Although the
Holocaust ended over 70 years ago with the liberation of the concentration
camps by the allied forces, the lessons from this tragic event are still relevant
today. Xenophobia still exists today, even after around 7 million people were
killed, and the world agreed that this could never be allowed to happen again.
For example, only two years ago in 2015, eight synagogues were attacked with
messages such as “Death to Jews”. This example is only one of many that brings
to light the concerning levels of anti-Semitism and hate crimes across Europe
and the world. The atrocities of the Holocaust must not be forgotten, and many
other genocides have occurred since then, such as in Rwanda in 1990 and Bosnia
in 1995, thus showing that the world has not learnt from its past. From each
story of an individual from the Holocaust, I hope to teach as many as I can
about the atrocities of the event, and how the world must learn from this
horrific event.
Saturday, 13 May 2017
Reinhold Hanning
Reinhold Hanning, an SS officer who met
Jewish prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau and escorted them to the
gas chambers, is an example of the blinding of individuals that the Nazi regime
was able to achieve. He joined the Hilter Youth at 14 and, at the outbreak of
the Second World War, volunteered for the Waffen-SS, a volunteer army that
worked alongside the regular army and uniformed police. In 1942, Reinhold
Hanning was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he was one of the officers who met
the prisoners when they were getting of the trains into the concentration camp.
He was then transferred to Sachsenhausen in June 1944, and became a prisoner of
war in May 1945, shortly after the liberation of Sachsenhausen. In 2013,
Reinhold Hanning was investigated with the intention of proving him responsible
for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. After three years of investigations
he was convicted of 170,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and
sentenced to 5 years in jail. However, Reinhold Hanning continually denied the
charges, thus highlighting that he did not see what he was doing as a crime,
but as a duty passed to him from the leader of his country.
Although Reinhold Hanning has been convicted
and is seen as a war criminal, he is an essential part in learning about the
Holocaust and the Nazi regime, as he represents the human involvement of the
Nazi party, something which is forgotten in history, and which can lead to the repetition
of this horrific event.
Krystyna Cyankiewicz – 6820
Born on 27th May 1917, Krystyna
Cyankiewicz was still a student when she was apprehended by the Nazi regime and
moved to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. On 27th April 1942, she
arrived at Auschwitz, where she remained for nearly three years. The Nazi
evacuation of the Auschwitz occurred between 17th and 21st January 1945, as the
Nazi’s wanted to remove proof of the concentration and extermination camp
before its discovery and liberation by allied troops. Originally, the
evacuation columns were supposed to consist of healthy people that were strong
enough to march many kilometres so that they were able to follow the railway
tracks out of the camp. However, many ill people and children were also
evacuated from the camp through the use of trains as a more efficient way of
removing proof from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Krystyna Cyankiewicz was involved in
the foot evacuation of Auschwitz, but was able to escape during the evacuation,
and attempted to flee so that she did not have to follow the marching prisoners
along the train tracks. It is unclear as to whether she was successful in
fleeing from the marches, but she is listed as being liberated by the allied
troops when they liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27th January 1945.
Mikołaj Gordziejczky – 6017
Mikołaj Gordziejczky, born on 19th
December 1910 in Białoruś, the modern day country of Belarus, worked as
a teacher until his detainment during World War Two. On 14th October 1940 he
arrived at Auschwitz, and was forced to do hard labour for the Nazi’s for a
just under a year. In June 1941, Mikołaj
Gordziejczky was transferred to the Euthanasia Centre in Sonnenstein, whose
name translates from German as the “National Socialist Killing Insitution”,
which was codenamed “Special Treatment 14f13, a programme that was abandoned by
Hitler in September 1941. Sadly, Mikołaj Gordziejczky was murdered at the
Euthanasia Centre in Sonnenstein on 29th July 1941, most likely due to him
supporting the socialist movement in Białoruś.
Charles Alban - 45160
Born in Paris on 3rd November 1902,
Charles Alban worked as a metal worker before the outbreak of war in 1939.
Since 1934, Charles Alban had been associated with the Communist party, and was
believed to be a strong supporter, something which greatly opposed the Nazi
rule that was spreading across Europe. On 5th October 1940, he was arrested by
French police under Nazi rule, and became a political deport from France to the
Nazi controlled countries shortly after his arrest. As a political depot,
Charles Albert was probably sent straight to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he was
subject to hard labour throughout the day. After around a year and a half at
Auschwitz, Charles Alban was murdered on 2nd August 1942, and remains an example
of the Nazi party’s attempt to remove all opposition to their regime from
across Europe.
