Wednesday to Thursday evening Israel remembered Jews who experienced the Holocaust. At 10 on Thursday morning, a siren went off that signaled us to stand for a minute of silence. I was in Game Theory class and recorded it here: The tone of the siren shakes me to my core. It eerily embodies the bleakness that covered so much of the world in the 1930's and 40's. After the siren ceased, my teacher revealed that her mother - who had passed away only 2 weeks prior - was a Holocaust survivor. I realized that most elderly citizens of Israel are probably Holocaust survivors. That evening, I went to a Holocaust Survivor testimonial set up by Tel Aviv University's student union. Shoshana is an energetic woman in her 80's. Originally from Vienna, Shoshana fled to Holland at the age of 4 with her mother. Her father had already been put in a concentration camp. Shoshana describes herself as one of the lucky ones as it was hard to get citizenship in another country; she was only able to go to Holland because she had family who had lived in Holland for many years. Even so, Shoshana and her family were sent to the Dutch colony in Indonesia and quickly put into a concentration camp. Though miraculously they were joined by Shoshana's father, conditions were far from pleasant. There was rarely enough food to eat as Jews were fed last among all the prisoners in the camps. They were also moved from concentration camp to concentration camp regularly. Still, Shoshana's mother had hope for her future. She would often trade a piece of bread for another prisoner to teach Shoshana English. When WWII ended, Shoshana and her family were still not released from the concentration camp as many local revolutionaries were killing Jews. They eventually made it back to Holland where Shoshana carried out her studies and raised her family. She only found out later that the Japanese, who were in charge of the concentration camp at the end of WWII, were about to kill all the Jews before the US dropped a nuclear bomb, which ended the war. Therefore, Shoshana concluded that Hiroshima saved her life, a morbid paradox.
I had no idea that the anti-semitism rampant in Europe at this time extended all the way to Asia as well. I knew that there were concentration camps for Indonesians in the Dutch colonies, but had no idea that Jews joined them. In general, there is much talk about the Holocaust's effects in Eastern Europe, but almost none about Jews' experiences in the rest of the world at that time. I was grateful Shoshana took the time to share her story, especially since she said other survivors do not talk about it. Her parents never talked about it after the end of WWII. Shoshana never told her children about it. Similarly, most of her neighbors at the senior living facility refuse to talk about their experiences in the Holocaust. Maybe it's because it's too painful. Maybe they think no one is interested. I am certainly grateful for women like Shoshana who educate us about what it was really like during those dark times so that we can make sure it never happens again. |
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