Schools
Holocaust Survivor Speaks To Bellmore Students
He shared his story with students at Shore Road and told them to take action when they see bullying.
Fro Bellmore Schools: Holocaust survivor Irving Roth, director of the Holocaust Resource Center at the Temple Judea in Manhasset, New York, encouraged sixth-graders at Shore Road School in Bellmore to take action when they see bullying and to retell his story to friends and family.
“We teach history to learn from it,” Irving told the students. “Twenty years from now tell your children about me. Make sure it [the Holocaust] doesn’t happen to anyone again.” Irving held the attention of each student during a one-hour assembly, first about being a boy in Czechoslovakia, and then about his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He recounted his will to survive during the infamous “death march” and his joy at being liberated by the U.S. Army from Buchenwald in 1945. He also described the cattle cars taking Jews to the concentration “death camps,” impossible work conditions, the anxiety of being separated from family and his rights of citizenship and his ability to go to school revoked by his country’s government.
After the presentation, students were able to ask Irving questions, which included whether he was branded with a number, why he decided to come to America, and the fate of his parents and older brother.
Photo courtesy of the Bellmore School District
