Holocaust Remembrance Day: Long Island students honor survivors

Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Witness Project connected students at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in Greenvale, Long Island to tell the true stories of Holocaust survivors.

GREENVALE, N.Y. - High school students at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in Greenvale, Long Island worked with Holocaust survivors to help tell their stories.

Project Witness is supported by the UJA-Federation (United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣Federation of Jewish Philanthropies), of New York.

The students aren't just telling stories from a book they read. They have all met the survivors who they were asked to speak about.

Sabine Breier, Holocaust survivor.

Cooper and Sophie met Holocaust survivor Sabine Breier.

Student Cooper Damast said, "the Holocaust had consequences beyond just concentration camps and even though Sabine was never in a concentration camp she still suffered because her life changed over and over and over again due to the Nazis."

Student Sophie Plotnitsky offered, "I got to meet Sabine every two weeks for the past couple of months, and it's been amazing."

The program is an opportunity for students to learn firsthand about the Holocaust and hopefully form lasting relationships.

Yeeshai Gross, a producer with The Witness Project, said, "the bonds that are built between these students and these survivors are unbreakable."

Fred Zeilberger is 93-year-old Holocaust survivor who works with the witness project. He was taken from his family in 1941.

Zeilberger said "I was taken, it was not even a concentration camp. It wasn't an extermination camp. And not many people survived."

Holocaust survivors want to make sure their stories are retold and remembered.

Former Fox Five reporter Dana Archin and her grandfather who is a Auschwitz survivor.

Former FOX 5 reporter Dana Archin is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor and now a storyteller with the holocaust memorial and tolerance center of Nassau County.

Archin said "I'm the granddaughter of a 101-year-old Auschwitz survivor, and I've really dedicated my life to keeping my poppy story alive. And I hope that I inspire other children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to also do the same, but also those who have never met a survivor or might not have a relation. Hear these stories and pass them down, because that's really the only way to keep history alive. "