Teaching History Matters

Matthew Rozell speaks to survivors and families, 5-18-2011. Credit Miri Levy Lavi.

I wait for my turn to speak. Tears feel hot behind my eyes, but do not fall.  I have traveled 8,000 miles, and 500 persons who might not be alive today but for the message I am about to deliver are seated behind my seat in the audience.

I can hear a woman softly sobbing behind me. That almost does it.

Still, I am able to deliver my words.

“Honored survivors, families, Frank, Varda, Ambassador Cunningham, Colonel Cyril, General [Rabbi] Peretz, Minister Hershkovitz, representatives of the Bergen Belsen  Memorial,

Ten years ago this coming July, a high school history teacher sat down with an “old soldier” to record his memories of the Second World War. Carrol Walsh, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice, regaled me with stories of battles and close calls, of days of extreme discomfort and boredom, interspersed with tales of exhaustion and moments of sheer terror that included times when he was sure that he was about to die, trapped inside of a small Sherman light tank. Suffering in the freezing temperatures during the battle of the Bulge, and now in the first weeks of April, 1945 moving into Germany to fight for 18 hour days, he thought he had seen it all. And then, he came upon a curious thing: deep into Germany on Friday the 13th, a train transport was stopped by the side of the tracks. Some human figures were milling about, listlessly; others were still sealed in boxcars.

His fellow commander in the other tank sent to investigate this train, Sergeant George C. Gross, was equally perplexed. Then, as the famished occupants of that train now gazed upon the two tanks and the jeep of the commanding officer, the emblem of the white star emblazoned on the vehicles signaled to them that perhaps they were safe, that perhaps now they were free. Abandoned by their German guards, delivered from death, from the group arose “a hysterical cry of relief”. Sergeant Gross took out his small camera and began snapping photographs as he spoke with the people. He stayed with his tank at the train for 24 hours, Major Benjamin having declared the train and its captives ‘free members of society under the protection of the United States Army” as represented by these two light tanks, to let any stray German soldiers know that it was part of the free world, and not to be bothered again.

Enter First Lieutenant Frank W. Towers, liaison officer of the 30th Infantry Division, who was now charged with removing these survivors to relative safety behind the lines to the abandoned Luftwaffe base at Hilersleben. Expertly navigating the back roads, skirting the blown bridges and other war torn obstacles, Lt. Towers safely delivered his precious charges, children, women and men, where many were nursed slowly back to health. Sadly, as many here in this room can attest, it was too late for over one hundred who succumbed to trials of their ordeal at the hands of the Nazis.

Today, however, as we look about this room, we see the legacy of these soldiers’ actions on April 13th, 1945, soldiers who, though they were being shot at, and many of whom indeed would not live to see the final victory, nevertheless made the moral choice to stop and to restore a semblance of humanity amidst the insanity of war. You proud survivors and your descendants now number in the thousands and are the glorious, incontrovertible proof that Hitler did not win. And as a teacher, I am proud to remember with my students, to promote the legacy of these soldiers, to help the world heal, and spur others to positive action by promoting their example. You may know that I have begun writing a book about my experiences and these stories which have resonated so deeply with all who have heard them.

I will close with the poetic words of liberator George C. Gross, the former English professor whom we lost on Feb. 1, 2009. Dr. Gross and I struck up a warm friendship, and I was also able to interview him before his passing. In this note, he shares his feelings of what his late life encounters with you survivors meant to him:

Greetings …to all the admirable survivors of the train near Magdeburg, and our thanks to you for proving Hitler wrong. You did not vanish from the face of the earth as he and his evil followers planned, but rather you survived, and grew, and became successful and contributing members of free countries, and you are adding your share of free offspring to those free societies. Some of you have found yourselves among those pictured children [whom I photographed], and you have proved that you still have those smiles. I was terribly upset at the proof of man’s inhumanity to man, but I was profoundly uplifted by the dignity and courage shown by you indomitable survivors. I have since been further rewarded to learn what successful, giving lives you have lived since April 13, 1945.

