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

翻译人员: Jiasi Hao 校对人员: Joey Chung

在一本读起来非常 令人愉快的书，《小王子》中，

In the rather delightful book "The Little Prince,"

there is a quotation, which says

有这么一句话——

“一个人只有用心去看，才能看到真实。

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

What is essential is invisible."

事情的真相只用眼睛是看不见的。”

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

当这本书的作者在美国的某个地方，

somewhere in the United States,

坐在舒服的椅子上 写出这些文字的时候，

I learned this very same lesson

我在数英里外的波兰集中营

miles away in a filthy, dirty barrack

恶臭肮脏的营房中，

学着同样的一个教训。

in an extermination camp in Poland.

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

礼物的价值或大小并不重要，

it is how you hold it in your heart.

真正重要的是 你如何将其牢记在心中。

When I was six years old,

在我 6 岁的时候，

我和我的母亲、父亲、姐姐

my mother, my father, my sister and myself

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

一起离开了讨厌犹太人的德国， 前往南斯拉夫。

And we were in Yugoslavia for seven happy years,

我们在那里度过了快乐的 7 年，

and then Germany invaded Yugoslavia

随后，德国入侵南斯拉夫，

and we suddenly were persecuted again,

突然间我们又开始遭受迫害，

and I had to go into hiding.

我不得不躲起来以求保命。

And I was hiding for roughly two years

我和一对参与反抗运动的夫妇

在一起住了 2 年。

with a couple who had worked for the resistance movement.

And I developed films, and I made enlargements.

那段时间，我做着 冲洗胶卷、放大照片的工作。

One day, when I was 15 years old,

我 15 岁的时候，有一天，

我被国家秘密警察（盖世太保）

I was arrested by the gestapo

and beaten up,

逮捕并殴打。

and, for two months, dragged through various prisons,

在接下来的 2 个月， 我被拖拽着流离于不同的监狱。

and eventually, I ended up

最终，我来到了捷克斯洛伐克，

in a 150-year-old fortress in Czechoslovakia,

被关押于一个有着 150 年历史，

which the Nazis had converted into a concentration camp.

已经被纳粹改造成集中营的堡垒中。

I was there for 10 months.

我在那里呆了 10 个月。

I laid railroad tracks,

我铺过铁轨，

I exterminated vermin,

灭过害虫，

I made baskets,

编过篮子。

在 10 个月后，

and after 10 months,

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

包括我在内的 2000 人被赶上牛车，

the doors were closed, and we were shipped east.

车门一关，我们被送往东边。

For three days, we traveled like that,

整整 3 天的路程，我们都在牛车上。

and when we were unloaded,

当我们被要求下车的时候，

we were smelling of urine and of feces,

闻到的都是尿液粪便的气味，

and we found ourselves in the Auschwitz extermination camp.

我们发现自己已身处 奥斯威辛集中营。

A camp that, by that time,

在那个时候，这一个集中营

had murdered already over one million people

已经谋杀了不止 100 万人，

and sent them through the chimney into the sky.

纳粹通过烟囱把人们送上天。

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

我们到达后， 身上所有的东西都被夺走，

whatever we had,

每个人都一丝不挂。

他们统一发放条纹制服，

and were given striped uniforms,

were given a tattoo on our arms,

并在我们的手臂上纹上编号。

and we also were given the message

他们还告知我们，

that we would be there for exactly six months.

我们将在这里呆上整整 6 个月。

And after that, we would leave the camp.

在那之后，我们就可以离开这里——

Through the chimney.

通过那个烟囱。

We were assigned to different barracks.

我们被分配到不同的营房。

And the barracks were filled with wooden bunks,

营房里摆满了木床，

six people on each level,

每一层能睡 6 个人，

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

3 个人面朝里睡同一个方向， 另外 3 个人面朝外睡另一个方向，

so whichever way you slept,

所以不论你对着哪个方向睡，

you always had a pair of feet in your face.

总是有一双脚在你的面前。

The man next to me was an extremely nice gentleman,

睡在我边上的人 是一个非常友好的绅士，

and he introduced himself as Mr. Herbert Levine.

他自称为赫伯特·莱文先生。

Mr. Levine was kind and polite to me.

莱文先生对我非常礼貌友善。

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

一天，我完成了 被分配的工作回到营房，

I climbed up,

爬上床，

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

我睡的是三层床的最上铺，

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

我看到莱文先生手上拿着一副牌。

And he was shuffling these cards.

他正在洗那副牌。

And I couldn't understand it, you know,

我无法理解，

在奥斯威辛里有一副牌

having a deck of cards in Auschwitz

was like finding a gorilla in your bathroom.

就好比在你的厕所里 找一只大猩猩。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

You know, "What is he doing there?"

“他在这里做什么？”

And then Mr. Levine turned to me

随后莱文先生转向我，

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

伸手将牌递到我面前， 并说：“选一张牌。”

So I picked a card,

于是我选了张牌，

and he performed a card trick for me.

他给我表演了一个纸牌魔术，

He performed a miracle.

仿佛展现了一个奇迹。

And I'd never seen a card trick before,

我之前从来没有看过纸牌魔术，

and the man who performed it was sitting right there.

而且表演魔术师就坐在我跟前。

And then Mr. Levine did the unthinkable.

之后莱文先生 做了件让我意想不到的事。

He actually explained the trick to me.

他竟然向我解释了魔术中的小把戏。

And the words got burned into my brain.

这些话深深烙印在了我的脑海里。

And I remembered every single word,

我记住了其中的每一个字，

and from that day on,

从那天起，

I practiced that trick every day.

