Metamorphosis of a Shiksa

World War II was the background of our lives. The Allies were advancing on Germany from two fronts, the US and Britain from the west and Russia from the east. As they advanced, they began to discover the remains of concentration camps as well as existing camps. The horrors of what really had happened were revealed. I had believed that the Nazis were bad, but this was beyond what I thought was possible. We didn’t see daily newspapers at nursing school. We got most of the news from the radio in the lounge and from patients who had radios at their bedside brought from home. My father saved the newspapers for me so I could catch up when I visited. I was at home when I saw the first photographs and stories of the camps. The systematic killing of Jews and others deemed undesirable was unthinkable. The full story was not even known then; this was just the beginning.