Sometimes a person knows who their ancestors were and the fact that

they were killed in the Holocaust. With this, they can make conversation
about it and many people will ask, Oh, youre Jewish? or Youre a Jew?.
Growing up in a Polish community, and raised by Polish-speaking parents, I
heard many stories about the atrocities of the Holocaust. I learned very early
how one of my familys homes in Poland was burned to the ground by Nazis. I
learned that my uncle was shot in the head by Nazi soldiers because they
suspected that the family was hiding a Jewish woman. Painful as it was for
them to speak about it, my parents felt it was important that I knew the story
of the Holocaust.
It was only after I moved to the Los Angeles area several years ago that I
realized that many people were not aware that millions of victims of the
Holocaust were not Jewish. Outside the Polish community, I heard very little
mention about the five million non-Jewish victims usually referred to as
the others.
Whenever I would say that my parents were survivors of the Holocaust,
people would look at me oddly and say, Oh, I didnt know you were Jewish?
The impression I got was that people were not aware of any other Holocaust
victims except Jews. This concerned me greatly.
I am Jewish. I converted in 1979 after studying at the University of Judaism
one year before marrying a wonderful Jewish man. I belong to a temple
where our daughter attends religious school. I love the Jewish religion and I
admire the Jewish community. In no way do I want to diminish the enormous
magnitude of the victimization and murder of the 5,860,000 Jewish people
during the Holocaust. The Jews were singled out by the Nazis for total
extermination a significant fact that I do not repudiate, nor want to
diminish in any way. The Jewish people have done an extraordinary job of
making the younger generation around the world aware of their persecution
and immense tragedy during the Holocaust.
But what about the others? There were five million of them. Who were
they? Whose children, whose mothers and fathers were they? How could five
million human beings have been killed and forgotten? Thus, I began my
search. After studying several carefully documented books, and interviewing
non-Jewish survivors, I found more information about the five million
forgotten than I had ever imagined. I found out things that most of the world
does not know. My parents were correct. They were truly victims of the

Holocaust. All Polish people suffered enormously during the Holocaust

Jews and non-Jews.