Another incredible meeting, this time in Paris ....

An open-air bookshop for 3 days with readings, theatrical performances, numerous meetings and a virtual walk in the Paris of 1941...For the third edition of its Book Fair, the Shoah Memorial is hosting three days of activities for writers, researchers, actors and musicians around recent publications that highlight the different forms of memory transmission.Once again, witnesses are central: stories of life or survival, essays and literary works, but also poetry as resistance and overcoming disaster. The new technologies are also put at the service of memory and the duty of transmission, questioned in a play and implemented during a virtual 3D walk, which plunges the spectator into occupied Paris.

This is one of the most heartbreaking of images (from the Auschwitz Memorial Twitter page). A group of Hungarian Jews in Birkenau circa May 1944. The little boy is showing or giving a flower to an older child. Minutes later everyone pictured would die. Two photographs depict more vividly than any words why we must stand against the politics of hate.

Footsteps Team member Simon today spent a fascinating couple of hours in the company of author Natlaie Cumming, whose book The Fiddle tells an incredible story of survival.

One day later than planned, but sometimes it takes a little while longer to find the rights words for what you actually want to say. Especially in this case where feeling transcends words.While entering the lobby of the Figi Theater in Zeist I’m already stunned by they amount of people I see. Later I will hear that it was 500 man and women who had even travelled from as far away as Hungary and Ireland to be there. Then it is time, the music starts playing and with a smile on her face and in her eyes Dr. Edith Eger walks up the stage in The Figi Theater, Zeist. One hand holds her daughter Audrey and the other holds Jacob van Wielink’s hand. After a loud applause filled with respect Dr. Edie takes a sit on the couch standing on the stage. She survived Auschwitz together with her sister Magda. Now she is a highly recommended psychotherapist living in San Diego and author of “ The Choice”. I brought a notebook to make notes for later, but my focus stays on the stage where dr. Edith speaks. Her narrative gives all her psychological learnings a deeper message. She talks about trauma, professional guidance and the importance to express the emotions.“ It is not what comes out that makes us ill. It is what stays in what makes you ill”, she says. Edith herself thinks is a pity she hasn’t got the time to talk more about PTSD. Which she thinks is not the right abbreviation to begin with. Of course her own trauma comes to pass several times. It is her own scar in life which she has accepted even though it has cost her over more than 40 years. She still experiences triggers. “ This morning when I arrived and I walked across those tiny tiles some sidewalks here are made of, I was back in Auschwitz, back in that line”.The band starts playing again, Edith Eva Eger is dancing again……Afterwards a handful of people were allowed to get their book sighed and speak to Dr. Eger. I was one of those people. I also had a very nice chat with her daughter Audrey. Although it was just 10 minutes, it stays with me as more than special to meet a person like Edith. Humbling and life changing.

Distinguished by a pink triangle sewn on the striped uniform, homosexuals crowded the concentration camps scattered throughout Europe, suffered humiliation and torture, were subjected to crazy pseudo-scientific experiments until their death. A page of Nazism too often overlookedAt least seven thousand dead and tens of thousands more in jail. These are the numbers, very difficult to estimate, of the "Holocaust", that still too hidden page of the Nazi extermination of homosexuals.At least seven thousand dead and tens of thousands more in jail. These are the numbers, very difficult to estimate, of the "Holocaust", that still too hidden page of the Nazi extermination of homosexuals…………………………..

We are pleased and honoured to welcome Guido Pringnitz to the Footsteps team. He has dedicated much of his adult life to investigating and researching an SS sub-camp in his local area. He has published his findings in an excellent book that we hope will eventually be available in other languages. Learning from the past takes many routes and forms. Few of us have the opportunity or the diligence to undertake such a personal journey of intensive research that has undoubtedly involved self-sacrifice, long hours, and desire to understand and inform. We have no doubt that Guido has many qualities that will improve the work that we do. We are proud to support him and to have him join us.

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Guido Pringnitz is a hobby historian who has dedicated himself in his administrative district to the uncovering and research of this secret project. For more than 20 years now he has been researching the camp and its secrets to the present day. He has written a 440-page, informative and well-researched book on the subject, entitled "Deckname Zeisig- Dokumentation zum Treis_Bruttig Tunnel". The SS subcamp Treis Bruttig "DECKNAME A-7 "Zeisig" was one of the Top 10 secret camp projects of the Nazis in World War II. A direct satellite camp of Natzweiler and under direct control of SS Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler (armament architect) and SS Obergruppenführer and SS General Oswald Pohl (head of WVHA=SS-Wirtschaft und Verwaltungshauptamt) friend of Rudolf Höß and RFSS Heinrich Himmler. You can find out more on Guido Pringnitz's page and what the secret project "Deckname-Zeisig" is all about at this website: http://www.treiser-tunnel.de/

We recieived a beautiful message of Rafael Didier Fernandez send to us by Amanda Hoskins.