Holocaust survivor speaks to local students
KINGSFORD — The end of the Holocaust unraveled atrocities committed by Nazis in the late thirties and early forties. Many survivors have long since passed, but one man remembers and is anxious to educate the younger generation.
For thirteen years, Martin Lowenberg has made coming to Kingsford Middle School a priority. The eighty-eight year old loves spending his time educating children on the terrors of his past. Mr. Lowenberg is a holocaust survivor.
“Each letter in the word of “hate” has a cynical connotation as the word itself. Horror, humility, hell. Atrocities, awful. Torture, torment, terror,” Martin Lowenberg started in his speech. “E stands for execution, for elimination, which they did to us. For evil.”
Eighth graders at Kingsford Middle School have spent the last two months learning the ins and outs of the Holocaust.
Students then took what they learned and applied it to a single focus topic regarding the Holocaust. While researching is one thing, hearing a first hand account really puts the horrors in perspective for the kids.
“It did really open my eyes and I’m glad that Kingsford Middle School had the opportunity to see Martin Lowenberg because just seeing a first hand account of what happened, it almost feels like you’re there,” said eighth grader Emily Blazer. “It also gives you fear, but also gives you hope.”
“I found his story to be very touching and very deep, to me and my peers,” said Kingsford middle schooler Nick DeMerse. “I think it’s very important because we don’t know what we will be when we grow up and if we’re even anything really, we need to know what has happened in the past so that we don’t repeat it.”
Following Lowenberg’s speech was a Q and A session between him the eighth graders.