Haley Malinowski: "Remember the past to restore the future"

On Saturday May 21 2016, our class got the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, IL, and hear Mrs. Magda Brown speak of her experience in the Holocaust. I had the chance to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C when I was in eighth grade, but I had forgotten how many feelings truly do show when visiting and listening to a survivor’s story. 

While hearing Mrs. Magda Browns story all I was wondering was how she stayed so strong while talking about and remembering such awful events that her community, family, and herself experienced. She spoke about her experience in the ghetto and then in the concentration camps. It must have been very hard to live her life, but yet she is one on the strongest people I had ever met. She maintained such composure while speaking of things that none of us could even imagine going through: watching as her family got separated once they reached the concentration camps; witnessing how, while in the ghetto, her aunt was brutally beat and died because she would not tell the SS officers where her valuables were located. Things like this make you wonder how survivors of the holocaust had the strength and how they kept such good faith during and even after this terrible time.

I have always loved researching and learning about the holocaust. I had the chance to visit the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C, but listening to Mrs. Brown speak was truly a special treat. She talked with such grace and was so open to teaching the younger generations about these horrific events, in the hope that we will learn and make sure nothing like this happens again. Mrs. Brown mentioned a quote that has stuck with me and is something we should all live by. “Remember the past to restore the future.” She wants to teach and make sure that everyone remembers the past and these awful times so in the future nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.