The Legacy of Anne Frank by Gillian Walnes Perry

Author:Gillian Walnes Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: HISTORY / Holocaust
ISBN: 9781526731050
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2018-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

Inside a 19th-century chapel, flanked by high-security walls, sat row upon row of hardened criminals. Ninety of them, clad in regulation grey track-suits, waited for the most unlikely of guests to a high-security prison – an 85-year-old, 5ft 2in woman dressed daintily in cardigan, trouser-suit and shoulder-bag. For the next two hours, the Wormwood Scrubs inmates sat tall, hands clasped often at their chest, while not one of them spoke as Eva Schloss described in vivid detail how her family was betrayed, captured by the Nazis, and suffered at the hands of sadistic guards at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp. There was no sound other than the occasional gasp or a discreet shuffle as someone moved uncomfortably in his seat . . .

Eva spoke calmly of the time she was tortured and made to strip naked in front of male guards, and revealed how she and her mother were forced to join a line for ‘work’ while others were separated and sent to ‘shower’ – the Nazi slang for gas chambers. She witnessed friends being dragged from their queue to take their place among those destined for death. She told how her father’s last words to her were ones of regret and failure at the thought he had been unable to protect his family from the horrors of the Nazis. These and other stories – such as how she had her hair shaved in the cold of winter, and no clothes to protect her skin in summer – visibly moved her tough audience. One of them, David (name altered), admitted that the way Eva Schloss had described her own father’s reaction had reduced him to tears. ‘I got chills. I was the same age as her father when I was sent to prison and that is how I feel about my family. I’ve let them down,’ he said.

Michael, 23, who is serving a two-year term for possessing a replica gun, said: ‘It made me cry to hear her story. I came to this country when I was very young. My wife and kids are British and I’m facing deportation, all because of my mistake. Even though it is nothing like what happened to Eva, I can relate to that feeling of being kicked out of somewhere you call home because people think you are bad. In the same way people say all Jews are this or all Muslims are that, not all prisoners are the same. We are still human beings. I’m young and I want the chance to change my life. Eva’s story teaches us all about responsibility. The Nazis were responsible for their actions, and Eva was responsible for how she felt after.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.