...And the World Stood Silent...

  Today was good.

I took 83 students of mine on a field trip to the "Museum of Tolerance". As we boarded the two busses, I felt proud. I felt good. I felt righteous.  I sat for a few quiet moments within myself and thought how great it was that my students were getting this experience. I thought about the people who donated the money so my students could have this experience, and I got teary eyed.

The museum is a powerful place and I knew that my students would get a lot out of it. We have been reading Elie Wiesel's, "Night" and the connection between the two really has the potential to pique student's interest in not only literature, but in history, and in the imporatance of not standing silent in the face of attrocities.

I haven't had a chance to debrief with my students how they felt and what they got out of it; however I do know what my favorite part was. Towards the end of our tour we had some extra time. I had spotted an older gentleman volunteer and figured he must be a survivor. I stopped and chatted with him a bit. I asked where he was from, he was from a town in Poland that I had not heard of. My brain immediately went into high gear. Since my students were brought into a small auditorium, they were already in big comfy chairs, relaxed, and quiet. I ran out to ask the man if he had the time, if he'd share some of his story. He did.

His name is Eddie. Eddie was 11 when the war really broke out. Where he lived was 51km from Warsaw. (This of course interested me since my mother's family was originally from Warsaw).  When the German's made the decree that all of Poland's Jews must move to Warsaw, him, his 3 sisters, his mother and his father all moved. (Eddie was funny, he kept saying, "Eh, it was nice". And I was thinking... WHAT!...) He said to the kids, "We didn't know where we were going or how to get there, but we went".

In Warsaw he watched Jews build their own ghetto walls. And he said that within 9 months or so most people died. His mother, father, and three sisters all perished there. And so he ran away from the ghetto. Yes, he was able to escape with what sounded like a large group of other boys or men. Eventually they were all killed, except for 4 of them, he survived. This is when he showed my students the bullet wound in his leg.

He didn't know where to go so he thought he'd go to his home town which had about 50 Jewish families in it. He went, there were no Jews to be found. So here he is, a young boy. He thought about where to go and remembered a priest in the countryside who his father knew. His father was a shoemaker and used to fix this priest's shoes eventhough the priest had no money. So he went to the priest and told him what happened. The priest told him to stay with him. And so this little Jewish boy lived with the priest for about 7 months until a new German edict was announced.

Any German turning in or killing a Jew would be given a bottle of Vodka. Because of this, it became too dangerous for him to hide with the priest. And so, he had to leave and the priest also ran away so as to not get caught helping the Jews.

Eddie then did a lot of hitchhiking and traveling, with nowhere to go, the goal being to just go. He was in Paris for a while, Belgium, and eventually decided he would go to America.

Hearing him talk was great. He interacted, got the kids involved, and if that didn't make this history come alive, nothing could. I am pretty much the only Jewish person my students know so I'm so glad they got to learn some of the history.

I'm going to end this post and just say that no matter how bad days can be, no matter what obstacles I am dealing with in my life, when I have a day like today I am reminded that I have purpose, I have a heart, and that I am good. I really needed that.

Eventually he was captured by the Germans and was taken to Buchenwald. He said it wasn't so bad, they worked for the farmes surrounding the camp.