"I wasn't always a Holocaust survivor. Once upon a time, I was a little girl." - Judy Weisenberg Cohen
"I have been honoured with the stories of
survivors over the years. One man
who was just a young boy in those days
told me about his dog.
He was very smart, this dog, knew many tricks.
All the children loved this dog.
When as a boy he was being moved to the Warsaw ghetto
with his family, an SS officer took his dog
saying it was too smart a dog to live with Jews --
-- they moved several times after that,
ghetto to ghetto, and he missed nothing
more than that dog (the lost homes,
seized businesses, forsaken
bicycles, the wearing
of a star
meant nothing next to the loss
of his best friend)
And one night he awoke to
slobber, a greeting possible
only by one living being, his fine
dog. The dog moved on to his parents'
room, where they marvelled
at his ability to track them
through so many moves and
miles: truly the smartest dog
ever, but they could not keep him.
Barely enough food
for the children.
The boy and his brothers
cried that they would eat
less to feed
the dog.
Until
one day the soldier appeared again.
This dog it seems
is too smart for either of us
And he shot it before their eyes.
Now multiply that pain
that agony
of watching someone beloved die
six million times
over
not six million
as a number
but one.
and then another.
and then another.
until you reach
six
million. And you will
begin to understand the pain
of a survivor."
"Always remember: nobody survived the Holocaust unless somebody else helped them." -Eli Rubenstein
