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Jim Wald

Today, we mark Remembrance Day, initiated by the on the anniversary of the liberation of @auschwitzmuseum by the Red Army, 27 January 1945.

I mentioned this in the 1st session of my course on Europe in the age of the yesterday. Not a single 1 of the c. 25 students knew this.

Fortunately I had planned to show them the ceremony opening the exhibition of the Yad Vashem Book of Names at the UN:

media.un.org/en/asset/k1x/k1xw

timesofisrael.com/un-chief-exh

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UN Web TVOfficial opening of "Yad Vashem, Book of Names of Holocaust victims"United Nations Secretary-General together with the Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations and the Chair of Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, joined in opening the exhibition, "The Yad Vashem Book of Names of Holocaust Victims" on display at United Nations Headquarters.
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Jim Wald

For Remembrance Day, I attended a webinar on and American altruism: Hampshire College alumnus Artemis Joukowsky III spoke about his grandparents, a Massachusetts Unitarian Minister & his wife, who have been designated among Yad Vashem's Righteous of the Nations for rescuing Jews from Europe in 1939-40, featured in the PBS film he made with fellow Hampshire alumnus Ken Burns: The Sharps' War: Defying the

pbs.org/show/defying-nazis-sha

summary:
pbs.org/newshour/show/massachu

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PBS.orgDefying The Nazis: The Sharps' War | PBSKen Burns reveals an American couple's secret 1939 mission to help refugees escape Nazis.
Public
Jim Wald

The innovative pairing was what made the Remembrance Day program distinctive: Artemis Joukowsky had, with Ken Burns, made a film about his parents rescuing Jews from Nazi Europe.

Co-executive producer Latifa Woodhouse was the first Afghan woman to win a Fulbright scholarship. Inspired by the film, she and her husband have worked to support refugees in Europe and, most recently, women in

umassp.edu/deia/events-and-new

longislandpress.com/2016/05/10

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www.umassp.eduSpeaker Bio: Latifa Woodhouse | University of Massachusetts Office of the PresidentLatifa Woodhouse is the Founder and President of Shared Humanity USA with a mission of serving people who were forcibly displaced by war, persecution, oppression, and economic deprivation. For 30 years Latifa taught at the New York City and Long Island high schools. She is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock in Manhasset, NY.
Public
Jim Wald

marks the anniversary of the liberation of @auschwitzmuseum on 27 January 1945, but already half a year earlier, on 22-23 July 1944, the liberated , near Lublin:

majdanek.eu/en

Already on 3 December, some of the staff had been tried & hanged:

majdanek.eu/en/history/trials/

I acquired this Polish edition of Simonow's report (Extermination Camp) last time I was in Poland (the copy being sold here includes description: foldvaribooks.com/pages/books/)

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first Polish edition of Konstanty Simonow's report on the newly liberated Majdanek facility: Extermination Camp (1944) A smoking chimney above crematorium ovens and barbed wire
Public
Jim Wald

marks the liberation of in 1945, for the name has come to stand for the as a whole. But Auschwitz became famous not just b/c of the death toll (1.1m) & scope of the enterprise

The 3 Operation Reinhard camps killed 1.5m (Bełżec: c. 435k; Sobibor c. 167k; Treblinka 925k), but they were dismantled in 1943 & there were almost no survivors

By contrast a relatively large number of Auschwitz inmates survived to contribute to the historical record

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Public
Jim Wald

Although we rightly associate the with East Central and Eastern Europe--for that is where the vast majority of victims came from-- is a good time to recall/educate the public about the Mediterranean victims:

On Sunday, 29 January, Prof.
Devin E. Naar (University of Washington) will deliver an online lecture:

From the Empire to : Jews and the Holocaust

8 pm Israel /7 pm CET /6 pm UK /1 pm EST

nli.org.il/en/visit/events/sep

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www.nli.org.ilFrom the Ottoman Empire to AuschwitzProf. Devin E. Naar, University of Washington in Seattle. From the Ottoman Empire to Auschwitz: Sephardic Jews and the Holocaust   Although usually understood as a "European" event, the Holocaust also resulted in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews born in the Ottoman Empire. Grappling with the distinctiveness of the experiences of Sephardic Jews, including the center of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jewish world in Salonica (Thessaloniki, in today's Greece), compels us to expand the scope of the Holocaust into the Mediterranean basin, to link it to other acts of mass violence in the region such as the Armenian genocide, and to better grasp the full reach and destruction of the Final Solution.   Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. The great-grandson of a rabbi from Salonica and former Fulbright scholar to Greece, Naar received his PhD in history from Stanford University. He is the author of Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, winner of a 2016 National Jewish Book Award and the 2017 book prize from the Modern Greek Studies Association. He also serves on the advisory board of the Historical Jewish Press, which is hosted by the National Library of Israel.   With thanks to the Samis Foundation, Seattle, Washington   Sunday, January 29, 8 pm Israel /7 pm CET /6 pm UK /1 pm EST
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Jim Wald

Speaking of Jews and the , I cannot fail to mention the great musician Yehuda Poliker.

awiderbridge.org/yehuda-polike

The son of survivors of , he and his collaborator and lyricist Yaacov Gilad, son of survivors, created the greatest disc of Holocaust music ever (if that's a thing):

"Ashes and Dust"

The songs deal both with the Holocaust and with the survivors and their descendants

A few samples will follow.

