On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Miami-Dade students hear harrowing stories of survival
At 90 years old, Allan Hall is one of the dwindling population of Holocaust survivors left in the United States who is alive to share his life’s story. And share he does.
Hall, who moved to Miami in 1952, is passionate about sharing the harrowing stories of his youth. He recalls, with great detail, a childhood marked by fleeing from Nazi soldiers, hiding in closets and narrowly escaping death, all in an effort to educate younger generations on the dangers of unchecked hate.
“I feel honored and privileged to be able to speak to kids in general,” Hall said, as he prepared to speak to eighth graders at Ransom Everglades Middle School in Coconut Grove on Monday morning. “Many of them walk away just feeling overwhelmed ... it seems to be impactful. Many of these kids are aware.”
Hall visited several South Florida schools in recent weeks to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day — which marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp.
“I lost my childhood,” Hall said. “I spent my childhood hiding in closets.”
But, it took Hall years to get comfortable with the pain of re-living his trauma. He didn’t begin publicly speaking about his memories of the Holocaust until he was 60 years old.
“When I started speaking publicly, the first year or so, I could never get through a presentation without breaking down and crying,” Hall said. “It still hurts, even today, but I think I’ve gotten used to the pain.”
This International Holocaust Remembrance Day a number of organizations and synagogues in South Florida are working to preserve the stories of the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors while educating the next generation on the consequences of hate. All in all, six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
There are an estimated 245,000 Holocaust survivors in 90 countries worldwide, with about 38,400 living in the United States. Like Hall, the vast majority, 96 percent, are “child survivors” who were born after 1928, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.
Hiding in Plain Sight
At Ransom Everglades Middle School, students gathered in the auditorium and listened attentively to Hall’s story.
“Once evil gets free and it can do anything it wants to, nobody is safe. If there’s nothing else that you remember about my speaking to you, remember that,” Hall said at the beginning of his presentation.
Hall was born in Poland and had what he calls an “ideal” childhood until 1939. He and his family survived the Holocaust by hiding in multiple locations — attics, basements, and even two floors beneath a German air force headquarters in Warsaw.
His father, an insurance executive, spoke fluent German and was able to disguise himself enough to help his family survive. His mother was a professional violinist. At seven years old, Hall was sent to a farmer’s house by his parents to protect him from Nazi raids.
“I heard the soldiers going to the houses and I heard the screams when people were trying to protect their children and their children were being wrestled away from them,” he said. “When the truck was absolutely full, we were taken to a concentration camp. And there we were put in a corral, like animals.”
In one unique story, Hall recalled his father receiving a risky rhinoplasty in the home of a doctor and dying his hair blonde in an attempt to disguise his Jewish appearance.
“As the physician was gouging flesh out of his nose, he actually had to hand the instruments to him,” Hall said. “The rhinoplasty was a brilliant success ... in terms of making him look not Jewish, small nose, brilliant success. In terms of him looking attractive, total failure. When he was done, he looked like a retired boxer.”
Hall published his full story in a memoir called “Hiding in Plain Sight” which he decided to release via e-book, making it accessible to everyone.
“And to this day, I can see the faces of those children very much as I see the faces of you,” Hall told the students as recalled moments from his childhood. “And I know I’m the only one of those children who survived... So remember, you have to avoid evil.”
Across campus, seventh graders heard from speaker Kelly Levy, a granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors and volunteer for 3GMiami, a nonprofit founded in 2021 by the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors that trains dozens of third generation survivors to share personal stories of their grandparents’ survival. The organization’s work has reached over 11,000 students in South Florida, and recently merged with the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach to expand even further.
“We are excited to bring 3GMiami under the umbrella of the Holocaust Memorial,” said Sheri Zvi, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial.
Zvi said the new partnership will “strengthen both organizations’ ability to reach and inspire students across South Florida through Survivor stories, ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten.”
In the library of Ransom Everglades, sixth-grade classes heard from high school student, Rebecca Paresky, who told the story of her great-grandfather Otto Delikat, a Holocaust survivor who narrowly escaped death after his concentration camp identification number was incorrectly tattooed on his arm.
“His number was 69840. The next morning, my grandpa Otto fearfully stood in line as he faced death,” Paresky said during her presentation. “I can’t even imagine how he felt, but when the guard called his number, it was wrong and he escaped death.”
Paresky, who is a senior at Ransom Everglades High School, founded 4G-United, a network of great-grandchildren (4th generation descendants) of Holocaust survivors that share personal testimonies of their grandparents.
English teacher Flavia Araripe said having another student share her family’s stories has an added impact on younger students.
“It just resonates so much more with the kids. This powerful message just goes such a long way,” Araripe said. “These are sixth graders. You could hear a pin drop when she presented.”
The Last Ones
In North Miami, a film called “The Last Ones of Auschwitz,” also was set to screen Monday night after its premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival earlier this month. The film is a product of an organization called The Last Ones, which has traveled the world capturing and archiving hundreds of Holocaust survivor stories.
Their approach to spreading awareness around the Holocaust, according to co-founder Leslie Benitah, is powerful storytelling through a variety of mediums: documentaries, short form videos, books, classroom materials, and even a geo-located app.
“They are the last to witness the darkest chapter in history,” said Benitah, who’s also the vice president of women’s philanthropy at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. “[There’s] not going to be another generation of them who went through it.”
For Benitah, the project is personal. She’s the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors, and remembers the struggle of getting information from her grandparents. She heard bits and pieces of their stories, but never got a full picture until she was an adult.
“This was a very, very touchy subject at home growing up. Like a lot of survivors, they didn’t speak for years, for decades, they didn’t want to ... I don’t know, it was just such a hard place for them to remember,” she said.
The producers of The Last Ones films take hours of survivor testimonies and edit them down to 12-18 minute videos. Some even shorter vignettes are shared on Tik Tok and other social media platforms, and have garnered millions of views. It’s a strategy that Benitah says the organization developed with the realities of today’s generation in mind.
“What are we going to do for this young generation that doesn’t know anything about the Holocaust? Their attention span is shorter. They’re used to being on their phone ... So we can’t have three hours.”
The organization recently received a grant from the Department of Education to use The Last Ones media materials as instructional tools in public schools. Benitah said when students hear from survivors, the goal is always to inspire action.
“The idea is that after they meet the survivors through the short movies, is that maybe it inspires some empathy, some tolerance, maybe also some action against hate.”
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
