One of the few remaining Holocaust survivors who was saved by Oskar Schindler, Rena Finder, shared her story with members of the Brandeis community on Wednesday night, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a turning point in history that is widely regarded as the beginning of the Holocaust.

Finder began her story by recounting her happy childhood in Krakow, Poland, which was suddenly upended when the Germans invaded her hometown on Sept. 1, 1939. She recalls that it was as if she had become an enemy of the state overnight. Yet, Finder emphasized that there was a sense of incredulity among the Jewish community. “We couldn’t imagine that any harm would come to us. It was in a very short time that we realized how wrong we were,” she said.

She recalled the restrictions falling into place one after the other. Jewish children were not allowed to attend school. Synagogues were burned down. Bank accounts were frozen and businesses taken away. Jewish people had to wear the star of David on their chests. At the age of 10, Finder and her family were put in a ghetto.

Finder remembered the silence and complicity of the Polish people amidst all the Jewish persecution. She clearly remembered leaving her childhood home for the very last time to be relocated and hearing a neighbor shout from the street, “Good riddance, Jews! And don’t come back!”

Life in the ghetto was one of constant fear because there were always soldiers on patrol who could shoot and kill at any moment. In one especially bad shooting incident, Finder remembers hiding in a pile of leaves. That day, 3,000 Jews were removed from the ghetto and many in hiding were killed. Finder’s grandparents were taken, and her father was arrested later on.

“How could this happen?” she asked. “How could the world close its mind, doors, windows, hearts, eyes and ears to allow this to happen?”

Life improved slightly when Finder found herself in the employment of Oskar Schindler and his ammunition factory. Finder described Schindler as friendly, charismatic and a man who truly cared for his employees. Unlike other factory owners who treated their labor force like slaves, Schindler always made sure his workers were well-fed and received medical care when they needed it. For six months, Finder and her mother enjoyed these humane working conditions, but Schindler’s factory was soon shut down and the women workers were taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

“There are no words to describe Auschwitz,” Finder said. “It was a horror every day and a horror every night.” She recalled the dehumanizing process of being initiated into the camp: being stripped naked, being shaved and given clothes that belonged to other people. Finder said she couldn’t even recognize her mother after undergoing this process—the bald people dressed in strange clothes around her didn’t look like humans at all.

According to Finder, Oskar Schindler bribed the commander of Auschwitz to give back the women laborers that were taken so he could place them in a factory in Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia. Among the names on Schindler’s list was Finder’s. After three and a half weeks in Auschwitz, Finder and her mother boarded a train to Schindler’s relocated factory that was later liberated in May of 1945.

As Finder concluded, she emphasized her hope in the younger generation’s ability to make the world a better place by remembering stories like hers and being an upstander, “as Oskar taught.” In a world where genocide continues to threaten lives, Finder cautioned listeners against forgetting history because “forgetting is dangerous.” She also urged the young people in the audience to resist hate, and instead realize the courage within themselves.

Moved audience members asked many questions about her life after the Holocaust—how she coped with the trauma, how she started a family of her own and how long it took before she was comfortable sharing her story publically. In response to that last question, Finder said that she was in the United States for 10 years before someone asked her about her experience in the Holocaust with genuine interest.

According to Finder, many Americans in the early aftermath of World War II did not want to hear her story at all, and some institutions even published papers denying that the Holocaust had happened. It was only until then that Finder and her other survivor friends really felt the need to speak out and publicly defend the truth with their life stories.

One student asked Finder whether she felt anti-Semitism was as strong today as it was back then, in light of the recent Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Finder replied that “Hitler may be dead, but his message is still going.” She further expounded, “Will people realize what’s happening and do something about it? Or will it be forgotten, just like Kristallnacht was forgotten?”

As the event, which was sponsored by The Center for German and European Studies (CGES) and the nonprofit organization Facing History and Ourselves, closed, Alex Holtmann ’21, an international student from Germany and student assistant of CGES, commented on the importance of having Finder share her story. He shared that while CGES focuses on environmental and sociopolitical issues, part of its mission is also to “further the Jewish-German dialogue.”

Holtmann referred to the German word, “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” to describe the larger effort that this event is a part of; it roughly translates to dealing with and getting over the dark past.