“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
These are the words of Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He, along with 1.3 million other Jews, was held prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, and he was also one of only 200,000 (approx) Jews who survived it. When the war was over, only he and his two older sisters remained, his parents, little sister and wider family all perished in extermination camps.
In fact, as he told the New York Times during an interview, Wiesel himself only survived because an older Jewish prisoner told him to tell the Nazis he was 18 and old enough to work, saving him from being sent straight to the gas chambers on his arrival at Auschwitz. During the interview, back in 1981, he mused about why he had lived and others didn't. “If I survived, it must be for some reason,” Wiesel concluded. “I must do something with my life."
And he did. Elie went on to write a number of books about his own personal story and that of the Holocaust (also known as 'the Shoah’ in Hebrew) in general, and his works — along with the likes of Primo Levi (author of If This Is A Man) and Anne Frank, whose diary is famous across the world — are some of the most defining stories of that era. They are books I would implore everyone to read, especially as a 2021 study found that over half of Britons did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that two million or fewer were killed.
And though it is easy to leave history in the past, events like The Holocaust must be remembered — they must be remembered out of respect for those who lost their lives, for those who overcame the most severe form of persecution and went on to become productive members of the communities in which they settled and for those who are yet to even step foot on this planet. We must, as Elie Wiesel says, “bear witness” to these events, and pass their stories and their lessons onto the next generation, so that we can avoid such horrors happening again.
So, we're keen to take any opportunity to share the humbling words of those who overcame one of the darkest times in human history so that we might give them the time and respect they so deserve, I spoke to the children and grandchildren of five Holocaust survivors — who now dedicate their time to presents their families’ stories across a range of audiences (including within schools and community organisations), promoting tolerance of all groups in society via Generation2Generation — so that they could pass on their family member's message to the world.
Their survival is an example of the human spirit’s ability to adapt, rebuild and recover from genocide. As people who have seen the dark side of humanity, they provide hope and set an example for anyone who is experiencing a traumatic life event.
Below, you'll find the stories of these extraordinary people (which can be read in full via the G2G website), and the lessons we must take from them. It does not make for easy reading and their lives might seem incomprehensible to us now, as we sit in safety in our homes, but, somehow (and perhaps sadly), these lessons are relevant to each and every single one of us.
5 lessons the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors want the world to learn today
Lela Black, nee Amiel, was born in 1918 in Salonica, where she lived happily alongside other Jews, Christians and Muslims, before moving to Athens. When the Germans occupied Athens in 1943, Lela went into hiding. A year later, after being denounced and incarcerated at the Haidari military camp, they were transported to Auschwitz in cattle trucks, with thousands of other Greek Jews.
On arrival at Auschwitz, Lela was separated from her daughter and husband as the Nazi's split up the new arrivals based on their gender and ability to work; this was the last time she saw them. Somehow, Lela survived Auschwitz, enduring freezing temperatures, disease and hunger, and was one of those saved when the camp was finally liberated by the Russians on May 5th 1945. On her return to Greece though, she found that her entire family from Salonica had been deported in 1943 and murdered in Auschwitz. Eventually, Lela came to London to stay with her only living relatives: an aunt, uncle and two cousins.
Her granddaughter Jacqueline says: "The message I would like people to take away from my Grandma’s story is not to stand by in the face of hatred and persecution. The Nazis went largely unchallenged and whilst some did indeed risk their lives trying to help, these selfless acts were sadly not enough to save the many millions who perished at the hands of evil. Atrocities are still taking place today; targeting anyone for their beliefs, culture, ethnicity or religion is completely wrong and requires good people to speak out against it."
Jeanette Marx is the daughter of Mascha Nachmansson, née Stern, who was born in December 1920 in Poland to a Rabbi and his wife. Soon after the Nazi occupation, the family were forced into the Łódź ghetto. Cramped conditions, starvation and rampant disease caused the deaths of her parents, one brother and one sister with her husband, while her other sister was murdered in the gas chambers at Chelmno concentration camp.
