International School of Ticino
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THE TESTIMONY OF A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

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It is estimated that there are still 100,000 Holocaust survivors in the world. Gamaraal Foundation has been committed since 2014 to ensure that their memory is not erased and organizes meetings in schools dedicated to pupils and teachers. In Switzerland there are about 400 and Fischel Rabinowicz, a Polish Jew now residing in Canton Ticino, is one of them. The elderly man also came to bring his touching testimony to our alumni who were able to meet him in the setting of the school theater where, for the occasion, some photographic works granted by the Shoah Foundation of Milan were also exhibited.

“At the age of 16 I was arrested during a roundup by the SS. For 4 years I was imprisoned in 9 forced labor and concentration camps, with the registration number 19037. Upon the arrival of the Red Army, I was herded together with my fellow prisoners into one of the infamous "death marches". On February 9, 1945, covered only in rags, we began walking in the cold and with almost no food for 55 days. We were 1,224 and we arrived in Buchenwald in 746. The others died along the way, for fame or fatigue".

Fishel Rabinowicz thus began his tragic story and then answered the questions of the pupils.

"Offering our students stimuli for their human and personal growth even outside the academic programs is one of the pillars of our teaching philosophy - declares Andrew Ackers, president of the International School of Ticino -. This is why we enthusiastically accepted the proposal of the Gamaraal Foundation. This meeting, which will be attended by students from the last year of elementary, middle and high school, will be a precious opportunity to reflect on a past with which we still have to come to terms: an intense and moving lesson on the values ​​of respect and tolerance".