October 26, 2009. Monday. Monday, the day that crushes all the fun out of you. Monday, when you are consumed by teachers droning words, thinking of how far away Friday is, how you will be able to stay alive for the WHOLE week at school. Thinking, maybe this week will be over soon... maybe... Suffering, you think, more than people must have in the days of the Holocaust.
That day, I learned we were dead wrong.
May 14, 1944. Eva Olsson and her large family are marched down a road, people lining up on either side, watching them, the Jews, outcasts. They are stuffed into a boxcar with a hundred other people, being taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, to a concentration camp. She thinks, maybe this war will be over soon...
Eva Olsson came to SJK to talk to us about her story, her life as a Jew during World War Two. She told us of the horrors she encountered, but how she never lost hope, how she never gave up. I, personally, was amazed by her speech. I knew of the war, of course. My grandmother had been one of the survivors, and my great aunt Loca has written a book. But they had never spoken about it to me like Eva Olsson did that day. She delivered a lot of powerful messages, none of them ones that I will ever forget.
The part that affected me most was probably when she talked about how she went without food at her concentration camp for six days. She told us how she lay on the floor, surrounded by dead bodies, her life slowly draining out of her. But she never gave up. She never closed her eyes and let herself die. She was determined to stay alive, fueled by the thought of her sister. She had to stay and take care of her. And all that hope and determination payed off. After six days, she was freed, and went to Sweden, where she married, and managed to lead a happy life, until her husband died in a car crash because of drunken driving. It was like the grand finale, and I think it affected everybody, including me.
Eva Olsson was amazing. She really changed the way I think, and I hope she will tell many, many more. She could really change the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment