American Gathering alleges fraud in sale of pre

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 3
JULY 2010
Memory and Remembrance
Address on the 65th Anniversary at the International Observance of the
Liberation of Bergen-Belsen
by SAM E. BLOCH, President, World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Survivors
and American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Their Descendants
Distinguished Minister-President Wulff, Minister Neumann and dignitaries of Niedersachsen, esteemed representatives of all other countries, fellow
survivors and their descendants, ladies and gentlemen:
It is hard to believe that sixty-five years have
passed since our liberation. We remember well that
spring of 1945, when the war came to an end, the sun
was shining, and the world was back on its course.
On the day of liberation, the rescued emerged from
Bergen-Belsen and all the other infamous concentration camps. They stood among the heaps of ashes and dead corpses – a flaming
stone in their hearts. While liberation heralded hope for new beginnings, for the
Jewish survivors victory came too late as we faced the full awareness of the
catastrophe that had befallen our people.
Despite everything, we, the survivors, emerged with dignity from the ashes of
the Holocaust and the mass graves of Belsen. Our bitter memories served us not
only as a source of grief and sorrow over the loss of our families, but also as a
source of strength and motivation to face life again – to go on despite everything.
We came to terms with our shattered world, heroically coping by creating life
anew in every sense of the word. Belsen, under the leadership of Josef Rosensaft,
became the largest DP camp in Europe with a vibrant creative community where
faith and life were made to fully blossom for five years in the shadow of the
horrors of the Holocaust.
By now, the historical facts of what transpired during the Holocaust are known
to all. The fire that engulfed the victims is a grim past. Bergen-Belsen and all the
other infamous places of the Holocaust were a result of vicious racial hatred, which
started with vitriolic speeches, the burning of books, the shattering of store windows,
the destruction of synagogues, and ended with the burning of people. The horrible
sufferings, which we the survivors endured and that are so deeply rooted in our
American Gathering alleges fraud in sale
of pre-war Torah scrolls
The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their
Descendants has called on authorities in Maryland to launch an investigation into
the sale of Holocaust-era Torah scrolls. The non-profit foundation Save A Torah
Inc. of Rabbi Menachem Youlus claims it is purchasing and restoring European
Torah scrolls, and four Maryland synagogues have recently bought scrolls from
Youlus. A Washington Post article published in January suggested that the dramatic
stories told by the rabbi of the scrolls’ origins were false.
An independent investigation by two scribes commissioned by Save A Torah
found that eight of the 11 scrolls restored and sold by Youlus were “suitable for
ritual use in the synagogue,” according to a statement and report issued by
foundation president Rick Zitelman. All of the Torahs examined were found to be
written in pre-Holocaust years in eastern Europe.
Youlus has claimed that he found the scrolls in monastery basements, buried
bodies and souls, cannot be forgotten. Our festering scars can hardly be healed.
Today, sixty-five years later, the depth of our pain remains a constant wound.
The conclusion that we must derive from this tragic history is that we must
turn memory into collective action. We must continue to confront and remind all
those who did not know, who did not want to know, and those who don’t want to
be disturbed by such tragic memories as well as those who shamefully attempt to
minimize the extent of the tragedy or deny it at all. The lessons of the Holocaust
must not be diminished into just a footnote in history. We must educate the younger
generations and imbue them with the spirit of remembrance as well as the mission
to combat all forms of racial, religious, and ethnic hatred before it is too late.
Memory preserves the threads of sorrow and joys of people, and carries them
forth. Forgetfulness betrays not only the past but also the present and the future.
We stand here today with our children as links in the chain of memory -- the
memory of our sufferings, the spirit of our Jewish heritage and faith, and our
commitment and love for the State of Israel. We have vowed to transmit these
memories and values to our children, and to their children, so that they can forge
an eternal bond with our past and keep alive the chain of continuity, to fulfill the
aspirations and objectives that remained unfulfilled with the death of the millions
of our victims.
In the name of all Belsen survivors, we pause to pay tribute to the British and
Canadian soldiers who liberated the camp on April 15, 1945. We will never forget
their noble efforts in saving the lives of the sick and dying in the aftermath of the
liberation. We also express our appreciation to the authorities of Niedersachsen
for maintaining our sacred place of memory as well as creating the Bergen Belsen
Memorial Museum. This Museum and Archive serves as a major center for the
transmission and education of the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations,
in the hopes of eradicating racial hatred and intolerance.
Today, sixty-five years later, we once again stand here with pain and anguish
and shed tears at the mass graves of Bergen-Belsen. We will remember all of our
martyrs for all of eternity. As survivors, our numbers are dramatically dwindling,
and one day soon there will be no eye-witnesses left to remind the world of man’s
inhumanity to man. Let us all vow never to forget and to prevent such tragedies
as the Holocaust. Let us teach the world around us to be dedicated to freedom,
peace, and friendship among people and nations. Let us all go on in living with a
shared commitment to remember the past, to live the present, and to trust the
future. Let us all join hands in this noble objective.
in the ground, and in former Nazi concentration camps. While smuggling Torahs
out of some countries, Youlus claimed he was beaten up and threatened.
In April, the New York-based American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Their Descendants – which represents 85,000 survivors of the
Shoah – filed a request for a criminal inquiry. The complaint was written by
historian and attorney Menachem Rosensaft, vice president of the group, and
filed with Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Maryland Secretary
of State John McDonough.
Rosensaft said the request for an official inquiry reflects “disturbing
information” indicating that Save A Torah, a tax-exempt organization, may have
raised charitable contributions based on “incredible and, in some instances,
demonstrably false representations” regarding the origin of some of the scrolls.
Rosensaft, the son of survivors of the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp
in Germany, said in an interview that evidence of misrepresentation was drawn
from the Post story as well as his independent investigation.
American Gathering of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205
New York, New York 10001
July 2010
cont’d on p. 8
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visit our website at www.amgathering.org
TOGETHER 1
Roman Kent Plays Pivotal Role in Reparations
Negotiations with Germany
Roman Kent, Chairman of the American Gathering
and Treasurer of the Conference of Material Claims
Against Germany, played a pivotal role in the successful
negotiations in March with the German Government that
resulted in increased home care services and pension
payments in the amount of $125 million for Holocaust
survivors, including $55 million for home care.
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, the Claims
Conference Special Negotiator, called the agreement “a
major step forward in addressing vital social welfare
needs for the poorest of Jewish Holocaust victims living
around the world.”
Roman Kent
The American Gathering takes great pride in the
critical contributions made in the German negotiations by a number of Holocaust
survivors, in particular our own Roman Kent who has been a member of the
Claims Conference negotiating committee for many years. Ambassador Eizenstat,
who served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of
Commerce for international trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic,
Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the
Clinton administration, said that Kent’s “judgment and wisdom were indispensable”
in concluding the agreement, and credits him with arranging a “pre-negotiating
meeting” in which he and Kent met privately with German State Secretary Werner
Gatzer, and which Eizenstat considers to have been “absolutely crucial.”
According to Ambassador Eizenstat, “this private meeting gave us the
opportunity to impress upon Secretary Gatzer the crucial need for home care and
other assistance to Holocaust survivors, as their health and welfare deteriorates
in their declining years.” Eizenstat recalls that he turned to Kent “to make this
case,” and that he “did so brilliantly and movingly. There is no question in my
mind that this was an essential ingredient to our successful negotiation.”
Ambassador Eizenstat concluded that Kent was “an eloquent and compelling
voice for the survivors” in his frequent interventions during the negotiations, and
that his “long-standing relationships with many of the German negotiators was
also crucial.”
For Kent, the important role of survivors in the negotiations is a critical element
that is often overlooked. “After all,” he says, “the negotiations do not pertain to
legal issues alone; nowadays legalities are not even secondary. Of greatest
importance are the moral issues involved, and as such, who better than survivors
to be in the forefront to fight for assistance from the Germans, the ones who
inflicted such misery and pain on us?”
Kent recalls one discussion about reducing the minimum period of persecution
to receive compensation from the Germans, which had long been six months in a
concentration camp. “Who but a survivor could be more effective to finally change
such a rule,” he asks. “When I was asked how long I had been in Auschwitz, my
answer was, ‘I don’t know. What I do know is that one minute in Auschwitz was
like an entire day, a day was a year, and a month, an eternity. How many eternities
can one have in a single lifetime? I don’t know the answer to that either.”
According to Kent, “it was only a statement such as this, a heartfelt depiction
by an actual survivor that finally convinced the Germans to amend the period of
persecution. For years, they would not budge on this point.”
Kent believes that “the achievements that were accomplished in Berlin,
considering today’s difficult economic times, must be considered significant.
However, how can we be satisfied when there are tens of thousands of survivors
who do not have the means to support themselves in dignity? Many survivors
cannot afford to buy food, drugs, or even properly heat their homes during the
cold winter. Thus while we are pleased with the results of the negotiations, we
still have a long road ahead of us.”
NOTICE TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
NEEDING ASSISTANCE
Financial assistance is available for needy Holocaust survivors. If you
have an urgent situation regarding housing, health care, food or other emergency,
you may be eligible for a one-time grant funded by the Claims Conference.
If there is a Jewish Family Service agency in your area, please discuss
your situation with them. If there is no such agency nearby, mail a written
inquiry describing your situation to:
Emergency Holocaust Survivor Assistance
P.O. Box 765
Murray Hill Station
New York, NY 10156
TOGETHER 2
TOGETHER
Volume 24 Number 3
July 2010
c• o •n •t •e• n •t •s
Memory and Remembrance by Sam Bloch.................................................................................1
American Gathering Alleges Fraud..............................................................................................1
American Gathering Chairman Plays Crucial Role....................................................................2
Address by Ronald S. Lauder.......................................................................................................3
Property Restitution by Julius Berman.......................................................................................3
Stop Holocaust Analogies by Menachem Rosensaft .............................................................4
What Helen Thomas Missed by Richard Cohen...................................................................4
A Look into Haiti’s Tiny Jewish Community by Rebecca Anna Stoil.................................5
Austria Pays for Looted Books...................................................................................................6
The Arab Position on the Holocaust by Shlomo Avineri.......................................................6
Polish-language Guide to Shavuot............................................................................................6
Russia Outlaws Mein Kampf by Theunis Bates.......................................................................7
Campaign Seeks to Locate Heirs to Israeli Assets.................................................................7
Memory and Legacy.......................................................................................................................7
Bad Arolsen and the ITS Archives..... ........................................................................................8
Sir Andrew Burns Named as First Post-Holocaust Envoy.....................................................8
Miriam Klein Kassenoff: Holocaust Educator by Sergio Carmona.....................................8
Ghetto Pension Claims to be Re-opened...................................................................................9
Israeli Holocaust Survivors to Get Subsidy for Medicine by Dana Weiler-Polak............9
Holocaust Endowment Fund Created in Recognition of Fred Zeidman..............................9
Holocaust Victim Heirs Sue Hungarian Banks.......................................................................10
Poland Unveils Memorial to Warsaw Ghetto Fighters by Vanessa Gera..........................10
Smart Trade...................................................................................................................................10
Israel Called on to Honor ‘Arab Schindler’ by Paul Harris .................................................11
Israel Finance Ministry to Pay Holocaust Survivors by Orly Vilnai...................................11
The Black Holocaust by A. Tolbert, III.....................................................................................12
A Never-Ending Pain...................................................................................................................12
French Program for Child Survivors..........................................................................................13
40 Countries Attend Jerusalem Shoah Conference by Jonah Mandel................................13
The Last Holocaust Survivors by Bethanie Gorny................................................................13
Exhibit Captures Courage, Pain of Jews in Military by Carmen Gentile.............................14
Soldier, Holocaust Survivors Have Emotional Reunion by Laura Berman........................14
Beads by Dr. Diane Cypkin.......................................................................................................15
Holocaust Survivor Fights Apathy by Ray Furlong..............................................................15
The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, Review by Jerome Chanes.........................................16
Reparations and Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews by Yitzchak Kerem................................................16
40th Annual Scholars’ Conference by Jeanette Friedman....................................................17
Announcements...........................................................................................................................18
Publication of “Skala on the River Zbrucz”.............................................................................18
A Film Unfinished by Carl DiOrio............................................................................................18
Letters............................................................................................................................................19
In Memoriam by Harry Langsam...............................................................................................19
In Memoriam.................................................................................................................................20
Searches (contributing editor Serena Woolrich).....................................................................22
“Searches” is a project of Allgenerations, Inc.
American Gathering Executive Committee
SAM E. BLOCH • ROMAN KENT
MAX K. LIEBMANN
MENACHEM ROSENSAFT • ELAN STEINBERG
TOGETHER
AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
AND THEIR DESCENDANTS
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 · New York, New York 10001 · 212 239 4230
Founding President
BEN MEED, l“z
Honorary President
VLADKA MEED
President
SAM E. BLOCH
Honorary Chairman
ERNEST MICHEL
Chairman
ROMAN KENT
Honorary Senior
Vice President
WILLIAM LOWENBERG
Senior Vice President
MAX K. LIEBMANN
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
Vice Presidents
EVA FOGELMAN
ROSITTA E. KENIGSBERG
ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS
JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT
MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT
STEFANIE SELTZER
ELAN STEINBERG
JEFFREY WIESENFELD
Secretary
JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE
Treasurer
MAX K. LIEBMANN
Regional Vice-Presidents
VIVIAN GLASER BERNSTEIN
BERNARD KENT
MICHAEL KORENBLIT
MEL MERMELSTEIN
SERENA WOOLRICH
Publication Committee
SAM E. BLOCH, Chairman
Hirsh Altusky, l“z
Roman Kent
Publication Committee
Max K.SAM
Liebmann
E. BLOCH, Chairman
Vladka Meed
Romana Strochlitz Primus
Menachem Z. Rosensaft
Editor
Jeanette Friedman
Editor Emeritus
ALFRED LIPSON, l“z
Counsel
ABRAHAM KRIEGER
July 2010
Address by Ronald S. Lauder,
World Jewish Congress
Property Restitution approved by non-binding
guidelines
65th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen
by JULIUS BERMAN
For the first time in the 65 years since the end of World War II, the international
community has agreed to a set of guiding principles that should govern the restitution
of property lost during the Shoah. Recently in Prague, 43 nations adopted
“Guidelines and Best Practices for the Restitution and Compensation of Immovable
(Real) Property Confiscated or Otherwise Wrongfully Seized by the Nazis, Fascists
and Their Collaborators during the Holocaust (Shoah) Era between 1933-1945,
Including the Period of World War II.” Although voluntary and non-binding, these
guidelines present a blueprint for action.
The “Guidelines and Best Practices” to which these countries agreed provide
specific and detailed guidelines on procedures for processing and adjudicating
claims for these properties, communal, private and heirless. The document calls
on countries to recognize as the legitimate owner the Jews who owned the property
prior to Nazi persecution; to establish claims processes that are transparent and
accessible to foreigners; to allow claimants free access to archives; to award full
title to successful claimants; and to consider allocating the proceeds from unclaimed
properties to benefit survivors. Of the original 47
signatories to the Terezin Decleration of 2009, all were
signatories to this document, except Belarus, Malta,
Serbia, and Russia.
The Claims Conference and World Jewish
Restitution Organization have long been pressing
countries to adopt these practices. We worked in close
coordination with various governmental delegations and
other NGOs on finalizing the principles of the
agreement, which is a result of the 2009 Prague Ambassadors Stuart
Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, in which the Eizenstat and Christian
Claims Conference also played a sizeable role. None Kennedy
of this would have been possible without Ambassador
Stuart Eizenstat who represented the United States in Prague both this time and
at the 2009 conference and whose leadership and guidance on this issue continues
to be indispensable.
When 43 countries agree on a single document, especially one of this nature,
it is certain that many people have played a meaningful role. I want to highlight
two: Ambassador Christian Kennedy, former US Special Envoy for Holocaust
Issues at the State Department, and our own Ambassador Reuven Merhav. Both
have been named as special advisors by the Czech government to the European
Shoah Legacy Institute in Terezin (ESLI) and have played critical roles in the
achievements thus far.
ESLI was created to follow up on the accomplishments of the Prague
Conference and the areas covered by the Terezin Declaration of 2009. To help
assure that these “Guidelines and Best Practices” become more than just words
on a page, ESLI has offered to host a conference in 2012 to review progress on
restitution and compensation of immovable property. The Claims Conference will
be working to help make that conference a reality.
I thank the organizers for hosting this very
important event.
In a few decades – when the last survivors
are no longer among us – historical sites,
memorials, museums, films, photos, books and
other documents will be all that is left.
Our youngsters won’t be able to listen to
immediate eyewitness accounts, to survivors who
can personally show them around here and tell
them what they were made to suffer.
Our direct link with that the past will soon be
broken, and this means we have to double our
efforts in keeping the memory alive.
But are we really prepared for that?
Are we ready to take over the relay baton
Ronald S. Lauder
from the generation that lived through World War II and make sure memorials
such as this are still being held when the eyewitnesses are no more?
Teaching History in classrooms in very important, but it cannot replace visits
to sites such as this.
It was here where Anne Frank and her sister Margot died, after having
survived Auschwitz. The two girls were just two of an estimated 18,000 prisoners
who died here in March 1945, weeks before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
The Diary of Anne Frank has conveyed the lessons of the Holocaust to
millions of young people in such a way no school, no conference and no speech
ever could.
It is important that we find more such means to keep the memory alive for
younger generations.
At Bergen-Belsen the Nazis also held tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners
of war. Almost 20,000 of them died, most of them during the winter 1941/42.
They were not given shelter, they died from starvation, disease or the cold weather.
In April 1943, Bergen-Belsen became a concentration camp where Jews and
subsequently inmates of various groups and from a great many countries where
imprisoned.
It was the place where those who had miraculously survived the death camps
in Auschwitz and elsewhere and thousands of kilometers of death marches were
meant by the Nazis to die in agony.
In the history of the World Jewish Congress, Bergen-Belsen has had a special
meaning, too.
These Jewish survivors in the Displaced Persons Camp of Bergen-Belsen
wanted to elect their own leaders.
After the oppression of the previous decades they wanted to determine their
own fate, not have it imposed on them.
Most of them wanted to go to Palestine, to build the Jewish homeland there.
After the Shoah, the Jewish people finally wanted to be free!
Josef Rosensaft became the head of the Central Committee of Liberated
Jews in the British Zone of Germany, with its headquarter here in Belsen. His
son, Menachem Rosensaft, is a friend of mine.
Menachem told me how his mother, Dr. Ada Bimko, who immediately after
the liberation had headed a team of doctors and nurses from among the survivors
to help care for the critically ill inmates, met his father Josef in the DP Camp.
Under the leadership of Josef Rosensaft the Central Committee of Liberated
Jews lobbied the British to allow emigration of Jewish DPs to Israel, and it became
a member of the World Jewish Congress.
In 1948, a DP delegation from Belsen and the British Zone took part in the
World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Montreux, Switzerland.
They raised the plight of the 200,000 Displaced Jews that were stranded in
DP camps across Germany and who had to live in dismal conditions.
The World Jewish Congress campaigned tirelessly for these DPs to be treated
well, for their rights to be safeguarded, and above all for them to be allowed to go
to live in Israel.
In a resolution adopted in Montreux, the World Jewish Congress called the
establishment of the “Jewish State of Israel…an unshakable reality” and declared
that as the majority of Jewish DPs desired to go there, they “should be given the
opportunity of doing so, in order to rehabilitate themselves in security, dignity and
peace.”
In 1952, my predecessor, then World Jewish Congress President Nahum
Goldmann, was here for the inauguration of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, together
with German President Theodor Heuss, who gave a remarkable speech.
Standing where we stand today, Nahum Goldmann said the following, and I
quote it in German:
July 2010
Rabbi Julius Berman is Chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany and YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
.
“Vom Standpunkt des deutschen Volkes und der Menschheit gesehen, ist
der Sinn dieses tragischen Kapitels, dem diese Feier gewidmet ist, der einer
unvergänglichen Warnung…Wenn diese Millionen Opfer mit ihrem Tode etwas
nicht für das jüdische Volk, sondern für die Menschheit getan haben sollen,
dann wäre es diese unvergessliche und grausige Warnung, die ihr Tod für
alle Völker enthält. Nichts wäre fürchterlicher, als wenn unsere heutige
Generation diese Lehre und Warnung vergessen sollte.”
In 1960, Goldmann was again in Bergen-Belsen, together with Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer, to paid homage to the six million Jews who perished in the
Holocaust.
In his memoirs, Goldmann recalls that this event was organized following a
string of anti-Semitic in Germany, including the daubing of swastikas on
synagogues.
In his speech, the 84-year-old Chancellor Adenauer – who once had himself
been a concentration camp prisoner of the Nazis – said that Jews had a right to
live here in safety and security, and that all those who threatened them would be
punished.
Since 1948, when Israel was established as a Jewish state, and since 1960,
when Adenauer and Goldmann came here, many things have turned to the better:
Germany made great strides to pay compensation to the Nazi victims, to build
a democratic, open society, to commemorate the Holocaust, World War II and
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
cont’d on p. 6
TOGETHER 3
An Appeal to Republicans and
Democrats: Stop Nazi
Analogies, Now
by MENACHEM ROSENSAFT
I understand why
Rush Limbaugh has
made a long series of
abhorrent comparisons
between
President
Obama and Adolf Hitler.
His sole purpose is to
shock, to offend.
According
to
Limbaugh, President
Obama’s health care
logo was “right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook;”
“Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like
Hitler did,” the president “is sending out his
brownshirts to head up opposition to genuine American
citizens who want no part of what Barack Obama
stands for and is trying to stuff down our throats;”
and “Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by
dictate.”
