Kembudo-Kai Kempoka
Senior Master
I saw on Yahoo that the diary of a 14-year old polish girl headed for Auschwitz has been released. They're calling it the "Polish Anne Frank".
If you get the chance, read it. Read it to remember to never forget.
A friend of mine passed away a couple years ago. She was an elderly Jewish woman named Susan Ziemer, a survivor of 4 concentration camps, and escapee of the Auschwitz death march, with part of her story recounted in Ruth Kluger's "Still Alive" book...she and Ruth had become "sisters" in the camp, and ran together. She was about that age at the time of her escape. Spielberg did a series of interviews of survivors of the Shoah as a project; there were many things she had never discussed after the war until those tapes, which we did not view until the memorial wake.
Additionally, the mother of an ex lady friend of mine was part of the Dutch underground, and fed Anne Frank in the basement (her real name was Ria). Her code-name is mentioned by name in the Diary of Anne Frank. I spent an evening acting as a body-guard, for a panel gathered at University of California, Irvine, at the request of the author of Schindlers List. There were angry protestors outside, insisting it never happened, while inside Ria was recounting watching the Nazi's bashing her infant nieces head open against a wall, then later breaking her own wrists with rifle butts for trying to stop the beating of a deaf old man in a park, because he wouldn't listen to curfew directions. She lost her faith in the nobility of the resistance, when she saw them do similarly horrific things to their own people, out of unfounded suspicions of treason.
See all of it, and remember. And let's try not to do it again, or allow it again, shall we?
Best Regards,
Dave
If you get the chance, read it. Read it to remember to never forget.
A friend of mine passed away a couple years ago. She was an elderly Jewish woman named Susan Ziemer, a survivor of 4 concentration camps, and escapee of the Auschwitz death march, with part of her story recounted in Ruth Kluger's "Still Alive" book...she and Ruth had become "sisters" in the camp, and ran together. She was about that age at the time of her escape. Spielberg did a series of interviews of survivors of the Shoah as a project; there were many things she had never discussed after the war until those tapes, which we did not view until the memorial wake.
Additionally, the mother of an ex lady friend of mine was part of the Dutch underground, and fed Anne Frank in the basement (her real name was Ria). Her code-name is mentioned by name in the Diary of Anne Frank. I spent an evening acting as a body-guard, for a panel gathered at University of California, Irvine, at the request of the author of Schindlers List. There were angry protestors outside, insisting it never happened, while inside Ria was recounting watching the Nazi's bashing her infant nieces head open against a wall, then later breaking her own wrists with rifle butts for trying to stop the beating of a deaf old man in a park, because he wouldn't listen to curfew directions. She lost her faith in the nobility of the resistance, when she saw them do similarly horrific things to their own people, out of unfounded suspicions of treason.
See all of it, and remember. And let's try not to do it again, or allow it again, shall we?
Best Regards,
Dave
