Every Holocaust survivor has a different story

Holocaust Testimony: Eve, Rudi and Paul Oppenheimer: The Last Train From Belsen

Every Holocaust survivor has a different story. This is certainly true for the story of the three Oppenheimer children, Eve, Rudi and Paul, who were fortunate to survive for five years under the Nazis in Holland, and in the camps of Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen, and who finished up on ‘The Last Train from Belsen.’
Our parents, Hans and Rita Oppenheimer, lived in Belsen. We were a typical middle-class family of assimilated Jews, who rarely ventured into a synagogue. Paul and Rudi were born in Berlin in 1928 and 1931, respectively.
With the advent of Hitler and the Nazis, life became progressively more difficult for all Jewish people living in Germany. Many Jewish families wanted to leave Germany, but most other countries would not accept these refugees. Our father, Hans, worked at the Mendelssohn Bank in Berlin which had a branch office in Amsterdam in Holland. He had managed to obtain a transfer to the Amsterdam branch in 1936 and the family went to live in Holland, near the seaside in Heemstede. These were happy days for the Oppenheimer children, but they only lasted for four years.
In May 1940, the Germans invaded Holland and within five days, the Dutch army surrendered. The Germans occupied the whole country, took over its government, and soon started to persecute the Jews who lived there. Anti-Jewish Laws were introduced in an insidious step-by-step manner to restrict the life of all Jewish people in Holland. We were not allowed into public places like parks, zoos, restaurants, hotels, museums, libraries and swimming pools. We had to attend Jewish schools. We had to live in Amsterdam. We had to wear the yellow star. We had a curfew. We had to hand in our bicycles. We were not allowed on the bus or tram.

Having now heard this story as well as that of Oskar Schindler, what will you do to ensure such restrictions on a whole race do not happen in your community? Make your pledge at http://buildabridge.hmd.org.uk/ and for more survivor testimonies visit http://hmd.org.uk/resources/survivor-stories.

What HMD Means To Me

Hearing someone else's story about something that happened to them is perhaps the best way to understand the nature and extent of an event, concept or period.

I want to tell you why HMD is so important to me. Ever since I travelled to Auschwitz-Birkenau with the Holocaust Educational Trust in November 2011, I have learnt some very significant and new lessons. Usually when you think of this period of history, you think of the number 6 billion and the Nazis. However, travelling in Poland rehumanised the victims of the Holocaust. This was the main lesson for me: the victims in this genocide as well as all the subsequent atrocities were actual humans just like myself. One of the most memorable images that displays this is the vast amount of photographs around the museum. It reminded that each person who suffered at the hands of the Nazi murderers had gone to school, had a job, had a family, had an identity.

Relating it to this year's theme, each victim and each survivor, belonged to a community, which was torn apart. I do not know, and doubt, those communities have been rebuilt, but from what I saw I know that it is so important to build bridges in our own communities to bring people together, include the diversity of identities around us, and fight together against injustices from bullying to racism to segregation. HMD allows me on the basis of what I saw to remember that everyone around me is a unique human being with their own identity and part of their own community.

Yesterday I posted a Bible verse from Genesis reminding us how humans were made in God's image. Having been a relatively new Christian when I went to Poland, I was struck at the sheer wickedness that men can be, but also at the wonder of God in some very unique stories, which I will talk about more tomorrow.

Everyone is unique, so HMD allows us to rehumanise the victims of the Holocaust. Communities together produce the most effective results because each identity adds a unique and special characteristic to the community.

Please make your pledge at hmd.org.uk. It is never too late to build a bridge.

Communities Together: Build a Bridge

This is the video made for Holocaust Memorial Day 2013. Be stirred to do something different for differences and make your pledge at http://buildabridge.hmd.org.uk/

 

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

"For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given one Spirit to drink." 1 Corinthians 12:13

Oskar Schindler

 

Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) 'rescued' 1200 Jews by employing them in his factory. He built a bridge in the business community he was in to stand against the injustice of the labour camps and Nazi murderers. But he wished to do more and in '...Shindler's List' regrets that he didn't give up his car to save even 10 more lives.
Is there something that you can give up in or provide in the interests of your wider community? It can be small or big, but think what you can do to build a bridge and overcome dehumanising actions this Holocaust Memorial Day.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

Build a Bridge and bring Communities Together this year, this Holocaust Memorial Day (Sunday 27th).
It really is easy to simply click the button, fill in a few details, and remember those who were dehumanised and excluded from their commun...ities during the Holocaust and subsequent atrocities. By doing so, you will be one more step to preventing such inhumanity from happening today. Please make your pledge.
http://buildabridge.hmd.org.uk/