Survivor+Testimony



NOTES:
 * 7. Survivor Testimony**
 * Nesse Godin**

From Wikipedia-
 * Nesse Godin (Galperin)** (born March 28, 1928 in Šiauliai, Lithuania) is a Holocaust survivor.[1] She has dedicated her adult life to teaching and sharing memories of the Holocaust. Nesse has the ability to translate the Holocaust into a personal glimpse of this enormous and horrifying history.

//"My family was very religious and observed all the Jewish laws. I attended Hebrew school and was raised in a loving household, where the values of community and caring always were stressed. After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, we heard from relatives in Łódź that Jews there were being treated horribly. We could not believe it; how could your neighbors denounce you and not stand up to help you?"//

These were the years of German occupation in Lithuania, as well as numerous other places and regions throughout Europe. //"On June 26, 1941, the Germans occupied our city, just four days after the invasion of the USSR. In the weeks that followed, SSkilling units and Lithuanian collaborators shot about 1,000 Jews in the nearby Kuziai forest. In August, we were forced to move into a ghetto, where we lived in constant hunger and fear. There I witnessed many “selections,” during which men, women, and children were taken to their deaths. My father was among them. In 1944 as the Soviet army approached, the remaining Jews were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. There I was given the number 54015."//

From Stutthof, Nesse was transported to several camps, and was sent on a death march in January 1945. In the freezing cold winter weather and with little food, many of the prisoners died. On March 10, 1945, she was liberated by Soviet troops. As she was still a minor then, she was given a random minder, but soon afterwards she got re-united with her mother. In 1950 after spending five years in the displaced persons camp in Feldafing, Germany, she and her husband Jack (also a survivor), along with their two children, Pnina and Edward, came to the U.S. and settled in the Washington D.C. area.

Later years
In 1954, Nesse and Jack saw the birth of their third and final child, Rochelle. Holding blue-collar jobs, Nesse and Jack worked hard and diligently to support their family, which included Nesse's mother, Sara. She has seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Advocacy/Awareness speaking and volunteering
For the past 40-plus years, Nesse has been a busy individual, speaking about the Holocaust to domestic and international audiences. She has appeared before a variety of audiences including the United States Naval Academy, United States Military Academy, theDepartment of Defense, the Department of Energy, the United Nations General Assembly, numerous schools, like Seneca Valley High School, Robinson Secondary School and Bluffton High School, universities, churches, synagogues, civic groups and teacher's conferences. Nesse is on the Board of Directors and Founding Member of several Holocaust Survivor groups. She served on the board of theJewish Federation of Greater Washington and is a board member of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, and many other worthy organizations. Nesse is Co-President of the Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington and she's participated as a speaker for the Capitol Children's Museum of Washington, D.C. [1] Nesse has earned numerous awards and honors for her speaking.

Present day
Nesse currently lives in Silver Spring, MD, with her husband, Jack. She volunteers weekly at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and continues to speak out against the horrors of genocide, violence, and hate. //As you know I was a prisoner from the age of 13 to 17. I lived through a ghetto, concentration camp, four labor camps and a death march. I was not strong, I was not smart, I was a little girl. I think that I survived the Holocaust by the grace of the Lord above and by the kindness of Jewish women that gave me a bite of bread, wrapped my body in straw to keep me warm, held me up when I was hurt by the guards, gave me hope, but also asked me to promise them that if I survived I would not let them be forgotten. Remember and tell the world what hatred can do. I feel that the USHMM is fulfilling my promise that I made to those women that did not survive. I am proud to be a devoted volunteer in our most wonderful institution of education as I call our USHMM.//
 * "Why I Volunteer:"**