我每天都在练习那个魔术把戏。

Although I didn't have any cards.

即使我手中没有牌，

I just kept on practicing.

我也会继续练习。

About three weeks later,

大约在 3 周过后，

除了我和其他几百个人之外，

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

were sent to the gas chambers.

整个集中营剩下的人 都被送去了毒气室。

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

我被送到了另一个营地， 在那里的马厮工作。

and then, in January 1945,

在 1945 年 1 月，

when the Russians advanced,

当俄罗斯军队继续向外扩张，

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

我们 6 万人被迫进行了一场死亡行军。

And we walked for three days, on and off,

我们断断续续，走了有 3 天，

and in the middle of the winter,

而且那时正值寒冬。

等我们抵达铁路岔口的时候，

and by the time we arrived at a railroad siding,

out of the 60,000 people,

6 万人中，

15,000 had died.

1.5 万人没能熬过去，丢了性命。

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

我们剩下的这些人 全被装上一辆开放式火车车厢，

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

之后的 4 天， 从波兰一路南下至奥地利。

我们发现自己又到了

And we found ourselves in a death camp,

in a concentration camp called Mauthausen,

一个叫毛特豪森的死亡集中营，

which again was built like a fortress.

同样，这里有着 宛如堡垒的建筑外观。

And at that point, the SS abandoned us,

从那时起，党卫军抛弃了我们，

and there was no food there,

我们没有食物维生，

and there were thousands and thousands of bodies there.

数千人就饿死在那里。

I slept for three days next to a dead man,

我在一个死去的男人边上 睡了 3 天，

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

就为了领取他那一勺 定量的发霉面包。

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

在战争结束的 2 天前， 5 月 5 号，

we were liberated by American forces.

我们被美军释放。

At that time, I was 17 years old,

那时候，我 17 岁，

and I weighed 64 pounds.

体重 64 磅。

我搭了个便车

And I hitchhiked back to Yugoslavia.

And when I came back to Yugoslavia,

回到南斯拉夫。

there was communism there,

那里有共产主义，

却没有家人，

there was no family there

and there were no friends there.

没有朋友。

我在那里呆了 2 年，

I stayed there for two years,

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

然后设法逃到了英格兰。

And when I came to England,

到达英格兰的时候，

I couldn't speak English,

我不会说英语，

I had no education, I had no skills.

我没有受过教育， 也没有任何生存技能。

I started working,

我开始找工作糊口。

大概在达到英格兰的 1 年后，

and about a year after I arrived in England,

I bought myself a deck of cards.

我给自己买了一副牌。

And for the very first time,

有史以来第一次，

I actually performed the trick

我真正地表演出了

那位莱文先生在奥斯维辛木床上铺 展示给我的魔术把戏。

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

And it worked.

而且我的表演很成功，

很完美。

It worked beautifully.

And I showed it to some friends of mine,

我给一些朋友们展示了 这个纸牌魔术，

and they loved it.

他们很喜欢。

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

之后我去了个魔术用品商品， 买了一些魔术道具，

又表演给我的朋友们看，

and I showed them to my friends,

and I bought some more magic tricks

之后我又买了更多的魔术道具

and I showed it to them.

表演给我的朋友们看。

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

再之后，我买了一些 魔术相关的书籍，越买越多。

There's a very, very thin line

在爱好与疯狂之间

between a hobby and insanity.

只剩一条非常模糊的界线。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Anyway, I got married,

后来我结了婚，

and I came to the United States,

来到了美国，

and one of the first jobs that I had

而我在这儿的第一份工作

demanded from me to speak to small groups of people.

是对着一小群人做演讲。

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

我做到了，我很擅长演讲。

And then, 25 years ago, I retired.

25 年后，我退休了，

And I started speaking in schools.

开始在学校进行演讲。

And the only reason why I could speak in schools

我能在学校演讲的唯一原因，

is because a very friendly man

是因为一位非常友好的绅士

showed a rather scared kid a card trick

曾经在集中营给 一个内心充满恐惧的孩子

in a concentration camp.

表演了一个纸牌魔术。

这位给我表演魔术的男人， 莱文先生，

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

had been a professional magician.

一直是一个专业魔术师。

He worked in Germany,

他在德国工作，

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

当他去奥斯维辛的时候， 党卫军知道他的身份，

so they gave him some cards,

所以他们给他了一些牌，

they gave him a piece of string,

一根绳子，

they gave him some dice,

还有一些骰子，

让他给他们表演节目。

and he performed for them.

And then he also taught some of them.

他也给别人教了其中的一些魔术。

他在战争中幸存，

He survived the war,

but his wife and his son died.

但他的妻儿都没能幸免于难。

他来到美国， 在各种活动中表演魔术，

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

but I never met him again.

但我从未再遇见过他。

But the trick that he showed me stayed with me

然而他展示给我的魔术 却深深扎根在我的心中，

and enabled me to go around schools

也让我能够去各个学校演讲，

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

努力让这个世界变得更好一点。

So if you ever know somebody who needs help,

所以如果你知道某个人需要帮助，

if you know somebody who is scared,

如果你知道某个人感到害怕，

be kind to them.

请善待他们。

Give them advice,

给他们些建议，

give them a hug,

一个拥抱，

teach them a card trick.

教他们如何玩纸牌魔术。

Whatever you are going to do,

不论你做什么，

it's going to be hope for them.

对他们来讲都是一线希望。

And if you do it at the right time,

而且你如果在正确的时间 做这件事，

it will enter their heart,

你的善意就会融入他们的内心，

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

永远伴随着他们，永远。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）