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| Stan Ronell |
In
preparation for our time studying abroad in Poland, our class had the rare
opportunities to meet and listen to two survivors of the Holocaust.
One
can attempt to study the tragedy rigorously in pursuit of understanding the
Holocaust on a deeper, more intimate level. But no people are more intimately
aware of what occurred than those who survived the Holocaust firsthand. This
means that hearing the testimony of survivors is crucial to one’s studies of
the Holocaust. Survivor testimony personalizes the cruelty Nazi soldiers
perpetrated against millions of Jewish individuals.
Stan
Ronell, the first Holocaust survivor we had the opportunity to meet, spoke
directly to our class days before departing for Poland. His story is different
from most stories that I had read about previously in that Stan did not personally
experience the concentration camps. I have discovered from my Holocaust studies
that the stories of Jewish survivors who were not taken to concentration camps
are less commonly heard than those of concentration camp survivors. For this
reason, it was important for me to meet Stan and listen to his testimony. His
point of view as a child survivor included harrowing stories such as a memory
of hiding in a closet while his mother distracted a Nazi soldier from opening
it and exposing Stan, which surely would have led to both him and his mother
being murdered on the spot. This particular story emphasizes how all Jewish
survivals of the Holocaust are miraculous. Something as simple as being seen in
one’s own home could result in death.
Following
the war, Stan moved to New York where, as he explained, he would soon learn
that anti-Semitism persisted even in the United States. Despite showing clear
interest in Stan for an employment opportunity, a potential employer denied him
a job once learning that Stan is Jewish. Even in a country that (usually) prides
itself on acceptance and diversity, the very nation that Jewish survivors
hailed a hero for liberating concentration camps, Jews were treated unjustly.
This anecdote feels painfully relevant to today. The discrimination Stan described
occurred in the mid 1900s. In 2017, a wave of anti-Semitic acts inundates news
headlines. The fact that a post-WWII act of anti-Semitic discrimination could
so easily occur today indicates that the teaching of contempt, a passing down
of anti-Semitic and anti-Judaic views through generations of Christians, has
not lost its pervasiveness that fueled the genocide of the Holocaust decades
ago.
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| Dr. Moshe Avital |
Only
the night before departing, I and a few of my peers attended an event where we
had the opportunity to hear another survivor speak: Dr. Moshe Avital. As the
keynote speaker of the event, Dr. Avital had the time to go into great detail
concerning his experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. His
painful depictions of the horrific conditions produced gasps and looks of shock
throughout the audience. I found Dr. Avital’s speech to be so important because
his emphasis on detail allowed everyone in the audience to vividly imagine the
experience, helping me to place myself in his shoes to the best one can
possibly do for such a situation. This helped me prepare mentally for the
atmosphere I would encounter at the Auschwitz camps in just a few days.
The
lesson I took from these brave speakers is that without anecdotal education,
knowledge about the Holocaust remains shallow and void of the personal anchor
that grounds the facts in experience.
By Michael Coppola
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