June 24, 2007
Revisiting The Horrors Of The Holocaust
Millions Of Nazi Documents Are Being Made Available To The Public
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Play CBS Video Video Hitler's Secret Archive In Full: Scott Pelley brings three Holocaust survivors to examine a recently-opened archive of Nazi atrocities. The records were kept secret for decades.
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Video Holocaust Survivor's Message Holocaust survivor Miki Schwartz, after visiting the Nazi archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has a message for those who deny the mass killings took place.
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Millions of records kept by Nazi Germany are going to be opened to the public. (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)
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Walter Feiden, Michael Schwartz and Jack Rosenthal. (CBS)
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Secret archives kept by the Nazis have been tightly controlled since the end of World War II, but are about to be made public. (MARTIN OESER/AFP/GETTY)
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Timeline Hitler's World Read about key events in Hitler's life, from his birth in Austria to his suicide in 1945.
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Interactive Lessons Of Auschwitz A look back at the notorious Nazi death camp where some 1.5 million people perished.
"I remember that night," Rosenthal says. "There was a little window in the barracks where we were. He told me: ‘Look out the window. What do you see?' and I said 'The sky is aflame.' The sky is burning, you know. You saw the flames licking the sky. The stench was terrible. You smelled burning flesh."
His family burned that night. Yet, incredibly, 60 Minutes found the Nazis had bothered to create a form to keep track of Jack’s mail at Buchenwald.
"But as you can see, there are no records of letters. You didn’t…" Pelley remarks.
"Who was gonna send me mail? I got news for you, if I would have died in Buchenwald, nobody would ever shed a tear for me, because my, my whole family was wiped out before then. We were a family of eight. And I’m the sole survivor."
American soldiers liberated Jack in 1945. On a personal effects card that he had signed at Buchenwald, there was reference to a number: A11832.
Asked if he's seen that number before, Jack tells Pelley "I see it every time. You wanna see it?"
A11832 is the inmate number the Nazis tattooed on Jack's arm. "It’s there. And when I die, they shouldn’t cover up my arm. They should keep it like this, because when the good Lord will see this, I hope he’s gonna put me front row, center. Because I deserve it," he says.
These men were first to see their documents, but the Bad Arolsen archive is being digitally scanned, to be distributed to research centers. Other survivors may yet discover unknown history still waiting to be written.
Asked if he's glad he looked back at the documents, Miki Schwartz tells Pelley, "Definitely. I feel like I learned about me, at least, what happened and specifically what I’m glad about, for those people who said the Holocaust didn’t happen, like the president of Iran. If they have any questions about it, please come to Bad Arolsen and check it out for themselves."
Produced By Michael Rosenbaum
©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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- If you apply for a disability claim from an insurance company or, especially, the government, you have to PROVE you have been injured, REPEATEDLY. The insurance companies and government do not just "take your word for it" and never question you again. When Israel began USING the Holocaust for Political Leverage and Monetary Reparations, THEY opened the Holocaust up to questioning. TRUTH needs no "laws" to protect it, TRUTH WILL OUT.
Speaking of death camps, have you ever wondered why there are SO MANY "survivors"? There are 250,000 "death" camp survivors just in Israel. Well someone with an actuarial chart should track back and see just HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH, in order to have 250,000 survivors 63+ YEARS LATER. to still have so many survivors running around COLLECTING REPARATIONS. And where do they get off with this "I survived 4-5-6 DEATH CAMPS" !? Seems to me those "notoriously efficient" Nazis were pretty sloppy, There must have been MILLIONS of "survivors" in 1945, to still have 250,000 alive, in just Israel, today.
It?s now official ? there?s no actual shortage of Holocaust survivors:
?The Israeli Prime Minister?s office recently put the number of ?living Holocaust survivors? at nearly a million? (extract from The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein of the City University of New York, published by Verso, London and New York, 2000, p.83).
Statement by Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus
University of Ulster, December 5, 2005:
?I?ve checked out Churchill?s Second World War and the statement is quite correct ? not a single mention of Nazi ?gas chambers,? a ?genocide? of the Jews, or of ?six million? Jewish victims of the war.
Eisenhower?s Crusade in Europe is a book of 559 pages; the six volumes of Churchill?s Second World War total 4,448 pages; and De Gaulle?s three-volume Mémoires de guerre is 2,054 pages.
In this mass of writing, which altogether totals 7,061 pages (not including the introductory parts), published from 1948 to 1959, one will find no mention either of Nazi ?gas chambers,? a ?genocide? of the Jews, or of ?six million? Jewish victims of the war.? - Reply to this comment
- One more thing.. The reason for anti-semitism is semitism... Think about that.
