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News & Photos
Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Assembly
Students in grades 9 – 12 assembled this morning to hear the story of Ruben Szatjer, a survivor of the Holocaust. This event was organized in conjunction with the January 27 Annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust, as recognized by the United Nations.
Mr. Szatjer, born in Poland and now a US resident living in Baltimore, spoke to students and faculty about his experiences in the labor and concentration camps in Nazi Germany during World War II, in which 6 million Jews perished. He was 13 when the war broke out, and endured unthinkable forced labor, deplorable living conditions, participated in the “death marches” and watched his fellow Jews die.
One of a family of eight, he talked about being forced to wear the yellow Star of David, being literally pulled out of his mother’s arms and taken away by soldiers (never to see his parents or three younger siblings again), living in barracks, transferred between camps, harsh punishments, and how he learned to survive. He asked the audience, “Why? Why did the world allow this to happen?”
On the so-called “liberation day”, weak with hunger, disease and fatigue, he dragged himself to a warehouse to get some bread. There he fell into a coma, and his older sister found him. Mr. Szatjer credits her with saving his life, and counts it has his “second birth”. It took him three years to recover physically.
“We have so much to be grateful for in this country,” he told the transfixed audience. “You have such great opportunities; don’t let them slip away from you. If I made it, can you imagine what you can do?”
Mr. Szatjer received a standing ovation, and the assembly concluded with the Jewish Prayer for the Dead as offered by faculty member Mina Wender.
Students in grades 9 – 12 assembled this morning to hear the story of Ruben Szatjer, a survivor of the Holocaust. This event was organized in conjunction with the January 27 Annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust, as recognized by the United Nations.
Mr. Szatjer, born in Poland and now a US resident living in Baltimore, spoke to students and faculty about his experiences in the labor and concentration camps in Nazi Germany during World War II, in which 6 million Jews perished. He was 13 when the war broke out, and endured unthinkable forced labor, deplorable living conditions, participated in the “death marches” and watched his fellow Jews die.
One of a family of eight, he talked about being forced to wear the yellow Star of David, being literally pulled out of his mother’s arms and taken away by soldiers (never to see his parents or three younger siblings again), living in barracks, transferred between camps, harsh punishments, and how he learned to survive. He asked the audience, “Why? Why did the world allow this to happen?”
On the so-called “liberation day”, weak with hunger, disease and fatigue, he dragged himself to a warehouse to get some bread. There he fell into a coma, and his older sister found him. Mr. Szatjer credits her with saving his life, and counts it has his “second birth”. It took him three years to recover physically.
“We have so much to be grateful for in this country,” he told the transfixed audience. “You have such great opportunities; don’t let them slip away from you. If I made it, can you imagine what you can do?”
Mr. Szatjer received a standing ovation, and the assembly concluded with the Jewish Prayer for the Dead as offered by faculty member Mina Wender.