BY BERNIE MIXON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Through a prism of suffering and survival, Hannah Pick-Goslar talks about the Holocaust because she lived it and because her message of the danger of intolerance is by no means dated.
Listening to her in their own classrooms gives students the chance to put a face to events that led to the death of more than 6 million Jews and to make that connection to their own lives.
"This is the last generation to connect to the victims and the righteous," said Ellen Fettner, vice president of education for the Greater Cincinnati Interfaith Holocaust Foundation. Her group is sponsoring Mrs. Pick-Goslar's visit to the Cincinnati area, beginning today.
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IF YOU GO
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Two places where the public can go to hear Hannah Pick-Goslar:
Hamilton High School:
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1165 Eaton Ave., Hamilton. Donation is requested.
Hillel Jewish Student Center: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2615 Clifton Ave. The event is free.
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A childhood friend of diarist Anne Frank, Mrs. Pick-Goslar, 69, is one of a shrinking number of survivors.
"The numbers are dwindling, and it means it's more important to have their words heard," said Mark Weitzman, associate director of education for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"The survivors feel compelled to tell their stories in the hopes that those who listen will carry the messages on for them. Each who hears becomes the messenger."
It's a message that transcends time.
"It is an incredible form of education that deals with some of life's basic issues," said Mr. Weitzman. "Not only are you hearing stories of the Holocaust, you are hearing how people went through incredible trials and tribulations and were able to put their lives together."
Mrs. Pick-Goslar's visit today to Three Rivers Middle School is the first of several talks with students.
They will hear about the friendship she and Anne Frank shared as students at the same school, their parting when Anne's family went into hiding, and how they met again in Anne's final days in a concentration camp.
Anne wrote of Mrs. Pick-Goslar in her diary while her family hid from the Nazis during World War II.
The friends saw each other in stolen moments across a barbed-wire fence at Bergen-Belsen and Mrs. Pick-Goslar managed to throw a small food package to her starving friend.
Mrs. Pick-Goslar survived the camp and now lives in Israel, but Anne died about a month before liberation in 1945.
Patricia Ellis, a social studies teacher at Hamilton High School, said she hopes Mrs. Pick-Goslar's presentation leaves students with a resolve to stand up to injustice.
"I want them to understand how important it is that we don't turn a deaf ear to hate crimes, that we understand how it can get out of hand," Mrs. Ellis said. "We must be able to stand up for things that are right. You must believe in something, in people -- and all people."
Rabbi Abie Ingler, executive director at Hillel Jewish Student Center on Clifton Avenue, said survivors have "embraced the legacy that they must tell and they must teach. They celebrate the miracle that their life was spared and they understand the mantle that comes with surviving."
"Without any hesitation, if the tables were turned, we would be presented with Anne Frank telling the story of her childhood friend Hannah Pick-Goslar," he said.
