Gerda Bilakes survived the Holocaust by fleeing from European country to European country with her mother.
MANALAPAN - When Gerda Bilakes was a child, she fled from the Gestapo with her mother from European country to European county in search of safety.
She was tormented by non-Jewish children on her walks to and from school before her school was destroyed during Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass".
She was able to narrowly escape from a train heading for certain doom and watched helplessly as a German officer tormented her mother at gunpoint "for the crime of being Jewish."
Holocaust survivor Gerda Bilakes spoke to students at Manalapan High School as part of a Holocaust Remembrance Day program set up by a student who graduated from the school in 2012. (Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) When Gerda Bilakes was a child, she could not believe the cruelty that she and other Jewish children were being forced to endure.
Now, as a grandmother of five living in New Jersey, Gerda Bilakes cannot believe there are people who doubt the Holocaust ever happened.
Bilakes, who authored the 2004 book "Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death: A Holocaust Childhood," recently told her story to students at Manalapan High School in hopes of setting the record straight.
"Today, there is an insane push to deny that any of this ever happened. To discredit the reality of the Holocaust," she said. "It's very much a part of the history of western civilization, or I say breakdown of western civilization. And the whole point of studying history is to enlighten the students as to what happened in the hope of avoiding it from happening again."
The Livingston resident and Rutgers University Professor Igor Kotler were invited to speak to the students as part of a Holocaust Remembrance Day program initiated by a 2012 graduate of Manalapan High School.
Kotler told the students that prior to the Holocaust, Germany was a very cultured country, which gave to the world composers, philosophers and scientists.
"But then suddenly, in the most cultured country, it happened," Kotler asked. "Unfortunately, it can happen again. In each generation we get problems. We still have problems with human behavior, with brutality and intolerance. And intolerance leads to prejudice, leads to abuse, mistreatment and finally to genocide and to killing."
After sharing her harrowing story, she told the students to not believe those who doubt the Holocaust but to speak up against other acts of intolerance and hate.
"You, of course, will always know better. But this knowledge imposes a burden on your young shoulders," she said. "It carries with it the obligation to be a truthful witness against those who wish to rewrite history in hopes of launching a new cycle of hatred against Jews and others they don't like."
"I wish you well," Bilakes added. "I hope you will apply yourselves to your studies and that you appreciate the opportunities that this great country extends to you that I did not have, and that you speak truth always... speak truth to power."
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.