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The
Volume 78 • No. 52
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Observer Friday, May 15th, 2015
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Holocaust survivor encourages unconditional love Kelly Running Observer Staff
Staff photo by Kelly Running
Two students embrace the Day of Pink in Carlyle for antibullying awareness on Thursday, May 7.
Born in Hungary, Dr. Eva Olsson experienced some of the worst hate in the world, as a Jewish person under the Nazi regime. Having lived through the Holocaust Olsson now uses her harrowing experiences to talk about hate and bullying. She attended both G.F. Kells High School (with visiting students from White Bear) and Arcola School, for their Pink Days focused on anti-bullying, to speak to the student bodies on Thursday, May 7. In the evening she brought her powerful words to Carlyle Memorial Hall for the community to hear. As a Holocaust survivor Dr. Olsson is compelled to share her story and the story of her family, this she does for everyone who can’t, whose stories are forever lost in the concentration camps and death camps of the Nazi regime. “You’re going to hear me speak about the Nazi bullies, but not every German was a Nazi and every Nazi was not a German,” she stated as she began speaking to the students at G.F. Kells. One of the first things Dr. Olsson asked the students was who amongst them uses the word, hate. “My hand didn’t go up, it’s not because I’m shy, when you get to my age you’re not shy anymore,” Dr. Olsson says. “I don’t use the word hate, never.” This is something that she has passed down to her children and grandchildren as well. While babysitting them, they would use the word, but Olsson would not stand for it. “I taught my grandchildren to say I don’t like, that sounds better than hate,” she stated. “What is, ‘I don’t like?’ I don’t like it when I’m called names, do you? And I don’t like it when I’m pushed around. But I don’t hate, because hate is a killer, not a joke.” This is why Olsson is proud to call herself a Canadian: “People come from everywhere and that’s what makes Canada a very special country. Whether young or not so young, you’re Canadian.” “I wasn’t born here but I have been a Canadian for 64 years and I am very proud to be a Canadian. You know how you become a Canadian? By accepting the values that Canada represents, that’s what makes us Canadians. That means no bullies and no bystanders.” Olsson then brought the focus of her talk to her life during World War II and to thoughts of her family. “I was bullied by the Nazi bullies; I was 19 when they bullied me,” Olsson said. “They didn’t like my religion.” “Don’t be a bystander please, because that’s what happened in Europe. I was there. Seventy-one years ago.” In 1939 the Nazi regime had come to occupy Poland. At this time, Olsson was a young teenager living in Hungary whose thoughts were of the war ending soon. It didn’t, for six years war ravaged Europe and the Nazis reigned. The reason why Olsson now speaks came out of her telling the students about her past: “One and a half million children under 15 were murdered. Five of them were my nieces, little girls: a three and a half-year-old, a two-year-old, a one-year-old, a six-month-old, and a 2-month-old. I made it my mission to speak for them and all other children, all whose voices were silenced by hate. They died because they were hated.” Though Olsson’s family wasn’t wealthy, they all, her parents, brothers, sisters, their spouses, and her nieces all lived together. “We didn’t have electricity and we had no indoor toilet, or water… we had a wooden toilet outside for all of us, but it wasn’t bad, the family was altogether at that point,” she explained. In 1944 this would all change as the Nazis occupied Hungary. Olsson and her family were told to pack their bags because they were being shipped to Germany to work in a brick factory, or at least that’s what they were told. Together they marched the seven kilometres to the train station where endless rows of boxcars were lined up, waiting. People, 100 to 110, were packed into the cars with standing room only. “There were two buckets in each boxcar, one was for drinking and the other was to be used as a toilet. There was little air and the older people died. People were crying. People were praying.”
See Dr. Eva Olsson on page 2
This evening of entertainment is in support of two of our citizens as they embark on their mission with Youth With a Mission and Street Invaders Memorial Hall Theatre • Main St. Carlyle, SK 7 p.m. Fri. May 22nd Sponsored by and CARLYLE • WAWOTA