A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION ● SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2015 ● VOLUME 2 Holocaust Remembered HOW THE THIRD REICH PARALYZED JUSTICE AND LEGALIZED GENOCIDE 2 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

Contributors Lilly Filler, M.D. Co-chair, Columbia Holocaust Is it happening again? Education Commission Secretary, S.C. Council on the By Lilly Filler Holocaust Lyssa Harvey, Ed.S magine a time when civilized European Co-chair, Columbia Holocaust nations witness thousands of their Jewish Education Commission citizens fleeing to other countries for safe- Licensed professional counselor, ty. Children are being separated from their teacher, therapist and artist parents or slaughtered in their schools. An- The Honorable Jean Toal ti-Semitism is on the rise, with mobs dese- Chief justice, South Carolina crating synagogues and Jewish businesses. Terror Supreme Court Iis the order of the day, and the terrorists (zealots) Ashley Robertson are doing a skillful job in spreading their messag- Law clerk to Chief Justice Jean Toal es of hate, intolerance, and destruction. The back- F.K. Clementi, Ph.D. drop for these terrorists is economic and social Associate Professor of Jewish poverty, disenchantment, Studies and English, USC and misguided charismat- Jack Swerling ic religious and political Attorney leaders. What year could Leah Greenberg Davis this be? Is it 1938, 1943, or Attorney 2015? Is history repeating Howard Stravitz itself? I ask you to consider Attorney the facts. Professor, USC School of Law We have a mantra asso- ciated with the discussion Irene Jablon THE STATE FILE PHOTO Hannah Goldberg McGee of the Holocaust: “Never again.” And yet we are wit- dismantlement of its constitution, the develop- Please take a visit, sit on the benches that bear Rabbi Philip Silverstein nessing very similar circumstances and political ment and passage of prejudicial laws against a the quotes of survivors and a liberator, and take Sarah C. Spoto, M.Ed, NBCT upheaval to the time of the Holocaust. targeted community, and the implementation of in the enormity of what this represents. Marlene Roth What I describe above is our world today: Jews mass imprisonment, torture, slavery, and mur- The Columbia Holocaust Education Commis- M.A., Holocaust Studies and fleeing France, Boko Haram kidnapping or mas- der of 6 million Jews − 11 million people total. sion is committed to informing the public about Genocide sacring children, ISIS beheading their captives If it happened then, could it not happen to- the Holocaust through our website, grants, “Holo- M.Ed., Secondary Education, and showing it around the world. day? The study of the Holocaust is imperative if caust Remembered” exhibit, and this publication, English To say “never again” feels disingenuous. We we want to prevent repetition of the past. This is offering teachers resources for this topic. We have are not heeding these words − this is the state of how our children will learn the lessons of history. developed a “Speaker’s Bureau” that will provide a Send us your story! affairs in the world today. We are lucky to have, in our community, a knowledgeable speaker on the Holocaust to come We invite those with experiences This is the second annual edition of the “Holo- touching Holocaust Memorial in Memorial Park to your event/classroom site. Please contact Cher- from the Holocaust to send their caust Remembered” supplement. The Columbia on Gadsden Street. This memorial was dedicated yl Nail at the Columbia Jewish Community Center stories (500 words or fewer), Holocaust Education Commission, a volunteer on June 6, 2001, and lists South Carolina’s Holo- at [email protected] or call her at 803- along with three to four original photographs, to Barry Abels, group, is proud to work with The State newspaper caust survivors and liberators. It educates the 787-2023, ext 211. To teach our children, we must [email protected]. to help bring this information to all of the Midlands. uninformed through an abbreviated timeline prepare our teachers. We hope that the lessons in This edition is focused on trying to understand and a gripping pictorial etching depicting scenes this supplement and the resources provided will Columbia Holocaust how a democratic European society allowed the from the Holocaust. help do that. Education Commission www.columbiaholocausteducation.org The Reverend George Chassey ...... 14 Lilly Filler INDEX On the cover CO-CHAIR Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, How the Courts Failed Germany ...... 3 June 6, 1944 ...... 15 Kurt Julius Goldstein, who survived the Lyssa Harvey The Nuremberg Trials ...... 16 Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, wipes CO-CHAIR Defining the Indescribable: “Holocaust” and Its Meaning ...... 4 “Remember Who You Are” ...... 18 away tears as he stands in front of a photo Marlene Roth The Nuremberg Race Laws ...... 5 The Importance of Narratives ...... 19 showing a walkway at Auschwitz. Goldstein SECRETARY The Seizure of Absolute Power ...... 6 Teacher Advisory Committee ...... 20 was a speaker during a commemoration Barry Abels A Daring Rescue of the Sacred Torah ...... 8 Glossary ...... 21 of the International Auschwitz Committee Esther Greenberg One Survivor’s Journey and Legacy ...... 9 Holocaust Education Resources ...... 22 marking the 60th anniversary of the Sarah Spoto Deportation Avoided ...... 10 Acknowledgements ...... 23 camp’s liberation on Jan. 25, 2005. Selden Smith Flight from the Nazis ...... 11 An Invitation to a Community Yom HaShoah Cheryl Nail Some Memories Never Dim ...... 12 Commemoration...... 24 PHOTO BY MARKUS SCHREIBER • AP ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 3

How the courts failed Germany By S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal

and Ashley Robertson The dagger of the assassin“ “ was concealed beneath the robe of the jurist.

TELFORD TAYLOR American Military Tribunal prosecutor Jurists’ Trial, Nuremberg, Germany, 1947

he racist and anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazi dictator- ship is generally well known. Less understood, however, is the role that German judges played in the Nazi descent into madness. Indeed, the role of the legal pro- Tfession and the actions of judges – a group which, conceivably, could have challenged Hitler’s authority and the authenticity of the Nazi regime – were critical in perpetrating the Nazi agenda. Beginning in approximately 1933, and with the support – or at least acquiescence – of the German judiciary, the Nazi leadership en- acted laws restricting political freedoms and civil rights which gradually transformed the ▲ South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toal speaks nation from a democracy into a dictatorship. during a court proceeding in June 2014. The courts not only upheld these laws, but in- terpreted them broadly, thus facilitating rather ◄ Hundreds of anti-Semitic posters, such as this than hindering the Nazis’ ability to carry out one in Greifenberg, Germany, had been hung by their program of persecution and murder. August 1935. The sign reads, “Germans don’t buy in For example, after Nazi leaders enacted Jewish shops.” AP FILE PHOTOS the so-called Nuremberg Race laws, which were the cornerstone of the legalized perse- abled judges to retain the pretense of judicial cide cases according to the examples set more general statement condemning the cution of Jews in Germany, the Nazis left it independence while also issuing verdicts that forth in the letters. use of the German legal system to carry out to the courts to render a final interpretation satisfied Nazi authorities. Judges remained After 12 years of submission to the Nazi re- the Nazi agenda, and in doing so, attempted of the laws. When the courts accepted and under a constant threat of removal from of- gime, in 1947, an American military tribunal to, at least nominally, right some of the legal broadly applied the race laws in subsequent fice, and therefore were in no way free from tried members of the German judiciary in wrongs of the era. opinions infused with Nazi ideology, they not the overwhelming pressure of Nazi oversight. what came to be known as the Jurists’ Trial. While some of the perpetrators faced jus- only explicitly conferred legitimacy on the A reminder of Nazi control over every as- Surviving high-ranking jurists were accused tice, unfortunately, the damage done by the Nazis’ racial discrimination and persecution pect of the political and judicial system came of “judicial murder and other atrocities, failure of the German court system to halt practices, but bolstered Nazi power through in October 1942, when judges received the which they committed by destroying laws the Nazis’ climb to power and its assistance the established legal framework. first in a series of “Letters to All Judges.” The and justice in Germany and then utilizing in the Nazi program of persecution and ex- The German legal documents from the letters declared guidelines for sentencing the emptied forms of legal process for the termination could never be undone. times – some of which were initially classi- and presented the Nazi position on political persecution, enslavement, and extermina- fied as state secrets – reveal the complexity questions and on the legal interpretation tion on the large scale.” Jean Hoefer Toal is chief justice of the South of the courts’ role in the Nazi regime. Defining of Nazi laws, as well as pressured judges to Beyond obtaining guilty verdicts against Carolina Supreme Court. Ashley Robertson is offenses and legal determinations vaguely en- choose the path of least resistance and de- the jurists, the military tribunal made a an attorney who serves as Toal’s law clerk. 4 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

Defining the indescribable By Leah Greenberg Davis uremberg. For most, ‘HOLOCAUST’ AND ITS MEANING the word conjures up memories of a post war By F.K. Clementi world. Seldom associat- ed with Nuremberg are s soon as World War II ended, the hundreds of laws that were passed in 1945, masses of people were N that laid the groundwork for Hitler’s on the move: city dwellers systematic destruction of the Europe- who had sought refuge an Jews. Hitler’s persecution and dis- from the bombardments in mantling of the Jewish people did not the countryside, escapees, happen over night. Between 1933 and evacuees, displaced people of all sorts, 1939, over 400 laws were passed that resistance fighters as well as soldiers from A 1 impacted German Jews. all fronts were boarding trains, ships, horse- pulled carts, or simply walking dreadful Rise of racial science distances, eager to be home and return to After the Germans were defeated in normality. And there were the Jews, 68 percent World War I, Hitler played into a gen- fewer than five years earlier. Liberated from eral feeling of inadequacy among the death camps, labor camps, ghettos, and German public. Germans were eager hideouts, Jews often had no home to return to: to see a strong Germany rise again. Now their priority was to look for relatives and Hitler was obsessed with the idea of friends who had survived the war. a pure “Aryan” race. In his book Mein But to be precise, the Jews did not simply Kampf, which translates to My Strug- survive “the war” like other Europeans. Their gle in German, Hitler wrote that the situation was far different and far worse than “state must set race in the center of all the already-horrific combat in which tens of life. It must take care to keep it pure.” 2 millions of people all over the world found Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat, themselves between 1939 and 1945. Over arguing that Germany needed to rid continental Europe there had been a war their society of any people that weren’t within the war, one that at first had no name “pure.” and therefore was not acknowledged as such Under Hitler’s regime, “racial sci- for a while. Today, we treat this distinct event ences” became an academic subject. separately from its World War II context, and A twenty-five year old doctoral stu- we use for it a distinct name: the Holocaust. This 1942 photo of the killing of Jews at Ivanhorod, Ukraine, was intercepted by members of the Polish resistance. dent wrote these horrifying words By the word “Holocaust,” we signify as part of his “studies” in 1936: the process of extermination of the Jews intimidation, requisitions, expropriations, The word “Holocaust” evokes visions of gas the fate of all the groups designated by the “Only a racially valuable person has blueprinted by the German Government led physical violence, detention in labor camps, chambers, human-burning ovens, and mass Nazis for extermination (Roma-Sinti gypsies, a right to exist in the community. A by Adolf Hitler. The US Holocaust Memorial relocation into deadly arm-guarded ghettos, graves overfilled with contorted naked bodies of homosexuals, targets of the euthanasia racially inferior or harmful individual Museum in Washington defines it as “the small-scale and mass executions, deportation dead Jews. One place has become its universal program, etc.) be included under this term? must be eliminated.” 3 systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored and murder in the death camps. symbol: Auschwitz. Yet no single image, eye- Does the term apply exclusively to the Hitler was appointed Reich Chan- persecution and murder of six million Jews by witness narration, location, documentation, extermination of the Jews during World War cellor on January 30, 1933 and by April, the Nazi regime and its collaborators.” Struggle to define description, definition can adequatelyII, or should it define all future genocides forhe had already begun to implement The concerted attack on the life of the When in 1919 Hitler wrote of an “unswerv- encompass the events’ enormity and complexity. which the Jewish one establishes an archetypal laws removing Jews from various as- Jews was ignited by time-tested anti-Semitic ingly … removal of the Jews altogether” as the Even how to properly designate this specific model? pects of society. ideologies, legalized by the state, institutionally only solution to the existential threat they genocide is not straightforward. Should People engaged in the study and While the Nuremberg laws were not organized, and implemented piecemeal allegedly represented to Germany and the we limit the use of the label “Holocaust” to preservation of Holocaust memory know that the first laws passed isolating the Jews, with the direct and indirect help of millions world, it is not clear whether he meant mass the massacres in the camps and at mass answers to such questions are central as we they significantly codified Hitler’s dis- of collaborators through escalating steps: deportation and relocation of the Jews, or per- executions? Should it include the whole strive for accuracy and truth in our mission as torted racial theories embodied in restrictions on Jews’ rights, expulsion from manent removal by murder. By January 1942, chronological length of the persecutions − teachers and transmitters of this tragic legacy. Mein Kampf. Moreover, as opposed to public life (prohibition to practice certain the Nazis’ intentions left no room for ambigui- acts of intimidations, public humiliations, Language is tightly bonded to the ethical many of Hitler’s edicts, these laws were professions, attend school, sit on park benches, ty: The extermination of all Jews was the “Final etc. that started as early as 1933 − before passed by the German legislature, the etc.), citizenship revocation, stigmatization, Solution” to Germany’s “Jewish question.” these turned into acts of annihilation? Should See INDESCRIBABLE • page 23 Reichstag. 4 APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 5

