Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara Foundation

01/12/2024

Three Holocaust survivors were reunited more than 70 years later. Tova Friedman, Sarah Ludwig and Michael Bornstein were photographed by a Soviet soldier upon their liberation in January 1945. The three children, all born in Poland, did not know each other during the Holocaust and later immigrated to the United States, settling in different towns in New Jersey.
That changed in 2015, when Tova Friedman attended a Jewish day school fundraiser and saw an image of her younger self at the moment of liberation. She soon learned that the other girl in the photo was Sarah Ludwig. Amazingly, the two women had already met without realizing their connection; Ludwig was a teacher at that very school and had previously taught two of Friedman’s grandchildren.
In 2017, Michael Bornstein was identified as the third child in the photo, and his daughter organized a reunion for the three survivors. In this photograph, they point to the iconic image of their younger selves.

01/12/2024

The N***s occupied our village when I was only 12 years old. At first they didn’t realize we were Jewish. We looked like our neighbors. But then someone reported us. So our home was registered as a Jewish residence. We knew our days were numbered. Time was a ticking bomb. Then late one night a non-Jewish friend of ours showed up at our house.
“Listen to me,” he told us with great urgency. “Dig a hole under your fence and crawl out two at a time. Someone will meet you at the other end and lead you to safety. Tomorrow all the Jews in town will be executed”.
His name was Kazi Bitdayev. And he secretly took all 6 of us to the neighboring village of Zheguta. He hid us there for 8 months, each week coming back for us and relocating us to a new basement or attic. He protected us. He fed us. He was our angel. After the war we searched for him for decades, desperate to thank him for saving our lives. But it was no use. We couldn’t find him.
In 2021, we finally located Kazi’s grandchildren. And got to thank them. A moment I waited for my whole life. Hashem has truly blessed me.
Photo: Zinayida Segal, holding a picture of her rescuer Kazi. She passed away in 2022, one year after finding his family.

30/11/2024

Witold's Report, also known as Pilecki's Report, is a report about the Auschwitz concentration camp written in 1943 by Witold Pilecki, a Polish military officer and member of the Polish resistance. Pilecki volunteered in 1940 to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to organize a resistance movement and send out information about the camp. He escaped from Auschwitz in April 1943. His was the first comprehensive record of a Holocaust death camp to be obtained by the Allies.
The report includes details about the gas chambers, "Selektion", and sterilization experiments. It states that there were three crematoria in Auschwitz II capable of cremating 8,000 people daily.
After WWII, he was imprisoned by the Soviets for "n**i sympathies", was tortured, put on a sham trial and executed. Before his ex*****on he remarked that Auschwitz was easy compared to Soviet "interrogation techniques".

Biograficzna opowieść o bohaterskim rotmistrzu Witoldzie Pileckim, który podczas II wojny światowej ujawnił okrucieństwa, do których dochodziło w Auschwitz.

17/11/2024

Definitely going to see this!

14/11/2024

Just learned about this.

The Ringelblum Archive is a collection of documents from the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, collected and preserved by a group known by the codename Oyneg Shabbos (in Modern Israeli Hebrew, Oneg Shabbat; Hebrew: עונג שבת), led by Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum. The group, which included his...

13/11/2024

an interesting watch

Why did Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a racist and genocidal dictator, agree to accept far more Jewish refugees than any other nation? The answer is a whirlwind ...

22/10/2024

Bob Fletcher, a man who took care of the farms of three Japanese American families while they were interned during World War 2. By keeping their farms running and paying their taxes and mortgages, he ensured the families didn't lose everything. He was even shot at for supporting them.

Bob Fletcher who saved farms of interned Japanese Americans
In the middle of World War II, Bob Fletcher quit his job as a state agricultural inspector to manage the farms of three Japanese neighbors in California who had been sent to internment camps

He tended their crops, paid their taxes and mortgages, and slept in the bunkhouse, refusing to reside in the main house because it wasn't his. For three years, he kept 90 acres of farmland productive and profitable, enduring racist criticism and even once being shot at while inside the barn. When the families returned, they found the profits deposited into their bank accounts and their houses cleaned for their homecoming.

Read the full story here: Bob Fletcher: The Unsung Hero Who Protected Japanese-American Farms During World War II

17/10/2024

We will be watching:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/sNNvzJdbkWgBWo3Q/?mibextid=WC7FNe

05/09/2024

After the invasion, Otto Frank tried desperately to get his family out of occupied Holland.
No visas for the United States were available in the Netherlands; the only chance anyone had to reach a neutral country was by a detour through another country like Cuba.
On 12 October 1941, Otto Frank reached out to an old friend, Nathan Strauss, who lived in New York, for help. He wrote:
“…I do not know your intentions and I am grateful for all you do. As far as I see there are difficulties too if I would go alone as I was told, that permission to enter the U.S.A. will not be given if members of the family remain in occupied territory.
I am sure that my brothers-in-law will do all to help and they certainly will pay à fond perdu the amounts necessary to get the Cuban visas for all of us.
As far as I know this amounts to $530,—. They certainly will not be able to deposit money necessary to get the visas, even if this money will be refunded later. As you see there is no chance for me to do anything without a Cuba visum.
If it is not possible to act for all of us it might be for me alone or with the children. Both of them are below 16 years of age, but as Margot is going to be 16 in February I would not like to leave them here under the present conditions, even if Edith would have to stay here with her mother.
She prefers this as she regards it more urgent for me and the children to leave, as for herself and her mother.
In the meantime I had orders to liquidate my business and shall not be able to continue my work. The situation is getting more difficult every day and you can imagine that I am anxious to get your further news as I know I shall never be able to leave without your help.”
On December 1, 1941, Cuba actually did issue a visa for Otto Frank, but it was canceled as early as December 11. It was too late—the Franks were trapped.
___
📖 SOURCE: “Anne Frank’s Family: The Extraordinary Story of Where She Came From” by Mirjam Pressler
📷 PHOTO: (Left to right): Margot, Otto, Anne, and Edith Frank c. 1941 © Anne Frank Fonds

27/08/2024

Traute Lafrenz Page was a young medical student in Hamburg when she joined the White Rose resistance, a small group that fought back against the N***s during World War II. Soon, she became instrumental in distributing leaflets urging Germans to resist. The White Rose eventually roused the ire of the N***s, and most of its members were arrested and swiftly executed by guillotine. But Lafrenz only narrowly escaped that same fate when, in 1945, the U.S. Army liberated the prison where she was being held. After the war ended, she emigrated to the United States, met her husband, and had four children.

Lafrenz largely stayed quiet about her activities during World War II, and even her own children didn't learn about her heroism until 1970. She finally received recognition in 2019 when, on her 100th birthday, she was awarded Germany's Order of Merit for rebelling "against the dictatorship and the genocide of the Jews."

24/07/2024

In an unexpected twist that promises to stir the film world, this year's Venice Film Festival will showcase footage from Jerry Lewis' elusive Holocaust film, *The Day the Clown Cried*. This controversial project, which has long been shrouded in mystery, is the subject of *From Darkness to Light*, a documentary by Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler. This film delves into the enigma of Lewis' creation, offering a rare glimpse into the unreleased work.
The story of *The Day the Clown Cried* centers on Helmut Doork, a German circus performer who, after insulting Hi**er, is sent to a concentration camp to entertain Jewish children destined for the gas chambers. Despite its audacious premise, the film was never released, with Lewis himself confessing in 2013 that he "slipped up" and didn't fully realize his vision. Only seven minutes of the film have been seen publicly, and a full version was donated to the Library of Congress in 2015 with a stipulation to remain unseen until 2025. Jerry Lewis passed away in 2017, leaving the film’s full impact still to be felt.
As the Venice Film Festival prepares to unveil this documentary in its Classics section, film enthusiasts will get an unprecedented look at this long-buried project and the complex legacy of Lewis' work.

18/07/2024

18/07/2024

17 July 1944 | Jane Haining, a Church of Scotland missionary in Budapest perished in the German N**i Auschwitz camp.
Her last message to friends was a postcard asking for food. She ended her letter with the words: “There is not much to report here on the way to heaven.”
Jane Haining (b. 6 June 1897) was arrested in Budapest by the Gestapo and later deported to Auschwitz. On 14 May 1944, she was registered in the camp as prisoner 79467.
She was recognized by the Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

09/07/2024

good resources.

