Home for Holocaust Survivors Sees Last Generation.

[elleng]

Listen to the many harrowing stories of war, suffering and survival, all under one roof:

In its heyday, the Selfhelp Home, as it's called, bustled with Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the dining room a babel of central European tongues. Hundreds were on a waiting list. But that was long ago. As time passed, the need for a special sanctuary faded. Others who had not endured the genocide moved in.

Only 12 Holocaust survivors — the youngest in their mid-80s, the oldest 102 — remain. So do a few dozen other Jews who escaped Hitler's reach, often leaving behind family as they started new lives in Kenya, China, Colombia and other distant lands.

They're now the last generation to bear witness to one of the greatest horrors of all time, a resilient community of friends and neighbors sharing what once seemed impossible: long lives. When they're gone, their stories will be preserved in history. But for now, their voices still echo in these halls.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/11/02/us/ap-us-the-last-survivors.html?hp&_r=0

It was in Hyde Park, on the South Side, POTUS neighborhood! (and mine, when I lived in Chicago.) later moved to a nine-story building on the North Side.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. We can only hope

that every individual who survived that horrendous ordeal had the opportunity to tell their story. Time is running out for documenting the remaining survivors.

[COLGATE4]

2. Steven Spielberg has been instrumental in

establishing an organization whose sole purpose is to record these peoples' testimony for posterity, a documentation of this unspeakable horror for future generations to see and hear. An offshoot of this was the 10-hour documentary Shoah, which contains many first-hand stories of the Holocaust told by the few survivors.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Thank you

for reminding us of that monumental project. I've meant to watch Shoah, but it had slipped my mind. Thanks to your reminder, I'll make a point of watching it soon.

[COLGATE4]

4. It's long and it's really hard watching - you get

to see such gems of human behavior as the jolly Polish peasant who, when asked for water from Jews temporarily stopped in his field on a train to Auschwitz (having had none for 4 or 5 days) demanded gold in exchange. But when the gold was delivered he just laughed and gave them none.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. As reprehensible as the nazis were

they certainly didn't corner the market on depravity. Seems there's more than enough to go around. When a political party like the nazis gains the upper hand, others with a tendency toward cruelty feel empowered to go full-tilt sadistic. I feel as though something similar could happen in this country if a sociopathic party like the teabaggers gained power.

[COLGATE4]

6. You're absolutely right. When empowered, otherwise

'normal' people can behave in extraordinarily abnormal ways. Years ago a psychologist (whose name I'm blocking right now) did a study separating a given class into two groups. One group was given power over the second. In the space of five days or so the group that was given power was actively abusing the other group of their classmates. Human nature sucks.

[Stuart G]

7. Thank You for posting this..

[4dsc]

8. The Holocaust involved more than jews

its sad they don't include all the other groups that were subject to the Holocaust. It would have made for a better story.

[andlor]

11. +1000!

[Behind the Aegis]

9. Watching history pass into history.

I have often wondered if the Holocaust denial industry will crank up once the final survivors gone. There seem be many who want to erase this part of history, especially in regards to the Jews.

[grilled onions]

10. Sadder Yet To Realize We Still Have Non Believers

Is it that they are so full of hate? Are they not able to comprehend that such violence/depraved behavior was-and still is possible?