Simon Gronowsky

 Hi, and welcome to the Last Generation. I'm Maddie Kramer. In 2004, my grandma Susie passed away and I never got the chance to ask her how she survived the Holocaust. Growing up, she knew she was Hungarian. And then she survived the war, but not really how that impacted her life and how her own life impacted my mom's and even mine.

I wish I had the chance to know her more, learn her language, and really get to know her. Since 2017, I had an idea that I needed to bring families together to have the chance to talk to the grandparents and ask all the questions I couldn't. Because we are the last generation to get to know their stories, where they're alive.

You are gonna hear an accent 'cause I was raised in Argentina where my grandma escape after the war. This season we will listen to Holocaust survivors being asked questions by their grandkids. I hope you enjoy listening to these families having the most wonderful conversations. I loved every second of it.

This is episode two of the Last Generation podcast.

I was reading The New York Times in January, 2021 when an article called My Eye a Holocaust Survivor Lives Neighbors Spirits in Dark Times. The article was talking about Simonovski playing just through his apartment window during the COVID lockdown. Months later, I had the chance to talk to Simon. And his grandson, ramen.

We had the most wonderful conversation, some in English and some in French. Something that I really took away from Simon's story was his courage, not only to survive practically alone, but the courage to forgive the people that heard him before.

Simon grew in Belgium with his mother, China Father Leon and his sister Eda. Until March of 1943. Simon had this vivid memory of his childhood house being a happy one where his sister was always playing music. He probably says she was a great bian. In March of 1943, Simon was deported to talented camp. A month later, Simon and his mom were packed in a cuddle with no food or drink with other 50 people on their way to Auschwitz.

Shortly after the train departed the station, all a sudden they stopped. And the Belgian resistance was there. Yeah, as school as the towers, the incident had fired up some of the people on the cart, and they successfully opened door. Simon jumped from the train. And that saved his life. Simon recalls that music helped him save his life all that time.

Today, he's 91 years old. He actively works as a lawyer and recites piano concerts during the weekends.

So now we gonna speak in French. So my first question would be like the atmosphere in his family.

My father was born in a small village in Poland. He loved Poland. It was his homeland. So my father fled from Poland. He entered in Belgium, illegally, illegally, undercover as a clandestine in smuggling. That is why today I support.

Without papers, undocumented people, immigrants and refugee. So the married, I am almost 90-year-old. Unbelievable. But it is true. Uh, but don't say it to anybody. It is confidential. Okay. My, my family was very happy in Belgium and my sister was a brilliant student in Brussels, and she was also a gifted classical pianist who loved also jazz.

And I was a, a child and above all a cup scout. This is, we're very happy in, imagine what represent your sister for you.

I adored my sister.

Assume, I would just say that, uh, he transmit. Uh, the ris to him, the, the sense of music and that really help him after the war. And for him, this music represents a factor of balance, good balance and integration in society. I cannot read the, but I, I play piano. Music was for me, very important after the war.

Yeah, music. He said that the music saved him and he, he didn't learn it. He just, uh, feel the music. He never read it. He never, he just, uh, that's like something part of him that after the war, I was left alone and scar. Talked about all this, about the, the murder of my family. So when the people came at his place to ask him if he could write a book about his story, this book, uh, has not changed me that this book has changed my life because now I am invited.

Every, everywhere in schools, I speak to the young people. Maybe the next question would be like, how did you find the strength after the war to get over this whole experience and move forward? So

because I was a baby.

Yeah, he was loved and he get a lot of love from his family all the time,

and this love gave him strength for holy Life

and as well the jazz a little bit, the music.

Um, so can you explain us, um, how did you, uh, did it happen that you met this guy, meet this guy? It took me so 60 years to tell my story. 60 years to.

As the son of the ish Nazi and as a God in where I was prisoner

was only six years old when entered.

He completely rejected the ideology of his father and is now my friend more than a friend. He is my brother. He, because he was not guilty. That same brother who was my God at the, the Sam Barrack. Lead me by gunpoint to the courage of death. Also, my mother and my sister and so many other people, he then admitted and regretted what he had done and ask me for forgiveness and mad.

I forgave him. Why did he become, became a lawyer? Uh, did he, is it linked to his story?

Wanted to, to study and to lead and have a life that his parents would be proud of. My family loved the justice. I have not brought to you a message of sadness, but one of hope and happiness. The last Generation Podcast is created by Mary Kramer, produced by Pickle Music, New York with Nicolai and Marco Toso.

I want to thank Martinez Te Linde for putting me in contact with Simon. Stay tuned for the next episode. Hear the remarkable story of Michael Warstein. He was just four years old when he survived the war.

Contact us at the last generation po@gmail.com if you have a story to share. This is a last generation podcast, a podcast for the oldest and wisest to tell stories that live on.