Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
Before International Holocaust Remembrance Day it
seems appropriate to share this in honor of those who survived and those that
did not.
The Holocaust was such a huge milestone in history that sometimes we forget
that the people involved were individuals. I wrote this following an experience
I had in 2014 and the example of one survivor who will forever influence the
image I have in my mind of what it means to “survive.”
**************************
“Will I ever see you again?”
As I turned around I saw that these words were not meant for me. They
were directed at the stones of the Kotel, the Western Wall of the destroyed
Jewish temple, in the heart of Jerusalem.
Hanna Marx had tears in her eyes as she told me: “The last time I was in
Israel I would never have imagined that I would be able to come back here
again. That I would live this long, be strong enough. This is the greatest
place on earth. Thank you for bringing me here.”
Hanna came to Israel with her friend of many years, Gerhard Maschkowski.
Gerhard and Hanna are both survivors. He survived Auschwitz. She survived two
concentration camps and a two and half month long death march. The fact that
they are alive today is a miracle (or maybe, to be more accurate, countless
small miracles).
Lenny and I spent a weekend with Hanna (86 years old) and Gerhard (89).
They stayed at the Dead Sea, for the unique health benefits of the location.
Although both had been to Israel before, Lenny could not bear the thought of
them not visiting any other place in the country so he decided to take them to
Jerusalem and the Kotel before they flew home to the USA.
Hanna Marx & Gerhard Maschkowski in Jerusalem Sept 20th,
2014
I had not imagined that the brief time at the Kotel would be so moving
to Hanna. (Please read more about Gerhard at https://forestrain.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/a-sign-upon-your-arm/ an article I wrote after
his previous trip to Israel).
Survivor. What a small word for something so huge. Survival. Triumph.
Overcoming the most unspeakable horrors…
From now on, when I hear the word “survivor” Hanna’s image will come to
my mind. An iron lady, even at 86 years of age, it seems like nothing can
stop her. After what she endured as a teenager, what could stop her?
Hanna (like Gerhard) is unusual in that she is able to talk freely about
her experiences during the Holocaust while not showing signs of bitterness or
hate. She has smile lines and a joy for life. She magnetizes people to her and,
when she can, teaches them.
Many survivors refuse to talk, saying they don’t want to burden the
younger generations with the horrors of the past. Others do articulate their
memories but are also trapped by them, stuck in bitterness. Some have
difficulty connecting with their families, difficulty showing emotion, afraid
to love because everything they once loved was ripped from them.
Hanna said that for many years she did not tell her children about her
experiences. They heard about them in a roundabout way and then began asking
questions. After that she began telling her story in front of school children,
teaching them about the Holocaust.
Candidly Hanna told me that her beloved husband (also a survivor, now
deceased), did not like it when she gave talks about her experiences because on
the nights after she’d spoken she would cry and sometimes scream in her sleep
and he’d have to hold her until she could stop shaking.
Calm, pleasant and articulate in the day, the horrors she remembered
haunted her at night.
Although she didn’t tell me much of her story, some of the experiences
Hanna described gave me nightmares too. I can’t imagine how it is possible to
survive such experiences. How is it possible to smile, be happy and loving? How
is it possible to trust other people?!
I asked Hanna about the death march. For two and a half months she and
some 5-6 thousand were forced to march. They weren’t given any food. They had
no shelter or even warm clothes (I wonder how many had decent shoes?). Anyone who
collapsed or lay down was shot and left on the side of the road. They ate snow.
How can you survive on snow? How can you have enough strength to walk mile
after mile? They slept at night on the side of the road and in the morning,
those that were still alive were forced to get up and march.
She said that sometimes farmers had piles of food outside in the field,
vegetables meant for their animals to eat. When they could, Jews that saw this
ran in to the fields and grabbed whatever there was and ate it – raw, dirty, it
didn’t matter. Often they would be shot for running in to the field but they
didn’t care. People that died on the way had their clothes taken by the
freezing, starving survivors.
By the end of the march only some 300 hundred Jews were still alive.
I asked Hanna if, during the march she believed she would survive. She
said no.
I asked, if she thought she was going to die, what made her keep getting
up in the morning, keep walking? It would have been easy enough to lay down and
die.
Her answer was that she didn’t know why. Something in her made her keep
moving. Something in her tells her that despite the horrors she endured, God
was with her, watching over her.
Two miracles helped Hanna through the Holocaust.
The first was when a German officer made a decision that saved Hanna’s
mother and allowed mother and daughter to remain together. At the beginning of
the war there were 58 people in Hanna’s family. At the end, 4 remained. Hanna
lost her father and brothers but remained with her mother until they were both
liberated.
The second miracle came at the end of the death march when German
soldiers sent with grenades to blow up a hanger that housed the Jews that
survived the march, changed their minds. The Russians were coming and the
soldiers were supposed to act quickly. Instead of committing mass murder they
decided to simply walk away.
Hanna’s mother spoke to the soldiers and her perfect German made them
see her as a human being (most of the other survivors of the march were Polish
and Latvian). She did not match the anti-Semitic caricatures of Jews prevalent
in Nazi propaganda. She was a proper German lady. One of the soldiers said to
the other: “I was raised in church and was taught that if I have to fight to
protect myself that is ok but I must not kill innocent people and I am not
going to kill these people.” He left and the other soldier followed him.
A few hours later the Russians liberated the surviving Jews.
Even in the darkest places, the most horrible times, there is still
hope.
Hanna has attained “Jewish revenge” the ultimate “davka” – although she
was subjected to unspeakable horrors, she has survived and more. She has
thrived! Although her family was ripped from her, she created her own family,
married and lived many happy years with the love of her life. They had
children, grandchildren and now there are even great grandchildren! Each member
of her family is happy and successful in their own right, leaving her free from
worries about their future.
Hanna’s message to the world is one of acceptance, tolerance and
kindness:
“Be good to people and it will come back to you”.
“If you are discriminated against, prove that you are better. They will
respect you later.”
“Survivor” means so much more than the one little word can convey… After
Hanna’s example how can I say: “I’m dying of hunger” or “I’m dying for a
drink”? How many of us feel we can’t survive without that vacation, new car,
pair of jeans, shoes or whatever? How many of us waste time whining,
complaining, taking for granted, wallowing in misery, giving up… We who live in
the relative comforts and freedoms of the west are spoiled and don’t even realize
it.
The world we live in is shaped by our attitudes. It’s not about what
happens to you, it’s about what you create out of what happens to you. Hana not
only survived, she thrived because of her attitudes, because of what she made
out of what life gave her.
Now the question is, what will you chose to create?
“Everything can be taken from a
man but one thing: the last of human freedoms –
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
~ “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victor E. Frankl
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
~ “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victor E. Frankl
