My Friend Abe: A Holocaust Remembrance Gathering at HBS
Holocaust Remembrance Day calls on us to honor the millions of lives lost, listen to the voices of survivors, and confront what can happen when prejudice, indifference, and power combine.
Join us for a Holocaust Remembrance gathering with Steve Goldberg, an educator and lawyer who shares the story of his late friend Abe Piasek, a Holocaust survivor from Poland.
At 13, Abe was taken from his family in Poland and forced into three slave labor camps in Poland and Germany. He survived a selection at Auschwitz and was liberated in 1945 weighing just 75 pounds. A few years later, he rebuilt his life in the United States, married, and raised a family—without speaking about what had happened to him for nearly 50 years. Shortly before his death in 2020, Abe asked Steve to “keep telling my story.” This gathering is one way of honoring that promise and ensuring the next generation hears it.
In the spirit of Zikaron BaSalon—intimate, living-room–style conversations on or around Holocaust Remembrance Day—we’ll hear Abe’s story and reflect together on what it asks of us as future leaders and community members.
This event is open to all members of the HBS community, regardless of cultural or religious background. The Holocaust is rooted in the Jewish experience and the attempted destruction of the Jewish people, but its lessons belong to all of us. Your presence is part of that collective remembrance.
Optional pre-read/watch:
Short video about Abe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgPzlzRs4zk
Details on Steve’s initiative to keep Abe’s story alive: https://myfriendabe.com/the-project/
Article on Steve’s work: https://indyweek.com/news/how-a-triangle-history-teacher-is-keeping-a-holocaust-survivors-story-alive/