Mrs. Nesse Godin Holocaust survivor (Lithuania)
//[Delivered by Mrs. Vivian Bernstein, a child of Holocaust survivors, on behalf of Mrs. Nesse Godin]// Thank you so much for extending to me the invitation to be with you for this special commemoration for the Holocaust. I am not a speaker or professor or politician. I am a survivor of the Holocaust and I am here for one reason only, to share memories. I do so that you would know the truth but most of all not to allow such atrocities in humanity ever again. I was born and grew up in Shauliai Lithuania. Lithuania was a democracy where all the people regardless of race or religion lived freely together. I had a normal childhood with my parents two brothers and family. In June of 1941 my life changed. The Germans took over Lithuania, the army, the wermacht, marched thru my town in one night, no buildings were bombed, no people were killed, but right after another group marched in they were called Einzatz Grupen, Mobile killing units. They ran through the city grabbing Men and boys allegedly for slave labor but they were killed in a mass grave in a forest near Bubiai and Kuziai. Then a ghetto was formed, 3500 people did not get a certificate that was needed to get in, they were killed in a forest near Zagare. In the ghetto starvation and selections. Due to the limit of time that I was given to share with you, I will just share one of those selections. On November 5, 1943 I was already working as a slave labor outside of the ghetto, when I came to the gate to be with the group I worked with I saw trucks outside of the ghetto, we wondered what the trucks were doing there, we were ordered to go back to our rooms. I ran to the room I shared with my parents, brothers and uncles. My mom put layers of clothing on me, bread in my pocket, the words she said I will never forget, ’She said my child the trucks are here to deport us. We may be separated, each member of the family needs food and a change of clothing”. But a little later orders changed, we were ordered to go to work. So I left the Ghetto with the group I worked with. All day we were wondering what the trucks were doing there, did they bring food? or were they taking people out to be killed. When we came closer to the ghetto we heard cries coming from there. When we came in the people that cried so bitterly told us exactly what happened that day. SS and Gestapo and Ukrainers that came with them ran through the ghetto, found everyone and ordered them to the gate and there one Nazi with the move of the thumb who shall live and who shall die. Is it up to a human to decide that? A thousand children thru the age of fourteen it missed me by a year and a half, five hundred of elderly and so many healthy and strong, the Nazis figured they may fight back, they removed them before they took the rest of the people. We did not know then where they were taken to, after the war we found out that they were taken to Auschwitz, there they were taken into the gas chambers where they were killed and their bodies were burned in crematoria. On that selection I lost my father that was his day off from work. I do not ask about millions I ask about one human being, my father, a loving gentle human being. This selection is called the Kinder Action, The Children selection. The life in the Ghetto after the children selection was terrible, no children, no future. In 1944 we were deported to the Stuthoff concentration camp. There I was separated from my family, my name Nesa Galperin became number 54015. One day as we stood in Apel Roll Call a woman told me that the Nazis will kill me there because I look so frail. She advised me if I could get out to a labor camp I may survive. I listened to her advice and one evening I saw women lined up they were given a blanket and a dish for food I assumed it was for deportation to a labor camp so I snuck in the middle of the line and succeeded to leave for a Labor camp. I was in four labor camps, it was terrible in the cold of winter women died of hunger and disease. January 1945 we left the last labor camp and started what is called now the death March. We marched through the roads and towns of Poland and Germany leaving many women dead on the road. Some shot and some just left to die of the frost. In the middle of February we stopped near a small town called Chinow now it is called Chinovia. The guards pushed us in a barn there was just straw on the ground. I do not know how many of us were there. The guards ordered 50 women outside and ordered them to dig two long holes in the ground. We assumed that they were going to shoot us but they had different plans for us. On one hole they put sticks on it served as a bathroom the other hole was to be a grave. The Nazis knew that we will die there. Hunger and disease took its toll. Every day there were dead women, the healthier women had to drag out the dead undress them naked/ the guards ordered that the clothing be sorted for recycling and the bodies were dumped in the hole. All thru the Holocaust I prayed to G-D to save my life but it came a time when I went to the so called bathroom and I saw a mountain of naked skeletons I did not want to live any more .I went into the barn sat in the straw and prayed to G-D to die and the women around me said stupid girl Hitler wants you dead, you HAVE to live. In Spite of the Nazis you try to survive and if you survive they said “Remember us light a candle for our Soul. But most of all teach the world what happened during the dark days of the Holocaust. What hatred and indifference can do to humanity. On March 10 we were liberated by the Soviets. We the Survivors are fulfilling the promise that we made to our people that were so brutally killed. I personally volunteer for the United States Holocaust memorial museum in Washington DC. I call the museum the most wonderful institution of education/ It teaches how to respect every human being that the lord created and not to allow genocide in the world again. In conclusion I like to ask you wonderful people that represent most of the countries of the world. We the survivors of the Holocaust are getting old many are not alive anymore please take over our promise and let’s stop hatred in the world let’s make sure that no child would have to suffer like I did. May G-D by what name you call him bless you and the countries you represent. And may G-D bless the country that gave me a home The United State of America Thank you.