I had the honour today of meeting with a girl who was so young when in Auschwitz. It was a rare opportunity, having explained to his mother who was visiting from Canada my interests in the Holocaust and the mechanics of the Reich, she asked to meet me. I spent about an hour listening to her time spent in the camp between 1943 and 1944. Just 10 when she entered the camp, seperated from her parents and never re-united, made to work around the camp for long hours each day with little food or water. Forced to move the bodies of those murdered during morning sport. Witness to the mass murders of so many. She worked in Kanada mostly which probably saved her. The most painful of memory of a young German soldier trying to rape her one night but either not interested or too imature to realise that she was too young and undeveloped, badly beating her becuase he could not have what he wanted and nobody cared for bruises in the days to follow, nobody to care for her pain or comfort her. Many years have passed for everyone who lived through the war, not just the victims of the holocaust, however for thosed who survived the pain is still real, it will never go away. Wars end, memories dont. It is rare that I find myself with the opportunity to revaluate what I have, what I dont and why my worries over what I dont have really should just focus on what I do have. How many of you reading this have children? Imagine you were in the position of being taken to Auschwitz today and be seperated from them to suffer the agony of this lady. If you dont have children stop and imagine your 10 years old, in Auschwitz. I frown often when people say we should never allow another Holocaust "type" event happen again. But we have, around the world in many countries since WW2 people have been murdered without cause or justification but by the dictators that decide in their own heads that what they do is right. Will we find ourselves in the same position in years to come because someone decides being scottish is undeserving of life or to be English is simply offensive and you should pay with your life as a result? Sometimes I get too caught up in the administration, process and workings of the regime to remember and stop for a moment and think of the stories I have been told or read about and pay just a little respect each time to those people for whom I could never understand where they drew strength from to stay alive long enough to experience hope again.
I know what you're saying Lee ! ... my heart broke when I was researching Malka .... she was in the Warsaw Ghetto ... alone ... family gone .... so it was a case of "going for it " ..... then she was captured .... the young lady standing next to her in the photo - Bluma ... was shot right there ... right after the picture was taken ... and Malka badly beaten about the head and taken to Majdanek camp to be persecuted and beaten and raped also used as a guinea pig for some experiments ... thankfully she survived and Malka moved to Palestine in 1946 where she married and had four children .... but up to the 1970's she was 75% disabled because of her injuries ! Maybe it's just me but I can only concentrate on "individuals" ... one at a time ... I can't comprehend the whole picture - it overwhelms me .... the thousands of people in just one camp and the senseless treatment of one human being to another is appalling ... I can't possibly imagine how I would have felt in their place - each and every one of them was someone who was a part of somebody else - mothers wives children husbands .... what a devastating feeling to be parted from them ! Tomorrow is Mothers Day here .... I will light a candle for your special lady ! please tell her that she is loved and thought of by people across the world But in the meantime - here is a perpetual candle for all those who suffered !
I might add this,wise 1 you have forgotten to mention her name! But then,I am thinking you may doing so by purpose to keep her idententie a secrect,I understand fully. I have a 3 year old niece,and I just hate to think my neice going through what that 10 girl went through with that young German soildier tryed to do and bashing her,I don't feel well,It's just sick! Plus,I think it was not cause the ten year old being undevelope,I think he was a virgin and had no idea in the first place what do, and he really had no right too try or do what so ever on her,beating and rape and murdered is a no go zone.
To be honest I never asked if I could share the discusssion, simply forgot. Thats why there is no name. p.s. name is in the signature
Ok Lee,since it's not to keep private,what's the ladies name? Just like to know for the record,but if you can't,that's ok.
The atrocities inflicted on the people housed in concentration camps were horrific. There are countless stories just like this one from people from all walks of life, from the very young to the very old. They were treated as something less than human, like something invaluable and without feeling. I can't imagine what it would have been like living in those conditions not knowing from one minute to the next if you would live or die...and really I think that many were hoping to die, to no longer have to endure the pain from hunger, beatings, and from watching your loved ones suffer. I can only hope that humankind has learned something from this...but alas you see unspeakable things going on to this day across the globe. It's a sad, sad thing.
