Vol. 37-No.5 ISSN 0892-1571 May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 CELEBRATING THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON On May 16 the American Society for “It is therefore with great pleasure that I have endowed a Learning Center at Yad daughter Rebecca’s Bat Mitzvah reception Yad Vashem held its Annual Spring officially open this Luncheon’s program, Vashem that provides visitors with interac- here in New York. And my father said Luncheon at the New York Marriott Mar- acknowledging the contribution of our hon- tive access to an extensive Holocaust something like, ‘I want the whole world quis hotel in New York City. The theme of orees and their leadership. database of texts, photographs, recordings should know. Call the newspapers! Call the the event was Celebrating the Strength “I now call on Eli Zborowski, our and films. TV!’ As is typical in many father/daughter of Women. Sima Katz and Iris Lifshitz Founder, Chairman, and mentor.” “This past year marked the publication of relationships, I just rolled my eyes. As was Lindenbaum were this year’s honorees. Eli Zborowski addressed the audience my biography, A Life of Leadership, that typical with my father, he steamrolled Marilyn Rubenstein, Luncheon Chair, with the following speech: was meticulously researched and skillfully ahead. So, in the office of Benjamin Mead opened the event with the following n Celebrating the Strength of Women co-authored by Rochel and George (may he rest in peace), the head of the remarks. “Iwe have selected two distinguished Berman. The Bermans brought to this proj- American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust n behalf of the American Society honorees who are members of families ect the knowledge and understanding they Survivors, we came to a meeting about “Ofor Yad Vashem and my Lunch- that have made enduring humanitarian gained about our work during the last how we could accomplish ‘the whole world eon Co-Chairs, Rita Levy and Stella Skura, contributions to Jewish life, and particularly twenty years. This afternoon, we are should know.’ I welcome you to this year’s Annual Spring “It was there that we met a lovely, self- Luncheon. assured, professional American woman, “I am pleased to see all of you here today who also spoke Yiddish! And the most and thank you for your commitment to our amazing part was, when she spoke, no organization’s important mission of Holo- matter what the language, my father lis- caust remembrance. tened. We all listened. And as a result: “I wish to acknowledge our Chairman “When the Žilevičius family arrived at and Founder, Eli Zborowski, and his wife, JFK, our local news channel and the Daily Elizabeth. Eli and Elizabeth continue to in- News were there. spire us with their tireless energy and com- “When they went with my parents to the plete dedication to the Society and, Statue of Liberty, Newsday went with through it, to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. them. Thank you. “It was the same Newsday reporter who “I also welcome our guest speaker listened to Mom and Dad tell their story Rochel Berman, a long-standing member while Matthew sat on his Zaydie’s lap, of the American Society for Yad Vashem, hearing the stories for the first time – and whose book about Eli chronicles a life of at the bat mitzvah reception, as Rebecca exemplary leadership. stood with her brother and cousins and ex- “Today we celebrate the strength of plained that because of the seven lives women – their spirit and resilience; the that the Žilevičius family saved in 1943, memory of those who perished so tragi- twelve of us are here today. Tikun Olam. cally while holding on to family and chil- Front row: Eli Zborowski, Chairman, American Society for Yad Vashem; Sima Katz, 2012 Spring To save one life is to save the world. And dren for as long as they could; and those Luncheon Honoree; and Iris Lifshitz Lindenbaum, 2012 Spring Luncheon Honoree. channel four was there to record and later Back row: Rita Levy, 2012 Spring Luncheon Co-Chair; Matthew Levy, grandson and introducer who survived and lived to raise new gen- air the story. Newsday did a large feature of Sima Katz; and Marilyn Rubenstein, 2012 Spring Luncheon Chair. erations of leaders in a new world. spread. “Indeed it is appropriate that today we to the cause of remembrance. On behalf pleased to welcome Rochel as our guest “Rochel Berman was responsible for honor Sima Katz and Iris Lifshitz Linden- of the American Society for Yad Vashem, I speaker. helping to tell the world what happened. In baum. Sima, a survivor who, with her late wish to congratulate Sima Katz, a Holo- “Just prior to Pesach, the book, co-pub- fact, she helped with the publication of husband Nathan, came to America and caust survivor, and Iris Lifshitz Linden- lished by Yad Vashem, was launched in Dad’s memoir, Teach Us to Count Our through hard work and unbending spirit baum, granddaughter of survivors, Sam, the Yad Vashem synagogue, a project en- Days. raised children, grandchildren, and great- z"l, and Stella Skura. Sam was one of my dowed by Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein “On a personal note, Rochel taught me grandchildren; and Iris Lifshitz Linden- oldest and dearest friends. He was the per- and family. At the conclusion of his re- that, no matter how nervous you are stand- baum, who carries the torch of our Young son to whom I turned to discuss all major marks, Joshua Berman, Professor of Bible ing behind a podium, in front of a micro- Leadership. Iris is a grandchild of sur- decisions about the Society. His death has at Bar Ilan, who represented his parents, phone, it is indeed important, imperative, vivors, Sam and Stella Skura, founders of left a void in my life. pointed to four empty pages at the back of to keep the stories alive, to pass them on our organization. Iris has her own child, a “Both families we honor today are Soci- the book. He said that these pages sym- from one generation to the next. Remem- Fourth generation. Both Sima and Iris are ety Benefactors. Sima Katz has endowed bolically signify that our work for the per- ber and never forget.” active and respected representatives of a program for Jewish educators at Yad petuation of memory will continue for The guest speaker, Rochel Berman, said: our organization and reflect our dynamic Vashem in memory of her late husband, generations to come. With your interest offer my heartfelt congratulations to continuity. Nathan, z"l. The Skura-Lifshitz families and support we have built a strong organ- “Iour honorees Sima Katz and Iris Lif- ization that now includes the Second, shitz Lindenbaum. I have been privileged Third, and Fourth generations. I am confi- to work closely with two generations of the IN THIS ISSUE dent that there will be many more chapters Katz and Skura families and am so written by successive generations about pleased that there are now three genera- The American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Spring Luncheon...... 1, 8-9, 12 the aftermath of the Shoah.” tions in each of these dynasties that have Yom HaShoah around the world...... 2, 14 After award presentation Rita Levy, embraced the cause of remembrance. The How a top Nazi’s brother saved lives...... 5 Luncheon Co-Chair, introduced the guest Skura and Katz ancestry as well as their “I thought I was the last Jew left”...... 6 speaker, Rochel Berman. progeny epitomize strength, courage, and Holocaust survivors struggling to make ends meet in Israel...... 6 bout fifteen years ago my parents compassion. Beating the Nazis at their own game...... 7 “Awent back to Lithuania to find the “Because I inaugurated the Spring Lunch- Survivors’ grandchildren feeling an obligation to share Holocaust memories...... 7 gentile family who hid them during the war. eon more than a decade ago, I continue to Historians race clock to collect survivors’ stories...... 10 They were successful, and so they applied have a very proprietary feeling about this Excruciating details emerge on Jewish ghettos...... 11 to Yad Vashem to have them named Right- event. While the program has evolved and Poland's halt of restitution plans angers many...... 14 eous Among the Nations. We came up attendance has doubled over the years, I Holocaust family weeps as last portraits of victims go on show in Israel...... 16 with the idea of having the ceremony at my (Continued on page 12) Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 YOM HASHOAH AROUND THE WORLD PEOPLE FROM ISRAEL TO THE U.S., AND EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN, REMEMBER THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST ON APRIL 19 Israel honors six million A wreath-laying ceremony at Yad The link drawn between the Holocaust agencies — appraising the potential for Vashem followed, with Israeli leaders and and Iran shows how more than six mass killings in countries around the world. victims of Nazi Holocaust decades later, the mass murder of Jews “We must tell our children. But more than sraelis flocked to the Yad Vashem during World War II is still a central part of that, we must teach them,” Obama said in IHolocaust memorial on April 19 to read Israel's psyche. The nation was created a solemn 25-minute address. “Because re- the names of loved ones who perished at just three years after the end of the war, membrance without resolve is a hollow the hands of the Nazis during World War and hundreds of thousands of survivors gesture.” II, a rite that has become a centerpiece of made their way to Israel. Obama also recounted steps taken by the country's annual commemoration for One of those was Shefet, who joined the his administration through military and the 6 million Jews killed in the genocide. Polish resistance movement, met his fu- diplomatic action to prevent atrocities in ture wife, then sailed with her to Israel. Sudan, Libya, Uganda, and Ivory Coast. Today, they are among fewer than The president has come under pressure 200,000 elderly survivors in Israel. in recent months for not doing more to oust World War II veterans lay a wreath during the *** Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose annual ceremony in memory of six million Jews crackdown on opponents has killed thou- who perished in the Nazi holocaust, on Holo- Obama at Holocaust museum: sands. Obama pledged to keep working caust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem me- “I’ll be there for Israel” with allies to bring about "the end of the morial in Jerusalem. resident Obama in an address at a Assad regime." Holocaust survivors in attendance. Other PHolocaust remembrance event said Elsewhere in his address, however, he ceremonies, prayers, and musical perform- he would "always be there for Israel" and said that his commitment to preventing ances took place in schools, community defended his administration's record on atrocities "does not mean we intervene mil- centers, and army bases. preventing atrocities. itarily every time there is an injustice in the The annual remembrance is one of the world." most solemn on Israel's calendar. Restau- *** rants, cafes and places of entertainment Thousands attend March Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu lays a wreath shut down, and radio and TV programming during the annual ceremony in memory of six was dedicated almost exclusively to docu- of the Living in Auschwitz million Jews who perished in the Nazi holo- mentaries about the Holocaust, interviews to honor Holocaust victims caust, on Holocaust Remembrance Day at the with survivors, and somber music. The Is- he mournful wail of the traditional Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. raeli flag flew at half-staff. T Jewish ram's horn – the "shofar," The ceremony, known as "Every Person symbolizing freedom -- marked the start of Has a Name," tries to go beyond the huge the annual March of the Living, held this numbers to personalize the stories of indi- year for the 21st time since 1988 in this viduals, families, and communities de- southern Polish town where Nazi Germany U.S. President Barack Obama lights a candle built its most notorious death camps. stroyed during the war. alongside Nobel laureate and Holocaust sur- Zvi Shefet, an 87-year-old survivor, car- vivor Elie Wiesel in the Remembrance Hall at ried a list of 48 names, including those of the United States Holocaust Museum in Wash- his parents, his lone sister, his grandpar- ington. ents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Having Obama spoke on April 23 at the U.S. fled to the countryside, he remained not Holocaust Memorial Museum, a few days only the lone survivor of his family but also after Holocaust Remembrance Day. Prior one of the few Jews to escape from the vil- Young Jews place memory plaques, after sign- to his address, he took a tour of the mu- lage of Slonim — then part of Poland, ing them, on railway tracks at the Auschwitz- seum guided by Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust today in Belarus — where Nazi troops Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim as they memoirist and Nobel Peace laureate. massacred nearly 30,000 Jews and take part in the annual "March of the Living" He recounted meeting with a woman at dumped their bodies into open pits. in memory of the 6 million Jews killed during Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, the Holocaust. when he was a presidential candidate in A public reading of names also took 2008, who told him that the Jews only had place at Israel's parliament, where Prime one state. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other "I said I would always be there for Israel," leaders recited names of relatives who Obama said, and he cited the steps he has were killed. At the opening state ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israeli leaders linked the Nazi genocide to Iran's suspected drive to ac- quire nuclear arms and urged the world to Israeli soldiers stand at attention during the stop it. Members of Warsaw’s Jewish community, and opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs and "Those who dismiss the Iranian threat as Heroes Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem city officials and others gather to mark the 69th a whim or an exaggeration haven't learned Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. anniversary of the doomed Warsaw ghetto upris- a thing from the Holocaust," said Ne- ing, in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, April 19. "These people have no grave, no tomb- tanyahu, who has been criticized by some stone. Their names are written nowhere," in Israel for making the connection. Eight thousand marchers, including said Shefet, who later migrated to Israel Iranian leaders have repeatedly made Auschwitz survivors, Jewish youths from and now has three children and eight references to the destruction of Israel. as far as Australia, and two thousand grandchildren. "When I go to Yad Iran denies its objective is to build nu- Ryan Blesse, left, and Mioko Webster light a young Poles, passed through the infa- Vashem, it is like I am going to the ceme- clear bombs. Many in Israel believe that candle in remembrance of victims of the Holo- mous "Arbeit macht frei" (Work Will Set tery, to remember my family but also my even if it does, a comparison to Nazi death caust during a Yom HaShoah program at Illi- You Free) gate at the Auschwitz camp community — all those who died and camps, gas "showers," and crematoria is nois College in Jacksonville, Ill. In addition to before proceeding along the three-kilo- have no one left behind to even remem- unwarranted. remembering the victims, the program high- meter route to Birkenau. ber them or commemorate them." "The question is whether additional lighted the efforts of those who chose to save "This march for me is like a candle which Israel came to a standstill on the morn- speeches laden with pathos and cliches, others at the risk of their own well-being. I have to light for the victims," Steven ing of April 19 to honor the victims when and whether the airing of hollow threats will taken to isolate Iran because of its sus- Higgs, a 22-year-old from Boston, Massa- sirens wailed for two minutes across the serve the shared goal of disarming Iran of pected nuclear weapons program. chusetts, told AFP. country. Pedestrians stood in place, nuclear weapons?" wrote columnist Ben Obama announced the formal establish- "It's a small candle in a dark world but I buses stopped on busy streets, and cars Caspit in the Israeli Maariv daily, asking, ment of the Atrocities Prevention Board, believe, if more people will light a candle, pulled over on major highways — their "Isn't it a bit excessive to compare Tehran's which will draw senior officials from across the world could be better," he said. drivers standing on the roads with their threats of war to the Nazi extermination the government. The panel will serve as a Maria Hermano, 43, travelled from Mex- heads bowed. machine, the theories about racial superi- clearinghouse for real-time intelligence, ico with her family for the march, marking In homes and businesses, people ority, the creation of a murder machine that policymaking and other issues related to the annual Holocaust Memorial Day. stopped what they were doing to pay was unprecedented in the history of hu- the threat of mass killings. "No one from my family died in a concen- homage to the victims of the Nazi geno- mankind that not only exterminated six mil- He also announced the preparation of tration camp, but when you are here, you cide, in which a third of world Jewry was lion Jews but dragged the entire world into the first National Intelligence Estimate — feel that every victim is a part of your fam- annihilated. the flames?" the consensus view of all U.S. intelligence (Continued on page 14) May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3 FIFTY YEARS ON EICHMANN ON DISPLAY AT THE UN he UN marked Yom HaShoah with ence to Iranian president Mahmoud Ah- all UN member states to reject any denial so, as reflected in his opening remarks of T the opening of an exhibition on the madinejad. of the Holocaust. the trial: “As I stand here before you, 50th anniversary of the trial of Adolf Eich- “Every year, just a few meters from The UN has also designated 27 January judges of Israel, to lead the prosecution of mann, one of the key architects of the Final where we are sitting, there is a president – the day Auschwitz was liberated in 1945 Adolf Eichmann, I do not stand alone. Solution. of a UN member state that stands on the – as Holocaust Remembrance Day. “With me, in this place and at this hour, Prominently displayed in the UN’s visitor’s podium of the General Assembly and de- It has been 50 years since the Eichmann stand six million accusers.” lobby, the exhibition documents the historic nies the Holocaust while his government trial in Jerusalem, but memories have not The trial was broadcast live, receiving trial through photographs, news clippings threatens to carry out another one.” faded. Tamar Hausner-Raveh, lawyer and extensive international media attention, and works of art – from Eichmann’s capture and was open to the public. Eileen Azif, a by the Mossad in Argentina in May 1960 to New York exchange student studying at his execution in 1962. Hebrew University at the time, attended The exhibit was produced by the Muse- the proceedings for several days. ums Division of Yad Vashem, the Holo- “I clearly remember the image of this caust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance man with headphones [for translation from Authority in Jerusalem. It includes photo- Hebrew to German] sitting very still behind a glass booth. He never moved a muscle,” graphs, newspaper clippings, works of art she recalled. and original film footage of the trial. Inter- Mickey Goldman was a member of Is- national media coverage of the court hear- raeli Police Bureau 6, which was set up to ing, which included testimony by Holocaust prepare witnesses for testimony. survivors, captured public attention around “Eichmann never accepted blame or the globe and was considered a turning showed any remorse for his acts, not dur- point in Holocaust history. ing the investigation, not during the trial On the opening day, remarks were made and not before his death,” he said. “On the by Minister Yossi Peled of Israel, a Holo- day of his execution, at which I was pres- caust survivor and retired general; H.E. Mr. ent, he refused to confess.” Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Adolf Eichmann was convicted on 15 Israel to the United Nations; and Professor criminal charges, including crimes against Melvin J. Bukiet, Sarah Lawrence College, the Jewish people and humanity. He was member of the Executive Committee of the Elliot Pines, American Society for Yad Vashem Young Leadership Associates Event Chair; Alexandra sentenced to death on June 1, 1962. His Board of Directors of the American Society Lebovits, American Society for Yad Vashem Young Leadership Associates Event Chair; Minister body was cremated and the ashes were for Yad Vashem. Yossi Peled of Israel; Tamar Hausner-Raveh, Esq., daughter of Gideon Hausner, chief prosecutor scattered at sea, beyond Israel’s territorial “In telling Eichmann’s story, this exhibit at the Eichmann trial; Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American & International Societies for Yad waters, in order to prevent his burial place sends a clear message to the international Vashem; Caroline Massel, Founder and Chairman Emerita of the American Society for Yad Vashem from becoming a memorial site. The exe- community and to each visitor that passes Young Leadership Associates. cution of Adolf Eichmann is the only time through these halls,” said Ambassador daughter of Gideon Hausner, the trial’s that Israel has enacted a death sentence. Ron Prosor. “As we learn what he stood A 2005 UN resolution rejects any denial chief prosecutor, remembered when she On April 23, there was a roundtable dis- for, we understand what we must stand of the Holocaust as an historical event and was 14 years old, the day her father was cussion on the Eichmann trial with Minister against... Eichmann’s trial did more than commends those states which have ac- appointed to the case and Eichmann en- Yossi Peled, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, expose the past; it taught the world a criti- tively engaged in the preservation of sites tered her life. and Amos Hausner, an attorney and son of cal lesson for the future.” which served as Nazi death camps, con- “My father shared with us his doubts the trial’s chief prosecutor Gideon Haus- But perhaps that lesson has not yet been centration camps, forced labor camps, and about whether he could represent the vic- ner, followed by a reception organized by fully learned or understood, warned Minis- prisons during the Holocaust. Two years tims without being a survivor himself,” she Young Leadership Associates of the Amer- ter Yossi Peled, with a not-so-veiled refer- later, another resolution was passed urging said. But he found the inner strength to do ican Society for Yad Vashem.

FIFTH OF GERMANS HOLD SOME ANTI-SEMITIC VIEWS LAWMAKERS VOTE TO RELAX SWISS SECRECY ne-fifth of Germans hold latent anti- References to Auschwitz, gas chambers, FOR HOLOCAUST FUNDS OSemitic views, according to a study and burning synagogues are part and par- wiss lawmakers voted to relax strict failed to reach the account’s owner or his commissioned for the Bundestag. cel of terrace chants. Ssecrecy laws to make it easier to liq- or her beneficiaries. Given the tiny Jewish population – just Schoolchildren, the report notes, use the uidate unclaimed accounts held in Swiss Switzerland’s upper house has yet to 0.24% of Germany’s population – the term “You Jew” as an insult. A fifth of Ger- banks, a major step forward in efforts to vote on the changes. study suggests the prejudice is an indirect mans, according to the study, agree with deal with wealth hidden by Jews from the The 1998 settlement followed three effect of the near-erasure of Jewish life in the proposition: “Jews have too much Nazis during the Second World War. years of wrangling between Holocaust vic- Germany after the Holocaust. power in business.” Though Switzerland’s UBS and Credit tims and their descendants and Swiss “Anti-Semitism in our society is based on These latent anti-Jewish views make Suisse reached a $1.25 billion deal with banks over the fate of funds deposited in widespread prejudices, deeply rooted in people susceptible to recruitment by far- Holocaust survivors and their descendants Swiss banks by Jews during the Second clichés and on sheer ignorance about right groups. in 1998, the Swiss government has spent World War. Jews and Judaism,” said Peter Longerich, With about 26,000 members, these fringe years attempting to amend banking se- Swiss banking secrecy has come under one of the authors. groups, rather than the general population, crecy laws to try to deal with unclaimed ac- renewed pressure in recent years, forcing Jewish life in Germany has experienced counts. Switzerland to relax its banking laws in cer- something of a revival over the last two are responsible for about 90 per cent of crimes with an anti-Semitic motivation. In March, the lower house of parliament tain areas and pledge to pursue tax eva- decades. made a breakthrough, agreeing to sus- sion as well as outright fraud. The report calls on politicians to pursue While the community numbered fewer pend secrecy rules in order to allow un- Switzerland is currently grappling with a better coordination of anti-Semitism meas- than 30,000 in 1989, immigration from claimed funds to be moved to another U.S. crackdown on wealthy Americans hid- ures at local, state and federal level. Russia has seen the population swell to bank and liquidated without an account ing funds from the Internal Revenue Serv- more than 200,000. In a pan-European comparison, German holder’s approval. ice, after U.S. prosecutors indicted Swiss However, the report, compiled from data attitudes placed it in the mid-range of Eu- The secrecy rules would only be waived private bank Wegelin over allegations it in various other studies, notes that anti-Jew- ropean anti-Semitism. Anti-Jewish feeling if the bank could prove it had repeatedly had helped hide money. ish insults remain deeply rooted in popular was far more widespread in Poland, Hun- culture, particularly in soccer fan culture. gary, and Portugal. GETTY MUSEUM TO RETURN 17TH CENTURY NAZIS ON THE RUN DUTCH PAINTING LOST IN THE HOLOCAUST he Getty Museum is returning an- The Getty says the painting, which it never ecret files recently