Emmaly has quite a Holocaust story to tell.
She was taken prisoner by the Nazis in 1933 at only 3 years old, and placed at Dachau concentration camp.
At the camp, Emmaly says she slept in mud and feces.
She was tortured and had experiments conducted on her at the laboratory that were intended to kill her. But she survived. A miracle!
On her last day at the camp, she was found in a coma hanging to a wall by the wrists with a chain around her neck. Emmaly says everyone else around her was dead.
She was 15 years old and weighed just 32 pounds.
RAYMOND HILLEGAS • Hays Daily News
Emmaly Reed, a Holocaust survivor, looks to her friend Albie Stephens of Angelus as she recounts her experiences as a prisoner of a concentration camp Thursday night at St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church in Hays. Reed was only 3 years old when she became a prisoner, and she remained a prisoner for 12 years.
A story of pain and survival
Published on -4/3/2008, 1:01 PM
By KALEY LYON
The Hays Daily News
klyon@dailynews
Tears glistened on Emmaly Reed's cheeks as she shared painful experiences about her past -- experiences so awful school textbooks don't divulge all the details.
But with a quiet resolve, Reed got through the tears, even sharing a few chuckles with the crowd of 500 who came to hear her personal account of the Holocaust.
"It will haunt me all the time. My memories of it are very hard and very painful," Reed said. "I might sometimes still smile with you and laugh with you, but the pain never goes away. You have to learn to live with it, or you go down the drain."
Reed, 77, now lives in Salina and was in Hays on Thursday evening to share her story with a large crowd at St. Nicholas of Myra Church.
After 12 years of captivity, Reed, who was incarcerated at age 3 for being Jewish, had plenty of stories to share. The Holocaust began when Hitler seized control of Germany in 1933 -- the year she was arrested.
The first little girl taken, and one of the first prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp, No. 4 was tattooed on her wrist. That number would be her identifying mark for more than a decade.
"They called you by your number to put you down, but they knew my name," Reed said.
The brand was later removed from her skin by a doctor.
"He said, 'Come to my office, and I'll take care of it. You don't have to suffer anymore,' " she said.
She told stories that made the skin crawl. Stories about eating vegetation to stay alive, sleeping in mud and feces and watching people die every day.
She endured torture of various degrees and often was taken to a laboratory where experiments intended to kill were performed on her.
She remembers a kind German soldier, who was tortured and killed in front of everyone for showing sympathy to children.
The daughter of a French officer and a Jewish mother, she was separated from her parents when she was arrested. Her father vocally opposed Hitler's rule and was one of the first killed in concentration camps, Reed said.
* * *
Upon her liberation at age 15, she eventually was reunited with her mother.
Her last day in the camp, she was in a coma, hanging to a wall by the wrists and a chain around her neck. Everyone around her was dead.
"My last day, I was nailed to the wall. I was supposed to be dead, but I wasn't," she said. "I was just in a coma."
The few survivors were liberated by French soldiers, who were led to the camp by her mother. Upon her liberation, she was rushed to a military hospital in France and remained in a coma for months.
At the time, she was 15 years old and weighed 32 pounds.
She knows the European doctors did all they could for her, but also knows there's another reason she's alive, Reed said.
"But I think something else is the reason," she said. "God was in my sight and always stepping in when they tried to kill me."
Reed's message was one of hope.
She became a Messianic Jew during her time in the camps. She befriended many Christian people who also endured persecution as well.
While no one stayed in the same camp -- or alive -- long enough to form long-lasting friendships, these people taught her how to stay alive. They taught her what plants were safe to eat and tried to educate the child by sound of mouth, she said.
They also taught her something more.
Bibles were strictly forbidden in camps. Those who smuggled one in were put to death. However, many of the Christians she met had a thorough knowledge of the book, she said.
"The Christian people taught me how to pray, how to believe in God, how to have hope," Reed said. "I learned how to pray, and it gave me peace. I wanted to die with a halo on my head."
Reed came to America in the 1970s and, decades later, is able to sleep through the night. She's also able to share her experience and is motivated by her desire to share a story of truth and hope.
"I'd like to tell everybody, keep your eyes open," she said. "Stick to the truth. It's very important."
Reed has learned to forgive the people who stole her childhood.
"You have to learn how to forgive. If you don't, you're only hurting yourself," she said.
Article #1: "A story of pain and survival"
Another highlight article, this one including Hitler (!) himself: "He killed a little boy next to me and I looked into his face":
(Note that Dachau camp is misspelled "Dachu" in the original article)
Twelve year survivor of the German Concentration Camps speaks out
The Western Times
March 27, 2008
Emmaly Reed, Salina, KS knows first hand the horrors that Adolph Hitler inflicted on the Jewish and Christian people in concentration camps during World War II.
She was only three years-old when she was separated from her Jewish mother and father and older brothers and sent to Dachu Concentration Camps.
This remarkable woman at the age of 77, speaks out about the atrocities she experienced so that people will know the truth of what happened.
She said that when she saw on a computer a statement that said Hitler was a good man and did not hurt people, she decided that she would speak at any school that asked her about her years in the concentration camps.
“I talk to people so they know the truth,” Emmaly said. “I talk at schools because it is important for them to know how it was.”
When she entered Dachu, she received a number 4 tattoo on one arm and a Star of David on the other arm.
“That means I was the fourth person in the camp and the star meant I was Jewish,” Emmaly said.
She no longer has the tattoos on her arms that branded her a concentration prisoner. After the war a kind doctor removed them for her.
Emmaly said that Hitler was nothing special, but he had an almost hypnotic power over the women and men under his control.
“He was not human,” she said. “He killed a little boy next to me and I looked into his face. It was not the face of a human, it was the face of the devil.” “Those are pictures you cannot forget,” she said. “I still have nightmares where I wake up screaming.”
Emmaly was 15 when she was rescued by the French military. At the time of her rescue she was in a coma.
“It was the end of the war and the SS had to flee quickly, so they hung us up on the wall,” she said. “They put chains around our necks. If you moved you would strangle yourself and die. About 50 percent did die. If the French wouldn’t have shown up when they did I know I would have died too.”
She was in a French Military hospital for nine months recovering from her injuries. It was at the hospital that she was reunited with her mother. Two of her four brothers also survived the war.
Emmaly firmly believes that she survived the horrors of the war because God wanted her to keep going.
In the camps she was drawn to the Christian prisoners who accepted her and she became a Christian while she was a prisoner.
“The Christians were the only ones who were good to me,” Emmaly said. “They saved a little food for me. They made me feel like I was worth something.”
As a Christian, she said that she has found a way to forgive those who hurt her during the war.
“You cannot live with hate,” she said. “You have to forgive, but just because you forgive does not mean that you have to forget.”
Emmaly will be speaking in Sharon Springs at the High School Friday, April 4, at 10:30 a.m. MT.
Article #2: ""Twelve year survivor of the German Concentration Camps speaks out"
See also:
Article #3: Judicial-Inc: "I spent twelve years in Dachau"
Note: use http://www.archive.org/ tto find articles if original links no longer work
Listen to more stories from Emmaly Reed. This time the Germans hammered a nail in her head, served toilet waste for food, tried to poison her, "nailed us to the boards", she wore a neckchain "made out of knives" - and more...
Emmaly hanging,
chained to the wall on the day of liberation?
