The Last Holocaust Survivors
Since I was eight years old, I have studied the Holocaust.
My introduction began when I was in third grade and my teacher announced to the class that the mini-series The Holocaust was on TV. Always interested in pleasing my teacher, I went home and watched it.
I had nightmares for days after watching the mini-series. In those scary dreams I saw my parents wrapped in cellophane and taken to a gas station never to return. My eight year old brain struggled to comprehend this part of history. My parents assured me that it “happened a long time ago,” and “would never happen in the United States.”
The Holocaust Haunts Me
For much of my life, the Holocaust has been ever present for me. It is always in the background of my daily life. In middle school and high school, I read every book on the Holocaust I could get my hands on. I even subscribed to receive a series of Time/Life books that documented the period of 1933 through 1945 from the perspective of the Nazis.
I learned about Hitler, and also all his henchmen. I saw the advertising techniques of Joseph Goebbels, and how he used essentially cartoons of Jewish people to stoke fear and hate. I learned about Heinrich Himmler, the mastermind behind the concentration camps. I was horrified by Dr. Josef Mengele who decided on the platform…