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Through the Looking-Glass

@ramonfliek.bsky.social

"Let the WARNING ride forth once more: Tyranny is at our door” find the full stories here: https://www.facebook.com/ramonfliek

32 Followers  |  41 Following  |  287 Posts  |  Joined: 17.01.2025  |  2.2296

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Photo: Deportation train at Westerbork.

Photo: Deportation train at Westerbork.

November 2, 1942: Of the 1,014 people who were deported from Camp #Westerbork to #Auschwitz on this Monday in 1942, only four men survived. The four survivors were men who had been forced of the train at Cosel for slave labor.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

03.11.2025 00:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: The first prisoner transport bus arrives at the gatehouse of the former factory grounds that would become Dachau concentration camp, 1933.

Photo: The first prisoner transport bus arrives at the gatehouse of the former factory grounds that would become Dachau concentration camp, 1933.

November 1, 1933: The regulations for #Dachau concentration camp were put into effect by its commander, Theodor Eicke, and used as a blueprint for other camps. Under Article 12, people who refused to work, or shouted while on the job, were to be shot immediately.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

01.11.2025 19:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: The forced resettlement of Jews from villages and small cities in Warsaw District to the Warsaw ghetto. This photo was taken near the crossing of Zelazna and Solidarnosci streets. Nazi officials, intent on eradicating the ghetto by hunger and disease, limited food and medical supplies. An average daily food ration in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw was limited to 184 calories, compared to 699 calories allowed for gentile Poles and 2,613 calories for the Germans. In August, the rations fell to 177 calories per person. This meager food supply by the German authorities usually consisted of dry bread, flour and potatoes of the lowest quality, groats, turnips, and a small monthly supplement of margarine, sugar, and meat. As a result, black market economy thrived, supplying as much as 80% of the ghetto's food. In addition, the Joint had opened over 250 soup kitchens, which served at one time as many as 100,000 meals per day. Men, women and children all took part in smuggling and illegal trade, and private workshops were created to manufacture goods to be sold secretly on the "Aryan" side of the city. Foodstuffs were often smuggled by children alone, who crossed the ghetto wall by the hundreds in any way possible, sometimes several times a day, returning with goods that could weigh as much as they did. Unemployment leading to extreme poverty was a major problem in the ghetto, and smuggling was often the only source of subsistence for the ghetto inhabitants, who would have otherwise died of starvation. During the first year and a half, thousands of Polish Jews as well as some Romani people from smaller towns and the countryside were brought into the ghetto, but as many died from typhus and starvation the overall number of inhabitants stayed about the same.

Photo: The forced resettlement of Jews from villages and small cities in Warsaw District to the Warsaw ghetto. This photo was taken near the crossing of Zelazna and Solidarnosci streets. Nazi officials, intent on eradicating the ghetto by hunger and disease, limited food and medical supplies. An average daily food ration in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw was limited to 184 calories, compared to 699 calories allowed for gentile Poles and 2,613 calories for the Germans. In August, the rations fell to 177 calories per person. This meager food supply by the German authorities usually consisted of dry bread, flour and potatoes of the lowest quality, groats, turnips, and a small monthly supplement of margarine, sugar, and meat. As a result, black market economy thrived, supplying as much as 80% of the ghetto's food. In addition, the Joint had opened over 250 soup kitchens, which served at one time as many as 100,000 meals per day. Men, women and children all took part in smuggling and illegal trade, and private workshops were created to manufacture goods to be sold secretly on the "Aryan" side of the city. Foodstuffs were often smuggled by children alone, who crossed the ghetto wall by the hundreds in any way possible, sometimes several times a day, returning with goods that could weigh as much as they did. Unemployment leading to extreme poverty was a major problem in the ghetto, and smuggling was often the only source of subsistence for the ghetto inhabitants, who would have otherwise died of starvation. During the first year and a half, thousands of Polish Jews as well as some Romani people from smaller towns and the countryside were brought into the ghetto, but as many died from typhus and starvation the overall number of inhabitants stayed about the same.

October 31, 1940: The Warsaw District government moved all Jews living in Warsaw to the ghetto.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

“It happened, therefore it can happen again. It can happen and it can happen anywhere” (Primo Levi, Survivor of #Auschwitz).

31.10.2025 14:43 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
The last transport that left #Westerbork in October 1942 consisted of 20 train wagons. Seventeen wagon leaders and orderlies (Sanitäter) were appointed, selected from among the deportees. Wagons number 1, 2, and 17 had no wagon leader; it is unknown whether Jews were transported in those 3 wagons. In this 32nd transport there were 659 prisoners, of whom 11 returned. All of these were men who had been forced to leave the train at Cosel to be put to work in the forced labor camps. Machiel Wertheim was one of the men taken off the train at Cosel that day. He had had to leave his wife and 12 year old son behind in Westerbork not knowing what would happen to them. Machiel, as most men taken off at Cosel, went to St. Annaberg concentration camp first after which he would be transferred every few months to a different camp. Prisoners were transferred regularly to prevent them from getting too familiar with camp staff and each other. Machiel would ultimately end up in Auschwitz III–Monowitz where he was liberated in 1945. His wife Sibora and son Benedictus were transported to #Sobibor on 27 April 1943, together with 1204 other men, women and children. All were murdered on arrival at Sobibor. Machiel returned home to The Netherlands where he tried to pick up his life. He remarried and had a daughter. He passed away in Amersfoort on August 13, 1971 at the age of 66. Photo: Machiel Wertheim

