On March 1, 2001, Mr. and Mrs. Abraham and Sari Baron were invited to come to Dr. Coppola's Religious Studies class (RS599 Christian-Jewish Relations in Contemporary Church Teaching) by one of the students of the class, Alexis Harrison. Both Mr. And Mrs. Baron were prisoners in a Nazi work camp. It was there that they met. After the liberation of the camp in 1945 they married and moved to the United States. 

Mr. Baron told his story with his wife occasionally interjecting comments. Abraham Baron was born as the youngest of six children. He is the only remaining member of his immediate family of 60 who survived the Holocaust. He describes himself as “not overly religious.” Nonetheless, he said, “I have seen terrible suffering and death—including my own mother.” (He found his mother's burned body, which he was able to identify by the chain around her head that he had given her earlier.) “Through it all, I had a very deep feeling that somebody was looking out for me.” 

When Abraham was 15 years old he was forced to live in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland for five and a half years. He was forced into slave labor and obeyed or died. “Many of my friends were shot or worked to death. They were not interested in our well being. They only wanted the work done. After four weeks 1500 people had been reduced to a handful.” He said that the hunger pains were indescribable and those who resisted were taken out to the fields and massacred. 

Mr. Baron then showed the class the number tattooed to his arm by the Nazis. He had been forced to work in several camps. He described his experiences: “There was murder everywhere. To be beaten to death is worse than the gas chambers. And the Nazis loved group whippings. I remember that the Nazi's always yelled! The yelled so loudly that you couldn't hear what they said. Once they just kept beating me until I could remember nothing. They treated us like garbage but they counted us like diamonds. We were probably counted at least 25 times a day.” 

Later Mr. Baron was taken to Auschwitz, Poland, where he was told by other prisoners, “the only way out of this camp is as smoke in the crematoria.” While there, he turned 19, and he had 12 of his healthy teeth pulled by the Nazi doctors just to see if their new dentures would fit. 

Eventually was taken to a camp called Buchenwald and was freed there. After four years he decided to go to America with his new wife Sari.  

Mr. Baron has spoken to several school groups including the middle school in Fairfield, Connecticut. He also participated in the Steven Spielberg project where he was interviewed and videotaped with hundreds of other Holocaust survivors. 

When asked by one of the students how he survived, he said, “I kept telling myself that this eveil could not last forever and that I just had to hold on. I still think that is true. Despite all of the terrible things going on even today, we have to hold on and work together. These things really happened and we can't let them happen again.”  

The course, “Christian-Jewish Relations in Contemporary Church Teachings,” studies the dramatic positive strides in interreligious understanding advanced by the Second Vatican Council and the continued good relations between Christians and Jews. Theological, pastoral, liturgical, and pedagogical implications of the last 35 years are discussed.  

The Master of Arts in Religious Studies degree requires 33 hours of course work (11 three-hour courses) and a comprehensive examination or master's thesis. Those interested in taking these or other courses in Religious Studies should call Linda Kirby, dean of Graduate Admissions, at 203-371-7882 or contact the CCJU at 203-365-7592.