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Broidy - Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint (2)

Philanthropist Elliott Broidy Acquires Rare Auschwitz Crematoria Whiteprint to Combat Antisemitism

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This piece was originally published on Voice.media on January 6, 2026.

By Alinasir Nasir

Philanthropist and entrepreneur Elliott Broidy has acquired an extremely rare artifact of historical significance: one of only two surviving original architectural drawings—a whiteprint—of the first design of the crematoria at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

According to Broidy’s announcement, the artifact is “a chilling and irrefutable piece of evidence documenting the start of the systematic, industrialized murder of millions of Jews that defined the Holocaust.”

The only other known copy is held in a Moscow archive that is inaccessible to Western scholars.

Created in October 1941 by SS architect Walter Dejaco under the direction of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, the drawing informed the design of Crematoria II and III at Birkenau, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered beginning in the spring of 1943.

Broidy purchased the document for $1.5 million from Rabbi David Baron of the Temple of the Arts Synagogue in Beverly Hills, California, an amount symbolically honoring the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust. The funds will support Rabbi Baron’s development of a global early-childhood curriculum focused on empathy and altruism.

In the announcement, Broidy described the whiteprint as crucial evidence at a moment of rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial. “To behold it is to confront the deliberate design of evil,” he said. “My most sincere wish is for this whiteprint to be memorialized as part of an irrefutable body of evidence that negates Holocaust denial and helps to forever silence malevolent revisionists while also educating new generations about the lessons of the Holocaust.”

The document was authenticated by renowned Auschwitz scholar Robert Jan van Pelt, the author of, among other works, Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present (with Deborah Dwork) and The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial and an expert witness for the defense in David Irving’s civil libel suit brought against Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt.

Van Pelt and another Holocaust historian cited in the press release, Michael Berenbaum, view the document as an especially valuable artifact because it captures the meticulousness with which the Nazis planned, engineered, and implemented mass murder.

Broidy intends to exhibit the artifact at institutions dedicated to Holocaust education and combating antisemitism before donating it permanently to such an institution. He sees this journey as an extension of his broader commitment confronting extremist ideologies, including his help in supporting the purchase and transformation of the former home of Rudolf Höss—located directly next to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland—into the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER) at House 88, which fights antisemitism and other forms of extremism with cutting-edge technology. Broidy co-chairs The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism and Hate, whose purpose is to support ARCHER at House 88.

“The Nazis sought to erase the humanity of their victims and their very existence,” Broidy said. “This artifact—and the education it will support—reasserts that humanity, helps ensure the continuity of the Jewish people, and works to build ways for all people to see the good in others.”

Gates to Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp

Turning a Blueprint of Death into a Plan of Defiance

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by Benjamin Raziel

In a year marked by rising antisemitism and an alarming resurgence of Holocaust distortion, one of the most chilling artifacts of the Shoah has quietly emerged into public view—this time, as a weapon against denial rather than a remnant of it. Businessman and philanthropist Elliott Broidy has acquired one of only two known surviving original architectural whiteprints of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau for $1.5 million, honoring the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust.

Far from being a collector’s item, the whiteprint is a stark and irrefutable testament to the mechanized precision of Nazi genocide. Drawn in 1941 by SS architect Walter Dejaco under the authority of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, it captures the transition point when Auschwitz was being designed not merely as a concentration camp but as a center for extermination.

The purchase comes at a dark moment for the global Jewish community. In the wake of October 7, antisemitic attacks and hate speech have surged worldwide. The murder of 15 Jews at a Hanukkah celebration last week at Sydney’s Bondi Beach underscored how contemporary antisemitism is as dangerous as ever. At a time when the distance between past and present feels increasingly narrow, evidence matters.

“My ultimate hope is that the reemergence of this document ensures that the fight against antisemitism and extremism continues,” Broidy said. “We cannot forget what happened, but we also have to hold onto hope and equip future generations with knowledge and understanding.”