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Suggesting the Holocaust theme, the album cover depicts a small boy sitting on a striped railroad barrier as a blurry steam locomotive passes by
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Jim Wald

For , here, from Yehuda Poliker's
"Ashes and Dust," is "Where Do You Think You Are Going?" which he performs @auschwitzmuseum in 2019

Lyricist Yaacov Gilad asks his mother why she is returning to visit , where there is nothing but "ashes and dust"

"inside me my heart is broken..."

"Forever is just ashes and dust"

youtu.be/_-a-2wf7L3c?t=45

[yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/20]


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YouTube008 Song: Ashes & Dust Yehuda Poliker, Artistic Visualization: Ilana YahavBy Jewish Remembrance
Jim Wald

For Remembrance Day, from Yehuda Poliker's
"Ashes and Dust":

"A Small Station Called "

The lyrics are by poet Władisław Szlengel, who wrote them in the where he was killed

youtu.be/IFVdO5QVs4I

Sometimes the ride takes the rest of your life . . . .

And the station remains silent. . . .
And only an advertisement still hangs here.
A faded old slogan says "Cook with gas!"
Here is the stop for Treblinka.
Here is the stop for Treblinka.

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http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2010/04/ashes-and-dust.html Joe in Australia said... Here's my attempt at a translation: Treblinka Station This is the stop for Treblinka On the line between Ttuszcz and Warsaw From the station in Warsaw Ost, (?) We take the train and travel directly. The journey can take as long as five hours ... and forty-five minutes. Sometimes it can take A lifetime. Your whole life. The station is tiny. Three ash trees grow there. And a quite ordinary sign says: Here is the stop for Treblinka. Here is the stop for Treblinka. There is no ticket office And there's no dispatcher here. Even a million dollars Can't buy you a return ticket. Nobody waits longingly at the station And nobody waves a handkerchief. Silence hangs in the air before you with unreleased desolation (?) And the station remains silent. And silent are the three ash trees. The black inscription is silent Because here is the stop for Treblinka Here is the stop for Treblinka. And only an advertisement still hangs here. A faded old slogan says "Cook with gas!" Here is the stop for Treblinka. Here is the stop for Treblinka.
Jan 27, 2023, 11:11 PM·Public·Web
2boosts·3favorites
Public
Jim Wald

Finally, on the geographic question on :

the fate of the Sephardic Jews of southeastern Europe has steadily gained recognition. By contrast what happened in is still too little known

The Jews of , and

yadvashem.org/articles/general

Testimonies from North-Africa during | European Holocaust Research Infrastructure

ehri-project.eu/testimonies

What We Lose When We Ignore Holocaust History in North Africa

us-holocaust-museum.medium.com

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www.yadvashem.orgThe Jews of Algeria, Morocco and TunisiaThe Jews of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
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Jim Wald

As this backgrounder from Yad Vashem explains, the of , , and were subjected to various degrees of discrimination under Axis rule.

In Algeria and Tunisia, for different reasons, the arrival of the Allies (November 1942 and May 1943, respectively) arguably saved the Jews from becoming victims of the

yadvashem.org/articles/general

Shockingly, discriminatory laws & policies remained in place until summer 1943.

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11 September 1943 British Consul-General in Tunisia reports that antisemitic racial laws were revoked on 5 August
31 August 1943 British Consul-General in Tunisia reports that most antisemitic legislation has already been revoked in Algeria and French Morocco, and that "it is only a question of time before similar legislation is revoked in Tunisia"
13 October 1943 British Consul-General in Tunisia reports on a speech by the French resident General Mast to the Jews of Tunisia in which he declares, "the laws of Nuremberg were finished"
The newspaper article referred to in the previous document, summarizing the speech by General Mast: he wishes the Jews a happy new year, announces the end of discrimination. However, he notes that other conditions of which they complain are the result of wartime hardship rather than continuing discrimination and reminds them of the loyalty that they have traditionally shown to the French authorities
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Jim Wald

Because Remembrance Day & coincide: a somber choice for today

These are the views from the windows of the infamous observation tower atop the entrance to the death camp @auschwitzmuseum

-tower
-perimeter fence & watchtowers at center, barracks at left
-interior: selection ramp & railroad spur leading to the gas chambers (auschwitz.org/en/history/ausch)

Pause for a moment to imagine the sights that the camp personnel could have seen from there


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the infamous brick tower at Birkenau with the train tracks passing through the arch at the bottom (view from inside the camp looking outward)
view from the observation tower over the infamous entrance to Birkenau: view to the right, showing camp perimeter with fence and watchtowers stretching into the distance at center; wooden barracks visible at left
view from the observation tower atop the infamous entrance to Birkenau: looking straight ahead into the interior of the camp, where the railroad spur (1943) leads directly to the gas chambers. Note the reflection of other windows
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