In 1944, when the ghetto was liquidated, Mascha was transported to Auschwitz, described by her as “Hell On Earth”. ‘Fortunately’, Mascha was “bought” by a Berlin ammunition factory as a slave labourer. Surviving air raids on the factory, she was transported to another concentration camp, Ravensbruck and was finally rescued by the Swedish Red Cross just before the end of the war and moved to Sweden. Here, she set up a new life and married Sigurd, a Swedish Jew and had two daughters.
Her daughter Jeanette says: "The message I think my mum would like you to take away is 'We must remember what happened in those dark times so that we all stay in the light. We must learn and educate our children to: Treat people with respect. Value people for who they are, not how they look or how they dress or what race or religion they have'."
Most of the antisemitism I have encountered hasn’t been from my fellow students, but from my teachers.
Three of Ella's maternal Grandpa, George Garai, was a Survivor of Mauthausen and Gunskirchen Concentration Camps. Her maternal Grandma, Anna Garai, was seven years old when the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944. She was separated from her parents and hidden in a nunnery. Ella's paternal Grandpa, Henry Ebner, escaped, with his parents, from Vienna to the UK, at just two-years-old, two weeks before the war broke out. He died in October 2020 and spent his final weeks co-ordinating his whole family applying for Austrian citizenship: the persecution he saw in his earliest years drove a desire to ensure his family would be okay.
Ella says: "The lesson I would like people to take away from my Grandpa’s story is just how important it is that Holocaust memories don’t go forgotten. I’m sharing my Grandpa Gyuri’s story, with Generation2Generation, because it was just too painful for him to be able to do so, but he
did want his story to be told. He knew how important it was; when history is forgotten, the
fear that it is going to repeat itself only grows. Gyuri's final words were a reminder to his
family to talk about and educate on the atrocities he faced; Holocaust education can be a
valuable tool to spread the values of tolerance and equality, and fight against racism which
sadly does remain today."
We unpack them.
Eva Schloss, was born in Vienna in 1929. Just nine years later, in 1938, the atmosphere toward Jews began to change significantly when the Nazis entered Austria, forcing the family to flee to Belgium before moving to Amsterdam. In 1942 when the Nazis started gathering up and deporting Jews, the family went into hiding with the help of the Dutch Resistance.
After two years moving between hiding places, in May 1944 they were eventually betrayed, captured and transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. After the liberation of the camps in 1945, Eva returned to Amsterdam with her mother, the latter of whom eventually remarried Otto Frank (Anne Frank's father, who lost his first wife and two daughters, Anne and Margot during the war) and it was here where they learned that her father and brother had not survived. Eva eventually moved to London in the early 1950s where she met a German Jewish refugee at her boarding house in Cricklewood.
They married and had three daughters, one of whom is my mother. For many years, Eva struggled coming to terms with what she had experienced and the loss of her family. Instead, she focused on promoting the memory of her step-sister, Anne Frank and, since the 1980s, has travelled the world to talk about issues including immigration and racism through the lens of her life.
Eric, Eva's grandson, says: "I want people to to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of life, to try and approach others with a deeper level of understanding, compassion and acceptance. Life is complicated in so many ways but we are all human trying to make the best sense of who we all are and what we are doing here. We build a sense of our identity and who we are and then we refuse to let those walls be breached to keep our sense of self in place but the truth is that we are all the same and if we could just see each other as humans first rather than
any other label then we would be able to respect each other, support each other through
the inevitable hard times and we would also be impossible to divide by those who use
identity and people's allegiances as a means to take power or further an agenda."
Lesley Urbach’s maternal family came from a small town in North-East Germany which now belongs to Poland. Her mother, Eva Wohl, and three aunts escaped to Britain on the Kindertransport in December 1938 (Eva was just 16-years-old at the time). Eva's parents, Lesley’s grandparents, were murdered at Auschwitz on 19 February 1943.
Lesley says: "The messages that I hope people will take away from my mother’s story is that it
is wrong to bully or hate others because they are different to us; we need to stand up
against injustice and human rights abuses. We must welcome not dehumanise refugees."
You can find out more information about Generation2Generation, the stories of survivors and their schedule of events via their website. Their next event, ‘What if..? The Holocaust, Uyghur Genocide and our moral responsibility today,' will be an evening of conversation between generations and between experiences of persecution, the Holocaust and the Uyghur Genocide and will take place on 10 February 2022. Spaces can be booked here.