Leading Holocaust scholar Robert Jan van Pelt, who authenticated the document, described it as the “missing piece.” It is the first iteration of a full-scale crematoria needed for the most lethal killing facilities in human history. The date on the plans, October 24, 1941, indicates they were drafted months before the infamous Wannsee Conference of January 1942 where the implementation of the Final Solution was approved. The plans demonstrate that the infrastructure for mass murder was already being developed months before the conference convened.

As slogans, hashtags and manipulated images spread faster than truth, this physical piece of evidence stands as an antidote. It is not interpretation. It is not narrative. It is the Nazis’ own drawing of how they intended to kill.

And Broidy has no intention of allowing it to gather dust. Instead, it will support an extraordinary new effort unfolding in the shadow of Auschwitz itself.

Earlier this year, the Jewish Journal reported that Höss’ private home—the villa his wife once called a “paradise”—was purchased by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), with Broidy playing a leading role in the initiative. The property, located at 88 Legionow Street in Oświęcim, Poland – 88 being the numeric representation for “HH” or “Heil Hitler” – sits just outside the fence line of Auschwitz. From its garden and swimming pool, Höss’ children could see the smoke rising from the crematoria.

Today, that same property now has a mezuzah on its front door and has been transformed into a global center dedicated to countering extremism, antisemitism, and hate: The Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization, known as ARCHER at House 88.

ARCHER will operate in partnership with CEP, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, and UNESCO, with renowned architect Daniel Libeskind—whose parents survived the Holocaust—leading the property’s redesign. The center will host researchers, policymakers, educators, and activists working on extremism prevention, including financial-network disruption, digital platform safety, and counter-radicalization strategies.

What was once the family home of the architect of Auschwitz will soon become one of the world’s foremost institutions dedicated to dismantling the ideological machinery he helped build.

Broidy’s acquisition of the crematoria whiteprint and the creation of ARCHER are intertwined—not just symbolically, but strategically.

In his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing the acquisition, Broidy wrote that he wanted to take possession of this document so it would be used “as an enduring challenge to anyone who would deny the Holocaust or diminish its magnitude.” He argued that at a time when Holocaust distortion is rising, the most powerful response is to preserve, study, and display original evidence of Nazi intent.

Indeed, Holocaust denial no longer hides on the margins. Since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, antisemitic narratives—old and new—have proliferated across social platforms, college campuses, and public demonstrations. These range from classic denial (“the gas chambers didn’t exist”) to modern distortion (“the Holocaust is exaggerated,” “Israel is committing genocide just like the Nazis,” “Auschwitz was a labor camp”).

The Nazis understood the power of documentation. It is why they tried to destroy their records as the Allies approached. Their failure to eliminate all of them is now our greatest strength. A whiteprint is an inconvenient truth for those who wish to reshape the past for political or ideological purposes. By integrating this artifact into the mission of ARCHER, Broidy positions the whiteprint as both historical evidence and a modern tool of prevention.

Broidy has pledged the proceeds of this acquisition toward a first-of-its-kind early-childhood curriculum centered on altruism, empathy-building, and anti-extremist education. Developed by Rabbi David Baron of the Temple of the Arts Synagogue in Beverly Hills, the curriculum aims to reach children long before extremist ideologies can take root.

The logic is grounded in history. Nazism was not born in the gas chambers; it was cultivated over decades—through propaganda, dehumanization, social engineering, and early indoctrination. The crematoria were the final manifestation of an ideology that began in classrooms, youth groups, newspapers, and public speeches.

Teaching empathy is not a soft response to hate. It is the first firewall against it.

There is a profound, almost poetic symmetry in the fact that the whiteprint—once used to mechanize death—is now being used to educate, inoculate, and confront. There is symmetry, too, in the transformation of House 88—from a place where the Höss family lived comfortably just feet away from mass murder to a global center dedicated to exposing the psychology of radicalization and the machinery of hate.

