Survivors in 2019

For the past few years, I have commonly heard that we are losing the greatest generation. This phrase refers to those who were born in the time period of 1901 to 1927, and many of these people fought in WWII. This generation also includes the survivors of the Shoah. Unfortunately, those who were old enough to have memories of being in the Holocaust are getting older and older and passing away.

While we were at the JCC, or the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, we attended a Shabbat service and dinner. While we were waiting for the service to start, a husband and wife came in, and the wife started asking us about our trip. Her husband joined and we soon found out that he was a child survivor. He was born in Berlin, Germany, and was nine years old when restrictions started being placed on Jewish people. He told us how he remembered his mother giving him a sweater with a gold star on it, and how she told him he had to wear it at all times. This was the modern version of Canon 68, put out by the Fourth Lateran Council stipulating that Jews and Saracens had to be distinguishable through their dress. One day on his way to school he decided not to wear it. He was stopped by officers in brown uniforms who asked him where he was going. He pointed to his books and backpack and said he was going to school. They asked him if he was a Jew. He said he clearly remembered the anxiety he felt in that moment, not knowing the right answer to the question. Unfortunately, we did not get to hear the end of the story because we were interrupted.

He also told us how he remembered Kristallnacht. His father owned a few shops, and he remembered all the broken glass and the looting that happened to his father’s stores. After Kristallnacht, his family fled Germany and ended up in Panama. From there they were able to gain access to the US. He was able to live his life and get PhDs in economics. He built a successful career in areas of nuclear energy and artificial intelligence.

I thought it was really interesting and impactful to meet a child survivor, especially in the place of his worship. Six million Jewish people never got the opportunity to get PhDs or educations because they were targeted for their beliefs. His family was lucky. They were able to escape Germany before they were shipped to either a concentration camp, a forced labor camp, or even a death camp. He was very open about sharing his story, and we were really fortunate to be able to get to opportunity to meet him and hear his story. It makes me think about all the survivors who are going about their daily lives while still bearing the weight of their experiences in the Shoah.

A map of many of the place Jews were deported from.

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How Can We Live Like Maksymilian Kolbe?

Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan Father, committed one of the purest acts of love man can do. He sacrificed his own life, for the life of a stranger. At the end of July in 1941, the attempted escape of a prisoner prompted SS Officers to choose ten random prisoners to be locked in the starvations cells in the basement of Block 11. This was as common practice to deter any prisoners from trying to escape or to try and commit suicide. At random, Franciszek Gajowniczek was selected a cried out: “My children, my wife!” Other prisoners felt little pity for him because they too had wives and children, but Maksymilian Kolbe asked to trade places with the hysterical prisoner.

It should not have worked. Kolbe broke regulation multiple times in order to swap places. His first break of regulation was stepping out of line. His second was speaking directly to the SS Officer. Both men should have been shot on the spot, but for some reason, the SS Officer allowed for the break in regulation and gave permission for the swap.

Kolbe and the other nine prisoners were then taken to the starvation cells in the basement of Block 11. The cells were small, dark, and claustrophobic. For two weeks, Kolbe was deprived of food and water. After the two weeks, he was one of the only remaining prisoners and was killed with a phenol injection. His cause of death was ruled a heart attack on his death certificate.

A drawing of Macksymilian Kolbe, by Marian Kolodziej, a survivor from Auschwitz. He was in in the very first transport and survived all five years. 

What Maksymilian Kolbe did was an act of pure love; an act of pure agape that I believe most people may not see in their lifetime. Franciszek Gajowniczek was a total stranger to Kolbe. Kolbe had no obligation to switch places with him. While I do like to see the good in people, I do not believe that the common person would be able to sacrifice themselves for a person they had never met before. I don’t know if I could commit an act of love that great. I know if I were in that situation and one of my family members were to be picked, I would swap with them in a heartbeat. I would like to think that I could maybe switch places with some of my closest friends, but I do not think I would be able to switch places with a total and complete stranger. It could be called selfish for not wanting to give up my life for another’s or it could simply just be human. We are built with this need for self-preservation engrained in us, and that is something that is very hard to ignore.

At that moment, I believe Maksymilian Kolbe was God on Earth. He let go of every selfish reason to not switch, and he made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave his life, for another man’s. At that moment, he was an embodiment of pure love, a complete contrast with the acts of pure hate that had led to him being put in that situation. Even while being surrounded by acts of total and complete hate, Kolbe stood out as the purest act of love.

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Parallels In The Past And Present

Sign at the entrance of Auschwitz 1. It reads: "Work will make you free."

While visiting Auschwitz, I could not help but recognize the parallels, as well as the extremely harsh contrast, between visiting the memorial museum today and being deported to the camp during World War II.

To get to the camp, we walked. We walked from the very comfortable and warm Center for Dialogue, where we are fed amazing food, in our heavy winter jackets and protective footwear. Similarly, the Jewish prisoners walked to the camp as well. They were unloaded on the shipment platform a short distance away and marched to Auschwitz One. Unlike us, the prisoners did not come from a comfortable center with warm beds and warm food. Many of the prisoners came from ghettos, where starvation was already plaguing their populations. Some who had arrived in the summertime were well overdressed. They had put on as many of their clothes as possible since most of the time they were only allowed to being that they could carry. Renee Firestone, a Hungarian survivor, wore a bathing suit her father had gotten her while on a trip. She held onto this bathing suit as a reminder of her past and childhood. She was devastated when SS officers made her remove it and give it up with the rest of her belongings (Last Days Film).

Once we got to the camp we were lead to a building where we went through security, picked up our headphones, and had our tickets scanned to give us access to the camp. The new prisoners also started in the same building. In this building they were stripped of their belongings, documented, shaved, assigned a number as their identity, and then forced into camp. Irene Zisblatt, for example, went to great lengths to hold onto four diamonds that her mother had given her. In order to hide them, she would swallow the diamonds, let them pass through her, and recollect them once they were passed. She repeated this many times throughout her time in Auschwitz (Last Days Film).

Once we were “processed,” we walked into the camp on our own free will. No one was forcing us, no one was threatening us, no one wanted to kill us. We walked in with our identity, with our dignity, and with our humanity. We had the right to exercise our free will all day. If we did not want to enter a building, we did not have to. If we wanted to sit for a minute we were allowed to. If we wanted to have a conversation with our neighbor, we were allowed to.

The prisoners had no free will. Before they even got to camp, their rights were taken away by the emerging German Empire. They were forced to leave their land and belongings, and once they arrived at the camp, they lost even more. They could not decide what to wear, what to eat, where to sleep, or what their job was. They were stripped completely of their right to make decisions. They were treated more poorly than cattle.

Crematorium 1 in Auschwitz 1.

While we were at the camp. We had access to clean bathrooms with flushing toilets and clean water. The prisoners shared a communal bathroom and had no access to clean water. One young prisoner washed her face with her own urine every morning. The last harsh comparison was our ability to walk out of the gas chamber. If a prisoner was sent to the chamber, their life was over. Once they saw the inside, they were never able to speak of it. We were able to walk away. We were able to walk through, leave the camp, and walk back to the center where warm soup and hot chocolate were waiting for us.

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