Holocaust survivor speaks to area students

YOUNGSTOWN – Sol Factor had what he described as a good life with his adoptive parents, though that did not dim his quest to find his biological mother.

“My mother was 22 when I was born, and she had lost all of her family,” Factor, 80, of Solon, said.

When he was about 2 weeks old, Factor and his mother, Rosa Pollak, were separated before he was brought to the United States in November 1947 to be adopted, Factor told a large audience of middle and high school students as well as their teachers from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, who filled Stambaugh Auditorium on Thursday morning to hear his presentation centered on efforts to find his biological mother.

In his lecture, titled “The search for Rosa,” Factor, a 37-year educator, discussed his childhood and efforts to locate his mother.

Hosting the gathering was the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation.

Factor, who was born in Munich and given the name Meier Pollack, noted that some children who were born after the Holocaust, then separated from their parents, were placed in so-called displaced persons camps. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration ran a center in Prien, Germany, that assisted babies who needed medical attention, of whom Factor was one, he recalled.

The organization also was tasked with figuring out where the children under its tutelage would grow up. By 1947, President Harry S. Truman, along with the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children agency, made it possible for many of them to arrive in America, Factor said.

During World War II, his mother spent time at Auschwitz, he added. Factor also showed slides of his birth certificate and a document that contained his mother’s signature.

Factor, a longtime history teacher whose curriculum also included the Holocaust, began his search for his biological mother in 1990 after having visited Israel, where “I began to ask questions.” Upon returning to the U.S. he wrote an article for the Jewish News publication that generated a few calls – including from someone who thought Factor may have been related to Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, a pop vocal duo popular in the 1950s and 1960s, he said to laughter.

Factor also recalled an exchange student from Germany who was in one of his classes and who had written to his mother, and wanted to see if she could help him find his mother. As a result, Factor was given a number of documents before he sought his local American Red Cross’s tracking services, soon after which Factor learned that his mother was in Israel, he explained.

Nevertheless, his mother did not wish to be contacted, perhaps because of guilt she felt that was associated with having no husband during Factor’s birth or because she didn’t feel competent enough to raise a child, but “I left it up to her,” he continued.

Toward the end of his presentation, Factor stressed that he feels the lessons of the Holocaust must continue to be taught; otherwise, dark history can repeat itself.

“A frighteningly high number of people think it never happened,” Factor said, adding that throughout his life, he has experienced little anti-Semitism.

Factor’s lecture moved many students such as Madeline Long, a Crestview High School senior who visited Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia this summer as part of a three-week trip with the B’nai B’rith Youth organization.

Particularly emotional for Long was visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald, two former notorious concentration camps, along with several museums.

“The museums had human relics, small children’s shoes, and that was very emotional and jarring,” Long said, adding that she also saw long lists of names of those who had died in the camps, with about 2,000 names per sheet.

Long, who wore a Star of David necklace at Thursday’s lecture, said she also hopes the lessons from the past will highlight the importance of working to combat anti-Semitism.

“I was kind of shocked. I didn’t know that many kids died in the Holocaust,” Lexi Cross, a Salem Junior High School seventh grader, said. “I hope people become nicer and kinder, and not mean anymore.”

She was referring to Factor having pointed out that an estimated 1.5 million children were among the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the camps.

For his part, Factor told his mainly young audience that it’s vital to fight against, hate, intolerance and anti-Semitism, and to treat all people with dignity and kindness.