2013
Dublin
January 2013
Learning from the past ~
lessons for today
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland
Clifton House, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.
Telephone: +353-1-669 0593 Email: [email protected] www.hetireland.org
© 2013 Holocaust Education Trust Ireland. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland
in association with
The Department of Justice and Equality
Dublin City Council
Dublin Maccabi Charitable Trust
Jewish Representative Council of Ireland
Sisters of Sion, Council for Christians and Jews
Message from the Taoiseach
Holocaust Memorial Day
The Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration is designed to cherish the memory
When the full horrors of the Holocaust were revealed with the Allied victory over fascism
in the Second World War, the world said, Never again!
Yet we can unfortunately see that intolerance and xenophobia have not gone away. Even in
European democracies memories begin to fade and a new generation must learn and come
to terms with the dark ghosts of our history and ensure that it never can happen again.
The protection of human rights is a central element in the values that bind us with our
partners as members of the European Union. So it is fitting that in the year during which
we hold the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, we also launch and play a leading
role in marketing the Year of the Citizens, which is intended to focus on the importance
of our rights as citizens of the European Union. Not least among these are the rights of
all EU citizens to live their lives in peace without harassment or discrimination.
of all of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
A candle-lighting ceremony is an integral part of the commemoration
at which six candles are always lit for the six million Jews who perished,
as well as candles for all of the other victims.
The commemoration serves as a constant reminder of the dangers of racism and intolerance
and provides lessons from the past that are relevant today.
Human rights are not just to be protected within our individual borders or within Europe’s borders. The promotion
of human rights is an essential of our values.
Yours sincerely,
Enda Kenny T.D.,
Taoiseach
Message from the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí
Summary of the Declaration of the
Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust
Issued in January 2000, on the 55th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945,
and endorsed by all participating countries, including Ireland
We, the governments attending the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust,
recognise that the Holocaust was a tragically defining episode of the 20th century, a
I am honoured to be hosting this Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 today in the Round
Room of the Mansion House on behalf of the people of Dublin. Holocaust Memorial
Day is now an important date in the calendar of the city and is a reminder of suffering
which has been and continues to be inflicted on man. It is important that this suffering
is not forgotten and the lessons of history are not unheeded.
crisis for European civilisation and a universal catastrophe for humanity. In declaring
that the Holocaust fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilisation, we share a
commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, and to honour those who
stood against it. The horrors that engulfed the Jewish people and other victims of the
Held on the nearest Sunday to 27 January it marks the date of the liberation of AuschwitzBirkenau in 1945. Older Irish people here today will remember the pictures from that
liberation and the shock felt at the acts of inhumanity suffered by the Jewish community
and those of other faiths. It is important that we never forget these acts and we deepen
our resolve that they should never happen again.
Nazis must forever be seared in our collective memory. With humanity still scarred by
I would like to welcome here today survivors and descendants of survivors of the
Holocaust who have made Dublin and Ireland their home.
a commitment to remember the victims who perished, to respect the survivors still with
Thank you to the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland for their hard work this year and every year in educating about
the Holocaust and its consequences. In particular I thank them for organising today’s event.
Naoise Ó Muirí
Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath
Lord Mayor of Dublin
Front cover image: Tisa van der Schulenburg
genocide, antisemitism, ethnic cleansing, racism, xenophobia and other expressions of
hatred and discrimination, we share a solemn responsibility to fight against these evils.
Together with our European partners and the wider international community, we share
us, and to reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for a democratic and tolerant society,
free of the evils of prejudice and other forms of bigotry.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration
Sunday 27 January 2013
Mansion House, Dublin
Programme
MC: Yanky Fachler Music: Lynda Lee, soprano; Dermot Dunne, accordion
•
Introductory remarks: Yanky Fachler, MC
•
Words of welcome: Naoise Ó Muiri, Lord Mayor of Dublin
Keynote address: Alan Shatter, TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence
•
The Stockholm Declaration: Dr Steve Katz, Boston University and Advisor to International Holocaust Remembrance Agency
•
Ireland and Europe: Lucinda Creighton, TD, Minister of State for European Affairs
•
Holocaust survivor: Tomi Reichental
•
The Jews of Europe in the interwar years: Prof Anthony McElligott, University of Limerick
•
Europe and the legacy of the Holocaust: Francis Jacobs, European Parliament Office, Dublin
•
Evian: Leonard Abrahamson, Jewish Representative Council of Ireland
•
Nowhere to go: Philip Berman
•
Kristallnacht: Kevin O’Sullivan, Editor, Irish Times
•
Kindertransports: Jonathan Phillips
Musical interlude
Musical interlude
•
Ghettos: Chris Donohoe Harbidge, National Museum of Ireland, Trustee HETI
•
Wannsee Conference: Martin Fraser, Secretary General, Dept of the Taoiseach
•
In less than a year: Ruairi Quinn, TD, Minister for Education and Skills
•
Holocaust survivor: Jan Kaminski
•
Machinery of death: Dr David Blake Knox, Writer
•
Victim readings:
People with disabilities: Lisa McNabb
Poles and Slavs: Dr Ewa Stanczyk, Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, Trinity College, Dublin
Roma: Siobhan Curran, The Roma Project in Pavee Point
Homosexuals: John Duffy, BeLonG To
Black and ethnic minorities: Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo, Immigrant Council of Ireland
Political victims: Shay Cody, General Secretary, IMPACT
Christian victims: Fr Ivan Tonge, Parish Priest, Ringsend
•
All of the victims: HE Boaz Moda’i, Israeli Ambassador to Ireland
•
Holocaust survivor: Suzi Diamond
•
Scroll of Names: Stratford College, Dublin; Duiske College, Kilkenny; Oatlands College, Dublin; Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone
Musical interlude
•
Tribute to Zoltan and Edit Zinn-Collis
•
Soon: Micheal O’Siadhail
•
Ireland and the Holocaust: Vincent Norton, Executive Manager, Dublin City Council
•
Liberation: Klaus Unger
•
Horror of the Holocaust: Máire Whelan, Attorney General
•
Righteous Among the Nations: Uto Hogerzeil
•
Displaced Persons camps: Des Hogan, Acting CEO, Irish Human Rights Commission
•
Post-war pogroms: Prof Robert Gerwarth, Director of War Studies, University College Dublin
•
Second generation: David Reichental
•
Lessons for the future: The Honourable Mrs Justice Susan Denham, Chief Justice
•
Go home from this place: Mary Banotti, former MEP, Founding Trustee HETI
•
Minute’s silence
CANDLE LIGHTING
•
El Malay Rachamim: Prayer for the Repose of the Souls of the Departed, Rabbi Zalman Lent, Cantor Alwyn Shulman,
Irish Jewish community
•
Closing remarks: Yanky Fachler
1
Europe and the legacy of the Holocaust
Ireland is a proud member of the European family – mindful of the shadow of the Holocaust that
permeates European existence and proud to stand firm against future tyranny.
Lucinda Creighton, TD, Minister of State for European Affairs
H
olocaust Memorial Day 2013 coincides with
Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the
European Union. It is appropriate for the occasion to reflect on why and how memorialisation and
study of the Holocaust has become such an integral part
of the European consciousness.
The Holocaust created a void in the heart of Europe –
two thirds of Europe’s Jewish people had been destroyed.
Approximately eleven million people were murdered in
purpose-built death and concentration camps, of whom
six million were Jews who were deliberately targeted for
total annihilation. The genocide was carried out by a nation renowned for its culture and civilisation. Thus, the
fundamentals of law, philosophy and religion were shattered. Political, civic and academic discourse struggled
to cope with the experience.
Immediately after the Second World War, the direct
confrontation of the public in the West with the crimes of
the Nazis was short-lived, and was followed by silence. But
this silence has gradually dissipated, especially in the past
twenty years, as the Holocaust has been
recognised as part of Europe’s historical
narrative. It is a history shared in all its
complexities with the people of Europe.
Since the breakdown of communism there has
been more focus on coming to terms with the
Holocaust and developing a common
European identity. The need for some shared
values within the EU became more prevalent
after the integration of new member countries
from Eastern Europe. There is growing acknowledgment among all member states that
active acceptance of the principles of
tolerance, diversity and respect for human
dignity provide the EU with a common identity based on human rights and the rule of law.
Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the Holocaust
has come to play an increasingly important role in Europe. The resolutions adopted by the European Parliament to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, and the
Stockholm Declaration signed by more than 40 governments in January 2000, are evidence of a general acknowledgement in Europe that the Holocaust holds a
crucial place in Europe’s public memory. Most European
countries have adopted 27 January as their annual day of
remembrance honouring Holocaust victims and their
families.
