We Were the Lucky Ones
6 min read
Five takeaways for teens from Basha Anush Freilich’s harrowing and inspiring life story.
It was 1943. The Nazis had taken over Poland and were rounding up the Jews to send them to the concentration camps. Some of them would be forced to work long hours and be subjected to a slow and miserable death. Others whom the Nazis deemed unfit to work would be immediately sent to the gas chambers.
On one of their sweeps, the Nazis dragged 14-year-old Basha Anush Freilich and her family out of their home. On the train platform to Auschwitz, Basha promised her mother that she would escape and live to tell her story.
Within days, five of Basha’s family members were killed. Basha was subjected to two-and-a-half years of abuse, and then months of roaming with other homeless girls when the Third Reich eventually collapsed.
Basha’s story is now being told in a new book, “A Teenage Girl in Auschwitz: Basha Freilich and the Will to Live” by Douglas Wellman. The book includes the harrowing and inspiring story of Basha’s life and includes testimonials from Basha herself.
“When one reads her testimonies, it is stunning to consider that this teenager was subjected to this kind of treatment and yet her will to survive grew in spite of the horror she experienced,” said Wellman. “The most fascinating thing about her to me is that she could withstand all of this horror for herself and those around her as a young teen, but by reaching deep inside herself and finding the courage and determination from within, she found a way to survive.”
The author is a former Hollywood television producer-director, and assistant dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He is also a licensed Christian minister who works a few days a week as a hospital chaplain. Wellman decided to write the book after talking with Basha’s daughter, Evelyn. Basha had recorded her story for Gratz College and the USC Shoah Foundation in the 1980s and 1990s; when Wellman watched the tapes, he was overcome with emotion and knew he had to share her story with the world.
“Watching Basha tell her story – looking at her face as she told it – was an emotional experience for me,” he said. “I am an emotionally tough individual, but I had to break that viewing into many short segments when I felt I had all I could take for a while.”
Along with telling this fascinating tale of survival and hope, Wellman imparts lessons to the teens today.
Here are the five biggest takeaways from the book.
Wellman says, “Misinformation can come from anyone at any time. It may be something unintentional like repeating unsubstantiated rumors, or something once considered factual that has been revised, as in the sciences. At some point in our lives, most of us have said something that turned out to be untrue. It was not malicious, we simply repeated something we honestly believed to be true, but we were wrong.”
Misinformation is partly what led to the Holocaust; the Third Reich controlled the media and put out propaganda. Free speech was stifled and lies were quickly spread. Antisemitism ran rampant because of this. So before teens repeat something that may be wrong or spread gossip – a very serious prohibition in the Torah – they must try to discover the truth.
“Take the time to investigate what we are told can be critical, particularly on issues that have a direct impact on us,” Wellman says. “The Germans had no resources to find the truth, but we still do. Teens, and everyone, should develop the habit of checking what they are told. If it is proven true, they can be confident of their decisions based on it.”
Everybody needs a good role model – teens included. Wellman suggests finding a person who is doing good in this world and emulating (but not copying) them.
“Teens should create their own, unique lives, not duplicate the lives of others,” he says. “But find those characteristics and actions in the individual that appear to have contributed to their success. Successful people almost always leave a trail of actions that have ultimately contributed to their success.”
Another lesson that teens can learn from Basha’s story is the importance of setting a goal and discovering the steps to reach that goal.
“The goal will dictate the steps,” Wellman says. “These days, education is usually step one. Universities, trade schools, and online classes make education within reach of almost all. Not everyone has to go to Harvard. There are many small schools costing much less money that provide the information necessary to get started. The goal should be to acquire information, not to impress people with the diploma on your wall.”
A healthy dose of fear protects us, but too much can hinder our progress in life.
“One of life’s major challenges, particularly for teens, is fear,” says Wellman. “Fear can be useful. Fear tells us that certain things can be detrimental to our survival. That is good. However, if it interferes with our growth or advancement in any way, it can become a roadblock to success and happiness.”
Basha was afraid, but she overcame that fear and took the right moves to survive the darkest of circumstances. The teens of today may not be faced with the same challenges, but the lesson of not being fearful still applies.
“The teenage years are ones where we want to fit in with everyone else, where peer pressure can be enormous,” Wellman says. “There are advantages to being comfortable in your social group, but teens need to stop occasionally to consider their future and what they really want in life. Whatever their goal is, dragging fear with them will not be helpful. If their goal is to be a leader, or just succeed, they need to realize that leaders and the successful do not suddenly come from the middle of the pack. They need to understand that they need to be determined, work hard, and not be fearful.”
People aren’t born brave – they become brave based on the actions they take. Basha had no guarantee that she would survive the war, but because she was brave, she pushed through and came out of the other side.
“Teens should learn to overcome fear and realize that courage is like a muscle that grows when we use it,” Wellman says. “As they progress, they will begin to discover a level of inner strength they never realized they had.”
Great insights, thank you
where does one purchase the book?
Amazon.com,and all online retailers. Bookstores are harder to predict due to the enormous number of books published weekly.