How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | Werner Reich

Translator: Laura Carpena Reviewer: Julia Quirante

In the rather delightful book "The Little Prince,"

A l'encantador llibre "El Petit Príncep",

there is a quotation, which says

hi ha una cita que diu:

"It's only with the heart that one can see rightly.

"Només s'hi veu bé amb el cor.

What is essential is invisible."

L'essencial és invisible als ulls."

And while the author wrote these words sitting in a comfortable chair,

Mentre que l'autor va escriure això assegut a una còmoda cadira,

somewhere in the United States,

a algun lloc dels Estats Units,

I learned this very same lesson

jo vaig aprendre aquella mateixa lliçó

miles away in a filthy, dirty barrack

a quilòmetres de distància, en una barraca bruta i fastigosa,

in an extermination camp in Poland.

a un camp d'extermini a Polònia.

It isn't the value or the size of a gift that truly matters,

No és tant el preu o el tamany d'un regal el que realment importa,

it is how you hold it in your heart.

sinó com te'l guardes al cor.

When I was six years old,

Quan tenia sis anys,

my mother, my father, my sister and myself

la meva mare, el meu pare, la meva germana i jo

left Jew-hating Germany, and we went to Yugoslavia.

vam abandonar l'Alemanya antisemita per anar a Iugoslàvia.

And we were in Yugoslavia for seven happy years,

I vam viure a Iugoslàvia durant set anys feliços.

and then Germany invaded Yugoslavia

Llavors Alemanya va envair Iugoslàvia

and we suddenly were persecuted again,

i, de cop, tornàvem a ser fugitius,

and I had to go into hiding.

i jo em vaig haver d'amagar.

And I was hiding for roughly two years

Vaig estar amagat durant uns dos anys

with a couple who had worked for the resistance movement.

amb una parella que havia treballat per la resistència.

And I developed films, and I made enlargements.

Jo revelava carrets i feia ampliacions fotogràfiques.

One day, when I was 15 years old,

Un dia, quan tenia 15 anys,

I was arrested by the gestapo

La Gestapo em va detenir

and beaten up,

em va apallissar,

and, for two months, dragged through various prisons,

i, durant dos mesos, em van traslladar a vàries presons.

and eventually, I ended up

Finalment, vaig acabar

in a 150-year-old fortress in Czechoslovakia,

a una fortalesa de 150 anys a Txecoslovàquia,

which the Nazis had converted into a concentration camp.

que els nazis havien convertit en un camp de concentració.

I was there for 10 months.

Allà em vaig quedar durant 10 mesos.

I laid railroad tracks,

Vaig construir vies de ferrocarril,

I exterminated vermin,

vaig exterminar plagues,

I made baskets,

vaig fer cistells,

and after 10 months,

i 10 mesos més tard,

about 2,000 of us were loaded into cattle cars,

a 2.000 de nosaltres ens van carregar en trens de bestiar,

the doors were closed, and we were shipped east.

van tancar les portes, i ens vam dirigir a l'est.

For three days, we traveled like that,

Així vam viatjar durant tres dies,

and when we were unloaded,

i quan ens van fer baixar,

we were smelling of urine and of feces,

fèiem olor d'orina i d'excrements,

and we found ourselves in the Auschwitz extermination camp.

i ens vam adonar que estàvem al camp d'extermini d'Auschwitz.

A camp that, by that time,

Un camp on, en aquell moment,

had murdered already over one million people

ja havien assessinat a gairebé un milió de persones

and sent them through the chimney into the sky.

que van ser enviats al cel a través de xemeneies.

We arrived, we were stripped of all of our properties,

Vam arribar i ens van despullar de totes les nostres pertinences,

whatever we had,

de tot el que teníem.

and were given striped uniforms,

Ens van donar uniformes a ratlles,

were given a tattoo on our arms,

ens van tatuar els braços,

and we also were given the message

i també ens van informar

that we would be there for exactly six months.

que estaríem allà durant exactament sis mesos.

And after that, we would leave the camp.

Després, abandonaríem el camp.

Through the chimney.

A través de la xemeneia.

We were assigned to different barracks.

Ens van assignar a diferents barracons.

And the barracks were filled with wooden bunks,

Cada barracó estava ple de lliteres de fusta,

six people on each level,

sis persones a cada nivell,

three people sleeping in one direction and three in the other direction,

tres persones dormien en una direcció i les altres tres en l'altra,

so whichever way you slept,

així que tant era com dormíssis,

you always had a pair of feet in your face.

sempre tenies un parell de peus a la cara.

