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From the US election and Biden’s presidency, to gun control and abortion rights; stay up-to-date with the latest lines and comment with The Telegraph.

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Holocaust Survivor Testmonies: The Mass Deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto

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Holocaust survivors Halina Birenbaum, Masha Putermilch, and Yosef Charny describe the mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto in the summer of 1942. The video is an excerpt from the film "The Mass Deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto" in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem.

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Treasured possessions belonging to Jewish Holocaust victims discovered

Family photos, jewellery boxes and documents hidden in Slovakian attic

It is believed the stash belonged to Samuel Gottschall, born in 1878

The prayer leader was deported to a concentration camp with his family

Heartbreaking find made by handyman fixing neighbour's leaky roof

They had been stashed in the hope the family would one day return

Mr Gottschall may have had a surviving son who moved to Australia

Haunting family photographs and treasured possessions belonging to Jewish victims of the Holocaust have been discovered in an attic more than 70 years after they were sent to concentration camps.

Jewellery boxes and pictures believed to belong Samuel Gottschall and his loved ones, who were murdered by Nazis during the Second World War, were hidden away in a dim and damp attic in Slovakia.

The stash was discovered between the roof beams of a home in the city of Presov in Slovakia by handyman, Imrich Girasek, who was fixing his neighbour's leaking roof.

Letters, newspaper clippings, a Jewish songbook, jewellery and cutlery had also been stowed away in 1942 - the year the deportation of the city's Jews started. Many families had left behind such personal collections in the hope that they would return to collect them.

But they never did.

Girasek, a 46-year-old former soldier and married father-of-five, said: 'The old roof needed to be checked so I went there because the owners are my friends.

'They have owned the house since the 1960s.

'The owners of the house weren't interested in the things, but I couldn't bring myself to simply throw them away.'

The items were found next to suitcases from the period, but the handyman thinks they had been looted.

'I believe the things were initially stored in the suitcases and then hidden in the attic, but that somebody searching for valuables must have taken them out and left them lying about,' Mr Girasek added.

'The jewellery boxes were all empty. Somebody must have stolen the jewellery years ago.'

He carefully leafed through the documents and photographs - among them wedding pictures and family portraits - but was not able to identify the people in the pictures.

'Most likely all of them were deported to a transportation camp,' he added.

'All the found documents date back to before 1942, and the first transport of Jews from Presov happened in 1942.'

Mr Girasek gave the items to the city's Museum of Jewish Culture with the hope the family could be identified and relatives located.

'It would make me happy to know that the things had been passed on to people close to the family who used to own them,' he added.

Gita Eckhausová, head of Presov's Jewish Religious Community, said: 'We have gone through the material and compared the photographs with historic photos from our archives.

'It would appear that the items belonged to the family of Jewish Neolog cantor (prayer leader) Samuel Gottschall.

'According to our research, the people pictured in the photographs are Gottschall and his family, but we can't be 100 percent certain.'

Mr Gottschall, born in 1878, was deported to a concentration camp in 1942 along with his entire family.

Lubica Tatranska, the museum's employee responsible for the restoration of historic items, said: 'Everything is dirty and dusty. The Jews used to hide their personal and valuable things before they were deported.

'Most of them thought they were going to labour camps and would eventually return.'

Slovakia had been an ally of Nazi Germany and the country supplied it with workers.

However, when it fell short of the promised numbers, it agreed to replace the shortfall with 10,000 to 20,000 deported Slovak Jews.

Before the war, some 136,000 Jews lived in Slovakia, but now there are only about 4,000.

In Presov, the third-largest city in Slovakia, some 6,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.

Only 800 people returned to the city after the war and many of them later emigrated, often to the US, Australia, Israel and the UK.

The documents found in the attic are written in German, Hungarian, Yiddish and Hebrew, and several bear the surname Gottschall, including newspaper clippings and a songbook and musical scores signed by Samuel Gottschall.

The items were located in the house built next to the Neolog synagogue in Presov's historic city centre.

Further research in the Australian Dictionary of Biography has indicated that Mr Gottschall may have had son who survived the horrors of the war - Benjamin Bela Vojtech - who became a rabbi.

He married Margareta Glässner in 1938 in the Czech town of Louny.

