Friend of Facing History,

Rena Finder is a Holocaust survivor.

Growing up in Poland, she witnessed the Nazi invasion when she was 10 years old. Overnight, she and her family became enemies of the state, simply because they were Jewish.

Talking to her recently, she told me she worries that our current political climate is coming too close to what she saw as a child. It scares her. But she has an important message for young people who are worried, too: You can change the world by being kind.

Watch Rena’s message to young people about their power to make the world a better place.

Before the war, the Germans Rena knew were so normal; they were doctors and lawyers, fathers and sons. But after these same men marched through Krakow with their tanks and rifles, they quickly stripped away basic freedoms from Jewish people.

She couldn’t imagine that these “normal” people could be so cruel. But she was wrong, and she only survived the war because of Oskar Schindler.

As Rena told the Jewish Journal recently, what she sees today feels too familiar:

“For the first time, I am scared for the future of my children, of my grandchildren … we cannot be silent … Everybody should rise up and become an upstander ... If it were not for Oskar Schindler, who was an upstander … I wouldn’t have survived. One person can make a difference.”

The message is clear: The choices we make today will create the history of tomorrow, and we can speak up and bring positive change into the world — or we can stay silent and be bystanders to history.

Watch Rena’s hopeful message to young people now.

Thank you for reading,

Thank you,