“..From now on ..do not answer by your name. ..felt like ..not ..human person anymore. ..shaved our heads ..I felt so ashamed. And also when they told us to undress and to shower ..they made us feel like ..animals. ..men were walking around ..laughing and looking at us. And you take a young girl at that age ..who had never been exposed to a person ..to a man ..and you stay there naked ..I wanted ..ground to open ..and I should go into it. We were packed like sardines. ..beds were bunks ..3 layers. I was on ..top layer. If one person wanted to turn ..we all had to turn. They gave me ..little rations of hard ..dried up bread which was half mildew ..I could hardly eat it. ..a tin can of soup ..so rotten and vile ..when I tasted it I couldn’t eat it. ..I just ate ..bread and drank a little water ..which was just rust running out from ..sink that they had over there. ..finally ..got so hungry ..knew I had to eat ..soup ..so vile. ..so terrible. I never ate anything like that in my whole life. ..If I want to survive I have to eat ..soup. ..So I started eating ..soup. And I ..forcing ..soup down my throat ..big tears coming down my face. Eating ..crying ..eating ..crying ..this is how I was in Birkenau. Every day ..I woke up and I would find 1 ..2 people who wanted to end their lives and couldn’t take it anymore. ..throw themselves to ..electric wires ..make an end of it. ..every once in a blue moon ..couldn’t take it anymore. ..try to sneak out of ..barracks late at night and I would see ..sky. ..talk to myself ..can’t believe ..stars ..looking down at us in this Hell ..this camp ..same stars ..shining at ..outside of ..world. ..other people ..looking at ..same stars ..they are free. ..to do what they want to do. ..living a good life. ..we are ..in Hell ..human beings worse than animals. ..nobody is doing anything about it. ..young as I was ..asking myself these questions. ..Where is ..world ..Why isn’t ..world doing anything about this ..I would question god ..Where is god ..How can He let us be killed like that ..after I cried myself out real good ..I would go back to ..barracks.” Lily Appelbaum.
Sometimes I struggle with my own prejudices and allow my preference for no-Religion to override the principles in History which are assigned to the science of its study. When I then go on to speak in a way which seems to denigrate any belief system, it is from a personal perspective, and has no wish to infringe upon the clearly held beliefs of others. But! This is where I draw the line with regard to the absence of any god in the midst of the brutalising terms of The Holocaust. For the Jewish People who have held onto their religious covenant for over 5,000 years, I sit back and am bemused when there are those, closest to the doors of the Gas Chambers, or staring directly into the abyss of the Killing Site, and they insist god will somehow save them. There are multifarious an argument why this is not so, and why it will never happen, but I regale against those who signal god as the choice giver to those who had no choice whatsoever. So allow me to amplify this! There was a choice to be made and the killers made theirs. This dismissed the choice to life of untold 1,000,000’s of Jews who were to be denied any choice whatsoever. In as much as I can, I will write this into every single Book I write, as a covenant with a memory shared, of a past all but lost and a History that must not be tainted by any form of distortion.
“..They took us away. One day they gave an order that all young People should come to ..square ..we didn’t know. They are going to send us away ..usually grabbed People on ..Streets ..after a while ..they send them home. In ..Morning ..I left with my little Sister ..my big Sister ..and my Brother. It was nothing ..I knew I am going to be back home. We didn’t even say goodbye to my Parents ..a mistake.” Sonia Garfinkel-Nothman.
Where is this divinity which allows for the wrong choices to be made by those who choose not to allow those god given choices to 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews. Surely for the many like Sonia Garfinkel-Nothman, the choice to say their goodbyes to their Mother, Father, entire Family, was an unknown qualification, as they are taken away. But as you will hopefully see, and what you will read in relation to the uniqueness which claimed 6,000,000 Jewish lives, this is within its systematic nature. Not only that, but the very systemic approach which was in Hitler’s augmented attempt to destroy every living Jew, within Poland, then all of Europe and eventually, the World, this approached the living Jew with a death and dead struggle. Many will not ss this as Hitler’s early and conceived idea of Weltanschauung, a World view that was to emerge from a bitter World War and that was ultimately and consistently to be without Jews. What I will present is with an imagery for those like Sonia who are transported away from all that had previously mattered to them, and without ever realising it, that they would never see their Parents, Family, Friends or even former residences ever again.
