Remembering the Holocaust

(Sally Frishberg came to Roanoke last month to meet with local students. She was a Holocaust survivor. This story was written for but never made it into the Roanoke Star-Sentinel.)

Holocaust survivor tells Roanokers: never forget the Holocaust

By Gene Marrano

Emigrating from Poland after World War II, Sally Frishberg didn’t speak much about the two years her family hid from the Nazis, protected by a sympathetic Catholic townsman. Frishberg, a retired high school teacher from Brooklyn (she taught history and Holocaust studies) only opened up many years later and now speaks to groups, often to young people, about a time the world should not forget.

Frishberg was in Roanoke recently, visiting schools, speaking to students at all grade levels. This was her second visit to the valley – she studied at Hollins College with an NEA grant 20 years ago.

Now a volunteer at a Jewish heritage museum in New York, Frishberg also spoke at Temple Emmanuel and attended a Roanoke Symphony Orchestra concert, a program filled with music written by Jewish composers that had been interred in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. She spoke at the end of the Jefferson Center program.

“The night we landed [in New York] my Uncle told my father ‘you must forget about the past,” recalls Frishberg, “you lived through hell, but now you’re in America.” She overheard that conversation and took it to heart.” In general there was “a conspiracy of silence,” where no one seemed to talk about the planned extermination of Jews and others by the Nazis. Frishberg also felt “shame” that human beings could behave that way.

Some were protected, like the Frishberg family, which lost three family members while in hiding. “I don’t think enough were [hidden]. My generation is missing. The Nazis killed the children. We served no purpose.” Students she speaks to now ask her how the family survived two years in an attic – they had to crawl out when liberated by the Russians because their legs had atrophied from lack of use. She wishes more asked about how to prevent hatred and war. “I’d like to hear questions like that [but] I have absolute faith in America’s young people.”

Her trip started with the North Cross middle school class and ended at Patrick Henry. In between she also visited Hidden Valley Middle, William Byrd High School, Penn Forest Elementary and several other schools. Students at William Fleming High School performed an interpretive dance about the Holocaust, with Frishberg in attendance. “It’s a wonderful way to reach youngsters,” she said of arts-related programs about the Holocaust.

Frishberg isn’t sure if the world has fully grasped the lessons of World War II: “I am very discouraged by how little learning there has been, but when I speak to young people that changes. I feel vibes that are very positive. They want to learn [and] have a safer future.” That was Sally Frishberg’s message to young Roanokers.