Shoah witness at HAFTR

HAFTR’s twelfth graders were honored this week with a visit by Dr. Michael Szenberg who came to discuss some of his experiences during the Holocaust. As a young boy he hid in an attic for 18 months; afterward, when he was a noted “ping-pong” champion, he was recruited by the Israeli Mosad. 

For the year and a half he hid with his parents, sister and a family friend, he was forced to spend virtually all his time lying prone, for fear of being discovered. With no food to be had, the Szenbergs all shared one slice of bread per day. When a young Michael came out of hiding, he was, in his description, “a malnourished midget.”

Dr. Szenberg related that near the end of the war, the people in whose home they were hiding hosted a major party and had 50 guests over. The Szenbergs remained quiet and still to avoid being detected, but at the end of the evening, the drunk host invited everyone up to his attic to view the “zoo” he had hidden upstairs. When they realized how many gentiles had seen them, the Szenbergs were convinced they were doomed — certainly, at least one of the people among the guests would report them to the authorities, and they would unceremoniously be taken and killed.

Tearfully, they said their goodbyes, but miraculously no one told. After the war, the Szenberg family honored their host by enlisting them with Yad Vashem’s Righteous Gentiles. 

Immediately after the war, said Dr. Szenberg, Polish gentiles continued to kill Jewish survivors on a daily basis. One day, he was accosted by two Polish officers who demanded to know the Szenberg family’s whereabouts. Eleven-year-old Michael realized the potential danger of showing them his family’s hiding place and led them in the wrong direction. Even as a small child, he had the sense to understand that “If I was going to die anyway, why should my entire family be killed as well?” As far as how he survived, he simply explains that he repeatedly saw the Hand of Hashem throughout the war. 

A witty and entertaining speaker, Dr. Szenberg has published numerous books on economics and other topics. He told the HAFTR students to always look forward, and not to allow a setback to get in their way.

He said that as they move on in life, they should not follow the latest fad but rather stay connected to Judaism. Throughout history, he said, those who ran after the latest fad perished, while the authentic Jews endured.