Survivor stories recall gruesome historical event

Though more than 1.5 million Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust, Margaret Goldberger considers herself one of the lucky ones.

At 13, Goldberger’s parents saved her from slaughter by putting her on a train to England in what is known as the Kindertransport, a rescue mission prompted by British Jewish leaders that permitted nearly 10,000 Jewish children be brought to the United Kingdom from Nazi occupied countries during World War II.

“Families had to make sacrifices,” Goldberger said. “But it was better to get one family member to safety rather than none.”

Goldberger, a Hicksville resident, spoke at the fourth annual Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 19 in the county’s legislative chamber at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive Building in Mineola. Each year, on the 27th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, people gather to remember the approximately six million Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust.

Nassau County Legislator Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence), who co-hosted the event with fellow legislator Judi Bosworth, believes its possible to overcome hatred and ignorance that caused horrific historical events such as the Holocaust through education. “We all need to resolve that we have to teach our children, neighbors and friends about the dangers of ignorance and discrimination against people who don’t look and talk like you,” he said. “The damage discrimination does is not only to the victims but to the haters themselves.”

Despite never meeting her half-sister Erika, Edith Polak, the executive director of the Five Towns Jewish Council in Woodmere, lit two candles, one in memory of Erika and the other for her grandparents Sara and Herman Polak, during the candle lighting ceremony.

According to Polak, Erika was taken to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp, in 1944. It was nearing the end of the war and there was a shortage of gas. The Nazis loaded small children on a truck and took them to a ditch where they were burned alive. “After the war, the only picture my dad had of his immediate family was a picture of his little girl Erika,” she said. “He was buried with it when he passed away, since that was her only burial place. I owe it to them and to the more than 1 million children [who were killed] to keep their memories alive.”

County Executive Edward Mangano said it’s important to remember the memories of those who were lost in the Holocaust. “It’s critical to hold local events and celebrate survivors,” he said. “The only way to prevent such an atrocity from happening again is to pass the [stories] along to your children.”

Rebecca Yadgarov, a junior at Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett, was moved to tears while listening to the inspiring stories of survivors. “If people forget them, they might start to deny that the Holocaust ever happened and it could happen again,” she said. “You have to learn from the past and tell their stories.”