There was a Jewish man named Yankel, who
had a bakery, in a town, Crown Heights, Germany. He always said, "You
know why I’m alive today?"
He said "I was a kid, just a teenager at the time in Germany.
Nazis were killing Jews with no mercy.
We were on the train being taken to Auschwitz by Nazis. Night came and it was deathly cold in that compartment.
The
Germans left us on the side of the tracks overnight, sometimes for
days, without any food. There were no blankets to keep us warm. Snow was
falling everywhere. Cold winds were hitting our cheeks, every second.
We were hundreds of people in that terribly cold night. No food. No
water. No shelter. No blankets ".
"The blood in our bodies started freezing. It was becoming ice.
Beside me, there was a beloved elderly Jewish man from my hometown. He was shivering from head to toe, and looked
terrible. So I wrapped my arms around him to warm him up.
I hugged him tightly to give him some heat. I rubbed his arms, his legs, his face, his neck. I begged him to try to be alive.
I encouraged him.
All night long, I kept this man warm this way.
I was tired, and freezing cold myself. My fingers were numb, but I didn’t stop rubbing heat into that old man’s body.
Hours and hours went by. Finally, morning came and the sun began
to shine. I looked around to see the other people.
To my horror, all I could see were frozen bodies. All I could hear was deathly silence.
Nobody else in that cabin were alive. That freezing night killed them all.
They died from the cold. Only two people survived: the old man and me.
The old man survived because I kept him warm... and I survived because I was warming him.
May I tell you the secret to survival in this world?
When you warm other people’s hearts, you will remain warm yourself.
When
you support, encourage and inspire others, then you will discover
support, encouragement and inspiration in your own life as well.
