Many Holocaust survivors never tell their stories. The record of their time at the hands of Nazi oppressors remain locked in a vault that is never opened. Others, however, pick open what lies deep inside to tell the truth of the suffering and death. Robert Mendler, 81, of Latrobe, is one of those survivors.
His story not only tells the horrors of the Holocaust, but what happens after the history book closes.
By Amanda Cochran,
Editor-in-Chief
Many Holocaust survivors never tell their stories. The record of their time at the hands of Nazi oppressors remain locked in a vault that is never opened. Others, however, pick open what lies deep inside to tell the truth of the suffering and death. Robert Mendler, 81, of Latrobe, is one of those survivors.
His story not only tells the horrors of the Holocaust, but what happens after the history book closes.
�I�m not going to talk about anyone else’s experience,� Mendler began on September 19, 2006 when speaking to a group of senior Seton Hill University (SHU) students. �I�m going to tell you about mine. I�m not a number. I�m not a statistic. I�m a human being.�
Mendler, an honorary doctorate degree recipient of Seton Hill College, came to SHU to speak to Sr. Lois Sculco’s �Senior Seminar� class about his experiences before, during and after the Holocaust.
Sculco, vice president for administration and student life, focuses the course around Holocaust education. She said Mendler is an ideal person to invite to her class.
�(He) best exemplifies the values that we are exploring and he best represents what we want to learn about the Holocaust,� said Sculco.
Mendler was 13 when he was forced into the Nowy-Targ Ghetto and then worked in forced labor camps. He lived through 10 camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sachsenhausen, until American soldiers liberated him at age 18 on May 2, 1945.
Mendler told the class about his life before the war. He was a young man who just celebrated his bar mitzvah, living in a small town in Poland when his world was turned upside down.
Mendler told the class that as a Jew he was always a second-class citizen, but he became inhuman to the Nazis and was treated as such. Mendler and millions of other Jews ate only small rations of bread, soup and coffee, year in and out.
�You survive (on that diet); you�d be surprised,� he added.
Mendler said surviving was also a matter of the mind.
�To survive the concentration camp is not about how big or strong you are. I wanted to live; I wanted to live so bad,� he said. �They took everything, but they couldn’treach (my mind).�
Mendler added that seeing his mother again is what kept him going, but that wish was never granted.
Mendler is the only survivor of his family. He lost 89 immediate and extended family members. Only 39 of the 3,000 Jews in his hometown survived the Holocaust.
Once a small boy in an orthodox Jewish household, Mendler spoke of losing his faith while interned during his adolescence.
�You start wondering,� he said, �where is God?�
Today Mendler believes more in tradition, and struggles with God.
�I always fight with myself,� he said. �There is a God, there isn’ta God. I believe more in tradition.�
After the war, Mendler was a displaced person, or what he called a �delayed pilgrim.�
He did not return to his home country of Poland, but immigrated to America, where he built a shoe business and met his wife, Joan Preter Mendler. They had two children.
Mendler is currently writing a book about his experiences during the Holocaust. He doesn’tplan on selling it.
�I want to leave a little behind,� he said.
Senior students in Sculco’s class responded to various parts of Mendler’s story.
Melissa Whiteman, a senior, said, �I feel fortunate enough to hear a Holocaust experience…It’s a good experience for us as students.�
Sculco said she hopes every SHU student will hear a Holocaust survivor’s story before they graduate, but this is getting more and more difficult as the survivors age.
�It was moving and very educational,� said Matt Healey, a senior. �It’s just things I never knew took place,� adding Mendler’s memories of cattle cars and cannibalism were startling.
Ashley McKoy, a senior, said the pictures Mendler received from his liberator were moving. They showed what the camp looked like when he arrived.
�It wasn’tin a history book,� said McKoy,�It was the actual picture, aged, authentic and tangible.�
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