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Old 01-27-2005, 10:43 PM   #1
spydar
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Join Date: March 6, 2003
Location: my parlour
Age: 40
Posts: 510
Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. My "Aunt" Greta was a little jewish girl from the Hague in Holland whom my Oma and Opa took care of during the occupation of WWII. My dad told me a story of one time my Oma went to the market to get some rations and took Greta, who they were passing off as the daughter of a dead sister, and my dad, who wasn't even a year old. On the way they passed a Dutchman who was known to have sympathies with the Nazies. All he said to her was that she should take Greta home cause she was obviously not related to my Oma. Greta was the very picture of a little jewish girl staying with the very picture of the perfect Aryan family. Another time my Oma was on the train with Greta, my dad, and my Auntie Scottie, when a German soldier sat down beside them. He saw that my Oma's arms were full with packages and children so he offered to hold Greta. He bounced her on his knee (she was 5 at the time) and tickled her before handing her back, telling my Oma that Greta "reminded him of his own daughter".

Greta came to be with my Oma and Opa after her entire family was taken to Auschwitz, where they were all murdered in the gas chambers, along with a total of 1.5 million other Jews, Russian POW's, homoesexuals, political prisoners, and Gypsies. Greta's only living relative was and uncle who had moved to Australia before the war. She was sent there to live with him after my Opa and Oma placed her on a list of surviving Jewish children who were without family. Greta now lives in Sydney and comes to Canada every 4 years to visit. I only ever thought she was my aunt until my Oma and Opa were honoured as Righteous Gentiles when I was very young, I think about 10 years old.

There was a disturbing Canada referrence I just learned from watching a special on Auschwitz on the History channel. The prisoners used to call the warehouses where all their valuables and possesions were stored upon arrival, then also after they were murdered, as "Canada". I felt sick when I heard that. They called the warehouses "Canada" because it was seen as "a land of plenty".
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