“..granted ..right to exist by ..god of our fathers at ..glimmer of ..dawn of human civilization ..4,000 years ago. For that right ..sanctified in Jewish blood generation to generation ..paid a price unexampled in ..annals of ..nations.” Menachem Begin.
As Sonia is to be resettled, and toward oblivion, a destructive capacity that is by now well written into the Nazi psyche, for Sonia and too many 1,000,000’s of these Jews, they did not know what was coming for them. Though as we know, Sonia managed to survive, but she did not know at this time that it was to cost her way too much of what she has been forced to lose. I know as a non-Believer, as a non-Jew, I appear to be imposing my own set of principles above the historical adherence so many Jews have stuck with. But I would not be fulfilling the integrity I seek to bring to the very terms of my work, and its understanding of the dire situation the Jews of Europe faced, without my own objectivity proposing the full facts as they remain truthful. We must continually recognise that entire Jewish Families entered oblivion knowing they could not allow for the last moments of their relationships to be without Love, Concern, and even a future prospect of Hope. That hope for the Jews contained much a religious adherence struck with belief, and while it did so, I am not going to suggest other than hope brought them to the edge of destruction holding onto something what the killers could not take from them.
“..For a ..while I lived in ..same room with Tema Schneiderman. Under ..bed ..a suitcase containing pistols and grenades. Tema and I brought ..grenades to ..Ghetto. Each of ..girls hid a grenade in ..her undergarments. From a suburb of ..City we took a streetcar in ..direction of ..Ghetto. I recall our odd behaviour during ..ride. Tema stood at my side and asked ..What would happen if a gentleman invited us to sit beside him. We broke into laughter ..hiding our fear in this way.” Havka Folman-Raban.
We also begin to recognise much more of what betrayed the Jewish presence within Europe, and whether that was a 5,000 year adherence and hold on religion, or not, the Jewish hold upon such beliefs is a resistance beyond which Hitler’s Reich held no sway. However, and within this belief which was so firmly held, an acquaintance with the assumed goodness of mankind and the complete failure of society to police itself properly, confused such narratives as might have saved more Jews than it did. We know through time, the exploits of so many Jews like Tema Sznajderman was to be in armed resistance, and in the Ghettos of Bedzin, Bialystok, Minsk, Vilna, and Warsaw, and even within The Death Camp system, Birkenau, Sobibor and Treblinka, these must be included in what is to always be remembered. However, and while all manner of Jewish Resistance was not to become highly recognised as such, or it even proved less acceptable over the other, all resistance requires all recognition for what it means to the Jews who undertook it.
“..this is no empty phrase ..despite their power ..we knew ..ultimately we would defeat them ..we ..weak ones ..because in this lay our strength. We believed in justice ..in humanity ..in a regime different from ..one which they glorified.” Zivia Lubetkin.
The faith in the strong Family bond brought countless numbers of Jews to the same end, whereas those like Tema, and her band of Couriers, are recognised as formidable. Of course, they are an example of Courage, Hope and Resilience, and no less than those who fought within The Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Nor are these intrepid Women to be considered less than resisting of the Nazi charge to subdue and exterminate them. When we come to recollections of the fighting bravery of those Jews of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , for Zivia Lubetkin is one of these who took up arms, and while Yad Vashem sought to establish an internationally recognized date for all Holocaust Remembrance, this UNIQUE day itself falls on differing days within the Jewish calendar. This date to then commemorate The Holocaust entire, corresponds to the 14th day of Nisan, and this is taken from the Hebrew calendar. However, as it seeks to mark its significance for the anniversary of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 19th 1943, this then presumes to establish to a single event, separating out this particular day as unique within The Holocaust setting.
