Arthur Jones, a Republican candidate for Congress from Chicago. Image by YouTube

Arthur Jones, a Republican candidate for Congress from Chicago. Image by YouTube

Stasia Dorna was fourteen when she was transported to Auschwitz. She remembers the sour soup, the icy barracks and her friend who was badly beaten for sneaking a bite of potato.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Dorna was prisoner No. 27,276. Talking to the Tribune, she didn’t tear up when speaking of her separation from her mother, or her barefoot march through frozen fields, or the tiny balls of rotten bread she ate.

Between 1940 and 1945, 960,000 of 1,095,000 Jews deported to Auschwitz died, according to estimates used by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. More than 300,000 people of other groups also died, including Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities.

Dorna tears up when she talks about the United States, however.

“It’s such a good country,” she says. “If I make it, with no education, no penny, everyone can make it.”

A few miles north, across Harlem Avenue, a man she doesn’t know wants to represent her in Congress.

Jones is the Republican nominee in the 3rd Congressional District. He is a Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier. He believes that the stories of torture and death of more than 6 million Jews during the Holocaust are vastly exaggerated.

She didn’t say much when she learned that Jones, a man who believes the Holocaust was a hoax, is running for Congress. She has a concentration camp tattoo, No. 27,276, on her left elbow.

“It happened,” she says. “I was there.”

Contact Aisha Tahir at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aishatahir

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount