January 2013

Transcription

January 2013

JANUARY 2013
VOLUME 27 NUMBER 1
In Memoriam: Vladka Meed
(1921-2012)
GERMANY AND CLAIMS
CONFERENCE MARK 60
YEARS OF COMPENSATION
AGREEMENTS
By MICHAEL BERENBAUM, The Forward
Vladka Meed, one of the last, if not the last of the leaders of
the Warsaw ghetto uprising, died in Phoenix, Arizona on November 21st just before her 91st birthday.
Born Feyge Peltel in Praga (a district of Warsaw, Poland,)
she joined the youth arm of
the Jewish Labor Bund at age
14 and was thereafter a Bund
activist through the time of the
creation of the Warsaw ghetto.
She joined the ZOB (Jewish
Fighting Organization) when
it was formed after the great
deportations of the summer of
1942, when more than 265,000
Jews were shipped from Warsaw to their death in Treblinka
between July 23 and September 21. Because of her flawless Polish and red hair, Peltel could pass as a non-Jew. She adopted the
name Vladka, a name she kept even after liberation. She worked
as a courier, smuggling arms into the ghetto and helping children
escape out of it.
During the ghetto period, Meed’s mother and brother were
among those who were deported. They had succumbed to the
Nazi deception that bread and marmalade would be given to all
those who reported for deportation and because of their hunger,
they seemingly allowed themselves to be deceived. She recalled:
“There was very little left to fear ... I was depressed and apathetic.” However, despair gave way to fierce determination after
she heard Abrasha Blum, a member of the Jewish Coordinating
Committee that sought to unite the diverse political factions of the
ghetto, give a rousing speech calling for armed resistance. Among
her most important missions as a courier was to smuggle a map
of the death camp of Treblinka out of the ghetto in the hope that
solid information about the killing would spur a decisive response
in the West.
She brought dynamite into the ghetto, which required not only
courage, but also money to “grease” the path in and out. She was
By MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT
On Thursday night, December 13, my wife Jeanie and I were
privileged to be at the White House and listen to President Obama
recall the “miraculous flame” that “brought hope and . . . sustained
the faithful” as he and First Lady Michelle Obama joined leaders
of the Jewish community to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah.
When the president spoke about the Jewish people’s “everlasting hope that light will overcome the darkness, that goodness
will overcome evil, and that faith can accomplish miracles,” I
could not help but reflect on my own improbable journey that had
brought me from the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen in
Germany where I was born, the son of parents who had survived
the horrors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen only three years before, to this memorable candle lighting ceremony in the White
cont’d on p. 3
cont’d on p. 8
The government of Germany committed recently, through
an agreement signed with the Claims Conference, to continue
compensation payments to eligible Holocaust survivors and
providing funding for homecare for elderly victims.
At the ceremony in Berlin, German Minister of Finance
Wolfgang Schäuble hosted a ceremony at which an agreement
was signed that will continue to govern the Claims Conference’s
compensation programs and the provision of homecare funding by
the German government. [see remarks by Roman Kent on p. 6]
These agreements come 60 years after the historic first
agreements were signed in September 1952 that pledged West
Germany to providing payments for certain Jewish survivors of
the Holocaust. Those first agreements, called the Luxembourg
Agreements, have been followed in the ensuing decades with
numerous other funds and programs to provide payments and
cont’d on p. 5
Stop the Massacres of Our
Children: the Case for Meaningful
Gun Control Legislation
NON-PROFIT
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
NEW YORK, NY
PERMIT NO. 4246
American Gathering of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205
New York, New York 10001
January 2013
visit our website at www.amgathering.org
TOGETHER 1
Vladka Meed: In Her Own
Words
TOGETHER
On the evening of April 11, 1983, Vladka Meed,
Chairperson of the Cultural Committee of the American
Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, introduced a
moving program of Yiddish and Hebrew music and poetry to thousands of survivors and their families in Washington, DC. Her words on that occasion, published in
From Holocaust to New Life (American Gathering of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors, 1985), reflect her lifelong
dedication to Holocaust remembrance, Jewish education, the preservation of the Yiddish language, and her
unwavering commitment to human rights.
As we gathered in Jerusalem in 1981, we are together
again—to hear a Yiddish word, a Yiddish song, to watch
a traditional Jewish dance—to express the love we feel
for our culture that has survived, and which has allowed
us as a people to survive.
We are here—eyewitnesses of the Nazi inferno; witnesses to a pulsating Jewish culture that existed, and then
was cut down. It was a tradition of splendor. A life full of
creativity, of learning, of faith in the rights of the human
being and in the righteousness of the world. A tradition
cut down but never destroyed.
In this land where we live today, the spirit of freedom for all was inscribed on the great Liberty Bell in
Philadelphia. The same spirit was also close to us in the
world from which we came. Its sound was heard in the
idealistic Jewish youth from political ranks who became
the core of the resistance fighters in the ghettos, in the
forests, in the camps. They drew their idealism and their
strength from the wellspring of our cultural treasures,
which gave meaning and exaltation to their lives.
It was nearly half a century ago in May 1933, that
Nazis ripped our great books out of libraries and set them
on fire in the streets of Berlin. As if ideas could be destroyed by flames. The burning of Jewish books was a
prelude to the mass graves of Ponary and Babi Yar, to
the gas chambers of Treblinka where our people perished
and where much of our great culture was destroyed. But
even then, in those darkest days, our enemies could not
destroy our spirit.
There is a legend about the Jewish martyr, the teacher Hananyah ben Teratyon. A Roman emperor ordered
him to be wrapped in the scrolls of the Torah and burned
to death. While he himself was burning, Hananyah saw
the words of the Torah fly up towards the heavens—the
flames could not consume them. Nor could flames destroy our spiritual strength.
Even in the very shadow of death, our people continued to create. They studied, they wrote, they learned
Torah—we even collected documentary materials to be
buried in milk cans so that future historians might learn
what happened to us.
In the midst of that man-made hell, the souls of the
tortured could not be stifled. Poetry still spoke through our
cont’d on p. 4.
TOGETHER 2
Volume 27 Number 1
January 2013
c•o•n•t•e•n•t•s
In Memoriam: Vladka Meed (1921-2012) by Michael Berenbaum..............................1
Germany and Claims Conference Mark 60 Years of Compensation Agreements........1
Stop the Massacres of Our Children by Menachem Z. Rosensaft.................................1
Vladka Meed: In Her Own Words................................................................................2
Convicted of Fraud, Rabbi Youlus Goes to Prison by Emily Jacobs..............................4
Remarks by Roman Kent..............................................................................................6
The Legacy of the Survivors of Bergen-Belsen............................................................7
Holocaust Survivors Find Each Other Again, 70 Years Later by Michal Shmulovich..9
At 20 Years, Holocaust Museum’s Importance Continues to Grow by Maayan Jaffe...12
U.S Response to a Cry For Help During World War II by Michael Berenbaum .......14
Concert Based on Terezin Story to Benefit Survivors in New York...........................15
Babe Ruth and the Holocaust by Rafael Medoff......................................................16
Grandson Takes Over Search for Holocaust Survivor’s Savior by Hillel Kutler........17
Eleonara Bergman Awarded French Legion of Honor............................................17
New Director and New Head Archivist at ITS............................................................18
Searches (contributing editor Serena Woolrich)...................................................19
In Memoriam...............................................................................................................20
Acknowledging our special donors...
Sam Bloch
Simon & Josephine Braitman Family Supporting Foundation
Larry Hiss
Jeffrey Kraines, MD/William P. Goldman &
Brothers Foundation, Inc.
Joel Rosenkranz and Janis Conner
Elizabeth, Carol & Robert Sandy
Schwarz Foundation
Seltzer Family Foundation
Verhegyi Family Trust
Weinreb-Berender Carter Foundation
500.00
2,500.00
750.00
5,000.00
500.00
500.00
1500.00
500.00
1,000.00
1,018.00
American Gathering Executive Committee
SAM E. BLOCH • ROMAN KENT • MAX K. LIEBMANN
JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE • MENACHEM ROSENSAFT
ELAN STEINBERG, KZ
TOGETHER
AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
AND THEIR DESCENDANTS
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 · New York, New York 10001 · 212
President
SAM E. BLOCH
Chairman
ROMAN KENT
Senior Vice President
MAX K. LIEBMANN
Founding President
BEN MEED, KZ
Honorary President
VLADKA MEED, KZ
Honorary Chairman
ERNEST MICHEL
Administrative Director
ELLEN S. GOLDSTEIN
Vice Presidents
EVA FOGELMAN
ROSITTA E. KENIGSBERG
ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS
JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT
MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT
STEFANIE SELTZER
ELAN STEINBERG, KZ
JEFFREY WIESENFELD
Secretary
JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE
Treasurer
MAX K. LIEBMANN
Regional Vice-Presidents
VIVIAN GLASER BERNSTEIN
BERNARD KENT
MICHAEL KORENBLIT
MEL MERMELSTEIN
SERENA WOOLRICH
239 4230
Publication Committee
SAM E. BLOCH, Chairman
ELLEN S. GOLDSTEIN
ROMAN KENT
JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE
MAX K. LIEBMANN
ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS
MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT
ELAN STEINBERG, KZ
Project Director, Teachers Program
ELAINE CULBERTSON
Managing Editor
PHILIP SIERADSKI
Counsel
ABRAHAM KRIEGER
January 2013
In Memoriam: Vladka Meed
cont’d from p. 1
to recall that she had known nothing about
dynamite and certainly not how dangerous
it could be. Ignorance fortified her courage.
After the ghetto uprising she continued supplying money and papers for Jews in hiding
as she lived on the Aryan side, passing as a
non-Jew.
Vladka recalled that she had to be careful that her eyes did not betray her identity.
Jews trying to pass as non-Jews often revealed themselves unwittingly by the sadness in their eyes, by seeing things that other
Poles had long since ceased to notice.
She taught herself to laugh a deep joyous
belly laugh that gave off an aura of freedom
and nonchalance that no Jew could imagine.
She retained some of the characteristics of
a courier throughout her life. She would size
up a situation quickly. She could get a person
to talk about himself and establish a quick rapport, revealing very little of herself but absorbing all essential information from the other
person. She was strong and resolute. She was
persistent, even stubborn.She would speak
softly but her words carried weight. One seldom said “no” to Vladka and one was often
subsequently grateful for the coerced “yes.”
In her writings she alludes to the loneliness and pressure of her double life only in
passing: “You can be my friend,” she said to
Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (Meed), who was
also passing as an Aryan and who would
later become her husband, “because if I
don’t come back, I want someone to know
that I am missing.” She married Benjamin
Miedzyrzecki formally in 1943.
I remember Ben telling the story of their
first wartime marriage. Ben and Vladka were
seeing each other, staying out late at night
and Ben’s mother understood that there were
no tomorrows for Warsaw’s Jews: one simply could not wait. She took off her wedding
ring and told Ben to give it to Vladka. She
lifted a glass of water and said, “Zol zayn mit
mazl,” wishing the young couple good luck.
Vladka was one of the first survivors to
arrive in the United States in 1946 aboard the
Marine Flasher, which became a transport
ship for survivors. Meed traveled and spoke
widely as a living eyewitness to the Warsaw
ghetto uprising. In 1948 she published On
Both Sides of the Wall in Yiddish, one of the
earliest accounts of the uprising and still one
of the most compelling. The book, long ago
translated into English, remains in print 63
years after its publication.
With Ben and a group of friends from
January 2013
the 1950s or even earlier and a group that included Jonas Turkow, Alexander Donat, Jack
Eisner, Joseph Tekulsky and Anne Celnik
and other survivors, she launched the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization in 1962
to commemorate those who had been murdered, and to raise awareness among young
people and the wider public about their lives.
What began as an annual memorial meeting
of a couple of hundred survivors became a
world-wide project drawing large audiences
to annual events in all fifty states and many
countries, and prominent memorial museums in Washington, DC and in many metropolitan centers.
Ben & Vladka Meed.
The American Gathering of Jewish
Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants mourns our beloved Vladka,
courageous heroine of the Warsaw Ghetto,
passionate advocate of Yiddish culture and,
with unforgettable Ben, z"l, a pioneer in
Holocaust remembrance and education.
Her legacy endures in the institutions
and organizations she inspired and the
Teachers Program on the Holocaust and
Jewish Resistance she founded.
May her memory be a blessing to her
children and grandchildren.
Sam E. Bloch, President
Roman R. Kent, Chairman
Max K. Liebmann, Senior Vice President
Menachem Z. Rosensaft, Vice President
Joyce Celnik Levine, Secretary
During the World Gathering of Jewish
Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem in 1981
and the American Gatherings, in Washington in 1983 and Philadelphia in 1985, Vladka was in charge of the cultural events that
celebrated Yiddish culture. Few performers
dared turn her down and survivors had tears
in their eyes as they enjoyed the culture of
the world into which they were born.
Vladka and Ben’s home was a gathering place for Yiddish life. Yiddish poets
and resistance fighters would mingle and
there always would be Yiddish music. Her
Julliard- trained daughter Anna would play
and sing.Vladka loved to sing. Among her
favorite songs were Ikh vil nokh eyn mol zen
mayn heym [“I would like to see my home
one more time”]. For her, the Shoah was
not only about what the Germans did to the
Jews, but about the world that the Jews had
created before the Holocaust and even within
the ghetto.
When her husband, Benjamin Meed,
assumed leadership of the survivor community, Vladka Meed organized a teacher training program, co-sponsored by the American
Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors,
and the Jewish Labor Committee, one of
the earliest such programs. It took American
teachers from public schools and Christian
parochial schools and brought them to Poland and Israel to experience a Seminar on
the Holocaust and Resistance—for Vladka
the story of resistance was always essential. For almost 20 years, she unfailingly
led the mission each summer, sitting in on
each class, herding her adult students on
trips throughout Israel and showing them the
Warsaw she knew so well.
Meed helped produce a dedicated and
informed cadre of teachers throughout the
United States. These teachers are to be found
throughout the country and still call themselves Vladka’s students. Central to this program were the direct testimonies of survivors,
none more impressive than Vladka Meed’s.
She is survived by her two children Anna
Scherzer and Steven Meed, both physicians.
As a couple Vladka and Ben lived and
breathed Holocaust commemoration. They
sustained the survivor’s movement and always saw themselves as part of that community. When Ben was organizing the survivors’ organization and Vladka the teachers
program, their home and their professional
activities were one. They had a deep love
forged in danger and disaster and relied on
each other. Each made a critical difference
in their individual way. They never liked to
sit on the dais above their people, but on the
floor surrounded by friends and family.
