The Holocaust on a Personal Level

My cousin was as close as a younger sister while we were growing up. Her parents lived across the street from me, and my older cousin David, and my younger one, Missy, and I, played together constantly. She was the sister that I never had and we were close until she moved to Aspen, Colorado in her teens. Between then and now we both married, both moved (far away from each other) and she had two incredible children. My parents passed away several years ago, and her Dad had died while we were both quite young. But her mother passed away in 2008 and Missy found a treasure-trove when cleaning out her Mom's condominum.

Apparently my Tante Vera saved documents. Hundreds of letters, cards and notes dealing with Uncle Edwin's career and their history over the war years and post-WWII. She had letters exchanged between my own mother and herself in the mid-1940's, and she had documents from others that revolved around her family. The surprising thing was who these documents were from. As my cousin sorted through the papers, she kept finding more and more surprises - documents and notes dealing directly with World War II because my uncle was a part of the legal team representing the US at the Nuremburg Trials. Letters from Albert Einstein who my uncle had assisted while he was in college. Documents regarding the assasination plot to kill Adolf Hitler. The papers were amazing.

Last week, my cousin returned to Denver and presented a selection of those papers and photographs to Denver University's Penrose Library and Center for Judaic Studies. You can find out more particulars here, and here or check out the slideshow here (the baby is my cousin, David). All I can say about all of this is, "I'm really proud of you, Cuz. You stuck with it, sorted through all of these papers, and you deserve the accolades that will come your way for your generous gift." I also hope that her future can be assured through these papers. We all deserve to have an assured future in our old age, and we are not getting any younger.

And on the creative end - I did the first fire of my charms last night and this morning. It turns out that I have 49 charms made. We'll see how many I actually end up completing. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on these and I'm looking forward to each step :-) Live a creative day with sunshine and smiles in your heart. That joy will transmit to others and make the world a nicer place for a day.