SHARE YOUR STORY
“The past isn’t dead. In fact, it isn’t even past.”
— William Faulkner
Think the Holocaust is a thing of the past? Think again. Darfur. Rwanda. Bosnia. Iraq, where even those who pray to the same God are killing one another out of religious intolerance (Sunnis v. Shia). Unchecked, hatred grows like cancer. Even if you have never written about it, you have most likely experienced or witnessed bigotry or racism in your life. Because unfortunately, it still exists. What did it make you think? How did it make you feel? Did you do anything about it? A society is a collective, but it consists of individuals. You. Me. Everyone in our circle. To make positive changes in the world, each of us has to assume a personal responsibility for that world. You can begin the process by sharing your memories or thoughts relating to “Choose Love Over Hate.” Right here. Right now. Do it because you know you have something important to say. Do it because you can’t live another day without beginning this process. Do it to become part of the solution. To stay silent, in effect, is to stay part of the problem. Do it because you will ultimately feel more fulfilled as a human being.
You will be surprised at how many people will relate to what you’re going through, and what you went through in the past. This is the beginning of a new awareness. A new fullness. Let’s change the world together. Let’s Choose Love Over Hate.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
I have many Jewish friends from whom I have learned so much and on my own as well about the Holocaust. My Jewish friends tell me that I’m more Jewish that they are! I know some Yiddish and have fun using it with them. I don’t know if it is of any value or not but my uncle was KIA in WWII. He was with the Army Air Forces and flew with the John Morrin Crew. Their plane “Pluto’s Avenger” was shot down over Duffel, Belgium by German ground artillery on February 22, 1944. Most of the crew died and some were taken as POWs. He was 20 years old and was the youngest of 5 children on my father’s side. It was to be their last mission. How I wish I had known him. He knew me for a couple of years before he died. “Schindler’s List” moved me so much and I especially feel a “kinship” for Mila Pefferberg whom I’ve seen after the move in “Voices from the List”. She looks so much like a very dear friend of mine Miriam Weiss who passed several years ago. She was a dear person and a very dear friend. I’ve worked with several Holocaust Survivors and lived next door to a lovely woman who was an Auschwitz survivor. I’ll never understand what possessed those people to do what they did. How could one human being could do such things to another. Please let me know what other documentaries you have available for purchase. I recently saw “Swimming in Auschwitz” on PBS. Amazing story of 6 courageous women. Another great movie recently was “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” a Polish social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Krakow Ghetto. Thank
you again and I will share your story with my friends.
Regards,
Bob DiStasi, CT.
Martin, it was a pleasure to read your story. I would like to hear more details about your father. Here is mine: Recently, after reading the biography of Oskar Schindler, I wrote an article in Portuguese to three newspapers. The title is “An Extraordinary Common Man.” I plan to send a copy over to Yad Vashem. Men like Oskar Schindler and your father are common people obliged by circunstances and supreme injustice, as the Nazis perpetrated, to emerge as heroes.
I was once married for 10 years to an extraordinary and bright Jewish woman, Anna Kayserman. (I myself, am not Jewish) Our union was quite productive. We were compelled to write books together, 8 in all, all aimed at kids betwen 6 and 17 years old. Believe me, our first book, released in 1991, still sells around 1500 copies a month. It´s a miracle. Our books are published in Brazil by Saraiva (www.saraiva.com.br) and Franco Publisher. The best-known titles are Pedrinho Give the Cry, The Goldsmith Sappers of the North Pole, Time Flies, The Mystery of the Phantom and A Truck War Cahoeirão, among others. Though regrettably, the marriage is over, I am happy to say it still bears fruit.
Robinson
Martin,
I am more than honored to hear your amazing story.
I have Jewish blood, in my case I don’t know all the origins because its my understanding that it was not a happy one and there’s pain around it, so I respect the silence and just keep going along.
Despite all that, I feel a tremendous link to the community, I always have, maybe its the blood calling me, and to this day I feel the pain that our community has suffered, and I say OUR COMMUNITY because it belongs to all of us, its not only about the horrors of an unspeakable era, but to the tragedy of all of us as a human race.
You talk about tolerance, indeed tolerance is a basic need. I am deeply moved by your words, and admire you, because it is true, human history has been written with blood, and we are the only living species that will kill for a belief or for a grain of salt, so if we are supposed to be at the top of the chain, why is it that with our knowledge we can’t get along?
