10/14/06: Nazi-occupied Holland survivor recounts experiences

Back in August, I wrote down the following after hearing an incredible story that I didn't want to forget. I have changed the names since I haven't obtained permission to post personal info, but many of my friends from church would know the people involved or at least some of their family. This is a bit long, but worth it. (The quotes are better if you read them to yourself in a slight Dutch accent!)

8/21/06

Sis. Margot Schmidt, who lives in Michigan, was in town with her sister from Holland to reunite with family in the U.S., some of whom she hadn't seen in over 25 years. They have a brother here in Paducah so they came to see him and visited the church as well. All of them were born in Holland, but Sis. Margot and her brother emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-50s, while their sister stayed in Holland. I would guess that Sis. Margot is probably around 70-75 years old. We went out to eat after service and several of us had an opportunity to talk with Sis. Margot about her memories of Holland during the Nazi era. She related her memories of young Anne Franke, who lived in the same neighborhood as she did. I believe Anne Franke was a bit older than Sis. Margot at the time.

They weren't close friends or anything, but they were acquaintances who sometimes played together with a big group from the neighborhood. She remembered a particular incident, just after the Jews had begun to be required to wear the star of David any time they were in public. "They were no longer allowed to walk on the sidewalk, but they had to walk beside the curb in the ditch. I remember she used to roller skate up and down the street and we would all play in a plaza there in the neighborhood; we didn't ask each other where we came from, what we believed, or what religion we were: we were just kids playing!

"A bunch of us kids were playing in the plaza and I remember she came up to the curb and asked "Can I still play here?" and it just broke my heart. Then this big bully kid walked up and said "No, she can't play because she is a Jew and she has to stay in the ditch!" You see, he was a Nazi. We worked him over good. Well, we really beat the crap out of him, let's face it. He was bigger than all of us, but there were more of us than there was of him! She played with us that night in the plaza but she never played there again.

"Then of course years later I heard what had happened to her, and it was so sad, it just breaks my heart. People ask me if I've ever read that book, but no, I can't do it, it is just too painful. I thought about it enough and I don't want to think about it no more! I don't want to remember her that way. I want to remember her as the smiling, laughing, happy little girl that she was. . ." At this point her voice was breaking up and she had to turn away from our group that was standing in the parking lot outside the restaurant and walk a few steps away to regain her composure before turning back to us again.

"You know, I have little rooms in my mind, and I keep the doors closed. Any time they are opened again, it hurts too much. I remember on September 11th, my daughter called me and said, 'You have to turn on the television and see what's going on!' because I didn't know anything about it. I turned it on and saw, and immediately, I could smell Rotterdam. Just seeing the destruction, I could literally smell the dead people burning in Rotterdam. I couldn't get that smell out of my nose for 2 weeks. Seeing that evil had opened a door in my mind and I just couldn't get it shut. My arms were just shaking I was so affected by it. Finally Bro. Jones [her pastor in MI] talked with me and said 'Sis. Schmidt, I know this sounds bad, but you need to go and get some Xanex. I know that you will be ok once you get those doors shut.' So, I went to the doctor, and she knows a little bit about me and who I am. She didn't ask any questions, she just wrote me the prescription and let me go. I had to take 2 of them, and that settled my nerves. I got those doors in my mind shut again, and I don't want to open them no more!

"And then I see where they are talking about negotiating with Iran: 'let's just be nice and talk with them, maybe we can smooth things out,' and I think 'that's just what they did back there with Hitler! They dilly-dallied around, they fiddle-fuddled around, they talked with him, they tried to be nice, and a few years later, millions of people were dead! If I weren't a Christian and I was sitting in that house where President Bush is, I would just bomb the crap out of them and we'd be done with it!

"You know, people don't understand evil. So many people just try to be nice with these kinds of people and talk about it; but these people aren't nice. They are evil. I have seen real evil, but most people haven't seen it like that. I just try to keep those doors shut in my mind so that I don't have to live through it again. I lived through it once, and I don't want to do it again!
"You know, I think about how God has chosen me. There were so many people in Holland that he could have chosen, but there were just a few of us that left and came here to be a part of the church. I don't know why he chose little old me! I just really don't understand it. He picked me out of all of those people, and I don't know why. I just thank Him for it! That's why I'm the luckiest girl in the world!"