The Nuremberg race laws By Leah Greenberg Davis uremberg. For most, the word conjures up memories of a post war world. Seldom associat- ed with Nuremberg are Nthe hundreds of laws that were passed that laid the groundwork for Hitler’s systematic destruction of the Europe- an Jews. Hitler’s persecution and dis- mantling of the Jewish people did not happen over night. Between 1933 and 1939, over 400 laws were passed that impacted German Jews. 1 ▲ A Nazi Citizenship Law as legal justification, Rise of racial science propaganda slide Hitler instituted the “First Regulation After the Germans were defeated in from a Hitler to the Reich Citizenship Law of No- World War I, Hitler played into a gen- Youth educational vember 14, 1935.” 13 A “full” Jew was eral feeling of inadequacy among the presentation someone who had three Jewish grand- German public. Germans were eager entitled “Germany parents “who were full Jews by race.” 14 to see a strong Germany rise again. Overcomes Jewry” The law also defined people as partly Hitler was obsessed with the idea of reads across the top, Jewish or “mischlings” if they had two a pure “Aryan” race. In his book Mein “They explain who is Jewish grandparents and met several Kampf, which translates to My Strug- of German blood.” other conditions. Those who had one gle in German, Hitler wrote that the Jewish grandparent were ultimately “state must set race in the center of all considered Jewish and denied German life. It must take care to keep it pure.” 2 citizenship. 15 Even those who had con- Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat, verted to Christianity were considered arguing that Germany needed to rid ◄ The German “racially” Jewish under the Nuremberg their society of any people that weren’t text on a eugenics laws. 16 “pure.” poster entitled “The German Jews in 1933 never would Under Hitler’s regime, “racial sci- racial composition have envisioned that they would be ences” became an academic subject. of Jews” reads, “The Jews are a excommunicated from society and ul- A twenty-five year old doctoral stu- mixture of alien Near timately mass murdered. They were an dent wrote these horrifying words Eastern, oriental, integral part of Germany – they were as part of his “studies” in 1936: Hamite and Negroid doctors, musicians, lawyers, writ- “Only a racially valuable person has races.” ers, shopkeepers and friends. These a right to exist in the community. A laws created the foundation for Hit- racially inferior or harmful individual UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM PHOTOS ler’s ability to turn an entire country must be eliminated.” 3 against the Jewish people. Hitler was appointed Reich Chan- Passage of two laws he is willing and fit to faithfully serve and German citizens, as well as “extra 7 cellor on January 30, 1933 and by April, In 1935, the Nazi party elite held the German people and the Reich.” marital relations” between Jews and 11 ‾ he had already begun to implement their annual meeting in Nuremberg, Moreover, a “Reich citizen is the sole Germans. It also excluded women un- 1 Holocaust Encyclopedia: Antisemitic Legisla- laws removing Jews from various as- bearer of full political rights in accor- der the age of 45 from working in Jew- tion 1933-1939. United States Holocaust Memorial which was ironically titled the “Con- 2 pects of society. dance with the law.” 8 Museum, 20 June 2014. Web. 29 December 2014. gress of Freedom.” 5 On Sept. 15, two ish households and provided that Jews Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. Wash- While the Nuremberg laws were not The second law was called the “Law could not “fly the Reich or national flag ington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. laws were passed that forever changed 3 12 Print. p. 27. Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A His- the first laws passed isolating the Jews, 6 for Protection of German Blood and or display Reich colors.” the course of Jewish history in Europe. 9 tory of the Jews of Europe During the Second World they significantly codified Hitler’s dis- German Honor of September 15, 1935.” War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1985. torted racial theories embodied in The first was called the Reich Citi- This law was “moved by the under- Who is Jewish? Print. p. 50. 4 Yahil, Leni. The Holocaust: The Fate of zenship Law. This law provided, inter European Jewry. New York: Oxford University Press. Mein Kampf. Moreover, as opposed to standing that purity of German blood The question of who exactly was 1990. Print. p. 68. 5 Id. 6 Holocaust Encyclopedia: many of Hitler’s edicts, these laws were alia, that “a Reich citizen is a subject of is the essential condition for the contin- Jewish remained open. What if some- Translation: Nuremberg Race Laws. United States 10 Holocaust Memorial Museum, 20 June 2014. Web. passed by the German legislature, the the state who is of German or related ued existence of the German people...” one had converted from Judaism to 30 December 2014. 7 Id. 8 Id. 9 Id. 10 Id. 11 Id. 12 Id. 13 Reichstag. 4 blood, and proves by his conduct that It prohibited marriages between Jews another religion? Using the Reich Yahil at 72. 14 Id. at 72-73. 15 Berenbaum at 30. 16 Id. 6 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

The seizure of absolute power By Jack Swerling

n 1992, my son Bryan and I took a trip to Germany, Austria and Hungary. On the outskirts of Munich, we visited the Dachau Concentration Camp. In the Imain building as one enters the Camp, I found a document that read as follows: DECREE OF THE REICH PRESIDENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE AND THE STATE Article I Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Therefore, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including free- dom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, warrants for house search- es, orders for confiscations, as well as restric- tions on property, are permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed. This Decree was signed by Reich Presi- dent Paul von Hindenburg and Reich Chan- cellor Adolf Hitler on February 28, 1933. The entire experience had a significant effect on me, not only because I am Jewish, AP FILE PHOTOS Young Nazis but also because I realized what lawyers A large crowd listens to speeches ride in a truck and judges can help preserve if we are vig- at a National Socialist Party rally in encouraging ilant and bold and what can happen if we Nuremberg, Germany, in 1935. people to vote are not. “yes” to elect Hitler immediately expanded the pow- Rising power, shrinking rights Adolf Hitler ers of the police. The Gestapo investigated president in Hitler was appointed Chancellor by von political opposition and the Kripo was in Berlin on Aug. Hindenburg on January 30, 1933. Within 30 charge of investigation of all other criminal 19, 1934. days, he was successful in suspending many activity. The Gestapo used “protective cus- The next day, of the rights that people had under the Ger- tody” which allowed them to arrest and in- legislation man Constitution. Within a short period of carcerate indefinitely and without charges, was passed time, Hitler was then able to seize control any individual who was suspected of be- requiring all of the legislative process, the police and the ing dangerous to the security of the Reich. state officials courts. Once he gained control of these in- Political opponents and later, Jews, were − including stitutions, nothing and no one could stop placed in “protective custody” in prisons members of him from having total control of Germany. and concentration camps. The Kripo used the judiciary It took 12 years, a world war and the deaths “preventive custody”. They arrested and in- − to swear of millions of people before the nightmare carcerated individuals who were perceived loyalty to ended. to be a threat to the public order. People Hitler. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 7

arrested by the Gestapo or the Kripo were not allowed legal representatives, a right of appeal, or any judicial review. Hitler then seized control of the legisla- tive process. On March 24, 1933, the Reich- stag (Parliament) passed the Enabling Act which allowed Hitler to enact laws without the approval of the legislature. Hitler ac- complished this through “protective deten- tion” when he jailed 81 Communists and 26 Social Democratic representatives, thus denying them their right to vote on the En- abling Act, and through intimidation of the remaining non-Nazi Party representatives, by having SS troops in the Reichstag when the vote was taken. As for the judiciary, Hitler eliminated any possible judicial review of acts of the Nazi re- gime. When one of the defendants accused of setting the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933 was acquitted, Hitler took jurisdiction of political crimes away from the Supreme Court and in its place he established a Peo- ple’s Court made up of Nazi judges. When von Hindenburg died in August, 1934, Hitler designated himself as Fuhrer (The Leader). On August 20, 1934, legislation was passed requiring all state officials, including mem- bers of the judiciary, to swear loyalty, not to the German Constitution, but to the Fuhrer YAD VASHEM PHOTO ARCHIVES - AP FILE PHOTO himself. Jewish women and children deported from Hungary line up on the selection platform in May 1944 at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 1941, with no legal or legislative impediments, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, head of Judicial control the SS, ordered Jews deported to concentration camps, leading to systematic murder of millions of Jews. Much of what Hitler was able to do in Germany was due to his control of the judi- law and justice in Germany and then utiliz- The perfect storm own Constitution. These people have been ing the emptied forms of legal process for successful, on occasion, in having our con- ciary. Although there were efforts by many Hitler could not have seized control of gress and state legislatures pass laws that judges to maintain their judicial indepen- persecution, enslavement, and extermina- the legislature, the police and the judicia- dence, through legislation and eventual tion on a large scale”. One of the notorious ry without first capturing the hearts and erode our rights and give the government acquiescence, judges did not stand in the Nazi judges was Dr. Oswald Rothaug, who minds of the German People, which enabled more opportunity to intrude on our privacy. way of Hitler’s master plan. In 1941, with presided over the Nuremberg Special Court. him to rise to power as the Reich Chancel- The public should understand that it is not no legal or legislative impediments in their Justice Rothaug was found guilty and sen- lor. He was a demagogue, who through his someone else’s rights that are affected – it way, Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, head of tenced to life in prison. In referring to one passionate oratory skills, rallied the people is their own. Once our rights are lessened, the SS, issued orders that began deporting particular case Rothaug presided over against what was perceived to be the very it is difficult, if not impossible to restore Jews to concentration camps, leading to the where a sentence of death was imposed, foundation of Germany’s post WW I misery them. One of the lessons to be learned from implementation of the “Final Solution” – the Tribunal stated “one undisputed fact – Jews, Communists and the terms of peace Hitler’s seizure of power, and any erosion of the systematic murder of millions of Jews. is sufficient to establish this case as being imposed on Germany by the allies. our own rights, is that the public must be At the end of the war there were a series an act in furtherance of the Nazi program The seizure of absolute power is certain- vigilant, vocal and oppose attempts by ex- of trials in Nuremberg conducted by the In- to persecute and exterminate Jews … Kat- ly not unique to Germany. It has happened tremists on either side of the political spec- ternational Military Tribunal. One of those zenberger (the defendant) was tried and in other countries and it can happen again. trum to limit our rights in any way. It would trials was to become known as the “Jurist” executed only because he was a Jew … The In our own country, there are some politi- be wise to remember the words of Edmund trial where prosecutors and judges were ac- Defendant Rothaug was the knowing and cians and members of the public who are Burke who said “all tyranny needs to gain a cused of “judicial murder and other atroc- willing instrument in that program of per- unhappy with and criticize our system of foothold is for people of good conscience to ities, which they committed by destroying secution and extermination.” justice and the rights afforded us under our remain silent.” 8 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