As Ambassador Mark Wallace, founder of CEP, said during the announcement of House 88:

“The ordinary house of the greatest mass murderer will now be converted into the extraordinary symbol of that fight.” Auschwitz has always forced the world to confront two truths simultaneously: the unimaginable scale of evil, and the unimaginable resilience of those who survived to bear witness. The acquisition of the whiteprint and the creation of ARCHER carry that duality forward. Turning instruments of death into instruments of truth may be one of the most meaningful forms of remembrance and resilience that we have left.

As Broidy’s acquisition makes clear, the fight for historical memory is not an academic exercise. It is an urgent battle in real time—one that demands not only preservation of the past, but active protection of the future. What was once used to plan the destruction of Jewish children will now help protect today’s children from the ideologies that made Auschwitz possible. In that reversal lies a new kind of justice. And perhaps, a new whiteprint for hope.

elliottbroidy

Rare Architectural Drawing of Auschwitz Crematoria Acquired for $1.5 Million

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This article original appeared in Space Coast Daily on December 19, 2025.

A rare architectural drawing tied to the earliest design of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria has been acquired by South Florida-based philanthropist and entrepreneur Elliott Broidy. Broidy says he intends to use the artifact to strengthen public understanding of the Holocaust at a moment when antisemitism and denial are again on the rise.

The document—an October 1941 whiteprint created by SS architect Walter Dejaco—is one of only two surviving originals. According to the press release announcing the acquisition, the only other known copy is held in a Moscow archive inaccessible to Western researchers.

Such architectural drawings, including the acquired whiteprint, formed the basis for the crematoria and gas chamber complexes that, beginning in 1943, became the principal killing sites at Birkenau, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. Scholars have long regarded the technical evolution of these buildings as central to understanding the Nazis’ systematic approach to genocide.

Broidy called the whiteprint “a chilling and irrefutable piece of evidence documenting the start of the systematic, industrialized murder of millions of Jews that defined the Holocaust.” He purchased the artifact for $1.5 million.

The high price tag is not accidental, however—the amount is meant to represent the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust. The proceeds from the sale of the whiteprint will fund Rabbi David Baron’s global early-childhood curriculum promoting empathy and altruism.

The whiteprint was authenticated by Auschwitz scholar Robert Jan van Pelt, known for his extensive scholarship on the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp’s architectural history.

American Jewish University professor Michael Berenbaum emphasized the value of the whiteprint in illustrating how the Nazi killing apparatus was constructed. “This is one of the most important visual documents showing how the crematoria were created, and showing also the intentionality and professionalism, the intricate detail and the substance, with which the crematoria were thought through,” said Berenbaum.

According to Elliott Broidy, the whiteprint’s value is not only historical but moral. “To behold it is to confront the deliberate design of evil,” he said in the announcement. He hopes the artifact will become part of an “irrefutable body of evidence” capable of countering Holocaust denial and reaching younger generations with the truth of what unfolded at Auschwitz.

Speaking of the document’s significance, Broidy said, “The Nazis sought to erase the humanity of their victims and their very existence. This artifact—and the education it will support—reasserts that humanity, helps ensure the continuity of the Jewish people, and works to build ways for all people to see the good in others.”

Elliott Broidy plans to exhibit the drawing at institutions devoted to Holocaust memory and combating antisemitism before making a permanent donation.

The Boca Raton resident has become known for his involvement in efforts to confront extremism, including helping to acquire the former residence of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss in Oświęcim, Poland.

Under the Counter Extremism Project’s initiative, ARCHER, at House 88, the commandant’s house is being transformed into a research center focused on combating antisemitism and radicalization. Broidy co-chairs The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism, and Hate, which was created to support ARCHER at House 88.

As Holocaust witnesses dwindle and denial of historical facts increasingly circulates online, the preservation and public display of original documentation, such as this whiteprint, become increasingly important.

The detailed architectural drawing demonstrates that Auschwitz’s crematoria were not improvised structures—they were engineered components of a bureaucratic and industrial system built to carry out genocide. Each surviving document that records this process serves as an antidote to historical amnesia.