“..In ..afternoon Tema and I went to ..nuns’ restaurant ..where meals were cheap and one could take food home. Tema decided to go into ..Ghetto. She insisted ..and I could not dissuade her. I had barely gotten used to this delicate girl. At first I believed that she was a spoiled Child and would not be able to hold out. I don’t know why I always thought her more fit for picking flowers than for ..underground. After a few days I was ashamed of these ideas. I realized that she was stubborn ..brave and firm in her views. ..greater ..difficulty ..greater her daring. Suddenly I saw in her innocent and gentle wide-open eyes a small flame that lit up. That was ..centre of gravity of her daring character.” Chaika Grossman.
For me, Yom HaShoah V’HaGevurah, seeks only to relate such tribulation to that single event, but it does mark, nor delineate clearly the Day of the Holocaust and Heroism. While we are more and more aware of what Jewish Resistance Constitutes, events such as Jews holding hands with their Children all the way toward extermination, must confirm a heroism above and beyond any such single event. Jewish Children were not abandoned by those Parents who feared what approached, either in the abyss of the Killing Site, or within the unknown of the Gas Chambers. Jewish Parents were not to be left alone by those of their Children whose love for them went far beyond the simple terms of what extermination was about to mean for all of them. So I struggle with this idea of focusing solely upon one presentation of what The Holocaust means, when there are clearly 6,000,000 interpretations to it. Make no mistake, The Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the greatest assault upon the might of Hitler’s War machine by a civilian group of engaged, defiant, but all the while, a sentenced Polish Jewry still destined for total destruction.
“..No one knew then that ..Jews were destined for extermination. At ..time I thought ..I could help them by bringing them things ..they were lacking. ..real help to Jews started in 1942 ..when ..large deportation from ..Warsaw Ghetto was underway. ..Only when ..horrible extermination started ..desperately tried to establish contact with my Ghetto friends. ..I did not succeed. Poles ..Jews ..taken by surprise. My friends perished.” Roman Sadowski.
I have absolutely no wish to diminish the role of some Polish 700 Jews who stood their ground, fought for their Poland, their lives, and stood all alone in their attempt to secure what life was left to something like 60,000 remaining Polish Jews. Here, too they also shone a light here upon the indifference of Poland to all that Polish Jewry struggled to Survive. In terms of what is lost in these few days of the Uprising we recognise the loss of a further 7,000 Jews who died while fighting or were killed in the conflagration, hidden till they were torch lit by Stroop and his ranks. In all, and after the Uprising had been quelled, totally crushed, the remnant of those remnants who had one survived as 53,000 Polish Jews, some 9,000 of whom were shipped out to the Death Camp at Treblinka and were Destroyed there. Some of the remainder of these Ghetto Jews were transferred to the Death Camp at Majdanek and were Murdered there.
“..We begin to tell stories about our town. ..Gorodok. ..we lost our Parents ..we saw ..deaths of our Brothers and Sisters. After 2 ..3 years ..injured ..broken hearted we came to our devastated homes.” Yehuda Adelman.
The date for now celebrating The Holocaust, has two occasions which both separate and divide the importance of unifying every aspect of remembrance of the Slaughter. So while this date must surely matter, as it is a Jewish commemorative, the 14th day of Nisan, which loosely falls within April or May, is not wholly recognised as a single day. I need to appreciate what this date fully means. Written in the Hebrew Calendar as 14 Nisan 5703, this was decided as the commemorative date for YomHaShoah, and as many consider Tisha B’Av more appropriate to traditional mourning, there is a conflict even for this commemorative. This call to remembrance then, of The Holocaust as a whole, was established by the Israeli Government and seeks to point toward an event more acceptable than all others. While this recognizes what is in the Gregorian Calendar, April 19th 1943, all of History records this as the commencement date for the beginning of The Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. As I understand it, the Gregorian date is fixed, while this Hebrew date is a floating and unsettled day, and does so ranging within a 2 month period! But am I correct though, and in seeking to establish a memory of such a colossal event as would encapsulate the entirety of the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews, is this opposed in any way toward recognising what 700 Jews stood solidly against.
“..I don’t accuse anyone that did not hide or help a Jew. We cannot demand from other’s to sacrifice their lives. One has no right to demand such risks.” Pola Stein.
