DESIGNS IN DECORATOR WOOD & LAMINATES, LTD. metro » s ur vi vors sti ll Holocaust Reminders Editor’s Note: Elyse Foltyn writes a blog called SurvivorsSTILL, which explores the implications of growing up as a child of a Holocaust survivor. As Jan. 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the JN felt this would be the ideal time to debut our newest monthly columnist. It Doesn't Have To Cost A Fortune… Only Look Like It! Complete kitchen and bathroom remodeling as well as furniture design and installations including granite, wood and other materials. 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I knew my father fled Poland with his younger sister and lived in runs deep into my veins — and heart. the woods of Europe during the Holocaust. When you meet my husband, David, However, it was on that fateful night of his passing, as my mother and I crept out of the it is clear that our courtship was beshert (meant to be). David is a child hospital, that I came face to face of two Holocaust survivors from with my entire history in a new Czechoslovakia with a brother perspective. A perspective that my who is nine years older. Based life was defined by a life I never on the few stories David’s par- lived — and did not know very ents shared with him, their his- much about. tory was entirely different from We trudged into our family that of my father. Nonetheless, home, our “lucky home” as my the two of us exhibit many of father would call it, in which three Elyse Foltyn the same mannerisms and share of four healthy children (includ- a frighteningly like mind on ing me) were born. The obvious most topics . For example, when ongoing eyesores in the living we observe people in far-away room were the plastic covers on the countries, we both wonder, “Who would gold-toned upholstered sofas and chairs. hide us?” And we always agree. Despite our complaints that the plastic Although I had a daughter from a previ- stuck to our legs on hot days, Dad insisted ous marriage and he had two from his first the covers remain. For aesthetic reasons, marriage, I suspect it is not coincidental Mom shared our distaste for the plastic we each wanted more children together. covers. Even so, the covers remained on So, in addition to our original three chil- the now-dated furniture. dren, we had two sets of twins together, Just as the mezuzah on our front door and the lineage continues. Our shared marked our Jewish household, the plastic Holocaust perspectives on life are central covers seemed to further identify our to who we are as individuals, as a couple home as that of a Holocaust survivor. and as parents. Our children experience None of my friends had them on their sofas. Coincidentally, none of their parents and hopefully will extend our perspective. Reminders that I grew up as a child spoke in an accent. Nor did their fathers of a Holocaust survivor appear to me don a slicked-down pompadour hairstyle regularly during everyday life activities. or wear a full-length leather coat. Our native Detroit mother never wanted Commonplace interactions with friends, my knee-jerk response to a situation and anything to do with these plastic covers. stacks of items on a shelf can readily call up For years, our modern-day Mom wanted my past — as well as the past I never lived. nothing more than to cut away this Old The connection with prior generations Country connection — perhaps cutting intensifies why I choose to explore the away a surprising invader to her history, too. And, in an instant, those plastic covers perspectives and behaviors I may have ignored in the past. As I dust off memories were gone. buried away long ago, I feel closer to my Almost immediately, this home past and develop an even greater appre- looked like the living room of most other ciation and respect for my father and all Americans we knew. There suddenly those who confronted the Holocaust. I am seemed to be white bread, butter, maca- roni and ham all over it. For that moment, hopeful my writing will build upon the I no longer felt like an outsider looking in. legacy of those people. With that first cut, I felt liberated from our Elyse Foltyn is a parent to seven children between the Holocaust connection. Albeit briefly, I felt ages of 10 and 30. Read her blog, survivorsSTILL, at indistinguishable from all my friends of American-born parents. Yet, the Holocaust survivorsstill.com. * JlYjZi`Y\kf[Xp )+/%*,(%,(.+ 22 January 21 • 2016