“I once read a book that began with the sentence, ‘Every Jewish child born is a slap in Hitler’s face.’ When I opened my English school in Beer Sheba, Israel, and saw all these beautiful children walking into my classroom, I remember thinking, ‘Every kid that walks through my door is a slap in his face’ – but I was not thinking of Hitler.
I was thinking of my father, who hurt and humiliated me more than any other person in my life. An highly religious Jewish doctor whom I once consulted told me: ‘Arlene, if I didn't know your age, I would have thought you were a Holocaust survivor.’ When I asked him why, he said, ‘Because you have survived your own private Holocaust.’” In spite of it all, Arlene never lost her belief in the goodness of others. She has been to hell and back, and she has finally reached a place of peace in her life.
Arlene has beaten the cancer of her soul.
