When most people look back on their lives as 12-year-olds, they have fond memories of learning new things, wearing braces and heading off to middle school.
But for Jerry Rawicki, the memories are different. When he was 12 years old, Rawicki experienced the Holocaust.
During his Holocaust lecture on Oct. 30, Rawicki played a video showing footage of himself going back to the Warsaw camp, where he was kept during a portion of his childhood.
Born and raised in Poland, Rawicki had many fond, funny and horrible memories he shared during the lecture. Rawicki had a way of telling a story that made the audience feel as if they were right there with him.
Rawicki recounted fond memories from before the war erupted in his hometown. He also remembered the low points that he had during the war, his uncertainty that he would make it through. He didn’t know what gave him hope. At one point, it came back, and Rawicki knew he would survive.
Rawicki escaped at age 18. He crawled through a small hole in the camp’s wall and escaped to Poland, where a boy just a few years older than him gave his life to let Jerry live.
Rawicki’s lecture series are available online at http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/hgstud_oh/155/.
