A witness to suffering

GUEST: Lillian Rosengarten, author of "Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi Germany to the Jewish Boat to Gaza," talks about her book and the public reaction to her activism. "She's a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, and was voiceless for many many years, till she went to Israel and saw the occupation for herself ...” 
- Philip Weiss

Lillian Rosengarten has an amazing story to tell, so almost any interview with her is full of surprises and poignant memories. 

To many, the Holocaust and the creation of Israel are part of the same story, one of untold suffering leading to eventual strength and freedom.  Lillian's optimistic narrative falls apart when she witnesses the suffering of the Palestinian people. A truth seeker, she tells the story of her own awakening and subsequent rethinking of her life's story.

How is it that the suffering of the Jews in Nazi Germany has been recreated in the suffering of the Palestinians? How did the Jews in Israel learn to practice the same type of racist violence that had been directed toward them?

In the beginning, she tells the gripping story of her father attacked on a German street, because he was a Jew. As she walks the streets of Gaza at the end of the book, Lillian is again confronted with the unexplainable evil that humankind is capable of. We grieve with her, and know that we must somehow end the brutal subjugation of millions of Palestinians.