Strings Of Hope

“Don’t forget the way they will have me die! Don’t forget that we tried to stand up to them until the last moment! . . . Don’t forget what they are doing to us here! Don’t forget! Swear to me that you will tell the world!”. My mom Irene (Rena Hass) made a promise to her friend Golda Lipkie before Golda’s execution at Auschwitz.

In a dream I had after witnessing the news about Nazi marches happening in the United States and other countries around the world I remember telling my mom, “Don’t worry, I got it, I will take on this promise.” . . . When I woke up I decided that for me to take on this promise I would need to write songs and tell the back stories. This page is dedicated to fulfilling that promise to my mom, grandfather, grandmother and to Golda.

This journey begins with my awakenings that happened as I reached adulthood. I had my first when I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma at age 40. It was frightening at first, but then I heard a voice inside tell me, “survival is in your bones”, and I knew I would be ok. Shortly after that I was invited to join a group called One By One. I found myself sitting at a long table at the Wannsee compound in Berlin where the Final solution was planned. On my side of the table were children of survivors of the Holocaust, and on the other side sat the children of Nazi perpetrators. . . . We talked and told our stories. Something happened during that talk and I felt something burst open when the stories inside me were done waiting to be told.

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Strings of Hope MIX 2-14-2026 4:47