Holocaust survivors share images of 'horror'

By Allison Sundaram

Two Holocaust survivors shared their stories and stressed the importance of love and tolerance to overcome hate in a panel discussion last week.

In conjunction with the De Saisset Museum, Helen Farkas and Neelie Langmuir participated in a panel about Holocaust memories.

"The only way we can keep the world going is to be tolerant," said Farkas.

Evvy Eisen, the photographer whose work, Multiply "I'm so glad I have made these images," she said. "They stand witness to a horror that will never happen again."

Born in Romania, Farkas was forced to live in a Jewish ghetto in 1942. In 1944, she was taken to Auschwitz.

"They used cattle cars. They locked us in, 80 or 90 of us," she said. "What do you do when nature calls? I leave you to think of what it was like."

Farkas was imprisoned in Auschwitz at the age of 24. She was one of only 100 young adults to survive a death march of 2000 people to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

After being liberated by the Americans, she returned to her Romanian home to find her country under Communist control. She escaped from the Iron Curtain with her husband and came to the United States in the 1960s.

Langmuir was a child during the war. Born and raised in Paris, she lived under the Vichy regime. She attended a private school, and recalled her teacher's reaction after she was forced to wear the Star of David.

"I went to school with the star," she said. "Our teacher Madame Chastel made a speech and said she would not tolerate any discrimination."

Neighbors took Langmuir and her sister in and helped to smuggle her parents out of Vichy-controlled France into the countryside. Langmuir followed, but went with her sister to a different place than their parents, staying with a large family that had many children.

She said that the family took her and her sister in as their own, including making matching pink dresses for all the girls in the family.

"We all went to church every Sunday," she said. "They went to confession, but my sister and I did not. Nobody denounced us. The priest knew we were Jewish. The nuns gave me and the oldest daughter private lessons. The nuns knew my sister was not Catholic, they taught her the sign of the cross, backwards, so that she could do it."

Farkas' experiences stood in contrast.

"Only one German ever helped us. Most were too scared. In my hometown nobody said a word. It was okay with them," she said.

Despite the horrors she experienced, Farkas emphasized the philosophy she lives her life by, the power of love.

"I don't hate the Germans," she said. "I don't hate anybody. The only solution for this world is if we love. Tolerance is the solution. Yes, there are bad people, so try to persuade them to be as good as you are."

The Jewish Student Union holds Holocaust commemoration events every year. JSU President Katherine Wampler says that the events have been more visible this year because of the Holocaust display and associated events sponsored by De Saisset.

Wampler stressed the importance of remembering the Holocaust, and the lessons students can learn from the stories.

"I think the biggest thing is learning about how to identify your own indifference and apathy and kind of focus on what's going on in the world around you," she said.

Senior Khin Hnin Phyu attended the panel as part of her religious studies class, and was touched by Farkas' ability to forgive.

"All I've learned from class is how people blame each other. But this is totally different; she says the solution is love. It's totally different from what I've been hearing," she said.

Langmuir was able to reunite with the family that had taken in and sheltered her and her sister during the war years. In 1998 she attended a reunion with the entire family. "We remembered the pink dresses," she said.

Farkas maintains committed to sharing her story, even as she grows older. "I want to do this as long as I still have a breath in me. I'm still young -- only 85!"

Contact Allison Sundaram at (408) 554-4546 or at asundaram@scu.edu.