On Feb. 6, Renée Fink addressed the Elon community in Turner Theater to share her story of strength and survival in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“My story started in the Netherlands in 1937, after my parents had fled Germany,” said Renée Fink to an attentive audience in Elon University’s Turner Theatre. “They went into safety, or so they thought.”
At only age 4, Fink, a child survivor of the Holocaust, was put onto the bicycle of a stranger, never to see her biological parents again. She was eventually taken to a new family, in which she quickly adapted to an entirely new upbringing.
“They made a huge decision to increase my chance to survive by saying goodbye to me,” Fink said, as she discussed her parents’ tough decision. “It was a dramatic show of love and courage, and the reason I am here speaking to you today.”
On Feb. 6, Fink sat down in Turner Theatre with Elon Professor Emeritus of Journalism Richard Landesberg to share the cruel reality of her survival and shed a light on these horrors so they will not be forgotten. Fink also participated in a Q&A with the audience.
Elon has hosted Holocaust survivors to share their stories for years in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and through generous contributions from sponsors, including the Abbell family, an Elon family involved in making the Jewish Studies study away programs possible. The event was hosted by the Trutt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, Jewish Life, Jewish Studies and the School of Communications.
Fink joined a family of 11 in Holland, making the transition from an only child in a Jewish household to one of nine siblings in a devout Catholic family. She expressed her gratitude for their willingness to open their home to her, as it even subjected them to danger through searches by German soldiers.
“My family had to go to any extremes to keep me safe,” Fink explained. “At times, they had to outsmart the Germans. If I got word from your neighbors that they were coming house to house, they would throw me in bed with a blanket over my head. I was darker, and my siblings were all lighter and of different build. They would say I had Tuberculosis, and the Germans would run! It was a big joke.”
While recalling the times and memories with her siblings, Fink couldn’t help but speak with a smile on her face.
“We just loved each other,” Fink said. “They came to hold up the chuppah at my daughter’s wedding. They came for my sons and daughters’ bar/bat mitzvahs. They have died since, and I have relationships now with their children.”
They were initially reunited when Fink decided to send a letter to their original address, anxious to hear back in case family members had passed. Eventually, she received a letter back from the father of the family, signed “from your War-Daddy.”
Fink kept her upbringing a secret from those around her for a long time, including her own two children. It wasn’t until she attended the convention for Holocaust surviving children in New York in 1991 that she realized she wasn’t alone and felt a duty to share her story.
“I thought I was the only one who had this strange life,” Fink said. “Then suddenly, here I was with 1,600 other hidden children. We were told as the last living generation to bear witness to the Holocaust that it was our mission to speak, so this would never be forgotten.”
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