Oral Histories

CCISD was awarded a grant called "Teaching American History". Being the history nut I am, I quickly applied to be a part of this grant, even though I don't teach American History. It was open to all faculty in the district, and it has been full of amazing personal growth opportunities, along with some good teaching methods and ideas that were thrown in for good measure. :)

Last night's training centered around the oral history of a 93 year old WWII veteran named Fred Machoul. The cool part was that he brough a jeep from 1944 with him! Fred was a lieutenant major in the Army, beginning in 1940. He spent a lot of time in Iceland training with his counter-intelligence division before spending time in London and Paris. Essentially, he was in Europe for nearly 6 years. Fred and his son travel around Houston, and anywhere else they are invited, sharing with school children the experiences Fred had during WWII. Fred was one of the first Allied troops to enter Dachau after the camp was liberated. Most of you know I've been mesmerized by the Holocaust since I was 10 and should've gotten a degree in Holocaust Studies, but not even all of that research could have prepared me for Fred's stories and pictures. I suppose editors have deemed truth to be too graphic for America, but the pictures that Fred took with his own camera aren't in any of the books I've read. The stories he told about his interviews with the few SS guards that the Allied troops kept alive for testimony are more horrendous than anything I'd imagined. What they did to the people, Jews, Christians, and anyone else deemed unfit, 'just because' is inexcusable.

Fred told us that Eisenhower, who was his general, kept telling them to get to Dachau because in 50 years some SOB would say Dachau never happened. Sure enough, that 'SOB' (these are Fred and Ike's words!) is alive and brainwashing minds all throughout the Middle East today. I spent a lot of time talking to Fred one on one last night, and it ludicrous to tell a man who stumbled into hell on Earth that what he saw and smelled with his own eyes and nose never happened. To say that the piles and piles of bodies and the rail cars overflowing with bodies, all left to rot, didn't exist is mortifying.

The Holocaust isn't a pretty topic. It is proof of the power Satan has, thankfully for only a short time, over the souls on this Earth. It is a constant reminder that as humans, we have a long way to go before we reach the everlasting arms of Christ. The Holocaust needs to be taught, even in all of it's gruesomeness, so that children today don't grow up to hate, so that there is no excuse for genocide to continue, so that Christ's love can shine through the darkness, and so that those like Fred won't have to ever hear some 'SOB' say that their nightmares and screams were in vain. Fred, thank you for sharing your story.