Post-war history in Europe had two discernible
trends. Visionaries such as Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman foresaw the need to create a
common European community that would no longer go
to war with itself. The project began with the creation in
the 1950s of the European Coal and Steel Community,
thereby ensuring the neutralisation of the historic means
of developing war machines. It continued with its objective of developing one economic union which would further solidify the cooperative links between nations. The
six original member states which came together as the
European Economic Community were joined by Ireland,
Denmark and Britain in 1973, bringing the number of
members to nine. Expansion brought about by the Single
European Act in 1987 increased membership to fifteen.
After 1989, the inclusion of a further twelve countries
from Central and Eastern Europe brought together the
27 member states of the European Union we know today.
The original vision has blossomed, fostering peaceful coexistence and security between the member states.
Communism under Soviet dominance was the second
trend in Europe, covering the eastern nations of the continent. Under communist regimes there was widespread
ignorance of the pre-war existence of
flourishing Jewish communities that had
been wiped out by the Nazis. The circumstances of the Holocaust were unspoken. However, since the fall of the
Berlin wall in 1989, the Holocaust has
come to play an increasingly important role in Europe.
To be accepted as a member of the
European Union, states must adhere
to a standard developed in the aftermath of the Second
World War and the Holocaust. The Holocaust is being integrated into Europe’s collective memory. This is causing
European nation-states to confront their own human
rights abuses, their own crimes of the past, their own dark
sides.
Such confrontation cannot avoid recognition of each
stateís role during the Nazi era and has led to a thirst
among post-war generations for knowledge and education about the events of the time. The lessons of the Holocaust are being taught and remembered. It is recognised
that studying the Holocaust is important both as history
and as a moral guidepost.
The Holocaust is present in the psyche of Europeans and it is part of our heritage. Its omnipresence has
mostly enabled us to adhere to peaceful coexistence for more than 60 years, heeding the universal
lessons the experience of the Holocaust has taught us.
Francis Jacobs, Head of Office, European Parliament Office, Dublin
2
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
The Jews of Europe before World War II
Jews in Eastern Europe, c.1930
The majority of the Jews living in Eastern Europe, were members of orthodox
Jewish communities. Many lived in
small towns or villages called shtetls.
They adhered strictly to religious practices and their lives revolved around the
Jewish calendar. Their first language
was Yiddish and many wore distinctive
clothing, the men being particularly
noticeable in their black coats, long
beards, side curls and black hats. There
were great centres of Jewish learning
and Yiddish culture in Eastern Europe.
Many Jews in these areas made their
living in commercial activities.
Jews in Western Europe, c.1930
By contrast, a large number of the
Jewish people living in the great cities
of western Europe, such as Berlin, Paris,
Prague, Budapest and Warsaw, lived a
more assimilated existence. Although
many observed Jewish festivals, the
Sabbath and kashrut (dietary requirements), the majority were quite secular
in their lifestyle. They spoke the
language of the country in which they
lived, they dressed like everyone else,
and participated in all areas of life:
academia, the arts, the professions,
commerce and politics.
Sephardi Jewish family, Greece, c.1920
There were also Sephardi Jewish communities, most of whom resided in the
countries around the Mediterranean
and in the Balkans. Sephardi Jews originated from the Iberian Peninsula and
mainly spoke Ladino, a language with
Spanish roots. The communities were
scattered after the expulsions from
Spain and Portugal in the fifteenth
century. Some Sephardi Jews occupied
important positions in the economy
and government administration, others
rose to become diplomats at the court
of the Sultanate of Constantinople.
There were also Sephardic communities in Amsterdam and London.
Jewish communities flourished throughout Europe, and Jews participated in all spheres of life and society. In
all the countries that were to fall victim to the Nazis, there were well established and often integrated Jewish
communities that dated back over hundreds of years – and in the case of Greece, more than two millennia.
By the end of World War II, most of the European Jewish communities had been decimated and those
of Eastern Europe had been utterly destroyed.
3
The Rise of Nazi Germany
produce a superior strong ‘race’.
Laws were passed enforcing the
euthanasia of disabled persons
and the sterilisation of Roma
and Sinti (Gypsies) as well as
people of mixed race or of
African descent.
The Holocaust did not begin
with gas chambers and crematoria. It began with humiliation,
taunts, daubings, boycotts, confiscation of property and gradually, the complete exclusion of
‘You are sharing the load! A
Jews from German economic disabled person costs 50,000
and social life.
reichsmarks up to age 60.’
President Paul von Hindenburg shakes hands with Hitler on his appointment
as Chancellor of Germany, January 1933.
W
hen Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi
party in 1921, he stated that his ultimate aim
was ‘the removal of the Jews from German society’. By the time he was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he was planning to remove the Jews from
Germany by expulsion and evacuation. Hitler’s hatred of
Jews soon manifested into actions.
Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses, April 1933.
The large notice says: “Germans! Defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!”
Stormtroopers are fixing labels to the window saying that entry to the shop is
forbidden.
1933: Jewish books and books by Jewish authors burned in public bonfires
throughout Germany.
N
azi ideology alleged a hierarchy of peoples: The
pure German ‘Aryan’ was at the top; Poles, Slavs,
black and ethnic minorities were very low down
on the list; and Jews were at the bottom, considered ‘subhuman’. Nazi antisemitism was rooted in racial, political
and economic theories and fuelled propaganda which
was thoroughly pervasive and reached all levels of German society.
The Nazis embraced the pseudo-science of eugenics,
which advocated destroying ‘weaker strains’ in order to
4
The black athlete
Jesse Owens won
four gold medals at
the Berlin Olympic
Games. Hitler refused to shake
hands with a “member of the inferior
race”.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
Entrance to this park is forbidden to Jews.
Children reading antisemitic school book: The Poisonous Mushroom.
Park bench ‘Not for Jews’. Hulton archive, Getty images.
Sign reads ‘Avoid using Jewish doctors and lawyers’.
NOWHERE TO GO
Victor goes down the unaccustomed steps to the courtyard, passes the statue of Apollo, avoids the looks of the
new officials, and the looks of his old tenants, out of the gateway, past the SA guard on duty, onto the Ring. And
where can he go?
He cannot go to his café, to his office, to his club, to his cousins. He has no café, no office, no club, no cousins.
He cannot sit on a public bench any more: the benches in the park outside the Votivkirche have Juden verboten
stenciled on them. He cannot go into the Sacher, he cannot go into the café Griensteidl, he cannot go into the
Central, or go to the Prater, or to his bookshop, cannot go to the barber, cannot walk through the park. He
cannot go on a tram: Jews and those who look Jewish have been thrown off. He cannot go to the cinema. And
he cannot go to the Opera. Even if he could, he would not hear music written by Jews, played by Jews or sung
by Jews. No Mahler, and no Mendelsohn. Opera has been Aryanised. There are SA men stationed at the end of
the tramline at Neuwaldegg to prevent Jews strolling in the Vienna Woods.
Where can he go? How can they get out?
From: The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
5
The Évian Conference
Anschluss
Evian, France, The Evian Conference, 13/07/1938 Yad Vashem
A
s it became increasingly difficult for Jews to remain working in Germany, they sought refuge
elsewhere. Few countries offered to accept Jewish
refugees, and borders were gradually closed to them.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States,
convened an international conference in Évian-les-Bains,
France, in July 1938, to consider refugee policies. Out of
all the 32 countries represented at Évian, including Ireland, none was willing to take in more refugees, and the
conference was deemed a failure.
Jews being forced to scrub the streets in Vienna with toothbrushes and nailbrushes.
I
n March 1938 Austria was annexed as part of Nazi
Germany. More than 200,000 Austrian Jews came
under Nazi control.
Ireland
Stateless Jews
W
A
e do not know how many Jewish refugees applied to come to Ireland, although it is definitely in the hundreds, if not thousands. Only
a small percentage of applicants was actually admitted.
While it is important to examine Ireland’s reaction to the
refugee crisis in the light of the broader historical context,
and the policy examples provided by other countries, especially Britain, one cannot ignore a persistent theme
about this episode in Irish history: immigrants were not
welcome, refugees were not welcome, but Jewish immigrants and Jewish refugees were less welcome than others.
Ireland and the International Reaction
to Jewish Refugees, Katrina Goldstone,
Dublin 2000
t the end of October
1938, Jews with Polish
passports living in Germany were declared ‘Stateless’
and deported to the GermanPolish border. The Germans
would not allow them to remain
in Germany and the Poles
would not allow them back into
Poland! Some 15,000 Jews
languished in a no-man’s-land
Herschel Grynszpan
near the border town of
Zbaszyn in very poor living conditions. Frustrated by the
plight of his parents trapped in this situation, Herschel
Grynszpan, a German-Jewish student living in Paris, assassinated the diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, in the German
embassy on 7 November 1938.
