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Farewell letter from Auschwitz reminds us why we remember

Writing in the shadow of a gas chamber, Chaim Herman penned his final goodbye to his wife, knowing that he would not live to see her again

January 27, 2023 10:50
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1 min read

There is little in life that is as ordinary as a row with someone we love. And Chaim Herman sometimes bickered with his wife Simone.

We know that because in 1944, he wrote in a letter to Simone: “I ask your forgiveness, my dear wife, if there had been, at various times, trifling misunderstandings in our life.”

But this apology to a spouse is part of an extraordinary story, forged in truly unimaginable circumstances.

Chaim was a prisoner in Auschwitz. He was writing in the shadow of the gas chamber, as one of the Sonderkommando —- Jewish prisoners forced by the Nazis to work in and around the crematoria.