I am grateful to Mr. Rozell for leading several of you to me, bringing added joy to my retiring years. I wish I could be with you in person at this celebration, as I am with you in spirit. I hope you enjoy meeting each other…

My experience at the train was rich and moving, and it has remained so, locked quietly in my heart until sixty years later, when the appearance of you survivors began to brighten up a sedate retirement.

You have blessed me, friends, and I thank you deeply. May your lives, in turn, bring you the great blessings you so richly deserve.

Fondly yours,

George C. Gross”

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Fred Spiegel signs a copy of his book "Once the Acacias Bloomed" as students wait to purchase copies and have their photo taken with the Holocaust survivor after a presentation at Hudson Falls High School on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Spiegel was liberated by U.S. troops during World War II when he was a young boy. credit: Aaron Eisenhauer - poststar.com

By David Taube, Glens Falls Post Star

Unbeknownst to Fred Spiegel, a Jewish boy living in Germany during World War II, a train that Germans were forcing him and about 70 other people onto was headed for Sobibór, Poland, a death camp.

He started screaming, “I don’t want to get on this train. I don’t want to get on this train.”

His cousin, who was a year older and who was also being pressed onboard, heard him, and added to the shouting.

The German officials held the pair back because they were making so much noise, said Spiegel, now 79. He recounted his story Wednesday to hundreds of Hudson Falls high school students as part of a Day of Remembrance, at which he was one of several speakers.

“If I and my cousin Alfred hadn’t made that commotion, I wouldn’t be standing here today,” he said.

Spiegel spoke for about an hour to hundreds of people in the school auditorium, emphasizing how kismet kept him off the wrong trains and on the right ones.

Despite the 6 million Jews killed during World War II, he wasn’t one of the 1.5 million children the Nazi Party slaughtered in extermination camps.

He was unaware of the train’s true destination until after the war, he said. The extermination camps were called resettlement or work camps.

“People never in their wildest mind thought there were death camps,” he said.

Although Spiegel published his autobiographical and family memoir, “Once the Acacias Bloomed,” in 2004, he learned more about his story four years ago because of a Hudson Falls teacher.

Social studies teacher Matt Rozell, while working on a World War II project with his class, received photos from a soldier who had taken part in liberating a trainload of Jewish prisoners near Magdeburg, Germany.

The class put together a website – the World War II Living History Project – and posted the photos.

The photos showed U.S. forces liberating prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, one of whom was Spiegel, from an abandoned train near the River Elbe.

Spiegel contacted Rozell and, in 2007, he and two other survivors from the train, were reunited at the school with one of their liberators – Carrol Walsh, a retired state judge.

The World War II Living History Project website has since discovered 200 more people who are survivors from that train and Rozell is leaving Monday for a trip to Israel, where he will speak before dozens of the survivors and their families.

Rozell will also meet in Israel with Frank Towers, a U.S. soldier who was one of the liberators; and the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The district has continued Holocaust remembrance efforts, seeking to hold an event every year, Rozell said, and Spiegel has visited several times.

A crowd of dozens of students surrounded Spiegel after his speech on Wednesday, seeking his autograph and posing for photos with

him.

David Fish, a sophomore, said the event was optional, but students all decided to attend because of the event’s importance. Some of his friends bought Spiegel’s book, he said.

Two other trains that left Magdeburg were also stopped by Allied troops, Spiegel said, but days later, which made food scarce for passengers.

He also said, of about 30,000 people sent to Sobibór from Magdeburg [correction: Westerbork], 19 returned home.

“So, everything is luck,” he said, ending his speech. “OK? Thank you.”

NOTE: You can stream Fred’s talk at Hudson Falls by hitting the link below:

Fred Spiegel- Once the Acacias Bloomed/Memories of a Childhood Lost.

Credit: Post Star May 12, 2011 http://poststar.com/news/local/article_c2ea27d2-7c4a-11e0-909f-001cc4c002e0.html

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1943 Yearbook, Hudson Falls High School

Yesterday our high school hosted an incredible Memorial Concert and Day of Remembrance in forward observance of Memorial Day and also to recall the victims of the Holocaust.

