Holocaust Survivor Teaches Compassion to Hoboken Junior High School Students

A Holocaust survivor encouraged students to practice compassion and kindness instead of hate and judgment during a very special presentation at Hoboken Junior Senior High School this month.

Johanna Reiss, author of The Upstairs Room, came to Hoboken Junior Senior High School, in a speaking event on Dec. 1. The event was co-sponsored by the Wallace School Library and the Hoboken Junior Senior High School Library.

Reiss shared her experiences as a hidden child during the Holocaust with students in grades 5-8. She shared stories and images of the family who hid her and her sister for two years and seven months in their upstairs bedroom, at great personal risk to themselves.

Her anecdotes about the Oostervelds as well as her own family brought them to life and allowed students to make a connection through our shared humanity.

Johanna warned against the dangers of blindly following authority and of bullying others. She compared Hitler and the Nazis to bullies and pointed out that people are all the same and so we should not judge or harm each other. She called for students to promise not to hate or judge, but to use compassion and kindness in their dealings with others.

One particularly poignant moment came when she described the liberation of Holland. As she hobbled out of the house on legs bowed from lack of exercise, the farmer who had been hiding her said to her, “I can see now the damage the war has done to you. But don’t go into your new life with hate. That’s not why I saved your life.”

Of the nearly 400 Jews in her small village of Winterswijk, only 32 returned alive after the war. Johanna’s immediate family was very unusual in that they all survived, save for her mother who died of kidney disease just as the Nazis were invading. In her extended family, however, there were many losses due to cruelty at the hands of the Nazis.

Event organizers Sara Makler, Cara Killen and Michelle McGreivey expressed that they are very pleased with the student response to the event.

“Our students asked a lot of thoughtful questions and we are sure that they will never forget Johanna’s message to them,” McGreivey added.

Photos courtesy of Michelle MicGreivey

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