On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops entered Auschwitz, Poland,
freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camps—
and finally revealing to the world the depth of the horrors
perpetrated there.

Auschwitz was really a group of camps, designated I, II, and III.

There were also 40 smaller “satellite” camps. It was at Auschwitz
II, at Birkenau, established in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground: 300 prison
barracks; four “bathhouses” in which prisoners were gassed;
corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners
were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed
by the camp doctor, Josef Mengele (below) the “Angel of Death.”

Josef Rudolf Mengele
(16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979)

Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg,
Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II 
began on November 20, 1945.

The Nuremberg trials were conducted by an international
tribunal made up of representatives from the United States,
the Soviet Union, France and Great Britain. It was the first
trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges
ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war, to
crimes against humanity.

Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided
over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted
of 216 court sessions.

Sir Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence
(5 April 1902 – 3 February 1967)

Hermann Goering in the witness box during the Nuremberg trials.

MIKE GARCIA

The Berlin wall came tumbling down in 1989.

TIM MAGUIRE

I Love Lucy is a television sitcom that originally aired 
on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with
a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. 

The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz
(above), along with Vivian Vance and  William Frawley.
 

Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974)

As a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler ran an enamel-works
factory in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland,
employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the
ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the
transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving
them from deportation to the death camps. In 1944, all Jews at
Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to
himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers
and set up a factory in a  location in occupied Czechoslovakia.

Schindler died of liver failure on 9 October 1974. He is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to
be honored in this way.


 

Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem. The Hebrew inscription
reads: "Righteous Among the Nations"; the German
inscription reads: "The Unforgettable Lifesaver of
1200 Persecuted Jews".

Schindler’s memorial in Svitavy, Czech Republic,
his birthplace.