What I found most shocking was that the Nazi German leaders were normal people!
Telford Taylor,
one of the chief prosecutors at the first trial in Nuremberg
6
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
Kristallnacht, November Pogrom
I
n response to the assassination of vom Rath, the
Nazis launched the November pogrom known as
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on 9/10 November 1938.
During the night of violence against the Jews of Germany and Austria, 7,500 Jewish shops were wrecked and
their windows smashed – leaving the streets strewn with
glass. Hundreds of synagogues, Jewish homes, schools
and businesses were destroyed and set ablaze. Ninety-one
Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish
men were thrown into concentration camps.
The Jewish communities of Germany were fined 1 billion Reichsmarks to pay for the damage!
After Kristallnacht, the Nazis considered plans for the
Jews, such as confining them in ghettos, but finally decided to get them out of the economy and out of the
country. Jewish businesses were sold far below their market value, employers were urged to sack their Jewish employees, and offices were set up to speed emigration.
Torched Synagogue, Germany, November 1938
Kindertransports
worked together to find Jewish and gentile foster homes
for the children. Funds were raised, guarantors were
found. Some of the children were housed in boarding
schools, farms, castles, holiday camps – anywhere they
were accepted.
Although most of the Kindertransport children were
rescued, most of them never saw their families again.
Winton children
Kindertransport child, Yad Vashem
P
rompted by the events of Kristallnacht, Britain
agreed to accept some 10,000 Jewish children from
Nazi-occupied lands.
Between December 1938 and September 1939,
Britain accepted approximately 10,000 children from
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. They
arrived on special trains via Holland called Kindertransports. Jewish and Christian voluntary organisations
L
ondoner
Nicholas
Wi nt on
arranged for eight
kinderstransports
to bring 669
children
from
Czechoslovakia to
safety in Britain.
For 50 years
no one knew
about his assistance to so many
children during
the war. It was
only when his
Nicholas Winton
wife found an old
leather briefcase full of lists of the children and letters
from their parents that the story began to unfold. Since
then, Winton has been reunited with hundreds of ‘his’
children and was awarded the Freedom of the City of
Prague in 1998 and knighted by Queen Elisabeth in 2002.
It is estimated that there are 5,000 Winton children living
around the world.
7
Murder
In the brief two years between Autumn 1939 and autumn 1941, Nazi Jewish policy escalated from the
prewar policy of forced emigration to the Final Solution as it is now understood, the systematic attempt
to murder every last Jew within the German grasp
Christopher R. Browning
Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and
outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world
war, then the result will be…the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!
Adolf Hitler, January, 1939
The Nazis employed different ways to murder the Jewish people of Europe. It suited them if they could
demonstrate that the Jews had died ‘from natural causes’ – invariably from brutality, disease, starvation,
exposure and hard labour. These methods were soon expanded by the Einsatzgruppen (killing squads)
operating in the Eastern territories and by the establishment of purpose built death camps, specifically
to murder Jews by poison gas.
Ghettos
Wannsee Conference
T
Entrance to the Lodz Ghetto: ‘Jewish residential district, entry forbidden’
M
ore than 1,000 ghettos were established by the
Germans in Nazi occupied Europe. The purpose
of establishing the ghettos was to separate the
Jews from the rest of the population so that they could be
easily controlled. The Nazis forced thousands of Jews to
live in cramped areas that could not possibly accommodate the huge numbers being forced into them, often without either running water or a connection to the sewage
system. As a result, starvation and disease were rampant,
wreaking a huge death toll. It is estimated that between one
and one and a half million Jews died in the ghettos. The
ghettos represented places of degradation, hardship and
unimaginable suffering, where the Nazis subjected the inhabitants to brutality, shootings, beatings and hangings.
Although there are several heroic stories of resistance, most
of the ghetto populations were deported directly to the death
camps. Thousands of Roma and Sinti were also incarcerated
in the ghettos, and ultimately met the same fate as the Jews.
The inhabitants of the ghettos, who came from all
walks of life, soon realised that the ghetto served as a
place to destroy them physically and psychologically, and
that their ultimate fate would be death. The illusion that
the ghetto was a temporary place to reside before being
sent for ‘resettlement in the east’ was soon dispelled as
the residents realised the euphemism for murder.
8
he Wannsee Conference took place on 20 January
1942 in a secluded lakeside villa, south-west of
Berlin. Fifteen senior Nazi and German government officials had been summoned by Reinhard Heydrich of the Reich Security Head Office and Head of
German Secret Police. He was seeking endorsement to
cary out the Führer’s plans to annihilate the Jews of Europe. Adolf Eichmann presented the delegates with a list
of the number of Jews living in each European country
whom the Nazis intended to destroy; Ireland appears on
the list with a total of 4,000 Jews.
The delegates debated at length who was Jewish according to bloodline considerations and discussed "evacuation" and "resettlement" of the Jews. They concluded
that a more efficient method of "disposal" was necessary
and one that would also spare those operating the killing
sites in the eastern territories from the negative psychological trauma of face-to-face killing.
It took the
delegates
less
than two hours
to give unanimous support to
Heydrich for the
implementation of
the ‘Final Solution’
– murder of the
Jewish people by
poison gas.
List of countries
presented to the
Wannsee Conference
setting out the
number of Jews in
each
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
In March 1942 every major Jewish community was still intact, and 80% of those European Jews who
would be murdered in the Holocaust were still alive. By February 1943, just under one year later, 80%
of those European Jews were already dead.
Christopher R. Browning
Killing sites/Einsatzgruppen
Operation Reinhard
Einsatzgruppen
Belzec extermination camp stood at this place. A memorial has since been
erected on this site
O
N
n 21 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet
Union (Operation Barbarossa). Special killing
squads called Einsatzgruppen followed the German army into Eastern Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia and other eastern territories occupied by the Nazis,
where they operated hundreds of killing sites in these regions. Einsatzgruppen comprised police, local collaborators, SS units, as well as officers and soldiers of the German
army. They murdered more than 1.5 million Jews in the
forests, fields and cemeteries or herded them into ravines
or pits which the victims had to dig themselves before they
were shot. Einsatzgruppen killed mostly Jews, but also
murdered Gypsies, communists and others. This “slow and
cumbersome” method of eradicating the Jews as well as the
face-to-face killing which was having a psychological effect
on some of the killers, prompted the Nazis to find a more
efficient solution to the elimination of the Jewish people –
death by poison gas. Einsatzgruppen continued to operate
in rural areas in parallel to the extermination taking place
in the death camps.
amed after Reinhard Heydrich, this was the
establishment of three death camps (killing
centres) at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, in
which Jews were murdered by poison gas. Between
March 1942 and August 1943 some 1,700,000 Jews,
mostly from Poland,
were murdered in gas
chambers in these
camps. They were
dismantled on completion of their “function” and all traces of
their existence were
destroyed. The lands
where they had stood
were planted with
forests, farms and
grasslands.
ORDINARY MEN
It is everyone’s duty to reflect on what happened. Everybody must know, or remember, that when Hitler
or Mussolini spoke in public, they were believed, applauded, admired, adored like gods. We must
remember that these faithful followers, among them the diligent executors of inhuman orders, were not
born torturers, were not (with few exceptions) monsters: they were ordinary men. Monsters exist but
they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous is the common men, the functionaries
ready to believe and to act without asking questions, like Eichmann; like Hoss, the commandant of
Auschwitz; like Stangl, commandant of Treblinka.
Primo Levi
9
Murder
Recent research has found that there were more than 15,000 camps throughout Nazi occupied territories that stretched from Norway to France, Russia, Greece and North Africa. They were run by the SS
and there were four main types of camps within the Nazi system. All of them employed brutality and
harsh living conditions.
Camps
Concentration Camps
Transit Camps
Labour Camps
Death Camps
Plazow concentration camp
Drancy Transit camp, Paris, 1941
Forced labour, Mauthausen, 1942
Gas chamber at Majdanek
Concentration camps were an
integral feature of the Nazi
regime. Originally for political
enemies, the first concentration camps were established in
Germany in 1933. After 1939,
they were places of imprisonment for Jews. At least 1,500
concentration camps were established in the territories of
the Reich.
Transit camps were usually
established beside large cities
as a place to collect Jews (and
others) for deportation.
They were sometimes purpose built, but often they
were run-down apartment
blocks, where hundreds were
forced into poor living conditions, overcrowding, maltreatment and brutality.
The labour camp system
meant annihilation through
work. Prisoners were forced
to carry out super-human
tasks such as shifting boulders or laying roads or
railways by hand, often for 12
hours a day, with little to eat
or drink.
