Survivors recall the Holocaust

The tragedy of the Holocaust continues to reverberate in the 21st century, as students at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Middle School took part in the Names, Not Numbers project and showed their videotaped interviews with survivors on June 2.

The oral history project was created in 2004, when Tova Fish-Rosenberg, director of the Hebrew Language Department at Yeshiva University High School for Boys, in Manhattan, began documenting the Holocaust using firsthand survivor accounts. Rosenberg came to the HAFTR Middle School event last week.

The project pairs middle and high school students with Holocaust survivors, whom the students interview on video. Each interview is edited to create a Names, Not Numbers film.

“A side benefit of this project is that our students learn professional-grade filming techniques,” middle school Principal Joshua Gold said, as well as interviewing techniques. HAFTR invites experienced filmmakers and journalists to teach the students those skills.

Gold noted the results of the U.S. Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey, published by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The 2020 study was the first 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge among millennials and members of the younger Generation Z.

“Among New Yorkers aged 18 to 39, 58 percent cannot name a single concentration camp,” Gold said. “Nineteen percent of New Yorkers believe that Jews caused the Holocaust, and 28 percent believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated greatly. In each of these metrics, very sadly, New York has the worst score of any state in America.

“I believe that we fight these trends with increased Holocaust education in schools with programs such as this one, Names, Not Numbers,” Gold added, “and through increased and strengthened partnerships and bridge-building.”

Though the schools did not work together this year due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic, HAFTR traditionally collaborates with Lawrence Middle School on the project.
Groups of three to seven eighth grade students interviewed five Holocaust survivors — Linda Capp Marshak, Ivan Gluck, Asher Matathias, Leon Moed and Judith Wolberg.

The interviews lasted at least an hour, but only 17 minutes of each interview were added into the final product. HAFTR gave each of the survivors a copy of the unedited interviews on DVD.

“Five survivors bravely shared their stories with our students, and after telling their story, they looked at the students’ faces and they smiled,” faculty adviser Ariana Wolfson said.

“They saw that this was the future, that these students would continue their legacy. In the beginning of the program, I gave the students one piece of advice: Ask the questions, get the stories — because time is running out.”

Eighth-grader Alex Preminger reflected on “Names, Not Numbers,” which he described as an “amazing experience.” Alex and five of his peers — Rylee Gluck, Naomi Lazarus, Laila Levin, Nate Meyer and Max Parkoff — interviewed Ivan Gluck, Rylee Gluck’s grandfather.

“As part of the younger generation,” Alex said, “it’s my obligation to pass this information to further generations so we can make sure no one forgets what happened during this time, so it will never happen again.”

“I learned most from this that we should always remember and never forget what happened in the Holocaust,” said student Laila Cohen, who interviewed Matathias, “and always to pass down the stories, and never take anything for granted.”

Laila described the Names, Not Numbers project as “amazing” and “inspiring.” “This is something that I, for sure, would want to do again,” she said. She and fellow students Sara Kranz, Julie Schecter and Olivia Weinrib interviewed Matathias.

“When deep hatred of another faith occurs, it can happen at any time,” Marshak, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in a forest with her mother, said in her interview. “I think it’s very, very important for everyone to remember what racial hatred and discrimination can cause.”

Students Hailie Avigdor, Leesy Berger, Sasha Bokor, Leah Kammerman, Ariana Rakhminov, Vivian Sharon and Refaeka Silverberg interviewed Marshak.

Moed was interviewed by Ayeley Glatt, Lily Golombeck and Kayla Jakubowitz. Wolberg was interviewed by Jayden Gasner, Jordan Kirschner, Matthew Schein and Zachary Strauss.

The nearly one-hour-long finished film will be housed at facilities including the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem, and the Library of Michigan University in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Your work will live on,” Gold told the students, “and you have the opportunity to help future generations to never forget the unspeakable crime against humanity that was the Holocaust.”