The last transport that left #Westerbork in October 1942 consisted of 20 train wagons. Seventeen wagon leaders and orderlies (Sanitäter) were appointed, selected from among the deportees. Wagons number 1, 2, and 17 had no wagon leader; it is unknown whether Jews were transported in those 3 wagons. In this 32nd transport there were 659 prisoners, of whom 11 returned. All of these were men who had been forced to leave the train at Cosel to be put to work in the forced labor camps. Machiel Wertheim was one of the men taken off the train at Cosel that day. He had had to leave his wife and 12 year old son behind in Westerbork not knowing what would happen to them. Machiel, as most men taken off at Cosel, went to St. Annaberg concentration camp first after which he would be transferred every few months to a different camp. Prisoners were transferred regularly to prevent them from getting too familiar with camp staff and each other. Machiel would ultimately end up in Auschwitz III–Monowitz where he was liberated in 1945. His wife Sibora and son Benedictus were transported to #Sobibor on 27 April 1943, together with 1204 other men, women and children. All were murdered on arrival at Sobibor. Machiel returned home to The Netherlands where he tried to pick up his life. He remarried and had a daughter. He passed away in Amersfoort on August 13, 1971 at the age of 66. Photo: Machiel Wertheim

October 30, 1942: The last transport that left #Westerbork in October 1942 consisted of 20 train wagons. There were 659 prisoners, of whom 11 returned. All of these were men who had been forced to leave the train at Cosel to be put to work in the forced labor camps.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

31.10.2025 01:16 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels in Berlin at a ceremony for Horst Wessel in the Nikolaifriedhof. By 1930 Berlin was the party's second-strongest base of support after Munich. That year the violence between the Nazis and communists led to local SA troop leader Horst Wessel being shot by two members of the KPD. He later died in hospital. Exploiting Wessel's death, Goebbels turned him into a martyr for the Nazi movement. He officially declared Wessel's march Die Fahne hoch (Raise the flag), renamed as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, to be the Nazi Party anthem.

Photo: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels in Berlin at a ceremony for Horst Wessel in the Nikolaifriedhof. By 1930 Berlin was the party's second-strongest base of support after Munich. That year the violence between the Nazis and communists led to local SA troop leader Horst Wessel being shot by two members of the KPD. He later died in hospital. Exploiting Wessel's death, Goebbels turned him into a martyr for the Nazi movement. He officially declared Wessel's march Die Fahne hoch (Raise the flag), renamed as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, to be the Nazi Party anthem.

October 29, 1897: Joseph Goebbels was born in Rheydt, an industrial town south of Mönchengladbach near Düsseldorf, Germany. His efforts to incite hatred, noting that his speeches and diaries often revealed a deeply personal hatred for Jews and democratic values.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

30.10.2025 00:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
hoto: Heinrich Himmler and his 12-year-old daughter Gudrun visiting the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau, Germany. July 22, 1941.

hoto: Heinrich Himmler and his 12-year-old daughter Gudrun visiting the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau, Germany. July 22, 1941.

October 28, 1939: Himmler issued a secret directive encouraging the SS and police to procreate with women of "good blood", even outside of marriage, "to regenerate life for Germany". The SS would support all mothers of children of good blood regardless of legitimacy.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

29.10.2025 00:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Helmuth Hübener, flanked by Rudolf "Rudi" Wobbe (left) and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (right) "German boys! Do you know the country without freedom, the country of terror and tyranny? Yes, you know it well, but are afraid to talk about it. They have intimidated you to such an extent that you don't dare talk for fear of reprisals. Yes you are right; it is Germany – Hitler Germany! Through their unscrupulous terror tactics against young and old, men and women, they have succeeded in making you spineless puppets to do their bidding." – Helmuth Hübener

Photo: Helmuth Hübener, flanked by Rudolf "Rudi" Wobbe (left) and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (right) "German boys! Do you know the country without freedom, the country of terror and tyranny? Yes, you know it well, but are afraid to talk about it. They have intimidated you to such an extent that you don't dare talk for fear of reprisals. Yes you are right; it is Germany – Hitler Germany! Through their unscrupulous terror tactics against young and old, men and women, they have succeeded in making you spineless puppets to do their bidding." – Helmuth Hübener

October 27, 1942: At 8:13 pm, Helmuth Hübener (age 17), was beheaded by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin for his opposition to the Nazi regime. He was the youngest person sentenced to death by the Sondergericht ("special court").

