Todays Survivor

Hope, is one thing that Eva Olsson will always have. As a survivor of the Holocaust, Eva Olsson has been through a lot. A lot of pain, suffering, watching loved ones die and almost losing all hope. Yet somehow she was able to overcome all that fear and was able to face up to the Nazis. She certainly still has those dreaded memories from her past but now she is looking into the future where it will hopefully be bright and sunny.

At age nineteen Eva and her family was told that they would be sent to a brick factory to work. No one questioned it. No one even considered that most of them would be eventually killed at their final destination. No one knew where they were going as they stepped onto that boxcar and no one had any idea of what was happening. A mix of strong emotions filled that small, cramped boxcar. Some filled with fear, others with disgust but almost everybody was confused. Everyone fed off each others fear and soon everyone was in a frenzy, panicking. For days they were stuck in that boxcar with just a rusty old bucket filled with water, praying and just hoping that wherever they were going would be better. When they finally arrived everyone was lined up. Some people were happy to finally be off the boxcar where there was water, but little did they know that this was just the start of a terrible nightmare. Eva was horrified as she was separated from her mother and her younger siblings never forgiving herself to tell her mother one more time that she loved her. From there Eva was launched into a series of unforgettable, atrocious events where she loses her father and is worked nearly to death.

The Holocaust was a terrible event. Too many people died because of what? Their religion, their hair and eye colour? What kind of monster would kill millions of people like that? So many people lost their lives and their relatives! I know I wouldn't be able to live knowing that I had killed someone, yet so many Natzis killed so many people because of one person, their leader, Adolf Hitler. The man that brainwashed thousands of soldiers into doing what he thought was the right thing. What I don't understand is why so many people just stood there watching him do all this. And as Eva said, "Being a bystander is just as bad as being a bully." A completely true statement that people from our generation can learn and follow because without those bystanders, Hitler would not have been able to kill all of those innocent people.

Eva Olsson is a beacon of hope and courage. She survived one of the most dastardly events of all time and we must respect her for that. She gave an amazing presentation which was truly inspirational, informative and most of all helped us all understand the hardships not only she but millions others went through. The Holocaust was an awful thing but we must not try and erase the horrific events, we must reflect and learn from our mistakes. The new generation must understand that, so we never fall back into the dark shadows again. One last word...Hate. Too oftenly used to describe things and people we do not like or get along with, but hate is what drove people to hurt each other and eventually kill them. It's what potentialy started the Holocaust. Let's not go down that path again. Please remove hate from your vocabulary... :)