Our family friend Michael Kraus, who was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust, graciously agreed to speak via Skype with teacher Kate Todhunter’s History of the Holocaust class at Northampton High School. My daughter Lucy, our friend Ari, and I drove out to Brookline to help set up the connection with Michael and his wife Ilana. He recounted his story through the war and afterwards, his decision to publish the diary he wrote just after liberation, and he answered the students’ insightful questions. It was incredibly meaningful to hear from a witness to history – and to see how someone can survive and thrive after enduring the worst humanity has to offer.

At 86, Michael – a retired architect and grandfather — is starting to slow down and feel his age, but humor has remained intact all these years. After the class conversation, as we were eating bagels in their dining room, he admitted something we all found strangely amusing: he uses his concentration camp number, which is still tattooed on his forearm, as his computer password.