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

28.10.2025 02:15 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: April 11, 1945. A liberator of the Buchenwald concentration camp takes a photograph that will go around the world as a symbol of Nazi terror. Emaciated men, scantily dressed, lying shoulder to shoulder on wooden bunks, stare dazedly into the lens. Some are too weak, others too tired or too sick to show any joy of their libertation. Herman Leefsma is looking just past the wooden post toward the camera, second bunk from the left, second level from the bottom. Second row, seventh from left is Elie Wiesel.

Photo: April 11, 1945. A liberator of the Buchenwald concentration camp takes a photograph that will go around the world as a symbol of Nazi terror. Emaciated men, scantily dressed, lying shoulder to shoulder on wooden bunks, stare dazedly into the lens. Some are too weak, others too tired or too sick to show any joy of their libertation. Herman Leefsma is looking just past the wooden post toward the camera, second bunk from the left, second level from the bottom. Second row, seventh from left is Elie Wiesel.

October 26, 1942: A left #Westerbork for #Auschwitz. Upon arrival, some people were selected for forced labor. Of the 841 people on this train only 3 men survived the Holocaust; Simon Abram, Leonard Neuburger and Herman Leefsma (liberated at #Buchenwald, see photo).

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

27.10.2025 00:21 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Nico Julius Polak, during a school trip to Schiphol airport in 1936. October 25, 1942: The train that left #Westerbork on the 23rd arrived at Cosel, where around 170 “men" between the ages of 15 and 55 were unloaded. Nico Polak, 15 years old, was on that transport together with his parents, Frederika and Salomon, his 8 year old brother Julius and his older brother Max who was 17. Salomon, Max and Nico were forced off the train at Cosel while Frederika and Julius had to stay on the train to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nico and his father and brother would have had no idea what was going to happen to Frederika and young Julius.... they could have not imagined that they would die in the gas chambers that same night while they were forced to walk many kilometers to a slave labor camp. Both Nico and Max would grow up within days to be men that had to look out for each other and try to navigate the horrible treatment and lack of food and water. The 3 of them were able to stay alive until the 31st of March 1944 when all 3 of them were murdered somewhere in central Europe by the Nazis.

Nico Julius Polak, during a school trip to Schiphol airport in 1936. October 25, 1942: The train that left #Westerbork on the 23rd arrived at Cosel, where around 170 “men" between the ages of 15 and 55 were unloaded. Nico Polak, 15 years old, was on that transport together with his parents, Frederika and Salomon, his 8 year old brother Julius and his older brother Max who was 17. Salomon, Max and Nico were forced off the train at Cosel while Frederika and Julius had to stay on the train to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nico and his father and brother would have had no idea what was going to happen to Frederika and young Julius.... they could have not imagined that they would die in the gas chambers that same night while they were forced to walk many kilometers to a slave labor camp. Both Nico and Max would grow up within days to be men that had to look out for each other and try to navigate the horrible treatment and lack of food and water. The 3 of them were able to stay alive until the 31st of March 1944 when all 3 of them were murdered somewhere in central Europe by the Nazis.

Julius Polak (front row, second from the right), in the Jewish school class of Gorinchem, June 1942. October 25, 1942: The train that left #Westerbork on the 23rd arrived at Cosel, where around 170 “men" between the ages of 15 and 55 were unloaded. Nico Polak, 15 years old, was on that transport together with his parents, Frederika and Salomon, his 8 year old brother Julius and his older brother Max who was 17. Salomon, Max and Nico were forced off the train at Cosel while Frederika and Julius had to stay on the train to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nico and his father and brother would have had no idea what was going to happen to Frederika and young Julius.... they could have not imagined that they would die in the gas chambers that same night while they were forced to walk many kilometers to a slave labor camp. Both Nico and Max would grow up within days to be men that had to look out for each other and try to navigate the horrible treatment and lack of food and water. The 3 of them were able to stay alive until the 31st of March 1944 when all 3 of them were murdered somewhere in central Europe by the Nazis.

Julius Polak (front row, second from the right), in the Jewish school class of Gorinchem, June 1942. October 25, 1942: The train that left #Westerbork on the 23rd arrived at Cosel, where around 170 “men" between the ages of 15 and 55 were unloaded. Nico Polak, 15 years old, was on that transport together with his parents, Frederika and Salomon, his 8 year old brother Julius and his older brother Max who was 17. Salomon, Max and Nico were forced off the train at Cosel while Frederika and Julius had to stay on the train to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nico and his father and brother would have had no idea what was going to happen to Frederika and young Julius.... they could have not imagined that they would die in the gas chambers that same night while they were forced to walk many kilometers to a slave labor camp. Both Nico and Max would grow up within days to be men that had to look out for each other and try to navigate the horrible treatment and lack of food and water. The 3 of them were able to stay alive until the 31st of March 1944 when all 3 of them were murdered somewhere in central Europe by the Nazis.

