There are relatively few events throughout history that have had such an impact on the world as the Holocaust.
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Not many people get the opportunity to hear the story straight from a survivor’s mouth, but three UT students were able to do just that.
With a passion for the subject, senior Ruth Cook researched and located Lisl Schick, a Holocaust survivor in Largo, Fla. who was very active in the Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Working with the museum, Cook arranged a private interview with Schick.
Cook brought her husband Aaron to aid in the interview and classmate Jessica Magner to join them in hearing the woman’s stories.
‘I was really interested and I thought this would be a great opportunity to actually speak with a survivor and listen to her stories,’ Magner said.
Schick survived the holocaust through the Kindertransport or the ‘children’s transport’ (also Refugee Children Movement). This program is credited with saving nearly 10,000 children ranging from infancy to age 17 in the months before the outbreak of World War II. Great Britain took these children and placed them in foster homes, farms, hostels, and group homes. At age 11, Schick was sent with her seven year old younger brother to live with strangers.
‘She took [her younger brother] under her wing and ‘became his mom’ for the time being,’ Magner said.
‘Mrs. Schick’s inspiring story of her journey through the Kindertransport, and her heroic efforts to escape Nazi-Germany at the age of eleven with her seven year old brother to England affected us the most,’ Cook said.
Schick had a presentation for a younger crowd after meeting with the three UT students and ultimately, she had a simple message for them.
‘Her message at the end of the presentation was to not bully others and if you’re being bullied, report it to someone,’ Magner said.
She continued with, ‘As soon as I left the museum I drove back to school and thought about everything she said and experienced. I realized how privileged I am compared to the life she lived during her young years. It amazes me to even think that such an event occurred less than a hundred years ago.’
‘I walked away with admiration for Mrs. Schick’s attitude; her continued activism at the age of 81, carried inspiration and courage, as well as a warning about not speaking up,’ Cook said.
Aaron Cook agreed and added, ‘It instilled a heightened sense of awareness about the danger of allowing extremist ideas to escalate and how important it is to speak up when others are being mistreated.’
The Kindertransport was only a small piece of Holocaust history, saving a fraction of the children affected, but a part to be remembered nonetheless.
The British people demonstrated compassion and proved that even when surrounded by evil, good does exist.
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