Holocaust Survivor Visits Hillside
“I have to put humor into it, there’s no use in being sad,” Abe, 91, says as he opens up about his experience the Holocaust.
Abe Piasek visited Hillside High School Monday morning, February 25th to tell his experience in the holocaust. He talks about his life before the holocaust and his time in concentration camps and when he was eventually liberated.
Abe was born in 1928, grew up in a Jewish household in Poland up until he was taken to a concentration camp in 1940 at only 12 years old. Poland was the first country to be invaded by Nazis. Abe spent 5 years in concentration camps.
According to the Holocaust Museum, the Holocaust killed 6 million Jewish women, men, and children. This resulted in 17 million people in total being victims of this horrific event. One third of the Jewish population at the time was wiped out.
He arrived at his first camp with only his uncle. He never heard from his immediate family again, even after the war. It’s only known that his uncle survived.
“I brought him in so students could connect it with the real world because it’s different from when you read about versus seeing it,” Mr.James said, an english teacher at Hillside who brought in Piasek to talk to all his students.
When asked about how he was motivated to survive he responded with “I prayed, I don’t know to who, but I did.”
He tells a story when after the war he went to a girls house and her dad had an SS officer jacket. He decided not to report him because in his words “he would’ve got a slap on the wrist, that’s it.”
“I’m still fighting with him or her, I don’t know who’s up there, but everyone’s equal; we’re all brothers and sisters, we all come from the same link,” said Abe about his faith.
When he first began speaking he told a joke and a riddle that absolutely no one could guess but he refused to tell his answer. Only four people in the school know the answer.
Can you guess what’s something we all have, we all use it and Abe used it to save his foot?
-- Gabby Chavez
The Story of Abe Piasek
On Monday, February 25, Hillside English teacher Mr. Mark James’s English II students went to the auditorium to hear Mr. Abe Piasek, a Holocaust survivor, speak. All of Mr. James's students have read the Novel prize winning book, Night, by Elie Wiesel. Night is the story of Elie Wiesel's experience in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Mr. James organized this opportunity for Hillside students to hear from a Holocaust survivor in person.
Mr. Piasek spoke about his experiences in the Holocaust and how he survived. Piasek is currently 91 years old, and was only 12 years old when he was taken from his home. He was a prisoner in the concentration camp for 5 years. When he began speaking he told a joke, because, he said, “There’s no use of being sad.”
While imprisoned by the Nazis, Piasek moved through 4 different camps, one of them being Auschwitz.
He talked about his life before the war. He lived in a poor household. One way he made money was selling cigarettes to people.
Piasek told us that while he and his childhood friend were walking, two German soldiers asked them if they were Jewish. They said yes. One of the German soldiers shot his friend in the head. “I ran as fast as a chicken,” Abe said.
“I’ll never forget that day.”
He also spoke to us about the condition in the camps were. In the morning they had a ration of bread and coffee. In the afternoon they had a ration of soup and bread, at night, soup again. They had to sleep in bed bunks. They were usually 3 or 4 people a bunk. “They were a lot of dead bodies everyday in the bunks,” “One day you could be sleeping with a person that's alive and the next morning he’s dead.”
One day he was walking around the camp and he smelled bacon. “It smelled so good, especially since I was really hungry.” Later he realized it was the smell of burning flesh. “Now I don't like the smell of bacon anymore” He told us that thousands of people got burned and gassed everyday.
After 5 years of being held in different concentration camps, the camp were liberated by Allied forces. “I can't believe I saw everything, it still amazes me to this day.”
-- Laurie Lafleur
