General Discussion

Were murdered at the beginning of it all and never made it to camps. My grandmother escaped by leaving when their house had been stolen by germans in ww1. They were traveling in a cart digging up potatoes and her mother, and many siblings died from illness. She, and two sisters left when she was 16 for Canada. If she had not left she would have been murdered and I wouldn’t be here.

Her father and two brothers stayed. One escaped into the Russian army after his whole village was bayonetted by german soldiers including his wife and 3 year old daughter. He stayed there for the remainder of his life because he was not allowed to leave or to have visitors. My father tried to visit him while on a conference in Poland.

Her father and remaining brother would not leave their house although the brother who escaped to Russia warned them to. They were murdered for their house and for being jewish. Shot in the back of the head by a neighbor of 24 years, who was a teacher. There was never any justice or accountability.

My father visited Treblinka when he was there. We visited holocaust museums and the memorial where my relative’s names are engraved. I know what happened and I tend to find it too painful so I don’t visit those museums much or watch a lot of documentaries.

As for the other side of my father’s family they came to Canada from Romania a generation earlier. I am sure some probably perished in the holocaust but we don’t know much about it- for some reason my father, and grandparents did not talk about it or I have forgotten what they said. Also you have to understand that christian antisemitism and hatred of jewish people had already existed there for a long time so jewish people were already being brutalized and murdered in these countries long before the holocaust started which is part of how it happened.

My friend and neighbor who passed at 95 last summer, I don’t know if any of her relatives were survivors, I don’t think so. Her husband was a liberator fighting in WW2. I don’t know about her husband’s family. I know others who are relatives of survivors.

Not everyone talks about it or feels the same way about it. One friend whose parents were survivors… although she acknowledged it all she never discussed it with her young children so as not to upset them I guess. Another friend told me she had gone to a friend’s wedding, and at the wedding the groom, and his brother revealed that they had both been camp survivors which no one knew about them until then. So I am sure I have met some who are survivors who may not reveal it or discuss it. I have always been creeped out by tattoos for a lot of reasons and this is one, they remind me of the victims of the holocaust who were in camps.