Holocaust survivor discusses kindness and speaking up against hate at UW-Oshkosh
OSHKOSH (WLUK) -- Eva Zaret was only six when she first felt Jewish persecution. It began at her school in Hungary.
"They said that all the Jewish kids had to leave the room while praying for the lord. Because you killed our lord. So I went home crying and I told my mother, did I kill anybody or did you kill somebody?" Zaret said.
She survived in a Jewish ghetto after Nazis took over, but her father and other family members were murdered. Zaret didn't know why the hate was happening.
"Just to be hated, just because my religion is different. For a child is very difficult to understand," Zaret said.
Zaret said strangers risked their lives to save others during World War Two.
"As long as we have those kind of people in our midst. I think the world will exist. If we do not have those kinds of people, then we are in trouble," Zaret said.
To this day, hate makes Zaret worry.
"I don't like to see anti-semitism and anti-whatever. Because it makes me very nervous and insecure," Zaret said.
Anti-semitism made its way to UW-Oshkosh this spring. Photos circulating on social media showed a swastika hanging on the wall at a party and a sign that said "No Jews."
While Zaret's invitation to campus wasn't in direct response to that incident, the professor who organized the event said it speaks to a broader societal issue.
"The knowledge of the exhibition and the speakers is important no matter what has happened in any of the time," Associate Professor of History Karl Loewenstein said. "So I see it as part of a great educational experience for students here on campus and the community as well."
Zaret believes speaking up is essential.
"All of the other people let it happen. Right or wrong you have to stand up. Don't be a bystander. Because that's the worst thing," Zaret said.
Zaret said we have to recognize the past, so it doesn't happen again. And that there's a much stronger force in the world than hate.
"It's so much easier to understand love. And kindness and goodness," Zaret said.
There were nearly 1,700 hate crimes that had religious bias, reported to the FBI in 2017.
Of those hate crimes, 58 percent were against Jewish people.
Muslim's were next on the list, making up nearly 19 percent of reported hate crimes.
Catholics were third on the list, and were the target of 4.5 percent of the crimes reported.
