Di Jerman ada Hitler, di Indonesia ada Suharto. Sama2 iblis. Sama2 kepala
negara dari suatu bangsa besar.Bedanya adalah Bangsa Jerman telah meminta maaf,
mengakui kesalahan yang dilakukan pimpinannya yang iblis biadab sedang bangsa
Indonesia tetap tidak merasa bersalah sampai sekarang. Malah merasa bangga
sudah melakukannya. Makanya bangsa ini tidak pernah bisa maju. THE GIRL WITH
THE APPLES! Please read this interesting story that is about to be into a
movie. The girl with the apples. A true story of survival from the Holocaust
and the mysterious ways of God that drew people together here in America after
their lives had touched in the dark days of Hitler. August 1942. Piotrkow,
PolandThe sky was gloomy that morning as we waited anxiously.All the men, women
and children of Piotrkow's Jewish ghetto had been herded into a square. Word
had gotten around that we were being moved. My father had only recently died
from typhus, which had run rampant through the crowded ghetto. My greatest fear
was that our family would be separated. 'Whatever you do,' Isidore, my eldest
brother, whispered to me, 'don't tell them your age. Say you're sixteen.’ 'I
was tall for a boy of 11, so I could pull it off. That way I might be deemed
valuable as a worker.’ An SS man approached me, boots clicking against the
cobblestones. He looked me up and down, and then asked my age. 'Sixteen,' I
said. He directed me to the left, where my three brothers and other healthy
young men already stood. My mother was motioned to the right with the other
women, children, sick and elderly people. I whispered to Isidore, 'Why?'He
didn't answer.I ran to Mama's side and said I wanted to stay with her.'No, 'she
said sternly.'Get away. Don't be a nuisance. Go with your brothers.' She had
never spoken so harshly before. But I understood: She was protecting me. She
loved me so much that, just this once, she pretended not to. It was the last I
ever saw of her. My brothers and I were transported in a cattle car to Germany.
We arrived at the Buchenwald concentration camp one night later and were led
into a crowded barrack. The next day, we were issued uniforms and
identification numbers. 'Don't call me Herman anymore.' I said to my brothers.
'Call me 94983.' I was put to work in the camp's crematorium, loading the dead
into a hand-cranked elevator. I, too, felt dead. Hardened, I had become a
number. Soon, my brothers and I were sent to Schlieben, one of Buchenwald 's
sub-camps near Berlin. One morning I thought I heard my mother's voice. 'Son,'
she said softly but clearly, I am going to send you an angel.' Then I woke up.
Just a dream. A beautiful dream. But in this place there could be no angels.
There was only work. And hunger. And fear. A couple of days later, I was
walking around the camp, around the barracks, near the barbed wire fence where
the guards could not easily see. I was alone. On the other side of the fence, I
spotted someone: a little girl with light, almost luminous curls. She was
half-hidden behind a birch tree. I glanced around to make sure no one saw me. I
called to her softly in German. 'Do you have something to eat?' She didn't
understand. I inched closer to the fence and repeated the question in Polish.
She stepped forward. I was thin and gaunt, with rags wrapped around my feet,
but the girl looked unafraid. In her eyes, I saw life. She pulled an apple from
her woolen jacket and threw it over the fence. I grabbed the fruit and, as I
started to run away, I heard her say faintly, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' I
returned to the same spot by the fence at the same time every day. She was
always there with something for me to eat - a hunk of bread or, better yet, an
apple. We didn't dare speak or linger. To be caught would mean death for us
both. I didn't know anything about her, just a kind farm girl, except that she
understood Polish. What was her name? Why was she risking her life for me? Hope
was in such short supply, and this girl on the other side of the fence gave me
some, as nourishing in its way as the bread and apples. Nearly seven months
later, my brothers and I were crammed into a coal car and shipped to
Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia .. 'Don't return,' I told the girl that
day. 'We're leaving.' I turned toward the barracks and didn't look back, didn't
even say good-bye to the little girl whose name I'd never learned, the girl
with the apples. We were in Theresienstadt for three months. The war was
winding down and Allied forces were closing in, yet my fate seemed sealed. On
May 10, 1945, I was scheduled to die in the gas chamber at 10:00 AM. In the
quiet of dawn, I tried to prepare myself. So many times death seemed ready to
claim me, but somehow I'd survived. Now, it was over. I thought of my parents.
