Thwarting the Nazis' plan at Auschwitz
Child survivors at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland who were liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. Credit: Universal Images Group via Getty Images/Universal History Archive
This guest essay reflects the views of Montauk resident Peter S. Kalikow, a founding member and first vice chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.
When the Nazi death camp Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago on Monday, it became clear to the world that the Nazis not only succeeded in murdering most of the European Jewish population, they also intended to erase all traces of their presence, heritage, and legacy.
They failed.
While pursuing genocide, the Third Reich went so far as to dig up gravestones in Jewish cemeteries and use them for roads and walkways, placing them upside down, so there was no sign of whom those markers remembered. Jewish libraries, archives, and public records were systematically destroyed.
In 1943, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler told a gathering, “Among ourselves it should be mentioned quite frankly and yet we will never speak of it publicly. I mean . . . the extermination of the Jewish race . . . This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written.”
The Jan. 27, 1945 liberation of Auschwitz by the Allies exposed the depth of the Nazis’ inhumanity, stripping away Himmler’s instruction of a history “never to be written.”
For Jewish survivors and their descendants, reconstructing family history was daunting, often impossible. Entire branches of Jewish families were lost or separated in the maelstrom of the Holocaust. There appeared to be no pathway forward, given the enormity of what was lost. Yet, Jews in communities worldwide constructed family databases that would create a victory over the Nazis’ campaign of extermination.
At the Genealogy Research Center, housed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City in Manhattan, visitors can explore Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust through exhibitions and programs; engage with professional genealogists; and utilize JewishGen.org, the largest digital resource focused exclusively on Jewish genealogy, to explore their Jewish ancestry online and without charge. Unparalleled access to tens of millions of Jewish records and educational resources has reconnected thousands of families, providing them with information about their ancestors’ lives.
JewishGen also plays an important role in Holocaust education and remembrance. It stands against Holocaust denial by offering prewar historical records, along with nearly 6 million records about Holocaust victims and survivors.
Because those who built Auschwitz sought total destruction, today’s ultimate triumph over the Nazis is for Jewish families to reclaim their heritage in real and tangible ways.
One family accessed JewishGen’s Holocaust Database and discovered their great-grandmother had a brother and son of whom the family was unaware. They discovered this through JewishGen’s Auschwitz Prisoner Photo dataset, which has information on 2,530 Jews who were photographed upon entry to Auschwitz.
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be observed by Jewish communities everywhere at a time of rising antisemitism and acts of violence directed at Jews. It will serve as a solemn reminder that vigilance and strength coupled with remembrance and endurance allow Jews to remain connected to the millions who perished.
It is equally important to remember the words of a former concentration camp commandant whose response to a question regarding the Holocaust was, “All of this never happened. It’s all lies.”
Auschwitz at 80 is a reminder of that threat to our collective understanding of history and the importance of resources such as JewishGen to stand fast against those who would deny it.
n THIS GUEST ESSAY reflects the views of Montauk resident Peter S. Kalikow, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a founding member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, and namesake of its Kalikow Genealogy Research Center.