At the Town of Islip Unity Council’s inaugural “Lunchtime Speaker Series,” Holocaust survivor Edith Gross, of Oakdale, told her harrowing story.
The event marked the debut of the Council, a restructuring of the Anti-Bias Task Force, reframed to better focus on inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) in the Town of Islip.
Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter and Rabbi Shimon Stillerman of the Chabad of Islip, invited Gross, 93, to address the audience of school, library, chambers of commerce and civic organization representatives in the Islip Town Board Room in commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
You can watch the video of the presentation below.
Video: Town of Islip.
Gross told her life story, from Czechoslovakia when she was 10-years-old and war broke out in 1939. By 1944, German forces reached her village andJewish citizens were required to wear yellow stars on their clothing, and were moved into ghettos where hundreds of families were corralled into small living quarters without basic necessities.
Edith and her family remained in the Sevlus ghetto until they were transported by cattle cars to Auschwitz by Nazi soldiers. She was separated from her brothers but was able to stay with her sister in the deplorable camp until they were transported again by cattle car to Krottingon labor camp in Lithuania. She and her sister worked in the camp as slaves, with Gross having to work quickly to make up for her own quota in additon to her ailing sister’s portion. Slave women were executed if they did not make their quotas. Moved to another concentration camp in Poland, Gross’s sister died. She was liberated by Russian forces and planned to make her way to Israel but received word in Greece that her father had secured papers for her travel to America.
“We meet many people in our lives, many wonderful people,” said Rabbi Stillerman in a statement. “But then there’s a category of people that we connect with, maybe a handful in our lifetime who truly change our life, making it more meaningful. Edith Gross is someone who I am so honored and blessed to have met…someone that I can say since meeting her, my life has become a lot more meaningful.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day serves to remind us of the actions taken by Holocaust survivors in the years immediately following the devastation of the Holocaust to reclaim their rights, history, cultural heritage, traditions and dignity, and plays a vital role in the ongoing education against intolerance and injustice.
Gross is one of the few people on the planet now who still remembers the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand and serves as a reminder of not only the tragedy but the hope of the survivors.
“Your profound message of love and caring for one another transcends mankind,” said Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter. “I know I speak for everyone Edith, that we will never forget what we experienced today.”