Holocaust survivor David Faber spoke to a full house in Whitley Auditorium Wednesday, Nov. 8, describing the harrowing tale of his family’s attempt to escape from the Nazis before being captured and incarcerated in nine different concentration camps from 1939 to 1945.
Faber, 80, witnessed the murder of his parents and six of his seven siblings during the Holocaust. Born in Poland, Faber said his parents build a steel door to protect their home after the Nazis invaded their city in 1939. Almost overnight, the dynamic of the city changed, Faber said.
“People who used to be our neighbors became Nazis,” Faber said. “There were signs on every store, every bank, every street corner that said, ‘Jews are forbidden to enter here.'”
Faber was liberated from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, weighing just 72 pounds. He told the audience, which consisted largely of Elon students, to never take their lives for granted.
“You don’t know how lucky you are, ladies and gentlemen, living in this country with the freedoms you have,” Faber said. He said there is a common theme behind the Holocaust, unrest in places like Northern Ireland and Sudan, and terrorist attacks.
“The problem was, and the problem still is, hate. There’s too much hate in the world,” Faber said. “Look at Northern Ireland. The Protestants hate the Catholics and the Catholics hate the Protestants. What is the matter with these people? There is one God and he loves us all-black or white, Protestant or Catholic. How can this world go on with hate?”
Faber’s visit to campus was sponsored by Hillel, the Jewish student organization, and the Resident Student Association.