Bergen-Belsen, or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an "exchange camp", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps.
Johanna Bormann ; 10 September 1893 – 13 December 1945) was a German prison guard at several Nazi concentration camps from 1938. She was executed as a war criminal at Hamelin after a court trial in 1945.
The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz was formed by order of the SS in 1943, during the Holocaust, in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. Active for 19 months—from April 1943 until October 1944—the orchestra consisted of mostly young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners, of varying nationalities, who would rehearse for up to ten hours a day to play music regarded as helpful in the daily running of the camp. They also held a concert every Sunday for the SS.
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews. The ghetto was later used as a staging area for separating the "able workers" from those to be deported to extermination camps in Operation Reinhard. The ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants deported to the Belzec extermination camp as well as to Płaszów slave-labor camp, and Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres (37 mi) rail distance.
On 19 April 1943, members of the Belgian Resistance stopped a Holocaust train and freed a number of Jews who were being transported to Auschwitz concentration camp from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium, on the twentieth convoy from the camp. In the aftermath of the attack, a number of other captives were able to jump from the train as well. In all, 233 people managed to escape, of whom 118 ultimately survived. The remainder were either killed during the escape or were recaptured soon afterwards. The attack was unusual as an attempt by the resistance to free Jewish deportees and marks the only mass breakout by deportees on a Holocaust train.
The Holocaust has been a prominent subject of art and literature throughout the second half of the twentieth century. There is a wide range of ways–including dance, film, literature, music, and television–in which the Holocaust has been represented in the arts and popular culture.
The Kastner train is the name usually given to a rescue operation which saved the lives of over 1,600 Jews from Hungary during World War II. It consisted of 35 cattle wagons that left Budapest on 30 June 1944, during the German occupation of Hungary, ultimately arriving safely in Switzerland after a large ransom was paid to the Nazis. The train was named after Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian-Jewish lawyer and journalist, who was a founding member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, a group that smuggled Jews out of occupied Europe during the Holocaust. Kastner negotiated with Adolf Eichmann, the German SS officer in charge of deporting Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, to allow over 1,600 Jews to escape in exchange for gold, diamonds, and cash. The deal was controversial and has been the subject of much debate and criticism, with some accusing Kastner of collaborating with the Nazis, while others argue that he made difficult choices to save lives.
Hélène Berr was a French Jewish woman, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank". She died from typhus during an epidemic of the disease in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that also killed Anne Frank and her sister Margot.
Alice Lok Cahana was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. Lok Cahana was a teenage inmate in the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Guben and Bergen-Belsen camps: her most well-known works are her writings and abstract paintings about the Holocaust.
This is a timeline of deportations of French Jews to Nazi extermination camps in German-occupied Europe during World War II. The overall total of Jews deported from France is a minimum of 75,721.
David Shentow was a Belgian-Canadian Holocaust survivor and educator, featured in Canadian films, books and articles. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers in 2017. For "extraordinary community service to the citizens of the City of Ottawa, the Province of Ontario and Canada", the "David Shentow Park" was unveiled by Mayor Jim Watson on 11 September 2022.
Gena Turgel was a Jewish Polish author, educator, and Holocaust survivor.
Margit Buchhalter Feldman was a Hungarian-American public speaker, educator, activist, and Holocaust survivor. Feldman and her family were placed in a concentration camp in 1944, where her parents were killed immediately. The 15-year-old survived by saying she was older, old enough to be sent to a work camp. She was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945. After moving to the United States, she raised a family and became a public speaker, sharing her experience with students until her death.
Margot Cecile Heumann was a German-born American Holocaust survivor. As a lesbian, she was the first lesbian Jewish woman known to have survived Nazi concentration camps.
Lily Ebert was a British writer and Holocaust survivor, who in her later life became notable for her memoir, and social media videos and media appearances documenting her life as a survivor of the genocide.
Ruchama Rachel Rothstein is a Holocaust survivor and the author of Here There Is No Why. Her aunt Ella Blumenthal and she were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust.
Edward Mosberg was a Polish-born American Holocaust survivor, educator, and philanthropist. During the Holocaust, he was held by the Nazis from 14 years of age in Kraków Ghetto, Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Auschwitz concentration camp, Mauthausen concentration camp, and a slave labor camp in Linz, Austria, that was liberated by the US Army in 1945. Nearly all of his family were murdered in the Holocaust.
Marianne "Mausi" Grant was a Czech-Scottish Jewish artist, who survived the Holocaust after being imprisoned in three successive concentration camps. Grant was born during the interwar period and came from a prosperous family. From a young age, Grant loved drawing and painting but her plans to study art at university were stymied after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 by Nazi Germany. In June 1939, the Nuremberg racial laws were implemented and Grant and her family faced increasingly stringent restrictions that lead them to be interred at a camp in Prague and then later deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in May 1942. Grant spent 18 months in the ghetto before being transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp. In Auschwitz, Grant used her painting skills in exchange for food and medicine and to make the children's block where she worked, more homely. However, her work come to the notice of Josef Mengele, who used Grant to paint family trees of dwarfs and twins. After 7 months, Grant was sent to forced labour battalion and later Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. When she was liberated, she was sent to Sweden to recuperate and met her future husband. They married and settled in Glasgow. After the war, she finished her education at the Glasgow School of Art. In 2002, Grant's paintings and drawings were exhibited at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. 22 members of Grant's family died in the Holocaust.
Miriam Malnik-Ezagui is an American nurse and TikToker known for making videos about her life and experiences as an Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn, New York. Malnik-Ezagui is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Lilly Appelbaum Malnik.