October 25, 1942: The 30th transport from #Westerbork arrived at Cosel. Nico Polak (15) and his father Salomon and brother Max were forced off the train while his mother and younger brother went on to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. The 3 of them were murdered on 31 March 1944.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

26.10.2025 04:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Fascists marching towards Rome.

Photo: Fascists marching towards Rome.

October 24, 1922: Benito Mussolini made a speech at the annual Fascist Party convention declaring, "Either we are allowed to govern, or we will seize power by marching on Rome." The march began three days later and brought Mussolini to power by the end of the week.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

24.10.2025 23:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Prisoners at work in Monowitz

Photo: Prisoners at work in Monowitz

October 23, 1942: The 30th transport left #Westerbork for #Auschwitz-Birkenau with 988 people on board. This transport stopped at Cosel to unload 170 men between 15 and 55 years old, only 14 men survived the war. All others on the train were send to the gas chambers.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

24.10.2025 00:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: German guards and Ukrainian militia shooting a Jewish family in Miropol, Ukraine.

Photo: German guards and Ukrainian militia shooting a Jewish family in Miropol, Ukraine.

October 22, 1941: The Odessa massacre began. Romanian soldiers, German Einsatzgruppe SS and local ethnic Germans murdered some 25,000 to 34,000 Jews in Odessa, Ukraine, and surrounding towns.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

22.10.2025 23:43 — 👍 0    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
Photos: Public execution of Polish civilians carried out by the Einsatzgruppe VI on 21 October 1939 in Leszno.

Photos: Public execution of Polish civilians carried out by the Einsatzgruppe VI on 21 October 1939 in Leszno.

October 21, 1939: The mass executions of Poles in German occupied Poland continued. The German police and Einsatzgruppe VI went on a killing rampage in Gostyń, Krobia, Leszno, Osieczna, Poniec, and Włoszakowice.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

21.10.2025 16:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photos: Public execution of Polish civilians carried out by the Einsatzgruppe VI on 20 October 1939 in Kórnik.

Photos: Public execution of Polish civilians carried out by the Einsatzgruppe VI on 20 October 1939 in Kórnik.

October 20, 1939: German police and "Einsatzgruppe VI" committed multiple mass public executions of Poles in various towns in German-occupied Poland, i.e. Kostrzyn, Kórnik, Książ Wielkopolski, Mosina, Śrem, Środa, in attempt to pacify and terrorize the Polish people.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

20.10.2025 21:50 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Only photo available of who we believe to be SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Engels (left)

Only photo available of who we believe to be SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Engels (left)

Train station platform in Izbica

Train station platform in Izbica

October 19, 1942: In Izbica, the Germans, led by SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Engels, gathered 5000 Jews on the platform. 2500 were deported to #Bełżec, The other group was sent to #Sobibor. Approx. 700 Jews were shot dead on the platform in

#Izbica. #RememberHistory #USAtoday @sobibor.org

19.10.2025 22:59 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Corpses of the U.S. soldiers murdered by the Waffen-SS (17 December 1944). During the Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper summarily killed 84 U.S. Army prisoners of war (POWs) who had surrendered after a brief battle.

Photo: Corpses of the U.S. soldiers murdered by the Waffen-SS (17 December 1944). During the Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper summarily killed 84 U.S. Army prisoners of war (POWs) who had surrendered after a brief battle.

October 18, 1942: Adolf Hitler issued the Commando Order stating that all Allied commandos encountered by German forces should be killed immediately without trial, even if they were in proper uniforms or attempted to surrender.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

19.10.2025 00:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A mass pro Nazi rally of thousands of members of the Friends of New Germany in New York City at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 1934.

A mass pro Nazi rally of thousands of members of the Friends of New Germany in New York City at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 1934.

Friends of New Germany Dr. Konrad Burchardi, Hermann Schwinn, Ludwig Leithhold, and Hans Winter Halter appear in court, Los Angeles, 1933-1934.

Friends of New Germany Dr. Konrad Burchardi, Hermann Schwinn, Ludwig Leithhold, and Hans Winter Halter appear in court, Los Angeles, 1933-1934.

A boys youth group from the "German American Bund" parade at Camp Siegfried, the largest Bund camp located in Yaphank, Long Island, in 1936.

A boys youth group from the "German American Bund" parade at Camp Siegfried, the largest Bund camp located in Yaphank, Long Island, in 1936.

October 17, 1934: A congressional committee on un-American activities held a hearing in New York on the Friends of New Germany. 300 members of the organization interrupted the proceedings several times with jeers and shouts of "Heil Hitler".

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

17.10.2025 22:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Betty and her mother Grietje have to stay on the train to continue to Auschwitz where they are murdered in the gas chambers after selection together with 1121 men women and children. Photo: Betty Simmeren walking her dog, taken before May 3rd 1942.

Betty and her mother Grietje have to stay on the train to continue to Auschwitz where they are murdered in the gas chambers after selection together with 1121 men women and children. Photo: Betty Simmeren walking her dog, taken before May 3rd 1942.

