Epilogue (or P.S.or Reflections)

How did I become a blogger or how do I feel about blogging or am I am real blogger or will I continue to blog???  My dear roommate Dana Humphrey is a "real blogger."  She offered to teach Lolle & me how to blog on this trip. Since I like recording memories of travel, albeit when I return home from a trip,  I decided, why not learn?   Most who know me well know that I am computer sufficient but not computer efficient.  If I did not live with computer guru Marv, I could not succeed.  So here I was blogging my way through 11 days of travel with Dana at my left arm patiently bailing me out.  When the kids received my Day 1 blog I received these responses:  Hans, "Mom, this is the coolest ever!  Mom doing blogging: awesome!  Aimee: "I'm still in shock.  Who is teaching you?"  Traveling many hours on a bus most days gave me ample time to blog.  I am pretty sure this is my one & only!  

Traveling 3,000 miles through six countries, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austiria, & the Czech Republic on a bus for 11 days is not everyone's idea of a fun vacation.  This was not supposed to be fun.  i knew exactly what I was getting into (well at least sort of/mostly).   This was an educational trip with good friends touching history by traveing with a person who lived it.

That would be 90 year-old Cor Sujik.  More & more Marv & I realize how blessed we have been by spending time with the Holocaust survivors & speakers who have come to La Crosse to speak to our community & Holocaust Educator Workshops at Viterbo University & have allowed us to touch history.  Now I add Cor to that group.  He is a gentleman with distinguished, silky, white hair who showed up every single day in a long-sleeved white shirt.  He was a slow storyteller, & sometimes when I was blogging away, I would ask Dana to summarize to make sure I got all the details right. She would sum up a 40-minute story in a minute or so, but I came to appreciate his slow cantor filled witih pauses & repetition.  We got to re-live & learn history by hearing his stories & gained many vaulable lessons along the way.  Cor is a true hero, 

This leads me to his son & partner Joop who is 57.  He is total kindness & could not do enough to accomodate our needs which meant being flexible..  He was our tour driver & organizer, & all-around good guy.  Watching him with his father was watching love in action.

Our accomodations were above & beyond what we expected.  Both Cor & Joop wanted so to please & they pampered us to no end.    Our hotels, most four & five-star, were always right near the city center so we could safely walk among the proud, ancient buildings.  Our meals were great.  Our breakfasts & dinners, always feasts, were included.  We were supposed to buy our own lunches & beverages but we were treated to several lunches, & in 11 days, we only bought our evening beverages once.   

A huge thank you is owed to friend & fellow Holocaust educator Ellen Bisping who has done the trip seven times.  She has spoken so highly about her trip experiences & let us know that Cor was only doing this tour & another in Sept. before he retires which convinced Dana, Lolle & me that we had to go now.  Two other members of the Midwest Holocaust Education Consortium with us, Lisa Muller & Bill Younglove who have done the trip also gave rave reviews.  

I would not have gone on this journey without the backing of my Marvelous Marv who as usual  encouraged me to "Go for it!"  He is truly the wind beneath my wings.  

Traveling with dear friends Lolle & Dana was a dream.  Dana was a great roommate & was always positive & eager to help in any way possible.  The tour group was a good bunch & included a few characters; I always enjoy characters.  I liked the age range of the oldest at 72 to our youngest at 29.  I still cannot believe that nine members of our group were not Holocaust educators but chose the trip because of their interest in the Holocaust.  

Cor, Dana & me in Budapest

Dana & Sarah Hudgins in Budapest

Molly Menton & me in Budapest

Dana & Cor in Krackow

Meghan Doe-Almeida & Helen Herndon in Salzburg 

Steve & Cynthia Bower in Salzburg

Daughter Emily & Mother Brenda Palm in Salzburg

Lolle, me, Dana & Molly in Nuremberg

Brenda Goodhart singing her trip rendition of "Those were the Days" on our way back to Amsterdam

Day 11, June 24

Today we are driving ALL day from Nuremberg back to Amsterdam to fly home tomorrow.  Cor told more stories & I will have lots of time to share them..  A Nazi general moved in with his family.  Remember that lhis family was hiding a Jewish mother & son in their attic.  HIs father was the school principal so the family moved the Jews to the boiler room at the school & had to bring them food & necessities.  

