Shlomo Venezia, who survived being an Auschwitz Sonderkommando, dies
ROME – Shlomo Venezia, a Holocaust survivor who wrote about his experiences in an Auschwitz Sonderkommando unit and spent years bearing personal testimony to the Shoah, has died.
Venezia, who was born in Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece, died Sept. 30 in Rome at the age of 88.
Deported to Auschwitz in 1944, he was one of the few survivors of the notorious Sonderkommando units – teams of prisoners forced to move and cremate the bodies of those killed in the gas chambers. His mother and two sisters were killed in Auschwitz. He wrote about his experiences in a memoir, “Sonderkommando Auschwitz,” published in 2007.
Venezia was very active speaking about the Holocaust at schools, public events and in the media, and he accompanied Italian student groups on study trips to Auschwitz.
His death “leaves a vacuum and great pain,” said Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno.
Nicola Zingaretti, the president of Rome province, said: “It is difficult today, and it has always been difficult, to find the words to thank Shlomo for all that he has given us and all that he has taught us, and it is difficult, maybe impossible, to comprehend the depth of his suffering, his courage and his generosity.”
The Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, Irina Bokova, also paid tribute. "Shlomo Venezia was an exceptional and tireless witness of this dark period of history,” she said in a statement. “He dedicated many years of his life telling his story in Italy and throughout Europe to serve as a warning for the future. He influenced a whole generation of young people, teachers and historians, thanks to his deep loyalty to the memory of the deceased. All those who knew him were struck by his modesty and his strength of character," she said. "His death is a call to intensify efforts for educating and transmitting the history of the Holocaust around the world."
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10 ... mando-dies
"The Truth About the Gas Chambers?" Historical Considerations relating to Shlomo Venezia's "Unique Testimony"
Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno
1) A last-minute witness
Shlomo Venezia, self-proclaimed ex-conscript of the so-called "Sonderkommando"of Birkenau, only decided to "speak out" in 1992. I discussed his testimony in 2002, in an article entitled "Another Last-Minute Witness: Shlomo Venezia"1. Few sources were available at the time. Venezia acquired a certain notoriety in 1995 thanks to an interview conducted by Fabio Iacomini, entitled "The Eyewitness Testimony of Salomone Venezia, Survivor of the Sonderkommando"2; his "Testimony at Santa Melania, 18 January 2001, the First Day of Memory" appeared six years later 3. In January 2002, Venezia agreed to an interview with Stefano Lorenzetto4, republished, with a few minor changes, in the weekly magazine Gente in October 2002, under the title "I, a Jew, Cremated the Jews"5.
In my article mentioned above, I noted:
"Shlomo Venezia, self-proclaimed conscript of the so-called 'Sonderkommando' of the Birkenau crematoria, remained, like Elisa Springer, silent for almost fifty years, but, in contrast to Springer, has not (yet) written his 'memoirs' "6.
As I anticipated, in 2007,Venezia finally filled the void, entrusting his memoirs to a book: Sonderkommando Auschwitz. The Truth about the Gas Chambers. A Unique Testimony7, which I shall examine from a historical point of view, including from the point of view of his prior statements.
Read more: Inconvenient History | A Quarterly Journal for Free Historical Inquiry
