Holocaust Survivor Describes Her Experiences to Smithville Sixth Graders

“I sat down on the snow with the intention of freezing to death. I was just sitting and looking, and I saw a light from a distance. I got up and I started walking toward it,” Holocaust survivor Sonia Kaplan told an assembly of sixth graders at the Thursday afternoon, May 31.

The light in the distance was a farm and it provided a safe haven for a lonely little Jewish girl in Poland whose family was killed during World War II.

It did at least, for a little while.

Kaplan, now 87 and whose life is documented in the book “My Endless War and My Shattered Dreams” and the movie “Broken Silence,” captivated the Smithville Elementary School students for about an hour and a half Thursday afternoon, as she has for the past three years.

That’s when Kaplan became friends with Smithville Elementary School Nurse Sue Flicker. Flicker was the nurse when Kaplan’s grandchildren attended the school. Flicker is a World War II enthusiast, and recognized Kaplan’s name on the book when it was given to her by a friend. The book is available for $17.95 on Amazon.com.

“I called her daughter to see if she would be interested in meeting with us, and she invited us over to visit,” Flicker said.

Kaplan began speaking to children at the Smithville School because she felt it was important for children to understand the consequences of discrimination.

“We want the children to see what happens when you discriminate, that they need to accept people and help a person when they’re being picked on,” Flicker said. “We don’t want them to just stand there and do nothing.”

A few people involved in putting together Thursday’s assembly pointed to the intensified anti-bullying efforts in school districts across the state and across the nation.

“With all the bullying going on, it shows how important it is to teach tolerance,” Smithville Sixth Grade Teacher Jackie Durazzi said. “This ties in perfectly. We have to teach about tolerance and accept one another, and not to turn the other cheek and pretend nothing is going on.”

“I’m very scared about the bullying and disrespect,” Kaplan said. “I’ve been to 24 countries, and seven times to Israel. I don’t like the situation here.”

Kaplan said the bullying and disrespect in America reminds her of the way the Polish treated Jewish kids prior to World War II, and then, of course, the way Jewish people were treated during the war.

Kaplan’s book is nearly 400 pages and describes her life story in great detail. She told the Smithville students about her life in some detail Thursday afternoon, beginning with her father’s death at the hands of lung cancer when she was just seven years old. She then described the night in 1939 when Russian warplanes bombed her city and she was forced to watch her house burn to the ground. Her whole neighborhood was destroyed, as was one of her mother’s two businesses.

She lived in a Communist state for the next two years while Russians ruled her country. She went to a Russian school where she befriended a Ukrainian boy who was being teased by the other children.

In 1941, the Russian presence was replaced with that of the Nazis. The Ukrainian she befriended grew up to become a German soldier and spared her life at one point when he could have easily taken it along with those of her family and friends.

She described falling asleep with her mother and three siblings while hiding in the basement of a home, only to awaken and find herself all alone.

She would never see her family again. She was 12 years old.

“After I lost my life, I was very upset I was alive,” Kaplan told the Smithville students. “I was praying they would kill me.”

At one point, Kaplan’s mother had told her she had given a lot of money to a Polish family, and that if anything ever happened to her, Kaplan should seek that family out.

Kaplan found the family, and the man took her in. She stayed with the family for two weeks before the wife kicked her out out of fear for her own safety.

This is when Kaplan found herself sitting in the snow, attempting to freeze herself to death. The farm she eventually found was her home for a little while, before she left out of fear for that family’s safety.

She spent the rest of the war living in the woods with a group of Jewish people and some Russian soldiers left over from their time ruling the country.

When the war ended, almost everyone was happy.

“I decided to kill myself,” Kaplan said.

Twice she swallowed a bottle of pills, and twice she was saved by her neighbors who happened upon the scene.

She returned to her hometown to find her family, but no one had seen them. Eventually, she got married and moved to America, on New Year’s Eve 1948. She has one son and two daughters.

“I never forgot my past. I cry every day,” said Kaplan, who cried throughout most of her presentation. “I complain about being alive every day. My daughter is mad at me for that, but I love my family. I have six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. I made my contribution to the world, but I don’t have my family.”

She finished by telling the students that although she had her life forced on her, they have a choice.

“You should thank God you are living in a very good country,” Kaplan said. “ … I want you to appreciate your parents, family and friends, and be nice to each other.”

“It’s very emotional,” said Walt Andariese, Flicker’s father, who was in attendance on Thursday.

“The world hasn’t quite learned its lesson yet,” said George Flicker, Sue Flicker’s husband. “Genocide continues everywhere, in Africa, Yugoslavia and Asia. People don’t seem to learn.”

Kaplan makes the same presentation at other schools. She didn’t want to tell her story, but her daughter convinced her she should.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Kaplan said. “If they don’t change their attitude and continue to be a bystander, we’re going to have another Holocaust.”