This I Believe

I beleive remembering keeps this World go round. I believe we learn from remembering and we teach from remembering. It could be as simple as remembering to feed the dog before mom gets home so the poor pet could have food in its stomach and energy to keep living. It could be as complex as remembering all of the functions and parts of the human body for the final exam so each student can continue their educations in being whatever they want to be. And it could be as emotional as remembering the horrific events that happened during the Holocaust and the rise of Nazism. I met Ernest Nemeth when I was seventeen-years-old and I had no idea what was yet to come. He was a philosopher and a man who I could trust because our connection grew stronger each time we spoke to each other. Being forced out of his home in Czechoslovakia when he was ten-years-old and witnessing the brutal murders of both his mom and dad as well as his two brothers was not something he wanted to sit down and talk with me about on countless afternoons in his home, but the power of remembering was what he wanted me to fully understand. Soon, all of the holocaust survivors will not be living to share their stories anymore. I am one of the luckiest people in the World to have gotten the opportunity to listen and communicate with an extremely strong-willed man. I can go on and on about his life-long story of surviving three concentration camps and losing his best friend because he was cremated in a burning oven as well as miraculously being one of the few who can say that they found a job as a t.v antenna technician after surviving the holocaust. But how would any of you ever have known this had I not remembered Ernie’s story and shared it with you today?