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A memoir of the Holocaust
By Jacob Zylberman
The online version
© Copyright 1995, 2000, Jack Zylberman
This is Jacob’s story, his winding, twisted travels, trials and tribulations on the road of life, a classic example of uncounted others who participated in a very similar trip.
This is the end of his long journey, and if one detects sadness, disappointment, bitterness, it is all true. How he wishes it were not so.
No one wants to hear about cruelty, death, destruction, loneliness – moreso be a witness to it.
He would rather tell you about fraternity, equality, of love, friendship. Unfortunately that is not so, and one learned even less from experience.
One lives in a time of blind hatred, selfishness, where petty little men take the law into their own hands, trample over others to reach their ugly, sinister goal.
The cataclysm, stench of the smokestacks still lingers and already evil forces, men, like vicious animals searching hungrily, lurking for prey.
If one has turned inhuman, one is sure it was not intended to be so. It is the result of the teaching, and upbringing, events leading from one disaster to another.
No one was born that way. A newborn baby comes into the world pure and innocent, a fragile soft piece of clay to be shaped, take form, to face its new environment – not only his little body but his brains to be nourished, loved, cared for; like a sponge to fill his pores with noble ideas, and thoughts, to learn, explore.
Is it his fault that from inception his brain is filled with hatred, selfishness, greed, instead of love, compassion toward others – the road of righteousness, he is lured into a path of wilderness, lawlessness and evil?
Why should God’s messengers betray their calling, make a mockery of their faith, trample over others, dig ditches, often themselves getting ensnared, becoming victims of their own undoing. Why should one man’s fortune turn into another’s misfortune? How much can one go on lying, cheating, stealing, disregarding the laws of justice, inadvertently hastening toward his own destruction, in the end leaving everything he accumulated, naked, the way he came into it.
How much does one need to make him happy? Is there any yardstick to be measured by? How much is enough? Is there not a limit to it all? Where did one go wrong?
The answer is obvious, it is all relative. It depends on him, oneself, no one else. One is reminded of the immortal words of Shakespeare: "My dear Brutus: The fault is not in the stars but in ourselves!"
The doings of yesterday are not only a timely warning but also a costly reminder, that something is wrong, grievously wrong. The blunders of history are being repeated – nothing to learn from, contrary to the teachings, warnings of their forefathers. Their sacred bequest, their legacy – not to take the right of anyone on earth lightly. … To live and let live.
So here one is, standing at the precipice, the frightening gorge. Grasping the seriousness, the stark totality. A warning that time is ticking away, that the end is near.
Thus, if Jacob’s suffering is a lesson to be learned, then all must change – approach the inhabitants of this shrinking globe, help one another, salvage what is left.
Start a new leaf, a new beginning, devote themselves to the betterment of mankind. Give the newborn a confident start, a new era to emerge a manifestly genuine relationship of brotherhood amid nations, and all inhabitants to walk tall into a happy future, a lasting peace.
If all this can be fulfilled, accomplished, implemented, there is a chance.
Then, all of Jacob’s experiences were not in vain.
the end
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