Liberation of Auschwitz
Liberation of Auschwitz
Overview
Auscwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Russians on January 27, 1945. Most of the inmates had been killed or evacuated, but thousands of people had remained in the camp, including some hundreds children.
On February 14, 1945 Birkenau was evacuated and all the former inmates transferred to main camp Auschwitz. The Russians filmed the event and numerous pictures were taken:
Picture of a group of 13 children
These photographs were taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Alexander Vorontsov, a Soviet photographer who accompanied the soldiers of the Red Army after they liberated the camp on 27 January 1945. The photographs depicts a group of thirteen children.
All the children have been identified. From the left to the right they are:
- (1) Tomy Shacham / Tomy Schwarz (M / Slovakia, 1933)
- (2) Miriam Friedman / Miriam Ziegler (F / Poland, 1933)
- (3) Pessa Balter / Paula Lebovics (F / Poland, 1933)
- (4) Ruth Muschkies / Ruth Webber (F / Poland, 1935)
- (5) Bracha Katz / Berta Weinhaber (F / Slovakia, 1930)
- (6) Erika Dohan / Erika Winter (F / Czechia, 1931)
- (7) Marta Wise / Marta Weiss (F / Slovakia, 1934)
- (8) Eva Slonim / Eva Weiss (F / Slovakia, 1931)
- (9) Gabor Hirsch (M / Poland, 1929)
- (10) Gabriel Neumann / Gabriel Nejman (M / Czechia, 1937-2012)
- (11) Shmuel Schelach / Robert Schlesinger (M / Czechia, 1934-2006)
- (12 & 13) Eva & Miriam Mozes / Eva Kor & Miriam Zieger
Seven of the children reunited on 27 January 2005 in the ceremony in Poland marking 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz (photograph by Dalit Shacham). The group included (from left to right): Tomy Shacham (1); Erika Dohan (6); Marta Wise (7); Eva Slonim (8); Shmuel Schelach (11); Gabriel Neumann (10); and Bracha Katz (5).
In separate reunion four other survivors gathered in Krakow, Poland on 26 January 2015, at the invitation of the USF Shoah Foundation, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp. The Group included (from left to right): Paula Lebovics (3), Miriam Ziegler (2), Gabor Hirsch (9), and Eva Kor (12). (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images).
Picture of a group of small children
The photo includes: (1) Tova Friedman; (2) Sarah Ludwig; and (3) Michael Bornstein.
