In 2010 these survivor attended the
commemoration ceremonies on the
occasion of the 65th anniversary
of the liberation at Ravensbrueck.
Bertus Bavelaar from the Netherlands
was imprisoned in the
Neuengamme concentration
camp. With his son and daughter-
in-law he attended the commemorations
on the occasion of the 65th anniversary
of the Cap Arcona catastrophe in the Bay of Neustadt.
Joseph „Joe“ Moser from the USA
was imprisoned in the Buchenwald
concentration camp after having
been brought down with his
plane in World War II. He belonged
to the 168 allied pilots who were supposed to be executed,
but were rescued from Buchenwald by German pilots
and were transferred to a POW-camp instead. 2010 he
visited the commemorations on the occasion of the 65th
anniversary of the liberation at the Buchenwald memorial
and talked to pupils in Weimar about his experiences.
Marian Hawling from Poland was
one of the survivors of the prison
ship Cap Arcona which was sunk
in the Bay of Neustadt on May 3,
1945. After the war he emigrated
to Australia, while he refused to talk about his concentration
camp experiences for more than 40 years. In May
2010 he returned with his children Michelle and Mark
to commemorate the sinking of the ship 65 years earlier.
Hédi Fried, née Szmuk, her sister
and parents were prosecuted
as Jews and deported from
Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau
where the parents were murdered.
Having survived the concentration camps Auschwitz,
Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen the sisters Hédi
and Livia emigrated to Sweden after the war. The photo
shows Hédi Fried during the conference “Survivors talk
to their children” at the Neuengamme memorial in 2010.
The Ukrainian survivor Viktor Savytskyi
(right) meets his former
liberator Clarence H. Brockman
(left) from the US on the occasion
of the 65th anniversary of
the liberation. At the Buchenwald memorial in 2010.
Maria Jaworska’s family was
part of the Polish intelligentsia.
This is why she was deported
to a youth camp in Łodz, after
that to Ravensbrueck and
finally to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
She visited the Bergen-Belsen memorial in 2007.
The Italian resistance fighter Sergio
Peletta was deported to the
Flossenbuerg concentration camp.
In April 2010 he and his family visited
the Flossenbuerg memorial
on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the liberation.
The Flossenbuerg memorial
in 2010
Raymonde Métra from France was
deported to the Ravensbrueck
concentration camp as a child. She
came back in 2010 for the commemorations
on the occasion of the 65th
anniversary of the liberation. Raymonde Métra died in 2011.
Yvonne Koch, born Poláková, was
prosecuted on grounds of racism
and deported from Czechoslovakia
to Bergen-Belsen. She was eleven
years old and without her family. She
was fataly ill when she was liberated on April 15, 1945. She
lives in Germany. In 2010 she talked about her experiences
at the International Youth Workcamp at Bergen-Belsen.
Aleksander Henryk Laks and his
entire family were deported to Auschwitz-
Birkenau and Flossenbuerg
when he was only a teenager.
Being the only one in his family
to have survived, Aleksander emigrated to Brazil. Here
he is teaching students about the trucks in which people
were gassed before gas chambers came into use.
His grandfather was killed in such a truck in Chełmno.
In 1942 the Dutchman Robert von
Gelder was shot while attempting
to escape from Mauthausen. At the
Mauthausen memorial in 2010.
Viktor Karpus was deported
from the Soviet Union to the
concentration camps Buchenwald
and Mittelbau-Dora. In
2010 he attended the commemoration
ceremonies at the Mittelbau-Dora memorial.
Ed Carter-Edwards from Canada
was imprisoned in the Buchenwald
concentration camp
after having been brought down
with his plane in World War
II. He belonged to the 168 allied pilots who later were
rescued from Buchenwald by German pilots and detained
in a POW-camp instead. In 2010 he attended
the commemoration on the occasion of the 65th anniversary
of the liberation at the Buchenwald memorial.
At the Buchenwald memorial
in 2010
At the Bergen-Belsen memorial
in 2007
Salomon Finkelstein from Poland
was persecuted for rassistic reasons.
He survived the ghetto in
Lodz and the concentrationcamps
Auschwitz and Mittelbau Dora and
was liberated during the death march near the concentrationcamp
Ravensbrück. He lives in Germany today. In
2011 he attended a commemoration on the occasion of
the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
Tadeusz Stanisław Krystyniak and
his father were deported from
Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising
in 1944. They were sent to Stutthof,
Neuengamme and Salzgitter-
Watenstedt. The father died there. Tadeusz was liberated
from the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. In 2010 he
and his daughter Maria attended the conference “Survivors
talk to their children” at the Neuengamme memorial.
Kathrin Herold, freelancing pedagogue
at the Neuengamme memorial,
guiding a group of pupils in 2010.
At the Bergen-Belsen memorial
in 2011
65th anniversary of the liberation at
the Ravensbrueck memorial in 2010
65th anniversary of the liberation at
the Mauthausen memorial in 2010
65th anniversary of the liberation at
the Mauthausen memorial in 2010
The Polish survivor Jan Rychlinski
with Anna Buszka, on the occasion
of the 65th anniversary of the liberation
at the Mauthausen memorial
2010. Having met in Polen Jan
Rychlinski invited the nurse Anna Buszka to join him on his
visit to Austria as he was not accompanied by his relatives.