During 8th period on February 10th, the freshman class had an assembly in the PAC. They listened to Marsha Kreuzman, a 92 year old holocaust survivor of five different camps and current public speaker who lives in Union. The discourse began with the lights dim and candles lit. The purpose of the assembly was to remember the lives lost in the holocaust, followed by a moment of silence.
She began talking about being born and raised in the Kraków ghetto, one of the five major metropolitan Jewish ghettos implemented by Nazi Germany in the general territory assimilated in Poland during the Polish invasion. Marsha went to a christian school where she was often jeered at by her classmates for being Jewish.
Later in her life her family was separated and moved to Plashov, a camp just outside of Kraków, where prisoners were organized by their ability to work. Those who could not work would be killed. Her mother was sent to Majdanek concentration camp where she was killed.
At Plashov she took care of her father and brother and often risked her life in order to provide for them. Working at a hospital she had the opportunity to steal insulin for her brother who was diabetic, and food for the three of them. She lost her father when he was shot by a German soldier on Yom Kippur in 1943.
In May of 1944 her brother Stephan was sent to Auschwitz when he was deemed unable to work. Kreuzman herself was sent to Auschwitz in January of 1945 by marching for five days and four nights in a snowstorm, taken for the “Final Solution”. Her stay was not long however for she was eventually transferred to Bergen-Belsen, then to Flossenbürg, and then to Mauthausen where she was liberated.
On May 5th of 1945 a U.S soldier of the 11th Armored Division freed the despaired Kreuzman who managed to evade death even further. She apparently lost consciousness and was carried to a hospital where she spent 3 days recovering. She came to America in 1952 after spending a few years in England and has been married to another survivor for 52 years.
“What they did to us was not human. I tell you these things, not for your sympathy, but for your understanding. Dont pity us” she told the freshman class. “To this day, I’m ashamed to say because I’m such an old lady, I’m afraid of uniforms.”
She said she survived typhus, selections, beatings, and attack dogs during the holocaust. Although the topic of discussion was incredibly morbid sources claim she was able to make jokes and even laugh during the presentation.
Marsha Kreuzman spent much time of her life in search of her liberator and discovered his presence so close to her own home in Union township through a local newspaper article that announced the wedding anniversary of Joe and Anne Barbella. She immediately contacted Joe Barbella and was able to meet in person after all those years.
