In late January 2016, I had the opportunity to meet Holocaust survivor, Marty Weiss. Sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Marty shared the story of his arrest by Hungarian collaborators in 1944; his experiences surviving Auschwitz and Mauthausen, his liberation, and subsequent family life. Having returned only three weeks prior from a visit to Auschwitz myself, his story affected me in more ways than I can explain. I could remember the cold, the gray landscapes, the piles of rubble at the crematorium of Auschwitz II. The sign marking where Mengele committed experiments on twins. It remained acutely fresh and ever-haunting. The most poignant moment of Marty’s story for me was when an audience member asked him, “Does the world feel like it did in the 1940s?” Marty replied, “No. But it feels a lot like 1937-1938.” In other words, it felt very much like how it did with increasing racial hostilities and violence.
I was fortunate enough to speak briefly with Marty after his talk. That evening, I felt the honor of having heard his story and had the opportunity to know this gentleman, if only briefly. It reminded me of how “alive” and relevant the Holocaust continues to be in the twenty-first century. It also emphasized to me the importance of continuing to openly discuss and present Holocaust stories to the public. Since I’ve shared his story and picture with my classes. I treasure the brief meeting I had with Marty–a fleeting evening that will last a lifetime.
A link to Marty’s story on the USHMM website can be found here:
https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-survivors/volunteers/martin-weiss
Four years later, I had another chance meeting. This time with one of my “academic heroes,” Dr. Efraim Zuroff. Dr. Zuroff is self-described as the world’s “last Nazi hunter” and is known worldwide for his role in capturing Dinko Šakić, the former, Croatian commandant of Jasenovac Concentration Camp. He is also the author of multiple books and a scholar at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem. For me, he is particularly important because of his work investigating and uncovering Holocaust collaboration across Eastern Europe. Notably, he discusses this work in his book (co-authored with Lithuanian author, Rūta Vanagaitė) Our People. It was my honor to spend an afternoon with him, and also to hear his presentation.
History, Hiking, and Human Rights 