1/n On August 29, 1968, Yad Vashem recognized Henry Christian Thomsen and his wife Ellen as #RighteousAmongTheNations.
This Danish innkeeper, an active member of the resistance, saved the lives, at the risk of his own, of hundreds of Jews by helping them reach Sweden.
2/n Henry Christian Thomsen, active member of the Danish resistance and owner of an inn in the village of Snekkersten in the north of the island of Seeland in Denmark, will save the lives of hundreds of persecuted Jews by helping them reach Sweden, and pay with his life.
3/n Thomsen and his wife Ellen were involved in the resistance from its very beginnings, helping to transport illegal shipments to Sweden. When news leaked in October 1943 about the deportation of Jews from Denmark,
Ellen Margarethe & Henry Christen Thomsen
4/n Thomsen joined the Resistance's efforts to smuggle the Jews to Sweden. His inn quickly became the meeting point for local fishermen involved in the rescue operation. Soon the number of refugees was so large that it became
The Thomsen inn in Snekkersten
5/n difficult to organize their transfer. Thomsen decides to buy a small fishing boat and transport them himself to Sweden, but he was quickly arrested by the Gestapo. Luckily, due to lack of clear evidence, he was acquitted of the charges of illegal transport of Jews to Sweden
6/n brought against him. Despite the danger, he resumed rescue operations before being arrested by the Gestapo for the second time. He was then deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany, where he died on December 4, 1944.
7/7 On August 29, 1968, Yad Vashem would recognize Henry Christian Thomsen and his wife Ellen Margrethe as Righteous Among the Nations.
Memorial erected in memory of Henry Christen Thomsen in Denmark.
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1/n Elisabeth grew up in a Stuttgart Sinti family. She and her three siblings had an idyllic childhood. Their father sold string instruments and antiques, and the family moved to Munich in 1936. The “Nuremberg Race Laws”
2/n drastically changed the family’s situation. Elisabeth was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with her family in March of 1943. After six months she was put to work in the prisoner administration office, where she had to keep the “main book,” a register of all men imprisoned
3/n in the “gypsy camp.” These books later testified to the thousands of murders of Sinti and Roma. Elisabeth Guttenberger survived the end of the war. More than thirty of her relatives were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
On 7 August 1942, Esther Frenkel (Horonczyk) threw a letter from the deportation train.
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"I am on the train. I do not know what has become of my Richard... Save my child, my innocent baby!"
They were separated at Pithiviers & murdered in Auschwitz. 1/n
2/n Born in 1913 in Krzepice, Poland, Esther Horonczyk was the youngest of five children of Rywka-Fraidla Horonczyk née Heller and Shimon Horonczyk. After Rywka's death in Poland, Esther emigrated to France with the rest of the family in 1926. In Paris, Esther
3/n married Nissan Frenkel and gave birth in 1940 to their only son, Richard. Esther Frenkel was deported from Paris to Pithiviers with her two-year-old son Richard. They were then deported separately to Auschwitz. Both were assassinated. Her husband Nissan was deported to
Hans "John" Butzke's teddy bear was used to smuggle valuables out of Vienna 1/n This particular 'Steiff' teddy was owned by Hans Butzke, a boy born in Vienna in 1929 to parents Netty, a nurse, and Julius, an accountant.
2/n After the German takeover of Austria in 1938, it became evident that the situation was getting progressively worse, so the family decided to flee.
In 1940 the family was able to get on a train to Amsterdam, starting their journey to Panama, while
3/n from where they would go to the United States. Netty told her son Hans, then 10 years old, to hold on to his teddy bear and never let anyone take it from him. She stressed the importance of this detail. When they got on the train, some German soldiers took the teddy from him.
Transport XXI from Dossin Barracks, Belgium to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 31 July, 1942 1/n On July 31, 1943 Giza, born Gitel Wachspress in Tarnow, together with her lover David Weissblum, a furrier, was put on transport XXI to Auschwitz.
The life of this courageous couple became a
2/n symbol of resistance and courage during dark times. After their flight to Belgium in July 1939, they later had to flee to France during the German invasion. When they returned to Antwerp in 1940, they discovered that their house had been looted.
3/n Giza found strength in volunteering at a shelter for the Jewish poor. When her neighbor Eva Fastag begged her for help in smuggling and distributing illegal newspapers, Giza and David got involved in secret activities.
A Nazi magazine held a photo contest for the ‘perfect Aryan baby.’
They made just one mistake when they picked the winner...
Thread 1/n
2/n Hessy Taft (nee Levinson) was born in Berlin in 1934 to Jewish parents Jacob and Polin Levinson who were originally from Latvia. After studying music the two married in 1928 and later immigrated to Germany.
In 1935, Hessy's mother and aunt took six-month-old Hessy to be
3/n photographed in a professional studio by Hans Ballin, a well-known German photographer in Berlin. Seven months later the Levinson family housekeeper told Polin that she saw Hessy's picture on the cover of a popular Nazi family magazine "Sonne ins Haus" (Sunshine in the House)
Lisette Moru
"The Smile from Auschwitz" 1/n Marie-Louise Pierrette Moru, known as Lisette, was born on July 27, 1925. Her father, Joseph Moru, worked in the shipyard in nearby Lorient. Her mother, Suzanne Gahinet was a fish trader. Lisette was the eldest of three children.
2/n A rebel at heart, Lisette couldn’t stand the Occupation. She wore a Cross of Lorraine – the symbol of Free France – under her jacket collar. She’d take any opportunity she could to thumb her nose behind a German soldier’s back – she wasn’t shy; she’d do it in full view.
3/n With a few friends, Lisette became part of the Resistance – distributing anti-Nazi leaflets and keeping track of the occupiers’ movements. She joined the Nemrod intelligence network.