The Last Generation The Last Generation

Mark Schonwetter was a young child in Brzostek, Poland, when Germany invaded, and his family was forced out of their home. After his father was taken by the Gestapo, Mark fled along with his mother and sister. They spent time in a nearby ghetto and then went into hiding in the Polish countryside, where they remained for three years. By the end of the war, Mark was one of only a few surviving Jews from Brzostek.

Hate is an issue that we face today as a society. When it seems like we are moving towards a better, more humane understanding world, we still encounter individuals who are racist, spread messages of hate, and are supported by followers who emulate and cheer them.

We have already witnessed the destructive consequences of these hateful words and leadership, yet it appears that some have not learned from history. Education is the best tool we have to fight hate and teach new generations to build a more just and inclusive society based on memory. Listening to and learning from the stories of those who came before us enables us to comprehend their experiences and avoid repeating historical mistakes.

This live episode is a special collaboration with The Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation. 

Mark and his family join us to tell their story, educate, and set an example of resilience.

Anti-Semitism is not an isolated event on the other side of the world. Today, we see the consequences of hate more clearly. Jews, Muslims, Christians, and atheists, are all affected by hate in different areas around the globe. Anti-Semitism and hatred are not a problem for Jews, nor for Israel, nor for holocaust survivors only. This is everyone's problem.

These days, we are surprised by the amount of anti-Semitic comments we read on social media from people justifying the horror that is happening. Today, we see them, and we pay attention to them because the majority of people condemn war and hate, and we cannot understand how anyone can justify this. But the reality is that they are always among us.

Our contribution today is to deconstruct all those messages and confront people who speak from hatred and ignorance. Spread accurate information, listen to those affected, and understand that racism and anti-Semitism are everyone's problems. Hate begins with ideas and words, with a joke that you may think is innocent, and it turns into prejudice, insult, and explicit discrimination. And the path to the worst consequences we have seen throughout history and are seeing again today is not that long.

Rosalie was born in 1931 in Velka-Kriva, Czechoslovakia. She was the

youngest of six children, five girls, and one boy.

"During Passover of 1944, she and her family were deported to a ghetto. After 2 months in the Ghetto, Rosalie and her family were transferred to a concentration camp." 

Her family was divided into different lines, each line would determine if they would be dead or alive in a matter of seconds. 

Rosalie's love for her siblings and the idea of being all together as a family is what saved her from the gas chambers. Sadly, her mother and brother were killed.

All five sisters, Helen, Charlotte, Lenka, Rajzi, and Rosalie, survived together, and were later reunited with their father. 

Rosalie has dedicated herself to teaching her story to others, believing she

is the voice for all those silenced by the Nazis. She currently lives in New York.

We barely stop and take a moment to feel grateful for our siblings. Rosalie's love for her siblings, it's what saved her life from being killed in the gas chambers. 

On January 6th, 2023, Rosalie got together with his grandkids Jared, Daniel, Erik & Matthew to talk about how surviving the Holocaust changed her life forever. That experience changed the way she raised her children.

She emphasized how important it was for her that her children had a higher education, something the Nazis took away from her growing up. 

Until today, 79 years after Rosalie was put in the cattle car to Auschwitz, she still gets transported back there whenever she hears a train whistle.

“One person at a time”, says Rosalie Simon. It is important that as a community, we can get to tell our story one person at a time, and that those who still don´t know, believe, deny or promote what happened during the Holocaust, learn, know and collaborate with memory. Because knowledge of history and memory are what save us from the horror happening again.

There are many people who still don´t know this part of history, and that is why, each person with a Jewish identity understands and learns from a very young age that they have a duty greater than all the rest, to be proud of that identity, of the strength of their ancestors, and to communicate, so that strength continues to live. Because there is a collective history that precedes our individual history.

We fight ignorance and discrimination with pride, courage, and teaching who we are and what our community has faced. And because of that, each testimony that we hear from our grandparents, who lived it first hand are the most valuable treasure. We will continue transmitting them, because we are the last generation to hear it from their own words.

Kristine and Marian Keren´s stories are two tales of heroism and strength during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Kristine was born on October 28th, 1935. She was just eight when she had to find refuge with her mom, dad, and younger brother. Her story is unlike many, as Kristine and her family, helped by sewer worker Leopold Socha hide under the sewer system for 14 months. Sadly, Socha passed away right after saving the Keren family. 

Marian was born on July 8th,1935; his story is one almost all of us are familiar with: Schindler's List. Marian's parents had no choice but to leave him with their
housekeeper, knowing it was the only way to save him. Undoubtedly, the hardest decision a parent could ever face. 

Marian's new mom Ianina Nikolaievich started working as Oscar Schindler's housekeeper. One day, the SS came looking for the hidden Jewish boy and they had to prove that Marian was her kid with a made-up story, which saved his life.  

Kristine & Marian met as teenagers after the war had ended. Years later, they met again, this time in Israel, and they got married in the 60s after reconnecting
at a party. They moved to the United States in 1968. 

Together they had two sons, Doron and Roger, and the family kept growing; now Kristine and Marian have five grandkids.   

Both stories are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of incredible adversity.

Rachel remembers vividly the day the French police knocked on her door Sunday, July 19th, 1942, in her tiny french village, Compiegne. They were looking to arrest her parents because they were Jewish, and that was the last day Rachel and Leon saw their parents ever again.

When we think of the Holocaust, we think of the tragic stories, the survivors who have been part of deadly concentration camps, and the survivors who escaped that horror. Ruth wouldn’t call herself a survivor, and she felt ashamed to take away from the people that had a worse experience than her. Her grandchildren reminded her that what she lived through is also surviving and that her bravery is one of the things they admire most about her.

For most of us, our first 4 years of life are built with happy memories. For Michael those memories are summarized in a picture with striped pajamas outside of Auschwitz.
Michael and his three young grandchildren (Allie, JT & Jack) talked about how education was vital for his family even more after the war. Michael started talking about the Holocaust to remind us that is still happening today to all kind of minorities around the world.
Only 52 children under 8 years of age survived Auschwitz. Michael was one of them, he was only 4 years old when he was taken to the camp. He spent most of the time there, hiding in the women’s room, where his mom and grandmother protected him.
Sadly his father and brother died in the Nazi gas chambers.
After living for several years in displaced camps, Michael moved to NY at the age of 10.
It wasn’t easy as he lived paycheck to paycheck, working for 25 cents an hour to help his mom in any way he could; after so much hardship he received a Ph.D. and worked for companies such as J&J.
Michael feels lucky that his mother was always looking forward to the future with optimism and emphasized how important education was.
He says that if he ever found himself face-to-face with a nazi he would like him to know that evil didn’t win. The best revenge would be to let him know  he lived a life full of happiness.