survivor testimony 2

Anne DeCamillo Mr. Neuburger Eng. 102-120 10 March 2013 Survivor Testimony Holocaust Survivor This survivor testimony is from Eline Hoekstra Dresden she was born in Holland where she lived with her Mother and Father and four other siblings. Luckily Eline was able to finish school and get some college before the Nazis no longer allowed the Jews to go to school. Eline goes on to explain how she became pregnant and about three months after the baby was born things started to become very bad and the people in Holland were beginning to be scared. Eline decided to send her baby boy with a friend of the family where he would be safe and it was not long after that Eline was taken into a camp. Eline goes on to say how this was not a normal camp it was actually a castle where a group of educated Jews were held. She states how they did not know why they were in that group but she was glad she ended up there because it was not too bad and could have been worse. After a few months this group of Jews was taken to another camp and Eline explains how this camp was not as bad as it could have been and explained it as a prelude to the last kind of camp you can go to. Eline states “We arrived tired, scared and expecting misery”. So in regards to what it could have been she was very pleased in the way it turned out. Eline explains she doesn’t exactly know how she survived but she explains that she did little sneaky things that she got away with which made her feel empowered and that empowerment gave her the survival instinct she needed to do just enough to survive. Eline explains a lot of work that she did in the camp and explains how she worked in the fields and a lot of the Jews would collapse because they were so weak. Eline explains how one time the Jews were called together because someone stole. The person who had stole came forward only because they knew they would be punished collectively and everything would be taken away and the workload would be even harder. Eline had come forward and also told how she had taken two loafs of bread as well and to her surprise she wasn’t beat and was only told to do a chore that wasn’t worse then any other chore they had done. Eline explains how she was very lucky and did not know how she got away with as much as she did. In conclusion Eline was in the camp until the end of the war. She found out that her brother had survived and her sister as well, the son she sent away to be safe was also indeed safe and luckily Eline and her husband survived through these tragic times. Eline seen a lot of horrible things which caused her very much turmoil through out her life However she expresses Gratitude that she survive