In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hewlett High School freshmen Romy Fruman and Harley Moritz presented their Kindertransport project to students in grades five to seven at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Merrick last week.
Jan. 27 marked 81 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. International Holocaust Remembrance Day was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, and is observed annually on that date, a global reminder of the dangers of hatred, bigotry and antisemitism, according to UN.org.
When the Chabad students took their seats for the presentation on Jan. 28, they found nametags to wear, each with the name of a Kindertransport survivor.
The Kindertransport was a rescue effort that relocated nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish refugee children from Nazi German to Great Britain between December 1938 and May 1940, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
“It was an incredible rescue mission just for kids,” Harley said. “Thousands of kids, mostly Jewish, were sent from dangerous countries such as Germany and Austria to safety in Britain before World War II.”
Parents in those countries were given an option to send their children on the Kindertransport, and possibly never see them again, or keep them with them.
“These children, some as young as 5 years old, had to board trains alone, with only one small suitcase or backpack,” Harley explained.
Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker, organized foster families in Britain, and saved the lives of 669 children that arrived from Czechoslovakia.
“Because he chose to act and not stay silent, those children didn’t just survive,” Romy said. “They grew up to have families of their own. Today there are four generations of families living all across the world because of the children Nicholas Winton saved.”
The girls taught the younger students that one person could change the world, no matter how many people he or she saved.
Years later, the writer Michael Bond was inspired by stories of the Kindertransport to create Paddington Bear, a bear who arrived in England with a similar nametag around his neck that read, “Please look after this bear” — Just like the children who were relocated.
Romy and Harley explained why they were passionate about this chapter of history, and how their interest expanded from a school history project to wanting to educate the next generation about the Holocaust.
“One year ago, this was just supposed to be a history project,” Harley recalled. “We wanted to just get 100 and get the perfect grade. As we researched and started hearing these stories, it became something much bigger.”
They girls interviewed 94-year old Kindertransport survivor Manfred Korman in 2024, and were inspired to continue learning, and created a plan to share survivors’ stories.
“In that moment, we knew we had to be their voices,” Romy said. “Since the beginning of our mission, we have given many presentations and assemblies to keep these voices alive.”
In collaboration with Donna Rosenblum, director of education at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, in Glen Cove, Romy and Harley created an educational packet for fifth- and sixth-grade students. Now 13 school districts on Long Island have begun to implement the lesson into their curriculum.
“We realize that in just a few short years, we will no longer be able to hear these accounts directly from Kindertransport survivors,” Romy said. “Their generation is getting older, and their memory is very precious.”
Chabad students were encouraged to share their families’ stories of survival during the Holocaust, and Gregory Goldman, 11, of Merrick, was the first to raise his hand and stand in front of the gathering.
“My great-grandparents had just got married, and there was an attack by the Nazis in Ludlow, Poland, and they had to escape,” Gregory recounted. “There was a miracle that happened.”
Two German soldiers came into his great-grandparents’ shop, and, Gregory said, his great-grandfather treated them like any other customers. One of the soldiers told him what was going to happen, because he was an “honest Jew.” They were told to leave in one day, because after that, all the Jews in Poland would be killed.
“They got a boat and crossed the river to Russian territory with six other people,” Gregory said. “When they got there, a Russian soldier stopped them. My great-grandparents were honest about why they were there, and were sent to a labor camp in Siberia.”
His great-grandparents spent two years in the labor camp before they were liberated. They returned to Poland, but there the Nazis were still executing Jews. A nun helped them hide, and after the war ended, they received documentation to go to the United States.
“Their presentation encouraged meaningful discussion,” Rabbi Shimon Kramer, of the Chabad Center, said of Romy and Harley. “Students shared family Holocaust stories and spoke openly about antisemitic incidents they encounter today.”
