Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Memory
Rena Drexler
Elliot Asarch, Kennan Cronen,
and Chris Eldredge
How preserve memory of Holocaust?
Chris
Rena’s experiences before and during the war
Kennan
Keeping the memory alive: How Rena remembers the
Holocaust afer the war
Elliot
Collectve memory of the genocide
Polish neighborhood
Was ant-Semitsm in small towns
But Rena “did not experience a lot”
Had to wear a star
Forced into Gheto for several months
Arrived in Auschwitz in 1941
14 years old
Separated from family upon arrival
All but one sister died
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Age 14 to 19
Sorted possessions of
incoming Jews
Money, jewelry
Barracks Barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau, circa 1945
Dirty water
Thyroid problems later
Survived by being a hard worker
One of fastest Nazis could fnd
Took clothes, bread
Traded with other prisoners
Snuck showers
Rubbed blood on cheeks
Before SS ofcers came by for selecton
Faith and hope
“Maybe tomorrow will be a beter day.”
“Every day you were so scared. Would I survive tomorrow?”
Weighed 95 lbs.
Russians invaded May 8, 1945
Revisited old neighborhood afer war
•Return to Auschwitz
•Stayed quiet for years because Rena didn’t
want her children to “grow up feeling sorry” for
her.
•52057
•“I was tired of waking up and feeling like a
prisoner again”
•Will only discuss her personal memories of the
Holocaust for Three Months out of every year.
Never Forget
•Now Rena makes a habit of traveling as extensively as possible in
order to speak and spread the memory and the first-hand facts.
•Rena will go anywhere, anytime - speak to any group - to keep the
Holocaust from becoming just another footnote in the history books
for future generations.
•Articles
•Schools
•Churches
•programs such as this one
•Swimming in Auschwitz
The American Dream
Three years afer arrival, in 1954, Rena
and her husband opened up a successful
kosher delicatessen.
Rena Drexler
Elliot Asarch, Kennan Cronen,
and Chris Eldredge