There were six purpose-built
death camps, all of them on
Polish soil, established to
murder the Jews of Europe by
poison gas. Other victims
were also murdered in these
camps.
Roll Call
Camp Orchestras
A
t the concentration and extermination camps, the
Nazis created orchestras of prisoner-musicians.
These musical ensembles played concerts for the
Nazi and SS officers. But also, the orchestras were forced to
play music while their co-prisoners were marched out each
morning and back each evening after ten or twelve hours
of gruelling slave labour. Most sadistic of all was the imperative for the orchestras to play as fellow prisoners were
herded to the gas chambers or marched to the gallows.
Roll call at Buchenwald
A
feature of all Nazi camps was roll call in the
mornings and evenings. Often, prisoners had to
stand in straight rows for hours at a time in blazing heat or freezing cold. Roll calls provided the Nazis
with another opportunity to enforce sadistic rules such
as a ban on appearing without one’s cap – a crime
punishable by death.
10
An orchestra escorts prisoners destined for execution in Mauthausen.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
Hungary
Death Marches
Hungarian Jews waiting amongst the birch trees beside the gas chambers in
Auschwitz-Birkenau
A view of the death march from Dachau passing through German villages in
the direction of Wolfratshausen. Germany, April 1945.
A
A
fter the successful Allied landings in Normandy in
early June 1944 and the advance of the Soviet army
in the east, it was clear that Germany was not going
to win the war. In Hungary, which had been an Axis partner
of the Third Reich, Nazi policy changed towards its Jewish
population in July of that year. Adolf Eichmann was dispatched to oversee the round-up and deportation of Hungarian Jews. In just eight weeks, 437,000 Jews were deported
to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered. The railway line at
the death camp was extended under the gateway right up to
the unloading ramp where ‘selections’ were made.
The Nazis were supported by their Hungarian collaborators Arrow Cross, who were responsible for shooting
more than 100,000 Jews into the Danube. It is estimated
that 560,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered.
s the Allies closed in, the Nazis wanted to remove
all traces of their extermination projects. They
forced prisoners out of the camps to march hundreds of kilometers back towards Germany. It is estimated
that 250,000 camp internees, already weakened by malnutrition, labour and ill treatment, died on these death
marches. German civilians secretly photographed several
death marches from the Dachau concentration camp as the
prisoners moved slowly through the Bavarian towns. Few
civilians gave aid to the prisoners on the death marches.
All there is to know about Adolf Eichmann
Eyes…………………………………………… medium
Hair ……………………………………………medium
Weight………………………………………… medium
Height………………………………………… medium
Distinguishing features…………………………… none
Number of fingers……………………………………ten
Number of toes……………………………………… ten
Intelligence………………………………………average
What did you expect?
Talons? Green saliva? Oversise incisors? Madness?
From: Flowers for Hitler by Leonard Cohen, 1964
Auschwitz-Birkenau
A
uschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the Nazi
camps. There were 40 subcamps in the Auschwitz
camp complex: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II
Birkenau, and Auschwitz III Monowitz, where Primo Levi
was incarcerated, being the most well known. Birkenau was
the killing centre where between 1.1 and 1.4 million victims
were murdered, 90% of whom were Jews.
When Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet
troops in January 1945, they found:
7,600 emaciated prisoners alive
836,500 items of women’s clothing
348,800 items of men’s clothing
43,400 pairs of shoes
Hundreds of thousands of spectacles
7 tons of human hair.
Each lock of hair, each pair of shoes and each pair of spectacles belonged to one person
11
It is true that not all victims were Jews...
T-4 Euthanasia Programme – The Murder of People with Disabilities
Hitler initiated this programme in 1939 to kill elderly people, the terminally ill and people with disabilities, whom the Nazis referred to as ‘life unworthy of life’. Although it
was officially discontinued in 1941 due to public outcry, the killings continued covertly
until 1945. It is estimated that 200,000 people with disabilities in Germany and Austria
were murdered.
Manfred Bernhardt, USHMM
Political opponents
The torching of the Reichstag national parliament building in 1933 gave the Nazis a
pretext for brutally suppressing the Communists and later the Social Democrats. The
Nazis abolished trade unions and co-operatives, confiscated their assets and prohibited
strikes. As early as 1933, the Nazis established the first concentration camp, Dachau, as
a detention centre for political prisoners.
Political opponents being arrested. Berlin, Germany, 1933
Poles and Slavs
Hitler ordered that the Polish intelligentsia and professionals were to be destroyed. Tens
of thousands were murdered or sent to concentration camps. Polish children did not
progress beyond elementary school, and thousands were forcibly taken to Germany to
be ‘Aryanised’ and reared as Germans. Three million Poles were murdered by the Nazis.
A Polish prisoner, Julian Noga, at the Flossenbürg concentration camp, Germany
Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)
The Nazis deported thousands of Gypsies to many of the ghettos and concentration
camps. In 1941 Himmler ordered the deportation of all Romanies living in Europe to
be murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000
Roma-Sinti people were murdered by the Nazis.
Amalie Schaich survived the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Black, mixed race and ethnic minorities
In 1933 the Nazis established Commission Number 3, in which hundreds of children
and adults of African ancestry were forcibly sterilised. According to Nazi philosophy,
this would preserve the ‘purity of the Aryan population’. By the outbreak of the Second
World War, thousands of black, mixed race and ethnic people had fled, and most of
those who remained were annihilated.
Images used for lectures on genetics, ethnology, and race breeding, USHMM
Homosexual victims
Thousands of gay men were arrested by the Nazis and sent to prison or concentration camps, where
they were subjected to harder work, less food and stricter supervision than other inmates. Hundreds
were put to death, and thousands died from the appalling conditions and brutality. Homosexuality
remained on the German statue books as a criminal offense until 1969, and many former gay internees had to serve out their original prison sentences with no allowance for the time they had
served in the camps. This deterred many of the survivors from telling their stories.
Albrecht Becker, ©Schwules Museum, Berlin
Christian victims: Priests, nuns and religious leaders
Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses were murdered by the Nazis for their refusal to salute
Hitler as ‘Saviour’ or to serve in the German armed forces. Thousands of Catholics,
Protestants, and others of Christian affiliation were persecuted and killed. There were
also hundreds of Christians, Quakers and others who actively opposed the Nazi regime,
many of whom risked their lives to save Jews.
12
Magdalena Kusserow, Jehovah’s Witness, Photograph courtesy IWM
...But all the Jews were victims
Europe - The number of Jews annihilated by the Nazis
in each European country
© Martin Gilbert, 2000
The white figures on black relate to the approximate number of Jews who perished in each European
country between September 1939 and May 1945. The total of just over 5,750,000 does not include
thousands of infants murdered by the Nazis in late 1941, before their births could be recorded. Thousands of people from the remoter villages in Poland were added to the deportation trains which left
larger localities, without any record of their existence or of their fate.
13
Partisans/Resistance
Resistance in the camps and ghettos
Janow, Poland, 1943, Jewish Partisans
There were uprisings in
the concentration camps,
death camps and ghettos.
All of them failed, and although there were a few
survivors, the majority of
the participants met their
deaths at the hands of their
German oppressors.
Passive resistance, as it is
sometimes called, was the
courageous efforts by many
Jews to maintain their Jewish, religious and cultural
practices in the ghettos and
the camps, despite the Lighting of the seventh Chanuka canthreat of severe punishment. dle in the Westerbork camp, Yad Vashem
B
y spring 1942 some Polish, Russian and even
German deserters had become partisans. Many
partisan groups were well armed and organised.
Villagers, thrown out of their homes to make way for
ethnic Germans, swelled their ranks. Most partisan
groups did not welcome Jews.
Jewish partisan groups, consisting of men and women
who had fled deep into the forests of Eastern Europe to
escape the guns of the Einsatzgruppen, also began to
emerge early in 1942. The first Jewish resistance group
in Eastern Europe was started by the 23 year old intellectual Abba Kovner in Vilna in 1941. Another group was
set up by the four Bielski brothers in early 1942, and their
numbers reached 1,500 by the end of the war. Many more
Jews joined local communist-led partisan units as individuals.
Rabbi Arie Ludwig Zuckerman wrote this Haggada text by hand and from
memory in preparation for Passover in 1941 at the Gurs internment camp in
France. The Camp Rabbinate made copies, added the texts of the songs, and
the holiday was celebrated despite the harsh conditions in the camp.
Yad Vashem Archive
Liberation
T
Tanks roll into Theresienstadt, Yad Vashem Archives
14
he defeat of Nazism would
have taken much longer without the Red Army’s invasion of
German-held territory in the East.
