Sociology professor shares story of his family’s Holocaust survival

November 5, 2009

The Holocaust was a devastating time in the world's history when approximately six million Jews were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Today, more than 70 years after the Nazi regime gained control, University of Wisconsin- Whitewater's Professor Ron Berger is actively working to honor the Holocaust survivors and the legacy of his own family.

Last May, Ron Berger, chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, visited his family's homeland in Poland for the second time. There he gave a keynote address, "Surviving the Holocaust: One Family's Story," at an international Holocaust conference in Krakow, Poland. Berger also has a new book coming out next year about his family's survival of the Holocaust titled, "Survivors: Biography, Memory, and the Holocaust."

Berger grew up in Los Angeles in a neighborhood that had a large Jewish population. "I felt as though I were an assimilated American," Berger wrote in his forthcoming book. However, when he moved to Wisconsin in 1981 to teach at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater he felt that being Jewish made him an outsider.

The silence was Berger's inspiration to learn and speak about the Holocaust and his family. For decades after the Holocaust, people largely ignored the brutal past. Berger's pivotal realization of this silence and the need to break it was highlighted at a lecture he attended at UW-Whitewater in 1987. Robert Clary, television star of the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," spoke to a huge crowd on the Holocaust and his survival of it. After avoiding remembering the Holocaust for years, Clary realized, as he turned sixty, that soon there would no longer be living testimony to the Holocaust. Berger remembers one woman stood up during the lecture and said that she had never heard of the Holocaust before and was outraged.

After Clary's lecture, Berger was motivated to learn and tell the story of his family's past. After Berger's father began telling his story, they planned a trip to Poland. In the spring of 1989 Berger's father returned to his homeland for this first time. This was Berger's first time visiting the places of his family's past.

During their travels they visited the mass gravesite where Berger's grandfather is buried, along with 500 other Holocaust victims. They visited other Holocaust memorial sites, which evoked sadness but also brought peace. When Berger's father walked through the gates of Auschwitz during a tour, his father said to him "that he felt as if he had triumphed over Hitler," said Berger. "He was alive and well, and Hitler was long dead."

While Berger's first trip to Poland was more about watching his father's reactions, Berger's second visit to Poland, this last May, was really about his experience as a child of a survivor. "Children of survivors have played a major part in helping parents tell their stories and preserve the historical heritage," Berger said.

Berger has helped preserve his family's legacy by writing about his family's survival of the Holocaust. As Berger's father told him, "It's good to talk about it, not deny it, so you don't feel like it was a wasted experience." By sharing his story, Berger has also helped others learn more about the Holocaust.

Berger teaches a sociology class on the Holocaust and remains active keeping his family's story alive. Berger's book, "Survivors: Biography, Memory, and the Holocaust," comes out next year. For more information please contact Ron Berger at 262-472-1407 or bergerr@uww.edu.