Sharing healing lessons

LILLIAN BORAKS-NEMETZ

On Oct. 18, I will be delivering a talk entitled Lost and Found, exploring themes of healing and resilience in child survivors of the Holocaust.

My father often spoke to me of a great man, a pediatrician, who cared for orphaned children both Christian and Jewish. He fought for their rights and wrote books for and about children.

My father spoke of the unforgettable march through the Warsaw Ghetto streets of 1942, when Dr. Janusz Korczak, holding a small child, marched at the head of 200 orphans, to Umschlagplatz, where the trains were waiting to deport them to the Treblinka extermination camp. When Korczak was offered a reprieve, he declined, saying, "My children need me," and went alongside them to perish in the death camp. It was this act that made Korczak a hero, an example of human decency and sacrifice, a light of hope for a better world.

After the war, the surviving Jewish children badly needed someone like Korczak to fight for their rights, to redress the injustice that was done to them; to help them cope with fear, and to heal from persecution and loss.

Only when I became an adult did I understand better the impact of these losses and traumas on my life and the lives of those close to me. I began to explore the past through the writing of prose and poetry, speaking and teaching. I found out how much still had to be done to heal the horrors that Jewish children had suffered during the war. I discovered that some of this healing would have to come from within ourselves and in how we live and work in our communities.

It comes through being pro-active in our willingness to speak with and teach the younger generations about crimes against humanity; never forgetting the past; and never forgetting the victims of the Holocaust.

I realized that the seed of hope for a better world had been already planted within me by the very fact that I survived and by those who helped me survive, and by the actions of people like Korczak.

Foremost, I found healing through my own work, the love of my family and caring friends. I found much good in people, in life and in the presence of human kindness. This, above all, deserves to be recognized and nurtured, especially in today's world.

Lost and Found will explore these themes. The evening is being presented by the Korczak Association of Canada and will be held at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in the Dayson boardroom on Oct. 18, from 7-9 p.m. Refreshments will be served and everyone is welcome.

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