Jews remember Oskar Schindler

Holocaust survivors Helen and Kuba Beck have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the words "never forget" resonate in the ears and minds of generations to come. And yesterday, in Bodek Lounge, they described their experiences in World War II to an audience of about 50, urging them to learn about this "horrible" period in history so it may never happen again. This year is the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, and the world once again is examining the German atrocities committed between 1933 and 1945. "I saw [the Becks speak]?last year and I realized the audience was full of grandparents," said Irwin Uffberg, who helped bring the Becks to campus. "I thought 'those people already know about [the Holocaust].' That is why we wanted Helen and Kuba to come here." The Becks lived in the Krakow ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland until the area was liquidated in 1940, when they were both taken away from their families. "We lived from day to day, hour to hour, hoping to survive," Kuba said. "We survive now as representatives of the six million who did not live." A transport took both Helen and Kuba to a factory owned by Oskar Schindler, a man who was later declared a "righteous gentile" by the State of Israel. Somehow, both were lucky enough to be chosen by Schindler to work in his factory, where he employed hundreds of Jews during the war. As the Becks retold their painful stories to a crowd of both students and adults, they intertwined their personal experiences with the 1993 Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List. Kuba told a story of how Schindler discovered some abandoned cattle cars near his factory full of nearly-dead concentration camp prisoners. He saved many, adding to the almost 1,200 people he rescued during the Holocaust. The two finally arrived in America in 1949 and began a new life in Boston. The lessons of the Becks' presentation placed emphasis on perseverance in the face of danger and the education of all people of the horrors of the Holocaust. "We live now in freedom, we have the State of Israel, we are so blessed and lucky," concluded Helen. "I trust you will be capable of building a better world for all mankind."

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