Greetings Everyone!
Today, I began to delve into the research portion of my project. I got my first glimpse of how emotionally heavy this project will be. I started off my day by interviewing the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. It was interesting to hear how events so far removed from her have affected her being and presence everyday.
Her Grandmother's story, a holocaust survivor:
Her Grandmother was a Ultra-Orthodox
Jew in her 20s when the Nazi's invaded their boarding town of Miory, Belarus. She and her mother hid in a local families barn, while the rest of her family was separated and hidden. When the Nazi's came through she hid in the stables with the animals; her mother came looking for her calling out "Gita, Gita.." but she knew something was wrong so she didn't come out. Then her family was rounded about and murdered. Later that night, she ran out into the woods and found Jewish people hiding out. They lived in the harsh conditions of the woods for the 2 years after. They sent out men on missions and some would come back but most wouldn't. Only 30 people survived out of the entire village. When she got news that the war was over, she returned to her town, but was still unsure of the Nazi presence so she moved to a displaced-persons camp, where she met her husband who worked in a work-camp in Siberia for 6 years. He died recently after due to liver complications he developed at the camp. Right after they met they got "married out of convenience" because they heard married couples got easier passage to the United States. They settled in Brooklyn, New York in what now is a Hassidic, ultra-orthodox, community.
We then started discussed how it has affected her, the granddaughter of the Holocaust survivor. She discussed how she carries around a constant anxiety because of this "sense of impending doom" or as she likes to call it a "sense of impending Jew." She described this constant feeling of being on edge as being "truly ingrained in her DNA."
It was interesting to see how this fear and experience transferred down three generations. Surviving the holocaust is something the entire family will continue to experience and live with from generation to generation.
Thank you for reading!
*names and specifics are not included out of respect for the interviewee.