ORT Connection
I arrived in Geneva on February 11, 1949. I’m able to quote the exact dates because I still have the documents with the stamped entry date to Switzerland. An ORT representative met me at the Geneva railroad station and took me by car to the Institute. The school, in a beautiful picturesque village near Lake Geneva, was located a couple of hundred yards from the French border. The village called Anières près Genève meant Anieres near Geneva.
The school occupied a new building, surrounded by trees and rolling lawns and a small forest in the schoolyard. The building once used as a sanatorium for the mentally impaired was beautifully renovated into a technical school with two stories and a basement, containing classrooms, dormitories, and laboratories. Wide steps in front of the main entry enlarged the tall façade. The ORT insignia, made of a mosaic of tile and inscribed in the terrazzo floor of the lobby, reminded us of its existence. The Institute, also referred to as the Dr. Aron Syngalowski Center, honored the head of the World ORT Organization. Shortly after our arrival, he came to personally meet with and welcome all the students. He explained that the Institute had been his life’s dream.
A sparkling new and spacious room with two beds and a very attractive loft that included two additional beds became my new home. The floors and staircase to the loft, as well as the rail across the loft overlooking the room below, were made of light color polished wood. My friend Max, one of the 400 applicants from Italy, decided to occupy the loft with me. A large window brought the sunlight into the room.
Within a week, Vittorio Pavoncelli, a native of Rome arrived. Since Vittorio spoke only Italian, he became our roommate to facilitate his need for translators. Most of the boys in the Institute spoke two or more languages but not Italian. Vittorio occupied a bed downstairs. Our room represented the Italian contingent.
