By Eli Johnson
Today we got the opportunity to meet with Monika Goldwasser. Ms. Goldwasser gave us the details of her experiences during the Holocaust, as well as the many years of her life she spent looking for information about her family.
She started her talk off by giving us the background on her biological parents. They were both Jewish and were married at a young age. They were married in one on the Synagogues that we saw in the Jewish Quarter Tour. After they were married, they moved away to a nearby town hoping to get away from the Nazis.
However, when Ms. Goldwasser was very young, about 8 months old, the Nazis called all the Jewish people to the City Center. Understanding this danger Ms. Goldwasser’s parents placed her into hiding. She does not know who hid her, but this was the last interaction she had with her biological parents. Her mother carried a doll cradled to her chest to trick the Nazis into thinking Ms. Goldwasser was there.
Eventually, Ms. Goldwasser was taken by a group of nuns who took misplaced children. The nuns gave her to a couple when she was a toddler, and they took her in as their daughter. Ms. Goldwasser believed they were her biological parents until her mom told her the truth when she was on her death bed, Ms. Goldwasser was 23.
Like many surviving Holocaust kids Ms. Goldwasser struggled with an identity crisis. This was something that Ms. Goldwasser struggled with heavily, so much so that she didn’t even tell her husband when they got married.
The Struggle that she experienced reminded me of This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen. It reminded me of the book as even after the holocaust Tadek struggled with guilt and many other struggles. I connected this as it shows that even after they survived the holocaust they had so many struggles emotionally and mentally.
This struggle led Ms. Goldwasser to look all over the world to find information on her parents. She was able to find lots of information regarding her family, even who her parents were. She even met and talked with one of her mother’s blood relative. Ms. Goldwasser also talked about her medals and awards she won, along with her speeches she gave.
Her final point to us was that kindness is the best thing in the world and given the opportunity choose it. This was one of my favorite things we’ve done so far on this trip as it gave us the opportunity to meet someone who was a part of everything we’ve read about.
