The Dash in Between

As we walked through the Jewish cemetery, is a very moving and powerful thing. As a group, we saw graves that were small and understated and others that were large and prominent that showed the person's wealth and social standing in the community. What was most curious to me was not the birth and death dates but the dash in between. 

The dash in between symbolizes their life that they lived. Many questions come up in my mind when I see it: What kind of life did they have? Did they marry? Did they have children? etc. And with so many of the graves it's hard to tell because all it shows is their names, their birth date and death date; it doesn't really show who they were as a person. 

The most moving graves of all were the names of the people who persished in the Holocaust. The memorial to them is absolutely moving and also gut wrentching all at the same time.

 The graves that affected me the most were the ones who survived the Holocaust. I couldn't help but wonder, How did they survive? Did they go into hiding? Did they survive forced labor? Did they survive with false papers? What is their story? 

I guess my curiousity really is getting the better of me.