A Pile of Books, A Pile of Rocks & A Pile of Shoes

A pile of books sits in a glass case:  Das Kapital by Karl Marx, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Albert Einstein's works.  These are just some of the thousands of books that were burned on a Berlin street back in 1933, an early sign that Hitler would not tolerate any views but his own.  Some of the greatest thinkers came out of that era, people that would go on to help build the atom bomb and to put the first man on the moon.  But they didn't fit in to Hitler's agenda.  Freedom of thought would not be tolerated. Propaganda would rule for the next twelve years.

Berlin Book Burning circa 1933 courtesy
http://www.dw.com/en/cultural-incineration-80-years-since-nazi-book-burnings/a-16798958

A pile of rocks sits on display, each one perfectly cut in a cube.  Above them hangs a photograph of emaciated humans lugging the rocks up and down a cliff.  Some workers, too weak to move another inch, fall down.  They are punished for their disobedience.  The same scene repeats itself day after day, week after week, month after month.

"Stairs of Death" at Mauthausen courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/pin/325736985526835210/.

A pile of shoes sits in another case, turned green from years of exposure to the elements.  A rubber smell permeates the air.  Despair permeates the soul.  These are the shoes of thousands of Jews who worked at Majdanek, a Nazi concentration camp.  Despite their number, these shoes are just a drop in the bucket.  A map shows us that Majdanek was one of hundreds of Nazi interment camps, work camps and death camps by running by the end of World War II.  Hitler took their ideas, their belongings and their lives.  But he could not take their spirits.

Piles of shoes worn by Jewish victims of Holocaust courtesy www.jewishjournal.com.

We walked past a small wooden boat, one of dozens used to transport Jews across the water from Denmark to Sweden during World War II.  Thanks to this evacuation, nine out of ten Danish Jews survived the war.  But sadly, Poland's 3 million Jews were reduced to 45,000 by the Holocaust.  By war's end, two thirds of Europe's Jews had been murdered.

Later, as we walked down Washington's 12th Avenue to dinner at the Elephant and the Castle, we ran into a women from our tour group.  We mentioned we had just visited the Holocaust Museum.  She said that she would not visit it because she did not want to see "man's inhumanity to man".  I thought to myself that she had hit the nail on the head with that statement.  Although the Holocaust happened decades ago, it could happen again -- with different players.  Let us never forget.

Schlinder's List

"Whoever saves one life saves the entire world." 
(inscription inside ring given to Oskar Schindler)

Schindler's List courtesy www.thejc.com.

One man -- one list -- 1200 names.  "Schindler's List", made into a movie in 1993, is the story of Oskar Schindler who employed many Jews in his factories and whose lives he saved by bribing, cajoling and sweet-talking Nazi officials.  Here is his story.

Oskar Schindler was born into a wealthy business owning family in Zwittau, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic).  In the 1930's, he became a member of the Nazi Party.  He bought a factory in Krakow, Poland where enamelware was manufactured.  He employed many Jews as they were cheaper labour than Poles.  However, as the rights of Jews were taken away, he started to hide wealthy Jewish investors.

Krakow Factory courtesy upload.wikimedia.org.

In 1942, Schindler witnessed a round up of Jews in the Krakow ghetto in an effort to ship them to a concentration camp in Plaszow.  He was appalled by the murder of many Jews who attempted to hide from the Nazis during the round up.  In the movie, director Steven Spielberg shows Schindler sitting atop a horse on a hill above the ghetto watching the horrific black and white scene, punctuated only by the red coat of a little girl.  

Schindler vowed to save as many Jews as he could, intending on transferring them to safety in his two factories.  Using the black market, he bribed Nazi officials.  In October 1944, a train carrying 700 Schindler Jewish men to Gross Rosen Concentration Camp was re-routed to Brunnlitz, the site of Schindler's factory, only after he sweet-talked officials.  Similarly a trainload of 300 Schindler Jewish women was sent to Auschwitz. After several weeks, Schindler managed to get them transported to Brunnlitz, thanks to his black market food and diamond bribes.

Oskar Schindler (centre) schmoozing Nazi officials courtesy www.ushmm.org.

In May of 1945, Schindler stood with his workers on the factory floor and listened to Churchill's speech announcing victory for the Allies.  The workers gave him a ring, made from the dental work of one of their own, inscribed with the verse:  "Whoever saves one life saves the entire world."  Then Schindler and his wife wife, considered spies by the enemy, escaped by car.  Their vehicle was confiscated by the Russians but they continued their flight by train and by foot to Switzerland.

Schindler saved 1200 Jews.  Although movie offers were discussed in the 1950's and 1960's nothing came of them.  In the 1980's, Australian author Thomas Kenneally wrote a book about the entrepreneur's life called Schindler's Ark, later published in the United States as Schindler's List.  Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to the story and the movie premiered in 1993.  

Schindler spent millions to help the Jews.  He died penniless, but a hero.

Oskar Schindler courtesy http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/schindlers-list.html.

World War II By Numbers

1.  The Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs from 1939 to 1945.

2.  More Russians (soldiers and civilians) lost their lives at the 900-day Siege of Leningrad than did American and British combined in World War II.

