Tay
asked
Heather Dune Macadam:
Hi, Heather! I wanted to thank you again for Rena's Promise and 999. My grandfather is a holocaust survivor and does not speak about his experiences. His mother, of blessed memory, was also a survivor. I read Rena's Promise and 999, and it is a gateway into my great-grandma's world. If you could ask Rena one more question, what would it be?
Heather Dune Macadam
Wow... That is a great question. I have to say that the answer would have been quite different before I met Edith. Edith was able to answer all of the questions that I had, which I only became aware that I needed or should have asked Rena. 999 is actually those answers. What I wish I could share with Rena--though I speak to her in my heard often!--was information I unearthed that would have given her a sense of closure.
1) SS Taube was executed for his crimes; Caroline Moorehead found evidence of that and wrote about it in her book "Train in Winter."
2) SS Juana Borman, the woman with the dog--who I think was the SS who murdered the young girl in that horrible scene in Auschwitz I--was also executed. I suppose I would have like Rena to see the photo of Borman to confirm that she was the one we wrote about, but evidence points to that fact.
3) I found out what actually happened to Mama and Papa. This is not comforting, as they were murdered, but they were not gassed and they were not dragged to death in Tylicz. They were shot with about 200 other Jews and their gentile friends in April 1942, in the Jewish cemetery outside of the Jewish ghetto in Nowy Sacz.
4) I would like her to see the photos of Adela and to know that I know Adela's family and that Rena's memory of Adela is why 999 was written. It all goes back the the beautiful redhead, whom we lost.
And so, in many ways, Rena's prayer as the children went to the gas chamber, asking God to smite just one Nazi, was answered many times over. When I stand outside Block 10 and look up at the still boarded up windows that look out at the execution wall, I often have a sense of a fissure in time. I imagine that Rena is looking out and witnessing Russian POWs being shot, and I send her a message: you are going to survive this thing and you are going to tell the world what you saw, and I am going to help you. It is our covenant.
And this: When I went to Tylicz in 2015, I wanted to find Andrzej's grave. I spent two days and was about to leave when I noticed a graveyard I hadn't seen before. There was about 2-feet of snow. (I posted this on Youtube!) What the short film does not show is what I say in my mind's eye when I found the grave. I saw the shadow of a German guard standing at the gate, and as I pushed the snow away from the headstone, I heard Rena's voice, saying "Thank you, Heather." I have never wept so hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OPl...
1) SS Taube was executed for his crimes; Caroline Moorehead found evidence of that and wrote about it in her book "Train in Winter."
2) SS Juana Borman, the woman with the dog--who I think was the SS who murdered the young girl in that horrible scene in Auschwitz I--was also executed. I suppose I would have like Rena to see the photo of Borman to confirm that she was the one we wrote about, but evidence points to that fact.
3) I found out what actually happened to Mama and Papa. This is not comforting, as they were murdered, but they were not gassed and they were not dragged to death in Tylicz. They were shot with about 200 other Jews and their gentile friends in April 1942, in the Jewish cemetery outside of the Jewish ghetto in Nowy Sacz.
4) I would like her to see the photos of Adela and to know that I know Adela's family and that Rena's memory of Adela is why 999 was written. It all goes back the the beautiful redhead, whom we lost.
And so, in many ways, Rena's prayer as the children went to the gas chamber, asking God to smite just one Nazi, was answered many times over. When I stand outside Block 10 and look up at the still boarded up windows that look out at the execution wall, I often have a sense of a fissure in time. I imagine that Rena is looking out and witnessing Russian POWs being shot, and I send her a message: you are going to survive this thing and you are going to tell the world what you saw, and I am going to help you. It is our covenant.
And this: When I went to Tylicz in 2015, I wanted to find Andrzej's grave. I spent two days and was about to leave when I noticed a graveyard I hadn't seen before. There was about 2-feet of snow. (I posted this on Youtube!) What the short film does not show is what I say in my mind's eye when I found the grave. I saw the shadow of a German guard standing at the gate, and as I pushed the snow away from the headstone, I heard Rena's voice, saying "Thank you, Heather." I have never wept so hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OPl...
More Answered Questions
Barbara Vartanian
asked
Heather Dune Macadam:
Heather thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. there is so much more out there in the world than we know. How wonderful that more women are contacting you about their experiences and their loved ones. For some it must be a relief to be able to express and share their experiences with you. Will some of these newer stories find their way onto the documentary?
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