Exclusive'I’m not what happened to me. I’m what I choose to be': A Holocaust Survivor’s Advice

I am making a difference in this world, to make it a more compassionate, a better world with less hate. When my time comes that I will not be here, and I feel good knowing that my life was not wasted. Our Bay Area innovator today is Sam Steinem, a Holocaust survivor, public speaker, and tireless educator. As a child he was subjected to Nazi medical experiments, yet his life was ultimately saved by the compassion of a German woman. In this episode he reflects on how the Holocaust happened, why hatred still persists, and what values truly matter in life. This is Bay Area Innovators and I'm your host, Steve Vispas. Sammy, welcome to our program. I am very honored to be on your program and to engage the audience. Thank you, Sammy. We are honored to have you. You're a Holocaust survivor, probably the most terrifying event in history. You know, it's just last night. Our episode may get aired a little bit later, so by the time our audience sees this, it's not going to be as recent. But last night Israel attacked Iran and decapitated in so many ways the regime and attacked their nuclear capabilities. I just want to hear your thoughts about this thing that happened last night. One of my wishes is that Israel would be independent and at the same time a strong ally of the United States. At this particular stage we are dependent by the United States on the United States. Fortunately, we have right now a president that is giving a free hand to Israel to do what it needs to do. And this is Israel by attacking Iran in preventing them from having a nuclear power, to be a nuclear power. They are not only fighting for their own existence, but at the same time they are preventing future tragedies in the world. Because the jihadists right now are in Europe, they are in the United States, they are all over. They will not be satisfied with destroying Israel. I have a saying, it has to do with the Holocaust, but even today everything starts with the Jews but it does not end there. Now pretty much your entire career, your entire life you have been combating hate. This has been your main purpose. Please tell us about that, about how you combat hate in the community and through the activities you do. There is a virus that can never be eradicated and that is bullying, bigotry, Jew hatred. Hate, racism and ideology. In my personal opinion, the only way that we can combat it is only through education. All the changes in the world have been accomplished by young people. So we have to start at a very, very young age to teach people love, not hate. Everything starts with three letters, Y-O-U. You, you are the most important person. What happens is if you want to be loved, you have to learn to love yourself. You want to be respected, you have to learn to respect yourself. You cannot give something that you don't have and that's why education is extremely important and by loving yourself, you will automatically be compassionate towards other people. You will know how to disagree in a civil way. So it encompasses every aspect of life. So education, in my opinion, is the most important to combat hate. Now we touched on this before about the Jew hatred being 4,000 years old and you did mention that it's not just Jew hatred, there's many other elements. It's like a virus that spreads. Now you mentioned education being a way to alleviate this. Please tell us more how you engage students or how do you educate them because obviously there's issues at universities in the U.S., at campus universities. There's Jew hatred at the universities and those are students. So tell us how you approach this issue. One of the ways, I prefer to do it in person when I give my presentations. Zoom is very important because you can reach people all over the world but you cannot engage them. You do not see their reaction. In my particular case, what I do is I ask a lot of questions and I want for them to learn that by asking questions, I can make a decision, okay, where to go, how to go and how to explain. However, the most important thing in my particular case is when I use a cliche, okay, or a sentence on a particular subject, I do not give them the opportunity to interpret the way they want. I will tell it what it means to me, how I see that. I give a personal example and by learning from me how I overcame the obstacle, they will have to make a decision to do it their own way but they will understand the way I talk, not being belligerent or not being disagreeable or controversial. They will understand that there is a way how you must communicate. From my perspective, from the comments that I'm getting, from the letters that I'm getting, it definitely hits home. I'll give you just an example. A teacher called me. He wanted me to speak to his students. My memory is not what it used to be and I asked him, how do you know me? He said, well, you spoke in Ohio State. I said, wait a minute, that was eight or ten years ago. You still remember me? He said, yes, and it's not an isolated incident. I was recently in something called March of the Living. We were in Poland and Israel. Even in Poland, somebody called me from the other side of the street, Sammy, in Israel. Obviously, I am having an impact. You never know how you're going to reach somebody. Let me give you an example. I think that will illustrate what I mean, that you never know how you're going to reach somebody. I have a very high pain tolerance. That's why you will not see on my face, although I'm in constant pain every single second of my life. I went to ninth graders in New Jersey and I explained to them what it means, high pain tolerance. I went to a dentist, gave me four injections, for whatever reason, it did not numb me. He wanted to reschedule the appointment. I said, you don't have to. You can drill on me without anesthesia. Now, for some strange reason, I cannot scream. I told them, when I will lift my finger, you will stop, I lower it, you can continue. That was my explanation, what it means by high pain tolerance. They sent me thank you letters. One of the students said, okay. She went to the dentist and told them not to give her an injection. If Sammy can do it, so can I. I was on the floor laughing. That was not my