Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Judy Schreiber - February 1, 2013

Conclusion II

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And last question...

Yes.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

Uh, that's, that's a real toughie. And I think the, my message is really based on what I experienced in my lifetime. Cause I, you know, I always go back to what happened to me and how I felt it. And the thing that I feel about it, and the message that I want to con...convey with some adult understanding...

Mm-hm.

Is that, you know, human beings have free will to do what they choose to do with how they live their life. Even if you have an intense and strong belief in God, which I have, and I feel like that's my core.

Mm-hm.

I understand that God does not determine our day to day way of being in this world. That's something that we do, we're given that power. And to the degree that we use that self-determination for good, than we enhance ourselves, and thereby, the world around us, our immediate world and out towards the larger world. And to the degree that it is not used for good...

Mm-hm.

We diminish ourselves; we diminish those around us with wrong behaviors, bad actions, bad thoughts. And to the degree that we figure it out and do the right thing um, [pause] you find your place in the universe and to the degree that you don't figure it out, and do not do the right thing um, you'll never be at home in this world.

Hm.

And I don't think you'll find much of a home in the world after.

Hm.

You have, you have to find your own home and you have to find it uh, if your parents don't provide it for you, if your parents do not provide you with the correct direction...

Mm-hm.

And an attitude to be able to put yourself on a good path, and my parents did not provide that for me, it makes it tougher, because you have to find your own way. And it's not an easy road. I have always uh, in the back of my mind had this kind of fantasy of what would my life have been like had I been born to stable, religious, Jewish parents that had money, that uh, would have said to me, you know, you need to go to college, you need to graduate high school, you need to find a job, you need to find a, I had--I had none of those advantages. And um, I feel like I wasted many years to the negative.

Mm-hm.

Because I was not a good person, because I was self-centered, self-absorbed, self-involved. Bought into uh, what is essentially a very empty lifestyle in the United States um, you know, looking good, dressing well, going to Saks. And I regret all those years, because those are years that I should have put to better use. But because I had to do this discovery voyage pretty much on my own.

Mm-hm.

It took me a long time to reach, sort of, the balance that I've begun reaching in my older age. Uh, what I would say to anybody is that the best thing that you could ever do for another human being uh, is to raise your child right.

Hm.

Raise 'em, raise, raise 'em with love, with ethics, with truth. And be a seeker of truth.

With love, with ethics.

And with truth. I feel like my main job in life really has been to be a seeker of truth. I just didn't realize it for many years and I went down a lot of wrong roads 'til I began uh, you know, I, I began to find a path. Um, and uh, as simple as it is, it's so complicated. The, the, the base answer to it all is uh, find God within you. Find God.

"Find God..."

Yeah.

"Within you."

And cling to it, because if you let go it's easy to lose it.

"Find God within you and cling to it, because..."

It's easy to lose.

"It's easy to lose."

Yeah. At least in our time and in these days...

Mm-hm.

It's...

Mm-hm.

???, focus on ??? [laughs].

Very good.

That's it?

Thank you very much.

Oh, you're welcome.

That was great.

It was a pleasure to think these thoughts.

Yeah, it was a pleasure to meet you and to learn and to, uh...

Yeah, we, hopefully we learn from everyone in...

Yeah.

Some sense. Someone's bound to have something in them that you, that we don't.

That's right, that's right. Well this was great, um...


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