16 April 1947 | SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of the German #Auschwitz camp was hanged after he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw.
Rudolf Höss was born in Baden-Baden on 25 November 1901. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the SS in 1934. He started his career in Dachau in December 1934, then he worked in KL Sachsenhausen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%… 2/9
In May 1940 Rudolf Höss was appointed by Heinrich Himmler as the commandant of a new concentration camp created in occupied Polish territory annexed to the Third Reich - #Auschwitz. 3/9
#Auschwitz was created at first as an important tool of terror against Polish leadership, intellectuals & resistance. From March 1942 it became one of the centers of mass extermination of European Jews. It was also a place of murder of European Roma. lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_1/ 4/9
Rudolf Höss lived in a villa 50 meters from the camp fence. He lived there with his wife Hedwig and his four children: Klaus, Heidetraut, Inge-Brigitt, and Hans. His fifth child, Annegret was born on 7 November 1943. 5/9
After the war, Rudolf Höss went into hiding. He was arrested by British troops on 11 March 1946. 6/9
On 15 April 1946, Rudolf Höss testified at the Nuremberg trial. 7/9
He was later extradited to Poland. His trial in Warsaw began on 11 March 1947. The verdict was given on 2 April 1947. Rudolf Höss was sentenced to death. 8/9
The execution of Rudolf Höss was carried out on 16 April 1947 at the site of the former Auschwitz I camp - the gallows stood at the remains of the camp Gestapo building, right next to the first crematorium of Auschwitz and 100 meters from the villa where he had lived. 9/9
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11 April 1987 | Primo Levi passed away. He was an Italian Jewish writer & chemist. From 26 February 1944 a prisoner of the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp no. 174517.
In September 1947 he published his book "If this is a man". #poetry#history#OnThisDay#PrimoLevi
You who live safe
In your warm houses;
You who find on returning in the evening
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a bit of bread
Who dies because of a yes and because of a no
Consider if this is a woman,
Without hair & without name
Without enough strength to remember
Vacant eyes & cold womb
Like a frog in the winter:
Reflect on the fact that this has happened:
These words I commend to you:
Inscribe them on your heart
When staying at home & going out,
11 April 1945 | American forces liberated the #Buchenwald concentration camp. Among liberated prisoners were those evacuated from #Auschwitz.
Between 1937-45 Germans imprisoned in this camp almost 280,000 people. Over 56,000 of them were killed. buchenwald.de/en/72/
Read more about the chronology of liberation of KL Buchenwald: buchenwald.de/en/466/
"I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words."
CBS reporter Edward R. Morrow was the first reporter at Buchenwald after the liberation by @USArmy. Listen to his harrowing words on what he witnessed: collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog…
7 April 1944 | Two Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba (b. 1924, no. 44070) and Alfred Wetzler (b. 1918, no. 29162) escaped from the German Nazi Auschwitz camp. Read their story in this thread ⬇️
In the second half of the 1943 Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler decided to escape. In the BIII sector, so-called Mexico, which was under construction at the time, they spent many days preparing a hiding place (bunker) for themselves.
Their activity was not discovered by the SS men, as the area was surrounded by a multitude of different construction materials, with which they could conceal the works conducted by them.
6 April 1944 | The Gestapo under the direction of SS-Hauptsturmführer Klaus Barbie raided the Jewish orphanage in French town of #Izieu. 44 children and their 7 educators were taken to #Drancy & later deported to #Auschwitz. Only one person survived.
Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, who brought Klaus Barbie to justice in 1983, later wrote: "Forty-four children deported - no mere statistic, but rather forty-four tragedies which continue to cause us pain ..."
In this photo you can see the children on the balcony of the children's home in Izieu, summer 1943. Seated in the center, in the second row from the bottom is Laja Feldblum. She was the only survivor of the Gestapo raid on the children's home on 6 April 1944.
6 April 1941 | A transport of 1,021 Poles (including 39 Jews) arrived at #Auschwitz from #Pawiak prison in #Warsaw. Among them were: an actor Stefan Jaracz (no. 13580) and a theater director Leon Schiller (13581). They were both later released from the camp.
Stefan Jaracz was born in Żukowice Stare. He was one of the most eminent Polish theater and film actors. Imprisoned at #Auschwitz on 6 April 1941 (no. 13580). On 15 May 1941, he was released from the camp. More about his life: culture.pl/en/artist/stef…
Leon Schiller, one of the most eminent Polish theater directors, became a prisoner of #Auschwitz on 6 April 1942. He received number 13581. After a year - thanks to bribery - he was released from the camp. More about his life: culture.pl/en/artist/leon…
Jozef & Wiktoria Ulma risked their lives to help Jews during the #Holocaust. On 24 March 1944 the German police discovered the Jews in hiding.
The Jewish family was shot, as was the entire Ulma family - parents & 6 children. Wiktoria was 7 months pregnant.
March 24 - the anniversary of the murder of the Ulma family - is today in Poland the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews during German occupiation. See this thread to learn 11 stories of #Righteous linked with #Auschwitz.