(no subject)
Sep. 20th, 2005 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazchanI am under strict orders from Ropa to talk about the wonderful Holocaust speaker we had on campus today.
Wonderful, simply wonderful. Beautiful words, an amazing account and above all, the ability to look at the past and still be able to smile. (And make jokes...xD)
She talked about her life in Nazi occupied terriorities distantly, but she said that was her way of dealing with things. She had games she played, ways of looking at life--all that made it possible for her to survive. She was nine years old when she went into Bergen Belsen, and when she was ten, she was put on a train towards a death camp, but the train was liberated by the Germans 2 weeks after transport. She weighed 35 pounds. Geh....
She was sweet and above all, she kept on repeating on how we have to take care of each other, have open hearts and minds and look for the differences and similarities in a person. To NEVER let this type of hatred show up again. Never to let this type of thing repeat ever again. There is so much to say, of how she made jokes... I was wiping away tears when she talked about how faith let so many of them be alive today and able to bring more generations forth--then the next sentence she's talking about how "why He had to make it so cold was not something she could figure out."
One of the people in the audience asked a question that went through my mind (but I wasn't brave enough to ask, I asked another question) about if she made any friends/kept any friends in the camps. She said she did have many friends throughout the years; when she was in Westerbrok and in Bergen Belsen, but lost touch with them, didn't talk much with them, because everyone was preoccupied with their own survival.
Another thing she mentioned was that no matter how many films we've watched, no matter how many books we've read, there is no way to describe the smells that surrounded people in the camps. She said years later, she had to get surgery on her face, and she stopped the doctor because the smell of burning flesh made her think of the camps.
When she gets her bill at the supermarket, or change from buying something, if it is 19.43, she'll say out loud "That was a bad year." If 19.53, she'll say "Now that was a GOOD year." (year she married her husband) She remembers Kristallnacht, and was in the city when they blew up the synagagoue in Hoya. The ups and downs that her family went through, the strength that it took--
I can't describe it all, but you must read her book! ^.~ Four Perfect Pebbles.
XD
Wonderful, simply wonderful. Beautiful words, an amazing account and above all, the ability to look at the past and still be able to smile. (And make jokes...xD)
She talked about her life in Nazi occupied terriorities distantly, but she said that was her way of dealing with things. She had games she played, ways of looking at life--all that made it possible for her to survive. She was nine years old when she went into Bergen Belsen, and when she was ten, she was put on a train towards a death camp, but the train was liberated by the Germans 2 weeks after transport. She weighed 35 pounds. Geh....
She was sweet and above all, she kept on repeating on how we have to take care of each other, have open hearts and minds and look for the differences and similarities in a person. To NEVER let this type of hatred show up again. Never to let this type of thing repeat ever again. There is so much to say, of how she made jokes... I was wiping away tears when she talked about how faith let so many of them be alive today and able to bring more generations forth--then the next sentence she's talking about how "why He had to make it so cold was not something she could figure out."
One of the people in the audience asked a question that went through my mind (but I wasn't brave enough to ask, I asked another question) about if she made any friends/kept any friends in the camps. She said she did have many friends throughout the years; when she was in Westerbrok and in Bergen Belsen, but lost touch with them, didn't talk much with them, because everyone was preoccupied with their own survival.
Another thing she mentioned was that no matter how many films we've watched, no matter how many books we've read, there is no way to describe the smells that surrounded people in the camps. She said years later, she had to get surgery on her face, and she stopped the doctor because the smell of burning flesh made her think of the camps.
When she gets her bill at the supermarket, or change from buying something, if it is 19.43, she'll say out loud "That was a bad year." If 19.53, she'll say "Now that was a GOOD year." (year she married her husband) She remembers Kristallnacht, and was in the city when they blew up the synagagoue in Hoya. The ups and downs that her family went through, the strength that it took--
I can't describe it all, but you must read her book! ^.~ Four Perfect Pebbles.
XD
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-20 11:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 08:14 pm (UTC)