Dear Moishe the Beadle,
I’m an American teenage girl who lives a life full of freedom and choices thanks to my ancestors who made decisions to leave their lives behind to go on to bigger and better things. On my father’s side of my family I have German and Austrian Jewish ancestors who made their way to Ellis Island and began a life in New York before the devastation of the Holocaust started. On my mother’s side of the family they were not as lucky to leave before the Holocaust began. Although my mother’s side wasn’t Jewish they lived in a town in Holland that occupied a small number of Jews. My great- grandfather hid a Jewish family in his attic and somehow the Hungarian police found out about it and took my grandmother, her five siblings, her mother and father, and the Jewish family. Luckily they were able to escape after three weeks and every single one of them survived include the Jewish family. They are a special group of people that made it out and was able to carry on with life like you were able to Moishe. After they got out of the camp my great grandmother and grandfather bought my grandmother and her five siblings a boat ride to Canada where they would start a new life that would be changed forever. Reading Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night really touched me and I could respect him due to my grandmothers stories and when I went to visit the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C I learned a lot I did not know about the Holocaust. I’m deeply sorry for the people in your town not listening to your truthful words you spoke after you escaped the concentration camp, your voice is heard by everyone today and will forever be praised through Yom HaShoah. I truly believe your faith and wise words who you taught to Elie helped him gather up enough strength and stay alive throughout his many harsh and crucial years in the concentration camps. What you taught Elie was powerful and even though he had his doubts in God during the tough times and no one can blame him because what he went through is unimaginable but it kept him thinking and having a purpose to stay alive on this beautiful Earth. Elies’ father was luckily with him through out his journey until the end because it kept him alive, he had to keep courage to stay with him whenever they changed camps and to look out for someone who needed them. They truly both kept each other alive as long as they could. The Holocaust was and unbelievable event that I cannot imagine any civil person going through, everything that I have read, heard, and seen about the Holocaust is so touching and unreal. What affected me the most was when people entered the concentration camps they were separated from their families right away forever and had not a clue they would never be able to reunite with each other. The most sicken part about this mass genocide of innocent people that did nothing wrong to the world and were only tortured because of their ethnicity is how may wonderful, inspirational, and talented people were lost during the Holocaust. I remember when watching a documentary about Elie Wiesel he said that someone who had died in the Holocaust could have been the miraculous person that found the cure for AIDS or HIV. Elie was absolutely right, the world will never know who the young and innocent child would have grown up to be or what the educated adults would have done to change the world because they are gone due to a dislike of religion. We will never know what their children would have grown up to be and what wonders they would have made in this world. All of these forever unknown mysteries all because of a man disliking a type of man kind. What happened to everyone being equal? Well Moishe the world will never know what it would be like with these people on this Earth and man kind will forever have a great loss because of this. This mass genocide that killed millions will truly haunt humanity forever and everyone should be aware of the Holocaust even though the stories of torturous death are gruesome so it will never happen in man kinds history again. I am so deeply sorry you and millions had to go through this for no reason and you had no control over it.
Sincerely,
Anonymous