For all those who have scrolled past posts this week in the lead up to HMD, for all those who have thought to themselves, why do people care this much? Here's your answer.
These men and women, the survivors I have met and the families that were left behind, who didn't make it beyond the ghetto, beyond the fence of Auschwitz or the other side of the factory wall, who were left to battle the unthinkable temperatures in forests and on death marches. Men and women who could so very easily have been me or you, or more accurately your grandparents.
I have had the absolute privilege to hear from some truly amazing people. Ordinary people who survived unthinkable acts of inhumanity and unimaginable horror. Ordinary people who share their past, in the hope that we, may stand up for our future.
One of these amazing people, is Susan Pollack. I feel I have become friends with many holocaust survivors I have worked with but Susan is the one I picture when I share my experiences. When I sat across the room from these people, here in the UK, in Israel, in the US, knowing I had been to the places they speak of, I had seen it with my own eyes, their life stories became much more than stories, they became lessons to be learned. Susan Pollack is one of the most humble, honest, eloquent and disarmingly kind people I have ever met. To think that she has lived through such dark times, that she agreed to travel back there to tell me about such horror in the living room of her own home, and moments later is refusing to let me leave her house without a cup of tea or some cake… just says a little about the kind of lady she is. She is one of the only people I physically continue to write to and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that she entrusted her story to me, in such vivid detail and with such a vibrant belief that we much stand up against hatred and prejudice to create a just society for ourselves.
It did not end with the end of the holocaust. The lessons are still there to be learned...
In May 2013 I had the privilege of speaking
with holocaust survivor Susan Pollack at her London home, where she shared with
me her memories of life throughout the war. Her story is not only remarkable
because she endured so much suffering, nor because she survived, but remarkable
because Susan even after such an ordeal carries such spirit, such goodness.
Susan believes that we must remember her story and the millions of others, to
ensure genocide on the scale of the holocaust cannot happen again. We must learn
from it to ensure a good and just society.
Below is the transcript of my few hours
with Susan. The file names refer to video clips and is for my reference only.
Alternatively you can view parts of Susan’s
story in ‘After Auschwitz’, a documentary made by myself, which also features
survivor, Freddie Knoller. The film is available to view online for free here:
I will shortly be releasing the transcript
for Freddie’s interview too. Until then, I leave you will Susan Pollack.
SUSAN POLLACK INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
MVI_2229
I’m Susan Pollack. I was born in Hungary,
in a small little village not far from Budapest, about 20mins journey from
Budapest by train. This Felsogod, the name of it is Felsogod, is on the Danube.
I don’t exactly know the number of the population there but it’s relatively
small. And we lived there.
Tell me a little about your childhood. So, what was
life like before the war?
Yes I was born in Felsogod and I lived
there. I had a happy childhood. It’s a village, a town in history where
children have been brought up as being part of the economic necessities. Which
means that I was expected to take the ducks out, I was expected to clean the
stables. We had a business, most people were self-employed in those days, to
serve the customers. We had a coal and wood business. And clean up, be helpful
in the kitchen. It was a good life and I liked it. T was a good life.
I went to a local school, primary school
there in Felsgogod and that was really my childhood. I had friends from the
village where I lived and it was a happy, happy childhood. Yeh.
And when did you first start to notice any
anti-Semitic feeling towards you? Did you ever feel targeted?
Well ant-Semitism, how did it manifest
itself in Felsogod? There were only about, I would think about, 18 Jewish
families living in that village. We had own little synagogue, just a very
simple synagogue and that is where we went to pray, on Saturdays and sometimes
Friday evenings. But in, I was born in 1930, September.
I don’t remember any anti-semitism in my
very early childhood. That’s not to say it wasn’t there. But I myself hadn’t
been affected by it. That feeling, that sort of behavior, anti-semitism GREW in
time. But again, it did not effect our lives that much because, perhaps we
deluded ourselves. We felt oh well, they are just ignorant, malicious people.
And the graffiti on the wall, accusations about certain things, we didn’t take
much notice of it.
But as the times went on, as the years grew
closer to the 40s, e certainly have had a clear indication of that there was a growing anti-Semitic and
fascist parties emerging on the political scene. I have, at the time I wasn’t
so aware of it, In 1922, just to take back, in 1922 before my birth, there was
already a legislation against the Jews; that the Jewish people, the Jewish
students could not enter further education. It was reduced to a certain number,
comparable to the percentage [of] the Jews [that] lived in Hungary for
instance.