I’ve been a victim of racism, I have been treated different because I am different, because I have fair skin and green eyes, because I can speak two languages, because I get along with almost everyone and make friends everywhere and still, I been treated unfairly.
Yes I am different, I am a mix of Mexican, Jewish and Spanish blood, and my own race has been hard on me. But I still go along lending a hand and making someone smile, trying to help everyone, with simple little things, because I’m always broke, like opening a door for a person in a wheelchair, or holding the elevator for someone who is walking slowly with a cane, trying to make someone smile and believing that we are like M&Ms mixed in a big bowl called Earth, we all have different colors but we are the same on the inside.
I’m adding a site that I love, it’s called Playing For a Change http://www.playingforchange.com that is my dream, that we can be together as a human race, that no matter where we are, we all are God’s big family, no matter how you call Him, no matter the color of your skin, we need to stick together.
Many many thanks and please continue
Sincerely
Adriana
My mother (born in 1926) was a partly-Jewish DP in Austria in the late 1920s. In 1931, her mother (half-Jewish and identified as such on her ‘papers’), paid an American of Italian extraction to marry her so she could come to the USA. My mother and elder sister, ages 5 and 7 respectively, lived in Italy with that American man’s family (who were otherwise total strangers) for 3 years until their visas allowed them to join my grandmother in the States. Thus the Nazi conveniently lost track of my mother, aunt and grandmother, otherwise, we’re certain they would have ended up in a ‘work’ camp. My great-grandmother got herself here on a work visa. The rest of that side of the family is a big blank wall. My great- and grand mothers died long ago, and my mother and her sister don’t remember family names or places. That part of our family is simply ‘unknown’.
im proud to talk of my grandpa raymond f. phillips he was in ww11 he was a young man of 19 he helped liberate a concentration camp in poland not sure which one exactly he was awarded a medal of honor for his heroics i dont have jewish blood in my family that i know of but i feel connected thanks to my grandpa he was a great man. i wish i could have learned more from him about his experience but he was too emotoinal sometimes to speak of the horrors he witnessed. things our generation could never imagine my grandpa passed august of last year close to his 85th birthday.he was brave and generous to have fought in normady and the battle of the bulge. i will always remember his bravery as should all of us remember our brave men and women in the military.
When I was a child of perhaps nine or ten, my school friend Sonia and I would go to our local cinema’s Saturday Matinee, and then afterwards get a burger and chips at the Wimpey burger bar in Sale Cheshire. I noticed the lady that always served us appeared sad and weary. with dark eyes and dark circles around them. She spoke with an accent, and didn`t say much other than to repeat our order and ask for the money. My friend and I, it seemed to me, were her only customers.
Each Saturday we would turn up and buy our food from her and always try to engage her in chit chat. Intuitively, I felt her sadness and wanted to cheer her up, often by telling her about the film we`d just seen. After a while, it became something of a ritual. When our Saturday afternoon film was over, my friend and I would say to each other, “Lets go see that lady, see how she is,” instead of “lets go get a burger.”
This lady would greet us with a smile. Yet somehow she seemed shy. If it was quiet and there were just a few or no other customers, we would ask her to come sit with us and rest her legs. But she was always on the go, cleaning.
Then one day the lady finally sat down with us with her coffee. As she reached forward for the sugar, the arm of her sleeve slid slightly up her arm revealing a tattooed line of numbers a little above the upper part of her wrist. I`d never seen a lady with a tattoo before. My friend and I asked her about it. “Ooh is that a real tattoo? Can we see it?” We were excited and also asked her “when did you do that?”
The lady pulled her sleeve back down over the tattoo and simply answered, “It is not something for children to know about.” We both knew somehow that it would be rude to continue to ask her about it and so the conversation changed to something else.
I went home and told my mother about the sad but nice lady and her tattoo, and what she had said about it. My mother looked at me and said in a very serious tone, “Oh, dear God. Oh, Pamela. You must always be very nice to that lady at all times. Do not ask her anymore questions about it ever. And remember, you must always be kind to her. That poor woman. God bless her.” My mother looked like she was about to cry. I knew it had to be something very important. My friend and I discussed this together afterwards and continued to be nice to her anyway, but now we were aware that she somehow must be extra special.
