I wrote about my friend's father, a Holocaust survivor, and how the stories you run the fastest from end up being the only ones that you were inevitably bound to write in the first place. I'm sorry for the delay. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/m... - ThreadSky

taffyakner.bsky.social • 12 days ago

I wrote about my friend's father, a Holocaust survivor, and how the stories you run the fastest from end up being the only ones that you were inevitably bound to write in the first place. I'm sorry for the delay. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/magazine/holocaust-story-education.html

Comments

alkali19.bsky.social•12 days ago

This was really great

labbott.name•12 days ago

I read this at 7am this morning and I’ve been thinking about this all day

afaycharm.bsky.social•5 days ago

So beautiful. Words can’t express.

dannygroner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thanks for sharing this.

mapaddict.bsky.social•6 days ago

I thought your article was brilliant and raw.

suzzzanna.bsky.social•12 days ago

This was so deeply moving—both the stories you tell and the hesitations you describe. Thank you so much.

eriverarn.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thank you so much for this piece. You've articulated so beautifully many things I've felt and thought my whole life. ❤️

elisheva.bsky.social•10 days ago

this piece is so beautiful. thank you for doing it.

carynrose.bsky.social•12 days ago

i've never been able to explain this aspect of being jewish to most friends, no matter how much they might think they are on our side, & your description of the pendulum swing is the first time i've heard those actions described so well. i cried so hard & this story is so important. thank you

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Caryn! Thank you so much.

carynrose.bsky.social•12 days ago

@miriamanzovin.bsky.social was in Detroit recently & she got me to shul not once but twice & i was thinking about doing daf yomi when the cycle starts up again in 2 1/2 years & this piece is reinforcing that ambition. it's my version of wearing a kipa in public

miriamanzovin.bsky.social•12 days ago

Yesssssssssss!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

taffyakner.bsky.social•11 days ago

woah

bethgammie.bsky.social•12 days ago

perfect. ❤️

mattlehrer.com•4 days ago

Thank you for writing this.

tessaria.bsky.social•11 days ago

Thank you for writing this. It really was not that long ago, and we owe to survivors as well as humanity in general to keep these stories alive. I read the whole thing.

loribeth1961.bsky.social•11 days ago

This was amazing. Thank you.

rafleishman.bsky.social•12 days ago

Yesterday was my son's Bar Mitzvah. Next weekend, we will sit around a table talking about the abstract concept of freedom & trying to make order in this shifting world. Thank you @taffyakner.bsky.social for inserting this meditation on humanity, Judaism, and survival into this week of all weeks.

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Rachel!!! Mazel tov!!!

offhorizonhill.bsky.social•12 days ago

Goddamn it, you made an old man cry. Beautiful.

ellasgordon.bsky.social•12 days ago

You are amazing Taffy xxx

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Ella! You are!

maxtundra.com•7 days ago

Thank you for this.

becks58.bsky.social•12 days ago

What an amazing read. Mr. Lindenblatt would be proud. #neveragain

spaceartal.bsky.social•12 days ago

Just finished reading this in the magazine. Superior writing, a compelling piece of history, and a reminder of Hitler’s horrors. Your struggle to tell this story is clear.

4legsrgood.bsky.social•12 days ago

This is beautiful, thank you.

mikedolan1111.bsky.social•12 days ago

Brilliant and broken-hearted. Thank you.

nigronia.bsky.social•12 days ago

This article was absolutely fantastic. It resonated on so many levels. We are of an age, & our experiences growing up were similar. Didn't everyone experience "escape from Nazi Germany" at religious school, the scary version of hide N seek?

Thank you for sharing your skills & this moving work.

azip.bsky.social•10 days ago

This is such a wonderful piece. I read it twice yesterday.

beadmomsw.bsky.social•11 days ago

Thank you for this incredibly meaningful and moving story, difficult to read but impossible to put down. I cried for an hour. You are a fantastic writer and a courageous human being.

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Ack, sorry, here's a gift link. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/magazine/holocaust-story-education.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9k4.djkT.b6FcvYtrZlTi&smid=url-share

mariorustan.bsky.social•12 days ago

"Was I supposed to do more than walk around unafraid and think to stop sometimes and tilt my head up toward the sun?"

This is a beautiful piece. Thank you for writing it, Taffy.

sharonisbin.bsky.social•12 days ago

Magnificent, unforgettable, heartbreaking. Thank you for this gift to humanity.

kjphotoartist.bsky.social•12 days ago

Incredibly beautifully written. I am much older than you; I grew up near Skokie, Illinois, where I worked in a retail space during my high school & college years. So many of my older women customers had numbers tattooed on their arms. They, like you & Mr. Lindblatt, were survivors of so much.

fchap.bsky.social•12 days ago

I can understand how you were reluctant to write this story, and so grateful you did. Beautiful job.

jwlucasnc.bsky.social•8 days ago

It didn't realize when I was a kid going to afternoon Hebrew school that we were not very far removed from the Holocaust. I hated having to go while friends played. I've been fortunate as a writer to tell two Holocaust stories, but never with the complexity of this one. It's truly unforgettable.

disgustednewsguy.bsky.social•9 days ago

That's one helluva piece of writing. I'm sorry you had to be haunted by the Holocaust. I know children of survivors, my school was founded by escapees from Germany but the role of it in my life is a thin piece of yours. I wish you peace. And, today, safety.

drsepinwall.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thank you very much for this. In fact my mother had written earlier asking if I could share a gift link so she could share with other scholars of the Holocaust and survivors. I’m so glad you were able to write and publish this, and share it with him before he passed away.

worldpeacecookies.bsky.social•12 days ago

Taffy. Somehow you've captured so much in one piece. The always gutting survivor stories w/ tiny horrors (eg pee dripping from the mattress above). The pushing away of these accounts which are actually a trauma response? The experience of being a Jew today in this fucking nightmare. Thank you.

taffyakner.bsky.social•11 days ago

My high school group chat now reminiscing about reading "The Painted Bird" in 10th grade, the hands-down most brutal Holocaust narrative of them all (other than literally every other single Holocaust narrative). The last 24 hours have truly validated how I got this way!

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thank you to everyone who has read, shared and engaged with this today. The Lindenblatts are grateful, too.

fleischmarket.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thanks for this story which, as much Holocaust education as I've had, still contained multiple gut punches.

I was instantly transported to my own school days by the mention of this song and the image of a choir of kids singing it to a room full of survivors in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XMZJYxb5XU

taffyakner.bsky.social•12 days ago

I watched this for fact-checking. It was so moving!

dagmarwinther.bsky.social•12 days ago

A lovely read. Greetings from Denmark

4legsrgood.bsky.social•12 days ago

I am very glad to have heard his story, and yours as well.

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