The D-Day allied invasion of Normandy took place in June 1944. The
same month, the Soviets advanced. By
the end of the summer of 1944 the Soviet Army had liberated Majdanek
death camp and reached the gates of
Warsaw, and the road to Berlin had
been opened.
On 27 January 1945, Red Army
troops – including many Jewish
soldiers – liberated the AuschwitzBirkenau death camp. It is this date
that was designated by the Stockholm
International Forum on the Holocaust
as International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
Righteous Among the Nations
Individuals, groups of people, Arabs and Muslims, diplomats, businessmen, who saved Jews
during the Holocaust
Magda and André Trocmé
of Le Chambon sur Lignon,
France the Huguenot village
that hid Jews
Miep Gies, Amsterdam,
looked after Anne Frank and
her family
Irena Sendler saved 2,500
Jewish children in the Warsaw
ghetto
Khaled Abdelwahhab, one of
many Arabs who saved Jews
M
onsignor Hugh O’Flaherty,
from Co Kerry, was a member
of the Vatican Diplomatic Service and worked in the Vatican Holy Office
from 1938. The Vatican remained an independent state during the war and did
not come under Nazi control. In 1942
Monsignor O’Flaherty started smuggling
Jewish and non-Jewish refugees to safety Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty
through a network of tunnels and safe
houses. His organisation is estimated to have saved approximately
6,500 people.
M
ary Elmes, an Irishwoman
from Cork and a scholar of
Trinity College Dublin found
herself in Vichy, France during the war.
Having worked with the Quakers during
the Spanish Civil War, Mary joined hundreds of refugees who fled over the Pyrenees into France in 1939. When France Mary Elmes
fell in 1940 thousands of Jews fled south
and were incarcerated in the Rivesaltes Transit camp whence they
were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi camps in 1942. Mary
and her colleagues organized ‘children’s colonies’ and succeeded in
saving a great number of Jewish children from the Nazis.
But we have not forgotten…and we have not
forgotten those who stood beside us and risked their
lives to save Jews.
Oskar Schindler, German industrialist, who saved some
12,000 Jews in Krakow
Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish
diplomat in Hungary, saved
thousands of Hungarian Jews
I
n 1953 the State of Israel established Yad
Vashem, the Holocaust
Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in
order to document and
record the history of the
Jewish people during the
Holocaust. Yad Vashem
inaugurated the award
Righteous Among the Nations in 1963 to honour
non-Jews who saved Jews
during the Second World
War. Over 24,500 people
from 44 different countries
have received the award. There are countless others who
have never received any recognition, and many more who
were killed by the Germans for assisting Jews.
The Righteous come from all levels of society, from
different backgrounds, ages, religions and ethnic groups.
They are individuals such as simple villagers in occupied
countries, families, groups of friends or members of organised efforts such as the Dutch Resistance, the village of Le
Abraham Foxman ADL Bnei Brith
Chambon sur Lignon in France, or Zegota (the Council for
Aid to Jews) in Poland. They include well known efforts,
such as that of businessman Oskar Schindler, and assistance
by diplomats such as the Swedish consul Raoul Wallenberg
in Hungary or the Japanese official Sempo Sugihara in
Lithuania. Many Jews who survived the Holocaust owe their
survival to Righteous Among the Nations.
The Righteous refute the notion that there was
no alternative to passive complicity with the
enemy. The farmers, priests, nuns and soldiers,
believers and non-believers, the old and the
young from every background in every land
made the impossible possible. Their altruism
calls us to understand the different choices that
individuals make and to commit to challenging
every example of intolerance that we witness.
The challenge of our time is not whether to remember but what to remember and how to
transmit our memory to our children and our
children’s children.
15
Aftermath
Jewish Displaced Persons and the DP Camps
Displaced Persons baking daily bread supply for their camp, Germany, 1946.
When the Allied armies occupied Germany in 1945,
they found some 6-7 million displaced persons (DPs).
DP camps were established in many former concentration camps, some of which remained in operation till
1951 and as late as 1957. The Jewish DPs were different
from the other survivors because they had nowhere to
return to. They had lost everything: their homes, their
youth, their hope, their entire families. They called themselves Sheíerit Hapletah, The Spared Remnant.
Many DP camps were established in former concentration camps, still surrounded by wire fences, and the
only clothing available to inmates was the striped uniforms they had worn as prisoners. Paradoxically, for a
brief period after the war, a defeated Germany, the cause
of the Jewish tragedy, became the largest and safest sanctuary for Jewish refugees waiting for rehabilitation or for
the opportunity to emigrate.
Post-war Pogroms
Antisemitism did not stop with the end of the war:
there were pogroms in various towns and villages in
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia from 1945 till the end of
1947. Historian Jan T. Gross tells how surviving Polish
Jews returned to their homeland to be vilified, terrorised
and, in some 1,500 instances, murdered.
One might have thought that if anything could have
cured Poland of its antisemitism, it was World War II.
Polish Jews and Polish Christians were bonded, as never
before, by unimaginable suffering at the hands of a common foe. One might also have thought there would have
been pity for the Jewish survivors, most of whom had lost
nearly everything. Besides, there were so few of them left
to hate!
In the city of Kielce a rumour of a ritual murder had
caused a massacre of 42 Jewish Holocaust survivors in
1946, something few had believed was still possible in
post-war Poland. The Polish government stood helpless
in the face of the violence perpetrated by police officers,
soldiers, and civilians, augmented by workers from the
steel factories. This event persuaded 100,000 Polish Jews
that they had no future in Poland after the Holocaust and
once more they gathered their belongings and fled.
The remnant of Jewry is gathered here.
This is its waiting room. It is a shabby room,
so we hope that day will come when the Jews will
be taken to a place they can call their own.
Zalman Grinberg, the first chairman of the Central
Committee of Liberated Jews for the US Zone of
Occupation in Germany. Munich, October 1945
Mourners crowd around a narrow trench as coffins of pogrom victims are
placed in a common grave, following mass burial service. Kielce, Poland, after
July 4, 1946, USHMM — Wide World Photo
Grodno, Byelorussia:
A street in a shtetl
Suddenly, all those places where Jews had
lived for hundreds of years had vanished.
And I thought that in years to come, long
after the slaughter, Jews might want to hear
about the places which had disappeared,
about the life that once was and no longer is.
Yad Vashem
16
Four million Jewish victims of
the Holocaust now identified
Y
ad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, has by now managed to identify four million of six million Jews murdered
by the Nazis and their collaborators during the second
World War.
One and a half million new names were added over the last
decade, increasing the list of confirmed victims by 60 per cent, as
the museum stepped up efforts to counter Holocaust denial from
neo-Nazi groups and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said one of the museum’s
main aims since it was set up in Jerusalem in 1953 had been to recover every victim’s name and personal story. ‘The Germans sought
not only to destroy the Jews but also to erase their memory. One of
our main missions is to give each victim a face and a name.’
The figure of six million victims was based on pre-war census
lists of Jewish communities in areas occupied by the Nazis. Due to
the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, particularly from
eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Mr Shalev admitted
a comprehensive tally was impossible, but said Yad Vashem was
aiming to eventually account for five million victims.
In an effort to boost its database, in 2004 Yad Vashem launched
its Pages of Testimony project. Visitors to the museum and to its
website were encouraged to fill in special forms on the victims,
which were then double-checked against existing archival information. The project was a huge success, and 55 per cent of the four
million names came from Pages of Testimony.
Names of Jews deported from western European states, such as
Germany, France and the Netherlands, were well documented. In
the eastern areas occupied by the Nazis, mass killings and an absence of accurate lists of victims created a difficult task for Yad
Vashem researchers.
In recent years the museum has focused its efforts on these
areas, making significant headway. Whereas in 2005 only 20 per
cent of the victims from Ukraine were listed, the figure today is 35
per cent. In Poland the percentage has risen from 35 to 46 per cent.
Mr Shalev said Yad Vashem was co-operating with east European states to obtain extra names from existing archives. ‘We will
continue our efforts to recover the unknown names, and by harnessing technology in the service of memory, we are able to share
their names with the world.’
Mark Weiss, Jerusalem
Irish Times, Thursday 23 December 2010
Holocaust Survivors in Ireland
Suzi Diamond
Suzi Diamond was born in Debrecen, Hungary, and was with her mother and brother
on the last transport to leave Hungary in 1944, which, miraculously, was diverted from
Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen. Her mother died just after liberation. Suzi was a very
young child when she was found with her brother, Terry, by Dr Bob Collis, who brought
them back to Ireland where they were adopted by a Jewish couple, Elsie and Willie
Samuels. All of the rest of Suzi’s family perished.
“My brother passed away a few years ago. Now there are only a handful of us Holocaust survivors living in Ireland. Apart
from my personal loss, Terry’s passing underlines the importance of telling our story to the next generation. It is important
that we pass it on to our children and our children’s children.”
