As part of a nationwide college tour to promote peace, a Jewish Holocaust survivor shared her story Tuesday to a standing-room only crowd in the Baker University Center Theatre.
Wanda Wolosky survived living in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during World War II when she was 9 years old. On April 19, 1943, almost 1,000 Jews in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto revolted against their German perpetrators with homemade pistols and revolvers.
Though she was never shipped to a concentration camp, living in Warsaw was still difficult because of her religious beliefs, Wolosky said.
“If there was any sickness, they would blame the Jews,” she said. “If there were any children that went missing, they would blame the Jews. Nobody wanted the Jews. Nobody cared about the Jews.”
Chaos most accurately describes the memories during her time at Warsaw, Wolosky said.
“One day I woke up and saw bombs were falling down,” she said. “People running and screaming. Many searched for their families. Skies were red because the ghetto was burning. Children and human skeletons lined the streets, dying from starvation.”
To avoid being sent to a concentration camp, Wolosky and her mother were constantly moving from place to place.
“Six-thousand people boarded the trains everyday,” she said. “Many would board and never came back. We didn’t know where they were going. My mother and I were lucky. We didn’t hear about the death camps until after the war.”
Thirteen years after Russian forces came and liberated Warsaw in 1944, Wolosky came to the United States and now resides in Arizona.
Though the violence and discrimination was hate-filled, Wolosky hopes to send a message of peace to the people she speaks to about her experiences.
Wanda’s personal testimony was touching and inspiring, said Tori Muilenburg, a freshman whose major is undecided.
“I’ve visited a concentration camp and got the same impact as I did from visiting to where I’m listening to Wanda’s story,” Muilenburg said. “It opened my eyes that these things happened. It could’ve happened now, and it could’ve happened to me.”
Ohio University has a Jewish population of up to 600 students.
The personal account of the Holocaust advocates an important message for students in middle school and even in college, said Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, associate director of OU’s Multicultural Center.
“Bullying in schools is on the rise,” Chunnu-Brayda said. “Wanda pushes for students who are just standing by to step in and stand up against injustice.”
As the audience rose and gave Wolosky a standing ovation after she finished her testimony, Wolosky left with a final message.
“Hatred would’ve destroyed me,” Wolosky said. “If you see someone who needs help, help them. If you see someone who is weak, stand up for him. You are the next generation to carry my story. Please defend it.”
hy135010@ohiou.edu