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- Dear CBS,
I think that there were no extermination gas chambers- this has been discredited many times. Enough already. Seriously. As far as 6 million figure, I think we need to examine this number. There was mention of 6 million of jews after the war but at the time there were claims that only in Auschwitz about 4 million jews were killed, thus, 6 million... This figure has been revised , it's stands at 1 million now-but 6 million is still being claimed. But regardless... You constant obsession with things that only you believe is becoming ridiculous. For a news organization- not a good thing. - Reply to this comment
- Sadly, it would seem to be that I am one of those people that you so vehemently detest. I doubt that it makes it through the censors but I'll try. I have no problem admitting that great atrocities took place during WWII. How many posters here will admit that they are responding to this article as a result of Megaphone?
I think one of the least investgated and most heinous crimes commited was by pro-zionist elements that used the information gathered by IBM to find out whether the "Jews" in question were like-minded. The pro-zionist movement was responsible for more Jewish deaths than Germany. How should we process the factual information that the core of the Bolshevik slaughters of Russia were carried out by pro-zionism's forefathers?
Judaism is a faith that rejects the atrocities carried out by their zionist brethern. Judaism and zionism have nothing in common yet zionism is the ideology that has created the current holocausts on Jews, Christians, and Muslims that have lived in the Holy Lands since the time of Christ.
If they are such experts on "holocausts" then why are they blind to the FACT that they are responsible for one being carried out right now? Just because you allow the wool to be pulled over your eyes please do not despised me because I have thoroughly researched history and found the TRUTH to be irreconcilable with the propaganda being repeated ad nauseum.
History and science are two of the most feared weapons of adherents of political zionism. And THOSE, by their truest definition, cannot be "anti-Semitic" if people could grasp the fact that it is decendants of Europeans that now consider themselves the "Semites" while the HISTORICAL Semites are slaughtered like sheep and denied the basic neccessities of life.
Yeah, run that 'chosen ones' idea by us one more time while they disobey every command given to them by the One they claim gives them the right to occupy another peoples' land. - Reply to this comment
- Now, do not get me wrong what happened in World War 2 was horrible all round but I've never understood why we must get so emotional over this genocide above all other genocides.
People! We said never again and we've seen at least three Genocides since then! (Rwanda, Armenian, Slav, Darfur etc.)
This is the United States this whole country is based on the Genocide and destruction of almost an entire race of people!!!
So why? why do we have to almost worship this particular genocide? It was almost 70 years ago, they are dead - almost everyone who fought is dead...
There are young people NOW dying in genocides in the present here and now! - Reply to this comment
- The reason people deny the Holocaust is the same reason the International Red Cross will not allow the Isreali Mogen David Adom (Isreal's version of the Red Cross) to become a member of the international body and enjoy the benefits of such membership: anti-semitism. This international body has historically allowed members from muslim, Christian, communist and other countries, but has refused membership to Isreal for decades. There can be no other underlying reason. Why is there no expose on this subject?
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- The posting by Toddlezz may make some good references, but the last comment about what Israel did to Palestine is totally out of place and inaccurate. He should read some history books before a reference is made. Israel has done nothing to Palestine as there was never an official country of Palestine. It is not the Israelis who cannot live with the "Palestinians" but it is the Arab world who cannot live with the Israelis.
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- Toodlezz,
What we really don't learn is to do our homework before writing nonsense. I am not arguing for any of the sides you were mentioning, but hey, it seems you have no idea what Holocaust was about. How can you compare ideological genocide - and don't forget the measures- with any one of the items you wrote? Holocaust was unique, since the Nazis saw their goal as murdering all the Jews, regardless of their age, gender, beliefs etc. And that's only one characteristic out of a few.
If you are interested to fill in the gap according to the official souces, check this site: http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/index_before_change_table.asp?gate=5-0
The only thing I agree with you about is the argument itself- we really don't learn. Wait a few more years until Iran will be the reason of the world catastrophy. - Reply to this comment
- Yes, the holocause did happen;
Look what happened in South America when the Spanish took over; and the British in India;
Not to mention the Spanish Inquisition;
So did the tragedy of the Irish Potato Famine;
So did the tragedy of what happened to the people of South Africa by the Dutch;
And what happened to the American Indians; and the Australian Aboriginal peoples
Don't forget what Israel did to Palestine recently. Seems we never learn. - Reply to this comment
- I wonder if CBS would be willing to do a special report on the pre-holocaust holocaust of the physically and mentally ill in Nazi Germany?
So many people do not know about these events. - Reply to this comment
- libdude55 You should get hold of your local Jehovah's Witnesses and ask for information.
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- My grandfather was one of those soldiers that saw the death camps and gas chambers and cyclon-B gas and the ovens with human remains still smoldering and we let people get away with denighing all that today. The basis for our moral standing today is no better than the Nazis. Anyone that denighs these things happened should be chained together and marched into a retraining facility, forced to watch all the film documentation that the Allies accumulated of the horrors they saw then march these A***SES to Auschwitts and the other camps and chain them to the ground till they can smell the remains of charred flesh still there in the soil.
