Remember for Life: Holocaust Survivors' Stories of Faith and Hope

Genesis

1 ,hatrc G E N E S I S ,hatrc Aviolin was given to a 25 year old young man who couldn’t play a single note. He was shivering, and the violin song sounded like screeching. The SS mockingly said, You want me to give you food for this? And they started beating and kicking him, and the kapos kicked him to death. While they were pulling him out of the room I tried to sneak back into the barrack, but a kapo grabbed me and forced me to the middle of the floor and gave me the violin and says, Play! When I first entered that room, I thought that I’m going to play if I have a chance a sonatino by Dvorak or a piece by Fritz Kreisler, but in that bloodied room, nothing came to my mind, absolutely nothing, and I said, Oh my God, how does the sonatino start? How does the Fritz Kreisler piece start? How does anything start? I was so scared. From my side of the eye, I notice that a kapo picked up an iron pipe and was walking toward me. Every nerve in my body knew that I’m gonna die, that it’s the end, and I started saying within me, Shema Yisroel Adonai Eloheinu. He was less than two steps from me when my left hand and right hand started to move in perfect harmony and this beautiful Blue Danube came out with joy—loud, clear, like if I would have been playing that forever. Forgive me for putting it this way—like Heifetz would have played it. And this kapo is waiting and just looking at the SS— when should I hit him? The SS held up his hand and he started to beat the rhythm—oompapa, oompapa, oompapa, because I played the Blue Danube—it’s in three-quarter time. So he was beating and then he said hold it. From that time on, right then and there, I could play anything that I Bere’shit Creativity 3 ,hatrc wanted. Now I’m gonna tell you something that you’re not going to believe. I had never played the Blue Danube in my life before. Never. So, how did I play so gloriously the violin? In that room where the SS killed already two persons, or told the kapo to kill them? How? What happened there? How could that happen? It’s only God, it’s only God—God’s hands were on my violin. There’s no other way—that’s how strongly I believe in God—it’s a miracle—it was a miracle. Shony B. Romania Bere’shit 4 ,hatrc We dressed, and it was a very hot day for Amsterdam, a very hot day. We dressed with three sets of clothes, one on top of another, because we had our rucksack ready ever since it started. It was June 20, 1943. We were sitting by the window; the truck of the Germans was in front of our house. At 8:30 I said to Dan, let’s lay down on the bed. Whatever rest we get now, if they get us, we have to stand the whole night because you were moved like cattle then, there were no fancy trains. We fell asleep, and we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, and it was over. They had forgotten us. That we are here today is not because we were smarter than anybody else. We just had luck. That’s all there is to it. That day our stamp on the identification card that had protected us was obsolete, so we didn’t go out of the house yet. Then the rumors came: they will keep 170 families in Amsterdam. We were picked, but the wrong address was on the new pass.We lived in Reitzstraat number 7 and they put on Retiefstraat number 7. Would you believe it saved our life? On the evening before Rosh Hashoneh, on September 28, they went to collect all these other people that had been left behind. They had us on the list on Retiefstraat so they never came to the right street. After the war when we came out of hiding, we went to that address in the Retiefstraat. It just so happened that nonJewish people lived there...