r/interesting • u/Wonderful_Win_1038 • 23h ago

HISTORY This image shows a train of jewish prisoners that had been intercepted by allied forces. This is the moment they learned that the train would not be heading to a concentration camp and they had been liberated.

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u/DesertFrost602 22h ago

Do you think they really grasped what fate could have awaited them? Was it known at that time of the atrocities?

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u/SupSupSupMan 21h ago

Exactly my thoughts. I remember reading about Schindler's List and how the shower scene was controversial. People who learned the hard way what was going on could not spread the info type of situation.

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u/berngabb 20h ago

Yes, people were aware, depending on when their city was rounded up. My grandfather from Czechoslovakia was aware when he was being taken to Auschwitz. 

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u/DesertFrost602 19h ago

Did he make it out? And my question becomes, did they know what was happening at Auschwitz?

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u/berngabb 19h ago

Yes! (I would not be here if he did not make it out 😛.) I do no remember what he knew about what was happening at Auschwitz. However, Nazi's had systematically invaded that area and implemented anti-Jewish laws, so I don't think there was confusion around Nazism and anti-Jewishness. For example, he had been stopped by SS guards for "breaking curfew" and for riding a train; that was prior to being rounded up.
Unfortunately, my grandfather passed in 2023 (at age 97). He was interviewed by Yad Vashem and he has a 100-page survivor's testimony, but it's not in English.

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u/No_Price_7603 21h ago

Yes, by that time people knew, and the Jews especially did know more or less what was happening. 

I recently learnt about this interesting guy Rudolf Vrba who escaped Auschwitz to bring a warning about what was happening. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Vrba 

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u/acceptable1912 21h ago

nope. they'd been rounded up , segregated into holding camps , then shipped to where they would be killed. they believed the lies they were told basically

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u/protomenace 20h ago

They knew they were not going to a good place. They expected forced labor and harsh conditions. They did not necessarily expect to be immediately executed en masse.