BENTONVILLE -- Holocaust survivor Pieter Kohnstam urged Fulbright Junior High School students to speak their minds and to do so with a firm understanding of history.
"You are the future. Be sure you are not indifferent," said Kohnstam, 82, a Jewish native of The Netherlands.
Arkansas Holocaust Education Conference
About 300 students are expected to attend the annual Arkansas Holocaust Education Conference, which will be held Friday at The Jones Center in Springdale. Pieter Kohnstam will speak at the conference.
Source: Staff Report
Kohnstam and his wife, Susan, of Venice, Fla., spoke to about 450 eighth-graders Wednesday, one of several presentations they are making in Northwest Arkansas this week. Pieter Kohnstam also will be a featured speaker at the Holocaust Education Conference in Springdale on Friday.
Kohnstam, author of A Chance to Live: A Family's Journey to Freedom, discussed growing up in Europe during the height of the Nazi regime, his family's escape from persecution, and his relationship with neighbor and babysitter Anne Frank.
Kohnstam's apartment in Amsterdam was downstairs from the one where Anne Frank and her family lived. Anne posthumously gained international fame following publication of the diary she kept while in hiding in Amsterdam; she died in a concentration camp in 1945.
Anne, who was 7 years older than Kohnstam, was "vivacious," he said. He added she was gifted, especially as a writer, but she also was a normal girl who liked the kinds of things other girls liked.
"Next year she would have been 90 years old," he said. "What would it be like if she were alive? That would be very interesting. One thing I can tell you, she wouldn't have sat still."
When Nazi persecution of Jews in The Netherlands became intolerable, the Franks went into hiding, but Kohnstam's parents decided to flee. Close friends helped usher them out of Amsterdam.
Kohnstam spoke mainly of his family's year-long trek that took them through Belgium, France and Spain before they finally boarded a boat for Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1943.
He recalled one incident in France when he was chased by two German officers. He took refuge in the hole of an outhouse, he said.
"I was in school," he said. "I don't remember how that happened. I just remember running and trying to hide."
He compared the plight of those fleeing the Nazis in the 1940s to those fleeing turmoil in their home countries today, including the thousands from Central America traveling north as part of the migrant caravan.
There was time for two questions from the audience. One student asked how hard it was for the Kohnstams to hide the fact they were Jewish while they were on the run.
"Very hard," Kohnstam said. "What people don't know ... is what a human being can do and endure when you have nothing left and you're against the wall."
Another student asked if he and his family ever felt like giving up. Susan Kohnstam answered for him.
"They had each other," she said. "He was always with a parent who gave him support. And I think that -- we're talking about a 6-year-old -- that provided him with enough courage to go on."
Pieter Kohnstam and his family tried to immigrate from Argentina to the United States, but were denied because of his cleft lip, he said. He eventually wound up moving to the United States in the 1960s. He and Susan have been married 52 years, she said.
Six students were invited to meet Kohnstam after his presentation, a reward for writing the best essays about the Holocaust and why people should study it. They'll also get to attend Friday's Holocaust Education Conference.
One of those students was Tova Sibaja, 13, said she was impressed by Kohnstam's story.
"He could have died and not made it so many times," Tova said.
Vaisakh Karuvath, 13, enjoyed the opportunity to meet someone who'd had such a powerful experience tied to world history.
"Getting to hear it from his view was empowering and enlightening," Vaisakh said.
Rodney Thomas, 13, said he'd read The Diary of Anne Frank in sixth grade, and it was interesting to hear more about her from Kohnstam.
Ricky Manes, a history teacher at Fulbright Junior High School, introduced Kohnstam at the assembly. Manes, also a committee board member, encouraged students to take every opportunity possible to hear Holocaust survivors' stories.
"They're here to tell you their stories, so that we can continue their story once they're gone," Manes told the students. "There are many people out there who don't appreciate what happened to people during the Holocaust. So pay attention today."
NW News on 11/15/2018