A Conspiracy of Cartographers

From Hollander-Waas Jewish Heritage Services: Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We gather to mourn the 6 million Jews, 500,000 Romani, and countless others who were murdered for who they were, along with victims of all other genocides both past and present. The long term genealogical ramifications of genocide are hard to imagine. In this infographic prepared by co-founder Caitlin Hollander, you can see just how significant the scale of loss truly is for the Jewish community long-term.

The Book of Names lists each person murdered at Auschwitz

#and you have to remember how many names are most likely missing#from rushed trains and burned lists#from rushed transports and people who died on the death marchs#what about the names from people who died after their liberation#and then…#this is only Auschwitz#this was the biggest camp yes#but just one of many#and then remember sobibor and belsec#and try not to feel sick

This is why we punch Nazis. This is why this vile ideology must be stamped out viciously every time it tries to come out of its hole.

Never. Again.

And these are just their names, places of birth, and places of death. Doesn’t even contain the lives and loves and joys and fears and everything else each person’s universe was that they cut down.

When I was in university, every Holocaust remembrance day the local Hillel would offer sign ups for people who wanted to come read the names aloud in the middle of campus for ten minutes, keeping the reading going for 24 hours. I went and did a reading once, but I know people who read for hours when they didn’t get enough sign-ups. Antisemitism is higher in the US this year than it has been in a long time. Please, never again.

i feel sick. look how big the pages are, how many names on each page. look how many pages there are. we survived and continued to thrive, but they gave it their best shot at exterminating us. how many lives never made the census? how many died along the way, how many unnamed infants were torn from their mothers? how many died of sickness and the horrific living conditions? how many children watched their parents and grandparents die? how many parents watched their children waste away?

never fucking again.

Do you know what this is? This is The Heart from Auschwitz.

On December 12, 1944, locked inside Auschwitz, Polish teenager Fania turned twenty. After spending a year in a concentration camp, Fania didn’t expect her birthday to even be remembered - but her best friend, Zlatka, risked everything to make her a birthday present, a paper heart. 

Simply making the heart - or carrying it - could get either of them killed.

The heart was signed by many of their friends, bearing notes in Polish, German, French, and Hebrew that announced "When you get old, put your glasses on your nose, take this album in your hand and read my signature again,“ and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” It was an act of great sacrifice and love for a friend.

Less than 40 days later, they began the Death March from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck, and from Ravensbruck to freedom. Fania carried the heart under her arm the whole time. And survived.

Fania donated the heart to the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center in 1988, where it is a featured piece of their exhibit. You can read more about the story of Fania and Zlatka Meg Wiviott’s Paper Hearts, coming September 2015.

God. Even in great darkness there is such love.

the 75th aniversary of the liberation of auschwitz is in a couple of days (jan 27 2020) so I feel this is a good thing to have on your dash. Remember that every single victim and survivor of the holocaust was a person with so much love in their heart and so many storiees and interpersonal relationships like this.