Stephen Shooster
It is difficult to imagine a hellish nightmare of this magnitude, such a thor- ough and methodical has never occurred in history. And yet, as large as this tragedy was, we were not alone. There are many other places like Belzec in Poland and Ger- many and elsewhere around the world. But there is a difference. Belzec is one of the only pure extermination camps ever built. We are only aware of one survivor. From him and a few of the soldiers, we learned that the people who were brought there sat waiting in a field for their turn to be subjected to killing by deadly gas then carelessly tossed into a pit. My anger knows no bounds. The only way I can channel my energy appropriately is to warn each and every one of you. I want to share my love for all of mankind, includ- ing my forgiveness for those that acted on their twisted, irrational thoughts. Let this be my extreme shout to the world - if it happened to me, a 12-year-old child living in a modern mixed community, who would presume to say that you and your family are safe? It is my secondary wish that the world, especially the March of the Living include Belzec in their many excursions to visit Auschwitz and the other camps. Today, I am 93 years old, and I live in South Florida with my wife Betty, who is also a survivor. She survived, due to the kindness of a man named Oscar Schindler, and is a member of his now famous list with her two sisters. In fact, her sister Helen was brutalized by the despicable Commandant Goth as one of his maids within his home. She bravely protected her sisters by accepting the abuse. Many years later, Helen met with the surviving daughter of Goth, in the well-documented and award-winning film, Inheritance and together they walked the grounds of Auschwitz while Helen pointed out the horrors. My wife and I have been married for 61 years. We have no children. Even though the story of my childhood is one I wish upon no other person, the fact that I survived in many ways was just luck combined with boyish bravado. I went through a storm of the greatest dimensions. It was a political storm that has come to be known today as The Holocaust, and because I was only twelve when it started, I can hardly under- stand why it began. What I do remember, was that I was a happy child. It only took a few days before my childhood world suddenly turned against me and seemed to conspire to force me into poverty, a homeless laborer without any family, a starving
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