I mentioned in a previous blog that Cor's family found seven other families out of the 81 Cor contacted who agreed to hide Jews.  Sometimes Cor would be contacted that someone needed to be moved because some problem arose.  When that happened, Cor would go the the address with 35 picture ID's of non-Jews he got from a friend who worked at city hall.  They were from people of all ages, male & female, who had died.  Cor would lay all the ID's out, & they would choose the one that most closely fit the person.  Sometimes they had to add spectacles or change a hairstyle to fit the photo, but it was mandatory that they have an ID card to travel anywhere.  

Two or three times when he was on his way to get a Jew to move them to a new location, he was stopped while going through a check-point, but nothing had happened.  This time when he went through, he was stopped by two officers.  When he went to get back on his bike, they saw somethiing in his sock, & found the 35 ID's.  The officers told him to take off his clothes which he did staniding naked in the freezing Dec. cold.  They asked what he was doing with them, & he told them he found them in the trasg by cityt hall & was going to sell them on the black market to make money.  He was taken to the military command of the city where he was hit in the chest with a gun.  He later found out that  the hit broke his diaphram; one can survive with a broken diaphram, but the lung will not function.  He was only 20 years old, & for 70 years he has lived with his left lung not working so has been short of breath & living on one lung.  

He was taken to a prison camp outside Amsterdam--Amersfoort.  This was a male "police camp" for prisoners who were in groups forbidden or blacklisted by the Nazis including gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, black market traffickers, & some clergy.  Obviously Cor was in the group for black market trafifckers, & his uniform indicated this by a specific colored triangle.

Cor was first in line in a group of prisoners who had to walk through a line of SS guards & German Sheperds on both sides & he was very frightened.  Then he told us about Eric, a student in his high school who had entered only three years before graduation.  Cor had been number one in the class up until then, but Eric took that spot.  Now to Cor's dismay, Eric would be the one called to the front of the class by teachers to explain a complicated issue to the rest of the class.  Eric became the object of ridicule by the class for reasons not explained by Cor.  Cor felt badly that he had not told the kids to stop teasing Eric.  One day Eric could not find his bike as it had been hidden by a student.  Eric asked Cor if he could use his bike for 30 minutes, but Cor refused to let him.  Eric left school a year before graduation, & Cor thought it was strange because with a graduation certificate, a person could be admitted to any university.  

When Cor walked through the line of SS guards, he finally dared to look up, & he saw Eric who had joined the German Army.  The Netherlands had been invaded & occupied by the Germans, & it was considered an act of treason for a Dutch man to join the German Army.  The prisoners were forbidden to speak to the guards, but Cor said to him, "Hello Eric, how are you doing?'

Eric replied, "Don't count on me!"  During the five months Cor was in the concentration camp until the war ended, he lived in fear that Eric would come & torture or kill him, but he never saw him again.    

At a class reunion, an older man walked up to Cor & asked to speak to him.  The man said, "You probably do not want to speak to me. I am the father of Eric.  Cor asked him how Eric was, & his father told him he had died in Russia during war & that the entire family was ashamed that he had joined the German Army.  They thought that Eric's joining the enemy had something to do with a girl.  

Cor said, "Did Eric tell you what happene to him at school?"  His father did not know so Cor told him about the horrid teasing Eric experienced at the hands of his school mates.  Eric had never told his family about the teasing, & his father asked Cor to please come to their home to tell Eric's mother so she could understand what happened to their boy & how he had been tortured at school.  Cor went & told Eric's mother & sisters, but he never got over his own guilt of not stopping his classmates from bullying Eric & not lending him his bike.  Perhaps if he had been his friend, he would have changed Eric's life.  Cor said, "Teasing classmates can have serious consequences.  Guilt is guilt."

Cor did not speak much about his five months in the concentration camp.  It was rumored that it is because he is ashamed of his behvior in the camp; he stole bread from fellow prisoners.  He shared that he always wonders why all Holocaust movies show camp inmates screaming & crying.  It was total silence he said.  The one thing that made him want to keep going & survive was a letter he received just before his arrest from a girl who liked him.  He thought of the letter all the time in camp & knew he wanted to read it when he got home.