Their son, Steven, summed up his parent’s lives. “They made a difference and the
world is a better place because they walked
this earth,” he said lovingly, respectfully.
“Each made a unique individual contribution
to Holocaust remembrance and to survivors
and their joint contribution was unequalled.”
TOGETHER 3
Convicted of fraud, Rabbi
Youlus goes to prison
by EMILY JACOBS, Washington Jewish Week
On Dec. 17, Menachem Youlus, a Baltimore rabbi who ran the Jewish book store in
Wheaton, began serving a 51-month prison
sentence at the federal correctional institution (FCI) in Otisville, N.Y. Convicted of two
counts of mail and wire fraud in a Manhattan
federal court on Oct. 11, Youlus is slated to
be incarcerated until Aug. 26, 2016.
Youlus co-founded Save a Torah, Inc. in
2004, a charity that solicited funds to rescue
and acquire Torahs that had been lost in the
Holocaust. He also became known as the
“Jewish Indiana Jones” for his alleged heroic
overseas adventures to rescue these Torahs.
According to the sentencing memorandum, Youlus deposited contributions made
to Save a Torah directly into his bank accounts and obtained thousands of dollars in
“reimbursements” for overseas travel expenses that he never actually incurred. In
actuality, with the exception of isolated trips
to Israel and Canada, Youlus has, to this day,
never left the United States. He also pretended that these Torah-saving trips caused him
to go into debt, and received an additional
$144,000 from the charity that he stated never paid him a penny for his endeavors.
The memorandum continues to explain
that Youlus earned large profits by greatly
inflating the prices of these “Holocaust To-
Vladka Meed: In Her Own Words
cont’d from p. 2
lips, and music still came from our throats.
Even as the smoke rose from the ovens, our
children painted on scraps of paper and wrote
poems about butterflies which could no longer be seen in the ghetto. While the world
turned away so as not to smell the smoke
from the crematoria, our people struggled to
preserve their love of goodness—of humanity—of God.
In the Skarzysko concentration camp in
Poland, the inmates managed to smuggle in
a ram’s horn, which they fashioned into a
shofar. As the High Holy Days arrived, and
the shofar was blown, Jews facing death felt
themselves enveloped in holiness.
I remember the shattering days of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when above the
ghetto wall one could see the huge tongue
of fire reaching toward the sky. And through
the dense smoke I could hear the sound of
TOGETHER 4
rahs” that in reality, came from used Torah
dealers. He also inflated invoices to add
thousands of dollars in false repair and transportation costs.
“It is clear that during the time period
of the fraud, Youlus bought 24 used Torahs
from those two used Torah dealers for prices ranging from $3,250 to $9,500, with an
average cost of $5,830 per Torah. Based on
bank records and Save a Torah records, it is
clear that Youlus received from $7,000 to
$32,714 from the charity for each Torah he
provided, with most payments in the range
of $10,000 to $20,000,” according to the
memorandum.
“Youlus received the vast majority of all
the money raised by Save a Torah. In total,
the charity raised over $1.4 million (from
over 800 donors including many congregations nation-wide), although $145,235 of
such contributions were never received by
the charity, and instead stolen outright by
Youlus, who deposited the money into his
bank accounts. Of the money received, approximately $1,356,772, the charity transferred approximately $1,061,676 directly
to Youlus by check. Thus, in total, Youlus
received approximately $1,206,911 of the
fraudulent proceeds.”
Present at the October sentencing was
Menachem Rosensaft, vice president of the
American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Their Descendants, and the
general counsel of the World Jewish Con-
gress. Rosensaft, whose parents survived
Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, had been instrumental in the investigation of Youlus and
Save a Torah, after hearing one of Youlus’
tall tales.
“What really triggered my reaction to
Youlus was when I learned of his claim that
he found a Torah scroll in 2001 under the
floor boards of a barrack in Bergen Belsen,”
said Rosensaft. “I knew that in May 1945,
one month after the liberation of the entire
camp by the British, every single barrack
was burnt to the ground. At that point it became clear to me that Menachem Youlus was
a liar. He was not an exaggerator, but an outand-out categorical liar.”
Upon learning of Youlus’ prison sentence, Rosensaft explained that while he is
not necessarily happy that Youlus is imprisoned, he hopes it sends a message to others
that something like this cannot happen again.
“I draw no satisfaction out of the fact
that Menachem Youlus is now in jail. I draw
no satisfaction whatsoever off of having
somewhat played a role in having him sentenced; on the other hand, that is the form
of punishment that our society deems appropriate for someone who commits serious
fraud like Youlus,” he said. “At some point,
a message has to be sent to others who are
inclined to want to exploit the Holocaust
or any tragedy for their own personal purposes. They will not be allowed to get away
Jews defending themselves. It was my destiny to work closely with these young ghetto
fighters who became legendary heroes of our
people. In those last days of struggle, abandoned by the world, they still held on to their
ideals—to the truths rooted in Jewish tradition.
We carry this heritage with us everywhere. It has helped us find a new place for
ourselves in America where we rebuilt our
homes and families. America—the infinite
variety of this great land, with its many races, creeds and nationalities—has enriched us
all. And our Jewish cultural heritage has enriched America and the entire world.
Here the Yiddish language has won
worldwide recognition with the granting of
the Nobel prize to our great Yiddish author
Isaac Bashevis Singer—who, although living in America, writes about Jews from Warsaw or Lodz and through them preserves the
spiritual treasures of Polish Jewry.
We are here—we Jews who survived.
We are here to teach, to learn, to remember,
to rebuild—to join hands among ourselves
and with all other people in the world in celebration of the continuity of life. Through
our voices, our literature, our art, our music
and our dance we will express what is in our
hearts.
We have come a long way, and we have
brought our treasure of Yiddishkeit with us.
We maintain the legacy of a people who never gave up, even in the darkest hours, and we
shall preserve that memory for future generations.
cont’d on p. 5
January 2013
GERMANY AND CLAIMS
CONFERENCE MARK 60
YEARS OF COMPENSATION
AGREEMENTS
cont’d from p. 1
assistance to Holocaust victims, established
through ongoing negotiations between the
Claims Conference and the government of
Germany.
Through the rise and fall of Communism, the reunification of Germany and subsequent German governments, the Claims
Conference has continued to work with the
German Ministry of Finance to ensure that
Holocaust survivors obtain a small measure
of justice. These 60 years of negotiations
to provide acknowledgement to Holocaust
survivors has been an unparalleled historic
endeavor.
“Our work has never been about the
money. It has always been about the recognition, the validation, the acknowledgement of Holocaust victims,” said Chairman
Julius Berman. “Our work for them is not
done. Not yet. Together, we owe it to these
heroes of the Jewish people to make their
last years more dignified and comforting
than their youth. Survivors were abandoned
by the world once—we continue to work
to make sure that they will never be abandoned again.”
Special
Negotiator
Ambassador
Stuart Eizenstat spoke of
G e r m a n y ’s
continued
commitment
to
fulfilling
its
historic
Ambassador Stuart
obligation to
Eizenstat
Holocaust victims, and of
the work that is still to be done. “All is not
finished. The Claims Conference and the
international Jewish community call upon
Germany to finish out this critical process.
After enduring the worst that humanity
could devise, these elderly victims – many
frail, many more destitute – deserve in their
final years to receive the best that humanity can provide,” he said. “We are inspired
that Germany has committed to ensure that
Holocaust survivors, in their final years, can
be confident that we are endeavoring to help
them live in dignity, after their early life was
filled with such tragedy and trauma. Let us
help them not to be forgotten again.”
Roman Kent, Claims Conference Treasurer and Chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, opened
his speech with a famous German poem by
Heinrich Heine, “The Lorelei,” and linked it
to the fate of the victims and the memories
of survivors that persist. “Of course, reciting the phrase ‘legend of bygone ages’ (‘aus
alten Zeiten’), which Heine speaks about in
his poetry, to me is the ‘bygone age of the
Holocaust’ because it was such an overwhelming, devastating part of my early life.
Although the horrific experiences that I and
other survivors endured in the concentration camps took place in a ‘bygone age’, the
tragic memories are constantly present in
my daily life still today,” he said. “Symbolically, the Luxembourg Agreement signed
sixty years ago was the start of the healing process for both the German nation and
the Holocaust survivors. It was an official
acknowledgement of responsibility by the
Germans, and a willingness to recompense
the Jewish people in some small part, with a
compensation system that would help those
who survived. As imperfect and inadequate
as it was, it offered some assistance in our
fight to rebuild our lives.”
Amb. Reuven Merhav, Chairman of the
Executive Committee, spoke of his discussion with German President Joachim Gauck
in Israel last May. “I described my natural
commitment to the Claims Conference in its
sustained endeavors to secure a small measure of justice for over 800,000 Holocaust
survivors and Nazi victims as well as upholding the Shoah legacy in a longstanding
and honest partnership with the Bundesrepublik, in every realm. Consequently the
Claims Conference has become omnipresent in Jewish life, particularly so in Israel,
home to the largest number of Holocaust
survivors and Nazi victims, where Shoah
memory and legacy are active witnesses in
daily life,” he said.
Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble
spoke of the historic relationship that has
developed between the Claims Conference
and the government of Germany, evolving
from
the first formal, chilly
greetings
exchanged
at the beginning of the
1952 talks
to an ongoing, mutual
commitment Minister of Finance
to victims – Wolfgang Schäuble
and to history. “My particular special thanks to the
Jewish Claims Conference. For 60 years the
Claims Conference has been the partner of
Germany in the organization of help for the
Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Since the
Luxembourg Agreement and far beyond it
has been the Claims Conference which has
very closely followed the legislation regarding compensation and the corresponding
application of the law, carried out payment
and not least has referred again and again
to where there exists a need for reform,” he
said.
“Sixty years of the Luxembourg agreements are a reason to look back with a
certain pride at what has been achieved
together for the survivors. 60 years of the
Luxembourg agreements also stand for 60
years of confidence-inspiring partnership
and co-operation of all participants,” said
Minister Schäuble. “In this work for the
victims of persecution it is evident to all
that the gruesome history in the National
Socialist period, the suffering and injustice
that was brought for millions of people,
cannot be undone. No compensation can
change anything in that. And even with all
the efforts, most suffering can at best be
eased somewhat.”
Convicted of fraud, Rabbi Youlus goes sentence would allow him to repent and nate episode but at a given point you have
to prison
to put it in the past. For better or for worse,
think about the people he affected.
cont’d from p. 4
with it. That’s true of a Menachem Youlus
or any other person trying to make a quick
buck out of peoples’ tragedies.”
Rosensaft expressed hope that Youlus’
January 2013
“I think that when he comes out, he’ll
be given a chance to re-enter society. Obviously there is a price to pay, and I hope
that he would stay away from being a sofer
[scribe],” said Rosensaft. “It’s an unfortu-
Menachem Youlus wanted to be famous.
This was probably not the way he wanted
to become famous, but he made that choice.
There was no reason for him to do this.”
TOGETHER 5
REMARKS BY
ROMAN KENT
Chairman of the American Gathering
& Treasurer of the Claims Conference
NOVEMBER 15, 2012
GERMAN FINANCE MINISTRY—
BERLIN, GERMANY
Minister Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, State
Secretary Gatzer, Honored Guests,Ladies
& Gentlemen, and of course, My Fellow
Survivors …..
Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
Daß ich so traurig bin;
Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
agenda was to strategize how to most efficiently murder the entire Jewish population.
Of course, reciting the phrase “legend
of bygone ages” (“aus alten Zeiten”), which
Heine speaks about in his poetry, to me is
the “bygone age of the Holocaust” because it
was such an overwhelming, devastating part
of my early life. Although the horrific experiences that I and other survivors endured
in the concentration camps took place in a
“bygone age”, the tragic memories are constantly present in my daily life still today.
For how could it be for me, a survivor
of Auschwitz, to forget even for one mo-
(I know not if there is a reason
Why I am so sad at heart.
A legend of bygone ages
Haunts me and will not depart.)
My personal reply to the above sentiments expressed by Heinrich Heine in his
beautiful poem, The Lorelei, is that there
are 6 million reasons why I am so sad; they
are the 6 million Jewish victims -- men,
women & children -- who cannot be with
us today.
Die Luft ist kühl, und es dunkelt,
Und ruhig flieBt der Rhein;
Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt
Im Abendsonnenschein.
(The air is cool under nightfall.
The calm Rhine courses its way.
The peak of the mountain is sparkling
With evening’s final ray.)
Furthermore, I am saddened by the
fact that these 6 million Jewish victims
who were murdered needlessly did not live
to visualize the beauty of the surroundings
so lovingly described by Heine.
In addition, how surreal it is for me to
stand here today in Berlin, knowing that
the shameful Wannessee Conference was
held just a few short kilometers away. It
was at this infamous meeting where a
group of high ranking German and Nazi
officials, most with a distinguished title
such as Doctor, Minister Secretary, or
General, gathered together to implement
the so-called “Final Solution” plan. Yet, in
spite of the innocent sounding name, for all
intents and purposes, in plain language, the
TOGETHER 6
Roman Kent
ment the horrific experiences endured in
the concentration camp. Just witnessing
the atrocities committed at the gate entering
Auschwitz-Birkenau is more than enough to
keep me awake at night until the end of time.
The brutality and bestiality that occurred
daily in the concentration camp are indelibly etched in my mind. How can I erase the
sight of the living skeletons, still alive, just
skin and bones? How can I ever forget the
smell of burning flesh that constantly filled
the air? Auschwitz was a place that many of
us came not knowing each other in life, but
many of us left together in the form of white,
blue smoke emanating from the chimneys.
The heartbreaking sobbing of the children,
as they were torn from their mother’s arms
by the inhuman action of their captors, will
ring in my ears until I am laid to rest.
And so The Lorelei ends with ….
Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen
Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn;
Und das hat mit ihrem Singen
Die Lorelei getan.
(I think that the waves will devour
The boatman and boat as one;
And this by her song’s sheer power
Fair Lorelei has done.)
And thus the waves of Nazism devoured
6 million Jews. Unlike in The Lorelei, some
of us were fortunate enough not to be swallowed up by the waves of prejudice and hatred. Today, those remnants of the pre-war
Jewish community are known as “Holocaust
survivors”.
The proud nation of Germans, with an
illustrious heritage in all fields of culture,
science and philosophy among others, represented by names such as Kant, Hegel,
Goethe, Schiller, Mahler and many Nobel
Prize recipients, unfortunately in the last
century added another name to its proud heritage, that of Adolf Hitler.
Yet, I a survivor who received a Doctorate degree from Auschwitz, Flossenburg
and other camps, standing here in the “New
Berlin” speaking to the German government
of today and a new generation of Germans,
emphatically stress that I do not hold you responsible for the deeds of your forefathers.
