A grainy photo of a child,
a beloved grandmother.
Survivor of the Holocaust.
Deceased. God spared her
from witnessing the hatred
that has gripped the nation–
the country that she had
called home for so many
years.
It was the same kind of hate
which had invaded, occupied
her country and imprisoned
her and over 400,000 Jews
in the Warsaw Ghetto. Taken
from their homes, they were
forced to live in an area cut
off from the world, topped
with barbed wire. It was soon
decimated by outbreaks of
infectious diseases, mass hunger
and regular executions.
Then in the summer of 1942,
she and her family were among
the 254,000 residents of the Ghetto
who were sent to the Treblinka
Extermination Camp.
Tears spilled down her cheeks
as she remembered the horrors
her grandmother described to
her when she was in the camp.
She and her father were together.
Men were told to go to the right
and the women to the left. She
never saw her parents or little
brother again. They were
taken straight to the gas chamber.
Today, the same hate that had
driven Hitler and those who
shared his ideology has reared
its ugly head and was revealed
to the entire world in the VICE
video of the rally in Charlottes-
ville, Virginia. The sight of
the burning torches and the
“Jews will not replace us”
and “Blood and soil” chants
filled her with disgust. And
the president’s failure to
lead was dangerous and
may lead to disastrous
consequences of the United
States and the world at large.
It was her hope and prayer
that the people of America
would do something about the
great racial divide before things
escalate even further.
