This story ran on the front of the Local & State section. It was written on deadline.
The tattoo on Erna Rosner’s arm reads A-26671.
The weathered numbers and letter are permanent reminders of what happened to her almost 70 years ago.
Rosner survived the Holocaust, her memories etched as deeply as the tattoo, haunting her still but helping her to open the eyes of many.
On Sunday, she relived those memories — again. The 83-year-old Fort Myers resident spoke to an audience at the Temple Beth El in south Fort Myers. The Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties invited her to speak and pass on her story at a time when survivors are in their 80s and 90s.
Her message was simple: Remember the Holocaust or it will repeat itself.
“I’m a miracle child,” Rosner said.
On Sept. 1, 1939, Rosner and her family lived in Krakow, Poland.
Germany invaded that day.
Her life would never be the same again.
It would be the last home she’d live in with her mother, father and brother. It would be the last time she’d see them alive. The Nazis killed them.
She was 15.
Rosner was taken to the first of five concentration camps.
She was made to exhume the dead and remove their gold teeth.
Every day, she was told, or would hear from others, in the camp that she would die that day.
She didn’t care. She was alive at that moment. That’s all that mattered.
Twice her life was spared — once by a Nazi commandant who on a whim decided not to kill her; the second time, when an oven at a crematorium malfunctioned.
“Only once this happened ... only once,” she said about the experience that would take her 54 years to gain the courage to talk about with others.
In 1945, the Allies came. They freed her from her fifth camp — this one in Mauthausen, Austria. She weighed 66 pounds.
When the Holocaust was over, 6 millions Jews were dead; so were 5 million others.
“There were still people in the world who don’t know,” Rosner told the audience.
Luck is the reason she survived, she said.
She eventually came to America to start living again. She lived in Queens, N.Y. She married. She would become the mother of two sons.
Years later, they would be the reason for her move to Southwest Florida.
And her talks would begin.
“She speaks from the heart, and it’s easier to listen to someone talk about it than reading a book,” said Naomi Rubin, who organized Sunday’s program.
“She has gone through such horrors in her past life and has turned it around into something positive,” Rubin said.
Bethany Price, 23, was in the audience. Rosner’s words moved her.
“I found it encouraging to hear her words and see how she is still so full of life and joy,” the Cape Coral resident said.
She’s determined to tell people the truth. For those who deny what happened, she has little patience.
“It would be a waste of my breath,” Rosner said to rousing applause.
“I’m not a speaker ... I just tell what I can’t forget,” she said. “You don’t forget the details but you can turn them into something good.”
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Harlem Heights cultural center near
Construction of the $4.5 million Harlem Heights Cultural Arts and Community Center in south Fort Myers is on schedule.
Harlem Heights is on schedule with its plan to enrich its community by building a $4.5 million Harlem Heights Cultural Arts and Community Center.
The center, which is going up on a donated 5-acre parcel of land on Hagie Drive in south Fort Myers, is scheduled to be completed in October if everything continues to run smoothly.
"They are putting the roof on this week and we are on schedule," said Kathryn Kelly, the executive director of the Heights Foundation that is spearheading the project.
Construction on the 14,000-square-foot community center began in January and its completion will give Harlem Heights residents a new place to gather.
The building includes a 250-seat meeting hall and auditorium, outdoor and indoor stages, art room, gallery, classrooms, teen and adult lounges, a computer center and full industrial kitchen.
"It's been a dream of the residents of the community for a long time and we realized that there was no cultural arts center in that part of town," said Kelly, noting that the facility will become a landmark for the area. "It's a very close-knit community and they just want a
place where they can gather as a neighborhood."
And, gathering at the center will be easy for residents who already frequent the neighboring Lee County Parks & Recreation community park. The park has plans to partner with the new center and offer programs residents don't enjoy now.
"Some of my students live in Harlem Heights and this will be a good opportunity for them to participate in extracurricular enrichment activities," said Diane Salko, the principal at Heights Elementary school that is less than a mile from the construction site. "It will give them more options and that's just one more thing that will help build this community even stronger than it is."
The Heights Foundation has $4.8 million pledged and needs another $500,000 to furnish the building. An undetermined amount of money is necessary to start an endowment and it will cost about $500,000 a year to operate the facility.
Kelly said the future holds plenty for the center although final plans for programs are being worked out.
Some of those will be programs for children and adults such as a hot lunch program for seniors, computer classes and music and dance. It might also be possible to host the annual Harlem Heights Festival at the center as well.
"The residents have been asking for this for a long time and now they will get it," Kelly said.
Lunch Bunch learn about Afghanistan
The Lunch Bunch at Cypress Lake Middle in south Fort Myers recently took a trip to Afghanistan without ever leaving their media center.
The students, which meet once a month to eat lunch and discuss books, were visited by two Barry University faculty members who talked about the group's recent read "The Bread Winner" by Deborah Ellis.
The book takes place in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, during the Taliban's rule. It chronicles the life of a young girl and her efforts to support her family.
"Reading is a journey and it didn't happen over night but we did it step by step," said Vivian Posey, a faculty member at Barry University. She visited the students along with Peggy Van Voorhis.
The faculty members, which used to work for the Lee County School District, spoke to children about the book and brought a closet full of typical Afghan clothing for men and women.
"Our goal is for the students to have this global understanding," said Posey, adding that the school was the first they had visited with a lunch and reading type activity. "We used to teach teachers at first and then realized that these children are the ones that will grapple with this area in the future."
That's why Posey and Van Voorhis spent time discussing the history of the area and the differences between the Middle East and the United States.
"They read books out of their genre in this group and they are making the sacrifice to be in the lunch bunch," said Dana Thomas, the media specialist. She helped organize the event with Diane Konkel who had seen the faculty members at a reading conference and invited them to the school.
"They had these slides and the clothes and I knew they had work for Lee County and other literacy circles so I invited them," Konkel said.
At the conclusion of the presentation, students had a chance to sit down with the faculty members and discuss other aspects of the book. The visit was the first of its kind for the literacy lunch bunch.
The students, which meet once a month to eat lunch and discuss books, were visited by two Barry University faculty members who talked about the group's recent read "The Bread Winner" by Deborah Ellis.
The book takes place in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, during the Taliban's rule. It chronicles the life of a young girl and her efforts to support her family.
"Reading is a journey and it didn't happen over night but we did it step by step," said Vivian Posey, a faculty member at Barry University. She visited the students along with Peggy Van Voorhis.
The faculty members, which used to work for the Lee County School District, spoke to children about the book and brought a closet full of typical Afghan clothing for men and women.
"Our goal is for the students to have this global understanding," said Posey, adding that the school was the first they had visited with a lunch and reading type activity. "We used to teach teachers at first and then realized that these children are the ones that will grapple with this area in the future."
That's why Posey and Van Voorhis spent time discussing the history of the area and the differences between the Middle East and the United States.
"They read books out of their genre in this group and they are making the sacrifice to be in the lunch bunch," said Dana Thomas, the media specialist. She helped organize the event with Diane Konkel who had seen the faculty members at a reading conference and invited them to the school.
"They had these slides and the clothes and I knew they had work for Lee County and other literacy circles so I invited them," Konkel said.
At the conclusion of the presentation, students had a chance to sit down with the faculty members and discuss other aspects of the book. The visit was the first of its kind for the literacy lunch bunch.
Lee schools honor thousands of teachers
More than 16,000 volunteers from throughout the Lee County School District were honored at South Fort Myers High.
Organizers of the show, which honored 16,602 volunteers in the district, showed them their appreciation for having saved the district more than $15 million dollars last year.
"We can't pay for what they do. They do so many good things for kids,," said Dr. Marie Dinon, the volunteer coordinator for the district. "They do the individual things that make a difference."
The difference is not only measured in the time they spend at area schools, it's about the value of those hours.
"You never really know what affect you have on people and because of the volunteers, these kids get opportunities they normally wouldn't," said James Browder, the superintendent of schools to a group of staff members representing each school.
The schools that received the volunteer awards were divided into two categories: golden and silver.
Golden schools are those meeting a standard in having adult volunteers in the school. Silver awards were for secondary schools where older students volunteer to help younger kids for at least half an hour for every student that is in the school.
"If you took all the work of volunteers and use the Department of Labor average hourly rate for non-agricultural workers, the average salary times the number of hours that we have is a lot," said Dinon about how the monetary value is figured out based on the hours recorded at each school.
The golden and silver awards are from Department of Education that is not locally based.
"The very fact that the school owns it is that they are proud of their volunteers and are looking for recognition for their volunteers," Dinon said.
And because the number of volunteers has grown over the years, the show's winners continue to grow.
"In 2001, we had 6, 000 hours and every year it's really pumping up," Dinon said. "Peoples awareness is increasing as to how important they are and in what they can give back to our students."
Organizers of the show, which honored 16,602 volunteers in the district, showed them their appreciation for having saved the district more than $15 million dollars last year.
"We can't pay for what they do. They do so many good things for kids,," said Dr. Marie Dinon, the volunteer coordinator for the district. "They do the individual things that make a difference."
The difference is not only measured in the time they spend at area schools, it's about the value of those hours.
"You never really know what affect you have on people and because of the volunteers, these kids get opportunities they normally wouldn't," said James Browder, the superintendent of schools to a group of staff members representing each school.
The schools that received the volunteer awards were divided into two categories: golden and silver.
Golden schools are those meeting a standard in having adult volunteers in the school. Silver awards were for secondary schools where older students volunteer to help younger kids for at least half an hour for every student that is in the school.
"If you took all the work of volunteers and use the Department of Labor average hourly rate for non-agricultural workers, the average salary times the number of hours that we have is a lot," said Dinon about how the monetary value is figured out based on the hours recorded at each school.
The golden and silver awards are from Department of Education that is not locally based.
"The very fact that the school owns it is that they are proud of their volunteers and are looking for recognition for their volunteers," Dinon said.
And because the number of volunteers has grown over the years, the show's winners continue to grow.
"In 2001, we had 6, 000 hours and every year it's really pumping up," Dinon said. "Peoples awareness is increasing as to how important they are and in what they can give back to our students."
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