Neither Yesterdays Nor Tomorrows

by George J Elbaum

Today being the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Collaborative and California Department of Education presented this SCHOOL LEADERHIP TO END HATE – A Winter Institute for School and District Leaders. The conference brought together 80 school administrators (Principals, Superintendents, and others in leadership roles) representing more than 40 different school districts from across the state. The day’s program began with “Antisemitism Past and Present”, an hour conversation between Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of the JFCS Holocaust Center and myself, and was followed by break-out sessions and workshops conducted by Facing History and Ourselves, The Twige Project, and the CA Department of Education, where this conference was held. The event’s key speaker was Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (center in photo below).

by George J Elbaum

Mark Day School in San Rafael is a private school with 375 students in grades K-8 with typical (for California) demographics: White 62%, 2-or-more-races 26%, Hispanics 7%, Asian 3%, Black 2%.  It has a strong focus on broad but high quality education, as evidenced by the following sample of the 19 available courses at this school.

Art (6), Music (7), Performance arts (4), World language (2).

My presentation to 60-some 7^th grade students plus 25 adults (staff and parents) was organized by teacher Leila Sinclaire and arranged by Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of JFCS Holocaust Center

Letters from students

• I like how you used your humor to brighten the mood during this rather dark topic.
• It also made me feel lucky that you weren’t killed in any of your air accidents because you wouldn’t have been able to speak about your experience.
• I tend to find WWII interesting, and it showed me more about what it was like in German-occupied territories at the time, and from the perspective of a Jewish person.
• Your speech gave me the courage to stand out against antisemitism.
• Not only did you do what many people dream of, you also decided to make a change in this world and talk about your life so you can inspire kids like me and many others around the world.
• Before you spoke I didn’t realize how hard it was to survive the Holocaust.  Your stories showed me howe much luck and hard work from your mother it took to keep you alive.  
• Your message, “Be for things, not against things,” was really impactful for me.  I agree with this because people should be more supportive instead of spreading hate.
• We are also inspired by your willingness to see the positive in everything.
• Your story will stay with me for many years to come and I cannot say thank you enough.  It takes a lot of courage to share such personal stories, and I am grateful you chose to do so with us.
• Your story makes me realize how much I take things for granted.  I had a great-grandmother who survived the Holocaust, but I never got to ask all the questions I had.  Now you’ve left me with the knowledge of what I would have asked her.
• It gave me a deeper understanding of what it was like at that time and how the smallest things can bring so much joy.
• Thank you so much for teaching us about the hardest things in your life.  I know it is not easy and that you are making a sacrifice for us in bringing these memories up again.
• Hearing how much you enjoyed eating the marshmallow or when your mom brought you a boiled egg made me feel more grateful for the food I can access.
• The story of the Russian giving you a sugar cube was especially touching for me.  A small kind act from a soldier having such a big impact on your life was inspiring.
• Thank you so much for coming and changing my point of view on the Holocaust and life and touching my heart with your incredible stories.
• I was shocked that 30% of Warsaw’s population was Jewish and it was shoved by the Nazis into the 2% of the city that became the ghetto.
• One of the most impactful things for me was how excited you were to ride that red tricycle on your 3^rd birthday as well as tasting that sugar cube from that Russian soldier.  It’s stories like those that make you value small things because you never know when your world might flip completely.
• I relate to your not wanting to share the banana with your friend because you had been fighting.  I do the same with my brother.   
• Your experiences in Warsaw, in the ghetto and afterwards as well, helped to strengthen my Jewish identity.
• The red tricycle you got for your 3^rd birthday symbolizes to me hope, and I will make sure to hold your story close to my heart.
• I kept thinking that you could have been sent away into the cattle cars and concentration camp, but it is a miracle that you weren’t. 
• I can’t imagine how it would feel thinking you might not see your mother again.
• The fact that the Nazis killed 9 out of 10 Jews is outrageous.  I immediately thought of being in a room with 10 of my friends, and only 1 of them surviving.
• Your speech and stories about your experiences really made me feel how real it was.  I am not one of those people who think that the Holocaust is fake, but until now I just thought of the stories as just facts on paper that I should try and understand.  Listening to someone who went through it made me realize that it was real.
• Regarding your challenge question: “Would you harbor a minority person if you knew you might be killed for doing so?”  Would I save someone at the risk of my family?  That made me think for the entirety of the day, coming from a family of 7.  Learning about your side of the story and what you owed to these families because you probably wouldn’t be here without them.  I thought about it and I would do it.    
• I love how you put a little bit of humor into your stories even though there was mostly darkness behind it all.
• First, I want to start by sharing my gratitude to you for telling the story of your experiences during WWII.  You spoke in a way I will never forget, painting a picture in my mind of what it was like to be a Jewish boy at the time of the war.    I grew as I sat in my chair, frozen by your words.  I learned your perspective and was enlightened by the inspiring image of the Nazi plane in the sky above the shed.  And the moment when you saw your first machine gun, you smiled at the Nazi officer and continued eating soup. A moment that impacted your life forever.  I did not cry when you spoke, not because your words didn’t affect me, but because they drew into my very soul.  As the words you spoke ran through me, there was no place for tears.  I grieved as you spoke, and I grieve now for the 6 million Jewish people and 11 million in total murdered by the Nazis.  Your decision to speak about your experiences in WWII has grown my perspective, touched my soul, and has made me one leap closer to understanding the world and how I can make a change so the past never repeats itself. 
• I wish you the very best and will continue to help you share your story.  I hope one day I too can know, just like you, that I made a change for the generations and world to come.    