Broidy - Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint

Boca Raton Couple Preserve a Chilling Document As A Reminder Of The Holocaust’s Dark Path

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This piece originally appeared in Boca Daily News on December 23, 2025.

By Daniel Nee

As Hanukkah concludes, and menorahs are being dutifully stored away for another year, shining light toward the darkest corners of humanity has rarely seen a time of more importance than the present. Just before the start of a holiday season that became marred by a terrorist attack on a sunny beach in Australia, canceled celebrations in Europe and fears of future tragedies reaching the shores of United States, one Boca Raton couple made it their mission to preserve a disturbing-but-powerful document that shows the literal pencil-to-paper plotting of evil, drawn up as a group of men gathered to discuss a macabre final solution.

Elliott Broidy, 68, has experienced a celebrated career straddling the worlds of defense, diplomacy and philanthropy. A pioneer in leveraging open source intelligence to improve safety and security, he and his wife, Robin, have acquired a rare, real, tangible object that would have made world leaders of the 1940s shudder at the thought of what was being planned. The landscape-style document, a few feet long, set forth a way to manage the horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp: a physical whiteprint of Crematoria II and III, where the bodies of those whose lives were stolen in the Holocaust would be disposed.

The Broidys acquired the document in exchange for a $1.5 million commitment to efforts that will go toward developing anti-hate and anti-extremism curricula for children. The figure represents the 1.5 million children who were killed in the Holocaust.

The historic document was produced by SS architect Walter Dejaco on Oct. 24, 1941, in preparation for days of meetings in which the logistics of killing at an industrial scale were to be discussed in bureaucratic fashion. Under the leadership of camp commandant Rudolf Höss, two whiteprints were drawn up – one which is locked away in an archive in Moscow, having been seized by Soviet soldiers after the fall of the Nazi regime, and the other which resurfaced in the mid-2010s. The authenticity of the document was in question until it was examined by Dutch professor and Auschwitz historian Robert Jan van Pelt, who linked together the timeline of the meetings of Nazi officials, the location of the document’s origin, and the date of its physical creation, which directly corresponded to the conference led by Höss.

“This is about education,” Robin Broidy said. “Especially for young people. If you understand how this happened once, you’re less likely to accept it happening again.”

One of only two known surviving copies of the original whiteprint of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Elliott Broidy)

One of only two known surviving copies of the original whiteprint of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Elliott Broidy)

In a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell if photos and stories are real or the machinations of artificial intelligence platforms, human-authenticated documents such as the crematorium plans provide concrete – rather than theoretical – examples of what extremism can lead to.

“There are still Holocaust deniers in the world,” said Elliott Broidy. “We consulted experts to authenticate the document and learned that only two copies exist — one in Moscow that hasn’t been seen since 1991, and this one. We felt it was important for the public to see it. When the Nazis retreated, they destroyed much of Birkenau and burned many documents. But they forgot the architectural office. That’s why we still have proof of what these buildings were designed for.”

Based on the date of its creation, the planning document was drawn up for what has become known as the Wannsee Conference, the physical meeting of Nazi political and military leadership that produced plans to deport European Jews to facilities in occupied Poland where they would be killed. The result of the conference, named for the Berlin suburb where it was held, is clear. But documents such as the whiteprint help drive home the personal reality of its intent – real people, real plans and real decisions on how to perpetrate a genocide at scale. The plans represented an expansion of a camp that held Soviet POWs to what became the most infamous venue of the Holocaust.

“It shows the earliest planning stages of industrialized mass murder,” said Broidy. “That’s why it’s historically priceless.”

The Broidy family, who relocated to Boca Raton from California to be closer to family and enjoy a more peaceful daily life, have become more active in causes that battle antisemitism and extremism in recent years. With colleagues, they purchased the residential “house next door” to Auschwitz where Höss lived with his family. Photos in the Broidy’s personal collection show parties, children’s birthday celebrations, and joyous gatherings occurring with the death camp’s guard towers and exterior walls in the background. The house – which was the subject of the award-winning 2023 film The Zone of Interest – was acquired as a guarantee not only that history would be preserved, but so it would never become a deranged shrine to what happened mere yards away. The whiteprint added to the context of the prior purchase.

