The Holocaust

The Holocaust is somewhat personal to me and tugs at my heart strings.  My uncle, through marriage to my blood aunt served in Germany during WWII and my aunt personally witnessed the destruction of the war to German families.  My father served in the Canadian Army during the war.  He lived through it.  My Uncle did too, although they both died over the last 10 years.  My aunt, still living, recounts with great clarity, her memories of war ravaged Germany.

The two stories that touched me deeply to understand the attack on the human spirit are (Neilson)“Schindler’s List” directed by Steven Spielberg and (Kingsley) ” Anne Frank The Whole Story”, starring Ben Kingsley.  I have the stories on DVD and watch them continuously.  My favorite scene in “Schindler’s List” is when a little boy drops his hat into the outhouse sitting area and jumps into the human waste after it.  Two other children are already in there, one being a daughter of a mother and daughter team with their family that managed to stay together as Schindler Jews.  These children look up into the light of the hole, covered in human waste.  What a message for human survival.  What cruelty is this world willing to hand out and what are we willing to endure to survive?   My favorite scene in “Anne Frank  The Whole Story”, starring Ben Kingsley is at the end, when Miep gives Otto Frank Anne’s Diary.  He goes upstairs to the annex, to the room she slept in.  He looks at the movie star pictures she put on a wall, the diary and loose papers fall from his hand.  He bends forward into a standing fetal position and falls to the floor in that position.  The picture fades to him standing against an opposite wall facing the picture wall; again, such a message of why the suffering, my daughter was innocent and full of youthful life, a good girl, why?

I once listened to the testimony of a nun, an escaped Jew at the time.  She ran barefoot through tall grass and snow escaping capture.  I recently had a dream, after rewatching  “Anne Frank The Whole Truth”.  A troop of Nazi soldiers was chasing me at gun point through an open field.  No building protection.  I stumbled as they tried shooting at me; I could see the red lightening flickering from their weapons and was trying to roll around them.  Since I was not being hit, a soldier came up to me while I was strewn on the ground, grabbed my right arm to hold me in one place.  I saw a weapon being positioned from the troop in front of me.  I began to pray telling God this is it, my life is over, please forgive me for everything and take me home.  I woke up in my room.  Six million Jews woke up in Heaven during the six year slaughter.