by George J Elbaum

The Cavelero Mid High School’s enrollment of 1464 students in grades 8 – 9 is quite diverse, with 65% White, 16% Hispanic, 11% two or more races, 5% Asian, 2% Black, and 1% all other, with 26% of students from low income families.  Students/teacher ratio is 22:1 vs. 18:1 state average.

The school’s GreatSchools.org  Summary Rating is 5/10 (state average) with 7/10 for Student Test Scores: English 55% vs 53%, Math 35% vs 41%, Science 50% vs 49%.  Student Progress is rated “average”, so that students at this school are making average academic progress given where they were last year, compared to similar students in the state. 

My presentation on the Holocaust was requested and organized by teacher Lara Ashby for a class of 30 8th graders who will have studied the following: Universe of Obligation and Survivor Voices, Pyramid of Hate, anti-Semitism, Pre-War Jewish Life, Propaganda, the rise of the Nazis, Diary of Anne Frank, Maus 1, and the actions by Irena Sendler, and Nicholas Winton. Students will also be completing a research project at the end of the current unit.

My presentation was arranged by Lexi Jason, Education Program Manager of Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity with technical support by the Center’s volunteer Dom Delino.

by George J Elbaum

Rogers New Technology High School (Rogers) is a public charter school grades 9-12 with 655 students of unusual demographics: 50% Hispanic, 44% White, 3% 2-races, and 3% all other, and 61% of these are from low income families.  However, despite these demographics, its 4-year graduation rate is 100% and its students’ college readiness is much above AR state average with SAT score of 1143 and test scores of 72% English, 55% Reading, 32% Math and 44% Science.  The students’ proficiency was definitely reflected by the quality of their questions during the Q&A.

My presentation to 30-some 10^th graders was organized by teacher Meghan Chiquin whose students have been completing a Holocaust poetry/art project for the past few weeks. The students have analyzed Holocaust artwork, read Holocaust poetry, and have just completed a reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night. Students were now nearing the end of their project where they are tasked with creating a piece of art and a poem to represent their feelings about the Holocaust and WWII.

I was both surprised and very impressed by the unique and ambitious Holocaust poetry/art project.  While studying the Holocaust exposes students to some of the worst cruelty and inhumanity that modern well-educated humans can conceive and inflict on others (Germany was the best educated country in Europe pre-WWII), teacher Meghan Chiquin’s poetry/art project shows students the unquenchable creative drive in the human soul and spirit, even in the midst of inhuman cruelty.  This is the first time that I’ve encountered in a high school a conscious effort to show human artistic spirit under inhumane conditions.  It reminds me of the photos of green spring buds bursting from earth torn apart by bombs and artillery fire.  Hope springs eternal from the human soul….