You, the new generation, just like we survivors, miraculously re-built our past lives.
Just one look at Berlin today tells the story
… from ruins emerged a forward-looking
modern city.
And thus we survivors and the Germans
of today are forever united …. Both of us do
not want our past to be our children’s future.
Therefore, we dare not forget the millions
who were tortured and killed. For if we were
to forget, the conscience of mankind would
then be buried alongside the victims.
Symbolically, the Luxembourg Agreement signed sixty years ago was the start of
the healing process for both the German nation and the Holocaust survivors. It was an
official acknowledgement of responsibility
by the Germans, and a willingness to recompense the Jewish people in some small part,
with a compensation system that would help
those who survived. As imperfect and inadequate as it was, it offered some assistance in
our fight to rebuild our lives.
As recently as December, 1999, standing by his side, I heard President Rau state
to us…. “I know that for many it is not really money that matters. What they want is
for their suffering to be recognized as suffering, and for the injustices done to them
to be named injustices. I pay tribute to all
who were subjected to slave and forced labor
under German rule and, in the name of the
Cont’d on pg. 13
January 2013
THE LEGACY OF THE SURVIVORS OF BERGEN-BELSEN
On November 30, 2012, on the 60th
anniversary of the inauguration of the
Memorial Site of Bergen-Belsen, the
following Legacy of the Survivors of
Bergen-Belsen was issued. Written by Sam
E. Bloch, President of the World Federation
of Bergen-Belsen Associations, and also
signed by Ariel Yahalomi, President of
the Irgun She’erit Hapleta in Israel, Arieh
Korets, President of the “Lost Transport”
Victims Memorial Society, and other
representatives of survivor organizations
throughout the world, it was followed by
a response from Jochi Ritz-Olewski and
Menachem Rosensaft on behalf of the sons
and daughters of the survivors.
For more
than six decades, Bergen-Belsen
has
been
recognized
as a symbol
of the worst
Sam E. Bloch
crimes in the
history of humankind. The victims’ graves commit us to
eternal remembrance.
The mass graves, the cemeteries, the
monuments, and the archives bear witness
to the greatest suffering followed by the
miracle of physical, spiritual and cultural
rebirth of the Jewish and other survivors in
this place after their liberation.
Many survivors of Bergen-Belsen
have made very significant contributions
to the commemoration of the victims of
National Socialist persecution over the decades since the liberation. It is the sacred
obligation of our generation to document
the Nazi crimes in their fullest scope so as
to warn the world of the dangers of hatred
and the consequences of indifference. But
our numbers are waning.
We entrust our experiences of the horrors of Bergen-Belsen to those who will
come after us. We are confident that our
children and grandchildren will continue
our work. In the future, however, others
in this and the coming generations, in particular those who take upon themselves the
task of remembrance within Germany, will
also be essential for the preservation and
transmission of our memories.
January 2013
We have been gratified to see how the
history of Bergen-Belsen and those who had
to suffer in this place has been researched
and presented over recent years. This process
must not be allowed to come to a halt.
We, the representatives of the organizations of Bergen-Belsen survivors, and of the
wider community of survivors of BergenBelsen, therefore call on the authorities and
Declaration by Children of Survivors
Born in the Displaced Persons Camp of
Bergen-Belsen
Both of us, Jochi Ritz-Olewski and Menachem Rosensaft, were born in the Displaced
Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen. Our fathers
were liberated there, together with more than
15,000 prisoners who were brought to the
Wehrmacht barracks at the end of the war.
Shortly afterwards, the DP Camp became the
largest Jewish community in Germany, and
subsequently for the past 62 years the barracks have been in the custody of the British Army. With the imminent departure of
the British Army, we insist that this area of
fundamental historical importance will be
protected and that those buildings of particular symbolic value together with the Jewish
cemetery of the DP camp will be integrated
into the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Site.
SAVE THE DATE
Sunday
APRIL 7, 2013
at 2:00 PM
society of the Federal Republic of Germany and of Lower Saxony to ensure that the
memory of Bergen-Belsen, the Holocaust
and all Nazi crimes must be actively and lastingly shaped beyond our lifetime. The traces
of the erstwhile camp must be permanently
secured, and the physical evidence of the
crimes committed here must be preserved.
The historical knowledge of what happened
at Bergen-Belsen and of the causes of the destructive terror of National Socialism must
be broadened through ongoing research and
transmitted to future generations by means
of educational initiatives.
It is by confronting the past that we can
we develop the strength to resist the marginalization and persecution of groups and individuals. This readiness to thoroughly examine historical events is the basis on which the
full recognition of the inestimable value of
mutual respect, the rule of law and democracy can be built. Only if the evidence of the
crimes does not fade can remembrance fulfill
its most important purpose and serve as the
foundation for a life lived in mutual respect.
This is our legacy for a peaceful future in
Europe and the world.
“2013” Annual
Gathering of
Remembrance
In observance of
Yom HaShoah
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Temple Emanu-El
of the City of New York
Fifth Avenue and 65th Street
New York City
IF YOU HAVE AN E-MAIL
ADDRESS
AND WISH TO RECEIVE NEWS
AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
BETWEEN
TOGETHER PUBLICATION
DATES,
PLEASE SEND IT TO: ELLEN@
AMERICANGATHERING.ORG
TOGETHER 7
20th Anniversary April 28–29, 2013
Washington, DC
National Tribute to Holocaust Survivors
and World War II Veterans
PLEASE JOIN US in paying tribute to Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans as
we mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum and thank all those who have made our global impact possible. Bring your
family and join with Elie Wiesel and thousands of others for this historic occasion.
APRIL 28 National Tribute Dinner, Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC
• Free for survivors and World War II veterans
• Presentation of the Museum’s highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award
APRIL 29 Open House at the Museum
• Free for everyone; lunch included (with advance registration)
• The Museum will be closed to the public
Highlights include:
• Tribute ceremony honoring survivors, veterans, and rescuers
• Family research with Museum staff
• Artifact review with curators and opportunity to donate family collections
• Special programs, tours, and family activities throughout the Museum
• “Affinity tables” where those from the same prewar town, ghetto, or
camp can reunite
The registration deadline is March 15. Please register early to reserve your seat.
Visit ushmm.org/neveragain or call 1.866.998.7466 to request an invitation today.
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
TOGETHER 8
January 2013
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FIND EACH OTHER AGAIN,
70 YEARS LATER
By MICHAL SHMULOVICH, The Times of
Israel
In the fall of 1939, a group of 150 Czech
Jewish teenagers said goodbye to their families and friends, and boarded a train to Denmark. For many, it was the last time they’d
see or hug their parents — because their
families, the ones who stayed behind in thenCzechoslovakia, for the most part, perished.
At the ages of 14 to 16, the youngsters had
started a new life. Their escape was planned
by the youth division of the Jewish Agency
(Aliyat Hanoar, or Jugend Aliyah) in affiliation with Zionist youth groups like Maccabi
Hatzair as well as a Danish peace league and
several Jewish communities.
They were taken in by ordinary Danish families; they lived in foster homes and
worked on farms. Why farms? It was more
than a means of escape. One of the goals of
the youth groups was to prepare a class of
Jewish land-tilling pioneers for future settlement in the State of Israel. (The plan worked.
Many of those who made their way to Mandate Palestine or Israel ended up working in
natural sciences or on the large farms of kibbutzim in the north.)
In Denmark, life was relatively good for
the Lucky Ones: They were spared the fate
of so many other Jews during the Holocaust,
and they didn’t need to wear a yellow star.
Nonetheless, they were refugees, and as the
war raged on, the Nazis were ever-present.
They grew to be like a tight-knit family.
Those who lived in the southern farming region of Sjaelland, for example, met at least
once a week in the city of Naestved, offering
each other a modicum of stability and continuity in a sea of change.
Some became best friends, and others met
their future spouses in the group.
But in 1943, the Nazis suddenly announced that the 7,000 Jews in Denmark
were no longer free. Until then, Germany
had somewhat respected Danish institutions,
January 2013
calling the nation a protectorate. Now the
Jews were to be arrested and deported. Many
of the youngsters were smuggled out on tiny
fishing boats to Sweden, which was neutral
— and many Danes risked their lives to get
them out. Other Jewish teens were chosen to
go to Palestine.
The group was shattered. In an era when
mass communication was not yet the norm,
the friendships were instantaneously lost.
They moved on. Many began over, again,
in South Africa, Israel, the US, Canada, or
Britain, never knowing what became of their
childhood companions. With the years, the
memories started to fade. Until last year,
when a relentless and meticulous Praguebased journalist, Judita Matyasova, began
piecing together the histories of this extraordinary group, setting into motion a reconnection process for many.
At a bright and airy house in Neve Ilan
outside Jerusalem, six of the former refugees, and relatives of others who passed
away or couldn’t make the voyage, met for
an emotional reunion. For most of them, it
was one of the first times they reopened the
chapter of their World War II past — when
staying alive meant leaving their families,
and when childhood was fleeting and mass
killing raged.
Some of the teenage Jewish Czech
refugees in Denmark in the fall of 1941
(photo credit: Courtesy, archive of Judita
Matyasova)
At the gathering, two recently reunited
friends — Anne Marie ‘Nemka’ Steiner (née
Federer) and Judith Shaked — sat outside,
on a big deck overlooking the Judaean hills.
They laughed as they sipped their black teas.
They spoke in low tones, the way sisters
do when they’re sharing a secret, and their
heads were tilted toward one another. Their
conversation flowed, nonstop, as if not a year
had gone by since they last saw each other.
“I haven’t seen her in about 70 years!” ex-
claimed Shaked. Nemka was her best friend
in Denmark, but they hadn’t had any contact
since they parted ways, when Shaked came
to Palestine and Nemka escaped to Sweden.
“But we were so close… Really, we were,”
Shaked said, adoringly looking up at her
friend.
FLYING IN FROM SOUTH AFRICA, Linda
Fine—the daughter of Edita Moravcova
(known by her diminutive, Dita), one of the
refugees who had passed away — put it this
way: “It wasn’t easy [for the teens' parents],
you know… Some families had several kids
around the ages of 15 who were active in
the Jewish youth groups [which planned the
children's escape] — but they could only
send one child on the train to Denmark. Can
you imagine having to make such a choice?
Knowing your other [children] may die?”
Other families at the reunion confirmed
Fine’s heartbreaking account of events, and
the impossible choices people had to make.
Dita was wise beyond her years. Her
mother had died when she was only 9. She
was 14 when she left Prague. She sold her
mother’s jewelry collection to pay for the
train fare, and went to the Jewish Agency
youth office on her own to arrange the details
of her escape.
After Denmark and Sweden, Dita came to
Palestine, where she worked as an air hostess
for a Czechoslovakian airline. Unbeknown
to her, she helped smuggle documents for
the Stern Gang via those flights. She was arrested by the British, and wrote in her diary
that she had felt used “by her own people,”
Linda Fine recounted.
“I think that’s one of the reasons she didn’t
stay in Israel,” Fine added. “After all she had
been through, escaping the Holocaust, it was
painful for her.”
Dita experienced “wonderful years” in
Denmark, but the cost of being saved carried
bittersweet memories, the reuniting refugees
said.
“The brave ones were our parents,” said
Dagmar Pollakova, one of the six survivors
at the intimate gathering. “They were so
brave to say goodbye to us, only children,
never to know if they were going to see us
again.” In fact, most of them didn’t.
Dan H. Yaalon (a Hebraicized version of
his Czech name, Hardy Berger), an erudite
geologist formerly of the Hebrew University,
whose son Uri hosted the reunion, said the
memory of saying goodbye to his mother is
the most vivid of all his memories.
cont’d on p. 11
TOGETHER 9
Children
cont’d from p. 1
House.
Less than 24 hours later, President
Obama spoke to the nation with tears in his
eyes about the shooting of 20 children and
six staff members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The murdered children, he said, “are our
children. And we're going to have to come
together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of
the politics.”
O n c e
again, we had
been
confronted with
darkness, with
evil, and with
the somber realization that
faith can only
accomplish
miracles if it is accomplished by decisive
action, our action. “Can we say,” President
Obama asked on Sunday, December 16, at
the moving interfaith prayer vigil in Newtown, “that we’re truly doing enough to give
all the children of this country the chance
they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?” His answer to this
most basic and yet most searing question
captured the imperative confronting us as a
nation. “We can’t tolerate this anymore,” he
declared,
“These tragedies must end. And to end
them, we must change. . . . If there’s even
one step we can take to save another child
or another parent or another town from the
grief that’s visited Tucson and Aurora and
Oak Creek and Newtown and communities
from Columbine to Blacksburg before that,
then surely we have an obligation to try.”
The problem, of course, is that the National Rifle Association categorically rejects
any legislation or regulation that might keep
assault and semiautomatic weapons out of
the hands of deranged killers. In a December
21, 2012, press conference and a Meet the
Press interview two days later, NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre refused even to consider any limitation
whatsoever on unrestricted access to assault
weapons or high capacity ammunition.
LaPierre is so far outside the mainstream
that Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, hard-
TOGETHER 10
ly a mainstay of liberal thinking, referred to
him on its front page as a “Gun Nut” and
“NRA loon.” The New York Daily News
called him the “craziest man on earth.”
And yet the NRA’s clout is such that distressingly few Republicans have been willing to deviate from its gospel. Appearing
on Meet the Press immediately after LaPierre, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina was evidently unwilling to
say even a single word that might invoke the
NRA’s displeasure and instead seemed most
concerned about his own continued ability to
purchase yet another AR-15 semi-automatic
– he already owns at least one. His NRAdominated colleagues on the Republican
side of the Congressional aisle also appear to
be marching in lockstep.
In contrast, a number of pro-gun Democratic US Senators have spoken out loudly
and unambiguously. Senator Bob Casey of
Pennsylvania told the Philadelphia Inquirer
that he had been “summoned” by his conscience in the aftermath of the Newtown
shootings to change his position, and that
he would support legislation banning assault
weapons and magazines that hold more than
10 rounds of ammunition. “The power of
the weapon,” he said, “the number of bullets
that hit each child, that was so, to me, just so
chilling, it haunts me. It should haunt every
public official.”
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) believes
that "there are an awful lot of folks who,
like myself, who’ve got an A rating from
the NRA that are willing to say, ‘Enough.’