And my brother, I had a brother, an older
brother, he had enormous problems looking for a future profession or career.
But we thought, ok, it will blow over, it’s just a temporary thing. And as the
years went by, as I said coming closer to the 1940s we had many legislations
against us yes. That deprived us of social activity. My father could not keep
his little business open. In the late 1940s we had been excluded from many
other activities. And that’s how my education in Hungary, was also curtailed by
a great deal. So it kind of grew, grew with the years.
And of course in 1939, when the outbreak of
the war occurred, Hungary became part of the ‘axis’ alliance and everything
changed for us.
(The Axis
Alliance was the alliance between Italy, Germany and Japan during WW2. They
shared mutual aims in territorial expansion and the destruction or
neutralization of Soviet communism. Hungary joined in Nov 20th, 1940)
What’s the first thing you can remember affecting you
directly? Was it not going to school? What made it hit home that YOU were being
targeted. You were being singled out?
Well, I was singled out… the awareness of anti-Semitism,
how did that affect my life?
I realized quite early on, in my early
childhood that, ‘you Jews’ well it was graffiti on the wall, ‘you Jews go to
Palestine’ ‘You Jews, we don’t want you here’. But I had a secure background, I
had a secure home life and it wasn’t disturbing me to a great extent. And I
went to a local primary school with all the other kids.
But when I was finished with the primary
school, in the 40s, in the early 40s no school would accept me. So the only
school that would, in a close-by town, it was a big market town called Vác had still a Jewish
school open but that school could only take in – I think they had only a few
Jewish teachers – they’d only take in, all the Jews, all the Jewish students so,
we were crowded out, in that school. In the classroom there were about 80
students, 1 teacher, it was crowded out. I was at the back of the classroom and
I heard nothing and I learned nothing.
And then eventually my father managed,
somehow with great difficulty I would think, to find a school for me in Budapest,
we were segregated, meaning few Jewish students in that state school had been,
kept at the back of the class, with two empty rows between us and the rest of
the class. The same thing happened outside in the playground, we could not play
with the rest of the students. We were segregated.
So my education was perhaps zero you could
say, I learned to yes, read and write, but little else.
So gradually, gradually I was were aware,
and of course we wore the yellow stars outside, for Identification. And we
heard, I heard incidents when young children, particularly at the railroad, had
been arrested by the Hungarian Gen damme, just for being Jewish. And many of
them have never been seen again. We shall never know where they were taken to.
So arrests had been practiced already.
Now I’d like to let you tell us your story, going on
from this, and if there’s anything I’d like to know more about, I’ll come back
to it.
I just want to state, the difficulty of getting
reliable information, trustworthy and reliable information. Trusting the
government, trusting the local council, which we realized early on we could not
do. Because particularly after 1939, all
news came from Nazi Germany and we were desperate to find out, ‘is anyone, is
any country going to rescue us? What can we do, where can we go?’ And as there
was no information available, we turned to setting up a séance table, calling
spirits. And as I said, my brother, myself, my parents sat, with inverted
glasses asking ‘are we going to survive, as a family’, because we felt the
terror increasing. Not realizing what was already going on elsewhere. Because
obviously everything was kept in secret. And as human beings, respond to hope,
we felt it will come to an end, it must come to an end.
When the Russians entered the war, we had
hoped that they’ll conquer soon but it wasn’t to happen.
(CAMERA CUTS OUT, SO WE ASK SUSAN TO
BACKTRACK JUST A LITTLE)
So after the outbreak of the war in 1939, with
all the great conquests that Germany had made right across Europe, we realised
that perhaps our fate is doomed. So we turned to setting up a séance table. A
séance table with spirits, asking what is going to happen to our family, are we
going to survive as a family unit, will the children be alright and such
questions. Our hope was responded ‘yes and the allied forces will be quick’.
And the Russians after 1941 they came, they
will liberate us somehow, give us the freedom, that we did not have anymore. So
that was the feeling, the feeling was a sense of abandonment, a sense of great
fear of the unknown. As I said my
schooling was practically zero. We were asked to identify ourselves when outside,
on everything I wore outside as a young child. I sewed on the yellow star on
our clothing, And we waited. There was nothing we could do, we just waited
which we hoped would be a short period of time, but it wasn’t to be.
Well, I learnt that we were the very last
ones actually, in Hungary, the Hungarians were the very last community, Jewish
community and the Romas included, who were transported. And how that happened
was. There were some rumours, rumours emerging quite regularly without any
reliable sources that we are going to be resettled somewhere in the East, but
the council just shrugged their shoulders, ‘well we don’t know anymore than
that’. So this was getting more and more regular and we had a life that wasn’t
supported anymore because my father had stopped working and we had difficult
economic situation at home.
