Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The United Nations picked this day, as it is the anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation in WWII. The United States Holocaust Museum reminds everyone, “it is more important than ever for us to recognize the critical lessons of Holocaust history as we commemorate the victims and honor the survivors.”
I first have two books about Dachau Concentration Camp. The Concentration Camp made quite an impression on me when I visited. The timing was just before Easter in 1975. When walking along the large mass graves, a light snow began falling, which made the silence more eerily deafening. The first book is “What Was It Like in the Concentration Camp at Dachau?” 14th edition 1973, by Johannes Neuhausler; and “Concentration Camp Dachau 1933-1945” 1978. These both were published by the trustee program at Dachau. They also both discuss this being the model for all concentration camps.
I also have four unusual books that have helped honor the victims and survivors from the holocaust. The first two are controversial, “Maus I and Maus II’ by Art Spriegelman. They tell Art’s father Vladek and his struggle through the Holocaust. It also weaves through father and son relationship. The story is told through a graphic novel, where people are portrayed as animals. While it won a special Pulitzer prize in journalism, many disliked the stereotypes.
Then there is “I never saw another butterfly…Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942 – 1944”, 1962. People were sent here in the Czech Republic. It was supposed to be a holding area, waiting to be later sent to other concentration camps. Many people died before that final trip.
And last, I present “Memories of Survival” by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, 2005. This is a book of memories both written, and pictures of embroidered panels that the Esther Krinitz made to retell her survival as a child in Poland during the Holocaust. She began making these large panels at age 50. A total of 36 panels were hand stitched. I was able to see these actual works of art, her ‘Survival in Poland’, when I visited the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. It was quite a display, and it is back again until January 6, 2025. The Art museum is quirky and great, the exhibit spellbinding.
I flipped again through all of these books, before I took pictures of them on my book stand. It has been an emotional day looking at both somber and uplifting stories, all about the same events. Reading can can do that.
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