Witness of the Witnesses
Last week our students in Grades 10-12 were given a unique opportunity to hear a presentation given by a survivor of one of the Second World War concentration camps. In this the 70th anniversary of the liberation of those camps, it was fitting that our students, the generation of tomorrow, could hear from one of the remaining survivors of the Holocaust.
This visit was brought about through the initiative of one of our Grade 11 students and has been organized through the association “Zeugen der Zeitzeugen”.
The Holocaust survivor was Mrs. Liesel Binzer who lives in Offenbach. Mrs. Binzer was born in 1936 in Münster. When she was six, she was deported along with her mother and father to Theresienstadt, a combination of a ghetto and concentration camp. Miraculously, all three of them survived and returned home in 1945. Mrs. Binzer described her life in Theresienstadt as well as her life in Münsterland/Westphalia after the war. During her presentation Mrs. Binzer showed the students photographs of her family, most of whom had been killed during the war; she described what it was like to be a child in a concentration camp and then talked about her life after the war, her marriage, her children and her grandchildren.
Mrs. Binzer was accompanied by Alexandra Behns from the association Zeugen der Zeitzeugen – The Witness of the Witnesses, an association that is committed to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, to show survivors respect and appreciation and to fight against all forms of antisemitism and racial discrimination. One way of doing so is through the organization of school visits by Holocaust survivors to schools throughout Germany.
Our students were given the opportunity to ask Mrs. Binzer questions and they did so in a very intelligent and thoughtful manner. At the end of the presentation, students had the opportunity to exchange a few words with Mrs. Binzer in person.
It was a very moving and educational experience and we are very grateful that Mrs. Binzer was able to visit ISF.