1998

Witness to Holocaust Urges Eternal Vigilance Against Intolerance

by Juliette Marsden

In the Torah it is written, "When you save a human life, you save the world."

Oskar Schindler did this for more than 1,200 Jews during World War II.

Leopold and Mila Page, two Jews who survived the Holocaust, thanked Schindler before a crowd of more than 800 students and community members Tuesday at the University of Nevada.

"Schindler became a friend of mine from the first day we met, " Page said. "I didn't know that Schindler would save my life but this developed through the next three or four years."

Viktoria Hertling, director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies, organized the event.

"I walked down a path (lined) by trees," Hertling said when she introduced the Pages. "The path is called Avenue of the Righteous. There is a marker beside each tree with the name of a person who has rescued Jews during the Nazi period. Among the names of the righteous...was the name of a German who rescued more than 1,200 Jews from persecution.

"This Oskar Schindler (was) seemingly one of the most unlikely people to be thought righteous. He was a member of the Nazi party, was a profiteer of Jewish slave labor and yet he saved so many lives."


Leopold Page shakes hands with Ely Haimowitz, a professor in the
Music Department following Page's lecture Tuesday night.

Leopold Page told the story of his involvement with Schindler.

Page said he was an officer in the Polish Army before becoming a professor at age 24. Just after the war started, Page was wounded in battle and taken to the hospital. He escaped from Germany as a prisoner of war and met Schindler.

Page's first impression of Schindler was as a Nazi party member, a womanizer and a drinker. He thought Schindler was a Gestapo officer who was looking for him because he had left Germany.

However, Schindler turned out to be a good man, Page said. He helped and respected Jews all the time Page knew him.

Conditions worsened for the Jews as more were sent to concentration camps.

"Nobody believed that something like this could happen in the 20th century," Page said. "This was unbelievable that this mass murder was done in cold blood and nobody said anything about this."

After the Nazis occupied many countries, Schindler who owned a factory, promised the Jews who worked for him in his factory that he would do his best to help them survive the Holocaust.

When the Nazis rounded up the Jews working in factories to take them to concentration camps, Schindler fulfilled his promise to his workers.

Schindler bribed officials to let him transfer his factory and workers to his home town. He transferred 1,200 people there.

This was the Schindler's List in the title of Steven Spielberg's movie.

"Those people who got their names on the list found out that they had a chance," Page said. "We hoped that with his help we would succeed."

The trip to the factory was not easy after spending time in a concentration camp and being separated from their wives. But Schindler did everything he could to make it work and it did. He had to pay huge sums of money to the Gestapo to keep the Jews in his factory safe.

"He was our father, he told us, 'You are my children,' " Page said. Page and his wife came to the United States in 1947.

Page said he was so grateful to Schindler for doing everything in his power to help the Jews that he wanted to pay him back in some way. "I will try to do something for you, Mr. Schindler, I will try to tell the whole world what good deed you did, what you promised us...years ago...that you would do utmost to save our lives and you succeeded," he said.

"Now I will do my utmost to make you a name to show that one human being can make something and give humanity a chance to believe that humanity man-to-man still exists.

"I never stopped once I put my feet on the U.S. land to stop and talk about Oskar Schindler. We tried to spread the word. People didn't want to listen."

It was many years before people did listen, Page said. Schindler was not recognized for his accomplishments for many years after the war because he had been a Nazi. It was not until 1961 that Jews recognized him as a righteous gentile and a man who saved human lives.

In 1982, Page found someone to write a book about Schindler, and later produce a movie.

"One man of good will can make the difference and show humanity man-to-man," Page said.

"Everything when it is against humanity man-to-man is a sin. Human life is a precious thing.

"Thanks to Schindler that the 1,200 people were saved, now we have close to 6,000 Schindler Jews and all are trying to do their best to show humanity man-to-man," Page said.

Frankie Sue Del Papa, Nevada's attorney general, attended the conference and said the speakers were inspirational.

"I thought it was delightful," she said. "I've met him before... It's just a story that people really need to hear, it's very moving and yet, in a way, it's very hopeful. It shows that one person can make a difference."

Hertling said she was glad for the large turnout.

"I am very happy," she said. "We had, I think, 800 people there. I think the numbers up here speak the story."