23 ms·

Not mentioned in the article - but I’ve read in the book and heard directly that the Aushwitz prisoner number tattoo was directly matched to a punchcard. My m

Not mentioned in the article - but I’ve read in the book and heard directly that the Aushwitz prisoner number tattoo was directly matched to a punchcard. My mother helped interview Jewish survivors so that their stories were recorded and archived.

brighter2morrow 7y ago
Where are the records? I've done some cursory searches for things like that before and haven't found anything easily accessible
- convivialdingo 7y ago
  My mother’s interviews are stored in DC at the holocaust museum. I would bet they have samples of the Holereth cards as well. Most of the records are still stored in Germany though, and there are also records stored in Moscow.
- tomjen3 7y ago
  The punch card records? The were in many cases ment to store only for further processing, and were probably mostly destroyed when the nazies tried to destroy all evidence at the end of the war.
zxcvbn4038 7y ago
I liked the part of the story where the Frenchman hired by the Nazis to create a list of Jews in France (Rene Carmille was the name I believe) instead used the same IBM technology to help organize the resistance. He strung the Nazis along for years. He and his family were executed in the street a few months before France was liberated, too late for Nazis to get anyone else produce the list.
- anonu 7y ago
  Fascinating aspect of the story. FYI: The article says he died from exhaustion at Dachau. Just points to the fact that there is still so much to understand and uncover about this time period.
  - Kye 7y ago
    Very true. People often get an incomplete picture of things, which leads them to make the same kinds of mistakes that led up to WW2. I still run into people who think the logic Nazis used only existed in the Germany of the era, but othering logic is deeply embedded in human culture. It comes out like this in our darkest moments, but all of us are vulnerable to it. Treating someone who commits atrocities as a monster keeps us from realizing how terrifyingly human they are and how short the path can be. Pride month is a good time for this discussion because the Allies left a certain kind of person behind in the camps to serve out their sentences under laws based on the same kind of dehumanization the Nazis preyed on. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gay-prisoners-germany-wwii/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gay-prisoners-germany-wwii... The famous Nazi book burning photo was of books taken out of an era-equivalent gender clinic/LGBTQ+ center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen...

brighter2morrow 7y ago

Where are the records? I've done some cursory searches for things like that before and haven't found anything easily accessible

convivialdingo 7y ago
My mother’s interviews are stored in DC at the holocaust museum. I would bet they have samples of the Holereth cards as well. Most of the records are still stored in Germany though, and there are also records stored in Moscow.
tomjen3 7y ago
The punch card records? The were in many cases ment to store only for further processing, and were probably mostly destroyed when the nazies tried to destroy all evidence at the end of the war.

zxcvbn4038 7y ago

I liked the part of the story where the Frenchman hired by the Nazis to create a list of Jews in France (Rene Carmille was the name I believe) instead used the same IBM technology to help organize the resistance. He strung the Nazis along for years. He and his family were executed in the street a few months before France was liberated, too late for Nazis to get anyone else produce the list.

anonu 7y ago
Fascinating aspect of the story. FYI: The article says he died from exhaustion at Dachau. Just points to the fact that there is still so much to understand and uncover about this time period.
- Kye 7y ago
  Very true. People often get an incomplete picture of things, which leads them to make the same kinds of mistakes that led up to WW2. I still run into people who think the logic Nazis used only existed in the Germany of the era, but othering logic is deeply embedded in human culture. It comes out like this in our darkest moments, but all of us are vulnerable to it. Treating someone who commits atrocities as a monster keeps us from realizing how terrifyingly human they are and how short the path can be. Pride month is a good time for this discussion because the Allies left a certain kind of person behind in the camps to serve out their sentences under laws based on the same kind of dehumanization the Nazis preyed on. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gay-prisoners-germany-wwii/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gay-prisoners-germany-wwii... The famous Nazi book burning photo was of books taken out of an era-equivalent gender clinic/LGBTQ+ center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen...