By Wendy Singer
In commemoration of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 15, clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Goodman presented her mother’s story of survival to Secondary 4 students at Royal West Academy in Montreal West.
Goodman is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who chose to rebuild their lives surrounded by love and laughter after experiencing unimaginable cruelty and loss during the 1940s.
While living in Belgium, Goodman’s grandparents made the impossible decision to entrust their daughter to a most courageous couple, Alida and Charles Pontus, who hid her for two and a half years in order to keep her safe. During this time, her parents were interned in Mechelen transit camp, located between Antwerp and Brussels. Goodman’s mother was eventually reunited with her parents, but most of their families were murdered.
Goodman’s mother later settled in Montreal and until recently, shared her story widely to teach about the dangers of hatred and the power of kindness. Sadly, she has had to step back from her mission due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Now, her daughter is continuing that legacy. “Today, I find myself trembling with the responsibility of bearing witness more than ever before. I have told these stories innumerable times, and yet, this time feels different,” Goodman wrote in a LinkedIn post on April 15.
Drawing on 25 years of experience practicing clinical psychology, Royal West students listened attentively as Goodman encouraged them to not be bystanders. She urged them to speak up when they witness wrongdoing and to show kindness and support in everyday situations. She called on them to be “upstanders.”
Goodman’s mission is to pay forward the goodness shown to her family, to live the true meaning of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and to transform intergenerational trauma into intergenerational resilience. Her message resonates beyond the classroom, to be carried forward for generations to come.
Thanks to Goodman’s efforts, the Pontus family was recognized at Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 2006. This honour is bestowed on behalf of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Her message to students and educators is clear: history is not only something to remember, but something to learn from. And each of us has the power to be an upstander in our own lives.
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