Holocaust Survivor Recounts Tale of Tragedy, Hope

Former teacher and proud grandmother Clara Knopfler has all the qualities of an ordinary Thousand Oaks retiree, but beneath a gentle demeanor is the soul of a woman who survived one of the most horrific periods in human history.

On Wednesday at Knopfler shared her remarkable true story of surviving the Holocaust, made even more remarkable by the fact her mother shared her journey.

"My mother instilled in me 'You have to talk about it, you have to fight,’" said Knopfler, prior to addressing the crowd. But for 17 years, she remained silent about the atrocities she witnessed at ghettos, concentration camps and during her three-month journey to freedom.

It wasn't until she emigrated to the U.S. in 1962 and began teaching French at a school in Westchester, New York that colleagues encouraged her to share her story.

Born in 1927 in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, now known as Romania, Knopfler lived with her brother and parents in a community of Christians and Jews who coexisted peacefully with each other until 1940, when neighboring Hungary became allies with Germany.

Decades later, the mild-mannered 85-year-old makes it a point to relay her personal experience of a tragedy that claimed and forever altered millions of people's lives through speaking engagements as well as a book entitled, I Am Still Here: My Mother's Voice, published eight years after Knopfler's mother died in 1999 at the age of 101. 

Prior to her death, she was the oldest known holocaust survivor. All 37 members of her father's family (except for four siblings already in America) perished in camps. 

After delivering a poignant speech imbued with a surprising amount of humor, undeniable tragedy and emphasizing an overall message of hope, Knopfler signed copies of her book for members of the congregation, both young and old.

"Having a Holocaust survivor speak to us and tell us about her experience really hits home because you can always impersonalize yourself when looking at it on a screen or off a recording, but if you can see it in person and hear them and meet them person, you can really tell how horrible it was," said Jonathan Ginsburg, student at Portola in Tarzana.

Knopfler aimed her message at the younger members of her audience in particular.

"This generation has to care. Fight bullying, you have to get involved," Knopfler said. "Be an upstander, not a bystander. We have to get involved and I believe only in education ... I still believe that's our only weapon."

Portola student Elisabeth Grossman said that listening to Knopfler's story in person was a uniquely impacting experience.

"We've just learned about it so much. We've been reading about it, seen news about it, seen exhibits in museums about it but to hear someone who actually lived through it speak about it is, like, really inspiring," Grossman said. "It's great to have an experience like this--to learn about it."

As he thanked her for her touching story, Rabbi Paul Kipnes echoed Knopfler's sentiment of standing up to injustice to audience members of all ages.

"Tonight as Clara told her story, each of us young and less young, are becoming vessels for this story, for this memory," Rabbi Paul Kipnes said to the crowd. "The slogan is 'never again' but in my lifetime we've seen genocides in Rwanda, in Darfur, in Congo, in Sudan, in Cambodia.

"Be an Upstander, one who stands up and cries out against brutality, against prejudice, against violence, against Islamaphobia, against violence to women, or men. Stand up and bear witness. One small action can go far."