Holocaust Stories

I have always had a special interest in World War II and the Holocaust, and have made a point of educating myself about this significant time period. For this reason I traveled to Poland in April 2000 and visited the former Nazi death camps. As a journalist, I feel a special responsibility to counter anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial by speaking to survivors and bringing their stories to light before it is too late. Here is a selection of some of the many Holocaust-themed stories and features I have written over the years.

May 15, 2020

Lives Lost: Holocaust survivor reclaimed Nazi-looted artwork

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — With the Nazis murdering Jews and ransacking their property outside on the infamous nights of Kristallnacht in 1938, 13-year-old David Toren sat in the sunroom of his wealthy great-uncle in Germany admiring a favorite painting…

April 21, 2020

Israeli survivors remember Holocaust amid virus quarantine

JERUSALEM (AP) — With the global coronavirus pandemic ravaging the elderly, Israel’s aging population of Holocaust survivors finds itself on the country’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day this year much like they were during World War II — alone and in…

April 20, 2020

Experts: Coronavirus brings spike in anti-Semitic sentiments

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli researchers reported Monday that the global coronavirus outbreak has sparked a rise in anti-Semitic expression blaming Jews for the spread of the disease and the economic recession it has caused. The findings, which came…

April 17, 2020

Lives Lost: Holocaust survivor was Israel’s 1st virus victim

JERUSALEM (AP) — As a child in Hungary, Arie Even survived the Holocaust by taking shelter along with his mother and brother after his father was shipped to a notorious concentration camp. Even’s well-connected grandfather found them refuge in a…

January 23, 2020

Leaders vow to learn from Holocaust, offer competing lessons

JERUSALEM (AP) — Speaker by speaker, world leaders on Thursday denounced the rising threat of anti-Semitism and vowed never to forget the lessons of the Holocaust at a solemn ceremony in Jerusalem marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of…

January 22, 2020

AP PHOTOS: After Auschwitz, survivors still bear witness

Seventy-five years after the killing stopped at Auschwitz, the survivors still bear witness, and many observe the rising hatred and anti-Semitism in the world today with a sense of deep disquiet. Ahead of commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the…

January 22, 2020

Russia-Poland feud over history clouds Auschwitz anniversary

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Over the next week, world leaders will gather twice to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of Nazi Germany’s death camps. That there will be two competing ceremonies — one…

January 21, 2020

Survivor stories spotlight Auschwitz liberation anniversary

JERUSALEM (AP) — Shortly before they were rounded up by Nazi troops in Belgium and deported to Auschwitz in 1942, the parents of 3-year-old Maurice Gluck placed their only child in the care of a local Christian family. Gluck forgot…

November 03, 2019

In fading ritual, WWII rescuer reunites with Jews she saved

JERUSALEM (AP) — One by one, the 40 descendants of a group of Israeli siblings leaned down and hugged the elderly Greek woman to whom they owe their very existence, as she sat in her wheelchair and wiped away tears…

July 09, 2019

Long lost WWII-era Soviet songs brought to life in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In a musty basement hall of an unassuming building nestled among modern high-rises in the heart of Tel Aviv, a few hundred spectators are kindly requested to turn off their cellphones. What makes the typical…

May 01, 2019

Israel collects Holocaust items for a post-survivor world

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — Under a fluorescent light, an archivist from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial snaps photos and scans into her mobile database the last remnant that a pair of elderly siblings have of their long-lost father —…

February 18, 2019

Israeli leaders’ Nazi remarks scuttle summit with Europeans

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s off-hand comment in Warsaw about Poland and the Holocaust set in motion a diplomatic crisis that on Monday scuttled this week’s summit of central European leaders in Israel. Poland’s abrupt decision to cancel…

February 17, 2019

Israeli leader pledges funds for museum for Jewish WWII vets

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday that his government would allocate the necessary funds to complete a long-promised museum honoring Jewish World War II veterans. The project has been bogged down in bureaucratic stalemate for more…

January 30, 2019

Israeli leader scorned for wooing Holocaust-distorting allies

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warm welcome to Lithuania’s prime minister marks his latest embrace of an eastern European leader who has offered strong political support while promoting a distorted image of the Holocaust. Lithuania is among…

January 27, 2019

Israeli Holocaust survivor remembers Auschwitz on birthday

JERUSALEM (AP) — As the world commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday, death camp survivor Cipora Feivlovich marks her own personal milestone as she turns 92. Feivlovich has spent her most recent…

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