Tomi Reichental
Tomi Reichental was born in 1935 in Piestany, Slovakia. In 1944 he was captured and
deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with his mother, grandmother, brother,
aunt and cousin. Tomi was just 9 years old when the camp was liberated. 35 members
of Tomi’s family were murdered in the Holocaust.
“In the camp I could not play like a normal child, we didn’t laugh and we didn’t cry. If
you stepped out of line at all, you could be beaten up and even beaten to death. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Photograph: Alicia McAuley
Jan Kaminski
Jan Kaminski was born in Bilgoraj, Poland, in 1932. When he was 7 years old, he managed to escape a round-up of the Jews and fled, leaving his family behind. He survived
the war on his wits, running errands, working on farms and even becoming a mascot
of the 21st Artillery Regiment of the Polish army. Jan lost most of his family in the
Holocaust.
Inge Radford
Inge Radford was born in Vienna in 1932 and now lives in Millisle in Northern Ireland.
She lost six members of her immediate family in the Holocaust.
“Five of my family were spared the unspeakable ordeal of ghetto living, imprisonment
and violent death. That we five grew into relatively unscarred and useful citisens was due
to many people – Jewish and non Jewish – who minimised the trauma of family separation
and loss for us and for hundreds of other refugee children.”
In Memoriam
Zoltan
I
Zoltan Zinn-Collis
01/08 1940 - 10/12/2012
Edit Zinn-Collis
02/01/1937 - 27/12/2012
SOON
Soon now their testimony and history coalesce.
Last survivors fade and witnesses to witnesses
Edit
n the past two months, ZoltanZinn-Collis and then his sister,
Edit, passed away. They had been found as young children in
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by a volunteer Irish doctor,
Bob Collis, who was working with the Red Cross in the camp, immediately after the war. Dr Collis brought Zoltan and Edit back to
Ireland where he reared them as members of his own family. Zoltan
settled in Ireland, married Joan and had four daughters, Siobhán,
Caroline, Nichola and Emma. He is survived by his wife, his children,
his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. Edit remained single
and lived in Wicklow. She passed away three weeks after Zoltan.
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland would like to pay tribute to
Zoltan for his invaluable commitment to raising Holocaust awareness
by sharing his personal experiences of the Holocaust with young people throughout Ireland. His story made an indelible impression on
all who heard it.
Zoltan’s memoir, Final Witness, My Journey From The Holocaust
to Ireland was published by Maverick House in 2006.
18
Broker their first-hand words. Distilled memory.
Slowly, we begin to reshape our shaping story.
A card from a train in Warsaw’s suburb Praha:
We’re going nobody knows where, Be well, Laja.
That someone would tell. Now our second-hand
Perspective, a narrative struggling to understand.
Victims, perpetrators, bystanders who’d have known
Still cast questioning shadows across our own.
Some barbarous. Mostly inaction or indifference
Hear, O Israel, still weeps their revenant silence.
Abraham pleaded for the sake of the ten just.
Our promise to mend the earth? A healing trust?
Micheal O’Siadhail
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
We Remember...
Max Heller
Klara Heller
Gisella Molnar
Bajla Hercberg Matthias Hercberg Ruchla Orzel
Fajwel Orzel
Slazma Urbach
Hirsch Urbach
Tauba Urbach
David Josef Urbach
Shaul Urbach
Abe Tzvi Urbach
Gitla Frajdla
Laja Faygla
Nuchim Mordechai
Ruchla Golda Urbach
Sarah Urbach
Chil Urbach
Szymon Urbach
Nuchim Urbach
Fajgla Urbach
Perla Urbach
Frymeta Urbach
Moses Klein
Hilde Frenkel Kurt Frenkel Walter Frenkel Herbert Frenkel
Fritz Frenkel
Zigmund Frenkel
Saloman Delmonte
Karoline Wolff
Martin Wolff
Wolfgang Wolff
Selly Wolff
Henrietta Wolff
Rosetta Wolff
Eli Velvel Avisanski
David Philipp
Recha Philipp
Leopold Philipp
Julia Philipp
Dagbert Philipp
Louis Philipp
Valeria Philipp
Rosalia Scheimovitz
Julius Mayer
Gejza Suri
Oskar Scheimovitz
Adela Fried
Bella Fried
Katerina Fried
Agnes Fried
Ezekiel Reichental
Katarina Reichental
Kalmar Reichental
Ilona Reichental
Gita Reichental
Ibi Reichental
Desider Reichental
Ferdinand Alt
Renka Alt
Born Chomotow, Czechoslavakia
Born Hermanstat, Czechoslavakia
Born Debrecen, Hungary
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Sosnowiec, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Kielce, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wloszczowa, Poland
Born Wodzislaw, Poland
Born Wodzislaw, Poland
Born Wodzislaw, Poland
Born Vienna
Born Vienna
Born Vienna
Born Vienna
Born Vienna
Born Vienna
Born Amsterdam
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Aurich, Germany
Born Lithuania
Born Wanne-Eickel, Germany
Born Wanne-Eickel, Germany
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Bergen-Belsen 1945
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Warsaw 1942
Murdered Warsaw 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Germany 1944
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Buchenwald 1944
Murdered Buchenwald 1944
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Treblinka 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Belorussia 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz
Murdered Dachau
Murdered Auschwitz
Murdered Auschwitz
Murdered Theresienstadt
Murdered Theresienstadt
Murdered Lithuania 1941
Murdered Stutthoff, Poland 1944
Murdered Stutthoff, Poland 1944
Murdered 1943
Murdered Riga c. 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Minsk, Missing 1941
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Murdered Bergen-Belsen 1945
Murdered Buchenwald 1945
Murdered Buchenwald 1944
Murdered Buchenwald 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Wroclaw 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Aged 73 Years
Aged 68 Years
Aged 35 Years
Aged 39 Years
Aged 41 Years
Aged 38 Years
Aged 39 Years
Aged 64 Years
Aged 32 Years
Aged 30 Years
Aged 45 Years
Aged 23 Years
Aged 16 Years
Aged 14 Years
Aged 12 Years
Aged 10 Years
Aged 8 Years
Aged 2 Years
Aged 41 Years
Aged 17 Years
Aged 30 Years
Aged 44 Years
Aged 39 Years
Aged 64 Years
Aged 32 Years
Aged 46 Years
Aged 16 Years
Aged 15 Years
Aged 14 Years
Aged 13 Years
Aged 8 Years
Aged 62 Years
Aged 62 Years
Aged 54 Years
Aged 61 Years
Aged 61 Years
Aged 59 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 76 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 46 Years
Aged 39 Years
Aged 45 Years
Aged 16 Years
Aged 10 Years
Aged 33 Years
19
We Remember...
Erna Elbert
Marta Elbert
Josef Drechsler Bedriska Drechsler
Paul Drechsler Meta Drechsler Bella Perlberg Irma Popper
Ephraim Nayman
Zvi Nayman
Chaya Zelcer
Israel Zelcer
5 Zelcer Children
Royze Centnershver
Moshe Centnershver
6 Centnershver Children
Fishel Bernholtz
Mrs Bernholtz
Bernholtz Children
Lable Nayman
Mrs Nayman
Nayman Children
Menachem Nayman
Mrs Nayman
Nayman Children
Mordechai Shteinbock
Hendel Shteinbock
Sara Shteinbock
Ester Shteinbock
Moshe Shteinbock
Meir Shteinbock
Regina Shteinbock
Israel Shteinbock
Hinda Shteinbock
Hrtz Hofman
Chaya Hofman
Meir Hofman
Ela Hofman
Hofman Children
Zelig Hofman
Mordechai Hofman
Baruch Gottlieb
Royze Gottlieb
Gottlieb Children
Racemiel Smaiovitch
Sara\Frimet Smaiovitch
Arie\Lyebi Smaiovitch
Lea\Lycho Smaiovitch
Rachel\ Rochele Smaiovitch
Devora Smaiovitch
Miriam Pollak
Doyetch Blimi
Jure Mataija
Ivica Mataija
Ankica Mataija
Kalman Rosenthal
Eleonora Rosenthal
Abraham Soustiel
Polin Soustiel
David Soustiel
Shemon Soustiel
Regena Soustiel
Rapae Soustiel
20
Born Slovakia
Born Slovakia
Born Plzen, Czechoslovakia
Born Prague, Czechoslovakia
Born Plzen, Czechoslovakia
Born Bzenec, Czechoslovakia
Born Plzen, Czechoslovakia
Born Plzen, Czechoslovakia
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Ostrov Mazovyetck, Poland
Born Ostrov Mazovyetck, Poland
Born Ostrov Mazovyetck, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Dlogoshodle, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Vishkof, Poland
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Drohobycz, Ukraine
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Teresva, Czechoslavakia
Born Lika, Croatia
Born Lika, Croatia
Born Lika, Croatia
Born Yasina, Ukraine
Born Kuty, Poland
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Murdered Zamosc 1942 Murdered Zamosc 1942
Murdered Izbica 1942
Murdered Izbica 1942
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Uzbekistan 1941
Murdered Uzbekistan 1941
Murdered Poland 1940–41
Murdered Poland 1940–41
Murdered Zambrov, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Shendova 1940–41
Murdered Shendova 1940–41
Murdered Shendova 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Majdanek, Poland 1940–41
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Uzbekistan 1942
Murdered Uzbekistan 1942
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Bronica forest, Ukraine 1943
Murdered Jasenovac, Croatia 1945
Murdered Jasenovac, Croatia 1945
Murdered Jasenovac, Croatia 1945
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Aged 60 Years
Aged 46 Years
Aged 54 Years
Aged 41 Years
Aged 64 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 5 Years
Aged 3 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 45 Years
Aged 45 Years
Aged 48 Years
Aged 48 Years
Aged 48 Years
Aged 48 Years
Aged 42 Years
Aged 42 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 4 Years
Aged 36 Years
Aged 36 Years
Aged 36 Years
Aged 8 Years
Aged 24 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 60 Years
Aged 35 Years
Aged 20 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 50 Years
Aged 43 Years
Aged 38 Years
Aged 16 Years
Aged 13 Years
Aged 7 Years
Aged 9 Months
Aged 38 Years
Aged 25 Years
Aged 45 Years
Aged 24 Years
Aged 22 Years
Aged 66 Years
Aged 62 Years
Aged 63 Years
Aged 53 Years
Aged 49 Years
Aged 45 Years
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
We Remember...
