At 7 and a half years old, you are put on a plane with a group of children, strangers, and sent to live in a foreign country, where you don’t speak the language. Your parents bid you farewell, telling you they will follow. You believe them because you are seven, have never been on a plane, have lots of candy for the ride and have no reason not to believe that everything will be alright. In fact, it is the last time you will ever see your father, you will never see your home again and the cardboard sign around your neck with the name of your host family would be covered in vomit from all that candy by the end of this life changing flight.
The eighth grade class was honored to host Mr. Ralph Samuel last week to hear about his experience as a Jewish child from Germany whose life was saved by the Kindertransport program in 1939. Private citizens in Great Britain were allowed to sponsor Jewish children from Germany after the Nazi’s violent pogrom against the Jews began in 1938. Mr. Samuel left his grandmother’s home in Dresden, where he lived with his parents, aunts and uncles and cousins. The Samuel family had been Dresden residents for 250 years. His home would be destroyed towards the end of the war in a devastating saturation bombing raid of Dresden that leveled the city almost entirely. However, listening to this personal retelling of one of the worst moments in world history was a surprisingly upbeat afternoon.
The students were rapt as Mr. Samuel told of his time in Dresden as a boy, his sudden departure to England, the wonderful Epstein family who saved not only his life, but the life of his mother, who they sponsored to come to London as the family’s domestic servant. When the war broke out, 3.25 million children were evacuated from London to the countryside to live the remainder of the war in relative safety. Mr Samuel recalled his time with seven other children in a large, country Manor house. In a very poignant moment, he remembered the boy who was unkind to him during their stay. All these many years later, set against the backdrop of a World War, it was the simple name calling and cruelty of a boy his age that lingers still.
The class was very moved when Mr. Samuel read the last, Red Cross letter he received from his father before he was murdered at the Auschwitz death camp. In fact, most of the questions asked by our students were about his parents. Missing them, losing them. This group of savvy, Bay area teens focused a good deal of their wonder around how he could survive without parents. Very telling about our young people and where their hearts lie.
They had several, thoughtful questions for Mr. Samuel who challenged them to think about the Nuremberg laws and what would happen here if a group of people were denied all rights. He wanted the class to understand how many countries closed their doors to desperate Jewish families who could have been saved had they been welcomed by anyone. Some of his own family were able to escape to Shanghai, which was one of the only open cities in the world.
The students marveled at his ability to remain positive and talk about this experience with such humor and kindness. Mr. Samuel wanted to be sure they understood that his life had been a blessed one. He found a home here in America which “was and still is the land of Golden opportunity.” Though the number of Jews killed in WWII is equal to all of the people in San Francisco and Oakland combined, Mr. Samuel sees the good in the world and focuses his energies there. As a speaker all over the world, he has opinions on the willingness of nations to accept their role in this devastating history and said he feels most comfortable now in Germany. A place lining it’s streets with Stolperstein. Literally translated as stumble stones, these plaques serve as reminders of those who were lost at the hands of the Nazis.
Mr Samuel loved speaking German with one of our students and discussing his Bar Mitzvah, held in a barn, with a student who recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah. The connections were priceless and brought this stranger’s, foreign and unfathomable experience closer for all of us. He recommended books and movies for those who wanted to learn more. The eighth grade class, having just finished Night by Elie Wiesel, told him about that piece of literature and how it shaped their understanding of the Holocaust. A book that he has not yet been able to read himself.
In the end, Mr. Samuel told the kids that no matter what life hands you, it is within your power to “put a line under your experiences, and get on with your life.” But, he tells his story to students around the world, and will continue to do so. He wants to ensure this story of life and death, bravery and brotherhood, inhumanity and hope is never forgotten. And, mostly, he honors Mr. Epstein. A hero, whose kindness saved not only Ralph Samuel, but the generations of his family that have followed.