The Interview

Contacting our survivor was something that was slightly unnerving. Our classes had been warned that some people would be very standoffish, and not want to discuss what happened to them during the time of the Holocaust.
However, once our first email to Robert (Bob) Geminder was sent, my nerves eased immensely. Bob was welcoming, warm, open and has created an amazing life full of fun and interesting characters. His daughter and dog met us at the door of his Palos Verdes home, and then he escorted us straight into the living room.
I remember we had been compiling a list of questions to ask in case there was a lull in the conversation. However after asking the first question, "when were you born" and Bob talked almost uninterrupted for about 2 hours.
His daughter served appetizers and made sure that everyone had water or anything that they want to drink, and they entire family made our group feel very welcome and comfortable about discussing such an awful event in history.
Bob's story amazed me. Not only is he a survivor of the holocaust, but his mother and brother survived with him. Plus, he was a child while this all happened.
The most spectacular part of his story is when he had to stay in an attic out in a barn alone. On many occasions, the family whose barn it was (and who knew he was there) forgot to bring food out for him. So he would have to sneak out and eat the left over pig slop and raw eggs. The funny part of this part of the story is when Bob stopped here and said "see you can eat raw eggs. I did and I'm still here."
The way that Bob described his story was full of color and small parts of joy. It was also very inspiring. To know that a boy of 9 years old saved his family by opening a cattle car door as the train stopped is amazing.
He did say, numerous times, the only reason he is still alive is luck, and his mothers bravery. With his emphasis on this luck and bravery, we decided to name our book and blog "Luck: A Survivors Story" which almost all survivors will tell you is the reason that they survived as well.
However, the most inspiring part of all of this is to sit across from him and his wife and see how normal and well adjusted they are. Bob has an amazing sense of humor and absolutely loves life to the utmost extent. While thinking of today's society, where almost 75% of teenagers suffer from "clinical depression" and then seeing a man who watched his father die of a heart attack when he (the son) was 6, and then was forgotten in a barn for two months when he was 9, and then hid in a basement about a mile away from Auschwitz until the war ended, and this man has so much live and color, the teenagers of today's society have absolutely nothing to be depressed about.
Bob is an amazing man, an amazing story teller and has surrounded himself with life, and warmth and color. My only wish is that more people get to meet him and hear him speak of his amazing journey as a child.