A daring rescue of the sacred Torah One survivor’s journey and legacy By Irene Gruen Jablon From the Buffalo Courier Express on July 18, 1948: “When the Nazis ordered the destruction of the Jewish synagogue in Buergel, am writing this article about my father, Leo Germany, they unknowingly helped Gruen (aka Leo Gruenebaum.) Although found a temple in the New World. he was always reluctant to discuss his past It is Temple Beth El, Bank St., in Germany during the years of the Nazi Batavia. Above are two Torah regime, I found a newspaper article about scrolls for which Leo Gruenebaum his heroism written in 1948 that I am of Buergel risked his life. C.J. proud to share with everyone today. Goldstein, left, president of the ILeo, one of 8 children, was born January 28, temple, holds one of the velvet- 1891. He lived in Buergel, Germany, as did his mantled scrolls with its rich sterling entire family. Buergel is a suburb of Offenbach, silver ornamentation. Rabbi Harry and the Gruenebaums dated back there to J. Brevis, center, holds the smallest Torah, while Lew R. Browne, vice- the 12th century. By the fall of 1938, the Jewish president, displays the hand-painted population of Buergel had all but disappeared. sash which ties the small scroll. My dad was among the few who remained , continuing to work in his family business. He only the equivalent of $1.25. was a manufacturer of type cases for printing Upon entering my father’s home, the lug- presses for many of the German newspapers. He gage inspector dropped a broad hint that for was also the president of his synagogue before a “suitable gratuity” he would be inclined to its destruction. As the tempo of anti-Semitic treat my father with benevolent liberality. My persecution continued to rise, my father had a father paid the gratuity and held his breath. sense of impending doom. His concern grew The official merely glanced at the trunk hold- for the Torahs in the synagogue. ing the precious scrolls and affixed his seal. A Torah scrolls are the five book of Moses, few days later my father set sail from Hamburg handwritten in Hebrew and read every Sab- with one sister on a small Hamburg-Ameri- bath and on Jewish Holidays. These Torahs, can liner. At the American port of entry, the in the Buergel Synagogue, were over 200 customs inspector, also Jewish, pointed to the years old. One of the hand-painted linen trunk and ask, “What have you there?” “Three sashes that tied one of the six scrolls was do- PHOTOS COURTESY OF books” was his answer. When he opened the nated by one of IRENE GRUEN JABLON lid, the inspector leaned down and kissed the my father’s ances- three scrolls and said “Welcome to a free land, tors on the birth ► Counter-clockwise from my friend”! of a child in their bottom, Irene Gruen Jablon, After arriving, my father went to Batavia, N.Y. family. My father husband Harold, and to stay with relatives. The Jewish families in Bat- realized that to children Alison and Eric. avia were organizing a congregation. They had a hide anything Nazi in Paris on November 7, large residence which could be remodeled but from the Nazis 1938. This triggered the de- no Torah scrolls. It was such a perfect situation could mean going struction and desecration of for my father to give the scrolls to this congrega- to a concentra- 500 synagogues throughout tion. They became enshrined in the holy ark of tion camp or the Germany known 2 days lat- which is now known as Temple Beth El. A few ▲ Leo Gruen firing squad. He er, as Kristallnacht. The one months later, my father met my mother who was had already spent remaining Torah scroll at his a resident psychologist at the women’s prison in time in jail and in a work camp for speaking out synagogue was dragged out, Albion, not far from Batavia . They fell in love and against the political situation. Nevertheless, my unrolled and destroyed by an married on August 4, 1943 in the same temple father felt it important to save the precious To- angry mob. that housed these smuggled Torahs!! to get two scrolls out to Johannesburg, South rahs, even at the possible ultimate price, his life. Reluctantly my father knew he would have My beloved father passed away New Year’s He smuggled the Torahs out of the synagogue to flee Germany. For a Jew to leave at that time Africa. After agonizing months of filing applica- Eve, 1981 at almost 92 years of age. He got to and hid them in his home. was difficult. Smuggling out five Torahs with tions and being interviewed and searched, he know and enjoy all 4 of his grandchildren and His premonition was well founded when their costly silver ornaments and religious sig- was notified in mid-summer 1939 that he could watch them grow. My father was a true hero and a young man named Herschel Grynszpan nificance would be almost impossible. His first depart, however, he had to sign over his lucra- a great role model for my family. I will forever re- shot and killed Ernst von Rath, an important break came when through a friend, he was able tive business to the Nazis and could leave with spect and admire his courage and heroism. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 9

One survivor’s journey and legacy A daring rescue of the sacred Torah From the HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED“ exhibit

LATE APRIL 1945 – Ben and others had to march from Dachau to Allach,

(I survived the Holocaust through) ... pure luck, God’s will, and I guess for me, to tell which was only 3 kilometers. Ben’s brother Joel was on this march also.“ “ you the message right now. To tell you the story, that’s the reason we survived. BEN STERN, Holocaust survivor, Columbia I fell. ... I couldn’t walk anymore, I weighed about 87 pounds and I fell, and “ that was lucky that I couldn’t walk, because everybody else got shot. JULY 21, 1924 – Birth of Ben Stern (Sterenzys), the youngest of four children in Kielce, Poland. Ben’s brother Joel was killed in that march.

SUMMER 1925 – Family picture taken with APRIL 30, 1945 – Ben Stern is liberated from Allach by the 42nd Infantry baby Ben in front. Only 2 survivors of Division of the American Army. the Holocaust are in this pic- ture, Ben and his oldest I couldn’t exhibit any emotions, because I was so sick

sister Zoscia (Sofie). and so weak.“ I weighed 87 or 89 pounds. Inwardly, I was overjoyed, but if you had

been an American soldier and had looked at me, there was no reaction, because I could not move. I was flat gone. It was a blessing in disguise that I couldn’t“ eat. Other prisoners went to the bunkers, the area where potatoes were stored underground, and started eating raw potatoes. Many died. FALL 1945 – Ben Stern meets Jadzia Sklar (Sklarz), also a Holocaust Survivor of Auschwitz. Her brother Ben Sklar (Sklarz) was a roommate and Holocaust Survivor with Ben Stern and both men lived together in various concentration camps. Ben Sklar ► JUNE 16, 1946 – Jadzia and Ben Stern marry in Munich, Germany and many friends provide flowers for the ceremony. Ben and Zoscia (Sofie) ► DEC. 6, 1947 – Daugh- ter Lilly is born in Munich.

JUNE 8, 1949 – Ben Stern’s young family immigrates to the US. They come over by ship SUMMER 1929 – Family moves from Kielce to Lodz, Poland looking for work. on the SS General Mc- FALL 1931 – Chaim Stern (father of Ben) begins to feel the unrest in Europe, and warns his sister Helen Lipton to Gree and are processed be “careful” in Germany, since she would be visiting from the USA with her 2 small sons, Joe and Morey. through Ellis Island. The family moves to South Carolina since they are spon- sored by Ben’s Uncle Gabriel Stern and his family, living in Lexington, S.C. ◀ SPRING 1938 – Visa photo taken of Ben’s mother 1950s-1990s – The Ben Stern family grows and prospers. Jadzia and Ben Hadassah, brother Joel, father Chaim, and Ben in the have three more children, Helena, Bill, and Herb, after coming to America. hope of immigrating to the U.S. The correspondence to Ben Stern starts his own construction company (Ben Stern General Con- the United States reveals an increasing sense of urgen- tractor, later changed to Ben Stern Construction Company, and changed cy for immigration. Their letters become pleading. again by his son Bill to Stern & Stern Development Company). Ben and Jadzia become an integral part of the Columbia community and landscape. FALL 1939 – The family moves back to Kielce, Poland Ben was president of Beth Shalom Synagogue and would often serve as its as word spreads that Lodz will soon become a ghetto. cantor. He was a member of the Jewish Community Center, the Masons and Ben begins work in a carpenter shop. Shriners. Jadzia, besides a dedicated homemaker, seamstress and cook, was president of the Beth Shalom Sisterhood. They had 11 grandchildren and SPRING 1942 – The SS (Nazis) raid Ben’s family home and make selections of who will live and work for them, although they never lived to see their great grandchildren, they have five. and who will not. Ben watched as his sister Zoscia (Sofie) was forever separated from her small son (who was Both Jadzia and Ben began to speak of their Holocaust experiences in the killed before her eyes as they “tore” the legs apart from the child) Other family members were transported to late 1970s and continued to do so until their deaths. Both had concentration Treblinka Concentration Camp. Ben was taken to Hennikov (near Kielce) to work at a shoe factory. He worked tattoo numbers on their arms until their deaths. Ben unexpectedly passed away in this work camp until 1944, when he was sent to six concentration camps, Auschwitz, Oranienburg, Sachsen- Dec. 6, 1999, and Jadzia died after a long illness on June 28, 2001. May memories hausen, Kaufering, Dachau, and Allach. of them live through their children, grandchildren and future descendants. 10 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

Deportation avoided By Hannah Goldberg McGee Luba’s story is one of luck, remember as a child asking a simple courage and question to my grandmother, Luba the presence of Goldberg (Liuba Schreibman). I asked mind and force her to tell me about her mother, Esther. of personality Luba paused and then responded, “She to capitalize died in the war.” on her luck. At This conversation that I had with my left, Luba and Igrandmother over 20 years ago is part of Bernard are a much larger history. It is now presented shown with at schools, portrayed in books and movies, their daughter, and haunts all of us around the world. This Esther. Below, recollection of my grandmother’s story briefly the couple met remembers her time in at a refugee camp in the Cernauti Ghetto, how Cyprus. she escaped deportation and how she moved on from the horrors she faced during the Holocaust. My grandmother, one of four children, was born in Tighina, Romania. was gone except for the officer and a few McGee She studied education at others. She showed him the documentation college in Bucharest. Once she graduated, and he said, “I thought I sent you home.” she realized that conditions in Europe were Returning to the ghetto, Luba was sick for worsening, and she found herself and her two weeks, symptoms related to the stress of physician brother, sister-in-law and their her experience. She was the only one to return daughter living in the Cernauti Ghetto, from those ordered to the train station. After Romania. she recovered, she returned to business. She The conditions in the ghetto were bleak. The felt the best cure was to keep going. So she did. homes and all belongings were sequestered. Later, Luba immigrated to Russia, where My grandmother recalled sharing a living she opened a school for girls. Ultimately, she space with her brother’s family and several PHOTOS COURTESY OF HANNAH GOLDBERG McGEE was presented with the opportunity to move others. By promising medical help from her to Israel via a post-war refugee camp, run by of “Liuba,” thinking that they were deporting her coat, fixed her hair and put on lipstick to brother, Luba made secret agreements with the British in Cyprus. the male head of household! As she left the change her appearance. She pushed her way the guards in the ghetto. The guards would In Cyprus, she was introduced to Bernard permit Luba to get food and other resources to house, she took nothing but a handbag. She past the other guards and grabbed the officer Goldberg by mutual friends, and they married the homes, in exchange for medical attention. was determined that she was coming back to by the belt across his chest and said, “You within two weeks. They continued to Israel Although conditions in the ghetto were her home. have to help me!” She told him of the mistaken upon its independence in 1948 and had a horrific and resources were limited, it was When they arrived at the station, she spoke identity. Surprisingly, he sent her home with daughter (Esther) and a son (Norman). Years better than the alternative – deportation! with a guard at the fence. Although she had a guard to get her identity documentation. later, they immigrated to the United States, to Deportation meant leaving by train without some contacts that she was seeking, Luba and Before she left, one of the train doors was Columbia, S.C., to join Bernard’s brother and arriving anywhere alive. First, the elderly were the guard agreed that he would sneak her out closing on a face she recognized, a woman family (Felix and Bluma Goldberg). deported, and then children, and then they of the station, if her contacts failed. She was from her ghetto. She quickly shoved her Luba’s story is one of luck, courage and the selected from all that was left. determined not to leave the station on a train. handbag through the train door and handed it presence of mind and force of personality to When my grandmother talked about her Inside the station, Luba tried to reach out to this woman. Luba was certain the woman courageously capitalize on her luck. But for time in Europe during the Holocaust, she to everyone she knew, with no help from needed the contents of her bag more than she that, there would have been no granddaughter mostly spoke of the one most terrifying day of professors or guards. She found the officer in would that day. to ask questions and no one to remember Luba, her life: the day she was chosen for deportation charge, but he had bodyguards all around and On her return home, surprised, her sister- a fate that befell 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. from the ghetto. She recalled that an error had nobody would let her near him. in-law fainted. Luba explained the situation So, Luba was asked by one of her been made; the guards asked for “Lieb” instead Ultimately, she went to a corner, removed and then returned to the station. Everyone granddaughters a simple question ... APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 11