One of the times my friend and I went to see her, there was a tall dark haired man behind the counter. He was rummaging through her bag and it sounded like he was shouting at her in a strange language. We didn`t understand him, but we watched in horror as he emptied the contents of her bag all over the counter.
We were livid. In unison my friend and I shouted at the top of our lungs: “LEAVE HER ALONE YOU NASTY MAN, DON`T YOU DARE SPEAK TO OUR FRIEND LIKE THAT! YOU CHEEKY MAN, HOW DARE YOU GO THROUGH A LADIES HANDBAG?!” He mumbled something, the lady’s eyes lit up, and she gave us a big smile, poured herself a coffee and sat down at our table with us.
That Wimpey bar closed down some time later. I can not remember her name but I have never forgotton her.
As I got older and studied modern history at school and watched the documentary “World at War” at home, I learned about the mass murder of some six million Jews. It affected me that I`d befriended a survivor of that Hell. I was so grateful to my mother for encouraging me to “look after her.”
On my mother`s father`s side are Jews. I always thought the picture of Anne Frank resembled my mum from photographs of her as a child. No suggestion here that we are related in anyway, but that my mother looked Jewish.
I remember seeing an old sepia, hard-backed photograph of a tall, smartly dressed man with very long side burns, and asking who it was. I was told he was a relative. My great Grandfather was named Abraham Gorman, my Grandmother`s Father. My Great grandfather, my Grandfather’s Father was named James Oakes, none of which sounds Jewish to me.
My mother left school and became a seamstress at some factory in Ardwick Manchester. She told me that one day as she walked past these huge double green gates which had a door in them, she noticed a large black car and this very smartly-dressed man, the double image of her dad, getting out of it. She ran home to tell her mum, who turned round and said, “oh that is your uncle.” I can`t remember his name, just that he was the brother of my Grandfather. My mother had no contact with her Father`s family, and sadly, I know very little about them, except that this uncle owned the factory where my mother worked as a young girl. I wonder if this man may have been the man in that old photograph.
My mother died in 2006, the last one of her family, and I know very little about that side of the family.
I am a christian Zionist, who loves the jewish people! I admire the courage of Oskar Schlinder.
I know there will be more tribulation for the Jewish people in the future. I am preparing myself spiritually mentally and physically for that hour. not because I want to be a “hero”, but to protect G-d’s chosen people because I want to obey My Lord and my Savior
i am from a Jewish family background. i don’t live the Jewish way, because I don’t know my Jewish background. My grandmother is a Jew and her family was Jewish, but i don’t know them, as they have died. I know this is horrible to say, but I don’t like Germans — for what they did to the Jews. But I cant hate Oskar Schindler, even though he was a German. He was a good man. He saved some, not all of the Jews, and I respect him for that. I am only 25 and he died before i was born, but still I would have liked to have met him. God bless Oskar Schindler and all his Jews and thanks to Martin Richard Kent, the son of Olek, for making this website, so people can see people’s stories and leave comments. God bless everyone who visits this site and to all the Jews in the world. God bless you all.
Oskar Schindler is my great example…My life is dedicated to preserve the Memory of the Shoah to avoid that it will repeat. It’s not easy so our job has to be strong and permanent. In Italy I create the Comitate for the Support of Memorials and with my poems and my books I do what I can…like Martin is doing with movies…
Thanks to all!!!
My father is Austrian and his mother, whom passed away already, used to tell about the gas chambers and smoke. She saw the rows of poor jewish people lining up to be executed. I don’t know much about her life because I was very small when we left Argentina to come and live in South Africa. Sometime during the war she fled from Austria to Poland then Holland and then ended up on a ship to Argentina. At the age of 80 my mother fetched her there and brought her to South Africa with us.
As you can understand she was very old and being Austrian, didn’t talk much. I only remember her to cry whenever someone mentioned something to her about the Holocaust.
A couple of months ago I decided that I wanted to know more about what happened in the Holocaust. I read a lot on the internet and saw some films about it, but my curiosity is still living inside me. I got very depressed when reading about it, but it makes me, today, a better woman, mother and partner.
