Tweet

More from @RudiGeerts

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 24

Wilhelm Hosenfeld, savior of "The Pianist", Wladyslaw Szpilman

Although Hosenfeld had already joined the NSDAP in 1935, he soon lost his illusions about the regime and was appalled by the crimes against Poles and Jews that he witnessed. Throughout his military service, he kept

a diary in which he expressed his feelings. The texts survived as he regularly sent the notebooks home. In his notes, Hosenfeld emphasized his growing outrage at the oppression of the Poles by the regime, the persecution of the Polish clergy, the mistreatment of the Jews and,

at the beginning of the "Final Solution", his horror of the annihilation of the Jewish people. In 1943, after witnessing the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he wrote in his diary:
"These animals. With this appalling mass murder of the Jews we lost the war, we brought

Read 10 tweets

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 24

Warsaw Ghetto starvation: an unparalleled study of hunger still applied today
1/n
By the end of 1941, all food reserves that supplemented the inadequate rations had run out and the Warsaw Ghetto was starving.
In February 1942 a group of Jewish doctors headed by Izrael Milejkowski

2/n decided to use the starvation to study the physiological and psychological effects of hunger.
The report named the Warsaw Ghetto Hunger Study was an unparalleled act of heroism, resistance and determination and left the world a study of hunger that had not been

3/n possible before nor achieved since.
The results of the study were far ahead of scientific knowledge at the time and are still applied in science today.
The study was the brainchild of Dr. Israel Milejkowski, the head of the health department for the Judenrat.

Read 10 tweets

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 23

#OTD April 23, 1945 The last 'lost train' is liberated
1/n
Between 6-10 April 1945, days before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, three trains were sent from the camp with some 7,000 Jews on board, bound for the Terezin ghetto.

2/n The first train was liberated by the Allies. The second train reached Terezin on 21 April, and the third, later known as "The Lost Train", never reached its destination.
Survivor Mirjam relates: "There were a few elderly German guards on the train. From time to time, we

3/n stopped in a forest and those who were still able were allowed to go down, and to try and obtain food. That was my brother's job… He would return with a loaf of bread or something else. The German guards didn't give us any food. They didn't give us anything. We heard the

Read 6 tweets

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 23

#OTD April 23, 1945, US forces liberated Flossenburg
1/n
“On the morning of the 23rd they were there with a jeep and a machine gun wich stuck out of the window and four soldiers. They were chewing gum, they were smoking, and tears ran down my cheaks. I didn't realize that I were

2/n crying. For me it was like having a nervous breakdown, because I had the feeling that I can go home now, that I survived and could go home.”

Former prisoner Leo Mistinger describes the day of liberation.

3/n As US forces approached in mid-April 1945, the SS began the forced evacuation of prisoners, except those unable to walk, from the Flossenbürg camp. Between April 15 and April 20, the SS moved most of the remaining 9,300 prisoners in the main camp (among them approximately

Read 6 tweets

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 22

Solomon Perel
The Jewish boy who was saved by the Nazis
1/n
Sally Perel was born in Peine, 1925. He had a happy childhood. At the age of 10, anti-Semitic persecution forced the family of 6 to emigrate to Łódź in Poland. Following the German invasion of Poland and the forced

2/n relocation of the family to the Jewish ghetto, Sally had to flee again. Together with his brother, his parents sent him to the Soviet Union, where they lost contact.

Solomon Perel as a child (front row, center). He was nearly 8 old when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933

3/n Sally spent months in an orphanage before fleeing again in June 1941 following the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
During his flight, Sally was captured by German soldiers. With considerable presence of mind, he buried his documents and claimed to have lost his family in

Read 10 tweets

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

@RudiGeerts

Apr 22

#OTD April 22, 1945 the Soviet Army liberated Sachsenhausen
1/n
More than 200,000 people were interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1936 and 1945. They included political opponents of the Nazi regime, members of groups declared by the Nazis to be racially or

2/n biologically inferior, such as Jews, Sinti and Roma, and people persecuted as homosexuals, as well as so-called “career criminals” and “antisocials”. In 1944, around 90%of the internees were foreigners, with citizens of the Soviet Union and Poland forming the largest groups.

3/n When the Red Army reached the River Oder, the camp commandant ordered preparations to be made for evacuating the camp. In the course of this, in February 1945 an SS special unit headed by Otto Moll murdered some 3,000 internees who were considered “dangerous”, who had

Read 6 tweets

Share this page!

Enter Twitter Thread URL to Unroll

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

People who liked this thread also liked...

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @RudiGeerts

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Cowboy Tcherno Bill

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!