My Grandparents
The Holocaust was the darkest time in human history. Jews were being led to slaughter by the millions simply because they had a different religious belief from the others in their country. One man named Adolf Hitler almost single handedly caused the extinction of a human race, the Jews. In his hands, my ancestors suffered the most for crimes that they did not commit. They suffered only because they were considered to have “dirty blood” by some psychologically imbalanced people who had come to power in Germany.
Having heard from my mother about the atrocities my grandparents suffered at the concentration camps during World War 2, I can say that I was initially dismissive about the tales I heard because I felt that it did not concern me in any way. However, these true horror stories were highlighted by the things that I learned through watching a Holocaust documentary film at school. I became an enlightened person as the movie transformed my parents and grandparents rhetoric into a paralyzing reality. Finally, I understood and could empathize with what they lived through. Now I understood why my family history is often said to have been built upon a lifetime struggle for acceptance and fight for their basic human rights. It was a struggle that began with my grandparents and continued by my own mother and father. The benefits of that struggle is what I am reaping now.
My Parents
My parents were born and raised in the Ukrainian part of Russia. Being born in under the Jewish fate, their chances for getting ahead in life was often limited by the racial discrimination that existed during the era. Their choice of educational institutions were limited by the fact that they were Jews living in the former USSR whose student acceptance rate had a quota for certain races represented in every school. Indeed, Jews in Russia led a difficult life. As we all know, the USSR crumbled under its own weight and with its disintegration came the hope that there would be more freedom and equality in the separated states. There was a very high expectation that racial discrimination would also be, if not totally eliminated, then controlled. When Ukraine became a separate country, my parents were filled with hope that things would get better as a new government was set into place.
Rise Of Semitism
Instead, my parents found that the anti-Semitism sentiments that were discreet or hidden during the Soviet era now came to fore. My parents were now openly and violently threatened due to their religious beliefs. Engineers by profession, they were told by their companies that they were denied promotions because they were Jewish. Seeing no future for themselves and their soon to be growing family, they felt it in the best interest of everyone concerned to move away from the Ukraine.
Migration To America
They set about fixing the papers that would help them to migrate to the USA where they quickly grasped the English language and the lifestyle. Using their engineering and math skills, they obtained jobs with equal opportunity employers and found themselves not only happier but also with marked improvements in their standard of living. Being Jewish was not a drawback for them anymore. Instead, it offered job opportunities and a new set of friends who did not judge them by race, religion, or ethnicity.
Conclusion
Piecing together everything that I learned from my grandparents and parents, I have come to realize that I was shaped early on by the experience of my ancestors in the Holocaust and in Russia. These are sacrifices and lessons that I should take great pains to honor in my lifetime because these people made it possible for me to get away from the problems of race. I can now set my own goals and dreams without fear of repercussions. Which is why I have decided to offer my life to fighting injustice and the preservation of human rights in order to promoted tolerance and equality among men.