One fateful day, actually it was in 1944, that
we had a call up, a letter from the local council saying that that rumour now
has been substantiated and come and we’ll discuss it. That resettlement
programme. So by then they didn’t trust the Hungarian authorities but
nevertheless they though, we’ll find out.
All the men had been called, 18 Jewish
families who lived there. Then shortly after we had been called, the rest of
the family, to say goodbye to my father. And I had seen him being brutally
beaten up in front of my eyes and herded onto a lorry and I [haven’t] seen him
since.
We weren’t allowed to use the public
transport anymore, even with the yellow star (referring to trams for Jewish
citizens only). We sent a Christian Hungarian lady from the village to take a
basket of food to him and she came back with the information that, ‘just as well
you didn’t see your father’ or your husband to my mum, ‘because he was almost unrecognizable’.
They were so brutal to the men particularly. So whether it was the starvation
that affected him, or physical torture, I don’t know. And so we realized then, that
our fate is doomed.
Shortly after in 1944, one of the
architects of the holocaust came and occupied with a relatively small
army/troop. Within 6 weeks we were transported. We were transported, that was
in 1944, May, at first to a ghetto in Vác where I went to that Jewish school and the
Hungarian van damme said, just take the food that you can prepare. Came to us
one evening ‘start baking the bread because in the morning we’ll call on you’. And
that’s what happened. And we took just the bare essentials that we could carry.
I was only a little girl and I so I carried, there was no luggage, we put everything
into a sheet, and that’s how I carried my sewing machine. I was pretty good, I
was 13, younger than that, on my back. Because I thought I would be able to
support my family in a strange family, wherever that resettlement takes place.
So I carried that, the bread, the food, bare essentials.
We were taken to Vác and stayed there
for a few days. From there we were taken to an internment camp, a large disused
mine. It was outside that we stayed, outside and I think it was raining at
times and somehow we managed to erect a tent above our heads with one of the
sheets we brought. And had the food that we brought. Occasionally we attached
ourselves to various queues, some queues that would offer some bread which we
never received. Other queues had supposedly given exemptions to those who had
converted to Christianity but that didn’t affect us because we had no
intention, nobody ever converted and nor would it actually stand up because of
the Nuremburg laws that go back I don’t know how many generations. So, it was
tough to put it mildly, very tough.
(Nuremberg
Laws: At the
annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis
announced new laws institutionalising many racial theories
prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from
Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations
with persons of "German or related blood." These laws were both an
attempt to return the Jews of 20th-century Germany to the position that Jews
had held before their emancipation in the 19th century; although in the 19th
century, Jews could have evaded restrictions by converting, this was no longer
possible.)
And we slept on the ground, then we walked,
we were marched to the trains, the cattle trains, the box cars. And we kind of
breathed a sigh of relief having left this mine. It was a very hot day, I
remember that quite clearly. It was a very long walk and we were pushed into
the carriage. Jam-packed with about 80-100 people. All women, children, elderly.
And close the door, and we were suffocating in there. It was very hot. We were
suffocating but kind of felt hopeful that ‘thank goodness we left this place’.
The train was going and going and many of us died of thirst, lack of water,
lack of fresh air, especially the elderly, the babies. And when the doors
opened, of it was fresh air hit our faces and suddenly we kind of came alive….Not all of us. And we arrived in
Auschwitz.
What
was Auschwitz like?
What was it like in Auschwitz? A place of
terror, indescribable terror where shouting and big dogs were watching your
every move. We just stood and waited.
Instructions came. I learnt Dr, Mengele and
his trenchmen, because some of the Hungarian prisoners were whispering to me,
don’t say you’re younger than 15, because that meant straight to the gas
chamber. I didn’t know it then of course. When a Nazi asked my age, I said 15,
and he pushed me to one group. My mother went to the gas chamber. She was in
her 40s, tired and worn, anguished and very despondent.
My brother went to 1 group, …. ??inaudible???
A German woman said, take off your clothes,
[we were] stark naked and shaved our hair and threw some disinfectant on our
bodies, after the trains. Marched us into a big barrack with all girls. About
1000, in that big wooden barrack.
We were on the top level, there were three
levels, bunkbeds. About 8-10 girls were sleeping in there, with one blanket
among us. We were shivering, although it was hot.
