Article about Aaron Elster

"Aaron, tell us what your parents did before the war," Stahl asked Elster.

"They owned and operated a butcher shop," Elster said.

It wasn't the content of the interview that was so unusual.

"Where did you live?" Stahl asked.

"I was born in a small town in Poland called Sokolów Podlaski," Elster said.

It's the fact that this interview was with a man who was no longer alive. Aaron Elster died two years ago.

"What's the weather like today?" Stahl asked.

"I'm actually a recording," Elster said. "I cannot answer that question."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/holocaust-stories-artificial-intelligence-60-minutes-2020-04-05/?fbclid=IwAR3fTN40CjsgeyindW7y4Dm-Ol_sGqYfEc0e9Tlgci7FSROVNwSVTnjH8Vk

Our dearest friend

On the Yom HaShoa (04/12) at the age of 85 passed away our dearest friend Aaron Elster, who was born in Sokolow.

He wrote a book - history of a boy who survived the Holocaust.

He lived in Chicago. He conducted intensive educational activities at the Museum and the Education Center in Skokie, Illinois.

He visited Sokołów several times.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Who Will Tell Our Stories?

Every man, woman and child has a story. For some it is found in the most unlikely of places, during one of the most horrific of times, where actions of a few meant life versus death. Mine is a story of survival: my own and my family's. A story that begins over seventy years ago when my world became engulfed by the evils of Nazism, my family torn apart, my life forever changed and my childhood and innocence ripped away as a 9-year-old boy hiding in a tiny, filthy attic in occupied Poland.
Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-elster/who-will-tell-our-stories_b_7153866.html

Aaron's visit

Today, Aaron Elster, Holocaust survivor from Sokolow, came to see the town with a group from Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. The group was about 35 people (who later went on to Tykocin). We went with Aaron and Susan Abrams - CEO of Illinois Holocaust Museum - at the cemetery to see the grave of Mr and Ms Gorski who saved Aaron's life.

Interview with Aaron Elster

Your book will soon be published in Polish. You've been waiting for this for a few years, and now the inhabitants of the town where you were born, will finally be able to read your story. Are you happy with this, or a little afraid of?

I am very happy that it will be published in Polish. It would be great if the book could be used in the towns schools as a piece of history about what transpired during the Holocaust and how one of their former neighbors survived.
My story could be used as way to teach young people about Tolerence, about speaking out against prejudice.To understand that each and every young person can make a difference,can help prevent future Genocides against any people. To accept that we are all different and have to respect one another. After all we all belive in the same God.
 I would like students to know that they can overcome all adversity and become the person they want to be, If they believethat they CAN.

How was Sokolow before the war? Did you have here non-Jewish friends? Was the pre-war anti-Semitism a big problem?

Stevenson honors Aaron Elster

Almost 70 years after escaping from the worst conflict the Earth has seen, Aaron Elster still is not done fighting, choosing a distinctly 21st century battle to aid people almost 70 years younger.

Elster, a Lincolnshire resident and native of Poland, visits Stevenson High School annually to tell his tale of Holocaust survival. On Friday, SHS will honor his work with its Heritage Award, given every year to an individual who has made a positive impact on the Patriots.


Here you can read the whole article.

Elster Family

Cywia Scherb Elster, my mother. 1939-1940

My Grandfather Mordechai Scherb,
Grandmother Masha
and my Aunt Malka Goldstein

My Mother Cywia Scherb Elster,
my cousin Chana Scherb
(my uncle's Avraham Scherb's daughter)
and my little Sister Sara.
1940 in the ghetto