Mastodawn

Lexsion Mar 6, 2023

My paternal grandmother was born in Berlin, Germany in 1900. She was, as was her whole family, Jewish. She was smart and driven. Had her own dressmaking shop by the time she was 25. But, the handwriting was on the wall, and she left home for New York in 1925. She learned English and worked as a dressmaker until she got married to an Italian immigrant she met in English language class. Some of her siblings stayed in Germany. Perished in the camps. Her youngest sister survived and came to America. But she was mentally damaged from that horror, attempted suicide at least once (had a scar around her neck) until she succeeded in drowning herself.

People talk about the horrors of fascism in the abstract. But for my family, it is very real. I think that we all need to speak about it.My generation, the grandchildren of the victims of the Nazis, is old now. I try to tell this story as often as I can.

ZZ Bottom Mar 5, 2023

❤️

Callalily Mar 5, 2023

@CatMom916
Thank you for sharing your family's story.

John Caveney woke is me🛠️Mar 5, 2023

@CatMom916 thank you for bravely sharing your family’s experiences, fascism isn’t abstract, it’s VERY real. It’s only by people learning of the horrors of the past and understanding them that we have any chance of avoiding them in the future.

dr jamesbicycle Mar 5, 2023

@CatMom916
My paternal grandmother was born in Mecklenburg-Pomerania, also in 1900 moved to Berlin where my father was born 1927. My grandfather was born in Weimar. The family escaped to Netherlands in March 1938, went to Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), got a British passport in Singapore, got out after Pearl Harbor attack to San Francisco. Overland to Toronto. One surviving cousin in Europe survived, born in 1942 had a family. We all cried when we met in 2005.

Palin Mar 5, 2023

@CatMom916
And unless you are outright stupid....
This is where this country is headed...

benda Mar 5, 2023

@palin @CatMom916 it's no coincidence that we are seeing this at a time when there are less and less of these voices and stories. ignorance of history will damn us into repeating mistakes.

Agora Mar 5, 2023

@CatMom916 thank-you for sharing. I am not sure people understand this is where we are headed.

Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Thanks for sharing your grandmother’s story. Now that survivors of the Holocaust are passing, keeping their stories alive is more important than ever. I’m a third generation Jewish American on both sides, as my great-grandparents came over in the late 1800s/early 1900s to escape pogroms. Had they stayed in Eastern Europe, who knows if I or my parents or grandparents would have existed at all.

Laurie S Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 😭❤️☮️

Lena Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 these horrors impact all generations, its so imperative that all understand our history

micropainter Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing your family's story. We must not forget.

WhatTheChel Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing your family's story. We have 4 Holocaust survivors at our temple and I'm always grateful for those who walk through that pain repeatedly in an effort to keep us from making the same mistakes.

Doreen32128 ready to rumble!Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing your story with us! We all need reminders of what horrors occurred.

Dancingwiththebeloved Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 and I'll help ❤️

Oregon Wine Woman Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 God bless you.

Ruth O’Day Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916
@auschwitzmuseum
@nedhamson

Thank you for sharing this.

Jon Winston Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 My grandfather and grand-uncle left the pogroms in Belarus just before WW1 and settled in Liege, Belgium. My grandfather moved on to New York and left his brother in Europe where he eventually perished in the camps. A whole section of my family never came to be.

The scars of early twentieth-century fascism endure to this day.

SearingTruth Mar 6, 2023

Thank you for bringing all of us closer in compassion and understanding fellow citizen CatMom916
ST

"Suffering drains all of us.

Perhaps unevenly at first, but then equally."
SearingTruth

THAT effin' Canadian guy....Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Unfortunately, the realities of that era affected not only the direct victims of the Holocaust, but many people who intervened or tried to stop some of the horrors. My family history being Belgian, I've heard enough whispered stories (and dug up actual facts) regarding my family's participation in "the underground". I also try to keep the history alive as much as I can. Never forget.

Reendear Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing, this is very touching.

It also turns a spotlight on the neglicence of this aspect when we are looking at the situation in Ukraine. There is more downplaying involved than one would have thought. I am also continuously stricken by how similar the situation is (even the speeches are alike)...

Martha Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916
It's become too easy to forget. It shouldn't be; it can't be allowed o be.

Neea Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 My non-jewish french family is still suffering from damages done to my paternal grandparents during the war. The generational trauma is real and they didn't even suffered the worst of the war.

It's important for people like you to tell your family story.

Thank you.

