Saturday, February 10, 2018

Remembering February 11, 1945: Liberation Day


Warsaw is the nearest major city to Bunzlau, the Nazi concentration camp that held my father and his two brothers. The average daytime high is 24 degrees (F). The low is 12 degrees. The Jews at this camp were poorly dressed for this misery.
You might wonder why I am showing a photo of an American Nazi-party member who is the sole Republican candidate for a congressional primary in a month. Simple. My Dad thought Nazis would never go away. The hate-filled man in this picture proves my Dad’s point.
The next three photos are for my children and their children. You can look at it, too. It names the fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and children in our Hungarian family who died, mostly at the hands of Nazis, but also on the Russian front.
In the days leading up to February 11, 1945, my Dad could hear the Allied artillery pounding away from the west and the Russian cannons booming in the east. It must have been exhilarating to know that freedom was days away. The Nazis knew it, too. They increased food rations and got clothes for their prisoners. Sounds like a PR trick that would be tried today by callous leaders who lie and distort to justify their bigotry.
In the end, the truth comes out.
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The Family of Otto Lefkovits (Robert O. LeRoy)





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