Eva Olssen

"When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned."
-Harry W. Mazal

On Monday October 26th, Dr. Eva Olssen came and spoke to us about her experiences that started when she was just 17 years old. On May 14 1944, Nazi soldiers came into her village of Szatmar, Hungary and took many people, including her family. They led them to boxcars which were so stuffed full of people, most of them died before they reached their destination of Auschwitz, a concentration camp for Jews. She lost all of her family except her sister when they got there.

After the 4 long days it took to get there, they all smelt of dead bodies, barf, and sweat from being shoved in the boxcar with about 100 other innocent people.

They than were paraded to the camp. Once they got there their heads were shaved, and some of them were stamped. They were assigned barracks, and told one time what they were to do during the day. Throughout her time in the Holocaust, Eva learned that the world is full of hate, and hate was what was killing all of these innocent people. She pledged that if she lived through what was happening, she would never remain a bystander to injustice.

12 years ago, when she decided to break her silence and talk to people to create awareness of what happened. She made sure everyone knew the importance of not hating, being a bully, or being a bystander. After talking to over a million other people, she came to us. For one hour she spoke about what she went through, and what she learned. Everyone, including me, was majorly taken back. She made such an impact of everyone. Since than, I've tried to make an effort to never say hate. Because hate killed millions of people.

I felt like these things she told us have been ignored, and everyone needs to pay more attention to them. When she talked about how being a bystander is just as bad as a bully, I instantly thought 'why'. After she explained her story, I felt bad that I thought that, because her family died from the bystanders being just as bad as the bullies.

I really loved that presentation, it made me feel sad, upset, and angry, but I came out of it feeling almost better, because now I'm aware of what went on. I wish I had answers for lots of my questions, one being 'what started it all'. What started all of this hate? What started all of this bullying? What was it that started everything?

"When people ask me how long I intend to do this work, I remind them that bullying and genocide is still happening in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, because these problems- caused by hate and intolerance- will always be with us, I'm going to keep speaking as long as I can. Than, I can honestly say to the millions of victims of who's voices were silenced by the Nazis, "You have not been forgotten.""

- Dr. Eva Olssen