October 16, 1942: The 28th train carrying Jews departed #Westerbork for #Auschwitz. 26 wagons carrying 1710 Jews. 358 children were among them. The train stopped at Cosel to“unloaded” men for slave labor. Of the deportees remaining on the train, no one survived.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

17.10.2025 00:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Hermann Göring was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father, Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 – 7 December 1913), a former cavalry officer, had been the first governor-general of German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Heinrich had three children from a previous marriage. Göring was the fourth of five children by Heinrich's second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn (1859–15 July 1943). At the time that Göring was born, his father was serving as consul general in Haiti. Göring's godfather was Hermann Epenstein, a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman his father had met in Africa. Epenstein provided the Göring family, who were surviving on Heinrich's pension, first with a family home in Berlin-Friedenau, and then a small castle called Veldenstein, near Nuremberg. Göring's mother became Epenstein's mistress around this time and remained so for some fifteen years. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite. He served as the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine that persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Photo: Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring at the Jagdgeschwader Richthofen on the air base Döberitz near Berlin.

Hermann Göring was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father, Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 – 7 December 1913), a former cavalry officer, had been the first governor-general of German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Heinrich had three children from a previous marriage. Göring was the fourth of five children by Heinrich's second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn (1859–15 July 1943). At the time that Göring was born, his father was serving as consul general in Haiti. Göring's godfather was Hermann Epenstein, a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman his father had met in Africa. Epenstein provided the Göring family, who were surviving on Heinrich's pension, first with a family home in Berlin-Friedenau, and then a small castle called Veldenstein, near Nuremberg. Göring's mother became Epenstein's mistress around this time and remained so for some fifteen years. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite. He served as the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine that persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Photo: Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring at the Jagdgeschwader Richthofen on the air base Döberitz near Berlin.

October 15, 1946: Hours before his execution, Hermann Göring avoided the hangman's noose by committing suicide by cyanide poisoning. Göring's body was displayed for witnesses and cremated at Ostfriedhof, Munich, and the ashes scattered in the Isar River.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

15.10.2025 21:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Johann Niemann (r) with his german shepherd at Sobibor extermination camp, 1943. The photo of Niemann is from the Sobibor perpetrator collection. It consists of over 360 black and white photographs, some in two albums and some loose, as well as dozens of paper documents that chronicle Johann Niemann's social background, his family, and his SS career, culminating in his role as deputy commander of the Sobibor killing center. Niemann was killed by prisoners during the October 1943 Sobibor uprising. The photographs and documents trace Niemann’s advancement through the concentration camp system (#Esterwegen and #Sachsenhausen) and the T4 “euthanasia” program (#Grafeneck, #Brandenburg, and #Bernburg) to the Operation Reinhard killing centers (#Belzec and #Sobibor). The collection includes the first photographs to come to light showing SS perpetrators and their auxiliary guards inside the Sobibor killing center. (The collection can be seen here: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn715033...)

Photo: Johann Niemann (r) with his german shepherd at Sobibor extermination camp, 1943. The photo of Niemann is from the Sobibor perpetrator collection. It consists of over 360 black and white photographs, some in two albums and some loose, as well as dozens of paper documents that chronicle Johann Niemann's social background, his family, and his SS career, culminating in his role as deputy commander of the Sobibor killing center. Niemann was killed by prisoners during the October 1943 Sobibor uprising. The photographs and documents trace Niemann’s advancement through the concentration camp system (#Esterwegen and #Sachsenhausen) and the T4 “euthanasia” program (#Grafeneck, #Brandenburg, and #Bernburg) to the Operation Reinhard killing centers (#Belzec and #Sobibor). The collection includes the first photographs to come to light showing SS perpetrators and their auxiliary guards inside the Sobibor killing center. (The collection can be seen here: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn715033...)

October 14, 1943: Prisoners at #Sobibor launched an uprising against the German SS. The attack was lead by Leon Feldhendler and Alexander Pechersky. 11 SS men and several other guards were killed, and about 300 inmates were able to escape. About 50 were able to survive.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

14.10.2025 21:54 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: German troops parading down a city street in Antwerp, Belgium, May 1940.

Photo: German troops parading down a city street in Antwerp, Belgium, May 1940.

October 13, 1937: Germany sent a note to Belgium guaranteeing that Belgian neutrality would be respected as long as it refrained from military action against Germany. Germany invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

14.10.2025 00:14 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Rika Porcelijn, age 2, was on that train and was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau alongside her mother on October 14, 1942 (her father was murdered 2 years later).

Photo: Rika Porcelijn, age 2, was on that train and was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau alongside her mother on October 14, 1942 (her father was murdered 2 years later).

