Trumansburg Central School District middle schoolers had quite the guest speaker earlier this week. Roald Hoffman, 86, is not only a Cornell professor, but a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1981. Before that, he survived the Holocaust between the years of his birth in 1937 through his youth.
His visit to Trumansburg focused on the latter. Hoffmann shared his tragic and inspiring survival story with students which focused on the following timeline:
1937 - Roald is born
1939-1941 - Soviet occupation
July 1, 1941 - Nazis march into Złoczów, his grandfather is killed that week
July 1941 to end of 1942, Złoczów and labor camp set up 30 miles away
January 1943 through June 1944 - Hidden by the Dyuk daily, father remains in camp, is killed June 1943
1944-45 - Poland
1946-47 - Czechoslovakia, refugee camp in Austria
1947 through Feburary 1949, refugee camp in Germany
February 22, 1949 - Roald and his mother come to the United States
Hoffmann has lived with his family in Ithaca since 1965. His daughter Ingrid Zabel and her family live here too, as Ingrid works at the Paleontological Research Foundation as the coordinator of outreach on Climate Change. She and her children have worked at the Cayuga Nature Center.
Hoffmann explained how his visit to Trumansburg was put together. It was his second time speaking in Trumansburg, but he noted he’s done this many times elsewhere for over 20 years.
“The Ithaca Area United Jewish Community (IAUCC) has a Speaker's Bureau, headed by Gale Halpern. I'm a member of it, and have been giving talks in the surrounding area (within 50 miles or so from Ithaca) for ten years, providing first-hand accounts to make the story of the Holocaust come to life for our students. Gale and I spoke at Trumansburg High School last year; this year I did it alone. I was eager to do it – the library setting in both the high school and middle school is ideal, and your students are attentive and thoughtful, a good audience.
Hoffmann hopes that his story has a lasting impact on students.
“I would like them to understand the impact of the Holocaust and war on a happy, normal family in those times,” he said. “That they come away with the determination to never let it happen again. And with an understanding for the significance of the Holocaust for Jews around the world. I also hope to have motivated their study of history, geography, and politics.”