New York Holocaust Survivors joined the Arts4All Foundation, Senator Jessica Ramos, and other elected officials at Newtown High School in Elmhurst on Thursday, Jan. 16, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The occasion marks the day of liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau and is a time to remember the victims as well as honor the survivors. 80 years on, there are an estimated 25,000 New York Holocaust survivors alive, making the city one of the largest populations of living Holocaust survivors.
“As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and honor the immense courage of our five New York Holocaust survivors with us today, we are reminded through their remarkable resilience in the face of horrific tragedy, journey to liberation, and accumulated wisdom important lessons our generation can learn from to usher in an era of peace and prevent future atrocities in our communities and world,” said Dr. Sumita SenGupta, the founder of Arts4All Foundation.
“These brave Holocaust survivors are exemplars of human history who share their message of peace and unity with the students, children, and community with the hope of building a world free from hatred, mass violence, injustice, and oppression. May we learn from their bravery and continue to honor and follow in their legacy of being benevolent to each other, supporting our communities, especially during times of need or crisis, and, most importantly, continuing to advance and uphold human rights and peace for all.”
Peri Hirsch, born in Romania and now of Floral Park in Queens, told Newtown students about how she was shipped to Auschwitz as a child, where she no longer felt human. Hirsch and those around her were ‘loaded like animals’ onto trains.
When attempting to stop guards from removing Hirsch’s sister from the train, her father broke a blood vessel in his throat from screaming. With blood pouring from his mouth, he was taken away and killed in a gas chamber.
Hirsch explained how she was separated from her mother and brother at the gates of Auschwitz. She was taken away with her aunt and two sisters, undressed, and shaved to the point where they “no longer recognized each other.” They were given worm-filled food and dirty, yellow water every day. Hirsch was sick and covered in blisters until they were selected to be shipped off to a labor camp in Gelsenkirchen.
For a long time, Hirsch worked in factories at this camp until it was bombed during the conflict. One of her sisters was killed, and the other was severely wounded by these bombs. Hirsch told the auditorium about a heroic German doctor who risked his life to save the lives of many girls injured in the conflict.
Hirsch was transferred to another factory in Germany for most of the remainder of the war. When the U.S. Army began liberating the camp she was kept at, Hirsch and some other girls ran into a nearby forest, where they came across German soldiers.
“We thought, ‘Okay, now they are going to kill us,’ but we didn’t have numbers on our dresses, and we told them we just wanted to hide,” Hirsch explained. “They told us to go down to a farm, and we could be safe there.”
They managed to stay in a stable, sleeping with cows and pigs, on very little food until they were found by Ally soldiers days later. Hirsch still doesn’t know how she survived the turmoil.
Another remarkable survivor of Auschwitz was Rosalie Simon, also of Floral Park. Born in Czechoslovakia, she was shipped to the concentration camp when she was just 12 years old. Simon and her mother were separated from her five siblings during the selection process after being deemed unfit for labor.
Simon left her mother’s side to try and reunite them with her sisters in the camp. After failing to get past the guards, tragically, she never saw her mother again. Simon later learned that her 13-year-old brother was also separated from their father and suffered the same fate in the gas chamber.
Simon was sent to the gas chamber herself and knew she was “facing the end of my life on my own.” She frantically hammered on the windows and begged the guards to let her go. Outside, her sisters pleaded with the infamous “monster Dr. Mengele” to let Simon go. He said they could go with her into the chamber, but she would not be leaving with them.
Miraculously, Simon explained that a woman who was assisting Dr. Mengele saw her cries for help and secretly opened a door for Simon to escape. “She told me to run.”
Running ‘like a wild animal,’ Simon found her sisters standing in a line as they waited to board a train heading to a labor camp. Her sister managed to smuggle her onto the train, and they finally got out of Auschwitz.
The other Holocaust survivors speaking to the high school included Jean Sklar of Long Island, a survivor of the Poitiers concentration camp in France and a World War II veteran who served in the United States Army. Inge Auerbacher of Jamaica, a survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, is a world-renowned author and chemist with an honorary doctorate. Lena Goren of Rego Park, one of the last living Greek Holocaust survivors, recounted her family’s heroic efforts to help 83 Greek Jews escape to the mountains of Tzouma, where they hid in an isolated monastery until the end of World War II. Goren is also the co-leader of Melodians, an all-senior chorus, a beauty pageant finalist, and a retired court interpreter.
“Through this special assembly, we honor the importance of empathy, diversity, respect, and harmony, which reflect the values we have fostered as a school community over our 127-year history,” said Newtown High School Principal Bill Psoras. “We are honored to hear their stories and to reflect on the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of such profound adversity, ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to inspire future generations to stand against hatred, intolerance, and injustice.”
The stories of these brave survivors are both remarkable and tragic. The High School students welcomed and thanked each of them with thunderous rounds of applause.
