Holocaust survivors share their stories of injustice with Burbank students

It is one thing to learn about the past by reading a textbook, but it is a different experience when hearing about a historic event from someone who lived through it.

Holocaust survivors told their stories to students at John Muir Middle School on Thursday in an effort to teach young people about injustices in the past.

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“We’re trying to instill into them what can really happen when something intolerant occurs and how important it is when you see injustice, either on campus or outside of school, not to sit idly by and be quiet,” said Rod Rothacher, an eighth-grade English teacher at John Muir, who has sent his students to the annual Holocaust presentations at the school over the last 14 years.

This year’s speakers were Herbert Murez and Hilda Fogelson, who each spoke to a group of about 100 students.

Murez, 92, of Los Angeles, was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, when World War II broke out. At 14 years old, Murez managed to flee the country by himself and was able to immigrate to the United States and join the Army, where he served for two years.

Holocaust survivor Herbert Murez, 92, left, talks with eighth-grader Mia Saunders, center, and Holocaust survivor Hilda Fogelson, 89, right, after speaking about his childhood experience, during a Holocaust Survivor talk to eighth graders at Muir Middle School in Burbank on Thursday, April 7, 2016.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

After the war, he became a lawyer and practiced for several years. Now retired, Murez still does some consulting and, in his spare time, gives speeches to students and the general public.

“I want them to know that discrimination of any form is an evil that must be resisted,” he said. “None of us are safe unless all of us are safe, and none of us are free unless all of us are free.”

Fogelson, 89, of Studio City, lived in Berlin during the war and managed to leave Germany via the Kindertransport, a rescue effort during the war that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain.

A retired teacher, Fogelson has been sharing her story with the public for more than 10 years and said she enjoys continuing to speak at events in the city.

“There are some people out there that deny the Holocaust, saying that it never happened,” she said. “It’s important, for me, that I speak about it and that the students see a real person that can tell them that this really happened.”

Fogelson said that there is still prejudice in the world and that it is “important to talk about it.”

“You can overcome things, and education is the most important way to do that,” she said.

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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

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