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Holocaust Survivors Launch Real Talk Series
Hopkins School welcomed to campus Mr. Serge Vinograd and Ms. Betty Deutsch, survivors of the Holocaust, as part of a student-driven series, Real Talk. Real Talk aims to elevate the voices and experiences of people within the community to inspire and support honesty, openness, and personal truth-telling to combat bias, hate and prejudice.
Mr. Serge Vinograd’s visit to campus was a homecoming of sorts. He is the father of four Hopkins graduates—Ariane and Samantha ’01, Cassandra ’02 and Benjamin ’04. Vinograd spoke with Junior School students on Tuesday, October 10th and with High Schoolers in two sessions on Tuesday, October 17th.
In a quiet and matter-of-fact voice, Vinograd related his personal journey as a 12-year-old boy in Nazi-occupied France. He began his presentation with a phrase he returned to throughout, “what happened then can happen now.”
Vinograd spoke of the slow creep of Aryanism and Hitler’s reign, noting that those who were optimistic were unable to see what was happening. “Very good people can behave like beasts,” he said, “and propaganda can sway fine minds.” Vinograd credits his mother’s pessimism with his survival.
Disbelieving the propaganda, Vinograd's mother sent her young son into the countryside where he was hidden with four other Jews in a Belgian woman’s farmhouse. He eventually labored on a farm, operating a thresher machine, and became involved with the French Resistance. The reistance cell that Vinograd was part of would steal weapons and transport pilots who were shot down from one farm to another, over the border to Spain. He was 15 years old when D-Day finally arrived.
Disbelieving the propaganda, Vinograd's mother sent her young son into the countryside where he was hidden with four other Jews in a Belgian woman’s farmhouse. He eventually labored on a farm, operating a thresher machine, and became involved with the French Resistance. The reistance cell that Vinograd was part of would steal weapons and transport pilots who were shot down from one farm to another, over the border to Spain. He was 15 years old when D-Day finally arrived.
Vinograd spent time with students’ questions in each session and in one-on-one conversations afterward. He concluded his presentation remarks saying, “Anyone who survived the war is damaged goods. You can never make up for those lost years. Survivors see forever differently.”
A complete video of Mr. Vinograd’s presentation to the Junior School is available below.
Mrs. Betty Deutsch, formerly Esther Egri, spoke at an All School assembly on Friday, October 20, 2017, recounting her harrowing journey as a concentration camp survivor. Born in 1927 in Hungary, Deutsch lived with her family, religious Jews, in a small village in the countryside.
Rumors of German atrocities filtered into their village slowly. “They started to take the young men away and we didn’t know where they went,” she recounted. “It was very hard for mother—you had to be creative to survive.”
It was in March of 1944, at the conclusion of Passover, that life took a dramatic turn for her family and the Hungarian Jews. “There was a knock at the door.” All the Jews were rounded up and taken to live in a ghetto. By that May, the ghetto was emptied out and everyone was crowded into cattle cars. Deutsch was transported to Auschwitz-Birkeneau, the largest extermination center created by the Nazis. During the selection process, she and her sister were pushed to the right, because they were young enough to be slave laborers. Her mother went to the left, “unfit for work,” and that was the last time she saw her mother.
It was in March of 1944, at the conclusion of Passover, that life took a dramatic turn for her family and the Hungarian Jews. “There was a knock at the door.” All the Jews were rounded up and taken to live in a ghetto. By that May, the ghetto was emptied out and everyone was crowded into cattle cars. Deutsch was transported to Auschwitz-Birkeneau, the largest extermination center created by the Nazis. During the selection process, she and her sister were pushed to the right, because they were young enough to be slave laborers. Her mother went to the left, “unfit for work,” and that was the last time she saw her mother.
“I got my number: A 6145. This is my tattoo on my left arm. We were all numbers afterwards. No more names, only a number.”
Deutsch showed photographs of her family arriving at the camp which were taken from The Auschwitz Album, the only surviving visual evidence of the process leading to mass murder at Auschwitz. (See The Auschwitz Album here http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.asp)
Deutsch’s personal liberation came in May of 1945. Having been moved from one camp to another, she and her sister and others were rounded up in a field to be shot, just as the Allies’ planes and gunfire could be heard all around. “We saw SS men running away with their dogs. They didn’t have time to kill us. And then truckloads of soldiers came through and told us the war was over.”
Deutsch ended her presentation with a recitation of a poem she wrote on the death of her sister several years ago. It is titled, Wounds That Never Heal, an echo of Mr. Vinograd’s earlier final words to the students, “Survivors see forever differently.”
A complete video of Mrs. Deutsch’s presentation is available below.
Wounds That Never Heal
By Elizabeth Ester Egri Deutch
It is not easy to uncover wounds that never heal.
How could I forget the Holocaust?
It has been over fifty years since my family was killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau,
But I remember as if it were today—
The gas chambers, the tall chimneys, the burning flames,
The unbearable smell, and screams, and the death of Silence.
The deep blue sky was always gray from smoke.
The days were dark, and long.
The nights were bright from the tall, orange flames.
What a place to be! With the electric fence around us.
To see little children cry, the little shoes, the dresses and dolls thrown around.
O, my G-d, what a sight! I wonder how I survived.
We looked around for G-d. We yelled, “Where are you?”
“please save us,” we begged.
Our G-d, whom we trusted, was not there.
We soon found out what Hell we had come to.
When Mengele came to look us over with his white gloves and the bayonets pointing at us,
Who shall live and who shall die.
There was no time to say goodbye to Mother or Father or Brother or my family.
My beloved Sister and I were pushed away from them.
That is why I am here today.
I hope that my story is not too strong to hear.
I believe perhaps I survived so I could tell my story—
What I endured during the Holocaust.
The world has to know what happened to us, the Jewish people.
All our heritage was destroyed in Europe.
The shuls, the Torahs, the prayer books. All went up in flames.
There was no one to help us.
Please remember the valleys of blood that flowed like water,
The blood of parents and children, mothers and infants, teachers and students.
The cry of “SHEMA YISROEL” that the victims screamed as they were taken to their deaths
Should not be silenced.
It should reach your heart and you should remember.
Watch Mr. Serge Vinograd's Address
Watch Mr. Serge Vinograd's Address
Watch Ms. Betty Deutsch's Assembly Address
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