He Had One Question
December 8, 2019 8:23 PM Subscribe
Lovers in Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later. For a few months, they managed to be each other’s escape, but they knew these visits wouldn’t last. Around them, death was everywhere. Still, the lovers planned a life together, a future outside of Auschwitz. They knew they would be separated, but they had a plan, after the fighting was done, to reunite.
It took them 72 years.
What's so sad is that she went to the community center as planned, and he did not. I can't blame him, but it's really sad.
posted by slidell at 10:01 PM on December 8, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by slidell at 10:01 PM on December 8, 2019 [9 favorites]
If anyone would be kind enough to copy this article and memail it to me, it would be appreciated.
posted by corb at 10:21 PM on December 8, 2019
posted by corb at 10:21 PM on December 8, 2019
Wow - what a story - both of their love story and of the rest of their lives after Auschwitz. There is quite a large supporting cast here too: fellow prisoners who risked their lives to allow this relationship to happen.
posted by rongorongo at 3:36 AM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 3:36 AM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
If anyone would be kind enough to copy this article and memail it to me, it would be appreciated.
Done, hopefully the copy/paste didn't scramble up the text too much. There are supposedly workarounds for the paywall, too, if that doesn't work.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:16 AM on December 9, 2019
Done, hopefully the copy/paste didn't scramble up the text too much. There are supposedly workarounds for the paywall, too, if that doesn't work.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:16 AM on December 9, 2019
"She held up her hand to display five fingers. "
Shivers.
We need these stories out there - apparently today more than ever.
posted by widdershins at 7:29 AM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Shivers.
We need these stories out there - apparently today more than ever.
posted by widdershins at 7:29 AM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Whew, it's dusty in here today.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:17 AM on December 9, 2019
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:17 AM on December 9, 2019
It’s a mashup of Before Sunrise and Schindler’s List.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:55 AM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:55 AM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
The thing that struck me was that behind the feelgood framing, her love for him meant five other men went to the gas chambers. That's a tragedy in the proper sense of the word because you can't say she was wrong to do so.
posted by alloneword at 12:20 PM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by alloneword at 12:20 PM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
Those last two sentences...simply breathtaking.
Thank you. So much for this.
posted by notsnot at 4:50 PM on December 9, 2019
Thank you. So much for this.
posted by notsnot at 4:50 PM on December 9, 2019
her love for him meant five other men went to the gas chambers.
No, just one other man. After all, they couldn't have sent him to die in the gas chambers five times. They would have sent him, and then four more men anyway.
posted by serena15221 at 8:46 PM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
No, just one other man. After all, they couldn't have sent him to die in the gas chambers five times. They would have sent him, and then four more men anyway.
posted by serena15221 at 8:46 PM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Absolutely amazing and devastating story, beautifully told, too. Just wow: “She’d followed the plan. But he never came. She had loved him, she told him quietly. He had loved her, too, he said.”
posted by LooseFilter at 11:07 PM on December 9, 2019
posted by LooseFilter at 11:07 PM on December 9, 2019
No, just one other man
No, as told it was five. Five times that she saved him from being transported and killed, which meant five times another person was sent instead to fill the quota.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:43 AM on December 10, 2019
No, as told it was five. Five times that she saved him from being transported and killed, which meant five times another person was sent instead to fill the quota.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:43 AM on December 10, 2019
However one calculates, if she removed his name from “bad shipment” lists (what a term, ugh) five times, there was either no choice available to save lives overall, only which lives; or, we don’t know that removing one name from a list necessitated adding one in its place—did Nazis always put an exact number of prisoners on a train? So perhaps she was able to simply remove one name from the list without adding another.
Either way, as mentioned above, it’s real, actual tragedy because there were no good choices available. What’s really striking is that, after waiting 72 years to ask her that important question, she answered immediately with an exact number. So she knew, she counted, and she remembered all those years. Making those choices clearly weighed heavily on her for the rest of her life.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:01 AM on December 10, 2019
Either way, as mentioned above, it’s real, actual tragedy because there were no good choices available. What’s really striking is that, after waiting 72 years to ask her that important question, she answered immediately with an exact number. So she knew, she counted, and she remembered all those years. Making those choices clearly weighed heavily on her for the rest of her life.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:01 AM on December 10, 2019
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posted by seasparrow at 9:34 PM on December 8, 2019