Along the same line, the president of Republican
Women of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, wrote
on the group’s web site only one year ago that “Obama
and Hitler have a great deal in common in my view.
Obama and Hitler use the ‘blitzkrieg’ method to
overwhelm their enemies.” Tea Party activists
demonstrated with posters depicting President
Obama with a Hitler-like moustache. The head of
the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and
Religious Liberty Commission declared at a Christian
What Helen Thomas Missed
By RICHARD COHEN, Washington Post
Ah, another teachable moment!
This one comes to us from Helen Thomas, the
longtime White House reporter and columnist who
announced her retirement on Monday. Thomas, of
Lebanese ancestry and almost
90, has never been shy about
her anti-Israel views, for which,
as far as I’m concerned, she is
wrong and to which she is
entitled. Then the other day, she
performed a notable public
service by revealing how very
little she knew. Asked at a
White House event if she had
any comments about Israel,
Thomas said, “Tell them to get
the hell out of Palestine....Go home. Poland. Germany.
And America and everywhere else.”
Well, I don’t know about “everywhere else,” but
after World War II, many Jews did attempt to “go
home” to Poland. This resulted in the murder of about
1,500 of them — killed not by Nazis but by Poles,
either out of sheer ethnic hatred or fear they would
lose their (stolen) homes.
The mini-Holocaust that followed the Holocaust
itself is not well-known anymore, but it played an
outsize role in the establishment of the state of Israel.
It was the plight of Jews consigned to Displaced
Persons camps in Europe that both moved and
outraged President Harry Truman, who supported
Jewish immigration to Palestine and, when the time
came, the new state itself. Something had to be done
TOGETHER 4
Coalition of Florida banquet in Florida last September
that the Democratic health care policies “is not
something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely
what the Nazis did.” And radio talk show host Glenn
Beck disparaged the president’s plan to expand the
Peace Corps and AmeriCorps as “what Hitler did
with the SS.”
More recently, two mainstream establishment
political personalities – one Republican, the other a
Democrat – have joined Limbaugh and Beck in
making similarly repugnant moral equivalences.
According to Newt Gingrich, the former Republican
Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Obama
Administration’s policies represent “as great a threat
to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union
once did.” And now California Attorney General
Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for his old
job as that state’s governor, has likened his Republican
counterpart, Meg Whitman, to none other than Hitler’s
Propaganda Minister, the virulently antisemitic Joseph
Goebbels.
Commenting on Whitman’s enormous war chest,
Brown told a radio reporter while jogging, according
to the reporter’s blog, that “It’s like Goebbels.
Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda. He took
control of the whole world. That’s her ambition, the
first woman president. That’s what this is all about.”
Goebbels was not just a run of the mill
propagandist. One of Hitler’s closest associates, he
masterminded the Third Reich’s campaign to
ostracize and demonize Jews from the instant the
Nazis came to power in 1933. He directed book
burnings, called for the boycotts of Jewish businesses,
and, in November 1938, spearheaded the burning of
synagogues throughout Germany and Austria in a
violent pogrom known as Kristallnacht, the Night of
the Broken Glass.
“The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that
has now overtaken them,” Goebbels wrote in his diary
on February 14, 1942. And a few weeks later, on
March 6, 1942: “I am of the opinion that the greater
the number of Jews liquidated, the more consolidated
will the situation in Europe be after this war…. The
Jews are Europe’s misfortune. They must somehow
be eliminated, otherwise we are in danger of being
eliminated by them.”
To be fair, Brown has since apologized, sort of.
“I regret making the comments,” he said in a
statement released by his campaign. “They were
taken out of context.”
Not surprisingly, Brown’s political adversaries
demand greater contrition.
“Jerry Brown needs to take responsibility for the
full impact of his words, however carelessly spoken,”
declared Dr. Joel Geiderman, the chairman of
California’s Republican Jewish Coalition whose
mother survived the Nazi death camps. “The
offensiveness of his likening Meg Whitman to Joseph
Goebbels, for Holocaust survivors and the families
of Holocaust victims, is obvious and demands
accountability.”
Geiderman is right, of course, but his focus is too
narrow.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s
2007 pronouncement that “more than a million people
… would have been in our workforce had we not
had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a
flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973,” was as
cont’d on p. 5
for the Jews of Europe. They were still being
murdered.
In the Polish city of Kielce, on July 4, 1946 —
more than a year after the end of the war — rumors
of a Jewish ritual murder triggered a pogrom in which
42 Jewish Holocaust survivors were killed. The
Kielce murders were not, by any means, the sole
example of why Jews could not “go home.” When I
visited the Polish city where
my mother had been born,
Ostroleka, I was told of a Jew
who survived Auschwitz only
to be murdered when he tried
to reclaim his business. In
much of Eastern Europe, Jews
feared for their lives.
For that reason, those who
had struck out for home soon
returned to DP camps and the
safety of — irony of ironies —
Germany. Some of the camps were under the
command of Gen. George S. Patton, a great man on
the screen, a contemptible bigot in real life. In his
diary, Patton confided what he thought of Jews.
Others might “believe that the Displaced Person is a
human being,” Patton wrote, but he knew “he is not.”
In particular, he whispered to his diary, the Jews “are
lower than animals.”
The Jews, Patton felt, had to be kept under armed
guard, otherwise they would flee, “spread over the
country like locusts,” and then have to be rounded up
and some of them shot because they had “murdered
and pillaged” innocent Germans. All of this is detailed
by Allis and Ronald Radosh in their book about the
founding of Israel, A Safe Haven.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
For the surviving Jews of Eastern Europe, there
was no going home — and no staying, either. Europe
was hostile to them, not in the least appalled or sorry
about what had just happened. Even the American
military, in the person of the hideous Patton, seemed
hostile. For most of the DPs, America was also out
of the question. The United States, in the grip of
feverish anti-communism and already unreceptive to
immigrants, maintained a tight quota. When the
Jewish DPs were polled, an overwhelming majority
said they wanted to go to Palestine. They knew life
would be tough there, but they would be among their
own people — and relatively safe.
The Radoshes cite Branda Kalk, a Polish Jew
who lost her husband to the Germans in 1942. Along
with the rest of her family, she fled east to Russia,
where they remained until the end of the war, when
they returned to Poland. There, a pogrom wiped out
what remained of her family. Kalk was shot in the
eye.
“I want to go to Palestine,” Kalk told members
of a U.N. investigating committee. “I know the
conditions there. But where in the world is it good for
the Jew? Sooner or later he is made to suffer. In
Palestine, at least, the Jews fight together for their
life and their country.”
Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda
understandably canceled Thomas’s commencement
address. It would be wonderful, though, if Thomas
could go through with it and tell the graduates what
she had learned in recent days. I hardly think it would
turn her into a supporter of Israel, but it might lead
her to understand why so many others are.
(c) 2010, The Washington Post Writers Group,
Reprinted with Permission
July 2010
A LOOK INTO HAITI’S TINY JEWISH
COMMUNITY
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL, Jerusalem Post
Many Jews felt a measure of pride when they
turned on their televisions to see IDF medical teams
performing heroically amid the desolation following
the January earthquake in Haiti, but for a small handful
the sight evoked more than just pride – it was the
“closing of a circle” that began more than 60 years
ago. For those Jews, Haiti was more than a troubled
Caribbean nation struggling against hunger and
poverty and now disaster – it was the nation that
saved their lives when they found door after door
closed to them as they tried to flee Nazi Europe.
“I was four years old when I escaped from
Germany and went to live in Haiti for a year, until
immigrating to New York,” said Bill Mohr. “I do not
know what would have happened if Haiti had not
opened its doors to those fleeing the Holocaust. My
mother’s mother and sister had found safe haven in
Portugal, while my mother’s younger sister was
caught and spent the war in Auschwitz.”
When Haiti resurfaced in the headlines following
the deadly earthquake, Mohr was moved by a desire
to learn more about the country that had provided his
family, together with approximately 300 other Jews,
a shelter from the disaster looming in Europe. Together
with his wife, Harriet, Mohr began a massive research
project, and the two found that historical
documentation of the refugee community in Haiti was
minimal. Gathering scraps of information from
survivors and archives, the two are still trying to put
together a complete picture of the tiny Jewish
community that swelled with the arrival of the
European immigrants, but declined as Haiti’s fate
turned in the postwar years.
The Mohrs hope to mount exhibits and collaborate
on further projects to preserve and commemorate
Haiti’s Holocaust history, and have set up an e-mail
address – [email protected] – in the hopes
of gaining as much information as possible regarding
the Jewish community, particularly the refugee
community, on the island.
MOHR’S TIES to Haiti began late in 1938,
following Kristallnacht. His father, Ernst, was arrested
on November 10, and held at Dachau until the end of
December. Mohr’s mother, Auguste Midas Mohr,
recalled years later that “he had nothing on except
for pajamas and they had to stand at attention in the
cold, and he always said he was so afraid he would
lose his glasses. Without his glasses, he would’ve been
lost. He kept them in his shoes at night and would
retrieve them first thing in the morning.”
While her husband suffered in the cold and tried
to save his glasses, Auguste “worked feverishly on
our immigration to Haiti.” The family had an affidavit
that would have allowed them to enter the U.S.
George
Bigio,
whose
family
owns the
only torah
on Haiti.
eventually, “but there were numbers given out but
people could only come slowly into the United States
when their number was called.”
“I went to Hamburg on the night train all by
myself and I contacted our friend, the Haitian consulgeneral, Mr. Fouchard, who was a friend of all the
people who were in the group of actors and actresses
that dad knew so well, partly from Fuerth and
Nuremberg, that were transferred and had taken jobs
in Hamburg,” Auguste later told her daughter, Ruth,
in a recorded oral history. At least one other family –
the Meinbergs – specifically credit Fouchard for
issuing the visas that saved their lives.
“He was one of this group and that’s how he
knew dad and he was very nice to me and tried to
help me,” continued Auguste.
Once Ernst was released from Dachau, the family
continued preparations and then left, with each of
the four family members allowed to take 10 marks
on the journey.
The family – Ernst, Auguste, five-year-old Ruth
and three-year-old Bill spent 32 days on the high seas,
traveling on the only company to include Port-auPrince on its Caribbean route.
When the family arrived in the Haitian capital,
Fouchard’s father had prepared a small house for
them. They quickly settled in to a Haitian routine. Bill
and Ruth played with the neighbors’ children, and the
neighbors’ grandmother helped Auguste learn how
to place orders from the market.
Shortly after arriving, Ernst became very involved
in the suddenly blossoming Jewish community.
Auguste said that many of the Jews who had recently
arrived came from Austria, and so all of the Jewish
newcomers who joined the tiny community were
known as “Austrians.” Then, as now, the Bigio family,
a family that immigrated to Haiti from Syria at the
beginning of the century, took the reins in organizing
the diverse mix of Sephardi trading families and
Ashkenazi refugees.
In February 1940, the Mohrs’ number finally came
up and they were allowed entry to the U.S. They
arrived in New York City in March, but Ernst still had
one last promise that he had made to the tiny Haitian
Jewish community. Serving as an emissary from the
STOP NAZI ANALOGIES, NOW
cont’d from p. 4
misguided and out of place as last year’s observation
by U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) that
that the absence of adequate healthcare resulted in a
“Holocaust in America.”
It is not enough for Democrats to condemn the
likes of Limbaugh and Gingrich, or for Republicans
to attack Brown. Republicans and conservatives must
condemn all comparisons of President Obama to
Hitler and of the Obama administration’s policies to
Nazism, and Democrats and liberals must similarly
July 2010
denounce any and all comparisons of Republican
political figures to Nazis.
Analogies between present-day America and
Nazi Germany are historically absurd and morally
unseemly. Every time President Obama is accused
of being a Nazi, every time a controversial
Democratic policy or a woman’s legal right to abort
a fetus is compared to the greatest carnage ever
perpetrated, every time a Democratic politician
evokes Third Reich imagery in describing a
Republican opponent, our civil discourse is dumbed
down and the memory of millions of murdered men,
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
Port-au-Prince community, he went to plead its case
for refugee aid before the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC), seeking a subsistence
stipend for the recently formed local branch of the
organization founded to aid refugees. Apologizing that
it could not afford more, the New York headquarters
approved $50 a month for the Haitian branch, of which
$47.49 of the first installment went to order and ship
300 pounds of matzoh for the upcoming holiday.
Although he only spent one year of his life in the
island nation, Bill Mohr has tried to contact other
refugee Jews of Haiti to put together a more complete
picture of the community that emerged there.
DAYS AFTER the earthquake, on International
Holocaust Remembrance Day, the JDC described
Haiti as “a legitimate source of inspiration,” explaining
that “Haiti played a small, yet critical, role in saving
Jewish lives during the darkest chapter in the Jewish
story.” According to the organization’s records,
starting in 1938, Jewish refugees from Central Europe
emigrated, with JDC assistance, to Haiti. According
to the JDC archives, by the time travel was rendered
impossible with the outbreak of World War II, some
150 Jewish refugees had reached Port-au-Prince. The
organization that Ernst Mohr helped build in late 1939,
the Joint Relief Committee Haiti (JRC), financially
supported around one-third of them.
Part of the confusion regarding Jewish
immigration to Haiti stems from conflicting accounts
regarding the conditions under which Jews arrived in
the country. According to Beit Hatefutsot, “Although
the Haitian government has traditionally frowned on
white immigration, asylum was granted to refugees...
Until 1938 immigration laws were benign, the only
prerequisite being the possession of $100; as of that
year the sum was raised to $1,000 and a government
permit was required in addition.”
Although the Jewish population of Haiti remained
as high as 200 in 1957, the political climate, lack of
economic opportunity and longing for a Jewish
community on the part of Haitian-born Sephardim as
well as the refugees, quickly took their toll. By 1970,
around 75 percent of the Jewish population had left,
mostly for the U.S., Argentina and Panama.
According to the World Jewish Congress’s last count,
in 1997, the permanent Jewish community of Haiti
numbered 25, mostly still centered in Port-au-Prince.
The same Bigio family that organized the
community at its peak is still active, owning the island’s
only Torah scroll and serving as Israel’s consul to the
troubled island. With history turning again full circle,
it was George Bigio who offered his land to house
the IDF field hospital that saved hundreds if not
thousands in the earthquake’s aftermath.
The same field hospital that reminded Bill Mohr,
thousands of miles away, of his own special
connection to the island and launched the Mohr
family’s crusade to make sure that Jews remember
that decades ago, it was Haiti that saved Jewish lives.
.
women and children is trivialized and desecrated.
For once, a genuine bipartisan effort is required.
As we approach the 2010 midterm elections, and as
the 2012 presidential campaign is about to get
launched, the leaders of the Republican and
Democratic Parties must join together and declare
once and for all that Nazi analogies have no place in
our political rhetoric.
Menachem Rosensaft is Adjunct Professor of Law at
Cornell Law School and Vice President of the American
Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their
Descendants
TOGETHER 5
Austria pays for books
looted by Nazis from Jews
VIENNA — The Austrian National Library recently
announced that it would pay • 135,000 ($164,000) for
thousands of books in its possession that were looted
by the Nazis from Jews during World War II.
In a symbolic gesture, library director Johanna
Rachinger handed over the books to the Austrian
National Fund for the Victims of National Socialism
at a special ceremony here.
The objects, some 8,363 in all, included children’s
books, scientific reference works and theological
treatises dating back to the 17th century, whose
owners the library had not been able to trace.
But the library has agreed to buy them back
immediately at their market value, so that proceeds
can go to Nazi victims who had not so far received
any form of compensation, “such as Jews who arrived
in Austria in the 1930s,” said the head of the fund,
Hannah Lessing.
The national library decided in 2003 to return
52,403 books looted by the Nazis after the annexation
of Austria in 1938 to their rightful owners. It had
succeeded in returning 35,217 so far. And a decision
was still pending on a further 8,823 books,
manuscripts, sheet music and cards, Rachinger said.
However, a total 8,363 objects had been
determined to be “heirless” where research had failed
to yield any indications of their previous owners. And
so it was decided to use them to help people who had
not been compensated so far.
Austria decided in the 1990s to award a gesture
payment of just over • 5,000 to Nazi victims as an
acknowledgement of the injustices suffered.
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Ronald S. Lauder Address
cont’d from p. 3
the other tragic events between 1933 and 1945, to
fight anti-Semitism, revisionism, xenophobia and
racism, and also – albeit with less success – to
prosecute those that committed those crimes against
Humanity.
Europe became united, the Iron Curtain fell and
democracy and the rule of law returned to the entire
continent.
Millions of Jews have since settled in Israel and
built one of the most successful new states of our
times.
Israel is a powerhouse in high tech, agriculture,
business and entrepreneurship; a democratic, free
nation in a region where that is still not the norm.
And yet…
Six decades after its foundation, Israel is still being
attacked. Its raison d’être, its right to exist as a Jewish
state, is still questioned, even by intellectuals of the
political Left. It has become fashionable in some
circles to liken Israel’s defensive actions to those of
the Nazis against the Jews.
It seems to become fashionable here in Europe
and elsewhere in the world to hold Israel to much
higher standards than any other country in the Middle
East.
TOGETHER 6
The Arab position on the Holocaust
By SHLOMO AVINERI, Haaretz
One sometimes encounters the Palestinian argument that there is a basic injustice in the fact that they appear
to have to pay the price for Europe’s crimes during the Holocaust. It’s true, of course, that Nazi Germany and
its allies, and not the Palestinians, are those guilty of perpetrating the Holocaust. Nonetheless, any argument
that links the establishment of the State of Israel exclusively to the Holocaust ignores the fact that modern
Zionism preceded the annihilation of the Jews in World War II, even if the Holocaust clearly strengthened the
claim for Jewish sovereignty.
Yet the Arab argument that places all responsibility on Europe is not completely correct. When the Arab
revolt against British rule in Palestine broke out in 1936, its aim was to change the British position, which had
supported Jewish immigration to Palestine since the Balfour Declaration. The revolt was also meant to hurt
the Jewish community and discourage Jews who were planning to immigrate. The British, in time-honored
colonial tradition, cruelly suppressed the revolt, assisted by the Jewish community and helped by the British
Mandatory government. But in the winter of 1938-39, the British changed their policy after the government of
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain realized that its appeasement of Hitler had failed. Britain began to prepare
for a war against the Nazis, and as part of this it changed its Middle East policy. Britain reintroduced the draft,
started massive production of tanks and aircraft, and developed radar.
In light of the need to insure the Empire’s critical link to India via the Suez Canal, Britain feared that
continued violent suppression of the Arab revolt in Palestine would push all Arabs in the region closer to Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy. It consequently decided to move closer to the Arabs and away from the Jews and
Zionism. As Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald explained to the Zionist leadership, the change was
prompted not by a British conviction that Arab claims were justified, but rather by realpolitik: There were
more Arabs than Jews; the Jews would support Britain against the Nazis in any case, but the Arabs have the
option of joining Nazi Germany.
The cruel paradox lies in the fact that appeasement of the Arabs started just as Britain relinquished its
appeasement policy vis-a-vis Hitler and was preparing for war against Germany. This was the reason for the
1939 White Paper, which drastically limited the right of Jews to buy land in Mandatory Palestine and placed
a ceiling of 75,000 on Jewish immigration. The message to the Arabs was clear: The Jews would remain a
minority in Palestine. This policy did not completely achieve its goal; the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin alHusseini, found his way to Berlin anyway. An anti-British and pro-Nazi rebellion erupted in Iraq, led by Rashid
Ali. But as far as the Jews were concerned, the British continued to consistently apply the principles of the
White Paper during the war. The gates were shut to legal Jewish immigration, the British navy fought illegal
immigration and ships seeking to save Jews from the Nazi occupation (such as the Struma) were returned to
their port of origin; some of their passengers died at sea, others in the gas chambers.
Guilt for the Holocaust lies with Nazi Germany and its allies. But an untold number of Jews, perhaps as
many as hundreds of thousands — including my grandparents from the Polish town of Makow Podhalanski—
were not saved and did not reach Mandatory Palestine because of the position taken by the Arabs: They
succeeded in shutting the country’s gates during the darkest hour of the Jewish people. Anyone seeking
reconciliation between us and the Palestinians must insist that both sides be attentive to the suffering of the
other side, and that goes for the Palestinians as well as for us.
Polish-language guide to
Shavuot distributed
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Polish-language guide to
the holiday of Shavuot was recently distributed to
thousands of hidden Jews in Poland.
The guide, prepared by the Shavei Israel
organization, explains the meaning and significance
of the holiday, and presents holiday songs and recipes.
“In recent years, an increasing number of Poles
have rediscovered their Jewish ancestry, seeking to
reclaim the precious heritage that was so brutally
taken from them and their forebears,” said Michael
Freund, Shavei Israel’s chairman and founder. “It is
our hope that this book will, in some small way, enable
a new generation of Polish Jews to celebrate Shavuot
Anti-Semitism is also still alive and kicking,
everywhere – even here in Europe where the
Holocaust happened. Jewish cemeteries and other
sites are still daubed with swastikas, synagogues need
police protection, and even the Holocaust is
sometimes questioned in its extent, or denied outright.
While the political leaders of this country – above
all Chancellor Merkel and the main political parties –
are unshakable in their commitment to fighting the
scourge of anti-Semitism, it is lifting its ugly head again,
even more so in other European countries.
Just last week, a report came out which said that
violent anti-Semitic incidents increased by 102 percent
in 2009 over the 2008 figures, in the wake of the war
in Gaza.
Just last Sunday, an extremist, anti-Semitic and
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
with joy, as well as gain a better understanding of our
eternal faith.”
About 4,000 Jews are officially registered as
living in Poland, but according to various estimates
there are tens of thousands of others who have
concealed their true identity or simply are unaware
of it, according to Shavei Israel.