intention. But, she wrote a sentence, if Sammy, with everything that he went through, if he can still smile, if he can still be happy, so can I. This is an example that I'm saying, the way you talk, the way you show respect to other people, they will treat you the same way. Even when I go to fourth graders, I wear a jacket and a tie. They will not understand why, but they will remember that I did show respect. That's a good example. Now, I want to quote part of your book where you say, I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to be. Please tell us a bit about that quote and also what happened, what you remember that happened during the Holocaust that you were part of. You were very young at the time. This Bay Area Innovators episode is sponsored by Peter Cassara Clothiers, an Italian menswear store that brings timeless European style with a modern edge to Sunnyvale and the Bay Area for over 50 years. From top Italian suits and shoes, the exclusive Tami Bahama line, they've got your look covered. Check out their website at PeterCassaraClothiers.com to find out more. Now, back to our interview. Very good. Let's start with I am not what happened to me. People identify themselves by their spouse, their house that they have, how much money they have, in many, many, many different ways. I had a girlfriend. She was my friend. When I introduced her to some of my friends, she used to extend her hand and she used to say, hi, my name is Anita. I'm bipolar. Who cares? Who asked you? But that was your identity. I say that your identity is what you do, not what happened to you. Therefore, I'm saying whatever happened to me, that is not my identity. It is what I choose. Everything that we do, every single second, is a question of choice. I teach the young people to make the right decisions based on the information that they have at that time. Obviously, as you grow older, things change. You're wiser and everything else. That's why I'm saying, in my particular case, it's what I choose to be. Now, I don't have the best of everything, but I make the best of everything that I have. This is the way I explain. As far as what I remember, when my parents and I were deported together, by the Romanians, by the way, not by the Germans, I was only a year and a half. I have no memories of that period of time. Until the Eichmann trial in 1961 in Israel, the Holocaust survivors did not talk. The Holocaust survivors wanted the children to have a normal childhood. I knew that I'm a Holocaust survivor because my father always felt guilty. How come he did not save a family member from 42 people only to survive? My uncle was not a survivor. He was never in a camp. My uncle was a refugee in one of only three countries that accepted officially Jewish refugees, Dominican Republic, China, Philippines. My uncle was a refugee in Shanghai. I felt, since I had no memory of that period of time, did not know anything else, I felt that I don't have anything important to say. I tried to ignore being a Holocaust survivor. There were two things that happened that really changed my life. The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., for 16 years in a row, once a year, closed its doors to the general public for two days. It opened it up only to the Holocaust survivors, their children, and their liberators. I never went. However, on November 1st and November 2nd of 2003, I decided to go. There were over 8,000 people from all over the world. At the table where I was sitting, I met a man born in the same city, had been in the same camp, the same years, 1941, 1944. He was deported when he was 8 months old. I was a year and a half. That is the difference with your audience and you are experiencing. This is living history, not reading for the books, movies, whatever. What happened is, because I met him, I had the opportunity to ask him different questions. For the first time, I felt that I belonged to both generations, Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors. In 2007, I decided to join the Holocaust Museum here in New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a living memorial to the Holocaust. In 2008, I got my first assignment to speak to 6th graders. My first presentation, I did not feel that I have a compelling story, but I knew two things. Number one, I know more than they do. Number two, I used Nike's slogan, just do it. I said, what can happen? And meant to be, they sent me thank you letters. I said, each one better than the other. But one 6th grader wrote, P.S., your story was overwhelming. And I promise, I'll pass your story to my children. I realized for the first time that I have something important to say. And that became my mission in life, to educate the next generation, nationally and internationally. And by the way, about three years ago, I got from the Romanian government $238 for everything that I went through during the Holocaust. So my initial reaction was, what is that? Okay, don't send me any money, you know. But I like to take something that is negative and turn it into something positive. Of course, it was not the amount of money that was important. What was really important, that there are only two countries that have accepted their role in the Holocaust, Germany and Romania. So that's why I'm saying, you know, my life has always been taking negatives and turning into something positive. And always moving forward, not being stuck in the past, not dwelling on the past. It's gone. There is nothing you can do about it. That's right. That's absolutely an amazing quality. You have to not dwell on it, but look at the positive and turn it into good. Now, let's talk a little bit about the causes of the Holocaust. I know that that's something that you analyze, you look at. Maybe briefly, can you tell us, what would you say are the causes of it? How did we get there? And obviously, how can that be avoided in the future? It's what's happening today. Okay. Number one, hate people, they start very small. We don't react to them appropriately, timely, and it keeps escalating. But the most important thing is the fact that there are no consequences. Take a look at what's happening, okay, in the different universities, national and international, okay? And take a look at the riots you probably have seen on TV, what's happening