![\"photo](\"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/feb-28-People-Robbie-Waisman.jpg\")
<\/a>As Waisman recalled: \u201cThis one voice said, \u2018Hey kid,\u2019 addressing me, \u2018if this is over and you survive, remember to tell the world what you have witnessed.\u2019 I didn\u2019t answer. Again, a second time. And then another voice says, \u2018Leave the kid alone. Let\u2019s all go to sleep. None of us are going to survive.\u2019 I\u2019m trying to fall asleep. Again: \u2018Hey kid, I haven\u2019t heard you promise.\u2019 I wanted him to leave me alone so I said, \u2018OK, I promise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, for 36 years, as Waisman rebuilt his life in the aftermath of the Shoah that destroyed nearly his entire family, everything he knew and most of European Jewish civilization, he remained publicly silent about what had happened to him and what he had seen. As it was for most survivors, the pain of the past was unbearable. The motivation to move ahead, to make good on the promise of survival, consumed Waisman and other survivors. Those who had spoken out in the first years after liberation were often hushed up, accused of being macabre, of living in the past, of not moving forward. Many adopted silence.<\/p>\n
For Waisman, and some other survivors who had kept their stories private, it was the Holocaust denial that sprang up in the 1970s and \u201980s that ended their silence.<\/p>\n
Now, after speaking hundreds of times to audiences, most often of high school students, but also to churches and First Nations communities, Waisman is being honored for contributing to understanding and tolerance in Canada. He is to receive the Governor General\u2019s Caring Canadian Award, which recognizes volunteers who help others and build a \u201csmarter and more caring nation.\u201d He was nominated for the honor by his longtime friend, Derek Glazer.<\/p>\n
Waisman cannot estimate the number of times he has spoken or the accumulated number of individuals who have heard his story. But he has thousands of letters \u2013 most of them from young people \u2013 telling him how the experience of meeting him has changed their lives and caused them to commit themselves to humanitarianism and social justice. And, as much as he is pleased to receive the commendation from Gov.-Gen. David Johnston, it is these letters, and the hugs and words he receives from young people, that he says are the real compensation for what he does.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kinds of letters are my reward. Never mind the award that I\u2019m going to be getting. This is the reward. This is what keeps us going. If I can inoculate young people against hatred and discrimination, I honor the memory and I give back for my survival,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most cases, when I go to speak, I get hugs from people, and I get tears, and they come and they are so grateful. I always hear this: \u2018You\u2019ve changed my life. Thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe encourage them. We empower them. And we make them appreciate life and what they have around them. I feel we are doing noble work. We are changing some of the kids\u2019 lives,\u201d said Waisman,\u00a0referring to himself and other survivors who speak.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He added, \u201cSome people think that we sadden the children,\u201d referring to himself and other survivors who speak. \u201cNo. We encourage them. We empower them. And we make them appreciate life and what they have around them. I feel we are doing noble work. We are changing some of the kids\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, even as he is being recognized for speaking to thousands, Waisman recalled that the first time he publicly spoke of his experiences, he vowed it would be his last. Motivated by the Keegstra affair, Waisman contacted Robert Krell, a founder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, to say he was ready to speak. A school visit was arranged and Waisman told the students of his experiences. The reaction was poor. Some students fell asleep \u2013 though Waisman thinks it was not because the narrative was boring, but the opposite: it was too graphic. The students tuned it out as a sort of emotional defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home and I was completely out of it,\u201d Waisman said. \u201cI had to lock myself in a room because it was so painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krell talked him into trying it once again and, this time, Krell, a psychiatrist, was in the audience. On Krell\u2019s advice, Waisman developed a different approach. \u201cI tell my story, but I don\u2019t go into details,\u201d he said. \u201cI tell them about my life at home [before the Holocaust], with my family, and I tell them about my life afterwards.\u201d He usually shows a video clip that provides a graphic depiction of the Holocaust, but his own presentations put a face to the Shoah but do not dwell on the atrocities he personally witnessed and experienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in all, as you can see from the letters, I seem to connect, telling the importance of being a decent human being and the responsibility they have toward humanity to make this place a better world,\u201d said Waisman.<\/p>\n
\nIt is estimated that between 89 and 94 percent of Jewish children who were alive in Europe in 1939 had been murdered by 1945.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Waisman\u2019s survival is an example of how many extraordinary incidents, fortunate coincidences and unlikely near-misses were required for a Jewish child to endure that era. In the dystopia of Nazism, children were deemed non-productive \u201cuseless eaters.\u201d They also represented the future of the Jewish people, so the Nazis took special steps to ensure the deaths of as many children as possible. It is estimated that between 89 and 94 percent of Jewish children who were alive in Europe in 1939 had been murdered by 1945.<\/p>\n
The Wajsman family were stalwarts of the community in Skarzysko, Poland. After the Sabbath candles were lit, neighbors would pour into the Wajsman home to listen to the wisdom of Romek\u2019s father, Chil, a haberdasher and an admired leader in the synagogue and community. Romek was the youngest, aged eight when the Nazis invaded Poland, with four brothers and a sister.<\/p>\n
Romek\u2019s first break came when the ghetto in Skarzysko was about to be liquidated, in 1942. One of Romek\u2019s older brothers had been forced into labor at a munitions factory. At four in the morning on the day the ghetto was to be liquidated, Romek\u2019s brother appeared and took him to the factory, where he would survive as a useful \u2013 if extremely young \u2013 munitions worker.<\/p>\n
