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“Hillel at DU is particularly special because of our desire to really connect Judaism to all other interests of DU students and work in collaboration with other organizations on campus.” -Former President, Mischa Kregstein
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Hillel, the center for Jewish life on campus, hosted a Yom Ha’Shoah Memorial Service for the Pioneer community on May 5th. Sunset May 4th to sunset May 5th is known as Yom Ha’Shoah in the Jewish community, it is the Holocaust Day of Remembrance. The one hundred people in attendance were broken down into small groups and discussed the Holocaust, discrimination, and the importance of remembering the past. After a short candlelight service, special guest Eric Cahn was brought on stage.
Eric Cahn is a Holocaust survivor. Born in Germany in 1938, he was four years old when his family was forced onto a freight train by the Nazis and sent down to France. “The Nazis had invaded and overtaken France…and the French government at the time agreed to help and participate.” He and his family along with thousands of other Jews were imprisoned in Camp de Gurs. “I don’t know how my mother did it, but she managed to keep my four-and-a-half-month year old sister and me alive.” It was there, imprisoned in horrifying conditions, that his parents had to make “the most terrible decision.” Members of the French Resistance were posing as camp workers and smuggling Jewish children and babies out. Would his parents take that chance and send their children with complete strangers? They did. A month later, the camp was raided and his parents along with the other Jewish inmates were sent to Auschwitz. “If they hadn’t made that decision, that ultimately correct decision, I would not be here today.” Cahn spent the remainder of the war hidden in a French Christian rescue family’s basement. They are the reason why Cahn identifies as Jewish but does not practice. “A French Christian rescue family saved me….I just try to live my life as a good person.”
Cahn and his baby sister were eventually reunited at a French orphanage. But, they would never be reunited with both parents. Of the 1,003 people on that particular train, less than 40 survived. Cahn’s father was one of them. He was able to find his missing children in 1946. However, his mother had been sent to the gas chambers as soon as she stepped off the train. “She was killed because she was Jewish. Period. No other reason.”
Cahn’s father never fully recovered from his time at Auschwitz. “He realized he wasn’t being the father he could have been, should have been.” Twelve-year-old Cahn and his sister were sent to live with their mother’s parents in Pueblo, Colorado. At the time, he was angry at his father, but he wanted to live a normal life. Thus, he never revealed his identify as a Holocaust survivor, and only started sharing his story twenty years ago. When his grandparents could no longer care for them, he and his sister bounced from foster family to foster family until they were adults. Cahn ended up graduating from CSU Boulder and has made a life here in Colorado. “The thing I am most proud of is my family.”
“It was Hillel’s hope that by having a survivor like Eric Cahn come speak to the student body, that it would make this piece of history more personal,” said Hillel’s Social Action and Holocaust Education Chair, Jena Moch. “It is one thing to hear the numbers of those effected and the history behind it, but it’s another thing when you’re hearing the story of someone who lived through it.” “I’m glad with what’s he’s been through and all this time, that he got to share his story. He’s very brave,” said Lily Gross. “I’m glad I went,” she continued.
Hillel meets every other Tuesday, and has Shabbat dinners at the Hillel house every Friday. You can contact them through their Facebook page, Hillel at Denver. Eric Cahn’s book, Maybe Tomorrow: A Hidden Child of the Holocaust can be purchased on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.