Can you imagine? It's seems beyond imaging unless you've been through such an ordeal. Just reading the story made me reach for the tissues...
I saw the other day that The Book Thief has been made into a movie. The book was exquisitely well-written and brought me to tears. If you haven't read it, please do, and let me know what you think.
(I can't get the video to load. It's probably on my end; I've been having computer problems for the past few weeks. I've been trying to clean up all the zillions of cookies that have accumulated into mountains ranges. My Flash crashes so often that it's becoming a daily chore to reinstall it. Boo hiss.)
This sure put a lump in my throat, especially after seeing all the family members gathered 'round. I'm sure this story was mentioned in a book from the library I recently read, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. This book covers rescuers by geographical areas. I think one the innumerable horrors was that some rescuers (after managing to hide one or more Jews until the Germans were defeated), were then ostracized and forced to leave - and in many cases, murdered outright - by their neighbors who discovered they had sheltered people.
It's very similar (and he gives credit to) the definitive work on the subject "The Righteous Among the Nations" by Mordecai Paldiel. It's a heavy, oversized book, it took me a couple years to find a new, affordable copy. But I got the smaller book by Martin Gilbert (I think that's the author) from the library since I already had the other book. I hope your library will have one of them.
One of the things that they talk about is...take Latvia for example; there were righteous people that sheltered Jews but their numbers are actually miniscule in comparison to those turned in by their "neighbors". In some regions, there is only documentation of a single instance of rescue/sheltering.
I've only just gotten round to watching this video. What a fantastic story! And yeah, a weepie too. :)
Florrie, although as you say the numbers of the righteous who rescued Jews is minuscule, there are many undocumented cases which didn't really qualify for inclusion, but nevertheless without these people's help, even more Jews would have lost their lives.
I give you the example of my mother in law's family. They were having a winter sports holiday in Engelberg in Switzerland when Kristallnacht happened, and they simply didn't go back home to Germany. However their entry visa ran out after 3 months. They went to the mayor of Engelberg and he simply renewed their visa again. After a further 3 months the visa wasn't supposed to be renewed. But they asked the mayor anyway. And he just kept renewing their visas every 3 months for nearly a year until the family could arrange their escape to England. He risked his career although not his life, but he - and the family - got away with it.
The family has never forgotten his kindness and his bravery. A few years ago we went on a summer holiday quite coincidentally to Engelberg. We had to go to the pharmacy for something and got chatting with the owner - and it turned out he was the grandson of the former mayor! We were so excited! And so was he. His grandfather wasn't alive any more but his son was, and the pharmacist called his father over, and we had a "next-generation" family reunion right there in the pharmacy. It was very emotional and exciting. I wish I could remember the name of the pharmacy. I'll have to ask my inlaws.
Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers. Had a hard time getting that in the post. Need a refresher bogging course...lewy????
ReplyDeleteYeah, the formatting is tricky. You can just move your cursor after the video embed and hit "return" and you get a new line to enter text on...
DeleteThanks lewy. I did try that but it wouldn't work for me on this post. Maybe blogger had too much turkey yesterday! Thanks for adding the HT.
DeleteCan you imagine? It's seems beyond imaging unless you've been through such an ordeal. Just reading the story made me reach for the tissues...
ReplyDeleteI saw the other day that The Book Thief has been made into a movie. The book was exquisitely well-written and brought me to tears. If you haven't read it, please do, and let me know what you think.
(I can't get the video to load. It's probably on my end; I've been having computer problems for the past few weeks. I've been trying to clean up all the zillions of cookies that have accumulated into mountains ranges. My Flash crashes so often that it's becoming a daily chore to reinstall it. Boo hiss.)
We saw The Book Thief tonight. Very well done movie. Excellent acting and story telling.
DeleteThis sure put a lump in my throat, especially after seeing all the family members gathered 'round. I'm sure this story was mentioned in a book from the library I recently read, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. This book covers rescuers by geographical areas. I think one the innumerable horrors was that some rescuers (after managing to hide one or more Jews until the Germans were defeated), were then ostracized and forced to leave - and in many cases, murdered outright - by their neighbors who discovered they had sheltered people.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting it, Fay.
Thanks florrie.
DeleteI'm not familiar with the book you mention, I will look it up from our library.
It's very similar (and he gives credit to) the definitive work on the subject "The Righteous Among the Nations" by Mordecai Paldiel. It's a heavy, oversized book, it took me a couple years to find a new, affordable copy. But I got the smaller book by Martin Gilbert (I think that's the author) from the library since I already had the other book. I hope your library will have one of them.
DeleteOne of the things that they talk about is...take Latvia for example; there were righteous people that sheltered Jews but their numbers are actually miniscule in comparison to those turned in by their "neighbors". In some regions, there is only documentation of a single instance of rescue/sheltering.
ReplyDeleteI've only just gotten round to watching this video. What a fantastic story! And yeah, a weepie too. :)
ReplyDeleteFlorrie, although as you say the numbers of the righteous who rescued Jews is minuscule, there are many undocumented cases which didn't really qualify for inclusion, but nevertheless without these people's help, even more Jews would have lost their lives.
I give you the example of my mother in law's family. They were having a winter sports holiday in Engelberg in Switzerland when Kristallnacht happened, and they simply didn't go back home to Germany. However their entry visa ran out after 3 months. They went to the mayor of Engelberg and he simply renewed their visa again. After a further 3 months the visa wasn't supposed to be renewed. But they asked the mayor anyway. And he just kept renewing their visas every 3 months for nearly a year until the family could arrange their escape to England. He risked his career although not his life, but he - and the family - got away with it.
The family has never forgotten his kindness and his bravery. A few years ago we went on a summer holiday quite coincidentally to Engelberg. We had to go to the pharmacy for something and got chatting with the owner - and it turned out he was the grandson of the former mayor! We were so excited! And so was he. His grandfather wasn't alive any more but his son was, and the pharmacist called his father over, and we had a "next-generation" family reunion right there in the pharmacy. It was very emotional and exciting. I wish I could remember the name of the pharmacy. I'll have to ask my inlaws.
That's an incredible story, annie!
DeleteFay, very moving post.
Polziec's parents were very brave and decent people. And, sadly, rare.
Yes, like lewy said, what an amazing story, annie.
DeleteMi sheg'molayikh kol tov, hu yigmolayikh kol tov.
(I hope I got that right :-)
Wow! Florrie, you've remembered that very well! (I'm guessing you got it from Joem back in the day? :) )
DeleteIt means "May He (i.e. G-d) who did a good thing for you, do all good things for you in the future" (very rough translation).
To which I say a resounding Amen!