2008 Woodie Awards
Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Valley
Si Frumkin tells campus audience of his experiences in a Nazi labor camp.
Maggie Ownbey
Issue date: 5/25/05 Section: News
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Si Frumkin stood alone on the stage in Monarch Hall to speak for the millions silenced more than 60 years ago in Nazi concentration camps.
"I'm a survivor, I'm not a hero - a hero requires making a decision," said Frumkin. "I was lucky, and I'm grateful every single day that I'm that lucky."
Today Frumkin whose granddaughter, Rachael Frumkin is a 20-year-old Valley College freshman is the chairman of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews.
"He's a person who took [a] tragedy and wanted to do something positive with it," said Valley President Tyree Wieder as she introduced Frumkin at the May 5 Holocaust Remembrance Day event.
Wieder spoke to the more-than-200 faculty members, staff and students in the audience of the importance of events like this that offer opportunities to hear speakers outside of the classroom.
Valley professor LaVergne Rosow, who brought her English 20 class to hear the lecture, said, "[It's] an enrichment opportunity, a way of broadening [their] perspectives."
"[It's] an important part of history," said theatre arts major Tamiko Carr. "It's very motivating [for him] to come out of it and speak about it- [it's] powerful."
Frumkin's childhood abruptly ended at the age of 10 when Nazis took over his hometown of Kovno, Lithuania, imposing curfews and random searches of homes. He said that penalties were enforced for those who violated curfew, didn't take hats off to Nazi officers, or played the wrong music - penalties including losing rations.
Frumkin's family survived for three years by hiding in the attic when the Nazis came to search their home. Along with his cousins and grandmother, he would climb inside and pull the ladder in behind them, waiting for the soldiers to go through the house and leave. The day they hoped would not come finally arrived three years later; at 13 Frumkin found himself in line to board a train to the camps.
"I'm a survivor, I'm not a hero - a hero requires making a decision," said Frumkin. "I was lucky, and I'm grateful every single day that I'm that lucky."
Today Frumkin whose granddaughter, Rachael Frumkin is a 20-year-old Valley College freshman is the chairman of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews.
"He's a person who took [a] tragedy and wanted to do something positive with it," said Valley President Tyree Wieder as she introduced Frumkin at the May 5 Holocaust Remembrance Day event.
Wieder spoke to the more-than-200 faculty members, staff and students in the audience of the importance of events like this that offer opportunities to hear speakers outside of the classroom.
Valley professor LaVergne Rosow, who brought her English 20 class to hear the lecture, said, "[It's] an enrichment opportunity, a way of broadening [their] perspectives."
"[It's] an important part of history," said theatre arts major Tamiko Carr. "It's very motivating [for him] to come out of it and speak about it- [it's] powerful."
Frumkin's childhood abruptly ended at the age of 10 when Nazis took over his hometown of Kovno, Lithuania, imposing curfews and random searches of homes. He said that penalties were enforced for those who violated curfew, didn't take hats off to Nazi officers, or played the wrong music - penalties including losing rations.
Frumkin's family survived for three years by hiding in the attic when the Nazis came to search their home. Along with his cousins and grandmother, he would climb inside and pull the ladder in behind them, waiting for the soldiers to go through the house and leave. The day they hoped would not come finally arrived three years later; at 13 Frumkin found himself in line to board a train to the camps.