We’ve got to find a way that you can responsibly own firearms in the country but put appropriate restrictions on some of those tools
of ... mass killings.” Senator Joe Manchin
(D-W.VA), who describes himself as “an Arated, lifelong member of the National Rifle
Association and a proud defender of the Second Amendment,” wrote in the Washington
Post that,
“I support a sensible, comprehensive
process that can lead to reasonable solutions
regarding mass violence. I will weigh the
evidence for any proposals put before me, including ways to address high-capacity magazines and military-style assault weapons, improve mental health treatment, and transform
a culture that glorifies violence.”
Which is not to say that there are not
some principled Republican conservatives
like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough who told
his Morning Joe audience in an eloquent
monologue last Monday that, “Entertain-
ment moguls don't have an absolute right to
glorify murder while spreading mayhem in
young minds across America. And our Bill
of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-style,
high-caliber, semi-automatic combat assault
rifles with high-capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want. It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas.
It's time for politicians to start focusing more
on protecting our schoolyards than putting
together their next fundraiser.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has
called for gun control to be part of a “large,
national discussion” together with mental
health issues, substance abuse, and the desensitizing depiction of violence by the media and in video games. And US District
Judge Larry Alan Burns, a gun-owning conservative who was appointed to the federal
bench by President George W. Bush, called
for far-reaching legislation in a Los Angeles
Times op-ed:
“Bring back the assault weapons ban, and
bring it back with some teeth this time. Ban
the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer
and possession of both assault weapons and
high-capacity magazines. Don't let people
who already have them keep them. Don't let
ones that have already been manufactured
stay on the market. I don't care whether it's
called gun control or a gun ban. I'm for it . . . .
There is just no reason civilians need to own
assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Gun enthusiasts can still have their
venison chili, shoot for sport and competition, and make a home invader flee for his
life without pretending they are a part of the
SEAL team that took out Osama bin Laden.”
But Scarborough, Christie and Burns
are clearly the exceptions. The always contemptible Rush Limbaugh descended to
a new low even for him when he actually
scoffed in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.
“I just got two e-mails,” he brayed on his racont’d on p. 11
January 2013
Children
cont’d from p. 10
dio program on December 18. “I have three
nieces. . . . You know what they say? ‘Dear
Uncle Rush: With all that's going on, do you
think you should buy more guns?’ Everybody else's daughters are saying, ‘Get rid
of your guns.’ My nieces are asking me if I
have enough! Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.”
Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh?
I began this article with a contemplation
of my own family history. My five-and-ahalf year old brother, my mother’s son, was
murdered in an Auschwitz gas chamber.
More than a million Jewish children, including all the children in my parents’ respective families, were killed by the Germans
and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
Thousands upon thousands of them were
machine gunned to death by SS men at killing sites such as Babi Yar in the Ukrainian
capital of Kiev and Ponary near Vilnius in
Lithuania.
At the Newtown vigil, President Obama
read out the names of the 20 Sandy Hook Elementary School children whom our society
had been unable protect:
“Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine.
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FIND EACH
OTHER AGAIN, 70 YEARS LATER
cont’d from p. 9
“I was 10 when my father passed away,”
Yaalon said. It was the first time during
A few of the teenage Czech Jewish refugees enjoying the Danish winter in the
early 1940s (photo credit: Courtesy, archive of Judita Matyasova)
the conversation that raw emotion peeped
through his otherwise jovial appearance.
“Then, just a few years later, I had to say
goodbye to my mother, a widow, and depart
for Denmark,” he said, tears welling up.
He was able to communicate with his
mother for a period, via the Red Cross letter
forms, which only had space for 25 words,
January 2013
Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase.
Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah.
Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison. God has called them all home.”
Add to them six-year old Veronica Moser-Sullivan who was killed last July in the
Aurora, Colorado, movie theater. And then
there were six-year old Arye Sandler, threeyear old Gabriel Sandler and eight-year old
Miriam Monsonego who were gunned down
last March by an Islamist terrorist in Toulouse, France, together with Arye and Gabriel’s father, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler. And
let us not forget the 20 children killed by
Palestinian terrorists on May 15, 1974, in the
northern Israeli town of Ma’alot. And the
seven children murdered on August 9, 2001,
in the Sbarro pizza restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem. And my brother, Benjamin,
and all the Jewish, Sinti and Roma children
butchered by the Nazis. And the children
killed by terrorists in Northern Ireland, by
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and in the
genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia and
elsewhere. The list of the children whom
civilized society has failed is endless. We
will never be able to list all their names.
Our “first task,” President Obama said
poignantly, is “caring for our children. It’s
our first job. If we don’t get that right, we
don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.” Vice President Joe
Biden, whom the president named to head an
interagency task force on gun violence, observed that, “even if we can only save one
life, we have to take action.” They are both,
of course, absolutely right.
We cannot change the past. We cannot
bring back to life a single murdered child.
But all of us, regardless of party affiliation
or political orientation, can and must do everything in our collective power to stop the
carnage of our children in the future. That
future must begin now, and meaningful, effective gun control has to be at the top of
our list of priorities. Otherwise the anger we
voiced and the tears we shed after the Newtown massacre will be bereft of meaning.
but that soon stopped as the Nazis took control of Denmark.
Some of the teens did find their parents
after the war — they were the happy exceptions. Dina Kafkova found her father, one
of the few Jews who escaped from Prague
in 1941.
Kafkova’s daughter, Barbara Rich, a lawyer from London who flew in to represent
her mother at the gathering, said she wished
her mom was still alive so she could ask her
more about her wartime experiences.
“You know how kids are, your parents
are infinitely boring when you’re a teen…
And my mother never spoke about the war,”
said Rich. “Perhaps it wasn’t as acceptable
to speak about the Holocaust as it is now.”
Or, maybe the experiences — a remnant
from a previous life — were still too fresh,
and speaking about them proved too painful.
This meeting in Israel was instigated by
a random chain of events: Years ago, while
Kafkova befriended a stranger at a London
tube station, a woman who, many years
later, noticed an ad in a local Jewish pa-
per. That ad was taken out by a man named
Yaalon asking if anyone had information on
Czech Jews who had lived in Denmark during the war. When the ad was passed on to
Kafkova, she closed a gap that had spanned
over 40 years. Although she had known him
by his Czech name, Berger, Kafkova recognized Yaalon right away, and she wrote to
him.
They got in touch, and she even came to
Israel for a visit — but the entire group was
still not yet aware of who else was out there.
“This [reunion] would have meant the
world to her,” Rich said of her mother.
Matyasova (who works without funding)
says the effort to reconnect the members of
this group and capture their untold stories
— not just for their sake, but for their living family members, and for generations to
come — is far from over.
“A few individuals, or even one individual, is more than just a number,” she said at
the meetup. “There are more Czech teens
who were saved by Denmark during the
war, and I want to find them all.”
Menachem Z. Rosensaft, who
was born in the Displaced
Persons camp of BergenBelsen, is general counsel of
the World Jewish Congress
and vice president of the
American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and
Their Descendants. He teaches about the law of
genocide and war crimes trials at the law schools
of Columbia, Cornell and Syracuse universities.
TOGETHER 11
At 20 Years, Holocaust Museum’s Importance Continues To Grow
By MAAYAN JAFFE, Baltimore Jewish Times
This year, the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum marks 20 years of inspiring our nation about the history of the
Holocaust and the dangerous behaviors
that led to it.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the Museum will hold a historic gathering of Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans in Washington this April. A four-city
tour beginning in December will lead up
to the event and demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Holocaust in the 21st
century.
Until April — and for those who don’t
make the event in the spring — the museum is offering 20 actions that people can
take to help promote Holocaust education
and remembrance and to work to prevent
future genocides (see ushmm.org/neveragain).
USHMM Director Sara Bloomfield
As the museum prepares to launch its
programming, the Baltimore Jewish Times
caught up with museum director Sara J.
Bloomfield to talk about USHMM’s newest projects and initiatives. Bloomfield,
who serves as an adviser to museums
around the world and is a member of the
International Auschwitz Council and on
the board of the International Council of
Museums/USA, told the JT that USHMM,
with close to two million visitors per year,
is just as relevant today as it was 20 years
ago when it opened.
JT: Most organizations celebrate on
the 10th and 25th. Why the 20th?
Bloomfield: For us, the 20th is really
important because it marks the beginning
of the moment of intergenerational transfer. Over the next coming years, we will
be losing more of the eyewitness genera-
TOGETHER 12
tion. We want to use the moment to honor
survivors, salute World War II veterans and
send a message to young people about the
importance of carrying on the [messages of
the] survivors to new generations ahead.
As an institution, we are asking the question, “What will the Holocaust mean in the
21st century?” We want to ensure it is not
just another important part of history, but
that it really becomes the pivotal event in human history that continues to teach us very
important lessons about humanity.
Is this a change? Is the museum evolving?
I have been here 26 years; I came in the
years the museum was being created. Our
goal in those early years was to build a building. Now, our goal is to build a global [Internet] enterprise. … In those days, we weren’t
even imagining going out to states. And now,
in some ways, we are in all 50 states.
I think the other big change is that [with
technology] the world has become a more exciting but also a more dangerous place. Issues
of hate and genocide and anti-Semitism are
very much present today. In some ways, we
are more meaningful now in the 21st century
than we were in the 20th. [The Holocaust]
speaks so profoundly and urgently to some of
the most pressing issues of our own day.
What role do you think the museum has
played in the nation’s Holocaust education?
We see our responsibility as being a
leader in the field of Holocaust education. …
We feel it is our responsibility to encourage
Holocaust education, set standards for Holocaust education and to provide materials that
can be used in any kind of classroom setting
— a seventh-grade literature class or an 11thgrade history class. We have materials that
are flexible and can be adjusted to all sorts
of classroom settings. We also publish guidelines for teachers — standards for things we
think are indications of best practices, based
on years of our own experiences learning
things that work and things that don’t work.
How do you get the materials to the
teachers?
We identify master teachers around the
country. These are teachers who have a commitment to the profession of education and
Holocaust education, specifically. We invest
in these teachers. … We have a group of master teachers from around country that serve
as leaders in their own states and school systems and serve as supports and mentors in
the field. This is our way of ensuring quality
Holocaust education throughout the country.
Do people still want to learn about the
Holocaust?
There is still enormous interest from
teachers and students on the high school and
college levels. Our concern is how to respond
to that interest with really quality education.
Can young people still connect?
We obviously work with survivors a lot
and introduce younger people to survivors
and World War II veterans. That is what
brings the history alive. … We have intensive programs with the D.C. school system
and in Maryland and Virginia. This show that
the subject matter continues to be very powerful and relevant for these young people.
You can also look at the Holocaust in popular culture; the Holocaust continues to be a
focus of movies and books. Anne Frank is
still incredibly popular. I think the reason is
that it touches on such profound issues about
human nature, our propensity for issues of
hatred or abusive power.
As more and more survivors are dying, in what unique ways will the museum
fill that void?
We have a lot of testimonies, but nothing is like the chance to meet a real survivor.
We have 90 survivors who volunteer for the
museum and sit in the museum and talk to
kids, and we know we won’t be able to do
that forever. The big question for us is how
we maximize opportunities with the survivors while we have them. We do know that
part of what the survivors bring — and we
can never replicate it — is that authenticity.
When the survivors are gone, it will be our
collections that will bring an authentic take
on history. The artifacts are what people find
so meaningful — the shoes and the suitcases
and the railroad car.
We have another decade or so to collect
all of this evidence. This will help us tell the
story with power and authenticity when the
survivors are gone. The objects in our collections will be the sole authentic witnesses of
the Holocaust.
Are there any other new initiatives?
The biggest initiative for our future is
building what I call this global digital educational platform that will give us the chance to
bring Holocaust awareness and understanding to a worldwide audience — anyone, anywhere, anytime. We have a website in 14 difCont’d on pg. 13
January 2013
At 20 Years, Holocaust Museum’s
Importance Continues To Grow
Cont’d from pg. 12
ferent languages and really want to expand on
using digital media in a multilingual way to
bring the history of the Holocaust to populations all over the world — countries in the Islamic world, of course, but also to places like
Europe. It is really important that in the lands
where the Holocaust happened they continue
to see the Holocaust as an important part of
their identity. And then, we also want it for
parts of the world that are growing in influence, like China, Brazil and Russia.
Who are your main target audiences?
The Holocaust was the failure of [Germany’s] leadership and citizenship. So, our two
most important target audiences are leaders
and young people. … We also do a lot of leadership training programs for the military, judiciary, law enforcement, FBI and clergy. We
have been training Baltimore City police since
1999. In these programs, these professionals
look at how their own profession behaved
during the Holocaust and in the 1930s leading
up to the Holocaust, which leads to important
discussions among these professionals about
their own moral obligations today.
Still, not everyone believes in the Holocaust. How do we respond to the deniers?
The world’s leading expert on Holocaust
denial, Deborah E. Lipstadt, is a member of
our board. However, deniers are not people
that are interested in a discussion about history. Holocaust denial is just another form
of anti-Semitism. You can’t have a rational
debate with a hater. … We don’t deal with
deniers directly; we don’t dignify them. We
don’t want to give them a platform. Our big
concern is the people they might influence,
and the best response to that is effective Holocaust education.
And what about those who say Jews
didn’t fight back hard enough?
It is very easy to condemn people in
hindsight. No one understood in the 1930s.
The Nazis came to power in 1933 and started
[the mass] genocide in 1941. No one could
have predicated what was going to happen.
It was such an unprecedented event. It
would have been unrealistic for people to
grasp what was about to happen. So when you
look at Jews in Germany, you have to remember that they had been well assimilated and
treated far better in Germany than in countries
like Poland or Russia, where there was a lot
of violence against Jews, or even France with
the Dreyfus affair. If you looked at Europe at
January 2013
the beginning of the 20th century, you would
not have singled out Germany as the place to
have mass violence against the Jews.
Also, we can’t assume people had communications like we have today. Reports
came back, sure, and people found them
unbelievable — as would be natural. Some
people understood what was happening, but
they made the choice to stay with their families rather than leave and risk fighting in partisan units. I think to make judgments that
condemn Jews who didn’t fully understand
or respond is not to look at history carefully.
There was a lot Jewish resistance; we have
two exhibitions on that in the museum.
We are in 2012. Across the world, we
know there are other holocausts going on.
How can the U.S. Holocaust Museum play
a role in stopping those genocides?
When Elie Wiesel created the vision for
this museum, he did feel it was very important the museum prevent future genocide.
He wanted to try to do for other victims and
potential victims what was not done for the
Jews in the 1930s. His vision was if we can
save lives in the future that would be the most
powerful memorial to the Jews who died in
Europe. We do have a genocide prevention
program, and our job is to raise awareness.
We don’t advocate for any particular policy,
but we do want to raise awareness. For example, we raised awareness about Darfur;
we were one of the first institutions to call
it genocide and then the U.S. government
agreed with that assessment. At the museum,
we point out that as horrific an unprecedented as the Holocaust was, after 1945 we have
experienced Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.
Final sentiments. What do Jewish
Times readers need to know?
The most important thing, and the reason
why I think this museum so belongs on the
National Mall in Washington, is that it is this
global organization really speaking to all of
humanity. We focus on not just that the Holocaust happened, but on why it happened.
Surely it was preventable, and in encouraging people to think about that, we try to remind them that it happened in one of the most
advanced regions of the world. The people of
Germany were highly educated, very sophisticated, led by a democratic constitution with
rule of law and freedom of expression — all
of the things we think in a democracy will
protect us from our darker side as human beings. The Holocaust reminds us that today, in
any society, the unthinkable is always thinkable.
REMARKS BY ROMAN KENT
Cont’d from pg. 6
German people, beg forgiveness.”
As I gaze at the Berlin of today, so beautifully re-built after the war, I also look beyond the brick and mortar. I see its present
inhabitants, the “New Germans,” those with
compassion, understanding, and knowledge
of the evils of Nazism. During the many
years of our negotiations, I have witnessed
the willingness and desire to correct past
wrongs and to extend a helping hand to survivors, particularly the ones in need.
For sixty years the Luxembourg Agreement has been periodically amended to conform to the changing situation with regard to
the needs of survivors. The Article II Fund
is one of the best examples. Just as in past
years, I am confident that the German government will continue to be flexible enough
to recognize the additional needs of the aging survivors, whose numbers rapidly diminish year by year, homecare becoming the
dominant issue.
At this time I would like to offer thanks
to Minister Schäuble for supporting the requests of the Claims Conference, and also
express special appreciation to State Secretary Gatzer for his role in understanding the
urgent needs of the aging Holocaust survivors.
However painful, we survivors and the
German nation, must always remember the
Holocaust in order to prevent it from ever
happening again to us or to any other people.
To overcome prejudice, hatred and humanrights abuses, it is essential that we educate
future generations. Thus, it is our mutual
obligation to instill in our children and the
generations to come, what can happen when
prejudice and hatred are allowed to flourish.
Our children must be taught the importance
of tolerance and understanding, both at home
and in school, for tolerance cannot be assumed it must be taught. It is our shared responsibility to emphasize to one and all that
hate is never right, and love is never wrong.
After all we are all one people, and we all
live on one planet.
TOGETHER 13
U.S. response to a cry for
help during World War II
By MICHAEL BERENBAUM, JewishJournal.
com
A prosecutor by training and a historical novelist by avocation, Gregory J. Wallance has written books of historical fiction
and historical nonfiction. In “America’s
Soul in the Balance: The Holocaust, FDR’s
State Department and the Moral Disgrace
of an American Aristocracy” (Greenleaf
Book Group Press: 2012), a
highly readable, brief account of
the dramatic interplay between
the Department of State and the
Department of the Treasury during the Holocaust over the fate
of the Jews of Europe, Wallance
tells quite a story and masterfully
documents the well-deserved indictment of the World War II-era
U.S. State Department.
The evidence he musters is
well known to scholars, yet he
brings fresh eyes to this material
and introduces a factor that others have raised merely in passing
— the issue of class and of the
White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) establishment, which was then at the peak of
its power. The WASP supremacy would soon
change, however, as the sons and daughters of American ethnic groups came of age
during the middle decades of the 20th century, and with the election of John F. Kennedy, who always remembered that he was
an Irish Catholic, a scorned outsider to the
WASP establishment. Beginning with the
JFK presidency, we witnessed a broadening
of the American establishment with the entry
of Catholic and Jews and, somewhat later,
African-Americans and women, and now
Asians and Latinos.
Wallance takes us inside the corridors of
the State Department, then housed in what
is now the Old Executive Office Building,
across from the White House. He captures
the tragic tension between Sumner Welles,
the undersecretary of state with deep personal ties to the president, the man in the State
Department most sympathetic to Jews, and
TOGETHER 14
his boss, Cordell Hull, a former senator and
politician with deep Southern roots — married to a woman of Jewish ancestry — who,
frankly, was not up to the task of being a
wartime secretary of state. At the peak of the
German annihilation of the Jews, a sexual
and racial scandal destroyed Welles’ career.
On a presidential train, he is reported to have
solicited sex from an African-American porter. Hull did not get mad at his insubordinate
subordinate, he got even.
Wallance also takes us a floor above to
the high level of the American State Department bureaucracy, where men — and they
were then virtually all men — of similar
background, class and education were quite
certain that they — perhaps even they alone
— knew what was in the best interest of the
nation, without interference from outside agitators and special interests, such as Jews, who
were concerned about
the fate of their brethren and not just about
the pursuit of war. He
also takes us back to the
prep school of Groton,
where they were taught
the values of national
service and also of
WASP supremacy, even
before getting their Ivy
League education.
He details the failure of the State Department to turn over Gerhard Riegner’s telegram to Rabbi Stephen Wise, informing the
head of the World Jewish Congress of the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem “because
of the fantastic nature of the allegations and
the impossibility of our being of any assistance if such actions — the murder of the
Jews — were taken,” as if it were better not
to know than to know and be unable to be of
assistance.
Historian Walter Laqueur had it right:
With regard to rescue, the pessimists won.
They said that nothing could be done, and
nothing was done. The optimists, those
who believed in rescue, were never given a
chance. They may have failed, but to not attempt rescue was to ensure failure.
Wallance depicts the famous confrontation between the State Department and the
Treasury Department over the issuing of a
license to transfer foreign currency, and thus
ransoming the Jews. It was this confrontation, and the State Department’s effort to
thwart the rescue, that led young Treasury
Department officials to draft their “Report
to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This
Government to the Murder of the Jews.”
Among the accusations in the report, it said
the State Department had: “used Governmental machinery to prevent the rescue of
these Jews; … taken steps designed to prevent these [rescue] programs [of private organizations] from being put into effect; …
surreptitiously attempted to stop obtaining
of information concerning the murder of the
Jewish population of Europe” and “tried to
cover up their guilt by: a) concealment and
misrepresentation; b) the giving of false and
misleading explanations for their failures
to act and their attempts to prevent action;
and c) the issuance of false and misleading
statements concerning the ‘action’ which
they have taken to date.” Treasury Secretary
Henry Morgenthau Jr. condensed this report, softened its title and took it to President
Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944. The
result was the War Refugee Board — with
Morgenthau as chairman — which finally
had the power to do something about rescue.
Throughout the book, Wallance does not
let the reader lose sight of what these “great”
men of history did not consider, namely that
the decisions they made and the policies
they pursued impacted real people, desperate
people — men, women and children. Ruth
Glassberg, then a young child, is his narrator,
and her story is riveting.
With his skill as a writer evident, his sense
of the scenery and the dialogue, Wallance
takes us into the corridors of power. We meet
Gerhard Riegner, then a young official of the
World Jewish Congress operating in neutral
Switzerland who first learns of the “Final Solution” of death camps and of Zyklon B.
We are introduced to his informant, who
has high contacts in the German government as a major industrialist and travels to
Switzerland first to reveal the plans to attack
the Soviet Union and then a second time
to speak of the murder of the Jews. He is a
source of absolutely significant and “incredible” information. It took 40 years for Eduard Schulte’s name to be known, as Riegner
had promised him anonymity. We are taken
to Poland’s embassy in the United States,
when Jan Karski, the great Polish courier,
told of the demands of the Jews he met in
the Warsaw ghetto to Felix Frankfurter and
Ambassador Jan Ciechanowski in preparation for his meeting with FDR.
Cont’d on pg. 15
January 2013
U.S. response to a cry for help during
World War II
Cont’d from pg. 14
We feel that we are literally in the room
as Randolph Paul, general counsel of the
Treasury Department, along with John Pehle
and Josiah DuBois Jr., confront Secretary
Morgenthau with their findings and their
insistence on action. Wallance’s narrative
is not imagined, but based on the diary of
one of the participants. Thirty years ago, I
examined DuBois’ most personal papers
and attempted to describe the scene in Morgenthau’s office and also the moment when
Donald Hiss showed DuBois the missing
link in the evidentiary trail that sealed his
case against the State Department. My hat
is off to Wallance for the sheer pleasure of
reading his depiction.
He is less prone to blame Jewish institutional politics and the divisions among Jewish leadership than David Wyman, and places responsibility directly in the hands of an
establishment that failed the test in the Jewish people’s greatest hour of need. Wallance
is quick to emphasize the distinct and controlling way in which Roosevelt controlled
his cabinet and played off the interpersonal
rivalries. Not all blame comes from FDR’s
desk, and Wallance credits the war effort.
Wallance’s judgment is balanced. He allows his case to build brick by brick, story by
story, document by document. He is careful
to stress that the State Department of today
shares little in common with its World War II
predecessor, both in class and in background
— a point that is easily forgotten by many, as
the State Department and the Department of
Defense and the White House now may hold
in their hands the fate of the rebuilt Jewish
community in Israel.
One may read more scholarly accounts
of this period, but it is unlikely one will read
a more vivid account that is both responsible and detailed without being too dense
or drowning the guts of the story in myriad
facts. Imagine a prosecutor presenting his
case and a novelist writing his story. Consider Wallance’s mastery of detail and ability to
present such detail in a compelling manner.
The reader will not be disappointed.
January 2013
Concert Based on Terezín Story to Benefit
Survivors in New York
When the gifted Czech conductor Rafael Schächter arrived in Theresienstadt, he
found himself in a shadow world where sick
and starving prisoners were allowed to pursue every variety of arts and letters. Becoming chief organizer of the Administration of
Free Time Activities, Schächter conceived a
daring act of defiance. Using a single score
and one legless piano, he taught a chorus of
150 Jews to sing Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem
Mass. Sixteen times, before the last singers
were sent to Auschwitz, they sang a Latin
text proclaiming God’s certain punishment
for the wicked and redemption of the innocent. Their last performance was in the presence of high-ranking Nazi officials and representatives of the International Red Cross.
How this group of Jews in the antechamber to death came to
sing a Catholic Mass
is the central question of a two-hour,
multi-media concert
drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin, which will be
given its only New
York performance on
April 29, 2013, in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Elie Wiesel and Ambassador
Stuart E. Eizenstat are
Honorary Co-Chairs
of the event.
The
proceeds
of this concert, presented by UJA-Federation of New York,
Selfhelp Community Services, Inc., and The
Defiant Requiem Foundation, will benefit
the UJA-Federation Community Initiative
for Holocaust Survivors. This initiative
makes grants to area-wide and community
based agencies in New York that help survivors maintain their independence, comfort
and dignity. The services provided include
emergency cash assistance, coordinated case
management and entitlements counseling,
transportation, legal advocacy, social gatherings for survivors, end-of-life care, and
second-generation caregiver support.
Defiant Requiem was created by Maestro Murry Sidlin, who discovered Raphael
Schächter’s story in 1994 and interviewed
the few surviving chorus members. He used
their video testimony, photo resources, and
sections of a Nazi propaganda film depicting
Terezín as a “retreat for the Jews” to shape a
drama that incorporates a full performance of
Verdi’s masterwork. The piece has been performed to critical acclaim everywhere it has
played, from Washington, D.C. to Budapest,
from Atlanta to Jerusalem, and in Terezín itself. The performances are organized by The
Defiant Requiem Foundation, chaired by
Ambassador Eizenstat, who led the negotiations during the Clinton Administration for
$8 billion in recoveries from European banks
and insurance companies, and the restitution
of Nazi-looted art and property to benefit
survivors and families of victims.
The evening will include a special preconcert reception with
Maestro Sidlin and
Ambassador Eizenstat
to honor Ernest W. Michel, Executive Vice
President
Emeritus
of UJA-Federation of
New York, and former
chairman of the World
Gathering of Jewish
Holocaust Survivors.
Mr. Michel survived
Auschwitz to become
one of the foremost
leaders of the American Jewish community.
Privileged to spend his
life very publicly in the
service of the Jewish
people, Ernie Michel
never left behind his identity as a survivor,
and remains to this day a strong proponent
of UJA-Federation’s efforts on behalf of the
more vulnerable survivors in New York and
Israel.
Tickets for Defiant Requiem go on sale
on February 4, 2013, through the Lincoln
Center box office at 1.212.721.6500. An array of sponsorship opportunities at various
levels of support, including ticket packages
and an invitation to attend the pre-concert
reception may be viewed on the UJA-Federation website at http://ujafedny.org/defiantrequiem. For more information, kindly be in
touch with Jessica Chait of UJA-Federation
at 212.836.1269, or [email protected].
TOGETHER 15
Babe Ruth and the
Holocaust
By RAFAEL MEDOFF, Jerusalem Post
Seventy years ago, the names of 50
German-Americans appeared in a fullpage advertisement in ten daily newspapers ‘in denunciation of the Hitler policy
of cold-blooded extermination of the Jews
of Europe.’ The most prominent signatory
was George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth.
Babe Ruth is remembered for his home
runs on the field and his hot dog binges and
other peccadilloes off the field. But as the
American public is about to discover, there
was another Babe Ruth—one who went to
bat for women and minorities, including
the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust.
Throughout the spring and summer
of 1942, Allied leaders received a steady
stream of reports about the Germans massacring tens of thousands of Jewish civilians.
Information reaching the Roosevelt
administration in August revealed that the
killings were not random atrocities, but
part of a Nazi plan to systematically annihilate all of Europe’s Jews. In late November the State Department publicly verified
this news, and on December 17, the US
and British governments and their allies
issued a declaration acknowledging and
condemning the mass murder.
But aside from that Allied statement,
the Roosevelt administration had no intention of doing anything in response to the
killings. There was no serious consideration of opening America’s doors—or the
doors of British-ruled Palestine—to Jewish
refugees. There was no discussion of taking any steps to rescue the Jews. As quickly as the mass murder had been revealed, it
began to fade from the public eye.
Dorothy Thompson was determined to
keep that from
happening.
And Babe Ruth
would help her.
Thompson
(1893-1961)
was the first
American journalist to be
expelled from
Nazi Germany.
