Palestine: "i was not prepared for the horrors i saw".

• Author: Epstein, Hedy
• Position: An Interview with Hedy Epstein - Interview

Hedy Epstein, 82, was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1924 (1) and lived in Kippenheim, a village located approximately 30 km north of Freiburg. She was the only child of parents who died in the Nazi extermination camps. She is a tireless worker for human rights and for the dignity of all people.

Hedy decided to visit Palestine in 2003. She returned terribly shocked with what she had seen there: women and children defenseless, Palestinians locked up in ghettos, an entire people brutalized. She learned to love the people that she met, and was determined to tell the world of the injustices she had seen. So, she is joining other human rights advocates who are sailing to Gaza on the boat, Free Gaza (2) to demand justice for the Palestinians, and a correction of 60 years of oppression by the Israelis.

Silvia Cattori: Your entire life has been devoted to justice. But, since 2003, you have increased that commitment by advocating for justice for the Palestinians. I understand you are going to take some risks to make the world aware of the crimes perpetrated against them!

Hedy Epstein: I was invited to join the Free Gaza boat by the organizers, and I feel honored that I was invited to join. (3)

SC: Entering the waters of Gaza with Palestinian, international, and Israeli peace activists is sure to be a wonderful project; but won't it be full of tension? Are you not anxious about participating in such an expedition?

HE: Of course, I have some concerns. But, does life insure that nothing will happen to me? You know, tomorrow morning when I get out of bed, I might feel so sleepy that I'll trip over my own feet and fall down and break my back. So what am I going to do, remain in bed for the rest of my life? No.

SC: This boat going to Gaza coincides with the 60th anniversary of the departure from Marseille of the Exodus. Don't you think it's somewhat controversial to be in a boat sailing to the same place as the Exodus?

HE: No. What I'm doing is what I believe in, and what I stand for. In some quarters, especially in the mainstream Jewish community, it looks like I'm a traitor, a "self-hating Jew." Nonsense. I don't hate myself. Several years ago, the editor of a Jewish weekly newspaper said to me that I shouldn't have gone to Palestine. Instead I should have gone to Israel to volunteer in a hospital where people were being treated for injuries as a result of a Palestinian suicide bombing.

And I said I'd be happy to volunteer, but if I did help in an Israeli hospital, would he go to a Palestinian hospital and help people who have been injured as a result of what the Israelis have done? He was appalled. "In Palestine?" I said, "Yes, you can, I have been there, so you can go there also, and when you do that, then I will be happy to work in an Israeli hospital." That was several years ago, and I have never heard from him since then.

SC: Why did you choose to advocate in a place where the Israelis are so opposed to your involvement?

HE: Let me give you a little bit of my background, so that you will know how I've gotten to where I am today. I was born into a Jewish family in Germany. When Hitler came to power, I was eight years old. My parents very quickly realized that Germany was not a safe place for them to stay and to raise a family. They were willing to go anywhere, and they tried desperately to leave. But they were never willing to go to Palestine, because they were ardent anti-Zionists.

Then, in 1939, thanks to my parents' great love for me, I was able to leave Germany on a Children's transport (Kindertransport) to England. When I left in May 1939, it was the last time that...