History's lesson - Woman tells of life under Nazi tyranny

Hedy Epstein was jeered and ostracized in school in Germany. Her math teacher was a black-booted Nazi soldier who pointed a gun at her head. The principal called her a "dirty Jew."

Epstein's parents later died in Nazi concentration camps along with millions of other Jews. But Epstein survived, rescued along with nearly 10,000 other children from Germany and Austria who were transported to England between December 1938 and Sept. 1, 1939.

She spoke to a crowd of about 100 people, most of them college and high school students, at a Common Hour lecture held Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Epstein, who now lives in St. Louis, was 8 years-old when Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933.

Atmosphere of hatred

She recounted the horrors of growing up in a world where Jews were hated, arrested and killed.

In 1935, her parents moved her to a different grade school. She at first was denied admission but the principal ended up letting her enroll because her father was a wounded veteran of World War I.

But soon she was shunned by classmates. "They no longer talked to me. They no longer played with me," she said.

"I had a math teacher who was an S.S. man. He came to school every day in a black uniform with black boots," she recalled. At times, he pointed a revolver at her.

"I was so afraid of this man that I really couldn't learn," she said. Even today, Epstein said, she has trouble with math.

In November 1938, the principal kicked her out of school. The Nazis arrested her father and other Jewish men and boys in her village of Kippenheim, Germany. He was beaten, suffered frostbite and was later released.

As she left Germany in May 1939 for life with foster parents in London, Epstein's parents and other Jews were herded up and sent to concentration camps. Her mother and father ended up in separate camps. Epstein said she last heard from her mother in a letter dated Sept. 4, 1942.

Like so many others, Epstein's parents died in the death camps. With no tombstones or funerals to mark their deaths, Epstein said it took her years to accept the fact that her parents were dead.

Offers warning

Epstein challenged the audience to remember her parents' ordeal and fight against hatred.

Megan Roe, 19, a Southeast Missouri State junior from Aurora, Ill., showed up to get a good grade.

Afterward, Roe said she was glad she came. The Holocaust needs to be remembered, she said. "We can't let it happen again."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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