Return to Education…A Legacy Forum
Fifty Years Later:Reflections on
Teaching the Holocaust to Young People
by: Judy (Weissenberg) Cohen
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I am a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen Belsen, slave labour at a Junkers Aeroplane factory and a death march. I was liberated by the American Forces on May 5, 1945 in a small town called Duben, somewhere near Leipzig, in Germany.
I am a frequent speaker to hundreds of young people at our Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre in Toronto, Canada.
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- I stand in front of you
and see your innocent stares,
looking at me, anticipating a personal account of my
pains and nightmares.How do I begin?
How can I make you understand and feel
the deep scars that I carry
fragile and still easy to bleed?How do I tell you about human created hunger
hopeless, no-end-in-sight,
when, perhaps, you just had a good meal
and feel full and warm inside?How do I tell you about constant fear
in the pit of the stomach, the nauseating kind
when, hopefully, you experienced only
goodwill and peace in your short life?How do I tell you about losing family and friends
in a matter of minutes
by moving thumbs in white gloves,
belong to a Nazi
a so- called human being?How do I tell you about the odor of burning flesh,
tortures and killings of innocent people
that were planned cold bloodedly, years before!
drinking and singing around the table?How do I tell you about Auschwitz-Birkenau
the efficient killing machine
where mothers, babies, children and the old
marched to the “showers” and out as smoke?How do I tell you about being torn from
all my loved ones in my teens
when you only know and should know
the warm embrace of family and peers?How do I tell you about
the genocide of six million and more
during which my family lost eighty one,
when you can happily look at yours and declare
missing: NONE.I do however, know to praise
those wonderful few, defiant and brave,
at great risk to themselves,
reached out and helped many lives to save.I stand in front of you
and see your innocent stares,
but having heard it all
your gaze is no longer there!You have lowered your eyes
so sorry! I saddened you,
having heard a witness
now, you become a witness too.To inform and teach my story is told.
I urge you to be fair-minded and bold.
For it is up to you, THE YOUNG
how the future will unfold.Let us create a society
free of hatred and hunger
where respect for each other
glows like a beautiful ember.End.