The man next to me was an extremely nice gentleman,

Al meu costat hi havia un senyor extremadament agradable,

and he introduced himself as Mr. Herbert Levine.

que es va presentar com a Herbert Levine.

Mr. Levine was kind and polite to me.

El Sr. Levine era amable i educat amb mi.

One day, when I came back from a work assignment,

Un dia, quan vaig tornar d'un treball que m'havien assignat,

I climbed up,

vaig pujar al meu llit,

I was at the top level of the three-tier bunk,

que estava al nivell superior d'una llitera de tres pisos,

and there was Mr. Levine with a deck of cards.

i allà estava el Sr. Levine amb una baralla de cartes.

And he was shuffling these cards.

I estava barrejant aquelles cartes.

And I couldn't understand it, you know,

I jo no ho podia entendre, sabeu,

having a deck of cards in Auschwitz

com tenia una baralla de cartes a Auschwitz.

was like finding a gorilla in your bathroom.

Era com trobar un goril·la al bany.

(Laughter)

(Riures)

You know, "What is he doing there?"

Jo pensava: "Què està fent?"

And then Mr. Levine turned to me

Aleshores el Sr. Levine es va girar cap a mi,

and offered me the deck, and said, "Pick a card."

em va ensenyar la baralla, i em va dir: "Tria una carta".

So I picked a card,

Jo vaig triar una carta

and he performed a card trick for me.

i ell em va fer un truc de màgia.

He performed a miracle.

Va fer un miracle.

And I'd never seen a card trick before,

Jo no havia vist mai un truc de cartes,

and the man who performed it was sitting right there.

i l'home que l'havia fet estava assegut allà mateix.

And then Mr. Levine did the unthinkable.

Llavors el Sr. Levine va fer l'impensable.

He actually explained the trick to me.

Em va explicar el truc.

And the words got burned into my brain.

I aquelles paraules van quedar grabades a foc al meu cervell.

And I remembered every single word,

Recordava totes les paraules.

and from that day on,

I des d'aquell moment,

I practiced that trick every day.

he practicat aquell truc cada dia.

Although I didn't have any cards.

Tot i que no tingués cartes.

I just kept on practicing.

Jo seguia practicant.

About three weeks later,

Unes tres setmanes més tard,

the entire camp, with the exception of a couple hundred of us,

tot el camp, amb l'excepció d'un centenar de nosaltres,

were sent to the gas chambers.

van ser enviats a les cambres de gas.

I was sent to another camp where I worked in the stables,

A mi em van enviar a un altre camp on vaig treballar als estables

and then, in January 1945,

i, més tard, al gener de 1945,

when the Russians advanced,

quan els russos van avançar,

60,000 of us were sent on a death march.

60.000 de nosaltres vam ser enviats a la marxa de la mort.

And we walked for three days, on and off,

Vam caminar durant tres dies, de forma interrompuda,

and in the middle of the winter,

i ben entrat l'hivern,

and by the time we arrived at a railroad siding,

quan ja havíem arribat a una via d'escapament,

out of the 60,000 people,

de les 60.000 persones

15,000 had died.

n'havien mort 15.000.

And the rest of us were loaded into open railroad cars,

I a la resta ens van fer pujar a vagons oberts.

and for four days, shipped all the way from Poland down to Austria.

Vam viatjar durant 4 dies des de Polònia fins a Àustria.

And we found ourselves in a death camp,

Fins arribar a un camp de la mort.

in a concentration camp called Mauthausen,

Un camp de concentració que es deia Mauthausen,

which again was built like a fortress.

també construït com una fortalesa.

And at that point, the SS abandoned us,

Allà, la SS ens va abandonar,

and there was no food there,

no hi havia menjar

and there were thousands and thousands of bodies there.

i hi havia milers i milers de cossos.

I slept for three days next to a dead man,

Vaig dormir durant tres dies al costat d'un home mort,

just to get his ration of a tablespoon of moldy bread.

només per quedar-me amb la seva petita ració de pa florit.

And two days before the end of the war, May 5,

Dos dies abans de la fi de la guerra, el 5 de maig,

we were liberated by American forces.

vam ser alliberats per l'exèrcit dels Estats Units.

At that time, I was 17 years old,

En aquell moment jo tenia 17 anys

and I weighed 64 pounds.

i pesava 29 quilos.

And I hitchhiked back to Yugoslavia.

