Life in Siberia: BT Grandparent Mr. Kornblit Speaks to Sixth Grade

Mr. Chaim Kornblit spoke to Ms. Liz Shrier’s 6th grade humanities class to share his experiences living in Siberia during the Holocaust. His story has multiple connections to the novel, The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig, which the class is currently reading.

“Mr. Kornblit shared his story about being deported from Lublin, Poland to Siberia, Russia in 1940, as well as his experience living in 6 D.P. camps,” reports Ms. Shrier. “He recounted the numerous hardships he endured in Siberia, including always feeling hungry, and the mischief that he and his friends caused in the D.P. camps.”

The students were enraptured by Mr. Kornblit, who is both a grandfather of a BT 6th grader and parent of a BT alumnus (Eric Kornblit ’91). The class asked insightful questions and demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of the events of World War II, while learning meaningful, lifelong lessons in return. “Mr. Kornblit taught us much about history, and ended with a summary of the lessons we can learn from his story,” said Ms. Shrier. Kayla S. ’21 learned “to not always ask questions, but go with the flow,” while Sarah S. ’21 shared that the talk “helped me appreciate what I had.” States Avi G. ’21, “Mr. Kornblit’s story was one that affected everybody because of its incredibleness.”