Many of the hidden Jews lost contact with
Judaism due to the extreme antisemitism that they
encountered after the Holocaust, while some
converted. Others concealed their Jewishness from
the Communist authorities and now feel free to resume
living as Jews. In addition, Jews hidden by Catholic
families and institutions or their descendants have
begun to rediscover their Jewish identities, the
organization says.
racist party won 16 percent of all votes in Hungary,
the homeland of my parents. These people publicly
say that they want to “cleanse” the Hungarian nation
from “vermin”, and with that they mean the Jews
and the Gypsies.
Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, openly calls
for Israel’s destruction, and his regime is pushing to
have nuclear weapons as soon as possible.
Words and actions of these extremists are
strangely reminiscent of the period whose end we
are commemorating today.
The ugly specter of anti-Semitism and racism is
raising its head again in Europe.
Sixty-five years ago, it was defeated by the brave
men and women who stood up to the Nazi tyranny.
cont’d on p. 7
July 2010
Russia Outlaws ‘Mein Kampf’ as
Neo-Nazis Rise
prosecuted for carrying out violent hate crimes, up
from 35 in 2008. The ban on Mein Kampf — initiated
by a regional office of the prosecutor, which found
copies of the book being handed around the
by THEUNIS BATES, Contributor, AOL News
southeastern city of Ufa — is just
Russian prosecutors have banned
the latest demonstration of that
Adolf Hitler’s 1925 book Mein
tougher stance.
Kampf (My Struggle) over fears
But Sova spokeswoman
that the extremist tract is fueling
Galina Kozhevnikova says that
far-right violence. Already
simply outlawing “Mein Kampf”
outlawed by Germany and Austria
will do little to help the battle
in the aftermath of World War II,
against neo-Nazism. “I have a
the autobiography-cum-manifesto Carl De Souza, AFP/Getty Images
feeling that people needed to
has in recent years become
report
that
they
were
fighting extremism,” she told
required reading for some Russian ultranationalist
Reuters.
“It
will
still
be
available on the Internet. It’s
groups, despite the fact that it insults Slavs and calls
impossible to stop it spreading.”
for the colonization of their motherland.
While Russia is pushing Hitler’s hate-filled tome
“[Mein Kampf] sets out ideas of national
out
of
the public sphere, some campaigners are calling
socialism, conveys a militaristic worldview, excuses
for it to be un-banned in Germany. The Central
discrimination and the eradication of non-Aryan
Council of Jews in Germany, Munich’s Institute of
people, and reflects ideas which resulted in the start
Contemporary History and several other mainstream
of World War II,” said the office of the prosecutor
organizations argue that if they were allowed to
general, in its announcement that the book had been
publish a fully annotated version of Mein Kampf—
added to its list of prohibited extremist literature.
one that points out which chunks of text Hitler stole
The ban marks a noticeable shift in government
from others, and which parts of a heroic life story he
policy. The Kremlin was once happy to turn a blind
invented — they would be better able to demystify
eye to the far right, which has loudly backed its military
the book.
campaigns in the Caucasus and supported attempts
So far, the state of Bavaria, which holds the
to make Russia a major world power again.
book’s copyright, has refused to approve any
But a steep and widely publicized escalation in
republications.
attacks on migrant workers and foreign students has
That copyright is due to expire in 2015, a prospect
caused the country considerable international
that lends momentum to the drive in Germany to reembarrassment. According to the Moscow-based
legalize Mein Kampf. After that date, anyone,
human rights group Sova, extreme-right militants killed
including neo-Nazis, will be free to republish the book,
71 people in Russia last year — almost twice as many
though any new editions will have to adhere to German
as in 2004. And so far this year, at least seven people
laws forbidding the promotion of Nazi ideology.
have died at the hands of racist thugs, while 29 more
Hitler, no doubt, would be delighted that his poorly
have been injured. That spike in assaults and murders
written
tirade still stirs up trouble 85 years after it
has moved the Russian state to crack down on neowas first published.
Nazis. Last year, 45 people were successfully
Ronald S. Lauder Address
cont’d from p. 6
Millions paid the ultimate prize and were killed.
We, the generations that did not have to live
through these horrors, should be eternally grateful
that Hitler did not succeed.
We owe it to all those who fought the war against
Nazi Germany and were killed, to all those who were
murdered because the Nazis declared them enemies
of the state, and to all those who after the war rebuilt
their destroyed countries that we honor the solemn
pledge Konrad Adenauer gave here in 1960:
“Never must the events that happened during the
Nazi rule be allowed to happen again anywhere in
the world.”
Words won’t be enough. We need strong
leadership, courage, and a moral compass to
accomplish that.
Trying to appease those who incite to hate and
violence will not work.
Each and every one of us has to confront evil
wherever it emerges.
And one final point: Bergen-Belsen will always
be an important place where we will remember the
tragedy of the Shoah and of World War II – the mass
slaughter of innocent people.
We pledge to you, the survivors and the liberators,
that the World Jewish Congress will always fight to
preserve important sites such as Bergen-Belsen or
Auschwitz for future generations.
We have an obligation to ensure that it will never
be forgotten how the world sank into the abyss.
(Because of the Iceland volcano eruption, Mr. Lauder
could not attend the ceremonies. His address was
delivered on his behalf.)
July 2010
Memory and Legacy
More than 200 educators gathered at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York last
spring to learn about “Memory and Legacy:
Memoirs and Diaries in Teaching History.”
Sponsored by Holocaust survivor Fanya Heller,
who authored her own memoirs, Love in the Time
of Sorrow, to great critical acclaim, and opened
by Museum Director David Marwell, the purpose
of the program was to address different issues that
arise when memoirs and diaries are used in the
classroom to supplement historical information
produced by academics.
This year’s presenters were Mrs. Heller; Dr.
Lawrence Langer, Prof. of English Emeritus at
Simmons College in Boston, who was the keynote
speaker; Susan Rubin Suleiman, professor of
comparative literature at Harvard; and Alexandra
Zapruder, author of Salvaged Pages: Young
Writer’s Diaries of the Holocaust.
Memoirs and diaries have always put a human
face on the Holocaust. They are the words of the
witnesses. And while some survivors may have
picture perfect memories, many others do not. The
purpose of the conference was to offer teachers
differing perspectives on the use of such readings
in the classroom. Dr. Langer spoke about how the
Diary of Anne Frank transformed the way people
looked at the Holocaust, but also noted that the
reflections of a 15-year-old girl in hiding in Holland
could not be considered the quintessential
Holocaust experience, especially when compared
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
Campaign seeks to locate
heirs to Israeli assets
(JTA) — A campaign is being launched in North
America to locate the heirs to Israeli assets originally
purchased by Jews who died in the Holocaust.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century,
hundreds of European Jews invested in what was
then Palestine. Following World War II, many of the
assets were never claimed. Included in these assets
are untouched plots of land, unclaimed bank accounts
and shares from the Jewish Colonial Trust — the
parent company of the Anglo Palestine Bank which
later became Bank Leumi — as well as other Israeli
financial institutions.
The Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets,
which is launching the campaign, has compiled lists
of these assets and is working to make the process
of returning the belongings to their beneficiaries as
easy as possible. Ads calling on the heirs to come
forward will run in Jewish newspapers in North
America and on Jewish Web sites. It is believed that
many of the investors or their descendants made their
way to the United States following the war.
Set up by the State of Israel, the Restitution of
Holocaust Victims’ Assets was established in 2006
to provide historical justice to the victims of the
Holocaust and reinstate the assets with their legal
heirs. Its establishment followed criticism of Israel
for not doing enough to find the rightful heirs of Israeli
assets. There are currently some 55,000 unclaimed
assets on the organization’s list.
The organization’s web site, Hashava.org.il,
contains additional information on submitting an
application to request restitution of an asset on the
list.
to stories of those who went through the ghettos
and the camps. He also spoke about how memory
can be very tricky, a theme also considered by
Ms. Zapruder. Prof. Suleiman addressed the use
of contemporary diaries and explained why they
are probably the most useful documents
historically.
These topics were very timely now that
technology has made it possible for almost anyone
to publish his own memoirs. Most of them, as noted
by Mrs. Heller, were not being written in order to
become best sellers. As she said to Elizabeth
Edelstein, the MJH Director of Education who
organized the event, her memoirs were, at first,
never meant to be published. Originally, they were
written to explain things to her own children.
“My children knew some things about me but
not everything. I wanted to explain to them why I
did some things when they were growing up and
why I didn’t do others.”
Mrs. Heller, who was saved by Christians, also
said that she realized that people who cannot
appreciate and accept each other’s differences
do not trust each other and are suspicious of one
another, breeding intolerance and hatred, so the
human side of the story had to be told. Heller,
whose book has been revised and reprinted, and
whose life story, Teenage Witness, was shown
recently on PBS, said there were additional
reasons to write the book. “It is... important to me
to save our children and grandchildren from
becoming bystanders or perpetrators. I also wrote
it to show that we [Jews] didn’t go like sheep to
the slaughter; to show that we fought even in
impossible, treacherous circumstances.”
TOGETHER 7
Bad Arolsen and the ITS Archives
Who can obtain information from the ITS?
The International Tracing Service was established
at the end of World War II to help victims of Nazi
persecution. The search for family members and a
new home country stood in the foreground. To fulfill
his tasks, the ITS has collected and evaluated
information about the victims and organised a
comprehensive archive. ITS is able to provide
information for survivors of the Nazi terror and their
family members, specially about incarceration in
concentration camps, ghettos and Gestapo prisons,
forced labour and Displaced Person camps.
Victims of Nazi persecution and their family
members can receive information contained in the
archives on request:
· Germans and non-Germans who were detained
in Nazi concentration or work camps or other
detention sites from 1933 to 1945.
· Victims of the Holocaust.
· Non-Germans deployed as forced labourers on
the territory of the Third Reich during World War II.
· Displaced Persons who, after World War II,
were under the care of international relief
organisations (UNRRA, IRO).
· Children (i.e. under 18 years of age at the end
of World War II) of persons belonging to the abovementioned groups and displaced or separated from
their parents as a result of the war.
Sir Andrew Burns named as
first post-Holocaust envoy
A former UK ambassador to
Israel has been named as the
government’s first envoy for
post-Holocaust issues.
Sir Andrew Burns has held
a number of positions during his
diplomatic career and is a
former chairman of the AngloIsrael Association.
Foreign Secretary William
Hague said part of the job
would be to “make sure the
lessons of this terrible period
in our history are never forgotten”.
Sir Andrew said he was “deeply honoured” to
have been appointed.
He will be involved in a wide-range of issues
including the implementation of a multi-state declaration
on the restitution of looted Holocaust-era assets.
American Gathering alleges fraud
cont’d from p. 1
In one of the claims which Rosensaft has
disputed, Youlus said he discovered a Torah scroll in
2002 beneath the floorboards of a barracks at BergenBelsen. Rosensaft said his late mother had told him
that she and other inmates helped burn down the
barracks and other buildings at Bergen-Belsen in May
1945 to combat a typhus epidemic. “I know for a
fact that no barracks at Bergen-Belsen existed after
May 1945,” Rosensaft said, adding that he had visited
the Bergen-Belsen site several times. “Any statement
that he discovered anything, let alone a Torah, at the
barracks at Bergen-Belsen is an absolute lie.”
Rosensaft also rejected other claims made by
Youlus, including that he had recovered two Holocaust
scrolls from a mass grave in western Ukraine and
one from a cemetery adjacent to the Auschwitz death
camp in Poland.
TOGETHER 8
ITS can also give support in case birth and death
certificates are needed. ITS has also written out
letters of confirmation for pension and compensation
payments. Unfortunately, within its designated sphere
of activity the ITS is unable to provide information on
whether compensation or pension payments are due
for time suffered in concentration camps or other
detention sites, for loss of health, for labor, or for
unpaid wages. Only the respective authorities can
help with queries of this nature.
ITS usually cannot provide any information about
prisoners of war. In this case, please refer to the
Central Tracing Office of the International Committee
of the Red Cross in Geneva (formerly the Central
Prisoners of War Agency):
Comité international de la Croix-Rouge
GEN/ARCH
19, avenue de la Paix
1202 Genève, Switzerland
www.icrc.org
However, in the case of prisoners of war who had to
work as forced laborer or were incarcerated in
concentration camps, assistance can be given. The
ITS is in possession of extensive employment records
on the territory of Germany.
The ITS has no documentation about the expulsion
of Germans after World War II. Investigations into
the whereabouts of missing German citizens who were
not victims of Nazi persecution are carried out by the
Tracing Service of the German Red Cross in Munich:
Deutsches Rotes Kreuz
Generalsekretariat
Suchdienst München
Chiemgaustraße 109
81549 München
Federal Republic of Germany
www.drk.de
Six million Jews were murdered in the Nazi
Holocaust during World War II.
Mr Hague said the UK was “determined to
preserve the memory of the
Holocaust
for
future
generations.”
“Sir Andrew’s appointment
will ensure we continue to
support those working to right
past wrongs and remain at the
forefront of international
discussions, to make sure that
the lessons of this terrible period
in our history are never
forgotten,” he said.
“Sir Andrew’s wealth of experience means he
is ideally placed to tackle the challenges this post
presents.”
Sir Andrew, a former BBC governor, said: “The
UK already plays a leading and active role in
promoting Holocaust education, remembrance and
research, in tackling and resolving outstanding issues
and claims, and in raising public awareness of the
continuing relevance of the lessons and legacy of
that terrible moment in European history.”
He said he wanted to talk to a wide range of
experts about all of the issues involved to “develop
a properly co-ordinated and strategic way forward
in international discussions”.
Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission for
Looted Art in Europe, and Michael Newman, director
of the Association of Jewish Refugees, welcomed
the appointment.
In a joint statement, they said: “We have worked
closely with the government to achieve this historic
post, and very much look forward to working with
Sir Andrew at this crucial time with several postHolocaust issues requiring urgent attention and
decisive leadership.”
Sir Andrew was British ambassador to Israel
from 1992 to 1995 and resigned as chairman of the
Anglo-Israel Association in 2005.
Survivors and their families may submit requests
for ITS information to the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum as follows:
·Use the online form available at http://
itsrequest.ushmm.org/its/getting_started.php:
·or Submit your request on paper using the Paper
Request Form at http://www.ushmm.org/
remembrance/registry/ushmm-research-requestform.pdf.
[Note: If you do not have a computer, seek
help from a family member or friend who does.]
· Survivors and their families are welcome to
visit the Museum to directly access the archive, but
this is not required to request a search of the ITS
records.
The Museum is committed to making the
information in these records accessible to Holocaust
survivors in a timely fashion.
Requests for information are acknowledged upon
receipt. Priority is given to survivors and their families.
Miriam Klein Kassenoff: Holocaust educator
By SERGIO CARMONA, Sun Sentinel
Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Ed.D., is doing her best to make sure that Holocaust education remains a vital part
of a Miami-Dade County school’s curriculum. Kassenoff, a Miami Beach resident, has been involved in
numerous Holocaust education capacities. She discussed her goals for this type of education.
“I think that compassion and empathy and understanding of other people’s cultures, religions and ethnicities
is really the road to peace,” she said. “I think the ultimate goal of all of this is that once we go beyond
remembering what happened during the Nazi Holocaust and memorializing it is to make sure that this doesn’t
happen again.”
Kassenoff is a child refugee of the Holocaust who fled Nazi Europe with her family when Nazis occupied
her hometown of Kosice, Czechoslovakia and after her father, the late Rabbi Maurice Klein, escaped a Nazi
Hungarian Fascist Labor Camp. She grew up in Cleveland, OH and moved to Miami in 1979. Her Holocaust
education endeavors include serving as the education specialist for Holocaust Studies for Miami-Dade County
Public Schools, director for the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute, where she teaches local
educators how to teach this period of history, and as a co-chair for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s
Holocaust Memorial’s Education Committee.
“One of the things I absolutely emphasize when teaching the teachers is that they take time to present to
the students life in Europe before the Holocaust,” she added. “I always say to them, as Abba Kovner, the poet
and survivor, said ‘How can you know what we lost when you don’t know what we had.’”
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
Israeli Holocaust survivors
Ghetto Pension Claims to be Re-Opened:
Claims Conference Secures Commitment from Germany to get subsidy for medicine
In meetings with the Claims Conference, initiated by the American Gathering’s Roman Kent, the German
Social Security Administration pledged that all Holocaust survivors who have applied and previously been
rejected for German Social Security payments under the country’s “Ghetto Pension Law” (ZRBG) will have
their cases reviewed by the end of 2010.
The Claims Conference met recently with German officials to urge more rapid processing of cases and
retroactive payments to applicants, and has been pressing these issues since court rulings in 2009 allowed reevaluation of rejected applications. Today, the National Pension Board announced that if applicants are found
to be entitled to a pension, in accordance with the court rulings, generally the payments will be backdated to
January 1, 2005.
Following the decision in June 2009 of the German Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht) to allow
reconsideration of claims for “ghetto pensions” from tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors previously
rejected, the Claims Conference has been pressing for an expedited review of these applications. Out of
70,000 applicants, there remain 56,000 previously rejected applications from Holocaust survivors for review.
The applications will be processed according to the survivor’s date of birth in order to give priority to the
oldest applicants.
Since the court rulings, 1,700 previously rejected applications have been approved. The German Social
Security Administration has assured the Claims Conference that the rate of processing for the remaining
56,000 claims will be considerably faster in order to complete them by year’s end.
The 2009 court rulings relate to a number of issues of interpretation of the ghetto pension law, including
the definition of “remuneration,” “voluntary labor” and the existence of age limits. For an overview of the
main issues, see the Claims Conference’s website at http://www.claimscon.org/zrbgmain.
Prior to the court ruling, the Claims Conference had initiated a monitoring group established by the Ministry
of Labor regarding implementation of the ZRBG law. The Claims Conference pressed for retroactive payments.
In addition, the Claims Conference asked for re-opening of cases without re-submission of documents by
claimants. The German Social Security Administration began proactively reviewing all rejected ZRBG/Ghetto
Pension claims.
Applicants whose Ghetto Pension claims were denied do not need to request the re-opening of their
claims in accordance with the court rulings of June 2009, nor do they have to contact the ZRBG offices in
Germany to have their files reviewed.
However, applicants may contact the German Pension Board about the status of their claims and to
inform the ZRBG office about changes of address, bank account etc. Contact information for applicants
depends on their current country of residence. Information on regional pension institutions is at
www.claimscon.org/zrbgmain. The Claims Conference will continue to press on this issue of great importance
to so many survivors, and to keep you informed of developments. The Claims Conference will continue to
make available all information pertinent to Holocaust survivors through help centers, social service agencies
and on its website at www.claimscon.org.
The Claims Conference is not involved in the administration, implementation or processing of applications
for this program. The information presented herein is intended for information purposes only and solely as a
general guide. The information is not intended as legal advice. It is a summary of specific issues and does not
represent a definitive or complete statement of the programs and policies of the agencies or governments
mentioned. The information may not address the special needs, interests and circumstances of individual
recipients. Individual situations differ and recipients are urged to seek individual advice. Individuals seeking
specific information on a program are urged to contact the relevant program or to consult their social service
agency or help center representative. To the best of our knowledge the information is correct as of the date
of this document and this information may change subsequent to the said date.
Holocaust endowment fund
created in recognition of Fred
Zeidman
Jewish Herald Voice
The
United
States
Holocaust
Memorial
Museum has established a
new fund in recognition of
its Houston chairman. The
Fred S. Zeidman Endowment Fund for Holocaust
Education was created in
recognition of Zeidman’s
role in deepening the
museum’s educational
impact.
The fund was announced at the museum’s 2010
National Tribute Dinner on April 14 in Washington.
The dinner honored Zeidman, who has led the
institution since 2002, spanning two White House
administrations. More than 900 people, including 120
World War II veterans who helped liberate the Nazi
concentration camps, attended the event.
July 2010
According to the nation’s Holocaust Memorial
Museum, the new Zeidman Fund will serve to engage
students, leaders and the general public in a vital
dialogue on individual responsibility, the fragility of
democracy and the dangers of unchecked hatred and
antisemitism.
It also will help
advance the museum’s
educational outreach efforts
across the country and
around the world through the
innovate use of online tools
and new technologies.
The dinner was part of
the museum’s Days of
Remembrance activities
that were held from April 11
to 17. Attorney General Eric Holder was the keynote
speaker recognizing the 10th anniversary of the
museum’s Law Enforcement and Society program.
Working in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation
League, the museum trains officials from law
enforcement agencies across the country, including
every new FBI agent – each year some 1,000.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
by DANA WEILER-POLAK, Haaretz
The country’s 80,000 Holocaust survivors will be
eligible for as much as a 90 percent subsidy for their
pharmaceutical bills, the Social Affairs Ministry
announced after months of debate. The arrangement
will go into effect in about a month; the names of
those eligible will be given to the health maintenance
organizations.
The agreement, reached by the social affairs,
health and finance ministries, is expected to cost the
state NIS 50 million and will come from the Social
Affairs Ministry’s budget for services to Holocaust
survivors. That budget currently covers various
needs, including nursing care, dental work, purchasing
glasses and hearing aids, etc.
Holocaust survivors aged 75 or above will pay
no more than NIS 100 for the medicines they normally
receive. The maximum deductible fee for medicines
received by Holocaust survivors under the age of 75
will be NIS 125.
Social Affairs Ministry data shows that more than
80 percent of Holocaust survivors are older than 75.
No special procedure will be required for the survivors
to receive the subsidy; it will become automatic once
their data is entered in HMO databases.
