Holocaust Survivor

I decided to go on a trip with Mr. C's class to a Yonkers Jewish center to hear from a Holocaust survivor. It was incredible. I'm so glad that I went. I remember him saying that he had committed horrible atrocities to stay alive, but he didn't want to go into detail. When a classmate asked about his family he said that someone at a camp pointed to the fire coming out of the chimney at the crematorium and saying that is what happened to them. What was most memorable for me was when he talked about the transport from one camp to another. He said that it was a six hour trip that the Nazis made into a three week trip. Every car was packed solid with a hundred people. They would leave the cars on side tracks for days while other trains passed through. He was only given a small piece of bread in the morning, a cup of water at lunch and a small piece of bread for dinner. He said that the train became more roomy as the trip went on and the mattress was soft (I am assuming he means that so many people died that he lay across their bodies to sleep). Out of three thousand people, only about 250 survived the trip. Almost the same amount of people died in transit as they did in the concentration camps, and that was the point. Most of the people that survived the train were between the ages of 16 and 20, anyone older or younger could not handle it. After three days in Auschwitz he met a Czech cook that he knew from his hometown. This cook made him part of the staff and hid there for nine months, carrying back food stuffed in his jacket to his people. After he was rescued from the camp he was put into sanitarium for five weeks. It took him a while before he could speak. He went back to the camps with his wife a few years ago and would not walk into the exhibit. She saw a picture of him in his striped clothing, looking thin and frail and screamed in horror at the sight. This trip was a life changing experience, and I'm glad that the students had this opportunity because I did not remember ever seeing a Holocaust speaker as a child. In the not-too-distant future there will be no opportunities to hear these survivors speak and ask them questions. It is important to keep the truth alive.