Close to 300 students gathered in the Student Center on
Tuesday, November 14, to commemorate Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken
Glass. This government sanctioned night
of terror and looting in November of 1938 is often considered the beginning of
the Holocaust.
Mr. Paul Galan, our
guest speaker, was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated with his family to the
United States at the age of 16. Mr.
Galan, a noted film producer, retired in 2005, and has since devoted his time
to speaking about his experiences in the Holocaust.
The students were a rapt audience as Mr. Galan described how
one of his sisters escaped the Nazi roundup when his family was jailed, and how
the other sister became lost in the forest as the family fled a hostile village.
Mr. Galan’s father was taken away by the
Germans separately.
Mr. Galan finished his dramatic and moving story by describing
the events after he and his mother returned to their home in Czechoslovakia. First
one sister appeared, having been liberated from Auschwitz; a second sister returned after having spent
years as a partisan in the woods, and finally his father joined them, having
survived Bergen Belsen. The family’s reunion was nothing short of
miraculous.
In closing, Mr. Galan urged his audience to consider
themselves as witnesses to the Holocaust since they had heard his story of survival first hand.
It was truly an honor having Mr. Galan visit and speak to
the students. Few survivors have been
able to tell their story in such a clear and compelling manner.