Calkins: Why did a Holocaust survivor visit Graceland? A story about hate, survival — and the importance of joy
Holocaust survivor Mark Schonwetter spoke in the Greenstein Sanctuary of Temple Israel in Memphis. (Jason Terrell/Temple Israel)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
He looked down at Gladys Presley’s original tombstone, in the Meditation Garden at Graceland, and, sure enough, there it was.
The Star of David.
Elvis Presley wanted his mother’s tombstone to bear both a Christian cross and the ancient symbol of Judaism.
So Mark Schonwetter — a Holocaust survivor whose father was murdered by the Gestapo, who spent years hiding from the Nazis — stood and looked at the star and marveled at it all.
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