A New Birth

On April 3, 2008, I read an article in the Star Ledger called “A Story That Mustn’t Be Forgotten.” Murray Goldfinger was born on July 6, 1926. He considers his birthday April 11. That was the day in 1945 when the Americans liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Goldfinger was among the last surviving Jewish prisoners; he was one of the millions of Nazi prisoners. He was lucky; he survived.

Goldfinger, 81, speaks to students about the Nazi atrocities and his experiences at several of their forced labor camps. The Nazis killed thousand of people daily. Goldfinger said he learned one thing: “Never to show fear”. He is the only one of his family, nine children, parents and grandfathers to survive. He grew up in Karkow, Poland. A number was tattooed to his forearm; it was 161108. You lost your identity in the camps and became a number.

He was sent to Birkenau, Poland and went to work in a coal mine with a broken shovel and then was punished for breaking it. He was shot in the back and left for dead. When the Nazis picked him up for dead, despite the pain, he just stood up and went back to camp and hard labor. When the Nazis realized the Jews were going to be liberated, the Nazi put the Jews in trains to get them away but U.S. planes came and shot at the Buchenwald guards and preventing this. The prisoners were finally liberated. Mr. Goldfinger is living proof that no one should devalue you or push you around because of religion or color or whatever.

This article would be perfect for talking about the impact of the Nazis. It explains specifically what happened to one individual. It personalizes the Holocaust. Mr. Goldfinger in this article speaks candidly of what was done to one family. It is simple but powerful in its message. This would help to extend my lesson and would explain the intense feeling of Jews and the entire world towards Hitler and the Nazis.