Witnessing memoirs to the events that took place
during one of history’s most memorable times, the Holocaust, is an experience I
believe everyone should have. I have been fortunate enough now to have gone to
two Holocaust Museums. The unique piece of this trip was the opportunity to
meet Magda Brown, an Auschwitz Holocaust Survivor.
Born in
Hungary, at just sixteen years of age, Magda Brown’s entire world was changed
when the Hungarian government allowed the SS to turn her once home into part of a
Jewish ghetto. Here she endured the forced invasion of over 40 strangers in one
house with minimal food, water supplies, sanitary facilities, and the constant
threat of fatal violence by Nazi soldiers and Hungarian police. It was not long
after the forced concentration of over 500,000 Jews into these ghettos, that
under the order of SS lieutenant colonel Adolf Eichmann, those 500,000 Jews were
systematically deported to Auschwitz, the primary Nazi death camp.
Magda described in horrific detail her experience on the way to, and in Auschwitz. She was stuffed into a small cargo train with her family and 80-85 others. She stood for three days and three nights without any food and one pail of water that was never refilled to share amongst everyone. I noticed that Magda kept repeating multiple times, "You know all of the personalities you learn about in psychology; people who are angry, indifferent, who cry or panic; well they were all there on that train." When Magda stepped off the train she found out that the Nazi Army had lied to her. An officer stopped her and her mother: he pointed Magda in one direction and her mother in the other. They had been told that the families would not be separated… but that was the last time Magda ever saw her mother. Magda was forced to strip, have her head and body shaved, be saturated in disinfectant, and shower in a room full of strangers her first day in the camp. From there many other horrific things happened to her. However, Magda was found to be physically strong, and so they moved her from Auschwitz to a factory where she built poisonous bombs for the SS Army. It was during a hike to a new worksite, what she called a “death march” due to the weather and physical conditions of the people that Magda and her group were liberated by the Allies. Martha was now free again.
Magda described in horrific detail her experience on the way to, and in Auschwitz. She was stuffed into a small cargo train with her family and 80-85 others. She stood for three days and three nights without any food and one pail of water that was never refilled to share amongst everyone. I noticed that Magda kept repeating multiple times, "You know all of the personalities you learn about in psychology; people who are angry, indifferent, who cry or panic; well they were all there on that train." When Magda stepped off the train she found out that the Nazi Army had lied to her. An officer stopped her and her mother: he pointed Magda in one direction and her mother in the other. They had been told that the families would not be separated… but that was the last time Magda ever saw her mother. Magda was forced to strip, have her head and body shaved, be saturated in disinfectant, and shower in a room full of strangers her first day in the camp. From there many other horrific things happened to her. However, Magda was found to be physically strong, and so they moved her from Auschwitz to a factory where she built poisonous bombs for the SS Army. It was during a hike to a new worksite, what she called a “death march” due to the weather and physical conditions of the people that Magda and her group were liberated by the Allies. Martha was now free again.
Something I will never forget from meeting Magda Brown, aside from the first hand testimony of the horrors that occurred, was her state of healing. Magda stated, "When I was in the cargo train some people would hold their hand out of the window, hoping for some food, water, or even just another hand. Many outsiders turned away from us. Whether they were afraid or not I’m not going to analyze it; that’s on their conscience." As Magda said this she shook her head and her arm, as if to brush off the dust from that memory of her life. Magda also said, "I used to get angry when people would deny the Holocaust. But I realized I have the power to speak the truth and reach over thousands, like I am doing right now speaking with all of you." Magda’s ability to allow her suffering to lay on the conscious of those who betrayed her, as opposed to owning that anger and justice which is rightfully hers, showed tremendous healing to me. It is a healing I truly cannot understand; but nonetheless left me inspired in the strength of humans overcoming suffering. It is extremely relevant to the content we are learning in class right now about the ability of humans to forgive, who has the right to do it, and in what ways should forgiveness be done. I think Magda found peace by allowing her persecutors to choose whether to forgive themselves or not.
Magda asked us to remember three things before our time with her was done. She asked us to always protect our freedom, not to hate because that rests with our conscience, and in so many words, to speak up. As she explained earlier, she has had the ability to profess the truth about the Holocaust. She wished us the same courage in being strong and to never remain silent.
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