Horrors of Jewish Holocaust remembered

Photo By Giancarlo Casem | Spc. David Scanlan, 708th Medical Company, reads information about Kristallnacht and the Jewish Holocaust, at Camp Arifjan, May 1.  

05.01.2008

Story by Spc. Wesley Landrum 

50th Public Affairs Detachment

By Wesley Landrum
50th Public Affairs Detachment

KUWAIT - "My father was encamped at Auschwitz for over two years," Szafran said as he looked at a photo of the front gate of the concentration camp. "I have been there, I can look at the pictures and I know in my mind all the stories that my father told me that related to each picture up there. He has a story for every picture that's up there on that wall."

Camp Arifjan's Equal Opportunity office honored the victims of the Holocaust with an exhibit in the Zone 1 post exchange April 30 and May 1. Titled "Do Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht 1938," the exhibit told of the night of November 9, 1938, which ended the more than 2,000 year history of Jews in Germany.

On that cataclysmic evening, organized groups of Nazi party members attacked Jewish homes, and in the span of a just a few hours, hundreds of synagogues and their holy teachings were set on fire throughout the country. In all, 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed. Cemeteries and schools were vandalized and thousands of Jewish citizens were horribly beaten with 100 dying as a result of the attacks.

In the end, 30,000 Jewish men were sent the Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Between 2,000 and 2,500 died during transportation. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Jews were made to clean up and repair all the damaged property and a fine of one billion marks was placed against the Jewish community. Sgt. 1st Class Vicki Teigue, Area Support Group – Kuwait equal opportunity officer, said the Days of Remembrance is something that is regularly observed and it is a goal to educate the service members on the events that happened during the Holocaust.

"To me it is important to remember the Holocaust to honor those who experienced this tragedy, not only for the Jews, gypsies, the mentally ill and also to those who tried to help them," Teigue said. "We as a society should never forget this part of history; we should learn from it and do everything in our power to never let it happen again."

Szafran said all events, good and bad, need to be remembered.

"It's an event in history, unfortunately with catastrophic events, they have to be remembered so they're not forgot," Szafran said. "So somebody would actually have a proactive view to see something that may be starting in the same direction and prevent it from ever happening again."

Maj. Gen. Charles A. Anderson, U.S. Army Central deputy commanding general, said exhibits like the Holocaust museum enlighten Soldiers to the events of the past. It also reminds them of the values the Army has.

"It all gets back to treating each other with respect and dignity and the Army values," Anderson said. "It goes back the core values we have in our Army. [The Holocaust] is a prime example of how a wide-spread, malicious approach to treating others can cause severe damage.

Spc. David Scanlan, 708th Medical Company, said he was surprised at some of the pictures he saw in the exhibit. He said he makes a person wonder why things happen to a point.

"It was surprising to me how young a lot of the children were that were there. I've seen a lot of pictures of the adults but to see the children there, it was most eye opening to me," Scanlan said.

Szafran said his father and uncle were the only ones from their family to survive the concentration camps. He said from day one, the Germans began the thinning out process.

"When my father arrived at Auschwitz, they came in on the train. As soon as he got off the train, there were SS guards there to do a visual inspection to see if you can do the work they want you to do," he said. "Immediately they were segregated from those who couldn't work, the young children, pregnant women and the elderly, who were immediately sent down the road to the gas chambers. You were either placed in barracks on the Birkenau side or the Auschwitz side and that's where you lived 24 hrs a day except when you worked."

Szafran said his father, now 80, travels back to Poland every summer. One summer in particular, the elder Szafran took his grandsons with him. Szafran made the trip from Kuwait to Poland and joined the group as they toured the infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz. The grandfather went back to the barracks he stayed in and then toured the surrounding area. Two buildings down from his barracks were the gas chambers. The younger Szafran said he could see the pain on his father's face as, not more than 30 meters from where he stayed, the Nazis took his friends when they could no longer perform the work and killed them. While painful for the old man, Szafran said it his way of telling the story.

"He felt it was something that he passed onto me," Szaran said, tears forming in his eyes. "Now, he was going to pass it on to my son and nephew so the story could be continued and survive."

• Date Taken: 05.01.2008
• Date Posted: 05.08.2008 13:05
• Story ID: 19225