Museum of Tolerance

As I mentioned yesterday, Les and I spent Monday at the Museum of Tolerance. The museum is filled with artifacts from the Holocaust and also has exhibits dedicated to fighting intolerance today, including "Through the Eyes of Children - Drawings from Darfur." Monday's Los Angeles Times featured another Holocaust survivor, Sol Berger. The timing of the story seemed quite ironic since we had just spent the day at the MOT.

Our guide into the museum is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Joanna's father had an entire family in Poland that was wiped out during the Holocaust. He survived and immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.

We listened to Holocaust survivor, Gloria Ungar, speak for more than 45 minutes. She was just a child in Poland when the invasion began. Her father had six siblings, each married with children. Of her entire extended family, only she and one brother survived.

Gloria's family was able to escape to Slovakia for a time, but eventually the Nazis invaded that country as well. The escape to Slovakia was a night time trek through a dark forest. Most of Gloria's family had already made it to Slovakia when it was her turn to go. Gloria, her younger brother, and a young cousin were led through the forest by a paid guide. Because they were so young, keeping up was extremely difficult and at one point the guide decided they weren't worth the trouble. Gloria clung to him and begged him to take them to her parents, he relented and they made it to Slovakia.

Gloria told of her mother's death. She told of living in a food cellar in the home of a Christian lady with her father and her two brothers. The cellar was so small they couldn't even sit up. It was also so air tight, a candle would not remain lit.

Gloria's family was eventually rounded up for "resettlement". What this really meant was a journey to Auschwitz. Gloria was 13 years old at this time. She had become separated from her father and boldly asked a German guard to let her go to him. She could have been killed immediately, but the guard consented.

Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Gloria endured her first of many "selections". The elderly, sick, children, anyone deemed undesirable were immediately sent to the left. Gloria stood as tall as she could, trying to appear older than she was and was sent to the right. She endured unbelievable atrocities including meeting Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor who decided with the wave of a hand who would live and who would die. She was placed in SIX different concentration camps, each time moved via cattle car.

At the end of the war, Gloria was 14 years old and weighed 58 pounds. She spent months in a hospital in Sweden and it was there that she was reunited with her one remaining family member, her older brother. The passion with which Gloria spoke could not be denied. Her final words were regarding those that say the Holocaust did not occur. "Where is my family if that is the case?"

I know this is a not my normal type of post, but maybe I'm just writing this for me. I don't want to forget the things the Gloria spoke from her heart.