Grandma’s story keeps Moore grounded

Grandparents are the truth-sayers of society. They bring history alive by telling stories with candor, clarity and passion, reinforcing their authenticity.

For Rose Perlman, grandmother of 6-foot-10 center Corbin Moore of Los Alamitos High, history starts and ends with surviving the Holocaust. Her tales from one of the bleakest times in world history have given her grandson a unique perspective on what matters on and off the basketball court.

They have a relationship built on mutual admiration.

Said Rose of watching her grandson play basketball: “There are some things in life money can’t buy, and it is my biggest enjoyment. When he wins, I’m screaming so hard I have a sore throat.”

Said Corbin of his grandmother’s ordeal in Poland during World War II: “There were a couple times if she had made the wrong decision, she would have died.”

Rose was born between 1918 and 1921 in Czestochowa, Poland. Her exact age is unknown because she had to change her birth date so frequently to help ensure that she would be allowed to remain with her family. She was the seventh of 13 children and raised an Orthodox Jew.

In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, she heard planes flying over while she was working as a bookkeeper. Her town was turned into a ghetto, with Jews separated behind iron gates and forced to wear an armband with a Star of David.

Over the next six years, six siblings and her parents were killed. She was sent to three forced labor camps.

“If you went to the right side, you’d go into the gas chamber and die,” Corbin said his grandmother told him. “If you’d go to the left side, you’d work.”

On Jan. 15, 1945, Russian soldiers on horses rode in yelling, “You’re free, you’re free.” She was free, but Rose faced severe poverty, begging for food. She went to a refugee camp in Germany for several years, waiting for papers to go to America. In 1949, a cousin who lived in New York sponsored her journey on a ship. She didn’t speak English and had no money when she arrived at Ellis Island.

In another year, she was reunited with the man who would become her husband, Sam. She had met him in a refugee camp. In 1955, her first child, Michelle, was born. She is Corbin’s mother.

Rose’s daughter and grandson each have written papers for school on her odyssey, and each time she has broken down crying when doing the interviews.

“They threw 6 million in ovens,” she said. “It should never happen again. We shouldn’t have so much hate.”

If there’s one memory she can’t make vanish, it’s the one of a German soldier trying to rape her.

“I pushed him into a fireplace and ran away,” she said. “I was so white I was shaking. I can’t even explain what I saw in his eyes.”

Rose lives in a retirement community in Laguna Hills, has a cellphone, still drives and does stand-up comedy.

“When I came to America, they told me I looked like Marilyn Monroe,” she said. “Now they tell me I look like Frank Sinatra.”

Her grandson is trying to win a third consecutive Southern Section basketball championship at Los Alamitos.

Corbin, a 17-year-old senior with a 3.8 grade-point average, is averaging 15.6 points and 11.6 rebounds. “He’s a fabulous kid,” Coach Russ May said.

Rose’s genes helped make him the tallest Jewish high school player in California.

Rose used to be 5-9 and remembers being the tallest girl at recess. She visits her daughter’s house and shoots baskets in the backyard with Corbin.

“Nine times out of 10, I got it into the basketball net,” she said. “I didn’t even make money.”

What brings a smile to her face is when Corbin dunks in the backyard.

“She tells me to do it over and over,” he said.

A hearing problem has prevented Rose from attending most of Corbin’s games this season. Loud noise disturbs her. But she waits eagerly to receive a phone call with the results. And she does her best to invite Corbin over for tuna sandwiches and matzo ball soup.

“I always come hungry and leave full,” he said.

Los Alamitos (19-8) opens the Division I-A playoffs Friday night with a home game against Inglewood. It’s doubtful Rose will attend, but her contributions and legacy are clear.

She has given her grandson a history lesson he’ll never forget.

--

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com