CHS World History students had the opportunity to hear from seven second-generation Holocaust survivors on Thursday and Friday, thanks to Lise Marlowe, former EP teacher and current Education Director at the Holocaust Awareness Museum & Education Center.
Students in Mr. Wilfong and Mr. Ogbuehi’s classes heard from Dr. Stephen Weiner, whose mother survived the Nazi regime in Belgium. Dr. Weiner attended Elkins Park School and would have graduated from CHS if he didn’t move. He has fond memories of spending time at the Cheltenham Mall.
According to history, 94% of all Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust and Dr. Weiner’s mother Bella Flora was part of the 6% that survived. She was raised in the French-speaking part of Belgium, where she lived with her parents and older sister.
Dr. Weiner brought various historical documents to share with the students, including a history report his mother was working on the day she went into hiding in 1942. He also shared his grandfather’s ledger of sales for his wallet business; a book that included every name of the people who died in the Holocaust; and the book he wrote telling his mom’s story through 25 smuggled letters she wrote to her family when she was 13 years old.
Bella Flora’s story begins when the Germans invaded Belgium. Her father David, who made wallets for a living, confided in three of his most trusted customers to devise a plan for escape if the Nazis were close. One day, David answered the door and found a Nazi soldier on his front step and thought he was discovered. The soldier was lost and asked him for directions to get into town. While speaking with David, the soldier looked at him for a long time and told him to leave town immediately before going on his way.
Thanks to the soldier’s warning, David’s plan went into motion. He reached out to the first customer he confided in and developed a plan to go into hiding. By the time the Nazis started rounding up Jews in Brussels to go to Auschwitz, David and his family were already in hiding.
Shortly after they went into hiding, they received a letter demanding the family give up their valuables or they would be denounced to the secret police. Feeling betrayed but prepared, David reached out to the second customer he confided in, who helped them escape to a small cottage in Mechlen. Still cautious of the impending threat of discovery, the family decided it would be best for them to split up. Bella Flora was the first to leave.
She stayed at several safehouses and tried to remain unseen and useful by completing chores and only talking when necessary. She changed her name to Mariette for protection and eventually changed it to Isabelle.
Eventually, Bella Flora attended a Catholic school in a convent since it was rare for Nazis to look there for Jewish people. One day, she was asked to dress up like a nun and go to the pharmacy to fill a prescription for one of her teachers. There, the pharmacist warned her to leave immediately, since one of the nuns at the convent sold her out to the Nazis. The pharmacist provided the address for yet another safe house for her.
On her first night in the new safe house, there was a terrible air raid. At the time, if there was an air raid, it was required to let any German soldiers take shelter at your residence. To Bella’s surprise, an entire platoon of soldiers showed up to take cover. Still in her nun disguise and terrified, she decided to embrace the disguise, pull out her rosary beads and pray with the Nazis as they hid from the air strike. She was never discovered.
Once the war ended, Bella was reunited with her family and they eventually moved to the U.S. to escape the growing tension and survivor’s guilt they experienced in Belgium. She eventually met a WWII veteran and Penn State graduate whom she married, Dr. Weiner’s father. In the 1950s Bella Flora became a fashion model and started her family.
After telling his mother’s story, Dr. Weiner encouraged the students to practice empathy in their everyday lives. “It takes one good act to save a human being,” said Dr. Weiner. With antisemitism on the rise, Dr. Weiner and Lise Marlowe reminded the students that they are likely one of the last generations to meet a survivor of WWII, and it’s their responsibility to champion the true history of the Holocaust.
