Holocaust Survivor Visits Aldine Middle School

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Lili Gordon, a Holocaust survivor, visited with seventh graders at Aldine Middle School who had been reading about the Holocaust. Nancia King, a language arts teacher at the campus, invited Gordon in December to discuss the hardships her family endured during World War II.

The story of Gordon’s family unimaginable voyage from the Nazis began in Kiev, Ukraine before her birth when her parents, both actors in a traveling acting troupe, were cast out of their homes when Germany invaded the USSR in 1941, separating Gordon’s parents for the next ten years. Leaving their home meant leaving their acting careers and everything else that was familiar to them.

Gordon’s mother, Tanya, then eight months pregnant with her, was forced onto a livestock train that hauled cattle in tight, wooden boxcars. The conditions were severe with little light and poor air circulation. The cars were filled with hundreds of other locals, causing people to be piled on one another. Disease was rampant in the filthy living conditions leading many to die. And it was under these horrendous conditions that Gordon’s mother gave birth to her while in the cattle car.

Gordon pointed out that by being forced out from Kiev when they were, the family was not among the 34,000 Jews rounded up by the Nazis and killed at the Babi Yar ravine.

Her family eventually found refuge from the Nazis in Siberia, but still fought every day to stay alive.

When the war ended, the family made its way back to Kiev, which was littered with death and decay. There they were reunited with Gordon’s father, Samuel, who had spent the war serving in the Red Army.

Gordon and her parents soon moved to Russian-occupied Berlin, where Samuel worked as a comedian. The next year, they defected to the American zone. After several years in a camp for displaced persons, the family came to America. But her mother lived with the memories of WWII that shadowed her life.

Gordon, 68, who made a living in interior design, moved to Houston with her husband and three sons in 1982. Nowadays, she is completely committed to working with the Holocaust Museum Houston.

“I’m committed to educating children, to talking to as many people as possible. I want them to understand that a horrific event like the Holocaust can happen again,” related Gordon. “We must remember the past so that we don’t repeat it.”

King felt Gordon helped students understand what is was like during World War II for Jews in Europe.

“Mrs. Gordon taught students about the dangers of hatred, prejudice, apathy and violence while emphasizing the need for tolerance,” expressed King.