uncovered in South 800 Nazis to flee Europe with passports other work of art that has turned out exhibited, was acquired “in good faith” but is America reveal as many as 9,000 provided by the Vatican. T S to be stolen goods, this one a Dutch land- being returned now because cooperative re- Nazi war criminals fled to the continent after Kurt Schrimm – head of the central war scape painting that was one of about 1,400 search by its own staff and experts working World War II, the Daily Mail reports. criminal authority in Germany responsible works left behind by Jacques Goudstikker, for Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law, Marei von Approximately 5,000 went to Argentina, for examining the files – remarked, “These a noted Dutch-Jewish art dealer who fled Saher, showed it was among the pieces the 1,500 to 2,000 went to Brazil, and another documents provide the hottest leads we the Nazi invasion of 1940. ill-fated Goudstikker had catalogued in a 500 to 1,000 fled to Chile. The rest hid in have had for years.” Paraguay and Uruguay. The 370-year-old oil painting by Pieter notebook at the time he fled. The team holds out for the possibility that The files also reveal that Argentine pres- Molijn isn’t a masterpiece like some of the Von Saher is after a far more prized work new leads might procure a living fugitive, ident General Juan Peron sold 10,000 prized antiquities the Getty has sent back to that hangs in Southern California: Lucas blank passports to the Germans in order to though Schrimm noted, “Each day that Italy. When it was acquired at auction in Cranach the Elder’s “Adam and Eve” dip- facilitate their travel. And the documents passes makes that less and less likely, but 1972, “Landscape with Cottage and Fig- tych, a highlight of the Norton Simon Mu- exposed new details regarding the “rat I do not want people to say in the future ures” was believed to be by Jan van Goyan, seum’s collection that has become the lines,” or escape routes, used by around that we did not try.” but its authorship was later revised. object of a long-running court battle. Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS

THEY DARED RETURN: THE TRUE STORY OF JEWISH SPIES BEHIND THE LINES IN NAZI GERMANY. They Dared Return: The True Story of of harm’s way — immediately reported to and Hans Wynberg. All of them were Jews. Wynberg and Franz Weber, a veteran Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi his local recruiting station in Brooklyn. He Gerbner was a twenty-four-year-old refugee Wehrmacht officer who proved especially Germany. eagerly wanted to fight! Unfortunately, at from Hungary who spoke four languages. valuable since he was born and grew up By Patrick K. O’Donnell. Da Capo Press: first they wouldn’t take him. He was consid- Rosenthal was a nineteen-year-old from very near Innsbruck. Interestingly, Mayer Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010. 239 pp. ered an “enemy alien.” It was only when he Germany who had already graduated from met Weber when he was testing his Ger- $12.95 paperback. insistently appeared again, instead of his the U.S. Army intelligence school. Steinitz man in a POW camp in Italy. Weber was brother, that they realized was a “world-class athlete” who his tent-mate and they got to talking . . . REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN his unwavering determina- “barely escaped from Nazi Ger- Dropped in Innsbruck, “Operation uch has been written about Jews as tion and “acquiesced.” many in 1939.” “Wynberg was Greenup” was about finding out informa- Mvictims during the war. Not nearly Shortly after this point, a natural-born radio operator.” tion vital to the Allies. This being the case, enough has been written about Jews as O’Donnell’s work starts s fate would have it, how- Mayer didn’t think twice about impersonat- fighters. Patrick K. O’Donnell’s volume They reading like a James Bond A ever — and, surely, due ing a German officer and a French electri- Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish novel. But the difference is to the confusion of an agency cian. He fearlessly mingled with German Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany is this is not fiction. For still just getting on its feet — soldiers, railway personnel, and laborers. thus very welcome and important, and tells more than eight years O’- Mayer and these men finally Thus he discovered, and miraculously a unique and little known story. Donnell conscientiously found their meaningful place in communicated to his superiors, informa- In They Dared Return we read about did his research for this the OSS as intelligence opera- tion that led to the bombing of trains “mov- Jews, lucky enough to escape the Nazis, book. He combed primary tives and just plain spies. In this ing from Germany to the Italian front,” who came to America and enthusiastically resources. He interviewed role, ironically, they worked carrying “tanks, ammo, guns, and fuel.” joined the American armed services to do individuals central to his closely with and were aided by “The destruction of the trains” may, “ac- all they could to fight them. The “star” of O’- work. German prisoners of war who, cording to a source in Eisenhower’s head- Donnell’s book is Frederick Mayer, a Jew, In sum, because higher- after close scrutiny, were quarters,” have “shortened the war in Italy born in 1921 in the city of Freiberg, Ger- ups quickly recognized deemed trustworthy, and by six months.” He verified information re- many. Interestingly, when Hitler came to Mayer’s innate abilities, most especially his wanted to help the Allies to victory. At the garding German jet production factories, power Mayer’s father thought he and his exceptional leadership abilities and keen re- same time, in this role, they were often in moved underground and into mountains. family would be safe, despite the growing sourcefulness in any situation, he was hand the “field” on their own and had to rely on The Allies were concerned as to whether anti-Semitism around him. After all, this picked to become a member of the German their own wits and just plain chutzpah! Fi- what was being produced there posed a long-time patriot stubbornly believed, he Operational Group, or OGs. The OGs were nally, in this role, if they were caught they real threat. Mayer checked on the veracity had been a lieutenant and a decorated war the “precursor to the U. S. Army’s Special could expect to be put to death. In short, of talk circulating and promoted by the hero in the Kaiser’s army. That must mean Forces.” “The OGs were part of a much these men had to have nerves of steel – for Nazis on a “last stand” planned at an something! That must protect them! larger organization called the Office of what they frequently succeeded in doing Alpenfestung. Finally, he was responsible Mayer’s mother didn’t feel that way, and Strategic Services” (OSS). The goal of was often more than an army could. In- for the bloodless Allied takeover of Inns- after much “red tape” — two years of it to these OGs was “to penetrate enemy lines deed, they could save an army! bruck. All this Mayer did — even as, in the be exact –- the family immigrated to Amer- and strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.” Mayer’s activity was central in what may midst of it, he was arrested and brutally ica, specifically, Brooklyn, New York. Others who were hand picked to become very well have been “one of the most suc- beaten by the Gestapo. Nonetheless, O’Donnell reveals to us that, members of this elite group, and with whom cessful OSS missions of the war,” “Opera- Just exactly how did he do all this? They as soon as Hitler declared war on America Mayer especially bonded, included George tion Greenup,” location: Innsbruck, Austria. Dared Return is well worth the reading to in 1941, Frederick Mayer — now safely out Gerbner, Alfred Rosenthal, Bernd Steinitz, Here Mayer worked particularly closely with find out! BOOK DETAILS GERMAN CITIZENS’ ROLE IN END-OF-WAR KILLINGS The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi larger camps in places like Majdanek, tion force unearthed mass graves in sev- Nazi Genocide. Genocide. The book addresses the Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz as the front eral locations along the route. They found By Daniel Blatman. Harvard University broader issue of the death marches of con- approached. Many prisoners were not 17 bodies in Sulzdorf, 36 in Ellwangen and Press, 2011. 