Joel Fabian was only 4 years old when he and his family were forced from their Berlin home to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Fabian, now 86 and living in Willingboro, New Jersey, still shares his experiences as a Holocaust survivor with schools and community groups across South Jersey and beyond.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” Fabian said.
It is this outreach that prompted Voorhees resident Selina Kanowitz to nominate Fabian as the National Holocaust Committee chairman of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. Fabian was officially appointed chair by JWV National Commander Scott Stevens.
“At JWV, part of its mission is to fight bigotry, hatred and antisemitism,” Stevens said. “Joel has quite the story as a Holocaust survivor,” he said, adding that Fabian is very respectful when handling the topic, careful to use age-appropriate content when speaking at schools.
Kanowitz, a U.S. Air Force veteran, is also making a name for herself in the JWV. She was recently elected national vice commander, putting her next in line to become the commander.
She is the first woman in the organization’s nearly 130-year history to hold that role, she said proudly. Kanowitz previously served as commander of the New Jersey JWV department.
Both Kanowitz and Fabian will be busy in their new roles. Kanowitz’s duties include strategic planning, forming a board of directors and membership. Fabian is creating a handbook for teaching about the Holocaust.
He also will require volunteers to complete online trainings with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Fabian is part of the speakers’ bureau at the museum, which provides free materials for educators. His story is part of the museum’s online collection.
At Theresienstadt, the names of Fabian’s family members were placed on a list for transport to Auschwitz. On the day of transport, Fabian’s father was away on a forced work detail.
A German rabbi convinced the Nazi wardens to wait until Joel’s father returned to transport the family.
In the meantime, the Fabian children were hidden in laundry bags. After the train left, the family’s names never again appeared on a list for deportation.
Fabian was 7 years old when Theresienstadt was liberated and the family returned to Berlin.
In 1949, his parents immigrated to the U.S. After graduating high school, Fabian enlisted in the U.S. Army. Upon retiring from the service as a sergeant in the medical corps, he moved to Willingboro and worked on the civilian side, supporting the Army in Fort Dix and eventually the Navy at the shipping yard.
To engage students, he tells his story from the viewpoint of a child. During one talk, when Fabian told of how he was hidden in a clothes basket, a 12-year-old student asked him, “How do you fit in a laundry basket?”
He now shows a picture of a laundry basket, explaining that he wasn’t always the size he is today. “I put a little humor into it,” he said. “I want to make sure kids connect with what I say.”
A member of Temple Har Zion in Mount Holly, New Jersey, Fabian was instrumental in creation of the synagogue’s Holocaust garden. He adds that the temple houses the original parochet, or ark curtain, from a major synagogue in Berlin.
As the Nazis were entering the front door, Fabian said, his father and uncle snuck the curtain out the back door. His aunt and uncle smuggled it to Bolivia and later gave it to Fabian, who donated it to the congregation.
Fabian also volunteers with the Esther Raab Holocaust Museum & Goodwin Education Center, a department of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey.
Helen Kirschbaum, director of the museum, has worked closely with Fabian, who responds to requests for Holocaust speakers.
“He talks to students about how important it is to understand the history of what happened and how important it is for them to speak out about hatred and antisemitism,” she said.
Some schools, she noted, ask him to come back year after year.
“One year I spoke to 5,000,” Fabian said proudly. “That was a record for me.”
Darcy Grabenstein is a freelance writer.
