The following story was written by Beatrice Wyllie and shared as part of the Memory Project.
I choose today over yesterday. I choose to enjoy every minute of every day. At some time in my past, I decided that what I owed the millions of people that did not survive was to live my life the best I could and be grateful that I was able to escape through the back of the house while the Nazi were looking for us at the front door.
I don’t have to be constantly reminded of the atrocities that were done. I was there when the Nazi gathered old men and women and took them to concentration camps. I remember my uncles working in labor camps. I was there when little children came back from the camps with their little bellies extended from hunger. I was there and will never forget.
I speak at the Holocaust Museum to children so that they will hear about the war and, when they grow up and they will try to make a better world.
Don’t drown me with the past. You don’t have to remind me, I live with it every day. I still hate sirens because of my past, and I hate fireworks. They remind me of the big guns that were fired toward the planes that came twice a day to bomb us. I can still hear the hum of the airplanes as they flew over Bucharest to drop their bombs. Sixty years later, I am still hungry, I am still hoarding food and cannot stop. I have taught my daughter never to throw food away. Do you really think I need reminders? I think not.
[11-2-2009]