592 pp. $35 hardcover. centration camp prisoners in 1944 and even given enough time to pack their few 42 in a village called Zöbingen. Death 1945, during the waning months of the war. belongings. Often clothed in nothing but marches that began at the Dachau con- REVIEWED BY JAN FRIEDMANN, latman, a historian at the Hebrew rags and wearing wooden shoes, they centration camp passed through Poing SPIEGEL ONLINE BUniversity in Jerusalem, staggered across the near Munich and continued through Wol- More than 250,000 concentration comes to an unsettling con- overcrowded roads in the fratshausen and Bad Tölz. Groups of pris- camp prisoners died in death marches clusion about the last phase bitter cold. oners from the Flossenbürg camp shortly before the end of World War II. of the Nazi mass murders: The prisoners were crisscrossed Bavaria. Many of them were murdered by Ger- “The more the war ap- forced to share the roads he number of perpetrators continued man civilians. A new book tries to an- proached its end, and the with retreating German T to grow. Historian Blatman estimates swer the question why. more obvious the prisoners’ soldiers and civilians flee- that thousands, perhaps even tens of thou- he end was in sight, with Allied presence in the midst of the ing from the Red Army. All sands, of ordinary citizens became accom- T troops already on the outskirts of the German population be- too often, the fears of the plices of the murderous regime near the city. Nevertheless, a number of citizens of came, the more regularly panicked masses erupted end of the war. In the northern city of Celle in north central Germany became German civilians partici- into violence against the Lüneburg, for example, a scenario similar murderers on April 8, 1945. pated.” weakest of those with to what had happened in Celle unfolded on They participated in the hunt for hun- Those civilians included whom they shared the April 11, 1945, when civilians and police of- dreds of concentration camp prisoners government and local offi- route. ficers captured prisoners who had es- who, during an American bombing attack cials, members of the Nazi The tone was set by the caped from a train that had been bombed. on the city and its train station, had fled Party, and the Hitler Youth, SS, whose guards mur- Members of the German navy later shot from the freight cars, some of them in as well as local residents. dered without restraint. In the prisoners at the Lüneburg train station. flames, in which they were being trans- They abused or killed large numbers of Palmnicken, for example, 50 kilometers There is no historical evidence that ported. Local police officers, guards and those who, in the last stage of their lives (31 miles) from the former East Prussian anyone at the very top, such as Hitler or members of the Volkssturm national militia filled with suffering, were forced on city of Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad), SS chief Heinrich Himmler, gave the or- and the Hitler Youth executed their victims marches or had spent days being trans- the henchmen drove more than 3,000 pris- ders to liquidate the camps. The last in a nearby forest. ported across Germany in overfilled freight oners from the Stutthof camp, who had weeks of the war were characterized by The prisoners were “killed like animals,” cars. been marching for days, onto the beach of a gradual breakdown of administrative many of them execution style, according to At least 250,000 former prisoners lost the frozen Baltic Sea and mowed them order. The jurisdiction over the groups of a British military report. Up to 300 people their lives on death marches between Jan- down with their machine guns. prisoners being forced to march around died in the massacre, with the leader of a uary and May 1945. Their graves line A few weeks later, the death marches led the country changed in rapid succes- Hitler Youth group in Celle killing more than roads in parts of Lower Saxony, Bavaria, directly through the territory of the German sion, and many local officials acted on 20 alone. The Allies captured the city four and Mecklenburg, and in almost all of the Reich. In one case, prisoners from the their own authority when deciding what days later. places where the Nazis had built their Hessental camp near Schwäbisch Hall in to do with the prisoners. The outbreak of violence in this part of camps. southwestern Germany were forced to But why did so many officials behave the state of Lower Saxony is described in The death marches began in occupied march eastward toward Bavaria. After the with such brutality, and why did ordinary detail in a book by Daniel Blatman, The Poland, where the SS emptied out the war, investigators with the French occupa- (Continued on page 15) May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 HOW A TOP NAZI’S BROTHER SAVED LIVES Kubala’s interpreter, Richard Sonnen- After spending years trying to thwart his with friends and family members of peo- BY CHRISTOPH GUNKEL, feldt, was likewise skeptical. “Albert told a brother’s policies in various small ways, ple Albert Göring was said to have SPIEGEL ONLINE fascinating story, but one I had trouble be- now he felt betrayed. helped. The result was Thirty Four, a lieving,” he commented. So he took up a pen and paper and book named after Albert Göring’s list, ermann Göring was one of the Nazi wrote an alphabetical list of 34 names, published in 2009. party’s most powerful figures and A MEMBER OF THE RESISTANCE? H entitling it “People whose life or existence an adamant anti-Semite. But his younger STRIKING DIFFERENCES he life of Hermann Göring’s I put myself at risk (three Gestapo arrest brother Albert worked to save the lives of younger brother indeed makes a warrants!) to save.” urke’s book describes a man who dozens of Jews. Despite his efforts to do T fascinating story, one that has remained For decades, that list and the few other could not have been more different good, Albert’s family name would ulti- B essentially unknown in the nearly seven existing documents on Albert Göring sat from his infamous brother. “He was always mately prove to be a curse. decades since the end of the Nazi dicta- in archives, gathering dust. Hermann the exact opposite of me,” Hermann said in In downtown Vienna under the Nazis, torship. Perhaps it’s because today many Göring’s life was examined down to the a statement after the war. “He wasn’t inter- two members of the SA had decided to have the same reaction that the American last detail, from his morphine addiction ested in politics or the military, and I was. humiliate an old woman. A crowd gath- investigators had then: Can it really be and his role as an art thief to his actions He was quiet and withdrawn, I loved gath- ered and jeered as the storm troopers possible that Hermann Göring’s brother as Reichsjägermeister, or official game- erings and being sociable. He was melan- hung a sign bearing the words “I’m a dirty keeper. Albert Göring, choly and pessimistic, I’m an optimist.” Jew” around the woman’s neck. Sud- meanwhile, sank into obliv- In appearance as well, the brothers’ dif- denly, a tall man with a high forehead and ion. ferences were so striking that even early in thick mustache pushed his way angrily In the end, it was journal- their lives, rumors flew that Albert was in through the mob and freed the woman. ists rather than noted histo- truth the result of an affair on the part of “There was a scuffle with two storm troop- rians who first introduced their mother, Franziska. Hermann had blue ers, I hit them and was arrested immedi- the younger brother to a eyes, Albert had brown. Hermann was ately,” the man later said in a wider public. In 1998, a stocky and fat, Albert tall and slim. Her- matter-of-fact statement. British film crew shot a doc- mann loved authoritarian, bombastic be- Despite this open act of rebellion, the umentary called The Real havior, while Albert was a bon vivant — man was released immediately. He only Albert Göring. In faraway musical, cultured, and charming. He was had to say his name: Albert Göring, Sydney, William Hastings also a ladies’ man who married four times brother of Hermann Göring, the com- Burke, then 18, stumbled and was said to be always up for a fling. mander of the German air force and While his prominent elder brother Hermann was known for his across the film and devel- At first, Albert simply tried to keep out of Hitler’s closest confidant. authoritarian, bombastic personality, Albert Göring (shown here oped a long-lasting fascina- the National Socialists’ way. A mechanical Years later, after the fall of the Third in a photo taken around 1936) was a quiet, cultivated man. tion with the story. “The idea engineer, he chose not to join the Nazi Reich, Albert Göring was arrested once was a member of the resistance? A caring that this monster we learn about in history Party, instead moving to Vienna, Austria in again, this time by Americans. Again he person who saved Jews, helped dozens class could have had an Oskar Schindler 1928 to work as sales manager for a com- gave his name, but this time it had the op- of persecuted individuals obtain foreign for a brother seemed absolutely unbeliev- pany that made heating boilers. He also posite effect. currency and fake papers, and even se- able,” Burke later wrote. took on Austrian citizenship. But