Hoag Rebecca Ebner - Letters to Rose: a holocaust memoir with letters of impact and inspiration from the Next Gen

Letters to RoseA Holocaust Memoir with
Letters of Impact and Inspiration from the Next Generation

Copyright 2019 by Rose Sherman Williams,

Rebecca Ebner Hoag,
and Robin L. Philbrick.

All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the authors. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Cover and internal rose designed by Carey Jedow

Print ISBN: 978-1-54396-334-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-54396-335-9

Letters to Rose is dedicated to Holocaust survivors around the world who have shared their stories in hopes of preventing such atrocities from ever happening again. This memoir is also dedicated to educators who continue to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and to their students who learn from the experience and commit to being the voice of Holocaust victims in the future.

Come, take this giant leap with me

Into the other worldthe other place

Where language fails and imagery defies,

denies mans consciousnessand dies

upon the altar of insanity.

For Yom Ha Shoah,

By Sonia Weitz

Copyright2018 by Facing History and Ourselves.

Printed by Permission. www.facinghistory.org

FOREWORD

As a Holocaust survivor, I feel an urgency, especially in todays world, to continue to share a horrific personal story in hopes that such an abomination might never happen again. Whether talking to students or adults, I try to also convey a sense of hope, a message that with faith, perseverance, and the help of others, we can overcome even the most difficult obstacles in life. Over the last decade or more, I have told my tale to thousands. If even a few of those lives have been touched, my efforts will have been worth it.

The first time I visited San Antonios Johnson High School (2015), I was absolutely overwhelmed. Over seven hundred students filled the auditorium. Teacher Robin Philbrick set the tone with a beautiful introduction. The JROTC cadets escorted me across the stage. Tears stung my eyes when I looked out and saw hundreds of teens on their feet applauding me before I spoke a word. But most touching was seeing tears in their eyes as they listened to my story of the many atrocities suffered in the concentration camps.

After my talk, students lined up patiently to greet me on stage, take a picture, grab a hug.all but one. One young woman leapt onto the stage, ignoring the line, and threw her arms around me, sobbing. She told me how she related to my story as she herself had suffered abuse and deprivation. She had given up on herself and any hope of having a decent life. After hearing my story, she felt inspired, hopeful. She promised me she would pursue college and make something of herself. What could possibly be more rewarding to me than that!

My connection to Robin and her students only grew stronger each year, culminating in students from the 2018 graduating class, along with a few students from previous years, wanting to collaborate on a book about my story and their responses in Letters to Rose. I cannot begin to describe how honored I felt. Hundreds of students have written me letters over the years, but these students wanted to do more: They not only wished to share their thoughts, feelings, and emotions in response to my story but also to share their voices and mine publicly. They have taken on the responsibility of carrying my story forward.

Robin had a concept for the book, but she needed someone who knew my story. She asked Becky Hoag to co-author with her. Becky and I began bonding through our work at the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio in 2007. For a dozen or so years, we have grown together as friends. Now, I consider Becky family. I feel like we couldnt be any closer if we were mother and daughter. My gratitude toward her for being my friend, family, and caretaker is indescribable. Its almost impossible to articulate the feelings we have for one another. Only Becky, who knows me so well, would I entrust to tell my story. I am so grateful she agreed to the project.

As survivors of the Holocaust, many of us will vocalize the same fear: If we are alive, showing our tattoos and telling our stories, and yet some deny the Holocaust ever happened, what will happen when we are gone? Will there be even more deniers? Will history inevitably repeat itself? My hope, my prayer, is that through efforts like this book, through the actions of youth in learning from and retelling the inhumanity of this dark time in history, our survivors voices will continue to be here long after we are gone.

Rose Sherman Williams

San Antonio, Texas, April 25, 2018

Letter to Rose

My Dear Rose,

During the ten years that you shared your horrifying experience as a Holocaust survivor with us, I compiled a notebook with hundreds my students letters, many of which would come to be included in Letters to Rose . Their words were heartfelt, compelling and sincere. In many instances they could relate an element of your story to an experience of their own. As a teacher, I knew that meeting a Holocaust survivor would leave an indelible imprint on their lives and that they would be forever connected to you. The same can be said for me.

But a one-hour speech barely touches the surface. Your memoir in Letters to Rose has enlightened us by answering many of the very questions expressed by my students in their letters.

One story that truly touched us all was your reunion with your sister, Binne, and how finding her meant so much to you, how your reunion gave you reason to survive, to live. Many students wondered what your life was like before the Nazi invasion of Poland and the hostile takeover of your home town of Radom. They asked if you were you always close to your brothers and sister, or if there was any sibling rivalry as kids. What fond memories do you have of your childhood?

Your description of the horrors of life in the ghetto and at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen was chilling and left a lasting impression on us all. In fact, typically I would introduce my classes to you at the end of our study of the Holocaust. But in my final year of teaching, they met you in the middle of the unit, which made their study of the concentration camps more frightening and all too real as they pictured you, a young Rose, in every detail of our readings and every video clip. Again, your memoir actually answered their questions. They were in awe of your strength and courage, particularly during the times when you were completely alone. They wondered who reached out to you. Who did you inspire in their time of need? How did you find the strength to go through each day and to curb the overwhelming fear you must have felt?

Especially alarming for nearly every student was the mind-boggling knowledge that you were the same age as they when the Nazis changed your life forever. Given how young you were when you lost your parents, were there stories or lessons they taught you that helped you survive? Or was it too painful to think about them, as we read in Elie Wiesels All Rivers Run to the Sea, where he expresses his inability to reconcile the loss of his parents?

You mentioned in your speech the joy of discovering that your older brother had also survived. How did you and Binne come to find him after the war? What happened to the three of you after liberation? In a sense, my students felt comforted that you were able to share your sadness and loss together. They took to heart your homework assignment to go home and tell their families that they love them, because as you said, we never know what will happen tomorrow.