“ASK A SURVIVOR” QUESTIONS and ANSWERS
1. “Considering your Holocaust experiences, what can you teach us to help us get through this COVID crisis?” 

MORRIS PRICE: 

Morris would tell us today, what he tells students in the MOT all the time: "I was in cattle cars and in Auschwitz...and I survived.   I won't forget it, but I don't live it anymore. I am happy in every place, and we can all do the same thing."  

He tells youngsters that when they are facing challenge and adversity, "Don't fall apart, but reach out and seek help if you can.  Ask your parents and you will be surprised, maybe, they will give you the best answers."

GLORIA UNGAR:

Pray and hold on to your belief in G-d.  During WWII, we didn’t know what to do because we were always the target because we were Jewish.  Now, thank G-d, we should do what the doctors tell us to do (stay home and isolate), and it will be over soon, and life will return to normal. Do not lose your faith.

DAVID LENGA:

You have to stay resilient – you need hopefulness, optimism, and caution. Practice these three things, and you will get through it- everything ends.

2. Did anyone help you during the Holocaust?

HARRY DAVIDS:

Not only did someone help me, but I was totally dependent on others to survive.  I was only 5 months old when I was separated from my parents, and I became very sick.  The Dutch Resistance passed me along to a number of courageous families from Amsterdam to Dokkom, The Netherlands.  I was taken into permanent hiding by the Bakka family, a Christian family that cared for me and loved me and saved my life.

SONIA LEVITIN:

A Catholic family in Switzerland, the Weibel family, helped care for my sister Eva, made dresses for my sister, mother and myself when we had no clothes, and helped my mother when she had a nervous breakdown.  After the War, I went back to say “Thank You.”

3. What moment or choice made the difference in your life?

SONIA LEVITIN:

When my father was on a bus going to pick up my sister from her hiding place.  Nazis asked for his papers, and he gave his papers but pretended to not be worried.  He just continued eating from a bag of grapes, which had money and false papers hidden in them.  He was so brave and lucky!

4. What was your first knowledge of Hitler?

JACK LEWIN:

In 1939, when Jack was only 12 years old, the war broke out.  Jack remembers seeing the headlines of the Yiddish paper with a headline which read, “Hitler Invades Poland.”  Jack had no idea how his life would change.

5. What country was Bella Friedman from?

Bella Friedman was born on November 18, 1925 in Radom, Poland.  Her message to youth is, “I want people to know one story and to remember.”

 

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