I recently wrote an article for my Holocaust Legacies blog, which addresses this question well. I have included it here to provide a good starting point for this blog. As you read the examples I provide in it, the importance of leaving a written legacy should become clear to you, but don't think you must have a story as significant as Holocaust survival to make a difference. Each and every story adds to our collective history, enriching it for more substantial lessons for future generations.
The
Legacy by Debbie
J. Callahan
If you ever have the
privilege of meeting a Holocaust survivor, you will probably hear one statement
made, “I tell my story for those who can’t” or something to that effect. It is
a sentiment echoed by many of these resilient souls. Telling their stories isn’t
easy. Despite being emotionally painful and draining, survivors continue to
speak at schools, churches, synagogues, and club meetings, reliving the same
painful experiences day after day and year after year. Why would some expose
themselves to these daily painful reminders? Wouldn’t it be far easier to put
it all behind them and move on? Certainly it would be, but many do not take the
easy route. “Speaking for those who cannot” becomes their mission. Imagine the
worst experience you’ve ever had, the most tragic and painful event of your
life, then intensify it. Could you retell and relive that event each and every
day? They do, and for what purpose? They feel they have to retell their stories
so that future generations will always know that the Shoah (Holocaust) did, in
fact, happen, despite what the deniers say, and they retell it, so the next
generation will never forget the lessons of the actions and attitudes that allowed
it to happen in the first place. They commit to teaching about the tragedies of
the past to prevent such attitudes now or in the future.
While so many
survivors do tell their stories, there are others who do not or cannot share
theirs. The reasons vary. Sometimes, their experiences were just too painful to
relive and still allow them to function in today’s world. Yet many, when asked
why they never told, will say, “No one ever asked?” or “No one wanted to hear
it.” I can wholeheartedly understand if someone can’t share his or her story
because of the difficulty of reliving the trauma, but to think that some held in
all of their experiences because they thought no one cared enough to hear them
breaks my heart.
Fortunately, some
survivors have learned through younger generations that their stories are
important, and that people not only want to, but need to, hear them. In many
cases, it is the grandchildren who have gotten them to speak up for the first
time. As in the case of writer Greg Dawson, who grew up without knowing of his
mother’s Holocaust experiences, but when his daughter had an eighth grade
project to do, she was able to get her grandmother to open up and share her
Holocaust ordeal. Greg has since turned the story into a wonderful book called Hiding in the Spotlight, and together
with his wife, has created a documentary that chronicles the story.
Why is it that one
survivor can discuss and publically share his or her story, while a sibling,
within the same family, sharing basically the same experiences, won’t?
That is the case in Greg Dawson’s family, as well as in my dear friend Helen
Garfinkel Greenspun’s. Helen has been telling her survival story for over
thirty years. She is one of five siblings to have survived the Shoah, and
speaks for the girls who died in the concentration camps and death march that
she had to endure. She thinks of the girls who were left lying beneath the
trees of a forest, too weak, tired, or hungry to move on when ordered to march,
and had to be left behind to perish. Those faces still haunt Helen, and the
memory keeps her talking to audiences, even though she has officially retired
from doing so at almost 87 years old. Yet, one of Helen’s sisters chooses not to
speak about it. Perhaps, it has to do with what she experienced in the camps or
on the march, or perhaps it is the memory of how their parents and younger
brother and sister were immediately sent to Treblinka where they were gassed,
but she has not been able to share her story as Helen and some of her other
surviving siblings have. Helen’s story, and those of her siblings, is told in a
book written by Suzan Hagstrom called Sara's
Children; The Destruction of Chmielnik, and her individual story will soon
be told in my book, For Those Left Behind.
Helen has gone on to receive many awards
for her tireless efforts, including most recently the USA and Bright House
Networks Characters Unite Award http://house2house.brighthouse.com/characters-unite-award-presented-to-helen-greenspun/.
I honestly believe that those Jews who
survived as others around them did not, were spared for a reason. They were
strong enough to come through one of the darkest periods of our history, and
have lived to tell the horrifying facts. Facts many of us would never have
believed could be true without their first-hand testimony.
There are so many
stories left untold, though, and survivors are not the only ones who have them.
So many others had World War II and Holocaust experiences. Many soldiers,
rescuers, and family members have stories that should be heard by the younger
generations. Today’s young people need
to see the atrocities of the Holocaust from all angles, and learn the attitudes
that helped fuel the events that might have been avoided or stopped. In order
for them to learn the harm of prejudice, hatred, racism, stereotyping, and the
danger of being a bystander, the lessons of the past must be brought to life
for them, made real, while there are still participants who can make that
happen.
I urge you now to
share your own stories if you have them. Encourage friends, neighbors, or
family members to do the same if you know that they have experiences worthy of
contributing for the greater good. Together, we can help future generations
discover the truth from the real-life heroes, survivors, and victims, which
will be far more meaningful than anything they can learn through a few
paragraphs in a textbook.
As a writer and a
teacher, I have personally promised my friend Helen, that I will never let her
story die, but that does not seem like enough. My goal is to share these
stories in formats that will span future generations, making them timeless. I
would be honored to write the story of your life with you or for you, but even
if you choose another venue, please just share it. The world is ready to hear
what you have to say, and needs the legacy that only you can leave. Let your
story live on.