SLOVAKIA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

During the Second World War, Mr Vojtech secretly carried out religious services before he and his wife were transported to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland.

Mr Vojtech's wife died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but he survived and was liberated in May 1945.

After the war, he served as a communal rabbi to the surviving Jews in Prague.

He remarried in 1946 and left Czechoslovakia for Australia three years later with his, then pregnant, wife and one child, to escape the hardship under the communist regime.

Mr Vojtech died of cancer in 1978 in Sydney, but this is where the trail ends.

The items will be cleaned, counted and become part of the museum's collection in the coming weeks.

Any relatives who get in touch with the museum can claim the items discovered by Mr Girasek.

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Possessions of Holocaust victims found 70 years after being hidden

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The items, believed to belong to Samuel Gottschall (right in bottom right picture) and his family who were sent to concentration camps, were hidden away in a dim and damp attic in Slovakia.

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Nazis launch Kristallnacht - Nov 09, 1938 - HISTORY.com

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On this day in History, Nazis launch Kristallnacht on Nov 09, 1938. Learn more about what happened today on History.

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Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war, the Japanese internment camps are now considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the intention of preventing espionage on American shores.

Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon -states with a large population of Japanese Americans-and Roosevelt's executive order commanded the relocation of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 117,000 people-the majority of whom were American citizens.

Canada soon followed suit, relocating 21,000 of its Japanese residents from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.

Anti-Japanese Activity

Weeks before the order, the Navy removed citizens of Japanese descent from Terminal Island near the Port of Los Angeles.

On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1,291 Japanese community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets.

In January, the arrestees were transferred to facilities in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota, many unable to inform their families and most remaining for the duration of the war.

Concurrently, the FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese residents on the West Coast, seizing items considered contraband.

One-third of Hawaii's population was of Japanese descent. In a panic, some politicians called for their mass incarceration. Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded.

Some Japanese residents were arrested and 1,500 people-one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii-were sent to camps on the U.S. mainland.

John DeWitt

Lt. General John L. DeWitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, believed that the civilian population needed to be taken control of to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor.

To argue his case, DeWitt prepared a report filled with known falsehoods, such as examples of sabotage that were later revealed to be the result of cattle-damaging power lines.

DeWitt suggested the creation of the military zones and Japanese detainment to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up Americans of European descent was not as popular.

At Congressional hearings in February 1942, a majority of the testimonies, including those from California Governor Culbert L. Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren, declared that all Japanese should be removed.

Biddle pleaded with the president that mass evacuation of citizens was not required, preferring smaller, more targeted security measures. Regardless, Roosevelt signed the order.

War Relocation Authority

After much organizational chaos, about 15,000 Japanese Americans willingly moved out of prohibited areas. Inland state citizens were not keen for new Japanese residents, and they were met with racist resistance.

Ten state governors voiced opposition, fearing the Japanese might never leave, and demanded they be locked up if the states were forced to accept them.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March 1942 to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower from the Department of Agriculture to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

Relocation to Assembly Centers

Army-directed evacuations began on March 24. People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry.

Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under 10, as well as several thousand elderly and handicapped.

Japanese Americans reported to centers near their homes. From there they were transported to a relocation center where they might live for months before transfer to a permanent wartime residence.

These centers were located in remote areas, often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks featuring buildings not meant for human habitation, like horse stalls or cow sheds, that had been converted for that purpose. In Portland, Oregon, 3,000 people stayed in the livestock pavilion of the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Facilities.

The Santa Anita Assembly Center, just several miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a de-facto city with 18,000 interred, 8,500 of whom lived in stables. Food shortages and substandard sanitation were prevalent in these facilities.

Life in Assembly Centers

Assembly centers offered work to detainees with the policy that they should not be paid more than an Army private. Jobs ranged from doctors to teachers to laborers and mechanics. A couple of assembly centers were the sites of camouflage net factories, which provided work.

There were opportunities for farm work during a labor shortage, and over 1,000 internees were sent to other states to do seasonal farm work. Over 4,000 internees were allowed to leave to attend college.