My presentation to Rogers was arranged by Lexi Jason, Education Program Manager of Holocaust Center for Humanity

by George J Elbaum

KPMG LLP is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.  It is multinationally based and operates worldwide. Based in Amstelveen, Netherlands, with executive offices in New York City, KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 273,424 employees. It has three lines of services: financial audit, tax, and advisory.  I was recently contacted by Rachel Gelnick, Senior Associate in KMPG’s New York-based Human Capital Advisory group, who asked me to make my presentation about my Holocaust childhood, which I do primarily to high school audiences, to KPMG’s US-based professionals. 

We agreed to do it by video on May 3, 2024 for the newly established Jewish Heritage Employee Resource Group at KPMG which organized this event to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. There were 220+ participants with a high rate of engagement resulting in an active Q&A session. The virtual nature also allowed a varied audience from regions across the US and diverse religious backgrounds and ages 

 I particularly appreciated the Q&A session which followed my presentation because the questions reflected the knowledge, intelligence, judgement, and sensitivity of the KPMG personnel.  While 90% of my 400-some talks to date were to high schools as students are old enough to understand what I lived through and survived, yet young enough to still have an open mind to decide whether they want to live their lives on the side of truth and fairness and respect or prejudice and anger and hate.  I thus speak mostly to young audiences where I can make a bigger difference.  However, in this presentation I very much appreciated the Q&A-spawned discussion about our society’s humanity and inhumanity, and that the atrocities of the Holocaust were committed by the best-educated country in Europe. 

I feel that the post-talk discussion benefited everyone, as confirmed by the very rewarding list of comments received afterwards (below). 

1. Thank you for speaking to us adults today and reminding us that the human spirit is resilient, and your story needed to be told. There is power in your words and lessons to be learned.  Thank you. You made a difference in our lives today.
2. I am so very grateful that you chose to speak to adults today. I am not Jewish, but I took my son to a concentration camp on a trip to Germany. I told him it’s important to see what hate unchecked can do. I’m grateful you shared your childhood with us!
3. I just want to thank you for coming to speak with us today. This definitely had me tearing up, so I just want to thank you for your bravery and I hope you continues to speak and change people’s lives.
4. I just wanted to thank you for the time to tell us your story. There were so many points where I was able to feel exactly how you felt in those moments of horror and your appreciation for the “pure luck” that kept you alive. I am so honored to have heard your story today, and will be sure to carry it forward for the rest of my life.
5. We love you, George!
6. As the grandson of two survivors, I am grateful that you were able to join us and tell your story. Your courage is honorable. Wishing you and your wife the best of health and happiness.
7. Given the resurgence of antisemitism, how should we Jews respond to agitators – knowing how cruel and savage antisemitism can become? Government, media, and social structures can fail to protect Jewish community.
8. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and we are fortunate to hear from you.  The founder of my previous company was a survivor who passed before I joined the company, but was forced to hide in an underground hole for 18 months during the Holocaust
9. I just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for sharing your story and for your incredible courage. Your willingness to share is truly making a significant impact. Sending warm hugs!
10. How did you end up in small towns in North Carolina & Oregon that I’d never even heard of their existence before?!?! WHAT WAS THERE?
11. After everything you’ve experienced, what is your reaction to our current antisemitic climate and what guidance would you provide to our younger Jewish community experiencing this today?
12. Thank you so much for taking the time today to speak with us. Your story is incredible.
13. I have to know, what exactly was the scene in the movie which changed your mind?
14. What was the movie that you said you were watching with your wife, before deciding to share your story? I need to see it 😀
15. What a remarkable story and I thank you for the impact you are having on our kids today.
16. Do you see any similarities between what is going on now and what was going on in Europe when you were a child? (Follow-up question: What should we be doing? What should we encourage our non-jewish friends to do?)
17. What has your relationship with Judaism looked like over the years?
18. You mentioned that there was one scene in paper clips that inspired you to share your story. What was it that encouraged you?
19. Did the Jewish faith help you during the difficult times in your life?
20. George – I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to speak to us today. My grandfather, also a survivor, passed away last week at age 105. Born in Poland in 1919, my grandfather came to the US in 1948.
21. Are there still things that you don’t talk about?
22. Some are seeing an eerie parallel between the anti-Israel protests happening on college campuses today and the anti-Semitic sentiment in Germany preceding the Holocaust. Do you feel this is an accurate comparison?
23. You’ve accomplished so much in your life and continue to give back to your community. How have you managed to overcome the trauma and experience the worst of humanity, to be able to see the positive in life and make a difference in this world?
24. Thank you for coming and sharing your story. This has been incredibly informative. I’d love to understand why you focus your talks on high school students and what you have found to be most impactful with speaking to students?
25. George, it was an honor to listen to you speak today. Hearing your story and seeing how you are still inspired to give back is truly incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. You certainly are making a difference.
26. Thank you for sharing your poignant story. Your story reminds us why it is important to remember why things happened and it helps understand why a people might respond so forcefully when threatened.
27. Truly incredible, thank you for all you do and for allowing the next generation to bear witness so we never forget.

