Today, January 27 marks 81 years since of the liberation of Auschwitz…may we never ever forget what fascism brings! Today’s post is from 2022 and details the haunting times captured in photograph form of the victims of Adolf Hitler from 1945. Unfortunately, we are living in a day where antisemitism is on the rise, and it seems an interesting time to see the hostages from October 7 being released this week. Thankfully some of the Jewish people are finding themselves freed after the horrors they have endured.
Excerpt from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: The United Nations has designated January 27th as the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as a time to remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution. As we mark the 80th anniversary of that liberation, we are witnessing a global surge in antisemitism.
Haunting colourised pictures of Nazi concentration camp victims reveal the full horror of the Holocaust as the world marks 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz
- The poignant images, most of which were taken in 1945, show the starving and desperate faces of Adolf Hitler’s victims at concentration camps
- In one photograph, an emaciated 18-year-old Russian girl stares into the camera during the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in 1945, her face hollow from hunger
- The collection was released to mark the International Holocaust Day, which is held on January 27 every year – the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945
By RACHAEL BUNYAN FOR MAILONLINE
Newly colourised photographs of men, women and children who suffered at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps have exposed the full horror of the Holocaust, as the world marks 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.
The poignant images, most of which were taken in 1945, show the starving and desperate faces of Adolf Hitler’s victims at camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau.
In one photograph, an emaciated 18-year-old Russian prisoner stares into the camera during the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in 1945, her face hollow from hunger.
Another shows four-year-old Istvan Reiner, smiling for a portrait whilst wearing the notorious striped prisoner uniform and carrying his yellow identity card.
The photograph was taken just a few weeks before the little boy was murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp.
Other photographs in the collection show starving prisoners, wearing just a shirt to reveal their thin legs, standing in a line at a concentration camp in Ebensee, Austria.
The collection was released to mark the International Holocaust Day, which is held on January 27 every year – the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945.
A newly colourised photograph in the collection shows a group of young children, all of whom were wearing the blue striped prisoner uniforms, peering out at the Soviet troops through a barbed wire fence at Auschwitz when it was liberated.
Some 200,000 children were murdered at the Nazi death camp, and just 700 youngsters remained alive when the Red Army arrived on January 27, 1945.
Another photograph shows a young woman, whose face is covered with scars and plasters as a result of a beating by the SS guards.
But despite being unable to open her eyes fully from the swelling, she is smiling as she was photographed two days after the British military entered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945.
At the same camp, photographs show British troops burning the wooden huts, along with a poster of Adolf Hitler, in May 1945 after they had evacuated the surviving prisoners.
One photograph shows a palpably relieved young Jewish refugee recuperating in hospital after being rescued by appalled Allied Forces.
About six million European Jews and millions of other people were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust. About 1.5 million were children.
The newly colourised photographs, which were restored by expert Tom Marshall, 31, in Nottingham, said the project was ‘harrowing’. His great-grandfather Charles Martin King Parsons, a British Army Officer, took the photographs at Bergen-Belsen prison camp of the wooden huts burning.
‘The images serve as a stark reminder of man’s capacity for humanity. I had to give myself time to do something else and try to switch off whilst working on these photos as they made me angry, and I felt more sick as the pictures came to life,’ Mr Marshall said.
‘But it was an important thing to do, to remind people, especially the younger generations, that this happened and that it’s not really that far back in history.’
The release of the images comes as communities around the world poignantly remembered the Holocaust today during the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This year, survivors and politicians are warning about the resurgence of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
European Union lawmakers planned to observe a minute’s silence later today and welcome centenarian Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander, 100, who was arrested in 1944 while on the run and brought to Theresienstadt, in what is now the Czech Republic.
A year before, her mother and brother were deported to Auschwitz, where they were both killed.