual March of the Living, to walk and bear witness together with about 100 Holocaust survivors. “I’m 86 years old and I’m only too happy to be a part of this whole mission,” said Carrier.

Thankfully, the sign on the gate into Buchenwald did not suffer any damage when Carrier blew off the lock.  The photo below shows that the original sign is still in pristine condition.

Sign on gate at Buchenwald concentration camp

Jewish boys leaving Auschwitz-Birkenau singing 'Yibaneh Hamikdash'

Branko Lustig Bar Mitzvah Short Version

Thousands March at Auschwitz Memorial To Honour Holocaust Victims

People walk towards the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz- Birkenau in Oswiecim, southern Poland May 2, 2011. Thousands of mainly Jewish people participated in the 20th annual "March of the Living", a Holocaust commemoration. 

A woman lights a commemorative candle on the railway line leading to the the site of former German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz during the March of the Living, in Oswiecim, Poland, 02 May 2011. Around 7,000 people took part in the annual silent 'March of the Living' at the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.

Participants of the traditional 'March of the Living' walk behind a railway track inside the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Death Camp near Oswiecim, southern Poland

A Jewish girl waves the Israeli flag in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Death Camp during the traditional 'March of the Living' near Oswiecim, southern Poland, 

Remembrance plaques are placed between the railway tracks of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Death Camp 

A plaque is placed by participants of the traditional 'March of the Living' onto the railway tracks of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Death Camp near Oswiecim, southern Poland

A young Jewish man prays in the gas chamber of the Auschwitz Death Camp before the March of the Living in Oswiecim

A young Jewish man stand in the incinerator room of the Auschwitz Death Camp

A young Jewish man walks between the barbed wire fence of the Auschwitz Death Camp

Universal Studios | Auschwitz Survivor And ‘Schindler’s List’ Producer Going Back There For His Bar Mitzvah

A t a tribute on the Universal Studios lot Monday evening, “Schindler’s List” producer Branko Lustig finally received his tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl commonly presented to boys before they’re bar mitzvahed.

The 78-year-old Lustig will go through his coming-of-age ceremony early next month at the place where he couldn’t have had it when he was an adolescent: the Auschwitz concentration camp. Related story: Encino nonprofit aspires to end suffering

Lustig’s long-delayed bar mitzvah will be held as part of this year’s March of the Living, the international event that unites thousands of teens with Holocaust survivors for a learning trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the notorious death camps the Nazis operated in occupied Poland during World War II.

“Because I was still a child, the adult inmates in the camp pleaded with me to tell the story of what had happened to the Jewish people,” Lustig said Monday, in a Universal screening room before some three dozen friends, colleagues and admirers.

He would get the chance to tell that story decades later with “Schindler’s List,” the 1993 best-picture winner that

Steven Spielberg, who directed “Schindler’s List,” offered a videotaped message of congratulations for Lustig at Monday’s tribute: “I know you never had a bar mitzvah. That experience was taken from you by the war, by the Holocaust. So this must be such an emotional experience for you. It’s an emotional experience for me just thinking about you and what you’re experiencing.”

Born in Croatia, which sided with the Axis after the Germans invaded the fractious Yugoslavia confederation in the spring of 1941, Branko and his family avoided capture for a year and a half. He was ultimately transported to Auschwitz in November 1942. A strong boy, he was put to work in mines and construction, but like most survivors of the genocide he attributes living through the ordeal to “mostly luck.”

When he was finally liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in April of 1945, Lustig weighed 66 pounds.

For years David Machlis, vice chairman of the non-profit International March of the Living, thought Lustig would be a perfect participant for the event, which has been bringing pilgrims and survivors to the Auschwitz memorial since 1988.

“Survivors are getting older, and it’s important to develop a cadre of young adults that will be educated on the history and able to be the witnesses to the witnesses,” New York-based Machlis, a college economics professor, said of the organization’s mission. “In my opinion, this was a no-brainer. Producer of `Schindler’s List,’ survivor of Auschwitz – Branko Lustig has done more for Holocaust education than almost anyone in the universe.”

Lustig said he had returned to the sites of the camps twice since the war, when he made “Schindler’s List” and “War and Remembrance.” A friend suggested that if he was going to return for the march, he should finally have his bar mitzvah.

“I said `OK, we’ll do it,”‘ Lustig recalled in an interview last week. “But on the condition that we make it in front of the same barrack where I was when I was actually 12 years old.’

“They agreed,” Lustig added. “It will remind me of an incredible time that, today, I don’t believe that I went through. It will be a great event for me- and I hope it will be the last time that I’m going to Auschwitz.”

Among local teens participating in the March of the Living on May 2 will be Calabasas High School student Naytal Orevi.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to get to understand just how history went down,” said Orevi, who also plans to celebrate her 18th birthday in Israel the week following the march, when the group moves on to the Jewish state for its Independence Day commemoration.

“We can only understand so much from stories,” Orevi explained. “I can really get into somebody’s head who was in the Holocaust and go with them to where they suffered on this trip. If they’re strong enough to do that, then that would be an honor for me to just listen to them, and I know that I’m going to be one of the last generations that will be able to do that.”

Machlis expects some 10,000 people from all over the world – at least a quarter of them non-Jewish – to participate in this year’s march.

“The main purpose is to make the world a better place in which to live, to combat hatred and intolerance, so that `never again’ maybe has a meaning,” Machlis said.

After the war, Lustig returned to Yugoslavia and started the film producing career that eventually led him to Hollywood. He agrees that there can never be enough witnessing and education regarding the Holocaust.

“Keeping the story about Auschwitz alive is very important,” Lustig said. “I am now one of the last survivors, and I have a feeling that when we go, it will be very difficult for young people to remember what happened there. It’s already difficult in some European countries to talk about the Holocaust. People don’t believe, or don’t want to believe, and they don’t want to face the fact that so many people were killed for no reason.”

One thing Lustig isn’t too concerned about, though, is what causes many Jewish youths to lose sleep: Learning all of that Hebrew he’s supposed to recite at the bar mitzvah ceremony.

“Y’know, I am not learning because I can’t learn, anymore, to say everything,” Lustig said with a brief chuckle. “But I will repeat after the rabbi. I am very fortunate that Rabbi Lau, the head rabbi in Jerusalem, will come to Auschwitz and he will make my bar mitzvah. That makes me very happy.”

And in case you were wondering: No, there won’t be a bar mitzvah party after the pre-March ceremony at Auschwitz. Lustig’s bar mitzvah on the site where more than a million were murdered will, of course, be a celebration of enormous import in and of itself.

“To my knowledge, no one else has had a bar mitzvah at Auschwitz,” Machlis said. “There’s tremendous significance. We came back. We survived. We’re here to make a difference, to make the world better based on the most horrific act of humanity. It’s a statement of survival, a statement of renewal, a statement that we have to make the future much better than the past.”