“History may not repeat itself exactly, but hatred persists,” said Robin Broidy. “This document shows how ordinary people were manipulated into participating in evil. It forces people to ask: ‘Am I being manipulated the same way?’”

“If it gives people pause — if it reminds them that this was planned, intentional, and real — then it serves a purpose,” she added.

The physical document has been shipped to a secured location in California where the facilities exist to preserve a sketch that is more than eight decades old, printed on what resembles yellowed newsprint. Its ultimate destination is to be determined – it may find a home at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum in Poland, or another facility with preservation infrastructure. There is a chance, if feasible, that it could be transported to remote locations, giving a larger number of people an opportunity to experience the chilling sight with their own eyes.

“Our rabbi [in California] wanted the proceeds from the project to go toward education, but asked that the document be released,” Broidy said. “He, and we, felt it was important for the public to see it, though ultimately it should rest somewhere that can preserve it properly. While I didn’t have direct relatives affected in the Holocaust, I met many survivors and children of survivors.”

“Over the past few years, antisemitism became a very urgent issue for us,” Elliott Broidy said. “This was the best symbol, the best way to actively combat antisemitism, we could find.”

Broidy - Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint (2)

A window into horror: An original drawing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria sold for $1.5 million

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This article was originally published on MSN on December 13, 2025.

By Shadab Alam

A profoundly significant, and deeply disturbing, Holocaust artifact has resurfaced — and its new owner hopes it will serve as a bulwark against antisemitism and extremism.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Elliott Broidy recently announced the acquisition of one of only two known surviving copies of the original whiteprint of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document, drawn on October 24, 1941 by SS architect Walter Dejaco, represents the earliest design concept of those crematoria, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered in 1943 and 1944.

The document has been authenticated and explicated by Auschwitz expert Robert Jan Van Pelt, who specializes in the architectural history of the camp.

According to van Pelt, the early architectural sketch “captures the moment when Auschwitz entered the technological imagination: a design that became the prototype for the most lethal killing facilities in human history.” He added that the plan “shows Auschwitz in motion — an architecture first shaped by the murder of Soviet POWs that was, through successive decisions, adapted into the machinery of destruction that resulted in the Holocaust.”

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the sprawling complex in modern-day Poland (during the war, the territory in which Auschwitz is located was annexed by Nazi Germany), was the Nazis’ most murderous death camp. More than one million people, the vast majority of whom were Jewish, were murdered there.

“This whiteprint is physical proof of humanity’s darkest capacity,” Broidy said. “To behold it is to confront the deliberate design of evil. My most sincere wish is for this whiteprint to be memorialized as part of an irrefutable body of evidence that negates Holocaust denial and helps to forever silence malevolent revisionists while also educating new generations about the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Another expert, historian Michael Berenbaum, who held prominent roles at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was instrumental in that institution’s creation, emphasized the document’s significance: “This is one of the most important visual documents showing how the crematoria were created, and showing also the intentionality and professionalism, the intricate detail and the substance, with which the crematoria were thought through.”

Broidy purchased the document from a Beverly Hills, CA synagogue, and said that he paid $1.5 million for it — a figure matching the number of Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust — with the money earmarked for a “global early childhood curriculum promoting empathy, altruism, and anti-extremism.”

Broidy plans to exhibit the drawing at institutions dedicated to Holocaust education and combating antisemitism, before ultimately donating it to such an institution. He frames his acquisition of the document as serving the dual purpose of preserving the memory of the Holocaust and confronting today’s resurgent antisemitism and distortion of truth.

Broidy - Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint (2)

Rare Auschwitz Artifact Acquired

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This piece was originally published in the Boca Raton Observer on December 12, 2025.