Meanwhile, the ministry continues to meet with
representatives of the Claims Conference and of the
Company for Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets,
so the subsidies for medicines will be raised to 100
percent of the cost.
Research in 2009 by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale
Institute and the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee, which examined the condition of
Holocaust survivors living in Israel, concluded that
many suffer from cardiovascular problems and
chronic skeletal pain. The study also showed that
survivors are prone to suffer from anxiety attacks,
and half of their number consider their health to be
weak.
Ze’ev Factor, chairman of the Foundation for the
Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, regretted the
delay in reaching the agreement as some 30
Holocaust survivors die on a daily basis.
Factor also expressed his dissatisfaction with the
definition of those eligible for the subsidies. “The State
of Israel has decided that whoever was in territory
occupied by Hitler is not necessarily considered a
Holocaust survivor, but a Holocaust refugee. Those
recognized as survivors in Israel are only those who
were in the German death camps. All those who hid
for years or had Aryan documents, are not considered
[a survivor]. Some 100,000 people living among us
were not in Hitler’s camps and were not under threat
of [immediate] death, but they too suffered hardship
that affects them to this day,” said Factor. “I have
argued that every Jew who lived under Hitler’s
occupation from 1939-1945 is a survivor, and it does
not matter how many blows he received or where he
hid. They lived in permanent fear for five years and
they are survivors just as I was, who was at Auschwitz.
My point of view was not accepted.”
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INCLUSION IN TOGETHER. PLEASE
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SUBMITTED.
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TOGETHER 9
Holocaust victims heirs sue Justice sought against
French railroad
Hungarian banks
Budapest, March 27 (MTI) - A group of Holocaust
survivors and heirs filed a lawsuit in Chicago recently
against several banks, including banks based in
Hungary, demanding compensation of more than $2
million.
According to the plaintiffs, the National Bank of
Hungary, the Erste Group Bank, the MKB Bayerische
Landesbank and OTP Bank or their predecessors
participated in the Holocaust, they were accomplices
and instigators by appropriating the assets of Jewish
victims.
The plaintiffs, who call themselves “Holocaust
victims of bank theft” in the document submitted to
the Illinois Northern District Court, also demand
criminal compensation on top of the $2 million plus
interest.
According to the claim, the banks appropriated
the funds held in the accounts of Jewish Holocaust
victims, as well as jewelery, art objects and securities
stored in their security safes.
In February this year, a similar lawsuit was filed
against Hungarian state railways MAV, demanding
compensation for the company’s involvement in
deporting Jews during WWII. The plaintiffs in that
case, who are mostly descendants of Holocaust
survivors living in Israel and the US, demand
compensation worth a total of $240 million. Based on
nine years of research, they claim that MAV provided
its carriages “being fully aware” that these would be
used to transport 437,000 Jews to the gas chambers
in Auschwitz between March and October 1944.
Head of the Hungarian Jewish federation
Mazsihisz Peter Feldmajer said earlier that “no legal
action can be brought against MAV on moral
grounds,” adding that it is the Hungarian state, not
one company that is responsible for compliance in
the murders and theft of Jewish possessions during
World War II.
Smart trade
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
The family of a Holocaust survivor has been
allowed to keep a $10 million (£6.6million) ancient
gold tablet he received in exchange for cigarettes on
the streets of post-war Berlin.
Berlin’s Vorderasiatisches Museum had
demanded the 3,200-year-Assyrian artefact be
returned because it was looted by Soviet troops. But
a judge on Long Island has ruled that Polish
Auschwitz survivor Riven Flamenbaum’s family no
longer has to hand over the valuable relic.
Flamenbaum died in 2003 at the age of 92, leaving
the tablet to his three children, Israel, Hannah and
Helen. The solid-gold tablet ended up in his hands
after it was looted from the museum’s storage by
Soviet troops in 1945, and traded for several packets
of cigarettes. The tablet was found in the ruins of an
Iraq temple in 1913 by German archeologist Walter
Andrae and was shipped to Germany before being
displayed at the Vorderasiatisches Museum.
Nassau County Surrogate Court judge John
Riordan ruled the museum had waited too long to
press its claim, and declared the tablet was rightfully
the property of the Flamenbaums.
The Flamenbaums’ lawyer John Farinacci said
the family had no idea how much it was worth with
one expert pricing it at just $100. He said they had no
plans to sell the heirloom.
‘This was part of an immigrant’s tale. It was one
of the things he was able to get and put in his pocket
to make a new life,’ he said.
TOGETHER 10
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Holocaust survivors met
with officials on Capitol Hill to discuss legislation that
will help them pursue a lawsuit against a French
railroad company.
Leo Bretholz and Mathilde Freund were refugees
from Austria living in Vichy, France, during World
War II.
Between March 1942 and August 1944, 75,000
Jews and undesirables, along with American citizens
and soldiers, were deported to concentration camps
from France aboard trains run by the Societe
Nationale des Chermins de Fers Francais, or SNCF.
The Nazis paid the company for the deportations per
head, per kilometer.
Bretholz escaped on a train to Auschwitz, but
Freund’s husband was arrested by the Gestapo and
deported to Buchenwald, where he died on Jan. 31,
1945.
Legislation introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) would
allow survivors, family members and veterans a
chance to sue SNCF in the United States.
SNCF has never denied its actions, but has been
able to claim immunity under the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act of 1976. The company claims it
cannot be sued for its activities during the war even
though it is a commercial entity because its shares
are owned by the government.
Though the act was not in place at the time of
the deportations, the U.S. Supreme Court determined
that its tenets are applicable retroactively.
Furthermore, as the law stands, survivors cannot sue
for the act of being deported.
The new legislation would ensure that a lawsuit
could be brought by tailoring a narrow exception to
the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
The scope of the exception would be narrowed
to railroads that are separate commercial corporations
and engaged in deportations from 1942 to 1944. The
legislation would only take away sovereignty as a
defense for SNCF; the railroad could still use any
other defense at its disposal.
The legislation would not affect treaties with the
German, Swiss and Austrian governments, which
preclude suits against the governments or their
entities.
Survivors filed suit against the railroad in 2001;
the case was dismissed by a U.S. district court judge.
In 2003, a federal appeals court reversed the decision
and sent the case back to the lower court. The railroad
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying it had
immunity from prosecution. The Supreme Court
rejected the appeal and sent the case back to the
appeals court in 2004. The Supreme Court declined
to hear the case again in 2005.
The legislation to allow the survivors to sue the
railroad was introduced originally in the Senate in
2008.
Poland unveils memorial to Warsaw ghetto fighters
By VANESSA GERA
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish officials unveiled a new monument recently honoring the last group of
Jewish insurgents to escape from Warsaw’s burning ghetto in 1943 as the Nazis crushed the revolt against
their brutal rule.
It was a doomed struggle, but some managed to survive, and today the act of resistance stands as a
source of pride for many Jews, especially in Israel. With the remaining ghetto population facing mass deportations
to death camps, the insurgents rose up in April 1943 and managed to hold off the German army for nearly a
month before being crushed.
The bronze memorial shows a sewage canal rising vertically from the ground with disembodied hands
symbolically climbing their way to freedom. It honors insurgents who escaped the ghetto to the city’s “Aryan”
side through a stinking, dark and claustrophobic sewage canal.
The monument stands on Prosta Street where the last group
of about 50 fighters emerged on May 10, 1943. The leader of
that escape, Simha Rotem, today an 86-year-old Israeli, was
honored by officials at the ceremony.
“We are here today to commemorate the heroic deed of a
great Pole and a great Jew,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski
said. “We must remember that his heroism did not end in 1943.
Together with several of his companions, he also took part a year
later in the Warsaw Uprising,” another ill-fated insurgency, that
one by the entire city.
Rotem, whose nom de guerre was Kazik, remembered the
uprising as “suicidal.”
“We stood no chance; we were convinced that no one would
survive this fight,” Rotem said. However, after many days of
With Kazik: Radoslaw Sikorki, Minister
“fighting against the Germans, it turned out that the majority of
of Foreign Affairs and Anne
us were still breathing. In spite of impossible conditions, we were
Applebaum, Sikorski’s wife and a
prepared to carry on with the fight, but we were threatened with
journalist for The Washington Post.
being burned alive.”
At that point, with the battle lost, Rotem said it was necessary
to cross the besieged ghetto walls and “get out of this hell.” He recalled that several attempts were unsuccessful
before he led the final escape. The events are described in a book he has written, “Memoirs of a Warsaw
Ghetto Fighter.”
Sikorski said that Rotem “had limited contacts with the world outside the ghetto but nevertheless he
managed to do something which seemed virtually impossible - to organize the transport and to contact the
sewage workers, without whose cooperation covering those few kilometers (miles) in the sewage canal
would have been impossible.”
One of the monument’s designers, architect Krzysztof Stefaniak, said the hands are meant to recall the
drama of the fighters’ escape as well as the “horror and scene of terror.”
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
Israel called on to honor the
‘Arab Schindler’
by PAUL HARRIS, The Observer
He has been called the “Arab Schindler,” and
hailed as a man who risked his own life to save Jews
during the Holocaust. Now Khaled Abdul-Wahab,
a wealthy Tunisian landowner, is the object of a
campaign to bestow on him the title of “righteous
among the nations,” the recognition by Israel for
gentiles who helped to rescue Jews from the Nazis.
Recently, PBS aired a documentary in its series
Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the
Holocaust in Arab Lands, which detailed the case
for Abdul-Wahab and speculated that there are other
cases of Arabs who helped their Jewish neighbors
during the second world war.
The documentary is based on a book by Robert
Satloff, a Jewish historian and executive director of
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Satloff
said he hoped Abdul-Wahab’s case would be looked
at in a new light. Three years ago the “righteous
among the nations” case for him was turned down
by Yad Vashem, the body that rules on candidates.
“I am certainly hopeful that the documentary puts
the spotlight back on the story of Abdul-Wahab and
also other Arab rescuers,” Satloff told the Observer.
“I am hopeful that the powers-that-be will be
prepared to take another look at this case. I think
the evidence is compelling.”
Satloff believes Abdul-Wahab’s actions deserve
to put him into the same category as Oskar Schindler,
the German industrialist made famous by Steven
Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List. But he also believes
that his inclusion would be more significant. Among
the 20,000 accepted names at the Yad Vashem
memorial, there are many different nationalities. There
are already more than 60 Muslims, mostly Albanians
and Bosnians. Abdul-Wahab would be the first Arab.
Israel Finance Ministry to pay
NIS 32m to 20,000 Holocaust
survivors
By ORLY VILNAI, Haaretz
The Finance Ministry will
compensate some 20,000
Holocaust survivors with NIS
32 million, the director of the
ministry’s Authority for
Holocaust Survivors’ Rights
announced recently. The
ministry will pay NIS 30 million
as part of reforms aimed at
raising survivors’ living
standards, and NIS 2 million as
reimbursement for money the
ministry collected directly from
survivors’ accounts after
claiming it had been paid out in
error.
Haaretz reported in July 2009 that the Finance
Ministry had sent letters to thousands of survivors
threatening to cut off their benefits if they did not
sign and return a form enclosed with the letter. The
form, however, gave the treasury irrevocable power
of attorney to withdraw from the accounts any funds
the state believes were paid to survivors erroneously.
July 2010
Satloff thinks that acceptance of Abdul-Wahab’s
case would be a powerful force for improving ArabIsraeli relations. He believes it would show Israelis
and other Jews that there had been a time when
Arabs had helped Jewish people. “There is a difficulty
among some people in accepting the idea that Arabs
may have helped Jews,” Satloff said. At the same
time, it would do much to combat widespread
antisemitism.
“It would show some Arabs that they were willing
to help their Jewish neighbors,” he said, adding that
he had discovered cases where Arab families tried
to cover up the fact that their relatives had helped
Jews to escape Nazi persecution.
Satloff has uncovered numerous incidents. In
Algeria, French colonial officials offered the chance
to take over confiscated Jewish property and not a
single Arab participated, though many French people
did. In Algiers, Muslim clerics spoke out against the
scheme.
Satloff discovered Abdul-Wahab’s story as he
was researching his book. He had posted a message
on a website popular with Tunisian Jews, who were
now dispersed all over the world. He received a
The individuals in question only began receiving
compensation from Israel after a new law was
enacted granting survivors NIS 1,000 per month if
they were not receiving
compensation from any other
Israeli body.
Shortly after the new
regulations were implemented,
however, the ministry began
collecting money directly from
survivors’ accounts, claiming that
many had erroneously received
double payments.
Ofra Ross, the newly
appointed director of the ministry
body
responsible
for
compensating survivors, made the
unprecedented decision to return
funds to survivors from whom
money had already been
collected. The ministry will return
NIS 2 million immediately upon receiving
authorization from the Justice Ministry.
The Authority for Holocaust Survivors’ Rights
drew heavy criticism in a state report last year on
the status of Holocaust survivors. The panel, headed
by retired Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner,
obligated the Finance Ministry to undertake a number
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
response from an old woman called Anny Boukris,
now living in America, who remembered how her
family had been saved by Abdul-Wahab.
“The Arabs saved many Jews. I don’t know very
well these stories. I remember very well only our
story,” she wrote. That story, which Satloff slowly
uncovered, was Abdul-Wahab’s. It began in
November 1942 after German and Italian troops
occupied Tunisia, which was home to 100,000 Jews.
Jews were forced to wear yellow stars and more
than 5,000 were sent to forced labour camps, where
at least 46 died.
Abdul-Wahab, a well-to-do farmer and son of
an eminent Tunisian historian and writer, sheltered
24 people from two Jewish families on his farm after
he overheard a Nazi officer planning to rape one of
the women, Boukris’s mother. He shielded them from
harm by keeping them on his estate. He even
intervened when a drunken German soldier
threatened to kill one of the girls, shouting: “I know
that you are Jews and I am going to kill you tonight!”
Like Schindler in occupied Poland, AbdulWahab protected those under his charge by
remaining close to the German occupiers, often
wining and dining them at parties. The crisis finally
ended when the Allies liberated the country four
months later. Abdul-Wahab, who died in 1997, has
been honoured by numerous Jewish groups, including
the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Yet the story of Arabs, Jews and Nazis in North
Africa remains an ignored but important chapter in
the Holocaust’s history. Satloff believes that only by
confronting the historic truth – that Arabs helped
Jews as much (or as little) as anyone else – can some
of the problems of the present be tempered.
“The truth will come out,” he said. “There is
enough dividing Arabs and Israelis already without
this historic baggage.”
of comprehensive reforms stipulating how survivors
are compensated.
The authority is now led by Ross, who replaced
its long-term head Rafi Pinto two months ago. In
her short tenure, Ross has annulled a number of the
strict regulations by which the organization denied
survivors adequate compensation.
Among them, the form survivors had been
required to sign was eliminated in favor of a
questionnaire asking only for their bank details.
Survivors do not grant the ministry power to
withdraw funds from their accounts. The authority
will also begin using “friendlier” documents—instead
of 13-page forms bearing small print, survivors will
now receive six pages with large, clear text.
A treasury committee decided “not to implement
collection procedures, not to send warning notices,
and not to make deductions from funds that
Holocaust survivors are entitled to receive from the
authority.”
Dorner’s panel also ruled that the authority must
raise its allocation to survivors to 75 percent of funds
paid to them by the German government. The
authority ultimately raised its allocation to NIS 30
million, but four months behind schedule. In that time,
a number of survivors entitled to the additional funds
died.
TOGETHER 11
The Black Holocaust
By A. TOLBERT, III
Did you know that in the 1920s, there were 24,000
Blacks living in Germany? Here’s how it happened,
and how many of them were eventually caught
unawares by the events of the Holocaust. Like most
West European nations, Germany established colonies
in Africa in the late 1800s in what later became Togo,
Cameroon, SPAN Namibia and Tanzania. German
genetic experiments began there, most notably
involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Herero
Massacre that left 60,000 Africans dead, following a
4-year revolt against German colonization.
After the shellacking Germany received in World
War I, it was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.
As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy
Germany in the Rhineland—a bitter piece of real
estate that has gone back and forth between the two
nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed
their colonized African soldiers as the occupying
force. Germans viewed this as the final insult of World
War I, and, soon thereafter, 92% of them voted in the
Nazi party. Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based
soldiers intermarried with German women and raised
their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler wrote about his plans for these “Rhineland
Bastards.” When he came to power, one of his first
directives was aimed at these mixed-race children.
Underscoring Hitler’s obsession with racial purity,
by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the
Rhineland had been forcibly sterilized, in order to
prevent further “race polluting,” as Hitler termed it.
Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim
of Hitler’s mandatory sterilization program, explained
in the film “Hitler’s Forgotten Victims” that, when he
was forced to undergo sterilization as a teenager, he
was given no anesthetic. Once he received his
sterilization certificate, he was “free to go,” as long
as he agreed to have no sexual relations whatsoever
with Germans.
Although most Black Germans attempted to
escape their fatherland, heading for France where
people like Josephine Baker were steadily aiding and
A Never-Ending Pain
WCBSTV
They are memories so painful, they’re fueling a
heated debate in an unexpected spot.
A neighborhood in Verona, New Jersey is divided
over a Holocaust memorial. Some residents say the
memorial is a daily reminder of death, and they want
it moved.
The memorial is a railroad track leading to a
barbed wire-wrapped star bearing the names of
concentration camps. It’s the vision of Sarah Kriegel,
the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
“The tracks are the ones that carried all the
people to the death camps, to the labor camps,”
Kriegel says.
“We have to remember the Holocaust,” a Verona
resident added.
The memorial, just outside Congregation Beth
Ahm of West Essex in Verona, brings Jane Janoff to
tears – but not for the reasons you may think.
“When my 10-year-old daughter thinks something
like this is going to happen to her, she’s too young to
understand that it’s not,” Janoff says. “But she really
thinks something is going to happen to her because
of this memorial.”
Janoff, whose husband, Michael, is Jewish, says
TOGETHER 12
supporting the French Underground, many still
encountered problems elsewhere. Nations shut their
doors to Germans, including the Black ones. Some
Black Germans were able to eke out a living during
Hitler’s reign of terror by performing in Vaudeville
shows, but many Blacks, steadfast in their belief that
they were German first, Black second, opted to remain
in Germany. Some fought with the Nazis (a few even
became Luftwaffe pilots)!
Unfortunately, many Black Germans were
arrested, charged with treason and shipped in cattle
cars to concentration camps. Often these trains were
so packed with people and (equipped with no
bathroom facilities or food), that after the four-day
journey, box car doors were opened to piles of the
dead and dying. Once inside the concentration camps,
Blacks were given the worst jobs conceivable. Some
Black American soldiers, who were captured and held
as prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were
being starved and forced into dangerous labor
(violating the Geneva Convention), they were still
better off than Black German concentration camp
detainees, who were forced to do the unthinkable—
man the crematoriums and work in labs where genetic
experiments were being conducted. As a final
sacrifice, these Blacks were killed every three months
so that they would never be able to reveal the inner
workings of the “Final Solution.”
In every story of Black oppression, no matter
how we were enslaved, shackled or beaten, we
she doesn’t mind having a memorial across from her
home. However, she says she’s offended by the 11
wooden railroad ties representing the six million Jews
and five million Christians killed in the labor camps.
“Really, it’s a symbol of death to us,” she says.
Janoff and some of her neighbors want the tracks
pulled.
“I feel that this memorial is very extreme,” one
neighbor says.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
always found a way to survive and to rescue others.
As a case in point, consider Johnny Voste, a Belgian
resistance fighter who was arrested in 1942 for alleged
sabotage and then shipped to Dachau. One of his
jobs was stacking vitamin crates. Risking his own
life, he distributed hundreds of vitamins to camp
detainees, which saved the lives of many who were
starving, weak, and ill-conditions exacerbated by
extreme vitamin deficiencies. His motto was “No,
you can’t have my life; I will fight for it.”
According to Essex University’s Delroy
Constantine-Simms, there were Black Germans who
resisted Nazi Germany, such as Lari Gilges, who
founded the Northwest Rann—an organization of
entertainers that fought the Nazis in his home town
of Dusseldorf—and who was murdered by the SS in
1933, the year that Hitler came into power. Little
information remains about the numbers of Black
Germans held in the camps or killed under the Nazi
regime. Some victims of the Nazi sterilization project
and Black survivors of the Holocaust are still alive
and telling their story in films such as Black Survivors
of the Nazi Holocaust, but they must also speak out
for justice, not just history. Unlike Jews (in Israel and
in Germany), Black Germans receive no war
reparations because their German citizenship was
revoked (even though they were German-born). The
only pension they get is from those of us who are
willing to tell the world their stories and continue their
battle for recognition and compensation.
After the war, scores of Blacks who had
somehow managed to survive the Nazi regime, were
rounded up and tried as war criminals. Talk about
the final insult! There are thousands of Black
Holocaust stories, from the triangle trade, to slavery
in America, to the gas ovens in Germany. We often
shy away from hearing about our historical past
because so much of it is painful; however, we are in
this struggle together for rights, dignity, and, yes,
reparations for wrongs done to us through the
centuries. We need to always remember so that we
can take steps to ensure that these atrocities never
happen again. For further information,
read: Destined to Witness : Growing Up Black in
Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi.
“I wouldn’t even mind if it’s temporary, kind of
like you have Nativity scenes from Christmas. Fine,
I get it. To me, that would be more acceptable,”
Michael Janoff says. “But every day, day in and day
out, I have to think about, ‘wow, people died during
this event.’ It’s just horrible.”
Rabbi Aaron Kriegel says the tracks are an
important teaching tool, and he has no plans to remove
them.
“If we took out the tracks, we would just be giving
in to the senseless kind of thinking that says, ‘Well, I
can close my eyes while evil happens and pretend
that it’s not there,’” Rabbi Kriegel says.
