Twitter users have enlisted the social media platform to help bring to light personal stories of the victims of the Nazi regime on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Over the course of the day, the St Louis Manifest account told the stories of the passengers of the German transatlantic liner which was turned away from the US in 1939. There were 937 people onboard, almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich.
After the ship was refused permission to dock in Florida and sent back across the Atlantic, 532 passengers were trapped when Germany conquered Western Europe. Just over half survived the Holocaust.
The account was set up by Jewish educator and activist Russel Neiss.
My name is Lore Dublon. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Golleschau pic.twitter.com/nYjdV7Mxvn
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Joachim Hirsch. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/pfvJtMpIps
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
My name is Werner Stein. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/nCgt9V33xm
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017
My name is Irmgard Köppel. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/s0ZWjsdYG9
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
Other poignant posts on Twitter marking Holocaust Remembrance Day featured men, women and children who died in Nazi death camps across Europe during the second world war.
Little Uzhu would have grown up to be my cousin. Instead, murdered, aged 6, in the Holocaust. #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/ywV8uo9zqc
— Robert Popper (@robertpopper) January 27, 2017
In 1944 my grandfather's family hid out before they were taken off to Marianka then Auschwitz, where they were gassed. #HolocaustMemorialDay
— Shulem Stern (@ShulemStern) January 27, 2017
To mark the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, photographer Marina Maral recoloured a photograph taken in Auschwitz of 14-year-old Polish Catholic Czeslawa Kwoka. Czeslawa was killed in 1943.
I can't stop staring at this: 14-year-old Czeslawa Kwoka, killed in Auschwitz. Image recoloured by @marinamaral2. #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/D3u2QCTrGi
— Stig Abell (@StigAbell) January 27, 2017
Writer Leah Bobet used Twitter to tell the story of her grandfather, who survived a Nazi concentration camp.
Today's the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Going to tell you my grandfather's story about that. #HolocaustMemorialDay
— Leah Bobet (@leahbobet) January 27, 2017
When he died, it was pretty slow: diabetes-related dementia. Basically, the camps got him in the end, just on a sixty-year delay.
— Leah Bobet (@leahbobet) January 27, 2017
The effects on my family of that one survivor grandparent are visible. Everyone hoards food. There is always too much food in the house.
— Leah Bobet (@leahbobet) January 27, 2017
Trauma ripples through families. It ripples through cultures. If there is coming back from genocide, it is the work of centuries.
— Leah Bobet (@leahbobet) January 27, 2017
Saint Louis Manifest was still tweeting as news of Donald Trump’s executive order banning Syrian refugees from the US emerged.
Noted for history: A Trump administration executive order banned refugees from entering the United States on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
— Benjamin Pauker (@benpauker) January 27, 2017
If you have forgotten when it means to turn away refugees, please follow @Stl_Manifest. They were turned away in 1939 and murdered.
— Elisabeth Malkin (@ElisabethMalkin) January 28, 2017
