On Feb. 2, Jr.-Sr. High School students learned the story of Moshe Furshpan, the only survivor in his family of eight who escaped the Nazis at age 10 by hiding in a forest in his native Poland during World War II. During the school assembly, his son, Dr. Bernie Furshpan, provided a second-generation testimony about human survival and confronted the rising intolerance throughout the world in his presentation, “The Little Boy in the Woods: An Incredible Story of Survival in the Face of Evil.”
Dr. Furshpan asked students the question, “Why haven’t we learned to be better [as a society]?” He stated that 50 million people have been killed in genocide since the Holocaust and that all genocide starts with words of hate. He also conveyed his idea that good people are capable of doing bad things, and the Holocaust is an example of how society can turn on its citizens.
Dr. Furshpan also weaved together historical facts and intimate testimony to the story of his late father’s survival. He explained how his father ate tree bark and berries to survive and covered himself with twigs and leaves at night to hide from the Nazis. Most importantly, Dr. Furshpan’s story advocated against hate and rising intolerance throughout the world.
“You don’t have to inherit hate,” Dr. Furshpan said. “Hate is not congruent to what we are as a society.”