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Holocaust survivor speaks
By Matusewic
 Media Credit: Danielle Tallman Holocaust survivor Fred Baron speaks to an Atwood Little Theater audience about his time spent in an Auschwitz concentration camp.
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Each year, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education sponsors a speaker who is a survivor of the Holocaust.
Fred Baron, a survivor from Austria now living in Minneapolis, shared some of his devastating memories with the St. Cloud community at the Atwood Little Theater September 24.
The Holocaust was the genocide of the Jews that occurred during World War II. Baron illustrated the cruelty he experienced with vivid imagery. His story started from the time before he was caught, then went on to describe the details of the events after he was captured.
He also explained how people were killed. While some were put into gas chambers, living babies were thrown into open pits and burned. The audience could see the pain in his eyes as he expressed account after account, the physical and mental anguish he endured.
After hearing about the inhumane treatment of the Jews during the Nazi era, one can only wonder how people allowed power to be misused the way it was.
“Hitler was no doubt a spell-binding speaker, and he was very clever using the prejudices and the needs of the Germans to fester his own propaganda,” Baron explained. However, Hitler was only one man, so using propaganda he recruited many other people to assist him in the genocide.
Although Baron does not fear another genocide occurring because the Holocaust is too fresh in the minds of many people, he does feel that it is the responsibility of survivors to teach young people their experiences, to ensure that a genocide does not happen again.
“Because there are so many injustices committed, I think that we have to care for each other. It is so much more important now.” Baron said.
Baron’s concern is that it is so much easier to kill people these days. This is another reason for him to talk about the injustices he endured. He wants to make sure that people are aware of the cruelty humans are capable of.
“I want to remind the world to be watchful,” he said.
Courtney Hill-Youngquist, director of operations, explained why having a speaker like Baron is so important.
“My personal philosophy is that education is the catalyst of future change,” Hill-Youngquist said. “(People can) see, face-to-face, a real survivor’s testimony (instead of just reading from a text book).”
“You can see the expression on their face,” Maria Bernabe, graduate assistant explains. “People learn so much more than just the history because hearing a speaker provokes compassion.”
Witness to the Holocaust, a collection of autobiographies from witnesses of the catastrophic event, edited by Rhoda G. Lewin, can be found in the Miller Center.
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide plans to invite speakers next spring, as well as Nelly-Trocme-Hewitt and Rabbi Barry Cytron, who will be speaking yet this fall.
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