Yesterday at the Florida Holocaust Museum, I had the honor of reading the names of some of the Jewish people that died in the Holocaust. Almost seventy percent of the list of fifty names were murdered in Auschwitz, Poland. I began my reading with my father, Martin Weigen’s family (Mieczyslaw Wajgenszperg), my family:
Isaak Wajgenszperg, age 46, from Poland, died in Auschwitz in 1944
Sonia Wajgenszperg, age 41, from Poland, died in Treblinka, Poland in 1942
Klara Wajgenszperg, age 11, from Poland, died in Treblinka, Poland in 1942
I would never get to meet my grandfather, grandmother, and aunt because they were murdered in the Holocaust.
In honor of my father’s anniversary day of liberation, April 29, 1945 from the Dachau, Germany concentration camp, I remind myself that the only reason I exist, that my children and grandchildren are here, is that my father miraculously survived six years of oppression and torture under the occupation of a Nazi regime. His family did not survive. And for the life of me, I can’t imagine losing my mother and sister to murder in a gas chamber, and then surviving the murder of my father in Auschwitz. Still today, I feel guilt over having taken so much for granted as a teenager. Guilt that I wasn’t aware how much he suffered because he never complained. He loved deeply, he never let me down.
Happy ‘other’ Birthday Dad!
I’d like to share a paragraph from Witness For My Father (page 353), recited by former Lieutenant John Withers:
“Martin believed in a philosophy which I wish could be adopted all over the world-not to judge by groups-ethnic, religious, national-only by individual acts, that was important. That’s the reason he had such a successful life and overcame obstacles. He believed not so much in words as in actions. I’m sure if he had turned his thoughts into poetry, he would leave this thought with his children and grandchildren:”
When these golden days are gone
For you I shall continue on
You are thread of life to me, you are my immortality.
On this Yom HaShoah, I wish to honor every Jewish soul lost during this horrific era, every survivor who had to live with the burden of unimaginable loss and atrocities, who held up their heads to move forward and do their best to grow their families. I now realize, the reality of the Holocaust never goes away, especially for us second and third and fourth generations.
And now we are bearing witness to the reality of the three month old Ukrainian war, an eerie reminder of what happened at the onset of WWII.
Please light a candle and say a prayer for all who perished during the Holocaust, for all who lost their lives during WWII, and for all those suffering in Ukraine today.
NEVER forget.
Thank you,
Barbara