Elliott Broidy Secures Historic Whiteprint To Combat Holocaust Denial

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Boca-based philanthropist Elliott Broidy purchased one of only two existing original architectural whiteprints of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria for $1.5 million, a sum chosen to honor the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust. Drawn in 1941 by SS architect Walter Dejaco under the direction of Rudolf Höss, this artifact marks the chilling start of the systematic, industrialized murder of Jews.

Authenticated by Auschwitz historian Robert Jan van Pelt, the whiteprint represents what would become Crematoria II and III, the main gas chambers of Birkenau — the massive camp adjacent to Auschwitz.

“This whiteprint is physical proof of humanity’s darkest capacity,” Broidy says. “To behold it is to confront the deliberate design of evil.”

The acquisition was facilitated by Rabbi David Baron of the Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., with proceeds funding a global early childhood curriculum promoting empathy, altruism and anti-extremism. Broidy plans to display the artifact at institutions dedicated to Holocaust education and combating antisemitism before donating it permanently.

Experts say the document is among the most significant visual records of the Holocaust’s intentionality.

“This first crematorium drawing captures the moment when Auschwitz entered the technological imagination,” van Pelt says. “An architecture … that was, through successive decisions, adapted into the machinery of destruction that resulted in the Holocaust.”

Michael Berenbaum, former project director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, calls it “one of the most important visual documents showing how the crematoria were created.”

The announcement coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, underscoring the enduring need to preserve historical truth amid rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Broidy’s efforts extend beyond this acquisition, including support for The Counter Extremism Project and the creation of ARCHER at House 88, a research center adjacent to Auschwitz focused on dismantling hate networks and extremist ideologies.

“The Nazis sought to erase the humanity of their victims,” Broidy says. “This artifact — and the education it will support — reasserts that humanity helps ensure the continuity of the Jewish people and works to build ways for all people to see the good in others.”

For more information, visit archer.counterextremism.com.

Broidy - Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint

Rare, Original Auschwitz-Birkenau Crematoria Whiteprint Acquired by Elliott Broidy for $1.5 Million

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Boca Raton, FL, Nov. 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In the face of resurgent antisemitism and Holocaust denial, philanthropist and businessman Elliott Broidy has announced his acquisition of a unique historical artifact: one of only two existing whiteprints of the original design of the crematoria for Auschwitz-Birkenau, conceived and drawn by SS architect Walter Dejaco under the direction of camp commandant Rudolf Höss.

Broidy published an op-ed about the acquisition in the pages of The Wall Street Journal.

The architectural drawing, created on October 24, 1941, after a two-day meeting to design much larger crematoria than the one that existed in Auschwitz, was authenticated by renowned Auschwitz historian Prof. Robert Jan van Pelt of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. It is a chilling and irrefutable piece of evidence documenting the start of the systematic, industrialized murder of millions of Jews that defined the Holocaust.

According to Professor van Pelt, the architectural design concept in the whiteprint evolved over time into Crematoria II and III, the main factories of death at Birkenau—the massive camp that was built adjacent to Auschwitz to handle the mass killing operations. Crematorium II became operational in the spring of 1943. The two buildings were equipped with gas chambers with a killing capacity of up to 2,000 people at one time and ovens with an official incineration capacity of 1,440 corpses per day.

Historically, the whiteprint’s date of creation serves as a missing piece of a puzzle central to the Holocaust. Both the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Yad Vashem possess revisions of this document, but not the actual first iteration of the planned crematoria at Birkenau. Only one other copy of this drawing is known to exist, and it resides in Moscow’s State Military Archive, currently inaccessible to Western researchers.

“This whiteprint is physical proof of humanity’s darkest capacity,” said Elliott Broidy, Chairman and CEO of Broidy Capital Holdings. “To behold it is to confront the deliberate design of evil. My most sincere wish is for this whiteprint to be memorialized as part of an irrefutable body of evidence that negates Holocaust denial and helps to forever silence malevolent revisionists while also educating new generations about the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Explaining why this Dejaco whiteprint is so significant, Prof. van Pelt said: “This first crematorium drawing captures the moment when Auschwitz entered the technological imagination: a design that became the prototype for the most lethal killing facilities in human history.”

