Why Is Sam Silberberg So Important To The Holocaust?

William Espinosa
Extra Credit 1
5/3/2015

Sam Silberberg is man, who in 1939, at the young age of 10, was unfortunately victim to the atrocities of the Nazis in Poland towards the Orthodox Jewish community. He fell victim to the obscene mandates that Germans brutally enforced, including the law that Jews must wear the yellow Star of David on all clothing that was worn as a form of identification, confiscation of property and the freezing and seizure of bank funds, and ghettoization, which is a form of segregation that isolated Jews from the rest of the world. In 1942, the town he had lived in happily all his life was chosen to be eradicated of all if its Jewish members,, and Sam was sent to Annaberg, a concentration camp considered as fierce
He suffered there for a while, until the Russian Army started to fight for Poland. In desperation, the Nazis decides that the only option was to empty out the concentration camps, and move the remaining Jews into Germany. Because of the terrible conditions, and very long amount of travel this activity would be called, “the death march.” To put that into perspective, around 4,000 Jews had survived the camp to go on the march, but less than 800 were able to survive, and those that did make it were in terrible condition. When Sam was 16 years old, he was able to make a run for it, and hid within a church until the war was officially over, and it was safer for him to come out. While he is grateful for his life, his entire family was not as lucky as he. His two brothers, his sister, and his dad were
This occurrence took place in this century. While it may seem like a different time, it was in fact very recent. This isn’t something that we read about in history books and ignore until the next quiz comes up because it does not apply to us anymore, this is something than an entire nation of people still live with, and something that many living people can still look back and ponder on, such as the speakers and authors of today, like Sam Silberberg. Respect, and fear must keep us remembering and honoring this tragedy. Especially in countries like ours, it is very easy to forget that humans can be so cruel, and with the Holocaust, it is only logic that we observe its traits so that they can never be reproduced. However, there are many things that we should take away from this tragedy, and those like it. First of all, I believe that if anything, the Holocaust has proved that human one on one human interaction, physically and emotionally, is something very powerful, and is very important if we are to function in a society, or in times of need. Our country is very self-centered; for lack of a better example, rappers are always bragging about how they got to the top of the music charts “without a label,” meaning without help from others. Situations like the Holocaust help us remember that humans should always be friendly, and