SRU observes Holocaust Remembrance Day
SLIPPERY ROCK — Through a collection of stories and the arts, Slippery Rock University’s “Reflections on the Holocaust” event Thursday shed light on how an act of kindness can change the world.
Professor of history Eric Tuten said the event was intended to create awareness around what happened during the Holocaust.
“The goal is a remembrance of the Nazi regime and the horrific acts carried out. It’s important in our day because we still have genocide happen(ing) in the world,” he said. “We’re hoping to raise awareness so people will alleviate these things from happening.”
During the event, music professors Kathy Melago and Glenn Utsch performed a musical duet by a Czech composer who died during the Holocaust, and guest speaker Lynne Rosenbaum Ravas told the story of two Jewish people who adopted a boy from Germany during the start of the Holocaust.
Ravas, a retired English teacher, volunteer at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and former teaching fellow with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, began by speaking about Margret and H.A. Rey, authors of children’s story “Curious George” to demonstrate the importance of learning about the negative impacts of genocide.
“We need to remember each of the victims and survivors ... The writers of ‘Curious George’ were Holocaust survivors. That’s not relevant in the books, but it makes you think about what else would have come from others had they survived,” she said.
Ravas then told the story of Francie and Bernie, a New York City Jewish couple who decided to adopt a boy from Germany in 1937. The found themselves looking in a town called Dinslaken at a Jewish orphanage.
After years of paperwork and setbacks, Francie and Bernie eventually were given permission by the U.S. embassy to adopt 7-year-old Hans in October 1938.
On Nov. 9 and 10 of the same year, Kristallnacht — an incident where Nazis vandalized Jewish homes and synagogues — happened. Hans’ orphanage was raided by more than 50 men in uniform, according to Ravas.
“They ripped open sacks of flour and oats; they ripped cabinets off the walls; they threw furniture out of windows. Why did they do that? Because all Jews were considered wealthy? We’re not sure,” she said. “The headmaster was told to round up the children to be relocated. He told the children to run. Hans ran through two glass French doors, injuring his arm.”
The children eventually were gathered up, and in an attempt to rid Dinslaken of all Jews, the Nazis allowed the headmaster to temporarily move the children. Hans and some fellow orphans were taken to the train station in a farm wagon as the non-Jewish people of the town spat on them.
Hans traveled to Amsterdam and then into the arms of his new parents in America, Ravas said. His name was changed to Fredrich, or Fred, and then she told the audience the relevance of this story.
“This is my father’s story,” she said. “This is how close I came to never being here.”
Ravas showed pictures of the memorial in Dinslaken bearing her father’s name next to a cart similar to the one he was carried on to the train station that day. The wagon breaks through the wall on the other side of the memorial as a symbol of those who survived the tragedy, she said.
“You can stand with the perpetrator’s shadow, by the railing as the non-Jews watched them be marched out, or by the wagon my father was put in,” she said.
Ravas remarked that her father is still living at 90, and if it weren’t for the kindness of her great-grandparents, their family wouldn’t exist.
“(They) saved the world for our families,” she said. “There’s a Jewish proverb that says ‘when you save one life, you save the world.’ Francie and Bernie saved one little boy who had no one to protect him. I wonder how different the world would be if everyone showed kindness like that.”