Asked what it adds to our understanding of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, Prof. van Pelt said: “The October 1941 crematorium plan shows Auschwitz in motion—an architecture first shaped by the murder of Soviet POWs that was, through successive decisions, adapted into the machinery of destruction that resulted in the Holocaust.”

Prof. Michael Berenbaum of the American Jewish University, who was formerly Project Director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, said: “This is one of the most important visual documents showing how the crematoria were created, and showing also the intentionality and professionalism, the intricate detail and the substance, with which the crematoria were thought through.”

Broidy’s acquisition of the whiteprint was facilitated by Rabbi David Baron of the Temple of the Arts Synagogue in Beverly Hills, CA. The Temple acquired the document from the friend of a congregant who, years earlier, had purchased it at a Nazi memorabilia auction in Germany. In an act of remembrance and reverence, Broidy paid a sum matching the number of Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust—1.5 million—with all proceeds going toward Rabbi Baron’s development of a global early childhood curriculum promoting empathy, altruism, and anti-extremism.

The announcement comes amid renewed interest in the Nuremberg Trials—which first defined the crime of genocide—prompted by the 80th anniversary of their opening on November 20, 1945. Broidy’s acquisition of this historical whiteprint serves as a stark reminder of the real-world consequences of genocide, a word that is flagrantly misused in present-day political discourse.

Broidy plans to display the whiteprint at institutions and organizations dedicated to combating antisemitism and preserving the memory of the Holocaust, before making a long-term gift of it to one institution.

The acquisition builds upon Broidy’s broader efforts to counter extremist ideologies, including his support of The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the creation of The Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization at the former home of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss at 88 Legionów Street, adjacent to the concentration camp: ARCHER at House 88. The center focuses on fighting current antisemitism by disrupting the financial networks of extremist groups, using 21st-century tools to eliminate violent extremist content on the internet, and advising governments on laws such as the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act that require platforms to take down violent extremist content. Broidy is one of a small group of philanthropists who made possible the recent purchase of this house from its private Polish owners, and he is one of the co-chairs of The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism, and Hate, which raises funds for ARCHER at House 88.

Through his leadership of The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism, and Hate and other endeavors, Broidy supports initiatives that use historical truth and modern technology to dismantle hate networks, promote intergroup understanding, and safeguard the memory of the Holocaust.

“The Nazis sought to erase the humanity of their victims and their very existence,” Broidy added. “This artifact—and the education it will support—reasserts that humanity, helps ensure the continuity of the Jewish people, and works to build ways for all people to see the good in others.”

About Elliott Broidy

Elliott Broidy is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist with a career spanning four decades. As Chairman and CEO of Broidy Capital Holdings, he has invested in over 160 companies across multiple industries. Since 9/11, his investments have focused on companies in the public safety and national security sectors. Through his philanthropic efforts, he has supported numerous organizations dedicated to countering antisemitism, hate and extremism, including The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, The Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (CELL), The George Washington University Program on Extremism, and StandWithUs.

Elliott Broidy Auschwitz-Birkenau

Schematic for the Holocaust

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I acquired one of only two surviving copies of the original drawings of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria – a truly evil document. I hope to exhibit it at institutions dedicated to fighting antisemitism and ultimately to donate it to one of them. At a time of surging antisemitism and Holocaust denial, this irrefutable proof of Nazi genocidal intent is more

I wrote about my acquisition for The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page:

I am a patriotic American and a proud Jew. I consider it my civic duty to fight antisemitism and help preserve the memory of the Holocaust. That’s why I acquired one of only two surviving architectural drawings of the first design of the crematoria at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

This original drawing—or whiteprint—was made by Austrian architect Walter Dejaco. The only other known copy of this genocidal schematic is in Moscow’s State Military Archive, which is inaccessible to Westerners.

In 2024 I helped the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project buy the house next door to Auschwitz, where camp commandant Rudolf Höss lived with his family. The house has been turned into a research center to combat antisemitism and other forms of extremism.

