Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

Holocaust survivor Albert Farhy spoke to students at Canon-McMillan High School about his experience.

Albert Farhy was a child living in Bulgaria when Adolf Hitler came to power. He spoke to Canon-McMillan High School students about his experience. Left is Canon-McMillan High School teacher Meg Pankiewicz, who teaches a Holocaust and genocide elective class at the high school.

Holocaust survivor Albert Farhy

Holocaust survivor Albert Farhy embraces Canon-McMillan High School student Hayden Steele following his discussion with C-M high school students.

Albert Farhy, a Holocaust survivor, meets with Carol Black, who survived the Tree of Life mass shooting in October 2018. Black attended Farhys April 15 lecture at Canon-McMillan High School.

Almost 80 years after millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust, only an estimated 240,000 survivors are still living to share their stories, according to a recent study.

The demographic study, published by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, shows that most of the survivors alive today were children during the Holocaust, as 75% were between the ages of 3 and 12. The number of survivors is dwindling the median age of survivors is 86 years old and 20% of survivors are older than 90.

Thats why its important to hear their stories, says Canon-McMillan High School teacher Meg Pankiewicz, who teaches a Holocaust and genocides studies elective class, referencing a quote by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, author, professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who said, When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.

For the past 20 years, Pankiewicz has welcomed a Holocaust survivor into her classroom to bear witness and provide first-hand testimony of their experiences during the genocide.

On April 15, that eyewitness was Albert Farhy, a 94-year-old resident of Pittsburgh.

Farhy, who was born in Bulgarias capital of Sofia and grew up amid the rise of the Nazi regime, recounted painful, eight-decades-old memories as nearly 100 students listened attentively in the Canon-Mac auditorium.

Also attending Farhys lecture were survivors of the Oct. 27, 2018, Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that claimed 11 lives. The survivors Carol Black and Audrey Glickman, who were inside the synagogue during the shooting and lost loved ones, and Jodi Kart, whose father, Melvin, was killed had spoken to Pankiewiczs Holocaust class students last October.

Farhy recalled the wave of antisemitism that spread like an epidemic across Europe during the rise of Adolf Hitler, starting when he was about 10 years old.

As a child I was walking from school and I was seeing antisemitic graffiti on the walls of the houses, and Hitlers sign, the cross, next to a Jewish star that was crossed out. I felt very depressed during this time, he said.

He recalled hearing noises one night outside the apartment he shared with his family a five-story building in the capital of Bulgaria that was occupied on one side by the Gestapo and on the other side by the government-established ministry for the defense of the nation against Jews looking out the window to see people marching through the streets shouting, Death to the Jews.

It was the most afraid I had ever felt, he said.

Under restrictions of the countrys Defense of the Nation Act, Jews were not allowed outside after 9 p.m., could not attend public school, visit parks, or own businesses. The front door of Jewish homes were required to bear a sign of the Star of David and include the names of all occupants so that when they were deported, everyone was accounted for.

Farhys father, a musician, told him that Bulgarians and Jews had lived in peace, without expressions of antisemitism, before Hitlers ascent.

He said, You might think antisemitism has always been like that, but I never experienced it before like this. It is new to me, also, said Farhy.

At the age of 13, Farhy and his family were forced into a ghetto, and were scheduled to be sent to a concentration camp before their deportation was stopped by brave Bularians in 1943.

Farhy lauded the courage of the Bulgarian people, who defied the Nazi-allied governments plans to surrender its Jews to Germany, and explained how they worked to thwart plans to deport the Jews living inside its borders.

Bulgarians and Jews had lived like brothers, said Farhy. The Bulgarians made petitions against the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps, said Farhy, who noted March 10, 1943 the day he and 30,000 Jews were scheduled to be taken to concentration camps as a second birthday.

On that day, Bulgarians, including religious and political leaders, along with non-Jewish residents, held protests and demonstrations that are credited with saving the lives of Farhy and the other Jews set for deportation.

It was March 10, 1943, when deportation to death camps was aborted, he said.

Farhy also told students about a childhood friend who lived next door. When Bulgaria joined the Axis, Farhy was forced to wear the yellow star on his clothes signifying that he was Jewish. His friend wore the uniform of the fascist party, and the two stopped talking.

After the war, Farhy reconnected with his estranged friend, who expressed remorse for what happened. The two spoke on the phone often until his friend passed away.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis, who were in power between 1933 and 1945. The Nazis also killed Roma people and other minority groups and political enemies during the Holocaust.

Pankiewicz acknowledges that, as the years pass, fewer Holocaust survivors will be around to describe those events first-hand.

Her mission, she said, is to encourage young people to stand united against hatred of any kind during todays contentious and difficult times.

One aspect of (Farhys) story should inspire us to defend any and all sentient beings who are experiencing cruelty, oppression, discrimination, dehumanization and injustice, even if and especially if we are not part of a particular group that is being oppressed or discriminated against. We must stand united against hatred of any kind.

Pankiewicz hoped that hearing Farhys story would strengthen our commitment to reaffirm that every human being deserves to be treated with dignity, civility and humanity.

Today marks the day that your moral obligation begins: to live with purpose, empathy, strength of conviction and courageous compassion to all that are vulnerable to hatred, said Pankiewicz, a doctoral candidate in Holocaust and genocide studies at Gratz College.

And 80 years later, Farhys sadness persists, but he has found happiness and has chosen to share his story publicly to raise awareness of the horrors of hatred and help ensure it never happens again.

About 16% of Holocaust survivors are living in the United States. Farhy lived in New York before coming to Pittsburgh.

Farhy said he thinks its more important than ever to share those lessons from history in the face of rising authoritarianism across the globe.

Fight many prejudices about how people look and their origin, said Farhy. Be active. When you see injustice, do something.

Said Farhy, Hate is detrimental. It is detrimental to the person who is hating and to the victims to whom the hate is oriented. It is like a virulent disease. It affects the person who hates, and it affects the victims.

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Bearing witness: Holocaust survivor speaks to C-M students - Observer-Reporter

Category: Holocaust
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