A three-dimensional visual reminder of what the walk may have been like. Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen
A powerful quote about the shoes can be seen on the walk behind thousands of shoes. Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen
By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
“Think about what you saw.” It was an educational trip that made years of what you learned from books or a movie, to become cemented in memory like nothing else.
Last spring, we visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. You start the tour if you choose to be someone else.
I was Zelda Piekarska, she was born July 27, 1927, in Sosnowiec, Poland. She was an excellent tap dancer.
The tour began with a saying most of us have heard before. It started with the burning of the books. On May 10, 1933, libraries and bookstores were raided in 30 cities across Germany. Truckloads of books were brought to Berlin, and 25,000 books were burned in giant bonfires in the name of purification.
Part of the tour included a three-dimensional display of what it would have been like for the Jewish people. There were lines of people walking toward one location, with no idea what was just ahead. One Auschwitz survivor is quoted with the following, “I was part of the 200 new arrivals assigned to the women’s camp ‘Kanada’ commando. Our job consisted of sorting the belongings of the people who were gassed and cremated.
In one barrack a group only sorted shoes; another group was busy with men’s clothing, a third women’s clothing, and a fourth children’s clothing.”
We learned that when people arrived at the samps, their hair was shaved or shorn and sold for businesses to use to stuff mattresses, slippers, and bumpers for boats. It was stated that Soviet troops for 15,000 pounds of human hair. The year was 1945.
I know it is hard to hear history sometimes, but to see is to believe. We really do have more in common than we do differences. We need to see the similarities and stand up for those being oppressed anywhere. We need to continue learning and find ways we can make a difference, even when we are afraid. Soon we hope to do something even in this community to bring people together. “Think about what you saw.”
You can learn more or donate by visiting the museum website at www.ushmm.org.
Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen
Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen