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February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
January 6, 2012
January 5, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Taliban talks: In administration's push to negotiate with terrorists, was a key hurdle overlooked?
Pete Spotts: Time cloaking: How scientists opened a hidden gap in time
Karen Kaplan: Teens aren't too old to boost their IQ, study finds
January 4, 2012
Scott Baldauf: Islamist terror group giving Christians living in north Nigeria days to flee
Howard LaFranchi : An accelerating covert war with Iran: Could it spiral into military action?
January 3, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Release several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay; give them headquarters as confidence-building measure?
Elaine Woo: Thomas T. Johnson, L.A. judge who ruled that Holocaust was a fact, dies at 88
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 28, 2005
/ 18 Shevat, 5765
The ultimate revenge: In the shadow of death, a celebration of life
By
Matthew Schofield
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
 SWIECIM, Poland — As Nazi death doctor Josef Mengele drained her left arm of blood while filling her right with poisons and germs — sending her into the hospital and what Mengele told her would be certain death — Eva Mozes Kor vowed to survive. That was 1944.
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Candles burn behind barbed wire at the Auschwitz death camp
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Yesterday, standing on an ice-covered patch not far from where Mengele had mocked her coming end, she smiled.
"Just look at all of us," the 70-year-old resident of Terre Haute, Ind., said, sweeping a hand toward hundreds of fellow survivors, seated on plastic chairs and chatting 40 yards from the ruins of one of the notorious gas chambers.
"Here we are, 60 years after the Nazis were defeated, after almost all of the old Nazis are gone, and here we are, standing and celebrating 60 years of freedom."
In bitter cold and a blowing snowstorm that brought back memories of how hard it had been to survive in this place, thousands of survivors joined dozens of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac, and Vice President Dick Cheney, to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
The anniversary, both a celebration of life and a remembrance of the dead, may well be the last such commemoration that will include a large number of the survivors. Kor wore a bright blue coat and bright red scarf because, she said, "Auschwitz is such a dreary place, not so bad now as then, but it needs some color."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko lit a candle in honor of Ukrainians who died here — and for his father, an Auschwitz inmate who survived.
The ceremony began with the sound of train wheels screeching to a halt, a grim reminder that this was how the horrors of Auschwitz began for its victims.
"Most of them were sent to the gas chambers right upon arrival, their only guilt being that they were born Jews," noted former French Minister of Culture Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor, recalling how Mengele motioned new arrivals left or right as they stepped onto the "selection platform." The choice sent them either into a world of starvation, slave labor and struggle to survive, or to instant death.
In the 60 years since the Soviet Army liberated the camp, with its 7,000 still-living inmates, she said she's never able to shake a single thought:
"What would have become of them, of this million of Jewish children, murdered in their infancy or in their youth here or in ghettos or in other death camps? Would they have become philosophers? Artists? Great scientists? Or perhaps just skilled craftsmen or mothers of families? All I know is I keep crying when I think about them, and that I will never forget them."
A central point of the observance was to make sure the world never forgets.
Yushchenko, whose father was prisoner number 11307 according to the tattoo on his chest, noted, "Only the pain and the memories will give us the wisdom and strength to ensure that forever and ever, these doors to Hell remain closed."
For the survivors there was satisfaction in being alive.
"I never imagined I would outlive Adolf Hitler or survive World War II," said Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a Pole sent to Auschwitz a year after the Nazis swept across his country. It was September 1940.
Kor, who last saw her mother, father and a sister on the Auschwitz selection platform, was kept alive because she had a twin, and Mengele experimented on twins. Thursday, she clutched a photo of the two of them holding hands, in inmates' stripes, on liberation day, Jan. 27, 1945.
"It is different returning now," she said. "I show up in the morning, and I know that I can leave when I wish."
Then she smiled. "To be honest, I plan on coming back on the 100th anniversary. Wouldn't the Nazis have loved that?"
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© 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services
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