Thread by @trickelbank

As these days of Trump lope past us in a lethargic haze, I'm thinking a lot about my downstairs neighbor, Charlie. I've talked about him before.

Charlie, God willing, will be 102 years old in November. He is a Holocaust survivor.

And when I say "survivor", that says a lot.

I'm not *exactly* sure of the order, but from what I've pieced together through conversations with him over the years, a four-year period of his life went like this:

1. He was captured by the SS after hiding out for several months in Lublin, Poland.

2. He was immediately sent to Majdanek, a labor/concentration camp.

3. From there, he was transferred to the Auschwitz complex. He worked the mines in Janinagrube. For context here, Charlie was maybe 5'4" at his apex and made to swing an axe half his size.

4. From Janinagrube, apparently not cutting it as a mining slave, he was sent to Birkenau and scheduled for execution.

5. At some point, he was able to escape, and he made it to Germany.

6. He was caught and sent to Dachau, where he was, again, scheduled for extermination.

7. He was liberated before that happened.

We believe #7 qualifies him as lucky, and that's not untrue on many levels.

But, according to Charlie, his extended family in Poland numbered in the dozens.

Charlie was the only to survive.

And thus, Charlie never considered himself lucky. He considered himself alone.

This story has a happy ending: Charlie made his way to America. He married. He had children. He has grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He thrived professionally and financially.

But...

...He never forgets.

He's always been a helper. Until very recently, as time caught up with him, he'd volunteered at Cedars for decades. He is beloved. He was fêted like a conquering hero on his 100th birthday (you can read about it on the Internet).

He felt he *had* to.

There aren't many people like Charlie. In number, in longevity, in spirit. He's one in a billion.

And I think about him a lot. We've never talked about Trump. We've never talked about Putin (Charlie was born in Russia).

I wonder how familiar this "new" world must seem to him.

There are myriad reasons so many of us are working so hard to reverse the path a bunch of terrible, stupid assholes set us limping down four years ago.

Not far down the list on mine? I owe it to Charlie. I owe him a future he'll never see, but one he bought and paid for. Dearly.

And I hope by remembering *for* him - along with so many others - I'll have contributed to the recognition of the immense struggle in his incredible life just a fraction of a fraction.

My vote is a reflection of that.

And I guess what I'm saying is:

Find your Charlie. Strap him/her/them - however metaphorically - to your back. Knuckle up, stand strong, and make the promise that you'll carry them into our future as ably as they carried us into theirs.