09/07/2024

Despite the rumors that postwar Poland was not safe for Jews, Joseph Feingold was determined to return to his hometown of Kielce. He hoped to find any news of his family members’ fates. He arrived on July 4, 1946—six years after he had fled with his father at the outbreak of the war.
In the days leading up to Joseph’s arrival, a nine-year-old boy had gone missing from Kielce for three days. Fearing the punishment he might face for running away, the boy made up a story. He told his parents and the police that he had been kidnapped and hidden in the basement of the local Jewish Committee building. Rumors quickly spread throughout the town.
Soon after Joseph arrived at the Jewish Committee building, an angry mob began to amass outside. They were furious about the local boy’s alleged kidnapping. Polish soldiers and policemen entered the building and called upon the Jewish residents to surrender any weapons.
Joseph was forced outside and thrust into the crowd. “Next thing I know, I feel I’m on the ground. I feel my eyes getting closed, and it’s getting wet with blood.”
Joseph awoke several days later in a hospital bed with his father sitting beside him. He was lucky. The mob consisting of civilians, soldiers, and police had killed 42 Jews that day in Kielce. The massacre convinced many Polish Jews—including Joseph and his father—that they had no future in Poland after the Holocaust. They later immigrated to the United States.
Photo: USHMM, gift of Joseph Feingold

09/07/2024

Franz Blumenstein found refuge in an unexpected place—the Dominican Republic.
Before the N**i takeover of Austria in March 1938, Franz operated a successful perfume business in Vienna, where he lived with his wife, Elsa, and young son, Henry. During Kristallnacht, a wave of anti-Jewish violence in November 1938, Franz was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Elsa bribed officials for Franz’s release on the promise he would emigrate.
Franz’s escape from Europe was not easy. In the 1930s, options for immigration were limited. Franz eventually ended up in the Dominican Republic, where he joined a short-lived Jewish agricultural colony in Sosùa.
The Dominican Republic had agreed to accept more Jewish refugees at the Évian Conference, which began in 1938. The meeting brought together 32 nations to address the worsening refugee crisis caused by N**i Germany. Over nine days, delegates expressed sympathy, but only the Dominican Republic agreed to take in more refugees. Just 645 Jews would move to Sosùa.
The Évian Conference was a propaganda victory for N**i Germany, which could now claim that the rest of the world didn't want Jews either.
Franz had planned for Elsa and Henry to join him in Sosùa. While they received Dominican entry visas in November 1940, they never made it there. Unable to leave Europe, Elsa was eventually deported to Auschwitz. She did not survive.
Henry survived the war in hiding and later reunited with his father in the United States.
Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Henry Blumenstein

09/07/2024

Ruth Stern, the only deaf member of her family, was just five years old in 1933 when she was sent to live at a Jewish school for the deaf in Berlin.
She spent summers with her family, but lived and learned alongside her deaf Jewish peers during the school year.
“They took good care of us at school,” Ruth remembered fondly. “I’m really grateful for that.” She also affectionately remembered the school’s headmaster, Felix Reich. Ruth (second from left) is standing in front of Felix practicing speech in this photo.
While her family came to the United States in 1935–1936, Ruth stayed behind in Berlin, as the United States had restricted the immigration of deaf people.
As her family settled into life in America, Ruth remained at boarding school in Berlin and spent the summer months with her grandparents in Burghaun, Germany.
Finally, in September 1938, ten-year-old Ruth sailed by herself to join her family in the United States.
Ruth was lucky. Many of her classmates and friends, including Lotte Westheimer (pictured here seated closest to the blackboard), were killed during the Holocaust.
Photo: Bildarchiv Pisarek/akg-images

09/07/2024

When Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in 80 years ago, he had little experience with diplomacy—let alone clandestine operations. But he understood the urgency of his task.
The United States War Refugee Board (WRB) had recruited Wallenberg to travel to Hungary with orders to assist and save as many Jews as possible. At the time of his arrival, the Hungarians and the Germans had deported nearly 440,000 Hungarian Jews. Around 200,000 Jews remained in Budapest.
Given status as a diplomat by the Swedish legation, Wallenberg began distributing certificates of protection to Jews in Budapest shortly after his arrival. He also used WRB and Swedish funds to establish hospitals, nurseries, and a soup kitchen, and to designate more than 30 “safe” houses.
Wallenberg led one of the most extensive and successful rescue efforts during the N**i era. His work with the War Refugee Board saved thousands of Hungarian Jews. However, after the war, he disappeared.
As the Red Army besieged Budapest in January 1945, Wallenberg was detained by Soviet officials—presumably on suspicion of espionage. In October 2016, Swedish officials formally declared him legally dead.
Photo: Yad Vashem