I recently received one of those "forwards" which can sometimes be annoying. But today (5 October, 2009), it was different. A friend sent me a forward about a woman, Irena Sendler, a true WWII heroine. Someone also mentioned her name while I was book signing at Höstfest.  Read about her heroism (http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp) after you read about the lady who stopped by to buy another book (below).

I thought it rather coincidental that someone should come by with another story; It is not unlike many of the stories people tell me about their families' wartime past. This weekend at the Nordic festival (80,000+attendance), an elderly woman stopped by the bookstore where I was signing books. She waited patiently for another elderly couple to leave before she approached the table. She looked familiar...short,stooped...older.... I see and talk to so many people and though she had a very strong accent, I didn't remember her stopping the previous year.

She had purchased My Enemy's Child last year and now wanted to look at the new novel, she said. As I handed itto her, she mentioned she'd enjoyed the earlier book, then opened the cover and stepped aside to let another couple come forward. I noticed as I chatted with them about their son, who is in Afghanistan, that she was reading the prologue. After a bit she came forward and asked me to sign her book before taking to the cashier. I did, while the other couple waited. She mention to them that she wished them luck with their son's duty and as I handed her back the book, she hesitated and then said:

I'm am a Polish Jew. In 1939 my family was living in what is now part of Northern Germany. When the Russians and Nazis still had a non-aggression pact and were consuming Poland from the eastern and western fronts, the Russians beat the Nazis to our little town. They were some sort of forward infantry group without any discipline, nor were there officers accompanying them. The men of our village,including my father, were all shot immediately. That was so they could safely begin raping all the women, including my mother and me.

I was thirteen, and I began counting as they took their turns. After sixty-two there were only two men remaining, standing in line beside me. When sixty three was taking his turn, I suddenly heard a shot, very close to my head, so that it made my ears ring. The man slumped on me spilling brains and bleeding. I quickly pushed him off and then watched as two Russian officers dragged the remaining soldier over to a tree and hanged him right there, as an example for the soldiers.

She nodded to me and then the astounded couple before hobbling away with her book. Now, I don't even remember her name when I signed, but I'll never forget her story.

I was also told this weekend, though I haven't verified it, that the currently mandatory Holocaust Studies Programs in the English (UK) schools is being considered for removal asit has been found offensive to some in the immigrant community.According to some current immigrant's beliefs, the Holocaust never happened.

I have made a habit of writing my State Schools Superintendent, at least twice a year asking that mandatory Holocaust Studies be added to the state curriculum. Minnesota has it in theirs as do several other states:http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/education.html

Like the often secret retention of infant DNA by some state's social service programs, perhaps we must also urge our legislators to consider this question seriously.