Elain Stricklin, third from right, and her art students pose in front of their butterfly art creation with Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher, third from left.Photo credit: Kayla Landrum.
Azusa residents commemorated the victims of a Holocaust concentration camp Wednesday in a gathering at Citrus College that featured a performance by Gladstone High School’s drama department and a speech by Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher.
The event was titled, “Through the Eyes of A Child” and specifically paid tribute to the Terezin concentration camp. Of the 15,000 children that lived in Terezin, little more than 100, including Auerbacher, survived.
“I speak in memory of those who died in this horror,” Auerbacher said. “People should realize that this is happening again through bullying. The children should never be forgotten and that everyone has the right to live as a star.”
Before Auerbacher was introduced, Gladstone’s drama department gave a performance based on “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a book made up of poems and drawings from kids living in the Terezin camp during the Holocaust. The performance gave the audience some background of Terezin camp in the Czech Republic, then known as Czechoslovakia.
The event was inspired by Sierra High School art teacher Elaine Stricklin’s participation in The Butterfly Project. The Holocaust museum in Houston began the effort this year, enlisting the help of teachers all over the U.S. to make 1.5 million paper butterflies to represent the children who were killed during German aggression in World War II.
“I wanted to do an art project that represented something,” Stricklin said. “We made 160 butterflies and hung them up, and then late one day I cut all of them down except half of one. I wanted to show the kids how many children died in Terezin. When we sent the butterflies to Houston, I thought we were done.”
Auerbacher heard about Stricklin’s class project and wanted to speak to the students about her story. With financial help from the Azusa Unified School District, Auerbacher was able to raise money to fly from New York City and speak to the AUSD, Azusa Pacific and Citrus communities.
Auerbacher was born Dec. 31, 1934 in Kippenheim, Germany. On Nov. 9, 1938, the “Night of Broken Glass,” her father and other Jewish men were sent to the first concentration camp, Dachau, without reason. On that night, more than 250 synagogues were burned down.
“They had to give up all their clothing and wear those striped blue pajamas with no underwear,” Auerbacher said. “They stood for hours in the bitter cold. If somebody wanted to blow their nose, they were iced down with ice-cold water. Many of the men were broken down when they came back.”
In December 1941, her family members were assigned serial numbers, which were used to identify prisoners, although only the prisoners at Auschwitz had their numbers infamously tattooed. Auerbacher said that at that time, her grandmother was sent to a concentration camp near Russia, where she was shot and killed in a forest along with approximately 80,000 other people.
On Aug. 22, 1942, Auerbacher’s family was transported to Terezin camp in Czechoslovakia. At seven, Auerbacher was the youngest child in her transport.
“We had to open everything and we were searched,” Auerbacher said. “We were put into two big rooms and we waited for the train. On the train, it was very crowded and we couldn’t leave it for two days. Then we arrived. We were told to drop everything except our blankets, metal dishes, sleeping bags, and were told to walk.”
The camp was made for 6,000 people, but had over 150,000 people. Only a small percentage of children younger than 16 imprisoned there survived.
Auerbacher lived in this camp for three years and was liberated May 8, 1945 by the Russians. Out of about 13,000 people in her transport, only 13 survived.
Nine months after she was liberated, Auerbacher and her parents moved to New York. There, she studied science in college and went on to become a chemist.
“After hearing what Inge endured, I am happy with what I got,” said Sierra High School junior Zoraya Alvarez. “I want to help send out a message to the young generation about what she has been through and tell them that they are not alone.”
Students from Sierra High School made a large butterfly to display at the event. The butterfly was made up of 14,900 painted squares to represent the children who died while at Terezin.
Auerbacher can be reached at ingeauerbacher@yahoo.com.