Guest speakers overwhelm students

Freda and Bob Narev.

Year 10 students from Kristin Middle School in Albany had two very special visitors recently. Bob and Freda Narev, survivors of the Holocaust, came to share their story with the school as part of the students’ Humanities studies.

Kristin students and staff have been privileged to welcome many interesting guest speakers into their Dove Memorial Theatre, but Friday 7th November was set aside for an especially unique couple who drew attention from all areas of the school.

The students gathered in a buzz prior to the talk but fell silent as each guest told their stories.

Bob Narev grew up in a small town north of Frankfurt, Germany. He was an only child and lived with his mother, father and two grandmothers. They eventually moved to Frankfurt but when the war began and his father lost his job as a teacher – the Germans no longer wanted Jews to teach in their schools – they were forced to live in a ‘ghetto’; a particular part of town, set aside for the Jewish community.

Bob’s family were spared transfer to the concentration camps until August 1942, when they were told to report to the railway station with a small amount of clothes and personal belongings. Any valuables were strictly forbidden and Bob remembers vividly, the punishment his father received when the equivalent of a 20 cent piece was found in his pocket.

After a two-day train journey and a five kilometre walk, they arrived at Theresienstadt, a type of transition camp, used before captives were sent on to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Nordhausen.

Sadly, his elderly grandmothers both died very early on and as males and females were separated, Bob went to stay with his mother and many other women in the old army barracks which had been set up as accommodation.

It was difficult for a seven-year-old boy, living with so many women, and his memories of daily life have naturally faded. He was then moved into a children’s home at the camp where he received very little teaching and where he had become merely a number.

Bob’s father was ill within a year and died following an operation. His mother had to work in a factory for the Germans. They were fed enough to survive but not be adequately nourished and the Red Cross were fooled into a false sense that Theresienstadt was an ‘ideal camp’ when it came time for inspections.

Bob believes that his mother shielded him from the worst of the conditions and atrocities which leads to him having very little memory of it today.

In February 1945, three months before the war ended, the Germans were running out of money. Switzerland agreed to pay for any remaining captives to be freed from the camps and sent to Switzerland.

Many captives believed it was just another story from the Germans and that they would be travelling to their death, but Bob and his mother took a chance on the train which indeed led them to freedom. They lived in Switzerland for two years and then travelled here to NZ.

Freda had a different story to tell. She was living in Poland when the war began. Although she believes she was about four years old, she is not exactly sure of her birthday as her birth certificate and records were destroyed in the war.

At first, when the knowledge of Nazi groups was only limited, 15 Jewish men went missing from her town and people began to fear for their lives.

As the war progressed, life got harder and eventually, without warning, Freda’s mother took her to a farm in the country and left her there. Although Freda cannot really remember the experience, she knows that as a four-year-old it would have been traumatic.

Russian children also arrived at the farm but Freda had to be hidden from the German soldiers and was so traumatised she no longer remembers the name of the woman who sheltered her.

As Freda spoke of this to the students, she was also teaching them: “It was a huge risk and she had the courage to care – something that is so important in humanity.”

Freda was told her family had been killed and she was bought up for three years as a Catholic. However, at seven years old, her 15-year-old sister arrived. She had been living in a ghetto with her mother and escaped to the forest, surviving as a Partisan. Freda’s mother and other sister disappeared.

“It was like I was someone without a past. Even though I didn’t have to endure the camps, I suffered so much. I lost the experience of growing up with a family and now I only have blurred memories of my sister.,” she said.

After the war, Freda and her sister went to live in a United Nations camp where Jews were housed while they found a new country to live in. Through correspondence from England, they found relatives in NZ and travelled here soon after.

All the Kristin students were fascinated by Bob and Freda’s stories but even more so when they found that their stories then combined, once they reached NZ. Both of them joined a Jewish Youth group in 1949 and it was there that they met for the first time.

After years of friendship Bob described to the audience that he once pointed Freda out: “That’s the one I want to marry.”

There were sighs and spontaneous applause from the entire audience, as well as a few watery eyes. It was truly a moving story which every one of the young students was touched by. Freda’s blushing face said it all. After such horrific pasts they had found a wonderful future in each other.

Questions were then asked from the floor which gave the students more insight into their experiences.

When asked about forgiveness, Bob responded: “We can never forget what’s happened. Not only to us as Jews but to all others persecuted by the Nazis. We can never forgive the man (Hitler) involved but we have nothing against the people of Germany now.”