Teacher Honors His Best Teacher By Stuart Abrams Special to Today Magazine
THANK YOU ALL for coming together to share in this wonderful occasion. I am humbled and honored to be here and to participate in such an inspiring, poignant and meaningful program. I am a social studies teacher at Avon High School. I teach a Human Rights class, a Social Psychology class and a course in Genocide and Human Behavior. I began my teaching career ... I believe it was around the time of Lincoln’s second inaugural address! I tell you this because, while there is so much I have to be grateful for, I want to tell you about the greatest teacher I ever had — a Holocaust survivor by the name of Abraham “Abby” Weiner. “Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.” These profound words are those of — perhaps — the most famous Holocaust survivor, a Nobel laureate and Abby’s boyhood friend, Elie Wiesel. Since Abby’s passing, and with the words of Wiesel in my head, I have often thought about
Somehow, miraculously, he was able to hold the love and the beauty and the joy alongside the grief and the fear and the pain Abby’s legacy, his influence on me, and his impact on all those he met, especially my students. In short, he symbolized a humanity that brought people together. Abby wore his personal history of those dark days as a cloak of dignity. In April of 1944, 14-year-old Abby was transported with his parents to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival, he was separated from his mother. He would never see her again. He wore on his arm a tattoo: the number A-7705 — Wiesel’s number was A-7713. It bore testimony to the authenticity of his witness. A young man’s memory of Auschwitz. As World War 2 would grind on to its conclusion, Abby would be forced to endure all kinds of deprivation, indignities and hardships. Eventually, he would arrive, with his father, at Buchenwald. Abby was liberated on April 11, 1945 — he
Courtesy Photo — CT Remembers the Holocaust website
Stuart Abrams is a teacher at Avon High School and the advisor of the combined UNICEF and Amnesty International club ————————————————————————— Following is the speech he gave at the dedication of the Abby Weiner Holocaust Memorial Library at Avon High —————————————————————————————————————————————
Abby and his father Chaim Weiner
would always call this his second birthday … his father would not. A story of heart-wrenching sadness. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, at a time when many in the world could not bear to remember, Abby could not bear to forget. Because of his moral leadership, integrity, intellect and eloquence, he gave voice to those who had been silenced forever and devoted his life to fulfilling the promise of “Never Again” for all future victims of genocide. Abby is a messenger to a time he would not see … and yet he remains an emissary and a model to humankind. At times, the dimensions of the Shoah are almost too great to grasp. At times we can feel paralyzed to do anything for fear that we simply cannot make any meaningful difference. continued on next page TODAY MAGAZINE – www.TodayPublishing.net – JUNE 2023
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