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Sidney Iwens Reader Letters | How Dark the Heavens Responses 1996–2000
Since putting How Dark the Heavens online, a number of readers and visitors have gotten in touch with Sidney Iwens and his brother-in-law, Leon Tabory, who is also a survivor. The following are a sample of the wonderful outpouring we have received. Thanks!
Megan Currey goes to Washington…
- In June we told you about Megan’s Project . The following material is from last month; you can scroll past this to reach July, or
June
Online Reader Carries the Ball…
Give Megan Curry your support by clicking here to get in touch with her via email
Dear Leon and Sidney,
Another update. Megan competed in the State competition this weekend and placed 2nd in the state of Oregon. She will now be competing in the National Competition in June at the University of Maryland. We will have a chance for her to visit the Holocaust Museum as she has been wanting. We are now in the process of fund raising and preparing for such an honor.
Tell Sidney how far his book is reaching and how much education people are receiving at each level. It will be an honor to see that his book and life have aided one child to travel so far in search of historical knowledge and reminding others of the horrors you both survived. you have truly enriched and inspired one young person to reach for higher goals and to educate others in the awful consequences of prejudice and ignorance.
We hope that in allowing Megan to include him as a Hero of the Holocaust Sidney realizes the great gift he has given. We send our heartfelt thanks and admiration once again.
Sincerely,
Linda Gregory
Megan Currey
GO MEGAN!
June is almost here, we are rooting for you Megan! Please stay in touch. It would be great to hear about some of your impressions from this adventure. We wish you luck and success. By the way, if anyone is interested in offering a word of encouragement, perhaps even a bit of help, to this high school student on her way to the National Competition, you can reach her by pressing here.
This wonderful young person is doing some exciting work. What a privilege to give her a hand. Our planet can use every bit of help we give it. As online readers we are not mere passive observers, we can all help move things along with mutual encouragement. Besides, it is lots of fun.
____________________________________________________________________F__________
Dear Sidney,
I just got my E mail up and running again. Sorry for the long wait. I received your book right after Christmas. It was the most wonderful Xmas surprise that I received. I began reading it the day it arrived. My husband also has read it and now I have passed it on to his brother who will return it after his family has finished it.
Once you begin the book, you can not put it down. I cried and I cheered as I read the book. It seemed to have more meaning to me since I had some contact with the person who had written it and had experienced it. It was a very moving account of a terrifying experience for you and your people.
If you or any of your family are ever in Colorado I would like to meet you. Please also let me know how much I owe you for your book. It is a book I will cherish forever and I plan to hand down to my children and I hope they will continue the process.
You are a very special person. I am thankful to have been able to share your experience with you. It is an experience I will never forget. I have read about your experiences and viewed films but your book seemed to make it all come alive for me.
I hope we can keep in contact with each other.
Sincerely,
Roxann
July
The National Competition Judges Agree – Megan Currey’s work is Excellent!
Dear Leon and Sidney,
Sorry I didn’t respond sooner but we were in Washington DC at the National Competition. Megan received an excellent rating by the National Judges but did not place in the top 3 in the Nation. Approximately 2000 students competed in the competition and the entire event was filmed by the History Channel as well as CNN. Sidney’s book and story were seen by thousands of people at the National History Competition and Megan was pleased to speak to people about him. We had the great privilege of visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum and what a wonderful experience it was. We also experienced much of our Nation’s History. Bobby Kennedy’s daughter spoke and one of the original 15 students that integrated Little Rock High School in 1957 was in attendance. I will send along a file as soon as I can this week
- Congratulations!
That is some competition. To rate excellent among all of those, is quite an extraordinary accomplishment!
Can’t wait to see that file. Hopefully we can show it next month to our fellow readers. We receive mail from people who anticipate the monthly installments eagerly. I am sure they will be heartened and appreciative to get a feel of the excitement, power and good fun that involvements like this can generate. A picture of Megan and her project will help a great deal to nurture a personal touch..
This was an extremely rewarding experience and we send our sincere thanks to you and Sidney for your aid and support.
