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Auschwitz survivor who came face to face with Nazi 'Angel of Death' but escaped being sent to the gas chambers after lying about his age tells how he found love with fellow Holocaust victim, 89, following wife's death
Daily Mail ^ | Jan 27 | By HARRY HOWARD, HISTORY CORRESPONDENT

Posted on 01/26/2025 9:06:35 PM PST by RandFan

The victim of Nazi terror, 92, who spoke to MailOnline to mark Holocaust Memorial Day today, came face to face with twisted doctor Josef Mengele after being taken to Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland with his mother and eight of his siblings in 1944.

Then aged just 12, Ivor was destined for death along with nearly all other Jewish children who were sent to the camp with their families during the Holocaust.

Heartrendingly, his mother forced Ivor, who was big for his years, to stand in the line of able-bodied men, minutes before she and seven of his siblings were sent to the gas chambers. 'That saved my life,' he says.

Ivor remembers how, on coming face to face with Mengele - who would determine the fate of arrivals with a point of his finger - he said he was 16. Had he given the mass murderer his real age, he would not be here.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
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To: RandFan

Is anyone representing the United States at the memorial today?


21 posted on 01/27/2025 5:50:31 AM PST by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: tired&retired
It’s a sobering place to visit. I remember the room full of suitcases.

Found this… The museum collection includes: about 40 m3 [cubic meters] of shoes; about 3,800 suitcases, 2,100 of which bear the names of their owners; over 12 thousand kitchen utensils; 470 prostheses and orthoses;

Photos and source Includes photos of personal, prisoner, extermination, and SS items.

There’s online tours and more at the website. Anyone who hasn’t been there can visit virtually.

22 posted on 01/27/2025 6:16:55 AM PST by The Truth Will Make You Free ( )
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free

Thanks for sharing that. I didn’t know there was an online virtual tour.

I also visited the “Killing Fields” in Cambodia where Pol Pot killed millions. There is a large structure there with glass exterior that is filled with the human skulls and bones of those murdered.

There were trees next to the ponds where they would swing the children to smash their heads on the tree before throwing them in the pond to drown. I stopped at the old prison in Phnom Penh that became a memorial museum to the crimes. There was an man there who was one of the children that survived after being thrown in the lake to drown by escaping at night. He wrote a book about his experience with the Pol Pot regime and was selling autographed copies. (China was supporting Pol Pot.)

Hard to believe this happened while I was in College in the 1970’s, just after the Vietnam War. Humans can be really cruel.


23 posted on 01/27/2025 6:49:58 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: All

The BBC are interviewing survivors along with Sky News

Susan Pollack was on Sky:

Born Zsuzsanna Blau in 1930 in Hungary, Susan became aware of antisemitism around her from a young age. Her uncle was murdered by fascists. His attacker was sentenced to just two years in prison.

After Germany invaded Hungary in 1944, the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators organised the deportation of Hungarian Jews, under the supervision of high-ranking SS officer Adolf Eichmann.

In May that year, Susan and her family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland by cattle truck. In less than two months, almost all of Hungary’s Jewish population, some 825,000, was deported.

Inside Auschwitz, she says she was “dehumanised” and survived by behaving as a robot.

She described having to stand in front of Dr Josef Mengele, the infamous camp physician, every morning, who would look at their naked bodies. Those who were deemed to be losing weight too quickly were sent to the gas chamber, Susan recalls.

https://news.sky.com/story/if-you-lost-weight-you-were-sent-to-the-gas-chamber-the-auschwitz-ordeal-of-a-13-year-old-girl-separated-from-her-family-13294967

Another account on how Mengele personally oversaw it.


24 posted on 01/27/2025 6:59:55 AM PST by RandFan
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To: No Party Affiliation; RandFan

Yes, under a totalitarian regime which controls the entire flow of information to its subjects, most wouldn’t believe.

Then, there had been vicious rumors spread by British propaganda in the Great War. These had been exaggerated to such a degree that in 1924, British PM Lloyd George did formally apologize to the German people.
Thus, less than twenty years later, Lloyd George‘s apology was still in most people‘s mind - all over Europe - and people thought that the boy had been crying wolf once more.

Sadly, not this time.

Prayers and tears to all those lost😢🙏🏻


25 posted on 01/27/2025 7:13:15 AM PST by Menes (Thank you, America, for giving us hope!)
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To: tired&retired; Lurker

Absolutely heartbreaking😢

And the cream on the cake of horror is the fact that the history of genocides didn’t end with the Shoah (Mr. Lurker has been listing them).

If only, if only…Lord, Almighty why, oh, why?🙏🏻✝️


26 posted on 01/27/2025 7:17:09 AM PST by Menes (Thank you, America, for giving us hope!)
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To: tired&retired

Years ago I remember reading that the one thing that sent our soldiers into a killing rage was seeing the huge pile of children’s shoes when they liberated Dachau (I think.)


27 posted on 01/27/2025 7:25:49 AM PST by Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi ( Gen. 12:3: a warning to all antisemites)
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To: tired&retired

Years ago I remember reading that the one thing that sent our soldiers into a killing rage was seeing the huge pile of children’s shoes when they liberated one of the camps (I think it was Dachau.)


28 posted on 01/27/2025 7:29:30 AM PST by Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi ( Gen. 12:3: a warning to all antisemites)
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To: tired&retired

The Holocaust museum in DC is similar where they have a room full of shoes, train car etc. We’ve been their twice. The first before COVID and once during. The one during was better because the access was limited and you could stop and read the displays. The first time, it was difficult because of the number of visitors.


29 posted on 01/27/2025 8:09:30 AM PST by Mean Daddy (Every time Hillary lies, a demon gets its wings. - Windflier)
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To: tired&retired
I've seen so many pictures of all those thousands of shoes you described and there is one image of a pair of red shoes, either that belong to a young woman or perhaps a child. Every time I see those pictures that pair of red shoes haunts me.
30 posted on 01/27/2025 8:11:52 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: Lurker

Yeas, sadly. “War slumbers but keeps one eye open’’.

And Israel. Oct,7,2024


31 posted on 01/27/2025 8:13:27 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: Bigg Red
And on the other side of the coin they say “I never happened. It's Jewish propaganda!’’

Two of my uncles served in the ETO fighting those Nazi bastards.

Both were severely wounded but made it home ok.

“Jewish propaganda'' my foot.

32 posted on 01/27/2025 8:18:01 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: Bigg Red
Typo, meant to say “And some say it never happened''.
33 posted on 01/27/2025 8:28:19 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: RandFan

When I hear some stupid person compare Trump to Hitler I think we should close our public schools immediately because they can’t teach the basics.


34 posted on 01/27/2025 8:30:17 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: Lurker

Humanity never learns, does it?


35 posted on 01/30/2025 9:31:14 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: jmacusa

“ Humanity never learns, does it?”

Times change.

Human nature doesn’t.

L


36 posted on 01/30/2025 1:54:16 PM PST by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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