Marking Humanity: Stories, Poems, & Essays by Holocaust Survivors

Shlomit Editor Kriger

Description

Imagine sitting across from a member of the German Secret State Police and negotiating with him to allow for the release of Jewish youngsters and for the establishment of a Jewish school. What can a teenager do when forced to march past the gallows and see how two of his campmates were hung? These are just some of the very real experiences that afflicted the 46 featured Holocaust survivors, who remained resilient and went on to rebuild their lives in the United States, Canada, Israel, Australia, England, and Germany. Through their bios and 70 writings, Marking Humanity provides a first-hand glimpse into their hardships, triumphs, courage, personal reflections, prayers, and growth, while also illuminating lessons from the survivors and Holocaust and emphasizing their relevancy today. Readers are encouraged to consider how every person helps to shape the world and the collective shifts that can be created so future generations discover the true meaning of "Never Again."

Sujets

• Holocaust
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 11 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780986477010
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MARKING HUMANITY

“Before time and circumstance erase Holocaust survivors from existence, their tragic stories must be recorded. Even now, as we advance in the twenty-first century, we are confronted by deniers, dictators, bullies, and fiends who wish to destroy the Jewish people and our precious State of Israel. They accuse us of falsehood, despite the fact that the barbed wire, barracks, and gas chambers of Nazi hellholes still stand. In Marking Humanity it is apparent that the agony and suffering is real. The voices are eloquent. The enduring pain is horrific. We can only bear witness, but that is our duty to the martyrs and victims of hatred and brutality.”
—Vivian Jeanette Kaplan, author of Ten Green Bottles: Vienna to Shanghai—Journey of Fear and Hope

“All of the memoirs conveyed in Marking Humanity are a poignant reminder of lives lost in the madness of the Shoah . This anthology unfolds under the deadly thud of the Nazi jackboot marching over the lives of Jewish mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. A must read for a world once again on the cusp of descending into a new abyss of intolerance and ancient hatreds.”
—Ian Leventhal, Executive Director for the Toronto office of the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada

“A moving testimony to the power of creative expression in helping survivors of extreme trauma begin to heal their souls. In the words of Dora Posluns: ‘Can one imagine Auschwitz? You must write!’ ”
—Stephen K. Levine, author of Trauma, Tragedy, Therapy: The Arts and Human Suffering


“The intimate stories, poems, and essays by the Holocaust survivors in this book give all humanity the ultimate gift of the most intense hope, strength, faith, and compassion of which the human being is capable. May all who read it humbly bend a knee before their victorious examples.”
— Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential

“Evocative writing. Political power. This compilation fusing history, essays, and poetry reminds us of some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust and of how many did not make it through. But over and over it testifies to the strength of the human spirit, as well as to the lives that survivors managed to create and their desire to be sure we know what happened. The editor reminds us that there are reasons for the hatred that infiltrates our world and much we still need to do to stop humiliation and hatred and to end and prevent genocide.”
—Ruth W. Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service
Marking Humanity
Stories, Poems, & Essays
by Holocaust Survivors


Edited by Shlomit Kriger





Toronto
www.SoulInscriptionsPress.com
MARKING HUMANITY Stories, Poems, & Essays by Holocaust Survivors Edited by Shlomit Kriger


Toronto, Ontario
www.SoulInscriptionsPress.com
[e-mail]
Toronto, Ontario www.SoulInscriptionsPress.com [e-mail] -->
Copyright © 2013 by Shlomit Kriger
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Cover Design and Illustration by Jim Zaccaria Interior Design by Glenna Collett
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Marking Humanity : stories, poems, & essays by Holocaust survivors / edited by Shlomit Kriger.
Includes bibliographical references. Electronic monograph. Issued also in print format. ISBN 978-0-9864770-1-0 (epub).—ISBN 978-0-9864770-2-7 (mobi)
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Personal narratives. 2. Holocaust survivors. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Literary collections. I. Kriger, Shlomit, 1982-, editor of compilation
D804.195.M345 2013 940.53’180922 C2013-904487-6
Published in Canada Paperback format ISBN 978-0-9864770-0-3
For my grandfather, Kusha Kriger, whose parents, siblings, and other relatives were murdered in the Minsk ghetto in Belarus during the Holocaust, while he fought for peace with the Red Army. And for all other victims who were silenced through this great atrocity. May their memories be blessed (z’’l).
Contents

