Nazis used cattle cars to transport Jews and others to concentration camps. They offered no food or water to those in the  crowded stifling cars.  Some died on the way.  Most  were gassed on arrival and then burned in ovens.  Photos by Paul Goldfinger from the live streamed commemorative broadcast from Israel.

Nazi shooting of civilians. Times of Israel.

Women in concentration camps had their hair shaved off.  Most who arrived in the camps were murdered. They were stripped naked and marched into “showers.”

SS guards greet the trains and then storm the doors.

Paul Goldfinger, MD.   Editor  Blogfinger.net.

In Israel the event was held at Yad Vashem, the amazing Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.  There also is a remarkable Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

6 million innocent Jews were killed by the Nazis as were many millions more across  Europe and Russia. But the Holocaust towards Jews was just born out of hatred–with no valid reasons.

Hitler almost succeeded in accomplishing the “final solution.”   Despite all the dead, there were survivors, and they often dedicate themselves to telling their stories in an effort to prevent hate alone from destroying lives in the future.

Survivor is reunited with family in New York City.

A personal note: I am a 2nd generation American. My family, Jewish, came from Poland and Austria around 1900.  Both sides undoubtedly lived in those locations for at least 400 years.

I knew of no family connections over there.

Most of us undoubtedly lost most or all of our relatives in Europe to the murderous Nazi  blitz. Hitler wiped out the vast majority of Jewish communities in Europe, especially in eastern Europe–where millions lived.

I was going through my mother’s possessions. I knew that our family had nothing from the “old country.”  They came here with very little.

But I found a photograph dated 1938 of one of our cousins in Poland. It must have been sent to Mom’s family in Bayonne, NJ.   And the handwriting on the front indicates that some contact was maintained and that we did learn of his fate.

From my mother’s side of the family (Poland.) 1938  “Dr. Maury”

On the back he wrote a personal note:   “To my dearest New World cousins.”

He signed it and dated it: “1938”

Unfortunately he didn’t escape.  I wish we knew more about him, but at least I know that he existed and should be mourned.  From his brief greeting on the back, I think I would have liked him.

Kristallnacht occurred in Germany in 1938.  Little did our cousin know that the Nazis would invade Poland in 1939 and would go about killing every Jew that they could find, and they spent a lot of manpower and resources  to do that.

One Jewish child was killed with her Mom,  and the child  was only 30 minutes old.  The crazed Nazis spared no one.

On April 27, 2022, for the Holocaust commemoration, the Bundestag (Germany) President Barbel Bas was welcomed at an official ceremony in the Knesset  (Israel parliament.)

She said, “The lessons of the Holocaust oblige us to give no place to antisemitism.  Germany’s responsibility hasn’t ended. We stand alongside Israel.”

ALEXANDER DESPLAT FROM  The Grand Budapest Hotel    Soundtrack:   “Last Will and Testament.”