Holocaust Story – Survivor educates children about WWII horrors

Holocaust survivor Edi Weinstein shares his story on a regular basis in order to educate children about the horrors of what happened during World War II.
Weinstein, who was born in Poland, was sent to Treblinka during the Holocaust. The day after arriving there, he was shot and the bullet went through his lung. His younger brother took him to safety after he was shot.
&#8220He pulled me out of the field and he was killed the same day,” Weinstein said. &#8220He hid me between packages of clothing from the dead.”
Weinstein was still able to escape the extermination camp after having been there for 17 days. He said that he accomplished what very few who were sent to Treblinka, which was the second largest extermination camp, were able to do.
&#8220Very few escaped from Treblinka,” Weinstein said. &#8220Over there, they didn't give you a number, they didn't pay for them, because the next day you were killed.”
Throughout the Holocaust, Weinstein's determination to survive remained strong as he found ways to hide from the Nazis and make it through the many difficulties he faced. His father also survived, although his brother and mother did not.
Soon after being liberated on July 31, 1944 by the Russian army, Weinstein joined the second Polish army. He was on the front lines for a major offensive to liberate Warsaw and was fighting in Upper Saxony when the war ended.
Following the Holocaust, at age 25, Weinstein moved to the United States with his father. He immediately began working in the garment industry, which was a trade he had learned about while in a displaced persons camp Germany. He eventually saved up enough money to open his own business in Flushing, recently retiring in 2004.
Weinstein now lives in Little Neck with his wife, Judith. He is the proud father of two sons, Larry, a biochemist, and Michael, who currently is a mathematics professor at Columbia University. He also has seven grandchildren ranging in age from 9 to 22.
In the last year and a half, Weinstein has become a member of the Holocaust Tolerance and Memorial Center of Nassau County, which is located in Glen Cove. Through them, he speaks to students as young as fifth grade or as old as college level.
&#8220People should know while we're still alive,” Weinstein said. &#8220When you speak to those children, they are the last generation. A couple years from now, 10 years from now, there aren't going to be any survivors. The youngest is already in their late ‘70s.”
Weinstein said that it has been his experience that the students are eager to learn about what happened during the Holocaust and that he hopes they learn a lesson of tolerance from his story.
To also help share his story with others, Weinstein has written about what happened to him in his book &#8220Quenched Steel: The Story of an Escape from Treblinka.” The book was published by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, being first printed in Hebrew in 2001.
For his education efforts, Councilmen David Weprin and James Gennaro honored Weinstein for Holocaust Remembrance Day.