The recent passing of Mr. Severin Fayerman on Monday, January 12, 2015, has been felt all over Berks County.
Mr. Fayerman was born in Poland in 1922 and lived through World War II as a young man in some of the most horrific concentration camps the world has ever seen. He survived by being useful through his knowledge of blacksmithing and several different language skills.
After the war his family moved to the United States, where they all began working in New York City before long Fayerman and his father founded Baldwin Hardware. The company was moved to Reading, Pa. where Baldwin Hardware became an incredibly successful company. Fayerman continued to give back to the area all of his life.
Mr. Fayerman has been telling his story to the people of Berks County and the world for years now. He spoke to the eighth grade class at Daniel Boone Middle School every year in the spring. It is a day that everyone looked forward to and no one will ever forget.
Most Daniel Boone students have his book, “A Survivor’s Story,” signed or their baseball cap from that season autographed with his name on the brim. His life impacted so many in the halls of Daniel Boone.
As a student of Daniel Boone, I remember Mr. Sherman an eighth grade English teacher and the school newspaper advisor asking a handful of students to be ambassadors and spend the day with Mr. Fayerman and his wife. We were all so excited to be asked, just as our entire class was excited to get to meet this incredible man.
The day he arrived, we all met in the auditorium and the select choir opened the program. We sang “Inscription of Hope,” a song whose lyrics come from words carved in a World War II concentration camp.
“I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining and I believe in love even when there’s no one there.”
The song set the tone for the beginning of Mr. Fayerman’s story; he told of how he survived the horrors of the concentration camps by making himself useful. In his speaking you could just tell he was an incredibly kind, intelligent man. He told us how he tried to forget the horrors behind the gates of Aushwitz and Buchenwald but he felt he needed to tell his story for those who passed away and would never have the chance to tell their own.
His story was one of hope and compassion. A story of survival and forgiveness. But most importantly one of the American dream. If you asked Mr. Fayerman who he was, he would never tell you he was a survivor of the Holocaust, but founder of Baldwin Hardware. His family made a way for themselves here in America after losing everything in World War II.
The way he spoke about America was breathtaking. He truly believed it was the most amazing country in the world — a country that gives equal opportunities to everyone, if they are only willing to work for it. Hearing him speak is enough to make anyone feel patriotic.
After learning about the Holocaust in eighth grade, his personal tale brought it into perspective for every eighth gradeer who has sat in the Daniel Boone Middle School auditorium and had the incredible opportunity to hear the story of a survivor.
An auditorium of eighth graders, for one spring day every year, was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Everyone took what he was saying to heart and are guaranteed to remember it today.
I recall student Michaela Flanigan, now a Junior in Daniel Boone High School, asking Mr. Fayerman if there was any music in the concentration camps. He answered, yes, the people of the camps who could play instruments, some even famous musicians, would form small bands and play. It was just a small thing but it added a sense of hope to all of those imprisoned. After the presentation, Fayeman was speaking to Sherman and they spoke about how a question like that proved the students really received the message and understood the story’s impact.
Mr. Severin Fayerman left such an impact on Daniel Boone and all of Berks County. Every eighth grade class was touched when he spoke to them. The world has lost an incredible survivor, but as he would say it actually lost a man who lived the American dream, the simple founder of Baldwin Hardware, Mr. Severin Fayerman.
