Sunday, May 11, 2008

A Holocaust Survivor Visits Our Class


My class was blessed with a rare and memorable experience last week when Mr. Salomon Wainberg, a Holocaust survivor, visited our class and shared his amazing story. Mr. Wainberg's visit was the fulfillment of a dream I had carried for many years to actually host a survivor in my classroom. Through all the years I have been teaching Holocaust education, only once did my students hear a survivor's story in person, and that was when we took a field trip to the Florida Holocaust Museum several years ago and heard Sam Shryber give his testimony. In fact, it was only through my participation in the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teacher's Program in Poland and Israel that I realized hosting a Holocaust survivor in my classroom was a very real possibility.

Salomon Wainberg was born April 15, 1936, in Zelechow, Poland, to a Jewish family who owned a food store and warehouse. He was only three when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Soon after invasion, the family home was enclosed in the Zelechow Ghetto, and a family of four from the country was forced to move in with them.

On Tuesdays, non-Jews were allowed to enter the ghetto market, and rumors began to trickle in from farmers who lived near Treblinka about full trains entering the camp and empty trains leaving, sparks at night from the chimney, and the smell of burning flesh. Then, in 1942, a cousin of the Wainberg's escaped Treblinka and confirmed the horrible news.

Mr. Wainberg's father made contact with a Mr. Edvard Turek to arrange for a hiding place in the country, but before anyone was able to leave, Mr. Wainberg was picked up by the Nazis and taken with a work crew out of the ghetto. Before he left, he directed Mrs. Wainberg to send their two daughters to a Mr. & Mrs. Sokol's farmhouse that night, and for her to leave with the two boys the following night. The girls escaped, but the next morning was two days after Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and the Nazis had selected that day to begin liquidating the ghetto. Mrs. Wainberg fled down the street with her two boys and hid in an attic with 36 other people for 16 days while the Nazis looted the ghetto. Eventually Mrs. Wainberg and her sons were able to escape, but she got lost and they had to spend the day in the loft of a barn. The next night when they finally arrived at the farmhouse they were reunited with the two girls and surprisingly, Mr. Wainberg, who had gotten away from the work detail.


The Wainberg family hid in the cellar of the farmhouse with a total of 24 people. Every day Mr. Sokol would bring them buckets of soup and water, and he would take out their buckets of waste. The conditions in the cellar were very difficult. Some people smoked, and in April of 1943, one of the men died from tuberculosis. They were unable to bury him for three days.

One day, in June of 1944, while the Sokol family was working in the fields, they heard boots on the floor above their heads. They were terrified, and two of the young men in the group who had guns announced that if anyone entered the cellar, they would begin shooting. They heard the closet on wheels that covered the hidden entrance moving and then a series of trap doors opening. When the cellar door opened, there was a shootout. Young Salomon blacked out, and when he awoke, the cellar occupants were lined up along a wall and blood was everywhere. Their captors were Polish bandits, not Nazis, and they wanted money. Mr. Wainberg fabricated a story about hidden gold in the ghetto, and the bandits believed him, but by the time they buried the dead from the shootout, including one of the Wainberg daughters and an aunt, it was nearing daylight. Mr. Wainberg convinced the bandits to leave and return at night so that he could lead them to the gold.


While the bandits were away, the survivors fled and began a 7-week journey wandering from place to place stealing from food storage caves and hiding in rye fields. At the end of July 1944, conditions worsened and they could hear the sounds of battle in the distance. On August 2, 1944, they met up with Russian troops who escorted them back to Zelechow. A man who had bought the Wainberg home from the Germans gave it back to them. Only ten of the 24 people who had hidden in the cellar survived.

In 1943 there had been approximately 15,000 Jews in the Zelechow Ghetto. By January of 1945, only 250 remained. One day that same month, Polish farmers came to market with pitchforks and sickles to "finish the Nazis' job." Nine Jews were killed, and 36 were wounded in the pogrom.


Eventually, through a twisted course of events, Salomon Wainberg made his way to the United States and became a CPA. He retired in 1998 and moved to the Tampa area to be near his grandchildren.

