April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Duck Ponderings: Holocaust survivor visit inspired
A few quotes follow from Chapter 14; Auschwitz-Birkenau; January 26, 1945; 1:00 am:
"The guards march to the nearby barracks and order the prisoners out into the snow. The skeletal children with their prison tattoos and shaved heads respond immediately, knowing that the punishment for being too slow is a bullet."
Our town was honored Monday with a special presentation by Eva Mozes Kor in the Hauser gym attended by students, educators, and others. Eva somehow survived Auschwitz, a place where she and her twin sister, Miriam, were taken by the Nazis and studied. Their names are mentioned several times in the aforementioned book.
She spoke for about one hour, had the attention of all of us receiving a standing ovation afterward.
I don't know how anyone possibly puts into words what Eva went through, what many others went through. It was horrific.
I thought of my family and how fortunate we have been throughout our lives. None of us have been taken from our home, packed in a railroad cattle car, thrown in unsanitary quarters with rats, given little to eat or drink, examined for hours while naked, injected with harmful substances, and only thought of as a number.
Eva ended her speech with the following life lessons which can also be found at the end of her book, "Surviving The Angel of Death."
"Never ever give up on yourself or your dreams, for everything good in life is possible."
"Judge people on their actions and the content of their character."
"Forgive your worst enemy and forgive everyone who has hurt you-it will heal your soul and set you free."
I am well aware of the demands on educators and how there are pressures on meeting all the established standards to make a particular mark on a standardized test. Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. should be commended for taking a session of the school day out to allow students and teachers time away from their typical schedules to listen to Eva. In a short period, several lessons were covered and many lives were impacted. There is no grade scale that could possibly do justice to what I observed in the small gym of Hauser in the small community of Hope!
Now, I must travel to Terre Haute, not to visit Indiana State University where I got my degree in education, but to visit the Holocaust museum Eva opened, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org.
Then again, I may have to also drop by campus afterward to be reminded of how we live in a country that tries to provide opportunity for all. Let us not forget the price paid by so many.
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