-
From the Obama Ministry of Truth
May 21, 2013 | 56 comments
-
Alan Abelson, RIP
May 10, 2013 | 20 comments
-
South Carolina on My Mind
April 30, 2013 | 31 comments
-
Dream Sequences
April 26, 2013 | 62 comments
-
Just Like a Woman
April 25, 2013 | 35 comments
Ben Stein's Diary
A Very Special Graduation
And a very special grandmother.
(Page 2 of 2)
She went on. “There were two beautiful Jewish girls from Berlin at Auschwitz. Just beautiful. An SS officer tried to hide them. But the guards made us count over and over again and then they searched and found the girls and killed them. They were beautiful.”
“How did you know the war was over?” I asked.
”They marched us and marched us and then when we got to Ravensbruck, the guards were all gone and we knew the war was over. The Russians were going to rape us, but when they saw our tattoos, they didn’t. A Russian officer who was an orthodox Jew from Siberia took care of us. He made sure we had food. Then the British got me back to my village and I had to go over on a ferry to get there. The ferry operator asked who I was and I told him my name. He said, ‘Oh, so there are still Jews alive.’
“I said, ‘Yes, I am very much alive.’”
The sun was right overhead and C rolled up her sleeves. Her concentration camp tattoo was on her left arm. “I will always remember it,” she said. “Always. I use it for the locker combination at my health club. That’s the difference between America and Germany. I used it as my password for the gated community home we had in Florida before my husband died.”
I looked at her. “God bless America,” I said.
“There are no words,” she said and then she started to cry.
But I thought that with all of our problems today, the recession, the unemployment, the partisanship, the vulgarization of the media, the racial tensions — this is still America, and I judge it, as Tony Blair did, by a simple measure. How many want to get in and how many want to get out.
As we walked to our cars, C said to me, “Thank you for my granddaughter. I know I would not have her and she would not have this fine education without you.” Then she cried again.
“Without my wife and me,” I said. “It was and is our pleasure.”
America, the beautiful.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ben Stein
More Articles From Ben Stein's Diary
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/06/04/a-very-special-graduation
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The Demise of Money and Credit
- Razing Reagan
- Downton’s Class System — and Ours
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Appleby| 6.4.12 @ 6:53AM
What a beautiful story! Thank you for the uplift to a Monday morning, and God bless and keep this family always.
Who saves a single life, saves the world entire.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.4.12 @ 7:15AM
There are many lessons here. First, no woman should trust any man in his twenties, especially these days. They want sex and video games and not much more. They are all unavailable in a certain sense
I wonder where the better education was in Ben's story?
The grandmother from the death camp is a good lesson for all on unfettered and unquestioned government power.
Depending on the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare we could see American citizen's herded into medical camps where bureaucrats will make life or death decisions on your future. It won't be based on religion, just your chances of survival. You will go up the government chimney.
Lastly, congratulations to Ben for taking on what must have been a great financial strain to help raise and educate someone.
chuck| 6.4.12 @ 7:58AM
Thanks for the story Ben.
Random acts of kindness mean so much, for both giver and receiver.
Pecos Pete| 6.4.12 @ 8:08AM
Mr. Stein: Thank you for the history lesson and for your generosity!
Cobalt| 6.4.12 @ 8:21AM
Thank you and Mrs. Stein for the kindness you have showered on this woman and her daughter.
This lady's relatives are now in Heaven, and the Nazis are in Club 9 in Hell.
KyMouse| 6.4.12 @ 12:04PM
Cobalt, I hope you're right, but I believe Jesus:
Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, in John 3:14-18—
“…And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21:4-9], even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God….”
God loved His Hebrew people so much that He rescued them from slavery in Egypt; but when they sinned against Him, He required them to look toward the bronze serpent on the pole if they wanted to be saved from the poison of the fiery serpents He sent to punish them. They were not automatically saved because they were His Chosen People.
Jesus explained that the bronze serpent was a symbol of the death He was about to suffer on the cross in order to save from the fatal poison of sin everyone who looks to Him in faith (obedient trust).
The need for faith in Jesus in order to be saved applies to my dear relatives as well to Ben and his friend. My dear father is separated from God forever unless he put his faith (obedient trust) in Jesus before he died.
cuban pete| 6.4.12 @ 8:44AM
As the speaker at my son's college graduation said many years ago, "Whatever success you may achieve in life,you will treasure most the acts of decency you performed.
Thanks, Ben for your's and Mrs.Stein's "act of decency" to this family.
Anthony| 6.4.12 @ 9:50AM
Credit where credit is due. An act of pure kindness and generosity. Well done Mr. Stein. You get a pass this week!!
However, I can't let this pass, does Obozo know it was the Russians who liberated this camp as opposed to one of his relatives?
That said, God bless America indeed!!! Pass it on to a lefty, apparently they didn't get the memo.
