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Introduction |
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Photos > Cover > |
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THE BARBER OF GOERLITZ - A MEMOIR |
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Introduction: |
It was May 8, 1945. |
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Captain Konovalov, the Russian Commander of the liberated camp, drew my attention to a German Camp Guard and asked me: "What about this one?" As I looked at this man who stared so fearfully back at me, I thought of what an incredible reversal of roles this moment symbolized. He had been one of the concentration camp guards who held the power of life and death ---- usually over me and millions of others during the past four years; one of those rewarded by superiors for their efficiency in the clubbing, shooting, gassing and otherwise killing of Jews. Now his life was in my hands! Fortunately for him he had once done me a kindness. "He wasn't one of the worst ones." I said to the Russian Commander---- "Let Him Live!" I was twenty-two years old at the time. After four years spending in several concentration camps preceded by a Ghetto, I was still here ---- my family was not! My parents, younger brother, little sister and grandmother had been murdered by the Nazis. This is a memoir that not only describes my youth as a Jewish boy growing up in a small, Northern town in Poland, but the story of how my family were wrenched out of their upper middle class existence by the Nazis. It is also the story of how I rebuilt my life after being liberated by the Russian army. This is a tale about surviving. That I did survive is partly due to some last-minute decisions I made when facing the unimaginable and also some luck. The Holocaust taught me the lesson of a Roman proverb: "Homo homini lupus est" (one human being is a wolf to another one). I learned that many human beings have insatiable hunger for power. I saw this hunger in the sadistic eyes of many "ordinary" people. I also witnessed great courage in the face of death, and unyielding heroism in the quest for life in the actions of many "ordinary" people. So, this is also the story of man’s inhumanity to man, but also his kindness. To paraphrase General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who witnessed the carnage shortly after the liberation of Dachau: "Today I am a witness to this horrible inhumanity, which should be remembered because maybe some day it will be denied. I do testify today that it has happened." This is my testimony, which I dedicate to the six million Jewish people who died at the hands of the Nazis; and all the non-Jewish victims who perished at the hands of the same executioners. This is also written in tribute to all of the fallen heroes of the Allied Armies who died to liberate us and in loving memory of my family. — Kasriel K. Eilender, M.D.Photos > Home >
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