Liberation 70 years ago today at Auschwitz-Birkenau was anything but a celebration for my mother, Rena Margulies, who as an 11-year-old prisoner was one of the very few children to survive the Nazi death factory.
She lacked the capacity to celebrate as Russian troops in their long coats and fur hats plowed through the snow-covered landscape into the massive camp. Rena was emotionally numb, intellectually bewildered and physically drained.
At that moment she could hardly imagine that the madness that had destroyed her family and community could suddenly be lifted, that life could somehow return to a semblance of normality. Liberation simply allowed her to ease her focus on immediate survival and begin a long search for understanding.
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