When he finally did get home, he was so weak he could barely walk & could not ride a bike.  He went to his room & found all his things were gone.  When he asked his father where his things were, his father told him he had destroyed everything just in case the police came & went through them.  There might have been a phone number or name of a contact they might want to interrogate Cor about for information.  

Cor's family told him they found out about his arrest from someone who witnessed it.   That afternoon German soldiers came to the house & broke down the door.  Much to their surprise, the Nazi general  who lived with them was inside & was furious when they knocked the door down as if to say somethiing illegal was going on inside that house under his nose.  He told them what a good family ithe Sujiks were & made them fix the door!  Cor also spoke of not having a girlfriend until he was 24 & it was at her insistence they dated.  He said, "Being in camps convinces you that you are undesirable; you feel unwanted."

Last night we returned to Amsterdam after a long day on the road.  We had our farewell dinner in a beautiful restaurant in yet another lovely hotel.  Dinner took three hours & 15 mintues (Mother would have had a fit) & Cor at age 90 who had left his car in the hotel parking lot, left us after 90 minutes to drive the 2 & 1/ hours to his home somewhere in Germany.  How on earth he can drive a car is beyond me as he can hardly walk, but we all surrounded him on his scooter as he was leaving the hotel to bid farewell.  The tears flowed readily from all 12 of us on the tour.  In 11 days we had all come to respect & love him, & it was hard to say goodbye knowing we will not see him again.  

Barbed wire did more than keep prisoners inside the camp.  It remains with the survivors & those who did what they could to help.  For some, they are invisible barbs.  Barbs that pierce the memory of those who were witnesses & victims.  Barbs that torture the spirit.  For others they are invisible barbs.  Barbs that remain as proof that people can become monsters when they lose their moral compass.  Barbs that will forever scar humanity.  

Eleven days, six countries & 3,000 miles later, we returned to Amsterdam.  I am not the same person who arrived in Amsterdam on June 14th.  I traveled, laughed, learned, & cried, not to mention enjoying several glasses of wine, with my mentors Dana & Lolle.  I made new friends from across the US; people who are kind, compassionate & caring. I have touched history, but more importantly, it has left a mark on me.  I am so blessed to have had this experience.  

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Day 10, June 23

This morning we toured Dachau Concentration Camp right outside of Munich, Germany.  Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany Jan. 30th, 1933, & Dachau, the first camp, opened less than two months later.  It began as a camp for political dissidents, in other words, anyone who disagreed with Hitler & Nazi Party philosophy.  It served as a model for all later concentration camps & as a "school of violence" for the SS men under whose command it stood.  

     

I think I have seen one too many gas chambers & crematoriums on this tour, but one thing stood out to me at Dachau.  On a huge building seen shortly after entering the gate which said "Arbeit Macht Frie" were words painted on the roof in huge letters,  They are no longer visable today, but to prisoners  they read, "There is one path ro freedom.  Its milestones are,"Obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, diligence, orderliness, sacrifice, truthfulness, love of the fatherland."       

Right before the entrance to the camp where the railroad tracks & the unloading platform are still visible, we saw the camp commandant's home where he lived with his wife & children.  In most  camps we toured, the same was true, & I can never get over how the Nazis could spend their days torturing victims & go home to families at night.  

The camp fencing was made up of grass strips, ditches with electrified barbed-wire fence & the camp wall.  SS men guarded the camp grounds from seven towers.  If a prisoner stepped onto the grass strip, he was shot at by the guards.  Seventeen barracks stood on both sides of the camp road.  

designed to accommodate 200 prisoners, towards the end of the war each barrack was catastrophically overcrowded with up to 2,000 prisoners.  

In the 12 years of Dachau's existence, over 200,000 were imprisoned there & in its numerous subsidary camps.  More than 41,500 prisoners died.  On April 29,1945, American troops liberated the survivors.  

