We would like to thank Karen Lerman, Mrs. Lichtenstein, and Project Witness for making this happen.
On December 14, 2023 our students took part in Project Witness: A Better Tomorrow Program. The goal of the program is to have young people spend time with Holocaust survivors and learn more about their experiences and learn from their examples of resiliency and hope for a better tomorrow.
Jack Tavin, Toby Levy, Hadassah Carlebach, and Sarah Chaikin spent some time discussing their experiences, but most of the afternoon was spent with the young people chatting with the survivors about the holiday season. Students learned about Hanukkah traditions and shared with the survivors their future goals in academics and career. The time together came to an end with a celebration of Mrs. Levy’s 90th Birthday.
Traumatic events in our lives shape our future in unforeseen ways. One such historical catastrophe is the Holocaust, an event that people commonly describe as one of the most heinous and tragic in human history, illustrating the depths of human cruelty and the consequences of unchecked prejudice and discrimination. With this sensitive topic, it’s hard enough to talk about this point in history from the perspective of someone who didn’t experience it, but to those who did experience it and survived, it holds a part of them that they can’t forget. Many survivors of this inhuman event have found the strength to share their first hand experiences.
During my time at WHSAD I heard of one experience from survivor, Ms. Toby Levy. With her constant positivity and her amazing story as an eight year old child living through the Holocaust, many know and are inspired by her story. Toby’s father played an important role in her life because of his mindset of not just leaving the job to God but also getting up and doing something. Her father always looked forward, and one of the reasons why Ms. Levy wants to share her story started when her dad told her that someone had to live on to tell this story. She has never hated anyone because she believed that “hatred” was the reason behind the Holocaust and taking an eye for an eye would leave both sides blind.
However, on December 14th, I was able to learn of other Holocaust survivors’ experiences. Jack Tavin lived in Poland, one of the poorest countries in Europe. When Hitler came to power 1933 and then invaded Poland in 1939, Jack Tavin and his family were in grave danger because his area was about to be turned into a ghetto. The Nazis created ghettos in order to imprison and control Jewish individuals and their families, subjecting them to harsh living conditions, limited resources, and eventual deportation to concentration camps. Jack Tavin and his family decided that they were not going to be shackled to these harsh living conditions.
Jack and his family moved to prevent getting placed into a ghetto and left everything behind. When the Nazis created laws that forced a family’s eldest son into labor camps, Jack Tavin stood up in his family and went in place of his eldest brother. Mr. Tavin’s family pleaded that he was too young, but Jack persisted anyway. The Nazis took Jack’s parents, his brother, his sister, while he had to deal with cruel hard labor. The Germans took the sick and even some healthy people too. One word that everyone feared was “Liquidation” which meant the people were being sent to the gas chambers.
Before Jack’s parents left, they entrusted him with a large sum of money that he would use later to go on a mission. While working in the labor camp, he was able to gain many connections and befriended a captain not too long after. One labor intensive day, Jack heard that the town where his brother and sister were placed was going to be “Liquidated”. He could not sleep through the night while knowing his family was in danger. Jack Tavin pulled some strings with the large sum of money his parents left him to convince the captain to sneak him into the town in which his family was placed.
The Germans were in need of money because there was a large speculation that the war would be lost. This money that Jack was offering held its weight and eventually he found himself hiding at the back of a truck heading to the soon to be liquidated town. This part was the hardest to hear, because both Jack and his brother escaped, but his sister had no choice but to stay because she had a baby that would jeopardize the secrecy of this operation to get out of that danger zone. Jack’s troubles didn’t end in town because he would have to face enforcers who suspected that an unwanted guest, Jack’s brother, wasn’t supposed to be at the labor camp. In a desperate attempt to ensure his brother wasn’t caught, Jack pushed him into a hole between barbed wire since it would be the last place that the Germans would look.
Things were looking bad. Both Jack and his brother fell ill, and it even became life threatening for Jack. But by the grace of God they both were fine in the end and eventually Tavin and his brother escaped the labor camp. Tavin had to face many trials and tribulations and even at many points in his life had people who wanted to eliminate him. This fight for his freedom had weighed down on his mind so much that Tavin thought about ending his own life. But “Who would live to tell the tale of this horrible time in history?”, “Who would be there for my brother?”, and “Why would I let those who want to see me give up win?”. Tavin knew he had a duty to never give up hope, not just for himself but for his brother too.
Mr. Tavin vividly remembers the day he was liberated from that camp. When things seemed to take a turn for the worst, he was liberated on his birthday. Not many survivors wanted to go back to their old homes, places where nothing was left. Jack and his brother had nowhere to go, so they traveled with an Italian prisoner to Italy where they faced more tribulation due to a lack of citizenship status and their poverty. In the end, Mr. Tavin and his brother found their ways, and Mr. Tavin lives today in order to spread the idea of “Don’t Give up Hope.”
Alyssa Diaz
Thursday, December 14th, I went to interview Holocaust survivors with a few classmates. While at this workshop, I spoke with Hadassan Carlebach and Sarah Chaikin. Mrs. Carlebach was about eleven years old at the time. She told us how she would have to hide and be in the same spot for days. When she was about 17 years old, her father had a program to keep the Jewish children safe. She had to bathe, feed, clothe, and take care of 11-12 kids each day on her own. She also spoke about how they would have to package letters and send them out to find Jewish people. She told us when she would go home she would see bodies of people on the floor from thirst and hunger as well as having hundreds of paper cuts from packaging the envelopes.
Ms. Chaikin told us how she would see people being taken into those camps everyday, hearing the cries and horror. These holocaust survivors are incredibly strong individuals who have gone through something unimaginable. Their stories serve as a reminder of the strength of the human spirit and will continue to inspire people who take the time to listen.
Dalton J. Brown
Last week I was given the opportunity to meet some Holocaust survivors and talk to them about their experiences and celebrate the last night of Hanukkah together. I spoke with Hadassah Carlebach and Sarah Chaikin. They went into detail about their struggles with famine and legal troubles as people who practiced Judaism. Mrs. Carlebach talked about her experience as a refugee in German occupied France. She also talked about her father who was a member of many rescue operations to save Jewish children who’d been taken from their families.
Mrs. Chaikin talked about her exile after the siege of Leningrad when she was a small child. When she was about five, Leningrad was taken by German troops, and she was forced to flee to Siberia for a significant portion of her life.
This was a wonderful opportunity to get some perspective on the effects that traumatic events have had on people and how their stories differ. For example, I was able to notice that people like Toby Levy and Sarah Chaikin were very passionate about sharing their experiences, and they spoke with courage and wisdom.