I produced the program that featured readings by our talented high school seniors and the band under the direction of Mr. Scott Larsen. Mr. Roberge again served as our masterful MC. Thanks to all students and staff who made it possible.

Thanks to Rob Miller  and Fred Spiegel for traveling to be with us to share their stories and their books. You can enjoy their presentations by streaming the links below.

Memorial Concert

Rob Miller- Hidden Hell

Fred Spiegel- Once the Acacias Bloomed/Memories of a Childhood Lost.

As quoted in the newspaper,

“Basically, we want to pay tribute to the veterans,” said Matt Rozell, a social studies teacher at the high school. “We have Memorial Day coming up, and unfortunately, sometimes Memorial Day gets overlooked, and it is a big deal. But in school, we get so wrapped up with Regents and state exams.”

Because band director Scott Larsen was already planning a concert with a Memorial Day theme, Rozell said school officials thought it would be nice to include the community in a day of remembrance.

A book fair and book signing will follow the concert in the high school lobby. Three authors of war-based non-fiction books will be present, including Holocaust survivor Fred Spiegel, author of “Once the Acacias Bloomed – Memories of a Childhood Lost.”

Spiegel is one of more than 200 holocaust survivors whom Rozell has located that were on a train that was en route to a death camp in April 1945 before a U.S. tank battalion scared off Nazi troops guarding the train.

Rozell and his Hudson Falls history classes launched a website about the liberation of the 2,000 Jews from that train near Magdeburg, Germany. The website has helped to reunite members of the tank battalion with the former Jewish captives.

Rozell will speak at a formal gathering to honor the liberators next week in Israel, which is known as the first refuge for many Holocaust survivors.

At the Israeli event, Rozell said he will speak before several dozen survivors and their families, as well as liberator Frank Towers and the U.S. ambassador to Israel. His tour will bring him to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial.

The estimated cost of the trip is around $5,000, and Rozell said he has been trying to raise funds through his website,

https://teachinghistorymatters.wordpress.com/rozell-trip/ in order to go.

Wednesday’s concert and remembrance event at the high school will also include a luncheon in the band room for veterans and their families at 11:30 a.m., followed by presentations from Spiegel and from Rob Miller, author of “Hidden Hell,” which describes his father’s experiences as a prisoner of war in World War II.

Post Star May10, 2011

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“Let’s go. ”

With those two words, after much contemplation, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight David Eisenhower made the decision to commit over 1 million men to free a continent.

Photo by Kris Dreessen, SUNY Geneseo.

Many of these soldiers would not survive. Many other lives would be unalterably changed as they uncovered the evidence of the greatest crime in the history of the world, the Holocaust. And the moral path chosen, to stop and give aid and comfort, in the middle of a shooting war, is responsible for many lives today.

Very shortly, I will be meeting over 400 persons who are alive today because of  the soldiers taking the time to stop, rescue and comfort survivors who were literally moments away from death. Many of them will be together again for the first time since 1945- due to our small school project and the ripple effects that are reverberating worldwide.

I have also made an important personal decision. As I struggle to work on my book, an important piece is missing. It’s time to go.

Can you believe that with our school project, we have located over 200 Holocaust survivors who were liberated on that train near Magdeburg on April 13th, 1945? In March, 2006, I heard from the first child survivor, a grandmother in Australia. Fast forward to April 2011, an Israeli daily paper with a circulation of 250,000 ran a front page cover story in their magazine about our school project, thanks to second generation survivor Varda W.,  who has located 70 other survivors there.

As you may know, she has organized a reunion in Israel in May. 60+ survivors and their families will be there to meet one of our liberators, and I will have the opportunity to meet them all, as well as the US Ambassador and other dignitaries.  I am going with my son Ned, who is age 13,  and we are in the process of beginning to raising funds.

It is important to me that I travel to Israel at this time; later, I hope to travel to Germany to trace the journey of the soldiers and the train near Magdeburg.
The post at the link below explains how you can help me continue this work.

https://teachinghistorymatters.wordpress.com/rozell-trip/

If you know me, you probably know that this work is very personal to me, and to my students.  Many of the survivors and liberators have become my friends; many more I hope to meet in the near future.

