Holocaust Survivors and Their Stories

I have just finished reading this amazing book. Clara's War. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with the holocaust - why it happened? How it happened? How could ordinary "decent" people turn into murderers and kill so many innocent people. Not just the Jews although they were obviously the main target but also the gypsy's, the homosexuals and anyone else that got in the way of Hitler and his fanatics.

My parents are astounded by my interest - I am a catholic and until I came to live in London had never met anyone Jewish. But they brought me up to believe we are all created equal and religion or culture is not a reason to hate anyone. They practice what they believe welcoming my husband with open arms despite him not being christian never mind catholic.

Some books I have read have almost destroyed my faith in mankind especially as we haven't learned from the holocaust. People are still being killed for their religion, their genetic make up, their culture. Ethnic cleansing is still practiced on a large scale in this world of ours.

But this book gave me hope. This is the true story of a Jewish girl who, along with her family, survived the war living in the middle of Poland. At the start of the war, 5000 Jews lived in this neighbourhood. By the end, 52 were still alive. One family - yes one family saved 18 Jews. The man who saved her, was a self proclaimed anti -Semite but he refused to stand by and watch whilst his neighbours were murdered. In his words, he wanted Poland to be free of the Jews but not in this way.

As Clara says "you want to live you will crawl into the smallest hole" - and she isn't joking. 18 people survived in a tiny crawl space, at times living underneath german soliders. They lived in constant fear of being found and murdered. They lived despite finding out, sometimes on a daily basis, what awful things their family members had suffered before they died.

The book like most of its genre is harrowing in places. It is written from the perspective of a teenage girl who describes their "normal" day to day lives. Her description of one couple who shared their tiny world for 20 months is as heartbreaking as her tales about the Nazis. We have come to accept that the Nazis were capable of horrific things. But Clara describes how other Jews wanted to hand over a four year old child to these same Nazis. Her description isn't so much judgemental as understanding that people have a inherent need to survive at all costs.

Why did this book give me hope? The fact that one man, his wife and their teenage daughter were able to stand up and be counted. They alone were responsible for saving 18 people. Clara describes the man in great detail - he was a womaniser and a heavy drinker always getting into fights with everyone - hardly the Hollywood notion of a hero!

But wouldnt the world be a much better place if we all could say with conviction that we could be that brave?

I often look at my kids and wonder how anyone could kill someone so innocent. My son is a similar age to Clara's cousin - shot by the Nazis for being a Jew. He was less than 2 years old. I don't understand how anyone could shot another human being but to shoot a child???

Clara and her family were able to repay this man, saving him and his family from a similar fate under the Russians but that was not this man's motive. What he did was purely done because he refused to accept that there was nothing he could do to save these people. He risked his own child to save his neighbours, something I am not sure I would be able to do.

This is an excellent book - I believe it should be mandatory reading at school if only to show our future generations that the little man on the street has the power of life and death in his hands.

Leopold Engleitner aged 103 is the oldest male holocaust survivor but he was not put into the concentration camps because he was Jewish.  He is a Jehovah's Witness who refused to join Hitlers army as he was not prepared to kill anyone.  He was sent to Buchenwald.   He could have left the camps at any point by signing a letter renouncing his religion but he refused.  He would never give the "Heil Hitler" sign either.

What is even more interesting is the fact that this man and Hitler grew up in the same province (Austria), they shared a similar upbringing i.e. the same language and culture but one went on to kills millions whilst the other has spent his life devoted to peace.

Mr Engleitner has taught that everyone should live their life according to their conscience.   The fact that  most Nazis used the argument "they only did as they were ordered" as their defence makes this man's bravery even more outstanding.

This story is all the more poignant by the fact that Leopold Engleitner was denounced as a cripple who would never amount to anything (a curvature of the spine prevented him from walking straight backed).  Yet this "crippled" child had the insight to wonder why the Church Bells were taken down to be turned into bullets to kill people.

Another amazing story of bravery - one man's battle to stop a mad man like Hitler.  Again we should wonder what our world would have been like if there had been more people like him and Mr Beck who saved Clara and her family?

When we think of the Holocaust we tend to think of the 6 million plus Jews that perished.  But another 8 million people died in the Holocaust - also victims of the Nazi regime.  Whilst the numbers of Jews killed means that they were a major target, there were other groups that were persecuted as well.

Those that could least defend themselves i.e. the mentally or physically handicapped.  Other groups targeted were Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals etc.  Last but not least were the people who had the courage to stand up to the Nazis and say no. These people defied Hitler and his henchmen knowing that they were putting their lives at risk and that of their families.

So when you remember the Holocaust - as we all should - try to include all the victims of this evil period in history.