Conditions in Relocation Centers

There were a total of 10 permanent housing camps called Relocation Centers. Typically some form of barracks, several families were housed together, with communal eating areas. Residents that were designated as dissidents went to a special camp in Tule Lake, California.

Two relocation centers in Arizona were located on Indian reservations, despite the protests of tribal councils, who were overruled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each relocation center was its own town, featuring schools, post offices and work facilities, as well as farmland for growing food and keeping livestock, all surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

Net factories offered work at several relocation centers. One housed a naval ship model factory. There were also factories in different centers that manufactured items for use in other centers, including garments, mattresses and cabinets. Several centers had agricultural processing plants.

Violence in Relocation Centers

Violence occasionally occurred in centers. In Lordsburg, New Mexico, internees were delivered by trains and marched two miles at night to the camp.

An elderly man attempted to flee and was shot and killed. After settling in, at least two men were shot and killed while trying to escape.

On August 4, 1942, a riot broke out in the Santa Anita facility, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding. At Manzanar, California, tensions resulted in the beating of a Japanese American Citizens League member by six masked men. Fearing a riot, police tear-gassed crowds, and one man was killed by police.

At the Topaz Relocation Center, a man was shot and killed by military police for going too close to the perimeter. Two months later, a couple was shot at for the same reason.

In 1943, a riot broke out at Tule Lake following an accidental death. Tear gas was dispersed, and martial law declared until agreements were reached.

Fred Korematsu

In 1942, 23-year-old Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to a Japanese internment camp. His case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where his attorneys argued in Korematsu v. United States that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment. He lost the case, but he went on to become a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. With the creation of California's Fred Korematsu Day, the U.S. saw its first U.S. holiday named for an Asian American. But it would take another Supreme Court decision to halt the internment of Japanese Americans

Mitsuye Endo

The internment camps ended in 1945 following a Supreme Court decision.

In Endo v. the United States, it was ruled that the War Relocation Authority "has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure."

The case was brought on behalf of Mitsuye Endo, the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, CA. After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free her, but Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese internment.

Two years later, the Supreme Court made the decision, but gave Roosevelt the chance to begin camp closures before the announcement. One day after Roosevelt made his announcement, the Supreme Court revealed its decision.

Reparations

The last Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946. President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976, and in 1988 Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment.

SOURCES

Japanese Relocation During World War II. National Archives.
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Lord.
Lordsburg Internment POW Camp. Historical Society of New Mexico.
Smithsonian Institute.

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Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps.

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FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - Ed Ezaki, 83, and his parents were born in the United States, but fear and national hysteria that emerged after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, led to his family's being confined in an Arizona internment camp from 1942-45. He was just 9 years old.

The self-described "proud Japanese American" told his story Wednesday evening inside the Fairview Park Branch Library.

"That (Pearl Harbor) action is the reason I'm here today talking to you in Ohio," Ezaki said, going on to explain his family had operated "a very lucrative fruit and vegetable farm" in San Jose, California, and adding how mainly West Coast Japanese Americans were targeted for relocation. "Prior to the war, I had nothing but good memories growing up on our farm."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, which authorized gathering and relocating any persons of Japanese ancestry. Ezaki recalled two FBI agents invading the farmhouse, ransacking it and seizing his grandfather.

Meanwhile, Ezaki, who was an only child, and his parents were tagged and shipped first to a racetrack and then to Gila River, Arizona, where he said barracks were "hastily put together." Their bedding initially consisted of canvas cots, army blankets and no pillows. An armed guard in a tower kept watch.

"I still remember vividly everything we went through," Ezaki said. "The laughter and happiness wasn't there anymore. To me, the impact wasn't as bad on me, but ... I feel bad about what my parents and the adults went through."

Ezaki laughed when recalling a crush he had on his internment camp school teacher. He still has regrets, however, about losing his Red Rider BB gun to the FBI agents who confiscated it.

"I've always had prejudice in my life. We looked like the enemy, and that's what caused us to be put in these camps," he said. "The war hysteria picked up, and they thought, 'Here's our chance to get rid of these people.' We were denied our Constitutional rights."

He also emphasized the vast number of Japanese Americans who fought heroically for the U.S. during the war, even as their parents remained captive in internment camps. Ezaki later fought in the Korean Conflict.

