GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Holocaust survivor Leah Goltzman (right) speaks after Kasandra Trevino asked her if she had a tattoo on her arm Wednesday at the Jewish Community Center. Goltzman said she did not have numbers on her arm, because she was not in a death camp.
A room full of junior high school students sat and listened attentively while Leah Goltzman shared her childhood story.
The 78-year-old Holocaust survivor told about 130 Banquete Junior High School students at the Jewish Community Center to never take freedom for granted.
Their eyes widened as the Poland native talked about moving from town to town with her parents, hiding, living in bunkers and going hungry during World War II.
“We have to remember what happened in Europe in the 20th century,” Goltzman said. “This generation has to understand how fortunate they are and that the Holocaust did not just happen in a book. It was for real. It happened to me.”
Goltzman let the sixth and seventh grade students visit with her and ask questions.
For about 30 minutes students lined up to talk to Goltzman.
Audrey Brown, 13, said she asked Goltzman if she would change the past and what she went through.
“She said no, because she wants to tell people about it so it doesn’t happen again,” Brown said. “I knew very little about the Holocaust and it makes me proud about the way we live now but it makes me sad they had to go through that.”
Banquete Junior High School English teacher Kelli Salinas said the school takes students every year to the Jewish Community Center to hear Goltzman speak.
Salinas said the students have been reading books about World War II and the Holocaust including “The Devil’s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolen and “Cezanne is Missing” by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi professor Frank N. McMillan III.
“Listening to her story gives them an open door into seeing what it was really like as a Jew during World War II,” Salinas said. “Reading it and seeing it in a movie is one thing but to actually hear somebody describe it and what they actually went through is a whole different story for them.”
Manuela Sela, Jewish Community Center Pre-School director, said she would encourage other school officials to have Goltzman speak to students to teach them about what people went through in other countries.
“It’s very important for children to hear this because they are already the third generation after the Holocaust happened,” said Sela, who is from the Netherlands. “People forget what happened. They need to know that to make the world a better place it starts with ourselves.”
Goltzman closed her talk by introducing the students to her longtime friend, Susan Thiem of Germany.
She told the students to stop hate, it starts with them.
“Don’t hold grudges against anyone,” Goltzman said. “Here we are, a Jewish woman and a German woman and we do not dwell on the past. If you carry grudges with you then you are damaging the world.”
Originally published HERE.
