“I wish I would have had a chance to meet them and thank them – because I exist. And as I tell my kids, they exist because of people like her.” — Rob Herman, son of Holocaust survivors Ed and Halina Herman, reflecting on an upstander who saved his father’s life
Ed and Halina Herman survived through almost unthinkable circumstances during the Holocaust… overcoming difficulties including separation from and subsequently losing parents to Nazi persecution, being imprisoned in a ghetto then being smuggled out of it, being hidden by strangers, and being abandoned by the very people who promised to help them. It led Halina, to remark, “During the Holocaust, there was no such thing as childhood.”
Rob’s parents have lived incredible lives in the decades since liberation – marrying, raising a family, immigrating and starting over, creating successful careers. They built new communities wherever they go. But it doesn’t mean the pain or the scars ever completely heal.
Rob joined the Holocaust & Humanity Center’s Trinity Johnson to reflect on the gifts he’s received from his parents, what he’s passing down to his own children about their family’s legacy, and the importance of remembering how upstanders made all the difference in this miraculous story.
This episode is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling. Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity
Our gratitude to Margaret & Michael Valentine for their ongoing support of this series.
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Episode Resources
Ed and Halina’s trip back to Poland in 2012
Watch Halina Herman tell her own story
Find out more about Ed Herman’s story
Read about Ed participating in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony technology
Learn more about those deemed Righteous Among the Nations
https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous.html
The Holocaust & Humanity Center will be able to offer free general admission every January going forward. Read more about the gift making this possible. https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/press-releases/holocaust-humanity-center-jewish-federation-of-cincinnati-announce-landmark-endowment-to-offer-free-museum-admission/
Read more about what hidden Jewish children like Halina experienced during the Holocaust and after Liberation
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hidden-children-quest-for-family
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/series/children-during-the-holocaust?parent=en%2F7711
