In memory of 6000000

Tonight   is the eve of  Holocaust memorial day.

In memory of my family and my husband's family who were burned and perished in the gas chambers and in the crematoria of the Nazi oppressor , in a memory of 6000000 jews I will light this candle.

last thought of a little girl in the hell of Auschwitz

When the boxcar door opened, I opened my own eyes. From the warmth of Mama’s hug, we entered the cold world of Auschwitz. I look around me with big blue eyes, and my fat cheeks that everyone loved to pinch, turn bright red. The men in pajamas help us get down out of the car. My head is covered well with the hat that Grandma Pearl knitted me. Grandma didn’t arrive with us on the train. She and Grandpa went to a place called Treblinka. Mama says they are happy; that it’s good for them there. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Shlomo also went with them.

        I don’t understand why the men in green are yelling all the time. It frightens my little brother, Lazar. He’s only a year old and he has to sleep a lot. The men in green with the dogs take Papa to a different side, away from us. Mama, Lazar’le and I are left by ourselves. Papa waves and throws us a kiss.

        “I love you!” he calls out loud, and he gets a slap from the big Uncle with the gun. Come back quickly, Papa; don’t leave us alone! Am I glad I brought Mishka with me! --the doll Papa gave last year when I turned five…

        It’s hot in this long hallway which we’ve entered. They help us get undressed. Mama puts my dress on the bench and picks up me and little Lazar’le. “Where are we going, Mama?”    “To a hot shower,” she whispers to me.

        Maybe after the shower I will get a new dress, a nicer one. Maybe a white one like Mishka’s. Lazar cries when they push him into the small room with the strange ceiling. It’s stuffy in here, there’s no air, and the dark is scary. I don’t want to be here! I want Papa!

And yet the world continues on…

And yet the world continues on. Didn’t the world hear the heart-wrenching cries of the pure and innocent children, the great and holy Rabbis, the millions upon millions of souls who were murdered for their terrible crime of being Jewish?!

Yet life continued on, and people went through their days, only minutes from where the atrocities were being committed, as if it did not matter to them at all…. It is truly a wonder how life can go on despite the burden of such a multitude of horrific cries!