Sandra Miller, daughter of Sabina Miller, delivered a talk on her mother’s experience of surviving the Holocaust to all Year 9 students and Year 13 History students.
Sandra explained that her mother was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1922. She was the third of four children and had a warm and happy childhood. The family were quite Orthodox but integrated well into Polish life. Sabina’s life was shattered after Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and the Warsaw Ghetto became a reality at the end of 1940. Her parents died of typhus as a result of the subhuman living conditions there. She lived in the ghetto for two years then escaped illegally to an aunt in Sokolow – a town 80 kilometres from Warsaw. She worked on a farm with 29 other Jewish girls but ran away to the forest when she heard the Germans were coming for them. She then spent the winter of 1942 living in a trench – a hole in the ground, begging for food. She survived the war and interrogation by faking her identity and replying on the kindness of strangers.
The talk was a chance for Year 9 students to better understand the experiences of survivors of the Holocaust and to ask questions.
