Excerpts from “WHILE WE STILL CAN” by Yael Zoldan:
On the rare occasions when my grandmother spoke of Europe before the war, I listened with the mounting dread of someone watching a horror movie. The tension was terrible. Underneath the singsong sound of her accented words, I could hear my own shallow breathing and feel the small hairs on my neck rising. Strains of eerie music were ramping up in my ears. My stomach clenched and twisted. My heart beat madly in my chest. I needed her to go on, and I wished that she would stop.
Because I knew the ending. The shattered glass, the cattle cars, Arbeit Macht Frei on the twisted metal gates. I knew what she didn’t know then, and it terrified me.
I wanted to go back in time to help her. I wanted to shake her. I wanted to shock her, to shock all of them out of their complacency. I wanted to scream, Don’t stay in Europe! Don’t you know what’s going to happen?! Get out while you can!
…
These days, in a different America, I look around at libraries and parks, peaceful places that have been turned into sites of mass protests by raging, screaming, hate-filled people. I don’t know these people. But they seem to know me. They know me and they hate me. They hate you, too.
These are college students. Professors. Deans and businessmen. Newscasters, reporters, senators. I look at these people, the best and the brightest our country has to offer, and I can’t decide if they’re crazy. Or if we are.
Just yesterday — or last week? Last month? — these normal-looking people stood before us in line at the store, exchanging murmured “Good mornings,” commenting on the weather and the price of milk. Today they gather in seething masses, protesting our right to be alive. Such an old hatred on their bright young faces, twisting their features into diabolical masks.
“Kill the Jews!” they chant. “Gas the Jews!” Their eyes shine with the seductive hatred that is ancient and knows no reason. “Hitler should have finished you off!” they shout hoarsely.
…
(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 868)
Read the rest on Mishpacha here…
Ever heard the expression “Time to wake up and face the music”?