"These Lines are Written in Memory of the Teachers of my Youth"

Bar Pakhti, one of the better-written Yiddish blogs (of the, oh, half-dozen or so total), remembers melamdim of his youth, Holocaust survivors who mostly taught children the taste of their own pain.

. . . The children of [Holocaust survivors] were also "war victims." Though they didn't suffer in the camps, they were still victims of victims, survivors of survivors. Aside from "you shall strike them forty times" they didn't learn much from these teachers. Whether the tractate was Blows or Lashes didn't make much difference for the final halachah -- the bottom line was red. If they be red as scarlet was the simple meaning of every verse under their staff, and no discrimination was found there. Everyone merited it without exception. Every tenth shall be holy was reserved for special days...