hHe
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Volume XWII, Issue 11
Educating Women To Excel
November 17, 2004
ON THE
INSIDE;
World^
News
Page 2
Coat
Drive
Page 3
Mode/ UN
at Meredith
Page 4
Environment
Column
Page 5
'Entertainment
Reviews
Page 6
Diversity
Column
Page 7
Meredith’s
Weekly Weather
David Faber leaves impact on Meredith
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Suaay
High 64/ Low 39
Panly Cloudy
High 65/ Low 43
Partly Cloudy
High 65/ Low 43
Psnly Cloudy
High 66/ Low 50
Partly Cloudy
High 68/ LowSI
Showers
High 65/Low 42
Partly Cloudy
High 59/Low 39
AMBER LITTESY
Layout Editor
David Faber, a Polish-bom
Holocaust survivor, spoke
to the Mereditli community
on November 10 at 10 a.m.
and 7 p.m. in the Chapel.
Faber was a victim of the
Nazis from 1939-1945. One
of eight children, Faber vv'it-
nessed the murders of five
of his six sisters, both of his
parents, and the torture and
murder of his older brother
Abraham, who was known
as Romek. The only other
surviving member of Faber’s
immediate family was his
oldest sister Rachel who, be
fore the start of the war, had
moved to England where she
eventually became a famous
dressmaker and designer
Surviving eight different
concentration camps, includ
ing Auschwitz where his left
arm was tattooed with pris
oner number 161051, Faber
was eventually liberated on
April 15,1945 fromBergen-
Belsen. When Faber's mov
ing body was found, he was
rushed to the hospital weigh
ing only 72 pounds at the
age of 18 and suffering from
starvation and typhoid fever.
David Faber's high level
of intelligence was an ad
vantage that other Jews did
not necessarily have. Fluent
in five different languages
including German, Faber
could understand the Na
zis and was able to receive
inside information by just
listening to them speak. At
the first concentration camp
he was sent to, the Nazis be
gan to separate the Jews into
groups of men, women and
children as well as a group of
what they deemed to be the
“somewhat decent people.”
When it was Faber’s turn to
be sorted, the then young boy
Photo courtesy of Wendy Gem, staff photographer
David Faber showing the tattoo he received to identify him as a prisoner, number 161051, in a
concentration camp in Germany during World War II.
stood up straight and spoke a ter needed to make nuclear
couple of sentences in Ger
man to the Nazis. The Nazis
laughed and said in German,
“Look at this Jewish boy
trying to be a Nazi soldier'’
The Nazis then pushed
Faber to the “decent group.”
After all the people were
sorted, the other groups
were told to take off their
clothes and hang them on
a hook. To induce a false
sense of security, the Nazis
instructed the nude people
to remember the number of
their hook so when each re
turned from taking a shower
they could find their clothes.
The men, women, and chil
dren were taken to huge
showers in which deadly
crystals were deposited so
that when the water fell it
would melt the crystals, dis
pensing a deadly gas. Those
people never returned.
Faber, however, survived.
Faber's brother Romek
was in the Polish army
when Poland was captured.
He was labeled a prisoner
of war but continued to help
the United States and Eng
land. Romek was a part of a
secret operation that helped
to keep the specialized wa-
bombs away from the Ger
mans. The people who took
part in this operation helped
the Allied forces by dumping
the water. If the Germans had
access to this ingredientneed-
ed for the bombs, the Ger
mans could have destroyed
the world. Faber's brother
was murdered by a double
agent who, though working
for the United States, was
in a spy for the Germans.
When the double agent was
captured and brought to the
U.S., David Faber helped
the FBI to convict the man.
Faber is the author of Be
cause of Romek, a book that
recounts his struggles to sur
vive the Holocaust and was
inspired by the revelation
of his brother's sacrifices.
■
grapner
David Faber, holding up a picture of a concentration camp,
uses visual aids to introduce the reality of the Holocaust.