She was once
described
by
Time magazine
Dorothy Thompson
as one of the
TOGETHER 16
New York State Assembly.
two most influential womBut the signatory who
en in the United States,
was by far the best known
second only to Eleanor
to the American pubRoosevelt. In the autumn
lic was George Herman
of 1942, Thompson con“Babe” Ruth.
tacted the World Jewish
Widely regarded as the
Congress with a novel
greatest baseball player in
idea: mobilizing GermanAmericans to speak out
the history of the game,
against the Nazi persecuRuth, known as the Sultan
tion of the Jews.
of Swat, at that time held
As
a
journalist,
the records for the most
Thompson understood the
home runs in a season (60)
man-bites-dog news value
and the most home runs in
of
German-Americans
a career (714) as well as
protesting against Gernumerous other batting remany—especially in view
cords. Having excelled as
of the well-publicized proa pitcher before switching
George Herman “Babe” Ruth
Nazi sentiment in some
to the outfield and gaining
segments of the German- American commu- fame as a hitter, the amazingly versatile Ruth
nity. Just a few years earlier, more than 20,000 even held the pitching record for the most
supporters of the German American Bund had shutouts in a season by a left-hander. Not
filled Madison Square Garden for a pro-Hitler surprisingly, Ruth was one of the first players
rally.
elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The World Jewish Congress agreed
By participating in this German-Amerito foot the bill for publishing Thompson’s can protest against the Holocaust, Ruth used
anti-Nazi statement as a newspaper adver- his powerful name to help attract public attisement. She drafted the text and set about tention to the Jews’ plight. Timing is everyrecruiting signatories. Seventy years ago, on thing, both on the baseball field and beyond,
Dec. 22, the “Christmas Declaration by men and the timing of Ruth’s protest was crucial:
and women of German ancestry” appeared precisely at the moment when US officials
as a full-page ad in The New York Times and were hoping to brush the Jewish refugee
nine other major daily newspapers.
problem aside, Babe Ruth helped keep it
“[W]e Americans of German descent front and center.
raise our voices in denunciation of the Hitler
In an era when professional athletes
policy of cold-blooded extermination of the rarely lent their names to political causes,
Jews of Europe and against the barbarities and when most Americans—including the
committed by the Nazis against all other in- Roosevelt administration—took little internocent peoples under their sway,” the decla- est in the mass murder of Europe’s Jews,
ration begins. “These horrors... are, in partic- Babe Ruth raised his voice in protest. Ruth’s
ular, a challenge to those who, like ourselves action is all the more memorable when one
are descendants of the Germany that once contrasts it with the other kinds of behavior
stood in the foremost ranks of civilization.” that all too often land athletes on the front
The ad goes on to “utterly repudiate ev- pages these days.
ery thought and deed of Hitler and his NaFilmmaker Byron Hunter and Ruth’s
zis,” and urge the people of Germany “to granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti, have
overthrow a regime which is the infamy of collaborated on a soon-to-be-released docuGerman history.”
mentary, Universal Babe. Those who are acThe names of 50 prominent German- customed to thinking of Ruth’s off-the-field
Americans appeared on the advertisement.
activities in terms of binges and carousing
There were several notable academics, will be pleasantly surprised to learn from the
such as Princeton University dean Christian film of the slugger’s noble efforts on behalf
Gauss and University of Maine president Ar- of women’s baseball, the Negro Baseball
thur Mauck. Leading Protestant theologian Leagues and the Jews of Hitler’s Europe.
Reinhold Niebuhr, news correspondent William Shirer and orchestra conductor Walter Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of
Damrosch appeared in the ad. So did Freda The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Kirchwey, editor of the political newsweekly Studies in Washington, DC.
The Nation, and Oswald Heck, speaker of the
January 2013
historian stated indicates that the women arrived at the concentration camp within a day
of one another, perhaps even on the same
train.
However, the son and daughter of FriedBy HILLEL KUTLER, The Times of Israel
man, who is now 86, said that she is the
Upon returning to his Tel Aviv apartment wrong person.
Efroni, 26, expressed disappointment
from a long day of classes, Ofir Efroni often
sets aside his college textbooks and gets to at the news, but continues searching. In
work searching for a woman he’s never met, so doing, he is returning some of the love
but who means the world to his grandmother. Lowinger showed him, especially during
Quite literally so, because the woman weekend visits to her home in the coastal city
of Netanya. She
he is searching for,
prepared stuffed
Rozsi
Friedman,
cabbage
and
saved his grandother Hungarian
mother from certain
dishes that he
death. When, at age
devoured, along
16, Efroni’s grandwith the memomother, a Hungarries she related
ian Jew then known
of her youth and
as Koti Grunbaum,
of surviving the
first arrived at Auschwitz, Friedman Ofir Efroni hopes to find Rozsi Friedman (left, in Holocaust.
One name
grabbed her and 1948), who saved his grandmother, Koti Grunbaum
(right),
from
certain
death
at
Auschwitz.
(Courtesy
arose
in many
pushed her toward
of Sara Efroni via JTA)
of those converthe side with those
prisoners whom the Nazis allowed to live a sations: Rozsi Friedman. When Grunbaum
suffered from typhoid, Friedman brought her
bit longer.
Efroni’s grandmother — she became food and clothing.
“She would say, ‘She worried about me,
Orna Lowinger after settling in Israel and
helped
me, brought me food.’ We always
marrying — now suffers from Alzheimer’s
heard
from
her how much she wanted to find
disease. In whatever way Efroni can communicate with his grandmother, he hopes to her and meet her,” Efroni said. “She’d say,
be able to provide news of Friedman’s hav- ‘Halvai [How great] if I could find her, speak
ing been found — and maybe even put the with her.’”
Efroni’s search began when his grandwomen on the telephone together or arrange
father, Mordechai, died a few months ago.
for them to meet.
But to locate Friedman, he might require While sitting shiva at the Lowingers’ home in
more information — her married name and Modi’in – they had moved there to be closer
her place of birth, for example — something to Efroni’s parents, who live in Reut, west
Lowinger, now 85, isn’t capable of providing of Jerusalem — Efroni flipped through his
anymore. He recalls Lowinger saying that grandparents’ photo albums. He noticed two
Friedman’s father was a rabbi or a shochet pictures of Friedman. Friedman had mailed
(ritual slaughterer), but that’s not much to go them to Efroni’s grandmother following the
Holocaust.
on.
“I didn’t know that there were photoLast week, searchers including a Jerusalem historian who is a Budapest native and graphs of her and that they’d been in touch,”
a New York lawyer working for the Con- Efroni said.
In one, Friedman is wearing a white
ference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany, seemed to have tracked down tichel, a head covering worn by married,
observant women. An undated note written
Friedman in Brooklyn.
According to documents held by Yad in Hungarian that accompanied the picture
Vashem, Israel’s premier Holocaust research reads, “With a lot of love from a friend. Rozinstitution, central details appeared to match: si.” Under it, she wrote “Kosice,” a city now
Friedman and Grunbaum are approximately in southeastern Slovakia that is just across
the same age and followed similar paths dur- the Hungary border from Lowinger’s homeing the Holocaust. And their Auschwitz tat- town of Emod.
too numbers are just 1,103 apart, which the
cont’d on p. 18
Grandson takes over
search for Holocaust
survivor’s savior
January 2013
Eleonara Bergman awarded
French Legion of Honor
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) -- Eleonora Bergman, a Polish Jewish historian and former
director of the Jewish Historical Institute in
Warsaw, was awarded the French Legion of
Honor.
Bergman received the medal for her contribution to the Jewish heritage of Poland.
The medal was presented by the French ambassador to Poland, Pierre Buhler. The Legion of Honor, which rewards the outstanding merits of citizens in all walks of life, is
France’s highest decoration.
One of Eleonora Bergman's achievements is preparing to publish the complete
edition of the Ringelblum Archive, which
documents life in the Warsaw ghetto during
World War II.
PLEASE KEEP US IN MIND
WHEN YOU THINK OF THE
FUTURE
OUR MISSION AS MEMBERS OF THE
AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS & THEIR DESCENDANTS
IS TO PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE
SHOAH THROUGH EDUCATION AND COMMEMORATION.
WE EDUCATE OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS
WHILE REMEMBERING AND COMMEMORATING
OUR PAST. IN ORDER TO LEAVE A LASTING
LEGACY TO SHOW THAT OUR LIVES HAVE MADE
A DIFFERENCE, EACH OF US CAN BE A PART OF
ENSURING THAT OUR SACRED TASK OF REMEMBRANCE WILL CONTINUE IN YEARS TO COME.
AS YOU PLAN YOUR LEGACY, WE WOULD
THE
AMERICAN GATHERING AS A PART OF YOUR
“FUTURE.” YOU CAN ARRANGE TO LEAVE A
BEQUEST TO THE AMERICAN GATHERING OF
JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS & THEIR
DESCENDANTS IN YOUR WILL. THE FOLLOWING WORDING IS RECOMMENDED:
“I GIVE AND BEQUEATH ______ TO THE
AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS & THEIR DESCENDANTS,
A NOT-FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION, WITH ITS
PRINCIPAL OFFICE LOCATED AT 122 WEST
30TH STREET, SUITE 205, NEW YORK, NEW
YORK, 10001”
WE ARE HUMBLED BY THE TASK AHEAD
BE HONORED IF YOU WOULD CONSIDER
OF US AND GRATEFUL TO EACH OF YOU FOR
YOUR CONFIDENCE AND SUPPORT.
TOGETHER 17
Grandson takes over search for
Holocaust survivor’s savior
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 marker 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, marker
will reaffirm 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 instructions 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
Attn: M. Scot
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205
New York, NY 10001
Name ______________________
Address_____________________
City ________________________
State _______ Zip ____________
Phone______________________
E-mail ______________________
Number of Markers ____________
Total Amount Enclosed $________
TOGETHER 18
cont’d from p. 17
Another photograph shows a bareheaded Friedman. Her note with it reads, “Lots
of love to Kotokanuak,” and was signed
“Rozitol,” using the two women’s diminutives. It is dated May 9, 1948, and was sent
from Fehergyarmat, in northeast Hungary.
The women lost contact soon thereafter. Lowinger believed that Friedman might
have moved to the United States, Efroni
said. He posited that Friedman could have
settled in a strictly observant community,
perhaps even in Jerusalem.
While few details are available on
Friedman, Lowinger’s own background is
known. Her parents were Moshe and Sara,
and she had an older brother, Laszo (known
as Lazzi and Zeev), and a younger brother,
Imre. A document in the International Tracing Service’s archives documents Lowinger’s path during the Holocaust as follows:
She was sent to the Mezoczato ghetto in
April 1944, to Auschwitz and then Plaszow
in June, back to Auschwitz in August and, in
January 1945, to Gross Rosen, Mauthausen
and Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. According to her family, Lowinger recuperated at a sanitarium in Sweden and then
lived for a year with a non-Jewish family
nearby before immigrating to Israel in 1948.
Laszo survived the Holocaust and also
lives in Israel. Sara and Imre were killed
at Auschwitz; Moshe had died earlier.
Lowinger’s heartbreak did not end with the
Holocaust; her son, Yitzhak, was killed in
combat in the Yom Kippur War.
Efroni is confident that with social media and Internet tools, Rozsi Friedman will
ultimately be found. The sad thing, he notes,
is that his grandmother may not be in a state
to fully appreciate that day when it arrives.
Efroni’s mother, Sara, values his efforts,
which included being interviewed on the
Israeli radio program “Hamador L’chipus
Krovim” (Searching for Relatives Bureau).
Ofir and his two siblings always were close
with their grandparents, she explained. The
extended family traveled together to Emod
and to the concentration camps where
Lowinger was imprisoned.
Her son has always demonstrated great
empathy for his grandparents’ suffering
during the Holocaust, and his searching for
Friedman further “shows that he cares,” she
said.
“He has entered this with all his heart.”
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:
Blue Card
171 Madison Avenue
Suite 1405
New York, NY 10016
New Director and New
Head Archivist at ITS
The new Director of the International
Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen,
Professor Rebecca Boehling, intends to
promote research more intensely in the
ITS archives. “We want to make our archives even more accessible to the academic community. I would like to publicize what treasures are contained here in
the archives and the plethora of research
opportunities. The history of the victims of
Nazi persecution is an international story
that still affects many people throughout
the world today.” With Dr Helge Kleifeld,
the ITS has also been able to gain a new
Head Archivist who started work recently
as well.
Up until now Boehling served as the
Director of the Dresher Center for the
Humanities at the University of Maryland
Baltimore County (UMBC) and professor in the departments of History, Jewish Studies and Gender and Women’s
Studies. The US American is an expert
in Holocaust research and the history of
the Second World War. For several years,
she supported the US government as a
consultant on a historical advisory panel
about WWII war crimes. In 2011, together with her co-author Uta Larkey, she
published “Life and Loss in the Shadow
of the Holocaust,” the story of a Jewish
family from Essen.
The International Commission for the
ITS, whose eleven member states set the
guidelines for the work of the institution,
unanimously appointed Boehling at its
annual meeting in Paris in May 2012.
January 2013
I am the youngest daughter.
FROM ALL GENERATIONS, Inc.
SERENA WOOLRICH,
PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER
PLEASE SEND RELEVANT RESPONSES
TO: [email protected]
From FELICIA (FELA) ZIEFF, a 2g in Chicago,
Illinois, president, Association of Descendants of the Shoah - Illinois, Inc.
Did any Survivor from Belgium know my
grandfather, Izral Jankiel Beker (Jacob) and
my great-aunt Reizi Rechter Himmel both
deported from Belgium in the fall of 1942?
From JUDITH ALTMANN, a Survivor in Stamford, Connecticut:
From EDITH WEINBERGER, a Survivor, in New I was in Sweden after liberation from BerYork, New York.
gen Belsen and I am looking for two girls
I found a search on Together a few months (women): Gita Cartagena from Prague and
ago. It was written by Helga Milberg, a Ani Fink also from Prague.
survivor in Tuscon, Arizona. She stated
she was looking for Weiss family members From LOU HERSKOWITZ, a 2g in Atlanta,
from Ungvar. She mentioned Polde Weiss, Georgia:
Malvin Weiss, Ervin Weiss, Johanna Weiss Does anyone have knowledge or informaand also Weiss relatives from Vienna. Her tion about Rachel or Leah Herskowitz who
father was Emil Weiss married to Rosana were last seen alive just prior to liberation at
Weiss. My name is Edith Weinberger, I was Bergen -Belsen? They were from the town
born in Uzhorod in 1926. My grandfather's of Bilke in Czechoslovakia and were about
name was Moshe Weiss. His wife's name age 20 at that time. They were the sisters of
was Hanna Berman (maiden name). I am a Aaron Herskowitz who survived the Hunsurvivor, with a few other family members garian Labor Brigades and escaped to join
who also survived. I live in New York City the Russian army. He was a special agent,
with family in Toronto, Ohio and Israel. If capturing or killing hundreds of Nazis. Both
you would like more information, please feel my parents were from Bilke (Trans-Carpathfree to contact me at this email address.
ian Ukraine). My mother’s maiden name was
Lazarovic. She survived Auschwitz. Also,
From MICHELE BLASKA, a 2g in Woodbury, any information about his friend and fellow
New York.
soldier, Ignatz Sachs of Ungvar, who disapI was going through some old papers of my peared as the war ended?
fathers. I'm not sure if you ever asked about,
anyone living in the IRO Camp 231 at Steyr, From MRS. EMANUELA (LITA) NADEL (NEE’
Austria. It turns out after the war ended, my SINGER), a Survivor in Sydney, Australia:
father, Velvel Szymanowicz, lived there I am a child Holocaust Survivor born in Lemfrom 1946-47. If you posted it, please let me berg (Lwow), Poland. I have been living in
know.
