On February 27, 2025, select history students at Osbourn High School had the incredible opportunity to hear firsthand from a Holocaust Survivor whose personal story of resilience and survival left an incredible mark on all who attended. It was an incredibly powerful experience. Irene Weiss, who endured unimaginable things during one of the darkest chapters in human history, shared her powerful journey with us, reminding us of the importance of remembering, empathy, and standing up against hatred.
She shared her story of how she lived through the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust and lost most of her family. Hearing her speak about the pain, fear, and loss she endured made it all feel so real. It was hard to believe that something so awful happened not so long ago. She talked about how she survived, even when it seemed impossible, and how important it is to remember and learn from history so that it doesn’t happen again.
The Holocaust was organized by Nazi Germany and Germany’s allies to mistreat and murder six million Jews . This major event took place from 1941 to 1945 and was focused on Adolf Hitler’s idea of what the “perfect” race was. Those following Hitler’s belief system judged jews, disabled people, and Slavs (Slavic people, Slavic groups, Eastern Europeans, Slavic nations, and Slavic ethnicities) as “undesirable.”
This horrible event followed multiple steps, it started with discrimination, exclusion, and segregation, and then victims were deported to ghettos and concentration camps. In these camps, many were forced to do labor, were starved, and many were murdered in gas chambers. The Holocaust is one of the most horrific and tragic events in human history, and its memory serves as a reminder of the dangers of hatred.
Irene Fogel Weiss is a Holocaust survivor, educator, and speaker dedicated to keeping the memory of the horrible crimes committed during World War II alive. Irene was born in Bótrágy, Czechoslovakia (now Batrad’, Ukraine) on November 21, 1930. By the time World War II rolled around, Irene (Perl Ruchel Fogel) was only 13 years old. As a Jewish girl, Ierene had a lot of hardships to endure. She had to experience the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. After surviving the war, she devoted herself to sharing her personal experience and story. Through her speeches and dedication to being as involved as she can to educate others on the importance of never forgetting such an important piece of history.
We talked to students who were able to meet and ask questions to this amazing guest speaker.
Uzair Akhtar said, “I was moved by how she stayed strong while being in a concentration camp and I was impacted by how she talked about how we are all human beings and that we should treat each other equally.”
“Two things that moved me was how brutal the Holocaust was on people and to know to always speak out against things similar to it. Another thing that impacted me was the detail of her speech as I never knew that the Holocaust was that bad,” said Michael Fontaine.
“When she said that she had never heard of therapy, it really stuck with me considering what she went through was so severe and drastic. And when she said that she decided to take German class, I felt like her decision was very confusing but maybe she had a strong meaning behind it,” said Allison Avila.
“One thing that moved me from the speaker’s presentation was when she was telling us her story, she told us that when she and her family were being separated, she kept looking back for her little sibling because she was worried about them getting lost during the separation. Another thing that moved me was when she told us that most people who had arrived recently, didn’t believe what was happening. This moved me because for someone to experience this, they think it isn’t real because why would humanity ever do such a thing?” said Angelina Cruz.
“I was really moved by how she and her sister were able to stick together through everything. I was also really moved by her responses to the questions, like the fact that she never heard of therapy,” said Jasmine.
“The things that impacted me personally would be her talking about not being able to continue living her life, but still feeling that she has her 13-year-old self still living with her. She also said that we can learn from history and that we have the opportunity to make this world a better place,” said Daniel.
“Hearing her story changed my understanding of the Holocaust because it showed the perspective of a young girl somehow making it through this. It was a dreadful situation that killed many people, some even younger than her. I learned that there was a certain method to how the Germans gathered the Jewish people. In Irene’s story she mentioned the area that she was living in (Hungary) was one of the last places in Europe where the Germans decided to clear Jews,” said Shayla Lloyd.
“This impacted my understanding of the Holocaust because instead of reading a story about it in a book, I actually heard a survivor explain all of the horrific acts and saw the expressions on her face. That lets me know that these experiences will always stay with her. I learned that she and the other people in the camps were forced to run in the snow for days at a time, and if they couldn’t, then they were left there,” said Keila Rich.
“Hearing her story was really powerful because I could get a first-hand account of how life was during this time. Her presentation really helped us visualize how truly atrocious the Holocaust was. I was very surprised to learn that she did not get any therapy after what she had to witness, so it just makes it more shocking how she was able to retell her story and hadn’t cried ever since,” said Rojan Pyakurel.
“Hearing her story made the Holocaust feel more real and personal, instead of just something in history books. I learned how important it is to remember the victims and prevent hatred from spreading,” said Gabriella Windsor.
Getting this guest speaker to come to OHS wasn’t an easy task. Dr.Small and Ms.Ball helped organize everything to make it possible for Weiss to come and tell her story here at our school. It was a slow process that really started last year.
“It really started last year when Dr. Small was emailed by the JCRC, and we talked about it but we ran out of time that school year,” said Ms. Ball about how the idea first came to mind.
“One of my hopes is that students realize that the Holocaust wasn’t so long ago. It’s easy to just brush off history but a woman who lived through it is still alive to tell her story and it shows that it wasn’t that long ago,” said Ms. Ball.
Many classes attended because this was the first time Osbourn did something like this, and many teachers wanted to bring their students. “We were only going to have three classes, but then when the email went out, we got more responses from teachers and it went from 50 students to 250,” said Dr. Small.
Ball and Small worked with the Jewish Community Relations Council to find a local speaker. The JCRC connected the teachers with the US Holocaust Museum to look for a guest speaker near us. “The US Holocaust Museum found Ms. Weiss, and she lives in Fairfax. She agreed to speak to our students,” said Dr. Small.
Irene Weiss’s visit and personal story left a lasting impact on everyone who attended. She made a lot of people, even the teachers who already knew a lot of details, realize how recent and how horrific the Holocaust really was.
