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Holocaust survivor speaks to Pope

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Mindy Bloem
  • 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The year was 1939. The Nazis were on the brink of taking over Poland. Poland's economic conditions were dire and the people lived in a political climate of fear and uncertainty. And one adolescent girl was about to learn just how precious survival was in an anti-Semitic environment. 

Esther Lederman told her story of hiding from the Nazis for 22 months to a Pope audience at the Community Activity Center May 2.
 
Prior to Ms. Lederman's speech, Pope members were shown a documentary called "Paperclips" about a group of students from the town of Whitwell, Ten. 

These students took on a middle school project in which they collected paperclips from across the globe. Each paperclip received was meant to represent various individuals who were affected by the Holocaust. 

In the documentary, several holocaust survivors were invited to the small town in Tennessee to speak about their experiences during Nazi Germany's reign of terror.
One survivor mentioned that future generations will have to learn about the Holocaust from their text books. They would not receive the opportunity to hear actual survivors recall these events first hand like the townspeople of Whitwell. 

"There are not enough pens in all the world to write down what the Holocaust survivors went through," another survivor noted. 

When Ms. Lederman stood in front of the podium to speak, the atmosphere was one marked by building sobriety from listening to the "Paperclips" documentary about love and tolerance. 

Ms. Lederman was born on May 3, 1924 in Lodz, Poland. 

Her life would forever change when, on Sept. 5, 1939, Lodz was invaded by the Nazi's.
Her father, mother and younger sister were eventually sent to concentration camps in which only her father would survive. 

Fortunately for Ms. Lederman, she would be spared this outcome when by a stroke of luck, a family policeman friend would help get her sent away from her family with falsified papers in tow which claimed she was catholic. 

Alone and separated from her family, Ms. Lederman didn't know what to do next. She decided to go door-to-door telling people she was a former governess and asking if they needed help with household needs or tutoring the children. Her plan worked and she was employed by some Polish farmers. 

One night, the members of the house where she worked were having a conversation about the Germans efforts to take care of the Jews. She heard them mention that the town where her family resided was taken over by the Germans and the Jews were sent to concentration camps. 

"I sat looking at the wall not saying anything," Ms. Lederman said. 

"I could not afford to cry out. I was very quiet. I was all alone, dependent only on myself and my wits." 

A short time later, rumors began to circulate that there was a Jewish girl residing in the town where she worked. 

Someone came to her employer's residence asking to see her papers. 

"I put on a brave smile and handed my papers to him," she said. 

Her employer informed her she could not stay if her papers were not legitimate. 

She knew her papers were false so she packed up and left. 

"I did not know where to turn," Ms. Lederman said. "I was not familiar with the area. Night fell and I found a house." 

She took a chance and asked the occupants for help. 

"I was given food but was told I could not stay in the house but had to stay in the forest for the night," Ms. Lederman said. "I was taken into the forest, given a coat for warmth and told someone would come back for me in the morning with a new plan." 

"A person in my position did not ask questions but did as she was told," she said. "The most peculiar thing was I felt no fear. I don't know if I was in a state of shock or had just started to accept things." 

She lay down in a small clearing and went to sleep. In the morning she was brought food and was told she would reside in hiding with the Lederman family who would become her family unit. 

The time in hiding was spent studying reading, playing solitaire and making conversation, but the sense of fear was a constant presence. 

"We feared our host would become tired of us," Ms. Lederman said. "When people entered the house we were paralyzed by fear. We were fortunate to have shelter and food, but we constantly wondered if we would make it. I was an incurable optimist and when the Lederman's asked me if they thought we would make it, I always said, yes." 

In 1944, they were finally free when the Russian liberators arrived. She married one of the Lederman's sons, and then in July 21, 1949 Ms. Lederman and her husband arrived in New York. 

Ms. Lederman ended her speech by asking the audience to imagine what they would do if exposed to a similar political crime where you could not react to public opinion or imagine what they would pack if they had had to run away and could only take one bag.
She also encouraged the audience to cultivate a proper relationship with their children.
"Let's not teach children how to hate; let's teach - let's talk to them. 

Ms. Lederman said that no one person is better than anyone else, but every individual given the proper circumstances and teaching could do great things. 

"There is such a wealth of talent in this world," she said. "I see how much talent was lost. There is so much in all of us, just waiting to be developed."