Hearing the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand

ABIS students listen in awe to survivor Clara Kramer’s tale.

By: Donna Lukiw
   Clara Kramer was only 14 years old when she lived in a crawl space for two years with 18 other people, surviving only by eating rotten potatoes and the desire to live.
   Ms. Kramer, now 78 and living in Elizabeth, survived the Holocaust while living in Poland and hiding out with her family for two years before the Russian army liberated all the survivors.
   As part of a history class, eighth-grade Alexander Batcho Intermediate School students, listened to Ms. Kramer’s story Tuesday morning and heard a real-life historical experience they wouldn’t have otherwise found in their textbooks.
   "As far as living history, it doesn’t get better than this," Principal James Brunn said. "We had some anti-Semitic behavior here last year. Swastikas were drawn like it didn’t matter, which I think is the essence of evil."
   As Ms. Kramer began to tell her story of a typical childhood — going to school, having friends and going to the movies, it soon turned dangerous and deadly as Germany invaded Poland and began a program to exterminate Jews.
   "Nothing," Ms. Kramer said. "Nothing could prepare us for what was to come. From the age of 12, every Jew had to wear a white armband with the star of David. We had a curfew and had to give up radios and bicycles. We couldn’t go to school or the movies."
   Ms. Kramer told the students what happened when her best friend walked out on the street without her armband.
   "She was shot on the spot," Ms. Kramer said.
   As trains began to transport people to Belzec, a concentration camp in Poland, Ms. Kramer knew her family would have to start looking for a hiding place.
   "We knew our day would come," she said. "We made a trap door in a one-family house, under the house. There was only a small hole to slide in."
   On Nov. 22, 1942, Ms. Kramer said, when one of the Nazis came into the house, her family crawled into the hole to hide. They only had candles, some dry bread and water.
   "When you’re down there, in the darkness, you lose sense of time," Ms. Kramer said. "There were still shots and crying. It was three days and 2,500 Jews were killed."
   "Everybody was desperate and the only one who would help was a Christian family, the Becks, that would risk their lives for us," she said. "You wanted to live — you had to hide."
   In July 1944, Ms. Kramer was liberated by the Russians but recalled the horror she saw once she stepped outside.
   "The city was a big cemetery," she said.
   As the students stared in awe, they also asked Ms. Kramer about the trap door, if that house is still standing and if showers were available in her hideout spot.
   "Of course, there were no showers," she said with a laugh. "And the house is still there and people are living in it."
   Although Ms. Kramer now has five grandchildren and speaks in schools sharing her stories, she said she feels sorry for some German grandchildren.
   "I feel sorry for a child that has to ask their grandfather what did you do during the war," Ms. Kramer said.
   "If you see something wrong speak up. You are the future and I hope you can make the world a better place," Ms. Kramer told the students."