Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Wrestling with God

Home
New Visions
At Auschwitz — A Woman Who Didn’t Choose Life

At Auschwitz — A Woman Who Didn’t Choose Life

Last updated on: September 15, 2015 at 12:01 am by Barbara Falconer Newhall

At Auschwitz — A Woman Who Didn’t Choose Life 2015-09-06T19:57:19-08:00 Barbara Falconer Newhall

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Star of David patches, similar to the ones Ernie’s mother sewed to her family’s clothing. Collection of the Dohany Street Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Barbara Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

For three days – the entire train trip – the cattle car doors had been kept sealed. Several people had died, and there had been no way to remove their bodies. But, now, at last, the doors opened and a ramp was placed at the door. Ernie Hollander watched his mother walk down the ramp ahead of him. She held Ernie’s two youngest sisters in her arms, the five-year-old and the seven-year-old. A third sister, nine years old, walked alongside her mother.

It was 1944. Ernie and his family had arrived at Auschwitz. Ernie was seventeen years old and on his coat he wore a large yellow Star of David. His mother had sewn it there for him. He and his family had traveled the three days without food in the crowded cattle car from the family’s home in Iloshvo, a town in the Carpathian Mountains in what was then Hungary.

At the bottom of the ramp, an official motioned Ernie’s three sisters to the left — and their mother to the right.

“My mother could have saved herself,” said Ernie. “She was still young. She was in her

Shoes from a Nazi concentration camp. Dohany Street Synagogue museum. Photo by Barbara Newhall

thirties. She could work.” Ernie’s father and brothers could also work. But the three small girls were too young to be of much use to the Third Reich. The guard told them to go to the left.

Ernie’s mother refused to be separated. “I don’t want to give up my children,” she protested. And she went to the left with her daughters.

“She didn’t know what means left,” Ernie told me. “But I know in my heart that if my mother would know what’s happening on the left, she would still not give up the children. Which mother would give up children? And she went with the children to the left. Five minutes later they were dead.”

“At that time we didn’t know,” Ernie said. “But the people who were working in the crematoriums and the gas chambers were Jewish people. After a few days we asked, ‘Do you know what happened to these people who went to the left?’

“They said, ‘You see that chimney over there where the smoke comes out? They were

Rocks left on the facade of the synagogue in memory of the dead. Photo by Barbara Newhall

dead a half an hour after they arrived. That’s where they killed all the people who went to the left.’ And only then you found out that there were gas chambers.”

I met Ernie Hollander in the course of researching my book “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith.” After the war, Ernie migrated to Oakland, California, where he was active in his synagogue, Congregation Beth Jacob. He died in 2002 at the age of seventy-seven.

If this story resonated with you, you might wish to read “Atticus Finch, Meet Mother Emanuel.” Also, “Can a Christian Say Kaddish for Her Jewish Aunt?”\

Facade of the Dohany Street Synagogue. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Uncategorized

auschwitz

dohany street synagogue

Previous Post

September 8, 2015

My Pope Francis Bubble Has Popped -- Here's Why

Next Post

September 22, 2015 Want to See Your Creator? Go Look at a Rock

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the first Christian martyr?

Select your answer to see how you score.

James Stephen Peter Paul