Alter Weiner was a Jew who had survived it all: the Auschwitz roller coaster, the gas chambers (x3), the pedal-powered masturbation machines, even the “final boss” of the Holocaust: the cage with the eagle and the bear.
So good was Weiner’s fortune throughout World War II, in fact, that you’d be forgiven for believing that G-d himself had cast a protective shield around him, sparing him from the same fate that met exactly Six Million of his fellow tribesmen.
Unfortunately, that fortune didn’t last forever.
Earlier last week, a pro-Trump car – which is alleged to have been friends with the same Dodge Challenger that murdered Heather Heyer in cold blood – deliberately struck Weiner, killing him instantly.
He was only 92 years old.
CNN:
A Holocaust survivor who was trying to make sure the world never forgot what happened fell short of finishing his life’s work.
Alter Wiener, a 92-year-old from outside Portland, Oregon, was struck and killed by a car on Tuesday evening, Hillsboro Police said.
Wiener had been walking just before 5 p.m. when a driver hit him, Hillsboro Police Sergeant Eric Bunday said Wednesday. He was walking outside the crosswalk and wearing dark clothing on the rainy night and the driver didn’t see him. The driver will not be charged or cited, Bunday said.
“I’m just very sorry. He was an incredible man with one impressive legacy,” Bunday said.
Wiener had been the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.
His father was killed when he was 13, according to his autobiography. He spent three years in concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz camp. When he was liberated in 1945, he weighed only 80 pounds.
It’s a familiar story, isn’t it?
A Jew survives the horrors of the Holocaust, only to die of unrelated causes during the next millennium.
I can understand why this shocking report made international headlines.
At least Weiner managed to do some good work before his untimely death:
Wiener was one of the last remaining survivors in the Portland area, where he had lived since 2000. He shared his life story with nearly 1,000 groups at schools, churches, synagogues and more.
He was working to persuade Oregon state legislators to create and pass a bill that would mandate educators teach students about the Holocaust and genocide. It was dubbed the Genocide Curriculum bill.
Eager to learn more about the Genocide Curriculum bill, I looked it up:
If passed in next year’s legislative session, the Genocide Curriculum bill would require all Oregon high schools — public and private — to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides in world history. It would be part of the state’s graduation requirement for three years of social studies.
The idea was presented to the Senate Interim Committee on Education in an informational meeting Tuesday in front of a packed hearing room at the state Capitol.
The effort is being led by Sen. Rob Wagner, D-Tualitin, Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener, 92, and Lake Oswego high school freshman Claire Sarnowski, 14.
…
Wagner cited a poll, saying one-fifth of high school graduates across the country can’t identify the Holocaust — in which millions of people, mostly Jews, were detained, tortured and killed.
Now that’s a truly sobering statistic right there.
Sadly, it’s true: American kids have South Africa, the Holodomor and other white genocides shoved down their throats daily in school, but when it comes to the one genocide that actually matters – the Jewish one that definitely happened – they remain woefully ill-informed.
Hopefully, this bill will help correct that injustice – first in Oregon, and then beyond.
Fictional movies like Lauren Southern’s Farmlands are now required viewing for US children, edging out serious factual documentaries like Schindler’s List.
Alter Weiner’s life might have been cut tragically short, but his spirit will live on in legislation. He’ll show America’s youth that the Holocaust was real, that white people caused it and, most importantly, that it’s their moral duty to allow as many colored immigrants into the US as possible.
After all, racism is what made Adolf Hitler do the gas chambers in the first place.