Hope and Faith

By Avie Sanchez
Oceana High School

 

In a time when the Jewish people truly needed faith in God, many of them lost their sight of Him. Many people gave in to Hitler’s devious work and let him win the battle. Because of his leadership, he made many Jews suffer and lose everything they had, even their humanity and hope. But George Heller learned to overcome this struggle. He learned that in order to survive a horrible tragedy, or any impediment, he needed to keep his faith alive and maintain hope.

It is the summer of 1944. George is drafted to a special “forced labor service” unit, where he works for the Hungarian Army. Even though he lives in a dorm separated from the Hungarians and even wears civilian clothing and a yellow arm ribbon, he is in the labor service unit. The Hungarian Army treats him reasonably well. He works six days a week and is given a salary. His father dies while George is in the labor camp. George gets permission to attend his father’s funeral, even though it is quite dangerous for him to leave because he is Jewish. When George returns, he keeps on working in the labor camp until he comes down with typhoid fever. Sent to a hospital in which he is the only Jewish patient, he receives the same treatment as everyone else. He stays there for several weeks until he fully recovers.

Slave Labor

In October 1944, George and many others are deported to a labor camp in Austria. They are transported in a compact box car. Each car carries 80 people. They go without a bathroom, food, water, or any other necessities for three days. The train makes stops to drop off the dead. There are other slave laborers who have come from other camps. They are covered in lice. Because of cramped conditions, the lice spread quickly to everyone, including George.

George arrives at a slave labor camp just across the border of Hungary in Austria. There are 150 people who have made it to this camp. The people are separated by barns. George’s barn has only one water tap and a dug-up trench for a latrine. In this labor camp, the prisoners are given very little food: a dark-colored drink dubbed “coffee” for breakfast, a ladle of “soup” that occasionally has a piece of potato in it for lunch, and a small piece of bread and a small piece of salami for dinner—hardly enough nourishment for heavy physical labor. George stays in the barn from October 1944 to March 1945.

March 28, 1945 is Passover, a special Jewish holiday in spring that commemorates the story of the Exodus, during which the ancient Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt.[1] This day is special to many Jewish people, but to George, it is unforgettable. On the first night of seder, George celebrates Passover with the other Jews by sharing one piece of matzo. He and the people around him have no idea how that piece of matzo got to them, but they have it and celebrate. The soldiers order him and many other slave laborers to march on the first day of Passover. There is no food or water. They pick up grass from the fields and eat it. “When you are hungry, grass can taste really good,” George says.

Many die from starvation, cold, and exhaustion.[2] The soldiers are behind everyone. Whoever cannot keep up with the crowd gets shot. They are left by the roadside. At the end of the Death March, the slave laborers reach the Danube River. George has an Omega pocket watch that belongs to his brother Steven. Steven did not take it with him, so George has hidden it through many searches. He thinks it might save his life one day. He exchanges the watch for a loaf of bread. He shares it with his friends Zoli and Robert. For eight days, they are on a boat, where there is no food. They land at Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria.

Loss of a Friend

During April 1945, all the days seem normal, but there is one that George will never forget. It is bright and clear. George and his friends have all known each other since they were 10 years old. They have all been on the same journey together since the slave labor camps. Zoli and he share everything. Robert was a top student at school. While they are all talking, Robert looks distraught. He says, “I can’t take it anymore. I have given up hope. There is no possible way I can come out of this alive...” Before he finishes speaking, he collapses to the floor, loses consciousness, and dies. As soon as his friend collapses, George says, “I realized now... that the most crucial element needed for us to survive was our firm conviction that we can and will somehow overcome any surmountable obstacle.”[3] During a time when the Nazis’ mission is to strip Jews of their humanity and dignity, George just keeps his head up and believes that God is on his side.

George goes through a short Death March. He marches from Mauthausen to Gunskirchen concentration camp, a sub camp of Mauthausen in Austria. The barracks are made of log cabins. People are dying faster. George knows that the war is near its end. But surviving a few more days is still unlikely. George keeps his head up and says, “All that remained was our hope that we survive and our faith that we will overcome any surmountable obstacle in the process.”[4]  On May 5, 1945, many guards begin to disappear. They are all gone by the evening. George thinks of going out, but he doesn’t want to take any chances. He ventures out at night and finds a food warehouse, where he opens up a bag of sugar. The sugar gives him strength.

By the morning, many with the strength to walk leave the camp. George leaves with Zoli and two other people. On the road, they spot signs of freshly planted potatoes. George and his companions eat them. As they continue walking, a jeep of American soldiers approaches them. The soldiers spot them, and one announces, “Hitler is dead ... The war is over and you are free.”[5] It takes George and his friends a while for the information to sink in. They find a large food warehouse with pasta, sugar, and vinegar and have a feast to celebrate freedom.

The Days After Liberation

After a few days, George grows weaker and develops diarrhea. Vehicles that transport the sick to the hospital pick him up. He is too weak to walk. He is given good treatment at the hospital in Linz, Austria. He is 80 pounds and very weak. George says, “I was just not going to make it.” But he makes it and is released from the hospital. He estimates he spent about three months there. After being discharged, George decides against returning home. He believes no one in his family could have survived. His only possessions are his clothes and his education. He decides to use the thing that has made him valuable: his language skills.

The United States sets up displaced persons (DP) camps that let survivors stay where they are already located. George does not want to go to the camp in Wels, Austria, for help, but says, “Look, I have all these skills to help you.” The Americans hire him. He is given a job in the fall of 1945. They move from Wels to Linz. While in Linz, George talks to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration camp director and says, “Look, I have helped manage a previous camp. I have all these language skills; I have other skills in helping people. And if you let me, I can help manage this camp.” The director makes him his assistant and interpreter, but he receives no pay. There are others with similar skills, among them one who wishes to return to Hungary. George says, “If my mother is alive, this is where she would be,” and gives his co-worker the address. After a time, his co-worker comes back with news that George’s mother is, indeed, alive, living in Hungary. He gives George a note from his mother with the address of an aunt in the United States. His boss writes a letter to his aunt and, after a while, George moves to New York to create a whole new life for himself, with the plan of sending for his mother once he is settled.

Life in the United States

After George moves to the United States, he meets his lovely wife, Iby. He studies computer science at MIT. He works for IBM for 50 years until he retires. George now tells his Holocaust story to many people. He is here to share his experiences, and today is living a happy life. During his leisure time, he loves to climb rocks. At 87, he is still climbing! From the Holocaust, he developed four mottoes on living life. They are all lessons he learned from the Holocaust: “It’s possible.” “I made it this far.” “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” “Keep going, no matter what.”[6] He tells his story to me, and I pass it onto you because we want to eliminate the ignorance of the past so that history may never repeat itself, and we want to create a future that is hate-free.

Endnotes

Bibliography:

Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust
in as Told the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington DC: Untied States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006.

George Heller, interviewed by Avie Sanchez, January 22, 2011, February 6, 2011.

Heller, George. “Passover 1945: Memories of the Holocaust.” Online: Heller Web Space. 17 May 2005. 23 January 2011. http://hellers.ws/borrowed-time/passover-1945.shtml.

Heller, George. “Shahevet 2007.” Online: Heller Web Space. 5 February 2011. http://hellers.ws/images/travel/07-03-shalhevet/index.shtml#graduation.

 “Passover.” Online: Jewish Virtual Library. 2011. 1 March 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/holidaya.html.

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