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Child Protect Canada Blog April 7, 2013
Holocaust Remembrance
(Yom Hashoa) - My
Beautiful Mother - Human Rights -
Thank G-D for Canada - How Our Elected Representatives Should Act
for the Least of Us
MY PERSONAL CHANUKAH “ MIRACLE” from the
CONCENTRATION CAMP
Sheindel, born
Zenny Weissner, was a member of the Winnipeg’s Jewish Community.
Listening to CBC
Radio, She heard the announcer invite listeners to send in stories about ”miracles”
that happened to them during the Chanukah-Christmas season. Sheindel was
inspired to write the following story.
Although the events in it take place after Chanukah, the conclusion is a
Chanukah-style miracle.
By SHEINDEL
In May of 1944,
among all the Jews deported from Hungary, were my dear parents, four brothers,
and three sisters. We were deported to
Auschwitz, and I and my two sisters were separated, by the Nazis from the rest
of the family, because we were young and could work.
We were sent out
in a group of 2,000 Jewish girls from Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany
to work in munitions factories. We were
worked inhumanely hard until January 1945.
Then the bombings
started. The Russians and Americans bombed
the munitions factories with us together. From 2,000 girls, 180 remained alive.
After that, we
could not work anymore, so the chief of the Lager Fuehrer, as he was called in
German, and the rest of his officers, told us that we have to start walking
with them.
It was still the
month of January. We had wooden shoes
and some coats, which very quickly became heavily drenched with rain and
snow. While walking, I lost my wooden
shoes and so did the other girls.
We walked
barefoot in the snow from early morning until night, and then we were put private
barns where we slept on hay and straw.
WE HAD WOODEN SHOES AND SOME COATS, WHICH VERY QUICKLY
BECAME HEAVILY DRENCHED WITH RAIN AND SNOW.
WHILE WALKING, I LOST MY WOODEN SHOES AND SO DID THE OTHER GIRLS.
The owner of the
barn would cook potatoes in a boiler.
Each girl was given 2 potatoes, which had to last her 24 hours.
Every morning,
we started to walk again with the group.
This went on for long weeks and months.
Our feet became very swollen, blistered and infected without the wooden
shoes. Most of the girls could not walk
anymore, so they sat down on both sides of the road and these girls were left
behind.
The chief, who
walked way behind everybody, shot these girls when he caught up to them and saw
them sitting down. One afternoon, I felt
that my feet were so painfully full of blisters, blood and pus, that I could
not go on walking. My feet were burning
as if they were on fire.
NO CHOICE
I told my two
little sisters that I had to remain behind.
They cried, but I had no choice.
As much as I wanted to live, I was in pain and very weak, and I had to
sit down full of fear for my life from the Lager Fuehrer.
It was raining
terribly, but I sat on the side of the boulevard where the water was running
down. I put my inflamed feet, and it was
a heavenly relief for me. But I knew
that death was minutes away because the Nazi was coming closer and closer,
checking who was lying or sitting down.
He was almost at
my back. I stood up. I knew he was going to shoot me, and as much
as I loved life, in that dark moment I wished it all be over with.
So I asked him
“Please Lager Fueher, shoot me down.” I
cried and pleaded with him ”Please shoot me down.” He looked at me and said, “I will not waste a
bullet on you, you rotting Jew, but I will beat you to death.” It was raining terribly, and it was already
late in the afternoon.
He carried a hard
elastic club and he hit me in the head with it three times, counting “one, two,
three.” At that point, I lost
consciousness and fell down.
Behind the Nazi
who beat me in the head was a German soldier with a death wagon. He threw all the dead bodies on that
wagon. He thought I was dead, so he
threw me on the wagon, with all the dead bodies together. I was there till noon the next day as a dead
person.
The next thing I
remember was opening my eyes against bright sunshine, and noticing flies. I did not know whether I was alive or dead or
dreaming.
I dragged myself
towards the soldier who was sitting at the front, near the horse. Seeing me, he shook with fear: “Are you alive?” he asked, and I asked him, “Are you alive?” My memory lapsed. I did not know what I was doing here.
He drove for a
while and stopped at the first house.
The soldier went in, and in a little while, a man and a woman came out
bringing me warm milk mixed with tea and sugar, bread, carrots and pieces of
cake. I drank and felt a little
better. But I could not eat, I was too
weak.
SOME
FRIENDS SAVED
The houses were
far from one another, but he went into every house and everyone came out and
brought me warm milk to drink and food.
I drank the milk, but all the food I was given, I put in the lining of
my coat, and I felt so much better.
I cried to the
soldier to take me to my group of girls amongst who were my two younger
sisters.
He was not sure
he knew the right location. Fortunately,
we got there about 24 hours later.
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IT IS A MIRACLE THAT
IN NAZI GERMANY, SO FULL OF HATRED, THERE WERE A NUMBER OF WONDERFUL GERMAN
CIVILIAN PEOPLE WHO DID SO MUCH FOR THE REJECTED AND DOWN- TRODDEN JEWISH
PEOPLE
The girls were
all in a barn. The owner opened the barn
door and I saw my two sisters and 45 girls of my hometown. That is all that was left of the 2,000.
I treated them
all equally to the food I emptied from my coat lining. They were sitting on the floor too weak to
talk, but the tears of happiness streamed down their cheeks.
Two days later,
in the morning on May 8, 1945, the barn doors opened. A man with a white armband walked in and
thundered out. “You are free, you are
free! Remain sitting and we will help
you. ”We saw a Russian tank and a
soldier on top facing us. Even though I
was never compensated for the loss of my most dear and wonderful parents and
entire family I had that was mine, deep in my heart, I will always mourn them.
beside my lost time and my lost health from which I still suffer terribly. To this day, I can hardly walk because of my
back and my knees from being forced to walk long months in the snow and slush
and rain with no wooden shoes, and because of my shoulder from working in
munitions factories and getting injured from throwing big blocks up from the
main to the 7th floor in the camp for repair after being bombed
down.
When I was on
the 7th floor, I was very weak and dizzy, so I fell down from the 7th
floor to the 6th floor steel frame and which fractured my knee and
my back. One of the wonderful SS ladies
told me not to go to the hospital from the camp, or I would be sent to the
crematorium. Somehow I managed to appear
as though I was working. I will always
remember the kindness and compassion of these few German civilians, who at the
risk of their own lives did all to save ours.
It is a miracle that in Nazi Germany, so full of hatred, there were a
number of wonderful German people who did so much for the rejected and
downtrodden Jewish people.
It is because of
our Dear G-D and the German civilian people that I found myself in this
wonderful land of Canada.
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