A replica of Warsaw’s Great Synagogue was unveiled Friday on the site where it was torn down by Nazis 70 years ago. The miniature reproduction is a 1:10 scale mock up made of plywood, featuring the original synagogue’s columns, towers and detailing. The Great Synagogue was demolished after SS General Juergen Stroop ordered it blown up in 1943. Friday’s ceremony took place exactly 70 years and one day after that order. "Looking at the replica, Jurgen Stroop must be turning in his grave," …More

Corrie ten Boom was a remarkably brave woman who helped save the lives of countless Jews in World War II. The ten Boom family, Christians themselves, worked as watch repairers by trade in the town of Haarlem, in the Netherlands. Though a larger family, by the 1940’s it was just Corrie, her father Casper, and her sister Betsie living in the family home. Corrie’s mother Cornelia died in 1921 and her brother Willem and sister Nollie had already moved out of the house. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands …More

Tzipi Livni joined a score of leaders at Mauthausen Sunday, commemorating the 68th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation. "We who weren't there cannot and may not forget. The numbers engraved on the arms in Auschwitz are engraved on each of our souls," the Israeli justice minister said. "I came today as justice minister of the Jewish state to say together with you ‘never again.’” Livni added: "It is not for us that we do not want the world to forget, it is for the future of …More

The fourth most wanted Nazi criminal was arrested in Germany yesterday. Hans Lipschis, 93, was taken into custody for allegedly aiding in the deaths of 1.5 million prisoners at Auschwitz. "[The suspect] appeared before a judge and was taken into custody,” said the prosecutor's office in Stuttgart. "The indictment against him is currently being prepared." Lipschis was deported from the US in 1983 for covering up his Nazi past, though he has long maintained he worked only as a cook at Auschwitz from 1941 …More

The descendants of a renowned Parisian art collector are in a dispute with a Norwegian museum over ownership of a valuable, Nazi-looted Matisse painting. Paul Rosenberg purchased “Woman in Blue in Front of Fireplace” in 1937, the same year Henri Matisse painted the work. It was confiscated by Nazi forces in 1941, just one of an estimated 160 pieces—including Picassos, Renoirs and Cezannes—that SS guards were sent to seize from Rosenberg. Rosenberg fled to the US to escape deportation to …More

The oldest male survivor of the Holocaust passed away late last month at the age of 107. Leopold Engleitner was a Jehovah’s Witness imprisoned by Nazis for “conscientious objection.” He served time at a handful of concentration camps, including Mauthausen, refusing to renounce his faith in exchange for freedom. He was eventually released after agreeing to serve as a farm slave laborer for the rest of his life. When ordered to join Hitler’s army, he hid rather than join up. He was freed …More

On May 3, 1945, some 7,000 concentration camp survivors were accidentally killed at the hands of their rescuers. It would go down in history as one of the worst instances of friendly fire in world record. The SS Cap Arcona was a German luxury liner used in World War II by Nazi officials to move prisoners as Allied forces moved in, with the final destination rumored to be Sweden. After the war, however, surviving Nazi leaders testified the boats were destined for decimation all along. In early May of ’45, …More

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has released its annual report on the state of global Nazi prosecution, with the US receiving top marks and Australia falling far behind. The report pores over cases of still-living Nazi criminals and the actions their nations or nations-of-residence have taken to bring them to justice. The US was the only country of the 36 under observation to receive an A rating—the best there is. Australia, meanwhile, scored an F, relating to incidents like its refusal last year to extradite …More

On April 18, 1945, factory owner Oskar Schindler wrote what was arguably the most important list of his life. The German entrepreneur was known for his business savvy and persuasive tongue, skills he put to the test in convincing Nazi authorities to resist deportation of more than 1,200 Jews, individuals who would go down in history as the “Schindlerjuden.” Schindler was born April 28, 1908, into a Roman Catholic family. As a schoolboy he worked in sales after his studies, showing an early aptitude …More

Bergen-Belsen was one of the most notorious and fatal of the Nazi concentration camps. Located in northwest Germany, it was the site of Anne Frank’s death from typhus and the source of some of the first archival evidence of the atrocities of the Holocaust for many US citizens. On April 15, 1945, after five years of horror, the camp was finally liberated. Bergen-Belsen was originally built to act as a prisoner of war camp. In 1943, it was doctored into the system of concentration camps to accommodate …More

The story of Munkacs is unfortunately all too common. Called Mukacevo today, it is located in Ukraine, and was once a thriving Jewish center. The Jews called the town by its Hungarian name, Munkacs, or in Yiddish, Munkatch. In January 1941, just before the German invasion, the city had a Jewish population of 13,488, 42.7 percent of the entire town population. In 1938, Munkacs was annexed to Hungary, following the Munich Conference agreements. The Jewish economy struggled after annexation, and education and …More

Atop the main watchtower at the Buchenwald concentration camp, a small clock sits at the highest spot, eternally set at the time 3:15 pm. It’s an easy detail to miss, but one that holds significant historical meaning. On April 4, 1945, US troops took over Ohrdruf, a Buchenwald sub camp, making it the first camp liberated from the Nazis. Nearby at Buchenwald, Nazis began evacuating prisoners forcing the majority on death marches in hopes of outrunning the Americans. A group of underground resistance …More