in LA and everything else. And it starts peacefully and then it gets into looting and violence and everything else. But because there are no consequences, why wouldn't they keep escalating, keep doing what they are doing? And that is, in my personal opinion, the biggest problem. There have to be consequences when people do not act appropriately. And the other thing is the media is complicit. The media, okay, has to be part of it. And the way the media is today, how it was during the Holocaust, they were complicit in perpetuating false narratives and inciting people. I know there's two other things that are very important to you and then you teach this and educate people. It's taking responsibility and learning to disagree. Please tell us about it. In a civil way, in a civil way. Okay, one of the things that I do, I'm planting the seed, okay? I probably will never see it in my lifetime. But what I would like to do is to see in every school a curriculum totally separate from anything else. Just like you teach math, you teach reading, geography, history. There should be something about teaching dialogue. Dialogue encompasses everything. Every aspect of life. Okay, and we have to start it at a very young age. And at the same time, the parents have to be included. So what is needed to have a principal to start doing it in a particular school, then it will go to the district, in the city, and eventually spread all over. But that is, in my personal opinion, one of the most important classes that we can have. I will not see it in my lifetime, but I'm planting the seed. What happens is, if you pay attention to the news, TV, and everything else, our leaders do not teach the young people responsibility. According to them, it's always somebody else's fault or circumstances. I have been homeless. I live under the poverty line. But I was betrayed by people that had trusted with my life. By taking responsibility, because I did something that caused, okay, for me to be in that situation. And I started to think about it, and I said, what did I do that led to the point that I became homeless? And I realized these were people that I trusted with my life. I gave them cash, and I did not put anything in writing. Prove it. And so then I said, you know something? They are not guilty. They took advantage of my stupidity. By taking responsibility, suddenly the need for revenge, for hate, and everything else was gone. I became a free man. But here is the interesting part. I had to do two things for myself. Number one, I had to forgive myself for making those mistakes. And number two, we are kind to many other people. But if we make mistakes, boy, do we blame ourselves. And dwell on it. And I said, you know something? It happened, and I decided to be kind to myself. And I'm a free man. And this is one of the things that people, we have to teach young people to be responsible for their actions. Absolutely. I think you really touch on something that almost goes beyond the human realm. It goes into a divine realm. And that is, instead of something goes wrong, instead of blaming someone, or attacking someone, you take a step back and say, hey you know, maybe I did something wrong. Let me analyze what I did. And you're right. When you see that, it's such an amazing liberation. So, that's a message that can really change the world, I think. Now, for instance, what happened when Germany lost the war in World War I? Obviously, there were conditions that were very dire. On the Treaty of Versailles, there were three punishments that were so severe that the German people lost their national pride. And Hitler came with something that we have forgotten. That's why I'm saying we have to learn from history. And he said, German people, I know what you're suffering. The German army, the Wehrmacht, did not lose the war. We were betrayed. We were stabbed in the back by the communists and by the Jews. So, all of a sudden, instead of taking responsibility, they started the war. Whatever happened, all of a sudden, they started blaming. In our personal lives, nationally, when things go wrong, we all have a tendency to blame other people or circumstances. And I am against it. Now, you fight hate in general, not just Jewish hate, but other hate. Of course, our network is reporting a lot on the persecution of Falun Gong in China. You were involved with the persecution of Uyghurs in China. Uyghur people and another group of people. Yeah. Please tell us about that. The Hindus. So, let's talk about the Uyghur. I was asked to speak in front of the U.N. on their behalf. I had no idea who the Uyghur people were, so I had to do some research. And I found out that in the former Soviet Union, when the Jews wanted to escape the dire consequences, they went to the south. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan live Muslims. Their language is very close to the Turkish one. And they received the Jews with open arms. But in China, about three years ago, they started to deport them to so-called re-education camps. I lived in a socialist communist country. It has nothing to do with the re-education. Okay? When they invited me to their national rally in Washington, D.C., I said, you will not accomplish anything unless you can convince United States as a leader of the world that what's happening in China is genocide. They listened to me. I don't know how they did it. But the United States said that what's happening in China is genocide. And right now it's known worldwide that what's happening in China, it is genocide against the Uyghur people. Something more recent. In Bangladesh, they are starting to persecute and murder the Hindus. So I was asked to speak in front of the U.S. Congress on their behalf. They did what they had to do. And I just called this morning, actually, with the person that was involved in it, that invited me to come to D.C. And when I asked her what is the situation in Bangladesh, she said that right now things have calmed down. So we have to speak up. We cannot be afraid to speak. And I gave you an example with the priest in Germany, that he said what's happening against the mentally physically ill Germans. And because of him, the killing stopped. But he was never punished. Now you were actually saved from the labor camp, right, by a German woman, which