death camp

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Auschwitz Museum Conserves 'Only Trace Left' of Children Killed

Specialists are preserving 8K shoes of Nazis' youngest victims at Polish death camp

(Newser) - In a modern conservation laboratory on the grounds of the former Auschwitz camp, a man wearing blue rubber gloves uses a scalpel to scrape away rust from the eyelets of small brown shoes worn by children before they were murdered in gas chambers. Colleagues at the other end of a...

Antisemitic Graffiti Now Covers Auschwitz

9 barracks vandalized Tuesday with English, German slurs

(Newser) - Antisemitic terms and other phrases denying the Holocaust appeared Tuesday on at least nine buildings at the site of the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz, where at least 1.1 million prisoners died during the Holocaust, 90% of whom were Jews. The spray-painted graffiti was written in English and...

Centenarian to Face Trial for Nazi Death Camp Crimes

100-year-old man was said to have been a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin

(Newser) - There aren't many living Nazi war crimes suspects still wandering the Earth, but one more is about to face a reckoning. As Reuters reports, a 100-year-old man will go to trial in October, about 75 years after he's accused of having been a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration...

Researchers Use Film to ID Toddlers Taken to Bergen-Belsen

All 3 who were IDed survived WWII

(Newser) - The footage has appeared in countless documentaries: scenes filmed in 1944 at the Nazi transit camp Westerbork, where Dutch Jews were transported to death camps in Germany and occupied Poland. Now, two children who appear through the window of a train bound for Bergen-Belsen for less than three seconds have...

Former Nazi Guard, 100, Charged as Accessory to Murder

Unnamed man hit with more than 3.5K counts

(Newser) - German prosecutors have charged a 100-year-old man with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder on allegations he served during World War II as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin, authorities said Tuesday. The man is alleged to have worked at...

Auschwitz Memorial Calls New Amazon Show 'Dangerous Foolishness'

'Hunters' invented game of 'human chess'

(Newser) - A new Amazon Prime series about Nazi hunters includes some "dangerous foolishness," according to the Auschwitz Memorial. The memorial has strongly criticized a scene in which inmates are forced to kill each other in a game of "human chess," NBC reports. The memorial, a charity devoted...

He Long Denied Role in 28K Deaths. Now, This

Historian says this is John Demjanjuk

(Newser) - Two newly released photos might confirm what John Demjanjuk long denied—his service as a Nazi death camp guard, the LA Times reports. The Ukrainian-born American claimed he was never at the Sobibor death camp, where more than 167,000 Jews were murdered, and died in 2012 appealing a conviction...

Death Camp's Last Survivor Won't See It Transformed

Former Sobibor prisoner Semion Rosenfeld dead at 96

(Newser) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has paid tribute to the last known survivor of the uprising at the Sobibor extermination camp following his death at a Tel Aviv retirement home at age 96. "May his memory be a blessing," Netanyahu writes of Semion Rosenfeld, one of only 47...

The Term 'Polish Death Camp' Soon to Be Illegal in Poland

Many Poles support the legislation

(Newser) - The Polish government approved a new bill on Tuesday that foresees prison terms of up to three years for anyone who uses phrases like "Polish death camps" to refer to Auschwitz and other camps that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II, the AP reports. The...

'Nazi Grandma' Sent to Prison for Denying Holocaust

 'Nazi Grandma' 
 Sent to Prison 
 for Denying 
 Holocaust 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

'Nazi Grandma' Sent to Prison for Denying Holocaust

87-year-old German woman insists Auschwitz wasn't proven to be death camp

(Newser) - Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel says there's no proof that Auschwitz was a death camp and that that's "only a belief." Those thoughts spoken in a Hamburg court Thursday—and others, such as the "Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history" comment she made on...

Doc, Court: Ex-Auschwitz Guard, 93, Fit to Stand Trial

He's charged with 170K counts of accessory to murder

(Newser) - A German court says a 93-year-old former SS sergeant charged with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as an Auschwitz death camp guard has been declared fit for trial. The Detmold state court said Monday a doctor determined that Reinhold H., whose last name wasn'...

Archaeologists Exhume Thousands of Nazi Victims
 Archaeologists Exhume 
 Thousands of Nazi Victims 
in case you missed it

Archaeologists Exhume Thousands of Nazi Victims

Soldiers' remains will be given proper burial in Poland

(Newser) - Over the course of six weeks, archaeologists have exhumed the remains of an estimated 3,000 men from eight mass graves in southeastern Poland—bones belonging to nearly-impossible-to-identify soldiers who were victims of the Nazis. The Soviet and Italian troops were interned in a German stalag near the city of...

Thief Makes Off With Holocaust Victims' Shoes

Cops probing theft at Majdanek camp

(Newser) - Director James Cameron made it to the world's deepest spot a couple of years ago, but a thief in Poland has found a way to sink even lower: stealing the shoes of people murdered by the Nazis 70 years ago. Police say at least eight shoes were stolen from...

Gas Chambers Discovered at Razed Death Camp

Sobibor dig also uncovers inscribed wedding ring

(Newser) - After seven years of searching, archaeologists digging in Poland have found the exact location of the Sobibor death camp's gas chambers. Less had been known about this concentration camp's chambers, which were razed by the Nazis along with the rest of the site following a prisoner uprising in...

Rabbi Detained for Singing at Auschwitz

His group sang songs their grandparents sang as they were led to their deaths

(Newser) - Is singing appropriate at a memorial site, where it might bother other visitors? What if it's not just any singing, but an homage to relatives who sang those very songs as they were led to their deaths at Auschwitz? An Israeli rabbi who was there guiding a group of...

Accused Nazi About to Be Extradited Dies in US

Philadelphia's Johann Breyer, 89, was a guard at Auschwitz

(Newser) - An 89-year-old Philly man suspected of Nazi war crimes died last night in a local hospital, the AP reports—the same day a judge issued an order to have him extradited to Germany. Former toolmaker Johann Breyer had been arrested in June, and German prosecutors wanted to try him for...

Walmart Sorry for Decorative Death Camp Poster

Picture of Dachau gate removed from sale at Sears, Amazon

(Newser) - A decorative poster that would supposedly "make a great addition to your home or office" according to its online listing was quickly pulled from sale by Walmart and other retailers over the weekend after customers pointed out that it featured the front gate of a Nazi concentration camp. Walmart...

Germany Has Tracked Down 40 Auschwitz Guards

They're still alive, and could face prosecution

(Newser) - Germany's last-ditch effort to go after Nazi guards has reportedly taken a big step forward. An investigation based on a list of 50 former Auschwitz guards who were never prosecuted found that at least 40 of them are still alive and living in Germany—and they may now face...

'Escape Tunnel' Found Under Concentration Camp

It ran from barracks under a barbed wire fence at Sobibor

(Newser) - Archaeologists think they've found the first evidence of prisoners trying to dig their way out of a Nazi death camp. The find comes after more than a decade of excavations at the Sobibor camp in Poland; Nazis leveled the place after its prisoners revolted in 1943, LiveScience explains. In...

Holocaust Survivor Tries Viral Search for Lost Twin
Holocaust Survivor's Search for Lost Twin Goes Viral
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Holocaust Survivor's Search for Lost Twin Goes Viral

Genealogist hoping Facebook can help locate 'Jolli'

(Newser) - Menachem Bodner doesn't remember the horrors he suffered as an experiment subject of Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. But he knows he had a twin brother, and deep down always believed he was alive somewhere. Now, thanks to help from a genealogist, the 72-year-old has proof his brother, Jolli,...

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