The Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
January 27th is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.
All this month at NanaHood we have talked about the needs of others. When you think about this in terms of WWII and the Holocaust so many things come to mind. One of the first people that I think of is Corrie Ten Boom. If you have never read The Hiding Place, a story about Corrie and what happened to her and her family, stop what you are doing and go buy the book. I’m serious. Next to the Bible it’s the best book I have read in my lifetime. I’ve read it more times than I can count and it never ceases to inspire and motivate me. Doing good deeds and giving to those who are less fortunate is taken to a whole new level when it means risking your life and the lives of family members, and yet that’s what Corrie and her family did. The book is filled with examples of selflessness and courage. It starts a little slow, but it’s worth your time. I promise.
Today I’m dedicating this NanaHood post to a lady I read about in the news who survived Auschwitz. Her name is Lilly Ebert, or prisoner A10572, and she is 79 years old. She was 14 when she stepped off the packed cattle car with her family. Lilly was told to go right, her mother, brother and sister were told to go left. She never saw them again. Because she survived she promised she would tell her story so that such a great tragedy would never happen again. Like many of us Lilly is a grandmother. The very fact that she lived to be a grandmother is a miracle.
This is Lilly and her granddaughter Nina.
I’m sure telling her story and reliving the horrors of that time in her life is not easy. I know from reading about Corrie Ten Boom that her choice to hide Jews in her home during the Nazi take over was not easy.
When it comes to focusing on the needs of others at the risk of our own health, happiness or personal peace, we have a choice to make. We can do something, or we can choose to do nothing. It is the people who choose to do something whose names are written under the title of hero in our history books.
You can read more about Lilly at
More Information about today in history
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5172204,00.html
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/ihrd/comment_post.php
