Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp in Poland run by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
The Latest
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News This Baby Was Born in Auschwitz — and Survived
Barbara Puc is a survivor of Auschwitz, yet she has no memory of ever having been there. Sitting in her home, Puc, a sturdy woman with short gray hair and a warm face, warned me before we even sat down, “All I know is what my mother told me.” Now 72 years old, Puc, whose…
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Culture Will a Selfie at Auschwitz Make You Free?
A couple of weeks ago, I stood before a crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau and listened to the tour guide talk about the sonderkommandos. The sonderkommandos, he explained quietly, were the prisoners tasked with removing dead corpses from the gas chambers – after the victims had been showered with cyanide and choked to death – and then…
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Breaking News Auschwitz Bookkeeper Says Only God Can Forgive Him
A former bookkeeper at Auschwitz who is accused of assisting in the mass murder of at least 300,000 people told a German court on Wednesday he could only ask God to forgive him as he was not entitled to ask this of victims of the Holocaust. Oskar Groening, 94, did not kill anyone himself while…
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Breaking News Greek Lawmaker Photoshops Famed Auschwitz Sign
Jewish groups have criticized a Greek lawmaker who posted a picture of the gates of Auschwitz with a pro-Europe slogan, accusing him of trivializing the Holocaust. Member of Parliament Dimitris Kammenos of the Independent Greeks Party on Wednesday posted a picture on Facebook of the death camp gates with pro-Europe slogan “We stay in Europe”…
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Breaking News British Teens Busted for Stealing Auschwitz Artifacts
Two British teenagers were arrested in Poland after police found in their backpacks items believed to be stolen from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. Polish police were notified Monday by museum security guards of the suspected theft of buttons, a fragment of a hair clipper, and a piece of a spoon which belonged to prisoners of Birkenau….
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Breaking News Jeb Bush Makes Unannounced Visit to Auschwitz
Jeb Bush made an unannounced visit to Auschwitz during a European tour. The former Florida governor, who is visiting Germany, Poland and Estonia ahead of his expected formal announcement next week of his run for the Republican presidential nomination, visited the former Nazi concentration camp on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. Bush, who toured the site…
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Breaking News Auschwitz Guide Unleashes Anti-Israel Diatribe
Belgian anti-racism groups condemned a public broadcaster’s airing of a video showing a guide at Auschwitz telling visiting youths that she is pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic because of Israel. The video was aired by the Flemish VRT network on May 8 as part of the program Terzake. It was about a trip organized by the “Trein…
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Opinion If a Holocaust Survivor Can Forgive a 93-Year-Old Nazi, Should I?
More than half a century after the Holocaust, is it right — or even possible — to forgive? As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and refugees, I find myself asking this question as I read about the recent trial of Oskar Gröning — aka “the accountant of Auschwitz” — a man who cannot easily be…
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Oct. 7: One Year Later On the eve of this grim anniversary, what we can — and cannot — control
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Fast Forward Antisemitism hits record high in the U.S.; new report shows most-ever incidents in single year
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Oct. 7: One Year Later One year after Oct. 7, a Yom Kippur ritual of communal mourning takes on fresh meaning
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