Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Anne Hirschle - July 21, 2006

And I went up to her after and I said, "You know, I, I, I've got to hand it to you, I, I watched these kids go through the museum and I watched the way they reacted when you gave this presentation and I've got to congratulate you. They-you really got through to these kids." And she, she had tears in her eyes and she said, "You know, it's been very hard for me to do these presentations. I've only done them for a few weeks. I didn't think I could really do them. I do thank you for telling me, you mean I did some good?" I said, "You were excellent," and she was so pleased. And I-and she said, "Well, then I was thinking it was so hard for me to do this," but she said, "Now that you tell me this, maybe I'll carry on with doing this." And I don't know what happened after that but anyway, I found that a very interesting thing. So when you asked me, "Do you think people should be told?" Yes, I think people should be told, but I think it's going to be very important how it's presented...

Mm-hm.

...because this presentation was obviously very meaningful, whereas the Holocaust Museum, I-they, they couldn't. They were not attentive.

It's one thing to look at pictures of it, and it's another thing when you're in contact.

You know even in-going through the museum, I think the last thing before one spoke to this-before the woman spoke to us was a, a film and they, they watched that and I think it left them totally cold. They've seen so much violence on TV...

Sure.

...it was just another film to them, you know. They didn't care that that really happened, they didn't- they just probably didn't believe it really happened. It was just another movie.

Hm.

But the woman talking to them and showing them her arm and, and making it a personal-so when you say, "Do you think it should be told?" Yes, I think it should be told, but it's got to be done in a very clever way, it's got to be uh, so that people can identify with the horror of it, just like I identified with that pilot, you know.

Well, I think that's a good place to end.

Well, thank you very much um, I, I appreciate you coming. I hope it was some help to you.

Oh definitely.

Um, I told my daughter I was going to do this, and I said, "You know, I, I really feel I have no business doing this because I'm not a Holocaust survivor, I didn't suffer." Uh, but she was of another opinion. She said, "Yeah, mom, you've got things to say. You, you, you did go through that period, you do have things that they might want to hear," so I hope it was the case.

Great, thank you Anne.

Thank you.