the world- “The results of the interrogation of Albert cured the release of concentration camp After completing a university degree in power politics Albert so hated, and which Göring … constitutes as clever a piece of prisoners? economics, Burke scraped together the his ambitious brother promoted, caught up rationalization and ‘white wash’ as the “It has been four months now since I money for a ticket to Germany. He found with him there with the 1938 annexation of SAIC (Seventh Army Interrogation Cen- was robbed of my freedom, without know- a room in a shared apartment in the uni- Austria to Nazi Germany. ter) has ever seen,” American investigator ing why,” Albert Göring wrote in Septem- versity town of Freiburg, got a job in an At some point, Albert decided he wanted Paul Kubala wrote on September 19, ber 1945 in a heavy-hearted letter to his Irish pub, and otherwise devoted the next to help instead of turning a blind eye. For 1945. “Albert’s lack of subtlety is matched wife. He had turned himself over to the three years to searching for Albert Göring, example, he helped Oskar Pilzer, former only by the bulk of his obese brother.” Americans voluntarily on May 9, 1945. combing through archives and meeting (Continued on page 15) MY TAKE: SEVEN LIFE LESSONS FROM A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler’s “hangman,” The next morning, Alice found the room keep working as usual. To not practice was BY CAROLINE STOESSINGER, CNN and his underlings understood that adding where she had been assigned the 9:00– unthinkable.” musical and artistic events to Theresien- 10:00 practice slot. With no time to waste, 5. If you have something spiritual, you At age 108, Alice Herz-Sommers is the she began to work on her Chopin etudes, don’t need as much food world’s oldest survivor of the Holocaust. stadt could be a huge publicity stunt, to only to find that the pedal did not work and In the camp Alice learned what she could She was imprisoned at Theresienstadt, prove to the outside world that all was OK that several keys stuck repeatedly. live without. Rather than grieving for what which was conceived by Hitler as a for the Jews. Refusing to be defeated, she quickly she did not have, she rejoiced in what she “model” concentration camp. They ordered the prisoners to form a adapted to the piano’s limitations and had. Alice knew that no one could rob her erz-Sommers – Alice, as I know Freizeitgestaltung, or Free Time Commit- of the treasures of her mind. “I am richer her – is a pianist. In between sum- tee, to organize concerts, lectures, and H than the world’s richest person because I mer 1943 and the camp’s liberation at the other events. Crudely printed posters appeared to advertise the programs. have music in my heart and mind,” she end of the war, she played more than 100 says today. concerts at Theresienstadt. Most were solo Prisoners had no money, so tickets were free. So many musicians had While performing, the prisoners could recitals culled from memory from her ex- nearly forget their hunger and their sur- tensive repertoire. She has survived for been sent to Theresienstadt that for a time before the members were roundings. Besides the terror of finding their more than a century with a profound faith names on a deportation list for Auschwitz, shipped to their deaths in Auschwitz, in humanity intact and a smile on her face. the fear of dying of starvation, typhus, and four symphony orchestras could play As music is her kind of prayer, Alice still other diseases had become a reality. there simultaneously. practices piano – Bach, Beethoven, Schu- “Music was our food, our religion, and The artists took their performances Author Caroline Stoessinger, right, befriended Holo- bert – for three hours every day. our hope,” she says. “Music was life. We just as seriously as if they were per- caust survivor Alice Herz-Sommers. I got to know her in London, where she now did not, could not, would not give up.” forming on the world stage. “As our situa- lives, through mutual friends who are musi- began to play with abandon, losing herself 6. Complaining does not help; it makes tion became even more difficult, we tried cians, historians, and Holocaust survivors. in the music. “At least I was making music everyone feel bad Here are seven lessons she has taught me: even harder to reach for perfection, for the and that always made me happy,” she Alice is anything but naïve and is acutely 1. Hatred only begets hatred meaning in the music,” Alice says. “Music says. aware of the evil that has always been Alice recognizes that anyone, anywhere, was our way of remembering our inner Despite the conditions in the camp and present in our world. “I know about the and at any time can adopt hatred and, selves, our values.” the inadequate, broken-down, legless in- bad, but I look for the good,” she says. worse, can infect others with its venom. The Nazis failed to understand that the struments provided for concerts, emotion- 7. Faith is stronger than fear Hatred that may begin with one person, power of music to provide comfort and ally she may have given her finest As she faces the last years of her life, like a single pebble cast into a lake, can hope to the performers and their audi- interpretations of Beethoven’s and Schu- Alice does not waste time with fears of spread out incrementally to larger and ences was stronger than the terror of their bert’s sonatas in Theresienstadt. death and worries about the unknown. “We larger groups, and even to entire nations. Nazi masters. Every composition that was 4. In routine there is hope come from and return to infinity,” she says. “We are responsible for our actions and written in Theresienstadt, every concert Despite the filth and hunger, Alice’s rou- “The soul lives on without the body.” Alice our words,” she says. “ And each of us played there, became a moral victory tine life of working her obligatory factory finds consolation in her spiritual theme must vigilantly guard against prejudice and against the enemy. job, performing, caring for her six-year-old song, “Urlicht,” with its opening words “I hatred in our own minds and with the 3. Perseverance son Rafi, and giving him and a few other come from God and I will return to God.” words that fall from our lips. No one is ex- On Alice’s third day in Theresienstadt, children elementary piano lessons in spare “Things are as they are supposed to be,” empt. Hitler could not have come to power she was told to play a recital the following moments helped her never to lose hope. she says. “I am still here, never too old so except in the climate of excessive hatred.” week. “But I need to practice,” she re- “We were not heroic,” Alice says. “We im- long as I breathe to wonder, to learn, and 2. Love your work, no matter the situation sponded. provised. We managed to keep doing, to teach.” Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER

“I THOUGHT I WAS THE LAST JEW LEFT” When the Nazis occupied Poland in “During the first few months, my mother “The Nazis would raid a block or an en- BY ROI MANDEL, YNET NEWS 1939, the Sztykgold home was included in Helena would cover my eyes when we tire area, remove the tenants from their the area of Warsaw which was surrounded walked on the street,” Yoram recalls. “But homes, and we would hear the gunshots,” Yoram Sztykgold was only three when by a wall and turned into a ghetto. you didn’t have to see to understand what Yoram recounts. “Every time they’d reach Nazis occupied his homeland. He re- The Nazis looted the expensive belong- was going on. the area, we would jump from one house members the dog that almost turned ings and ordered the family to move into “The ghetto was as noisy as a beehive, to another, through the rooftops or base- him in, sitting on a German officer’s lap, the kitchen. The rest of the huge house so crowded that you couldn’t walk on the ments, and an informer would direct us and the moment everyone burst into street, with a terrible stench. where to run to. laughter in the middle of a Nazi raid. Sick people, children dying “One night, after three days of not eating f you want I’ll tell you my story, but I under the houses, flies every- or drinking and basically turning into a must warn you – I won’t be giving you “I where. In the ghetto, I never corpse, I ran with my parents into one of any horror stories about the concentration raised my head as I walked the houses. A woman stood in the living camps and the crematorium, I won’t be on the street. I always looked room holding a hot pot of soup while her telling you about unusual courage. I didn’t down so as not to see what children sat around the table. meet any heroes during the Holocaust. was happening and not to “I was exhausted and my parents knew I “You also won’t hear about how I fought meet the eyes of a German would not survive the night if I didn’t put all by myself with a knife between my