Sydney, Australia since December 1950. In
1948 and 1949 I lived in Paris until mother
From JOSEPH ALBERT, in Massachusetts.
and I immigrated to Australia. It occurred to
I am looking for information on Ester or me that perhaps someone in Allgenerations
Esther (Noller) Albert of Dubno (Poland/ may know some addresses of the nursing
Ukraine). She was murdered during the Ho- class I was a member of in Hopital Rotschild
locaust probably around 1940. She was the Paris metro Picpus (Ecole d’ Infermiers). I
widow of Joseph Albert.
only remember two names from my nursing
school: Janine (Janka) Gradstein, and Irena
From HELGA MILBERG, a Survivor in Tucson, (Irka) Anikst. We were 20 girls housed in
Arizona:
this hospital for a year. I presume that some
I am looking for “Weisses” from Ungvar and of them immigrated to Israel
environs: Poldi Weiss, Malvine Weiss, Ervin
or Erwin Weiss, Johanna Weiss, and also, From EDITH MONIQUE SHNEIDMAN (SAIAS), a
Weiss from Vienna. My father was Emil Survivor, in Tel Aviv, Israel:
Weiss married to Rosina Weiss from Hunga- I was born in Paris, France, on March 29,
ry. He had a stall in Fleischmarkt Halle, Wien 1939. During the war I was in children place
(they dealt in smoked meats, etc.)
Aulnay-Sous bois.
January 2013
It was by mistake that I was in Creteil that
evening when my mother and my brother
were deported to Drancy then to Auschwitz.
Mother: Louna Saias (Sides)—Interne to
Drancy—Deported to Auschwitz 9/11/1942
- train transport 44 (died); Father: Isaac Saias
- Interne to Drancy - Deported to Auschwitz
23/9/1942 - train transport 36 (died). Seeking information about my brother—Salomon Saias—deported to Auschwitz with my
mother.
From SERGE VINOGRAD, a Survivor in Fairfield, Connecticut:
Was anybody in contact with my father,
Samel Vinograd, deported from France to
Auschwitz July 31, 1944? Same question for
other members my direct family deported
from France to Auschwitz or Buchenwald
between 1941 and 1943: my father’s brother,
Bernard, his sister Esther Vinograd, as well
as his sister Rose Bresler and her husband,
Jacques Bresler; Camille, Berthe and Claudine Wienerbet and David Wienerbet (the
Wienerbets are my uncles, aunt, cousins on
my mother side). We were all living in Paris.
I was in hiding for three years, working on
farms and in a thrashing machine company
in the Beauce region, near Chateaudun.
From SUSAN PROSKAUER BRUBAKER, a 2g in
Sugar Land, Texas:
I am trying to locate Fred Levine (or perhaps Levin) who came over from Germany
(Bremerhaven) on the General R. M. Blatchford in 1952. My parents, Herman and Hertha Proskauer, were on the same ship and
settled in Houston, Texas. Mr. Levine went
on to Los Angeles, CA. I believe he became
well-known there in the entertainment business. My mother last had contact with him
when he telephoned her several years ago
to say he might be returning to Germany
for retirement and that he was not well. He
would probably be somewhere in his’70’smid ’80s. My father was from Oppeln or
Opole—now part of Poland. I hope to find
out information regarding my father’s imprisonment and which camps he was in. I
believe he was in Auschwitz and I know that
he was in Theresienstadt from papers sent to
me by the Holocaust Museum in Washington. He spoke about being moved around to
be used as labor during his imprisonment.
He was one of the few survivors of the sinking of the Cap Arcona in April/May 1945 in
the Lubeck bay. So I believe he may have
also gone to Neunegamme.
TOGETHER 19
MOSHE SANBAR
by Julius Berman
With the death of Moshe Sanbar, z”l , the
Jewish people have suffered a great loss.
Moshe's exceptional life and career exemplifies the very best that Shoah survivors
brought to establishing and leading the State
of Israel. When he founded the Centre of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel,
his background as former Governor of the
Bank of Israel and a leading Israeli economist and business expert gave the organization instant credibility and respect. Moshe
Sanbar may have established the Centre of
Organizations as a survivor, but it was his
name and role in the Israeli financial sector
that enabled the organization to become a
widely respected voice for survivors in the
Jewish State.
Moshe, born in 1926 in Kecskemet,
Hungary, was an active athlete in table tennis, fencing, wrestling and soccer. As a wrestler he won the championship of schools in
his hometown. Graduating from high school
simultaneously with the Nazi occupation,
Moshe witnessed the removal of Jewish
players from sports teams and reacted by organizing a special soccer league for Jewish
Hungarians.
In early June 1944, Moshe was taken to
a labor battalion of the Hungarian Army and
in October of that year his unit was forced
to march to the Austrian border, then taken
by train to Dachau. Moshe was incarcerated and labored in Dachau until liberated in
April 1945. Following the war, in late 1945,
Moshe enrolled at the University of Budapest to study economics and became active
in the Labor Zionist movement.
In March 1948, Moshe was part of the
illegal immigration operation to Israel and,
upon his arrival, joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. He participated in and
was seriously wounded at the famous Battle
of Latrun. Following the War for Independence, he returned to his studies in economics, this time at the Hebrew University, completing an M.A. in 1953.
In 1958, Moshe began his distinguished
career in Israeli government service at the
HARRY ADLER
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our great patriarch
on the 17th of November, 2012 at the age
of 81. After a truly valiant fight fueled by
his immense inner strength and his eternal
hunger for all that life encompasses, he lost
TOGETHER 20
Ministry of Finance, rising to become financial advisor to the Ministry of Finance and
Director of the Budget Directorate by 1963.
In these capacities, Moshe oversaw the planning and implementation of the country’s
economic policy.
After the Six Day War, Moshe was responsible for planning the Israeli government's economic policy in the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip, as well as for planning the
changes necessary to make the Western Wall
a central site for the Jewish people, providing access to Zion Gate and rehabilitating the
Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem,
among other critical projects. Moreover, in
1969, Prime Minister Golda Meir had Moshe
develop an alternative plan to the U.N. proposal regarding the settlement of refugees
and compensation for their properties.
In 1971, Moshe was appointed as Governor of the Bank of Israel. As head of the
country’s central bank, he laid the foundations for the modern management of monetary policy and his actions were considered
to be a turning point in the bank's progress.
During the Yom Kippur War, as Governor of
the Bank of Israel, Moshe managed a special
system to help the government overcome the
effects of the war. His "emergency credit"
brought the economy back on its feet within
his final battle. A Holocaust survivor who
came to Montreal as an orphaned teenager,
evolved into a remarkable self-made man
who amassed immense success in the business world, yet his greatest achievement was
embracing his family with unconditional
love and guidance.
months, during a time that many economists
describe as the most difficult period the State
has seen in the economic field.
Subsequently, in addition to serving as
Chairman of the Board of a number of companies, Moshe, from 1988 to 1995, chaired
Bank Leumi and its subordinate banking
firms worldwide. Following years of internal
disputes, Moshe’s seven-year term at Bank
Leumi brought stability to the institution.
Moshe’s concern for the rights and welfare of Holocaust survivors resulted in his
pioneering role as a founder of the Centre
of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in
Israel in 1987, the umbrella organization
that united dozens of survivor organizations
in Israel. The Centre became a member of
the Claims Conference Board of Directors in
1989 and it has continued to play a central
role in advocating for the rights of survivors
both in Israeli society and internationally.
In addition, Moshe served as Treasurer
and then as Chairman of the Executive of
the Claims Conference. In these positions he
helped create Claims Conference financial
policies. Further, Moshe helped create international institutions dedicated to the rights
of survivors and victims’ heirs. Representing
the Claims Conference, he was a founder of
the World Jewish Restitution Organization
(WJRO). Moshe was active in establishing
the International Commission on Holocaust
Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), tasked with
identifying, settling, and paying claims for
the insurance policies of victims of Nazi
persecution. Moshe’s involvement in negotiations with the Hungarian government was
critical in leading to the establishment of a
compensation program for Holocaust survivors of Hungarian descent around the world.
Over the years, Moshe received numerous honors and awards in Israel. In addition,
in 2004, Moshe was awarded the highest
civil decoration bestowed in Hungary by the
President of the State and presented with the
Order of Merit.
Julius Berman is Chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany
POLA BORENSTEIN
Burial services were held in New Orleans on December 21 for Pola Borenstein.
She was a Holocaust survivor and widow of
Isak Borenstein, a fellow survivor. She was
born in Wolanow, Poland on October 10,
cont’d on p. 21
January 2013
1921 and passed peacefully in her sleep on
December 18, 2012. She moved to New Orleans in 1951 and remained for the rest of her
life helping her husband in their business.
at the prisoner of war camp in Sandbostel,
Germany. After the war, he made his way
first to New York City, then Cleveland and finally to Pittsburgh, PA. Albert reunited with
his mother in Israel in 1957 and later married
Rose Spiner. Albert worked as a cashier at
the Giant Eagle Supermarket in Pittsburgh.
When he was diagnosed with terminal
kidney cancer in November 2012 and could
no longer take care of himself, he left Pittsburgh and moved to Rockville, MD to live
with his daughter and grandchildren.
SUSAN
MERMELSTEIN
BOYAR
Susan Mermelstein
Boyar, was born Aug.
25th, 1927, and died
on December 9th,
2012, after having
fought a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s
Disease.
Susan was born in a small town Dragobrat in the Carpathian mountains. Susan
was a Holocaust survivor losing all of her
immediate family with the exception of her
brother Martin. Liberated by the Allies, Susan traveled to Italy, with other refugees. In
1947 she was brought to New York by cousins that had emigrated many years earlier.
In Brooklyn, she met and married her first
husband Max Kessler. They produced two
boys. The family moved to Los Angeles in
1957, where they lived until Max died from
cancer in 1961. In 1962, she met and soon
married Phillip Boyar and the family moved
once again first to White Plains, New York
followed soon after to North Miami Beach.
In 1972 Phillip died from emphysema.
VIOLA DUBOV
Viola Dubov, a
native of Czechoslovakia
who
went into hiding
in 1944 to escape
the roundup of
Hungarian Jews,
and was hidden by a non-Jewish family near
Budapest until the liberation by the Russian
army, passed away peacefully on April 29th
at the age of 91 in Danville, California.
Viola lost her parents and youngest sister
in the Holocaust.
During her adulthood she enjoyed cooking, gardening, swimming, and shopping,
but family was most important to her.
In later years, Viola explored her artistic talents through Discovering The Artist
Within program where she expressed herself
through painting. Her paintings were on exhibit in San Francisco.
HENRY FRIEDLANDER
Holocaust
January 2013
historian
Henry
Fried-
lander, a Berlin-born survivor of the Lodz
Ghetto, Auschwitz, Neuengamme and Ravensbrueck, and the author of The Origins
of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the
Final Solution, died on October 17 in Maine
after a long illness. He was 82.
Friedlander received a doctorate in modern German history from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1968. From 1975 until his
retirement in 2001 he was a professor at
Brooklyn College. He had previously taught
at Louisiana State University in New Orleans; McMaster University in Canada; University of Missouri in St. Louis; and City
College in New York. In addition to his research on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust,
Friedlander also looked at the legal implications of postwar trials. He is known for his
argument that not only Jews but Gypsies, or
Roma, and the disabled also were victims
of the Holocaust. He was also the editor of
a 26-volume documentary series called Archives of the Holocaust and served as president of the German Studies Association.
Benton Arnovitz, Director of Academic
Publications at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, called Friedlander “one of the
finest and most fair-minded of an all-tooquickly passing generation of foundational
Holocaust scholars.”
ALBERT GOLTZ
Albert Goltz, 84, passed away on May
4, 2012 in Rockville, MD. Albert (Elyakim)
was born in Oszmiana, Poland, the youngest of three children. Albert’s father, along
with 700 men, were rounded up and shot by
the Nazis in 1941. In 1943, the Oszmiana
ghetto was liquidated and Albert was shuttled through various work camps. Separated
from his mother and sisters between 19441945, Albert survived horrendous conditions
in Stutthof, Neugamme, and Aurich.
On April 29, 1945, Albert was liberated
ARNOLD D.
KERR
Arnold D. Kerr
passed away on May
27, 2012 at the age
of 84. Kerr was born
Aronek Kierszkowski in Suwalki, Poland
on March 9, 1928. He
was the second of four sons of Oszer and Riva
Kierszkowski. When World War II broke out
in Europe in 1939, he, his mother, and three
brothers fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. Aronek
was the only member of his family to survive
the Holocaust. Aronek was sent from Estonia
to Stutthof, a concentration camp near Danzig. In the bitter winter of 1945, Aronek was
sent, along with thousands of other prisoners,
on the infamous death marches. He arrived
at the Rieben death camp in February. The
day after Aronek’s 17th birthday, on March
10, 1945, Russian Army scouts liberated the
camp.
Aronek completed high school in one
year and received a degree in civil engineering from the Technical University of Munich. He came to the United States in 1954
and changed his name to Arnold D. Kerr.
After completing his M.S. degree in Mechanics in 1956 and his Ph.D. in Theoretical
and Applied Mechanics in 1958 at Northwestern University, Kerr was a professor in
the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at New York University from 1959
until 1973, and a visiting professor at Princeton University from 1973 to 1978. In 1978,
he became a professor of Civil Engineering
at the University of Delaware. as a Professor
of Civil Engineering. In 1980, Kerr and his
wife founded the Institute for Railroad Engineering.
RITA LEVI MONTALCINI
The Italian Nobel prize-winning neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini has died at the
TOGETHER 21
age of 103.
Levi-Montalcini was born in
1909 to a wealthy
Jewish family in
the northern city
of Turin, where
she studied medicine. But after she
graduated in 1936 the fascist government
banned Jews from academic and professional careers, and Dr Levi-Montalcini set up a
makeshift laboratory in her bedroom, experimenting on chicken embryos.
