Last Sunday, we attended New York’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance, in observance of Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. One of the speakers was a Holocaust survivor who, like my mother, speaks to school children about her life.

This woman took great pride in how, after surviving, she rebuilt her life and her family in the United States. The fact that she survived and prospered is her revenge for the atrocities she was subjected to.

(I have always felt that, as a child of survivors, I embody a certain aspect of my parents’ revenge for what they lived through.)

The survivor recounted a letter that she received from a student who had recently heard her speak. The student thanked her for the lesson learned.

“You taught me that you could have revenge without killing.”

A lesson well learned