Holocaust survivor Rena Finder, who was saved as part of Oscar Schindler’s famous list, told an audience of about 200 youth and teachers about the horrors of genocide Monday at the Boston Community Leadership Academy, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“I am an eyewitness to some of the most horrific crimes that were committed against innocent people,” she said. “As slaves, we were taken from our homes, stripped of our civil rights and left with no health and no hope.”
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and city councilors attended the event. Menino said Holocaust Remembrance Day is a perfect way to promote leadership among young people.
Finder, the keynote speaker, said her plight began when she was 10 during World War II. She said she hoped to be saved from her enslavement but that nobody came.
“We thought surely if the world knew what was happening to us, they would have come to save us,” she said.
Finder told the audience there was nothing she could do to avoid being taken because she was enslaved for who she was, not what she had done.
“Our only crime was that we were Jewish,” she said.
Finder also spoke about Schindler, whose humanitarian efforts saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
“Schindler was German … and he joined the Nazi party,” she said. “He said he wanted to make money, so he employed Jewish workers and became our friend.”
Finder said she was among the many employed and saved by Schindler, as his real purpose for taking in Jewish workers was to save them from the concentration camps.
“He would ask us to come and clean his office, even though he really didn’t need his office to be cleaned, but he knew we could sleep under his desk and table,” she said. “Because I knew Oscar Schindler, I was able to survive.
“Oscar Schindler was a shining example of how one man can make a difference,” she said.
Finder also said it is difficult to talk about what she experienced during the war.
“There are no words that can really describe what it’s like to be starving to death, what it’s like to be freezing to death,” she said. “When the war ended, my mother and I were the only survivors of a family of 18. It’s so important to tell our stories, to share them with you, [especially because] the number of Holocaust survivors is diminishing every day.”
Finder estimated that 300 Holocaust survivors currently live in the Boston area, though only a few were on Schindler’s list.
“You have the power to make a difference in this world, and people will listen because you are our future,” she told the young audience.
BCLA student Jennifer Lakus said she was moved by Finder’s story.
“We have been learning about the Holocaust in history class, but nothing struck me more than what I heard just now,” she said.
BCLA newcomer Genta Spaho said she liked the first-person account of the Holocaust she received from Finder.
“We saw movies about the Holocaust, but it’s different hearing about it from an actual survivor,” she said.
BCLA Assistant Headmaster Pam Hilton said 10th grade teachers integrate Holocaust education into their history classes, and hosting the event was an honor for her and her students.
Before Finder told her story, students read excerpts from Night, a book written by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University.
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