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 Friday,
May 26, 2006 -
As our bus drove through the
city of the
former Jewish ghetto, we
were directed to look
outside the window….where we
could see some huge empty
chairs in a town square
situated in the middle of
the ghetto. The area was
once a point for
deportations of the Jews.
As a memorial, the city
built chairs to symbolize
“emptiness” that was felt
when the Jews were deported
from the ghetto.
There were rows of
buildings surrounding this
town square. On one of the
rows of building, at a
corner, was once a pharmacy
owned by a Polish
pharmacist. He requested to
stay back and work in the
pharmacy, telling the Nazis
that he will be helpful to
the Nazis whenever they
needed help. However, he had
other plans in mind.
Because he has the freedom
to move in and out of the
ghetto in pretext of getting
supplies, he has in fact
used this freedom to help
many Jews by being a
messenger for the Jews, and
exchanging messages for them
with the world outside of
the ghetto. The pharmacist
also provided hair dye to
the Jews. Hair dye was
popularly used by the Jews
at that time to save their
own lives – you can either
dye your hair so you look
younger (no more gray hair)
for labor camp selection
(since the old were deemed
non-essential and will be
sent to extermination camp
instead); or to dye them
blonde to look ‘Aryan’.
bringing info to them from
the ‘outside’ world; he also
gave them hair color/dye –
to help them either get rid
of gray hair to appear
younger during selections or
dye their hair blonde in
order to look
Aryan.
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