Holocaust Survivor Noemi Ban

Noemi Ban of Bellingham, Washington, a Holocaust survivor who has spoken in our area in the past, will be giving a presentation at Genesee School Monday, April 13 at 7:00 PM in the multi-purpose room. All are welcome and there is no charge.

In addition to the free public presentation, Ms. Ban will visit with secondary students on Tuesday the 14th. These presentations have been made possible through the ASB Multi-Cultural Fund which was originally funded by a donation from the United Dairyman of Idaho after Cord Barker was named the UDI Student of the Year. Cord's sister Destiny has been active in promoting diversity in our school and this program is a result of her efforts.

Noémi Shoënberger Ban is an award winning teacher and public speaker, respected and beloved mother, grandmother and synagogue senior who has lived in Bellingham since 1982. A native of Szeged, Hungary, Noémi Ban was 21 when the Nazis marched into Debrecen, Hungary on March 19, 1944. Ultimately her father was sent to a forced labor camp and she and her family (grandmother- Nina, Mother- Juliska, sister- Erzsebet, and baby brother- Gabor) were sent on a transport to Auschwitz arriving on July 1, 1944. Immediately separated from her family (where they became victims of the Nazi genocide) Noémi spent nearly four months in Auschwitz before being picked by Dr. Joseph Mengele to be transferred to a sub-camp of Buchenwald to work at a bomb factory. Escaping during the forced march to Bergen Belsen in April of 1945, Noémi and eleven of her campmates were found by a soldier from Patton’s army who informed them of their freedom. Finally arriving in Budapest in September of 1945, Noémi reunited with her father who also survived. Noémi was married to Earnest Ban in October and they settled in Budapest where Earnest was a teacher.

The Soviets came into power in 1948. While living under Communist rule and control, Noémi herself became a seventh and eighth grade teacher. Reaching the point were she could no longer live under the dictates of the Communist regime Noémi, her husband, and two sons tried to escape via train to Austria. Thwarted at the border Noémi did not give up or give in. With a friend’s help she and her family, less than a month after the first attempt, finally made it to freedom in Austria by hiding in giant balls of yarn being shipped by truck from Budapest to Sopron on December 29, 1956.

Noémi and her family arrived in the United States in February of 1957 and were relocated to St .Louis, Missouri. Both she and Earnest went back to school to learn English and then pursued American college degree-Earnest teaching math, Noémi becoming a sixth grade teacher. Upon Earnest’s retirement (he was ten years older than Noémi) they came to Bellingham, Washington to be close to their son, Steven, a pediatrician.

The importance of this event cannot be overstated considering the advancing age of remaining Holocaust survivors. Certainly we have pictures and museums, such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., but the opportunity to actually hear an individual who experienced this tragic event in human history is one you will not want to miss. History tends to repeat itself, i.e. Darfur, and there is much to be learned.

This presentation may not be appropriate for younger children.