October 12, 1942: A transport departed from #Westerbork with 1711 deportees. The train consisted of 24 wagons and on arrival at #Auschwitz-Birkenau, at 4am on October 14, selection took place. 1278 of them, were murdered immediately upon arrival in the gas chambers.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

13.10.2025 00:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
October 11, 1934: Nazi official August Jäger declared Regional Bishop Hans Meiser to be removed from office for resisting Ludwig Müller's control of the Protestant church. Thousands gathered around Meiser's church in Munich until the bishop came and addressed them. "I do not intend to retreat and I lodge protest here against the force being used against our church and I am unwilling to lay down the episcopal office conferred on me by our church", Meiser declared before proceeding to his house arrest. After the Bishop had been under house arrest for two weeks, Hitler backed down, releasing Meiser, and restoring him as Bishop of his diocese. In addition, Reich Bishop Müller was removed. These dramatic events illustrated how this protest movement tested the regime and its limits. Compared to brutal backlashes of the regime like the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler chose to appease the Protestant protesters even though, in effect, his hopes for a Reich Church were now negated.

October 11, 1934: Nazi official August Jäger declared Regional Bishop Hans Meiser to be removed from office for resisting Ludwig Müller's control of the Protestant church. Thousands gathered around Meiser's church in Munich until the bishop came and addressed them. "I do not intend to retreat and I lodge protest here against the force being used against our church and I am unwilling to lay down the episcopal office conferred on me by our church", Meiser declared before proceeding to his house arrest. After the Bishop had been under house arrest for two weeks, Hitler backed down, releasing Meiser, and restoring him as Bishop of his diocese. In addition, Reich Bishop Müller was removed. These dramatic events illustrated how this protest movement tested the regime and its limits. Compared to brutal backlashes of the regime like the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler chose to appease the Protestant protesters even though, in effect, his hopes for a Reich Church were now negated.

October 11, 1934: Nazi official August Jäger declared Bishop Hans Meiser to be removed from office for resisting Ludwig Müller's control of the Protestant church. Thousands gathered around Meiser's church in Munich in support. After two weeks, Hitler backed down.

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12.10.2025 05:25 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photos: 1) German students and Nazi SA members plunder the library of Magnus Hirschfeld, director of the Institute for Sex Research, 6 May 1933 2) Nazi Party members at the Opernplatz book burning in Berlin where the content of the library of Magnus Hirschfeld was burned. The Institute for Sex Research's library and archives were publicly hauled out and burned in the streets of the Opernplatz by members of SA alongside the students. A bronze bust of Hirschfeld, taken from the institute, was placed on top of the bonfire. It is estimated that between 12,000 to 25,000 books and journals, and even larger number of images and sex subjects, were destroyed. This included artistic works, rare medical and anthropological documents, and charts concerning cases of intersexuality which were prepared for the International Medical Congress, among other things. A collection of works about sexuality, in any one place, similar to the one stored at the institute was not compiled until the founding of the Kinsey Institute in 1947. Also seized were the institute's extensive lists of names and addresses. In the midst of the burning, Joseph Goebbels gave a political speech to a crowd of around 40,000 people. The leaders of the Deutsche Studentenschaft proclaimed their own Feuersprüche (fire decrees). Books burned at the Opernplatz at this time were not solely looted from the institute. Also burned were books by Jewish writers, and pacifists such as Erich Maria Remarque that were removed from local public libraries, bookshops, and the Humboldt University. The bronze bust of #Hirschfeld survived. A street cleaner salvaged and stored it the day after the burnings, and it was donated to the Berlin Academy of Arts after World War II.

Photos: 1) German students and Nazi SA members plunder the library of Magnus Hirschfeld, director of the Institute for Sex Research, 6 May 1933 2) Nazi Party members at the Opernplatz book burning in Berlin where the content of the library of Magnus Hirschfeld was burned. The Institute for Sex Research's library and archives were publicly hauled out and burned in the streets of the Opernplatz by members of SA alongside the students. A bronze bust of Hirschfeld, taken from the institute, was placed on top of the bonfire. It is estimated that between 12,000 to 25,000 books and journals, and even larger number of images and sex subjects, were destroyed. This included artistic works, rare medical and anthropological documents, and charts concerning cases of intersexuality which were prepared for the International Medical Congress, among other things. A collection of works about sexuality, in any one place, similar to the one stored at the institute was not compiled until the founding of the Kinsey Institute in 1947. Also seized were the institute's extensive lists of names and addresses. In the midst of the burning, Joseph Goebbels gave a political speech to a crowd of around 40,000 people. The leaders of the Deutsche Studentenschaft proclaimed their own Feuersprüche (fire decrees). Books burned at the Opernplatz at this time were not solely looted from the institute. Also burned were books by Jewish writers, and pacifists such as Erich Maria Remarque that were removed from local public libraries, bookshops, and the Humboldt University. The bronze bust of #Hirschfeld survived. A street cleaner salvaged and stored it the day after the burnings, and it was donated to the Berlin Academy of Arts after World War II.

October 10, 1936: The Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion was created in Nazi Germany.
It was created by a special decree from Himmler.

