Remembering the six million
On May 4 and 5, 9th grade students visited the Craig and Barbra Weiner Holocaust Reflection and Resource Center at Nova Southeastern University (NSU), where 94 year old Holocaust survivor, Irene Zissblatt, shared the story of her survival.
The exhibit features 250 artifacts from the Holocaust including two uniforms that the prisoners wore. Students learned about what caused the Holocaust, and the horrors that occured.
The exhibit also featured a new technology which allows visitors to have a conversational experience with a Holocaust survivor by using a software called Dimensions in Testimony Interviews. Students picked from some 2,000 questions which were then answered by the survivor in the form of a pre-recorded answer.
The remaining Holocaust survivors are all in their 80s and 90s, and this technology preserves their testimonies for future generations when Holocaust survivors will no longer be around to tell their stories in person.
Irene Zisblatt wrote a book called The Fifth Diamond in which she describes her experience and was also featured in an Oscar award winning movie, The Last Days, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Irene was taken by the Gestapo at age 13 with her parents and 4 siblings. When Irene and her family arrived at the first camp, she was separated from her family and she never saw them again. She was sent to 5 different concentration camps. Irene’s mother sewed diamonds into the hem of her skirt before being sent off to the camps. When she arrived at the first camp, Irene swallowed the diamonds in order to prevent them from being confiscated. She recovered the diamonds, and wears them in a necklace to this day. During a death march, Irene managed to escape and was rescued by American soldiers. She is the only one of her family members who survived. She now lives in Broward County, Florida, and has two children and five grandchildren. She frequently tells her story to spread awareness.
