{"id":847,"date":"2012-03-09T14:42:47","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T22:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=847"},"modified":"2013-03-01T12:56:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T20:56:08","slug":"a-holocaust-survivors-secret-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/uncategorized\/a-holocaust-survivors-secret-of-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"A Holocaust Survivor&#8217;s Secret of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00a0 was sent a video by one of my friends, this one from the U.K. online news site, The Guardian.\u00a0 It got me thinking of how much control each one of us has over our own happiness, no matter what life throws us. For the most part, unless our depression is biological, we can choose to sink to the darkest depths of despair or rise above it and focus on the positives. Here is an interview with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alice_Herz-Sommer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alice Herz-Sommer<\/a>, a former concert pianist and a 106 yr. old survivor of the holocaust. Hers is an unusual story. One glove doesn&#8217;t fit all, but there is something to learn from this indomitable human spirit.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/embedded-video.guardianapps.co.uk\/?a=false&amp;u=\/world\/video\/2010\/jun\/13\/alice-herz-sommer-terezin-video\" height=\"397\" width=\"460\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!-- End of guardian embedded video --><\/p>\n<p>The video got me thinking of my own grandmother, my Baba, the one whose memoir I&#8217;m writing. She was tested many times in her life.\u00a0 She lost a husband, children, survived wartime with all its horrors, overcame an epidemic illness, and rose above poverty. And yet, I did not see her as an unhappy person.\u00a0 She wasn&#8217;t wealthy and ended up living\u00a0 with my mom, dad and me in a two bedroom downstairs suite of a rooming house. All she had was her small government pension but I never heard her complain. All she wanted was for her family to be well and for them to get along. Her devotion to God, her church and her family kept her going. She laughed and sang and didn&#8217;t dwell on what went wrong. Sometimes, our greatest teachers on how to live are the ones who&#8217;ve survived the worst in life.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Is your cup half empty or half full? Do you think we can make our own happiness?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00a0 was sent a video by one of my friends, this one from the U.K. online news site, The Guardian.\u00a0 It got me thinking of how much control each one&hellip; <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,1,4],"tags":[293,289,292,78,290,291,36,33,5],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-alice-herz-sommer","tag-anthony-robbins","tag-depression","tag-diana-stevan","tag-happiness","tag-holocaust-survivor","tag-memoir","tag-writer","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-dF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1432,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/the-power-of-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":0},"title":"The Power of Memory","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"14 \u041b\u0438\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember when I was counseling others, one of the things that came up was the power of memory. Whatever happens to us, our body doesn\u2019t forget. The joys, the sorrows\u2014they\u2019re all tucked away only to emerge at the most surprising times. To recall what once was can help us\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Baba, Lukia Mazurec","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/P1090283-300x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/inspiration\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":1},"title":"Inspiration","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"8 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Without inspiration, there is no creativity. I have a folder with photos I've taken, ones\u00a0 I think might inspire me to paint.\u00a0 This one, I took awhile ago, reminds me of what I'm working on right now, writing my grandmother's memoir. This feather was dropped by a seagull in our\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/P11207323-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/truth-and-fiction-in-the-writing-of-memoirs\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":2},"title":"Truth and Fiction in the Writing of Memoirs","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"23 \u0412\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My mother is a born storyteller. When I was young, I paid little attention; but when I became a mother myself, I began to jot down her anecdotes. I am so glad I did, as now when I visit, her memory at 96 isn\u2019t what it used to be. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/P1020115-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":244,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/universal-themes\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":3},"title":"Universal Themes","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"31 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In writing my grandmother's and mother's memoir, I am struck by the universal themes that are peppering my pages.\u00a0 Love, death and destruction. Woven through all of this is the need to belong, a universal theme.\u00a0 To belong to a community whether it's based in a church, mosque or synagogue.\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/220px-Kiwerce_cerkiew_i_klacz.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2078,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/are-pulitzer-prize-winning-novels-for-everyone\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":4},"title":"Are Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels For Everyone?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently read All The Light We Cannot See\u00a0by Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer prize winner 2015. Though his book wasn\u2019t a page turner, I didn\u2019t want to stop reading once I'd started. I've read many books set during World War II, the majority showing conflict between the nations at the time\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pulitzer Prize","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-9781476746586.in01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-9781476746586.in01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-9781476746586.in01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-9781476746586.in01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-9781476746586.in01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":344,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/ukrainian-easter\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":5},"title":"Ukrainian Easter","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It`s a day of reflection for me, as our family is under the weather and not attending church this year. We`ll have Easter dinner and admire the pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) my grandson and I made.\u00a0 He did one based on a short film he`s almost finished (more on that\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 &quot;Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/P1090314-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}