As part of the Names, Not Numbers Holocaust Education Program, the boys in the seventh grade interviewed Mrs. Chaya Small of Chicago, great-grandmother of two YTM talmidim, Yechiel and Betzalel Small. Bubby Small visited the boys in Morah Bryna’s kindergarten class and shared with them her amazing story. In a very child-friendly way, she left the boys spellbound as she put on her kimono and told the boys all about her trip from Poland to Shanghai as a young child and her stay there during the war.
Eight seventh graders were privileged to meet and interview Mrs. Small during her visit to the Yeshiva. For close to two hours, these young men stepped into Mrs. Small’s world, questioning this Holocaust survivor about how she and her family lived before World War II, how they survived during the war, and how they came to America after the war. Answering their questions with great emotion, Mrs. Small related how she and her family escaped to Vilna and then to Shanghai. She spoke of the Yad of Hashem and the nisim she witnessed. “Because,” as Mrs. Small states, “that’s the only way we were able to survive.”
The boys learned how to set up different camera shots as they conducted the interview. At the end of the interview, each boy thanked Mrs. Small for allowing him to hear her story, presented her with a gift of thanks, and asked her for a brachah.