I’ll close with a note from one who is dear to my heart:

Hi Matt,

I am sending a donation for you and your son, so you can use toward your trip to Israel. This is in appreciation for all you are doing to tell our story.

When you are in Israel remember that I spent my best 20 years there.

When you visit Bergen-Belsen, remember that I spent 4 years of my childhood there-2 years in a concentration camp and 2 years in a D.P. camp.

When you visit Farsleben, ask them to take you to Hillersleben, when you are there you will see the hospital from a distance.

Remember that I spent 6 weeks there, and 3 weeks of which I was unconscious.

Have a great trip!  I hope to hear from you when you come back.

Love,

 A.

Matthew Rozell
Teacher
USA

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla./HUDSON FALLS, N.Y. — As World War II came to a close in 1945, a small American tank battalion discovered a train full of Jewish prisoners abandoned in the German countryside. Sixty-five years later, the survivors and liberators were reunited.

At the World War II museum at Camp Blanding, the walls are lined with historical artifacts and articles. “That is my actual uniform,” said Frank Towers.

At 92, Towers volunteers at the museum every week. He shares the stories behind each piece of history, including his own. Towers, a lieutenant at the time, was assigned to the 30th Infantry Division of the United States Army during World War II.

As the war came to a close, the 30th swept through the German countryside, liberating the towns and people held captive by the Nazis.

On April 13, 1945, a tank battalion from the 30th came across the freight train, stopped at the bottom of a hill outside the town of Magdeburg.

“We had never seen any of this torture they were talking about until we came up on this train. Then, of course, we became believers,” said Towers.

Twenty-five hundred Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were inside the boxcars.

Sick, starved and likely headed to their deaths, twice the number of prisoners were packed into cars, forced to stand on the train for the past six days.

“They were skin and bones. They’d been tortured,” Towers recalls.

During the Holocaust, more than 100,000 Jews died in the Bergen-Belsen Camp alone; a small percentage of the six million who ultimately lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis.

With Allied forces closing in, the Nazis began evacuating Bergen- Belsen to hide evidence of the atrocities committed there. “It was hard to believe anyone would do this to another group of human beings,” Towers said.

As a liaison officer, Towers knew the roads well, and was tasked with transporting the victims. “Out of the battle zone, to safety, food, clothing and shelter,” he said.

The liberators loaded the survivors into trucks and delivered them safely to American military grounds. For Towers, this was just part of the job.

After the war, Frank was assigned to occupation duty in another part of Europe. His wife, Mary, joined him. Later, the couple moved back to the states and eventually settled in Alachua County, outside Gainesville.

Towers didn’t dwell on his war time experiences over the years, he said, though he always felt connected to the people his division helped rescue from the train.

“As one of the [survivors] remarked to me, ‘We were born again. Our life started all over again, for us,'” Towers recalled.

Almost a lifetime later, liberators like Towers are finding out just how much their actions meant.

In late September, a crowd gathered on a high school stage in a small, upstate New York town. A handful of veterans, now close to 90, stood side-by-side with the people they helped save -liberators and survivors united once again.

“It’s a very emotional meeting for all of us.”

This gathering was years in the making. When Hudson Falls High School history teacher Matt Rozell asked his students to interview veterans for a project, the story of the train near Magdeburg was uncovered.

“Each account is absolutely memorable. There’s a common thread through every single one,” Rozell said.

He posted the story on the internet, and survivors – the children and young Jewish people rescued from the train – began contacting him from all over the world, he said.

Carolle Walsh, who lives in Tampa now, was one of the first tank commanders from the 743rd to discover the train.

After a few days’ reunion, he considered the people he helped save to be dear friends.

“It’s sort of become like old friends. Initially coming to the train, how would I ever expect to see anyone who was on the train [again]? At that age and time I would have never considered the fact. So it’s like seeing old friends now,” Walsh said.

They’re grandparents now, Rozell said. “I definitely think there’s a feeling of wanting to know what happened to them.”

Sara Atzmon and her family were part of the Jews of Belgium, rounded up by the Nazis and forced to live in ghettos, then concentration camps.