Photo of Siege of Leningrad courtesy www.jmeshel.com. 

3.  The American factories built 650,000 Jeeps, 300,000 military aircraft and 89,000 tanks during World War II.

4.  Nazis murdered 12 million people including 6 million Jews during the Holocaust ("whole burnt").

5.  Despite risking their lives many individuals helped save Jewish lives:  Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and Chiune Sugihara all saved thousands.  The entire Jewish community was saved in Denmark, evacuated by boat before the Nazis arrived.

Schindler's List courtesy http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu. 

6.  In 1941, a private earned $21 a month; by 1942 his salary was raised to $50 a month.

7.  German U-boats sank 2000 Allied ships during the course of the war.

8.  In 1928, less than 3 % of Germans voted for the Nazi Party.  By 1933, Hitler came to power.  By 1938, he was voted Times' Man of the Year.

9.  A Japanese soldier hid in a Pacific island jungle for 29 years before he surrendered, not realizing the war was long over.

10.  Despite the proliference of tanks and jeeps on the Western Front, the Soviet and German armies employed over 6 million horses for land operations.

Photo of German horses stuck in the mud in Russia courtesy http://upload.wikimedia.org. 

Pope John Paul II's Speech at Israel's Holocaust Memorial

Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Israel in March of 2000 to pay tribute to the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust from 1938 to 1945.  At Yad Vashem, he laid a wreath and lit a flame in memory of the victims.  Pope John Paul II was a seminary student in Poland when the Hitler's Wehrmacht was invading country after country, rounding up Jews and throwing them in concentration camps.  Fifty survivors, including thirteen who were from the Pope's hometown of Wadowice, Poland, were present at the memorial ceremony.  Sadly, Pope John Paul II did not go so far as to apologize on behalf of Pope Pius XII (and the Vatican) who did not speak out against the Holocaust, even though he knew about the death camps.  Here is an excerpt from Pope John Paul II's speech:

"The words of the ancient Psalm, rise from our hearts:  "I have been like a broken vessel.  I hear the whispering of many -- terror on every side -- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.  But I trust in you, O Lord:  I say, you are my God. (Psalm 31:13-15)

In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence.  Silence in which to remember.  Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back.  Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah.  

My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the war.  I remember my Jewish friends, some of whom perished, while others survived.  I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust.  More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.  

Here, as at Auschwitz, and many other places in Europe, we are overcome by the echo of the heart rending laments of so many.  Men, women and children, cry out to the depths of the horror that they knew.  How can we fail to heed their cry?  No one can ignore or forget what happened.  No one can diminish its scale.  

We wish to remember.  But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for millions of victims of Naziism.  

How could man have such utter contempt for man?  Because he had reached the point of utter contempt for God.  Only a godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people.  

The world must heed the warning that comes to us from the victims of the Holocaust, and from the testimony of the survivors.  Here at Yad Vashem the memory lives on and burns itself into our souls.  It makes us cry out:  "I hear the whispering of many -- terror on every side -- but I trust in you, O Lord, I say:  You are my God."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yad_Vashem

Young Italian Girl Pens Letter to Auschwitz Survivor Primo Levi

"The question you ask me about the Germans cruelty has long perplexed historians." (Primo Levi)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Auschwitz-Primo-Levi/dp/148267114X

In 1982, a young Italian girl penned a letter to Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi, after reading his book If This is a Man.  The letter sat in a treasure box for decades.  Recently it was published in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

After Monica Perosino read the Primo Levi's 1947 novel, If This is a Man, her head was buzzing with questions.  "Why didn't anyone do somthing to stop the massacre?  Were the Germans evil?"  It was hard to imagine that something as horrific as the Holocaust could happen.  Little Monica got out a piece of stationery and penned a letter to the Italian author posing her poignant questions.  Then she took out a Turin phone book, where she lived, and searched for Levi's address.  She postmarked her letter and waited for a response.

I'm sure no one who went through the gates of Auschwitz would ever forget the horror.  And Levi was no exception.  In his time at the concentration camp, from February of 1944 to January of 1945, Levi saw enough horror stories to fill several books.  Yet somehow he was able to write an eloquent response to Monica.  He explained:

"The question you ask me about the Germans cruelty has long perplexed historians.  In my opinion it would make no sense accusing of cruelty the whole German nation of those days -- let alone pointing the finger at today's Germans... Nevertheless, many Germans must have known directly or indirectly what was going on...I would accuse the Germans of those days of selfishness, of being indifferent and intentionally ignorant..." http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.639195

On the one hand, many Germans (and non-Germans) aided and abetted the Nazis during the Holocaust.  On the other hand, there were Germans who stepped up to the plate and saved Jewish lives, at great risk to their own lives:  who hid Jewish children; who employed Jews in their factories to prevent them from being deported to concentration camps (Oskar Schlinder); who renounced the Nazis from the pulpit (Dietrich Bonhoeffer for which he was executed); and who even helped Jews from within the walls of the concentrations camps.

