It takes guts

I had the rare privilege of having dinner with Holocaust survivors last night in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day and each year at this point means there are fewer and fewer survivors while all the while loose fleshy douchebags full of hot gas- oh I actually meant Mahmoud Ahmedinejad get invited to talk at UN Conferences on Racism and continually deny the Holocaust happened.

Anyways, Holocaust survivors are a really interesting group to spend time around because almost across the board for more than 30 years they wouldn't talk in detail about what they experienced or saw for a few reasons. One is the shock and trauma obviously, you naturally try to bury that shit and also they are the type of old country types who never wanted to burden other people with their stories of pain and agony, never wanted pity and just wanted to move on to a new life in America or Israel or wherever they ended up. Starting in the 80's and 90's as survivors began to die off in greater numbers there was a feeling of needing to know which has led to Schindler's List and countless other films, books, etc. so much so that Holocaust entertainment has become nearly it's own genre. Not without merit either, there are the factual events, the crazy stories of cruelty and survival and an unending dish of philosophical questions to bring up about evil, etc.

So anyways, again, I was helping to facilitate a conversation at this table with two survivors and I asked the guy, Harry, why and how he survived and gave me this sort of tired 88 year old man look and just said, "some luck and it took guts" and I realized then what I've realized other times in Holocaust museums in Israel and in DC but never as palpably as that night, I would never and could never understand, but it is still valuable to learn and listen.