“I lost 60 persons from my family. Sixty, not 16. My father, my brothers, my grandmother. It’s crazy,” said Atzmon.

She was only 11 when she arrived at Bergen-Belsen. Atzmon remembers being cold all the time. She was given only one child’s shoe; on the other foot she wore a red women’s high-heel.

“We were afraid. Children were not people you explained something to,” she recalled.

For decades, she never knew how to find the words to say thank you to her liberators, her “angels” as she calls them.

“It was an impossible dream,” Steven Barry, who is from Hungary. He was 20 when the Americans freed him from the train.

A member of the Hungarian Army Labor Battalion, he and a comrade were captured as they went underground to escape the Nazis.

His desire to understand his own history led him to Hudson Falls, and Frank Towers. “We kind of hugged, kissed and cried. Because basically, I saw him 65 years ago,” Towers said of the meeting.

Barry agreed.

“Can you imagine an army that landed on D-Day and fought its way through unbelievable conditions, getting shot at and then rescuing 2,500 flea-bitten Jews? I mean if you tell this to somebody, they’ll think you’re lying. It just doesn’t happen. But it did,” he smiled, grasping Towers’ hand in his.

Barry emigrated to the U.S. after World War II, and joined the U.S. Army; he served in the Korean War.

He lives in Boca Raton, Fla., now, and communicates regularly with Towers. The two share a bond not only with each other, but with every Jewish survivor and American liberator on that German hillside in 1945.

“We’ll always be special friends. There’s a bond there that will never be broken. No question about that. It’s something that doesn’t happen every day,” Towers said.

“It’s once in a lifetime, our meeting. It really is,” Barry agreed.

Atzmon and her surviving family members moved to then-Palestine after the war. She joined the Israeli army and got married.

At age 55, she began painting her experiences as a little girl in a Nazi concentration camp.

Today, her work – paintings on giant canvases – hang in galleries all over the world, including a permanent exhibition in Germany.

She travels often, speaking to school-aged children about the Holocaust. “I am very grateful. [The liberators] saved our life. They give life for my family and all people,” she said.

Over the years, Hudson Falls High School students and faculty have recorded more than 100 interviews with veterans and survivors.

The purpose of the project is to preserve the stories and pass them on to future generations, so the Holocaust and the people affected by it are never forgotten.

When Towers returned to Northeast Florida from New York, he received a message from Tampa resident Alex Kopfur. He had seen a television clip of the Hudson Falls reunion and contacted Towers to see if they could meet.

A week later, Kopfur arrived at the Camp Blanding museum with questions. “How many cars were on the train?” he asked Towers, handing him pictures of his mother and father.

“I really don’t know,” Towers replied, showing Alex a registry of camp prisoners.

Kopfur doesn’t remember much about the train; he was only a small Polish child when he and his parents were rescued.

He is thankful to have had the opportunity to meet just one of his liberators.

“I’ve had many arguments with people about why the United States should be overseas. I always say I remember being rescued by American troops overseas, so I can not argue against that,” Kopfur said.

He is one of several who have contacted Towers in the past few months.

“Anything that brings people together like this enriches my life. I feel good about it. To meet Alex, Sara, Fred, and the others… Carolle Walsh, Mr. Barry,” Towers recalled.

On the 65th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, the liberators and survivors continue to make connections.

“The words are too small to say them. What can I tell them? That they give us life? The future? This is the future,” Atzmon said.

In March, several traveled to Nashville for another reunion hosted by the 30th Infantry Division.

Earlier this month, Matt Rozell joined a group of survivors in Washington, D.C., for the National Holocaust Days of Remembrance Ceremony.

While his friends were at the Capitol, Frank Towers returned to Normandy, France, once again to speak to a group of citizens about the rescue of the train prisoners.

If you’d like, leave your own memories from World War WII in the comments section below.

MORE:

• Hudson Falls history teacher Matt Rozell’s blog and class websites
• Frank Towers, historian for the 30th Infantry Division’s website
• http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=155064

To learn more about the Hudson Falls World War II Living History Project, CLICK HERE.