Flight from the Nazis By Rabbi Philip Silverstein The destination was Marseilles. They stayed for several months. Papa would leave for days The following is a condensation of an or weeks, trying to seek a way out of France. original narrative by Rabbi Silverstein on his Spain refused to allow Jews into their country, family’s escape from the Nazis in 1940-1941. but Portugal was not so strict, so attempts were The information and intent is the same; only made to try to get to Portugal. the length has been revised, with notations (in italics) by Dr. Lilly Filler. admired Papa ever so much. He knew everything. There was really nothing to n Friday morning, 10 May, 1940, I worry about when he was around. The woke up with the sun shining brightly I gnawing of insecurity came to me only when he Othrough the windows. was away. When he was with us, nothing bad would ever happen to us because he would know Thus begins the story of how to get us out of any danger. It was wonderful Philip Silverstein, age 9, to have such a man at the head of our family. who was living in Belgium with his parents and young sister. This was the day his The family had many friends in Marseilles, father decided that it was friends from Antwerp, people who they met on no longer safe to stay in trains while traveling. For some, this was their Antwerp and began the plan final destination, others were trying to get to Silverstein to leave. Young Silverstein Brazil. The Silversteins only had their eyes on was just excited about a the U.S., but visas for everyone were needed, and “trip” and during that day played marbles with when granted piecemeal, some of the family an upstairs neighbor, Poleke Freilich, whose PHOTOS COURTESY OF would acquire the visa, but it would expire parents tried, to no avail, to convince “Papa” RABBI PHILIP SILVERSTEIN before the next member was granted a visa. Silverstein to stay with them. Above, Philip Silverstein, center, on a beach in remember the day in February of t was a big decision on my father’s part and Belgium circa 1938. From 1941 when Papa came home with I knew it. Many people, not only Jews, had left are his parents, his indescribable happiness. He hugged decided to leave. ... I remembered having sister Anna, scholar Zelig I Mama and kissed us and told us that I Broschi, and family friends listened on the radio to Hitler’s speeches and everything was arranged. ... We were on a train I knew that he was very bad for the Jews. the Kaplans. At right are the again, (heading west). Mama and Papa were Silverstein children, Philip, 5, Several months before, Papa and Mama had a very nervous at the Spanish border. ... It was in and Anna, 2, circa 1935. conversation about Hitler at lunch time when Portugal that I first felt like a carefree human Papa said that he hoped that his turn on the quota begin again. We spent a week in Lisbon. ... to enter the US would come prior to the war. SS Excambion of the American Export When I heard the word “war” for the first time, I Lines arrived at port. The American flag quickly got up from the table and began to pray. ... possible, hoping to get passage on a ship to the dock, for a lot of money. The car had egg baskets fluttering in the wind became a symbol of our United States. The family was planning to stay in it and was very uncomfortable. ... There was protection and salvation. ... Then I heard the The father had family in New York, his mother in Bordeaux, corresponding with the N.Y. family, the ship! It had a Belgian flag, I loved Belgium name “Zylberztejn” and we boarded. We sailed was from Poland. Prior to leaving Antwerp, and working on ship passage. However, the Nazis dearly. Papa boarded first as he told us to wait Papa insisted that Philip memorize the family towards evening. ... We arrived in New York on appeared to be moving westward, everyone was on the dock. After much talking and pleading address in New York: “Eeleven Nineteen Fortee March 19, 1941. The whole family met us at the with the captain, Papa returned to us with a sad Teurd Stree, Brookleen, New York.” talking about the war. Although Germany had dock and there was much crying and kissing. The family began their journey out of Belgium, promised not to bomb Bordeaux, the family expression. He had failed. The captain would not It was then that we went by car to “Eeleven into France. After many days and difficult began to move again, traveling to Bayonne. let us aboard. ... We returned to Bayonne. Several Nineteen Fortee Teurd Street, Brookleen, NY” lodging situations, bombing raids, joining months later we found out that the ship had sunk. Many of my classmates made it to the land crowds of people also heading west and south remember the day when he (Papa) came which we had considered real only in fairy to try to “escape” the Nazis, they ended up in home telling us excitedly that he had found After several more weeks, unable to find passage tales. Many others remained behind to die in southwestern France, Bordeaux. Papa Silverstein I a ship bound for England. We packed in 2 to the US or to England, the family moved again, concentration camps, like my friend Poleke wanted to get as close to the Atlantic Ocean as minutes and found a farmer who took us to the but this time there seemed to be a plan. Freilich. 12 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 13 Some memories never dim By Lilly Filler DAVID RAY HUBBARD’S LETTER HOME ntering the modest home of Fulda, Germany This is housed in a neat-looking little white beef on to dry. Piled in another corner of the 92-year-old David Ray Hub- May 21, 1945 house, and you’d never guess that so many yard were the plastic and pottery containers bard was as if entering a Dearest Mama, Daddy and all, thousands of human bodies had been reduced which were used to hold the ashes of one lovely time capsule. Pictures It’s been 2 ½ years since I could to ashes inside its walls. We entered through body, supposedly for shipment to the victim’s were in all corners, books write a letter and tell you directly the basement and viewed the chute where the people. I have one of them in the room here, Estacked in piles and war memorabilia in where I was situated. The order bodies were thrown down into the basement. and particles of the ashes still remain. multitudes of boxes. came out this afternoon relaxing Not all of the victims were lucky enough to After the crematorium, we visited the living Mr. Hubbard began our interview the censorship regulations. be dead upon arrival at this gruesome place quarters of the remaining prisoners. Such with the history of his beloved wife and From now on there will be just a and means were provided to kill them there filth, stench and scum I’ve never seen in my how they came to marry. Although now spot check by the base censor. in the basement. Arranged all around the top whole life. One poor fellow was laboriously deceased, discussing his wife, Anne Gal- Fulda, Germany, is just a small of the wall, about thirty inches apart, were shaving himself with an old broken razor loway, still brings tears to his eyes. How- place about fifty miles northeast iron hooks. There were forty of these hooks and a blade that looked like a saw blade. I ever, as soon as the discussion moved of Frankfurt. Now to get on with and upon each one a human was hung just happened to have a pack of blades in my to his service career and his eyewitness the story of my trip yesterday. I as we’d hang up a coat on the hall rack. The pocket, so I gave him one. His face sure lit up, account of Buchenwald concentration know all of you have followed hooks were not designed high enough from and I thought to myself how much I dreaded camp, he closed his eyes and recovered the stories of atrocities the floor so that a jerk of the falling body would to even shave with a blade but twice. with a steely resolve. committed by these so- break the neck, thereby ending life painlessly, All the prisoners remarked to us that Mr. Hubbard wrote many letters to called humans in Germany. but rather it was a slow, painful death of this camp was the showplace of all the his family while serving in Europe from Pictures, stories and word of strangulation. One could still see the marks on concentration camps in Europe. It was November 1942 until the fall of 1945, and mouth cannot sufficiently the wall made by men in their death throes. supposed to be the best in existence, and one with his folding Autographic Brownie tell the story of horrors and The dead bodies were placed on a thought himself lucky to be sent there. I told camera, he took many pictures. Hubbard beastliness carried on in modern electric elevator and lifted up to them that I’d certainly hate to see worse ones. was not in combat, but was assigned the concentration camps the ground floor, where the roaring blast There was one pitiful looking being of to Company D, 197th Quartermaster you’ve heard about such furnaces awaited them. There were two skin and bones only who was actually in the Gasoline Supply Battalion. He and his as Limburg, Dachau, brick furnaces especially designed for the crematorium when he and several others company established the first of many Buchenwald and others. purpose, each with three openings. Before I were told to go back to the hospital to put on petroleum, oil and lubricant dumps. He I’ll try to tell you some of forget it, the furnaces had the manufacturer’s more weight. The only explanation they could served as company clerk in a cadre to my impressions upon nameplate on the front as bold as it could think of was that the SS troops wanted to begin form a new gasoline supply company in viewing with my own be. The steel stretcher was still there, and making a better impression because of the close southern England. eyes one of Germany’s one of the prisoners demonstrated it for us. proximity of our troops. This kid is only 16 ½ In May 1944, Hubbard was transferred most notorious camps Three bodies were placed on this stretcher years old and nothing but skin and bones after to Headquarters Detachment, Advance PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID RAY HUBBARD – Buchenwald. I was at a time and shoved in the furnace, and a five weeks of liberation and additional food. I Section Communication Zone, which there yesterday and track contraption outside made it possible have a picture of him, just as I have of the other written when he was 22 years old and spearheaded providing all logistical printed in Columbia’s The Star Re- still I can’t get the sight to move the stretcher from one opening things of interest. Another boy of seventeen, had entered a concentration camp in support for the advancing troops, begin- porter on March 26, 1992. of those poor souls to another. Three bodies in each opening who spoke very good English, told us that he Weimar, Germany. He filed this letter ning on D-Day. In ADSEC, he served with The letter was written approxi- out of my mind. made it possible for eighteen bodies to be was from Bucharest and that he wanted to away, and for many years, he and his “Sixty Minutes” reporter Andy Rooney. mately six weeks after the April 12, There are still consumed at a time. The process of turning return home for a short while and then go to wife raised a family and participated in Hubbard was also given clearance above 1945, liberation of Buchenwald by several thousand them into nothing but ashes took thirty America. This boy was the healthiest specimen I their community. top secret (B.I.G.O. T. – see glossary) due the 4th Armored Division and the prisoners at minutes, and a trough at the bottom was saw in the whole camp and was quite a contrast However, after a visit back to the Nor- to his duties implementing Operation 80th Infantry. The letter, dated May Buchenwald, and designed to retain the ashes for removal. to the others. Several thousand of the prisoners mandy beaches with Anne for the 40th Overlord. Although behind a desk most 21, 1945, contains Hubbard’s words as soon as our A little square wooden box contained the were evacuated prior to the liberation, and he anniversary of D-Day in 1984, Hubbard of the time, he participated in the Bat- to his family back in the States. He vehicle stopped we had a crowd of ashes and partly consumed bones of one managed to escape. began to speak out about what he saw, tle of the Bulge – T/3 (Staff Sgt) – and still remembers and speaks of the them around us. Two of the fellows with me man. The contents would probably fill a hat. I’ll end with the statement that, in my touched and smelled. This letter now became an eyewitness of Buchenwald horrific smells and the outrageous were Jewish, and since most of the prisoners On rushing days, when the hooks in the opinion, the only good German is a dead has been archived in Washington, D.C., concentration camp. atrocities by the German SS. He states and are Jewish it wasn’t hard for us to learn about basement were inadequate to handle all the German and it’s such a pity that so many still at the United States Holocaust Memo- While cleaning out his mother’s house that this was one of the “worst experi- carries them the place. Two very bright youngsters of about victims, a scaffold concern was used out in remain alive. rial Museum, was printed in Tom Bro- after her death in 1950, he came upon a ences” that he encountered during his in his wallet seventeen years offered to guide us, and the the yard. It reminds me so much of the old Lots of love to all, kaw’s “An Album of Memories,” and was small cloth purse containing a letter military service. He took these pictures today so that he will never forget. first place they took us was the crematorium. beef rack in the market we used to hang David Ray 14 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

An eyewitness to evil Commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day THE REVEREND GEORGE CHASSEY From the HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED exhibit This is what I witnessed: The Camp was enclosed“ by a large fence with strategically placed By Lilly Filler SEPT 12, 1921 – Born in Bridgewater, Mass. gun towers. The buildings were crude one story barrack style of 1938 – Graduated Bridgewater High School. Attended Bridge- wood construction. On entering one of such buildings there was a water State College for a year. single pathway down the center about two yards wide. On either DEC 29, 1941 – Enlisted in the Air Force after attack at Pearl side of this passageway, the length of the building, were bodies Harbor. First trained at Fort Devens, Mass. stacked like cordwood. Between the layers of these bodies were lay- 1942 – Attended basic training in Missouri. ers of lime to kill the odor. In this one building there were hundreds 1942 – Assigned as original crew chief of 353rd Fighter of bodies in various stages of decay. Squadron of the 354th Fighter group. Aircraft was the P51 Mustang. At the end of the center walkway was a gallows. NOVEMBER-JUNE 1943 – Stationed at Hamilton Field out- Going out the door at the end of the walkway and side of San Fransisco and at the Air Base in Santa Rosa. a few yards from the building were the ashes of the JAN 13, 1943 – Married Mary Hildreth in Chapel on Hamilton burial pyre. It was the custom of the German Camp Field. leadership to herd the able bodied into the neighboring 1943 – The 354th Fighter Group spent six weeks on the Bomb- wooded area, force them to cut firewood, carry it into ing and Gunnery Range in Tonopah, Nev. the Camp. Those who were ill, or elderly, or disabled, JUNE-OCTOBER 1943 – Stationed at Air Base in Portland, those for whom there was no use, were executed by hanging, or Oregon. gunfire, cast aside like so much trash. The able bodied were made to stack the dead, layered with firewood, creating a large funeral pyre, about 20 feet by 20 feet. What I saw was a large pile of ashes. In the open area adjacent to the gate through which we entered Ohrdruf concentration camp the Camp, civilians from the village of Ohrdruf, on orders from the MARCH 1945 – On German soil outside of General in Command of the American troops were carrying out