Fortunately for the Ezakis, they retained ownership of their farm after they were released from captivity years later. Ezaki indicated they were given "a train ticket to anywhere and $20" upon their release. They moved to Ohio because "the West Coast was taboo," he said.

Ezaki went on to work for General Motors for 28 years, retiring 20 years ago. A widower, he was married 51 years to a native Clevelander and has two children and five grandchildren.

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World War II Japanese internment camp prisoner recalls years spent captive in Arizona

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FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - Ed Ezaki, 83, and his parents were born in the United States, but fear and national hysteria that emerged after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, led to his family's being confined in an Arizona internment camp from 1942-45. He was just 9 years old.

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Even more recently, France banned Muslim women from wearing a headscarf in 2005, which was met with a lot of backlash. However, the law was kept in place. It reminds me of when Jewish people were not allowed to practice their religion freely either, like when Elie and all the other Jews in town could not go to the synagogue for Passover.

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"It only highlights and stigmatizes them," he said.

Many French officials defend the anti-veil laws. The ban on full face veils is needed for security reasons, they say, noting that Belgium has a similar ban, and the Netherlands is considering one. They say the ban in schools, prompted by an incident in 1989 when three young girls were sent home from public school for refusing to remove their head scarves, is in pursuit of laïcité. (Skullcaps and large crosses and other ostentatious religious signs were banned too, they point out.)

The concept of laïcité was developed during the French Revolution, and was intended to limit the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the government.

More recently, however, experts say it has become the rallying cry of the right, which has redefined it as a weapon to defend the traditions of French life against what many see as the frightening influence of a growing Muslim population.

Yet, even as there are more and more calls for restrictions on the veil, France's most recent law, which bars veils that cover the face, has proved problematic. Some question why it ever came into being as experts believe that only a tiny fraction of French Muslims dress that way - no more than 2,000 and perhaps as few as 500, many of them converts.

In the three years since the law took effect, only about 1,000 fines, which can go as high as 150 euros, have been issued. Several women, it seems, have enjoyed goading the police. One woman received more than 80 fines. Few paid themselves. A wealthy Algerian businessman created a fund to pay for any ticket issued.

Meanwhile, researchers say that some Frenchwomen who are committed to being fully veiled have become shut-ins, afraid to leave their homes.

"It is the worst-case scenario," said Naima Bouteldja, who wrote two reports on the subject for the nonprofit Open Society Foundations, which supports human rights. "They are not liberated, they are imprisoned by this law."

Many French Muslims scoff at the law, saying wealthy tourists from the Middle East wearing full face veils and carrying expensive handbags are able to stroll down the Champs-Élysées or vacation on the Côte d'Azur without ever being ticketed.

They also say that the constant debates over veil laws have confused many people about what is illegal.

In Méru, a town north of Paris, veiled mothers have not been allowed to chaperone class trips in public schools for about 18 months. Nor can they help in holiday parties for the children, many of which continue to be linked to Christian celebrations.

Ouassila Arab, 34, one mother barred from such activities, said the first veiled mother who was told she could not come on school property had been at work on the class Christmas party. The case is still making its way through the courts.

"France wanted us when they needed us," said Ms. Arab, who grew up in Méru after her father came from Algeria to help build roads. "Now they are not so interested."

Ms. Arab said she started covering her hair in her 20s as her faith grew. But, like many veiled women, she said it was a decision that came with a price. She has had trouble finding work and now commutes into Paris - about an hour - to work as a secretary in a Muslim-owned construction company.

Veiled woman - like anyone else wearing obvious signs of religious affiliation - are officially barred from working in the public sector because of the original laïcité laws. There is little doubt that, in practice, this restriction has broader impact on Muslim women who cover their heads.

On a recent Sunday, a group of young Muslim women who attend a monthly meeting to discuss religion and morality gathered to discuss the veil in an apartment in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris. In their private lives, they all wore the veil, though almost all of them said they felt obliged to take it off for work, some making the changeover in their cars.

Among them were women who work in finance and marketing, a pharmacist, an optician and a nutritionist. Many said that they had tried to find employment with their veils, but that employers had balked when they saw them in person.

