My two young grandsons—three and six years old—are enthralled by animals. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and now my interest in the innumerable fascinating creatures that share our planet matches theirs. No matter how many hours we spend reading together, we can’t make a dent in all there is to learn. In fact, no one knows how many species exist on earth.

My father believed that every person’s essence is pure—that each one if us is born perfect, and then our experiences and conditioning shape us into the people we later become. This conviction even extended to the brutal Nazi guards he closely observed during his three years as a concentration camp prisoner. My dad often speculated about what he would have been like if he’d been swapped at birth with one of his guards and experienced the same upbringing in pre-war Germany.

Growing up, my parents were psychological and spiritual explorers. On an avid quest to heal their deep emotional wounds, they experimented with many different therapies that were popular in New York City in the 1960s—Primal Scream, Rational therapy, Gestalt therapy, Feldenkrais therapy, hypnotherapy, and all types of encounter groups. 

Tomorrow, on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day will mark 79 years since the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. This may sound like a long time ago, but my mother Edith and my aunt Bronia are both Auschwitz survivors, and they are both still alive today. 

With 2024 just a few days away, I’ve been thinking about how HUGE the calendar change felt half a century ago when I was a young girl. The excitement of living in a whole new year built up for weeks, and staying up until midnight was a challenge I was eager to accomplish. I just knew the world would feel different at the stroke of midnight. The exhilarating countdown was charged with tremendous anticipation.