Marta Soustiel
Shabtai Soustiel
Lusi Soustiel
Moshe-Yom Tov Soustiel
Adela Soustiel
Agedni Soustiel Brudo
Emanuel Brudo
Soustiel Children
Heinrich Hainbach
Selma Hainbach
Simcha Zaks
Rivka Zaks
Berel Zaks
Zisse Zaks
Nachman Zaks
Chana Zaks
Aaron Zaks
Chana Sherhai
Joel Dov Zaks
Bendit Zaks
Leah Tzedak
Gitel Zaks
Shoshana Zaks
Sheina Zaks
Masha Zaks
Rosa Zaks
Tyla Feige Fachler
David Majer Fachler
Moshe Fachler
Geila Fachler
Shayndel Milechman
Yechiel Milechman
Theo Milechman
Joseph Milechman
Peppi Grzyp
Chaya Milechman
Yochevet Milechman
Chaim Meier Milechman
Noosen Noote Fachler
Ester Zarke Jakubovich
Meeme Alte Milechman
Levi Fachler
Izzy Fachler
Natan Fachler
Johanna Karlsberg Sommer
Emil Sommer
Ettie Steinberg
Leon Gluck
Vogtjeck Gluck
Moshe Tabolicki
Zahava Tabolitcki
Rakhel Taboliticki
Hatzkel Abram
Belia Abram
Ossia Joseph Abram
Sigmund Selig Cohn
Ida Cohn (g. Wintersberg)
Heinrich Herbst (g. Wolf)
Karoline Herbst
Else Zimmak (g. Herbst)
Denny Zimmak
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Thessaloniki, Greece
Born Czernovitz, Austria
Born Wien, Austria
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ritavas, Lithuania
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Lodz, Poland
Born Ostrowye, Poland
Born 1878
Born Ostrowye, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Ilza, Poland
Born Lodz, Poland
Born Lodz, Poland
Born Poland
Born Berlin, Germany
Born Berlin, Germany
Born Berlin, Germany
Born Franksich-Crumbach, Germany
Born Germany
Born Veretski, Czechoslavakia
Born Paris
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Auschwitz
Murdered Auschwitz 1943
Murdered Riga, Latvia 1941
Murdered Riga, Latvia 1941
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Aged 41 Years
Aged 34 Years
Aged 33 Years
Aged 54 Years
Aged 56 Years
Aged 61 Years
Aged 55 Years
Murdered 1941
Aged 56 Years
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Murdered 1941
Aged 40 Years
Aged 38 Years
Aged 34 Years
Aged 34 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 47 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 45 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 68 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 64 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 66 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 45 Years
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Aged 45 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 41 Years
Murdered 1943
Aged 38 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 35 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 33 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 28 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 34 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 31 Years
Murdered 1942
Aged 67 Years
Murdered Auschwitz 1944
Aged 36 Years
Murdered Kielce pogrom, Poland 1946 Aged 23 Years
Murdered Kielce pogrom, Poland 1946 Aged 21 Years
Murdered Theresienstadt 1942
Aged 55 Years
Murdered Theresienstadt
Aged 65 Years
Murdered Auschwitz
Aged 28 Years
Murdered Auschwitz
Aged 2 Years
Murdered Auschwitz 1942
Born Kartuz Bereze
Murdered Bronna Gora, Poland, 1942
Aged 64 Years.
Born Zambrow
Murdered Bronna Gora, Poland
Aged 54 Years
Born Kartuz Bereze
Murdered in Bronna Gora, Poland 1942 Aged 17 Years
Born Belorussia
Murdered Riga Ghetto, Latvia 1941 Aged 51 Years
Born Suwalki, Poland
Murdered Riga Ghetto, Latvia 1941 Aged 45 Years
Born Riga, Latvia
Murdered K.I.A. Battle of Tartu, Estonia 1941 Aged 19 Years
Born Friedland, Krs. Stargard, Germany Murdered Riga-Jungfernhof, 1941
Aged 67 Years
Born Wolfhagen, Hess-Nass, Germany Murdered Riga-Jungfernhof, 1941
Aged 66 Years
Born Nowy Sacz, Germany
Murdered Treblinka, 1942
Aged 64 Years
Born Jever, Germany
Murdered Treblinka, 1942
Aged 64 Years
Born Oldenburg, Germany
Murdered 1942
Aged 27 Years
Born Hamburg, Germany
Murdered 1942
Aged 9 Months
…We will always remember
21
Holocaust Memorial Day Candle Lighting
It is traditional at Holocaust memorial events to light six candles in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the
Shoah. In Ireland, we also light candles in memory of all of the other victims of Nazi atrocities.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES:
In memory of people with disabilities and disabling conditions who were murdered, starved to death and forcibly sterilised by doctors and other willing helpers.
Candle-lighters: Deirdre Spain of Inclusion Ireland; and John Dolan, CEO of Disability Federation of Ireland
POLES, SLAVS and ETHNIC MINORITIES:
In memory of millions of Poles and Slavs who were murdered, displaced, and forcibly ‘Aryanised’ by the Nazis; and the
thousands of ethnic minorities who were persecuted, sterilised and murdered.
Candle-lighters: Joanna Rodziewicz and Thabi Madide, writer
GYPSIES (ROMA/SINTI):
In memory of the Romany people of Europe who were rounded up, murdered, displaced and forcibly sterilised by the
Nazis.
Candle-lighters: Cristian Muresan and Fatima Parulea, The Roma Project in Pavee Point
HOMOSEXUALS:
In memory of homosexual men and women who were persecuted and murdered because of their sexual orientation.
Candle-lighters: Patrick Dempsey and Lesley Fitzpatrick of BeLonG To
POLITICAL VICTIMS:
In memory of the political victims of the Holocaust - Socialists, Communists, Trade Unionists, Democrats, and other
anti-Nazi organisations.
Candle-lighters: Ben Briscoe, former TD and Lord Mayor of Dublin, and Anne Fay, President of the Irish National
Teachers’ Organisation
CHRISTIAN VICTIMS:
In memory of Christian victims of all denominations including the Jehovah’s Witnesses who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis.
Candle-lighters: The Rev Maurice Elliott and Sister Phil Conroy, of the Sisters of Sion
JEWISH VICTIMS
Six candles are dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews, including one-and-a-half million children, who were
annihilated in the Holocaust by the Nazis and their collaborators. Jews were murdered in concentration camps and death
camps, Jews perished in the ghettos, Jews died of starvation and disease, Jews were shot in the forests and Jews were
murdered in the streets and in their homes.
Candle-lighters:
Candle-lighters are children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, second and third generation. All of them lost
countless members of their families who perished in the Holocaust.
