link to interview with a local resident daughter of a Holocaust survivor--we must never forget!
Interview with local resident who tells story of being a daughter of a Holocaust Survivor
We must never forget. Glad that local residents are telling their family stories
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Greenburgh wants to preserve history. Rabbi Mara Young of Woodlands Community Temple continues to host interesting Holocaust living history interviews with children of Holocaust survivors. Nancy Oren is Rabbi Mara’s most recent guest. ?The interview focusing on Nancy Oren’s dad can be watched by clicking onto the link below:
Aaron Sibirski, Nancy's ?father, was only 11 when the Holocaust began. The youngest of his family, and a twin, he didn’t understand the ramifications of what was happening in his native Poland and the surrounding countries. When his oldest sister, who was a member of the Communist party, fled to Russia on a train with his twin sister, Aaron hid on the train to be with them. When he became separated from his oldest sister, he and his twin spent the next several years in orphanages, hiding in forests, eating scraps of food where they could find them, and occasionally getting help from strangers. Though he eventually reunited with his older sister after the war, he never saw the rest of his family again.
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He never talked about his experience, though he did have an innate sense of his Judaism, which is why Nancy's parents enrolled her in Jewish day school. He maintained a connection to Judaism, its traditions and culture, through me. It’s important to remember what Nancy's father, and all Holocaust survivors, went through, not only because we must never let this happen again, but because we carry that trauma within ourselves. As a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma (among other issues), Nancy understand the impact of long-term, generational trauma. While it is sometimes difficult, it is so important for her to talk about her father’s experience with her children, and pass along that history so that his legacy is about speaking up against injustice in any form.
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As Rabbi Mara put it “As Holocaust survivors age and die, the responsibility for telling the stories lies with the next generation - more specifically, the family members of the survivors. But it's not as easy as just telling the story - there's a lot of generational traumas wrapped up in it as well.” More interviews are being produced in the coming months and will be shared with the community.
Am grateful to Rabbi Mara and to local families for telling their stories.?
PAUL FEINER.