105 - Bearing Witness - In the Ghetto

NARRATOR On loan from Yad Vashem—The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel—is a small compass. It belonged to a young man named Schlomo Brandt, who, while confined in the Vilna ghetto, worked with an underground youth movement to defy his captors. He and his wife Masha managed to escape into the forests, where they joined the partisans. There Brandt led a number of attacks—sabotaging train tracks, blowing up train cars, ambushing German soldiers. Brandt placed high value on this small tool: MALE VOICE “In the forests without this I couldn't find my way.” NARRATOR Schlomo Brandt possessed the spirit of the upstander. Another upstander was Janus Korczak—an educator always surrounded by children. In his book titled “Ghetto Diary,” Korczak wrote: MALE VOICE “My life has been difficult but interesting. In my younger days I asked God for precisely that.” NARRATOR: Korczak established orphanages within the ghetto’s walls. He wanted to make sure the parentless children were fed, bathed, and taught to live with dignity and justice. He had opportunities to escape and save himself, but he stayed. He maintained his mission to the very end, when—in August 1942—he and his staff were deported to the killing center Treblinka with the orphanage’s remaining two hundred children. The three-mile march to the railway cars was led by a dignified Korczak calmly holding two children by their hands.

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Holocaust Museum Houston

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors’ legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy.

 

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