Elizabeth Haddon Elementary School fifth-grade students were treated to an hour of living history, directly from Holocaust survivor Ruth Rosenfeld, during a speech the survivor gave in the school’s library on April 2.
Rosenfeld has lived in the United States for more than six decades. But she can never, and will never, forget her experiences as a child during the Second World War, and the persecution she and her family suffered from the Nazi regime in her native Poland.
“The first lesson you should learn is about the power to choose what we make of our life experiences. What I mean by that is that we can see ourselves as victims and become withdrawn and angry, bitter, even hardened, or we can see ourselves as survivors and celebrate our strength and resilience and use it to become empathetic, caring and loving people,” Rosenfeld told the audience.
Born Roza Kriszer-Weinlez on Nov. 12, 1940, in Wadowice, Poland, she was only a few months old when her family was forced to move from her maternal grandparents’ home into the Wadowice ghetto. One year later, when it was liquidated by the Germans, Roza, her father and her older sister, Halinka, went into hiding. Her mother Sala, grandparents Renee and David, her Aunt Rosa and Uncle Aaron were taken to Auschwitz where they were murdered in the gas chambers.
Roza and Halinka were sent to the home of a Christian innkeeper in Bielsko-Biala, but it soon grew too dangerous. The four of them traveled by train to Czechoslovakia, but the train was stopped by a German convoy; her father was recognized as a Jew, removed from the train, and shot to death.
The Christian innkeeper took Halinka and Roza back to her home, which was periodically besieged by German soldiers who would search her house. Realizing that it was only a matter of time until they were found, they were shuttled to two adult sisters who were willing to hide them in a village called Buczkowice. They lived there from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945: Halinka with one sister, Anna, and Roza with the other sister, Julia Wala.
“The second lesson is the corrosive, destructive force of hatred. It doesn’t just hurt the one who is hated, but the hater ultimately suffers a lot more. As the Chinese proverb says ‘hatred destroys the vessel that contains it,’” Rosenfeld continued.
After the war, the sisters found safety at a settlement in Lodz, Poland, and then in a displaced persons camp in Prague. Over the next three years, they barely survived passing through a number of orphanages in France, clinging together for their lives.
In 1948, Eleanor and Sam Banker of Interlaken, N.J., found the sisters and decided to adopt them both because it was clear they shared an unshakable bond through constant trauma. The Bankers, along with Roza and Halinka, arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 1, 1949 – 10 years to the day that Nazi Germany began its rampage through Europe by invading Poland.
Upon arrival in the states, the sisters’ Americanization began, with name changes: Halinka to Helen and Roza to Ruth. The sisters still spoke Polish to each other, but their mother tried to discourage it, urging them to move on with their lives and embrace the United States as home and English as their only language.
With the complete passing of her generation on the horizon, and the rising tide of white nationalist sentiment at the moment, Rosenfeld considers it a sacred duty to pass down her story and have the youngest generation hear it.
“Lesson number three, is that we have to guard against bigotry and intolerance and to recognize the humanity in all of us. Why do I do this? It’s really to impart those lessons,” Rosenfeld concluded.
It’s this last lesson that found its way into the Haddon curriculum as part of the Haddonfield School District’s commitment to molding students who acquire social-emotional skills as well as cultural competency.
“The kids are reading a book “Number the Stars,” by Lois Lowry, about two Jewish girls in Copenhagen. I thought bringing Ruth here would fit perfectly. We’ve had other speakers here in the past, but often a relative of a survivor. This is the first time we’ve actually had a Holocaust survivor,” said Haddon principal Gerry Bissinger.
“Hearing Ruth’s story was tremendously valuable, and I think that shows a lot of bravery and courage, which is what we want to teach our students. It fits into the work we want to do in terms of diversity here. As our students get ready to go into middle school, which can sometimes be a tough time, we want to instill in them respecting other people’s differences and that they recognize hatred and injustice.”
During April, all fifth-graders in the district will see “Number the Stars,” undertaken by the Haddonfield Plays & Players, performed at Camden County College. There was to be two performances each day, April 4 and 5, at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. In addition, the HP&P site revealed a special alumni presentation of the play would have occurred on April 6.
To learn more about Ruth’s journey, visit: https://www.chhange.org/personal-histories/stories/ruth-rosenfeld. For more information on “Number the Stars” and to purchase tickets, visit: https://www.haddonfieldplayers.com/events/2019/4/4/number-the-stars.