It’s a lesson no one wants to live through again.
Residents complained to the Town of Verona,
but the town manager says there’s nothing they can
do because the memorial doesn’t violate any statutes
or codes.
PLEASE SEND US YOUR STORIES,
ARTICLES, POEMS, AND LETTERS FOR
INCLUSION IN TOGETHER AND OUR WEB
SITE. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT WE
CANNOT PRINT EVERYTHING THAT IS
SUBMITTED.
SEND TO: [email protected]
July 2010
FRENCH PROGRAM FOR
CHILD SURVIVORS
Many survivors may be unaware of a fund
established by the French government for child
survivors who were orphaned during World War II
as a result of their parents having been deported from
France.
The Fund, which was established in July 2000,
provides financial compensation for all persons whose
parent(s) was/were deported from France during the
Nazi occupation and who perished in deportation
provided the child was under the age of 21 at the
time the deportation occurred. Persons receiving a
pension for the same matter from the German or
Austrian governments are ineligible for this
compensation.
The compensation is made available in the form
of a lump-sum payment equivalent to •27,440 or a
monthly pension of •480.50 for life. Applicants may
choose the form of payment. The compensation is
payable beginning in the month following receipt of
the required documents by the French Ministry of
Defense. There is no retroactive compensation.
Necessary documents may be obtained by
contacting Mme. Sophie Giloppe at the Social
Services Dept, French Consulate, Tel No. (212) 6063608 between 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. or by writing
directly to the following address in France:
Ministere de la Defense
Sga-Dsprs-Sdsp
B. P. 552
14037 Caen
Cedex, France
Completed claims should be sent directly to the above
address in Caen, France.
40 countries attend Jerusalem Shoah conference
By JONAH MANDEL, Jerusalem Post
Nearly 200 decision makers in the field of
education, officially representing some 40
countries, took part in the Seventh International
Conference on Holocaust Education and
Remembrance, held at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
The conference focused on new challenges
facing educators who teach about the Holocaust.
One such challenge is the growing tendency
to link Holocaust commemoration with criticism
of Israel – aptly illustrated when a Turkish
delegation cancelled its participation following the
IDF’s recent raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.
Held by the International School for Holocaust
Studies at Yad Vashem, the event was attended by
philosophers, historians, human rights activists,
educators, politicians, ambassadors and directors
of government ministries. They attended lectures
and participated in discussion groups focusing on
questions such as how to grapple with Holocaust
denial, how to avoid “competitions” between the
suffering experienced under different totalitarian
regimes, and how to keep from falling into a pattern
of referring to the Jewish people as victims.
The Last Holocaust Survivors
By BETHANIE GORNY
The temperature is frigid and the wind blowing in
from the ocean is strong enough to knock over a frail
older person. Nevertheless, there are about fifty senior
citizens here enjoying the luncheon — they wouldn’t
miss it. Every month they gather to share a meal,
enjoy a speaker or entertainer, and socialize. For many,
it is the highlight of their month.
They are a diverse group, but they all mingle with
no difficulty. Aside from their advancing years and
the fact that they are all Jewish, there is one thing
that unites this group in a way no other statistic could:
all are Holocaust survivors. For ten years, this group
has been meeting just to be together. They don’t talk
about the Holocaust; they lived it — they don’t want
to relive it.
Yet many do relive it when they speak at schools.
It is difficult, and many still cry remembering those
they lost. The school children and teachers are often
moved to tears, too. To hear a Holocaust survivor
speak is to hear history straight from the source, an
opportunity that is diminishing quickly. Yes, we have
audio taped and videotaped them, but there is no
comparable experience to hearing and seeing one of
these incredible people giving their personal account
of how they managed to survive when all around them
Jews were being systematically murdered.
I am not a survivor; however, I got to know a lot
about them through my relationship with my motherin-law, a Polish survivor. Advancing age made it
necessary for Eva to move closer to my husband and
July 2010
Among the speakers were Education Minister
Gideon Sa’ar, Prof. Alain Finkielkraut, former chief
rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Polish president
Aleksander Kwasniewski and former Croatian
president Stjepan Mesic.
Recommendations that emerged from the
discussions will be presented to representatives of
the Task Force for International Cooperation on
Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research
(ITF).
“The event marks an exceptional
accomplishment of years of collaboration, to create
a group of professionals dedicated to the theme
from 40 states, who came despite pressures to
partake in a journey of thought and finding solutions
in the face of a changing reality,” Yad Vashem
chairman Avner Shalev told The Jerusalem Post,
referring to the weekend gathering.
“Trends of Holocaust trivialization and building
new narratives pose a new situation and new
problems that educators must face,” he said, noting
such issues as the tendency to fuse the Holocaust
with other European tragedies, and problems
teaching the Shoa to Muslims, some of whom
object, due to their antagonism toward the State of
Israel.
“It is important to open new questions and think
systematically,” Shalev said.
Regarding the cancellation by the Turkish
delegation, he expressed sorrow over enmeshing
a political dispute with a broader educational issue
that is important to the entire world, and called it
“very saddening” that the Turkish delegation could
not separate the two.
“You can criticize or even [defy] Israeli policies,
but dealing with Holocaust education is not an
Israeli or even Jewish issue, rather one for the
entire world and part of the European discourse
that Turkey is trying to become part of,” Shalev
said.
“The great state of Turkey will have to show
its intent to continue its dialogue with the entire
world, and not just Islam. I hope they will reconsider
and come to realize that these are universal
questions we are dealing with. Maybe we’ll still
see Turkish educational groups.”
me, but she missed her friends, most of whom were
other Holocaust survivors. I helped to start the
Holocaust Survivor luncheons and Eva was elated.
Now she could spend time with the people she felt
most comfortable with: other survivors. After Eva
died, I continued to volunteer at these events.
Yiddish mingles with English in the Jewish Family
Services building in
Margate, NJ. Each month
it is like watching a family
reunion. This month a local
man sings Yiddish and
Hebrew songs. He asks if
there are any requests.
There is one and it is the
same one that this group
never tires of hearing.
“Sing The Partisan’s
Song,” cries out someone.
They all sing along
passionately. I once asked why they love this particular
song so much and an Auschwitz survivor explained
to me, “We want to honor those Jews who resisted
and fought for our freedom. Even in the camps, there
were acts of resistance.”
One of the many things I have learned from them
is that when the Holocaust was over, they were not
greeted with celebrations or even apologies.
Traumatized and broken in spirit and health, they
struggled to learn a new language and make a living
while dealing with the after effects of the Holocaust.
In the fifties and sixties the world wanted to forget
the Holocaust. Yom Hashoah is the day set aside for
remembrance of the six million Jewish victims of the
Holocaust. It is also a time to honor the survivors.
Each year I am forced to face the reality that the
time is coming when the last Holocaust survivor will
be gone and I wonder: who will replace them? Will
someone step up to carry on their mission of
remembrance?
When it is over, everyone says their goodbyes.
Some are friends and will
see each other in the
interim, but many will not
meet again until next
month. Cyla, one of the
survivors I have gotten to
know especially well,
comes over to give me a
hug and a kiss. She has
become a leader in this
group and is fiercely
devoted to making sure that these Holocaust survivors
can continue to meet each month and that they will
be acknowledged in the community.
“So, I’ll see you again next month,” she says to
me. “Of course,” I answer. She is in good health,
but secretly I worry. Who will be missing next time?
“As long as there is even one survivor left, we will
meet, right?” she persists. “Yes,” I assure her and I
think how fortunate I am that I have gotten to know
all of these amazing people, hear their stories, be
inspired by them, and be a small part of their lives. I
reach out to clasp her hand tightly. I never want to
let go of Cyla or any of them.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
TOGETHER 13
Exhibit Captures Courage,
Pain of Jews in Military
BY CARMEN GENTILE, AOL News
Fred Schrager says he was always careful not
to reveal his Jewish heritage after he was captured
by Germans during World War II. The American
soldier knew the Nazis were exterminating Jews by
the millions in concentration camps.
Finally, freed in the spring of 1945, Schrager was
en route to France when he witnessed the Holocaust
firsthand at the concentration camp known as
Buchenwald. There, he remembers the sight of a “pile
of bodies with arms and legs sticking out.”
“In all the time I was in the Army and a prisoner
of war, no matter how bad the situation was, I never
cried,” the 87-year-old veteran told AOL News. “But
I looked at the faces in that pile of bodies. Some of
their eyes were open. I thought maybe some of them
were alive. But they weren’t. That’s when I started
to cry.”
Former Army Private Fred Schrager, pictured
here in 1943, is now 87. When he served during
WWII, Schrager said he made sure his Jewish
heritage was never revealed.
Schrager’s story of service is just one of hundreds
being celebrated at the “Florida Jews in the Military”
exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami
Beach.
Soldier, Holocaust Survivor
Have Emotional Reunion
By LAURA BERMAN, The Detroit News
In the fall of 1945, a Soviet soldier hoisted a 5-yearold boy aloft and paraded him through a Lithuanian
synagogue that had been closed throughout a long
Nazi occupation.
For 65 years, the boy and the soldier carried that
moment in their heads and hearts. Unknown to each
other, they told the story to family and friends. A Toronto
songwriter memorialized it in song. The boy became a
man and included the anecdote in his 2003 book.
Recently they met and embraced for the first
time since then in Rabbi Leo Goldman’s Oak Park
living room.
“It was very emotional, much more than I would
have expected,” says the former small boy. He is
Abraham Foxman, the New York-based director of
the Anti-Defamation League. In that role, he is a
public voice against racial and religious intolerance.
The soldier is Goldman, 91, an Orthodox rabbi in
Oak Park and an educator who continued to work as
a Beaumont Hospital chaplain until a few months ago.
“We tell this story every year,” says Rose
Brystowski, the rabbi’s daughter, who says her father
has become too frail to interview. “It’s very moving
to us, because it’s about survival, about a child
symbolizing the future of our people.”
The memory remains vivid for Foxman: He had
lived with his Catholic nanny, separated from his
parents and concealed from the Nazis as a so-called
“hidden child” for four years. The nanny saved his
life — but also taught him to spit on the ground when
a Jew walked by.
In mid-1945, he was reunited with his parents.
His father waited four months to take him to a
synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah, an
ancient and festive holiday that celebrates the reading
of the Torah — the Old Testament — on handwritten scrolls. “That was very smart of him because
it is a fun holiday for children,” says Foxman, who
remembers walking by a church and making the sign
TOGETHER 14
The nearly yearlong
exhibit ranges from the
1800s during the Seminole
Wars up to the current
conflicts in Iraq — where
five Florida Jews have
been killed — and
Afghanistan.
Chief Curator Marcia
Jo Zerivitz, who founded
the museum, said the
exhibit illustrates Jews’
dedication to country and dispels notions that Jews in
the United States are not particularly patriotic.
“This exhibit shows just how courageous and bold
they were,” Zerivitz said.
Among the artifacts on display are the spoon and
knife Schrager used during his months-long
imprisonment. There is also a letter he wrote to his
wife, Norma, after he was freed.
Though Jews from Florida and elsewhere served
in every major U.S. conflict, including both sides of
the Civil War, their presence on the battlefield wasn’t
always appreciated by their fellow soldiers.
“There was quite a bit of discrimination in my
outfit,” Schrager said. “As a matter of fact, they used
to call me ‘Jew boy.’
“But I could read and write and some of them
couldn’t read and write. When they got letters I would
read some of their letters to them. And when they
wanted to write letters to their girlfriends and wives,
I would write it for them.
“That’s when they stopped calling me ‘Jew boy’
— when I was ‘their Jew boy,’” he recalled.
Other Jewish soldiers made contributions that are
celebrated not just in the exhibit, but in the annals of
military history.
Among them is U.S. Navy Capt. Ellis Zacharias.
The Jacksonville, Fla., native commanded a naval
cruiser in the South Pacific during World War II.
Fluent in Japanese, he broadcast U.S. war
propaganda to Japan, addressing the country’s leaders
directly in an effort to break Japanese morale.
After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Zacharias relayed translated messages between
President Harry S. Truman and Japan’s prime minister
ahead of Japan’s unconditional surrender in August
1945.
So far, thousands of visitors from more than 30
countries have come to the museum to view the exhibit
that Zerivitz said was 25 years in the making.
“Theirs is a story that wasn’t just collected from
the history books. We had to do a lot of research
ourselves,” she said, referring to countless firsthand
interviews with Florida’s Jewish war veterans, many
of whom have contributed to the exhibit since its
opening in February. “It’s very meaningful for these
people to finally have their story told.”
of the cross entering the synagogue for the first time.
For Goldman, who had been wounded twice as a
soldier, and lost his parents to the Nazis, the return to
the synagogue in Vilna that day was also momentous.
The concentration camps had been liberated, Jews
were reuniting with their families across Europe, and
in Lithuania, it was no longer a capital crime to be
Jewish. Most had been dispersed
or exterminated. Only 3,000 of
Vilna’s 100,000 Jews remained.
“Are you Jewish?” the Soviet
soldier, asked the boy. When he
nodded yes, Goldman said, “I have
traveled thousands of miles
without seeing a Jewish child.”
Then he stooped down, lifted the
boy and danced around the room
with him.
Neither man ever forgot that
day, that celebration of religion and
survival under extraordinary
circumstance.
But only last summer, after an
Israeli researcher finally put
together a song, “The Man From
Vilna,” about the incident with a
Michigan rabbi, did Foxman learn
that the Jewish Soviet soldier he wrote about in his
2003 book, Never Again? was Goldman, still alive
and living in the United States. The songwriter had
credited Goldman as the story’s source.
Getting to the reunion was circuitous: Three years
ago, Foxman told the story at Yad Vashem, the Israel
Holocaust Memorial Museum. There, a researcher
embarked on a quest for the dancing man in uniform
Foxman described: Eventually, she found the song,
inspired by Goldman’s story, and the rabbi’s name in
the credits. For Foxman, that day “was a memory, a
bittersweet memory.” The soldier — a stranger —
had embraced him in public, in a synagogue. He had
carried him like a trophy around the synagogue.
“That was for me the first time anyone took pride
in me,” says Foxman, who as “a hidden child didn’t
know who or what I was.”
For both men, the memory was frozen in time,
unattached to any living person.
“I thought that story was a kind of legend,” recalls
Brystowski. “I always believed it in my heart, but on
another level, I wondered, did that really happen?”
She was stunned when she learned last summer,
when Foxman called, that “this
prominent, grown man” was the
little boy she had grown up hearing
about.
The mythic boy had become a
very real and prominent man. “It
shows us that any gesture, any
mitzvah or good deed, can have an
impact,” she says.
When they met, the two men
hugged and talked and recited a
Hebrew prayer, a blessing that’s a
reminder of the importance of
celebrating life in the moment.
“It is a privilege to have lived
long enough to have this moment,”
Foxman says Goldman told him.
Goldman’s parents and older
brother were killed by the Nazis.
Foxman’s early years as a “hidden
child,” living with secrets and lies, led him into a
career of speaking out publicly against injustice and
hatred.
For each man, the memory of dancing in a Vilna
synagogue was a pivotal moment. “I came home and
told my father that I wanted to be Jewish,” recalls
Foxman. “It was the beginning of my life as a Jewish
person.”
Each man had a memory of a moment — a dance
in a synagogue — that symbolized then and
throughout their lives the promise of freedom and
faith and life.
At long last, the boy and the soldier who carried
phantom memories, now know each other as two
grown men who have, against the odds, survived to
find each other.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
Beads
By DR. DIANE CYPKIN
The first thing I remember in all my life are a small set of wellworn dark blue beads that moved on a metal rod at the front of my
stroller. I loved those beads! Their wood was so smooth to the
touch. The beads moved like butter from one side of the rod to the
other. I never stopped moving them. And my mama was happy I
loved them. I could tell. She laughed as she watched me. I didn’t
mind. The beads felt so substantial. So solid. Mine.
When I was older, about eight-years-old, another kind of bead
kept me busy. This time the beads—bead by bead snapped into
each other—and you could have the fun of making your own
necklaces and bracelets again and again. For hours on end, I made
many multicolor necklaces and bracelets. I took them apart, put them back together again...And my mama
was happy I loved them. I could tell. She laughed as she watched me. I didn’t mind. The beads felt so
substantial. So solid. Mine.
When I was even older, about eighteen-years old—I started buying beaded necklaces for myself and my
mama. I bought black ones, red ones, green ones, multicolored. And my mama was happy I loved buying for
myself and her. I could tell. She laughed as she watched me putting mine on. She laughed as I presented
beads to her. I didn’t mind. The beads felt so substantial. So solid. My mama’s and mine.
Strange my mama never wore her beads. Oh, it’s not that she didn’t like them. She loved them. But she
couldn’t. Not with the war and so many of her family killed. That thought never left her. In fact, she never
really dressed up except when she had to. Mama always cared what people thought of her . . .
My mama left me not long ago...and her beads remain. What should I do with them? I can’t throw them
out. It feels wrong. I can’t give them away. I couldn’t bear someone else wearing mama’s beads. Should
I wear them? She’s not here to love or laugh at what I’m doing. I just can’t tell anymore...Would I mind
wearing them? Yes, the beads are still so very substantial. So solid. But they’re mama’s!...I’ll see...perhaps
she would want me to make them mine...in memory of her...and...somewhere...she would laugh....
Etta Cypkin, Diane Cypkin’s mother, died in 2005. She was a Kovner.
Dr. Cypkin is a Professor of Media, Communication, and Visual Arts at Pace University. At the University, she won the
Kenan Award for Teaching Excellence, and the President’s Extra Mile Award.
Holocaust survivor fights apathy on final trip home
By RAY FURLONG, BBC, Sighetu Marmatiei
Hedi Fried was never supposed to return home. Packed into a cattle truck
in 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz with the other 17,000 Jews in
Sighet, now Sighetu Marmatiei in Romania. But like her town’s most famous
son, the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, she survived and has often returned to
the town to bear witness to what happened with talks and lectures. Now,
aged 85, she’s made an emotional final journey there.
The rain streams down as we draw up outside Sighet’s Jewish cemetery.
“This is my pilgrimage, the last one,” says Hedi, stepping over a large
brown puddle.”When I come to Sighet I remember my childhood stories,
and I see the ghosts. When I walk the streets I see people coming and
going. But they’re not here any more, none of them.”
There are rows of gravestones at odd angles in the grass, many
Hedi Fried
engraved with the word Auschwitz and several names. Hedi’s family
gravestone contains, among others, her mother and father. “They went up in smoke,” she says, “but I had
their names put here.”
A prayer for the dead is recited, and Hedi shows me her grandmother’s gravestone nearby. She died long
before the Holocaust, when Hedi was a child. “I remember how she always used to give me sweets,” she
says, recalling a bygone age when Sighet was a bustling Jewish city.
As we drive through potholed streets to our next stop, she points at the low-rise houses with crumbling
1920s facades. “All of these were Jewish houses,” she says, the only person in the town who can remember
what it was like. Her family moved into a new house in 1937. “I was delighted with it. I thought we had
invented functionalist architecture!” she says, as we stand outside an elegant but decayed building. “That was
my window. I can see myself talking to my boyfriend,” she says.
But the mood instantly darkens. “I can also remember leaving for the last time.” “This was the most
modern house in town, the first with a water-closet. So the last thing I did here was to flush the toilet. “I
thought we’d come back soon. We didn’t. My parents didn’t come back. My sister and I survived just by
chance.”
After surviving Auschwitz, Hedi and her sister were moved to Bergen-Belsen, later liberated by the
British. After the war they moved to Sweden, where Hedi worked as a psychologist. Nightmares continue.
She has also been a tireless campaigner to keep retelling the story of the Holocaust, traveling the world to give
talks and lectures, first returning to Sighet in 1968.
“So many survivors found it impossible to talk about what happened. But for me it’s actually therapy.
Even now, coming here, I’m working through it. At first I thought I could never return to Auschwitz, but I did
and since then my nightmares are not as strong. I still have them but I no longer wake up in a damp sweat.”
But Hedi is also concerned that new generations are not learning the truth about the Holocaust.
“My aim to come to Sighet was that the children understand what their great-grandparents have done,
because when I lived here as a child I was a ‘damned Jewess’,’’ she says. “They don’t know what their
July 2010
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
To Mom and Dad, 2010
by SUSAN KENT AVJIAN
How do I tell you how much you mean to
me
Like the wind gently blowing unseen and
unfelt at times but ever present
So are you, flowing like the waters, a
current rippling inside me
Giving me strength when life seems too
much to bear
Smiles with thoughts of your exploits
Tears for the injustices you survived
Pride in your fight for those less fortunate
Feeling when my senses numb
I exist because you gave me life of creation
I live because you gave me life
With all my love.
Susan
grandparents have done: some have been perpetrators,
a few rescuers, the majority bystanders. And that’s
what they have to learn: never, ever be a bystander.”
At the Elie Wiesel Museum in Sighet,
schoolchildren perform a folkdance for Hedi. She
gives a talk—but the event is disorganised. While
she sits behind a table, teenagers stand huddled in
front of her looking embarrassed. Others are outside
in the corridor.
They couldn’t
hear a word even
if they were
trying to—which
they’re not. I ask
one 17-year-old
boy why he is
here.
“I don’t know
why, we’ve been
told to come,” he
says, laughing.
“What do you
know about the
Sighet Synagogue
Holocaust?” I ask.
“Nothing, we haven’t done it at school yet.”
A 15-year-old girl who was inside is a little more
forthcoming. She says Hedi spoke about her
childhood in Sighet and what happened to her family.
“Were you surprised?” I ask.
“Yes,” she replies.
