When Rabbi Philip Lazowski was just eleven years old, the Nazis invaded his hometown and began the mass slaughter of Jewish residents.
This hour we sit down with Rabbi Lazowski, a Holocaust survivor and longtime leader in the Greater Hartford Jewish community, to hear his story. After witnessing one of the worst sides of humanity, how did he maintain his faith and find the strength to help others?
And last year, Connecticut passed legislation requiring Holocaust and genocide education for students in the state. A professor from the University of Hartford will join us to talk about why it is important for young people to learn about this dark chapter in modern history.
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GUESTS:
- Rabbi Philip Lazowski - Holocaust survivor and Connecticut resident. He was Rabbi of Beth Hillel Synagogue in Bloomfield for 45 years, and is currently Chaplain for the State Senate. His autobiography is Faith and Destiny.
- Avinoam Patt - Professor of Modern Jewish History at University of Hartford; Director of the Holocaust Education and Resource Outreach (HERO) Center
READING LIST:
CT Mirror: Holocaust bill gets a vote, and CT House gets a blessing (May 2018) – “Rabbi Philip Lazowski, a Holocaust survivor who has watched the rise of a neo-Nazi movement that denies history, blessed the House of Representatives on Monday after it unanimously passed a bill requiring schools to teach a lesson about genocide.”
NPR: Survey: Holocaust Is Fading From American Memory – “Two-thirds of millennials and 4 out of 10 Americans overall don't know what Auschwitz was. And while 6 million has long been accepted by historians as the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, nearly a third of Americans think it was far fewer. And just over half of Americans think Hitler came to power by force. In fact, he was democratically elected.”
University of Hartford: Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski Interview Videos – Rabbi Lazowski and his wife share their experience as Holocaust survivors for University of Hartford's Hartford Remembers the Holocaust exhibit.
Faith and Destiny, by Philip Lazowski (2006) – Rabbi Lazowski’s autobiography, recounting his life before, during and after the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
