Holocaust survivor aims to inspire, motivate students
By sharing his struggles and experiences as a Holocaust survivor, Robbie Waisman hopes to inspire elementary and high school students to live their lives with kindness and understanding for all people, regardless of race or religion.
Speaking in front of about 2,000 people at Saskatoon’s Holy Family Cathedral on Thursday, Waisman described how his life was shaped as a child in Nazi-occupied Poland, working alongside his father and brothers in a German munitions factory before he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp at the age of 13.
“My eyes have seen unspeakable horrors,” he said. “I am a witness to the ultimate evil, I am a witness to man’s inhumanity to other human beings. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered my mother, father and four older brothers, some of my uncles, aunts, cousins and friends that had been my schoolmates. To this day I cannot grasp how I managed to go through all those horrors and survive.”
The hope of seeing his family again kept him going, alongside his “profound and everlasting” memories of his short childhood in Skarszysko, Poland, where he had a loving family life — and was very spoiled thanks to his position as the youngest child, he said.
“It always gives me a warm feeling when I think about it.”
He also remembers a few acts of humanity that helped him make it through. Every Friday during his time at the munitions factory, a woman would secretly pass him a sandwich of jam and butter. That simple act of kindness, if uncovered, would have had dire consequences.
“She was blond; I don’t know her name, but I would always pray for her. She did this every week and I say prayers for her because to me she is Righteous Among the Nations,” he said, referring to the honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination.
He hopes to inspire that sense of humanity in everyone with whom he has shared his story. Every survivor’s biggest fear is the world forgetting what happened to the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust and how everything began with anti-Semitism and hate speech, he said, noting he is sad to see hate speech is still prevalent today, especially against Canada’s Indigenous population.
“It has been very gratifying to speak,” Waisman said.
“It’s very important to inoculate (the students) against hatred and discrimination and I think that we as Holocaust survivors have to inoculate the world so it doesn’t happen again. We were sure the Holocaust was it, and that it would teach the world how to live with one another — but unfortunately we haven’t done it yet.”