One of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, Elane Norych Geller will tell her story at the community-wide Yom Hashoah Commemoration on Sunday, May 4, 2 p.m. at Temple Menorah.
The event, which is officially marked on April 29, is the memorial to the six million who perished in the Holocaust and the remembrance of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and all resistance. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the uprising.
Born in Poland, Geller was only four years old when she entered the camps and eight when she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen. She made her way to New York with her father, two brothers and an aunt, and grew up in Brooklyn.
In a telephone interview from her Los Angeles home, she said, “My imprisonment taught me, even at that young age, that we can’t be apathetic or think we are the exception to the rule” of what she calls “pollution.”
“Look at the perpetrators of the Holocaust. They weren’t hoods — they were educated, affluent, civilized people. No matter what one’s IQ is, when there is ‘pollution,’ everyone’s fair game.”
She feels compelled to speak out on the danger of apathy, silence and anti-Semitism and the evil of bigotry. “I’ve been speaking for the past 20 years because of an incident which occurred in Los Angeles.”
She explained that a meeting of Holocaust deniers was scheduled at a local library. “I was a volunteer at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and, like others there, was outraged that such a group was allowed to meet at a facility supported by taxpayers. We petitioned the city opposing their use of a public facility for such a forum.
“That sparked my interest in speaking out to the general community, and since then I have traveled across the country teaching about prevention, not hate. My message is a lesson of tolerance, as I try to explain that racism and bigotry are catching, just like other diseases. And, I emphasize that I am not an expert; that I only speak my opinions about what pollutes ethically, spiritually and morally.”
Geller will also speak at Beth Torah Religious School the morning of May 4 and at Nicolet High School the next day.
In addition, the winners of the Holocaust Youth Essay Contest, sponsored by the Habush Family Foundation, will be introduced at the Sunday afternoon event.
A program of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, the Yom HaShoah commemoration is mounted in association with the Generation After and the New American Club and is co-sponsored by numerous synagogues and organizations.
Event chair is Sandra Hoffman. For more information, call Dorene Paley, JCC community services director, 414-967-8217.
MORE STORIES
Loading ...