By Mary O’KEEFE

The history of what Jews went through during WWII has been shared since the end of the war by survivors of the concentration camps and of German occupation. Many who survived the concentration camps wanted to share their stories, to be the voice of history for future generations; however, many of the survivors of that era of hatred have died.

David Meyerhof has made it his mission to bring the voices of history to high school students.

“It helps keep history alive,” Meyerhof said. “[It is] more relevant when you put a face to history.”

The last week of April Meyerhof brought Holocaust survivors to Burroughs High School in Burbank.

“Burbank was the first school district in [Los Angeles] County to have a Holocaust program,” he said.

The program was actually started by Sylvia Sutton from Temple Beth Emet in Burbank. Meyerhof took it over when she retired. This year Meyerhof received the proclamation recognizing Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day of liberation for Auschwitz-Birkenau, the concentration camp, in 1945.

“You are the last generation to hear from the survivors,” said Harry Davids, one of the speakers, to a group of Burroughs High School students.

Davids’ story about surviving the Holocaust actually began when he was still in his mother’s womb. He did not know his connection as a Holocaust survivor until 1949, two years after the end of WWII.

“I was 6 years of age at the time, growing up in faraway South Africa. It was my first year at school when one day my parents came up and asked me if I was aware that they were not my ‘real’ parents,” he said.

He was told that the man he thought was his father was actually his uncle and that he had been brought to South Africa, where his uncle and aunt lived, when he was 4 years old. He was told this happened because his biological parents, and several family members, had been killed during WWII.

His uncle and aunt didn’t tell him any more than that.

“That conversation took place 74 years ago. I am now 81 and I actually have no recollection of any of the experiences I had in Europe. So why am I here?” Davids asked.

He told the students he had done research for years to find out what had happened to his parents, how he survived when they did not. He drove home the point that the Holocaust did happen; he felt the need to add this because of those who have denied this fact.

Davids found that his birth parents had moved from their native Germany before WWII began.

“Germany had been hit very badly by the Great Depression that began in the United States,” he said. “There was mass unemployment.”

This is the time his uncle, who later adopted him, decided to move to South Africa to find work. Many other members of his father’s family traveled out of Europe to find work.

“That was a very smart move. They would all be alive when the war was over,” he said.

His father came from a large family; other brothers and sisters, as well as his parents and grandparents, stayed in Europe.

His birth parents moved for work to the Netherlands.

“This is where they were living when WWII began. It started with the invasion of Poland,” he said. “That was in September of 1939.”

The Germans continued their invasion, which included the Netherlands. It didn’t take long to take over the country and the Germans began expelling Jews from their jobs. At the beginning they didn’t harm the Jews but they did put a lot of restrictions on them, Davids said.

“But that all changed in the middle of 1942,” he said. “That was the year that the Nazis began implementing a program they called ‘The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.’”

Davids explained all of this to set the stage as to what happened to him as a baby. He showed a photo of his parent’s apartment, which was just a few yards from where Anne Frank and her family lived before they went into hiding.

His mother was pregnant with him when the Germans began raiding the areas where Jews lived. She could no longer hide her pregnancy and because of that no one would protect her or hide her. The Germans allowed his mother and father to stay until the birth of Davids. During this time his father found members of the Dutch resistance who helped him find a family to take the baby boy.

“[My mother] was still nursing me; I was only 2 months old at the time but they realized the only chance we had to survive was to separate,” he said.

He was given to a family who cared for him but soon they were discovered. They never found out for sure but thought a neighbor had turned them into the authorities. The Germans arrived to arrest and interrogate the family who had been protecting him. A niece happened to arrive just then and there wasn’t enough room in the vehicle to take them all. The soldiers told the niece to stay and care for Davids, and they would be back.

The mother and daughter in the family were eventually returned to their home; they found the niece had been tied to a chair and Davids was gone. Another neighbor, who was a member of the Dutch resistance, had witnessed the arrest of the family and knew the Germans would be back. He took Davids to another family where he was protected … for a while. He continued to be with people who wanted to help until they were betrayed and then he would be moved to another family. He was lucky that he was able to go from one family to another. He eventually ended up with a family who took him in and he stayed with them until the end of the war.

In the meantime, his birth parents had been in hiding but they were informed on.

“The Germans came. [My parents] tried to make a run for it but the Germans fired at them from behind,” Davids said.

His father was struck by bullets and his mother stopped running, not wanting to leave her husband. The two of them were arrested and sent to a transit camp not far from the German border.

“They arrived there on Tuesday, March 23, 1943. We know they were shipped out exactly one week later on March 30. We know from the records kept there that they were shipped to Sobibor, one of the smallest of the six mass extermination camps in German-occupied Poland,” he said.

He also found in the records that of the 19 Jews who were being transported with his parents none survived.

Davids continued to stay with the family the Dutch resistance had placed him with until the end of the war when his uncle discovered he had survived. After a lot of red tape he was taken to South Africa where he was raised.

He shared the story of how brave the families in Netherlands were to rescue him, how so many had risked their lives to help others.

“I played no part in my own survival,” he said. “It was people like the family that took me in that are the real heroes of the story.”

During his talk to the students he reminded them to read books written by historians about WWII and the Holocaust, and not to just get their information from social media.

Next week, Meyerhof shares the story of the escape from Nazi Germany by his parents and grandparents.