“For these Things I Weep, My Eyes Shed Tears” (Lamentations 1:17)

On Tisha B’Av Jews mourn the destruction; Sitting on the ground, silent, and pondering the recent and distant history. Rivers of blood rise in front of their eyes, and their tears flow unceasingly.

On Tisha B’Av, Jews remember the contemporary Holocaust, the one in which hundreds of thousands of its survivors are still alive, the one whose results, or rather its records, are still etched in the nation’s soul.

Tisha B’av is a day of thoughts and reflections, a day of national mourning.

Millions of horror stories took place during the Holocaust, but the horrors of the Holocaust are not stories, just as its events are not history in the usual sense, history that is read about and studied. The Holocaust is a terrible wound in the heart of the nation, a mortal blow that will never heal.

The memory of the Holocaust is oppressive and burning. It has no comforter, it has no explanation, and therefore, Jews over the years did not like to talk about what happened to them in the days of darkness and persecution. Many of the survivors of the atrocity did not talk about it or tell their stories, and even tried, if possible, not to reflect on it.

In the special contents that appear on the Ganzach Kiddush Hashem website, you can see the Jewish heroism, the faith, and the kindness that, precisely during the most difficult period in our history, were manifested in the lives, and even in the death, of the martyrs of the Holocaust.

Here is a group of photos from the Ganzach Kiddush Hashem archive, a small group of thousands of photos that describe the horror that took place in our midst, only eighty years ago.

Remember, do not forget!

Auschwitz – The last journey

Auschwitz – The Sonderkommando loots Jews’ clothing

Auschwitz – Jews disembarking the train

Auschwitz – Suitcases and bags packed with human hair shaved from Auschwitz victims

Auschwitz – Electrified barbed wire

“He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not light” (Lamentations 3:2) – The Jews of Gichlun walk to their deaths

“How dim the gold has become” (Lamentations 4:1)

“Oh how she sat alone” (Lamentations: 1:1) – Jews waiting for the selection in Auschwitz

“Oh how she sat alone” (Lamentations: 1:1) – Jews waiting for the selection in Auschwitz

On their last journey

“Young men carried the millstones” (Lamentations 5:13) – Hard labour in Auschwitz

“With our lives we bring our bread” (Lamentations 5:9)

“While infant and suckling faint” (Lamentations 2:11) – Toddlers in a ghetto

“Judah went into exile because of affliction” (Lamentations 1:3) – The bunks in Auschwitz

“Judah went into exile because of affliction” (Lamentations 1:3) – The Jews of Pabianice being deported

“Judah went into exile because of affliction” (Lamentations 1:3) – Jews arriving in Auschwitz

“Those who ate delicacies are perishing in the streets” (Lamentations 4:5)

The black wall, between block 10 (left) and block 11 (right) in Auschwitz, where prisoners were executed

“I have become the laughingstock” (Lamentations 3:14) – The start of the war, Jews forced to be photographed in a degrading manner

The entrance to Birkenau

“And despite this, we have not forgotten Your Name” (Tachanun prayer) – The martyr, Yechiel Teitelbaum from Kolbaszew in the ghetto

“And despite this, we have not forgotten Your Name” (Tachanun prayer)

“And despite this, we have not forgotten Your Name” (Tachanun prayer)

“And set me up as a target for the arrow” (Lamentations 3:12) – A boy, moments before being shot to death in front of his mother, father, brothers, and sisters