Holocaust Remembrance Week to Include Talk by Concentration Camp Survivor

Date: 04/19/07   
Contact: Marc Lebovitz
 

Szlamek Sammy Rzeznik was only 4 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. Both his parents and five siblings ended up being killed in the Treblinka death camp and Sammy spent four years in concentration camps in Demblin and Czestochowa.

He and his sister Sara were among only 20 children in Demblin and five in Czestochowa and were protected from death only by their older sister, Rosa. Post-war, Rosa and her husband, living in Vienna, decided that Sammy and Sara should be adopted in the United States. A couple in the Chicago suburbs adopted Sammy, who became Sammy Harris.

Holocaust child survivor Sam Harris will speak on his experiences at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 3, in Schroeder 130 as part of Holocaust Remembrance Week at Illinois State University.

Admission is free and open to the public, sponsored by ISU Hillel - Jewish Student Union.

Harris, who splits his residences between Arizona and the Chicago suburbs, is president of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. He is the author of the book, Sammy: Child Survivor of the Holocaust, and continues to speak extensively on the local and state level about his experiences and lessons of the Holocaust. He wrote the book in order to help keep alive the memory of what happened to European Jews during the Holocaust, especially in the face of revisionists who claim the Holocaust never happened or that stories about it are simply propaganda.

When he was adopted, Harris pushed his memories out of his mind, never talking about his experiences. He graduated from college and became a successful businessman. But with the support and encouragement of his wife, Harris allowed his memories to return and eventually visited Europe, including Germany, with his wife and two children.

These days, he spends his time writing and speaking to interested groups and schools about his wartime experiences.

Other activities planned as part of Holocaust Remembrance Week are the annual 24-hour reading on the Quad of 300,000 concentration camp victims names throughout Monday, April 30, beginning at midnight Sunday; from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday on the Schroeder Plaza, students will pass out stickers in memory of the Holocaust and will be collecting 1.5 million pennies symbolizing the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed in camps; showing the documentary Partisans of Vilna at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Capen Auditorium, about Jewish resistance groups during WWII; Harris speech at 7 p.m. Thursday; and Shabbat (Sabbath) services at 6 p.m. Friday at the Campus Religious Center, 210 W. Mulberry in Normal, followed by dinner and a discussion about the Holocaust.