Holocaust survivor Moshe Baran spoke at Tufts Hillel last night on his experience during Nazi occupation of Poland as part of the Cummings / Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education.
Baran, and his story of determination, survival and courage, came at a time of remembrance for the Jewish community - only a few days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, according to Tufts Against Genocide co-President Sofi Shield.
Shield, who has brought her grandparents and grand aunt - all Holocaust survivors - to speak at Tufts, said she was particularly honored to give that same opportunity to senior Jeremy Rosenblatt, Baran's grand nephew.
Baran, speaking to an overflowing audience, began by quickly recounting a bit of Jewish history, which he finds helpful for giving his experience context.
He then described how life was once the Nazis arrived in his hometown of Horodok, Poland in the spring of 1942. His family was forced to move into a ghetto called Krasne, where he worked 12-hour shifts that consisted of laying railroad ties to build a supply line to the Eastern Front.
"I'm looking for words because whenever you want to talk about the Holocaust - what happened - words that describe that situation are not in the dictionary," Baran said.
Baran gave details about what it was like to be a young person in the ghetto and the decisions he made that led to his escape.
"The question for us young people was, 'What do we do?'" he said. "If we try to do something, try to escape or obtain weapons, our families, the population, will pay the price for it."
Eventually, he found a woman who knew of a group of Jewish families who were in hiding in the forest. After digging under the ghetto fence and walking 15 or more miles to escape, he was able to stay in hiding for two years.
"I looked up at the sky and I took a deep breath and, for the first time in 18 months, I felt free," he said.
Baran went on to eventually participate in the resistance movement. He helped sabotage railways, plant explosives, ambush German trucks and cut their supply lines. He even confronted German soldiers in a gun battle.
Finding rational answers to what happened is impossible, he said, because the logic used by the perpetrators to justify their actions was senseless.
"I never used the word 'died,'" Baran said. "They didn't die. Dying is normal. They were killed. They were murdered."
Baran said that while his mother, father and sister were all also able to escape the ghetto, there are people who will never be recovered.
"When you write the history of this event, you can write a history of the perpetrators," he said. "You can write a history of the bystanders, a history of the collaborators. You can write a history of the survivors, but you cannot write the history of those who were murdered because their history was individual."
After the war, Baran spent some time in a refugee camp, where he met his wife. In 1950, he came to the United States and lived in New York for forty years. He recently went back to his hometown in Poland, where his story first started.
"Imagine this," he said. "I'm there in 2010, some 60 years later, standing in the same place where I was a slave laborer in 1943, with my daughter and two grandchildren. Looking at this place now, there's no words to describe the emotions."
Baran's goal is to make his history known in order to encourage people to get involved and be responsive to their world. It may just take a smile to a stranger to start a ripple effect of positivity, he said.
"My inspiration is to ... make people be aware, to prevent any beginning of hate," he said.
Baran said that if people live life like their goals have been reached, they will become their reality. He added that students should remember to be active, and not apathetic, in moments of concern.
"I want to make sure that you appreciate the country you're living in," he said. "Something that you have is hard to appreciate. Your role is to be involved. Don't be a bystander to things that are happening. Don't be passive. Passivity is the way the dictators take over power."
Rabbi Jeffery Summit said that Baran's visit is especially important when considering how little time is left for students to hear directly from survivors.
"We are in such an important time right now," he said. "Part of what we're doing through our Holocaust and genocide education is making sure that as many people as possible have first hand experiences with people who are survivors."
Tufts Against Genocide brings a Holocaust survivor to campus every year and sponsors events that invite survivors of the Holocaust and other genocide to attend, Shield said.
"Especially as the number of survivors grows smaller, it falls on the younger generations to become advocates and fighters for justice, tolerance and truthful remembrance," Shield said.