This afternoon we entered Nuremberg, Germany, site of the massive Nazi party rallies beginning in 1924 & culminating years later with the War Crimes Trials of Nazi  leaders--at least those who had not escaped or committed suicide like Hitler, Goering, Goebbles, & Himmler.  The museum is built around the ruins of the former Congress Hall.  That hall meant to house 50,000 people was never completed.  The permanent exhibit "Fascination & Terror "provides information abouit the causes, contexts & consequences of the Nazi reign of terror.  It is extremely well done with modern media, as well as photographs & documents illustrate both the buildings on the grounds & the history & background of the Nazi Party rallies.  As many as 500,000 Nazis, including Hitler Youth, would descend on Nuremberg for these rallies.  Most arrived via train into Nuremberg & a surrounding town. 

The rallies were staged by Hitler's architect Albert Speer who designed the gigantic Nazi Party Rally Grounds.  The rallies were spectacles filled with pomp & circumstance featuring music & marching showing the power of the Nazi Party, culminating with Hitler's appearance high avove the clamoring crowd.  Documentaries were made of the rallies & were shown in movies theaters all over Germany.  The documentary "Triumph of the Will" was commissioned by Hitler to be made at the 1924 rally by famous director Leni Reivenstahl,& to this day, it is still recognized as the greatest propaganda film of all time.  We saw the remains of the rally grounds; the glory is gone.

We ended our tour of Nuremberg by going to the Jury Courtroom of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice where on November 20, 1945, the trial of "Major Nazi War Criminals" began.  At this trial 21 leading representatives of the Nazi regime had to answer to crimes against peace & humanity before an international ciurt.  Twelve additional trials were held before in the years 1946-1949,  US military tribunals    

The original "Courtroom 600"

Due to the importance of of these trials for the development of modern international criminal law, "Courtroom 600" has become known world wide.  The "Nuremberg Principles" that emerged from the International Military Tribunal form the basis today for the International Criminal Court in Den Haug.  They make it clear that the stance toward those who bear responsibility for the fate of entire peoples has changed since 1945-46.  The building is still used daily including "Courtroom 600".  There is a permanent exhibition about the background, progression & aftermath of the trials on another floor. I found the whole Nuremberg experience, all new to me, most interesting.  After dinner at a quaint German restaurant, we went back to our hotel & floated away on our feather beds.

                                                                                                                                      

Day 9, June 22

Today we spent many hours on our little bus driving to Salzburg, Austria.  While riding we watched my favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music, & I was very happy to learn something about an incident that occurred several years ago.  My dear friend Jane Harrison & I were in Salzburg & decided to take "The Sound of Music Tour," It was a very hot day & ice cold beer was served on the bus.  We stopped at all sites used for filming in the movie.  We would stop for instance at the church where Maria married Captain Von trapp; then, we would get back on the bus, listen to the sound track from the movie & drink beer until we reached the next stop.   I sang along & sobbed throughout the entire tour & all these years I thought I sobbed because of the beer, but riding along in the spectacular Aurtrian countryside, I sobbed again as I watched the movie today.                                

  

We drove through the village of Berchtesgaden to visit Hitler"s Eagle's Nest (a name dubbed by the American Army).  It is located on top of the Kehlstein Mountain & was                                                                                                   built in1937 & 1938 & presented to Hitler as gift from the Nazis for his 50th birthday.  Several thousand workers were involved in this mammouth project, & construction took place under extreme conditions.  The work had to be completed at record speed in rough terrain with considerable logistical effort at the horrendous cost of 30 million Reichmarks.  I do not know how much that is in dollars, but I did learn that two large tapestries that hung in the main reception hall & an exclsive French rug in the dining room cost over a hundred thousand Reichsmarks or $550,000 today.  

First, a four-mile road had to be cut into the mountain through previosly impassable terrain which took 13 months.  Then a 406 foot tunnel had to be driven into the mountain, taking another 12 months.  Another 406 foot vertical tunnel hewn in the rock serves as a shaft for a brass-lined elevator whose original purpose was to transport Hitler in a  41 second ride to the top of the mountain to the building known as the Eagle's Nest.      

The mountain chalet was designed by Martin Bormann whose intention was to impress Hitler's visitors, both by the views of the surrounding mountains & inside the chalet.  The building had no bedrooms & was not designed for overnight visitors.  The kitchen had the finest silver & place settings for 400.  Ultimately, Hitler visited only a few times.

