Several years ago Sarah and I participated in a Mother/Daughter Book Club. It was lots and lots of fun. One of the books we read together was Number The Stars, a book about the Holocaust. As part of our review one of the moms was able to arrange for a special visitor to come and visit with the girls. Her name is Noemi Ban and she was a Holocaust survivor. I believe at this time in her life she must have been close to her mid-70s. She spent well over and hour visiting with us and it was an experience I will never forget. To this day every time I'm particularly thirsty and guzzle down a bunch of water, I think of Noemi.
Noemi explained how there was no running water at Auschwitz. At times they washed their faces with coffee. When water did become available it was emptied into a small basin-more like a cement pond. They were given a small cup and told to go get a drink. Hundreds of thirsty people would push and shove their way to the basin in hopes of a cup of water. And while this was going on, the guards stood by ridiculing them for the way in which they acted, saying that they were worse than animals-making them feel as though they weren't even human beings. Noemi has written a short book (Sharing is Healing) about her experience. She explains, "An interesting thing happens to me since I became free. It happens when I talk or write about not having water. I get thirsty. I'm thirsty right now! This makes me want a drink of cold water in a hurry. To this day, the best drink in the whole world is a drink of clean, cool water. Next time you are thirsty think of me. And think of how lucky we are." Noemi, I totally agree and I think of you often! It is amazing to me how so many survivors came through that experience and have such an optimistic outlook on life. Noemi was one of these. She talked about how happy she was to be alive and what a great gift it is. I know that I left her presence feeling entirely different about the small blessings we enjoy in life, that we take for granted. Things like a clean, refreshing glass of water. Go get yourself a drink right now and think of Noemi!!
Not to focus on such a terrible aspect of history, but our family very much enjoyed visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It is an amazing experience. On one of the walls outside is this quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower. "The things I saw beggar description...the visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were so overpowering...I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there developed a tendency to charge these allegations to propaganda." I'm not sure why that quote had such a profound effect on me. Maybe it is because of the experience I had listening to Noemi and hearing of those that believe the Holocaust never happened. How could they possibly believe that way? I've gotten a little bit off the subject I suppose...again, I think of Noemi often, actually several times a day!
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