“I want to see the cattle car.”
Steve Goldberg still vividly recalls his friend Abe Piasek’s words. Goldberg, then a high school teacher, had travelled to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. with a group of students and Piasek, a Holocaust survivor.
Piasek, then 90, stepped up into a cattle car. He stood inside the car and looked out at the students. He took his time. He stopped and spoke, remaining there for five minutes, describing the time in 1945 when he was liberated from a similar cattle car at age 16 by Allied Forces.
In that moment, Goldberg, 57, caught a glimpse of Piasek’s ability to touch people.
“Oh my god. Just blew me away that he did that,” says Goldberg.
Goldberg, who lives in Durham, sits up straight in his chair at the Mad Hatter Cafe, his notebook out, recalling his friend. Goldberg was a U.S. history teacher at Research Triangle High School when he met Piasek for the first time. Piasek spoke to the school’s 9th graders, 10th graders, 11th graders, and 12th graders, for 45 minutes each. It was gripping. It also wasn’t enough time, the pair agreed.
When Goldberg mentioned his students wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum, Piasek was intrigued.
“Oh maybe I’ll come with you, I’ve never been,” Goldberg recalls Piasek saying.
“Are you kidding me?” Goldberg replied.
That conversation in 2018 sparked what would become a new passion for Goldberg.
He reached out to Piasek’s daughter for permission to set up a GoFundMe to finance the trip. After raising $3,000, Goldberg, his students, Piasek, and his family made the four-hour trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the museum.
During their time together, Goldberg immediately felt the effect Piasek had on others.
“People just like fell in love with him. They would come, they would want to hug him afterwards. He had this really magnetic personality about him.”
In January of 2020, Goldberg found himself visiting Piasek in hospice care. Shortly before he passed, Piasek spoke to Goldberg as he sat by his hospital bed. “Keep telling my story,” he said.
Goldberg took note.
Goldberg shared Piasek’s story for the first time via zoom to Duke Fuqua students in August of 2020. Piasek’s family had never heard it until Goldberg shared it with them that September. He has now spoken more than 180 times to schools, synagogues, and even at Fort Bragg. He will speaks today at Chestnut Grove Middle School in King, N.C., as well as tomorrow at The Lerner School in Durham.
Piasek, who grew up in Poland, was separated from his family at age 13, when he was sent to a labor camp in Radom. Between 1942 and 1945, he was sent to multiple concentration camps, including Radom-Szkolna, Auschwitz, Vaihingen, and Hessental. Piasek was on a train headed for Dachau when his train was bombed and he was liberated by Allied troops.
Two years after the war’s end, Piasek was able to secure a visa to the United States. He worked as a baker in Connecticut and California until his retirement, making classic Jewish delicacies such as challah and rugalach.
Through clips of Piasek speaking, slides on the history of the Holocaust, and evocative lectures, Goldberg tells Piasek’s story. To young students, he speaks of the dangers of injustice and of acting as a bystander, as so many did in Europe during World War II. To Harvard business students, he adjusts his focus, speaking about what it would have been like for business owners to confront decisions such as buying and selling crematoriums used at extermination camps.
For Goldberg, telling Piasek’s story is not just about keeping his friend’s memory alive. It is about shining light on injustice, on family separation. It is about providing perspective and connecting with students in an emotional way. It is about preventing further actions of inhumanity.
He gets strong responses from audiences of various religious backgrounds, he says.
“It absolutely transcends,” Goldberg says.
As a former U.S. history teacher, Goldberg knows how important it is to spend time on the lessons of the Holocaust.
“If you are teaching U.S. History, and you get two weeks for World War II, you are fortunate,” he says.
A German word, used in referencing the atrocities of the Nazi regime, guides Goldberg’s teaching: Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
“To honestly confront your past,” Goldberg defines.
What started as an immediate connection has transformed into a remarkable journey for Goldberg. He sees Piasek’s life as a model worth emulating.
“If, knock on wood, I get to my 80s and 90s, I wanna be like him — contributing to my community, upbeat, donating to food banks, and just being a good person. And it’s kind of amazing for him to have gone through what he went through and to be the way he was,” Goldberg says.
Goldberg has now spoken to more than 8,000 people. He has every intention to keep telling Piasek’s story. For his friend, Abe.
Above: Steve Goldberg and Abe Piasek got to know either other well before Piasek’s death in 2020. Photo courtesy of Steve Goldberg.
Jackson Derman
