Grand Junction High School was able to host a valuable speaker on Monday, April 7.
Following controversy in recent weeks with alleged white supremacist Jared Taylor speaking at Colorado Mesa University, GJHS hosting Holocaust survivor Ben Lesser through an online video call was a much-needed change of pace for many.
Lesser was born in 1928 in Kraków, Poland. After the Nazi Germany invasion of Poland in 1939, Lesser was subjected to five years of what he referred to as “hell on earth.” Lesser was eventually liberated from the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.
After his liberation, Lesser immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1947 and started a successful real estate business. In 2009, he founded the Zachor Foundation, which aims to preserve memories of the Holocaust and educate people on it. He speaks about his life experiences to different groups, such as schools and religious communities.
It was an honor to have a man who has gone through so much speak to our school. Not everyone has the privilege to listen to someone with the experiences he has, and the chances to listen to Holocaust survivors are dwindling, as even the youngest people who experienced it are now in their late 80s or 90s, like Lesser who is currently 97.
I was impressed with the behavior of students in attendance in the GJHS Auditorium. As someone who has personally witnessed the disrespect that some students show to some speakers, I was surprised by the amount of respect students displayed for Lesser. With the exception of a few crude jokes, most people seemed genuinely excited to experience this event.
“I was so proud of Junction students. Everyone just sat there and listened and everyone was so respectful,” said GJHS assistant principal Heather O’Brien.
My personal hope from this event is that students may take away the importance of stopping hate, and how dangerous it truly is. As Lesser shared firsthand, hate brewed an event that murdered roughly 17 million citizens and scarred survivors such as Lesser for life. With all the division in current times, it’s easy to spread hate to people who are different. Whether it’s people at school spreading hateful messages, or people such as Jared Taylor spreading hateful rhetoric, it can dissolve into something horrible if we as a society aren’t careful as we have unfortunately learned through the past.
As Ben Lesser said himself in his list of his 10 commandments for the current generations to live by: “ Love Overpowers Hate – They are both contagious so choose love.”