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| Pictured - Charles Alban's photo taken on his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau |
Adolf & Alfred Adler - Z-2803 & Z-2804
Adolf and Alfred Adler, born in Dortmund, Germany on 12th May 1941,
and 30th May 1942 respectively illustrate the ruthlessness of the Nazi regime
and attempt to ‘ethnically cleanse’ the country. These two young boys were part
of the Romani and Sinti ethnic minority who were targeted by the Nazi regime,
and who were segregated in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The minority group was used as
test subjects for the Nazi doctors in Auschwitz, and throughout the Second
World War, they were investigated as something of an ‘oddity’ in society as they
did not conform to the Nazi regime. Mengele, possibly the most well-known Nazi
doctor at Auschwitz set up a kindergarten for the Romani children, whereby he
was able to observe and experiment on the children in an environment that was
somewhat familiar to them. It is unknown as to whether Adolf or Alfred Adler
were subject to Mengele’s experiments, but for most of the Romani and Sinti
prisoners at Auschwitz, this was the case. Sadly, Adolf Adler, when he was just
under two years of age was murdered at Auschwitz on 23rd March 1943, and his
brother Alfred Adler, less than a year old, was murdered the following day.
Iwan Akatowskij - R-3091
Iwan Akatowskij was born on 26th March
1915 in Romanowka, which would become part of the USSR when it was founded in
1922. At the start of WWII, the USSR enforced conscription for all men aged 18
to 51, and Iwan Akatowskij, aged 24, joined the Russian army. In June 1941, he
was captured by the Nazis, and sent to Prisoner of War (POW) camps just inside
the German controlled land until being deported to Auschwitz around a month
later. Records show that Soviet Prisoners of War were recorded separately on the
Russisches Kriegsgefangenlager, or
the Soviet Prisoner of War records, were detained in a separate part of
Auschwitz I, and forced to work longer and harder as part of the idea to defeat
the enemy and break morale. Like many other Prisoners of War, Iwan Akatowskij
was murdered at Auschwitz on New Year’s Eve, 1941. Although this was justified
as a Prisoner of War killing, the death of Iwan Akatowskij demonstrates how the
Nazi regime was indiscriminate in using people in Auschwitz to increase the
Nazi’s power.
Anna Matteman
Anna Matteman, born on 5th July 1926 in
Amsterdam is not recorded to have had a profession because, at the age of 15 or
16 she was transported from her home in the Netherlands to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. In 1941, just before the Nazi invasion
of the Netherlands, there were around 80,000 Jewish people living in Amsterdam,
many of which had fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s when Hitler came to power.
Anna Matteman being one of these individuals, it is probably that her family
and community were also moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the same time, as part
of the Nazi attempt to transport all Jews to the concentration camps. On 17th
September 1942, Anna Matteman was murdered, most likely with her family.
Jan Dziopek - 5636
Jan Dziopek, born on 27th October 1889 in
Borek Stary, trained and worked as a carpenter throughout his life until very
early in World War Two when, on 8th October 1940, arrived at
Auschwitz-Birkenau. Throughout his time at the concentration camp, he worked on
the Staerkebuch, of the Daily Count Book, which allowed both the Nazis and the
inmates to maintain a record of the prisoners within each barrack at the
Auschwitz concentration camp. These records include the total number of
prisoners, and included the details of each fugitive or prisoner who and died,
been transferred or released. Through doing this, Jan Dziopek was able to
survive five years in Auschwitz by doing this job, and as part of the
evacuation of Auschwitz-Birkenau before the liberation, was evacuated to
Mauthausen in 1945. There are no records to indicate that Jan Dziopek arrived
at Mauthausen or was killed whilst there, however it is likely that by the time
he arrived at the concentration camp, it had already been liberated and he was
free from Nazi control.
Józef Hanzel
Born on 30th January 1915, Józef Hanzel
worked as a clerk before the outbreak of World War Two. It is unclear as to
when he arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, but it is clear that he was taken to the
concentration camp as a political prisoner. Records from the Auschwitz database
demonstrate how Józef Hanzel was sentenced to death by the Police Court-Martial
of the Kattowitz, Sonderkommando Gestapo. This branch of the Gestapo worked in
the Birkenau extermination camp, and worked to ‘remove’ the opposition to the
Nazi party. Jósef Hanzel was murdered by firing squad on 2nd June 1943.
