About 200 students gathered in SAS Hall Wednesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to listen to a survivor’s gripping account of trial, hardship and family during her time in a Nazi-occupied concentration camp in Poland.
Kaja Finkler, the 81-year-old speaker, discussed the trials that her family faced following the invasion of Poland and the increased danger of retaining Jewishness during Nazi occupation. She elaborated on the bravery of her mother and the life-or-death decisions that had to be made.
Finkler was only a baby when the Germans occupied Warsaw, but she received clarity about her childhood experiences during the Holocaust from her mother following the war through stories.
This was Finkler’s first time speaking publicly about her childhood survival due to the traumatic impact of the experiences. Finkler said she doesn’t know if she will ever be able to speak in public about it again.
“The major themes in her narrative are honor, divinity, humanity, separation, longing and loss. Germans will not rob me of my humanity,” Finkler said. “Most importantly was that, just to survive, it’s not enough. You have to survive with honor.”
Finkler said that her religion nurtured her mother, giving her strength, protection and meaning.
“In order to save themselves, people hid, they looked for places to hide,” Finkler said. “In the area we lived, there was an attic, and we crammed 13 people into this little space.”
While hiding in the attic, the young Finkler began crying, which caused the rest of the group to fear that the child’s noise would lead them to be found. At that point, her cousin attempted to choke Finkler with a pillow. Thankfully, Finkler’s great-grandfather forced him to stop, and the baby miraculously fell silent.
Later on in the story Finkler talked about a despairing time for her when an officer grabbed her mother and threw her into a truck on its way to an ammunition factory with other captured Jewish laborers.
Finkler at this time was a child and was forced to choose between going with her mother, who was asking her to, or remaining with her father, who wanted her to stay.
Finkler said that before she could decide, the truck carrying her mother was pulling away. Later, Finkler learned that children taken to the ammunition factory with their parents were immediately slaughtered upon arrival.
Kaitlin Brätt, a freshman studying neurobiology, said there are ways to apply what Finkler said to life at NC State.
“I really liked her point about seeing evil and recognizing it,” Brätt said. “NC State is big on community, and sometimes you see acts that are oppressive.”
Claudia Conrad, a freshman studying business administration, said she was glad she got to hear Finkler’s first public speech.
“I feel happy that NC State is the place that she came,” Conrad said.
At the end of Finkler’s speech, she took a couple questions from the crowd. When a student asked what the takeaway from her speech should be, Finkler responded with some advice for the crowd.
“If you see evil, you have to stand and do something about it.”
