Who I am Marching for...

I am very excited to write this blog.  I have just made connection with the survivor I will be representing during my time over seas on the March.


When we were presented with this tasks last Thursday after our Webinar I was a little panicked about being able to find someone I could make a connection with before I left.  It was really important to me that I would be able to do this because I want to be able to represent their story in every way that I can but at the same time gain some insight from them on their actual experience.  Then maybe when I am in these places I can close my eyes and try to imagine what it was like for them.  When I set out to find someone I left myself open and was just hoping that I would be able to find someone local from my immediate community.


With that being said I am truly grateful and honoured to say that I will be representing and marching with pride for Ms. Hedy Bohm.  During February Hedy spoke at Waterdown High School in Waterdown, Ontario to help students their prepare for their March break trip to Germany, Poland, and Russia.  I was lucky enough be provided connection to her through Nathan Tidridge (Waterdown High School) and Catherine Gitzel (a friends of Hedy's).


For almost 50 years Hedy kept silent to many about her experience during the Holocaust and carried the pain that came with those memories she had.  Hedy was born in Oradea, Romania and as an only child she was the daughter of father (a tradesman) and her mother.  Her family had the ability to send her to an all girls Jewish school, where Hedy hoped to one day become a gym or creative dance teacher.  During the early 1940s when the rules began to be implemented on the Jewish population, Hedy and her family were relocated to The Ghetto where they shared a room with three other families after they turned in all of their personal belonging to the Nazis.  The area Hedy was from had a population of 25,000 Jewish people, add to that 5,000 from surrounding areas, there were approximately 30,000 people living on only a few blocks of the city. (O'Hara, Spectator)


Hedy and her family saw groups of people daily escorted out of The Ghetto and to the train station.  It was never disclosed where they were heading exactly or what they were going to be doing once they arrive, however, rumours began to circulate as to what the Nazis were doing to the Jews.  No one wanted to believe them.  At the end of May 1944, Hedy's family was now one of those families loaded on to a wagon with no idea where they were going.  For three days they travelled in the dark wagon, provided with no food or water.  Upon arrival when the doors were opened and guards began to yell she was at Auschwitz. (O'Hara, Spectator)


I look forward to speaking with Hedy in the coming weeks and being able to provided you with more information on her story.  I am grateful that I have found someone who will provide me with the opportunity to represent them self and their story on my journey next month.


" That was my wish.  That it didn't happen." - Hedy Bohm