Thank you so much for your work. I am sure that there are many of me out there who wants to know more about those days, and luckily, through your hard work, we can learn more.
i believe these tragedies should always be remembered and that all of us were affected by them in some way and before we hate and discriminate we should all realize we are gods children and we were sall meant to live together on gods amazing earth and the jews are gods chosen time to dust off your bibles people and realize that misunderstanding aand lack of education are the main reason for hate.
Mr DiStasi,
I live in Duffel, half a mile of the site where the B-17 of your uncle crashed.
My great-uncle told me the story of the airplane-crash years ago. A few years ago, a monument was installed in remembrance.
I pass by the monument very often ; I always think about those brave man. I can assure you that the monument is very well preserved.
Kind regards,
Steven van Camp
Duffel, Belgium.
Shalom to All,
The Holocaust was so awful! When I saw the movie Schindler’s List i was so moved and touched what Schindler did to risk his and his wife’s lives in World War II. He did what he had to do – I would have done the same thing as he did. I was born Baptist, and then about June 2007 I started studying Judaism 101 at the synagogue and continued attending Jewish Shabbat services every Friday night. On March 6 2009 I became Jewish by conversion ceremony in the temple and did it of my own free will, and accepted the people to be my people and their God my God, same as Ruth did. But moreover I loved the Jewish people and Israel and supported them — this is also why i did it. I wish I could tell Oskar Schindler how proud i was of him to help the Jews to survive and how he kept them alive. So now he is home with family in Heaven. I am glad for him. Israel has honored him — he is buried there. I will go visit his grave when I move to Israel soon and will thank him there with honors to him. Remember anti semitism is now on the rise again — against Jews and Christians too. But Jews are the main target. We must stand with the Jews to defend them no matter what others say or think. I would defend them.
Peace be unto you all.
Bobby Harris
My mother’s stepdad was Polish. He was a big, lovely man. To me he was my granddad. He showed and taught me how to grow vegetables and all about gardening. But being only 9 years old, I really liked to just hear him tell me about stuff.
One day he told me about his first wife when they both lived in Poland. She died during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He didn’t just want to dig a hole and bury her in it, so he asked a German solider for some wood to make a coffin to place his wife in. But he refused this request. My grandfather found an old orange box and put her in this. I asked how did she fit in that box. He told me he had to break her bones to make her fit. He had tears running down his face as he told me this, and i was a mess too, I cried my heart out and gave him so many hugs that day.
He died in 1977. I have never forgot what he told me that day in the garden. We were so close. I still think about him from time to time and of those days I spent with him in his garden.
just thought i would share this with you
please keep up the good work
Paul Fox
England
Hi Martin Kent: I living in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
I don’t speak English, but I make effort.
I have a son, his name is Oscar to honor “Oskar Schindler.” The history of these man is incredible and I believe it takes courage to do a thing like that. I have great admiration for Oskar Schindler and I think he is an example for my son.
Excuse me my English, wait to you understanding my message.
Cesar Vega Gomez
Mexico
I am a British Catholic “Maria Teresa Bernadette” married name “Goldberg”, and married my husband an American Jewish Man. I became interested in what the Jewish people had to
endure, and felt so very sad to think that this could happen to such lovely people. I would sit watching at the edge of my seat, with tears rolling down my face, not being able to understand
the cruel, disgusting way they had been treated, and how this could have ever happened to them.