Dr Levi-Montalcini’s family lived underground in Florence after the Germans invaded Italy in 1943. She later worked as a
doctor for the allied forces that liberated the
city, treating refugees.
From 1947 she was based for more than
20 years in the US, at Washington University
in Saint Louis, Missouri. There she discovered nerve growth factor, which regulates
the growth of cells. She later worked at the
National Council of Scientific Research in
Rome. In 1986 she shared the Nobel prize
for medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen
for research carried out in the US.
In 2001 she was nominated to the Italian
upper house of parliament as a senator for
life, an honor bestowed on some of Italy’s
most distinguished public figures. She was
an ambassador for the Rome-based UN Food
and Agriculture Organisation, and founded
the Levi-Montalcini Foundation, which carries out charity work in Africa.
MARCEL NATHANS
Marcel Nathans, born on April 16, 1922,
died on December 8, 2012. He came to this
country in 1947, having survived the Holocaust. He recceived his Ph.D. from UC
Berkeley in 1949 and later graduated from
JFK School of Law. He loved to play chess
and was an avid bridge player.
ABRAHAM RUDNICK
by Editor, Jewish World
Abraham “Abe” Rudnick, a Holocaust
survivor who found prosperity and happiness in Glens Falls and Queensbury, passed
away Feb. 3, 2012, at home, following a long
illness.
For 50 years, Abe owned Save-On
Plumbing and Heating Company on Upper
Glen Street. During those years, he built the
nearby Queensbury Gardens Apartments on
Rudley Drive. Abe was one of the early developers of Upper Glen Street in Queensbury
TOGETHER 22
ed States and Europe, finally settling in Las
Cruces in 1995, where he shared the remainder of his life with his devoted wife, Galina.
MATTHEW IES SPETTER
along with his then-business partner, the late
Lewis DeAngelis.
Abe was born in Michaliszki, a small
village on the Polish-Lithuanian border, on
Sept. 9, 1926, to Mendel and Chaia Rudnicki.
In 1941, at age 15, he was captured by
Nazis and sent to the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania and to various slave labor camps in Estonia, Poland and Germany for the remainder
of World War II. In April, 1945, he was liberated by U.S. Forces from the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany. Treated
in an American hospital converted from an
ancient castle, Abe recovered and began to
search for his missing parents, brother, and
other family members. He learned that all
were killed during the war. During his search,
however, he met Clara. Following their marriage, Abe and Clara lived in a displaced persons camp south of Munich until 1949, when
they emigrated to the United States under the
1948 Displaced Persons Act.
Although the war ended his formal education at eighth grade, Abe was a lifelong
reader and spoke seven languages. He said
he didn’t have time to go back to school to
learn better English, because he worked every day he was in the United States.
MAURICE SALTIEL
Maurice Saltiel, 97, of Las Cruces, New
Mexico, died peacefully on December 1,
2012 at Mesilla Valley Hospice (La Posada).
Maurice was born on May 5, 1915 in Thessaloniki, Greece, the oldest of three brothers
and son of the late Hiam and Esther Saltiel.
He was educated in Italy and France and
was fluent in five languages. Maurice was
a Holocaust survivor, serving in the Greek
army during World War II. He was captured
in Italy and held as a prisoner of war before escaping to Switzerland. After the war,
he owned and operated a small textile and
knitting factory in Thessaloniki. In 1955, he
and his family immigrated to Albany, New
York. After working many years for the New
York State Department of Criminal Justice,
he retired and traveled throughout the Unit-
Dr. Matthew Ies Spetter, one of the most
prominent leaders of the Ethical Culture Society, died on December 30, 2012, at the age
of 91. Born in the Netherlands he participated in the Dutch resistance during World
War II until his capture by the Nazis. He was
imprisoned in several concentration camps
including Auschwitz and Buchenwald. A
witness at the International War Criminal
Trials in Nuremburg, Germany, and a part
of G2 and G3 American Intelligence, he was
awarded the Resistance Cross by the Government of the Netherlands. In 1951, Dr. Spetter
and his family moved to the United States
where he became the leader of the Riverdale
Yonkers Ethical Culture Society for a period
of 40 years and the Chairman of the Department of Ethics for the three Ethical Culture
schools. A life-long activist for human and
civil rights and international peace, he also
taught at the Encampment for Citizenship of
the American Ethical Union and was an associate professor at the Peace Studies Institute and the Department of Religion at Manhattan College
This past summer, Menachem Rosensaft quoted his former Ethics teacher at the
Fieldston High School in a Huffington Post
article entitled Reclaiming What It Means
to Be an American: “Addressing the student body at the 1997 Founder’s Day, Dr.
Matthew Ies Spetter, the long-time head of
Fieldston’s Ethics Department, recalled that
the Schools’ original mission was ‘the care
for human beings; their dignity; their chance
to build better lives. Those are still our ideals, seeking to build justice and to affirm
hope. . . . People have to meet each other
with openness so that they can seek what is
the best in themselves and thereby they create something that is sacred, that is holy.’”
IRENE STEINMAN
Irene Dynenson
Steinman
passed
away
November
30th in West Nyack,
NY at age 85. Born
in Lodz, Poland in
1927, she fled from
invading Nazis with
her family to Vilna in 1941 where they ob-
January 2013
tained the famous Sugihara transit visas
permitting travel to Japan and elsewhere, to
freedom from Germans. All but a few who
received the 3400 Sugihara’s visas survived.
Irene’s family didn’t. But Irene survived because several days before the Germans invaded the Soviet half of Poland, she went to
visit an uncle-physician in the town of Sarny
under Soviet control. He was requisitioned
by the Soviets to aid Soviet wounded soldiers being taken east, and he took his family
and Irene with him. They fled first to Penza,
then to Fergana, Uzbekistan. After the war,
she returned to Poland, then studied in Geneva to help Holocaust survivor children, then
became an instructor at Ose Home for Children in Fontainebleau. Relatives and family
friends then brought her to the United States.
She gained her Bachelor’s degree in
her fourth language in 1951. She met and
married Jerry Steinman of the Bronx. After
bringing up two sons, she obtained a Masters
of Library Science degree from Columbia
University. Then she became VP and treasurer of the family business Beer Marketer’s
Insights, where she worked for 40 years and
became known throughout the beer industry.
BELLA STUPP
Bella Stupp, 90, of Miami Beach, passed
away at her home on Nov 26th. Born in Horodenka, Poland, Bella learned several languages: Yiddish, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. It would eventually serve to help her
escape the Nazis and become a survivor of
the Holocaust. From the age of 16 when the
Germans arrived and threw her family out of
their home, until age 21 she was literally on
the run hiding to save herself and her family’s lives. She turned out to be the only survivor of three brothers, her mother and father;
escaping 14 Nazi roundups. After the Holocaust, Bella and her husband, Max Stupp,
came to the U.S. with no money nor knowledge of the English language and settled in
Boston. Eager to escape the cold weather,
they eventually moved to Miami. They became members of The New American Jewish Social Club (Greena) whose other members were holocaust survivors and would
soon become their only “family”. They were
also regular members of Beth David Synagogue, and later, joined Temple Menorah.
MARIA SZAPSZEWICZ
By Robert A. Cohen, St. Louis Jewish Light
Maria Szapszewicz never erased the
January 2013
Auschwitz number
tattoo the Nazis had
put on her arm, nor
did she erase the
memories of the
Holocaust from her
mind. Instead, Mrs.
Szapszewicz shared
those
memories
through moving poetry and essays, a published book and a CD
of her readings, along with countless talks to
high school students and as a survivor-docent at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and
Learning Center. Mrs. Szapszewicz died Oct.
25, 2012. She was 90. Maria Wacjhandler
was born on Feb. 28, 1922 in Lodz, Poland.
Her father was in the import-export business. She had an older and a younger brother.
When the Nazis invaded Poland, Maria was
17. Her father was murdered by the Nazis
and she and the rest of her family were sent
to the the Lodz and Szydlowiec ghettos.
From the ghetto she was sent to make bullets
at the Hermann Goering ammunition factory, and later she and her mother were sent
to Auschwitz in the cattle car of a train. From
Auschwitz, where she had received her tattooed number—MA-14359—she was sent
to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
When the Allies liberated the camp on April
15, 1945, she weighed only 56 pounds and
her mother 47 pounds.
After she regained her energy and
strength, she helped organize over 10,000
survivors in a displaced persons camp. She
was an organizer and secretary for a relief
agency of the United Nations. She returned
to her native Poland at the end of the 1940s,
finished high school and studied fashion design at college. Her fiancé from before the
war had died. She later met and married Jacob Szapszewicz. They had two daughters.
After she and her family finally left Poland in 1959, they moved to St. Louis where
she joined her older brother. For 30 years
she worked as supervisor of the alterations
department at the old Famous-Barr store in
Clayton. As a sideline, she designed clothing
for society women.
After her retirement from Famous-Barr,
Mrs. Szapszewicz began to volunteer and
became a docent at the Holocaust Museum.
Her husband had fallen into declining health
and had to cut back on his own activities at
the Museum. Her husband died in 1994.
She shared her story with countless high
school students and other visitors to the Holocaust Museum through the years, taking
pains to refute the claims of Holocaust deniers through her own eyewitness testimony.
Her reflections, poems and commentaries
were collected in a CD she issued in 2004,
“Memories and Dreams,” and a book she
published in 2006, For Those I Love and
Can’t Forget.
ROSE WARTSKY
Rose Wartsky, 92, passed away quietly on
December 17, 2012 after suffering a stroke.
As Holocaust survivors, she and her husband,
Jack Wartsky who preceded her in death, emigrated together from Germany after the war
to New York City but moved to Tucson in
1970 after having vacationed here and fallen
in love with the desert mountain landscape.
For 39 years she operated the well-respected
Rose Petal Dress Shop and Rose Petal Bridal
Fashions on East Broadway.
MADELEINE
WEISS
Madeleine (nee
Witsenhausen)
Weiss died peacefully on December 1, at the age of
88 years. Born in
Frankfurt am Main,
Germany, Madeleine survived the Holocaust
in Brussels, Belgium. She immigrated to the
United States in 1947, where she lived a full
and rewarding life with her family in Needham and subsequently North Eastham, Mass.
She was an avid painter; her home is filled
with the beauty of her art. After her college
education was interrupted by WWII, Mrs.
Weiss proudly received her BA in Fine Arts
from Northeastern University in 1986.
BORYS ZINGER
Borys Zinger of Lynn, MA, was born
on November 15, 1916 and passed away on
Friday, December 21, 2012 at the age of 96.
He was a Polish-born Holocaust Survivor, a
published author and poet, a pious man and
a longtime member of Chabad Lubavitch of
the North Shore in Swampscott.
TOGETHER 23
museum at Bergen-Belsen, through our Summer Seminar Program
on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance that takes American teachers
to Poland, Germany, Israel and Washington to give them a personal
appreciation of the Holocaust;
· Worked with the U.S. Justice Department in the search for
and prosecution of Nazi criminals, culminating in a special Justice
Department Human Rights Award recognizing our efforts;
· Brought members of the second and third generations together
with survivors to strengthen our legacy and the lessons of Holocaust
remembrance;
· Promoted the search for “lost survivors” sought by relatives
friends, in cooperation with All-Generations, Inc., under the leadership
of our regional vice president, Serena Woolrich;
· 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 carne 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
The American efforts, the American Gathering needs your
Gathering now ongoing financial commitment and support,
accepts NOW more than ever. We, too, are facing
Visa, tremendous fundraising challenges but we
are confident that we can count on you,
Mastercard, our Survivor family, to help us continue to
American make the difference we do.
Express, and
If you can increase your contribution
Discover by please consider doing so. If you can’t,
phone. please know that any amount you are able
(212) 239-4230 to contribute will be greatly appreciated.
With your ongoing support comes a
yearly subscription to Together, the largest
publication in its field that reaches more than 80,000 survivor families,
and which features news, opinions, notices of commemorations and
other events, book reviews, searches, historical articles and personal
reminiscences.
In addition, those who are able to contribute $500 or more will
be acknowledged and listed in Together as Benefactors, Patrons or
Guardians.
As we continue to raise our voices to defend the dignity and
address the needs of Holocaust survivors, we turn to you at this time
of introspection and new beginnings to ask for your support for our
ongoing efforts. 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.
. 205, New York, NY 10001
Street, Suite
Dear Friends,
Once again, we are asking for your support. We urgently need
your help to continue our work. The American Gathering is your
organization, and your generous contributions help us to carry
out our unique mission.
As you know, for the past 29 years, the American Gathering, the
largest umbrella organization of survivors, has been at the forefront of
all issues pertaining to survivors and their families. This past year has
been no exception despite the challenges of extraordinary difficulties
and confrontations.
If you can, please consider increasing your contribution to reflect
the increased needs of our community. If you did not yet send in your
annual contribution, please consider doing so at whatever amount
you are comfortable with. As described below, contributors of $500
or more will be acknowledged and listed in our newspaper, Together.
As survivors and their families, we are painfully aware of the
toll that the bleak economy has taken on our available resources.
Nevertheless, we are determined to continue our work. We know
that together, with thanks to your generous contribution, we will be
able to insure that our fight for remembrance will live on. With your
generous 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.
This past year alone, we have:
· Continued to represent survivors’
interests at diplomatic conferences and
negotiations in Europe and Washington
to secure and increase reparations and
restitution for those victimized by Nazi
persecution and plunder. Of particular note
was our success in pressing Germany to
“If you prefer to
obtain $150 million dollars for homecare
contribute by mail,
and social services in 2011. In particular, our
own Roman Kent has been instrumental in the please send your check
negotiations with Germany that has obtained
and form to us.”
millions of dollars in increased homecare and
social services services for survivors;
· Fought those who would deny 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 Blue Card;
· Advocated our cause in newspapers and on television, with more
than 30 columns and hundreds of articles since the beginning of 2011;
· Through direct intervention with state officials in Maryland,
brought about the legal end of the infamous and bogus sale of socalled “Holocaust Torahs” that were fraudulently claimed to have
been found and rescued from that period;
· Promoted Holocaust education, with the participation of Yad
Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the new
American Gathering, 122 West 30th
Please make a
Name:
meaningful,
___________________________________________________________________________
Address:
tax deductible
___________________________________________________________________________
contribution payable
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone:
to the
___________________________________________________________________________
“American
qMastercard qVisa qAmerican Express qDiscover
Amount:____________
Gathering.”
________________________ _______/_________ ____________
Credit Card Number
Expiration Date
Security Code
Thank you.
TOGETHER 24
January 2013

January 2013

Transcription

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