At some point, the majority of people learn about the Holocaust and the mass genocide that occurred but rarely does anyone hear about the survivors.
Dr. Sheryl Needle Cohn, a UCF instructor in the College of Education, presented a lecture on “Stories of Survival” Thursday morning in Classroom Building 1. Her presentation was part of the Judaic Studies Distinguished Lecture Series.
The lecture took place during Dr. Moshe Pelli’s Literature of the Holocaust class but was open to the UCF community.
“Stories of survival [is] something we are doing in this course since we are trying to understand a nature of survival and what it means to actually hear more about it,” said Dr. Pelli as he introduced Dr. Cohn.
Dr. Cohn talked about four different survival stories that were included in her book, The Boy in the Suitcase: Holocaust Family Stories of Survival. The title is inspired from the concluding story in the book.
Dr. Cohn also has ties to the Holocaust, as some of her extended-family members were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen German Roving Troop C. The Einsatzgruppen preceded the extermination camps and Dr. Cohn stresses the point that anyone who learns about the Holocaust must also learn about these original roving troops.
The audience was impressed with how much research Dr. Cohn had done and the stories that she shared.
Teresa Bui, a junior psychology major, said hearing about actual survival stories is very different than just learning about the history of the Holocaust.
“I feel like most people don’t do the act of research themselves. So someone is there to tell them the stories. It’s kind of keeping the memory alive instead of just setting it to the side,” Bui said.
Chase Thomas, a freshman business major, felt a connection to hearing the survival stories because his grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
“I was pretty astonished at how crazy these stories were and what these people had to undergo,” Thomas said.
Through telling these stories, Dr. Cohn hopes that those who learn about the Holocaust will know of the survivors as well. She notes that there were people who were advocates for the Jewish community.
“That not everyone looked the other way. That not everyone was evil. That not everyone embraced fascism. That there were people that understood that this was wrong and they were willing to stand up,” Dr. Cohn said.
Dr. Cohn wanted to make sure that her audiences walk away with the reality of these stories and the impact they have on our world.
Victoria Shirah, a senior history major, also believes it is important for these stories to be shared, especially with younger generations.
She’s a firm believer in the saying: those who don’t know history are bound to repeat history.
“I do think that something like this could happen again,” Shirah said.
Dr. Cohn said that generations are still effected by the trauma and suffering that those before them experienced from the Holocaust.
“It has a ripple effect. It doesn’t end with those that died or even survived in the Holocaust. That it has effects on the next generation as well. But I made an effort to end every chapter with a positive up-beat story about what’s happening now so that people understand that people have the ability [to] heal, move on and do wonderful things,” Dr. Cohn said.
