USC Hillel gave students a rare opportunity to hear a first-hand account of the Holocaust on Tuesday night, hosting survivor and author Eva Perlman. Perlman is one of the approximately 245,000 Holocaust survivors alive today, but that number continues to dwindle with each passing year.
During her talk, Perlman said, “It is important to hear from survivors, especially [because] we are the last generation.”
USC Hillel Executive Director Dave Cohn echoed Perlman’s statement and spoke on the importance of hosting Holocaust survivors at Hillel.
“Eighty years after the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of Auschwitz… it’s incredibly rare and precious to hear directly from a survivor of that catastrophe in real life,” Cohn said. “Any opportunity that we can offer for folks to learn and directly encounter these narratives we think is really essential.”
Kayla Refoua, a junior studying real estate development, attended the talk as a way to learn more about the experiences individuals faced during the Holocaust.
“It’s important to understand that not one story is similar to another, and it’s critical to learn how this happened so we can ensure it never happens again,” she said.
Attendees gathered as Perlman recounted her story, which began in 1932 in Germany. Just eight months before Hitler took power, Perlman and her family moved to France in search of work as it had already become very difficult, if not impossible, for Jewish people to find jobs, she said. However, in 1940, the Nazi regime invaded France, and Perlman’s family was forced into hiding.
Perlman described a close call that occurred when Nazi soldiers came to her door in Autun, France, asking for a place to stay. Perlman and her family knew the cost if they spoke German fluently.
“My mother took her worst German that she could fathom — just putting a few words together with a French accent without making a real grammatical sentence,” Perlman said.
The two Nazi soldiers stayed in the spare bedroom for two weeks. They did not figure out the real identities of Perlman’s family, but the fear she felt during their stay never disappeared.
Now 92-years-old, the main word Perlman used to define her experiences is “miracles.”
After listening to Perlman’s talk, Aaron Gonzalez, a junior majoring in electrical engineering who is also taking a class on the Holocaust, reflected on the importance of remembering the Holocaust by pointing out the similarities between past events and today’s world.
“You can see a lot of connections to what’s happening today, not just in the U.S., but in other countries around the world,” he said. “It’s really important to remember and study it so that when signs start appearing again, we know how to respond.”
Cohn expanded further on the importance of having these conversations.
“I believe that the time of the Holocaust is one of the most visible historic failures at a massive scale to see humanity and to value life,” he said. “I think that remembering its history is an important one…the Jewish connection to these events is undeniable, but we really want to make sure that we reach out and offer this opportunity for learning to all.”
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp was commemorated on January 27, 2025.