To save his three-year-old son from immediate execution at Buchenwald, a father hid him inside a leatherworker's sack, keeping him alive through the darkest months of the Holocaust.

On January 20, 1945, Israel Schleifstein stood at the gates of Buchenwald concentration camp carrying a large sack filled with leather-working tools. Inside that fabric, tucked out of sight among pieces of utility gear, rested his three-year-old son, Joseph.

The family had spent years surviving behind ghetto walls in Sandomierz and Częstochowa, hiding the young boy in dark cellars while working in forced labor factories. When Nazi authorities transferred the remaining Polish prisoners into Germany, Esther Schleifstein was separated and sent to Bergen-Belsen. Israel knew that a child too young for hard labor faced immediate death upon arrival, leaving him with only one immediate option during camp selection.

Once past the entry checkpoint, Israel relied on fellow prisoners to keep the boy concealed within the overcrowded barracks. When SS guards eventually discovered the child, they opted to spare him, drawing on Israel's craftsmanship as a leather worker and treating the small boy as an unusual presence in the camp.

The guards had a tiny striped prisoner uniform stitched for Joseph. They brought him out during morning roll calls, directing the child to stand before the lines and raise his hand in a salute. Yet whenever higher-ranking inspectors visited the facility, the boy was hidden away in dark corners to ensure his presence remained unnoticed by official authorities.

On March 7, 1945, Joseph spent his fourth birthday living inside the barracks. A month later, on April 11, 1945, American troops reached Buchenwald, liberating Israel, his son, and roughly 21,000 other surviving prisoners.

Following the end of the war, father and son traveled to Switzerland for medical care before beginning a search for Esther. The family reunited in 1946 at the Dachau displaced persons camp, and a year later, they boarded a ship to build a quiet, practical life in New York.

For more than 50 years, Joseph spoke little of his time in Buchenwald, keeping the details of his early childhood hidden even from his own children while working a long career at AT&T. His history remained a private family matter until 1999, when public interest around the film Life Is Beautiful led researchers to document the verified records of the father and child who survived Buchenwald together

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The Last Judicial Hanging in The United States

Billy Bailey was born in 1946, the ninth of 23 children, in South Carolina, where they lived in poverty. When he grew up, he developed an alcohol addiction and had a filthy temper. Bailey also got in trouble with the law on numerous occasions, committing six felonies ranging from grand larceny to burglary. In 1979, in Delaware, after being placed in a work release facility, Billy Bailey learned he faced a potential 45-year sentence for his most recent string of crimes. After attempting to kill himself with a knife only to be stopped by his brother-in-law, Bailey asked him to stop at a liquor store. There, he robbed the clerk before knocking her down and attempting to shoot her, but thankfully, the gun jammed. He fled the scene, being dropped off by his brother-in-law at Lambertson’s Corner. There, Billy Bailey entered a farmhouse and stole a shotgun. The elderly couple inside where then slaughtered by Bailey, the man being shot twice in the chest and once in the head with the pist...

Jewish women being stripped naked by Ukrainians in 1941.

They are trying to strip her of her humanity and dignity, but look into the eyes of this brave and lovable woman, and you will see she has not succumbed to them. The decision to kill all Jews in Kyiv was made by Major General Kurt Eberhardt, Chief of Military Government; Friedrich Jeckeln, Senior SS Commander of Army Group South; and Otto Rush, Commander of Einsatzgruppe C. Sonderkommando 4a, a subordinate organization of Einsatzgruppe C, carried out the order with the support of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police SD and Order Police Battalions, which were supported by the German Wehrmacht. The shooting was carried out by Sonderkommando 4a and the 45th Battalion of the German Security Police. At the time, members of the 303rd Battalion of the German Security Police were guarding the perimeter of the execution site.

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In a small village in Iran, Suraiya's family lives: her husband, two daughters, and two sons.

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1941 Nazi murderer now identified

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Holocaust victim

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