I have been intrigued by the Eagles Nest since first reading about it in the 60's.  I visited it in 1969 & have never forgotten driving up the mountain, walking through the cold tunnel, stepping into the brass elevator, ascending & getting out on top of the mountain & seeing some of the most splendid on earth.    Unfortunately our group did not have the same experience.  It was cold, dark & pouring down rain.  When we got out of the elevator, there was no visability; we could hardly see our hands before oujr faces.  I felt badly for those who had not been there previously.

The view from the top of the mountain.

We drove on to Salzburg, Austria, which I consider the jewel of Europe.  We had very little time in this lovely city only having time for a walking tour after dinner, but I was happy to be back.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Day 8, June 21

This morning we left Prague for Terezin, or Theresienstadt in German, to see the camp.  I was very excited to see it as I had not been there before, & we had survivor Inge Auerbacher, who had been at Theresienstadt, speak to our community at Viterbo a few years ago.  The ghetto was once a garrison town built in the eighteenth century, inside strong fortifications, with high stone walls.   It was intended by the Hapsburg monarchy as protection against the Prussian attack & was perfect for the Nazis to house inmates.   

Across the River Ohre, one of its fortifications, known as the Small Fort, was used by the Germans as a military prison for political dissidents who did not agree with the Nazis.  Jews were not held there unless they tried to escape from the Terezin Ghetto in which case they were transferred to the Small Fort & put in  one of two tiny cells that had formerly been part of a horse barn with a very small hole for air.  They were tortured, starved & left to die.  There was also an execution area for those who tried to escape the Small Fort.  We were pleased to find a group of middle school students from Chicao who gave a concert of haunting  Holocaust music & poems written by children who lived in the Terezin ghetto.  

 In the town of Terezin itself, the former Main Fortress, was turned into a transitional camp estabhished in late 1941 for Jewish prisoners.  Some tens of thousands died here, the majority however perished after having been deported from Terezin to ghettos & extermination camps in the East.  The place itself was chosen for various reasons. It was  a fortress town surrounded by powerful walls facilitating easy guarding , & it had several barracks where great numbers of peope coiuld be placed.  

At the Wannsee Conference Jan, 20, 1942, where the 'Final Solution" to get rid of all European Jews was approved, it was decided to make Terezen into a "Ghetto for the Old"  mainly for old & prominent Jews from Germany.  Jews over 65 years old, prominent persons, holders of high distinctions & invalids of WWI were supposed to stay permanently.  The prisoners were assigned in the big barracks buildings as well as all other houses in town including attics cellars & courtyards.  Men, women & children lived separately in large common rooms with only the most basic equipment.  The rooms were immensely overcrowded with 100-400 per room & with no privacy.  Vermin, lice, & bedbugs were rampant.  

The situation was most shocking for the old Jews from the Reich, who traveled to Terezin convinced  they were going to a spa.  They held contracts that they had bought a place in a home for the old where they would be provided with boarding, housing, & medical care.  Consequently, their luggage contained impractical clothing & souvenirs, but not essential things.  They became the most wretched group of prisoners who died quickly.  

Ultimately, Jews from all countries under German occupation were brought here.  In all over 155,000 prisoners passed through the Terezin Ghetto.  In the beginning the dead were buried outside the city walls, but they could not keep up due to the number of deaths so a  crematorium was built between May & Sept., & until the end of the war, 30,000 prisoners were cremated there. 

In Terezin unique conditions for the advancement of culture emerged.  Many prominent people of culture, science & political  life were concentrated in Terezin.  They were determined, even in the worst conditions,  to live like humans.  Literary evenings & educational lectures took place, music was rehearsed & theatrical performances shown.  Many operas were performed including the children's opera "Brundibar."Practically all the artists & performers were eventually sent to the East.  Together with them, many original works of creative arts, of prose, poetry, & musical compositions were destroyed & vanished forever.

There is a book of chidren's poems & art work that fortunately survived  which I, along with a multitude of educators, have used called i Never Saw Another Butterfly.  A well-known artist, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis gave art lessons in secret to the children. Suitcases of art & poetry was found after the war.  