There has never been one group of people that have suffered so much and been so misunderstood by so many as the Jews. I am a Christian and have been married to a Jewish woman and long before she arrived on the scene to be my wife I have loved Jewish people for what they are and who they are, Moise Rosen of Jews for Jesus is a very deep man and his group would consistently come to our church The Gathering place in Danville, California and share the traditions that make up the Jewish Heritage.When I was a small boy in the late 40′s and 50′s my mother would share with me her tremendous fear of the German’s and remind me that they had risen twice in a century, but she also reminded me there Germans that stood against all the evil that Adolph Hitler intended for the jews and all others that were “useless eater”s”, and those not of the Aryan race of superhumans.The Count Von Stuaffenberg, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom and many others that had a moral conscience. I watch every movie that may have a shred of truth about the Holocaust. Why? Because I love Jewish people. Some forget their great contribution to our civilization and society in general. Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein and so many others that have given themselves for people like me. We cannot fail them in there hour of need as we did in the Holocaust.Listening yo Elie Weisel’s “Perils of Indifference” to Congress was an indictment to all free peoples that our land of freedom (U.S), stood by while we allowed “wholesale Murder” to take place under F.D.R.’s administration because it wasn’t politically correct. I wonder how God feels about this?The movie’s that move me the most are Anne Franks Diary, Dan Curtis’s War and Remembrance, a screen play-mini series by Hermann Wouk that will rip your heart out and bring you to your knee’s when you see the scene at a concentration camp in Poland as Himmler views a trial run on the gassing of I believe Hungarian Jews and the scene with the little Jewish girl crying in her mothers arms as a young Nazi SS guard restrains his German Shepard herding them into the “delousing” building and her mother pulling a flower to calm the little girl, herself being terrified about what’s to come.Then Himmler and his Goons viewing the affair as if it was a common sporting event with little emotion about the extinction of a human lives, then to see the little girl dead on the cart with blued lips from the toxic Zyklon-B makes my heart break and I feel nauseous and in me wells up a righteous indignation as to why we did not use the Atomic Bomb on them instead of the Japanese.Then I understood my mother’ s fear of the Nazi’s. God is the only one that can erase a people that are corrosive to humanity. Such as the Amaelkites, (which Saul didn’t follow God’s instructions), even Haman reared his ugly head to complete the destruction of the Jew’s. Thank God for raising up Esther(her Persian Name). People needed to be educated as my heart ached the night I saw Leon Leyson convey his story. Dan Curtis fought with the censor’s of ABC to get the full impact of the Holocaust, nudity for the sake of reality must not be mitigated away because we want to clean up our crime. Our we our brother’s keeper, you bet we are, as humans we are to be humane ,if we are indifferent to the suffering of others God help us. God bless those who risked it all for the Jewish people and woe to the Capo’s by proxy that turned a blind eye to save their own bacon. You say it is easy for you to say, you weren’t there. You are correct, but I live by heart and to love another is the greatest gift God gives and the only one we can give back to him. How can life be worth living If we see such things and turn our backs when we can assuage the pain and suffering of this great people called the Jews. Yes I would fight for them and along side of them. We Christians have persecuted them , thrown them out of our church’s, taken their property, and called them, “Christ Killers”without understanding God’s choice was for the Jewish people, not for their intelligence or character, because they were few in number and in his great big heart he loves them and that is good enough for me. After all God can choose anyone he wishes and we Gentiles should feel about them as he does, thus loving and helping them. Watch the movie the Boy in the Striped Pajamas and you will the unassuming love a Nazi Commandant’s son for a little Jewish Boy in a concentration camp who discovers the truth about Jew’s and loves the Jewish Boy and ends up going to oven’s with him by mistake. It is heart rending to see the love in the Nazi Commandant’s son’s heart for the Jewish Boy. It is the love that transcends all racial barriers, which is the very thing God has been trying to teach us since the beginning of Creation. Love the big enigma, that mankind just can’t get right. well I could write volumes on the feelings I have for the Jewish people, all positive and loving, but enough has been said by this Gentile to have you understand, you have friends those who love, not everybody hates you.
It is individuals like yourself who are chosen “I believe by God” to educate the world of past horrors and to see to it that it never happens again.
I would love to help in some way, but not sure where to begin. This might sound weird to you, but here goes. Ever since I was young and now feel a bond to the Jewish people. I am for as I know not Jewish, but I have a bond in my heart and soul that I can not explain.
Again if there is any way I can assist you in your cause please let me know. I am in Canada and would love to do more. I pray for you and your cause. Keep up the great job that you do.
All the best!
Don McGregor
Hello to you all,
I just want too sy how I am truly amazed by all of your stories. I admire the bravery and courage it takes too talk about such hard and difficult times.
As for my story…
My great-grandfather, English name tony, was polish. He was born and raised on a farm in Poland alongside his brothers and sisters. Although times were hard for them, tony grew up in a happy and safe environment… Untill it all went wrong. Tony grew up into a honourable and well presented young man. At the age of 19, what tony knew as his home land was overturned by the Nazis. What was he to do? The family were no longer allowed tobgrow crops and they certainly couldn’t afford to buy them so what were they too do? From here tony did what he thought was best. He went on the run. Unable to persuade his family to come with him tony left for anywhere he could get. Only days later, tony heard news of how the farm he grew up on had been destroyed and heard nothing of what came of his family. He had nothing left in the world. Until…
Through many ways tony finally made it to england where he met my great grandmother and came to be what he called his ‘happy ever after’.
