Peace and tolerance

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Students got to listen to a witness and survivor from the Holocaust during the 2:d world war.

The 15th of April 2013 all students at Morkarlbyhöjden school was privileged to listen to Livia Fränkel, an authentic witness of the Holocaust during the 2:d world war. Livia 86, survived the concentration/Holocaust-camp Auschwitz and now she visits schools both in Sweden and abroad to tell her story to make sure it´s not forgotten and to make sure it won´t happen again. Livia was invited by the initiative of the students in the tolerance project at Morkarlbyhöjden school. She made a deep impression on the audience.

The following information is translated from the Swedish webpage http://www.levandehistoria.se/forintelsen/vittnesmal/liviafrankel

This webpage also includes audiorecordings where she tells har story. The same webpage also has lots of witness - statements and a lot of information on violations of the human rights.

 

Livia Fränkel:

"I was only fifteen years old but quite long, not all fifteen year olds were allowed to live."

Livia Szmuk was born in December 1927 in the town of Sighet in Transylvania. Today, the area in Romania, but formerly belonged to the Hungary. She was the youngest child of two in a warm and loving family.

Livia, age 9, as a flower girl at a
charity party, Sighet, 1937

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On May 14, 1944 Livia and her family was deported in trainwagons from Sighet. When trains of Hungarian Jews began to roll, the family was of one of the first. After three days Livia ended in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she and her older sister Hédi was separated from their parents. Her parents were murdered the night between 17th and 18th May 1944 in one of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The sisters were sent after six weeks from Birkenau to a labor camp in Hamburg. There they worked as slaves for ten months before the laborcamp was closed in late March 1945, when the Allies quickly approached Hamburg. Then the sisters went to Bergen-Belsen in trainwagons. Bergen-Belsen  was liberated by the British soldiers on April 15.

In early July the same year, Livia and her sister went to Sweden by boat. There, they were housed in Linnéskolan in Malmö to regain health after their experiences. Later they moved to Stockholm and applied for a permit to settle in Sweden. Livia began to study, took a commerce degree and married in 1947, 19 years old with Hans Fränkel. Today she still lives in Stockholm and has three children and six grandchildren.

Livia's sister, Hédi Fried, has published several books about her and Livia's experiences during the Holocaust. The book "Fragments of a Life" was published in 2002 by the publisher Oxford University Press.

A day at the beach a beautiful summer Sunday. Heidi and Livia Nos. 2 and 3 from the right, second row, Sighet, 1937. Six people in the picture survived the Holocaust.

Posted by Lena Sundberg