Adolf and Maria Althoff #Righteous during World War Two 1/n Darmstadt, Germany… Summer 1941 – Adolf Althoff and his wife, Maria, directed the well-known Althoff circus during World War II. The circus, which included
2/n approximately 90 performers, traveled throughout Europe and spent the summer of 1941 near Darmstadt. At one particular show, Irene Danner, a young Jewish acrobat from Darmstadt, was among the visitors. She was a descendant of a German-Jewish circus family. Although Adolf knew
3/n that including a Jew in the circus was prohibited, he offered Irene a position, provided her with a pseudonym and false identity papers, and essentially disguised her Jewish identity for the duration of the war. During her time in the circus, Irene fell in love with another
4/n acrobat, Peter Storm-Bento. When she later became pregnant, Adolf and Maria ensured that she received adequate medical care. On March 20, 1942, deportations from Darmstadt began, followed by additional deportations in September 1942 and February 1943.
Photos: Irene Danner
5/n Though Irene’s grandmother was deported, her mother, Alice, and her sister, Gerda, escaped to the safety of the Althoff circus. The Althoffs agreed to provide refuge for Alice and Gerda as well. Adolf and Maria were fully aware of the dangers associated with hiding Jews.
6/n They knew that the circus could be searched at any moment and that their employees could betray them. Fortunately, Adolf had contacts in nearly every city who usually warned him of pending searches. Despite a few close calls, Irene, Alice, and Gerda all survived the war.
28 June 1940: Hitler poses in front of the Eiffel Tower - but will never reach the top
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When German troops entered the city, the Eiffel Tower technicians decided to put up a little symbolic resistance. They deactivated the elevators, declaring them "out of order"
2/n due to a lack of spare parts, which officially could not be obtained due to the war. This meant that anyone who wanted to reach the top would have to climb over 1,600 steps.
When Hitler arrived at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, accompanied by his generals,
3/n the reality became clear: to reach the top, he would have to walk up. The dictator, known for his poor health and poor physical stamina, decided that perhaps Paris could be admired just as well from the Trocadéro. So, the group limited themselves to a few photos from the
Bilcze Złote, Poland, 1943 1/n "Darling Mother, don't be upset that I'm writing so little,
The man didn't have time to wait."
The Last Letter from 11-year-old Rivka Folkenflick
2/n Rivka-Regina Folkenflick wrote these words to her parents, Chana and Moshe, and her brother, David, from her hiding place, a short time before she was murdered. Chana, Moshe and David survived.
Moshe and Chana lived in the city of Borszczów in the district of Tarnopol,
3/n Poland. Moshe was a grain merchant, and the family lived a traditional Jewish life. The couple had two children: Rivka (b. 1931) and David (b. 1934).
Following the German occupation, the family was incarcerated in the Borszczów ghetto, together with all of the city's Jews.
The Lasi Pogrom - June 28, 1941 1/n On Saturday evening, June 28, 1941, Romanian and German soldiers, members of the Romanian Special Intelligence Service, police, and masses of residents murdered and plundered the Jews of Iasi. Thousands were killed in their homes and in the
2/n streets additional thousands were arrested by patrols of Romanian and German soldiers and taken to police headquarters.
Lazar Rozin, who was only fourteen years old in June 1941, describes:
The rabbi of the city carrying a Torah scroll on his way to a deportation train.
3/n “They entered our house, screaming and pillaging all of our belongings. They ordered us all out of the house, also my mother and sisters. We walked to the police station and on the way we saw how people were beaten and bodies of dead Jews were strewn in the streets.” The next
The Hunger Winter of 1944-1945:
Hunger and cold in the Netherlands 1/n The liberation of the southern part of the Netherlands in the autumn of 1944 has dire consequences for the occupied western part of the Netherlands. The Dutch government in London calls for a major strike in
2/n rail transport to support Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944. 30,000 railway employees are on strike. The trains don't run anymore until the end of the war. But as a punitive measure, the German occupiers blocked food transports to the provinces of North and South
3/n Holland for six weeks. With their own trains, the Germans take care of their own supplies. Supply of coal has become impossible, because it is located behind the front line between Germany and the Allies. In December 1944, the rivers and the IJsselmeer also freeze over.
June 13, 2010: Theodor and Jarosława Florczak were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
They saved little Dita from deportation.
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2/n Shortly before the Bendin (Będzin) ghetto was liquidated in August 1943, Sara and Yehiel Gerlitz decided to separate from their daughter Dita in order to save her. Assuming they would never see their daughter again,
Sara Gerlitz with Dita
3/n they wrote a letter and handed her daughter over to the Florczak family. Sara Gerlitz put a photo of Dita in a small locket and managed to keep it with her even after her deportation to Auschwitz.
Letter by Sara Gerlitz to Dita
"My beloved and most precious child,
The Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
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Oradour-sur-Glane was the site of a particularly brutal atrocity during World War II. The entire village was destroyed and its inhabitants killed by German troops on June 10, 1944, exactly two years after a
2/n similar fate had befallen the Czechoslovakian village of Lidice.
In reprisal for Resistance attacks, an SS detachment of 200 men routed all 652 inhabitants from their homes and into the village square. A search for hidden explosives and an identity check were announced,
3/n and the people were herded off—the men into barns and the women and children into the church. The troops then barred the doors of the barns and the church, and with dynamite and incendiary devices they set fire to the entire village. Anyoe not suffocated or burned to death