2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 34
PROTECTING
HOLOCAUST HISTORY
My parents were
among the few
survivors of their
respective families
in Poland. My mother, Gina Sturmlaufer,
was the youngest of nine children
born in Rzeszów. Half of her siblings
immigrated to the United States, while
her parents and the other four were
killed. My father, Samuel Walter, came
from Dembitz, and lost his four older
sisters. Both had been in multiple
camps, including Auschwitz, where
they met. After liberation, my father
searched relentlessly for my mother.
He eventually found her, supported by
her friends, dying of typhus. He helped
her heal, and they married.
I was born in the Frankfurt am Main
displaced persons camp in Germany.
We came to New York when I was
little, sponsored by a distant relative.
I never had children, and my few
relatives have hardly any. So, we don’t
have a large—or expanding—family.
With rapidly diminishing numbers
of survivors and their children, I fear
Holocaust history will be lost forever
32 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
without education and understanding.
The United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum must continue to provide
learning opportunities for all. We need
to tell the world about the atrocities
we experienced because some people
want to forget, and others believe it
never happened. The Holocaust was
our genocide. Regardless of whether
we were the ones who suffered
firsthand, the world must learn from
human behaviors and mistakes.
From street gangs to countries, there’s
seemingly an intrinsic, tribal, universal
need to hate people. That has been
humanity’s pattern, and it’s the planet’s
reality. The Museum presents this
history and its lessons beautifully
and has great minds engaged in its
work. It examines societal issues from
our past and continually monitors
global activity for a current or future
genocide. That matters to me. I
don’t believe evil will stop unless
the Museum continues its research,
enables more learning about the past,
and works to influence the future. I’m
proud of what we do.”