“Have you ever heard what happened here in
your town before?”
“No.”
Monosyllabic answers are common to teenagers.
But the local schools clearly did not see Hedi’s visit
as an opportunity to teach their pupils about this
town’s horrific recent history. Of the 17,000 Jews
who lived here before the war, there’s hardly a trace—
just a few families and a single surviving synagogue.
After the talk, Hedi joins in the folkdance, drawing
on enviable reserves of energy for an 85-year-old.
But back at the hotel afterwards, she’s clearly tired
when asked about the lukewarm response that her
testimony drew from the local youth.
“People don’t want to talk about it, especially
what happened in their own community. The
bystanders are ashamed of it,” she says. “But
tomorrow I am going to another school.”
TOGETHER 15
The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower:
Reparations and
Complicity and Conflict on American
Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews
Campuses by Butler of a student who protested book burning by By PROFESSOR YITZCHAK KEREM
By Stephen H.
Norwood, Cambridge University Press, 350 pages,
$29. Review by JEROME A. CHANES.
American Jews remember the Ivy League
colleges of the 1930s as being places where Jews
were not especially welcome. Quotas on Jewish
students — the infamous numerus clausus imported
from Europe — were, very literally, the order of the
day. The question of quotas in higher education was,
and remains, a difficult and
controversial matter. On the one hand,
a generation and more of American
Jews were denied access to the Ivies;
on the other hand, as my mother
(herself a victim of antisemitism and
gender discrimination in the university
world) would say: “Jews can’t get into
Yale? That’s terrible. But quotas are
not expulsion. Quotas are not murder.”
But there is nothing nuanced about
the deeper and darker dynamics at
work in the Ivies and other citadels
of higher learning during the 1930s: It
was more than a matter of mere
appeasement of Nazi leaders on the
part of university administrators. Stephen H.
Norwood, a professor at the University of Oklahoma,
traces, in his compelling “The Third Reich in the Ivory
Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American
Campuses,” a chilling pattern in the Ivy League and
the Seven Sisters, as well as in some state universities
and Catholic colleges. From callous indifference to
the rise of Hitlerism on the part of university
administrators, to concrete instances of complicity
with the Nazi regime and with its policies during the
crucial early years of the regime, Norwood provides
an indictment of Hitler sympathizers in power at the
heart of American education.
Norwood spins a good yarn — he is an excellent
narrative historian — but his analytical skills are what
make this book work. “The Third Reich in the Ivory
Tower” analyzes an era when the dubious political
sympathies of university administrators came at a time
of tremendous growth for the academy in America.
The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower is nothing less
than a litany of outrages, but were it just that, the
book would be viewed, legitimately, as a hysterical
screed.
Norwood, a serious historian who co-edited The
Encyclopedia of American Jewish History, is
anything but hysterical. The examples cited by
Norwood are manifold and disgraceful: Harvard
University suppressing protests against Nazi atrocities
and sanctioning the Nazi consul general in Boston to
lay a swastika-emblazoned wreath in the Memorial
Church at Harvard University; Columbia University’s
president, Nicholas Murray Butler, was egregiously
shameful in many respects — especially in his utter
destruction of the academic career of art historian
Jerome Klein, one of the most popular teachers at
Columbia, for publicly protesting Nazi crimes. These
and numerous other actions signaled to the Nazis that
academia in America would not protest anti-Jewish
behavior.
Had the university presidents merely remained
silent in the face of Nazi policies and activities, they
might have betokened a principled neutrality. But —
to take one of dozens of examples — the expulsion
TOGETHER 16
Nazis, signaled that the Ivy administrators were more
than just dozing during the early years of the regime.
Notwithstanding the substantial evidence that
Norwood brings to bear, there is a tone of outrage in
the author’s retelling that is a tad overdone. Much of
Norwood’s — and resultantly, the reader’s —
indignation is based on what we retroactively know.
Knowing what we know now about Nazi policies and
activities, the behavior of the universities was
unconscionable. Ah, hindsight! But for a historian,
the word “context” is crucial. What
certainly ought to have been done by
university presidents and faculty after
1935 might not have been expected in
1933 and 1934.
It may not have been entirely
unreasonable, for example, for
Harvard’s president, James Bryant
Conant, in 1934 to “welcome” Ernst
“Putzi” Hanfstaengl, the Nazi foreignpress chief and a Hitler favorite, to his
25th Harvard reunion, an event that
gets a lot of ink in The Third Reich in
the Ivory Tower. In the eyes of the
university president, such a visit might
have been a legitimate cultural exchange: 1934 was,
after all, not 1939. We do not want to let the Conants
and the Butlers off the hook — they were devils —
but historians, rather than merely looking back, need
to refract the events through the prism of the historical
era. It’s always a question of balance: where exactly
does the historian want to set the bar? Norwood sets
it very high indeed, especially for the early years of
the Third Reich.
One area touched on by The Third Reich in the
Ivory Tower is that of the shabby treatment by
universities of refugee Jewish scholars from 1930s
Germany. Norwood focuses on New York’s New
School for Social Research as a noble response to
the plight of the Jewish professors; missing, however,
is the obverse side of the coin: the positive reception
of the Jewish refugee scholars on the part of black
colleges in the South. These scholars were welcomed
in Southern black colleges, and they established
relationships that were a factor in the civil-rights
struggle a decade later. The history of the refugee
Jewish professors in black colleges is an important
nuance that is missing from The Third Reich in the
Ivory TowerThe Third Reich in the Ivory Tower.
These reservations notwithstanding, The Third
Reich in the Ivory Tower will be fascinating to the
general reader, and not just as an eye-opener to Ivy
League educated readers. As a result of Norwood’s
prodigious archival research, the book will be an
invaluable resource to scholars, as well. Indeed, The
Third Reich in the Ivory Tower will become what
Deborah Lipstadt’s Beyond Belief: The American
Press & the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945
and others in the genre were in their time.
What can be done to recognize these actions 65
years later? With the luxury of hindsight, it might not
be a bad idea, in the first instance, for Columbia to
remove the “Butler” from the university’s Butler
Library.
Jerome A. Chanes is a contributing editor to the Forward
and author of the award-winning A Dark Side of History:
Antisemitism Through the Ages (Anti-Defamation League,
2001).
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
Most Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors already
died without receiving reparations. As time passes,
more receive, but in general they have been left out
of the reparation process. Many have agonizing
stories of rejection by the Claims Conference, and
Germany numerous times even if they were
Auschwitz inmates or hid for more than 18 months.
As an historian of Greek Jewry and the Holocaust,
I was commissioned some four years ago by the
Claims Conference to expand categories so that more
Greek Jews could receive Holocaust reparations, and
it was to little avail. Jews who fought in the partisans
or those with them, whether family or community
members, in their strongholds, was a subject that
Claims Conference workers advised me was
unacceptable to Germany for recognition. Most of
the 10,000 Jews who survived in Greece, mostly due
to being rescued by the leftist Communist-leaning
partisan movement ELAS-EAM, are left out of the
reparations process since they don’t receive from
Germany directly, were partisans or those protected
by them, or were assisted by them in illegal immigration
to Eretz-Israel. Until 1982, when Greek Prime
Minister Papandreou legalized the partisan status,
none of those Jews were free to speak about their
Holocaust experience.
I was commissioned a decade ago by ICHIEC
to research insurance holdings of Jewish companies
and individuals in pre-WWII Greece, and made
successful research trips to Greece, but I know of no
Jews of Salonika
one who received indemnities, despite numerous
applications.
For survivors, especially outside of Israel and the
United States, it is difficult to keep up on the new
opportunities for reparations; such as funds for medical
experiments, Article 2, E.G. Farben forced workers,
Swiss bank accounts, insurance, Goodwill Fund, and
much more. Many in Greece, especially outside of
the big cities Athens and Salonika (Thessaloniki), don’t
get money from either German funds directed to those
two communities or from those two communities.
Similar stories exist in the former Yugoslavia in places
where few Jews remain like Bitola (Monastir) or Nis.
At any rate, survivors in Israel get significantly lesser
sums than those in Western Europe or the United
States, and in the Balkans, most receive even less
and there are survivors in that area who receive less
than a hundred dollars a month. Even though the
Claims Conference announced a new fund for
Auschwitz medical experiment victims, Los Angeles
cont’d on p. 17
July 2010
40TH ANNUAL SCHOLARS’ CONFERENCE ON THE HOLOCAUST AND THE CHURCHES
HONORS THE LATE REV. FRANKLIN LITTELL
by JEANETTE FRIEDMAN
Philadelphia—They came in early spring, like
migrating birds from every corner of the world—more
than 200 professors and clergymen, Jews, Christians,
Muslims, Buddhists and even atheists and agnostics—
to discuss and study the Holocaust and to celebrate
and honor the work of the late Rev. Franklin Littell at
St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia. They came from
as far away as Russia, Bosnia, Israel, France,
England, and from across America—California, New
York, New Hampshire and Florida. Sponsored by St.
Joseph’s, Stockton State College in New Jersey and
Temple University, the Conference was founded 40
years ago by Rev. Littell and Dr. Hubert G. Locke,
who have been at the leading edge in presenting the
latest research in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Among the presenters were Dr. Michael
Berenbaum, founding director of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum; theologian Dr.
Richard L. Rubenstein, University of Bridgeport;
premier Holocaust educator Samuel Totten, the
Chambon Foundation’s Pierre Sauvage, and
Holocaust studies pioneers Father John Pawlikowski
and Rabbi Irving Greenberg, all of whom paid tribute
to Rev. Littell, who died on May 30, 2009. This was
the first conference to take place without him.
The conference was founded in 1970 to create
an academic forum for the exchange of information
and ideas about the Holocaust between scholars,
researchers and educational pioneers; to promote
an interfaith, international, interdisciplinary, rigorous
intellectual tradition; to encourage continued
research on church responses to the Holocaust and
the destruction of European Jewry while encouraging
and deepening interfaith discussions; to use the
Holocaust to determine early warning signs of
Reparations and Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews
cont’d from p. 16
Flora Taboh, deported from Salonika, who had cancer
implanted in her uterus in Auschwitz and is sterile,
has been battling the Claims Conference for a monthly
increase for the past six years. She only began
receiving reparations about 15 years ago even though
in 1961 she was one of seven Salonikan Jewish
women who underwent sterilization experiments and
testified at the libel trial of Nazi doctor Waldislaw
Dering against journalist Leon Uris in London.
The Jews of Rhodes and Kos lived under Italian
rule from 1911 to 1943 and they were deported to
Auschwitz in early August 1944. About 160 of them
survived, as well as dozens of others who escaped or
were saved as Turkish subjects or their family
members. Most did not return to Rhodes, which
became Greek, and did not retain Italian citizenship.
Most are not recognized by Germany or Italy for
reparations, since the latter countries will not
recognize them since they are now US, Israeli, French,
or other citizens, and in most cases their new countries
of citizenship will not represent them vis-à-vis the
Axis countries that persecuted them.
Sephardic and other Jews who returned or
remained in the ex-Yugoslavia or Rumania during the
Communist period did not receive reparations. After
the fall the Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989,
some Sephardim in Yugoslavia began to receive, but
Sephardi or Romaniote (of a Judeo-Greek culture)
Jews in Rumania or Albania had no one to represent
them, nowhere to turn, and were not considered by
July 2010
genocide and to get the information to others through
review, editing and publication.
The opening evening was a memorial to Rev.
Littell. A poignant 28-minute documentary about Littell
was produced and presented by Dr. Sauvage, and
earned unanimous acclaim. It was clear from the film,
which consisted of clips from the Reverend’s own
presentations and one-on-one interviews, that his
philosophy of church responsibility in response to the
Holocaust, his views of the need for Holocaust
Dr. Marcia Sachs Littell
education, his passion and his teachings have had a
deep impact on the way the Holocaust is taught today
in middle schools and high schools. He has also
influenced how research and Holocaust and Genocide
studies are pursued on the university level.
The opening plenary session was devoted to the
“Unfinished Agenda,” outlining the work that must
still be done. Breakout sessions covered the lack of
safe haven for Jews who attempted to leave Europe;
Germany or Italy for reparations. In recent years,
Bulgarian Jews sent to forced labor began to receive
reparations. Even though they survived and were not
deported to Poland, they have been recognized by
Germany as victims of forced labor.
Libyan Jews in Israel, who have strong communal
organizations and leadership, have succeeded in
recent years to
receive German
reparations for
being in the Giado
forced labor camp,
where the Italians
brought 611 Jews to
their deaths, and
other forced labor
camps in Libya,
Italy, and even
Austria and Bergen
Belsen. Italy only
began
giving
reparations in 1985,
Tunisian Jews
and has been
known for creating difficulties for survivors who
receive monthly payments. However, Tunisian Jews
have not succeeded. Tunisian Jews were in forced
labor in some 28 German camps in late 1942-early
1943 for a total of five months, but dozens died of
tough conditions and torture. Some 220 Jews from
Tunisia were deported to concentration camps in
Germany, but they also have not received reparations
from Germany. Tunisian Jews were found in
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
contemporary theology; issues in teaching the
Holocaust in primary schools; ethics after Auschwitz;
uses of the law; contemporary antisemitism; the use
of memoirs; the arts; Peter Bergson; the healing
professions during the Holocaust; resistance; the
churches’ response to the Holocaust; other genocides;
and most interestingly, a Jewish-Christian-Muslim
trialogue with participants Leonard Grob of Fairleigh
Dickinson University, Henry F. Knight of Keene
College, Rochelle L. Millen of Wittenberg University
and Khaleel Mohammed of San Diego State University.
As noted by Dr. Marcia Littell, in addition to
academicians, participants included survivors,
descendants of survivors, community leaders,
interfaith clergy and undergraduate and graduate
students. In a parallel session, The Teachers’ Institute
presented a seminar for high school teachers on
“Integrating Themes of Rescue and Resistance” into
the “Teaching of the Holocaust and other Genocides.”
Those who spoke most movingly during tributes
to Rev. Franklin Littell were his devoted widow, Dr.
Marcia Sachs Littell; Rabbi Irving Greenberg, one of
the first leaders in the Jewish community to begin the
movement to remember with his organization, Zachor,
and Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell of Remembering for the
Future, who is currently working on a searchable
survivor testimony database—a central on-line
directory of all the testimonies in existing collections.
The Conference’s executive director is Prof.
Marcia Sachs Littell of Stockton State College’s
Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Dr.
Hubert G. Locke is the conference chairman.
Honorary Chairman is Prof. Elie Wiesel and the major
benefactor is Holocaust survivor Felix Zandman, who,
with his wife, Ruta, was presented with the Eternal
Flame Award.
Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Buchenwald. Some 4,000
Jews forced to leave their home, never received
indemnities. Moroccan and Algerian Jews were also
deported to forced labor camps and dozens of Jews
died in each country.
Holocaust reparations have not been given to Iraqi
Jewry who suffered the Farhud, the Nazi inspired
riots in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq in June of
1941. In Baghdad, at least 181 Jews were murdered
and over 2,000 homes and businesses were lost. In
Kirkuk, 11 Kurdish Jews died in the same series of
riots.
Sephardim who survived in Japanese camps as
British subjects do not receive indemnities. Japan has
never admitted responsibility, and Britain only gave
to those who lived in Great Britain for at least 20
years after WWII.
The Sephardim and Mizrahim have been grossly
ignored in the reparations process by Germany, Italy,
the Claims Conference, Israel, and other parties in
the Jewish world related to the approval and appeal
process. With time, recognition has improved, but one
can see that there is much still to be done.
PLEASE SEND US YOUR STORIES,
ARTICLES, AND LETTERS FOR
INCLUSION IN TOGETHER. PLEASE
UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT
PRINT EVERYTHING THAT IS
SUBMITTED.
SEND TO:
[email protected]
TOGETHER 17
We are excited
to share information with you
about the World
Federation of
Jewish Child
Survivors of the Holocaust 22nd Annual International
Conference, November 5-8, 2010. The conference
will take place in Skokie, Illinois, a northern suburb
of Chicago.You may direct specific questions to
[email protected], or telephone 847.967.4837.
KINDERTRANSPORT ASSOC.
Bienniel Conference
Arlington, Virginia USA
October 15-17, 2010
http://www.kindertransport.org/docs/kta-30.pdf
516-938-6084
L-R: Dr. Lester Eckman, Robert Bielsky, and Taylor
Bielsky. Photo credit: Touro College
I am a Ph.D. student of German Linguistics at
the University of Vienna,Austria currently researching
language usage in Nazi concentration camps: How
did inmates with different first languages
communicate, how did they communicate with the
German officials, did secret messages and codes
develop? I will visit archives and read numerous
autobiographies, but in order to gather first-hand
information I would like to distribute a questionnaire
among as many Holocaust survivors as possible and
maybe even interview some of them (I travel to the
Boston area frequently and could also visit other
locations in the U.S. and Europe). Are there any
survivors who are willing to complete such a
questionnaire? It contains only very few personal
questions and some rather general questions on
language usage in the camps.
Martina Anissa Strommer
Robert Bielsky, son of Tuvia Bielski, co-founder of
the Bielski Partisans, a group of Jewish partisans who
rescued 1,200 Jews from extermination and fought
against Nazi occupiers and their collaborators during
WWII, spoke at Touro College on Tuesday, May 11th.
He discussed the Bielski Partisans with two classes
on the history of the Holocaust, which are taught by
Dr. Lester Eckman, a distinguished professor at
Touro. Dr. Eckman is a Holocaust survivor and
befriended the Bielski brothers more than 40 years
ago. Tuvia Beilski’s grandson,
Taylor, son of Robert, is a
sophomore at Touro College
and a student of Dr. Eckman.
Publication of “Skala on the River
Zbrucz”
In 1978, the Skala Benevolent Society (SBS) published a Yizkor
[memorial] book called Skala. The book was written by the town’s (shtetl’s)
former Jewish residents who either had survived the Holocaust or had
been born in Skala and previously had emigrated. Its purpose was to honor
Skala’s Jewish community, which had been annihilated by the Nazis and
their cohorts. Most of the
contributors to the original book
were the survivors themselves,
who felt a deep inner compulsion
and moral obligation to those who
perished, to tell the story of
Jewish Skala and to share with
their children and future
generations their memories of
suffering, struggle and loss. The
Yizkor book was written
primarily in Yiddish and Hebrew and was largely inaccessible to many
modern researchers, most of whose families came from this shtetl. Skala
on the River Zbrucz, a translation of the entire Yizkor book into English,
now has been published by the Skala Research Group (whose members
are investigating their roots in Skala) and the SBS.
Situated in eastern Galicia and once ruled by Austro-Hungary, the town
of Skala was part of Poland during World War II. It now is called Skala
Podil’ska and is part of Ukraine. The Skala Yizkor book includes articles,
photographs, and documents on the history of the town’s Jews from the
15th century up to and including the Holocaust, when the Jewish community
was completely destroyed. This material recalls a once vibrant shtetl, its
people, the environment in which they lived, their hopes, dreams and
struggles for survival. The Yizkor book also describes the tragic events of
the Holocaust, stories of those who survived and provides a list of Skala’s
Holocaust victims and survivors. The English translation contains a new
chapter about the town’s righteous gentiles who saved Jews during the
Holocaust, as well as photographs showing Skala as it is today. It is a
precious legacy that deserves to be preserved.
For copies, please contact: Tony Hausner, [email protected], 301641-0497
TOGETHER 18
A Film Unfinished
By CARL DIORIO
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Beastie
Boys member Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope production
company has acquired North American rights to the
Holocaust documentary A Film Unfinished.
The movie, which premiered in January at the
Sundance Film Festival, is the story of a Nazi
propaganda film made about Jewish life in the Warsaw
ghetto. It was directed by Yael Hersonki.
Oscilloscope will open the picture August 18 on
a single New York screen, add a second Manhattan
venue two days later and expand distribution during
subsequent weekends.
“This movie really affected me,” said Yauch. “It’s
an incredibly powerful film, not just because of the
rare Nazi propaganda footage it shows but also the
captivating way the filmmakers tell the story.”
From Bill & Harriet Mohr: We would greatly
appreciate your letting your members know, we are
searching for survivors who were in Haiti, during the
Shoah, and/or their descendents. The following is a
list of family names of people who we know were in
Haiti during the Shoah:
Nussbaum
Baruch
Heinz
Raphael
Devries
Hermann
Rosenberg
Epstein
Kunigsberger
Salzmann
Fridberg
Lion
Sanders
Fussmann
Lourie
Schachne
Grünewald
Meinberg
Sternberg
Hass
Mohr
Viktoria
Our blog address through which they can read about
our Shoah Haiti Legacy Project is: http://
haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com/
Special “Matzevah Marker”
Available for Survivors’ Graves
Survival has placed upon us the
responsibility of making sure that the
Holocaust is remembered forever. Each of
us has the sacred obligation to share this
task while we still can. However, with the
passage of each year, we realize that time is
against us, and we must make sure to utilize
all means for future remembrance.
A permanent step toward achieving this
important goal can be realized by placing a
unique and visible maker on the gravestone
of every survivor. The most meaningful
symbol for this purpose is our Survivor
logo, inscribed with the words
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR. This simple, yet
dramatic, maker will re-affirm our
uniqueness and our place in history for
future generations.
Our impressive MATZEVAH marker is
now available for purchase. It is cast in solid
bronze, measuring 5x7 inches, and can be
attached to new or existing tombstones.
The cost of each marker is $125.
Additional donations are gratefully
appreciated.
Let us buy the marker now and leave
structions in our wills for its use. This will
enable every one of us to leave on this earth
visible proof of our miraculous survival and
an everlasting legacy of the Holocaust.
The cost of each marker is US $125 including shipping & handling.