Ober-Olm. emaciated bodies, wrapping them APRIL 1945 – Dispatched with two officers in sheets, in preparation for burial. “ and other enlisted personnel to an abandoned Those scenes will never leave my mind airfield in the vicinity of Ohrdruf Concentra- and soul. I will take them to the grave. tion Camp. The mission was to repair two of the aircraft that had landed at this airfield I walked in the presence of evil. It was with mechanical problems. “ APRIL 1945 – Visited concentration camp an experience which I did not realize outside of Ohrdruf. It was decided to ap- at the time would change my life. proach this camp and evaluate the situation. It was a strong contributing factor Arrived shortly after the liberating American that led me to the last 50+ years as a Infantry. Priest of the Episcopal Church. What “A” flight crew chiefs. George Chassey is in the front MAY 1945 – The three squadrons of the we remember here this day is from row, kneeling, fourth from left. 354th Fighter Group had destroyed in the air another era, another century. Let us and on the ground over 700 enemy aircraft. remember evil does not fade away. OCTOBER 1943 – Traveled by Troop Train to Camp Kilmer, The 354th Fighter Group received the Pres- George, left, and his friend, It lurks in many shadows. There are N.J., for deployment overseas to England, France and Germany. idential Unit Citation twice, and the French Mike, travel home on the many forms that can enslave the DEC. 1, 1943 – First mission was from an airfield near Col- government bestowed the Croix de Guerre S.S. Aquitania in 1945. human soul. chester, England. It was a fighter sweep across what would on the group twice. Forty-four pilots became We of the present must maintain eternal vigilance by speaking up become the invasion coast. The primary mission from En- aces, destroying in the air five or more enemy for those who have no voice in the public debates that affect the gland was to protect the B-17s and B-24s as they penetrated aircraft. general welfare and promote the common good; we must stand for the Third Reich to pound Hitler’s Germany in preparation for OCTOBER 1945 – Returned to United States the invasion that was yet to come, on June 6, 1944. and reunited with family. Went to college on those who have no power in the political or financial fabric of the JUNE 14, 1944 – Landed on Omaha Beach with 20 other offi- a GI Bill to be a school teacher and eventually community; we must speak up for justice where injustice prevails; cers and enlisted men to make airbase operational. moved south and taught history at the high we must raise our voices for tolerance where intolerance is present.

It is the responsibility of the religious community to speak to the JUNE 15, 1944 – Flew the first fighter missions from French school level in Rock Hill and Greenville, S.C. “ soil from an air field one mile inland from Omaha Beach. 1958 – Attended Sewanee Seminary School, issues of peace, justice, and righteousness, so that evil cannot find From there the squadron moved across France on a number became a priest 15 years after the war. Con- the light of day in our day, place, and time or in the lives of those of missions, giving Gen. Patton’s Third Army air support. tinues to practice as an Episcopal priest. who follow us in the journey of humanity. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 15

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day THE REV. GEORGE CHASSEY JUNE 6, 1944

By Lilly Filler am the daughter of Holocaust Survi- vors (Jadzia and Ben Stern). I am often asked, “When did you find out your parents were concentration camp sur- vivors? Did they speak of their experi- Iences?” The answers are “I don’t know” and “not real ly.” I always knew they were different from my Columbia friends and their parents: My parents had accents, my parents had a number tattooed on their arms, my parents had few living family members, and my mom had terrible nightmares. Only as I grew older did I begin to ask a few ques- tions (too few, I fear), and my father always said, “thank G-d for the United States Armed Forces.” My father was liberated from Allah, a sub camp of Auschwitz on April 30, 1945, by the United States Army. My mother was liberated from Leipzig by the Russians a few days later. As soon as I realized that the 70th anniversary of D-Day was to be commemorated on June 6, 2014, and that so many of our “greatest genera- tion” veterans were being taken by father time, my husband and I made plans to be on or near the Normandy beaches on that date. We found a riverboat cruise that would bring us to the northern French beaches and cliffs, Omaha and Utah, to attend this historic commemoration. I was not as knowledgeable about the Allied forc- es or that side of the conflict as I was about the rounding up of Jewish citizens, anti-Semitism, concentration camps, death camps, ghettos, and loss of families. Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the chosen site to launch the PHOTOS COURTESY OF LILLY FILLER Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Eu- man consumption. This misled the Germans to orable. Meeting the surviving military, dressed in rope. This site was chosen one year earlier at the the date and place of the Allied landings. their uniforms, was overwhelming, and viewing Trident Conference in Washington where Gen. Conditions had to be perfect: The artificial ports the Normandy cemeteries brought a lump to my Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed command- had to be moved across the English channel, a full throat as row after row revealed thousands of er of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary moon had to be present, a rising tide with calm young men who died for our freedom. Force, and Gen. Bernard Montgomery was named waters was needed to put everything in place, and I said “thank you” to every soldier that I met the commander of the 21st Army Group (all land June 5th was initially chosen. But a terrible storm and murmured my thanks to every grave we forces involved with the invasion). forced the change to June 6, 1944. On D-Day, the stopped at to pay respects. The Normandy Amer- To achieve the conditions necessary on the U.S. causalities were enormous, and the fighting ican Cemetery and Memorial contains 9,387 Normandy beachhead, two artificial ports (Mul- was fierce, but a successful foothold was achieved, headstones, of which 149 were Stars of David. berry harbors) and multiple specialized tanks and almost a year later, World War II was over and There were 1,557 missing in action, 45 sets of needed to be manufactured, in secret. Thus a the Germans and their collaborators were defeat- brothers, and three Medal of Honor recipients. substantial military deception called Operation ed by the U.S.-led Allied forces. Yes, I think my father was right when he often Bodyguard was coined to manufacture mislead- Walking along the beaches of Normandy, where stated “Thank G-d for the United States Armed ing electronic and visual information for Ger- so many lost their lives, was emotional and mem- Forces.” We should thank them all, always! 16 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

The Nuremberg Trials By Howard B. Stravitz (secret state police), the Sturmabteilung (SA, para-military organization or storm troopers), lthough Churchill and others ad- and the “General Staff and High Command vocated for summary execution of (leadership in regular German military). Nazi leaders, it was ultimately de- The prosecution brought four indictments termined to hold a series of military against the 24 individuals and seven organizations: tribunals to administer justice to, (1) Conspiracy to wage aggressive war – for and to record the heinous crimes perpetrated A crimes committed before the beginning of the war; by, the leaders of Nazi Germany. This article will (2) Planning, initiating and waging of aggres- briefly discuss the various Nuremberg trials, in- sive war – for undertaking war in violation of cluding the principal participants, the principal international treaties; defendants, and the results reached at the trials. (3) War crimes, including the killing or mis- It concludes with a brief discussion of Nurem- treatment of prisoners and the use of the out- berg’s influence on current International law. lawed weapons; and The “Nuremberg Trials” is a general term for (4) Crimes against Humanity – concerned two groups of trials of Nazi leaders and other crimes against Jews, ethnic minorities, physically High German officials for crimes committed and mentally disabled persons, civilians in occu- during World War II, including the Holocaust pied countries, and others. crimes against civilians. The first and most sig- The trial was conducted in two parts. First, the nificant of the Nuremberg trials was entitled prosecution sought to establish the criminality “The Trial of Major War Criminals” before the of various elements of the Nazi regime. Second, International Military Tribunal, which included it sought to establish the guilt of individual de- all the principal leaders of Nazi Germany. Hitler fendants. The best analysis of the evidence intro- and Himmler escaped justice at Nuremberg by duced at Nuremberg is the 1954 book “Tyranny committing suicide before the trials began. The On Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg” by Whit- international Military Tribunal consisted of one ney R. Harris, one of the assistant U.S. prosecu- judge and one alternate from the four principal tors. The defendants presented their evidence allied countries: Great Britain, France, the United through their German lawyers. Many took the States, and the Soviet Union. The allies wanted stand and tried to put their actions in the most the trials to take place in Germany, but most positive light possible. Most of the defendants German cities were devastated during the Allied denied knowledge of the concentration camps. bombing during the war. Nuremberg was chosen On October 1, 1946, verdicts were announced for two principal reasons: (1) the Palace of Justice by the tribunal. Of the 24 defendants, 18 were (courthouse) was for the most part undamaged, convicted on one or more of the indictments and spacious enough to hold the proceedings, and three – Hans Fritzsche (popular radio commen- included a large prison; and (2) it was the site tator), Franz von Papen (who held various gov- of regular Nazi rallies throughout the Hitler era, ernment and diplomatic posts), and Dr. Hjalmar and gave its name to the laws passed stripping Schacht (prominent banker and economist) – citizenship, basic human rights, and confiscat- were acquitted. Eleven were sentenced to death ing property of Jews. by hanging; others were given prison sentences The first Nuremberg trial ranging from 10 years to life. Hermann Goering, who was found guilty on all four indictments The first NurembergTrial, presided over by a and sentenced to death, escaped the hangman’s Soviet judge, started on November 19, 1945. The noose by committing suicide the night before his AP FILE PHOTO prosecution indicted 24 major war criminals, scheduled execution. In addition, three of the Clockwise from top left are the 11 Nazi leaders condemned to death: Hermann Goering, including Martin Bormann, sentenced to death seven organizations were found guilty – the SS, an architect of the German police state and Hitler’s successor, 1937; Hans Franck, gov- in absentia, Herman Goring, Rudolf Hess, Joa- the Gestapo, and the principal leadership of the ernor general of Poland, 1940; Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior, 1939; Julius Stre- chim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Albert Nazi party. icher, district leader of Fraconia and editor of an anti-Semitic newspaper, 1937; Joachim Speer, and Julius Streicher, and seven organiza- Ribbentrop, foreign minister, 1936; Arthur Seyss Inquart, chancellor of Austria, 1938; tions – the leadership of the Nazi party, the Reich Subsidiary Nuremberg trials Wilhelm Keitel, supreme commander of the German armed forces, 1938; Ernst Kalten- Cabinet (government leaders), the Schutzstaffel After the main Nuremberg trial concluded, 12 brunner, head of German police forces, 1945; Alfred Rosenberg, a leading Nazi ideolo- (SS, elite military corps under Himmler), Sich- subsidiary trials continued under the auspices gist, 1933; Alfred Jodl, a German general, 1945; and Fritz Sauckel, Hitler’s chief recruiter erheitsdienst (SD, security service), the Gestapo of the U.S. until 1949. There were 185 defendants of slave labor, 1927. At center is American Master Sgt. John C. Wood, executioner. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 17