First Coast News

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30^th Division Website

For those of you who have computer facilities, we wish to keep you up to date on new Website articles.  For those of you who do not have computer facilities, perhaps you have a family member or a friend, who can bring the Website up and print out such articles that may be of interest.

Our website URL is:  www.30thinfantry.org

One of our latest additions is a new category, “Holocaust”, which is a compilation of much research on the Train that we liberated in Farsleben, Germany on 13 April 1945. It shows a map and the route of this train from Bergen-Belsen to Farsleben.

VA Provides Headstones, Markers for Veterans

Particularly for the families of veterans who pass on to a better place, we wish to notify you that Veterans are eligible for an inscribed headstone or marker for their grave at Any cemetery – National, State Veterans or Private. VA will deliver a headstone or marker, at NO cost, anywhere in the world.  Additionally, eligible veterans may get a “Government headstone or marker, even if the grave is already marked with a private one.” This is a new provision.  Similarly, headstones and markers previously provided by the government, may be replaced at the Government’s expense, if badly deteriorated, illegible, vandalized or stolen”.

For more information, for those of you who have computers or can get one of your children or friends to go on the Internet for you, you can go to:   www.VA.Gov and click on Burial & Memorials, then Headstones and Markers, then General Information.

As a rule, the local funeral director is familiar with this procedure, and will handle all of the details involved in obtaining the Headstone or Marker.  In the event that he will not, or cannot, contact your local “Veterans Service Officer”, usually located in your County seat, and this will be done at no cost to you.

Arrangements will also be made for a full Color Guard and a Bugler, for every veteran, no matter where buried.

Auction / Donations

As perhaps some of you are aware, at the Reunion last year in Nashville, we conducted an Auction, instead of the former “Raffle”.  This saved us a lot of expense and the time of selling tickets, and besides, we had a lot more fun with the enthusiastic and friendly bidding.  So, as it was agreed upon, we will plan to do it again this next Reunion.

So please do not forget to bring some appropriate gift, something that You would like to receive, so that we can have a good session of spirited bidding again, to help replenish our treasury, so that we can continue to maintain our Goals. All such donated gifts will be on display prior to the Auction, so that you can see beforehand, just what you are bidding on, and make up your mind to “get it” !!!

Pre-Registration

30^th Infantry Division Veterans of WWII

National Annual Reunion   30 March – 3 April 2011

Holiday Inn Opryland/Airport

2200 Elm Hill Pike  37217; Nashville, TN

Name:________________________________________________

Wife or Companion_____________________________________

Address:______________________________________________

City:_____________________   State_______Zip_____________

Military Unit____________________Phone_________________

E-Mail Address:________________________________________

Registration Includes: Hospitality; Thurs Nite Reception; Friday Breakfast; Friday Lunch; Friday Dinner; Saturday Breakfast; Saturday Lunch &  Banquet.

Please note any special or dietary needs:______________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Registration cost will be $135.00 Per Person. This includes All Taxes & Gratuities.

Make Checks Payable to:” 2011  Reunion Committee 30^th IDV”

In the amount of $135.00 x _____ (No. of persons) = $____________(Check Amount)

Mail check along with this form to:
”2011 Reunion Committee 30^th IDV”

c/o Frank W. Towers

2915 W. SR #235

Brooker, FL  32622-5167

352-485-1173

Register NOW; Cancel Later if Necessary

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I had lunch today with this lovely lady and her companion. Helen Sperling, 90, nursing a broken hip, traveled 4 hours round trip with her delightful companion to have lunch with me and two of my children in Saratoga.  She and Marsha found our story on the Internet and were anxious to make my acquaintance! How honored and blessed I am.This gracious survivor came to meet ME!!!

Our common message- remember the dead, honor the survivors who have rebuilt their lives and their families, but most of all, teach people,  young and old,  to never take anything for granted, and honor the liberators while they are still with us. Amen.

Sweet dreams Helen, and I hope that tonight does not belong to Hitler. I’ll see you again in a few months!

