{"id":4160,"date":"2015-10-29T21:22:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T01:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/19\/holocaust-survivor-robbie-waisman-to-speak-at-furman-nov-9\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:43:40","slug":"holocaust-survivor-robbie-waisman-to-speak-at-furman-nov-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/holocaust-survivor-robbie-waisman-to-speak-at-furman-nov-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust survivor Robbie Waisman to speak at Furman Nov. 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robbie Waisman, a Holocaust survivor who was liberated from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp by American forces in April of 1945, will speak on the Furman University campus Monday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in Younts Conference Center.<\/p>\n

\"Robbie<\/a>

Robbie Waisman<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

His talk, “Testimony to the Human Spirit: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story,” is free and open to the public.\u00a0 It is organized by the Greenville Jewish Federation and sponsored by Furman,\u00a0Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, The Humanities Council SC<\/sup> , Greenville Health System, St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School, South State Bank and Converse College.<\/p>\n

The CLP event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

Waisman was born in 1931 in\u00a0Skar?ysko,\u00a0Poland, into a tight-knit family and a warm Jewish community.\u00a0 His serene childhood, however, was quickly shattered by an onslaught against his community, starting with the German invasion of Poland in September of 1939.\u00a0 He managed to survive in the Skarszko Ghetto, followed by a long period in a munitions factory, and finally in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.<\/p>\n

Along with over 900 other young boys, Waisman was ultimately the beneficiary of a well-organized underground operation, ran primarily by adult Communist political prisoners in Buchenwald.\u00a0 He was held in Block 8, of which Franz Leitner and, later, Wilhelm Hammann acted as Block Elders.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

A group of the Buchenwald Boys are pictured in France after being liberated from the camp. Waisman is on the far right.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

These boys were liberated by American forces on April 11, 1945.\u00a0 Waisman would later reunite with one of his liberators, Dr. Leon Bass, a long time Philadelphia high school principal, who passed away earlier this year.<\/p>\n

From his family of two parents and six children, Waisman and his sister Leah would be the only survivors of World War II and the Holocaust.\u00a0 After liberation, he went with 426 other surviving boys to France, with the help of the OSE children\u2019s relief organization.\u00a0 There, he would resume his education and \u201cbecome human again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waisman eventually settled in Canada, married his sweetheart, Gloria, and they now live in Vancouver, along with their children and grandchildren.\u00a0 He owned various businesses over the years and has held many leadership roles in the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

He would later look back and say, \u201cMy only regret is that I do not have any photographs of my family.\u00a0 I am always envious of people who have a picture of their parents.\u201d\u00a0 He would later be given a photo of one of his older brothers, Chaim, but he would still have to rely on his memory to recall the image of his parents.\u00a0 No surviving photo of them exists.<\/p>\n

In spite of going through such torment, Waisman remains positive and tries to live his \u201cduty and obligation to make this a better world.\u201d\u00a0 He considers himself a spokesperson for the 1.5 million Jewish children whose voices were silenced by the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

While he is visiting the Upstate, Waisman will also speak at Converse College Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. in Hartness Auditorium, and at St. Joseph\u2019s High School in Greenville Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. in Pope John Paul II Center.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact Amy Vaz at 864-382-9383 and programs@JewishGreenville.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robbie Waisman, a Holocaust survivor who was liberated from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp by American forces in April of 1945, will speak on the Furman campus Monday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in Younts Conference Center.\u00a0His CLP talk, “Testimony to the Human Spirit: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story,” is free and open to the public. It is organized by the Greenville Jewish Federation and sponsored by Furman,\u00a0Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, The Humanities Council SC<\/sup> , Greenville Health System, St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School, South State Bank and Converse College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":15531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}