Jim-bao blog statistics - Over 550 000 hits since it started - 85 000 hits during 2021.

 

Jim-bao blog statistics - Over 550 000 hits.

Below my articles with 2 000 hits or more.

Subjects:

Korczak and his Orphanage

Holocaust Logistics

Kielce Pogrom 1946

Warsaw Ghetto

UNRRAs White Boat Mission to Sweden

Memory of Holocaust survivors that died in Sweden 1945-1947

Holocaust Monument

Aliyah Beth mission

Warsaw Ghetto Uprise - Day 26 - May 14th - 183 smoke candles - Never Again!

Smoke candles used by Germans during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Smoke candles used by Germans during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Germans throw 183 smoke candles down manholes and suers (picture). During the night there are skirmishes between members of small combat groups and German scouting parties. Three SS-men and one officer of the Order Police are wounded. In one of the bunkers, the Germans discover about 100 people and weapons. More apartment buildings are blown up. The last of the fighters search for a way out to the “Aryan side”.

The day before, on May 13th general Stroop reports. “The recently apprehended Jews and bandits belong to so-called combat groups. All of them are young men and women between 18 and 25 years of age.” When another bunker is seized, “real armed combat” ensues.

Om kapos och vakterna som blev ålmat och slaktaren som blev lynchad - I spår av UNNRAs Vita Båtar

Ännu ett dokument finns från en annan beredskapssjukhus dit en judisk kapo flyttades i november 1945. Kapon höll sig undan i Sverige under tiden 20 juli 1945 till 1 november 1945 då han kom till beredskapssjukhuset i Avesta. Han var nära att bli ihjälslagen och röntgades innan han skickades tillbaks till sjukhuset i Växsjö. Patientens yrke innan kriget var slaktare.

Avsaknad av ID-handlingar gjorde att flera vakter och kapos från koncentrationsläger gjorde samma sak som Heinrich Himmler vid krigslutet, skaffade sig en annan identitet. Himmler bara några dagar efter "framgångsrika överläggningar"* med Folke Bernadotte bytte till en underofficer (fältväbel) uniform och hittades vandrade till fots nära den danska gränsen. Himmler rakade av sig sin mustasch och satte en lapp för ena ögat. Himmlers identitetshandlingar som Heinrich Hitzinger väckte dock misstanke och han begick självmord trots en rigorös övervakning.

Jag beskrev tidigare fall då fd fångarna hittade sina forna vakter förklädda i fångkläder på ett evakueringsfartyg på väg från Flensburg i norra Tyskland till Malmö. De blev ihjälslagna och kastades överbord, blev ålmat**. Fartyget kom den 11 maj 1945 till till Malmö hamn med ett spelande judisk orkester på fördäcket.


Den 10 maj 1945 gav sig M/S Homberg iväg från Flensburg med omkring 1 360 utmärglade koncentrationslägerfångar ombord. Vilka var de? De flesta var tidigare fångar i koncentrationslägren Neuengamme (N) nära Hamburg och Stutthoff (S) nära Danzig. Många av de från Stutthoff kom därifrån sjövägen, se kartan.

Jag har tidigare hittat dokumentation från beredskapssjukhus i Sverige där på en kvinnoavdelning har en SS-kvinna blivit igenkänd av två fd judiska fångar från-Bergen-Belsen. Hon blev räddad av den svenska sjukhuspersonalen.

Ännu ett dokument finns från en annan beredskapssjukhus dit en judisk kapo*** flyttades i november 1945. Kapon höll sig undan i Sverige under tiden 20 juli 1945 till 1 november 1945 då han kom till beredskapssjukhuset i Avesta. Han var nära att bli ihjälslagen och röntgades innan han skickades tillbaks till sjukhuset i Växsjö. Patientens yrke innan kriget var slaktare.

* Himmler träffar Bernadotte för sista gången i Lübeck natten mellan den 23 och den 24 april. Så beskriver man det mötet: Bernadotte lyckas nu med vad som varit målet från början, han får nu tillåtelse av Heinrich Himmler att transportera vem han vill, vart han vill helt utan restriktioner. Samma dag som Himmler träffar enskilt Bernadotte så träffar Himmler representanter för de allierade och erbjuder sina tjänster bara han slipper åtal. Man förmedlar det, gör det till en legend men man glömmer dock att redan den 22 april var Berlin nästan helt omringad och nästa dag Röda armén med general Ivan Konjev omringade hela den nionde armén söder om Berlin med 50 000 stupade tyska soldater som följd.

