13th of May 2008 /

Survivor offers lesson for life

By Pam Rief

When Itka Zygmuntowicz arrived in the Auschwitz death camp at age 15, she and the other Jews wondered if the thousands of emaciated beings that they saw were from another planet.

Itka and the other new arrivals had just spent five days packed into train cars with no food, water, fresh air or lavatory facilities. Immediately after disembarking from the train, Dr. Josef Mengele decided the fate of each family member. Itka and her mother were chosen to take the left line and her siblings were guided to the right for their “shower.”

“Itka, you’re a big girl, you can take care of yourself. I must go with the little ones,” Itka said her mother told her. “Whatever you do, don’t let them make you hateful; don’t let them destroy you.”

That day, Itka’s entire family died in the Nazi gas chambers.

On April 21, Itka Zygmuntowicz (Auschwitz No. 25673) spoke at West Hills Unitarian‑Universalist Fellowship in an event co-sponsored with Kol Shalom, Portland’s Community for Humanistic Judaism in advance of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).

Today, at age 82, Itka exudes depth and accuracy of thought, fierce independence and, at the same time, connectedness and tender love to all she encounters. She devotes her time to disseminating menschlichkeit (humaneness) and the great lessons of her grandmother.

Though she and others were singled out for inhuman treatment merely because they were Jewish, Catholic, lesbian, gay, Gypsy or disabled, she has continued to live by the lesson of her grandmother: “Menschlichkeit is the highest form of religion, education, and achievement. … My child, you only have what you give away.”

Through her poetry, Itka shares her mastery of the art of living and teaches others how to help heal the world.

One of her poems, “I Know You,” reminds us of the impact of each act in which we are kind and caring:

I know you by the way you treat me
and by the way you make me feel inside.
Those things tell me a lot about you.
Those things you cannot hide.
It’s not your color or education that tells me who you are.
It’s your act of kindness or cruelty
That tells me much more by far.