Free Republic

There are few remaining survivors of concentration camps. Ed Mosberg is one of them. And the 93-year-old from Morris Plains, NJ, has no time for Rep. ­Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s statements last week, when she called the southern border’s migrant detention centers “concentration camps.” “She should be removed from Congress. She’s spreading anti-Semitism, hatred and stupidity,” Mosberg told The Post. “The people on the border aren’t forced to be there — they go there on their own will. If someone doesn’t know the difference, either they’re playing stupid or they just don’t care.” On June 18, the Bronx/Queens politician posted a video...

“See you tomorrow, promise to be a good boy,” were the last words addressed in 1942 to a six-year-old by his mother when she dropped him off at his kindergarten in Amsterdam. She was arrested a few hours later by the SS, deported together with her husband, sent by train to concentration camps, and murdered in Auschwitz. She was one of the 107,000 Jews who were victims of the Holocaust in the Netherlands in which the head of the occupying regime, Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, instituted a reign of terror. Civilians were subjected to forced labor in Germany as well...

DeSean Jackson accepted an invitation to visit Auschwitz as he attempts to make amends with the Jewish community after sharing anti-Semitic quotes incorrectly attributed to Adolf Hitler on social media. Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg invited the Philadelphia Eagles receiver to visit the former concentration camp in Poland, according to Aaron Reich of The Jerusalem Post.

A U.K. exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz includes works by an artist more often seen in front of the camera than behind it: Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and an avid amateur photographer. Middleton contributed two portraits to the Royal Photographic Society’s exhibit of photos of Holocaust survivors with their grandchildren... In a statement, Middleton said that she wanted to emulate Anne Frank’s “sensitive and intimate” depiction of the Holocaust. But even more visible in her portraits is the influence of the non-Jewish source from whom she took inspiration: the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes...

When the Bible says that mankind was created “in the image of God” we gain from that an understanding of our capabilities. We also learn about the inherent worth of human life. What is a person worth? Ninety-nine percent of a human body consists of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The remaining one percent consists of minor elements and trace elements. If you purchased these chemicals on the market, you would have to spend a bit more than $100. Most of us believe people are worth more than $100. Yet not everyone. The Nazis considered Jews,...

This week began with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and ends with the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. These two events are not unconnected, for per yours truly on page 105 of America Alone the EU is "a 1970s solution to a 1940s problem". They shouldn't really be quite so entwined, but as I said to Laura Rosen Cohen on the seventieth anniversary: I think they drew the wrong conclusion from 'Never Again'. The Jews were sort of peripheral to the meaning of that. I think what 'Never Again' means to a Continental...

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, take time to remember the victims, remember the survivors, and remember Carl Lutz, the man responsible for the largest civilian rescue mission of the entire Holocaust.As the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan. 27, victims and survivors will be honored with incredible stories of bravery and sacrifice. This year marks the 75th anniversary of liberation and the end of the Second World War, plus the 125th anniversary of the birth of Carl Lutz, a man whose story remains mostly lost to history. LutzÂ’s actions toward the end of the war make him responsible for...

WARSAW, Poland — Over the next several days, world leaders will gather twice to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of Nazi Germany’s death camps. That there will be two competing ceremonies — one in Jerusalem on Thursday and the other at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland on Monday — underlines how politically charged World War II remains... Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945. But the country had also signed a nonaggression accord with the Nazis shortly before the war began in 1939, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. It contained a...

While this may surprise many, there is actually an old dispute between historians over the intentionality of the Holocaust. In academic circles, it is called the Intentionalism vs. Functionalism debate. Intentionalists simply argue the Nazis intended to annihilate the Jews all along consistent with their oft-repeated statements, and finally took seriously their plans to do so from 1938 onwards. Functionalists, on the other hand, strongly argue that in spite of the earlier violent shrills of Nazis rhetoric against the Jews, the Holocaust itself occurred in a rather ad hoc manner based largely on differing and evolving circumstances that became increasingly...

