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I was in 8th grade social studies class. One day the teacher said we would be having a “v special guest” to come speak with us. She said he was a h*locaust survivor and would like to share his experience with the world. A bit later comes in this typical old fat smelly Juden. https://twitter.com/88mademedoit/status/1254117065285345280">https://twitter.com/88mademed...
About 5 ft tall, balding, gut down to his knees, large nose- very much like the picture here. He says to us in a thick accent, “hello, kids, have you ever heard about the h*locaust?” We all just grumbled. Some bc they didn’t. Some bc they did and didn’t care. I was the latter.
He rolls up a sleeve from his dirty button down shirt and shows us an old tattoo going down his forearm that looked like smudged up numbers. “You see this?!” His voice got louder. “This is what the nazis did to me! Branded me like cattle! Many of us!”
I wanted to laugh mainly because of how he said it. But I continued to listen to the old man hoping his story would get more interesting. Also being a kid at school, I didn’t have much of a choice. His account was very general at first. Nothing I hadn’t already read about myself.
Then he started a specific story that changed my perspective from not caring to not believing. He said he was in a line with others to go into what he called a gas chamber. That he was panicking and praying because he knew he would die within the hour.
He said in front of him was a little girl that had collapsed. He wasn’t certain if of hunger or fear. He said as soon as she collapsed, Nazi guards ran to her, picked her up, and took her to the camp doctor. This sounded ludicrous even in my 13 year old mind. So I raised my hand.
The teacher pointed to me to go ahead with my question. So I say, “but if you were all going to die anyway why would they take her to the camp doctor? Wouldn’t the nazis have been fine with her dying right there?” I hear a low “oooh” come from the other kids and looks of omg 
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The fat old Jew stood there silently and my horrified teacher shuts me up immediately. “Leila! Are you questioning what this man went through?!” All I could say in the moment was, “I mean he’s alive isn’t he? He’s right here!” As I chuckle.
The Jew says, “well let me finish so you can hear about how the Allies freed us.” I see my teacher’s face & realize she’d probably fail me if I didn’t just sit and listen so I did, happily as I smiled. Because that day I realized I knew the truth that no one else wanted to know.
