Alzbeta Letters Home

As the war dwindled down, the Bilecki family lingered to their Polish home. Though they were rich in heart, the friction between the slips of tinted cash and the jangling of the metal coins were the only sound that seemed to be worth hearing. Sadly, for them there was a lack of it. The Jews that they saved acted as their guardian angel, as the Bilecki clan did for them. From all around the world, across the sea, the Jews kept them from malnutrition and naked chills. It wasn’t until 1998 that the secret of the Bilecki kindness was unveiled. Not only did they get the recognition they deserve, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous had planned an infinitesimal surprise. Waiting, as the sounds of aircrafts roared, stood five of the survivors the Bilecki family had guided to asylum. The vulnerability of the raw moment was exposed as they shared their tears. The applause throbbed emphatically like the robust flapping of an angel’s wings. Their life saving feat did not go unacknowledged by the Righteous Among the Nations. Their unselfish deeds of valor and grace set themselves into being heroes.

I had trained as a tailor and had left home before we were deported, when I went to work four miles away on a ranch. It was taken over by the SS, so suddenly I found myself working for them. In May 1943 they lined us up one day and told us to empty our pockets. If they found even a single zloty in anyone’s pocket, they were shot on the spot. We were transported to Majdanek, which was only 19 miles away – a torture camp in the true sense of the word. For 500 metres there were just ditches full of bodies, legs, heads. We were deported to Auschwitz four weeks later. We arrived in the early morning and they gave us a bed, a real shower, they cleaned us well with disinfectant and shaved us. After that they gave us striped uniforms and tattooed us. I was given the number 128164 on my left arm and from that point on I was a number, no longer a name.

I read the book Flares of Memory, put together by Sheila Chamovitz and edited by Anita Brostoff, written in 2001. This book is a compiled list of stories of children who experienced the Holocaust and survived. The line “I never saw any of my family again” (Brostoff, xxxiii) or similar variations of this line were stated multiple times throughout the book, mostly at the end of the children’s accounts of the events they endured. Just the thought of having to go through what these children went through makes me appreciate what I have in life much more. The thought of losing my family, although they annoy me sometimes, brought tears to my eyes. It made me think about the things that many take for granted. In reading this book, I found that

Well, after all it might be true, during World War || many Jews were going into hiding trying to survived, many did but also many didn’t. We went and decided to interview about three people that survived. From what we have heard and learned, they all experienced pain, fear, losing their families, houses, and sometimes forgetting their own name. They all have different stories but they’re somewhat related to each other, the stories are often heartbreaking, but demonstrating strength, hope, and the courage that it took to survive.

The experiences of a Jewish person sent to a concentration camp run by the Nazis were harsh and horrific. These people were mistreated, lived in fear, lost their sense of freedom, dehumanized, lacked sanitation and were forced to do labor work.

It all started in camp Buna in early January. It was a frigid day with large snowflakes hitting my face. I got the order that we were falling back to Buchenwald. I was told to go get the prisoners in block 52. As I walked to the block I saw a man in the snow dead, he couldn’t be older than 18. My heart asked me why but I had to keep going. I could see the block as I walked around the corner of the

There were multiple camps, but the most popular one was Auschwitz. As they arrived at the gates of Auschwitz, it read “ work sets you free”, so of course, the Jews had know idea what was going to happen as they entered those gates of death. When they were rushed off the cattle carts children and their mothers were screaming and crying in fear, they were being seperated by German soldiers. “She imitated the gesture of this and I was eager to know what happened next; arrival in the next camp, the dogs, the smell, the noise, the hunger”. They had been ordered into lines, where doctors came around to determine if you were strong enough to work, however, if you did not look healthy to do labor they forced you to death. Sick Jews and young children were automatically shot, burned, or in gas chambers due to the lack of work they would have done. However, the healthy Jews were stripped from their clothes and even their names. They were each giving tattoos of numbers that represented who they were -“Her blue tattoo had blurred with time, so you couldn’t see the ‘AU’ for the camp, the P for Poland or the numbers, but she

It was an experience will never forget. We were sent to concentration camps far from our home. They were located in the middle of nowhere. The camps were surrounded in fences and barbed wire so we couldn't escape. Jews were not allowed to set foot outside at night.

This evening I was fortunate enough to hear from one of the few remaining survivors from the Holocaust, Irving Roth. Sure the Holocaust may have been several decades ago, but there is no doubt that it is an event in history that we as a nation can never forget. What started out as an opportunity to earn extra credit on an exam turned into a very interesting as well as emotional moment. Mr. Roth touched on many different aspects of the Holocaust before, during, and after the tragic event.

WWII was one of the most unforgettable events in history, an event that has changed the world drastically, and an event that inspired the Bielski Brothers to act upon and try to make a difference in their Jewish community, a change that could have cost their lives. It’s the true story of three men who defied

When it was 1944 I was 15 years old. When I was 15 years old, the Nazi soldiers rounded up all the jews including me and my family and then took us to a ghetto. Some of my friends were taken too. When we arrived, I noticed the ghetto had very tall walls that had broken glass on the top. After everyone was inside, the gates were closed which meant we couldn’t go out. Then we were taken to a little room that already had a family in it. It looked like they barely came too. The first few days they would give us a little bit of food and the conditions were not as bad. A few days later

we were loaded onto trains thousands to a car and they shipped us to a concentration camp. me and my one suitcase on a train that i didn't know the destination along with ten thousand other jews. i remember other families terrified some crying some plotting to commit suicide unless the other train got to them first. lots of families died this way they killed so many people I just watched as friends i made walked onto the death trains some quietly, some didn't even know, and others wanted to fight knowing they tried. I miss many of my friends that died but i know they are in a better place know I sometimes hear their screams and i just break down and cry. I hate trains and may never ride one again. The train helped me to reconnect with my family later on in my life

Around 90% of the general population at the camp who were slaughtered, were Jewish. The inhumane imprisonments spread all through Germany and the murdering Jews, was referred to be generally as the Holocaust. Out of the 1.3 million who were sent to this one camp, just 144 detainees could completely get away. January 1945, Soviet troops moved toward the camp and the majority of the general population were sent on death walks, yet the survivors like Elie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl and so on, were sufficiently capable to share their story and encounters at the camp. However, nobody can ever reimburse the harm that somebody constrained on a whole populace of

One day, while I was helping my grandparents in their store, when a huge army of German surrounded the town and ordered all the jews to move to freight trains outside the town. I hoped the outcome of the jews being moved out this town as the jews in other countries, which we heard stories of and how horrible ending it was for them. I entered the train with 80 other jews of our town. We arrived at Szeged sports fields and brickyards thirty miles from the town I lived in. The camp was not bad at all I enjoyed it a little bit, as days went on I was always hungry and cold and not liking the camp at all. I hoped for better times to come while in times of darkness in this horrible camp of the Germans. 4 years passed in this camp the SS officers said we're moving to new camp, maybe I would be freed with the rest of my fellow

It was the happiest day of my life April 29, 1945. I was married to one of the most powerful and charismatic men I had ever known, His name was Adolf. As I was dancing with my Adolf for the first time since we had been married I thought about the first day I saw him 16 years ago. I was 17 and he was much older than I, but we fell in love. I was at work, looking at the lens of a camera that was not much older than a year and there he was and when he saw me I knew it was real love. I still remember the first words that he has said to me. You see, he walked up to me, tipped his hat and said “May I invite you to the opera with me, Fräulein Eva? You see, I'm surrounded by men and I know what a pleasure it is to enjoy female company.' I was instantaneously