The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 25
November 7, 2008
Holocaust survivor speaks at school By Cayla Gabruck Pioneer Staff David Thompson Secondary School students gained a powerful insight to human rights at the first ever Social Justice Symposium sponsored by the British Columbia Teachers Federation, held at the high school on November 4th. The students were given a chance to hear survivors of human rights tragedies from various parts of the world, including Julian Maslovat of Creston, a man with a miraculous story. Mr. Maslovat, formerly named Yidele Henechowicz, was born in Poland in born in 1942 to parents Sarah and David. Not long before his birth, the Nazis invaded the country and began persecuting Jewish people. Many were forced to give up their homes and move into the ghettos, among them Mr. Maslovat’s parents. Shortly after the invasion, his mother discovered she was pregnant and was forced into hiding. Sarah was able to hide long enough to give birth, but soon after, the Schutzstaffel troops (also known as the S.S., the group responsible for most of the war crimes committed by the Nazis) did a sweep of the village and uncovered Sarah and her baby Yidele. The two were marched, along with thousands of other Jews, to the train station, where they would be shipped to Treblinka, a Nazi extermination camp. During that time, David was working along with most of the other men at a factory in the city. Normally, the Nazis did not let the men out of the factory while they were loading the trains. But on this day, David had finished his shift at the factory. From the other side of a barbed-wire fence he saw his wife and child were among those being marched to the station. Sarah saw her husband, too. Suddenly, she tossed Yidele over the fence. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she saw him land safely in the arms of his father. Sarah was one of 18,000 people in
the city who were sent to Treblinka. Her son later learned that she was executed in the gas chambers within an hour of arrival. Meanwhile, David was being chased by an S.S officer. He ducked into a neighbouring house, hid Yidele under a pile of straw in the attic, and then went into hiding himself in a nearby building. He watched the S.S search the building – but they never found the baby. When they left, David rushed to find his baby son, who was miraculously still alive. He took the child back to the ghetto where he was cared for by David’s remaining family members. But in 1944 they were transported to Buchenwald, a slave labour camp. Upon their arrival, David and Yidele were separated. That was the last time he saw his father. At the age of two, Yidele became Buchenwald’s youngest prisoner. In January 1945 he was moved to Bergen-Belsen, the same place Anne Frank died. Along with around 100 other children, he was cared for by three young women who did their best to keep the children fed and away from the horrors of the camp. Yidele was still at Bergen-Belsen when the camp was liberated on April 15, 1945. At the age of three, he was one of only 5,000 children to survive the Holocaust. He was adopted by a family in Finland and was given a new name, Julius Maslovat. As an adult, he moved to Canada and worked in Edmonton before eventually settling in Creston, where he makes clay sculptures. Julius began to investigate his history in 1998. Since then he has met the three women who cared for him in Bergen-Belsen and some of his remaining family. In 2002, he travelled to Treblinka and visited the mass memorial for those who were killed in the camp. He left a clay sculpture on the memorial for his mother, “to let her know her efforts were not in vain,” he said.
REGISTRATION for grades K-3 Mini Hoops and 4-7 Steve Nash is to be held at J.A. Laird School on Thursday, November 13th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The program runs from mid January to spring break.
Registration fees are $5000
Care card number is required at registration
• SALES • SERVICE • CHEMICALS • WATER MAINTENANCE VISITS
Our “20 in 2008” draw for $2,008
to be made November 8th
We will donate $100 from every tub purchase to the Columbia Valley Food Bank
Endorsed by
Our valley votes soon, I’m asking for your support.