HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR BOOTED FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLS
(Friday Church News Notes, March 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Holocaust Survivor,” WorldNetDaily, Jan. 30, 2015: “Anita Dittman has been speaking about the Holocaust for more than three decades, telling everyone who will listen of her survival and how Jesus Christ helped her escape the trap that was ‘Hitler’s hell.’ She has reached thousands through her book, Trapped in Hitler’s Hell, co-authored with fellow Minnesotan Jan Markell. ... At 87, she still speaks to audiences large and small, sometimes several times a month, recounting the story of a happy, five-year-old Jewish girl when Hitler came to power in 1933 and how life changed over the next 12-and-a-half years living under Nazi rule. She would emerge on the other side of the concentration camps as a young woman of devout Christian faith, severely scarred but full of powerful stories. ... ‘When I started speaking in 1978-79, people would ask me, “Do you think it could happen here in this country?” And I said, “Oh no, people are used to so much freedom in this country, it could never happen here,”’ Ditmann told WND. ‘When they ask me that question now, I say, “It is already happening.”’ Americans are not ‘disappearing’ as in Nazi Germany, but Dittman says something has changed. ‘The country that I came to in 1946 was very different,’ she said. ‘I can’t speak in public schools anymore. They won’t let me.’ When she informs educators that her message will contain strong Christian themes, she usually gets a few seconds of awkward silence. Then a polite rebuff. ... Some schools still allow her to speak but require parents to sign a form saying it’s OK for their child to sit through a presentation that contains religious themes. But more often, the parents don’t even have a say in the matter, and she is barred upfront from speaking. ‘It’s getting worse, I tell you,’ she said. ‘It’s so dictating to the parents now. This is how it started in Russia and Germany.’ ... And it’s not just public schools where free speech is being curtailed. Dittman said she has friends on the East Coast who have a religious radio program, and they are being monitored by the federal government. They watch what they say now. ‘She said please don’t use the name of the man that rules our country because they are monitoring our calls,’ Dittman said. ‘And they even use fake names because they already got a warning sent to them.’”
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