If I Can Change One Mind, It Is Worth It, Says Son of Holocaust Survivors About Deniers
GoLocalProv News Team
If I Can Change One Mind, It Is Worth It, Says Son of Holocaust Survivors About Deniers
"I saw the articles about the man who denied the Holocaust," said Avi Nevel, the head of the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative. "I am the son of Holocaust survivors. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, all were killed by the Nazis. We lost all our properties as well. I have documents as well that show a lot of this."
"I feel sorry for him. He is just ignorant — there is no other explanation," said Nevel.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBusiness owner Patrick Sunderland, who made the anti-Semitic comments on the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel's Facebook page, did not respond to GoLocal's request for a meeting with Nevel.
Family History
“My mother came from Dabrowa Gornicza, my father, Mislowicz,” said Nevel, of his parents' Polish upbringing.
“Anti-semitism was there before the Holocaust,” said Nevel, who said his mother told him a story about going to attend a friend’s wedding before the war — and being accosted and beaten along the way, arriving at the wedding in tears.
“My father was sent to a concentration camp first by Krakow, then was sent to Flossenburg,” said Nevel. “He was a slave laborer, and was shot in the leg.”
Nevel said his mother told him of how when the Nazis came, her family tried to flee but eventually returned to their home, where they “owned a little store the sold food.”
The Nazis took it over, her parents were sent to Auschwitz where they perished, and her little sister died to typhoid just two days after liberation.
According to Nevel, his mother and two friends escaped with the aid of some German nuns, and she eventually made her way to a displaced persons' camp in Germany, where she met Nevel’s father after the war. They married and moved to Israel, where Nevel was born.
Nevel has now lived in the United States for over thirty years.
Nevel spoke to traveling to Poland on the 75th anniversary of liberation — and how it not only impacted him, but his adult daughter, who he brought with him.
“We found a lot of my father’s history that I never knew,” said Nevel. His father passed away when he was four years old.
“We discovered he had been married once before, before the war,” said Nevel. He has obtained documents as to his father testifying against the Nazis after the war, as well as more prisoner information about his time in Flossenburg.
“Things like his number,” said Nevel. “Remember, that’s all they were — numbers.”
“For me, the trip was very personal,” said Nevel. While in Poland, his daughter celebrated her birthday, and he gave her a ring that belonged to his mother.
“The whole bus was crying,” said Nevel.
“I felt constant sadness,” said Nevel of the trip. “It was important that my older daughter came with me — when you’re young you don’t always ask your parents questions about their past.”
“When she came back, she said it ‘changed my life’ — she said I understand,” said Nevel. “She was born in Israel and came to the U.S. when she was two. She said for her, it was the first time it was real.”
Nevel said he would be willing to meet with Sunderland — one on one — “no press, no cameras.”
“If we change one mind at a time — I can say look, here’s my information,” said Nevel. “We need to start with the fundamentals that it did happen. It’s horrible. But you cannot deny it.”
“If he’s willing to listen — look, some people are so embedded in their brain and I don’t know the person,” said Nevel. “But if he’s reasonable, I’m willing to meet with him.”
"The United States protects the right to free speech," said Nevel. "He can say whatever he wants. And I understand that people can have different truths."
"But there are absolute truths that cannot be denied," said Nevel. "The Holocaust happened. It's not denied by the Germans; they have a memorial, they own it, and I have respect for that."