Hardly any food given and that was all.
Starvation, not hunger, starvation, that was eating every cell of one’s body.
MVI_2231
Starvation there, no food given out. We may
have had coffee with no sugar, a piece of bread, like sawdust that we had to
save because in the evening we had dishwater, soup.
I started losing weight very rapidly. But at
first, we could lose ourselves in a fantasy game. So from 1 girl to the next,
we remembered our home life and what will you have for breakfast we asked. A
piece of bread with jam, with butter and maybe an egg. And so, you could taste
it and you remembered. It’s a sort of psychological device . But that requires
energy and very soon we did not have that.
That’s all we could do. We were taken to be
examined stark naked in front of Dr. Mengele. 4 doctorates, I learned later. He
inspected our naked body and those who didn’t meet his standard, couldn’t do
slave labour, were sent to the gas chamber. We knew that. Girls who’d been
there knew. We could smell the burning flesh.
MVI_2233
Had
you heard of Auschwitz?
I could have never imagined that babies,
young children, elderly people would be led into gas chambers. Even if we had
heard, would we have believed it?
We should have known and the news had come
out from Auschwitz at that time. There were two escapees from Auschwitz
specifically to inform and influence us Hungarians of what was coming, to allow
to. However, difficult decisions might have been. I mean where could we go? Who
would take us in?
1938, there was a conference where many
states had been called by Roosevelt in, Évian-les-Bains
, France, to discuss that matter.
That’s history, we didn’t know about that.
Which country is going to offer a place of rescue? Not many did.
MVI_2241
Just
describe what you felt in Auschwitz
for me. What did it feel like?
Auschwitz was a place of terror. Terror but
total complete deprivation of any individual thinking, of any kind of
self-expression. It was total dehumanization, which meant that there was no
complaints that ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I won’t go there’ or ‘I’m hungry’. There
was no expression. Losing your humanity completely, losing your needs, your
desires, because the total complete overtaking of it by terror. Of being beaten
up, of being tortured, of being disgraced maybe in front of the group before
you’re shot, which we had seen. That was the life in Auschwitz.
It was overwhelming fearfulness, day and
night. I can’t describe it in any other way, that was the feeling. The feeling
that you want to reduce yourself in a little dot. Not to be seen, not to be
heard. Practically not to exist. That’s what was Auschwitz, because nobody
existed, there were only numbers, numbers on the arms which I don’t have, being
a child, we were dispensable, from day to day.
Human beings didn’t count, didn’t count. We
were just nothing, nothing, and so children, young people, we realized that
very soon, almost immediately, almost immediately.
The terror has got a way of pervading, of
entering the mind, it’s like when you hit a dog and it cowers in the corner.
That’s how we were. I can’t analyze with anything else.
That’s it. When I was paraded in front of
Mengele, stark naked, I didn’t want to be seen. But I knew, some instinctual
idea came to mind to pinch my cheeks so they’re red, push out my chest although
I was starving, so I looked big. So he could see and I disappear quickly from
his eyes. And that was the act to being terrorized completely, because you knew
the consequences. Yeh.
Terror was displayed in Auschwitz as a
warning. Don’t try anything foolish, not that we could you know, we had no guns
and we wouldn’t know how to operate that and where would go? Even today. There
was no way to escape. 3 or four people have managed, by an amazing route but
they were just the exceptionals.
We were guarded, electrified, the fences
were all electrified and even if you could manage to put yourself outside,
who’s going to support you? We can speak of a silent majority, ask questions,
majority silent, whose side do they take? You never know. How can you be sure,
if you walk in somewhere? Will they hand you over? Many did in the countries.
It’s a world that hasn’t been seen [since]
and I hope it will never be experienced by anyone. Yeh.
MVI_2231
And so
you did slave labour?
On one occasion, I was lucky. Selected for
work and was sent to Guben, a German town where I did some simple electronic
work testing equipment. If the light was green, ok, if it was red, it’s not.
That sort of thing. We weren’t there long and quality and quantity of food
improved.
Allied forces came closer, we had to
evacuate and we were told to start marching. 1944, bitter winter, no clothes or
shoes, we just marched. We’d scrape for food on country roads if we thought
there could be a frozen turnip hidden there. Those who could not keep up, were
shot along the way. That was the long weeks of March, into Belsen.
What
was Bergen-Belsen like?
What was Belsen like? A place of death, a
place of incredible suffering that we haven’t devised the language yet to
express. The moaning, the giving up of life. All kinds of erm terrible, Typhus was
raging and other infectous diseases [were] raging. There was no distribution of
food. There was absolutely no hygiene, There was nothing. Nothing. Just
suffering. Pure suffering.
