Heartfelt message

By Nadine Armstrong He was silent for a generation, but now Holocaust survivor Philip Riteman reaches out to young people all over the world.

Young men and women, whose adolescence bears no resemblance to his own, are shocked and saddened by this hero's gripping and graphic account.

His story will pierce your heart as it did recently for students of Avon View High School. Riteman was invited to speak as part of the school's observance of Yom Hashoa. Students sat in awe as Riteman described a youth of unspeakable horror and unbearable loss. “You are lucky people, all off you,” he said. “You don't realize you are all living in heaven.”

Even before he begins, Riteman's eyes cloud with tears. The memories, like the number stamped on his arm, are always on the surface. When he speaks, he is no longer a man of 75, but number 98706; a 15 year-old boy reliving the horror of Auschwitz. It was there that his innocence was destroyed forever. “I was just like you here today. I never imagined it would have happened,” he said. “It's still so vivid in my mind. I don't know what kept my hope alive. “They killed by family: my five brothers, two sisters, my parents. I loved them very much and I’m the only one left. Sometimes I wish I hadn't survived. Why me?”

Tale of remembrance

Because he did survive, Riteman's tale is one of remembrance the world continues to hear. “For over 40 years I wouldn't talk about it. I was frightened and ashamed. But still a few imbeciles would like to deny it. That’s what gets to me. “Thank you all for wanting to know what happened. You read books, you watch movies, but you can't ask questions of books and movies. What do you want to know? Whatever it is, I will tell you,” he said. “This generation should know what happened. They should make sure it never happens again.”

His story led the students from his homeland of Szereszow, Poland where in 1939 one million Nazi soldiers marched into the village at midnight and opened fire. “They shot at anyone they saw. What would you think if that happened here today, right now?”

Nazi soldiers slaughtered people by the hundreds: lawyers, doctors, police, children, seniors. Some were forced to dig their own graves before being shot in the back of the head. You could see the earth moving where some struggled against death, Riteman said. “They didn't want to leave anyone with education alive. Children and old people were of no use to them. I was so scared; they shot at random. They don't like your nose, they shoot you. You wear glasses and you're dead.”

His family joined the tens of thousands who were shuffled into freight trains like cattle, unaware of their destination. “They told us we were going to farms. My father said, 'Thank god. If we are going to a farm we will survive the war'.”

Packed in freight cars

For seven days they were packed in the freight cars, with no food, no light, no bathroom. “We couldn't turn around, we couldn't move. A man dropped dead on my feet and there was no place to put him. A baby died in its mothers arms. The mother was so hysterical, she couldn't stop crying. You do not do this to humans.”

When they arrived at the platform Riteman hugged his parents before being led away by a Nazi solider. “They told me I would see them tomorrow, but I never saw them again.” His family and thousands more that survived the horrific journey were led to the gas chambers that same day. “I didn't understand what was going on. They told us nothing.”

He did not join them. Instead, on the advice of a stranger, he declared his age to be 18 and said he was a locksmith. “They only wanted people that could work for them,”

Riteman said. “Everyone else was gunned down. I knew locksmith like I knew how to get to the moon,” he said.

Those, like Riteman, chosen to work at the camp were led into cold showers and left to dry, marching in freezing temperatures. “If you did not march you were dead. They numbered us all and I will never forget the red enamel bowl they gave us.”

His task required little skill and he was forced to dispose of dead bodies, day after day. “They burned 20,000 people a day. The smell was so terrible.” If you could survive three months in the prison camp they would move you to a labour camp.

American soldiers liberated the camps

Riteman survived. In 1945, American soldiers liberated the camps and it’s a moment he will never forget. “It was midnight and all of a sudden everything stopped. It was silent. I could see people; Americans crossing the river. There was not a German anywhere. They were yelling at us, ‘you’re free, you’re free', but we didn't know what free was.”

Riteman's first face-to-face encounter with freedom was a soldier from Chicago, a fellow Jew. “Thank god for veterans who went to fight this evil for you guys, for me.”

When Riteman concluded his talk, this reporter’s only instinct was to reach out and hug him. I wasn't alone. Dozens of students blinked back tears and stood in line to embrace the boy still very much in the man.

It's a story Riteman says can never be forgotten. “Evil is always around. We must see this and stand up against evil.”

But his message is also one of love and hope. “I want you all to love each other. Love will conquer the world. I believe there's good somewhere.”

He told students to remember that millions of souls are looking down on them, asking them to keep their memory alive. “Someday I won't be around either. You must teach this to your children; it is better to love than to hate. Don't hate anyone. You will be rewarded for wanting to know the truth. God will spare you; you are all angels.”

After the war, Riteman immigrated to Newfoundland, where he lived for 35 years before moving to Halifax with his wife.