When asked about the Righteous Among the Nations status of his rescuers, Mr. Wainberg said that later, after the cellar occupants escaped, Mr. Sokol's rescue efforts were discoverd by the Nazis, and he was executed. The other rescuers requested that he halt efforts to seek righteous status for them due to the unpopularity of the honor among their neighbors.

My mother, Mrs. Evelyn Blount, videotaped Mr. Wainberg's testimony.


Our class is collecting money to send a donation in Mr. Wainberg's honor to the Florida Holocaust Museum in hopes of furthering Holocaust education in our area.



Links:

Memorial Book of the Community of Zelechow

Wikipedia: Zelechow

Yad Vashem

21 comments:

Unknown said...

Howard, how wonderful for you and your students to have the experience of hosting Mr. Wainberg. Your telling of his story is a great narrative. I, too, hope to have a Holocaust survivor come to speak to my students,and I congratulate you on not giving up on this important part of our students learning experience. Way to go! alvie

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing the moving testimony of Mr. Salomon Wainberg. What an invaluable experience this must have been for you and your students! You deserve a great deal of credit for organizing a visit by a Holocaust survivor to your community.
- Gigi Lincoln

Anonymous said...

Howard,
Your students will never forget this experience, nor will you. Mr. Wainberg's story is an amazing one and one definitely worth retelling. The lessons learned and passed on will resonate for a long time. I sincerely hope you are able to get more survivors. You are wonderful and your students are lucky to have you as a teacher.

Pam Blevins

Anonymous said...

His story was amazing about going through the Holocaust and also being hid out and not remembering what happened next other than being put up against the wall. and what makes this so special is that not many Holocaust survivors are still alive, most of them are dead.

Nathansma said...

What an awesome experience. I can't wait to see the video!

Anonymous said...

When I think of this story I find it amazing that he could go through this without ever knowing that this wasnt a normal childhood.When he talks about his younger sister being dead,if my sister were him, I would be the younger sister and that means I would be the one dead.

_Holly_

Anonymous said...

The Narritive poems we are writing in class is so hard for me!I can write a great poem just thinking off the top of my head but not being able to put my own ending on it is really difficult for me to get used to.I see why when a journalists takes so long on an article it's only because they don't know how to put it into the right words.It has to make sense to everyone(not just to you),it has to be interesting(not just to you),and it has to be something everyone knows about or has heard of.In my poems I write about what everyone goes through,but for a story like He's With Me,it's hard to explain how all the minor details become one huge detail.I think I have a good poem now that you have helped me take all the junk out of it.
_Holly_

Anonymous said...

thank you mr blount for having a guest speaker(that is a holocaust survior)in the classroom it was a great experince
nallely

Anonymous said...

Looooooooooooooooonnnng post Mr.B, but good.


Yourstudent,

Fidelis

Anonymous said...

Mr. Blount's students,
Do you have ANY idea how blessed you are? Years from now, when you are great people of the world, you will say..."I owe it all to my Sixth grade teacher... Mr. Blount! He showed me the road of life...and kindled my inner fire to learn"... mark my words, I tell you no lies. I am proud to call him friend!
Mrs. Williamson

Nathan's Uncle said...

Thank you for your kind words, Mrs. Williamson. You know all the feelings you so eloquently put into words are mutual with you.

Mr. Blount

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Blount
I must congratulate you on the TERRIFIC job you did. I could not have done it any better. When I came home from your class, I told my wife what a fine group of kids you had and how much I enjoyed the interaction and the questions. I now understand why. Your efforts are to be appreciated. (I wonder if the school knows what a jewel they have.) Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you again for the wonderful job.

Salomon Wainberg

P.S. My name was Szulim Wajnberg

Anonymous said...

Hey Mr. Blount,
Thank you so much for getting Mr. Wainberg to come to and speak 2 our class. I t was such a great experience. I hope your next years class gets the great experience! :>

-Hannah Singletary

Anonymous said...

Howard, you were indeed blessed to have a survivor come to your classroom. I have been priviliged to host Helen Colin for the past 7 years but her health prevented her from attending this year. It looks as though your students were as enthralled as our were... so quiet you could hear a pin drop. your blog is excellent and I appreciate the work you did. shalom, my friend.