Back in Italy, Monica grew up to become a journalist.  For a long time, she forgot about Primo Levi's letter, which sat in a treasure box in her apartment.  Recently, she rediscovered it when she was packing to move.  Her editor at by La Stampa, the same newspaper that Primo Levi had written for. convinced her to publish it.  Monica thought it was an appropriate course of action, explaining:
"I understand his [Primo Levi's] answer wasn't just for me, it was for everybody."

Note:  For more information, read Primo Levi's book Survival in Auschwitz.

Primo Levi circa 1940s courtesy http://www.basisdruck.de/images/primo-levi-1.jpg.

Italian Holocaust Survivor Inspired Hit Film Life is Beautiful

"At Auschwitz, I was no longer Rubino Romeo Salmoni, but Jew number A15810, to be exterminated." (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20509487,00.html)

In 1999, Roberto Benigni jumped on the back of a chair at the Kodak Theatre after he won the Academy award for Best Actor for the movie "Life is Beautiful".  His unrestrained joy was indicative of the real life counterpart of the character that he played, Rubino Romeo Salmoni, a survivor of the Auschwitz.

About 7,500 Italian Jews perished in the Holocaust during the Second World War.  Rubino Romeo Salmoni's two brothers were among them.  "At Auschwitz, I was no longer rubino Romeo Salmoni, but Jew number A15810, to be exterminated," explained the Italian.  However, Salmoni determined that he would not be another statistic in the "long journey toward death". 

While in the Nazi death camp, Salmoni used his imagination to help his family.  He sneaked in food for his son and made a "game" of their internment, saying that the first person who accumulated 1,000 points won the game.  Salmoni explained that if he cried or complained that he was hungry, he lost points.  However, if he remained quiet or hid from the guards, he gained points.  He made "life tolerable behind the barbed wire", something his son realized after their internment (www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013514/Italian-Holocaust-survivor-Rubino-Romeo-Salmoni-inspired-Life-Is-Beautiful-dies.html).

In the movie, Salmoni is shot dead by a guard shortly before the camp's liberation.  However, in real life, he not only survived, but thrived, going on to see the birth of many children and grandchildren. Salmoni documented his life in his book I Beat Hitler, adapted for the screen by Roberto Benigni.

Life is Beautiful movie poster courtesy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/.

The Silver Birch Award

The Silver Birch Award debuted in 1994 under the umbrella of the Ontario Library Association. Honouring books geared to Grades 3 to 6, this award recognized both Fiction and Non-Fiction books. Registered classes and/or groups read at least five books from an Official Selections List. They cast their votes in the Spring.  The first winner was Daniel's Story, written by Carol Matas.  Here are some of the titles that stand out for me:

1995 Polar:  The Titanic Bear (Daisy corning Stone Spedden)

The true story of a Steiff bear that, along with his owner, a 7 year old boy, survived the sinking of the Titanic.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2157716.Polar_The_Titanic_Bear

2000 The Secret of Gabi's Dresser (Kathy Kacer)

When the Nazis conducted house searches for Jewish children in Eastern Europe during WWII, Gabi hid in a dresser in her dining room.  The only piece of furniture that survived the war, it now sits in her daughter Kathy Kacer's Toronto home.

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/015020/f1/nlc000500-v6.jpg

2003 Hana's Suitcase (Karen Levine)

Holocaust education centre operator Fumiko Ishioka received an empty suitcase from Auschwitz. Children visiting the centre asked her about the owner, whose name was written on the suitcase.  A year of research revealed that Hana Brady, born in Czechoslovakia in 1931, was deported along with many other Jews in her town, to Auschwitz during WWII.

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/m/episodes/inside-hanas-suitcase

2008 The Secret of Grim Hill (Linda De Meulemeester)

Cat Peters wins a soccer match and accepts the prize of going to a private school.  However, inside the halls of the old school, a mystery waits to be revealed about what happened to the last soccer team that attended the school and then disappeared.

http://grimhill.com/the-books/

2010 At the Edge:  Daring Acts in Desperate Times (Larry Verstraete)

Over twenty stroies about ordinary people who show extraordinary courage during the Halifax Explosion, the Tianamen Square protests, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/At-Edge-Daring-Desperate-Times/dp/0545273358

2012 Undergrounders (David Skuy)

Twelve year old Jonathon's mom dies and his landlord kicks him out.  Facing life on the streets, he finds a group of kids living underground who steal to survive.  Jonathon steals hockey gear, suits up and is welcomed by his new "family", a hockey team.  How does he keep his homelessness a secret?

http://fernfolio.edublogs.org/2011/12/14/undergrounders-by-david-skuy/

2013 Making Bombs for Hitler (Marsha Skrypuch)

Lida is kidnapped by the Nazis during WWII and forced to work as an Ostarbeiter in a German munitions factory making bombs.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12524125-making-bombs-for-hitler

2014 One Step at a Time:  A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way (Marsha Skrypuch)

Brought up in a Vietnamese orphanage, Tuyet is rescued during the last airlift out of Saigon. Adopted by a Canadian family, she now faces surgery to correct her leg, crippled by polio.

http://pajamapress.ca/news_reviews/?page_id=983

For more information, visit http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/silver_birch_award.