By Samantha Geiger
The horror, the pain and the stories that come from, The Holocaust.
Photographer and daughter of parents who survived the Holocaust, Hella Buccheim digs deep into her parent’s painful past.
Hella Buchheim spoke as part of UWEC-Barron series, Thursdays at the U via Blue Jeans, on October 15th saying that her parents stories were an everyday part of her life as a child.
“Arbeit Macht Frei and for those who don’t speak German, it means working makes you free, which is unfortunate because most didn’t make it to freedom,” Buchheim said.
Her father left Germany and fled to South America at 18-years-old, settling down in Bolivia where he had to learn to speak the native languages of Quechua and Aymara. He survived, Buccheim said.
Lore Buccheim, Hella Buchheims’ mother, was just a little girl when things started. She was 8 years old when Hitler stole her childhood away from her, Buchheim said.
Hella Buccheim read her mothers’ journal of the day-to-day experiences of what she lived through.
The men and women were separated in the train cars. Families were torn apart. The train cars were stuffed as full as humanly possible, no water, no food, for bathroom. Most of the time men and women would use the bathroom in the corner of the train car, Buchheim said.
“’We had selected days and times where we got to go up top and get fresh air, then we had to return to the horrific smell of human feces,’” Buccheim said.
Her mother was placed in the Riga, Latvia working camp as well as Stutthof, East Germany. During that time, her mother at the age of 15 experienced 24,000 Latvian Jews being murdered in Riga.
Her mother along with the rest of the working camp was transported to the Stutthof working camp at the age of 15.
Then at the age 17, after being transported to Stutthof, her mother experienced 50,000 Jews being murdered, Buchheim said.
The housing situations at Stutthof were described by Buccheim as awful. Her mother went to work in rags, wore rags on her feet because they didn’t have shoes, clothes, or even underwear. Her mother slept in three story high bunks, with no pillows or blankets.
In 1945, her mother was 19 years old, finally being liberated by the Russians.
Buchheim said her mother was free and alone. She had no idea if her family was still alive or not.
When Buchheim was growing up, she said “I felt like I had been there myself from the stories my mother told me.”
If Buchheim had misbehaved in some way her mother would say that she didn’t have parents to teach her how to be a parent.
It wasn’t medically diagnosed, but was suspected by Buchheim that her mother had experienced PTSD from the Holocaust, yet her mother was always giving back to the community, nonprofits, neighbors, etc. Buchheim said.
Buchheim said that their house was always open for people to stay there, whether it was long periods of time or short. Her mother would house travelers, different survivors from other tragedies.
While her childhood and family were taken away from her. Her mother always gave back.
Years later, Buchheim and her mother went to go visit the Holocaust Museum, spent the entire day there. Most workers who work at the museum are survivors themselves. While going through the museum, her mother and a worker struke up a conversation. Learning that they both were survivors and went to the same camps.
Turns out her mother and the worker were good friends during the Holocaust, they lost contact with each other after getting separated. Nearly 50 years later they met again, to celebrate the fact that they both survived.
*Information was found in the speakers powerpoint, link is above*
Tweets: “Hella Buchheim- Raised in the shadow of the Holocaust, begins with photography from the Holocaust museum and her mother’s survival story”
“Hella Buchheim- read the famous sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ which means working makes you free, Buchheim said. Which is unfortunate because most didn’t make it to freedom, she said.”
“Hella Buchheim- Timeline of the ages Buchheims’ mother was at different times of the war” “’We had to return to the horrific smell of human feces,’ Lore Buchheim said. The above quote was written in her journal”
“Events happening, corresponding to the previous picture of Buchheims’ mothers ages”
“Hella Buchheim and her mother, Lore Buchheim, took a trip to the Holocaust Museum, where Lore Buchheim met with a friend she met, lost contact with, and re-met at the museum. Both went to the same camps, Riga and Stutthof. Almost 50 years later.”
Beginning Journalism 