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- Why where we silent Dvora Weinstein, Herzlia
Why where we silent
Why were we silent for fifty years? Why didn’t we talk, why didn’t we tell the stories, why didn’t we cry out loud – why were we silent?
Why was I silent all my life, not telling about the nights of counting our dead that were spread out in the forests of Ukraine?
Why didn’t I tell about my two year old, blue eyed brother that died in my hands from hunger and cold?
Why didn’t I tell how my beloved grandfather who raised me from birth, said goodbye to me one night, handed me to my grandmother, and was taken out the following morning on the cart – dead? All he wanted was a piece of bread – but he died from hunger.
Why was I silent when for three whole days and nights I was lying under the blanket with the body of my dead sister, so that they wouldn’t find out that she died and take her on the dead cart – why was I silent?
Why was I silent and didn’t tell how I went from door to door, begging for a piece of mammaliga or a potato?
Why didn’t I tell how a german-shepard dog mutilated me at one of the doors on which I knocked?
Why didn’t I tell how we started out as a big family tribe, and returned only my mother and I? Why didn’t I talk – why?
The answer is imbedded in one simple sentence: from the time we emmigrated to Israel, we just wanted “to be like everyone else –Sabras”, not to tell, not complain – to shut up. We changed our names and customs, we spoke Hebrew and forgot our mother toungues. We dressed in khaki and embroided shirts, sang their songs and danced their dances – all in order to assimilate in to their culture, to be like them. However, all this was for appearance, but inside…
Now, friends, it is time to talk, to tell the stories, to write and record. We are the last ones that can tell the story of us being there. Soon, there won’t be any more people who were there that can tell the stories. So tell the stories to your children and your grandchildren – tell the story to anyone who was not there, so that they shall know and remember.
This is how the government took advantage of our weakness and denied us our rights. The compensations that were received were confiscated and we only got breadcrumbs. This is the reason why today there are tens of thousands of holocaust servivors living in Israel below the poverty line.
Why did it take us fifty years to unite and cry out?
I am calling upon all our brothers and sisters, children of the Holocaust, to stand up, join us and give us the power to cry out for justice. Join us in numbers and force, as the more that join, so will our power grow and hopefully we will still be able to help the thousands of elderly survivors living in poverty.
Join us and give us the power to demand compensation for a deprived childhood with no food, no clothes, no warmth – always hungry and scared, living from one day to the next, dreading tomorrow since we might perish. The constant battle for survival is what saved us – the holocaust servivors.
Please Contact Us, and together we will raise the cry for justice.
Dvora Weinstein, Herzlia
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