On our second day in Poland, and after a morning touring the Warsaw ghetto, we headed to Treblinka.
Howard mentioned that all survivors are survivors by luck. A thousand different strokes of luck. For Howard, his father told a lie to add two years to Howard’s young fourteen. A small fortune allowed his father to obtain a work card for each member of his family. When Howard was pulled aside by an angry guard, a friend of his father was nearby to confirm he was a good worker, worthy of the card. Moments later, he found a courtyard door that he could hide behind -twice- when the guard returned to rectify his mistake, and to find Howard to condemn him to death.
It’s just the first day of his story, and these are just some of the strokes of luck that saved Howard. That allowed him to stand in front of us today with family that almost didn’t exist.
Strokes of luck that separate him from the 900,000 who died.
Even luck that allowed us to hear of his mother, sister and brother whose work cards didn’t succeed, and weren’t able to save them.
– Sarah Castleman
