Holocaust Lesson Plans

To Share

When I returned from the deportation to Miskolc in 1945, my uncle Gabor Zoltan was already back home. He had survived years in a forced labor camp.

Where I Feel Best

After I survived the Holocaust in Poland, my mother, father, sister, and I moved to England, where we were generously accepted as we tried to move past the terrible years of World War II. We were among the few lucky ones who survived. So many did not. According to statistics, only about 2 percent of Polish Jews lived through the Holocaust.

The Power of Trust and Faith

Why Tell Our Stories

Wrapped in history Hearing our words go out in the world.

Christmas in Belgrade, 1947

We live in a rented apartment shared with an obligatory additional person. My mother works, and my grandmother takes care of me. My father is absent from home. He has been on a business trip during this particular December. I am eight years old. Tito is our adored and undisputed Communist leader.

How I Learned to Drive

As long as I could remember, I had always wished to learn to drive and, of course, to own a car. But I would be well into adulthood before this happened. When I was 13 years old, we—my father, mother, sister, and I—settled in England. We had survived the Holocaust and were trying to restart our lives. England was very different from Poland, but we were free and looked forward to a better future. 

The Child Who Thought She Knew Better and the Gold Bag

I wanted to help my mother, you see, and at the same time to establish a certain authority about myself.

The Price I Paid for Survival

Our feelings are always there—waiting, attuned, alert, and yearning for attachment. So we were created. Such is the path of our lives.

The Choices We Make, Part 2

Our life is an endless series of choices and consequences from those choices. Many choices are reversible if the outcome is not satisfactory, but at least one is not: the choice between life and death.

My Complicated College Career

My two best subjects in high school in Poland were biology and chemistry, so it is no wonder that I decided to study pharmacy, a profession that would combine my scientific abilities and my desire to help people.