** Ål är en köttätande fisk.

*** Kapo(s), kallad officiellt av SS för Funktionshäftling, var fångar som hade högre privilegierade positioner i koncentrationslägren. Kapos utgjorde en länk mellan SS och fångarna och var i många fall till och med grymmare än SS själva. Många Kapos extrema åtgärder såsom kroppslig straff mot sina medfångar är välkända. Det fanns en del kapo som var mänskliga.

En annan igenkänd kapo från Bergen-Belsen straffas av fd fångar. Bilden tagen i sjukhusområdet som tillhörde tyska styrkor. Senare blev det ett DP-läger.

Fredsdagen - Är den 7 maj eller 8 maj eller 9 maj 1945?

 

Ulla Afzelius - till vänster - medlem i Föreningen Förintelsens Minne

Fredsdagen - Är den 7 maj eller 8 maj eller 9 maj 1945?

Lite olika i olika länder. Det handlar om Freden i Europa!

På bilden en av mina svenska vänner, Ulla Afzelius (till vänster på bilden) på Kungsgatan. Ulla var med i Föreningen Förintelsens Minne och gjorde korrekturen av boken 6 tusen av 6 miljoner som FFM gav ut år 1995 för att hedra 50 års minne av krigets slut (i Europa) som innebar även slutet av Förintelsen.

Redan i maj började UNRRA diskutera med Sverige vård av 10 000 fd fångar ur koncentrationslägret Bergen-Belsen. En aktion som fick namn UNRRAs Vita Båtar.

Kinderheim in Bergen-Belsen - Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of Two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association.

Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of Two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association. Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 yers old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.

Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association. Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 years old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.

The following is an example of how the work of the SHMA research group enabled the successful reconstruction of the fate of the Milstein family connecting documents available from different archives. This includes a photograph and lists of Jews deported from the Piotrków ghetto to the concentration camps and documents showing the fate of the family members as described above.

Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 yers old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.
History of Feliks Felek "Shraga Milstein". He was born in 1933 in the Polish town of Piotrków Trybunalski. Shortly after the German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the first ghetto on Polish territory was established in Milstein's home town - Piotrków Trybunalski. The ghetto housed 22,000 people in an area that was home to about 6000 before the war. During 1942, the population of the Piotrków (Petrikau) Ghetto ghetto was reduced to 2 000 - 3000 after numerous deportations by cattle trains to the death camp Treblinka. The people that remained in the ghetto were sent to labor camps in area and Milstein father and Feliks-Shraga became slave workers in the Bugaj Wood Factory. At the age of 11 he worked 8-10 hours a day as an apprentice to a wood cutter. The vary last deportation from the Piotrków (Petrikau) ghetto was that on October 8. In 1944. Milstein's mother was taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp, while Shraga-Feliks, his father and his younger brother Marek were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. Milstein's father was shot there a few weeks after his arrival. When Buchenwald concentration camp was evacuated, Milstein and numerous other children were deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Kinderheim there. Milsteins mother died 6 weeks after the liberation on 28 May 1945. 

On July 26, 1945 Milstein and his brother came to Sweden with UNRRAs White Boat mission. 

In 1948 Milstein brothers and numerous other children left Sweden for Israel. In Israel, Shraga-Feliks Milstein studied, worked as an educator and teacher, was elected chairman of the municipal council of Kfar Shmaryahu near Tel Aviv, and was finally appointed director of the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Number 39 on the list, first page, is Regina Mihlstein - Regina Milsztajn mother of Feliks and Markus. Number 38 is probably their cousin that was also liberated in Bergen-Belsen. Her fate after WWII is unknown.

The German list of deportation from Piotrków to the concentration camp in Buchenwald and below the registration cards of Milsztajn Feliks, Milsztajn Markus and Milsztajn Hilel from KL Buchenwald. On the deportation list Milsztajn brothers has number 76 and 77 and their father 88. The number of woman deported on that day was much longer. There are numerous names of the fathers and sons on that list.