Anonymous said...

HB-
I just wanted to commend you on the awesome narrative, photos, and blog on your Holocaust survivor visit. It was great, and so are you! Just wanted to let you know how cool it is, and how inspiring you are to me.


Connie Dossin
Language Arts, 7th grade
Tomlin Middle School
Plant City, FL 33563

Unknown said...

Dear Mr Blount,

Thank you for a possibilty to know this amazing story. I found this site searching informations about Zelechow. But I started to read it... and then I found that I know a little bit this history! My family home is 2 km far away from Mr Sokol house (this house is still there across from Cemetery in Wilczyska village). And my grand-uncle knew Sokol's son.
Thank you.

Paulina

Anonymous said...

Mr Blount,
This is Holly, I'm still amazed of how you contacted a Holocaust survivor, let alone got him to come visit us in class! I am working on my History Fair project for Mrs. Player. In 6th grade I knew very little about the Holocaust and I remember you telling us on the 1st day of school that by the end of the 4th nine weeks we'd know it all. The theme for this years history fair is Innovation and Change. We have to think of a person, time, or idea that innovated and changed history. First thing that came to mind was the Holocaust. Mrs. Player told us we couldn't use such a broad topic, so I decided to do the concentration camps. I've visited libraries, seen several movies, and documentaries online but I was wondering if you could be one of my primary sources? We need at least 15 and you know all about it so I thought you would be the perfect person! Books from the Bruton Memorial Library are at least 4 inches thick and I just need to information on places like Auschwitz. The gas chambers, Nazi Doctors etc. I wish I could revisit 6th grade just for the 4th nine weeks on the Holocaust. My family and I are visiting the Holocaust Museum sometime soon, and I am so excited for it! I hope you can help me! Thanks again, Holly

Nathan's Uncle said...

Holly,
Thanks for your message! It means a lot to me to know that spending a year in my classroom impacted my students' lives. It seems that most students remember our Holocaust unit more than anything. When it comes to this dark period in history, I think one can never know it all. And even though I have read, and studied, and traveled a lot over the years, I certainly do not consider myself an expert. However, having visited Auschwitz I and Birkenau, I would be pleased to be one of your primary sources. You are welcome to sort through my materials and see what you can use. You may be interested in knowing that I will be attending a Holocaust Alumni Conference in Washington, DC, this February, and I will be reunited with many of my teacher friends from our trips to Poland and Israel. Come see me whenever you get a chance.

Mr. Blount

Anonymous said...

Mr Blount,
I was typing up my rough draft last night, and I found the coolest quote. It pretty much covers it. I loved it so much I had to show it to you :
"Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals" -Theodor Adorno
And I will be visiting you shortly, I just have to find a time to. I'm asking if I can do my project just on Aushwitz, since it was probably the most cruel. I think the quote covers it all, because if you think about it, thats exactly what the world was going through. The jews were the animals and the people saying they were 'just animals' had no idea about what was really going on. I hope that one day I can go to all the Holocaust places, including Auschwitz. Thank you so much! I am so glad you can be one of my sources! I'm going to need your help!
Holly
P.S. I will print out a copy of my rough draft for you to look at.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Blount,
Holly again, I remember in 6th grade you gave us a paper at the end of the 4th nine weeks and it had some quotes on it. These were quotes found on the walls of the concentration camps, and some other very interesting ones too. If you still have copies of that I would love to have one. I actually kept mine, just we moved around some things in my room and I seemed to misplaced it. If you don't have one I understand...that was a very long time ago! But if you do it would be great if I could have one or copy some of them down thank you.
Holly

Anonymous said...

Mr. Blount,
Holly again, I remember in 6th grade you gave us a paper at the end of the 4th nine weeks and it had some quotes on it. These were quotes found on the walls of the concentration camps, and some other very interesting ones too. If you still have copies of that I would love to have one. I actually kept mine, just we moved around some things in my room and I seemed to misplaced it. If you don't have one I understand...that was a very long time ago! But if you do it would be great if I could have one or copy some of them down thank you.
Holly