in so many ways is ironic, but it's true, right? That's what actually happened, right? Yes. As a matter of fact, one of the interesting things is that we have a tendency to generalize. So when you talk about the Nazis, the whole German people, they were good people. You have bad people in every ethnic group, every nationality. But they're also very good people simple people that do the right thing for the right reasons. So because I was in a labor camp, and I was only a year and a half, obviously I did not have the skills or the strength to do any work. So I was subjected to medical experiments. And after that came a stage that I was dying of starvation. There are physical signs, big head, swollen stomach, swollen feet. Not far away from the camp, there was a farm owned by Germans. And the woman brought food to the guards in the SS. So she had access to go wherever she wanted. When she saw the physical signs that I'm dying of starvation, at the risk of her entire family, not just her own life, she decided to give me milk, possibly more. But I did not ask my father, and I don't want to embellish or say things that I'm not sure of. I, not knowing her name, I was not able to honor her in person or posthumously. But in 2014, I was in Israel giving testimony at the Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum. And next to the Holocaust Museum, there is a garden honoring 27,000 people that saved Jews. And I saw a marker honoring the unknown righteous among the nations. Okay? Like Asker Shindler. He was also called righteous among the nations. So when I saw that marker, it made me very happy because indirectly, she was honored. Unfortunately, there were not enough people to stop the crime. Yes. Yes. Sammy, I have to ask you this. What keeps you motivating every day to do the work you do? It is the comments and the reaction of the young people. That's why I say I prefer to be in person. I would love to come to Romania, wherever I can. What's happening is knowing that I, in a very small way, I am making a difference in this world. Okay? To make it a more compassionate, a better world with less hate. So therefore, when my time comes that I will not be here, I know and I feel good knowing that my life was not wasted. Yeah. I do have a story of my own family during World War II. And it's my mom's side of the family. They were in Budapest, Hungary, which was a huge battlefield at the end of the war. But my great grandma's fiance was Jewish. My family is not Jewish, but her fiance was Jewish. And then he was taken to a labor camp. She didn't know where. So she was trying to find him. And then she joined the Red Cross just for that purpose, so she can travel to different extermination camps to find him. But she never did. The whole time she traveled, she just couldn't find him at all. So that was not a good ending of the story. But our family knows very well how horrifying that was. Any other thoughts you have about today's situation? What happens today and if there's lessons that we have learned to avoid this kind of pure hatred that exists, unfortunately, in the world? Like I said, education is the most important thing. You know the story, they asked a violinist, how do you go to Carnegie Hall? So he said, practice, practice, practice. So I'm saying the same thing, you know, education, education, education from a young age. Okay. And I tell the teachers, you know, to educate not only the mind, but also the heart. The crimes were not performed by regular people. The crimes were performed by educated people, educated engineers, doctors, nurses, you know, the intellectual. And that's why it's important to teach also the heart, not just the mind. And things will get worse. There is no question in my mind. But I will die an optimist. I've always been an optimist. And eventually things will get to the middle and it will be a better, more compassionate world. I will die with that conviction. Samuel, we thank you so much for your time. We appreciate the enormous and important work you do for society and for the understanding of combating hatred. Any other thoughts you have that you'd like to share with our audience? All I wanted to say is that each one of your audience, individually, can make a difference. Okay. Not to be afraid to speak up. But at the same time, it's also very important that to understand that you cannot change anybody. The change has to be made by that particular person. The only thing that you can change is somebody's perspective. Make him think. But to be able to do that, you must be knowledgeable on that subject. One of the ways that I did it, do it, is let's assume that somebody comes to me and says Israel is an apartheid state. Israeli, a Jew, Holocaust survivor. Okay? Most of the people will go and attack or be defensive. My reaction is totally different. I will go and I will say, you know something? I agree with you. Can you imagine the shock of that person? Somebody like me? Okay. But then I say, you know something? You brought up the subject. Boy, you must really be knowledgeable. What is apartheid? Where did you learn about it? Who told you about it? Where do you read about it? And based on that person's answer, I will have to decide if that person has a closed mind. And politely, I will say, let's agree to disagree. And if I see that that person has an open mind and I'm knowledgeable on the subject, I will continue the conversation. But, okay, we have to diffuse. We have to give the other person's right to feel the way they feel. Good, bad, or indifferent. Okay? So by allowing them to feel right about what they're saying, then you, okay, you will find out if you want to continue the discussion based on the questions in that person's answer. We have a tendency to dismiss when somebody says something completely idiotic. I just agree with them. They'll be shocked. Then you come, okay, and ask them, you know, where did you learn about it? Who told you? How do you know about it? Sammy, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you. It is my honor. And any time that you want, if anybody wants to call me, please share the information and you can share anything that you want. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay.epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you next week.