The Awareness Needs to be Out There!

My step-dad thankfully arrived safely on Monday from his trip to Krakow, Poland. He spent 2 weeks visiting his friend who happens to live there. He didn't only plan to go to Krakow to visit his friend. He had been planning this kind of trip for other reasons over the last 6 months. He had an intense need to visit the Museum of Auschwitz. His need for this apparently remained dormant within him until my mother passed on last November. He never really spoke a word of it prior to that. Her death had triggered many emotions hidden within himself to emerge.

My step-dad was raised in a small, Christian town in Oregon. His father was Jewish and his mother was English Episcopalian. Through out his childhood, his father always told him not to mention a word to the neighbors or his classmates about his heritage. He never celebrated Jewish holidays and was raised as a Christian. Obviously, his father was terrified of antisemitism. My step-dad was born in 1953, only 8 years after the war had ended. Though he was American, he was still afraid. My step-dad admitted to me recently how much he resented his father for not opening up more about half of his ethnic roots all because of fear. He often wonders if he had family in Europe that was murdered by the Nazis. He is on a quest to find out more and he said he did get some closure by visiting the museum. He did not talk much about that visit, and I can't say that I blame him. I honestly did not want to hear much of the details of what he may have seen there either. But I am glad that he went. I can't even imagine what a time that was.

Even though I am not Jewish or a gypsy, or having any family killed in the Holocaust (that I am aware of anyway), I am extremely sensitive to the whole thing. I wish to not talk about the whole reason as to why. But I am going to say this much. My maternal grandmother was half Dutch. Her uncle was still living in Amsterdam during the war. He was obviously a very good man who hid a Jewish family. Unfortunately the Gestapo found them. They shipped the family off to the camps and took my great-great uncle and publicly executed him. My gosh what an evil, evil time it was. When my mother told me that story years ago, I felt extremely sick. My step-dad is not only on a quest to find out more about his roots, but he is helping to spread the awareness about the Holocaust and what had really happened. I am proud of him for doing that, because it needs to be known.