I never got the pleasure to meet my great grandfather as I would have been more than honoured too do so. I personally do not understand how one could let something so disastorous go as though it never happened?
Therefore, as a extra to my history course, I took a trip to Poland too see for myself what it was like. I visited auschwitz and met a holoucaust survivor named josef. He told me on his story how he was taken as a prisoner of war to the concentration camp. His family, friends, neighbours, all brutally murdered. At the liberation of the camp josef was set free, but what did he have too come out too? Nothing. I asked him, do you forgive them for what they have done too you? He replied yes. I asked. How? After all of this? I don’t understand how one could forgive for such tradegies? He replied, sweet, we are all human and we all make mistakes.
He had been through such terror and could forgive yet I can not forgive for pathetic little things people do too me? I was ashamed at myself, embarrassed too be crying infront of such a digniful man.
This man has changed me. He’s changed the way I think and my outlook on life,
and for this I am eternally grateful, he is my hero.
Holly
I despise intolerance and unfortunately, I have a lot of family who behave as Hitler did. How I came out to see that we ALL are human beings I will never know. I am fortunate to have a husband and my only child, my son, who sees a person as a human being and not by the color of their skin, their religion or their beliefs. I suppose this is how the world is but I continue to hope, hope that this world will one day change.
Thank you for this wonderful information. Keep up the humanitarian work that you do, it will make a difference.
Sincerely,
S. Brown
Mr. Kent,
Thank you for your email informing me of this site. I have been aware of your work. I have some experiences I also would like to share. We are of the same age, so I know you and many other readers would remember the newsreels in the movie theaters back in the 50′s & 60′s. Many of the clips showed WW11 video’s and the horror of the Death Camps. I recall as a young girl seeing survivor’s behind the barbed-wire fences reaching out to the soldiers who had liberated them. My father, a quiet, reserved man, was an 11 yr. Navy veteran from 1935-1946 and always became still when these clips appeared. I was around eight or nine when I asked my father what did those bad people who were behind the fence do? My father replied, “They were not bad people; they were good people who had bad things done to them by bad people.” I asked him simply, “Why Daddy?” My father was at a loss for words and turned to me with glistening eyes and said, “I don’t know.” That unanswered question has remained with me for life.
During my early Nursing career, I cared for a female Holocaust survivor who bore the numbered tattoo on her arm. While I wanted to ask her questions, I dared not intrude into her painful past. However, one evening she was moaning and thrashing around her bed, I entered her room and gently woke her. She began to sob & once I found she was not in physical discomfort, I just sat with her & held her until she was calm. It was then she told me of her experiences in the camps & her endless nightmares. I walked away as changed person & the need to know why stronger than ever.
Less than a year later, I had another patient who bore horrific scars all over his body. His fingers, arms, toes & feet were all malformed and all his nails were absent. He was a quiet man who rarely spoke unless addressed. I was in his room often to provide care & requested him as a patient for the duration of his stay. His patient social history revealed some of reasons for his physical condition & I was again horrified. “Willie” was an innocent victim of the Holocaust and German. He lived in a very small, rural village close to the Czech border and retreating German troops entered the village gathering up all boys over 10 and all men. Willie, who was 15, was given a German helmet and a rifle he was very quickly taught to load & shoot at the approaching Russian Army. The troops left with the threat of returning to the village & killing everyone if they didn’t defend the village as instructed. The Russians entered the village the next day & all males over 12 and under 60. were taken by them, if they were in good health, otherwise were shot dead as Combatants. Willie was forced to march to Russia & imprisoned in a “work-rehabilitation” camp in Siberia. He remained there ten years before his brother was able to locate him with the aid of the International Red Cross, & it took another eight years to get a release for him. His village no longer existed as it and the women therein, were ravaged, and the survivors fled. His one remaining brother was the one who located him. Sadly, this village had a small community of Jews before the war and the ones that chose to remain were hidden & cared for by the community throughout the war.