Milsztajn Feliks (Milstein Sharga) registration card from the KL Buchenwald.

Milsztajn Markus (Milstein Marek) registration card from the KL Buchenwald.

The card from the KL Buchenwald of  Hilel (Henryk) Milsztajn. Hilel Milsztajn was shot by Germans on December 15th 1944 (on the stamp Gestroben - means Died) and on next day, December 16, he was taken out from the register of the inmates. Rywka Milsztajn, born Goldsztajn, the mother of the boys and the wife of Hilel is mentioned as a n inmate in concentration camp without mentioning the name of the camp.

The card from the KL Buchenwald about the death of the Milsztajn brothers father - Hilel (Henryk). As a cause of death is both Nierenentzündung - kidney inflammation and the heart failure mentioned. Hilel Milsztajn was shot by Germans on December 15th 1944.

Milsztajn Feliks DP-1 Card issued in Lübeck on July 24, 1945 - just one day before departure to Sweden. He was classified as "sitting" person - it means no need to be carried on stretchers.

Milsztajn Feliks and Markus left Lübeck on July 25, 1945 on UNRRAs White Boat, S/S Kastelholm and arrived to Malmö, Sweden on July 25. Boys were classified as "sitting" persons - it means no need to be carried on stretchers.

Medical card of Milsztajn Feliks issued on July 26 1945. The father Henryk (Hilel) is mentioned with an unknown whereabout.

Egon Kux teaches the children that arrived to Sweden with the UNRRA mission White Boats. First from left: Feliks Milsztajn (Shraga Milstein), third from left: Halina Krajtman and the third from the right: Mirka-Miriam Stern-Rock.

Teaching in Sweden. Lövsätra, March 1946. The boy in the light shirt: Marek Milsztajn (Mordechai Milstein).

Summary: Family Milsztajn lived in Piotrków Trybunalski. From the first days of the WWII, in september 1939 the ghetto was created in the city. Deportations of the ghetto inmates (approx. 22 000 at that time)  to the death camps started in 1942. Some 2 000 Jews with the families were left as slave workers at two factories. In December 1944 the final deportation tog place. Men together with their sons were send to KL Buchenwald while women were send to KL Ravensbrück.  Many of them were later furher evacuated to the Bergen-Belsen camp. Among them Rywka Milsztajn that died in Bergen-Belsen camp just days after the liberation. Her husband Hilel Milsztajn was shot in KL Buchenwald. Their children, two boys, 9 and 11 years old at that time survived and were brought to Sweden by UNRRAs White boat mission in July 1945. In 1948 they boys left Sweden for Eretz Israel.

Mina tankar efter att ha deltagit i International Conference Marking the 25th Anniversary of Yad LaYeled i Israel "The Jewish Child during and after the Holocaust: Research and Pedagogy in a Changing World".

Förintelsen - sönderslaget porslin i gammalt skåp

Förintelsen - sönderslaget porslin i gammalt skåp och artefakter

I ett par timmar idag så deltog jag i International Conference Marking the 25th Anniversary of Yad LaYeled i Israel "The Jewish Child during and after the Holocaust: Research and Pedagogy in a Changing World".
Ett antal forskare och chefer for Förintelsemuseer talade om hur de lär ut "Förintelsen". Det fanns massa artefakter man visade men inte FÖRINTELSEN. Man visade väskor, dagböcker, Davidsstjärnor och tiden före och efter egentliga FÖRINTELSEN.
På samma sätt som i Sverige skulle tycka synd om hunden Bobo, en docka Dolly eller en annan älskad leksak eller en avsaknad av ett föräldrahem med vackra gardiner.
Själv har inte eget svar hur man skall visa Förintelsen utan hungriga barn i getton, boskapsvagnar och de mördade i massgravar.

