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Mazel
Toy!

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Horror & Heroics

Holocaust survivor tells Berkley middle-schoolers
of her terrifying childhood.

would fall upon the family. "It was like being
buried alive. But I knew not to cry out," she
Special to the Jewish News
said.
In 1943, a gentile farm couple provided sanc-
he triumph of the human spirit over
tuary in their barn and made a cavity in the hay
evil was a lesson recently impressed
with a blanket for the four of them. Two bales of
upon a group of Berkley Schools' stu-
hay blocked the entrance. The couple's children
dents, most of them non-Jews, on a
never knew a Jewish family was there for the
riveting day of Holocaust-related programming.
whole
two years.
"I saw many tears in many eyes," said Erna
"They would have shot him, his wife and chil-
Gorman, following her March 8 talk at the
dren and burned everything down if we were dis-
Jewish Community Center in Oak Park.
covered," Gorman said.
Gorman held the 75 students spellbound with.
Her family suffered terribly from lice and ver-
her story of survival during the Holocaust. The
min.
When the fighting came close, the farmer
middle-school visitors from Norup in Oak Park
made
them go. He carried each one down the
and Anderson in Berkley also viewed a photo
stairway,
because they could no longer walk.
exhibit of local Holocaust survivors called
They
crawled
away in the snow and were ulti-
"Portraits of Honor."
mately rescued by Russian troops.
Their day began at Detroit's Masonic Temple
Totally mute and with her body atrophied,
for a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank, a
Gorman, at 10 1 /2, was called "dirty Jew" by her
touring production of the West Bloomfield-
first-grade classmates while still in Europe. "It
based Jewish Ensemble Theatre. The JET tickets
came through a grant from Gerald Cook, admin- took a long time to recover from this," she said.
Samira Shamayeva of Oak Park, a Russian-
istrator of the Ben N. Teitel Charitable Trust.
born
Jew, asked Gorman, "How did your family
Amy Neistein, director of the Jewish Federation
react
when you told them about your past?"
of Metropolitan Detroit's Neighborhood Project,
Gorman
said after she made a new life for her-
a no-interest loan and community-building pro-
self in America, she remained silent about the
gram in Oak Park and Southfield, made the free
war. Then a neo-Nazi skinhead speaking on TV
tickets available to Berkley Schools, which
upset her. Still unable to tell her husband and
includes students from northern Oak Park.
college-age children directly, Gorman said, "I
Neistein and teacher Gail Katz, sponsor of
decided to make a tape and left it for them to
Norup's Diversity Club and leader of the school
-
find."
district's Diversity Council, coordinated a fol-
African-American
Shannon
Barton
of
Oak
low-up to the play with Gorman and Dr. Charles
Park, a Diversity Club member, remarked after
Silow, creator of the "Portraits of Honor" proj-
the talk, "How hard it must have been for Mrs.
ect.
Born in France, Gorman grew up near Warsaw, Gorman to tell her story and how brave she was
to do such an important thing."
Poland. About 140 of her family members per-
Anderson teacher Kim Taylor said she believes
ished in the Holocaust. She told of a German
"the
message of being kind to one another, no
commander who lined up children in a row "and
matter
what race or religion they are" will stay
would shoot them with one bullet" — a fact that
with
the
students.
caused a stir among the Berkley students.
"It's
terrible
what war can do," Gorman said.
Gorman, her sister and parents used drinking
"We need to be sensitive to this and treat one
cups to dig a cavity under the floorboards to
hide from Germans. When soldiers came looking another with respect." El .
for Jews, thumping their rifles on the floor, dirt

ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART

T

Holocaust survivor Erna Gorman, who like Anne
Frank hid _Om the Nazis, talks to Berkley Schools
students who just viewed JETs production of "The
Diary of Anne Frank."

.

...a gentile farm couple
provided sanctuary in their
barn and made a cavity in
the hay with a blanket for
the four of them.

"

e

3/22
2002

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