Not Just Statistics
I am beginning my docent training at the Holocaust Museum and there is something I don’t like: Numbers. I am not the kind of person who will talk about numbers, though I have to mention that there were 1.5 Million Jewish teens and children who were murdered. But to me, when I hear people say that, I think to myself, “Well, what were their names? What were they like? What did they look like?” That sort of thing. For me, trying to find out the names of photos of the Jewish teens and children who were murdered is proving to be a challenge. Though we have great resources like the USHMM or Yad Vashem, there is still so many questions that I have.
The Sorger Sister Photos
I have been fascinated with the fact that so many photos from the Holocaust have still been saved, but with some of the teens and children that I study, I want to know more about them. I want to know everything I can about a Jewish teen or a child, or their families, if there were siblings. With that, I turn to the Sorger family photos.
Donia -Roza (born on Jan. 1, 1922) the oldest, then there was Ester (born on January 1,1925) were both murdered during the Holocaust. They were shot to death. Interesting enough, they were not killed in a gas chamber, as so many people like to think that all Jews died in, but no, there were Jews who were taken from their homes, and shot to death. They were killed on February 18, 1943. According to her suriving sister, Sonja, Donia was 21, and Ester was 18. Ester was a nurse, which was interesting to me. I’m not sure what Donia did, but I can find something out. They were both gone before they reached aged 30.
The thing that really surprises me is that so many photos of these girls survived, but how? How did they manage to survive a war that killed them? They were dead. Being a Holocaust Youth Historian (meaning I study the teens and children and Young Adults, such as these sisters), sometimes it can really hit you that these kids and young adults, were murdered and that can be a lot.
I am always wondering, how a miracle occured when the photos of the sisters managed to survive, and yet, they didn’t? Was it God’s way of saying that they wouldn’t be forgotten? We’ll never know, but I’m glad we have them.
I am mostly interested in finding out more information about Ester and Donia. What did they like? Were they nice? What were their dislikes? Personalities, what were they like? One can only know? Their parents, were also murdered and their younger sister, Sonja, miraciously survived.
I don’t know if she remembered her sisters, but I’m not sure?
With the photos being our only link to these sisters, we have to remember that they were two of 1.5 million. That’s a lot, and that 1.5 million, were individuals. They were people, and they had names. What are their names? What were they like? What did they look like? Some, we will never know their names, or what they look like?
Tomas Kulka is a child that really is important to me. If you know me well enough, you know how much this kid means to me. Sadly, I found out some heartbreaking information about him. What I’ve found out, is that when he got off the train at Sobbior, he saw the men with the guns and he “bolted”, meaning he tried to run away. Unfortunately they started shooting at him, they missed, but he was returned to his grandmother, and then murdered. He was crying and screaming for his mother when he died, holding onto his grandmother. He was so scared. That broke my heart even more, knowing he died, screaming for his mother. There are only three photos of Tomas, that’s it. I’m glad we have something, but he is still a statistic. He’s one of the 1.5 million. But, he HAS A NAME. HE HAS A FACE. HE’S A CHILD. 7 years old, that’s how old he was when he was murdered. It’s hard for me to grasp the fact that someone could look at this little boy and then kill him and make a statistic. I hate that. He’s not a statistic, he’s a person. He was real. He was a living person, though he didn’t live long, he was a child, who had a heart.
The thing that really interested me in Tomas, is the fact that he looked so young in his photos, but at the same time, he was like any other 7 year old. He loved to play, he wanted to be around other kids, and he loved animals. But the fact that he was faced with death at age 7, is hard for any 7 year old to grasp. He didn’t know then, but he was about to die, and I think it clicked with him when he saw the Nazis with the guns. It scared him, and his mother wasn’t there to protect him, only his grandmother and that still wasn’t enough. He wanted to go home, he wanted to be with his parents, and yet, his parents, were also killed, but they died differently. They were the statistic of the 6 million.
I hate that. When people starting numbers. GIVE ME NAMES, GIVE ME A FACE to PLACE WITH THAT NAME. They want to be remembered. They just didn’t die, they are stagnant where they are and they want help.
I know they do. It’s my job, as a docent and as Youth and Diary historian, to help them be remembered and not anything more or less. They were kids, teens and Young Adults. They loved, they laughed, they had parents who loved them, and friends who adored them. Some were more popular than others, and some were shy, and some kids, they just wanted to be kids.
But, unfortunately they’re dead. WHY? Because of some idiots who thought that were better off dead and WE LISTENED TO THEM?
It is no different than what we are doing now. We are listening to idiots who know nothing of what they talk about . They want to blame the Trans kids for wanting to be happy. They want them to be conformed. That’s no different than what Tomas, or Ester or Donia went through. They were not blonde or blue eyed. They were Polish, and Czech and they were Jewish. But now, they are statistics. They are the 1.5 Million, or part of the 6 Million. That’s a lot of people when you think about it. These kids, they are not statistics, so why do we make them one? Numbers, they are just numbers to people, not to me though. To me, I want to know their names, their ages and what they went through.
The trans kids, I don’t want them to be statistics either. They have names, they have stories and they have photos. Not every child or teen during the Holocaust have photos, which is a tragedy because we’ll never know what they looked like. As a visual learner, I want to be able to show others who these people were. Sometimes we don’t have that luxury. With Illya Gerber, we don’t have that. We’ll never know what that boy looked like. It’s a shame.
I don’t want these kids to be statistics, they were people and that’s how they should be remembered.
