- March 29, 2024
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Sitting poised in a red armchair, Holocaust survivor Tess Wise, 92, holds a microphone with a steady hand. Her voice is soothing, rich with experience. But her words are haunting. Wise’s kind eyes become solemn as she begins to share her personal story in Nazi occupied Poland.
“The most painful experience was being separated from everybody else,” Wise said. “We were in the presence of the Nazis all the time — at their order and at their wish.”
In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, Wise was invited to speak at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. As one of its founding members, she helped establish the Center in the late 1980s. Over 100 Central Florida community members gathered in the Maitland facility, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
The special evening program marked the beginning of a yearlong series titled “I Remember: Reflections of Eyewitnesses to the Holocaust.” In accordance with its educational mission, the Center will invite local Holocaust survivors to share their stories each month.
In addition, the event featured the opening of a new exhibit, “The Profound Effect.” From now until March 18, artist Judith Dazzio’s 21-piece exhibit will be on display at the Center. She said this 10-year-long project was her way of melding the history and emotion of the Holocaust.
Dazzio said her work was influenced by the firsthand account of a survivor who spoke to her and her classmates over 60 years ago. Although Dazzio was only in sixth grade at the time, she said that she can still hear the woman’s chilling words.
“That’s how important she was to my life,” Dazzio said. “I said to myself at that time, ‘I’m going to do something about this or for this someday.’”
Hanging on the wall behind Wise are five of Dazzio’s paintings. The largest canvas painting is redolent of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising. Soaring flames engulf run-down apartments. Polish Jewry crowd the streets in disarray. Armed German soldiers stand stiffly despite the rampant pandemonium.
The chaotic scene is a stark contrast to Wise’s composure. She speaks matter of factly, never allowing her voice to falter as she tells her story.
An only child, Wise was born in Szydlowiec, Poland to an upper-middle class family. She was a teenager when she was sent to work in a concentration camp in Radom, a city roughly 30 km from her hometown and 100 km south of Warsaw, Poland’s capital.
“It was clear what the Nazis’ goals were,” Wise said. “We understood our own reality very clearly — that we may or may not live through this.”
With the help of her Christian friend Maria, who worked in the camp’s office, Wise was able to escape and take refuge in the Polish town of Kransnystaw. She lived with Maria’s relatives until the town was liberated by the Soviets in 1944.
Wise left Poland after the war ended in 1945 to attend medical school at the University of Munich. Wise immigrated to the United States two years later, settling in Orlando to be close to one of her surviving uncles. All of her relatives perished in the Holocaust, with the exception of two uncles and two aunts.
“Those of us who survived, survived because we were lucky. We had the opportunity. We had the possibility,” Wise said. “But not everybody did. Not everybody was so fortunate.”
She married the late Abe Wise in 1949 and soon afterward gave birth to two children, Steven and Ellen.
“He was my hero,” Wise said. “He fought in the war — he fought the Nazis.”
It’s rare and difficult for her to speak candidly about her backstory, she said. Wise clears her throat, ready to move on and talk about the cause she has dedicated her life to: Holocaust education.
The Wises were troubled by the curriculum in Florida schools, namely because Holocaust education wasn’t mandatory. With two children of their own, the couple was cognizant of the importance of educating a new generation.
“It was absolutely incomprehensible that the most destructive chapter in history wasn’t being taught in any school and that the public was totally unconcerned about that past,” Wise said. “I decided that at least in my community, this was not going to continue.”
In the early 1980s, the Wises discussed the creation of an educational facility, one that would teach against anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice and bigotry. The Holocaust Center opened its doors in 1986 and remained the only one of its kind in the Southeast for 10 years.
Susan Mitchell, the grant writer and project director of the Center, said the institution has become an integral part of the Central Florida community.
“For all the things that the Center stands for, it’s amazing how close the founders were to a mission that still fits for today,” Mitchell said. “It’s not just about using the lessons of the Holocaust to remember history, but it’s about using those history lessons to protect the future.”
Eight years after the Center opened, the Florida Legislature passed a bill requiring all school districts to incorporate lessons on the Holocaust into the curriculum. Wise played a key role in its passage and saw it as one of the first steps toward educating the public.
Over the years, she orchestrated teacher-training seminars, encouraged survivors to share their experiences, organized programs for youth and built a library of resources within the Center.
The attendees applauded Wise in unison, honoring her words with a standing ovation. The Center has taken yet another step toward achieving its goal — showing the public how adversity can breed resilience.
“What Tess has done to preserve this memory for our community is nothing short of remarkable,” said Orlando resident and attendee Peter Schreiber. “To hear her tell her story in her own words makes it hit home even more.”
Wise said her purpose is to educate others. She has infused her lifelong goals into the mission of the Holocaust Center, promoting the creation of a society free of anti-Semitism and all other forms of prejudice and bigotry.
“I’m trying to teach what happens when hate rules the day, when inhumanity is a part of daily living, when countries like Nazi Germany are not fought,” Wise said. “The world did nothing as we were being killed by the millions. We must learn lessons from those experiences and never let it happen again.”