Jeffrey

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My name is Bronia Beker, and I am a survivor of the Nazi occupation of Poland. My entire family is dead, but I managed to survive, along with Joseph, a friend and my future husband. It began when the Germans chose several hundred Jews at random and shot them all. Two of my brothers died that day. It became unsafe in the ghetto, so our family dug a huge cave underneath our house to hide in, with air pipes so that we could breathe. One day, the Nazis came, ordering everyone out of the ghetto. We did not want to leave, so we hid in the cave. They came into our house looking for us, but could not find where we had gone. However, they did notice the two air pipes sticking out, and stuffed them. I was the weakest at the time, so I fainted first. When I woke up, I was the only one alive. The rest of my family had suffocated. For the next few years, Joseph and I moved around from household to household, always in hiding. This lasted until the Russians freed us in 1944. Joseph and I got married, and moved to Canada, where he died a few years ago. I still remember the days we spent in hiding together, and I still miss him.

Interviewing: Chen Ming Luo, my grandfather, a WWII veteran and survivor of shrapnel wounds
 * 1) 1. What were your feelings about the war?
 * 2) 2. How did you view the enemy? Did this change afterwards?
 * 3) 3. Did you believe in the cause, or were you disillusioned? Did your injury change anything?
 * 4) 4. What was the day like when you were wounded?
 * 5) 5. What thoughts were going through your head, right before and after?
 * 6) 6. How did the injury change your life?
 * 7) 7. What was the recovery like?
 * 8) 8. How did external influences affect your view of your sacrifice?
 * 9) 9. How did your friends and family react?
 * 10) 10. How do you view the government of the time today? Do you think they treated you fairly or were sincere in their honors, if any?
 * 11) 11. What did this experience teach you?
 * 12) 12. What lessons would you impart to our generation?
 * 13) 13. What do you think is the best way to prevent something like WWII from ever happening again?
 * 14) 14. Given a chance to meet the man who injured you, what would you say?
 * 15) 15. Is there anything you would go back and change?

My name is Chen Ming Luo, and I am a survivor of the eastern theatre of WWII in China. I served for a short period of time before being put out of action by shrapnel wounds. When the war first started, I was very excited to serve my country. The Japanese were the most horrific thing infecting our country, and they all deserved to die. I was honored to be able to take part in this. Then, I was injured. At first, I felt only hatred towards the ones who had ruined my legs. Hatred grew into overwhelming rage, before the war ended and I settled back into a normal life. Today, I see my injury as an important learning experience in my life. It allowed me to experience the other side of war, the inglorious side. An event like this should never happen again. A dictator should never be able to reach the children and capture them under his brainwashing spell. It is only with this that the future will always be pure and rational.