FLASHREPORT

I met Earl Greif last night, and I felt the Holocaust.

I have been to several Holocaust museums across our country, even to the one in Israel a few times, when I led some excursions to the Holy Land.  But I never really felt the Holocaust.

Then I spent an hour with Earl last night.  Earl Greif was sent to a starvation camp in Poland during World War II with his parents, his brother, Lou, and his baby sister.  In April of 1943, the Nazi Gestapo began clearing out the camp, preparing to move on.  They shot his sister and parents in a ditch along with hundreds of other prisoners.  

Sixteen year-old Earl and ten year-old Lou crawled unnoticed into an oven, and hid through the day and night.  They crawled out when things were quiet and escaped into the surrounding forest, where they lived for the next four months, surviving on berries, mushrooms and bird eggs.  They were frightened to emerge because they thought the Nazi's might still be around.

In the fall, the chilling onset of winter forced them to move on, so they split up and each got work on a farm, pretending not to know each other.  In 1947, the brothers came to the United States.  Earl built a successful career in real estate in Los Angeles before retiring to the Palm Desert area.

He is retired now, and the co-founder of the Holocaust Museum here in the Coachella Valley.  Earl spends his days working to ensure that the coming generations never forget this chapter in human history. 

This year, in April, the State Assembly will commemorate the 6th Annual Holocaust Memorial Project.  In each of the 80 Assembly districts, high school student meet, interview, and write essays about Holocaust survivors that are published in the Project's annual book.  They are miraculous stories of terror, anguish, hope, and ultimately, faith.  Earl Greif will be honored from the 64th Assembly District.

Those sixteen and ten year-old boys grabbed me last night.  They grabbed me and made me imagine what it must have been like to face absolute tyrannical horror.  And they grabbed me and made me grateful, once more, to live in America.

I have now felt the Holocaust.  I hope I never forget it.