At least, I thought, we will be reunited. But at 8 a.m. there was a commotion.
I heard shouts, and saw people running every which way through camp. I caught
up with my brothers. Russian troops had liberated the camp! The gates swung
open. Everyone was running, so I did too. Amazingly, all of my brothers had
survived; I'm not sure how. But I knew that the girl with the apples had been
the key to my survival. In a place where evil seemed triumphant, one person's
goodness had saved my life, had given me hope in a place where there was none.
My mother had promised to send me an angel, and the angel had come. Eventually
I made my way to England where I was sponsored by a Jewish charity, put up in a
hostel with other boys who had survived the Holocaust and trained in
electronics. Then I came to America, where my brother Sam had already moved. I
served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and returned to New York City
after two years. By August 1957 I'd opened my own electronics repair shop. I
was starting to settle in. One day, my friend Sid who I knew from England
called me.'I've got a date. She's got a Polish friend. Let's double date.'A
blind date? Nah, that wasn't for me. But Sid kept pestering me, and a few days
later we headed up to the Bronx to pick up his date and her friend Roma. I had
to admit, for a blind date this wasn't so bad. Roma was a nurse at a Bronx
hospital. She was kind and smart. Beautiful, too, with swirling brown curls and
green, almond-shaped eyes that sparkled with life. The four of us drove out to
Coney Island. Roma was easy to talk to, easy to be with. Turned out she was
wary of blind dates too! We were both just doing our friends a favor. We took a
stroll on the boardwalk, enjoying the salty Atlantic breeze, and then had
dinner by the shore. I couldn't remember having a better time. We piled back
into Sid's car, Roma and I sharing the backseat. As European Jews who had
survived the war, we were aware that much had been left unsaid between us. She
broached the subject, 'Where were you,' she asked softly, 'during the war?'
'The camps,' I said. The terrible memories still vivid, the irreparable loss. I
had tried to forget. But you can never forget. She nodded. 'My family was
hiding on a farm in Germany, not far from Berlin,' she told me. 'My father knew
a priest, and he got us Aryan papers.' I imagined how she must have suffered
too, fear, a constant companion. And yet here we were both survivors, in a new
world. 'There was a camp next to the farm.' Roma continued. 'I saw a boy there
and I would throw him apples every day.' What an amazing coincidence that she
had helped some other boy. 'What did he look like? I asked. 'He was tall,
skinny, and hungry. I must have seen him every day for six months.' My heart
was racing. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't be. 'Did he tell you one day
not to come back because he was leaving Schlieben?' Roma looked at me in
amazement. 'Yes!' 'That was me!' I was ready to burst with joy and awe, flooded
with emotions. I couldn't believe it! My angel. 'I'm not letting you go.' I
said to Roma. And in the back of the car on that blind date, I proposed to her.
I didn't want to wait. 'You're crazy!' she said. But she invited me to meet her
parents for Shabbat dinner the following week. There was so much I looked
forward to learning about Roma, but the most important things I always knew:
her steadfastness, her goodness. For many months, in the worst of
circumstances, she had come to the fence and given me hope. Now that I'd found
her again, I could never let her go. That day, she said yes. And I kept my
word. After nearly 50 years of marriage, two children and three grandchildren,
I have never let her go. Herman Rosenblat of Miami Beach , Florida This story
is being made into a movie called The Fence.This e-mail is intended to reach 40
million people world-wide.Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help
us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to 10 people you
know and ask them to continue the memorial chain. Please don't just delete
it.It will only take you a minute to pass this along. Thanks!Sent from my
Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
