2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 79
PERSONALIZING
UNTOLD LOSSES
In late 1944, my
father was sent to
the infamous ‘model’
concentration camp,
Terezín, where most inmates either
died from disease or were deported
to Auschwitz and murdered. I was
just one month old, and my father
feared he would never see me again.
Because my mother was Catholic,
she was allowed to visit my father.
Nearly every day, she took the train
from Prague, using these visits as an
opportunity to smuggle food to my
dad, and miraculously he survived.
However, our family, including those
relatives who had also managed to
survive, had only a brief respite from
the trauma of the Holocaust as our
country, Czechoslovakia, fell behind
the Iron Curtain and became engulfed
in the tyranny of communism.
Fortunately, my family was able to
flee to Ecuador with a few relatives
and friends. Far from our Czech
homeland, our tight-knit circle spent
the weekends together remembering
the past and staying connected.
When I was 12 years old, in 1957, we
immigrated to the United States,
settling in the San Francisco area.
It wasn’t until I reached my own
maturity that I began to fully
understand the terrible things that
had befallen my beloved parents … a
comfortable life gone forever, terror
and suffering, loss and devastation,
rebuilding and renewing life and
family. Through my best friend, also a
child of survivors, I began to develop
a relationship with the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum and realize its
potential to bear witness to the full
extent of the destruction brought
on by the Holocaust. My legacy gift
will help the Museum engage future
generations in the knowledge of the
past as a case study of what not to
do in the future. In this small way I
hope that my legacy gift honors my
beloved parents for their strength,
courage, and sacrifice and ensures
that future generations will know
what they endured and what we
must do so this never happens again.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 77