Helen Sperling,92, Holocaust survivor.

       “Thou should never be a bystander,” said Helen Sperling, a Holocaust survivor who was 92 and encouraged everyone in attendance to never stand by an injustice. With such a serious topic, she did an amazing job of sharing her story. It was a valuable experience to listen to her recall her experience with Nazi Germans. She referred to them as “ugly” and often made fun of them. In her explanation of her childhood and her family, I was able to see the issues of the holocaust from a person who was a child when it happened.

            Sperling spoke about her experience with being Jewish. She explained that although there were rumors about Germans evacuating Jews with violence, she and her family did not believe. Many Jews at the beginning of the holocaust did not think they would be discriminated against to the extent of being exiled to concentration camps. Sperling said that there were stereotypes about Jews going around; that they were dirty and dumb. Sperling never expressed believing them until later on in her discussion but she said that Jews contributed to the community and did not fit the stereotypes created. I was amazed at the tactic of using stereotypes to breakdown a group of people. Also Jews owned businesses and weren’t dumb or dirty which is why Germans made them wear stars, that way they could distinguish Jews from Germans. A lot of the reason people were found out on being Jews was because of their non-Jew “friends” who gave them up.

                A specific example of non-Jews turning on Jews was her long time childhood friend. Mrs. Sperling went as far as sneaking out of her concentration camp to make a call to wish her friend a Happy Birthday. She called her friend and yelled happy birthday and her “friend” said “don’t call me you dirty Jew.” As a nine year old girl she learned about betrayal and “ugly” people. All of the bad she experienced though never steered her away from being loving and genuine.

In her story she repeats that she was “spoiled” and I thought it was a great to show that Jews like people lived their lives like any one. The reason I also think she mentioned the way her father treated her so often, was because her ability to love and her being loved, granted her survival. In addition to love, she found love in another survivor. The way she spoke about her deceased husband was beautiful; she never replaced her father from her heart but I got the sense that she found characteristics of her father in her husband. She spoke about her night terrors and how her husband was there to wake her up and tell her it was okay. She was that support for him as well. She expresses how because of the holocaust she was not able to have biological children but she adopted. Her daughter was called a “dirty Jew” in school years after and in America. This appalled,  Mrs. Sperling and her husband encouraged her to become a spokesperson on behalf of the holocaust in which she shared her own survival story. She started in her 40’s and decades later she is still educating people about the issue of discrimination and stereotypes.

              I want to just post this because of the significance one life, one experience can make on a group of people. Helen Sperling, is more than just an idol for Jews but an activist and advocate for the acceptance of diversity.