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By Hiba Rashid, our new East-West news intern:

The audience listened and asked questions at the end. From Spring 2011

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011, Manny Korman visited our school. Mr. Korman is a mentor to our principal, Mr. Sherman. He is a part of the East-West community and has contributed greatly to us. Mr. Korman attended the recent presentation from the Holocaust survivor, Rosa Strygler and volunteered to share his own experiences from that time.

Before beginning to tell his story, Mr. Korman explained to us that his life during the Holocaust was very different from that of others. He first discussed how his family was forced out of their home one early morning in 1938 and were sent on trains towards an unknown destination because they became victims of ethnic cleansing, due to their Jewish heritage.

Like many other families, Mr. Korman’s family was separated and were moved to various locations. His father was considered to be of Polish Jewish heritage. Therefore, he was able to move around the city with fewer restrictions. His father returned to Germany, and from there, went on a St. Louis ship to Havana, Cuba. His mother sent her two sons on a train that went to Warsaw, Poland. From there, they traveled to the city of Gydinia, Poland where they took another to Poland.  This is known today as the Kindertransport program, supported by the British government. In England, Mr. Korman and his younger brother lived with a generous family and were able to attend school. After a few years, the brothers acquired a visa to the United States. Their mother had arrived in the United States a few months earlier. However, the mother couldn’t afford to care for her children and they were forced to live in foster homes. Mr. Korman’s father survived a difficult period in a concentration camp, in Westerbork, Holland.

In July 1946, the entire family was reunited in America. Mr. Korman mentioned that before this overwhelming event, he “didn’t know what it meant to have a family structure.” He was conflicted with physical anxiety such bed-wetting or nail biting, but this all disappeared when his family became one. He believes that these experiences helped him to realize the importance of a family structure in one’s life, especially during hardships.

Throughout the telling of his story, Mr. Korman repeatedly said “We were lucky.” This allowed us to understand a less common perspective of the Holocaust victims. At any given time, the family could have been permanently separated or even face death. But with luck on their side, they survived even with the dangers around them. It is amazing how his entire family survived and were reunited after years of separation. Mr. Korman considers himself fortunate. He and his brother were able to attend school and remain together throughout their journey. Events such as he and his brother being able to arrive in England together, his mother avoiding to enter a ship that would later be attacked, and being able to survive through the dangers of the sea in war time, show exactly how lucky he was.

To imagine the small percent of “lucky” persons and how they were able to escape from the extremes of this era is incredible. The audience seemed to react with amazement especially because they had expected a tragic story such as that of Rosa Strygler.

For more information, you can visit: http://kindertransport.org/We thank Mr. Korman for visiting our school and sharing his insightful story with us! We were glad to further understand the events of the Holocaust through his eyes. It gave us the chance to view this event in a different manner.