I’m not Jewish, but I do have a Jewish name and I love the Jewish people. I could not pass up the opportunity to hear holocaust survivor, Eva Schloss back in February 2017 when she visited my country. She shared the chilling details of the inhumane treatment forced upon the Jewish people under the ruthless, tyrannical, myopic regime of Adolf Hitler.

I was one of 2,600 people that packed three ballrooms at the Nassau hotel, intrigued by this very strong, resilient 88-year-old woman who sat in our presence. She spoke of the unthinkable horrors that mercilessly swept through concentration camps, gas chambers and killing centres.

Eva was the best friend of the legendary Ann Frank. She drew a capacity crowd that was expected to be 400, but quickly mushroomed into those 2,600 eager listeners.

“Hitler wanted to conquer the whole world,” she told her audience. The intolerance towards Jews included an imposed curfew of 8 pm and only shopping in Jewish stores.

“People started to disappear. Parents waited for children to come home,” she stated.

“They never turned up,” was the sad reality.

Eva and her family were in hiding for two years. They lived in constant trepidation until they were betrayed and discovered by the Nazis. They were shipped like chattel to a hell on earth, otherwise known as Auschwitz. She was just 15 years old.

They were beaten, called by numbers, heads shaven and only permitted to shower once a week. Others were killed from the day of arrival, walking from the train straight into the gas chamber. There were even those who were burned alive.

By the time the nine months Eva spent at Auschwitz were over, her father and brother were dead, throwing her into a depressive abyss. And for 40 years, she suppressed the atrocities of one of the worse death camps on earth. According to Eva, one million Jews died at Auschwitz. Meanwhile, it is widely known that six million Jews were massacred under the diabolical Nazi regime in an attempted genocide.

Today, how many of us discriminate? How many of us are modern day Nazis – just without concentration camps? How many of us are prejudice against others because of their ethnicity, where they live, how they dress, their disabilities, lack of higher education or even their professions we feel are below our standards?

We ALL bleed red. We ALL want love. We ALL feel hurt and pain. We ALL are truly ONE race. Human.

Growing in Christ,

Hadassah