Det gäller HUR man skall lära och vad? Det känns att man numera, nästan som inom sexualundervisningen på 50-talet, undviker att tala om MÖRDANDET: Både det som skedde efter aktionen Barbarossa med massavrättningarna vid massgravarna och det industriella mördandet i dödsfabriker som Treblinka och Auschwitz. De lämnade ensamma hemma, dockan Dolly och hunden Bobo, kan inte och kommer inte att ersätta informationen om den råa verkligheten. Samma sak gäller beskrivningarna av livet i getton. På 50-talet har frågor kring kropp och sexualitet förklarats med blommor och bin utan att nämna en snopp eller en snippa. Nu, 76 år efter att Förintelsen tog slut undviker man på samma sätt ämnet Hur de 6 000 000 judar dog. Endast med en sund och verklighetstrogen inställning till Förintelsen kan man tackla det faktum att det är 76 år efter att den mörka perioden tog slut. Numera fler barn redan i de första klasserna stöter på mord sex och våld både i TV-rutan och i det verkliga livet i Sverige.

15:30 – 15:45	Opening remarks: Yigal Cohen, CEO Ghetto Fighters' House Dr. Boaz Cohen, Head of the Holocaust Studies Program, Western Galilee Academic College Ada Tuchbant, President, Yad LaYeled France Madene Shachar, Yad LaYeled
15:45 – 16:45	Keynote Speaker:  Prof.  Zehavit Gross Chairholder of the UNESCO/Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace, and Head of the graduate program of Management and Development in Informal Education Systems at the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Reflective Culture of Holocaust Remembrance (RCoHR): International Perspectives on Challenges and Ramifications
16:45 - 17:00	Short Break
17:00 - 18:00	The Jewish Child during the Holocaust: New Perspectives in Research Chair: Dr. Boaz Cohen The Yellow Star – Tagging Children and Teenagers during the Holocaust Dr. Verena Buser – Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and Western Galilee College Akko: Children of War, Holocaust and Genocide Project   Jewish Child Survivors in the Centre of the Reconstruction of Jewish Families in the Aftermath of the Holocaust Prof. Joanna Michlic – Honorary Senior Research Associate at the UCL Centre for the Study of Collective Violence, the Holocaust and Genocide, UCL Institute for Advanced Studies
18:00-18:30	Break
18:30 – 19:45	International Roundtable: Holocaust Education in Museums and by Museums: Moderator: Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, American Jewish University, USA ·       Tali Nates – Founding Director, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, South Africa ·       Dr. Claude Singer, Director, Pedagogical Department, Memorial de la Shoah, France ·       Marc Cave, Director, National Holocaust Center & Museum, England ·       Karolina Ziulkoski, Chief Curator, YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum, USA ·       Orit Margaliot, Head of Guide Training, Professional Development and Curricula at the Educational Guiding Department, ISHS, Yad Vashem, Israel ·       Madene Shachar, Senior Educator, Yad LaYeled Children's Memorial Museum, Israel
19:45 – 20:00	Closing Remarks Madene Shachar

Eliazer Geller - Day 13 - Friday 30 April 1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

A letter signed by Eugeniusz, the moniker of Eliezer Geller, to his comrades in Mandate Palestine.
He describes his situation. Warsaw, June 7, 1943. See the translation below.

Eliezer Geller's letter to friends in Eretz Israel. He describes Celina (Lubetkin) and Tosia (Altman). He also mentions Regards from Haganska, which is a kind of code related to Hagana (?). In the same way, the name of Celina (Lubetkin) was used in several letters. As mentioned, Tosia Altman was captured two weeks later when the factory where she and others (also Eliezer) were sheltering caught fire. Severely burned, she was handed over to the Gestapo and died two days later.

A 40-person group of ŻOB fighters under the command of Eliezer Geller (from Gordonia), from the area of Többens and Schultz's shops, tries to get out of the ghetto. They go down to the sewage mains on Leszno St. Several hours later, they come out on the corner of Ogrodowa and Żelazna Streets. They are transported out of Warsaw by car.

Stroop writes in his report, “Even though huge blocks of houses were completely burned down, Jews still survive in bunkers located 2–3 meters underground,” which are very difficult to detect. The Germans wipe out 30 bunkers and destroy all escape routes to the “Aryan side”. 1,599 Jews are captured, 179 of whom are “shot in combat”. 3,855 people are loaded onto trains at the Umschlagplatz. Stroop reports to his superiors that 37,359 Jews have been captured since the operation began. He assures them the operation will continue the next day.

