Jan. 27 marks the Holocaust Day of Remembrance. I’m an odd old bone now, but not too old to ever forget my exposure to the realities of the Holocaust. Raised in the post-World War II 1950s, my siblings and I became acquainted with a couple of families who were relocated to our area from Europe. They were German Jews and their families included adults liberated from concentration camps.
In one of the families, “Aunt Omi,” who bore the unmistakable tattooed number from her incarceration, would speak of her experiences. In her discreet way, she told of atrocities in a way that middle-school children could reasonably absorb. Some of us neighborhood kids not raised in Jewish households got to sit in as she told her nieces and nephews her stories. It was otherworldly, but her lessons provided a sense of the “flexibility” of humanity.
My mother’s older sister, “Aunt Maude,” spent the entirety of WWII in the Red Cross, stationed in the European Theater. Her Red Cross team was one of the first into the Buchenwald camp afdter the U.S. Army’s liberation of that facility. Her stories came out only when she was drinking, but they also conveyed the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand.
For those who deny, corrupt, appropriate or otherwise try to remake history’s most striking events for cheap political imagery, try looking into the record, then look into the mirror. You may find that the yellow stars worn today don’t shine very brightly.
— Tim Benintendi
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.