“Holocaust Memory Will Not Die With Our Generation”

Photo Credit: A Childhood Unspoken, By Marie Doduck & Lauren Faulkner Ross. Second Story Press, The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs, 2023. Marie at age 86 & 16 in 2021

Marie (Mariette) Rozen Doduck was five when the Nazis invaded Brussels in 1940. Hiding with non-Jews during the war, she served in the resistance as a messenger. She lost her mother and two brothers in Auschwitz. After liberation, she immigrated to Canada in 1947. A co-founder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and author of A Childhood Unspoken, Doduck was awarded the Order of Canada in 2024 for her Holocaust education work.

Reflecting on the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, Doduck says, “It’s amazing to me that we survivors are still alive. They told some of us that we were damaged goods and that I would die by the age of 30…And 80 years later – we’re thriving!” Describing liberation, she recalls, “It was like taking a breath of fresh air. All of a sudden, I could breathe and maybe sleep through a night without being moved from place to place with strangers.”

The events of October 7, 2023, deeply affected her: “On October the seventh, I couldn’t breathe – I felt I could not breathe again…We, the child survivors, felt like we were children in the Second World War all over again…For me, it was like I was hiding again for five years as a little kid…It’s like no one learned our lessons.”

Commenting on the antisemitism post October 7 Marie adds, “We are now the frontline for Israel here in Canada.  We have to defend who we are in every country in the world. All countries in the world where Jews live – we must stay where we are and fight in defense of the Jewish people in Israel. We know that if we are thrown out of Canada – we have a place to go. We didn’t have a place to run in the Second World War.”

Recalling her experience on the March, Doduck says, “Being in Poland on the March of the Living with the Canadian delegation was hard for me. Walking in Auschwitz – Birkenau made me think of my family that walked on the same ground. For me it was like walking the Death March. But the kids – they were the only one that gave me hope. I hugged them, they hugged me. They were crying. When the kids left me alone and I went into the barracks, where five of them were sleeping in the same bunk, and I saw the ovens and the pictures on the wall. I was looking for names of my family. I was looking for pictures of my family. I touched the walls. I think I died a little there.”

Following the March of the Living in Poland, Doduck visited Israel: “After the march we went to Israel and I felt I could breathe again…For me, it’s always been home…I’m home.”

Doduck maintains strong connections with the students: “The students – they’re still in touch with me…And we reminisce about the trip…It happened that quite a few of my past students have become Holocaust teachers themselves. They keep in touch with me. I get emails…when they have a baby.”

Doduck expresses confidence in the future of Holocaust memory: “We are now educating our second, third, and fourth generations…I know that our children are going to look after our memory and that’s very hopeful…I have no doubt that the memory is not going to die.”

Many survivors like Marie want to march this Yom HaShoah, the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day, with students at the International March of the Living, in Auschwitz.

They need your help.

The International March of the Living asks you to help sponsor a Holocaust survivor’s journey: Bearing witness to their stories is a sacred duty, a vital link between the past and the future. Your sponsorship empowers them to share their experiences, inspiring new generations to remember and fight against antisemitism.

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