MARCH OF THE LIVING
May 8 triggers mixed emotions for Max Eisen
May 08, 2008 07:16 PM
Prithi Yelaja
Staff Reporter
It is a day of sorrow: On this date 63 years ago, Max Eisen, his parents, three younger siblings, grandparents, aunt and uncle were herded like cattle in railcars from their home in what was then eastern Hungary to Auschwitz. Except for Eisen, the rest of the family perished in the camp.
It is also a day of celebration: Eisen, a Toronto resident, is in Israel to mark that country’s 60th anniversary as a nation today.
"It’s a very emotional anniversary for me – both good and bad. Going there (Auschwitz) was a painful thing, but Israel’s independence is a wonderful thing. When I was a prisoner in the camp, I would have never have dreamt this would become a reality," says Eisen, 79, by phone from Israel.
He is among 46 people from Toronto who participated last week in a March of the Living in Poland.
About 8,000 people, including 800 from Canada, took part, walking three kilometres between Auschwitz and Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps.
Cindy Rosenthal, whose parents are survivors of the camps, is also part of the Toronto contingent, organized by United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto.
"My whole life I grew up with stories of the Holocaust and to actually walk the same soil is so powerful and moving. I can’t believe a human being can do to this to another human being. It’s mind-boggling. I don’t think you ever overcome something like that," says Rosenthal, 52.
Growing up with that heavy legacy made her more sensitive, she adds.
"You never wanted to do anything more to upset your parents because they had already suffered so much in their lives."
When Eisen entered Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 at age 15, he was immediately sent to the labour section of the camp along with his father and uncle, who were subsequently subjected to medical experiments and slain.
With the flick of an SS officer’s wrist, the rest of his family was marked for termination and marched directly to the ovens.
When Eisen asked a guard the next day when he would see his family, the man laughed. "He said, `Your family has gone up the chimney.’ That was the only way out."
Subsisting on about 300 calories a day, a skeletal Eisen toiled in labour gangs, cleaning swamps and lining them with lime, among other duties.
"There was a roaring hunger in your belly every minute. This was another world that no one can imagine unless you lived it. Their aim was to grind us away body and soul. But I had a tremendous will to go on. I didn’t want to wind up in the gas chamber."
By the time Eisen was liberated eight months later, his extended family of 70 people was nearly decimated. Only he and two cousins made it out of the camps. After living in an orphanage for three years, sponsored by a rabbi, Eisen eventually made his way to Toronto in 1949, where he married, had children and ran a successful manufacturing business before retiring in 1991 to become a volunteer Holocaust educator.
Rosenthal’s parents also survived the camps. They met and married in Germany after the war before coming to Canada in 1947
Both Rosenthal and Eisen attended ceremonies marking the Day of Remembrance earlier this week for 22,000 soldiers who have died fighting for Israel since independence, ahead of today’s celebrations.
"This is something special. Even in the concentration camps the prisoners said, we want to one day see Israel," says Rosenthal. "We’ve fought hard to keep it. You’re not afraid to be Jewish here. You’re not looking over your shoulder. There is a level of comfort."
please keep this: As for being in Israel on this momentous day, she adds, "It’s like coming home. There’s not a hotel room to be had in the whole country. There’s an excitement in the air. It’s a beautiful feeling."
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