Every presidential election engages us to confront our current state of affairs and informs the image of our future. What we often fail to consider, with great fault, is how our individual views speak collectively of our political and social condition.

I am the daughter of an extraordinary man who experienced the oppressive communist regime of the former Czechoslovakia. Chased by the Soviet reaction to the Prague Spring, my father and his family emigrated to Switzerland in August 1968.

My paternal grandmother survived the immense atrocities of the Holocaust; she was liberated from Theresienstadt (Terezin), a Jewish ghetto lodged in the region of Bohemia, on May 5, 1945.

Over the past few years, my father has been tirelessly researching and meeting Holocaust survivors all over the world, including those who personally knew my grandmother while subjugated by the Nazis. His commitment to understand the history of his mother’s family and that of his Jewish heritage encourages me to contribute to this collective voice.

It is these personal histories of survival that must urgently remind us what it means to be free in both our thoughts and actions, and to seek humility over intolerance.

This year marks the 71st year of my grandmother’s liberation – a day in which she was given back her life – a life that should have never been for the taking.

Nadia Fristensky

Brooklyn

Editor’s note: Nadia Fristensky is the daughter of Frank Fristensky of Durango.