Title Page Copyright Dedication Foreword by Michael Berenbaum Preface Holocaust Overview IN THE SURVIVORS’ OWN WORDS Eva Brown An Address to Students: Commencement Speech at El Camino College in Torrance, California, June 2006 Dora Posluns Write! Samuel Bak Burlap Sacks Inge Heiman Karo The Library The Emigration of the Jews Out of Germany George Scott Auschwitz 1944 Rosh Hashanah 1944 in Birkenau Rabbi Jacob G. Wiener A Secret Trip to Berlin Negotiating with the Gestapo Fred M. B. Amram Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass The Brownshirts Are Coming Anne Kind Great-Aunt Mathilde Role Reversal Agi Geva Opera in Auschwitz The Selection Ruth Barnett Mother Why Didn’t the Boat Sink? How a Kindertransportee Kept Afloat Miriam Spiegel Raskin Hilda Prays at Birkenau No Town to Call Home Alfred Traum The Kiddush Cup Gerda Krebs Seifer Acquiring a New Name and a New Family George Liebermann The Only Survivor Marietta Elliott-Kleerkoper Cellar Lost Andy Réti The Ring of Love Louise Lawrence-Israels The Table Fruma Gulkowich Berger Jewish Partisans The Young Mother Leon Krym The Great Action, 1942 The Holocaust Inferno Pete Philipps In Memoriam The Invitation John H. Adler Through a Child’s Eyes Is Our Future Our Past? Sophie Soil Me: A Portrait in the Raw Papa’s Plight Renate Krakauer Escape From the Ghetto Hava Nissimov A Girl from There (Excerpts) Maryla Neuman Bye Bye, Daddy The Price of a Shmatte John Freund Hurrah! Here We Are Again Dorothy Fleming Changes To Those Who Want to Know Francis N. Dukes-Dobos Surviving the Holocaust Frieda Traub Saved By Miracles: A Personal Recollection of the Holocaust Manya Friedman Do Not Forget Them A Headstone in the Air Simcha Simchovitch The Remnant On That Day Tamara Deuel In Memory of My Parents and Six Million Memories and Contemplations Thomas Raphael Verny Hidden Susan Warsinger Belonging Liz Lippa Memories of Yom Kippur Morning The Banyan Tree Ann Szedlecki The Last Dayenu Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff Where Are the Children? Sonia Pressman Fuentes Return to Germany Garry Fabian A Look Back Over My Shoulder (Excerpts) Halina Yasharoff Peabody The Happiest Day in My Life Helen Drazek The Screams of Silence Holocaust Hoax Edith Pick Lowy A Precious Gift Your Life and Theirs Gunther B. Katz Memories for Our Hearts: Farewell Thoughts on the Occasion of Joe Brenig’s Death Farewell Shula Robin My Heroic Sisters To the German Tourist’s Daughter Anonymous Untitled Ghita Malvina Never Again! Permissions Acknowledgements About the Editor
Foreword
These words are being written near the beginning of the new decade of the twenty-first century. The passage of time holds meaning for all of us. It has ushered in a distinct sense of soul searching within the media and general public with reflections on the turbulent and disappointing first decade of the new millennium.
For those of us working in the field of Holocaust studies, time is not an ally but an enemy. We have attended many funerals. We have witnessed the passing of a generation. Each week it seems as if another survivor is lost and that those who remain, strong and valiant as they had once seemed, are growing older. They are more frail and giving way to the ravages of old age.
Those who were 18 years old at the time of the liberation are now well into their 80’s. A few years ago, the men among these survivors celebrated their second Bar Mitzvah , 1 the 70th anniversary of their first Bar Mitzvah , which, if it were possible, would have been observed during the war in ghettos, under occupation, under siege, often clandestinely and illegally. (Lest women feel discriminated against, my point is historical. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan introduced the Bat Mitzvah in the United States for the first time in 1922. It did not become common even in the U.S. until the post-war years; therefore, few, if any, European women were called to the Torah —Jewish Bible.)
No generation has left as voluminous a record of memoirs and testimonies as that of the Holocaust survivors. The USC Shoah Foundation Institute in the U.S. has more than 52,000 testimonies in 57 languages from 32 countries, and it is the largest of the many collections. Yad Vashem in Israel has collected testimonies for the entire post-war period. The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University has been recording since 1979. The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in Southern Florida began slightly afterward, and these are just a few of the collections worldwide. Memoirs come across my desk on a weekly and even daily basis. Most tell a story. Some are truly gripping. And even in the simplest of them, the stories they tell convey insight into the darkness that was experienced, as well as the world after the liberation.
But Holocaust survivors have done more than bear witness. As you will notice throughout the biographies of the featured survivors, over the past two decades survivors have become teachers throughout the world, speaking with students in schools that are large and small, secular and religious, public and private, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and in a few cases—too few cases—Muslim. Many connect with the rich mosaic of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds: black and white, Asian and Hispanic, those from lands touched by the Holocaust, and those in the rest of world whose ancestors barely knew what was happening.
Survivors have been surprised by the way in which they have been received in American classrooms, as well as in Europe and Israel. They speak of suffering and anguish, and students see in them symbols of resilience and even triumph. While they see themselves as defined by a past, youth are moved to discover that even after such a p