Shmuel Vilenberg, the last survivor of the Treblinka death camp, passed away this morning at the age of 93. May his memory be a blessing.
I woke up on Shabbat to see this sad post on FACEBOOK.
This is not only about my Dad’s pictures rotting and the Buchenwald survivors dying. It is also about the all too elderly soldiers who liberated that camp in 1945. I have talked with a number of these heroes. They should have a chance to see the pictures and, perhaps write comments for the book I still want to write. Their heroism, the story of my Dad, is why I want to write this book.
Meantime my own life is ebbing or at least my vision. Last summer, I had an intraorbital hemorrhage in my one good eye. The blood has slowly cleared but at sometime not far off I will be too blind to do the work needed to create my book.
The horror is worse because the law is clear. We, Hugh Steph and I, own these objects jointly. Attorneys tell me that I have the full right to publish now and have had that right since Dad’s death almost 8 years ago. Instead, Hugh has secreted the pictures away and will not even tell me where they are or if they still exist. We are in court.
Meanwhile, the comment thread from Facebook is a good way of showing my feelings:
Sabrina Yona-edri BDE my heart breaks just to think what his eyes have seen what memories he had what sadness to live threw such a horrible place in time. I hope and pray that he is reunited with his family in heaven I pray he is safe and at peace ? please G-D destroy all evil from this earth…. Never again is happening agin
Michelle McFarland God bless him. He will never be forgotten. And may we all remember to never let this atrocity happen again…ever!
André Strydom Saw a wonderful program on this man on PBS just a few months ago, and so glad that I did. May he rest in peace, and may his memory forever be a blessing.
Valerie Kennedy May he rest in peace and the horrors of what he witnessed and endured be extinguished from his soul...
Danielle Samoun-Sadoun R.I.P. Hope he left us his memories, in order that the jews will always remember that they should never rely on non jews for their freedoms and lives!
Peter Robb Wow! Just finished reading the NYT Bestseller The Nightingale. Powerful stuff about those dark days, including what the French did to their own Jews. But read the news today out of France and Europe and you see similar things happening again. Then throw in radical Islam and we have a scary brew.