What a Story!!!

I have to start off by saying how much I enjoyed the Holocaust survivor's and children of holocaust survivor's liberators and witnesses event. This event took place in Muntz Hall on April 19, 2012. Even though this event has come and gone, there were two stories that not only touched me greatly but also had connections through their experiences; these two stories were told by Werner Coppel, and the daughter of Holocaust survivor Sandy Kaltman.

Mr. Coppel started off discussing how he experienced the tough and gruesome abuse by the Nazi to him and his family. He mentioned that his child hood was filled with signs that said, "Jews die in the gutter" and "We hate Jews." This brought tears to my eyes as I thought about what my own family elders and ancestors went through in America.

He also spoke on how if you were Jewish, your ID card had to be stamped with a letter "J" to show that you were Jewish. I couldn't have imagined that because as a Christian, my license would express so; I thought to myself this is someone's religion, something that is used to express their love for God but yet, it was something that was turned into an evil war against defenseless people.

Mr. Coppel spent most of the time in a camp where he was separated from a family that he would never see again. This was another fact of his life that I could not even imagine happening to me. He had been starved and worked long hours in a chemical factory. When the death march came, he was able to escape and get to the U.S. I was so amazed that he was able to think about his survival and do what was needed to get to his freedom.

Then came second generation Sandy Kaltman, whose mother Ida was also a Holocaust survivor. She had been forced to live in the ghetto of Poland and had also been sent to a camp to work and starve. Even through all of this her mother, just like Mr. Coppel, had managed during the death march to escape.

I started to wonder if these two people could have possibly walked the same death march, worked in the same slave camp, and eventually come to the same city never knowing that they shared the same story. At the end of Mr. Coppel's speech he said that we, as human beings, should "stand up against hate and prejudice even if it doesn't affect you!" This statement will forever be branded in my mind.