1998

Fighting Prejudice Through Education is Topic of Speech

by Joshua Ruppert

Leopold and Mila Page, a Holocaust refugees and historical consultants to "Schindler's List", will tell the public how Oskar Schindler saved them from Nazi persecution when they speak at the ASUN auditorium today.

Page said he will discuss conflicts between humanity and inhumanity. "These are two powers fighting and we must stop the prejudice and ignorance and teach young people affection to their neighbors," he said.

Page said his travels help educate people so they can fight this prejudice.

Leopold Page, (left) the source for the movie "Schindler's List,"
is greeted at a reception Sunday by Brunon Synak from the
University of Gdansk and Berberoglu Berch, of the University of Nevada.

"Only through education can we stop the inhumanity and this is why we travel, to inform," he said.

Page said he will also stress the need for universities to emphasize practicing humanity.

"Love is more powerful than hatred," he said. "We have to teach them about love. The biggest tragedy is universities don't teach classes about humanity. They should teach this in sociology, history and psychology in all the classes."

Page, formally known as Poldek Pfefferberg, was thanked by the author of "Schindler's List," Thomas Keneally.

The book is inscribed: "To the memory of Oskar Schindler and to Leopold Pfefferberg, who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."

Keneally wrote Schindler's List after meeting Leopold Page at his leather goods shop in 1980. Page was searching for a writer to tell how Oskar Schindler saved more than 1,000 Jews from death.

After a long night of conversation and convincing, Keneally began this project.

Page fought the Nazis as a lieutenant and company commander in the Polish Army. Wounded in battle and captured, he managed to escape from the German prisoner of war train.

"They were sending me to Germany but when they stopped the train, I used an official paper that a doctor who was in charge of a Polish hospital gave to me," he said. "I used it to get past a guard and escape."

Page's extensive knowledge of Cracow let him hide until he was forgotten by the Nazis.

"I knew every corner of Cracow," Page said. "It was my city."

After his escape he met Mila Page, formally Ludmila Lewison, who he later married in war-torn Cracow.

Mila was attending the University of Vienna, in hopes of becoming a doctor, when the Nazis invaded.

"I was there when Germans marched into Austria," she said. "This was the end of my education."

She spent three years at Plaszow, the work camp near Cracow, until Germany began losing the war.

"When Russian armies were coming, the Germans tried to liquidate all the camps, taking prisoners on long walks where 90 percent died," she said.

It was the liquidation process that forced her into Auschwitz.

"I was one of the 300 women who were in Auschwitz," Mila said. "Thank God Schindler was there and got us out. We loved him. We really loved Schindler."

For many, Schindler was a heaven away from the brutality of the Holocaust.

"When we knew he was coming, we were never afraid and he always smelled so good," she said.

Mila said she remembers her liberation.

"A little, small soldier came riding up on a small horse," she said. "Everybody in the camp rushed to kiss him and touch him. Soon the rest of the Russians came.

In the film, Mila Page is portrayed by actor Adi Nitzan. They were together in the last scene of the film when stones were set on Schindler's grave.

"The last scene was filmed in Israel," she said. "(In Israel), we were a mixture of all cultures, Polish, English, Irish and German. We were a whole family over there."

Since the film's completion, the Pages have spoken at numerous previews and lectures.

They are speaking tonight in the ASUN Auditorium at JTSU. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the lecture begins at 7 p.m.


Holocaust survivors honored

by Joshua Ruppert

Reno's mayor declared April 2 Leopold and Mila Page day at a reception in the Clarion Hotel Sunday.

The Pages were welcomed by Victoria Hertling, director of the University of Nevada's Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies and a professor at the university.

Ely Haimowitz played the piano for the reception and Emma Sepulveda and Shawn Griffin read poetry in two languages.

Page said that at today's lecture in the JTSU he will discuss the struggle between humanity and inhumanity.

After Page's remarks, city council candidate John Farahi read an official decree from Peter Sferrazza, Reno's mayor.

The decree read: "May 1995 marks the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from Nazi rule and the liberation of Mila and Leopold Page from internment. And now, therefore, I, Peter J. Sferrazza, mayor of the city of Reno, do hereby proclaim April 2, 1995, as Leopold and Mila Page day."

The reception concluded with a silent auction to raise scholarship funds.