WINNIPEG – One of the larger exhibits at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights focuses on the Holocaust and features Carmela Finkel’s story of survival.
The now Winnipegger went into hiding in when she was only 9 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland.
Along with her parents and sister, Finkel spent 20 months in a dirt hole under a home.
“My prayer was please god let us die together, never please save us,” said Finkel. “It was never an option. I knew we were going to die. I just want to make sure we died together.”
Two German soldiers were living in a room right above them.
“If they would have suspected something they would have burned the house down or ripped the house apart trying to find us,” said Finkel.
Finkel says she never stood and never spoke a word for as long as she was underground.
When she was 11 years old she was rescued by a Russian soldier.
“He knelt down and he looked down and said…I am russian soldier and you have been saved and if you don’t believe me I am a jew,” said Finkel, who could barely whisper at the time.
It took her several months for her legs to be able to straighten and her voice to fully return.
Now her story is part of a video in the Holocaust gallery at the museum.
“The world needs to know that the Holocaust did exist and that it did happen,” she said.
Finkel is thrilled to have the opportunity to be included in a place where profound lessons can be learned.
“Never look down,” she said. “Treat everyone as an equal.”
She plans to tour the museum with her sister and cannot imagine seeing the exhibits with anyone else.
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