Thank you again for sharing your lives and remember that to Megan Currey, you both have truly filled her profile of a Hero of the Holocaust.
Thank you,
Linda Gregory and Megan Currey
How lucky we are that Megan saw value in using her talents to enlighten.
While I have also lived through similar catastrophic years that Sidney managed to describe so vividly, so thoroughly, with scrupulous honestly, for posterity, through tremendous sacrifice and hard work, I don’t feel that I qualify for heroic status, unless we speak in the sense of Tolstoy who said that the true heroes of this world are the ordinary little people who go on, in spite of the struggles that face them constantly, or something like it. I don’t remember exactly, but I have all my life deeply appreciated his statement that I read in my childhood.
Thank you Linda Gregory and Megan Currey,
Leon
NEXT MONTH – PHOTOS OF MEGAN’S PROJECT AND OF HERSELF AT THE MUSEUM OF THE HOLOCAUST!
Some interesting correspondence in June from here and there and (not quite) everywhere!
Spencer Clark (From San Francisco?)
I contacted you via email some time ago when I read the first chapter of your book. You may or may not remember, it being a while ago.
I just finished reading your book, and it was an extremely thought-provoking experience. I found your story captivating, and checked back eagerly at the beginning of each month for the latest installment.
I will never forget your extremely interesting questions, your insightful compassion, and your very kind words!
I am disappointed that your story stopped with the liberation of your Dachau sub-camp. An Epilogue of some sorts, or additional chapters describing the rebuilding or your life would be of great interest to me.
… I have discovered much material on holocaust survivors, but not much on what happened directly after liberation. One local survivor here was in Poland and her story was briefly described in the papers. Liberation for a 13 year old girl by Russian soldiers turned out to be almost as dangerous as Nazi occupation. This surprised me greatly; the crime of the holocaust has become more muddled for me the more I read about it – that the evil hatred by the Nazi Germans was not limited to just that group. Liberation was not the switch that I thought it was – i.e. first the hate was on, now it’s off. Life was still dangerous for survivors.
That may have been true in Poland and some Eastern European countries, but not in post war Germany or other Western European countries. We felt absolutely safe.
Thank you for taking the time to tell your story. I learned a lot.
Spencer Clark .
Thank you for taking the time to tell me about it. These are my real rewards that I cherish, more than I can tell you.
Anyone have any experiences with Volksdeutsche??? Ralph Julius would love to hear from you!
Dear Mr. Iwens!
My name is Raphael Julius. I live near Jerusalem, Israel. I am currently working on my M.A. thesis, for the Institute of Contemporary Jewry, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I just stumbled on your homepage, and your book, about the Holocaust. I understand that you are interested in the subject. I am especially interested in the part the Volksduetsche (Ethnic Germans, Auslanddeutsche) played in the Holocaust, and I would be very thankfull for any information or other references relevant to this subject. I have collected so far quite a number of titles of books and articles, but I have too little eye-witness accounts about this subject, both Jewish and non-Jewish, in different parts of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Sincerely Yours, R. Julius .-
I had some experiences with Volksdeutsche. Last month’s installment described some of them. By the way, How Dark the Heavens is available in Israel in Hebrew translation.
I’m just about to go on the Long Vacation. I’m sorry for the rushed message, I was just frightened of forgetting to write to you at all. I just want to say how moved I was by your journal. I study English; I’m always aware of my own material /temporal detachment from the extraordinary things that authors write and the inadequacy of a purely literary response.
I don’t think that I’ve ever come closer to a sensibility of what it was like to be in the Shoah than when I was reading your journal, although my reading in this area is limited and I’ve always been deeply affected by the poetry of Paul Celan.
What your writing evoked still comes back to me some time after I finished the last installment. I would just like to say how very grateful I am for having had the opportunity to read it.
Yours sincerely
Stephen Pink, The Coach House, Thicket Road, Cambs. PE17 2BQ ENGLAND. .-
Thank you for taking the time to write. Balm to the soul. Have a great vacation!
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