Last week April 18th, 2018, I attended the talk of Holocaust survivor, author, and educator Walter Ziffer. Ziffer has also had copies of his most recent book Confronting the Silence: A Holocaust Survivor’s Search for God. Ziffer is 91 years old and first informed the crowd this talk was likely the last talk he would give on this time during the Holocaust. The reason behind his decisions is first to deal with his age, second, the memories of his time at the concentration camp still haunts him to this day. The talk was entitled Holocaust: When Law and Righteousness Clashed, it was held in the UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. The purpose of the talk was to discuss the action of Nazi Germany and their actions as matters of human rights. …show more content…
Walter Ziffer was born in the Chez Republic to a loving mother and father. His father was the local attorney and prominent member of their Jewish Community. His mother was a dedicated housewife and took care of himself and sister. His family lived in the Czech Republic, his father had a library that was filled with around 1500-2000 books. Ziffer said as a child he would sit in his father library for hours reading the different books. He began his talk by quoting the bible verse Deuteronomy verse 16 which states “Justice, Justice you shall pursue.” He used this verse throughout the talk to tie everything back to the thesis. He shared with the audience many different stories of his time throughout the Holocaust. Three stories specifically resonated with me the story of the first day of WW II, his first love and the story of his liberation from the final concentration