A Little Perspective

Today, my friend and favorite volunteer at work, Marcia and I were talking about the Holocaust. Marcia is Jewish, and has several friends who survived the Holocaust. Who knows how we got on the topic, but, we did. She began sharing a story with me about her friend, Sophie who survived Auschwitz. Marcia said that Sophie was captured at age 14, and lived in the concentration camps until she turned 19 years old. Sophie learned how to survive by being chosen to be on the work crew everyday. She learned that the cleanest people were chosen to be on the work crew, so every night she would wake up in the middle of the night, go wash her clothing, put it in her muslin mattress and sleep on top of it until morning. When it was time for role call, she would dress, and present herself clean in front of the soldiers. She was chosen, and survived. When she was older, she was transported to a "displaced persons" camp where she met her husband. They were married in the camp, and after being released, came to the United States, and started a family. Marcia said that Sophie's husband purchases every book that comes out about the Holocaust. One night, they were in bed reading, and Sophie's husband let out a scream. Sophie asked him what he was screaming about, and he replied, "It's our wedding picture."

They had never seen a picture of their wedding. They have no record of their wedding day. Someone had found the picture in Frankfort, Germany, and put it in their book, that Sophie's husband happened to purchase and read.

My eyes were flooded with tears.

Just this morning, I was complaining to my Mom that I still do not have my wedding pictures, or wedding album. I gripped that I'd probably never get them. And then, I hear this story. Sophie and her husband were married in a concentration camp after fighting for their survival everyday. Sophie and her husband had never even had a glimpse of a wedding photo, and here I am fussing because I've almost been married a year and I don't have my wedding album. Hmm. A little perspective, I'd say.