Józef Bodek - 95373
Józef Bodek, born in 1922 provides one of
the most significant stories in researching the Holocaust and the individuals
of Auschwitz. He arrived at the concentration camp on 28th January 1943, and
after some time was transferred to Mauthausen, probably due to the demand of
workers to develop the camp. On 5th May 1945, over two years after Józef Bodek
arrived at Auschwitz, the concentration camp was liberated by American troops.
Nearly 20 years later, Józef Bodek provided a witness testimony in the
Frankfurt process, which was a trial done by the Federal Republic of Germany to
charge SS personal. Altogether, 789 SS personal who served at Auschwitz were
tried, and 750 given sentences. This process was one of the most significant in
German history as it used the German definition of crimes against humanity, and
not that laid out in the Human Rights bill. Józef Bodek, one of the 210
witnesses that testified in the Frankfurt process survived more than two years
in the Nazi concentration camps, which then allowed him to seek the justice
that so many people involved in the Holocaust desired.
Aneila Bodecka - 83234
Born on 25th April 1923, at only 21 years
old, Aneila Bodecka was involved in the Warsaw uprising. This was a rebellion
in the capital of Poland whereby the Polish Resistance Home Army, over the
course of two months, attempted to liberate Warsaw from Nazi occupation. During
this conflict, more than 55,000 civilians were sent to concentration camps,
including 13,000 to Auschwitz, one being Aniela Bodecka, who arrived at the
concentration camp on 12th August 1944. The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration
camp was liberated on 3rd April 1945, however Aneila Bodecka died shortly after
the liberation, the same many other people who were imprisoned there near the
end of World War Two. This is mostly likely due to malnutrition, as a result of
extremely limited food, or infectious diseases that spread through the
concentration camps very quickly. Aneila Bodecka, one of the people who was
involved in the attempted liberation of Warsaw was unable to survive the
traumatic events of Auschwitz-Birkenau, even though she was liberated from the camp
by the allied forces.
Anita Oppenheimer
Anita Oppenheimer, born on 11th May 1923,
lived in Ingelheim, a town in the modern day Rhineland in Germany. She was part
of the “French Deportation Lists” which included people from across France who
were rounded up and transferred by convoy as part of the Nazi occupation of
France during World War Two. The Nazi occupation of Franc led to the creation
of Vichy France, meaning that the country was ruled by a satellite government
of the Nazi regime, and could bargain with Nazi Germany to secure the rights of
their people. The agreement was made during World War Two which meant that only
foreign Jews would be deported to the concentration camps, however many French
Jews were taken as the war progressed, and the Nazi control of many European
countries intensified. Anita Oppenheimer is listed on the records on 17th June
1942 as part of Convoy 6, meaning that she can be presumed to arrive at
Auschwitz within a week. On 26th September 1942, Anita Oppenheimer was murdered
in Auschwitz, but was granted a death certificate, a system that was abandoned
shortly afterwards as it took too long to process all of the victims. It is
unclear as to whether Anita was a foreign or French Jew, but what is clear is
that many more countries than Germany and Poland were affected by the
Holocaust.
Stanisław Głowacki - 131997
Born on 5th August 1911 in Sosnowice,
Stanisław Głowacki was a carpenter who worked in his home town. On 29th
July 1943 he arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was entered
into The Penal Company Book whereby prisoners in Birkenau served their
sentences before being moved either into the Auschwitz camp or onto another
concentration camp. In the same year, Stanisław Głowacki was transferred to
Mauthausen in Austria after completing his sentence in Birkenau. On 19th
January 1945 he was murdered under the Nazi rule, only four months before the
camp was liberated by US troops.
Anna Kulpa - 27193
Anna
Kulpa was born on 15th May 1912 in Jamy, Poland where she went to
school and began working before getting married. However, she was apprehended
for being Jewish and on 16 December 1942 arrived at Auschwitz I. She stayed
there for two years until she was transferred to Ravenbruck and on 30th
April 1945, Ravenbruck was liberated and, after more than two years in
concentration camps, she was able to be free.
Antoni John - 46993
Born
on 14th June 1905 in Wasrzawa, Antoni John trained as a fitter. By
the age of 37 he had arrived at Auschwitz, where he was held in the Prisoners
Hospital Block 20 in Auschwitz 1, which was the ward especially for contagious
diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis or meningitis. However, from records, it
is clear that Antoni John did not die of these diseases, but was murdered on 5th
September 1942.
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