As you read earlier in this IWalk, Nazi propaganda is illegal in Germany and in parts of Europe. However, in the United States, freedom of speech laws enable anyone to use Nazi propaganda symbols to spread hate.
As a result, white supremacists and other hate groups in the U.S. use Nazi symbols to promote antisemitism and incite violence.
Suzy Ressler, Jewish Holocaust survivor and Philadelphia resident, shares her concern for the rise in antisemitism in the United States. She reflects how easily propaganda and antisemitic ideology can promote hate.
About the Interviewee
Suzy Ressler (née Edith Suzanne Czitrom), daughter of Dezsö and Elizabeth was born on November 19, 1927, in Oradea, Romania. In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary, including Oradea. Suzy and her family had to live in the Oradea ghetto, however, the family’s house was located in the ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated in June 1944, the family was deported to the Auschwitz camp complex in Nazi-occupied Poland. Suzy was transferred to Stutthof, a concentration camp in Germany. She remained there until a death march in the winter of 1944 – 1945. After liberation, Suzy returned to Ordea, where she married Emmerick Ressler. They immigrated to the United States and settled in the Philadelphia area.