Holocaust survivor tells teens to 'love each other'
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

ERIC SUCAR staff Holocaust survivor Fanya Gottesfeld Heller recalls the difficult days she experienced as a teenager more than 65 years ago.

HOWELL - She stared into the audience of teenagers and was reminded of her adolescent years. She spoke about the turbulence she and her family endured as they tried to escape the horrors of the Nazi regime. She stood before these young adults as a living witness to theHolocaust and told them to never forget what happened in Europe 65 years ago.

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, a Holocaust survivor and the author of "Love in aWorld of Sorrow:ATeenage Girl'sHolocaustMemoirs," brought amessage of hope and love to a group of 100 Howell High School upperclassmen on Jan. 8.

Heller's lecture served as a supplement and enrichment to a Human Conscience course. The course emphasizes social and moral responsibility and is taught by social studies supervisor Stan Koba.

Koba explained that the course emerged out of an annual trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He said it was actually Heller who reached out to him and asked if she could speak to the students.

According to Koba, Heller appeared before students three years ago. She had such a good initial interactionwith the young people that she decided to visit again.

"I aminterested in young people because they will be our future leaders,"Heller said. "It is an honor to speak to the students of Howell, to teach them about the Holocaust and to be part of their educational process. I was about their age, just 15 years old whenWorldWar II broke out, so I feel a special connection to their generation."

According to information provided by the Freehold RegionalHigh School District, Heller "was born into a traditional middleclass Jewish family in a small Ukrainian village in 1924. Defenseless and beset by hunger, Fanya and her family hid from the Nazi death squads and survived the Holocaust, thanks to the courage and love of two Christian rescuers."

Heller tells her story to young people today in an effort to never let people forget the atrocities that occurred at the hands of theNazis. She said her struggle is one of life over death. She said she is the living personification of the good that resides in all people.

As a direct connection to that era,Heller put a face to the millions of people who suffered and died. She gave the 100 upperclassmen some tangible evidence and a connection to what they are studying.

Besides being the physical symbol of so many things, Heller brought her young listeners a message.

"We have to be neighbors, our brother's keeper. We have to exude love and trust each other. We must not be a bystander, or perpetrator, or a victim" to injustice, she said. "We have to have a dialogue and learn to work and live with each other.We are all the same. We must except each other's differences and be tolerant of each other. Love each other, that's my message. Today, you all have become a witness. It is your legacy to teach others."

Heller said that is what she has pledged to do: teach others.

"I want to share with the world my victory of life over death. We live in turbulent times and people continue to face all sorts of suffering and oppression," she said. "My goal is to make others aware of the horrific repercussions of indifference, bigotry and prejudice. My Holocaust experiences happened more than 60 years ago, but the lessons are more relevant now than ever."

Heller's book is studied at universities such as Princeton,Monmouth and the University of Connecticut. She holds a bachelor of arts and master's degrees in psychology from the New School for Social Research and honorary degrees from Yeshiva University and Bar-Ilan University.

She commissions an annual Holocaust education symposium at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.

Heller, a resident of New York City, is a mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of seven.