Obituary: Aaron Elster, 86, Holocaust Survivor, Educator

SKOKIE, IL — One of the key figures in the founding of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center passed away this month earlier this month on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet Aaron Elster's efforts to prevent the lessons of that period from being forgotten continue – through the museum's educational programs, though the law he helped pass to make Illinois the first state to mandate the teaching of the history of the Holocaust, through his holographic form and through a new permanent fund started in his name at the institution he helped establish.

The Aaron Elster Education Fund will support the center's education services, including student leadership days and scholarships, teaching trucks and Law Enforcement Action in Democracy training.

“It was very moving and emotional. I have told myself over and over since an early age that I want to make a difference in a positive way," said one Chicago police recruit after going through the training. "This experience has motivated me even further to speak up, stand up and not make the mistakes that officers did during the Holocaust.”

Elster began working with the museum soon after its founding in 1981 in a storefront on Main Street in Skokie and eventually became its vice president and a board member. He told his account of surviving the Warsaw ghetto by hiding inside a wall in his book, "I Still See Her Haunting Eyes: The Holocaust and a Hidden Child Named Aaron," with Joy Erlichman Miller.

“I’m hoping that many, many years from now, people will still be able to speak with me,” he told the Chicago Tribune at the opening of the Take a Stand Center. “That I will be able to answer questions for them, that I’ll make the Holocaust more than just a story.”

See below Aaron Elster featured on In Our Voices on WTTW and read his complete obituary from the Illinois Holocaust Museum:

We are deeply saddened to inform you of the passing of Aaron Elster, Illinois Holocaust Museum Vice President and Holocaust Survivor. Aaron died peacefully, surrounded by his family, April 11, 2018, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah.

Elster was a dedicated leader who worked tirelessly to share the history and lessons of the Holocaust and his personal story to ensure that others do not have to endure what he experienced. Elster began volunteering with the Museum when it was only a storefront in the 1980s and was a driving force in building the Museum at its current location.

"Aaron was an incredible communicator, able to empathize with people from all walks of life - students, police officers, any group who visited the Museum. Aaron spoke about his experiences in the Holocaust with such emotion that you could not help but be moved and have a desire to act to make the world better after hearing from him. His loss is profoundly felt by our Museum family," said Susan Abrams, CEO of Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Aaron Elster, a child Survivor of the Holocaust, was born in 1931 in the village of Sokolow-Podlaski in Poland. During the Holocaust, Aaron lived in the Sokolow Ghetto with his two sisters, mother and father until the liquidation of the ghetto in September 1942. He escaped the liquidation and hid in surrounding farms. Eventually, Aaron found refuge in the attic of a Polish family for whom his sister worked, where he hid for two years until the war's end. While Aaron and his older sister Irene survived, his parents and youngest sister Sara were killed during the Holocaust. After the war Aaron lived in several orphanages throughout Poland, and eventually was smuggled out of Poland to DP camps in West Germany.

Aaron Elster and his sister came to the United States in June 1947. He was educated in Chicago and served in the armed forces in Korea. Aaron was married and is survived by his beloved wife, Jacqueline, two sons, Steven and Robert, and three grandchildren, Sarah Anne, Allison Leah, and Jacob Myles. He was the co-author of "I Still See Her Haunting Eyes," which chronicles his Holocaust experiences.

Elster spoke regularly to student groups and was particularly dedicated to the Museum's Brill Law Enforcement Action in Democracy Training, in which he shared his childhood experiences with Chicago Police Department recruits and newly promoted sergeants and lieutenants, helping them understand their responsibilities as law enforcement officers. Fritzie Fritzshall, Museum President, fellow-Survivor and close friend, said "Aaron felt that it was his duty to share with younger generations the dangers of hatred and bigotry and to offer hope to those growing up in difficult circumstances. Audiences felt his empathy and really responded. He was an endearing presence and inspiration."

As Aaron often said, "When I speak to children I ask that they take away two ideas from my story. First, you must believe in yourself. You must trust that you are stronger and smarter than you think you are. Second, I want children to learn that prejudice and intolerance against others can lead to another Holocaust. As the decision makers of tomorrow children must understand the consequences of indifference and hate. They must not be bystanders, they must always be proactive and have the courage to speak up and care."

Elster's story and legacy will live on forever through his interactive hologram, which can be seen in the Museum's Take a Stand Center. "He was so proud to be one of 15 survivors selected worldwide to carry forward survivor stories through conversational holograms," noted Fritzshall. "He literally stood taller as his hologram made its worldwide debut at Illinois Holocaust Museum and his image became the face of the Museum's communications campaign."

We extend our deepest sympathies to Aaron's family.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Contributions may be made to the Aaron Elster Education Fund at Illinois Holocaust Museum, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, IL, 60077.

via Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center