by George J Elbaum

College Park High School is a highly rated public school with a current enrollment of 2050 students of which 58% are minority, 22% are from low income families, and 5% are English Language learners.  Despite these demographics, College Park is far above California state averages of college and career readiness, such as student test scores (English 69% vs 47% CA avrg,  Math 47% vs 35% CA avrg, Science 51% vs 30% CA avrg), and has 96% graduation rate vs 87% CA avrg, 81% pursuing college or vocational program vs 65% CA avrg – all quite impressive.  (Data is from 2023 GreatSchools.org.)

This presentation to College Park, my 6^th since 2019, was to the entire 10^th grade class (350-400 students) and was again organized by World History teacher Lauren Weaver, as she had done each year since 2019 – interacting with her again and viewing her interaction with her students was a real pleasure.   The students have studied WWII and the Holocaust, so knew about governmental persecution in Germany in the 1930s, including anti-Semitic policies and hate crimes, targeted boycotts, the Nuremberg laws, book burnings, Kristallnacht, forced relocations to the ghettos, deportations, and death camps under the “final solution”.

 Unlike Zoom presentations during Covid years, I was very pleased to be able to make this one in person, to establish eye contact during the Q&A, answer some very good questions, shake hands & take selfies with students and to make the whole experience much more personal and enjoyable – all a very good example that electronic communication, for all its convenience, will never replace direct personal contacts.

Arrangements for this talk at College Park were made by Patrick Dunne, Office Manager, JFCS.org

by George Elbaum

This was my 6^th time speaking at the University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit Catholic university.  Founded in 1855, USF was the city’s first university, and it is the third oldest institution for higher learning in California.  Its student body numbers approximately 10,600, with 62% undergraduates and 38% postgraduates, and its faculty numbers approximately 1,200, of which 41% are full-time and 59% are part-time, or adjunct.  Religious and spiritual organizations on campus include the Muslim Student Union, the USF chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the USF Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

My talk at USF this year was for 20 students in an undergraduate course entitled Holocaust and Genocide, which is one of the selective subjects in USF’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies.  It was organized by its teacher Dr. Alexis Herr, with my involvement initiated by Sadie Simon and finalized by Patrick Dunne of the JFCS Holocaust Center.

Letters from Students

Several weeks after my talk at USF I received an envelope with 20 letters from the 20 students that attended the talk.  From these letters I chose 10 statements that resonated with me, including one very long and one very sentimental one, below.

• You are the first survivor I have ever met and listened to, and I wanted to let you know how much your story moved and impacted me deeply.  Keep telling your story, it is surely changing hearts and minds.
• If you say that you are here by luck, then I think it is because the world is lucky to have you in it.
• I am so happy that you chose to share your story and that you so openly give a part of yourself to the audience.
• I thank your wife Mimi for getting the ball rolling in the first place by encouraging you to write your book.
• I hope to meet someone who talks about me as lovingly as you talk about your wife.
• Do continue to talk about your perspective and inspire others like you have done with me – stories like yours do matter.  Thank you again for coming to talk with us.
• Your story and your life have shown me that no matter what, it is best to be kind, understanding, and compassionate.  I will never forget you.   
• I wanted to take the time to write this note to express my gratitude for your vulnerability and openness with our class.
• Your stories of hard work and passion for the aerospace industry and airplanes is a reminder to love for what we do in life, because we are lucky to have a passion. 
• It is easy to disregard luck, but my peers and I have experienced so much luck to just be sitting in the room with you today.  I hope you and your wife Mimi have an excellent 50-year anniversary and are able to celebrate many more.  Your love story (although not the main focus of your visit) is inspiring.  Thank you for giving back – you are making the world a better place