Holocaust Survivor Speaks at King Philip

A Holocaust survivor denounced intolerance at the King Philip auditorium Tuesday night during a talk about her experiences.

Janet Singer Applefield gave a presentation entitled "Combating Hate and Prejudice," in which she spoke about her life as a Polish citizen during the Nazi occupation. The talk was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 131 and the Wrentham and Plainville cultural councils.

"I speak about my experiences in the hopes that it will increase the awareness of the dangers of hate in the community, schools and the world at large," she said. "In the twentieth century, more than 100 million people were murdered in genocides throughout the world."

She said luck and the determination of others enabled her to survive the atrocities of the time.

"My appearance had a lot to do with my survival," she said. "I fit their profile — I was blonde, had light eyes and a light complexion."

Applefield was a four-year-old girl when the war first broke out, with the Nazis invading Poland.

"The first couple of days were confusing," she said. "My grandfather packed our belongings onto a wagon. I remember the ride because it was scary and dangerous _ airplanes were flying overhead."

The Polish army was defeated within a month of the German invasion, and Applefield's family fled to Russia. She said her baby sister contracted diptheria and died during this time.

The family stayed in Russia for some time, but the Russians eventually determined that the refugess had to become citizens or leave.

"The people who stayed were put on trains to Siberia," she said.

Her family returned to Poland, and was sent to live in a ghetto. She said they had attempted to escape, but were caught and returned. Her parents gave her up to a local woman in hopes that she would survive.

"There was an announcement by the Nazis that all the Jews had to report to a stadium," she said. "[My parents] split up, thinking, if they were separated, maybe one would survive. They walked into the stadium, and there were SS officers who decided who would live and die."

"Several hundred men, women and children were taken out, made to dig their own graves and shot," she added.

Applefield said her father was taken to the ghetto, and she did not know what happened to her mother.

Meanwhile, Applefield's father was able to maintain the birth certificate of a Catholic girl who had died, and Applefield assumed her identity.

"He was living in a concentration camp," she said. "Towards the end of the war, the Nazis knew they were going to lose. My father's job was to dig up the mass graves, put the bodies in a pile and burn them. He said he couldn't get the smell out of his nostrils for years."

Applefield said, though the war had ended, anti-Semitism remained. She said the orphanage where she lived after the war was attacked.

"I was the only Jewish child in my village who survived," she said. "Only 11 percent of Jewish children survived — 1.5 million were killed. There are 1,300 students at King Philip — if there were 1,153 schools like KP, all of those students would be 1.5 million."

"I'll always remember my reunion with my father," she said. "I was afraid of him, because he looked like a skeleton."

She said the threats and attacks against Jewish people continued, and she and her father decided to flee to the United States.

Applefield said it was important to stand up against hate.

"Survivors are a dying breed of people —I'm one of the youngest," she said. "I think a lot of people don't want to acknowledge what happened."