Author Topic: I met a Holocaust survivor yesterday… (Read 458 times)

eskimo2 · « **on:** March 07, 2007, 11:55:58 AM »

Holocaust survivor and speaker Arnold Friedman with a fellow teacher and myself.

His story of survival was amazing and horrifying. I was chaperoning an eighth grade field trip to a Holocaust Education program at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah Synagogue in Beachwood, Ohio. Two thirds of the way into his talk I realized that I had a pocket camera and could film a clip, so I did. In his 80’s he still has a heavy Czechoslovakian accent; you will need to turn up the volume and listen carefully, but it’s an amazing story. The camera films 640x480 res. at 10 fps, so I compressed it a lot to get the 11.5 minute talk down to 13 MB.

http://hallbuzz.com/movies/2007/arnold_friedman.wmv

The Holocaust Museum at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah Synagogue.

I also learned a lot about the Jewish faith. Above is a A handwritten Hebrew parchment scroll (basically the first five books of the Old Testament). It takes a writer an entire year to produce one.

The written surface of the scroll should never be touched; a special pointer is used. This section is part of the ten commandments. Old Hebrew has no vowels, punctuation or spaces and reads from right to left.

Denholm · « **Reply #1 on:** March 07, 2007, 12:01:27 PM »

And if you make a mistake, you get to start all back over from the beginning. Amazing story!

Dichotomy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2007, 02:01:54 PM »

good stuff

Holden McGroin · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2007, 02:36:32 PM »

What's with the orb in the second picture? According to late inght radio, it has some ethereal significance.

Bodhi · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:00:11 PM »

thanks for sharing.

My old humanities teacher's father survived the holocaust. It was very sobering seeing a man with a serial number tattooed to his arm. He still had a jacket with a sewn on Jewish star that he was forced to wear before he was sent to a "final solution" camp.

Gunthr · « **Reply #5 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:09:12 PM »

I've seen these people in public on three occassions, though I've only spoken to one old gentleman who wanted to unload his story, which was a living nightmare. The tattoos identify them. Thanks for the post.

ChickenHawk · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:22:39 PM »

I once stayed at a B&B in San Francisco run by a survivor. I must admit that seeing that number tattooed on his arm came as quite a shock to me.

It's one thing to read about something that happened before you were born and quite another to meet someone who was there and suffered though it.

cav58d · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:38:52 PM »

SNACKS! FLIP-FLOPS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tt7NYkPPSg

cav58d · « **Reply #8 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:39:57 PM »

HAHA...The look on LD's face at the end when his mother - in- law says "Somebody get a spunge" is priceless

Masherbrum · « **Reply #9 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:48:37 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by cav58d
SNACKS! FLIP-FLOPS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tt7NYkPPSg

I didn't find that funny. Especially since my Aunt's Mother and Father emigrated from Poland, barely spoke any English, and were Auschwitz survivors. But every time I saw them, they'd smile, and they also had tattoos. I'm sorry, I cannot joke around with stuff like that.

I have a sense of humor, but that is over the top.

Charon · « **Reply #10 on:** March 07, 2007, 03:59:26 PM »

I worked part time with a nice older lady named Helen in the medical records department of a clinic in Skokie in the early 1980s. We never discussed her time in the camps, but you could catch a glimpse of the tatoo on occasion.

Charon

Denholm · « **Reply #11 on:** March 07, 2007, 06:45:45 PM »

I must agree with Masherbrum, you can't joke around with concentration camps, especially Auschwitz!