spread among these 12 trials. Guilty verdicts were obtained against 142 defendants, result- ing in 24 death sentences, 11 of which were converted to life in prison, 20 were sentenced to life, 98 were given varying sentences, and 35 were acquitted. Four defendants were excused from trial due to illness, and four committed suicide during the trials. Three of the trials were particularly noteworthy because of the horrific evidence presented by prosecution witnesses, including concentration camp survivors. The Doctors’ Trial was the first of the 12 sub- sidiary trials. Twenty-three medical doctors were tried for having participated in the Nazi human experimentation programs at the con- centration camps and elsewhere. Five were ac- quitted, seven received death sentences, and the rest received sentences ranging from 10 years to life. The Judges Trial was held from March to De- cember 1947 against 16 German judges and law- yers. These defendants were officials of the- Re ich Ministry of Justice and judges and prosecu- tors of various Nazi Courts. They were charged with enforcing Nazi racial purity and eugenic laws. Ten were found guilty, and received vari- ous prison sentences ranging up to life,, and four were acquitted. The sentences were considered by many to be too lenient. The Einsatzgruppen Trial defendants were 24 members of death squads that operated in East- ern Europe throughout the War. They were ac- cused of murdering millions of Jews and tens of AP FILE PHOTOS thousands of political leaders, disabled persons, Above, Rudolf Hess, right, holds his head during the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany. Hess, who was Hitler’s deputy, was sen- and gypsies. All defendants were found guilty, tenced to life in prison. Below, as the verdict of the War Crimes Tribunal is read on Oct. 1, 1946, Wilhelm Frick, left, scratches his jaw; fourteen were sentenced to death, but only four Julius Streicher, center, rubs his eyes and Walther Funk rests his head on his hand. Frick and Streicher were executed for war crimes. were actually executed the rest of the death sen- Funk, economics minister of the Third Reich and president of Reichsbank, was sentenced to life in prison and released in 1957. tences were commuted to prison terms of vary- ing lengths. (3) The Nuremberg Principles, 1950, International criminal law (4) The Convention on the Abolition of the Nuremberg is most famous for rejecting the Statue of Limitations on War Crimes and Crimes defense that individual defendants were merely against Humanity, 1968; and following orders, and had no responsibility for (5) The Geneva Convention on the Laws and the policy makers’ decisions. It also established Customs of War, 1949 and its Supplementary the related principle that crimes against inter- Protocols, 1977. national law are committed by individuals and Nuremberg also led to the establishment not by abstract governmental entities, and that in 1998 of a Permanent International Crimi- only by punishing individuals who commit such nal Court for trying crimes against humanity crimes can international law be upheld. In ad- and other crimes of international significance. dition, Nuremberg had great influence on the Nuremberg has also been a model for earli- subsequent development of international crim- er courts at The Hague that have tried crimes inal law. The conclusions reached at Nuremberg committed during the Balkan wars of the early were instrumental in drafting the following in- 1990s, and for trying defendants responsible for ternational treaties: genocide in Rwanda. (1) The Genocide Convention, 1948, Even though concluded almost 70 years ago, (2) The Universal Declaration of Human Nuremberg continues to influence international Rights, 1948, justice today. 18 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015 ‘Remember who you are’ By Leah Greenberg Davis idden among all of the school ersonal narratives are an and bar/bat mitzvah family invaluable resource to photos at my grandparents’ understanding our own history house are pictures of them and humanity. Our challenge is shortly after they were married Pto be able to “listen” and reflect on those in 1946. In one of the first pictures that they shared narratives around us. H I was an undergraduate at Nazareth ever took together, Bluma is shyly smiling and dressed in a fresh, white dress. My grandfather College (Rochester, N.Y.) in 1999 when Felix looks quite dapper in a gray tweed coat I met Henry Silberstern, a Holocaust and striped tie. We call him Tate (pronounced survivor, and heard him share his TAH-tee), which means father in Yiddish. Tate significant story. In 2001, I began teaching looks like a movie star. Think Michael Corleone social studies in the Phelps-Clifton Springs in “Godfather I.” His thick, dark hair is combed School District in Upstate New York and back and, with a ballpoint pen in his pocket, embraced the opportunity for him to he exudes young ambition. speak to students. Their blissful appearance belies the tragedy At 12 years old, that they have just experienced. One would Henry was interned never guess that only a few years earlier at the Terezin ghetto until his deportation they were starving to death. Both of my PHOTOS COURTESY OF LEAH GREENBERG DAVIS grandparents survived the Holocaust. Despite to Auschwitz with his Bluma and Felix mother and brother all of this tragedy, somehow, they look happy Goldberg met in this picture. in May 1944. While in after World War Auschwitz-Birkenau, More than 200,000 Jews were in displaced II in a displaced persons camps after they were liberated Henry lived in the persons camp, family camp and was in the spring of 1945. Most had lost their when Felix took a families and were confronted with the need forced to carry out tasks for Nazi officials. picture of Bluma Yet, in July 1944, he was selected by Dr. to start a completely new life. In 1945, Bluma and a friend from At top, Felix with granddaughter Leah, Josef Mengele (the infamous Nazi doctor), was brought to a displaced persons camp in her hometown. who called him Tate (pronounced TAH- Landsberg, Germany with her older sister They were tee), which is Yiddish for “father.” Above along with 89 other teenage boys to Cela. Extremely frail and weak, Bluma and married in 1946. are Leah and her husband, Richard. survive, while other prisoners were sent Cela were nursed back to health by nuns in to the gas chambers and families were a hospital near Landsberg. The nuns sewed forever torn apart. After Dr. Mengele’s Belgium. Many Jewish people are leaving.” selection, Henry was separated from his Bluma a dress, the first item of clothing that I knew that things in Europe had gotten she had worn other than a prison uniform mother and brother, as they were each bad. In Belgium, four people were killed in asent to different concentration camps. since being in the camps. shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. In the winter of 1944, Henry was In 1946, thousands of survivors were married We did not realize, however, that Jews weretransported and forced to work in the in the DP camps. It was at Landsberg where meaningful it was. Hearing my grandparents community. Growing up, we knew that we starting to leave Paris. I never would haveDora-Mittelbau Camp which made V-1 and Bluma and Tate met. A camera brought them expected in my lifetime to see anything close tell their story personalized the Holocaust for were Jewish, but that was it. We didn’t live V-2 missiles. This slave-labor camp was together. A friend from Bluma’s hometown to what my grandparents have experienced. them in a way that nothing else can. as Jews. I moved to Paris in my twenties and uniquely hidden in the Hartz Mountains. said to Bluma: “I know a guy that has a camera I thought about my grandfather’s words – My grandfather always used to say to me: married a Jewish man whose family had also Concentration camp inmates were and I want him to take a picture of us.” The Remember who you are – and I suddenly assimilated. I wanted to raise my kids Jewish, marched or transported to additional guy with a camera turned out to be Tate. Tate “Remember who you are.” I was unable to realized how lucky I was to be here with camps as Allied forces continued to liberate brought the picture to Bluma. Bluma asked appreciate the meaning of his words until but the rest of my siblings married non-Jewish Richard – someone who completely gets it. Tate what she owed him for the picture and very recently. This past summer, my husband people and don’t really care about being He knows that this threat is not an abstract Tate said a kiss. Rumor has it that he tried to Richard and I took a trip to Paris, France. On Jewish.” one, but a personal threat, to his family and to kiss Bluma and she slapped him. Shortly after our anniversary, we arranged to take a guided We were not at all anticipating what she mine. that, they were married in a double wedding. bike tour. We were surprised to discover that would tell us next. Remember who you are means never forget My grandparents have always emphasized our guide was Jewish. I shared with her that “I’ve made the decision to leave Paris,” she – never forget that history can repeat itself. the importance of sharing their story. When my grandparents are Holocaust survivors. said. “I’m moving to Israel with my husband Never forget that we have to tell the story of my I was in seventh grade, Bluma and Tate came “My parents were in hiding during the war later this summer. The anti-Semitism here grandparents to our friends, to our children to my class. I am now 31 years old and former in Amsterdam,” she told us. “After the war, and throughout Europe has gotten so bad. and to the world, or we bear the risk of anti- classmates of mine continue to tell me how they completely assimilated into the Christian There have been other attacks like the one in Semitism rearing its ugly head once again. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 19

Teacher Advisory Committee The importance of narratives By Marlene Roth

By Sarah Spoto Henry was alone again. Remarkably, The South Carolina Council on the Holocaust Teach- Henry’s perseverance and strength er Advisory Committee consists of teachers, professors, ersonal narratives are an enabled him to recover and move on with educators, and retirees who are dedicated to the idea invaluable resource to his life. Today, Henry is a proud father, that the Holocaust must be taught and that teachers understanding our own history grandfather, and great-grandfather living must be trained to teach it. and humanity. Our challenge is in Upstate New York. The committee was formed over ten years ago by a Pto be able to “listen” and reflect on those After inviting Henry to speak to my group of teachers, led by Emily Taylor of Swansea High shared narratives around us. social studies students in New York, I asked School. Meetings were held and a course of action set. I was an undergraduate at Nazareth if he had ever considered writing a book. A yearly workshop, to be held in the center of the state, College (Rochester, N.Y.) in 1999 when In the summer of 2008, he and I began Columbia, was deemed the best way to reach teachers I met Henry Silberstern, a Holocaust writing a record of his experiences for his all across the state. survivor, and heard him share his family and the community to remember The members of the committee, from the Upstate to significant story. In 2001, I began teaching this personal and historical event. The Lost the Lowcountry meet several times a year to plan the social studies in the Phelps-Clifton Springs Childhood: A Memoir, by Henry Silberstern, workshop. The theme is decided, speakers are invited, School District in Upstate New York and was published in the fall of 2013. and the program set. Each year the theme is different; embraced the opportunity for him to While working with Henry, I became however, each year we try to have a survivor or a child speak to students. more conscious of the importance of of a survivor as the keynote speaker. We have had Eva At 12 years old, listening to others and their experiences. Mozes Kor, who spoke on forgiving the Nazis, Morris Henry was interned Lessons and morals of life can be gained Glass, who spoke of his life in the ghettos and camps, at the Terezin ghetto just by taking the time with one another. and Joey Korn, who spoke of his father’s life during until his deportation Since relocating to South Carolina in 2012, and after the war. Along with these presenters we have to Auschwitz with his PHOTOS COURTESY OF HENRY SILBERSTERN I have continued to listen to personal speakers and programs that specifically help the teach- mother and brother Henry Silberstern and his mother in stories and documenting narratives. er with lesson plans. in May 1944. While in Prague, 1940. This past year, I have had the pleasure Dr. Lauren Granite of Centropa conducted work- Auschwitz-Birkenau, of recording the Rev. George Chassey’s shops on how to use the Centropa program of survivor Axis-controlled territory. Henry was Henry, 1950s Henry lived in the World War II experience and eyewitness interviews (primary sources), Stanlee Stahl of the Jew- transferred to Bergen-Belsen after a month family camp and was account of visiting a recently liberated ish Foundation for the Righteous led sessions on how of working in the Dora camp. Ironically, he forced to carry out tasks for Nazi officials. concentration camp. His personal to teach about rescuers and upstanders, and represen- was liberated by Allied forces in April on Yet, in July 1944, he was selected by Dr. encounter at the Ohrdruf camp forever tatives of the Jewish Partisans Educational Foundation At top, Felix with granddaughter Leah, his 15th birthday. As survivors regained showed us how to teach about partisans and resisters. who called him Tate (pronounced TAH- Josef Mengele (the infamous Nazi doctor), made him value the importance of making health and reconnected with remaining During the workshops the participants listen to the tee), which is Yiddish for “father.” Above along with 89 other teenage boys to a positive difference and helping our speakers and have an opportunity to attend workshops, are Leah and her husband, Richard. survive, while other prisoners were sent family, Henry heard that his mother was fellow man. (See page 14.) Rev. Chassey’s get specific lesson plans, receive a related book or vid- to the gas chambers and families were alive in the very same camp. He was briefly story will be added and displayed this eo, and have a chance to network with teachers from forever torn apart. After Dr. Mengele’s reunited with his mother, who herself spring to the Holocaust Remembered grades 1 to college level from across the state. Belgium. Many Jewish people are leaving.” selection, Henry was separated from his was overjoyed to find her son despite the exhibit panels sponsored by the Columbia The workshop is held every year in October at Co- I knew that things in Europe had gotten mother and brother, as they were each inhuman conditions they had endured of Holocaust Education Commission. lumbia College and schools are sent information on the bad. In Belgium, four people were killed in asent to different concentration camps. slave labor and malnutrition. Sadly, Henry’s Yet, the day will come when students workshop every summer and fall. Attendance ranges shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. In the winter of 1944, Henry was mother became ill with typhus and was will not be able to meet Holocaust from 50 to 125 participants and some teachers have at- We did not realize, however, that Jews weretransported and forced to work in the not permitted to visit with her son again survivors. Documenting narratives is my tended all nine of our conferences. starting to leave Paris. I never would haveDora-Mittelbau Camp which made V-1 and in the camp due to her illness. Yet, he and attempt to preserve the past and provide The committee also has sponsored survivor speech- expected in my lifetime to see anything closeV-2 missiles. This slave-labor camp was his mother were able to communicate a resource available to the community. es which are open to the general public. Several years to what my grandparents have experienced. uniquely hidden in the Hartz Mountains. with small notes, which he still has in his If you have been inspired by someone’s ago we invited Eva Mozes Kor to speak on the Thursday I thought about my grandfather’s words – Concentration camp inmates were possession to this day. Despite a short experience, please take the time to listen Remember who you are – and I suddenly night before the workshop. The speech was held at the marched or transported to additional re-unification, his mother succumbed to and record their story. This will enable us realized how lucky I was to be here with South Carolina State Museum and attracted over 500 camps as Allied forces continued to liberate typhus and passed away at the camp. to keep the past alive and not forgotten. Richard – someone who completely gets it. people; the overflow having to sit in a different room He knows that this threat is not an abstract and watch it on video. This year survivors Shelly Wein- one, but a personal threat, to his family and to Eastern European Travel South Carolina Council of the Holocaust er and Rachel Kizhnerman spoke to students and their mine. Study Tour of the Holocaust Eileen Chepenik, CHAIR Emily Taylor families in a filled auditorium at Pleasant Hills Middle Remember who you are means never forget Sponsored by S.C. Council of the Holocaust Carl Evans, VICE CHAIR Leah Chase School. Lilly Filler, SECRETARY Joe Engle The committee is always looking for new ideas and – never forget that history can repeat itself. ■ June 21-29, 2015 Contact Leah Chase at Never forget that we have to tell the story of my Margaret Walden, TREASURER Lewis Huffman, DEPT. OF EDUCATION new people. For more information of the workshops or ■ Limited space Chase Inc. of Kevin Lewis Seldon K. Smith, CHAIR EMERITUS grandparents to our friends, to our children ■ Graduate credit awarded Charleston, Dahlia Rehg Minda Miller, CHAIR, SELDON SMITH how to join the committee, please contact Emily Taylor and to the world, or we bear the risk of anti- ■ $2,079 per person, double [email protected] Robert Dreyfus FOUNDATION FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION at [email protected]. Semitism rearing its ugly head once again. occupancy. Air travel not included. or 843-556-0525. Tom Grossman Barbara Parker, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT 20 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