As the military situation of Germany deteriorated,  the pressure grew from abroad, especially from the Red Cross, to visit a camp.  The Nazis decided to permit a visit to Terezin to use for propagaganda purposes.  Several improvements were made making Terezin resemble a spa.   A cafe, several shops, & a bank was established & worthless money was issued.  A music pavilion was built in the town square & a playground for the children in the park..  A propaganda film was made, which included a performance by the camp orchestra.  On June 23, 1944, three men representing the Red Cross visited & were led on a tightly controlled six-hour tour, two of which were spent eating lunch; Terezin passed inspection.  Tragically, most musicians & others involved were sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered.

In the closing days of the war, thousands of prisoners arrived in Terezin from transports from  concentration camps in Poland & Germany which were being evacuated.  They brought typhus which rapidly spread among the original prisoners.  Terezin was liberated by the Soviets in May 8th, 1944, & the Red Army undertook undertook crucial steps to manage the catastropic situation.   

 

We returned to Prague & were able to walk among the beautiful, ancient buildings breathing in the atmosphere.  The city was crowded with people, the most we have seen in any city so far,  After dinner we were back walking the city streets.  Prague is known as the place to buy garnets, & several women from our group bought them.

Day 7, June 20

We had another long day on the road from Budapest to Prague.  We drove through Vienna on our way & did not have time to stop.  I felt badly for those who have not been there previousy, for it is a gorgeous city which I have had the privilege of visiting three times.  I always think of it as the city of music & flowers.  I kept reminding myself that I signed up for a Holocaust Sites Tour, not a tour of Europe & being iin these beautiful cities, if only for a short ime, is a bonus.

Cor regaled us with yet another story.  He has done so much to stop the spread of prejudice & stereotyping as he helped spread Anne Frank's story & raise money for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam & the Anne Frank Foundation in New York City.  He told us about risking the loss of  a donation by a wealthy donor by pointing out the donor's obvious stereotyping.  The donor had picked Miep Gies & Cor up at the airport.  Miep worked in the annex when the Franks were in hiding & had risked her life bringing them food & supplies daily.  She & Cor were quite the fund-riaising team.  They were on their way from the airport when a driver pulled out in front of them & almost caused an accident.  The donor commented, "I should have known it was an Asian driver." Miep, who was seated in the back seat behind Cor, poked him in the back to get him to speak up.  He did not want to risk losing a donation, but Miep persisted until he pointed out that the remark was  a form of stereotyping  & that was one of the practices the Anne Frank Foundation was working to eliminate.  The donor became aloof, & Cor thought he had lost the donation, but the next night at the event, the donor praised Cor from the podium for helping him teach a valuable lessson.

We spent several hours at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.  I was dreading it as I had vivid memories of a very depressing former visit.  The temperature today was 104 degrees &  vvas most appropriate as we trudged through the camp sweating profusely again with plenty of water & fulll stomachs, thinking about the victims who suffered & died under the harshest circumstances.  

In August 1938, five months after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, the first inmates arrived at Mauthausen.  The choice of location was governed primarily by the presence of granite quariries.  The inmates were first put to work to provide an SS-owned company with building materials for monumental & prestiegious buildings in Nazi Germany.  From 1942-43--as in all concentrataion camps--the inmates were enlisted increasingly to work in the armaments industry.  Cor told us that people in the nearby village, especially carpenters, were expecting to gain employment when news of the camp spread among them.  In the beginning carpenters were brought in to construct two           barracks, but that was the end of empployment as they of course used slave labor from victims to build the rest of the camp.  

We walkied down the difficullt 186 "Stairs of Death", the scene of many deaths as inmates were forced to carry heavy granite blocks up the stairs from the quarry to the camp.  There are many stories of sadistic guards who, when prisoners reached the top of the stairs bearing blocks, were ordered to carry them back down.  It was all part of the dehumanization proess.  

Thousands of prisoners were murdered in the gas chamber, beaten to death, shot, &  murdered by lethal injection.  The majority of them succumbed through mistreatment & by being ruthlessly worked to death, while at the same time receiving scant food rations, clothing & medical treatment.  Around 100,000 inmates died at Mauthausen, half of them in the last four months before the camp was was liberated by the American Army.    

Our very quiet, sad group left the camp exhausted physically &  emotionally & traveled several more hours arriving at 9:00 p.m. in lovely Prague.  After a very late dinner, I fell into yet another feather bed.  

