Opinion: Becoming a witness changed me forever

One day after school I walked into an office building in midtown Manhattan feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement. I was there to meet other high school students and older adults at the nonprofit Selfhelp Community Services. I heard about Selfhelp’s Witness Theater program from my sister so I knew that the older adults we would be working with are not ordinary New Yorkers – they are all Holocaust survivors. 

We are living in a time of an alarming rise in antisemitism, coinciding with the loss of the last generation of Holocaust survivors. As a Jewish New Yorker, I feel the weight and urgency of connecting with survivors to learn from them and understand their experiences.

The Witness Theater meetings were awkward at first. The students, all high school students like me, and the adults, all survivors in their 80s and 90s, didn’t know anything about each other. There wasn’t an immediate bond. Luckily, we had an amazing drama therapist who was able to coax us out of the initial quietness. Over a few weeks, we got to know each other better. Soon I found that it was really nice to meet new people that didn’t go to my school or live in my neighborhood. I was so used to high-pressure after-school and community service programs. This felt like something new. There was no pressure, we were able to relax in the group. 

The drama therapist helped the survivors tell their stories to us. I was surprised that for some of the survivors, it was their first time talking about their World War II experience out loud. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was really moving. It put a lot of my problems into perspective. The survivors were all young children during the war and survived the unimaginable, often without their families. They were each so vulnerable and open, and we just wanted to support them. 

I was paired with Doris. Doris spoke to me about her family’s flight from Vienna soon after she was born. Then, they moved to Italy as prisoners without the ability to leave. She told me of a surgery she received without anesthesia, and that even once they had arrived in the United States, her father, who had written a memoir full of hope and happiness, died of spinal meningitis within a year.

After those sessions, the adults – the survivors – became like surrogate grandparents or family members. There was a bond among our group because we had all witnessed those stories together. The adults started listening to my struggles, giving me friendly advice and courage. I became closer with Doris. At one point, Doris told me that she was “witnessing my story” as I witnessed hers. 

It's been over a year since Witness Theater, and I still visit with Doris. She’s an important person in my life. She’s taught me to be strong, resilient, hopeful, and defiant in response to growing antisemitism in society.

I think all high school students should be part of a program where they get to connect with a generation different from their own. At the end of the year, I changed as a person. After years of learning about the Holocaust, I was able to understand it more deeply than ever before. I truly became a witness to history and the realities of war, trauma, and survival. Connecting with older generations is a window into the past so we can all learn from it and have brighter futures.