My grandpa chose not to speak about his Holocaust experiences – but he asked me to tell the world | Ella Garai-Ebner

YRetrogens, I watched Real pain In the cinema. The film represents a beautiful representation of my cousins, united in love and sadness for their grandfather, and explores the history of their family on a heritage trip to Poland. This experience is familiar to many Jews whom I know-whether he was attending a trip to Auschwitz-Birkinao or the visit of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the idea of ​​influential pilgrimage to know where I live our ancestors, Tofio, and they survived and enlightened, is common.

I definitely passed these experiences. When I was 12 years old, my father’s grandparents, Ann and Henry Ebner, took me to Vienna, where Henry fled the Nazis with his parents when he was two years old, when a refugee arrived in the UK just weeks before the beginning of World War II. In the same year, my mother grandmother, Anna (Bani), took me to Budapest, to find out where she and her husband, my grandmother, George Garrai (Giri) lived. Bani was six years old when Hitler’s forces invaded Hungary In 1944, she survived her concealment in an orphanage. The memories that participated with me in this Hajj were painful. Separation of her parents, returning home after war and sitting next to the window pending the knowledge of any family members who will return – and many of them have never done so.

Giuri died before he made these very special trips. In Budapest, Banny referred to the synagogue who had Parrits, and the store owned by his father. I was seven years old when he died, and I never had the opportunity to hear his story directly from him.

Honestly, my life in his death did not have any relationship with me who did not hear his story. As is very common with holocaust The survivors, Giuri did not talk about his experiences with his family – his shock was very great. However, he was a very talented journalist and writer, so in the 1990s he wrote a biography, called “his CV”, and read it just a few years ago. The elasticity of my grandfather at the age of 18, when it was transferred to two camps at work, and two accreditation camps in the forced death march for four days, is something that I cannot really understand. I hope one day I can publish his autobiography.

I will never know why Giri chose not to share his story with his family. Perhaps he was concerned that it is sad for us to hear, or perhaps he does not want his wife and two daughters to see as a narrated person like these atrocities. For me, Giur is the same person who was before him and after I read his testimony. It will always be a warm, lovable, and beloved, with his heartfelt laughter and sparkling smile. It was only the grandfather to me and my brother, but I wanted his story to reach beyond our family.

In 2021, I came through the Holocaust Education Association 2 generation generationWho enables the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to share the parents ’certificate or grandfather. With their support, I developed a presentation about the life of Giuri before, during and after the Holocaust. The masses learn about the survivors as a person – his personality, upbringing, family and life outside the Holocaust, as well as integrating strong eyewitnesses with their own words.

I am very proud of the participation of Geori Certificate in dozens of schools, many workplaces, and many religious and community groups. This month, to The day of the Holocaust anniversary 2025I will go to Bristol to speak at the local council event, continue to share the story of Geori in schools, and speak in prison.

Every audience I am talking to feels that he is special, strong and unique. While Giur was absolutely not able to talk about his experiences in the Holocaust during his life, in his last days, he asked our family – his words – “Tell the world what happened to me.” That is why every conversation seems very special, because I know that it is not only I am the one who fulfills his final desire, but the room of people who now knows his name, face and story, who also achieve this desire. It is great when I hear notes from the masses about the power of hearing his testimony. It is an honor for me to be able to share the story of my grandfather, and I also feel that it is my duty, like his granddaughter, to do what he never felt he was able to do, but he felt strongly in the achievement.

I was asked why I believe that the Holocaust education is very important, and I find it difficult to express. It seems very clear to me, as the grandson of the survivors, these stories must be told – Klichic seems to forget the human terror that is capable of it. Gery’s final message was clear: Tell the world, so that they could learn from it. I hope you will do sincerely.