• Joe Katz, whose mother, Frida, survived Auschwitz
• Sharlette Caplin, whose father, Raphael Urbach, survived Buchenwald and Theresienstadt
• Emma Zinn-Collis, whose father, Zoltan, survived Bergen-Belsen
• Brenda Borchardt, whose grandparents Hatzkel Abram and Belia Abram and other family members perished
• Mary Drechsler, whose grandparents Josef Drechsler and Bedriska Drechsler and other family members perished
• Mark Hainbach, whose grandparents, Heinrich Hainbach and Selma Hainbach and other family members
perished in the Holocaust
22
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
The only public Holocaust memorial monument in Ireland was unveiled in
The Garden of Europe in Listowel Co Kerry in May 1995.
The occasion marked fifty years since the end of World War ll
when the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed.
Paddy Fitzgibbon, of the Rotary Club of Listowel, made a very moving speech on that occassion;
an excerpt is printed below:
Our generation, and the generation or two after us, will be the last that will be able to say
that we stood and shook the hands of some of those who survived.
Go home from this place and tell your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren
that today in Listowel, you looked into eyes that witnessed the most cataclysmic events
ever unleashed by mankind upon mankind.
Tell them that you met people who will still be remembered and still talked about
and still wept over 10,000 years from now – because if they are not, there will be no hope for us at all.
The Holocaust happened and it can happen again, and every one of us,
if only out of our own sense of self-preservation,
has a solemn duty to ensure that nothing like it ever occurs again.
23
Holocaust Memorial Day
REFERENCES and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
HONOURED GUESTS
Suzi Diamond – Bergen-Belsen
Jan Kaminski – Bilgoraj, Poland
Inge Radford – Vienna
Tomi Reichental – Bergen-Belsen
Doris Segal – Sudetenland
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Hole in the Heart of the World, by Jonathan Kaufman, Penguin Books, 1997
Histories of the Holocaust, by Dan Stone, Oxford University Press, 2010
Enclycopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, by Shmuel Spector and Geoffrey Wigoder, New York University Press 2001
If this is a Man. The Truce, by Primo Levi, Penguin books, 1979, reprinted 2005
The End, Germany 1944-45, by Ian Kershaw, Penguin Books, 2011
The Gossamer Wall, Poems in Witness to the Holocaust, by Micheal O’Siadhail, Bloodaxe Books, 2002
The Hare with Amber Eyes. A Hidden Inheritance, by Edmund de Waal, Chatto & Windus London, 2010
The Third Reich at War, how the Nazis led Germany from conquest to disaster, by Richard J. Evans, Penguin Books, 2008
The Legacies of the Holocaust in Europe after 1989, by Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke, Danish Institute of International Studies, DIIS working paper 2009:36
IMAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS and ILLUSTRATIONS
Front cover image, Tisa Van der Schulenburg
Map of Europe showing Nazi domination, c.1942, USHMM
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gate-tower and Ramp, courtesy Panstwowe Muzeum,
Auchwitz Birkenau, Poland
Map of Europe showing number of Jews murdered, Atlas of the Holocaust by
Michael Gilbert, Routledge
Avoid Jewish doctors and lawyers, Imperial War Museum
Mary Elmes, courtesy Elmes family
Belzec planted with grasslands, Chris Schwartz, Galicia Jewish Museum
Mauthausen prisoner orchestra, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
Death March, KZ-Gedenkstädte Dachau, Germany
Park bench ‘Not for Jews’, Hulton Archive, Getty images
Displaced Persons baking daily bread, Germany, 1946, CHGS
Political Prisoners being arrested, USHMM
Einsatzgruppen in action, Imperial War Museum
Polish prisoner, Flossenbürg, USHMM
Entrance to park forbidden, Yad Vashem
Righteous Certificate, Yad Vashem
Haggada in Gurs transit camp, Yad Vashem
‘Sharing the load!’, reproduced in a biology textbook by Jakob Graf USHMM
Jesse Owens, USHMM
Shoes in Auschwitz, courtesy Riva Neuman
Jews forced to scrub the streets after the Anschluss, Vienna 1938
Slave labour, National archives, Washington
Jews not allowed, Yad Vashem
Tattooed arms, Getty Images
Jewish partisans in forest, Yad Vashem
Torched synagogue, Yad Vashem
Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes, Vienna, Austria
Wannsee List, Yad Vashem
Kindertransport child, Yad Vashem
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The committee wishes to acknowledge the co-operation of:
The Department of Justice and Equality
The Lord Mayor of Dublin and Dublin City Council
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS and GRANTS
The commemoration was made possible through the generosity of:
The Department of Justice and Equality
Dublin City Council
The Dublin Maccabi Charitable Trust
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland
The Sisters of Sion
The Council for Christians and Jews
Private donations
MASTER of CEREMONIES: Yanky Fachler
Music: Lynda Lee, soprano; Dermot Dunne, accordion
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY COMMITTEE:
Debbie Briscoe, Oliver Donohoe, Clement Esebanen, Yanky Fachler, Chris Donohoe-Harbidge, Lynn Jackson, Estelle Menton, Marilyn Taylor
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland: Tel: 00 353 1 6690593 Email: [email protected]
www.hetireland.org
BOOKLET
Writing & Research: Lynn Jackson Proofreader: Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Printing: Print Bureau, Inchicore, Dublin 8 Design: Siobhan O’Reilly, Print Bureau
©2013 Holocaust Education Trust Ireland. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.
24
Message from the Taoiseach
Holocaust Memorial Day
The Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration is designed to cherish the memory
When the full horrors of the Holocaust were revealed with the Allied victory over fascism
in the Second World War, the world said, Never again!
Yet we can unfortunately see that intolerance and xenophobia have not gone away. Even in
European democracies memories begin to fade and a new generation must learn and come
to terms with the dark ghosts of our history and ensure that it never can happen again.
The protection of human rights is a central element in the values that bind us with our
partners as members of the European Union. So it is fitting that in the year during which
we hold the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, we also launch and play a leading
role in marketing the Year of the Citizens, which is intended to focus on the importance
of our rights as citizens of the European Union. Not least among these are the rights of
all EU citizens to live their lives in peace without harassment or discrimination.
of all of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
A candle-lighting ceremony is an integral part of the commemoration
at which six candles are always lit for the six million Jews who perished,
as well as candles for all of the other victims.
The commemoration serves as a constant reminder of the dangers of racism and intolerance
and provides lessons from the past that are relevant today.
Human rights are not just to be protected within our individual borders or within Europe’s borders. The promotion
of human rights is an essential of our values.
Yours sincerely,
Enda Kenny T.D.,
Taoiseach
Message from the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí
Summary of the Declaration of the
Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust
Issued in January 2000, on the 55th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945,
and endorsed by all participating countries, including Ireland
We, the governments attending the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust,
recognise that the Holocaust was a tragically defining episode of the 20th century, a
I am honoured to be hosting this Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 today in the Round
Room of the Mansion House on behalf of the people of Dublin. Holocaust Memorial
Day is now an important date in the calendar of the city and is a reminder of suffering
which has been and continues to be inflicted on man. It is important that this suffering
is not forgotten and the lessons of history are not unheeded.
crisis for European civilisation and a universal catastrophe for humanity. In declaring
that the Holocaust fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilisation, we share a
commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, and to honour those who
stood against it. The horrors that engulfed the Jewish people and other victims of the
Held on the nearest Sunday to 27 January it marks the date of the liberation of AuschwitzBirkenau in 1945. Older Irish people here today will remember the pictures from that
liberation and the shock felt at the acts of inhumanity suffered by the Jewish community
and those of other faiths. It is important that we never forget these acts and we deepen
our resolve that they should never happen again.
Nazis must forever be seared in our collective memory. With humanity still scarred by
I would like to welcome here today survivors and descendants of survivors of the
Holocaust who have made Dublin and Ireland their home.
a commitment to remember the victims who perished, to respect the survivors still with
Thank you to the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland for their hard work this year and every year in educating about
the Holocaust and its consequences. In particular I thank them for organising today’s event.
Naoise Ó Muirí
Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath
Lord Mayor of Dublin
Front cover image: Tisa van der Schulenburg
genocide, antisemitism, ethnic cleansing, racism, xenophobia and other expressions of
hatred and discrimination, we share a solemn responsibility to fight against these evils.
Together with our European partners and the wider international community, we share
us, and to reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for a democratic and tolerant society,
free of the evils of prejudice and other forms of bigotry.
2013
Dublin
January 2013
Learning from the past ~
lessons for today
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland
Clifton House, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.
Telephone: +353-1-669 0593 Email: [email protected] www.hetireland.org
© 2013 Holocaust Education Trust Ireland. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing.
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland
in association with
The Department of Justice and Equality
Dublin City Council
Dublin Maccabi Charitable Trust
Jewish Representative Council of Ireland
Sisters of Sion, Council for Christians and Jews