During our last class before taking our trip to Poland, my peers and I had the opportunity to meet Stan Ronell, a true Holocaust survivor. At first a bit nervous about what I would hear based on the stories I’ve read about other survivors, Stan’s easygoing nature made my anxieties disappear.
A native of Krakow, Stan was only five years old when the Nazis overtook Poland on September 1st, 1939. The only child of two hard working parents, Stan and his mother fought to survive as his father, an accountant, perished at the hands of the Germans in one of the many concentration camps established in Poland. Witnessing the immolation of citizens in a makeshift shack that was burned down with hundreds of people it, Stan grew up rather quickly. Moving from place to place with his mother never knowing who would be an ally or enemy, Stan survived the war by leaving Poland altogether. After a 650-mile journey, he and his mother hid in Budapest until the war was over in May 1945.
Without any documentation and nowhere to go, Stan and his mother were put in the Displaced Persons Camps. After contacting their family overseas and waiting five years for a visa to go through, a Jewish organization helped Stan and his mother make it to New York. Finally free from the war that engulfed his people, Stan had a chance to restart and make a new life for himself; however, afraid that his Jewish surname, Rothblum, would affect his success in the future, Stan changed his last name to Ronell. With a new name and opportunities for a better life, Stan was ready to prosper.
Attending a mechanical engineering school and attempting to be a well-rounded student, Stan graduated looking for opportunities to work. A prominent firm in particular reached out to Stan and all seemed to be going well… until Stan mentioned the religion he practiced. Twelve years after the start of the war in a country that was supposed to be the land of the free, Stan was discriminated against for his beliefs. Even after assimilating to a new country and changing his name for the sole purpose of succeeding without prejudices against him, Stan was one of many Jews who have been an oppressed people due to their viewpoints.
I believe the most impactful idea that I can take away from meeting Stan is to not be a bystander. During the Shoah, a person died twelve million times because those who watched were scared to speak out. My hope for the future is that those who are not oppressed will no longer stand silent against those who are. The intolerance that Stan among many others faced should no longer be an issue because we are all children of God.
While my hope is to find more heroes, it is unfair to say that there were none among the cowards that lived during the Shoah. An example of a hero during this time period is a person Alexander Donat writes about in his memoir The Holocaust Kingdom. A survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and a few concentration camps during the war in the early 1940’s, Donat writes about the struggles he and his family faced when the extermination of all Jews across Europe was being completed. Mr. and Mrs. Maginski, old family friends of Alexander and his wife Lena, took the Donat’s son, Wlodek, right before the Warsaw Ghetto was to be liquidated. The love and compassion Mrs. Maginski demonstrated the two years after taking Wlodek is undescribable. To complete a selfless action during a time when this particular act was punishable by death is amazing. Mrs. Maginski is a prime example of the types of people I would like to see more of in history – the type of hero who assists the oppressed when they are not among the troubled people.
Visiting Poland and hearing the stories of the oppressed, I want to be a witness to history. I want to share the stories of those who no longer can. I look forward to physically, mentally, and emotionally immersing myself deeply in a culture that most people ignore due to the Holocaust era’s stain on the human race.
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