Lessons from Auschwitz: The power of our words - Benjamin Zander

It really makes a difference what we say.

I learned this from a woman who survived Auschwitz.

She went to Auschwitz when she was fifteen years old,

and her brother was eight, and the parents were lost.

And she told me this,

"We were in the train going to Auschwitz,

and I looked down, and I saw my brother's shoes were missing.

And I said, 'Why are you so stupid?

Can't you keep your things together?

For goodness sake!'

The way an elder sister might speak to a younger brother."

Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him

because she never saw him again.

He did not survive.

And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow.

She said, "I walked out of Auschwitz into life.

And the vow was,

"I will never say anything that couldn't stand

as the last thing I ever say."

Now, can we do that? No.

But it is a possibility to live in to.

Thank you.