soldier.” anything in my mouth. ‘I have a sick child. teeth. It’s simply a story about a boy who He was always armed with Perhaps you could give him some soup?’ survived thanks to a lot of luck and re- a bag his mother had pre- my mother asked, but the woman in living sourcefulness.” pared for any scenario. room refused. ‘Ma’am, would you give if Yoram (Wlodek) Sztykgold, 76, begins his Sztykgold in his home. “There were clothes in there you had any?’ she responded. account with a “warning,” finding it difficult to and a bottle of wine and chocolate. Every “It was the first and only time I saw my understand why anyone would be interested was turned into a laundry for the German time I returned home I would discover it mother cry. Suddenly we heard gunshots in his personal story, doubting there is any- army’s underwear. was all stolen. People fought to survive.” and began escaping again. For an hour we one who really wants to hear about those Yoram remembers the strong sanitization ran from place to place, jumping from one dark times at the Warsaw ghetto. smell. He would spend days in the hideout “HELL ON BOTH SIDES attic to another, until we somehow ended He recently received a phone call from his father created inside the room where AND WE’RE MARCHING” up in the same place. the United States Holocaust Memorial Mu- bundles of linen would arrive, well packed, oram remembers how his grandpar- “We entered the apartment again. This seum and was informed that a picture from “like building blocks, in a German order.” ents’ health and mental condition de- time it was empty. The woman and her the children’s home where he recovered His father placed an oxygen tubule be- Y teriorated. As two of the richest people in after the war appears in the “Remember tween the packages. children had disappeared – perhaps they Warsaw, they suddenly found themselves Me” project album, which aims to locate The Germans robbed most of the Sztyk- were taken by the Germans or just ran 1,100 orphaned children who survived the gold family’s money, and what they could penniless. away. The soup was standing there in the Holocaust. take and hide bought life in the ghetto. He remembers when his grandfather be- middle of the table and I remember it was With money and diamonds, father Moshe came the toilet cleaner at the factory built still hot. My life was saved, and I still have BAG WITH CHOCOLATE purchased food and certificates and used in his house, and how his grandmother no explanation why that happened.” oram was born in Warsaw in Septem- his connections outside the ghetto. He continued to employ a cook even when The hunger, Yoram remembers, was in- Yber 1936 to a wealthy traditional Jew- later smuggled his daughter Wanda out of there was nothing left to cook, until she tolerable. The German raids increased as ish family. His father, Mistislav Moshe Josef, the ghetto under a false identity, while little died of grief. the elimination of the ghetto drew near. In was an engineer and the owner of one of Yoram remained with his parents. Once, he recalls, as the Germans raided one of them, his mother broke down. Europe’s biggest gas street lamp factories Wanda left, not before teaching her small a block in the ghetto, his grandfather, in “My condition deteriorated because I did- and another that made hospital equipment. brother all the Christian prayers by heart, alarn, jumped out of the bathroom with his n’t eat and didn’t drink. Mother saw me fad- His grandfather worked in real estate and as if she knew that one day he would need pants pulled down, asking, “What hap- ing away and gave up. She thought there had a lot of property in Poland. them. pened?” while the family members were was no use in running, we must get food Yoram was Moshe and Helena’s youngest “I am a grownup person today and I for- looking for him. even if we have to pay for it with our lives. child. His sister, Wanda, was four years get a lot of things, but I still remember “It made us burst into laughter in the mid- “We emerged from the hideout to the older than him. The family lived in a large those prayers by heart, word for word. It’s dle of all the tension. It was surreal,” he re- street. I looked down and we started house with servants, nannies, and a cook. something that will never be erased. members. (Continued on page 13) HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET IN ISRAEL penury of some of those still living. “On mental energy to go through necessary bu- After Ros and her family were driven BY HARRIET SHERWOOD, GUARDIAN Holocaust Day, they make a parade, those reaucratic hurdles to obtain benefits. from their comfortable middle-class home who do not know what a Holocaust is, what ecently the government announced espite the horrors of a childhood in in Sofia, they spent the rest of the war in hunger is. The people who suffered in the an increase in funds for the needs of the shadow of the Holocaust, Ros R extreme fear and hunger. “I never felt like D Holocaust are left behind, hungry.” survivors from 206 million shekels a year Dayan survived to build a life she could be a child, I never had a childhood,” she re- ccording to studies, around a quar- proud of in the new Jewish state of Israel. calls. “We lived on 300 grams of bread a ter of Holocaust survivors in Israel She trained as a nurse; she sang in a A day. Potatoes were a luxury food.” live below the poverty line, struggling to choir that toured the world. She learned But the family were spared the death pay for food, heating, housing, medication Hebrew, though she never lost her central camps, and after the war they made their and care. European accent. She paid her taxes and way by boat to the place that would soon be- As survivors get older – almost 90% are eventually bought the tiny house in Jaffa come Israel. They landed in Haifa with few over 75 – their resources diminish as their that she had rented at a subsidized rate for possessions and no money or valuables. needs grow. Many are widowed, and a high years. She even learned to live with the After a rocky and lonely beginning, Ros proportion of those receiving assistance are married and built a new life. Now a child- pain of three broken vertebrae, the result childless. As well as basic living needs, most less widow, she was recently forced to hire of an assault by a Nazi soldier. face expensive bills for medication, and Ros Dayan in her apartment in Haifa. a full-time, live-in caregiver – a necessary But, now, in the last years of her life, Ros around 20,000 need 24-hour care. to 225 million. It points out that, despite the expense which she simply cannot afford. is ashamed. One of the 198,000 Holocaust “A lot of survivors face big medical bills, overall declining numbers of people who She is bitter about her circumstances. survivors still alive in Israel, she is also one and life in Israel is very expensive generally,” lived through World War II, more people of the growing proportion who cannot says Deborah Garel of the Jaffa Institute, are being defined as Holocaust survivors “I love this country, but I don’t feel Jewish make ends meet, who struggle with insuf- which distributes bimonthly food parcels to according to criteria set by the government here. I came here to feel Jewish. Every ficient funds on a daily basis. Holocaust survivors. “Holocaust survivors and are therefore eligible for funding. Holocaust day I’m sad for what we lost, Wiping a single tear with a shaking hand, going hungry in Israel? This is not right. After Garel says more Israelis and Jews in and I’m sad I didn’t end up in a country that she says: “For the first time, I don’t have being hungry in the ghetto, they shouldn’t be other countries should contribute from their loves me,” she says. enough money for food or clothes. I used hungry in the Jewish state.” pockets for the care of survivors. “It’s the The problem of impoverished Holocaust to have pride, now I am ashamed.” The government is doing its best, says responsibility of every Jew to give to the survivors is acute but not long-term. As Israel commemorates Holocaust Day, Garel, but many survivors do not know few that are remaining. If everyone made Twelve thousand survivors in Israel died Ros resents those who mourn the six mil- what their rights or entitlements are, and a small annual donation, it would make a over the past year, and the current rate is lion Jews that died without considering the many are incapable or do not have the big difference.” one death an hour. May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 BEATING THE NAZIS AT THEIR OWN GAME “only by virtue of their observance of the “Sardari, with his legal education, diplo- “He started issuing these passports to BY RAPHAEL ARHEN, principal rites of Judaism,” Sardari wrote in matic experience and considerable wit, ex- Jewish Iranians because that was his main THE TIMES OF ISRAEL 1940. “By virtue of their blood, their