Son of Holocaust survivor to talk at Tigard Library

One family’s ordeal at Auschwitz leads their descendant to talk about experiences at the notorious death camp

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Nov 12, 2009

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Wigmore’s mother was sent to the gas chambers on three separate occurrences, Wigmore said, but was pulled from the line each time by workers at the camp.

She and her elder sister were the only two people from her family to survive.

The effects of her time at Auschwitz left Wigmore’s mother with chronic health problems – which Wigmore attributes to Mengele’s experimentation.

Now, at the age of 86, Wigmore’s mother lives in the Portland area. Other Holocaust survivors have spoken at various events throughout the years, but – Wigmore said – the experience was so horrible that his mother cannot bear to speak to people about them, so Wigmore does it for her.

“She’s aware that I do these talks,” he said. “But she can’t bring herself to do them because it’s just too emotional for her.”

While the events of six decades ago may be written in history books, Wigmore believes that the events are still relevant today,

“The Holocaust happened because of extreme racism and prejudice and outright bigotry,” he said. “It happened because no one took a stand to say no, this is not going to happen.”

More than 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, 6 million of which were Jews.

“It’s a horrible history of the human race,” he said. “It’s a difficult subject to talk about, but I’m convinced that if we don’t talk about it, don’t learn these lessons, we’re dooming ourselves to it happening again. Germany was defeated, but not Nazism. Bigotry and racism still exist even in our backyards so we need to be vigilant and the way to be vigilant is to understand why it happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Wigmore’s Holocaust lecture will take place Nov. 17 in the community room, of the Tigard Library, 13500 S.W. Hall Blvd., at 7 p.m.

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