Vaig fer autoestop per tornar a Iugoslàvia.

And when I came back to Yugoslavia,

I quan hi vaig arribar,

there was communism there,

allà s'havia instaurat el comunisme,

there was no family there

allà no hi havia família

and there were no friends there.

i no hi quedava cap amic.

I stayed there for two years,

M'hi vaig quedar durant dos anys,

and after two years, I managed to escape to England.

fins que vaig aconseguir escapar cap a Anglaterra.

And when I came to England,

Quan vaig arribar a Anglaterra,

I couldn't speak English,

no sabia parlar anglès,

I had no education, I had no skills.

no tenia cap educació ni cap formació.

I started working,

Vaig començar a treballar

and about a year after I arrived in England,

i, quan feia més o menys un any des que havia arribat a Anglaterra,

I bought myself a deck of cards.

em vaig comprar una baralla de cartes.

And for the very first time,

I per primer cop,

I actually performed the trick

vaig poder fer realment el truc

that was shown to me in Auschwitz on top of a bunk bed.

que havia après a aquella llitera d'Auschwitz.

And it worked.

I va sortir bé.

It worked beautifully.

Va sortir preciós.

And I showed it to some friends of mine,

El vaig ensenyar a alguns amics,

and they loved it.

i els hi va encantar.

And I went to a magic store, and I bought some magic tricks,

Vaig anar a una botiga de màgia i vaig comprar alguns trucs,

and I showed them to my friends,

i els vaig fer als meus amics.

and I bought some more magic tricks

I vaig tornar a comprar més trucs

and I showed it to them.

i també els vaig fer.

And then I bought some magic books, and I bought some more magic books.

Després vaig comprar més i més llibres de màgia.

There's a very, very thin line

Hi ha una línia molt, molt fina

between a hobby and insanity.

entre el hobby i la bogeria.

(Laughter)

(Riures)

Anyway, I got married,

Més tard em vaig casar,

and I came to the United States,

i vaig venir als Estats Units.

and one of the first jobs that I had

A una de les primeres feines que vaig tenir

demanded from me to speak to small groups of people.

havia de parlar amb grups petits de persones.

And I managed it, I was very good at it.

Me'n sortia bé, era molt bo fent-ho,

And then, 25 years ago, I retired.

i, 25 anys més tard, em vaig retirar.

And I started speaking in schools.

Llavors vaig començar a donar xerrades a escoles.

And the only reason why I could speak in schools

L'únic motiu pel que podia anar a parlar a les escoles

is because a very friendly man

és perquè un home molt amable

showed a rather scared kid a card trick

va ensenyar un truc de cartes a un nen espantat

in a concentration camp.

a un camp de concentració.

This man who showed it to me, Mr. Levine,

Aquest home que me'l va ensenyar,

had been a professional magician.

el Sr. Levine, havia sigut mag professional.

He worked in Germany,

Treballava a Alemanya,

and when he came to Auschwitz, the SS knew who he was,

i quan va arribar a Auschwitz, els SS sabien qui era,

so they gave him some cards,

així que li van donar unes cartes,

they gave him a piece of string,

li van donar un tros de corda,

they gave him some dice,

li van donar uns daus,

and he performed for them.

i actuava per ells.

And then he also taught some of them.

I també va ensenyar a alguns d'ells.

He survived the war,

Va sobreviure la guerra,

but his wife and his son died.

però la seva dona i el seu fill van morir.

He came to the United States and performed in various venues,

Va venir als Estats Units i va actuar a alguns locals

but I never met him again.

però mai el vaig tornar a veure.

But the trick that he showed me stayed with me

Però el truc que em va ensenyar es va quedar amb mi

and enabled me to go around schools

i em va permetre visitar les escoles

and try to make this world just a little bit better.

i intentar fer aquest món una mica millor.

So if you ever know somebody who needs help,

Així que si alguna vegada et trobes algú

que necessita ajuda, o algú que té por,

if you know somebody who is scared,

be kind to them.

tracta'l bé.

Give them advice,

Dona-li un consell,

give them a hug,

dona-li una abraçada,

teach them a card trick.

ensenya-li un truc de cartes.

Whatever you are going to do,

Facis el que facis,

it's going to be hope for them.

li donaràs esperança.

And if you do it at the right time,

I si ho fas al moment just,

it will enter their heart,

el gest entrarà al seu cor,

and it will be with them wherever they go, forever.

i es quedarà amb ell vagi on vagi, per sempre.

Thank you.

Gràcies.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiments)