Holocaust Memorial Day

The world is commemorating Holocaust Memorial day today. My father is a holocaust survivor. I've never heard him talk about his past. He would shut the TV any time there was something on about the Holocaust. He didn't want me to know about it. I ended up learning everything at school, and later from family relatives who did talk about it.

The drawing above was forced on him by the teacher. This is his interpretation of what he lived through. This is probably the most emotional drawing he's ever done. The one that means the most to me.

His father was a hero who helped release a train cart of all the Jews as they were being transported to Auschwitz. He was an engineer and worked on trains, he knew where the bolts inside were and how to remove them. He was hailed as a hero for many years later when all survivors immigrated to Israel.

My grandmother escaped with my dad thanks to Catholic neighbours, who came and warned her that the Nazis were on their way to the apartment building to take away all the Jews. She grabbed my father and ran across the street. They hid for three days inside the electricity bunker across the apartment building. When they left it on the fourth day and returned to their apartment - all the Jews were gone. Transported to Auschwitz - none survived.

A short while after, the people who worked for my grandfather came over to him and offered him the legal papers of one of the employees. They told him to take his family and escape Poland. My grandmother was so grateful for these legal papers that she swore to the person that she will keep his last name forever and never return to her previous name. She died as Mrs. Kozdrowicz. The name of the family that gave my family a chance. Without this family I would have never been born.

On my mother's side the tragedy far exceeds what a blog post can tell. Maybe one day when I have the emotional strength to talk about it.