Day 6, June 19

We spent most of the day driving to Budapest.  The drive was filled with stunning scenery as` we passed through mountains, villages, & lush green countryside.  

Cor shared with us the story of his family hiding Jews during the Holocaust.  The first two years the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, & even though there were anti-Jewish laws, they were not being deported.  In 1942 that all changed.  One day Cor & his father were in the city square in Amsterdam which was 12 miles from their village.  Thery noticed empty street cars lined up in the center of town.  Then from all the side streets came Nazi & Dutch officers who began arresting the men & throwing them into the streetcars.  Jews were only allowed to shop after 4:00 p.m. meaning fresh vegetables & fruit were gone & they had to purchase what was left.  The timing for the raid was on purpose, for the streets were full of Jews.  It was very dramatic to Cor as he saw the men running helter skelter trying to hide or escape.  Cor said, "I can never remove from my eyesight the women & children running after the street cars crying & shouting."

He & his father went home & his father said to his mother,"We have to help the Jews."  His mother responded that they already were a family of eiight in a country with scarce food on a teacher's salary.  His father told her they would regret it if they did not help, & she agreed.  No Jews remained in their village as they had already been sent to Amsterdam so his father had to go to the underground.   He told them his family would hide two Jews, but he had to be screened by a commitee & after meeting with them, his father came home in tears.  He was a very religious man & found there were two Communists on the committee & he refused to deal with them & got turned down. His wife told him to overcome his feelings & that Communists could be good also.  

Cor had to ride his bicycle to Amsterdam to pick up the Jews & had to make two trips for two Jews.  He rode in the rain because German soldiers would not go out in the rain & get their uniforms wet because of the type of material used.  Jews were not alowed to ride on bikes, but Cor had them take off therir yellow stars & he knew how to avoid the checkpoints.  Thus, for two years Cor's family hid a mother & her son in theiir attic.  The mother of course is now dead, but Paul, the son, is 93 & still lives in Amsterdam.  

More families were needed to hide Jews so his father gave Cor a list of 81 friends & family, all more more prosperous than they were, & told him to go ask each if they would help.  He was not to push, but, but he was not to accept "no" for an answer.  Cor knew immediately where to go first.  His father's brother was prosperous, lived in a big house, & was generous helping out their father & sometimes Cor's family.  He only had one child, & a good job.  Cor's own father was quiet.  His uncle was the opposite, outgoing with a great sense of humor.  Cor & his brother actually wished their uncle was their father.  

When Cor asked his uncle if he would help by hiding Jews, his uncle laughed, & said, "Do you think Jews would help us?"  Cor felt provoked & even though it was not common to speak up to an adult, he told his uncle that he knew not all Jews would help just like not all Christians wouild help. His uncle was angry & told him his father was risking the lives of a family of eight & he would never do that.  

He went to other people & got various replies.  Some said this wouid not happen to innocent people meaning the Jews were not innocent.  He remembered hearing at school that Jews were Christ killers.  Others told him Jews were not allowed to fight, but they should defend themselves.   Then he went to his Aunt Antonio & asked her to help.  She replied, "Cor, do you really think that I should take Jews into our home & take their pride away?  They should help themselves."  Her answer was, "No!"

Out of 81 people, only seven agreed to help so Cor's family & the others brought 13 Jews safely through the war.  Cor feels his family failed miserably saying, "Our indifference, our failure to reach out will always be with me.  If everyone would hqve helped, we could have saved hundreds.  We could have done more."  Cor may not feel that he & his family did enough, but I believe they are heroes.   

After being on the road all day, we entered the beautiful city of Budapest around 5:00 p.m.  We checked into the gorgeous Hilton on top of the hill.  The city is divided into Buda on the hill & Pest down below with the Danube River inbetween.  The Hilton is situated in a 13th century Dominican church with a baroque facade of a 16th century Jesuit college.  It is a 4-star as all of our hotels have been, & they have all been right in the center of the city making it very safe to wallk to city squares.  When Dana & I entered our room the view took our breath away.  We were overlookiing ther Danube with the splendid, gigantic parliament buildiing across the river.  Quite honestly it was hard to leave our room, but we had an hour to explore the beautiful area followed by a delicious dinner at our hotel.  Several years ago I was in Budapest witih four girlfriends I was teaching with at La Crescen,t & I remembered that we had eaten at the Hilton & I had the best Hungarian Goulash.  I repeated it & again & found it to be out of this world.  Yummy bread & wine made the meal a complete winner.  

