Gross Breesen

Surviving the Holocaust through agricultural education

By SANDY LONG

FREMONT, NY — When photographer Steve Strauss first saw the stark black and white image of a beam of light streaming across grain in a barn, he knew it embodied a story that should be revisited.

The former “60 Minutes” photographer commenced gathering the people and pieces needed to create the multi-media show, Learning Seeds, which examines the story of Gross Breesen, a Holocaust-era agricultural training farm for Jewish youth established on the Germany/Poland border before the outbreak of World War II.

For Strauss, the story of Gross Breesen “is as much about education as it is about survival.” The 1930s farm was run by the “charismatic and brilliant educator,” Dr. Curt Bondy, who created a program that balanced hard physical farm labor with lessons on Jewish life, German history and social philosophy.

The group of 130 German Jewish youth were taught skills to enable their emigration to foreign countries that needed workers trained in the agricultural sciences. Boys were trained in farm and field work, while girls learned to manage the household and various animal chores. “We started at 4:00 a.m. milking cows and shoveling manure,” said one woman. “We worked hard and were kept separate because we smelled.”

There was classical music on the weekends and rigorous discipline throughout the week. The stability of farm life became a vital respite for the youth, who had for years been prey to the escalating oppression of Nazism.

Learning Seeds will focus on the first group of Gross Breeseners, who took what they learned on the farm out into the world. According to Strauss, many became leaders in their new communities as farmers, social workers, artists, writers, educators and business leaders. But underlying their success was a profound sense of gratitude for what Bondy and Gross Breesen provided them.

“He taught me to live conscientiously, to be active in the community, to respect other people’s opinions and to offer help and assistance to others,” said one man whose experience at Gross Breesen led to his new home in the United States.

The exhibition is a mix of original photos taken at Gross Breesen, documentary footage and NPR/WJFF interviews of Gross Breeseners. Learning Seeds will be on display at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, VA until October 15. Strauss, a resident of Fremont, plans to bring the show to the Upper Delaware in the near future.

For more information visit www.grossbreesen.com or call 845/887-4070.