This past Monday and Wednesday, three groups of eighth graders interviewed three Holocaust survivors for the continuation of Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe’s Names, Not Numbers project.
On Monday, Moshe Deutscher, Yehuda Davidowitz, Meir Moshe Eghbali, Yosef Yehuda Godick, and Yehuda Goldstein interviewed Professor Asher J. Matathias. The talmidim learned that the professor was born in a cave in 1943. His parents were hiding in this cave at the time, which was hidden away in the Greek mountainside. The professor shared with his interviewers how his parents hid away during the war and how they were saved. He told of the trials and tribulations they went through and what happened to him and his family at liberation. He also told how his family came to the United States.
On Wednesday, HaRav Moshe Walkin shlita was interviewed by Avraham Bachayev, Yedhuda Feder, Yonah Machlis, Yehuda Roberts, and Henach Wasser. Even though HaRav Walkin was just a toddler when the war broke out, the rav related how his family was able to be saved by hooking up with the Mir Yeshiva and spending the war in Shanghai, China.
Mrs. Blanche Fixler was interviewed next. She shared with Akiva Chiav, Yoni Kaminetzky, Efraim Koenig, Benzion May, Yitzy Merdinger, and Nosson Pollack her gripping story. Mrs. Fixler was just three years old when the war broke out. She described how her life was spared because her mother sent her to live with an aunt. In the meantime, Mrs. Fixler’s mother and siblings perished by the hands of the Nazis. She shared with the talmidim the miracles that enabled her to survive. After the war, Mrs. Fixler and her father stumbled upon each other and were reunited.
Throughout these interviews, the talmidim themselves manned the cameras in an informal studio under the tutelage of Mr. Adam Chinoy, a filmmaker from the Names, Not Numbers organization. Many thanks to the Anshe Shalom Chabad of Kew Gardens for graciously allowing the talmidim to film their interviews there, and to Rabbi Byrech Lehrer for his assistance with the many technical details of the interviews.
These interviews completed the second phase of the Yeshiva’s Names, Not Numbers project. When the boys receive the raw footage of these interviews, they will then edit the film and help turn their work into a documentary, which they hope to publicly share.
