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YOM HASHOAH
On Yom Hashoah the entire Middle School was privileged to meet and hear a presentation by Mr. Alex Konstantyn, a survivor, a former HANC parent, former principal of East Meadow Jewish Center Hebrew School, and an incredibly inspiring speaker. After Rabbi Hecht introduced the program, six candles were lit in memory of the Six Million. Then we listened to the story.
Mr. Konstantyn was a young boy in Poland when his parents realized they needed to avoid/escape the Nazis. His father had converted all the money he had into gold and the family kept traveling the countryside, asking for or buying food and trying to remain inconspicuous. He told us of several incidents where they narrowly escaped or were identified as Jews by people they thought were sincere about trying to help them. Mr. Konstantyn's father was actually poisoned by a piece of pie given to him by a man they thought was protecting them. Luckily, he and his mother had not yet eaten their pieces, but he watched his father die in his mother's arms. Mr. Konstantyn credits his mother with giving him life more than once since she forced herself to leave her dead husband, grab her son and the gold, and keep moving and hiding.
The messages we were asked to take away were to keep the stories alive and educate future generations about the Holocaust. We are so thankful we were able to meet Mr. Konstantyn and his wife and see pictures of their beautiful children and grandchildren, proving to us that the Jews did not succumb to the Nazis' grand plan.
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