I acquired the whiteprint earlier this year from the Temple of the Arts Synagogue in Beverly Hills, into whose possession it had come by way of a friend of a congregant. The latter had bought it at a Nazi memorabilia auction in Germany, with both buyer and seller unaware of its historical significance. Rabbi David Baron of Temple of the Arts wishes to create a global curriculum on “altruistic behavior”—his way of inoculating the young against extremism—in honor of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. The sum I paid for the whiteprint is the same number in dollars as the number of children killed. The money will be used for the curriculum project.

Read the rest in The Wall Street Journal.

Israeli soldier with Israel flag

Alan Dershowitz: Israel Has Proved That Jewish Blood Is No Longer Cheap

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Alan Dershowitz takes to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to make an important point. Throughout history, Jewish blood has been cheap. Mass murders went mostly unaccounted for. But Israeli action since the October 7 attacks have proven, rightly and forcefully, that that is no longer the case: those who kill Jews will pay a heavy price. It has been a powerful display of deterrence to the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, and a historic, clarion call that Jewish life is no longer disposable:

For centuries, Jews have been the victims of pogroms and racist violence, culminating in but not ending with the Holocaust. The murderers rarely paid for their actions. Jewish blood was cheap. Even most perpetrators of the Holocaust were never brought to justice. For decades, the Palestinian Authority gave so-called welfare payments to terrorists who had killed Jews—the “pay for slay” policy. Those who died killing Jews were considered martyrs and their families compensated. The murderers and rapists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre seemed to think they’d get away with it. They took videos of the atrocities they committed and bragged about killing Jews wherever they could find them.

But this time was different. Israel fought back and made the perpetrators and their supporters pay a heavy price. Many believe the price has been too heavy, especially for innocent civilians in Gaza. We don’t know the precise number of completely innocent victims. Gaza’s Health Ministry, run by Hamas, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants when it claims that more than 60,000 Gazans have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023. There are good reasons to doubt the figure and even better reasons to doubt the claim that fewer than 10,000 of them were combatants. The criteria for categorizing someone as a combatant aren’t black and white, especially in a war waged by terrorist groups. There is a continuum from combatant to civilian.

Read the whole thing in The Wall Street Journal.

New york city skyline on a sunny day

Elliott Broidy on Rabbi Pini Dunner’s A Populist in New York

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The prospect of Zohran Mamdani – the 33-year-old anti-Israel leftist – becoming the next mayor of New York City is profoundly frightening.

Rabbi Pini Dunner’s assessment in his latest article is spot on. Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, was “taken down by someone who used to perform under the name Young Cardamom and now proudly refuses to condemn calls to ‘globalize the intifada.’”

Mamdani’s policy proposals are ludicrous: “free childcare, frozen rents, free public transport, and a sweeping expansion of affordable housing — all funded, apparently, by sprinkling magic tax dust on ‘the rich.’”

But what grates me the most is Mamdani’s viciously anti-Israel record – he refused to state that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. He started a chapter of Students for Justice (SJP) in Palestine at Bowdoin College – a pro-terrorist organization that the Combat Antisemitism Movement has called the “leading antisemitic group on American college and university campuses.” SJP regularly incites violence against Jewish and pro-Israel students and glorifies U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” – which has led directly to recent murders in Washington, D.C. and a firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado – Mamdani said that the word “intifada” simply means “uprising” in Arabic, and that in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) Arabic materials, the word “intifada” is used in the context of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

But Mamdani knows what he is doing. The word “intifada” has specific connotations of the Palestinian intifadas against Israeli civilians, the second of which was marked by suicide bombings (including of a Passover seder) and the mass murder of Israelis. (And Kampf is the German word for struggle – you don’t see people going around using that word so freely, but they might as well).

Mamdani’s comments were so egregious that the USHMM was forced to issue a condemnation, writing on X: “Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize ‘globalize the intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors. Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history.” Well stated.

Rabbi Dunner’s whole article, which also brilliantly weaves in Torah commentary, can be found here.

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