The Girl in the Red Coat

I teach Church History- love it, love it, love it.  My favorite class that I have ever taught.  Except for one unit - the Righteous Gentiles.  My kids "teach" the sections regarding the Church and the World Wars through their projects.  I wrap up the world wars era with a small unit on Righteous Gentiles.

One of the activities involves showing Schindler's List.  Love him or hate him, he did amazing things.  He was a money grubbing, womanizing, conflicted man.  Perhaps Steven Spielberg put him up on too high of a pedestal.  BUT, if he did even a fraction of the portrayal in the movie, Oskar Schindler did much, MUCH more than some of the fine upstanding citizens who turned a blind eye.  And that makes him amazing.

But, I am not here to chit-chat about him, or the other Righteous Gentiles. You'll have to take my class for that - and I don't come cheap!  I am more concerned with the Girl in the Red Coat.  She is the focal point of two scenes - the liquidation of the ghetto and the exhumation and cremation of those victims' bodies.  

The little girl in the red coat is based on a real little girl - Gittel "Genia" Chill, daughter of Dawid and Ewa Chill.  

Every time I see her walking through the streets while they are clearing out the ghetto, my stomach drops.  When she hides under the bed - it is even worse. All I see is my oldest daughter.  I see her having to try and hide for safety and to try and hide from the atrocities she is witnessing all the way around her.  And my heartbreaks.  

Tomorrow, when we get to the scene where they are exhuming the bodies and we see the beautiful little girl in the red coat, again, my heart will break again and I will indeed be in tears.  

Tonight, I will hug all of my children tightly and enjoy every moment I have been blessed to have them in my world.  And I will pray that families may never have to fear that kind of hatred again...ever. 

Hug those kids tight and tell them how much you love them, they are indeed a blessing.  Tell your firefighters how blessed you are to have them in your life.  As much as we'd like to think we know where we are going, the future is unknown to us. You never know...