Earlier this January, students had the opportunity to listen to Ellis Lewin. Lewin, currently 84 years old, talked to the students about being a Holocaust survivor.

Lewin has survived four concentration camps in Germany, including Auschwitz in Poland. He immigrated to the United Stated in May 1946. Since then, Lewin was drafted and served in the Korean War.

Lewin had lived with his parents Chana and Josef Lewin, along with sister Mariym, in Poland until 1944, when they were taken to Auschwitz. Mariym became ill and unwell, and was sent to the gas chambers. Their mother followed her. After everyone in Auschwitz was discharged, Lewin and his father were separated.

Sean McNamara, a teacher at Mayfield, is the reason that Lewin comes to the school and speaks with the students. McNamara said, “He’s been an incredible inspiration to me.”

Lewin has had the privilege to meet other Holocaust survivors. He said, ​“​We’re all different in terms of how we perceived [our time during the Holocaust]. Different people went through different ways of surviving. We talk about [our life] to ease our emotions.”

McNamara said, “To have gone through the terrible atrocities that he had gone through and witnessed, to rebuild his life again- enables me to think, and I pass this on to the students, that there is always an opportunity to change the way you’re going and to build on the opportunities you had.”

Lewin believes that if he could- he wouldn’t change all the experiences from his life. He said, “You start from a certain place;​ you
​ started from the beginning. I was interrupted so many times. I would never trade my family and my kids and grandkids, but there are a lot of issues that I would have liked to not have been in.”

Anthony DiThomas was able to attend the talk that Lewin gave. He said, “Looking at these first-hand experiences really grew and impacted how hard [survivors] really had it. [At first], I didn’t think that it would be that horrific, but his descriptions made it ten times worse in my mind.”

Lewin discusses how he felt telling his family about his experiences. Lewin said, “In the beginning, I didn’t want to deal with it. After a while, you have to say be alert, don’t let it happen again, and if you see it [happen] don’t sit there and take it- do whatever you need to do, in whatever way for it not to happen. Sitting back is not the way to do it.”

Jenna Hays also attended the talk that Lewin gave at the school. She said, “Seeing him with his family was touching because we take our parents and siblings for granted, but to see how close knit his family was together was really inspiring because he understood the value of family.”

Three years after Lewin had moved to America, he was able to reunite with his father, Josef. He said, “[It was]​ ​indescribable. Words [that come to mind] are wonderful, tremendous, terrific… [they] entail gut feelings, and [feelings] that I [can’t] even say. [It] encompasses your whole body.”

Hays said, “As a teenager, I think we all think that we are the center of the universe and that our problems are all huge, whereas when he was our age he was suffering through a concentration camp. We can definitely learn something from him.”