On November 12, 2024, the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center generously welcomed in Raymond Polak, a child of Holocaust survivors, to share his testimony of resistance, survival and resilience. He was able to educate attendees on the Holocaust and the individuals that survived, as well as the many that lost their lives.

The story of his parents began after they were both sent to Gurs Internment Camp — one of the nearly 50,000 concentration camps. There, his father served food to women and children and shared a deep connection with Polak’s mother, who he would instruct to wait until after everyone had eaten in order to get the most nutritious food at the bottom of the pot. Gurs was not a death camp, but was a placeholder to keep Jewish individuals under Nazi control before sending them to their death. In this camp, Polak’s father discovered from members of the French resistance that they would be sent to Auschwitz and killed. In hopes to save their life, Polak’s mother and father climbed over the barbed wire and fled, destroying their identity and living in the South of France, where Polak was eventually born. They went on to continue their lives, but they were forever altered — having lost many loved ones unknowing of their fate due to the deception of the Nazis. Nonetheless, they continued to make an impact. 

Polak’s father dedicated the rest of his life to anti-fascism, but this dangerous work eventually led to him getting captured again in Belgium and forced to work in the Buchenwald camp. He continued to survive, and was liberated in 1945, but the conditions of his life had led to his death shortly after his release. Polak’s mother lived to be 94, but she did not share her story to her child until he was in his 40’s. Ever since, Polak, now 82, has proudly spoken out against anti-semitism, and shares the admirable lives and strength from his mother and father. When sharing their story, he reflects that “My mother says I had helped save her life, but of course she saved my life.” It is because of her, Polak is now able to educate others and bring awareness to the other stories of resistance. He wants students to value their education and to be a part of the change, ensuring the world remembers the Holocaust through the phrase, “never again.”