So when the British liberated us on April
15th, there was no juberated outcry, because it meant nothing. Very
few had the energy even to talk. I myself, I was crawling out, outside because,
apparently that was common. We didn’t want to die inside.
The British liberators were very good at
organizing the rescue mission. Small ambulances criss-crossing, picking up
bodies that showed signs of life. And that’s how they picked me up.
They called in local Germans to clean-up,
to wash us. And they placed me on a clean sheet, in a bed.
Belsen is total devastation. Most people
died. I had been told that place will be burned.
What
happened to you after liberation, where did you go to recover?
I went to Sweden, being a neutral country,
they allowed about 1000 sufferers to go there to recover there. So, that’s
where I was sent and that is where I got on my feet, in Sweden, a very good
country for us, very helpful. I have wonderful memories from there, wonderful
people I’ve met there, later on. And a gradual, the slow gradual rehumanisation
actually started to kind of emerge in me. I was there until 1947, in Sweden. So
that was, particularly a family who was particularly kind. They used to take me
home for their Christmas holidays and though I could not communicate so well,
as I never learned to speak Swedish, their kindness has always remained in my
heart.
Unfortunately I so much wanted to see them
again, but when I was better I was sent to Canada. I wanted to go to Israel but
I wasn’t well enough. So I was sent to Canada so I wasn’t able to go and see
them, which is a great regret of mine. But those small goodnesses is really
what helps people, not big things, small kindness, generosity and inclusiveness
is really the spark of life.
Then I was sent to Canada. I didn’t do much
after I’d recovered reasonably well. I mean I had tuberculosis but that was
cured by good food and good fresh air and we were together with girls of a
similar background so I didn’t have any specific psychotherapy or anything like
that, but being together with these similar background girls was helpful. We
didn’t need to express ourselves, because we knew what they were feeling.
Losing an entire family.
And then I when I went to Canada, I met my
husband there. He is also a survivor from Mauthausen, another notorious camp.
And we got married. I wanted to have a family, reinstate my own family and I
did. I worked and worked and worked and then years later we came to live here,
in Britain in 1962 and I did many things since then. Yes.
MVI_2232
How
do you think survived?
Initial feelings? Right through all of
these camps was self-defence. Unconsciously I have kind of removed myself from
it all. I have, in order to protect myself from all the terrors, all the
unbelievable hard circumstances, I removed myself and it’s like watching a
horror film that did not touch me too much.
In some ways I think it’s a way of
survival. I mean, I was in pain, feeling the hunger, the starvation. At the
same time, I never cried. I never cried because somehow, it was so unreal and
it was so unreal I though, can it be true?
Also my faith has given me help. Help in
the sense that I had an image and I’ve spoken to other survivors who had similar
experiences. A vision appeared to me. It’s like the sky opened up and
everything was rosy. It was a wonderful experience for me. A big hope, a hope
that I was noticed. The only feeling that has given me some trust and that
maybe there is going to be an end to all this.
I suppose being young, being that young,
the elderly people found it harder as it was more real for them. I don’t know
how they survived, the elderly, not many did. Knowing that their family was
murdered. I never thought about that until after. And I still do to this day.
Things were so abnormal that you just had to protect yourself, be good to
yourself, because there was nobody there to be good to you.
Even friendship in my case did not exist,
as we went from place to place and you never knew who would be gone [the] next
minute. No-one could give anything, no-one knew anything. It was that kind of a
unbelievable environment.
Friendship means giving, loving, being
good. That place didn’t allow it. There were instances where they did but it
didn’t happen to me.
 |
| Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassadors with whom Susan works |
Completely
understandable though…
I’m hoping I’ve made up for it, for the
lack of it, in time. I became a Samaritan here for 7-8 years, that was my
therapy. As well as giving, I gained a lot from it. Other voluntary work, in
hospice, various others. Mainly the Samaritans have been very helpful.
Working, I became a vodka seller, an export
agent. Here, I sold Sheffield steal products in America, where my 3 children
grew up proudly. I went to the States, educated myself. Got a degree in History
and Roman psychology. A busy life, but I do remember. I go to schools a lot,
and other places to talk about it. They made a film of me, in Belsen, the BBC.
So I did a lot in that sense but it doesn’t get easier… I can live with it, but
it’s tough.
