This is part 2 of my recollections of World War II, a time of atrocities and resilience. These are things that should not be forgotten.

I remember those weeks we watched T.V. as the Allied forces liberated the concentration camps.  We could not believe what we saw, people so emaciated, they could not move, ovens where they had been cremated, rooms with crowds of people standing naked, thinking they were waiting for a shower.  Slowly, they were gassed.  It was unbelievable but real.  We could also see the faces of the Russian and American armies that liberated these camps.  They could not believe what they saw.  It was beyond everyone’s ability to imagine this level of cruelty and mass extermination.   

The newspapers and T.V. were also filled with stories about the Japanese, the camps they had for captured American soldiers.  John McCain, the hero, and later Senator, was severely tortured.  Who could watch such atrocities?

I was still going to college when I became a nurses’ aide.  I worked on the days I was not in school and on weekends.  We wore blue and white uniforms and I was assigned to St Luke’s Hospital on Morningside Drive and 112^th St.  One of my first assignments was to help a woman clean up the blood on her body, her clothes, and the bed.  She had attempted to self-abort and this was a Catholic hospital.  Another day a woman had diarrhea all over the bed and I was assigned to clean up.  I did all these chores and many more.  And the nurses, all nuns wearing habits, were so compassionate and caring.  For me, this experience turned out to be more than a nurse’s assignment.  I learned much about life that I did know in my sheltered Jewish environment in the Bronx.

At this later stage of life, I don’t see films anymore about Nazis and what they did.  I really can’t bear it.  Although not religious in a theological sense, I feel strongly about retaining my Jewish identity.  I read about antisemitism but still don’t understand it.  Why do people hate others just because they are Jewish?  When I was first married, we were living in Washington, D.C. and I heard a man in People’s Drugstore say to someone else,” I won’t Jew you down.”  I was shocked.  I never heard that expression before.

Israel independence was announced by David Ben Gurion in May, 1948, much to the dismay of the Arab world in Israel.  The conflict between these two worlds is still going on.   But it became a haven for Jews all over the world, those who escaped death during the Nazi years, and many Arabic Jews who fled their countries, seeking a safe haven.

The historic perils of that time still live on.  In the obituary columns in the Boston Globe (July 11, 2021) and The New York Times (July 16, 2021) there were articles about “Esther Bejarano, 96: death camp survivor who fought antisemitism,” and “Esther Bejarano, Survivor Who Fought Hate with Hip-Hop, Dies at 96.”  Her parents and sister were killed.  She was inducted into forced labor and later joined the orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  They played as Jews were brought to the camp for extermination.  “We played with tears in our eyes,” she said in 2010 during an interview with the Associated Press.  

According to the articles, she married, had children, lived in Israel, and died in Germany where she was born.  Resilience was the order of the day and often astonishing. 

The impact of that time never seems to end.  Every now and then an article appears about the art and artifacts that were stolen from Jewish families and synagogues during the Holocaust.  The journeys of these highly regarded and expensive works of art were diverse and often ended up in various museums in Europe or peoples’ homes. What to do with them when discovered?  Often the original surviving owners would search for years for the art and archives that had been stolen from them during the Nazi period.  Many of the original family were dead or old and frail.  (Boston Globe, July 24, 2021). 

On April 15th, 2021, Boston celebrated Israeli Independence Day by lighting up a bridge in Boston with blue and white lights, the national colors of Israel.  Hundreds turn out every year for the celebration.

After this generation dies, who will remember the atrocities of this period in history?  Or will the impact of these atrocities remain forever?   Have we learned anything about avoiding such horrors?  Who knows?