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Weitz shares Holocaust anecdotes, hope for future

By Tue Tran, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, on November 17, 2009 10:46 PM

By Tue Tran, Editor-in-Chief -

With World War II on many minds due to the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Holocaust survivor and poet Sonia Weitz continued this train of thought by recounting her experiences Tuesday to a packed audience in McGuinn 121.

Weitz started the evening by playing her film I Promise I Would Tell, in which she told her story of surviving the Krakow ghetto and four concentration camps as a young girl. Loss was a prominent theme, as Weitz related the separation of her family and the deaths of her parents.

But hope and faith were also apparent in her narrative as she was reunited with her sister and went on to be a champion of human rights.

Weitz recited a few of her poems, some of which were written as a young child in the camps and were embedded into her memory when paper was not permitted. Writing poetry helped her convey her thoughts on the Holocaust when simple words could not be found.

The poem “Victory” is about dancing with her father in a camp to a tune that his bunkmate played. “You whispered, ‘Little one, let us dance. We may not have another chance,’”

Later in life, Weitz asked what type of God would allow the Holocaust to occur.

“Like most survivors, I’ve had my battle with God,” she said. “Most survivors have had a faith crisis.”

But this would make her raise the same question about bystanders of the Holocaust.

In her poem “Where Was Man,” she talks about no longer questioning God about what had occurred and starting to ask why there was not more support from her fellow man.

Blame was a subject brought up, particularly that of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust. While the Church could have done more to help, Weitz made it clear that many other groups could have helped more as well, including the Allied forces and the Jewish community in America. “If you’re not part of the solution,” Weitz said, “you’re part of the problem.”

This topic of the bystander was central to her presentation, especially in the context of today’s world. “I used to say, ‘Never again,’ but I don’t anymore,” Weitz said. “Because it is happening again.”

When asked specifically about the genocide in the Sudan, Weitz said, “For me, I never expected to witness another genocide… My generation did a bad job.”

Weitz spoke of her belief in the younger generations to stop genocides from occurring and to help bring about peace in places like the Middle East. “I have hope for your generation,” she said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

Kristin Borrero, CSOM ’11, attended this event her freshman year but decided to come again this year. “I’m taking Modern History, and we read a book about World War II,” Borrero said. “So I wanted to hear about the Holocaust and her side of the story. It came at the perfect time.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Emerging Leader Program, the Presidential Scholars Program, BC Hillel, and the Jenks Leadership Program.