(10) Ida Fink

I read a story about five years ago. It was a short story that affected me so much that I couldn't read it in class. The story was called "Crazy" and I couldn't forget about it. I searched and searched on the Internet. I managed to find out the author's name and eventually I found the book. I received it today and I want to talk about this book. Ida Fink is a shoah survivor. The book 'A Scrap of Time' begins with a discussion of how time was measured in the shoah. How time once meant one thing and then suddenly unfamiliar words meant hours, minutes or seconds to one's death. How unthinkable to hear a word and know that you had a second left to live. To hear an unfamiliar voice and know that you had five minutes to leave your house, to hear the word 'action' and to know that the Germans would be there in a few minutes to tear you away from your life for ever. This is something I have heard many shoah survivors talk about. Life was diffused into four or five words all having a similar meaning and only being differentiated by how many minutes or seconds. The more I read, the less I understand where they got their strength from. These people who I am descended from are my heroes and I don't even know their names...