50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
1986. A photographic documentary that captures the faces and stories of fifty Holocaust survivors, prisoners of war, and concentration camp liberators. The original document is in the Cleveland Jewish Museum. A second copy is in the archives of the United States National Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C.; one of the few post period documents in their collection. A third copy resides in the Western Reserve Historical Society. These images and stories are all the more poignant because a number of the participants have died in the past several years.
"Nothing was as hard to bear as selections. Lack of food, water or air were not as important to me as not being selected for the crematoriums. Not even the severe work details were as hard to take as knowing a selection was going to take place. My drive or will to live was not to be selected. My heart would start beating very quickly. I was scared that this would be the end of me. When I was not selected, I was relieved that I was allowed to live until the next time."
Leon Shear -Bedzin, Poland; Auschwitz, Sachsenhousen, Dachau (1939-1945)
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"There was a selection when Dr. Mengele selected the ones had to go to the gas chambers. I was very skinny. We had to go naked in front of him. Our raggedy clothes we put in a bundle under one arm. The other arm we had to keep up so he can see our rib bones. From far away he motioned for me to go to the ones to die. I was so scared. Then I saw another SS hitting a girl and Mengele looked away. So I jumped in the line again to go in front of Dr. Mengele and quickly changed my bundles of clothes to another colour. Somehow he let me go with the ones to live."
Helen Stone -Nagysollos, Ungvar Getto, Auschwitz, Waldenburg, Altenburg, (1944-1945)
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"I took my striped hat with me to America. In Maidanek when we stood in line for appel, (role call) the Germans give the command for prisoners to put the hats on their heads" "Mitzen up, mitzen down." We do this many times, in the morning and at night. Everybody has to put hats on at the same time. Some prisoners were sick and not able to do this, so they got beaten, sometimes to death."
Leon Faigenbam -Barto-jeya, Stavis, Boodjin, Maidanek, Plashuv, Mathausen, St. Valentine, Abenjee, (1939-1945 )
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"When I was evacuated from Buchenwald in April 1945 to Dachau, I spent 3 weeks in the wagon without food or water over 100 were in my wagon we were screaming for water and air. When we arrived at Dachau we were barely alive. The lagerfurher said to SS, "You brought dead pigeons, put them in the ovens." They spared us because the American Army was close buy and the next day I was liberated."
Albert Ryb -Antwerp, France, Mechelen, Belgium, Auschwitz, Jawischo
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"We felt very different from the beginning. A different language, a different culture. Not speaking English in Kindergarten was just the beginning. Not having any relatives with the exception of a grandfather was difficult for us to understand. We only had each other. The war took the lives of so many. Our parents survived. Only with the passing of time did we begin to understand the reality of what History revealed. The wisdom of maturity brought a sense of sadness and we knew why we were different."
Ralph Solonitz, Sophia Stern (Solonitz)
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
""On my sweet 16 th birthday I met Joseph Mengela in Auschwitz. Before he could decide if I'll go to the left or right, I ran after my mother who sent left. A German guard grabbed me and took me back. My 18 year old sister stood there waiting. He asked us in Hungarian (ikrek) are you twins? We said no. Then he asked me, how old are you? I answered 18 years old. Now why did I say 18 instead of 16? I will never know. And little did I know, with that little white lie, I was given a chance to survive!"
Leah Klein -Csop, Aushwitz, Reichenback, (1944-1945)
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"I was born and lived in Budapest and I am one of the small number of Hungarian Jews who miraculously escaped the hunting and killing my the Nazis. I refused to wear the yellow star and to move into the Ghetto. I also acquired false I.D. papers, but eventually none of this helped and I was rounded up several times into the long lines of women, children and old people on their way into the camps. Each time, I was able to escape from the line through ruses and taking unbelievable chances. I felt that to give in to fear was to give into death!"
Edita Kertis -Budapest
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"One day I was taken with several French resistance fighters behind the Dachau crematorium. Our hands were tied to the rear and in a single file. We had to kneel down and out the heads forward. I saw the ground soaked with blood and I knew it was the end. I was the last one and counted the shots. From the corner of my eyes I saw the prisoners falling head first to the ground. I was next and felt the gun on the rear of my head. A click.and I was still alive."
Joseph Benson -Dachau, Buchenwald; Czech RAF fighter pilot, (1940-1945
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"The people who weren't so healthy went into the crematorium. I almost went into the crematorium once. But the Nazis needed workers, and they started to examine us right in the streets, nude, to find out which ones were healthy. I remember holding my dress up in front of me and an SS officer knocked it out of my hands with his stick. I thought I'd be shot right there, but I wasn't. They saw I was healthy and sent me to work."
Sarah Kelvin -Moiseu, Auschwitz, Gelzenchirchen, So-menda 1944-1945
50 Faces: The Holocaust Remembered.
"I was sent to defend this virgin nation, to destroy a tyranny with weapons, my faith in God and country. But under the heel of that total tyranny I have seen many die, without a weapon, nor a country, only their faith in God. My mind's eye will never forget those of Mauthausen"
William E. McKee -American Ex-Prisoner of War