Make checks payable to: American Gathering
and mail to:
American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205
New York, NY 10001
Please allow sixty (60) days for delivery.
Name ________________________________________________
Address_______________________________________________
City ________________________________State __ Zip ________
Phone_________________________________________________
Number of Markers _____________
Total Amount Enclosed $__________
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
Stanley Dub (Letters, TOGETHER,
April 10, 2010) reported on the Hungarian
authorities beaurocratic treatment of
applicants for compensation of loss of life of
parents and siblings of Hungarian Jews in
the Holocaust. I had a similar experience.
In June 1944, my sister Amalia and I
were deported from Szabadka (at that time occupied by Hungarians; previously
called Subotica in Yugoslavia) to Auschwitz. My sister, having two small children,
Elizabeth, age 9, and Peter, age 2, on her arms were immediately led to the gas
chambers. I was almost 16 years old at the time, apparently judged to be able to
do physical labor, therefore sent to various labor camps in Germany. I repatriated
to Subotica in July 1945, at that time again part of Yugoslavia. Subsequently, I
immigrated to Israel, and later on to the USA.
A few years ago, upon an announcement by the Hungarian authorities, I
filled out a lengthy application form (in Hungarian with the help of a Hungarian
speaking friend) for compensation (if any compensation at all is possible) for the
loss of life of my sister. A few months ago, I received a letter (in Hungarian)
from the Kozponti Igazsagugyi Hivatal (Central Justice Affairs Office),
requesting that I substantiate my claim by submitting some official evidence of
my relationship to my sister, her and my birth certificate, and some official
certification from the Red Cross or Yad Vashem that my sister indeed perished.
All this to be translated into Hungarian and duly notarized.
I responded saying basically that if they don’t believe me, they can shove it.
They should be embarrased to ask for documentation, when the fate of the
Jews of Szabadka, and generally the fate of the Hungarian Jews, is all too well
known and documented. Besides, I do not wish to receive any compensation
personally. If they decide to render a compensation, they should send a check to
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, in memory of my deceased sister Amalia
Wilheim nèe Golomb. Maybe, they also want to compensate for the lives of her
two infant children, Elizabeth and Peter.
Needless to say, I haven’t heard from the Hungarians since.
Dan S. Golomb, Newton, MA
[email protected]
AVIGDOR ARIKHA
Avigdor Arikha was
born to Germanspeaking parents in
Rãdãuþi, but grew up
in Czernowitz (now in
Ukraine), in Bukovina, Romania. His family faced forced
deportation in 1941 to the Romanian-run concentration
camps of Transnistria (now in Western Ukraine), where
his father died. He managed to survive thanks to the
drawings he made of deportation scenes, which were shown
to delegates of the International Red Cross. As a result of that, both he and his
sister were freed and brought to Palestine in 1944. Until 1948, he lived in Kibbutz
Ma’ale HaHamisha. In 1948 he was severely wounded in Israel’s War of
Independence. From 1946 to 1949, he attended the Bezalel School of Art in
Jerusalem. In 1949 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to study at
the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. From 1954 on Arikha resided in Paris. Arikha
was married from 1961 until his death to the American poet and writer Anne Atik.
Arikha died in Paris from complications of cancer on April 29, 2010.
As an art historian, Arikha wrote catalogues for exhibitions on Poussin and
Ingres for which he was curator at the Musée du Louvre, the Frick Collection of
New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
His writings include Ingres, Fifty Life Drawings (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston/
Frick Collection, New York, 1986); Peinture et Regard (Paris: Hermann, 1991,
1994); On Depiction (London: Bellew Publishing, 1995); and numerous essays
published in the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Commentaire,
Literary Imagination, etc. He also lectured widely, at Princeton University, at
Yale University, at the Frick Collection in New York, at the Prado Museum in
Madrid, and at many other venues. Most recently, he was invited by the ThyssenBornemisza Museum in Madrid to select a number of works from its collection
and to write the entries for the catalogue accompanying the resulting exhibition.
In 1998 Arikha had a major one-man show at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. From July 2006-January 2007 there was an
exhibition at the British Museum of one hundred prints and drawings. From June
to September 2008 the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid hosted a major
retrospective exhibition of the artist.
In Memoriam
by HARRY LANGSAM
I would like to commemorate a young boy who bravely tried to save his
precious young life by hiding among his parents’ so-called “Polish Friends,” without
success. He was my classmate in cheder, but belonged to a younger group.
Moyshele’s tortured young body was found face down in a mud pool in the
center of the Market Square in our shtetl Strzyzow, near Rzeszow, central
Galicia. He died after several months of playing hide and seek with the local
police who collaborated with the Gestapo in hunting down Jews who desperately tried to stay alive.
During the expulsion the Jews from Strzyzow, Moyshele’s parents handed
over their valuable family heirlooms to a neighbor, a so-called family “friend.”
This neighbor solemnly promised to provide a hiding place to save the boy’s life.
After a short period the boy was thrown out into the street. The so-called friend of
his parents claimed the bigger part of the valuables as a safekeeping fee, and as
far of the rest of the money they claimed that it had already been spent on him.
Moyshele hid in barns, in the woods and wherever he could. He was like a
hunted animal running from place to place, until someone pointed him out to the
police and that was his end. A town of several thousand people could not or did
not want to save one Jewish life.
Moyshele’s family belonged to the first families who founded the Jewish
community in Strzyzow. His parents were respected by Jews and non-Jews
alike. But when the Nazis came to town many took off their masks and showed
their wicked faces.
Moyshele was the son of Hena and Aaron Borgenicht. He had the honor to
be the last of the Jewish souls of our beloved shtetl Strzyzow. He returned his
pure, innocent neshome in a most sanctified way.
In 1948, three of his tormentors were brought to justice for cutting short his
young life. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. After they appealed their
sentences they were freed because of lack of evidence. However, the Divine
Hand did not relent. One accused woman died of a heart attack in court during
the second trial, and the most violent culprit was killed by falling off a train while
drunk. His head was severed from his body. Justice had been done.
On this occasion I’d like to commemorate the entire holy community of
Strzyzow which was expelled in the beginning of June 1942 to the Rzeszow
Ghetto and from there to Belzec. May their souls be blessed and never forgotten.
July 2010
DAVID BANKIER
David Bankier was the head of the International Institute
for Holocaust Studies and a prominent scholar on Nazi
Germany and the Holocaust. His ground-breaking research showed that it was not only the élite circles of the
Nazi party leadership who were steeped in antisemitism,
but that it was absorbed by wider swaths of German society.
Bankier was an esteemed scholar with a distinct approach
to Holocaust research.
Bankier published numerous studies, including The
Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion under Nazism. A recent
book, Hitler, the Holocaust and German Society: Cooperation and Awareness,
collated a selection of his articles.
The son of Holocaust survivors, Bankier was born in a displaced persons
camp near the small Bavarian town of Zeckendorf in 1947. His family moved to
Argentina when he was 5 years old. He then immigrated to Israel with a group of
youths following the Six-Day War in 1967. He pursued his undergraduate and
postgraduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned his
doctorate in Jewish History.
A Lady Davis fellow, he was the Solomon and Victoria Cohen Professor at
the Hebrew University and headed the section for Studies in Antisemitism and the
Holocaust at the University’s Institute for Contemporary Jewry. Over the years,
Bankier served as visiting professor at universities in London, the United States,
South Africa and South America, and was involved in developing centres of Jewish
studies in Latin America, as well as promoting academic publications in Spanish.
In 2000 he was appointed Head of the International Institute for Holocaust
Research at Yad Vashem, and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust
Studies. In 2004 he was Senior Visiting Scholar to the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Washington.
Between 1986 and 2008 Bankier was a member of a wide range of
organizations related to Holocaust research. Among them were the Board of the
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Scientific
Committee of Yad Vashem, the International Historical Commission for the
Investigation of Liechtenstein’s Role in World War II, the Experts Commission for
the Bergen Belsen Memorial and the International Scientific Advisory Board of
the Wiesenthal Institute of Holocaust Studies.
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
TOGETHER 19
Bankier also
served on the
editorial board of
scholarly
journals, such as
Studies in Contemporary Jewry and Yad Vashem Studies, and was
the associate editor of Holocaust and Genocide
Studies. He directed research projects and scholarly
initiatives as well as publishing over 120 books, articles
and reviews, becoming one of the most important
and most cited scholars in the research of Nazi
Germany. His publications in the field were regarded
as a cornerstone of modern academic work.
Martin Childs
LESLIE BUCK
by Margalit Fox
Leslie Buck, a retired paper-cup
company executive, died
recently at 87, at his home on
Long Island, in Glen Cove. The
cause was complications of
Parkinson’s disease, his son
Robert said. His claim to fame
was the Anthora paper coffee
cup, that ubiquitous diner mainstay that was a sineque-non of the daily breakfast.
Laszlo Büch was born on Sept. 20, 1922, to a
Jewish family in Khust, then in Czechoslovakia, now
in Ukraine. His parents were killed by the Nazis and
Laszlo himself survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
After the war, Buck Americanized his name and ran
an importexport business with his brother, Eugene.
Leslie Buck joined Sherri Cup in the mid-’60s. Sherri
was keen to crack New York’s hot-cup market. Since
many of the diners were owned by Greeks, Buck hit
on the idea of a Classical cup in the colors of the
Greek flag, blue and white. He executed the design
himself and it was an instant success.
WOLF FINKELMAN
Long-time American Gathering
National Council member, Wolf
Finkelman, 81, passed away
March 16, 2010 in Houston,
Texas.
Finkelman was born in
Savin, Poland, on Dec. 12,
1928. In 1941, two years after
the German army invaded his country, he was moved
along with his parents and five brothers and sisters
into the Rzeszow Ghetto. He and brother Stephen
eventually were sent to the Szebnie labor camp in
1943, where his brother died. Finkelman was the only
member of his family to survive the Holocaust. As the
Allies closed in, he was transferred to Mauthausen
and soon after to a temporary subcamp, Gunskirchen,
where he was liberated by the U.S. Army.
In December 1946, he arrived in the United
States with $2 in his pocket and was sent to Houston,
Texas. He worked in the dry goods industry, first as
a salesman. He worked as a manufacturer ’s
representative for clothing companies and ended up
marrying an employee of one them, the former Ruth
Levy of Brooklyn, NY. Eventually they started a
textile import company, Scope Imports, which is still
operated by the family.
He was active in numerous community
endeavors, many related to Holocaust education. In
addition, he worked tirelessly on behalf of survivors
in financial distress.
“People who went through what my dad did had
TOGETHER 20
every right to be cynical and bitter,” he said. “For the
most part they weren’t. They put it in its place and
used it to teach others — they managed to put a
perspective on things. The way to claim a victory
was to move forward. If they lived in cynicism and
wallowed in bitterness, it would have meant that the
Nazis had killed their souls, and they weren’t willing
to do that.”
MARIE S. GILBERT
Marie S. Gilbert, formerly Wolf,
died December 23, 2009, of a
rare form of melanoma, in West
Palm Beach Good Samaritan
Hospital. She was 76.
Born in Amsterdam,
Holland, Gilbert was deported,
along with her mother, father and brother, to
Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps
during the Nazi occupation of Holland in WWII. The
family endured 18 months of imprisonment.
Gilbert’s father’s birth in the United States in 1898
proved fortunate for them. In 1945, under Swiss
auspices, the four were exchanged for German
civilians and sent to a United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration camp in Algeria. But
Gilbert’s mother died just weeks after their liberation.
Gilbert and her remaining family emigrated to
Brooklyn, NY, after a tumultuous overseas crossing
on a Red Cross-commissioned Liberty ship, the USS
Gripsholm.
At the age of 17, Gilbert left Brooklyn for New
York’s Catskill Mountains, where she worked as a
waitress at Paul’s and Grossinger’s resorts. In 1951,
she met and married musician Sid Gilbert, with whom
she had three daughters. They settled in West Orange,
NJ, but divorced in 1983.
In her desire to return the support and help she
had received post-liberation, Gilbert became a Red
Cross volunteer in the 1960s. This led to a career as a
medical assistant at the OB/GYN practice of Dollinger,
Berman, LaDosci and Cohen in Livingston, NJ.
Gilbert retired in 1994 and moved to Royal Palm
Beach, FL., where she and her partner of 32 years,
Leo Wenzel, enjoyed living beside a canal among the
birds and tropical wildlife.
FELICIA HABERFELD
by Valerie J. Nelson, Los
Angeles Times
Felicia Haberfeld, a native
of Poland who fought to
reclaim her husband’s
ancestral home in
Auschwitz decades after
it was seized by the Nazis, has died. She was 98.
She was born July 21, 1911, in Krakow, to Leon
and Helena Spierer. Her father worked in textiles
and real estate. After earning a degree in German
literature from Jagiellonian University in Krakow,
Haberfeld met her future husband Alfons. Trained
as a chemist, he ran the family’s distillery in Auschwitz
and was the last president of the city’s Jewish
community.
In 1939, Haberfeld and Alfons were aboard an
ocean liner returning from a trip to the New York
World’s Fair when they learned Germany had
invaded Poland. The ship was diverted to Scotland
and the couple were unable to return to Poland, where
they had left their 2-year-old daughter, Francziska
Henryka, with her grandmother. They never again
saw their daughter, whom the Germans found hiding
in a cellar in 1942. Her cries had given her away.
She died in a Nazi death camp, as did most of
Haberfeld’s relatives, including her parents and
younger brother.
The Haberfelds sold jewelry and other belongings
to raise passage back to the United States, where
they lived in Baltimore and had their son before settling
in Los Angeles in 1948.
The 40-room mansion known as Haberfeld House,
where she had been a bride, was turned into
headquarters for the German army and was
eventually nationalized by the Poles. The couple did
not see the home again until 1967. By then it was
falling apart and many of its treasures had been
carried off. Three years later, an “emotionally
devastated” Alfons died at 66.
When a cousin mentioned in 1991 that the home
and family distillery next door were about to be
auctioned, Haberfeld waged an unsuccessful
campaign to buy it back. She wanted to turn it into a
museum of Jewish life in prewar Auschwitz.
Haberfeld House was sold in 1998 to a
consortium based in Krakow, Poland, that planned to
turn it into a hotel. They paid about $23,000, according
to a BBC report. With her son’s help, Haberfeld went
to court in Poland in the early 1990s and got back
several pieces of furniture and paintings that had not
been carted away. Haberfeld went to court once
more, in 2001, as the lead plaintiff in a class-action
suit to try to collect on several insurance policies her
husband had taken out in the late 1930s from one of
Europe’s largest insurance firms. She later settled
her case.
In Los Angeles, she received a master’s degree
in library science from USC and spent about 15 years
as a city librarian, mainly in the San Fernando Valley.
With her husband and a dozen others in Los Angeles
in 1952, she founded the 1939 Club, named for the
year Germany invaded Poland. She was instrumental
in establishing an endowed chair in Holocaust studies
at UCLA and became a founding board member of
the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and was
on the board at the time of her death
LECH KACZYNSKI
By Greer Fay Cashman
and Herb Keinon,
Jerusalem Post
President Shimon Peres,
Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,
Defense Minister Ehud
Barak and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi
Ashkenazi joined other world leaders and top-ranking
military officers in extending condolences to the
government, people and army of Poland as well as to
the families of the victims of the plane crash that
took the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski,
his wife, Maria, and other senior dignitaries and
military personnel.
Also among the dead were relatives of Polish
prisoners of war, mainly armed forces officers and
members of the Polish intelligentsia – some of them
Jews – who were killed in 1943 in the notorious
massacre in the Katyn forest, 19 kilometers west of
Smolensk in Russia. The presidential plane was
heading for a memorial ceremony for the victims of
the massacre.
Netanyahu issued a statement, saying, “I knew
Kaczynski as a Polish patriot, a great friend of Israel
cont’d on p. 21
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
cont’d from p. 20
and a leader who did much for his people and to
further world peace and prosperity.” Netanyahu said
Kaczynski led an important process to begin a new
chapter in relations between Poles and Jews, and
between Poland and Israel.
Barak said Kaczynski’s death was a “great loss
to his people and to the entire world.”
Peres, who had spent a considerable amount of
time with Kaczynski in April, 2008, when Peres paid a
state visit to Poland for the 65th anniversary of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, expressed Israel’s shock at
the tragedy that struck Poland.
“The news of the tragic accident that has taken
the lives of my friend, President Lech Kaczynski, his
wife Maria Kaczynska, and prominent members of
Poland’s leadership and its parliament, has been
received with a great deal of pain, shock and distress,”
said Peres.
“This tragic event is a dreadful blow to the Polish
people and to the world at large. My friend, President
Kaczynski, was among those who led and advanced
change in his country, and represented free Poland,
democratic Poland and modern Poland.”
Peres also praised the work of Kaczynski and
his wife to promote closer ties between the Poles
and Jews by helping to “heal the scars of the past,”
and emphasized that bilateral ties between Israel and
Poland had been strengthened during Kaczynski’s
presidency.
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev made the
point that Kaczynski, who visited Yad Vashem twice,
saw importance in maintaining the memory of the
Holocaust, and that the subject of Righteous Among
the Nations was particularly close to his heart.
Kaczynski was an ardent promoter of the
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, for which he
gave the land when he was mayor of Warsaw. The
museum is being built alongside the Warsaw Ghetto
monument.
Among the other victims of the tragedy were
Chief of the Polish Army’s General Staff Franciszek
Gagor, the Ground Troops’ commander Gen. Tadeusz
Buk, Air Force Commander Gen. Andrzej Blasik and
the special-purpose troops’ commander Gen.
Wlodzimierz Potashinski.
Ashkenazi described Gagor as “a superb army
man” and remarked on his keen interest in IDF
officers who participated in the Witnesses in Uniform
program in which the IDF teaches its young officers
about the Holocaust by taking them to the death
camps and explaining what happened there.
Ashkenazi said that he and Gagor had conversed at
length on the program, and it had been of importance
to Gagor that the officers meet with counterparts in
the Polish Army so that they could realize that Poland’s
new generation was also being educated about the
lessons of the Holocaust.
MORRIS I. PENN
Morris (née Isaac) was
born April 14, 1922, in
Vilkiviskis, Lithuania. His
parents, Mordechai and Zlata
Penn; his brother, Refael,
and sister, Rivka, all perished
in the Holocaust. Morris
was able to escape capture by being hidden by
Righteous Gentile families. Morris was preceded in
death by his loving wife Linda, whom he had met in a
displaced persons camp in Austria. They were happily
married for 49 years before her death in 2001.
July 2010
Morris and Linda worked side by side in their
dry goods stores in Newgulf and League City. He
was on the board of Holocaust Museum Houston
from its inception and an active member of the
Houston Council of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
FRANK EFRAIM PERKIEL
Frank Efraim Perkiel, 85, passed away on April 10,
2010, in Rockleigh, NJ.
Frank was born and spent his youth in Warsaw,
Poland. Upon Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on
September 1, 1939, Frank took up arms in defense
of Warsaw. In the ensuing months following Poland’s
occupation, Frank remained in Warsaw as a volunteer
for the Joint Jewish Distribution Committee.
Between 1940 and 1943, he lived in the Warsaw
Ghetto, active in its Zionist organization, and was
secretary of a Jewish Youth Committee, an
underground elementary school teacher, and a
member of the Jewish resistance smuggling food into
and messages in and out of the ghetto, culminating in
his leading the escape of 20 Jews, following which
he secretly lived for a time outside the ghetto, working
with the Polish Jewish underground. In May, 1943,
Frank surrendered himself to the Nazi SS to rejoin
his father and brother, who remained incarcerated in
the ghetto.
After his arrest and deportation, and in the ensuing
three years up to his liberation on May 5, 1945 by
American forces, Frank miraculously survived eight
Nazi labor/concentration camps in Poland, Germany,
Czechoslovakia and Austria.
Between the end of the war and 1949, Frank
lived in US-occupied zones in Austria and Germany,
was employed by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration, served the American military in the
covert intelligence activities, and headed the
Immigration Department of Jewish Agency for
Palestine.
In April, 1949, Frank and his now-deceased wife,
Ella Zlotnik, herself a survivor of Nazi atrocities,
immigrated to New York City where he remained
and raised his family. He became a successful
businessman and in 1966 founded Galaxy Metals Inc.
GENIA FAJGENBLAT
ZWIRN
Genia Zwirn, 84, of Philadelphia,
PA and Delray Beach, FL,
passed away after a short illness
on September 3, 2009.
Genia was born in Bendzin,
Poland in 1925. Later that year
her family emigrated to
Palestine. Her father, a Zionist, wanted to fulfill his
lifelong dream of helping to build a Jewish state. But
after two hard years, the family they left in Poland
needed them to return. Later, her father decided to
immigrate to the United States to join his
brother. Everything was finalized to go when the war
broke out in 1939 and shattered their lives.
In 1942 Genia was sent to several different labor
camps and finally to a concentration camp. In 1945
she was liberated by the Russians. She went back to
Bendzin to search for her family but found out that
only her brother had survived and was hospitalized in
Waldenburg.
On her way there she met her future husband,
David Zwirn, on the train. She was never able to
reunite with her brother as he died of
malnutrition. Genia and David married and settled in
Waldenburg (Walbyzch), Germany, which became
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
part of Poland.
In 1949,
Genia and David
and their infant
son, Eddie, left
for America
where their daughter, Beatrice, was born in
1953. They lived a wonderful life in Huntingdon Valley,
PA, until they retired and moved to sunny Florida.