Trixi Tomate Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916
Thank you very much for sharing the story of your family. 💚

Nocula Mar 6, 2023

@CatMom916 grandchild of the Nazis here. When I asked my gradfather why he let happen all that horror, he answered he had no choice. He was responsible for his family, trying to protect his two little kids. He said raising his voice would have brought them in Danger. He KNEW what was going on.

That's why we say "wehret den Anfängen", stop it as soon as it begins.

And it begins.

Annette Krop-Benesch Mar 7, 2023

@CatMom916 Please keep telling your story. I'm German, my grandparents were children/teenagers during the Nazi regime. It scares me that "normal" people so easily followed the propaganda and that many kept parts of it their entire life.

To recognise fashism we need to understand that fashists don't look different. They are our neighbours, colleagues, relatives. We need to stop them before the majority follows them again. We need to act now! Every single day.

Michaela Mar 7, 2023

@CatMom916 I'm so sorry for all that happened to your family 😞🖤 Thanks for sharing.

anitavondannen Mar 7, 2023

@CatMom916 it’s in your DNA. We all inherit experiences, trauma and emotions of our forefathers and -mothers. So it’s here today.

TC Won't Give In To Lies Mar 8, 2023

@CatMom916
Yes! Thank you for sharing.

Silence only helps the abusers.

JMinSD Mar 8, 2023

@CatMom916 My husband's Ukrainian parents met in a German work camp. His mother was forcibly taken by German soldiers from her home at age 16. His father was captured by the Germans. Although they did not talk much about their experiences, they were clearly traumatized long-term. They were fortunate to have survived. After liberation by American soldiers, they stayed in Germany for a while but emigrated first to Belgium and then to the U.S. with their 2 young children.

@batyalee 🌿Mar 8, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing your story. I think it makes sense for Jews to start sharing their family stories with one another more. We all refer to the horrors of the Holocaust and give honors to the survivors who are still alive, who share their stories. We (Ashkenazi Jews) are here and alive because of the bravery of those who came before us, coming as immigrants and refugees from Eastern Europe. But we don't generally take opportunities to share our own family stories in a public way, and so we don't really acknowledge the ones we lost --- who didn't survive the pogroms and - later on - the death camps. I have photos of a few who didn't come to the US, brought here by one who did.

MegNelsonArt Mar 8, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing. My children are half Jewish. They are here because their great grandparents fled Poland and Russian for a better life in the USA, just like every other immigrant. The USA was once a beacon of hope and promise of a better life. I hope we can regain that status one day.

Jeroen van Bergen Mar 9, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing. It is so important to know history, to know what happened. The Holocaust is the ultimate expression of nazism. The most horrible book I’ve read about this is The kindly ones by Jonathan Littell. It tells the story of someone making a career in the SS. The total absence of any kind of morality is shocking. At times I had to put the book away because it was too much.

PNW Deb Mar 11, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing. It is the only way we stop it from ever happening again. ❤️

Unprecedented 2023 Mar 11, 2023

@CatMom916 Many in America are oblivious and manipulated by the fake news.

Die Anachronistin Mar 12, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you so much for telling your story. I am dearly sorry, for your loss. Because I know it even hurts generations after.
I am the granddaughter of a German fighter for the resistance, who had to flee in 1933 already as a political opponent. He went into exile in the Netherlands and never stoped fighting the Nazis until he was caught by them an murdered in 1943 in Berlin.
I am in my 40s now and tell the stories of the horrors of the NS regime in schools. So it won't be forgotten.

Sammi Mar 12, 2023

@CatMom916 Thank you for sharing and keep telling the story. It's important to remember and to make sure it never happens again to anyone.

Abra Makes Mar 13, 2023

@CatMom916 I met a holocaust survivor in 1990. I forget what camp she was at. 1 night she somehow found out they were going 2 kill everyone in her bunkhouse the next day.Anna had 2 stay silent & let them die or die w them. She put a dead body in her place & slept in its bunk. Anna married her liberator & moved 2 England. She had children, 1 of whom was murdered while on holiday. When I met her, she was divorced & in constant pain from her injuries. 2 years later, she took too many pills & died.

Fritz Bauer♟️⚜️

@CatMom916 thank you for sharing your story. And please continue to spread it because you are right: fascism is only abstract if we allow it to be. It needs to be recognised as what it is: a real, solid and uprising threat to us all. Which can be discovered best by witnesses describing how it really was.

@auschwitzmuseum

#NaziTerror #AfD

Not My Job Mar 19, 2023

@CatMom916 And lived through WW1.

Lorian Taylor Mar 21, 2023

@CatMom916
It's sad that you even have to think about fascism here in America! But you're right, we see it in the abstract and don't do near enough to make sure it doesn't happen here!