Holocaust survivor gets his high school diploma

Posted at: 06/23/2012 9:09 PM | Updated at: 06/23/2012 11:32 PM

 More than 70 yeas after his education was cut short by the Nazi occupation a Holocaust survivor is finally getting his high school diploma.

Fred Voss, 92 of Ithaca, accepted his diploma last night from Lansing High School in Ithaca.

Voss says he was a good student in Germany back in the 1930's, but was forced to leave school when the Nazis took control.

Using forged papers, his family managed to escape to Belgium, then England and finally America.

Voss remembers the day he was kicked out of school. "The principal called all the Jewish student together. We were not that many, maybe six or seven, and told us he's sorry but we must leave the school. Tthose kids were forced out of school, a million and a half that died. We will never know how many of them would have grown up, been scientists and do something for our world."

Voss said he agreed to accept the diploma under one condition -- that it would be in honor of the Jewish children who were killed during the holocaust who never got the opportunity to go back to school.

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