 The view out our window when we arrived.

We ended our evening with a glass of wine at an outdoor restaurant on the castle wall (shown above during daylight)) looking out at Pest all lit up.  It was pure magic.  

The view out our window before we hit our feather beds.

Day 5, June 18

In the morning we visited Oscar Schindler's Enamel Factory in Krakow, Poland.  The last two times I was here we were not allowed inside, but it has since been turned into a museum presenting the history of Krakow's inhabitants, both Polish & Jewish, under Nazi occupation, along with Schindler's story & those he saved.  Only a few original items remain from the factory including his office & desk.  

Schindler is a very controversial figure, & Steven Spielberg is accused of romanticizing him & taking creative liberties in his 1993 movie Schindler's List.  The movie was filmed in Krakow, was awarded seven oscars, & the story of Jews from Schindler's factory became famous across the world.   Whatever the truth is about Schindler, he saved the lives of over 1,000 Polish Jews employed at his factory, & the descendents of those survivors number in the thousands.  

Cor told an interesting story about him & Miep Gies being seated at a table with Emily Schindler, Oscar's widow, at a fund raiser for the Anne Frank House in New York City.  One of them asked if she felt her husband had been depicted fairly by Spielberg in the movie. She replied that she did not like the way he was shown drinking so much.  She was then asked how she felt about his womanizing, & she said , "After one, what difference does 100 make?"

This afternoon we went to infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, my third visit.  There were actually three camps, Auschwitz concentration camp, Birkeau built as a death camp, & Monowitz, the work camp where Elie Wiesel & his father were.  There are no words to adequately describe what visitors see.  i have often said that I wish every American citizen was required to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washinton DC, for I truly believe it would change people's lives & the way they treat others.  That goes for Auschwitz.  

We entered the concentration camp by passing under the famous iron sign, "Albrect Macht Frie"--work makes one free, a euphemism designed to make entering  inmates believe that if they worked hard, they would earn their freedom.   Some may remember that the original sign was stolen & recovered a few years ago.   The original sign is in safekeeping somewhere; the replica remains.  

The  concentration camp has barracks that have been turned into a museum where visitors go through & see separate displays of items brought to camp by the victims: suitcases, toiletries, prayer shawls, shoes, eye glasses, prosthetics of all types, & bundles of hair cut from corpses ready to be used for submarine  pipe insulation, to be woven into cloth, & stuffed into mattresses.  Like the display of shoes at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the shoes affect me the most, for I cannot help but wonder what happened to the wearers--the baby who wore the little shoe, the woman who wore the high heel, the workman who wore the boot?

True to Nazi efficiency, the train tracks ran right into the camp at Birkenau. 

They had four crematoriums, & when the war was near its end & they knew the Soviets would soon arrive, they dynamited them so as not to leave evidence.  What remains of all four is piles of broken cement.  

To me one of the most haunting things at both camps are the electric barbed wire fences & guard towers seen everywhere.  

At Birkenau we entered a women's barrack with the beds made of three tiers, the first two wood & the bottom one cement & five women would sleep on each tier.  It was a very hot day while we toured with full stomachs after enjoying a hearty lunch.  We all carried water bottles & got back on an air-conditioned bus.  I tried to imagine 700 women jammed into the building starving & with no water.  

The whole place defies imagination.   Elie Wiesel said, "Auschwitz shall forever remain a question mark to me."  I agree.  

                 

On a lighter note because when studying the Holocaust, or touring Holocaust sites, it is necessary to  to look for some merriment & remain positive or one would go crazy so both before & after a lovely dinner back in Krackow, we shopped in the old city square which is filled with shops.  I discovered beautiful Christmas ornaments decorated with Swarovski crystals, & I went a bit overboard in my buying.  Now the trick will be to transport them home.  We ended our evening with a glass of wine at a little outside restaurant/bar on the city square.  Again--pure magic.