From member Laura Shpiro:
Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I’ve read many articles about this, but none of them truly captured the sentiment I wanted to share with you.
My grandfather, his mother and his sisters survived the trip to Auschwitz. (My grandmother’s mother died in the cattle car on their way to a different camp.) When they got off the car, my grandfather was separated from his mother and four sisters. They were sent to the gas chamber, and that’s the last time he ever saw them.
Even though I grew up with the stories in my blood, it’s still impossible to comprehend the massive number of people who were murdered. There are about 4.2 million Jewish people throughout the USA. That’s still 2 million fewer than were murdered. There are about 13 million Jews in the world. The population would be at least 50% greater if not for the Holocaust (figure many of those who were murdered would have reproduced).
I read a survivor’s quote today. Her best revenge on the Nazis was surviving. Surviving and thriving, I say! My late grandparents have four great-grandchildren today, and that’s only from 2 out of 6 grandkids! Our lives are their revenge.
And, as anti-Semitism rises around the globe, we must quell it in the name of tolerance and peace. “Hope lives when people remember.” Remember, always
We are their legacy.
