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From the comfort of her living room in Toronto, a Holocaust survivor shared what’s been keeping her awake at night.
“It’s like the nightmares of my childhood are back. The horror that I went through is becoming so real now to me,” said Rose Lipszyc.
The reports and images from the Middle East can be difficult for anyone to process, but for Lipszyc, this is a particularly traumatic time.
“The horror of my childhood is back. And how do you try to live with it? How do you go to sleep and wake up in the morning? How do you get away from the television watching the horror of the news?” she asked.
Listening to the heartbreaking stories from Israel, of survivors whose loved ones were murdered by Hamas, has brought back difficult memories for Lipszyc.
“I remember how my mother said to me, ‘Run, my child, because we are going to our death,’ and how she pushed me off the road and she couldn’t believe that the whole world has gone mad. There’s going to be somebody somewhere that’s going to help me. She didn’t believe that the whole world is crazy,” she said.
In 1942, Lipszyc escaped from a forced march that would send her mother and brother to a death camp. They were murdered, as were her other brother and father.
While her mind is occupied with the memories, and her heart is heavy with sadness, Lipszyc said she hopes the world hears her message. It’s one she shares regularly with students as she speaks to schools and shares her story.
“When my mother went to her death she still believed in the human race. How can I not?” she asked.
“Try to be kind to one another, try to live together … We can learn and we can enrich ourselves from one another.”
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