Eliazer Geller was born in Opoczno in 1919. He was among the initiators in setting up fighting underground in Częstochowa and Zaglebie. Geller served in the Polish army in 1939 and, along with many of his comrades, fell prisoner to the Germans and was freed after four months. He then went to Warsaw, where he was called upon by Yisrael Zeltzer, the only one of the Gordonia leadership still alive, to take on extensive movement activities. Geller distributed the movement's publications in the underground, visited Gordonia branches throughout Poland, and made contact with the Gordonia office in Geneva. Geller and Zeltzer did not work well together, and they turned for mediation to Dr. Natan Eck to decide which of them would step down from Gordonia's leadership. Eck decided in favor of Geller, who was made a member of the movement's directorate.

In the January 1943 fighting in the ghetto, Geller fought in the Dror/Gordonia combat group and was made commander of a squad in the Toebbens - Schultz "shop" area. In the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April 1943, Geller commanded a combat squad at 76 Leszno Street.

On May 10, 1943, he left the burning ghetto via the sewers to the "Aryan" side of Warsaw. He and other fighters took refuge at a celluloid factory at 10 Listopadowa 11 Street (November 11th, Poland's Independence Day). Geller was burned in the fire that broke out there on May 24, 1943 -- he was the only survivor -- and succeeded in escaping from the Polish police. In the summer of 1943, he tried to leave Poland with forged documents of a South American national, but was caught and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.

Translation of the Letter from Eliezer Geller ("Eugeniusz")

Warsaw, July 7, 1943

My Dear One,

I hasten to inform you of a change in my address; I am currently living at Olwerta 14 m 12. I ask that you continue to send me both small and larger food parcels. Especially – of course – I am anxious to receive a large parcel and that, as far as possible, as soon as possible; I trust that you will satisfy my request.

Certain small changes have occurred in my life. I have been ill and had another hemorrhage. How it will go with my health in the future, I do not know. Celina is living together with me, and Tosia died a short while ago. You have surely received greetings from Hagańska. I am being looked after by Toczkowski.

I ask you very much to cordially greet Zahirski. I know that you are busy and that you do not have time for writing. So write me very short letters; just a few words will be enough for me – but write. I greet you and Moładecka cordially.

Yours,
Eugeniusz.

Historical Context: The Letter from "Eugeniusz" (July 1943)
This letter, written by Eliezer Geller (using the pseudonym Eugeniusz), is a rare and profound document from the aftermath of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Geller, a leading figure in the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) and the Gordonia movement, was hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw when this was written. The letter serves as a clandestine status report to the Jewish leadership in Mandatory Palestine.

Key Figures and Coded References:

• Eliezer Geller ("Eugeniusz"): A group commander during the uprising, Geller was a key link between the underground in occupied Poland and the outside world. He was eventually caught during the "Hotel Polski" affair and murdered in Auschwitz.
• "Celina" (Cywia Lubetkin): One of the most famous female leaders of the Jewish underground. By stating that "Celina is living with me," Geller was providing critical intelligence that one of the movement's most important symbols had survived the bunker at Miła 18 and the uprising.
• "Tosia" (Tosia Altman): Another legendary courier and ZOB commander. The sentence "Tosia died a short while ago" confirms her tragic end. In May 1943, she was severely burned in a factory fire at Listopadowa Street while in hiding. Captured by the Gestapo in a state of agony, she died shortly after. Geller’s words are a direct, somber confirmation of this loss to the resistance.
• "Hagańska" (The Haganah): The reference to greetings from "Hagańska" was a vital signal of continued loyalty and connection to the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization in Palestine. It symbolized that despite the destruction of the Ghetto, the bridge to Eretz Israel remained unbroken.

Significance:
At a time when the Germans were attempting to finalize the "liquidation" of the Jewish presence in Poland—both by erasing sites like Treblinka death camp (80 km from Warsaw) and by hunting down survivors—this letter is a testament to the persistence of the spirit and the organization. It highlights the fragile network of safe houses and the desperate importance of international support (the "parcels") in the continued struggle for survival and memory.