On a recent trip to the Jewish Museum in Sydney, my friends and I had the privilege of meeting an elderly Jewish lady who survived the holocaust. At 81, Judy is still going strong, has an amazing vitality and can speak for hours at a stretch. I know because she spoke to us for an hour and a half without interruptions.
Her story began in Prague.
Her mother and older sister were separated from their father, who she believes was shot dead. The three women spent a major part of the next few years in Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslavakia. They were then taken to the infamous camp in Auschwitz. Although she spent only two weeks there, Judy spoke about the horrors of watching people being forced or tricked into entering the gas chambers. At the end of the war, the guards at the camp were terrified of the advancing Russian army and fled. Judy, her mother and her sister finally found their way back into Prague, where they occupied a flat, quite similar to the one they were forced to leave at the beginning of the war. A German family had recently evacuated the flat. The roast was still warm in the oven, she said. And for someone who had lived on flimsy soup and scarce bread for the past few years, it was a princely feast.
I've read Victor Frankl's A Man's Search for Meaning, watched countless documentaries and some movies about the holocaust. Judy brought the stories to life with vivid details. Her story inspires me.