One does not wish to allow the diminishing of the other call to remembrance by some prescient hierarchy that would sully the duty in fully remembering all we must recall. Neither should there be any single event allowed to stand atop the other in any sense of the importance we place upon it. The essential however, in commemoration of such an atrocity as deeply wounding to all human civilisation as The Holocaust is, must always be served. Clearly, the cessation of what The Holocaust has presented to us, with the liberation of the Death Camps, is a good starting place to which we recall all we need to remember. For me, this brings up two issues which not only confronts me, but if you wish to commemorate, do we not simply accept that a particular date is sacrosanct. If we are to commemorate the totality of the atrocity in between two differing periods, this does not suggest the exact day to remember? It reminds me of the museum of Auschwitz pushing its agenda of such inaccuracy as to remove or dispel from the destruction of 1,100,000 Jews, their space to which they were destroyed, Birkenau.
“..Up to January 18th. 1945 ..a total of about 5,000,000 were burned in ..crematories of Oswiecim and Birkenau. ..more than 3,000,000 were Jews poisoned by gas or ..victims of epidemics.” Seweryna Szmaglewska.
Also, and perhaps the more contentious of these two competing issues, and I would not hold reverence to this one event at the expense of any of those other events which witnesses 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews, whose resistance somewhat differed. Along with the earlier effort to strike back at the Germans in the Warsaw Ghetto itself, which was but 2 months earlier, on January 18th 1943, do we separate this date out from remembrance. Many things are indeed UNIQUE within the tenets of The Holocaust, but dates themselves clearly define aspects of the murderous process which brings us toward memory itself. With the resumption of the resettlement of a further 6,000 of the Warsaw Ghetto’s Jews, to be murdered at Treblinka, resister’s acted. As the Warsaw Ghetto was surrounded for this 2nd Liquidation, the Jewish fight was brought to the Nazi’s at x4 Battle Group Barricades. Here, Jewish Resistance plans were set in motion to disrupt all future ‘resettlement’ operations, and while this was being struck, it led directly to what the fuller Uprising became.
“..Liquidation ..Warsaw Ghetto ..taking place. ..all Jews ..irrespective of age ..sex ..removed ..shot. ..mass executions ..in especially prepared camps ..Belzec. ..Jews deported ..to be butchered.” Myron C. Taylor.
For 4,500 Jews who were immediately deported, and some 1,200 Jews who were Murdered in situ after Resisting, their sacrifice is our call to evidencing them. This then is the 1st Jewish Fighting Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto and surely it too reflects immensely, the Jewish fight back, a Jewish Resistance which lasted for 4 days. Is this initial Uprising of Warsaw Ghetto Jews not an ignition point, lighting the future fuse for those Jews to come who are refusing to die on command. Should we not seek to recognize this as a date of equal importance, and do we then disregard the dozens of other Jewish Armed Resistances, in Ghettos, City’s, Towns, and Camps. Also, do we not see in what Janusz Korczak achieved an ultimate sacrifice and heroism. When Jewish Children refused to allow their Parents to walk toward oblivion without them, do we not record this as the greatest of heroics. But let us not stop there! Without recognizing the efforts of those whose demand was to escape, and eventually attest to the savagery of the Jewish passing, do we not recognise this within The Holocaust as UNIQUE.
“..My Mother let’s go of me. We look at each other intently ..profoundly ..silently. We are separated ..I don’t see her climb into ..lorry. We did not say goodbye. ..We did not kiss. I never saw my Mother again.” Eva Tichauer.
