Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
♪♪♪
My name is Dr. Erica Miller,
I was born in 1933 in Tshernovitz, Romania,
and this is the journey of my life.
The first 7 years of my life were good ones.
My father, mother, my sister, we lived a normal family life.
In 1941, the war broke out,
and the world that I knew was over.
The Germans invaded Romania,
and they were ready for the hunt for the Jews.
Nazis were everywhere.
We were hunted like animals.
Jews were herded into those cattle trains.
Mothers having their babies torn away from their arms,
thrown on the floor, trampled on people.
I don't know how long it took 'til finally the train stopped,
soldiers were screaming, "Out, out, dreckigen Juden!
Filthy Jews, out, out!"
People were walking and screaming all over the place.
German soldiers were with their bayonets
were just hurrying us to go forward,
and we walked and we walked again
and there was this big wired place,
and that was the destination Mogilev
where we were for 4 years.
People died from starvation and from typhoid.
And every morning I looked outside the little window
and I saw a prisoner with a prisoner garb with the bag,
and picking up dead bodies.
And I remember looking out every morning to see those dead bodies
and thinking, "Maybe tomorrow--
maybe tomorrow it's going to be me."
I feel so lucky that coming from where I come,
I'm a total of my experiences.
Because there's a reason why I was spared
and all those other people died and never had a life.
So, to me, giving back to the world, being passionate,
and inspiring people to reach out and to touch each other,
because the end of the day it is the family,
it is the community, it is leaving an impact.
So I'm just very, very grateful of my journey.
It's like a gift that keeps on giving.
My name is Dr. Erica Miller.
I was born in 1933 in Tshernovitz, Romania.
And this is the journey of my life.
♪♪♪