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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1995-02-08, Page 3WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 198S Woman talks of iife in Auschwitz Editor's Note: On Jan. 27, 1945, liberating Russian soldiers came upon a Nazi camp near the village of Auschwitz in Poland. What they found there is almost beyond human comprehension: piles of rotting corpses, laborato- ries where bizarre medical experi- ments were conducted, gas cham- bers and crematoriums where it is estimated that over one million people -- mainly Jews -- died. The full impact of Hitler's "Final Solu- tion" was brought to bear upon the world. Although she was not in Ausch- witz when it was liberated that Jan- uary day in 1945 (her own libera- tion would come months later at the hands of the British), Jenny Kilberg of Listowel spent from May to Sep- tember of 1944 behind Auschwitz's electric fences. It is the place where her mother, father, younger sister and brother, grandmother and nu- merous members of' her extended family died. What was their crime? They were Jews. In her grief and anguish, young For 50 years, Mrs. Kilberg has Jenny ran to the electric fence and scarcely been able to talk about would have thrown herself against Auschwitz, but she did last week in it, int were not for her two sisters, a brief telephone interview. She who pulled her back. Mrs. Kilberg still believed that agony and despair of life in a Nazi she was being sent there to work, concentration camp. .but her father must have formed his In September of 1944, Mrs. Kil- own conclusions. She remembers berg, her sisters and all the others his words when he looked out upon in Auschwitz's C Block, or C bar - the camp: "Children, remember ricks, were transferred to another you know everything to work and camp where they continued their la - eat anything." Perhaps in his own bars. They were transferred around way he could sense the evil, there the German countryside as the lib - and was telling his children they erators advanced in the spring of would need .all, their wiles to sur- 1945. Finally in May of that year, vive. they were liberated by the`British. SEPARATED It is hard to imagine today the flood Jenny and her two older sisters of emotions that those sisters must were separated from the rest of have felt when they realized they their family and put on a work de- had fulfilled their father's dream: tail. She was told she could see her they had survived. mother and younger sister on week- Had they remained at Auschwitz, ends, but some time passed and still they surely would have died. When she had not seen them. it became evident that Germany One day, she asked -a guard *when was losing the war, the killing was she could see her mother. The an- .stepped up.. In January of 1945, swer that came has haunted her all with the Russians poised to liberate her life: "Oh, your mom," he said, Auschwitz, the German high com-. pointing to the crematorium chim- mand gave. orders to destroy the neys churning black smoke. ,camp and evidence of its deathly "There's your mom." trade. However, they did not and it remains today as testimony of man's inhumanity to man. Late last month, ceremonies to mark that liberation were held at Auschwitz with thousands of • its -survivors returning. However, Jen- ny Kilberg could not even 'bring herself to watch it on television and as for returning there, "I couldn't sent straight to the gas chamber go hack," she says, "I would prob- when they arrived at Auschwitz ' ably drop dead." and then burned in the crematori- BUILT A LIFE urn. "Why?" has been the question In 1947, Jenny met a young that she asked all her life. They Polish man. named David. Kilherg were people like anyone else, with in Eastern Germany. He had spent hopes and dreams, It was all to sat- five years in German camps over isfy the vision of a madman. the course of the war and had lost All in all, it is estimated that over his elitire family at Auschwitz in six million Jews, as well as prison- •1943. ers of war, gypsies, homosexuals ' They married,and'moved to Can - and people considered mentally and ada in the 'early 1950s. Mr. Kilberg' physically defective, died in the nu- founded Global Tools at Listowel merous death camps"located in and, and later started an importing busi- around Germany. nes. at Guelph with his son. . However, Auschwitz remains the The Kilbergs made a new life for most infamous. • , themselves, but they never forget LIVING DAY TO DAY the past. In time their grandchildren Even though. their. hearts had wanted to -learn about their wa[- been broken and they lived in con- timeexperiences, but for, Mrs.-Kil- stant fear, Jenny and her sisters berg it was just too painful. kept going. Mainly, they dug In fact, five. years ago, their trenches. It .was ' back -breaking granddaughter took part in the work from dawn until dusk with "March of the Living" which. visit- onlyenough to ear to survive. What she witnessed each day haunts her still and even a poignant film such as "Schindler's List" can- ' not begin to portray the cruelty, the shares this story in the hope that Today Mrs. Kilberg- realizes, the one million people who died with understandable bitterness, that there will never he forgotten. her parents, brother, sister and even her grandinother probably were By MARGARET STAPLETON The Advance -Times • Jenny Kilberg has a good life. The well-respected wife of a for- mer mayor of Listowel and suc- cessful businessman, Dave Kilberg, she has a son, grandchildren and two• sisters whom she can• call any time she wishes. . But there is a pall that hangs over her life. She compares it to a bleeding wound that even though ri crust may have formed over it, is still there. It is something she thinks about every night before she goes to sleep and every morning when she wakes. Her pain has a name: it is Auschwitz. In the spring of 1944, Adolf Hit- ler's uneasy alliance with neighbor- ing Hungary had come to an end and his armies seized control of the country. A girl 'of 14 or.15, Jenny and her immediate family of parents, two older sisters, a brother and younger sister were part of the Jewish com- munity in a Hungarian city. As well, her extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins and even her 85 - year -old grandmother lived there too. Up to this point, their lives had been relatively untouched by the war. Certainly', they never+ had heard of the death camps which had been performing their gruesome task for some time. But all that changed in the spring of 1944. At first, Jewish people' were rounded up and segregated into ghettos. Then came the trains. In May of 1944,.Jeriny and her family were loaded into'cattle cars bound for work camps, they were told. Finally the train came to its desti- nation -- Auschwitz -- and the doors opened. Its human cargo poured out, the men separated from the women, the children separated from their parents. Roadhouse Restaurant Whitefish Tuesdays #86 Hwy of East of Wln hem �35` -4492 Dail`' s: -cials ed Auschwitz. The day her grand- daughter was to be at the camp was very upsetting for Mrs. 'Kilberg, who said the young woman would be walking on the ground where her great -grandmother and great - great -grandmother died:' Mrs. Kilberg is thankful that she has her two sisters. One lives in .Kitchener and the other in Los An- geles, so she can call them virtually anytime she chooses. Through all her suffering, she says she still believes in the human race, but cannot understand why the fighting continues in places like Sarajevo, Rwanda and Chechnya. The lessons of the Holocaust must not be lost, she says, we must re- member. Howick Twp. 'history book deadline set Highland Links Development Warmth - Comfort - Secur'ty Stylish - Affordable - Guarantee Location: Highland Drive, Wingham 95% Financing to Qualified Purchasers $500 Down Payment till closing from $115 900 G.S.T. Suitt by: Hawick Homes Ltd. 1-800-615-3156 or (519) 335.3156 HELPING WORLD W • CODE Self-sufficiency through literacy in the developing world For information, cat 1-800-661-2633 HOWICK—A firm deadline of March 15 has been setfor submis- sions for the Howick History Book. • A general meeting,of the How - ick History Book Society has been 'called for Feb. 22 at 1:30 p.m. at the Howick •Municipal Office. All line directors and committee mem- bers are asked to attend and have all submissions for which they are responsible.' 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