CJW| 6.4.12 @ 10:02AM
Terrific story, and good that Stein helped this family.
BTW, yesterday I watched Ferris Bueller with my HS daugher and her friends. Had to explain and correct Stein's comment to the class about Bush 41 saying Reagan believed in "vodoo" economics.
C. Vernon Crisler | 6.4.12 @ 10:11AM
America used to be beautiful. But it is not beautiful to all the millions of children who've been aborted since the early 1970s. And it's not beautiful to God when a country abandons moral principles and allows all sorts of unseemliness to come out of the closet.
It would be nice to be optimistic about America, but we've fallen a long way since WWII.
Mimi | 6.4.12 @ 1:45PM
Vern...I see signs...Pro-life over 50%, Many going back to the Founders and re-educating themselves on History and the Constitution.
We will know after this coming election...the numbers will tell us a lot if we are trending back to tradition and morals!
Mimi | 6.4.12 @ 1:52PM
Thanks Ben for saving this child by helping her mom...." LIFE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH" ( Benjamin XVI)
vitaglubet| 6.4.12 @ 12:37PM
Very nice story Ben. Sad that we have not focused more on folks that seem to spend their lives helping others. Reminds me of a friend of mine that passed away a few years ago. He was an outstanding High School Math teacher but more importantly, he quietly helped his students get to college and paid the tuition for several. Just a great guy who was the best friend of the only Medal of Honor (WWII) winner in my county. My friends only tribute was at his funeral (few knew of his wonderful generosity).
soldiermom11| 6.4.12 @ 12:51PM
This is a wonderful story. I went to a Catholic grade school where the nuns taught us about and showed us films of Auschwitz and the impressions left on the ceilings in the ovens made by the Jews trying to escape. It had a lasting effect on me and I believe that this kind of history should be taught in the public schools as well. Many Americans are so ignorant of the evil that exists this world that they don't believe it is there. We need to support Israel. As Israel goes, so goes the christian world and we should never forget.
Douglas | 6.4.12 @ 1:21PM
Thank you, Ben Stein. Wonderful teary-eye story. God bless you and your wife.
Magnus| 6.4.12 @ 2:42PM
Ben you resurged my day. Yesterday at church we were studying Eph 4:29 and I am sure you don't but it is about loving one another as Christ forgave tormentors from the cross.
I have a beautiful daughter who has fallen for a 1/4 Korean and 3/4 Chinese man,working here as a Engineer in a large widget company. I fought the Chinese, and the Koreans, I am fearful we may do so again, and Who will he fight with/for? We (dau and me) are in a fight and it is sooo small next to the America the Beautiful story you wrote. I hereby dismiss and forgive all except the small irritation of my world being upside down by invaders from everywhere.
I understand bldg 85 too well and will use that as our secret bonding code. A POW I forgive, BUT I understand.
Our common God we understand What you did was right out of the Good Samaritan series which I never understood any better than Prodigal son cleaned out brother's share and got the fattest lamb broiled.
Your wondrous tale makes my 1939-45 look like easy street.
I am sad for what was done to the innocent. My Battles today are My God, My country, My family, My self - in descending order.
I got lost in Israel and hitched a ride AWAY from the border with who ever we were opposing then-Syrians?] No bldg 85 available so they sent me (an American) packing Err walking.
But back to you! Thanks for all the wisdom, humor, and heartaches I've shared with you.
I hope you can find that peace! Shalom. Gotta go, am crying again.
Staregan| 6.4.12 @ 3:12PM
A Story to Remember! Thanks Ben!
kerrigan| 6.4.12 @ 3:53PM
Thank you for this article. There are so many young people in this world that don't believe the stories of the camps and ovens.
I'm a WWII history buff and have seen the camp at Dacha before they allowed it open to tourists. It is REAL, and thousands were killed because of their beliefs. It CAN happen again, even here in the US, if we don't take a stand against radical Islam.
GFFounder| 6.5.12 @ 12:32AM
The accumulation of my lifetime of acts of kindness only pales in comparison to the bravery and fortitude of so many of my fellow Jews who endured the holocaust. It also pales compared to the way you saved a life, and then paved the way for her success. God bless you Stein family, and God bless the USA.
marque lunettes de soleil | 6.5.12 @ 5:18AM
C laughed. "You made sure you felt well. If you didn't feel well, you went to building 85 and then right up the chimney. You always felt well if you wanted to survive."
captcouv| 6.5.12 @ 9:02AM
Great story about being human to another human. However, I think there is a disconnect in the story. "C" is identified as the Auschwitz survivor, and her daughter as the child Mr Stein and his wife supported - yet at the end of the story. a third lady is introduced and the the child is identified as the granddaughter who is graduating (of which the timeline more supports the granddaughter narrative). Thus, it appears that Mr. Stein and his wife supported survivor, daughter AND granddaughter. Well done.
Occam's Tool| 6.5.12 @ 1:00PM
Good job, Ben.