A 33-year-old engineer from another Paris suburb said that for years she did not have the courage to cover her hair at work, but decided after 10 years in a large construction company to try.

She found it "very, very hard," she said.

Her boss was supportive, she said, but emphasized that she needed to wear "pretty" and "colorful" veils that did not cover her neck. Some of her co-workers, however, just stopped speaking to her. And some went to her bosses saying that she should not be allowed to "represent the company."

"I am pretty sure they just wanted me fired," she said.

Defending his ban on veiled women at the temporary beach, Richard Trinquier, the mayor of Wissous, told a court that he was protecting France's commitment to secularism.

According to newspaper accounts, the mayor, a member of Mr. Sarkozy's center-right U.M.P. party, said that the increasing presence of religious symbols in public was becoming "an obstacle to living together." Mr. Trinquier declined to be interviewed.

The judge in the Wissous case disagreed and the beach was eventually opened to Mrs. Layouni. But the event left her traumatized and split this tidy village of modest homes as friends lined up on one side or the other.

"My husband said that I lost my inner light," said Mrs. Layouni, with a sigh. In the aftermath of the ruling, the couple, who owned a tearoom in Wissous, also saw their business fall off. They closed it this year, and moved to a neighboring town.

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French Muslims Say Veil Bans Give Cover to Bias

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"It only highlights and stigmatizes them," he said. Many French officials defend the anti-veil laws. The ban on full face veils is needed for security reasons, they say, noting that Belgium has a similar ban, and the Netherlands is considering one.

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Post- WW2, there was a time known as the homophile years, where homophobia was rampant. Police would raid the Stonewall Inn, a place known for being the meeting place for the LGBTQ+ community. These raids were extremely violent, like the Night of the Broken Glass, and sparked the gay rights movement.

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Stonewall Veterans Talk About the Night That Changed The World - Stonewall: Profiles of Pride

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Also during WW2, Japanese- Americans were forced into internment camps due to fear of them being spies for Japan. Though not being nearly as violent, dehumanizing, or outright scary, these camps created a sense of irrational fear and hatred against the Japanese, same as the concentration camps in Europe.

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Although this horrible genocide occurred relatively recently, and there has been an emphasis to remember the Holocaust so we don't let it happen again, there has been troubling news recently that has been scaring people.

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After being deported, Elie arrived at Auschwitz
Elie says, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night" To him, the night represents his feelings of hopelessness and the sense of deadness he felt while still being alive.
This is the entrance, it means "Work sets you free"

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Elie Before and After the Concentration Camps

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Elie Before and After the Concentration Camps

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Elie Wiesel, His Two Older Sisters, and Mother

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Elie Wiesel, His Two Older Sisters, and Mother

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In the ghettos, the Jewish people were told they could not own any gold, and must give it up. Most however, tried to hide it.
Elie said,  "A Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. Everything had to be handed over to the authorities, under penalty of death. My father went down to the cellar and buried our savings"
The picture below are things that were found.

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Before forced into the concentration camps, the Jewish population first were herded into ghettos They had to give up their homes and live with other families.
Yet, Elie says people didn't complain; they thought this was the worst of it. He says, "Most people thought that we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war,.. The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion."
The Jews still held onto hope and were terribly surprised with what came next.

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Nazis establish Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland

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CLICK TO WATCH FULL DOCUMENTARY ONLINE: http://www.docsonline.tv/documentary/209 If unavailable in your territory, or if you are interested in other license requests (feature movie, television, documentary, commercial...), please contact 10 Francs: 10francs@10francs.fr Story The film Lodz Ghetto is an unique documentation of the Holocaust in Poland during the occupation by Nazi Germany.

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Elie briefly mentions not being able to go to the synagogue during Passover. In reality, it was due an extremely violent night, where Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues were destroyed, and Jewish books were burned. At the end, there was so much glass broken that it was named "Night of the Broken Glass", of 'Kristallnacht' in German

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Though not described with as much violence, the deportations in Night were met with as much hostility as in this video
The little girl in the red coat also seems eerily familiar to Elie's little sister, who was killed along with Elie's mother. Elie last saw his little ssister wearing a red coat, being taken away with their mother and sisters.

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The Girl in Red - Schindler's List (3/9) Movie CLIP (1993) HD