Book of Jeremiah
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- Nov 3, 2012
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A Holocaust Survivor's Story - Introduction
My father was a prominent attorney in Wiesbaden from an assimilated German Jewish family. I had an older brother -- killed at Mauthausen in the Spring of 1945, just weeks before that camp complex was liberated by the US Third Army, after he had earlier experienced years in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, [and] Buchenwald concentration camps. My brother and my plans to study law and to follow my father's and uncle's footsteps came to naught when all education for Jewish children was canceled.
I spent my teenage years as a prisoner of the Nazis. My father initially declined opportunities to leave the country, stating that he had to help his clients and the members of the congregation first. When these efforts had been largely successful (more than half our membership emigrated to freedom), the situation had become much more difficult. In spite of extensive efforts and in spite of spending very large sums of money, we were unable to leave the country and, in due course, my entire family was sent to the concentration camps and ghettos in the East and killed--Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Lodz, Riga, Theresienstadt and others.
By the end of 1942 there were only three Jewish families left in town, all others having been deported earlier. The local "Judenreferent" (Jew specialist) at the Gestapo informed my father that all of us would be deported to Frankfurt. We had a few days notice. We were sent to a collection point in Frankfurt where to-be-deported Jews were gathered prior to the actual transport.
I was 17 years old when we were arrested and deported.
I was terrified when we entered Theresienstadt. I knew a little bit about this camp, because several weeks earlier when my grandfather and all of our friends and my father's clients were deported there, my father had sent a courageous Christian friend and colleague to travel there and report back what he could observe from the outside and, if possible, to make contact with prisoners. I also knew that any concentration camp meant death. I did not know how we would die, however.
Our entire family was deported together, but we were not together for long. My father and brother were re-deported to Auschwitz. My father was killed upon arrival; my brother survived many subsequent death march re-deportations. He was seen at KZ Buchenwald, listed on the roster of KZ Oranienburg and, finally, killed at KZ Mauthausen just before the liberation of that camp.
continue reading on link above.......
________________________
I believe we should ask ourselves. How would we feel if this had happened to us and people of this generation were denying it ever happened? Can you imagine the mental anguish to have people claiming that what you suffered never happened? That is the nature of evil. It's only desire is to inflict suffering by any means. An interesting thing about evil. It shows no gratitude. Those who assist it in it's efforts learn this too late. Had they considered that gratitude is a virtue and that evil has no virtues perhaps they would have realized it sooner. What is it for evil to deceive, trick, lie and con you so long as it gains your assistance? But in the end? You'll perish just the same. That is the truth about evil. It spares no one. Not even it's workers.
My father was a prominent attorney in Wiesbaden from an assimilated German Jewish family. I had an older brother -- killed at Mauthausen in the Spring of 1945, just weeks before that camp complex was liberated by the US Third Army, after he had earlier experienced years in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, [and] Buchenwald concentration camps. My brother and my plans to study law and to follow my father's and uncle's footsteps came to naught when all education for Jewish children was canceled.
I spent my teenage years as a prisoner of the Nazis. My father initially declined opportunities to leave the country, stating that he had to help his clients and the members of the congregation first. When these efforts had been largely successful (more than half our membership emigrated to freedom), the situation had become much more difficult. In spite of extensive efforts and in spite of spending very large sums of money, we were unable to leave the country and, in due course, my entire family was sent to the concentration camps and ghettos in the East and killed--Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Lodz, Riga, Theresienstadt and others.
By the end of 1942 there were only three Jewish families left in town, all others having been deported earlier. The local "Judenreferent" (Jew specialist) at the Gestapo informed my father that all of us would be deported to Frankfurt. We had a few days notice. We were sent to a collection point in Frankfurt where to-be-deported Jews were gathered prior to the actual transport.
I was 17 years old when we were arrested and deported.
I was terrified when we entered Theresienstadt. I knew a little bit about this camp, because several weeks earlier when my grandfather and all of our friends and my father's clients were deported there, my father had sent a courageous Christian friend and colleague to travel there and report back what he could observe from the outside and, if possible, to make contact with prisoners. I also knew that any concentration camp meant death. I did not know how we would die, however.
Our entire family was deported together, but we were not together for long. My father and brother were re-deported to Auschwitz. My father was killed upon arrival; my brother survived many subsequent death march re-deportations. He was seen at KZ Buchenwald, listed on the roster of KZ Oranienburg and, finally, killed at KZ Mauthausen just before the liberation of that camp.
continue reading on link above.......
________________________
I believe we should ask ourselves. How would we feel if this had happened to us and people of this generation were denying it ever happened? Can you imagine the mental anguish to have people claiming that what you suffered never happened? That is the nature of evil. It's only desire is to inflict suffering by any means. An interesting thing about evil. It shows no gratitude. Those who assist it in it's efforts learn this too late. Had they considered that gratitude is a virtue and that evil has no virtues perhaps they would have realized it sooner. What is it for evil to deceive, trick, lie and con you so long as it gains your assistance? But in the end? You'll perish just the same. That is the truth about evil. It spares no one. Not even it's workers.
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