Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts

Friday, November 15, 2013

Dora's Remembrances of Home



The phrase: "My home",  it mean to me the place where I live in this moment.  When war start we lived in a horse buggy for few months.  Nobody would let us in because every one was afraid be prosecute by German authority.

In Mogilev:   I don"t remember to much  but it was hard time.  We covered a lot of territory on the occupied territory.  Nobody let us in because we were Jewish. We kept moving by horse, the bombs fly from the sky but we continue to drive to river Volga.  

Later, the Russian government put us on the train and it took us to Kazakhstan not far from capital Alma-ata. From this place my father went on front where he was killed.  My mother left alone with three children and my Auntie, with her baby, stayed with us.   My Aunt work in the  cafeteria and we would eat because she brought pail of soup home.  My mom had to work outside and this is the way we survived four years.

After we went to Saratov. It was closed city. To go there we have to have Visa.  This journey was very  hard.  We stayed in the police station a few times but finally we got there and start our life  from nothing again.

It was hard traveling but sometime we have good time.  I remember my Mother took us to the park and we listen to military orchestra around us was a loth of people and we have good time.

My mother worked very hard.  Somebody told her “Go Frida, to Vilnius it'll be enough money to survive on pension that you get for your children”.  We went by train it take few days. We live in Vilnius 20 years.  I would count that as my home.  Although we have a lot of hard times, we  had good times.  


We, children, grew up by ourselves.  Mother work as security guard for twenty years and we looked after ourselves but we have fun.  Summer time we went to camp on the Baltic sea for the children without a father (who killed during in the war).  Time went by we grow up.  Finish school, college, married, have children and life continue.   Right now, the children encourage us to live Soviet Union but for now our home is Canada




Friday, November 8, 2013

Remembrance

The Bubbies & Zaidas spent some time thinking about war. 
We are a generation that has lived long enough to have seen some terrible atrocities of war. 
We have a concern that younger generations will forget what it is we are asking them to remember. Remembrance day is not about the “glorification of war” but a time to reflect on those who’s
sacrificed, to remember how war comes about, and we remember so that we can strive towards the ideals laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms:  

 Never Again

Poppy Field, France



 Remembrance
By Norma

Why is it important to remember?

So that history will not be repeated.
So that future generations don't forget the sacrifices made by our
grandfathers and fathers during two world wars.
To be able to teach about the horrors brought about by war.
To be able to share memories with future generations.
Preventing the stories of our elders from being lost.
To let the youth of today,who will be our future parliamentarians,
know what to avoid in the future.

What is it important to remember?

That so many youth from the recent past have disappeared because of war.
So many young men who never got to realize their futures!
That war has a devastating aftermath for the soldiers and their families.
I think about what used to be called "shell shock" and that is now called PTSD.
The governments who have failed the returning soldiers with the lack of psychological resources and pensions to help veterans and their families.
To keep memories of war before the youth of today.