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10.10.2025 19:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Photo: Westerbork camp perimeter. Most people are are probably able to name one major major NAZI concentration camp, some might be able to name a few such as - #Auschwitz, #Buchenwald, #Dachau, and maybe even #Treblinka or #Sobibor - but few realize that these were not the only places where Jews and other prisoners were held by the Nazis. Each of the 23 main camps had subcamps, nearly 900 of them in total. These included camps with euphemistic names, such as “care facilities for foreign children,” where pregnant prisoners were sent for forced abortions. The Nazis established about 110 camps starting in 1933 to imprison political opponents and other undesirables. The number expanded as the Third Reich expanded and the Germans began occupying parts of Europe. When the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum first began to document all of the camps, the belief was that the list would total approximately 7,000. However, researchers found that the Nazis actually established about 42,500 camps and ghettoes between 1933 and 1945. This figure includes 30,000 slave labor camps; 1,150 Jewish ghettoes, 980 concentration camps; 1,000 POW camps; 500 brothels filled with sex slaves; and thousands of other camps used for euthanizing the elderly and infirm; Germanizing prisoners or transporting victims to killing centers. Berlin alone had nearly 3,000 camps.

Photo: Westerbork camp perimeter. Most people are are probably able to name one major major NAZI concentration camp, some might be able to name a few such as - #Auschwitz, #Buchenwald, #Dachau, and maybe even #Treblinka or #Sobibor - but few realize that these were not the only places where Jews and other prisoners were held by the Nazis. Each of the 23 main camps had subcamps, nearly 900 of them in total. These included camps with euphemistic names, such as “care facilities for foreign children,” where pregnant prisoners were sent for forced abortions. The Nazis established about 110 camps starting in 1933 to imprison political opponents and other undesirables. The number expanded as the Third Reich expanded and the Germans began occupying parts of Europe. When the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum first began to document all of the camps, the belief was that the list would total approximately 7,000. However, researchers found that the Nazis actually established about 42,500 camps and ghettoes between 1933 and 1945. This figure includes 30,000 slave labor camps; 1,150 Jewish ghettoes, 980 concentration camps; 1,000 POW camps; 500 brothels filled with sex slaves; and thousands of other camps used for euthanizing the elderly and infirm; Germanizing prisoners or transporting victims to killing centers. Berlin alone had nearly 3,000 camps.

October 9, 1942: That Friday 1703 Jews were deported from #Westerbork to #Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were of all ages from babies to the very elderly, 423 of them were under the age of 18. Only four people from this transport survived the war.

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10.10.2025 01:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
October 8, 1941: Construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau began in Brzezinka, about three kilometers from Auschwitz I. The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them; in addition to working, they faced long roll calls at night. As a result, most prisoners in BIb (the men's camp) in the early months died of hypothermia, starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks. Some 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war arrived at Auschwitz I between 7 and 25 October 1941, but by 1 March 1942 only 945 were still registered; they were transferred to Auschwitz II, where most of them had died by May. The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II was operational by March 1942. On or around 20 March, a transport of Polish Jews sent by the Gestapo from Silesia and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie was taken straight from the Oświęcim freight station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, then buried in a nearby meadow. The gas chamber was located in what prisoners called the "little red house" (known as bunker 1 by the SS), a brick cottage that had been turned into a gassing facility; the windows had been bricked up and its four rooms converted into two insulated rooms, the doors of which said "Zur Desinfektion" ("to disinfection"). A second brick cottage, the "little white house" or bunker 2, was converted and operational by June 1942. When Himmler visited the camp on 17 and 18 July 1942, he was given a demonstration of a selection of Dutch Jews, a mass-murder in a gas chamber in bunker 2. Photo: The openings through which Zyklon B was poured into the gas chamber of crematoria II are visible in this February 1943 photo, taken by SS Dietrich Kammann. Poles Ludwik Lawin and Tadeusz Kubik, who worked in the camp photography studio, stole a number of Kammann’s negatives and buried them.

October 8, 1941: Construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau began in Brzezinka, about three kilometers from Auschwitz I. The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them; in addition to working, they faced long roll calls at night. As a result, most prisoners in BIb (the men's camp) in the early months died of hypothermia, starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks. Some 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war arrived at Auschwitz I between 7 and 25 October 1941, but by 1 March 1942 only 945 were still registered; they were transferred to Auschwitz II, where most of them had died by May. The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II was operational by March 1942. On or around 20 March, a transport of Polish Jews sent by the Gestapo from Silesia and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie was taken straight from the Oświęcim freight station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, then buried in a nearby meadow. The gas chamber was located in what prisoners called the "little red house" (known as bunker 1 by the SS), a brick cottage that had been turned into a gassing facility; the windows had been bricked up and its four rooms converted into two insulated rooms, the doors of which said "Zur Desinfektion" ("to disinfection"). A second brick cottage, the "little white house" or bunker 2, was converted and operational by June 1942. When Himmler visited the camp on 17 and 18 July 1942, he was given a demonstration of a selection of Dutch Jews, a mass-murder in a gas chamber in bunker 2. Photo: The openings through which Zyklon B was poured into the gas chamber of crematoria II are visible in this February 1943 photo, taken by SS Dietrich Kammann. Poles Ludwik Lawin and Tadeusz Kubik, who worked in the camp photography studio, stole a number of Kammann’s negatives and buried them.

