A few months ago, a friend
and I went to the Holocaust Museum here in DC. We both love learning about
World War II, it was much needed adult time. We have both been before, she had
been a few years ago and I hadn’t been for 6-7 years!
For those of you who have
never been this is a very quiet museum. People aren’t running around and
yelling. I’ve never heard someone yell, most people whisper or talk quietly.
The museum is set up in a way that you don’t wander around, you take an
elevator up and work your way down. There
are (and should be) few children, personally I think no one under 10-12 should
go.
They have several
artifacts and pictures, for me it’s the artifacts that make it real. The dolls,
letters, bracelets, the shoe exhibit, and the video of survivors telling their
stories.
Anyway, there were
certain stories that caught my attention. In all the hatred, death, and need to
survive there were still good people. People risked their lives and families to
save others, revolts happened it concentration camps, people would not be
silent.
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| The room of shoes |
It got me thinking. What
would I do in these situations?
What would I do if I was
in a concentration camp starving and barely surviving? Would I worry about my
survival and conform to save my skin or would I still demonstrate kindness and help
others survive, or revolt in hopes to save everyone.
What would I do if I was
in a position to help? Would I tell someone to go away because if I was seen
with them it would mean death for me? Or would I open my home and do what I
could to help the person, even if it meant going to a concentration camp or
death for me.
Ivan Vranetic born in
1927, helped to find shelter on farms in Topusko and other local villages. He
himself had to hid in the forest, sometimes for days to save himself. He described
his motivation “I think it must be in upbringing…I had feelings in my heart
that I had to help.”
Arstide de Sousa Mendes
(1885-1954) saved 10,000 people. In 1940 people were stranded in France were
seeking visas to Portugal. The Portugal consul general told him to not issues
visas, he refused to obey.
Stefan Raczynski lived on
a farm near the Ponary forest. 1941 the Germans used this as an execution site
of Jews. 40 Jews who managed to escape found sanctuary on his farm. “It was a
natural thing to do… When the Jews started coming from the forests and they
were hungry, we gave them food and didn’t think anything of it.”
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| Room hidden behind the wall used to hide Jews |
Arie van Mansum (born
1920) was a traveling sales men he began to find hiding places for Jews and forge
ration cards, as many as 250 a week. He visited these hidden Jews regularly. He
was arrested in October 1943, he was in solitary confinement for six months
before being sent to Amersfoort concentration camp. “There was nothing special
about what I did… I did what everyone else should have done.”
Revolts happened in Auschwitz,
Sobibor, and Treblinka. Jews in Warsaw carried out an armed revolt. January 1,
1942 leaders in the Vilna ghetto underground issued a call to arms: We will not
be like sheep lead to the slaughter! True we are weak and defenseless, but the
only reply to murder is revolt! Brothers! Better to die as a free fighters than
to live by the mercy of the murderers. Resist! Resist with your last breath!”
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| Gates to Auschwitz |
So many were silent in
the time when they needed to speak up.
“First they came for the
Socialists, and I did no speak out-
because I was not a
socialist.
Then they came for the
trade unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a trade
unionist.
Then they came for the
Jews and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me-
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
--Martin Niemoller, he was imprisoned
for resisting Hitler’s regime.
What do you think you
would do? Would you conform? Would you stand up? Survive? Die?
So while we remember
those who lost their lives, we need to remember those who fought to save lives.
Those who spoke when no
one else would.