LESSON PLAN DEVELOPED BY MARLENE ROTH, BASED ON CHAPTER 2 OF “ECHOES AND REFLECTIONS” ADAPTED IN PART FROM “THE RECORD: THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY,” A PUBLICATION BY THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE OF B’NAI B’RITH

This is a general lesson plan that can be used in English, Taken from the Social Studies, art, and civics classes. It can and should be children’s book adjusted to fit the grade and capabilities of your students. “The Poisonous Mushroom,” OBJECTIVES: the caption in 1. Students will be able to define and identify anti-Semi- this picture tism. reads, “Here my 2. Students will be able to define and identity types of pro- little one, you get paganda. something very 3. Students will be able to define and identify the following sweet, but as a words: reward you must n Aryan n Anti-Semitism come with me.” n Caricature n Discrimination This caricature n Prejudice n Scapegoat portrays an elderly Jew n Stereotype trying to tempt TIME: small children One to three class periods, depending on grade level and cur- with candy. It riculum. relies on one of the basic fears PREPARATION: of all parents Students should be taught the concepts of anti-Semitism, and the common Nazis, propaganda, stereotypes, and the history of the Ho- instruction to locaust. little children not to take candy LESSON: from a stranger. 1. Review the different types of propaganda. There are links 2. Review the purpose of propaganda; generally and then made between “a specifically as it applies to anti-Semitism. stranger,” “dan- 3. Review how propaganda works (repeats information, ger,” “poison,” twists and exploits truth, appeals to emotions gives the illu- and “a Jew.” The sion that most people agree with the message, talks to peo- Jew is portrayed ple in their own languages, uses accessible media.) as a dark, evil, 4. Put students into small groups and have them write threatening, ma- examples of propaganda today and which techniques were nipulative strang- used. Have them answer the question of what is the effect of er, as opposed propaganda. to the innocent, 5. Share the results with the class and make a chart using pure, naive Aryan children. chart paper or the white board. – caption from 6. Show the transparency of one of the examples of propa- “Echoes and ganda from the chapter. Cover the explanation below the art. Reflections Teacher’s 7. Put students into small groups or partners and have Resource Guide” them analyze the art. The following questions should be ad- dressed: YAD VASHEM PHOTO ARCHIVES n What statement is this photo or caricature making? n How is the example exploiting already existing an- GROUP DISCUSSION: ACTIVITIES: (depending on grade level and curriculum) ti-Semitism in Germany? 1. Bring the students back together and have each group 1. Have students design their own propaganda cartoon. n How is the example attempting to further isolate report on their findings. 2. Have students analyze examples of racism, homopho- Jews from the rest of the population? 2. Show the explanation below the art. bia, sexism, and anti-Semitism in popular music today. n Which propaganda techniques (listed on the chart 3. Discuss the group findings and the explanation. 3. Have students write and act out a commercial using the or on the board) are used? 4. Show other transparencies and repeat the process. techniques of propaganda. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 21

GLOSSARY ADAPTED IN PART FROM “THE RECORD: THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY,” A PUBLICATION BY THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE OF B’NAI B’RITH

anti-Semitism Concept rooted in the Eastern theatre of the European War. million others. the genocidal fury which had fueled the Accompanying regular German army Nazi movement. biological and racial thinking of the kapo Trustee or overseer in charge of work units into a given area, they proceeded late 19th and 20th century. Its aim is detail, hospital or kitchen. They were partisans Underground fighters against to murder all Jews they came across. to transform pre-modern religious and drawn from the camp prisoners, often Nazi occupation forces, mainly operating Usually forcing Jews to dig their own mass economic hostility against the Jews into were criminals or Jewish. in the forests in White Russia, Poland graves and then mowing them down with an irrational social rejection of Jews and and Lithuania. Jews either belonged machine gun fire, the Einsatzgruppen K-rations from The History Channel their alleged sinister influences. Connotes to the general movement or, whenever are estimated to have killed 2 million of Magazine, “Fighting Hunger” by Tim a deep suspicion of an imaginary Jewish excluded, formed their own units. force that is hidden, organized and seeks the 6 million Jews murdered in the Nazi Brady the most famous ration of World world dominion. destruction of European Jewry. War II, named after the physiologist Schutzstaffel (SS) This elite guard was Ancel Keys, from the University of originally organized to serve as Hitler’s The deliberate and Aryan Aspect of racial doctrine to Final Solution Minnesota. He was charged with devising personal protection service. Under emphasize the myth of Nordic, and planned annihilation of the Jewish people a nutritious, nonperishable food ration Heinrich Himmler, the organization especially German superiority. This racial of Europe. The plan was supported by that could fit in a paratrooper’s jacket expanded enormously from 280 men connotation corrupted the term’s original the Nazis and was to be carried out in and sustain him for a couple of days. The in 1929 to 240,000 members in 1939. purpose of designating and classifying an the newly built concentration camps and initial ration included hard biscuits, dried Their activities and powers grew to Indo-European language group. crematoriums. sausage, chocolate bars, hard candy administer the concentration camps. BIGOT from Wikipedia several derivations genocide A deliberate and systematic and later, sticks of gum, two cigarettes, Sonderkommandos (special given for this Acronym. 1. A reversal of policy aimed at destroying an entire matches, and a few sheets of toilet paper. detachments) Jewish prisoners in the British officer’s orders to Gibraltar or “To racial, political or cultural group of a Wrigley Chewing Gum Co. in Chicago death camps assigned to deal with the Gib.” 2. Attributed to Churchill “British nation or a people. Coined in 1943 packaged the ration. corpses. This involved the extraction of Invasion of German-Occupied Territory.” by the Polish-Jewish legal scholar “Mein Kampf” German for “My Struggle,” gold teeth and the transfer of bodies from List of personnel cleared to know details Raphael Lemkin, it identified the policy Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic, anti-Russian the gas chambers to crematoria. of Operation Overlord was known as characterizing Nazi racial goals especially autobiographical and political testament. “BIGOT list,” and the people on it were against Jews and Polish dissidents. In it, he developed his mass-psychological swastika Called hakenkruez in German. known as “bigots.” The details of the An ancient symbol used in India, Persia, Gestapo Acronym in German for Geheime political techniques and the racial invasion plan were so top-secret that Greece, and elsewhere as a religious Staataspolizei (secret state police) the doctrine of Aryan-German superiority over adherence to the list was rigidly enforced. emblem to ward off evil spirits. Using Nazis established the Gestapo in order Jewish “sub-human” inferiority. it as the official symbol of the Nazis, concentration camp A group of labor to monitor and stamp our any political Nazi Acronym for the National Socialist Hitler corrupted the meaning of the holy and death camps located in Germany opposition aimed at the Hitler regime. At German Workers Party. insignia to denote Aryan superiority. and Nazi-occupied Europe for the the International Military Tribunal held at incarceration of Nazi opponents and Nuremberg after the war, the prosecution Nuremberg laws Enacted in 1935. Third Reich The Third Empire, was the other “undesirables,” political dissidents, accused the Gestapo of “the persecution The “Reich Citizens Law” declared that official name of Hitler’s regime, which ruled gypsies, Russian POWs, and Jews. and extermination of the Jews, only those persons of “German blood” from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis regarded Conditions were so terrible that most brutalities and killings in concentration were Reich citizens, while those of their rule as the successor to 2 previous inmates died after about four months. camps, excesses in the administration “impure blood,” such as Jews, were no empires − the Holy Roman Empire (AD 962- longer citizens. The “Law for Protection The death camps in Poland were of the slave-labor program, and the 1806) and the Second Reich, founded by of German Blood and Honor” forbade Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, mistreatment and murder of POW. Otto von Bismarck (1871-1918). It appears Sobibor and Treblinka. The death camps marriage and sexual intercourse between that Hitler adopted the name “Third Reich” ghettos A medieval system, revived and Jews and the “bearers of German blood.” in Germany were Buchenwald, Dachau, from the title of a book written in 1923 by advanced by the Nazis, designating Designed by Hitler to isolate the Jews and Sachsenhausen. German nationalist Arthur Moeller van den an area of the city where Jews were socially as well as politically. These laws Bruck entitled “Das Dritte Reich” (The Third crematorium A furnace installed and restricted and forbidden to leave on pain were applied to gypsies after 1938. Reich). Hitler boasted that his Third Reich, used in the death camps to cremate and of death. dispose of bodies, after death by gassing, Nuremberg Trials An international the most glorious to date, would last 1,000 starvation, disease or torture. Holocaust Term devised in the late military tribunal established after the war, years. 1950s to describe the Nazi program in August 1945, to try and punish those The transportation or Wannsee Conference A meeting held deportation of the wholesale physical annihilation who had planned or waged aggressive “resettlement” of Jews from Nazi- in January 1942, in the Berlin suburb of European Jewry. Connotes war or acted criminally against humanity. occupied countries to labor and/or death of Grossen-Wannsee, where the Nazis unprecedented phenomenon of human Great Britain, the United States, the camps. mapped the “Final Solution,” the planned destruction. By the end of World War II, it Soviet Union and France acted on behalf annihilation of the Jewish people. Einsatzgruppen German for special was estimated that some 6 million Jews of the United Nations for the 26 countries mobile death squads in the rear guard had perished as a result of the systematic who had fought Germany. The evidence Zyklon B Poison gas used in the gas of the German military, used in the killing program of the Nazis, along with 5 taken by the tribunal exposed to the world chambers of death camps.

22 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015 “ HOLOCAUST EDUCATION RESOURCES

