BERLIN (AP) – Asiya Gorban was 7 years old when the Germans occupied her hometown of Mogilev-Podolsky in Ukraine. The Jewish girl and her family were first imprisoned in a ghetto on the outskirts of the city and later forced onto a cattle car that took them to the Pechora concentration camp in 1941.
After a few failed attempts, Gorban, his mother and younger brother managed to escape in 1942, and spent the rest of World War II under false identities until they were liberated in 1944.
Sitting in her apartment in Berlin, where she still lives on her own at age 89, Gorban remembers the horrifying details of her time in the camp and hiding from the Nazis who wanted to kill her simply because she was Jewish .
She likes to share her memories with her granddaughter, 19-year-old Ruth Gorben, a university student who also lives in Berlin and visits her frequently at home.
“My grandma is amazing,” Ruth said, sitting down next to Gorban on the couch. “I even invited her to my school so everyone in my class could hear about the Holocaust from her in person.”
Both Asiya and Ruth also took part in the new digital campaign called “Our Holocaust Story: A Pledge to Remember”, which was launched on Tuesday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference .
By learning lessons from past atrocities, future generations can prevent them from being repeated. claims conference #ourHolocaustStory Holocaust survivors share stories of survival and loss and unite second and third generations #PledgeToRemember their stories. pic.twitter.com/34ooeTvU5l
— Claims Conference (@ClaimsCon) April 17, 2023
Six million Jews and people from other groups were murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Holocaust and people around the world remember the victims on Tuesday – which is Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah as it is called in Israel goes.
Today, about 240,000 survivors are still alive, living in Europe, Israel, the US, and elsewhere.
The Campaign for Claims Conference includes survivors and their descendants from around the world and highlights the importance of witnessing Holocaust survivors to younger family members because of the small number of survivors.
“We’re doing this new social media campaign because survivors are dying,” said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference.
“The stories that they have, the knowledge and wisdom that they can share, is so important to society, especially in these challenging times, to have them to die with,” Schneider said in a phone interview from New York with The Associated Press. For.” Press.
More than 100 Holocaust survivors and their families are participating in the campaign, all of which will be posted on Claims Conference’s social media platforms every week throughout the year. Survivor stories will be shared on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok via the hashtag #YourHolocaustStory.
“When we see a Holocaust survivor with members of their family, it sends a powerful message – they not only survived the Holocaust, they survived, to form a family, a family that would not exist if They would not have survived,” Schneider added.
Asiya Gorban was liberated by the Red Army of the Soviet Union in 1944. She later moved to Moscow, where she became a teacher. While she loved the Russian capital, especially for its vibrant cultural scene, she and her husband decided to emigrate to Germany in 1992, seeking greater financial stability and following their son, who had previously had gone there.
Holocaust survivor Asiya Gorban shows a photo of herself and her brother Yitzhak during an interview with The Associated Press in Berlin, Germany, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Michelle Tantusi)
Gorban is an active member of Berlin’s Jewish community, volunteering weekly at Jewish nursing homes and giving talks about her life to high school students.
“I love speaking at school and helping old people in nursing homes – it keeps me fit,” Gorban said with a cheeky smile.
One of the reasons why Ruth Gorban decided to participate in the campaign with her grandmother was her concern about the resurgence of antisemitism in Germany and elsewhere.
Pulling her necklace with a Star of David pendant from under her sweater, the long dark-haired young woman explained that she prefers to hide it when she is in public.
“Berlin has a reputation for tolerance and diversity – but when it comes to the acceptance of Jews, that is unfortunately not true,” she said.
Nevertheless, hearing about the Holocaust from her grandmother gave Ruth Gorban much of her own Jewishness.
“I am proud to be Jewish,” she said. “It is a beautiful religion and I will definitely pass it on to my children when I become a mother one day.”
