Was Boris Holocaust-y Enough?

“I’m so disappointed with the Holocaust survivor story I just heard. I want my kid to hear from a survivor who was in the camps. Can you make sure there is a survivor who was in the camps when we visit the Holocaust Memorial?” The parent had just attended a survivor presentation and was deciding whether to attend another. She wanted her child to hear the stories many grandchildren of survivors grew up hearing, like the Schindler’s List type stories and the heartbreaking stories of ghettos and camps. I understood exactly what she meant.

My Grandma Rose survived the ghetto and the camps. Her stories included experimentation, sadism, and horrors that never fully loosened their grip on the people who lived through them.

Then there was my Grandpa Boris.

Boris Silberberg loved telling stories. Whenever he saw me, a smile spread across his face. “Hi, Gitaleh!” he would call out before pulling me into a hug. When the moment struck, he would lower his voice and describe an account from his past, as if trusting me with his secret. They always felt like tall tales, not because they weren’t true, but because they never followed a clean sequence and the scenarios seemed almost impossible to survive. One story in particular he often told was about his time on a crowded train travelling somewhere between Poland and Bucharest. He had survived through 1945, the end of WWII, and lost almost everything.  On the train, across from him, sat twin boys, eight or nine years old, disheveled and looking at each other nervously. A friendly 31-year-old Boris tried to start a conversation and understand who they were.

Boris knew seven languages and moved through them one by one, searching for a way to connect, but the boys did not respond. His next move? He took out a piece of bread and held it out. Their eyes widened. They looked at each other, deciding if he was safe, then one of the boys took the bread, only then, barely audible, mumbled a single word. “Dziękuję.” Thank you. The boys looked at each other, then back at Boris. Only then did they begin to talk.

As the boys warmed up to........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)