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Mendel Rosenberg, Holocaust Survivor, speaks to students at Claude Brown Intermediate School in Troy, MO
Story and photos by Dave Zarro |
About 100 students, all sixth graders from five different classes, listened with interest as Mendel Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor, told what it was like to be a Jew in Lithuania during the 1940's. He told how only 6000 Lithuanian Jews survived Hitler's Holocaust, and he is one of them.
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As Mr. Rosenberg told his story, the students were drawn in to the reality of the struggles that were real to this man when he was their age. He brought several photos to help explain life for him as a Jew in 1941. The photo to the right is his family when he was about 8-years-old. Mr. Rosenberg's father was shot and killed before they were taken from their home.
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A student looks at the photograph of Mendel Rosenberg and his family. Mendel is in the lower right of the photo.
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A photograph of Mendel Rosenberg's fellow prisoners as they were taken off a train at the end of the war.
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Mr. Rosenberg's mother is the only other survivor of the holocaust from his family. He found out after the war that his brother had been moved to a different concentration camp than he, and was hit over the head by a soldier who didn't like something he did. His brother died from the blow.
As the sixth graders listened to the many stories, they were fascinated with the reality of life in the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany.
At the conclusion of Mr. Rosenberg's sharing, the students began asking questions:
"Did you see the gas chambers?" No, he did not see them until after the war.
"How did you feel when this began happening to you?" He, his family and his friends could not believe that people as advanced as the Germans could actually do something so cruel to others simply because they were Jews. They did not believe it was really happening until it happened to them.
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The questions from the students continued for almost 45 minutes.
"Did they really tattoo numbers on the prisoners?" Not in Dachau. His number was 92786, but it was sewn on his clothes. Tattoos were only done in the Polish concentration camps.
"What kind of hobbies did you have before the war began?" He enjoyed riding his bike and ice skating.
"Does he have a wife?" Yes, he has a wife, two children, and seven grandchildren. |
Mr. Rosenberg takes questions from the students. |
At the conlcusion of his time speaking, Mendel Rosenberg spoke passionately about his new country. He said America is the best country in the world in which to live. You can do anything, and be anything here. The freedom is not appreciated as it should be by our young people. He should know. He has seen it when freedom was not given to the people. |
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