It’s tough and I’m not that trusting though
I hope I’m a good, kind person but not that trusting. Always a bit of doubt in
my mind. And with the rise of anti-Semitism here in Europe, especially in
Hungary, one is beginning to ask questions. Why, why is it necessary to hate,
why necessary, especially the Jews, right across History. Accused of nasty
things. What is it about human beings, are we so wonderful? A French writer
Roussou ‘we’re all wonderful’ we’re not under certain circumstances. People can
turn to be violent. One has to be vigilant, careful, stand up, speak up because
life is short, I’m beginning to realise that now. Life is short. And the only
value to behold is the goodness for each other.
That’s all I can say.
MVI_2237
Why
do you remember, why’s it important to you to tell your story?
Reflecting on those time are very important
to me. First of all, I am lucky, I survived but most of my family did not. So I
speak for them, as well. But in addition, it isn’t just a talk about what
happened, we need to look ahead for the future.
I believe in order to create a better
society we need to know what people can be capable of doing and how to prevent
it. Alert them of the danger of any form of persecution, bullying,
scapegoating, malicious gossip about defenceless communities, that affected my
life and [that’s] important to know.
Also, to realise the holocaust didn’t just
happen overnight, there were lead ups long before. It needs all of us, a
personal responsibility to speak up and speak loud and create a just and good
society for all of us. That’s the reason I speak.
MVI_2238
And
education about the holocaust, how important is that to you?
The education about the holocaust is most
important. Because a) it happened in Europe, where we live. Second thing, it
happened to innocent people. It happened in a country which is a progressive,
educated country; Germany. Mostly, the recognition that why wasn’t there more
help available. Although there was help, 10,000 children were saved in this
country in Britain, but why the rest of the world took no interest. I think
it’s important to place themselves in that situation. ‘First they came for the
Jews. I wasn’t one of them and so gradually when it came to me, who will be
there?’ It asks a question of all of us, to take responsibility and I hope that
happens.
(Reference is to following poem circulated
in 1950s by Protestant pastor and public foe of Hitler, Martin Niemoller –
1892-1984)
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak
out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not
speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak
for me.
MVI_2239
And of course, ant-Semitism still exists doesn’t it?The realization that anti-Semitism is
not a belief of the past but it has this evil way of reoccurring over time,
very important. I am absolutely convinced that every generation needs to be
taught, every generation must be introduced, in a way to ask them, place
yourself in that situation.We won’t be around, we’re elderly
people now, survivors. So it is the future generation who will have to
safeguard their own interest. And so it is very important to learn about, to
remember, to visit, to see it in real and to say enough is enough, shame on
you.Anyone who finds for some unbeknown
reasons to join any party that suppresses another, has to be condemned. I think
so.
MVI_2240
What
would you to say to people who stand by and watch these things happen?
Bystanders won’t always be bystanders,
eventually they’ll be involved. It’s not a game that we play. That period of
life, is not a game, nothing to joke about. I don’t like it when people dress
up (Reference to Prince Harry) and make a mockery of it or use suffering. It’s
a sick joke. See for yourself. Eisenhow said ‘there’ll always be idiots’, who
will deny it.
Take pictures, go out and see it, go to the
Imperial War Museum, go to Belsen. Go to all these camps and learn, and see,
before you say anything.
I am a great believer in these trips going
out to the camps and see it in real, what took place. Don’t allow yourself to
be deluded by friends, things that are damaging not just to you, but to people
around you. Yeh.
 |
| My candle for Susan Pollack - #HMD2015 |
And so, I
feel no better way of ending my week of social media efforts with SUSAN's
words, not mine. I urge you to read on until the end. I feel humanity owes her
that at least, as it took so much from so many.
I have often, during my time as an ambassador been named on social media as 'part of the conspiracy'. In 2014 for example, myself and two young colleagues ran a 10km to raise money for the charity and were met with direct Twitter comments including this one (pictured). I, like Deborah, struggle to separate my emotions when comments like this are made. In fact, twitter is an engine that has given voice to many more deniers than before were heard. During the launch of a London exhibition early last year, I was asked via Twitter if holocaust survivors would be present - quite an innocent question it seems, until I did some digging and found that the user was in fact a holocaust denier who has previously directly targeted survivors.
Over Facebook I also received a direct message, as a result of a post I'd written about the rise of the far right in Greece with parties such as the Golden Dawn with a view to championing multi-cultural society. It might not be holocaust denial in this instance, but a direct attack on the very foundations of a society that values the lessons we have learned from it. I think this response speaks for itself...
