Hate, bullying dangerous: Holocaust survivor
Hate destroyed Eva Olsson's family.
The 85-year-old Holocaust survivor says hate led Nazi Germany to exterminate its own Jewish citizens in the dark days of the Second World War (1939-1945). These acts of hatred were carried out by the same regime in the countries they conquered or allied themselves with.
Hate is also leading people, the young and old alike, to hurt and bully others today.
Olsson explained how this emotion defined her life and how it has driven her to spread the message that hate is not OK.
At the presentation at WC Eaket Secondary School in Blind River on Thursday evening a quiet and attentive audience listened to how hate killed Olsson's family and millions of others. They also watched a slide show of images of Olsson's family and wartime atrocities.
Olsson had already talked to the school's student body earlier that day. The evening's session was for adults, many of them seniors.
Her tale brought tears to some of the faces.
"I think she is a phenomenal person," said educational assistant Lynne Roy after the presentation.
"I can't imagine going through what she went through and still has a positive outlook."
Patty Dunlop said it was very moving and inspiring.
"She is so courageous. I can't even imagine."
During her presentation, Olsson compared past events to more recent ones endured by her son and grandson when they were younger as well as those she experienced a few years ago.
"I am grateful to be here and I must be very grateful to you for allowing me to keep my family's spirit alive."
She was also happy to speak to students earlier that afternoon.
"I need to bring awareness to your children and grandchildren. They need to realize the power of hate," she says.
"Hate isn't a joke. I told your children what they see on the screen was carried out by those that hate."
In the late 1920s the Nazi political party was gaining popularity and strength. Led by Adolf Hitler, the party took control of Germany in 1933. Jews and those considered undesirable were persecuted. Jews lost their businesses, homes, rights and eventually their lives.
In January of 1942, the Nazis began rounding up the Jews to be killed.
Olsson says six million of her people were annihilated along with five million others. Around two million children 12 and under were slaughtered.
Olsson's life took a turn for the worse when the Nazis occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. She grew up poor and her family went without, but they were to have even less very soon.
Jews were taken from their homes and sent into detention. Olsson's family had to share a toilet with 19 other people.
One day the detainees were to gather at a train yard.
"We didn't know what was going to happen," she says.
A man told the prisoners they had two hours to pack their bags and head to the train station. They were told they would be working in a brick factory.
Jewish prisoners walked seven kilometres to the trains, but not through the centre of the city. They were marched down back streets.
This was the last time almost all of these people would see their home. Olsson says out of the 13,000 who lived there now only 20 elderly couples remain.
When the Jews boarded the train they found two pails per boxcar, one for drinking water and the other was a toilet. With each car holding about 100 people there was standing room only for the four-day trip. People died from starvation, dehydration and from lack of oxygen.
Olsson's mother cried, but not for herself, she explained to her children.
Her mother also told her she envied her oldest daughter who died and was given a proper burial before the war.
Olsson wondered why her mother was sad. Were they not going to work in a brick factory, she asked herself.
The prisoners arrived at the Nazis largest concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was Olsson's first time in Poland.
She remembers black smoke covering the sky, towers with machine guns and guards everywhere.
"Auschwitz was a killing factory.
"Within one hour of arrival 90% of these human beings would be murdered. Ten per cent spared for slave labour."
Hungarian Jews lined up to be divided by camp officials. The ones who were fit became labourers.
"If you had a healthy body you were blessed."
The others were killed, including Olsson's mother. Her father died at a work camp in Germany.
One of the Auschwitz camp officials doing selection was Dr. Josef Mengele who became infamous for his brutal medical experiments on prisoners. Some called him the Angel of Death.
During her time at Auschwitz, Olsson was puzzled by the internment, the killings and the torture.
"Who would do this? Animals? Animals don't do that to each other."
Animals kill to eat or when defending themselves.
"These were human beings possessed by hate."
The Nazis used gas chambers at Auschwitz to kill most of their prisoners. They used an insecticide, Zyklon B. Olsson says it took 20 minutes for people to die. Falling bodies would crush the skulls of dying and dead children.
Those selected to live and work had their own hell. They were starved and beaten. One day a special soup was served that contained human bones and hair.
Death around Europe
These atrocities were not limited to Auschwitz. Similar actions were taken at other death camps and in other countries.
In Romania, Nazi allies rounded up Jews and those considered undesirable and put them onboard trains.
The destination was death as many died on the trains from the heat, lack of air, dehydration and starvation.
In her native country, the Nazi-allied Arrow Cross Party ruled from 1944 to 1945. It executed thousands of Jews and sent even more to the death camps. Arrow Cross officials had 20,000 Jews shot and pushed into the Danube River in Hungary.
Olsson says to save bullets the men were instructed to shoot babies held by adults. Clothes taken from the dead were sent to Germany, but this was stopped when officials complained about bloodstains.
Olsson would not die at Auschwitz. She and a sister were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany where about 100,000 prisoners-of-war and citizens were killed, starved or mistreated to death.
Some prisoners were sent to work at an actual factory where they were fed properly. This was not to last as Allied bombing raids put a stop to production.
Camp conditions got worse and one day a bombing run destroyed Olsson's barracks. She had to sleep in a hole.
If British and Canadian forces did not arrive when they did, April 15, 1945, Olsson and many others would be dead from disease or violence.
"Six days before we were liberated the Gestapo (Germany's secret police) had given orders that on April 15, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon all prisoners were to be shot."
The shootings continued even after the camp was seized, done out of sight of Allied forces.
Olsson explains after the camp was taken a British officer made a declaration. The man said for every prisoner killed now that the camp was taken a German official or guard would be executed immediately.
Olsson was given a choice to go to Sweden or stay. She chose to leave. She met her future husband, a Lutheran, in her new country, married him and had children. Later, she moved to Canada.
Decades later, Olsson became a baby sitter for her three grandchildren. The youth were never allowed to use the word 'hate.'
"It's OK to not to like someone, but it's not OK to hate."
One of her grandsons experienced hate when he was in Grade 10.
"He was bullied in the hallway. The bully decided to call my grandson a stupid Jew, because his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor."
Her grandson was not fazed by the words. He was bothered by a nearby teacher who did nothing.
"So what was the message that teacher gave to the bully? It was OK?"
Her grandson's response was to talk to a reporter and get an article printed about the incident. His goal was to get bystanders to step in, to do something besides nothing.
She remained silent about her past for many years.
"I started to speak in 1996 and the reason for that was my grandson, when he was six and a half, he wanted to know how my mother died.
"I said to him you are too young. When you are older I will tell you."
He asked her again when he turned seven.
"Same thing happened again. The bus drops him off at my driveway, he comes up the hill, and he says, 'Baba, I am older now.'"
This led to speaking at her grandchild's school in Bracebridge. Olsson has been speaking to students and the public ever since.
In 2007, she toured parts of Europe and visited the site of the Bergen-Belsen camp.
"I needed to give thanks to those soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom."