This is 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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Culture An Auschwitz Home Movie Scored by Eric Clapton
‘I’d always avoided Auschwitz,” Philippe Mora says near the beginning of his new documentary, “Three Days in Auschwitz.” “I was like, ‘Who wants to go to Auschwitz?’” Mora’s question is, at least on the surface, perfectly understandable. After all, with any number of exotic and enticing locations currently available for our visiting or vacationing pleasure,…
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Fast Forward Poland Wants To Jail Users of Term ‘Polish Death Camps’
The Polish government proposed a bill that would make the use of terms like “Polish death camps” a crime punishable by jail time. The bill, which the government put forward Tuesday but has not been passed into law, would prohibit assigning blame to Poland for the actions of Nazi Germany. Historians and artists would be…
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Fast Forward ‘Fred the Furrier,’ Who Drove Auschwitz Shul Restoration, Dies At 83
(JTA) — Fred Schwartz, a New York-area philanthropist and businessman who marketed affordable mink, sable and fox under the name “Fred the Furrier,” has died at 84. Schwartz, of Great Neck, New York, died Aug. 7 after an illness. Schwartz operated “Fur Vaults” at three Alexander’s department stores, earning praise and scorn for opening up a once-exclusive industry through…
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Opinion 4 Things To Remember About Pope Francis’s Visit to Auschwitz
Pope Francis made a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Friday. The spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics silently reflected, met with Jewish and Christian survivors of the death camp, and left a note in the guestbook, which read: “Lord, have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!” There’s a lot to be said about…
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Fast Forward Visiting Auschwitz, Pope Francis Asks God To Forgive ‘So Much Cruelty’
Seated on a bench near the gate to the Auschwitz death camp site in Poland, Pope Francis prayed in silence on Friday in tribute to the 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, killed there by Nazi occupiers during World War Two. The third pope to visit Auschwitz and the first not to have lived…
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Fast Forward Auschwitz Museum Bans Pokémon Go Amid Craze
(JTA) — The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is not buying into the Pokémon Go craze. On Tuesday, the Holocaust memorial site tweeted that it will not allow visitors to play the new smartphone game because it is “disrespectful on many levels.” New York magazine first reported Tuesday that some users of the Nintendo game, which allows players…
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Fast Forward Did Benjamin Netanyahu Smuggle Auschwitz Blueprints Out of Germany?
BERLIN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought back original blueprints of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp to Israel from Germany seven years ago – likely without knowing he was doing something illegal, according to a German journalist. The blueprints were given to Netanyahu on a trip to Germany, Kai Diekmann said in an interview for the…
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Fast Forward Pennsylvania Man Admits He Lied About Being an Auschwitz Survivor
— A Pennsylvania man who for years traveled the country giving speeches and media interviews about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor acknowledged that he had been lying and apologized. In a letter published Thursday on the LancasterOnline news site, Joseph Hirt, of Lancaster County said he lied not for personal gain but in hopes of raising…
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