Ilana Lindenblatt

He was taken on a long, slow march to the main Auschwitz camp, and whoever was in the back of the line would be shot, so he kept running up to be at the front of the line. When finally he was liberated, he was taken to a hospital back in Krakow. Later, he was sent to an orphanage, where parents would come looking for their displaced children.

He was taken on a long, slow march to the main Auschwitz camp, and whoever was in the back of the line would be shot, so he kept running up to be at the front of the line. When finally he was liberated, he was taken to a hospital back in Krakow. Later, he was sent to an orphanage, where parents would come looking for their displaced children.

He was sitting on the top floor, his legs dangling out the window with some of the other boys, when someone came in to tell him his mother was downstairs, but... We had to stop talking because there were some speakers at the event, and the president of the museum was going to make a speech. And that was fine by me because I had sunk into what was a now familiar speechlessness.

He was sitting on the top floor, his legs dangling out the window with some of the other boys, when someone came in to tell him his mother was downstairs, but... We had to stop talking because there were some speakers at the event, and the president of the museum was going to make a speech. And that was fine by me because I had sunk into what was a now familiar speechlessness.

one that never changes in the face of the distressing glimpse of what humanity is capable of, of what a person is asked to live with, of how it changes them forever. It is this speechlessness, or maybe just the blessed limits of my imagination, or the blessed limits of my abilities as an interviewer, that stops me from knowing how to ask questions that will yield stories like this.

one that never changes in the face of the distressing glimpse of what humanity is capable of, of what a person is asked to live with, of how it changes them forever. It is this speechlessness, or maybe just the blessed limits of my imagination, or the blessed limits of my abilities as an interviewer, that stops me from knowing how to ask questions that will yield stories like this.

That is the problem with the Holocaust. though of course not its main problem, which was that it was the Holocaust. The problem is that you could grow up thinking about it all the time and still not even be able to imagine how bad it was. There is no bottom to the depths of cruelty and depravity that you can learn about if you just ask the right question of the kind, calm man sitting next to you.

That is the problem with the Holocaust. though of course not its main problem, which was that it was the Holocaust. The problem is that you could grow up thinking about it all the time and still not even be able to imagine how bad it was. There is no bottom to the depths of cruelty and depravity that you can learn about if you just ask the right question of the kind, calm man sitting next to you.

But you have had such a privileged life that you don't even know which questions to ask. And the questions I can formulate are so rude and raw that they threaten to make life just a little more awful than it is right now for someone who has, frankly, been put through quite enough and does not have to sit for my demoralizing and morbid and even lurid curiosity.

But you have had such a privileged life that you don't even know which questions to ask. And the questions I can formulate are so rude and raw that they threaten to make life just a little more awful than it is right now for someone who has, frankly, been put through quite enough and does not have to sit for my demoralizing and morbid and even lurid curiosity.

Besides, how could any survivor give me a satisfying answer to, How do you live knowing that people are capable of this? Or, Do you ever wonder what it means about you or God or fate or coincidence that you were sent there seven times and spared each time? Or how can you bear to know the measure of all that this world contains?

Besides, how could any survivor give me a satisfying answer to, How do you live knowing that people are capable of this? Or, Do you ever wonder what it means about you or God or fate or coincidence that you were sent there seven times and spared each time? Or how can you bear to know the measure of all that this world contains?

How do you live in a world where you were in a concentration camp while your cousin was on the Wonder Wheel? But also, what was the point of all of this Holocaust education if, while you are still alive, a survey by the Claims Conference found that 15% of American adults under 30 believe the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust is greatly exaggerated?

How do you live in a world where you were in a concentration camp while your cousin was on the Wonder Wheel? But also, what was the point of all of this Holocaust education if, while you are still alive, a survey by the Claims Conference found that 15% of American adults under 30 believe the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust is greatly exaggerated?

and that 24% believed that fewer than 2 million Jews were killed during the war, and 48% of all American adults surveyed could not name one of the concentration camps or ghettos or other of the more than 44,000 killing sites that the Nazis used to torture and murder Jews.

and that 24% believed that fewer than 2 million Jews were killed during the war, and 48% of all American adults surveyed could not name one of the concentration camps or ghettos or other of the more than 44,000 killing sites that the Nazis used to torture and murder Jews.

Is there any rational way to explain why, from 2018 to 2023, right here in New York State, where the largest number of Jews outside of Israel live, Hate crimes against Jews rose by 89 percent, so that in 2023 they made up 44 percent of all hate crimes. And did you see the swastika they spray-painted on the Romamu Synagogue on the Upper West Side? Or die Jew on a random wall in Riverside Park?

Is there any rational way to explain why, from 2018 to 2023, right here in New York State, where the largest number of Jews outside of Israel live, Hate crimes against Jews rose by 89 percent, so that in 2023 they made up 44 percent of all hate crimes. And did you see the swastika they spray-painted on the Romamu Synagogue on the Upper West Side? Or die Jew on a random wall in Riverside Park?

And did you hear that someone threw a brick through the glass door of the kosher pizza place on the East Side? Do you think they know that when they do that, we consider, based on our education and what we know about history, that it's the smashing of the glass of a Jewish business that turned the basic ongoing anti-Semitism into the actual Holocaust?

And did you hear that someone threw a brick through the glass door of the kosher pizza place on the East Side? Do you think they know that when they do that, we consider, based on our education and what we know about history, that it's the smashing of the glass of a Jewish business that turned the basic ongoing anti-Semitism into the actual Holocaust?