What if we are to then recognize the very humbling effort of The Ringelblum Archive, does not the Oneg Shabbat cry out with a full measure of Jewish defiance. We could look to the Liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau as a memorable date in ending the Death Camp system. And what then of The Auschwitz Album which records what Hungarian Jewry could expect from amongst 1,100,000 Jews Slaughtered there. In any sort of context I can understand and appreciate, I will draw a line at what the UNIQUEness of The Holocaust presents. The Holocaust, in every detail, is an unparalleled and unprecedented hatred ever given over to mass murder on an industrial scale and given free rein in a free World. Out of each sample of the criteria which set the Jews apart, society gave way to the inhumanity to be witnessed across the length and breadth of an entire continent. If we were to look to The Irish Famine, we would see the starvation of 1 Million Irish People, on the Island of Ireland. If we even registered our disquiet at what was achieved by Turkey in The Armenian Tragedy, 1 Million Armenian People were led to die by execution, maltreatment, starvation and disease. It is not merely in the numbers of Jews the Nazis managed to destroy, but it the targeted goal to do so, its implementation and the construction of industrial killing centres to manage it all.
“..There was even humour amidst ..danger ..as in what happened to Tema. She was standing in a crowded train with a hand grenade hidden in her underwear.” Zivia Lubetkin.
Zivia Lubetkin here is referring to those Females, Tema Schneiderman amongst them, who are preparing to resist the Germans with arms. So whenever I approach those whose interest on The Holocaust is a keenness not only reserved for myself, I seek to point them toward those whose evidence’s are key to what we are as yet incapable of understanding. I hope the interest remains, I intend it to be continually focused upon the truth, as it matters, and remain as committed as I aim to be. So when I then seek to afford some form of condolence, my own grip on grief and loss is disproportionate in terms of the massive detail of that immense Jewish loss. I wish to share though with you all a consideration I have for a Friend, going through the loss of her own Dad at present. Now this is what I have sent her, and I know in this I have a demand to calculate in such enormous terms that would commemorate the whole of this Jewish loss. But for any Parent who can prove to be the best person in the World, when they give you their own life so as to secure a few more lasting moments of all that had come to matter, then their sacrifice and love is more exceptional than resistance can record.
“..entire population of ..Kolomyja..ghetto ..ordered to gather in ..yard of ..Judenrat ..to be registered. ..5,000 people presented themselves. ..Germans ..selection ..300 ..chosen ..sent to ..right which meant life. All others ..surrounded by Ukrainian militia ..SS ..with specially trained dogs ..herded in ..direction of ..railway station. ..column moved slowly towards ..station. Apart from ..sound of ..scraping of thousands of feet ..amazingly quiet. ..time to time a Child would cry ..quickly silenced by its Mother. ..only a few Children ..elderly Men ..Women. Always ..weakest ..ghetto inmates ..youngest ..eldest ..perished earlier. ..ghetto ..closed ..early spring ..terror ..hunger ..disease ..prowled ..ceaselessly.” Ruta Wermuth.
I have written to many of these Survivors, with such wishes to those who have served us an account of such losses as we are unable to compute. But nothing will ever approach what has to be recognized is the Unparalleled, Unprecedented nature of this mechanized and industrialised Slaughter, and such a UNIQUE event that we recognize it in this single term of The Holocaust. The uniqueness itself is not just written in terms of these 6,000,000 Jews alone though it uniformly says it is so. The uniqueness is not simply the enormous cost to the Jewish People, but it is also an immense measure of the loss to All of Humanity. I have no wish to inject any religious position here, but one cannot account for the belief system which brought these Jews even a moment of hope, or comfort right up until extinction. For me, and no matter the strength of the Jewish belief, there was No god present in The Death Camps or within The Killing Sites. This does not decry any such belief which gave these Jews a hope of redemption in some after life, but the hope which carried them further than nazi extremism could ever manage against them redeems some sort of positioning with belief itself.
“..pure myth ..Jews ..merely passive. ..Jews fought back ..to a degree no other community anywhere ..would have been capable of. ..they fought against hunger ..starvation ..disease ..a deadly Nazi economic blockade. They fought against murderers and ..traitors within their own ranks ..and ..were utterly alone in their fight. ..forsaken by God and ..man ..surrounded by hatred or indifference. ..there was much heroism ..little beauty ..much toil ..suffering ..no glamour. We fought back on every front ..biological ..economic ..propaganda ..cultural ..with every weapon ..possessed. In ..end ..ruse ..deception ..cunning beyond anything ..world had ever ..seen ..accomplished what hunger ..disease ..terror ..treachery ..could not. What defeated us ..Jewry’s unconquerable optimism ..eternal faith in ..goodness of man ..even a German ..a Nazi ..could never have ..renounced ..own humanity as to murder women ..’children’ coldly ..systematically. ..when we finally took up arms ..we inscribed in ..book of history epic of ..Ghetto Uprising.” Michal Berg.
