Brookdale's Jewish Student Union Hosts Holocaust Survivor

Milan Schwartz, a child survivor of the Holocaust, shared his testimony with Brookdale’s Jewish Student Union on Thursday, December 13th. Milan is a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where he was interned with his mother and younger brother from October 1944 to April 1945. He shared his mother’s bravery and courage, having to leave her two sons, both under the age of three, in the care of strangers while she performed slave labor for the Germans each day. Towards the end of their imprisonment, Milan and his mother both fell ill with typhus, and survived only because of the timing of liberation. If the British arrived even a few days later, the disease could have claimed both their lives.

Chelsea Becourtney, President of the Jewish Student Union at Brookdale, coordinated with Chhange to bring this program to the club’s members. Becourtney is the grandchild of two Holocaust survivors. Her grandparents, Felix and Rose Hunter, were also in attendance. After Milan’s talk, the Hunters shared their own experiences in Russia, having fled there from Poland in 1940 to escape persecution.

The Jewish Student Union meets Thursdays during College Hour in room ATEC 101. Their first meeting of 2019 will take place Thursday, January 31. Chhange is a 501(c)(3) independent, non-profit organization. May 2019 marks Chhange’s 40^th anniversary as a Holocaust, genocide, and human rights education center. To learn more about Chhange’s upcoming programs and educational initiatives related to the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights, please visit our website at www.chhange.org.