A saga of escape

Jan. 27—Even though Baird Chapel in Lebanon was overflowing with Cumberland University students on Wednesday, there was silence as visiting speaker George Beller told the story of his family's escape from the Holocaust in 1940.

Beller's father Isi, uncle Aron, grandfather Simon and grandmother Rosa were living in Vienna, Austria, during the Anschluss, which was the annexation of Austria by Germany.

"Immediately on that day, swastikas on armbands appeared in the streets," Beller said. "The following day, Jews began to be persecuted and assets confiscated by the Nazis. Elderly Jews, including my grandmother Rosa, were ordered to wash the streets on their hands and knees."

In May of 1938, Isi and Rosa Beller got on a train to Yugoslavia and eventually crossed the border. They both joined the rest of the family in Antwerp, Belgium. There George Beller's father met his mother, Joanna. Five weeks after their wedding, the Nazis invaded Belgium.

During the German invasion of Belgium, Beller's father, uncle and grandfather were all arrested as "enemy aliens," and were taken from a military base outside of Antwerp to an internment camp in southern France called St. Cyprien.

"St. Cyprien was comprised of 13 areas with ramshackle barracks that had neither floors nor beds," Beller said. "They had to sleep on the sand. Food was scarce. Prisoners were given rotten peaches or tomatoes in hot water. My father ate tomatoes after that, and I understand that my uncle never ate peaches."

However, the three men escaped and traveled to the Spanish border.

While this was happening, Beller's grandmother, Rosa, had remained in Belgium and traveled with a friend to Dunkirk before arriving in Southampton, England, as a refugee.

Beller's mother traveled from the Belgium province of Antwerp with her parents and brother to Biarritz, in southwestern France. Three months pregnant with George Beller as the Germans advanced towards Biarritz, Joanna Beller and her family were issued visas to Portugal.

Bellar's mother sailed from Lisbon and arrived in New York on Nov. 21, 1940. Bellar was born on Dec. 23, 1940.

"I think the most important aspect of Holocaust Remembrance Day is that people and subsequent generations do not forget and that they understand the horror of what happened," Beller said. "It's easy as generations to go on for this not to be remembered."

Beller said that seeing the students that came to listen to his family's story was gratifying.

"I hope that they left with an understanding of not only the individual saga of my parents' escape, but an understanding of what happened in the Holocaust," Beller said.

Instead of lecturing on the first day of her spring-semester class, Cumberland University professor Natalie Inman assigned her students to attend the Holocaust Remembrance Day event.

"The idea is that they will engage their hearts and their minds as they're doing this (assignment)," Inman said. "My class is very much about critical engagement and critical thinking, but it's also an epic story of loss and endurance. If it's an epic story, what do we see beyond the story, and what is the purpose of a (remembrance) event like this?"

Sophomore Aurora Merren is one of Inman's students who came to the event on Wednesday.

"I enjoyed him talking about his family, because I feel like personal experiences are so important in driving home the message about something being wrong," Merren said.

Senior Iseli Irizarry also attended the event due to her interest in Jewish history and culture.

"I feel like the Holocaust is really important to remember, especially for it not to repeat again and for us to not repeat our past," Irizarry said.