When the Russians advanced on Poland in 1944-45, the Germans moved the munitions workers into the German heartland \u2013 and Romek was taken to Buchenwald. There, he met another boy, Abe Chapnick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sort of supported one another,\u201d Waisman said. \u201cWe had numbers that we were called by in Buchenwald, but we called each other by name and kept our humanity intact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buchenwald was not primarily an extermination camp, yet Waisman was well aware that if they were not useful to the Germans, they would not survive. What helped the two boys live was the fact that Buchenwald was a camp originally intended for political prisoners, not necessarily Jews, and while the Nazis ran the overall affairs of Buchenwald, many internal matters were left to a committee of prisoners. \u201cThey protected us,\u201d said Waisman.<\/p>\n
He remembers a particularly fateful moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were marched out in line and an SS comes up and screamed at the top of his voice \u2018All Jews step out!\u2019\u201d Romek and Abe looked at one another. \u201cI thought, \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019\u201d Waisman said. \u201cBefore we could make up our minds, Willie [Wilhelm Hammann, the German prisoner who was in charge of the barrack] stood in front of us and screamed at the top of his voice at the SS: \u2018I have no Jews!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The same process unfolded in other barracks and when the Jewish inmates stepped out, they were shot. \u201cThat was two or three days before liberation,\u201d Waisman said.<\/p>\n
When liberation finally came \u2013 at 3:45 p.m. on April 11, 1945, the day Waisman counts as his \u201cbirthday\u201d \u2013 their troubles were not yet over. They were moved to better quarters but remained at Buchenwald for two months, while authorities attempted to determine what to do with millions of displaced persons across Europe.<\/p>\n
Romek had looked forward to going home, to being reunited with his family. \u201cAfter liberation, we couldn\u2019t grasp the enormity of the Holocaust,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw people around me die, but I didn\u2019t see the whole picture. I wanted to go home because I thought everybody would be at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nEventually, 426 of them, all boys, would be taken to France, to a makeshift orphanage where they were expected to resume their lives and studies as if their experiences had been merely some sort of routine disruption.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
While Waisman and Chapnick had been the youngest in their barrack, at liberation they would discover there were hundreds more children, from 8 to 18, in the camp. Eventually, 426 of them, all boys, would be taken to France, to a makeshift orphanage where they were expected to resume their lives and studies as if their experiences had been merely some sort of routine disruption. They acted out in ways that made their new caretakers fear them as animalistic and potentially dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were angry and full of rage when we couldn\u2019t go home after liberation,\u201d Waisman said. \u201cWe came to France and there were all these people that wanted to help us out and came to deal with us. Professionals and volunteers to help us out, people that spoke our language [but] when we wanted to speak and share some of the pain, they weren\u2019t interested. It was too soon. Psychiatry wasn\u2019t as advanced as it is now. They\u2019d say, \u2018We are not interested. Just never mind. Forget about it. Move on. Go back to school. Continue your schooling.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t repeat what we told them what to do,\u201d Waisman said, laughing. \u201cAfter all, we knew best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waisman would discover decades later that a report commissioned by the French government declared that these \u201cboys of Buchenwald\u201d would never rehabilitate, they had seen too much, been too damaged and would not live beyond 40. The report recommended that the government find a Jewish organization to look after them.<\/p>\n
In fact, in addition to the most notable boys of Buchenwald \u2013 Elie Wiesel, the renowned author and humanitarian, and Yisrael Meir Lau, who would become a chief rabbi of Israel \u2013 almost every one went on to succeed in life beyond all expectations. For Waisman, who is still active in the hotel industry, this was a direct result of a single determined man.<\/p>\n
\u201cManfred Reingwitz, a professor at the Sorbonne \u2013 he wouldn\u2019t give up on us. He used to always give us these wonderful discussions and spoke to us about the importance of moving on. It didn\u2019t register. He took a lot of abuse, but I remember the one crucial time. There were four of us, including myself, and he sort of said, \u2018I give up\u2019 and then he turned around \u2026 \u2018By the way, Romek, if your parents stood where I am standing right now, what do you think they would want for you?\u2019 he said in an angry voice. And, of course, we don\u2019t answer anything and he walks away. We looked at one another and it resonated. We didn\u2019t say anything. But we sort of began a different attitude, a different way of looking at things.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the moment when Waisman and most of the others, like so many survivors, began a process of throwing themselves into careers, family and community work.<\/p>\n
He and his sister Leah were the only survivors from their family of eight. (Leah married in a DP camp, moved to Israel and Waisman sponsored them to come to Canada in the 1950s.)<\/p>\n
Slowly, Romek\u2019s life took on a form of normalcy. Under the auspices of Canadian Jewish Congress, he would arrive in Halifax and travel by train to Calgary, where he would begin Canadian life with the help of a local family, start his career and meet his wife, Gloria. The couple would move to Gloria\u2019s native Saskatchewan for two decades before coming to Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor, I think, close to 36 years I went on with my life,\u201d Waisman said. The other boys of Buchenwald progressed similarly, many settling in Australia, as well as in Israel, the United States and elsewhere. \u201cI made a life \u2026 my Holocaust experience was there, but I put it aside…,\u201d Waisman said. \u201cAnd then Keegstra came along teaching his students that the Holocaust was a myth, that it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d And Waisman became one of the most active survivor speakers, putting a face to history for thousands of young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne and a half million Jewish children were not as lucky as I was, and the other boys of Buchenwald [were], and so I sort of began to think about it and said, \u2018I made it. I have a sacred duty and obligation to [share my experiences with younger generations] and when I\u2019m doing this I honor the memory of the one and a half million.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cOur survival meant something,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter all these years, I felt that I had to do it, that it\u2019s a sacred duty.\u201d<\/p>\n