Compassion by Michael Rosen
from Historyworks Hosted by Historyworks
I read an article about the train that took my great-uncle and my great-aunt Jeschie and Rachel to Auschwitz: Convoy 62. The article said that some of the prisoners on Convoy 62 escaped from the train while it was in a tunnel One of the prisoners was called Oscar Handschuh and when he jumped from the train he knocked himself out. After a bit, he came round and headed off into the countryside. He arrived at a farm and asked for help. The people there were called Mariette and Marcel Médard. They bandaged his head, gave him clothing and food and hid him in an attic. That day, German soldiers came to the farm. They said they were looking for ten Jews who had jumped from a train. Marcel Médard said that there was no one in the house. A long while later, the war ended - and for many years the Handschuh family stayed in touch with the Médard family. Why? Because Oscar Handschuh knew, and the Médard family knew that if Oscar Handschuh had been found by the soldiers that day, he would have been killed, and the Médard family would have been killed. All of them.
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