Item Photo By OWEN O’ROURKE
An emotional Saul Dreier, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, surrounded by Monika Dane, left, Holocaust Reporations Specialist and Coordinator at the German Consulate of Boston, and State Rep Lori Ehrlich, after giving a speech at the Holocaust plaque presentation at Lynn English High School on Thursday.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — After describing Thursday how death surrounded them daily during the years they survived the Nazis extermination of European Jews, Saul Drier and Reuwen Sosnowicz led an English High School audience in chanting, “Never again.”
Drier is 91 and Sosnowicz, 87, but they were boys in the mid-1940s when they were sent to concentration camps. Drier survived three camps and worked in the factory made famous in the movie, “Schindler’s List.” A misrouted train saved him from being sent to concentration camp gas chambers.
“People every day were killed by gun or by whip in front of my eyes,” he told 750 student and teachers.
Along with Israelis and German consulate representatives, Drier and Sosnowicz — both Florida residents — spoke at English as guests of local participants in the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace.
With offices in Washington, D.C. and Boston, the group’s mission is “…to promote peace at an international level…,” according to its literature. Thursday’s assembly carried the central theme of ensuring the Holocaust and the ensuring murder of millions of Jews and other Europeans deemed undesirable by the Nazis does not occur again.
“Silence is not an option,” Sosnowicz said.
He fled the restricted ghetto the Nazis created in Warsaw and fled to a small Polish town where he hid in a barn, avoiding German army patrols. The town’s residents risked death hiding him but other Poles took the perspective that “it’s just Jews they are killing.”
Echoing the survivors’ words, Anti-Defamation League associate regional director Melissa Garlick warned the student audience that “the Holocaust began with words.” She urged them to guard against prejudice and bigotry.
“Words used in our classrooms, locker rooms — all rooms — have consequences and can be building blocks for hate,” Garlick said.
State Rep. Lori Ehrlich illustrated the Holocaust’s magnitude to students by saying it would take 11 years to honor each Holocaust victim in turn with a minute of silence. Thursday’s speakers concluded their presentation by unveiling four plaques, including two bearing the handprints of Drier and Sosnowicz, their children and grandchildren.
Global Embassy regional coordinator Juan Gonzalez said the plaques will make the rounds of local schools.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].