I had a close friend who was a Czech Catholic Holocaust survivor. She, her husband & her mother helped protect two Jewish sisters during the war at the cost of her husband’s life & almost my friend’s as well.”Julia” & her family knew the family of the girl’s & when asked to help, they did without question. They were betrayed, her husband shot & killed, she herself was shot 2X but survived. Julia, her mother & children were sent to a camp in Germany. At war’s end Julia was working for the American’s as a translator & was assisted to immigrate to America. Her husband was given the “Medal of the Righteous” & a tree planted in his name in Israel on the “Avenue of the Righteous”. In 1993, I was invited to attend a ceremony honoring her as a “Righteous Gentile”. The women she saved were now women with families. One lived in the US & one in Israel & together, they had contacted the Israeli Government to get Julia the recognition she deserved. The Israeli Ambassador & the local Jewish community welcomed her & we stood by her as she received her medal & the promise her tree would be planted near her husband on the Avenue.
I have met other Holocaust survivor’s over the years and survivors of the genocides in Cambodia & the Sudan I was proud to call friends. This has prompted me to study the Holocaust/Genocides both independently & on an Academic level. I contacted Professor Elie Wiesel, whom as many know, is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Humanitarian, Author, Teacher & Holocaust survivor. It was in response to an article he wrote in Parade Magazine & he was gracious enough to personally answer me; this letter is to me, a prized treasure.
Although I am a Gentile, I believe we are all connected through our humanity and as such, we bear the burden to protect our fellow man. It saddens my heart that even today, we have not yet learned this lesson. Generations later, we still stand by & watch Genocides occur; governments turn a blind eye until the slaughter of innocent’s reaches the ordained number of death’s to qualify as a true Genocide. Even then, we seem powerless or unwilling to take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again. Sadly, I still hear my little girl voice in my head with the clear image in my mind asking “Why Daddy?” I fear we shall never know the answer but we must continue to strive to do so. Then perhaps we will never have to ask it again.
Dear Martin Kent
My family is from Germany. My maternal Grandmother used to be a private teacher and early childhood educator for Jewish families in my home city of Hannover Germany. My grandfathers were never Nazis. My paternal grandfather was sentenced to death by the Hitler regime for his opposition however because his family was so well known in the city of Freiburg, his sentence was reduced to labour camp and he was deported to Russia.
Why my interest in the Holocaust, why now? Seven years ago my childhood friends and my Father purchased the ruins of a huge, once beautiful house. A house that was part of the Israelitische Gartenbauschule, a Jewish educational centre for horticulture in Ahlem near Hannover.
For the last seven years we have been involved with the restoration of the 70 room 4 floor “Jewish Heritage House” and we have since found out much of the good and sad history of the house and the compound it sits on.
We also found out that this Jewish Institution was taken over by the Nazis and was made a Gestapo headquarters .
There was even a concentration camp there.
Over 60 years and we unearth all the terrible findings. This makes it all very personal.
Our pain and sorrow as a next generation of Germans over what has been done by our ethnic community is great.
The House my friends are restoring is now called house of hope”Beth Hatikva” and it serves many purposes, including the meeting of Jews and Germans in the Cafe Jerusalem and the centre of memory.
Thanks for all your great work. Will visit your site many times.
Thanks for sharing your story !
Many kind greetings from Katrin
I spent 2 years in Israel when I was younger (1984 or
thereabouts) and it was there that I read “Schindler’s Ark.” I spent some time
on a kibbutz and it was there that I first saw people with the
concentration camp tattoos on their arms. There were a lot of survivors
from the camps living on the kibbutz and one memory I have is watching
“Sophie’s Choice” in the kibbutz cinema and the scene where she has to decide
which child to save and the sobbing from the people who actually lived
through this experience. Would love to go back with my family as I loved
the country and the people.
Martin Brennan
Ireland
I have been involved with this inhumane act since I was very young. I remember WWII very well, and as I grew up, I knew I wanted to know more about the lives of these people who were able to survive. I am not Jewish, but I have many Jewish friends, and several survivors have spoken to my students in our classroom here in Southern California. We have borrowed some of the survivors’ stories on line and used them in drama class to make an impact on many students and adults. We have the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which is mind-boggling for most students who really have never studied this ugly part of our history.
Your father was very brave to save your mother’s life. How frightening it must of been for these people. I applaud your chutzpah for tackling this. I know it must cause great pain in your heart.