Wednesday, January 28, 2009

From a Roman: "I was there at Auschwitz..."



You never know who you might meet while in Rome. Just yesterday while at Rome's main train station yours truly wandered into a bookshop and in walked the one who apparently is the last living member of Rome's pre-war Jewish community who came back alive from Auschwitz. His name is Alberto Sed. It was lovely to chat with him and to hear him speak of America with such joy; the Americans liberated him in 1945. In Auschwitz his mother and baby sister died in a gas chamber (sono finite subito nella camera a gas) while his other sister made it out after Dr. Mengele destroyed her body for life. The eyes never change. As I looked into his beautiful eyes - eyes that were a multiplicity of colors - I saw for a moment something deeply sacred. The eyes are the window to the soul. This man was able to forgive and go on to lead a happy, normal life. From the bosom of Abraham, may the Father be praised.

4 comments:

Jim Larkin said...

Hi John,

Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviets, not the Americans.

Peace,
Jim

John Paul Sonnen said...

he was on the death march and so was liberated outside the camp by americans.

to the fools who left anti- and quasi anti-jewish comments on this post, you give us a bad name. you wound our movement. williamson is a loose canon and has a big mouth. stop hurting our cause.

Anonymous said...

I'm not anti-Jewish, and I acknowledge the Holocaust. But I wish the Catholic Church would go back to a mindset towards Jews (and others like Buddhists, Muslims, Protestants) like we had before Vatican II.

All this appologizing to Jews, bending over backward to soothe their "outrages", and to accomodate their every concern is simply ridiculous. Since when did the Jews dictate the rules of the Catholic Church (especially whether or not the great Pope Pius XII can be made a Saint?).
I recently read that sometime wintin the last 10 years or so, the Vatican created a "World Day for Judaism"...a commemoration each year. Silly and ridiculous to say the least. It is not reciprocated. All Jewish people do is heap abuse on the person of the Pope, and the Catholic Faith.

Just so you know I'm not anti-Jewish (just logical), it is also ridiculous for the Vatican every year to send our congratulations to the Muslims for the end of "Ramadan", or to the Buddhists or Hindus for their major religious (pagan) festivals.

It's nice to wish good relations with other religious, but this overly politically correct nonsense coming from the Vatican and the Council for Inter-Religious Dialog (which even the Pope says in the strict sense is not possible), is foolish.
In a word, the Vatican knee-jerk reaction about the Jews, and othr faiths (not to offend them, to talk nice, etc.) is embarassing.

Anonymous said...

John,

Surely you now know that this whole 'Williamson/Jewish thing was a set up to discredit our loving Holy Father as he attempted to welcome his prodical sons home.
You play into the perpetrator's hands.