Today’s resources are how we The Columbia ONLINE RESOURCES “ remember the past. Holocaust Education ■ Columbia Holocaust Education Commis- LYSSA HARVEY Commis- sion: www.columbiaholocausteducation.org Co-chairwoman, ■ United States Holocaust Memorial sion spon- Columbia Holocaust Education Commission Museum: www.ushmm.org sors the ■ Yad Vashem: www.yad-vashem.org.il Holocaust COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COM- ■ Facing History and Ourselves: Remem- www.facinghistory.org MISSION: Promotes awareness of the Holocaust bered and fosters education in grades K-12 through- ■ Centropa: www.centropa.org exhibit, ■ Echoes and Reflections: Multimedia out South Carolina. The Commission, an out- shown growth of the successful campaign to erect the Holocaust Education Kit Anti-Defamation here on League: www.echoesandreflections.org Columbia Holocaust Memorial, sponsors the Ho- display locaust Remembered exhibit, including teacher ■ Teaching Tolerance and “One Survivor at the Remembers,” Southern Poverty Law education guides, and provides grants to educa- S.C. State tors and institutions to provide innovative, quality Center: www.teachingtolerance.com House. ■ Simon Wiesenthal Center: www.simon Holocaust education. www.columbiaholocaust COURTESY OF LYSSA HARVEY education.org. wiesenthalcenter.org COLUMBIA JEWISH FEDERATION: The tives of Charleston-area Holocaust survivors. the longtime chair of the South Carolina Coun- ■ University of Southern California Shoah ■ Jewish Heritage Collection: Columbia Jewish Federation supports the JHC’s oral cil on the Holocaust and a retired history pro- Foundation Institute: www.usc.edu/college/vhi history archives include recorded interviews well-being of the Jewish community locally, in- fessor from Columbia College, the foundation ■ The REMEMBER Program of the with survivors and liberators. You can search by ternationally, and in Israel through fundraising, provides funds to schools, colleges, church- Charleston Jewish Federation: name, or read selected passages under the top- grant-making and programming. CJF serves as es, synagogues, civic groups, and individuals www.jewishcharleston.org/remember ical heading “Of Blessed Memory.” JHC contains for research, field trips, teacher training and ■ a unified voice of the Jewish community with- A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Libera- an extensive archives of material on Southern workshops, classroom supplies, Holocaust tors, Florida Center for Instructional Technol- in the greater Columbia area, operates Jewish Jewish life, including records of families, busi- speakers, exhibitions, and related educational ogy, University of South Florida: http://fcit.usf. Family Service, sponsors The PJ Library pro- nesses, synagogues, and Jewish organizations programs. Donations can be made via the web- edu/holocaust/people/liberato.htm gram, houses the Columbia Holocaust Educa- in South Carolina and across the South, as well site or mailed to The Selden K. Smith Founda- ■ William Breman Jewish Heritage Muse- tion Commission and provides funding to the as a world-class Judaica collection. tion for Holocaust Education, c/o Minda Miller, um: www.thebreman.org full range of Jewish institutions in the Columbia HOLOCAUST RESEARCH SECTION AT Chair, P.O. Box 25740, Columbia, SC 29224. ■ Anne Frank Museum: www.annefrank.nl area. www.jewishcolumbia.org. CHARLESTON COUNTY LIBRARY, FEATURING www.holocausteducationfoundation.org. ■ Alexandra Zapruder: http://alexandra HOLOCAUST ARCHIVES, JEWISH HERITAGE ZUCKER HOLOCAUST COLLECTION, SHOAH S.C. COUNCIL ON THE HOLOCAUST: zapruder.com COLLECTION, ADDLESTONE LIBRARY, COL- FOUNDATION SURVIVOR VIDEOTAPES: The ■ Video and curriculum guide available for ■ Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and LEGE OF CHARLESTON: Sponsored by the Col- Jerry and Anita Zucker Holocaust Memorial teachers: Public and private middle and high Museum: http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/ lege of Charleston and housed in the Special Collection at the Charleston County Library schools in the tri-county area have a copy of ■ A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, Collections Department at the Marlene and is home to some 400 books for citizens, stu- “Seared Souls: Voices from the Past,” a video Florida Center for Instructional Technolo- Nathan Addlestone Library, the Jewish Her- dents, and educators to do further research produced by the South Carolina Council on the gy, University of South Florida: http://fcit. itage Collection has been collecting archival about the Holocaust. Also included are 55 vid- Holocaust and SC-ETV, and “South Carolina Voic- coedu.usf.edu/holocaust material related to the Holocaust for 15 years. eo documentaries and 28 videotaped survi- es, a Teaching and Curriculum Guide.” Please ■ Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Tes- JHC’s Holocaust Archives include hundreds of vor testimonies from the Visual History of the check with your school’s Social Studies Curricu- timonies: www.library.yale.edu/testimonies documents, photographs, and artifacts be- Shoah Foundation, available for checkout for lum Chair. This information is also on the website ■ Jewish Partisan Educational Founda- longing to survivors of the Shoah, liberators, individual or classroom use. The Charleston of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust. tion: www.jewishpartisans.org and other eyewitnesses living in South Caro- County Main Library is located at 68 Calhoun ■ Holocaust Education Institute for Teachers lina. Contact Dale Rosengarten, curator, 843- St. For information, call 843-805-6930. – “Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust:” cepted in the programs before applying. Project 953-8028, or [email protected]. JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH An intensive summer institute for South Carolina goals must coincide with the objectives of the There are several ways to search for prima- CAROLINA: Founded in 1994, the Jewish teachers, sponsored by the South Carolina Coun- Holocaust Council. For requirements or to down- ry materials on the Holocaust in Addlestone Historical Society of South Carolina serves cil on the Holocaust at Columbia College. Room load an application, visit the Council’s website. Library’s Special Collections: as a clearinghouse and reference for Jewish and Board are provided by the South Carolina ■ Teachers’ Advisory Committee: This group of ■ Holocaust Archives: Collections from the life and culture in South Carolina. The Soci- Council on the Holocaust. For more information teachers from around the state has developed a Holocaust Archives, cataloged and available ety sponsors two meetings a year, publishes contact Barbara Parker at 803-786-3763, or visit for on-site research. a bi-annual newsletter, and maintains an ac- the Council’s website to download an application. PowerPoint presentation and script that is available ■ Lowcountry Digital Library: Enter the search tive website. Among its ongoing projects are ■ Mini-Grant Program for Holocaust Educa- to teachers and holds educational conferences to term “Holocaust,” then choose from the menu of a survey of Jewish burial grounds across the tion: Funding is available for Holocaust educa- assist with teaching the Holocaust. Day-long edu- “facets” on the left, such as Collection, Media state and the promotion of historical markers tion projects. Teachers are encouraged to apply. cational workshops are held in the fall and spring. Type, Subject (Topic), Subject (Geographic). at sites of Jewish interest. www.jhssc.org. Subsidies may also be granted for teachers to For more information contact Emily Taylor, etaylor@ ■ Holocaust Memorial Quilt: A look at ma- THE SELDEN K. SMITH FOUNDATION FOR participate in approved Holocaust education lexington4.net, or visit the Council’s website.www. terials from the Archives, coupled with narra- HOLOCAUST EDUCATION: Named in honor of trips to Eastern Europe. Teachers must be ac- scholocaustcouncil.org. APRIL 12, 2015 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 23

careful scrutiny and ought to be re- Indescribable considered. from page 4 As a consequence, it is often system of a society. Even our choice replaced, especially in Europe, by the of a name for this historical event Hebrew word “Shoah.” “Shoah” can is inextricably fused with the way be roughly translated into English we assimilate it in our collective as “disaster,” and it also derives from consciousness, honor the victims, the Bible where it refers to natural and identify ethical accountabilities. devastations, such as in the Book of Job. But no genocide is a “natural The enormity of it all disaster;” its makers are always The word “holocaust” derives from human beings and their culture. the Greek and has passed into Chris- Very few talk of the Holocaust us- tian-Latin terminology via the Septu- ing the Yiddish word for it, “Hurbn” agint (the translation of the Hebrew (from the Hebrew “hurban,” destruc- bible into Greek). It refers to the sacri- tion, ruin). Yiddish was the mother ficial burning of offerings to the gods language of the largest Jewish group (often in a temple or other sacred annihilated by the Nazis and their place) in the ancient world. When we collaborators: the Ashkenazi Jews of spell it with capital “H” we are using it Central-Eastern Europe. It is a diffi- metaphorically to designate the geno- cult word to adopt in a non-Yiddish cide of the Jews during World War II. world − perhaps this difficulty sym- This metaphor should give us bolically befits the exigencies of the pause, however: Can one talk of the concept it references. victims of such barbarous act as Despite the USHMM’s ideally sacrificial offerings? Wouldn’t the sharp definition, the Holocaust Nazis be (holy) priests presiding over remains indefinably complex, this “sacrifice” by this metaphor? As almost indescribable. An event so in many pagan and biblical stories, atrocious that it defies the capacity could such “offering” please or ap- of language to satisfactorily render pease the gods? These simple rhetor- its unspeakable dimensions, to the AP FILE PHOTO ical questions show why, for many, point that we can’t easily pinpoint German soldiers carry banners as they march past swastika emblems in a mass demonstration the word “Holocaust” itself needs even a word to adequately name it. of the National Socialist Party congress in Nuremberg stadium on Sept. 6, 1938.

Donors Our sincere thanks and gratitude GRANTS OF $2,500 Marcie and John Baker Rae Berry Rabbi Meir and Sheindel Muller Columbia Holocaust Education Stuart Bristow Dr. Alan and Susan Brill Penni and Larry Nadel Donors and contributing authors: Thank you to all the do- Commission Joe Enger Rabbi Jonathan and Rivka Case Dr. Howard and Nancy Nankin nors from 2014 and 2015. Without your financial help, this sup- Columbia Jewish Federation Bonnie and Harry Goldberg Debra and Rick Cohn Shirley and Everett Ness S.C. Council of the Holocaust Gloria and Henry Goldberg Jennifer and Eric Elkins Dr. Herb and Eleanor Niestat plement could not be developed. And a special thank you to all Jerry and Anita Zucker Family Margo and Karl Goldberg Dr. Emanuel Farber Nancy and Gerald Polinsky the contributing writers who spent hours researching and writing Foundation, Inc. † Esther and Ira Greenberg Dr. Carl and Naomi Freedman Debbie Ritter the historical aspects of the Holocaust. Gratitude goes to all the $2,500 AND UP Dr. Henry and Minda Miller Katherine and Jay Friedman Dr. Catherine Ross members of the Columbia Holocaust Education Commission Marlene Roth Shep and Joni Cutler Ellen and Fred Seidenberg Gail and Bobby Ginsberg who participated in forming this edition. † Sandra and Herbert Schiller Dr. Lilly and Bruce Filler Dr. Selden and Dorothy Smith Heidi Golden Arnold Schraibman Thank you for telling us Donna and Norman Goldberg Alice and Steve Terner Stuart Goodwin Survivors, liberators, eyewitnesses: Erica and Todd Serbin Sue and Jerry Kline Drs. Abe and Lois Wandersman Nancy and Joel Gottlieb your stories. We have the deepest respect and gratitude to all Dr. Jack and Ina Gottlieb Helen Silver Linda and Bill Stern $150-499 of you who trusted us with your story and allowed us to tell the Dr. Elizabeth Gross Dr. Gerald and Nancy Sonenshine Jackie Dickman and Keith Babcock world. Only by hearing your testimonies and narratives, can we $1,000-2,499 JoAnne and Richard Hafter Stark families * Dr. Harold and Clarke Friedman Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold Anne and Flyn Hannel Julie and Neal Strauss continue to tell the world. And to the families of the survivors and Lycia and Joseph Golson Barbara and Roger Blau Terri and Robert Hodges Barbara and Frank Volin liberators and eyewitnesses, you have honored your loved ones Linda and Daryl Giddings Jocie and Bob Burg Barbara and Robert Kahn Margaret and Ray Walden by keeping their memories alive. Dr. Pierre and Beryl Jaffe Toni and Sam Elkins Eugene Kaplan Leatrice Weiner Nancy and Joe Lipton The State newspaper: We are thankful for your willingness to Gross families Paula and Hyman Karesh Ilsa and Roland Young Brenda and Larry Needle partner with us in this endeavor. You have the vehicle; we can Dr. Harold and Irene Jablon Roberta Karesh * Denotes 2015 contribution Dr. David and Jane Kulbersh Sandra and Ed Poliakoff Tootsie and Sol Kline provide the stories, both historical ones and personal ones. Thank * † Denotes contributions in 2014 and 2015 S.C. Council of the Holocaust Rachel and Rick Silver Barbara LaBelle you to Sara Johnson Borton, president and publisher; Mark Lett, Jack and Erika Swerling Dr. Peter and Wendy Stahl Pat Lovit ‾ vice president and executive editor; Bernie Heller, vice president Send donations to: Barry Abels; Kligman, Harvey, Odle, Lovit, and Inez and Sam Tenenbaum Rabbi Sanford and Ruth Marcus Sheckler families Columbia Jewish Community Center; of advertising; Kathy Allen, director of marketing; and Rebekah $149 OR LESS Beth Maris 306 Flora Drive; Columbia, SC 29223. Lewis Hall, special projects coordinator, who has spent countless $500-999 Margie Arnold JoAnne and Josh McDuffie Make checks payable to the Columbia Diana and Michael Arnold Dr. Robert and Amy Berger Faye Goldberg Miller Holocaust Education Commission. hours developing these pages. 24 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 12, 2015APRIL 12, 2015

Community Yom HaShoah Commemoration

Sunday, April 19, 2015 | 5:00 PM Tree of Life Congregation 6719 North Trenholm Road

Introduction of Speaker: Former SC Legislator Irene Rudnick The first Jewish woman elected to the SC Legislature, Irene Rudnick served in the SC House of Representatives.

Speaker: Holocaust Survivor Judith Evans A child during the Holocaust, Judith was placed in a Catholic convent for protection.

The Columbia Holocaust Education Commission proudly presents: The “Holocaust Remembered” Exhibit which will be on display before the Commemoration Service “Holocaust Remembered” tells the history of the Holocaust during WWII & personal stories by many of Columbia survivors & liberators.