By Ryan Smith, Colgate Maroon News

First published October 29, 2009  http://www.maroon-news.com/news/sperling-shares-holocaust-memories-1.856855

Since the 1970s, Holocaust survivor Dr. Helen Sperling has been speaking to the Colgate community about her experiences during World War II. As in years past, Sperling, who received an honorary doctorate from Colgate in 2000, spoke to a group so tightly packed  that many of the attendees willingly stood through the whole lecture. Sperling’s speech was sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program, the English Department and CORE 151.
Sperling spoke of her childhood, growing up on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland as a “well-loved, spoiled, independent child.” Her town was more of a familial community, where “birthdays, holidays, everything” were about a broader togetherness.
Before the Germans came, Sperling recalled the “ignorance” that ran rampant among the Jewish members of her small town. They had heard of the Germans, but most thought along the lines of Sperling’s father, “that Germany was the most civilized society in the world,” and it, whatever it may be, could not happen to them.
Thus, when the Germans marched in with their “ugly, ugly shiny black boots,” the populace was completely unaware of the evil that was to come. Willingly, according to Sperling, “Jews registered in the labor office for ‘protection,'” though from what, they did not know.
Sperling’s family did not awaken to their reality until they began to see “neighbors hanging from balconies.” Quickly the community that had celebrated birthdays and holidays together was selling each other out to the Germans: “He is a Jew; she is a Jew.” With such a breakdown in community, it became unclear who the “real enemy” was.
Eventually, the Germans began propagating the idea that Jews were “dirty and lazy.” Soon after, Sperling’s family home was seized by the Germans simply because the commander “liked the house.” When leaving the home her father had built with his bare hands, not a tear was shed. They left behind their valuables, furniture, clothing and her father’s beautiful lilac trees that peppered the property. Not until weeks later, when her father heard his lilac trees were dug up and sent to Germany did the family begin to break.
“It was the first time I saw my father cry,” Sperling said.
Sperling recalled how she felt at that traumatic, memorable moment.
“It was the beginning of six years of utter helplessness,” Sperling said.
The family was moved into the ghetto, which was enclosed by barbed wire, and were forced to either comply with curfew or face death. Initially, death was an individual risk but soon “violating the Germans meant they would kill your whole family.” Regardless, Sperling escaped the ghetto one night to wish her best friend, a Gentile, a happy birthday as they had always done. When the other line picked up, her friend answered: “You dirty Jew, how dare you call me?”
Sperling, to this day feels “something dreadful happened to my soul.” She has avoided returning to Poland out of fear that she may see that same friend on the street over 50 years later.
At times, Sperling had the audience laughing, as she offered to cook for the many standees in attendance. After all, if she could not “give them seats, as a Jewish grandmother, I could cook you something.”
The latter half of her talk focused on her experiences at the concentration camps of Ravensbruck and Buchenwald. There, Jews, prostitutes, gypsies and homosexuals were shaved, numbered and systematically abused and starved.
Sperling recalled for the audience the last time she saw her parents before they were sent to the “showers.”
“When I tell you 6 million people were killed, that means nothing. But they are not numbers; they are mine,” Sperling said, holding up the only pictures she has of them.
Over the next several years, Sperling endured beatings and dehumanization that made her look and feel “sub-human.” At one point, she spoke of an SS soldier that had to strangle a prisoner every night in order to fall asleep. After weeks of hearing the screams, Sperling and the other prisoners “got mad at the victim for keeping them awake.”
The small victories, togetherness and luck kept her alive. She spoke of sabotaging German bombshells in the munitions factory, refusing to accept German food with which they taunted her and caring for each other when the worst of times got worse. As long as she resisted becoming “a slave” she had her mind and there was hope.
Allied Forces eventually liberated Sperling. She spent three years in a hospital during which time her liver was removed and she battled cancer. Years later, an American sponsored her immigration to New York where she married a survivor and raised a family.
To this day she has come a long way in coping with the barbaric evils she faced as a child, but sadly told the audience that although “the days are mine, the nights are still Hitler’s.”
Sperling stressed the importance of awareness and remembrance, echoing the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:
“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Sperling closed by saying that if there is one piece of advice to be had, it is that “there is no survival without love.”
“So, go to it,” Sperling said. “The world needs saving.”

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