I heard a rebroadcast of an episode of Talk of Iowa this morning that told the story of Celina Karp Biniaz. Born in Krakow, she and her family were imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz before being assigned to the factory owned by Oskar Schindler. Celina met Dr. Josef Mengele face to face as she was processed at Auschwitz. She stood naked before the infamous doctor who initially waived his pencil to the right, signaling that Celina was assigned to the group that was to be put to death. As Mengele walked past her she blurted out, "Let me go". Mengele stopped, and waived his pencil to the left, signaling that Celina would live. After being liberated in May of 1945 Celina and her family eventually made it to the US and settled in Des Moines, and went on to attend Grinnell College. She quickly learned that Americans didn't really want to talk about the Holocaust, and for decades kept her story of survival to herself.
It was an amazingly powerful interview. She stated that part of her reason for speaking late in her life is to counter modern day hate, and to promote her belief that people need to be taught how to hate. It is not innate. Unfortunately I could not find a link to the archived edition of the interview.
Here is a link to her book, Saved By Schindler. To be clear in the title of the thread I added the second portion.
https://icecubepress.com/2022/05/19/saved-by-schindler-2/
It was an amazingly powerful interview. She stated that part of her reason for speaking late in her life is to counter modern day hate, and to promote her belief that people need to be taught how to hate. It is not innate. Unfortunately I could not find a link to the archived edition of the interview.
Here is a link to her book, Saved By Schindler. To be clear in the title of the thread I added the second portion.
https://icecubepress.com/2022/05/19/saved-by-schindler-2/
