Of Peace and the Family : Reunion: A large clan that includes survivors of Nazi prison camps recounts tales of survival and reflects on avoiding the horrors of the past.

Nearly 200 descendants of the Steinberg family of Poland, including survivors of Nazi prison camps, descended on an Oxnard seaside resort Thanksgiving Day in a boisterous reunion designed for love and remembrances.

Family members, many of whom now live in Southern California, greeted each other in voices that told of their origins in Poland, Israel, the Ukraine and France. They recounted their tales of survival, their love of their adopted country and the need for the children to know their history.

Morton Goose, the 85-year-old family patriarch who was born in the Ukraine, said he wants the family to remember the tragedy of the Holocaust so it might never be repeated.

“In order to advance and think of the future, we must remember yesterday,” said Goose, a retired engineer who arrived Wednesday from Florida for the family get-together. “That was one of my always expressions.”

But stronger than his desire for children to know history, Goose said, is his wish for peace in the world that his grandchildren will inherit.

“I know the horrors of war,” he said. “I want to see peace and tranquillity and prosperity. But first of all, I want to see peace.”

Joe Steinberg, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and former movie producer who organized the reunion, said he learned the importance of family and close ties from his father, a Polish immigrant.

Throughout his youth, Steinberg said, his family took in relatives and friends as they arrived in the United States, usually with no money and speaking no English.

“When you are in need, who else helps you but family?” he asked. A Yale-educated businessman, Steinberg said he wants his children to remember their “humble origins” and to realize that in some countries people are discriminated against for being Jewish.

“Thanksgiving is an opportune time to remember that America is a place that accepts us,” he said. “But it’s important that we remember.”

The reunion marked the third time in 13 years that the family has gathered. More than five years ago, they came together in Israel, and in 1978, they met in Los Angeles.

In the hospitality room of the Casa Serena Resort near Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor, Steinberg erected a color-coded chart of the family history. Above the chart was a portrait taken at the 1978 reunion, showing young faces that are now more lined and faces of some who have since died.

“Oh, I really miss them,” said Edwin Goose, Morton’s son, pointing to his aunt and uncle, Louis and Leona Shaiman.

Morton Goose, as the eldest member of the family, was to say a prayer before the family meal, a turkey dinner at the Lobster Trap Restaurant nearby.

The restaurant served about 160 dinners. Another 20-plus kosher dinners prepared according to the strict laws of Jewish custom were delivered from a Los Angeles-area caterer.

Seth Grossman, Joe Steinberg’s 17-year-old grandson from Los Angeles, said he looked forward to the gathering and hearing the stories from generations past.

“It’s important for me to know about the past to be able to pass it along someday to my kids,” he said.

But his brother, 14-year-old Micha, preferred a different brand of family history.

“I know all your old stories,” he said with his arm around his grandfather’s shoulder. “Like the time you were driving your car illegally on campus and got kicked out of school, or when you changed the rank of your friend so he could be your best man at your wedding when you were in the Army.”

Although Howard Milstein of Torrance acknowledged the importance of passing along history, he said he rarely tells stories of the concentration camps where he was held prisoner from 1939 to 1945.

But when asked, he pulled from his wallet a picture of himself and eight other men in prison stripes, taken April 21, 1945. Seated in the center of the picture was one of the Russian officers who liberated the concentration camp.

“I don’t want to try to show myself off,” he said. “But most everyone already knows this story.”

His mother, stepfather, sisters and their husbands were all killed in the camps.

“He had it a lot worse than I did,” said Helen Krasnow, who was in France when the Nazis came. A neighbor helped her pass herself off as a Catholic, and she spent the war years going to Mass and wearing a cross around her neck.

“I still remember the Hail Mary by heart,” she said. “My daughter tells her children that grandma is alive because someone was good and helped her.”