Sunday, November 8, 2009

Eva Olssen: Holocaust Survivor

The holocaust was the one of the biggest genocides ever in the world, and was a huge tragedy for so many millions of people who lost loved ones or were forced to work in a concentration camp. Approximately 6 million people in Europe died, Jewish and other religions as well, as a result of pure hate. The Nazis had no remorse for anyone that died, and they murdered everyone in their path, including Eva Olssen’s entire family except her sister.

Eva Olssen is a Jewish woman, and when she was just 19 the Nazis came and took everything from her, including her whole family. They took her to the concentration camp, Auschwitz, where they immediately murdered her whole family except her. The only thing that kept her alive during her time in concentration camps was courage and hope that she would get out alive. And she was released, when she was 21.

Eva’s main message was that being a bystander is just as bad as being a bully. When they Nazis were taking her family the whole town just stood and watched. If you are witnessing bullying and don’t do anything about it, you are just as bad as the bully.

What impacted me the most about her speech was when she talked about how she never got to say goodbye to her mom, and that you should always tell your family you love them, because you don’t know if they’re going to be there tomorrow. I could tell she was very emotional about using the word hate, and she told us instead to use the word dislike.

It was really great to hear Eva’s story, I think it impacted a lot of people who heard it. She has been through so much and she can still break her silence and talk about it after so long, and be a really good speaker, was really impressive and I was happy that I got to listen to her story.

Katie xoxo.