Only a few years ago I travelled to Krakow (pronounced Krakov) in Poland on an educational trip and visited the sites of the labour camp and death camp at Auschwitz-Berkenau. Whilst I was there I was introduced to a truly inspirational man, a man whose surname was so long and complicated he told me to just call him Yosef. Mr. Yosef was not a celebrity or a known figure in History but he endured so much and will always be a true hero. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 Yosef's father and older brother were killed fighting in the Polish army defending their home. He and his mother were captured and after a year as prisoners were sent to concentration camps whhere they were forced to work and were not fed well or treated fairly. He was separated from his mother when they went to different camps and so at 13 years old Yosef was alone without his family and in a camp forced to work for his life. The conditions and treatment of prisoners at concentration camps was horrendous and Auschwitz is infamous as the largest and most evil of the camps. The conditions were too awful to tell but after years at this camp Yosef was so skinny and malnourished he would die soon if he did not eat and drink. He was saved by Russian soldiers liberating the camp at the end of the war who couldn't believe what they saw at Auschwitz but they saved Yosef and nursed him back to health over time.
The most amazing and inspirational thing about Mr.Yosef is not just that he survived the Holocaust in Auschwitz for many years but that when he left aged 18 with no money, family or home he did not stop and ask why this had happened to him or complain or ask for help. Once fit enough to live on his own Yosef found a job in his home town and continued on to live a long life, marrying a beautiful lady and having two wonderful children. Mr. Yosef was still haunted by nightmares of his years at Auchwitz all his life and was so troubled he could not talk to anyone about the events there until over 50 years after he had been freed, not even to his family. When I met Mr.Yosef he immediately struck me as a very wise man, and I will always remember the final message he left me with, he said "I cannot live my life in the shadow of my childhood, I do not blame the men who hurt me, I have had years to rest and learn to forgive but I just ask one thing, that you as a young man go out and enjoy everything you do, live every moment to it's greatest because you don't know how amazing it is to be free and alive." I was honoured to meet this brave, wise and inspirational man and was greatly saddened to hear that he had passed away just two months after he spoke to me in Krakow. Mr. Yosef is not a name in History books and did not even give his surname, but he must be remembered for himself and all those effected by the holocaust, one of the darkest moments of man's History.
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