David Zwirn
Board of Deputies of British
Jews Requests Information:
To All Holocaust Survivors
The Board of Deputies’ Restitution Committee agreed last year to consider any issues raised
regarding the operations and workings of the
Claims Conference, and if appropriate, to raise
them with the Claims Conference and seek satisfactory and transparent answers. All interested
parties were invited to make submissions to the
Committee. Such submissions would be examined
by Jeffrey Gruder QC and chartered accountant
Peter Sheldon OBE for them to advise the Board’s
Honorary Officers as to whether the issues raised
should be taken up with the Claims Conference.
In view of some enquiries about the process
received only recently, the Committee has agreed
to extend the deadline for receiving submissions
from 31 May 2010 until 5 July 2010.
The Board is particularly interested to find out
(1) whether any Kindertransport survivor or other
owner of property in Germany (or their heirs) have
sought information and assistance from the Claims
Commission in order to discover relevant details
or identify that property in order to make a claim
for restitution or a claim under the Claims
Commission’s Goodwill Fund and (2) what was
the response to those enquiries from the Claims
Commission.
A downloadable form to fill out is available on
w w w. a n s c h e l a n d c o m p a n y. c o m
The_Board_of_Deputies.html
Please send any information for consideration
to Michelle Bauernfreund, Public Affairs Officer,
at [email protected] or email her
the form.
Free Panic Buttons
We wish to remind survivors that they can get
free-of-charge life support (panic button for
help) through an arrangement with the Claims
Conference (Website: www. claimscon. org). In
order to receive the proper device contact:
Blue Card, Inc.
171 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Tel.: (212)683-3159
E-Mail: blue.card@verizon. net
Claims Conference Dept. of Services
Lydia Griffin, Director of Services
1359 Broadway, Suite 2000
New York, NY10018
Tel: (646)485-2129
E-Mail: [email protected]
Claims Conference
(646) 536-9100
(646) 485-2001
E-Mail: info@claimscon. org
TOGETHER 21
FROM ALLGENERATIONS, Inc.
SERENA WOOLRICH,
PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER
PLEASE SEND RELEVANT RESPONSES
TO: [email protected]
From Robert Treuer, a Survivor in Bemidji, MN:
I am searching for Liane Podhorzer, born 1926 (+/- 1 year) in Vienna, Austria. She
was a student at Chajes Realgymnasium whom I last saw July/August 1938 in
Vienna.
From Mark Cuker, a 2g in Philadelphia, PA:
I am looking for the sister of an old friend, Eva Gelernter, who passed away over
10 years ago. I think her sister was named Gabi (Gabby?); both were child
survivors from Belgium. Their father was a rabbi, and their mother was a
descendant of the Kotzker Rebbe. I believe the mother’s maiden name was
Morganstern, and their cousin was Joe Morgan a doctor. I’m giving you all this
detail because Gabi was married and I don’t recall her last name. Gabi lived in
the Atlantic City, NJ area, and had a daughter who lived with Eva while the
daughter attended the school for Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia. I
recently encountered another child survivor from Belgium named Daniel
Goldschmidt, who is now 78 years old. Daniel was in a children’s home after the
war with Eva and Gabi and would very much like to get back in touch with Gabi.
Daniel gave a beautiful talk at my synagogue for Yom Hashoah and I promised
him I would do what I could to locate Gabi. If anyone knows Gabi’s last name
and whereabouts please pass it onto me, as Daniel would very much like to speak
to her again.
From James L. Muller, a Survivor in Cherry Hill, NJ:
I am looking for an old friend from Karlsruhe, Germany. My childhood
friend, Yvonne Schwarz and her familly emigrated from Karlsruhe,
Germany in 1936 or 1937 and went to Olivos, a suburb of Buenos
Aires. Her parents were Max and Fanny and she had an older sister
by the name of Greta or Gretl (it might have been Margarete). My
name at the time was Joachim (Jochem) Muller and I am the son of
Professor Felix Muller and Alice Muller. When I last saw Yvonne she
lived at 4 Hermann Billingstrasse in Karlsruhe. I have not seen her in
about 75 years or so and would like to make contact. Any help would
be appreciated.
From Judi Schneider, a 2g in Boca Raton, FL:
I am looking for members of my mother’s family with the last name of Godinger.
My mother’s maiden name was Ruchel Godinger. Her father was Yossel
Godinger and they lived in Chust, Czechoslovakia. The family I am looking for
lived in Budapest and were cousins of my mother. My mother is still living and
is 87 years old. She would very much like to contact any members of this
family.
From Sheila Baiter in Johnannesburg, South Africa:
I would like assistance in ascertaining the fate of my late husband’s brother and
two sisters. They were from Siaulai, Lithuania. We enquired from the International
Tracing Service of the Red Cross about five members of his family. We received
confirmation that his mother and one brother died in the Holocaust. For the
remaining three we received no conclusive confirmation as to their fate and have
been continuing for the last five years to try and establish what happened to
them. My late husband’s younger brother Leiser Baiter was confined in Stutthof
Concentration Camp on the 19th July 1944. He was then transferred to Auschwitz
Concentration Camp on the 26th July 1944. His prisoner number was 50046. His
two sisters Malka and Etta Baiter were both confined in Stutthof Concentration
Camp on the 19th July 1944. Malka’s prisoner number was 47837 while Etta’s
prisoner number was 47839. The surname could be spelt Baiter, Beiter or
Baiteris. My children and I would be most grateful if you could assist us in tracing
the whereabouts of these three members of our family. With my very best wishes
and kindest regards.
From Dana Szeflan Bell, a Survivor in Montreal, Canada:
I never put out a search for my mother’s family who came from Wegrow
“Vengrov,” Poland. I know that the town was hit very badly and that there were
few survivors, but then you never know. My mother’s name was Genia-Golda
Aszkenazy and her mother ’s name was Rachel Ruchel-PasmanterAszkenazy. There were two other sisters, Hella-Chana and Niusia-Chaia, and
my grandfather’s name was Yankel-Yaakov Aszkenazy. It would be wonderful
to find someone who knew them. My mother miraculously survived the Holocaust.
TOGETHER 22
From Yair Heinsdorf, a 2g in Ganey Tiqva, Israel:
I am the only son of Dov (Ber) Heinsdorf and Irena Heinsdorf, nee
Weinlager. They both managed to get married and leave Warsaw, Poland late in
1939. They fled to Israel (then Palestine), where I was born. My father’s family
lived prior to WW2 in Warsaw at 40 Zelazna Street. My mother’s family also
lived in Warsaw at 61 Panska Street. I’m searching for any available information
about the following relatives: Miriam or Marjem Heinsdorf, my father’s sister
born in Warsaw in 1917. She presumably stayed in Genoa, Italy as a student in a
medical school when WW2 broke out. Her father’s name was Avigdor (my
grandparent). Any other survivors or relatives of Avigdor and Szajndla Heinsdorf
my paternal grandparents). Any survivor sor relative of Avraham and Gittle
Weinlager, my maternal grandparents. Any piece of information would be
welcome.
From Debbie Long, a 2g in Chapel Hill, NC:
I received a stunning piece of information from the International Tracing Service.
My uncle, Menachim Jehuda Galas (also known as Yehuda or Moniek), apparently
survived the Holocaust and was liberated from Terezin (Theresienstadt).
Menachim Jehuda, my mother’s beloved brother, was born in Lodz in1919. He
was in the Lodz Ghetto; then deported to Skarzysko-Kamienna, then Buchenwald.
He stayed in Buchenwald until April, 1945, and then was apparently deported to
Terezin. Terezin was liberated in April, 1945, but I do not know what happened to
him or others liberated from this camp.I am checking all the usual resources—
US Holocaust Museum, Terezin Museum, YIVO, HIAS, Jewishgen, newspaper
archives, Yad Vashem (where my mother left a page of testimony for him), Israeli
Defense Ministry, etc. Clearly, it is unlikely that he is alive, but perhaps he had a
family with whom I can connect.
From Michael Stein, a 2g in Memphis, TN:
My parents were both survivors; my father was from Kovno,
with the last name Stein, and my mother is from Bendzin. My
mother is 85 years old and is in an Alzheimers unit in an
assisted living facility in Memphis. I am looking for anyone
with her family names of Bratt and Messerman. She (nor I)
were plugged into anything as I see now that are accessible.
I have included the link below to her page on the Tennessee
Holocaust biography list: http://www.tennessee
holocaustcommission.org/bio.php?id=66. Also, can you
please send me information about Bendzin, Poland.
From Shlomo Taub, a 2g in Tel Aviv, Israel:
We are searching for the descendants of Mr. J. Blatt. Mr. Blatt was a partner in
a company called “A. Friedrich & J. Blatt” situated in the town of Miechow,
Poland. It was found that in 1938 Mr. Blatt owned 40% of the shares of the
company. We are looking for descendants who may be considered as potential
owners of such a claim. Best regards, Shlomo Taub Legacy Property retrieval in
Poland and Eastern Europe. Tel. +972-9-7713811Fax. +972-9-7743495Cell. +97252-3580404. Email: [email protected]
From Eva Danielle Volk, a 3g in Branford, CT:
My grandmother, Salka Birenbaum, was also in C Block at the same time as
Vera Hecht and Elly Gross (in a prior e-mail). She arrived in July of 1944. She
would have been approximately 40 years old. She was from Radom, Poland, but
had been in a work camp, Blizen, for some time. When she arrived she was with
her two sons, Amek (17) and David (10). They were in Block B and used to
speak with her in the evening across the wire until September when David
was removed with the other younger boys from Block B by Mengele. She is
gone now; since 1997, but is survived by two sons, four grandaughters, and four
great-grandaughters (so far). If you or anyone else who was in Block C then has
any memories of her, I would so appreciate hearing them. She was a wonderfully
formidable woman and very dear to me.
From Anne Kosossey, a 2g in Bordeaux, France:
In the Ukraine I am trying to 1) try and piece the family history together, and
2) make contact with living descendants of my ancestors.Maybe the
name Kozosey (or anything close to it) would ring a bell with other readers. I
would love to hear from any Kozosey descendants who have/had family in the
Kiev/Zhitomir/Radomyshl area or anyone who is familiar with that name. I
speak fluent English and French and passable Spanish. Unfortunately, I speak
neither Hebrew, Russian or Yiddish but messages in any language will be
welcome. My grandfather emigrated to Paris with his parents and siblings in
1925 from Kiew, Ukraine. The family was originally from a small Ukrainian
town called Radomyshl (90 km west of Kiev).
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
July 2010
From Dov Shilony, a 2g in Lapid, Israel:
My father, Karol Holoshy, is a Survivor of the Holocaust, from Baya Mare,
Romania. After the war in 1945, my father went back to his old house in Romania,
but nobody was left. He was the only person who survived from thefamily. His
age on that day was 17.5; and his weight was 26 kg. He told me many times
about the first moment when he saw the people who had come to save him, the
American soldiers. How they opened the gate of the camp and were crying
while bringing their own food from their jeeps. He was Liberated from Mauthausen,
in Austria. My father remembered that his father (who was killed in Melk, a
sub-camp of Mauthausen), had buried in the ground a few photographs and my
father found them. On one of the photographs was written the
following address: 58 Cleavelend (Cleveland?) Street, Orange, NJ. My father is
92 and is still living in Israel near Jerusalem. I was in the U.S. in 2007 (my first
time) and went to that address looking for relatives, but nobody knew who lived
before in that house. I want to ask if you can find out who lived in that house
between 1938-1945, or to whom I need to write. Maybe he is a lost relative.
From Renata Zajdman, a Survivor in Montreal, Canada:
My friend, Elizabeth (Bieta) Ficowska-Bussold, who lives in Warsaw,
Poland, is searching for her childhood friend, Ethel Rosencrantz. Ethel’s former
name was Tamara Fetter; she was a hidden child from Warsaw. Ethel lives in
Florida and is the widow of Dr. Rosencrantz. Ethel recently got in touch with
Elizabeth and they had an emotional conversation. With all the excitement they
did not exchange their phone numbers. Can anyone help?
From Ludwig Gelobter, a survivor in Lafayette, LA:
I realize that my request is not a part of your primary mission, but perhaps you or
one of yourreaders may have a referral, or a suggestion. Restitution of
property lost/confiscated during WWII has become law in several of
the ex-satelite countries, Romania, Poland, etc. However, my families’
property was in Galicia, the part of Poland, in our case near Lwow,
which is now a part of the Ukraine. Does anyone know if there has
been any movement in this direction there? Respond to Ludwig Gelobter,
at: [email protected] .
From Debbie Long, a 2g in Chapel Hill, NC:
There is a group of people in my home area of Durham/Chapel Hill
(North Carolina) who are developing a Holocaust speaker’s bureau
here, comprised not only of survivors, but also liberators and 2gs. If
your readers know of people with these war experiences who live in this area of
North Carolina and who may be willing and even eager to share their stories,
would you please have them contact me? I am also searching for members of the
GALAS and DOBRZYNSKI family of Lodz, Poland. Respond to Debbie Long
directly at: [email protected].
From Dr. Felix Salomon, a 2g in Phoenix, AZ:
Can you please help me find out any information about my
mother’sfamily? My mother’s name was Ettie Metzker. Some of her brothers’
names were Jonah, Isio, and Wolf Metzker. I do not know my grandparents’
first names. I was told that they were hung from trees in front of their
farmhouse in a town called Lanowitz (this is the Yiddish name). It is now in the
Ukraine, but at that time it was part of Poland.
From Perry Sambor, a 2g in Melbourne, Australia:
I am looking for any family members who may have survived the Holocaust or
who may have left Poland before the war. My grandfather - Lejb Sambor - was
born and lived in Janow Lubelski, Poland. Lejb Sambor’s sister was Eta Sambor,
born in 1880 in Janow. She marred Berk Brener and they had at least two children:
Szymon Lejb Brener (born 1900) and Hana Brener (born 1902). There were
family ‘rumors’ that Eta and Berk left for the UK some time before the war.
Nobody seems to know what happened to them. I am hoping to find their
descendents somewhere in the UK. Lejb Sambor married Ruchla Szteinberg,
who came from Belzyce. Lejb and Ruchla had four children: Moszek: born in
1925; Serla, born in 1927; Pinkwas, born in 1930; and Frajda, born in 1937. Before
the war they lived in Janow, at 66 ul. Plk. Belina Street. Lejb’s son Moszek was
my father. He survived the war and passed away one year ago in Australia.The
fate of the others is unknown. Does anyone know what happened to them? During
the occupation, they were deported from Janow to Belzyce. After this, my father
was separated from them. The youngest children, Pinkwas and Frajda, could
have been left with a Polish family. I am searching for any clues about the family
- perhaps to knew them before, during or after the war? Perhaps we are related?
Confidentiality is assured. If Pinkwas or Frajda are still alive and do not know
about their Jewish roots, I will respect that.
July 2010
From Karl Schapiro, a survivor in New York, NY:
I was hidden with my parents by a Polish farmer; we also lived in Ghetto Kalusz
(not Kalish). My family came from Kalusz (Galitzia, near Stanislawow), Bolechow,
and Stryj in Eastern Poland.All perished in the Holocaust.If you have any
information on the following, or about other people from the town of Kalusz, please
contact me: parents Shulim and Salka Szapiro; Yechiel Schapiro (a mohel, shochet
and cantor); and Fincia and Mishel Niemas. We lived in a DP Camp in Bad
Salzschlirf and then came to New York.
From Jan Berg (Schwarcer), a 2g in Vasteras, Sweden:
I am trying to find information about my family. My mother, Adela Schwarcer,
was born in Krakow, Poland in 1923. For more information, please go the following
web site: www.adelaschwarzer.com which has recently been updated.
From Maria Segal, a Survivor in Montecito, CA:
Searching for family members from Okuniew (near Warsaw). The family name
is Polaniwicz or Polinowicz. Father Lieb, Mother Leah, brothers and sister:
Moishe,Yosef, Nicha, Shanulka, Elka, and others. Also looking for cousins from
Warsaw by the name of Rymerman; this was my mothers maiden name. I am
Maria Segal nee Mieiam Polanowicz, also from Okuniew. Any information would
be much appreciated.
From Abraham Shain (formerly Szajnfuks), a survivor, in Oak Park, MI:
I was born in Warsaw, Poland on December 21, 1922. My family members
were my father, Berek, mother, Alta Moser, sisters, Chana Itah and Toba Sura,
and brother, Mojsze Lajzer. My address at the time was
Browarna 20, apt. 10, where I lived until November 8, 1939
when I had to leave to run away from the Germans to the
Soviet Union to save my life.I fled to the Russian border
and went by train to the Soviet occupied Polish city of
Bialystok to find work. I then took a cattle train on the 29th
of December, 1939 to Magnitogorsk, where I worked at
hard labor until 1945. The worst of my suffering was the
homesickness that I felt for my family whom I left in
Warsaw. I know that all of them didn’t survive in the Warsaw
Ghetto. After five years I moved to the former Polish city
of Lvov, where I lived from 1947 - 1957. After Poland and
the Soviet Union agreed on repatriation of Polish citizens back to Poland, I
moved to the city of Wroclaw with my wife and two children, until 1964, when
I immigrated to the USA, settling in Detroit. In 1970 we becameUS citizens
and changed our last name from Szajnfuks to Shain. I am desperately looking
for anyone from my family. Maybe someone knows about them. Their last
names are: Szajnfuks, Mostek, Cukierman, Semiatycki and Waliszever. All of
them were from Warsaw, Poland.
From Hannah Shani, a 2g in Ottawa, Canada:
I am looking for information about my aunt, Jenny Hoch (maiden name
Kupferschmid) and her husband David Hoch. They lived in Berlin before WWII
and then in Sanok, Poland (the birth place of David Hoch)during the war. Does
anyone know about them, remember them, and know what happened to them and
the circumstances of their deaths?Also, I am looking for relatives of David Hoch.
As far as I know, his brother (Isaac?) lived in the city of New York in 1985. I
would appreciate any help
From Peggy Shapiro, a 2g in Chicago, IL:
My father, Beyumin (Benjamin) Cwi (Heshek) Zimnovodski was born in Chrzanow,
Poland on 1/4/1926. His paternal family was Zimnovodski and his maternal was
Rosenbaum. His father owned a store and he had a younger brother Shlomo. His
only surviving relative is an Aunt Shainka, who is only four years his senior. Might
anyone know of them?
Felicia Tajch Shloss, a survivor in Sunrise, FL:
I am a survivor born in 1922. I was confined to the Lodz Ghetto along with my
parents, Berek and Liba Tajch, and my older brother, Israel Tajch, born in 1920. In
1944 I was deported to Auschwitz and later to the Salzwedel labor camp where
I worked in an ammunitions factory until liberation. My brother was eventually
taken to Bergen-Belsen and reportedly liberated there. That is where the trail
ends. For 62 years, I have been trying to find out what happened to my
brother. Did he die soon after liberation? Does anyone have any information
about him?
.
TOGETHER 23
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
An Urgent
Appeal
to Our
Readers
For 26 years the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, the largest
umbrella organization of survivors, has been at the forefront of all issues pertaining to survivors and their
families. Despite extraordinary economic challenges and confrontations with Holocaust deniers, this past
year has been no exception. We are determined to continue our work and know that together, with your
generous contributions, we will be able to insure that our fight for remembrance will live on.
With your support and that of the more than 80,000 survivor families who make up our organization, we
will be able to continue our critical work in the coming year and build on our past accomplishments.
Please send what you can. Contributors of $180 or more will receive a special gift, and contributors of
$500 or more will be acknowledged and listed in forthcoming editions of our newspaper, Together.
In 2009 alone we have:
· Represented survivors’ interests at diplomatic conferences and negotiations in Berlin, Washington and
Prague to secure and increase reparations and restitution for those victimized by Nazi persecution and
plunder;
· Fought those who would deny or trivialize the evils of the Holocaust, both here and abroad;
· Ensured that survivors receive proper care and assistance through our work with social agencies like
the Jewish Board of Family Services, Self-Help and The Blue Card;
· Advocated our cause in newspapers and on television, with more than a dozen columns since the
beginning of 2009;
· Promoted Holocaust education, with the participation of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Yad Vashem, and the Study Center of
Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot, by sponsoring the nonsectarian Summer Seminar Program on Holocaust
The
and Jewish Resistance that takes American teachers
American
to Poland, Israel and Washington to give them a
Gathering
personal appreciation of the Holocaust;
· Worked with the U.S. Justice Department in the
search for and prosecution of Nazi war criminals,
including the recent successful deportation to Germany
of the notorious John Demjanjuk;
· Promoted the search for “lost survivors” sought by
relatives and friends, in cooperation
with AllGenerations, Inc., headed by Serena Woolrich;
now
accepts
Visa,
Mastercard,
American Express, and Discover
by phone and in person for your
convenience.
(212) 239-4230
· Continued the solemn observance of Yom Hashoah,
Holocaust Remembrance Day, with the largest annual commemoration in the United States, in association
with New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – a Living Memorial to the Holocaust;
· Maintained and updated the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
which now includes the records of over 185,000 survivors and their families who came to North America
after World War II;
· Disseminated Holocaust-related news and other items of interest to the survivor community on our
website, www.amgathering.org.
In order to continue these important efforts, the American Gathering needs your ongoing financial
commitment and support, NOW more than ever. We face tremendous fundraising challenges and are
confident that we can count on you, our Survivor family, to help us continue making the difference we do.
Your generous, tax-exempt (U.S.) contribution to the American Gathering will help us greatly in our
continued activities.
We thank you in advance for your generosity, and wish you health and happiness in the coming year.
American Gathering, 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205, New York, NY 10001
Please make a meaningful,
tax deductible
contribution payable to the
“American Gathering.”
Thank you.
TOGETHER 24
Name:
___________________________________________________________________________
Address:
___________________________________________________________________________
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone:
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July 2010