Holocaust survivors visit local schools

CHENANGO COUNTY – The Holocaust ended more than 60 years ago, but the effect the brutal killing of approximately six million people had on the world can still be felt to this day.
Over the next week, at least two area schools will welcome Holocaust survivors to the area to teach students and the public about a dark time in world history.
On Monday, May 19, Rubin Sztajer will speak about his experience in Nazi concentration camps. Sztajer, who now resides in Timonium, Maryland, was taken from his family in April of 1942 when he was 16-years-old. Many of his family members, he never saw again. Sztajer spent time at six different concentration camps, where work sometimes included moving dead bodies, and survived the death march before being liberated in April of 1945. During the time of the liberation, Sztajer fell into a coma, but his older sister stayed at his side to make sure no one would mistake him for dead. He later woke up in a make shift hospital. He eventually immigrated to the United States, where he met his wife of 54 years, Regina.
Sztajer will be speaking at 7 p.m. at the Otselic Valley High School in South Otselic. The presentation is open to the public and is expected to last for approximately an hour and a half. All are welcome to attend. The following day, Sztajer will give a presentation at the high school for the students.
Another Holocaust survivor, Helen Sperling, will be speaking to students and the community on Friday, May 23 at the Norwich High School. Sperling, a noted Holocaust speaker who currently lives in Utica, will begin her presentation at 8:15. It is expected to last approximately two hours.
Sperling grew up in a small town near Warsaw, Poland. The Germans came to her town in 1939, and after a while, her family was relocated to the Ghetto, and then sent to concentration camps, where the younger people were sent to work, and the older people and pregnant women were killed. Six million people died in the Holocaust, including Sperling’s mother and father.
Sperling worked at a concentration camp, forced to make supplies for the war effort, with no idea what was going on in the outside world. It wasn’t until April of 1945 that her camp was liberated. Eventually, Sperling was reunited with her younger brother, who had survived in another labor camp, and the two traveled to America.
The public is invited to attend Friday’s presentation, but the school asks that anyone interested in attending contact the high school at 334-1600 to register.

Comments

There are 3 comments for this article

  1. Steven Jobs July 4, 2017 7:25 am

    dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.

    • Jim Calist July 16, 2017 1:29 am

      Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far

  2. Steven Jobs July 4, 2017 7:25 am

    jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.

  3. Steven Jobs May 10, 2018 2:41 am

    So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that

  4. Steven Jobs May 10, 2018 2:42 am

    Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.