Irene Butter told Perrysburg Junior High School students Wednesday to never be a bystander.
“That means that we can't turn our backs when things happen that are unjust, mean, evil,” the Holocaust survivor said.
“All human beings are cut from the same cloth and it doesn't matter what color, ethnicity, religion, or gender [we are],” said Ms. Butter, a retired University of Michigan economics professor. “If we open ourselves to meet the other, we'll find out that the differences between us are far smaller than what we have in common.”
She was speaking to about 400 eighth graders at Perrysburg Junior High as part of an English Language Arts curriculum on the Holocaust.
Leo Crawford, 14, one of the attending students, said the message rang true to him.
“I think it's important to step up and not just watch if you happen to see something that's not right,” he said. “It really puts today's world into perspective... For example, how bullying affects a lot of people and how important it is to stand up to bullies.”
Katrina Kamelesky, 13, said she also agreed with the message.
“Especially if bullying is going on, you need to step in and help, because there is a lot of bullying going on at schools,” she said, adding that she doesn't see “much bullying” at Perrysburg Junior High.
“I think we are pretty good at respecting each other,” she said.
Hindea Markowicz coordinated the event as director of the Ruth Fajerman Markowicz Holocaust Resource Center of Greater Toledo. She introduced Ms. Butter to the audience and summarized the story told by Ms. Butter in her book Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story.
In a 60-minute talk, Ms. Butter told her story, including the account of the time she spent in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Ms. Butter said her worst experience there was facing the death of “so many people,” cruelty of the camp staff, and an “unending anxiety” from not knowing what would happen next.
“Every time I woke up [in the camp], I found dead people... but after awhile you get used to it,” she said.
Born in Berlin in 1930, Ms. Butter moved to Holland with her family in 1937 in an attempt to escape Nazi persecution. While there, her family became briefly acquainted with another German family in exile, the Franks, and their daughter Anne Frank.
After Germany occupied Holland, Ms. Butter’s family was deported in June 1943 to Westerbork, a transit camp. Then, in February, 1944, the family was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
In early 1945, Ms. Butter’s family managed to be included in an exchange transport, using falsified Ecuadorian passports. During the transport, Ms. Butter's father died, with the rest of the family sent to North Africa and then exchanged for German nationals interned in the United States. After the war ended, the family moved to New York City.
Megan Helman, Perrysburg Junior High English teacher, said her students are very interested in the topic of the Holocaust and feel a deep connection with survivors’ personal stories, some of which they've read as part of their curriculum.
“To actually hear from a Holocaust survivor helps [the students] to better understand what they have already read and to bring an additional insight into the Holocaust through a survivor's perspective,” she said.
Ms. Markowicz said it “behooves us” to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust so that they are not repeated.
“As Americans and as citizens of an interdependent world, we must exercise unyielding vigilance to make certain that our society's advances are harnessed to moral purposes... A key lesson of the Holocaust is that the momentary will of the majority does not always transfer into good law.”
In May, many of the attending students will go on a trip to Washington, D.C., where they will tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Ms. Helman said.
Ms. Butter’s visit was sponsored by Perrysburg Schools Foundation.
Said Ms. Butter: “Students need to learn from that period of history to make sure that things such as white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, persecution, deportation, and separation of children from their families do not repeat.”
First Published March 13, 2019, 9:53 p.m.