A German town and Josef Mengele, Auschwitz 'angel of death' As the Red Army approached Auschwitz, the Nazi "angel of death," Josef Mengele, fled. He outlived many of his victims. The people who survived his experiments remain scarred; his birthplace struggles with his legacy. Lidia Maksymowicz was 3 years old when she and her family arrived at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in December 1943, deported by Nazi Germany from the Minsk area in Belarus. It was late at night. The ramp was brightly lit. SS troops were shouting. Guard dogs were barking. Families were violently torn apart. Lidia was separated...

... On Thursday, the memorial site will be visited by the most senior Muslim figure to date: Sheikh Mohammed al-Eissa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League, who represents over a billion Muslims worldwide. Al-Eissa, who previously served as Saudi justice minister, will make his way to the former camp with David Harris, the director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). This joint visit by a high-ranking 54-year-old Islamic scholar and a 70-year-old descendant of Holocaust survivors is nothing short of remarkable.

A Polish museum on Sunday slammed US e-commerce giant Amazon for selling Christmas ornaments with images of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, calling them inappropriate. The museum at the site of the former camp in southern Poland tweeted screenshots of the items showing train tracks and barracks and requested that Amazon remove them from their site. "Selling 'Christmas ornaments' with images of Auschwitz does not seem appropriate. Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful," the museum tweeted. The museum added later that Amazon appeared to have removed the items -- but then posted a follow-up saying...

Amazon has withdrawn a range of "Christmas ornaments" displaying images of a former concentration camp that sellers had posted on its website. The move followed a tweet from Poland's Auschwitz Memorial calling on the retailer to remove the "disturbing and disrespectful" merchandise. It included Christmas tree decorations, a bottle opener and a mouse-pad.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) refused Sunday to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp, after a Jewish group had invited her to tour that camp and others this summer to educate herself about the facts of the Holocaust. Last Monday evening, Ocasio-Cortez compared detention facilities for illegal aliens caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to “concentration camps,” adding the phrase “never again,” which commonly refers to the Nazi Holocaust. The remark drew outrage and criticism, even from fellow Democrats. Nevertheless, Ocasio-Cortez doubled down, first claiming that she had not been referring to Nazi Germany, then drawing parallels to the U.S. internment of Japanese-Americans...

A Palestinian professor takes a group of Arab students to visit Auschwitz.

75 years ago this month, on November 3, 1943, some 43,000 Jews were gathered, shot and killed from various death and concentration camps the Nazis had set up in Poland. The SS called the action “Operation Erntefest,” which means “Harvest Festival.” Such a designation given by the Nazis themselves ....

JTA — Rep. Steve King of Iowa met with members of a far-right Austrian political party and gave a sympathetic interview to a related publication after participating on a trip to Poland sponsored by a Holocaust education group. King, a Republican, met with members of the Freedom Party, or FPOe, in Austria following an August trip that included visits to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and meetings with Holocaust survivors,

The first Polish private claim against the German government for compensation over medical experiments at the Auschwitz death camp was to be lodged on Friday with a district court in Warsaw, according to a report. The claim "will be submitted by the family of a prisoner" who was held at the Nazi German-run camp, lawyer Stefan Hambura, who represents Polish citizens in disputes with German institutions, told reporters. Public broadcaster Polish Radio cited Hambura as saying he hoped there would be more such suits. More than 1.1 million people perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during World War II, mostly...

Poland has amended its controversial Holocaust law that made it a crime punishable by up to three years in jail to say “Polish concentration camps,” four months after the law went into effect. Polish lawmakers voted on Wednesday by a vote of 388-25, with five abstentions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is pleased that Poland “fully rescinded” clauses in its Holocaust law. “I’m pleased that the Polish government, the parliament, the senate and the president of Poland decided today to fully rescind the clauses that were signed and caused a storm and consternation in Israel and among the international...

My daughter is an avid history buff and has, over the past few years, done quite a bit of reading on the Nazi concentration camps. I would love to take her to some of these sites some day, but for now all I can do is get some first-hand pics of someone else's visit. If anyone has been to any of the concentration camp memorial sites and has pics they could share it would be greatly appreciated.