Our family has never found out what happened to my G.G.Uncle who went back to Poland to see how his mother was in 1929. The only thing the family ever recieved was his passport with the swasticka stamped on it that he had arrived. - Reply to this comment
- The Jews have truly suffered. It makes me afraid each time I read about the holocaust and the extent of man's cruelty against others. But do you know what I fear most? God and His word. Read the Bible and you will find everything that happened to the Jews and that will still happen in future.
The Bible is the most current news of all. Knowing what it contains will help to avoid entering into another holocaust blindfolded. - Reply to this comment
- Why did the Red Cross withhold this information for 60 years? The International R.C. is headquartered in Switzerland.
Had the Swiss told them to withhold like the Swiss withhold Jewish accounts?
The archives are housed in Germany. Did the Germans tell them to seal the archives, to avoid exposing their atrocities?
Did the R.C. wait until most of us are dead? Well, I am not! I am a survivor and 92 years old.
I am very angry about this delay!!! - Reply to this comment
- Why is it that right-wingers are so empty headed? If they so stupid as to deny history, they WILL repeat it. It's happening every day.
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- ===My uncle was an American GI that helped liberate some of those concentration camps. Oh Yeah!...It did happen all right.===
A historian recently noted that, for the holocaust deniers, there is one thing they cannot shake. And that is that there were a thousand war criminals put on trial after WWII, ranging from the class A top guys to 10th level secretaries with minor roles. And of all those people and all the excuses they gave during their trials - that they were following orders, they weren't there when it happened, it was someone else who did it, etc, not one of them - not one - said that it didn't happen. That says it all I think. Eisenhower knew that there would be people who would deny it, that's why he had German citizens from the nearby towns clean up the death camps themselves. How sad that Eisenhower was right about the denial. - Reply to this comment
- Come now, CBS. If ever a nation was collectively culpable, it's Germany. Yet in "revisiting" the horrors of the Holocaust, we heard only "the Nazis"--never "the Germans." Why the camouflaging historical label for Germany?
All Germans were not Nazi party members, notwithstanding the soldiers' sworn allegiance to Hitler. But you have only to revisit footage of the Hitler-adoring populace for the full scope of the locomotive and synchronized forces behind the German killing machine. Moreover, we don%u2019t say %u201Cthe Imperialists%u201D killed some 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians in Nanking, and raped over 20,000 women; we say, %u201CJapan%u201D or %u201Cthe Japanese%u201D committed this 1937 atrocity. Why not the same articulation when %u201Crevisiting%u201D the Germany of WWII?
On the other hand, in a retrospective on Joseph Stalin, we should not hold an entire populace accountable for mass-murder as part of the national outlook. So it would be inapt to say %u201CRussians murdered,%u201D when we should say, for example, %u201CDuring his dictatorship, Joseph Stalin had tens of millions of ordinary individuals executed or imprisoned in labor-death camps. Often driven by a political paranoia, his murderous purges consumed an estimated 40 million people!%u201D
You are planning to similarly %u201Crevisit%u201D the Stalin era, aren%u2019t you? Complete with paper documentation and survivors? - Reply to this comment
- Why not interview someone who was not a Jew? Who
speaks for the millions of non-Jewish victims who
suffered the same horrors as millions of Jews? I'm not minimizing or deflecting attention away
from the enormous suffering of Jews at the hands
of the Nazis. But they were not alone in their
suffering, and it's hard to tell that when virtually every book, tv show and movie dealing
with the Holocaust focuses almost exclusively on
Jewish victims. Maybe I'm just not aware of info
on non-Jewish victims, so I'd be happy to check
out any sources that can be pointed to me. I just
wonder how so many victims of this insanity could
just be invisible. Who speaks for the 5 million
without voices? - Reply to this comment
- My uncle was an American GI that helped liberate some of those concentration camps. Oh Yeah!...It did happen all right. My cousin showed me his personal picture collection of the medical and hygene assistance setup to keep the survivors alive. They would walk around like zombies, often with no cloths as they were completely demoralized at the time. The first one that they liberated, he said that one of the prisoners was showing them around the camp as to what had happened there. My uncles' captain called him and his men over to the jeep for something and as soon as they got there, about 40 or 50 of the survivors attacked the one prisoner and beat him to death. At that time the GI's were told that the one "survivor" was really one of the camps gaurds so they did'nt intervene. Several of the attackers died from their weakened condition. It took them almost a half hour for them to kill the man. My uncle said that mans head looked as big as a basketball when they finished.
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- About 25 years ago, I knew a holocaust death camp survivor working at Ferro Corporation in Culver City California. He was about 14 at the time and earned the right to live by doing favors for the guards. I did not request any specifics of what that meant, bur now realize that it meant *** favors. Other survivors will most probably tell similar stories.I don't remember whether his name was Swartz or something similar
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