Holocaust Survivor Attracts Large Crowd in Dryden
Posted by John Borst
on Jan 14, 2011
When Dryden Rotarian, Angela Bujold, learned from her sister who works as the religious education coordinator for the Northwest Catholic District School Board that they were binging in Holocaust Survivor and author Eva Olsson, she thought it would be an excellent opportunity for the Board to partner with the Dryden Rotary Club to hold a presentation for the community.
Billed as a local "peace" initiative Rotary made arrangements for The Centre, a 500 seat auditorium and Thursday night it was nearly full to capacity with citizens of all ages to hear the diminuative 86 year old Olsson.
Billed as a local "peace" initiative Rotary made arrangements for The Centre, a 500 seat auditorium and Thursday night it was nearly full to capacity with citizens of all ages to hear the diminuative 86 year old Olsson.Speaking in a soft voice, supplemented with a few well chosen graphic pictures Eva weaved together, the story of her message to school children, her own biographical experience and the lessons we must all learn from this horrifying example of "bullying" taken to its ultimate extreme.
Relating bullying in schools today, Olsson described how it is not just the perpetrator but more importantly the "bystanders" who enable bullying to take place and grow. She described bullying as learned hatred and how 300,000 bystanders enabled 300 Nazi bullies in 1933 to reverse those numbers by 1937.
Only 14 when war started, from a poor fundamentalist Jewish and Romanian heritage Olsson, experienced four days crammed into train to Auschwitz-Birkenau where because she was a single young woman she was separated from her family and forced into slave labour. Later she was transferred to a slave-factory in Essen and with the Russians closing in and the allies burning down the factory she was taken to Bergen-Belsen were only hours before she was to be executed, she was liberated.
In closing Eva, still only 21 at her time of rescue, described herself as a "small miracle out of the ashes" and related the story of her Swedish husband Rudy who as a Christian could not have been more different in culture, language, education or social standard who loved her unconditionally and revived her faith in humanity. Only with unconditional love and acceptance she said could peace, human rights and democracy thrive.
Only 14 when war started, from a poor fundamentalist Jewish and Romanian heritage Olsson, experienced four days crammed into train to Auschwitz-Birkenau where because she was a single young woman she was separated from her family and forced into slave labour. Later she was transferred to a slave-factory in Essen and with the Russians closing in and the allies burning down the factory she was taken to Bergen-Belsen were only hours before she was to be executed, she was liberated.Although Olsson supplied the big numbers, it was in the little details that kept the audience in a hushed state throughout the 90 minute presentation.
In closing Eva, still only 21 at her time of rescue, described herself as a "small miracle out of the ashes" and related the story of her Swedish husband Rudy who as a Christian could not have been more different in culture, language, education or social standard who loved her unconditionally and revived her faith in humanity. Only with unconditional love and acceptance she said could peace, human rights and democracy thrive. She also reminded parents not to expect the schools to solve the bullying problem; that it was they who were their children's first teacher and that they had "the responsibility to send them to school the way you want to see them as adults."
Although there was no cost to attend, donations were made to the Rotary Club and will be used to sponsor another ShelterBox.