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By:Kaleigh Tharpe Staff Writer ktharpe1@my.westga.edu
Americans continue to learn of atrocities committed by the German Nazis on the Jewish people during the Holocaust, but few get to experience accounts told by survivors.
The Ingram Library invited Tosia Szechter Schneider, author of "Someone Must Survive to Tell the World" and Holocaust survivor, to speak on October 14 about her experiences through World War II.
The night began with a series of questions, addressed to the audience, said to be lessons that the citizens of the world must learn.
First, "What can we learn from the events that led up to the Holocaust so this will not happen again?"
Second, "What is it in our nature that will make us instruments of torture and destruction of missionaries dedicated to alleviate the suffering of others?"
Finally, "What are we doing or not doing that can foster such extreme behaviors out of people?"
"To be a bystander is not an option," said Schneider at the beginning of her speech.
Schneider, who survived ghetto after ghetto, a labor camp and the deaths of all but one family member, stated that six million Jews were murdered and one million of those were children. There were also one million Jews murdered before Auschwitz, one of the worst camps, was even built.
The terrors committed by the Nazis and their supporters seem to blow her mind because, as she said, "These people were sons and daughters of the civilized world" not savages or barbarians. Their actions say otherwise.
Schneider's story began in Poland, the country of her birth. Her mother was a teacher, her father worked in a mill, and she had one older brother.
Adolph Hitler was on the edge of dictatorship when the Jews were first threatened. Schneider recalls that the Jewish people did not expect the 'maniac' to gain power.
However, he soon did and in 1939, while on vacation, her family was summoned back to their town. Nazi troops were at every train station and on the sides of their trucks and cars they had written, "Off to Poland to slash the Jews."
The Soviet Union took over Schneider's town. Soon after, the citizens had to learn and use a new language, as well as abide by Communist ideals. Some Jewish families were exiled to Siberia.
In 1941, Germany beat the Soviets and occupied Schneider's town by July. She recalled the horrible memories: the desecration of the Synagogue, Germans beating the Rabbi, and the eight Jews that were hanged in the street. After the German takeover, all Jews were required to wear arm bands with the Star of David shown on their sleeve.
Schneider recalls "never being ashamed of the badge."
Everything of value was taken from the Jews, including their jobs and valuables. Schneider's grandmother buried her candlesticks to save them from the Gestapo.
In October of 1940, the Jewish people of this town were moved to ghettos. Her grandmother began a soup kitchen to save people from the small rations and starvation.
Schneider shared a shocking story with the audience about that day. She told of her father's boss and his accusing her mother of adultery due to the fact that Schneider had blonde hair. The German man came to their home and had the police put a gun to her mother's head trying to make her confess. The little girl's older brother took her from the house in order to save her from hearing more.
Schneider's life continued in the ghettos, surrounded by friends and her mother's home classes, even when teaching Jewish children was strictly prohibited. She realized later that her mother did not teach the children, herself included, so that they may gain book knowledge, but she taught them to build their hope that one day everything would be normal again.
One by one, her friends disappeared, and needless to say her mother's efforts were in vain because Schneider's life was forever changed.
On the first day of Passover, the German police rounded up random Jewish people for travel. Schneider's uncle, cousin, and friend of 12 years old were taken on trains to an execution camp. These round ups and mistreatment of the Jews of the 'German' country resulted in attempted forest rebellions and resistance movements.
Schneider's cousin that was taken in April of 1942 returned in the fall with horror stories of the transportation conditions, for he escaped death by jumping from a moving car. With more and more Jews disappearing, the regular towns became "free of Jews" and therefore, any Jew seen could be shot on site.
As the family prepared to move to the next ghetto, her uncle was to assist her grandmother in her own suicide because she would not make it. The man could not kill his mother and she was taken away with others that were sick or old. This was the first big death in Schneider's family, but soon they would leave her father behind, never to be seen again.
Schneider describes the last ghetto as, "If ever there was hell on earth that was it."
In this ghetto, a man offered help to Schneider. He told her mother that if she would come with him, he could get fake papers for her and he would claim her as his cousin. Overjoyed, her mother agreed, telling her "someone must survive to tell the world," which is the title of Schneider's book.
The time came to say good-bye and at the age of 14 Schneider could not leave her family to live free among the people that shoved this suffering upon them. Weeks later, her mother contracted Typhus and died at the age of 39.
Schneider's brother was the only family she had left. The two were taken with others to a labor camp. The camp exceeded the ghettos in food but every so often Gestapo would come through the camp and shoot multiple people. It was on one of these occasions when her brother was killed. A manager of the camp recognized Schneider's beauty, and brought her inside as a stitch maid. There, she met her first friend in months.
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