Wherever these 6,000,000 Jews were slain, assailed, or anywhere else they were assaulted, such an entity as was proposed as god, was absent and on holiday. Again, and this is a personal perspective, all of which makes belief extent, absent, and defunct as far as I can state, does not doubt the belief which carried so many Jews. Of course, and I have presented this elsewhere, and all too often, beliefs very deliberate controversy confronts rather more than it questions. Again, and in the hope that The Holocaust is more than just an appreciation of how awfully the World behaved, while these 6,000,000 Jews searched for Our assistance, I find those who stole belief in order to conjure up such a craven hatred exorcised the meaning of belief. I have known you all long enough to know that you know Me and I do not confront these issues without seeking a recourse to where we can identify with the 6,000,000 Jewish losses. I have related many times why Tovah Olshak unlocked the gateway to my journey along a pathway paved with such Jewish loss.
“..After a day’s journey ..we arrived at Belsen. This concentration camp was hopelessly overcrowded and we were not accepted. ..right hand no longer knew what ..left hand was doing ..so we were sent to an adjoining Wehrmacht compound. As ..soldiers of ..Wehrmacht marched out ..we moved in. ..confusion was unbelievable ..disorder with German perfection. We were moved into clean barracks ..equipped for human beings with excellent bathrooms and clean beds stacked three on top of each other. After all we had experienced in ..preceding year ..this was sheer luxury. There was no mention of ..usual camp rituals ..no roll calls ..no work ..no food.” Lilian Berliner.
Then, and when ever I see anything of the 1,500,000 Jewish Children who have accompanied Tovah on her hate filled exit from this World, I remark my commentary with Tovah in mind. It has proven difficult, realizing so many of you have personal experiences of all The Holocaust entails, and it saddens me. The fact that you are witnessing what is a daily trial, only UNIQUE suggests what it is you have to deal with. I then recall what Elie Wiesel insists, that when the last testifiers are no longer with us, we become the Witnesses. With that need to confront us, such imagery as we are presented with assails our very own hold upon our very own reasoning. What is clearly wrong here is when Hitler ensured that the Jews of Europe should die, and the lasting images of these Jews being herded together prepares us in some small way for what devastation these Jews faced. For those Jews separated by whatever reason compelled them to do so, none of them have ever been exempted from what must surely confront them consistently.
“..Day and night ..dragged off. ..deprived ..of ..possessions. Families ..torn apart ..all ..separated. Children coming home ..find ..their parents have disappeared. Women return ..to find ..their families gone.” Anne Frank.
I have seen so much of this evidence in images and testimony, that we recognise in this, 6,000,000 Jews have been consumed by such a hatred as has proved UNIQUE in over 2,000 years. It becomes essential for me to remember, and in any way possible, recall such supporting remembrance for these Jews confined within the gravest atrocity ever to destroy a People, and only because they were Jews. It is not just a moral duty to remember them, but an ethical certainty which ensures the lessons of this hatred is not lost to reason, to secure for the future a correction of the past which has learned the right to correct the wrongs. When Halina Birenbaum wrote her Book, Hope is the Last to Die, which she was prompted to write by the emerging detail of evidence’s during the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, I realised a term which supported the Jewish People in their gravest hour of their greatest need. It has to be recognized, and even in faith built circles, that the saddest Day of the entire Jewish Calendar has to be The Holocaust period, for 6,000,000 very explicit reasons.
“..All sorts of things happened to my faith during The Holocaust ..although I could not have articulated it in this way ..one thing I understood ..precisely ..what happened to us was not because of what God did ..but what people did after rejecting him.. I witnessed ..destruction that follows when men try to turn themselves into Gods.” Hugo Gryn.