October 8, 1941: Construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau began about three kilometers from Auschwitz I. The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them and most of them died of hypothermia, starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks.

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08.10.2025 22:59 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
The Auschwitz camp log for that day states that "1260 Jewish children and 53 Czech chaperones arrived from #Theresienstadt in a transport arranged by the Reich Main Security Office. They were killed in gas chambers on the day of their arrival." Photo: Liquidation of the Białystok Ghetto, 15–20 August 1943. Jewish men with their hands up, watched by a German military unit.

The Auschwitz camp log for that day states that "1260 Jewish children and 53 Czech chaperones arrived from #Theresienstadt in a transport arranged by the Reich Main Security Office. They were killed in gas chambers on the day of their arrival." Photo: Liquidation of the Białystok Ghetto, 15–20 August 1943. Jewish men with their hands up, watched by a German military unit.

October 7, 1943: In the aftermath of the Białystok Ghetto Uprising, 1313 Jews arrested at #Białystok, nearly all of them children, were murdered shortly after arriving at the #Auschwitz concentration camp.

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08.10.2025 01:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
The text of the speech would not be published until 1974. In his address, Himmler said; "The question will be asked: 'What about women and children?' I did not consider myself entitled to exterminate the men, to kill them or have them killed, and then allow their children to grow up to revenge themselves on our own sons and grandsons. The painful decision had to be taken, to remove this people from the face of the earth..." Photo: Heinrich Himmler – At the Conference of Reich District and Association Leaders in Poznań

The text of the speech would not be published until 1974. In his address, Himmler said; "The question will be asked: 'What about women and children?' I did not consider myself entitled to exterminate the men, to kill them or have them killed, and then allow their children to grow up to revenge themselves on our own sons and grandsons. The painful decision had to be taken, to remove this people from the face of the earth..." Photo: Heinrich Himmler – At the Conference of Reich District and Association Leaders in Poznań

October 6, 1943: Heinrich Himmler gave the second of his two Posen Speeches, outlining the carrying out of the Holocaust to the assembled SS officers.

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07.10.2025 00:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
n the night of 2 to 3 October 1942, by order of the occupying authorities, the 42 Jewish labor camps that were located mainly in the north and east of the Netherlands were cleared. The forced laborers who were staying there were brought to Camp Westerbork. At the same time, roundups took place in various cities in which the family members of these men were arrested. To the approximately 2,000 Jews who were in Camp Westerbork at the beginning of October 1942, more than 12,000 people were added. The camp became overcrowded, and there was a shortage of everything. With the transport of 5 October 1942, the number of Jews departing from Camp Westerbork for the first time exceeded 2,000. Among them were 498 children under the age of 18. Photo: A train transport at Westerbork

n the night of 2 to 3 October 1942, by order of the occupying authorities, the 42 Jewish labor camps that were located mainly in the north and east of the Netherlands were cleared. The forced laborers who were staying there were brought to Camp Westerbork. At the same time, roundups took place in various cities in which the family members of these men were arrested. To the approximately 2,000 Jews who were in Camp Westerbork at the beginning of October 1942, more than 12,000 people were added. The camp became overcrowded, and there was a shortage of everything. With the transport of 5 October 1942, the number of Jews departing from Camp Westerbork for the first time exceeded 2,000. Among them were 498 children under the age of 18. Photo: A train transport at Westerbork

October 5, 1942: The 25th transport from camp #Westerbork left for #Auschwitz-Birkenau with 2012 Jews on board, among them were 498 children under the age of 18. After selection 1321 were send to the gas chambers.

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06.10.2025 23:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
October 4, 1939: Adolf Hitler issued a secret decree granting an amnesty to all crimes committed by German military and police personnel in Poland between September 1 and October 4. The decree justified the crimes as being natural responses to "atrocities committed by the Poles." Photo: September 1939, Polish peasants led to execution. A burning village in the background #RememberHistory #USAtoday “It happened, therefore it can happen again. It can happen and it can happen anywhere” (Primo Levi, Survivor of #Auschwitz).

October 4, 1939: Adolf Hitler issued a secret decree granting an amnesty to all crimes committed by German military and police personnel in Poland between September 1 and October 4. The decree justified the crimes as being natural responses to "atrocities committed by the Poles." Photo: September 1939, Polish peasants led to execution. A burning village in the background #RememberHistory #USAtoday “It happened, therefore it can happen again. It can happen and it can happen anywhere” (Primo Levi, Survivor of #Auschwitz).

October 4, 1939: Adolf Hitler issued a secret decree granting amnesty to all crimes committed by German military and police in Poland between September 1 and October 4. The decree justified the crimes as being natural responses to "atrocities committed by the Poles."

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

04.10.2025 15:00 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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