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      WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MARKING HUMANITY

      “Before time and circumstance erase Holocaust survivors from existence, their tragic stories must be recorded. Even now, as we advance in the twenty-first century, we are confronted by deniers, dictators, bullies, and fiends who wish to destroy the Jewish people and our precious State of Israel. They accuse us of falsehood, despite the fact that the barbed wire, barracks, and gas chambers of Nazi hellholes still stand. In Marking Humanity it is apparent that the agony and suffering is real. The voices are eloquent. The enduring pain is horrific. We can only bear witness, but that is our duty to the martyrs and victims of hatred and brutality.”

      —Vivian Jeanette Kaplan, author of Ten Green Bottles: Vienna to Shanghai—Journey of Fear and Hope

      “All of the memoirs conveyed in Marking Humanity are a poignant reminder of lives lost in the madness of the Shoah. This anthology unfolds under the deadly thud of the Nazi jackboot marching over the lives of Jewish mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. A must read for a world once again on the cusp of descending into a new abyss of intolerance and ancient hatreds.”

      —Ian Leventhal, Executive Director for the Toronto office of the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada

      “A moving testimony to the power of creative expression in helping survivors of extreme trauma begin to heal their souls. In the words of Dora Posluns: ‘Can one imagine Auschwitz? You must write!’ ”

      —Stephen K. Levine, author of Trauma, Tragedy, Therapy: The Arts and Human Suffering

      “The intimate stories, poems, and essays by the Holocaust survivors in this book give all humanity the ultimate gift of the most intense hope, strength, faith, and compassion of which the human being is capable. May all who read it humbly bend a knee before their victorious examples.”

      —Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential

      “Evocative writing. Political power. This compilation fusing history, essays, and poetry reminds us of some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust and of how many did not make it through. But over and over it testifies to the strength of the human spirit, as well as to the lives that survivors managed to create and their desire to be sure we know what happened. The editor reminds us that there are reasons for the hatred that infiltrates our world and much we still need to do to stop humiliation and hatred and to end and prevent genocide.”

      —Ruth W. Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service

      Marking Humanity

      Stories, Poems, & Essays

      by Holocaust Survivors

       Edited by Shlomit Kriger

       Toronto

       www.SoulInscriptionsPress.com

      MARKING HUMANITY Stories, Poems, & Essays by Holocaust Survivors Edited by Shlomit Kriger

Toronto, Ontario www.SoulInscriptionsPress.com [email protected]

      Copyright © 2013 by Shlomit Kriger

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Cover Design and Illustration by Jim Zaccaria Interior Design by Glenna Collett

       Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Marking Humanity : stories, poems, & essays by Holocaust

       survivors / edited by Shlomit Kriger.

      Includes bibliographical references.

       Electronic monograph.

       Issued also in print format.

       ISBN 978-0-9864770-1-0 (epub).—ISBN 978-0-9864770-2-7 (mobi)

      1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Personal narratives.

       2. Holocaust survivors. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Literary

       collections. I. Kriger, Shlomit, 1982-, editor of compilation

      D804.195.M345 2013 940.53’180922 C2013-904487-6

      Published in Canada

       Paperback format ISBN 978-0-9864770-0-3

      For my grandfather, Kusha Kriger, whose parents, siblings, and other relatives were murdered in the Minsk ghetto in Belarus during the Holocaust, while he fought for peace with the Red Army. And for all other victims who were silenced through this great atrocity. May their memories be blessed (z’’l).

       Foreword

      These words are being written near the beginning of the new decade of the twenty-first century. The passage of time holds meaning for all of us. It has ushered in a distinct sense of soul searching within the media and general public with reflections on the turbulent and disappointing first decade of the new millennium.

      For those of us working in the field of Holocaust studies, time is not an ally but an enemy. We have attended many funerals. We have witnessed the passing of a generation. Each week it seems as if another survivor is lost and that those who remain, strong and valiant as they had once seemed, are growing older. They are more frail and giving way to the ravages of old age.

Those who were 18 years old at the time of the liberation are now well into their 80’s. A few years ago, the men among these survivors celebrated their second Bar Mitzvah,1 the 70th anniversary of their first Bar Mitzvah, which, if it were possible, would have been observed during the war in ghettos, under occupation, under siege, often clandestinely and illegally. (Lest women feel discriminated against, my point is historical. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan introduced the Bat Mitzvah in the United States for the first time in 1922. It did not become common even in the U.S. until the post-war years; therefore, few, if any, European women were called to the Torah—Jewish Bible.)

      No generation has left as voluminous a record of memoirs and testimonies as that of the Holocaust survivors. The USC Shoah Foundation Institute in the U.S. has more than 52,000 testimonies in 57 languages from 32 countries, and it is the largest of the many collections. Yad Vashem in Israel has collected testimonies for the entire post-war period. The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University has been recording since 1979. The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in Southern Florida began slightly afterward, and these are just a few of the collections

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