When Hitler first identified that the Jews were to die, and this can be perceived from around 1919, and up till the last days Jews died because of him, sadness descended upon the Jews and erased over 6,000,000 of them. History must now play it’s part in evoking all, and any concerns for remembering what is recorded in sadness, recalled in sorrow, and fully evokes what desolation is for the Jewish People. While I strive Always to Remember, Never to Forget, all of my effort is for the most excessive, brutal, and terrifying Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews. What makes The Holocaust particularly unique too is the sheer lack of those pictorial evidence’s which would add to the isolated intention to deliver the Jews toward extinction. The murderous endeavour of course was so callously managed it voided the Nazis of any sense of shame. But, and when I first became a witness to The Auschwitz Album, for which we thank Lily Jacobs, I didn’t realize I had just 10 years to wait to explore the deepest loss a Mother incurs as a personal loss.
“..I do not think it .. particularly laudable to spend one’s life bearing witness to ..inhumanity of man to man. Even mass murder on ..scale of Nazi genocide is unfortunately not unique in ..history of man ..although ..mechanistic .. systematic way it was carried out by ..Nazi Reich is unique.” Bruno Bettelheim.
So I looked more poignantly at the images to be contained within this UNIQUE Album itself, and looked more forlornly at all that remains a human loss. This too is a UNIQUE factor in what presentation of The Holocaust delivers to us, as it is the only Photographic evidence of its kind. It is UNIQUE, and even though individual Nazis have delivered up photographs, and even Video of the Killing process, we are presented a UNIQUE sharing of the last steps of Hungarian Jewry toward the termination of their lives. Of course, UNIQUE is unlike anything else and since the full-blown discovery of what The Holocaust delivered, this too is totally UNIQUE in all of human history.
“..Monsters exist ..too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are ..common men ..functionaries ready to believe and ..act without asking questions.” Primo Levi.
So while I have been continually back and forth through these Albums pages, and I recognize their image intimately, I now look more deeply to explore the Jewish Mothers presence in the evidence. It is clear, my own loss added another dimension to my own appreciation of all that We as humans have lost. I am struck by a dialogue held with a Friend who lost her Mom to the Nazis and I see it even as I look to the little Jewish girl, who comes to the foreground in one of the pages. This young Girl is Gerti Mermelstein, and she too confronts us deeply as I go to this certain page, sharing the last moments of Hungarian Jews, and a Jewish Family from Munkacs, Mukacevo in particular. Where there once was a Jewish Community of some 11,000 Jews, Birkenau is about to devour them and spew out their very essence through the Krematoria smoke-stacks billowing out the former existence of human beings.
“..I reached ..decision with a heavy heart ..having followed ..recent developments in Hungary with great concern. ..history cleansing campaign of ..past few years calculated to whitewash ..historical record of ..Horthy era ..including ..changes ..legalised ..sinister measures that were subsequently taken to absolve Hungary from ..active role it had played in ..destruction of close to 600,000 of its citizens of ..Jewish faith.” Randolph L. Braham.
But I recognize too, in just this single image, that there is this one Woman standing to the left of Gerti who is either searching for her own Child or Children, or she has been left with no one of her own to connect to. But, as I felt so inclined to believe, she is hopefully settling amongst her own, and as a member of the same Mermelstein Family, she is amongst her own. In this image too there is a concern for a Survivor Friend, since passed from us, who saw in this one frame, her own Mother in the image of this one Lady. I never found it in me to tell her, that this could not have been her Mom, given the date that she recognised for her own Mom’s passing. I am often insistent upon the truth being the very integrity of why History matters, but kept such truth as was known, away from impeding Erica’s own solace in her own personal grief. So for whatever reason we choose to write, contemplate, observe, and add to the testimony of loss to this UNIQUE atrocity, we must always acknowledge there were 6,000,000 entirely UNIQUE Jewish People to remember, amongst them, Erica’s Mom.
“..We must always take sides. Neutrality helps ..oppressor ..never ..victim. Silence encourages ..tormentor ..never .. tormented.” Elie Wiesel.
