When Solomon Radasky died on the fourth day of august 2002, the world went into grieving. This is because Radasky was arguably the most popular of all the people that had survived the Holocaust (Ofer 6). The survival story of Radasky is as horrifying as those of other Holocaust survivors. The holocaust, which involved the killing of approximately six million people, mainly European Jews, by the brutal Nazi system of Germany, is perhaps one of the darkest moments in the European and global history. The government sponsored genocide involved the deaths of more than 1.5 million children. The survivors have over the years told of the inhumane acts of the Germans under the command of Adolf Hitler. The question is: how and why did they survive the holocaust.
The holocaust survivors are those people that lived through and experienced the persecution of their folks and fellow countrymen in the infamous Nazi operation. Among the most renowned survivors are Jeanne Burk, Joseph Sher, Eva Galler and Solomon Radasky (Ofer 12). How these people survived, has been a mystery. Even so, their survival can be attributed to chance. As much as they had the bravery and willpower to stay alive, good luck and chance played a prominent role in their survival. The story of Joseph Sher, for instance, reveals how he narrowly escaped various situations by mere chance.
The killings conducted by the Nazi did not have any considerations. All Jews stood the same chance. Survival was a matter of luck and determination. Certainly, it is crucial to state the survivors lived on because of help from the Russian soldiers (Ofer 21). Again, the story of Josephs her indicates how, as a young man with tailoring skills, he is helped by a Russian captain in times when the Germans were determined to eliminate the few surviving Jews.
Work cited
Ofer, Dalia. The Past That Does Not Pass: Israelis and Holocaust Memory. Israel Studies. 14 (1). p1-35: 2009
