Documentary     
After Auschwitz      

Auschwitz

   
   Of six million Jewish people murdered in Nazi 
concentration camps, one million died at Auschwitz, 
a network of three camps and 45 satellite camps. 

   A documentary follows six survivors, who tell how they tried to put their lives back together. Their liberation proved as uncertain and dangerous as their captivity. All six eventually came to America.

   Linda Sherman explained that Russian troops raped many young women who were left behind. 

   Rena Drexler said, "Polish people wouldn't let us (back) in our house. They were wearing our clothes." She and other survivors wandered city to city across Europe in search of food, jobs and missing family members. 

   Renee Firestone's train from New York City to Los Angeles brought flashbacks of being packed in a cattle car. She started a family, but had to explain to her daughter why she didn't have grandparents, as did her school friends.

   Erika Jacoby was amazed at abundance here, but racial segregation and the Kennedy assassination ended any fantasy about America.

   Eva Beckmann became discouraged by genocides in Sudan, Rwanda and Cambodia. "I don't think teaching about the Holocaust will make the slightest difference," she said, noting that abortion advocates deny the lesson of Auschwitz applies to them. 

WORLD magazine

   Still, most of the women spent years telling younger generations about the Holocaust. The 2017 documentary by the late Claude Lanzmann was a follow-up to his 1985 film, Shoah. 

   The end of World War II didn't end suffering for survivors, nor did it end hate and injustice around the world. Since then, Stalin, Mao and Hussein killed tens of millions. State-sponsored imprisonment and death continues in China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey and no doubt other countries. Dictators don't take opposition lightly. They don't tweet. 

      Jimmy