“Hatred is not an abstract concept, it has human features,” Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger told an auditorium full of middle and high school students yesterday.

Wollschlaeger, originally from Bamberg, Germany, now living in Miami, Florida, traveled to Rhode Island to speak at the State House for Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 15.

But before his time at the State House, he took the time to speak to classes from Hendricken and St. Kevin School about his experiences.

Now in his late 50s Wollschlaeger shares his story and has even written a few books on the subject including, A German Life: Against, Change is Possible.

The Holocaust Education and Resource Center (HERC), in Providence invited him to Rhode Island.

Darlene Caruolo, an English teacher at St. Kevin who has been active with HERC, dedicates a unit to the Holocaust for her middle school students.

Last year she was voted “Teacher of the Year” by HERC for her continued commitment to incorporating the Holocaust into her curriculum.

Every year she has her students participate in HERC’s annual contest that takes student’s written and creative submissions.

She said, “I think this is something students should be educated about no matter how far we get away from it. As the years go on there are less and less living survivors and we need to hear their stories as often as possible to keep this history alive.”

Caruolo said she works closely with Elizabeth Thompson, an English Department Chair for Hendricken, on various other projects and thought this speaker was an experience to have as many students attend as possible.

The ninth graders at Hendricken recently read Elie Weisel’s Night, so Thompshon thought it would be appropriate for them to meet with Wollschlaeger.

“We do a lot of collaboration with Hendricken so that our students, especially the ones going to Hendricken, are better prepared for high school,” Caruolo said.

Sixteen 7th graders and 17 8th graders from St. Kevin visited Hendricken to hear Wollschlaeger speak at 12:30 p.m.

Caruolo said, “Students are in an ever-changing world, and this is something that needs to be kept in the curriculum.”

Before Wollschlaeger took the stage, Hendricken principal Joseph Brennan said, “Today you are going to hear a story like no other. This is different from your history classes. You will be listening to a first hand account.”

Wollschlaeger’s father was a decorated Nazi tank commander in Hitler’s Wehrmacht army. He even was personally awarded the Knight’s Cross for bravery and leadership in the battlefield by the dictator himself, which he wore every Christmas even after the war ended.

Even in post war Germany Wollschlaeger’s father was considered a war hero.

“Everyone had called my father a hero, as his son who was I to think any less,” he said.

Wollschlaeger could say he always heard opposite stories about the war from his father and mother, war was glory, war was horror.

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Germany, Wollschlaeger was confused when his parents became silent when the Israeli team walked the stage during the opening ceremonies and even more confused after Palestinians massacred the Israeli team and the headlines read, “Jews killed in Germany Again.”

This is when he began learning about the holocaust in school, the headlines too obvious for teachers to deny.

When Wollschlaeger confronted his father, he was told that teachers were liars and communists, the Holocaust had never happened.

As an alcoholic, Wollschlaeger’s father would reveal a bit more about the truth and would eventually admit that not only had he participated in the Holocaust, but he condoned it.

“I felt terrible for what had happened what my country had done throughout the war.”

Wollschlaeger ended any relationship he had with his father at the point and would continue on to a spiritual journey.

At the age of 19 he met with Israelis in Germany and then made a pilgrimage to Israel before returning to Germany to finish his medical degree.

It was then that he made the decision to convert to Judaism and move to Israel to serve as a medical officer in the Israel Defense Forces before moving to America for his residency.

Wollschlaeger vowed he would not be like his father and is open with his own children about their past and about their heritage.

“History is important so we can look back and learn so we never make the same mistakes again. History is more than something that happened before you were born. For me history has always affected my present and shaped my future.”

He told students to stand up when they see signs of hatred and to be accepting of everyone so that we can avoid the mistakes of history.

He noted that bullying is the beginning, because hatred like that can escalate and if enough people don’t do anything that very hatred can become a social norm.

Wollschlaeger said, “Hatred starts with words. “We generate it everyday when we let negativity bubble up and do nothing to stop it.”