lan- ploited the classification courageously as concern,” said Mokhtari, who, while re- guage, and their customs, they are assim- searching his book, spoke to about a n Iranian official risking his life to far as it was possible, to the point of anger- ilated into the indigenous race and are of dozen people who survived thanks to Sar- save Jews? This scenario, while im- ing people such as Adolf Eichmann,” A the same biological stock as their neigh- dari. “But the Jewish Iranians had French plausible nowadays, actually happened Mokhtari, an Iranian-born political scientist bors, the Persians and the Sartes or non-Iranian partners; some of them during the Holocaust. Meet Abdol Hossein based in Washington, D.C., told The Times (Uzbeks).” were married to non-Iranians. After he Sardari, a diplomat at the Iranian mission of Israel during a recent phone interview. The Nazis classified non-Muslim Iranians helped the Iranians, they went to him and in Paris during the 1940s. Known as the id Sardari believe in his own racial as either “nicht juedische Abstammung” asked him to help their friends. Sardari “Iranian Schindler,” he helped thousands Dtheory? “I doubt that he was actually trusted the Iranians and therefore he of Jews escape certain death – by turning concerned about that,” Mokhtari said. “His trusted the people they introduced to him the Nazi race ideology on its head. mission was to save fellow Iranians. Based [and gave them] Iranian documents.” Born into a privileged Iranian family, Sar- on his legal education, he found a way of Incidentally, a new Turkish documentary dari was a junior diplomat at the Paris em- making an argument that the German similarly claims that Turkish diplomats in bassy who enjoyed fine dining and the could not easily dismiss.” Iran saved thousands of Jews by giving company of pretty women. After the Ger- Indeed, Sardari’s arguments were per- them passports allowing them to escape to mans invaded France and the Iranian am- suasive enough to get the Racial Policy Turkey. But the film has not been without bassador left the capital and went to Vichy Department in Berlin to ask for the opinion controversy, with Israel’s attaché in Turkey, Batya Keinan, reportedly accusing it of to reconstitute the embassy there, Sardari of the Research Institute for the History of being a work of “propaganda.” was put in charge of consular affairs in the New Germany in Berlin, the Institute for Paris. When the Nazis started implement- At the beginning of World War II, Iran Research of the Jewish Question in Frank- was officially neutral, though the regime ing anti-Jewish decrees in occupied Abdol Hossein Sardari. furt, and other official bodies. was friendly with the Nazis. But after the France, Sardari made it his mission to pro- This runaround served Sardari well. His Soviets and the British invaded Iran in tect his fellow Iranians in the region, re- (not of Jewish descent) or “Blutmassig theories “would just circulate and as time 1941 and forced the king into exile, the gardless of their religion. Trying to beat the nicht Juden” (not Jewish by blood). Iranian would go on, he would benefit from the new Iranian government declared war on Germans at their own game, he argued Armenians, Christians, and Zoroastrians process and the time that it took,” Mokhtari Germany. As a representative of an enemy that Iranian Jews weren’t genetically re- were included in the first category, while said. “In the meantime, he would pursue nation, Sardari’s diplomatic status was lated to their European co-religionists and other Iranians whose religion was based on or influenced by the teachings of Moses his policy of saving as many people as he now severely compromised. His govern- therefore shouldn’t be subject to the ment ordered him to leave France imme- but who were not “racially Jewish” be- could.” Reich’s racial laws. diately, and, when he refused, suspended longed to the second category, explained Sardari’s plan actually worked. When Writing on the letterhead of the Imperial his salary. But he continued to save Jews, Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star Consulate of Iran, Sardari tried to convince Fariborz Mokhtari, the author of In the often “without heat, without money and of David, a directive was issued that Iran- the authorities that according to “an ethno- Lion’s Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and sometimes without food,” according to eye- graphic and historical study,” the members His Homeland in the Second World War, a ian Jews should be exempt. In addition, witness accounts. of the Jewish communities of Persia and new biography about Sardari. “Added to Sardari gave out between 500 and 1,000 Sardari never took any credit for what central Asia were not Semitic but rather that was the early Nazi propaganda that Iranian passports, without the consent of he did. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Aryan, like the Germans themselves. was saying that Iranians are of the Aryan his superiors. This saved 2,000 to 3,000 Los Angeles and other Jewish institutions According to the study, the so-called race. He had to find a way to beat them at Jewish lives, as passports were issued for have posthumously honored Sardari for Jugutis belonged to the Jewish community their own game,” he said. entire families. his actions. SURVIVORS’ GRANDCHILDREN FEELING AN OBLIGATION TO SHARE HOLOCAUST MEMORIES searchers who have studied the effect of tized, Biterman recalls his father telling to share the evidence that was in our BY SUZANNE KURTZ, JTA the Holocaust on families. him. backyards. It is up to us to preserve the or many survivors, it was easier to “He lived but wasn’t living,” Biterman, a hira Sheps remembers walking memory.” share their experiences with their fundraiser in Arlington, Va., says of the through an exhibit at the Museum F or Daniel Brooks, 35, the grandson S grandchildren than with their children, grandfather he never met. of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan F of four Holocaust survivors, a need says Peppy Margolis, director of the Insti- His grandmother also survived the Holo- and stumbling upon her grandmother’s to reconnect with other grandchildren of tute of Genocide and Holocaust Studies at caust in Poland and for many years wasn’t long-ago school reports alongside family Holocaust survivors led him to start Raritan Valley Community College in New eager to share her experiences. Yet after photos and her great-grandparents’ wed- 3GNY, a nonprofit organization in New Jersey, who recently produced a 30-minute she retired, Biterman says, she started to ding invitation. York, seven years ago. documentary titled The Second Genera- open up. Eventually she recorded her story Sheps, 25, had known that her grand- With more than 1,500 members in a tion: Ripples from the Holocaust. with Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation mother shortly after Kristallnacht had left database, ranging from college age to Through the dozens of interviews that and began speaking to student groups. Furth, Germany, at age 9 on a Kindertrans- their 40s, the group meets approximately she conducted, Margolis says she found But knowing that his father had grown up port to England. But seeing personal me- once a month, Brooks says, sometimes that for survivors in general, the Holo- in a home “where something was the mat- mentos of the life that had been taken from for a Shabbat dinner or for an educational caust was “too close” and the family, as well as her grandmother’s event. To commemorate Yom HaShoah, “many were still processing uncanny resemblance as a young girl to 3GNY informally supports events held by what had happened and bury- Sheps’ younger sister at that age, “I synagogues and the Workmen’s Circle. ing the pain in their work and freaked out,” she says. The Third Generation, he says, should raising their children.” As a child, Sheps would listen to her not rely on the Jewish establishment to Their experiences also left grandmother’s stories of a childhood lived document the lives and experiences of many ill equipped to be par- during the eve of World War II. The stories, their grandparents or even every Holo- ents, adds Margolis, herself a she says, “profoundly affected me. No caust survivor. child of Holocaust survivors. matter what I do, I come back to it.” “But the majority talked to their “We all have an obligation,” Brooks A social worker in Fair Lawn, N.J., who grandchildren and not with the says. “If not for us, no one will know these is pursuing her master’s degree at the same pain and bitterness; stories. Most will be lost, but each one Hunter College School of Social Work in enough time has passed and has meaning.” New York, Sheps has spent the past sev- it’s not as traumatic.” An increased sense of urgency, he eral years researching and studying the ef- While her film explores what it Marion Achtentuch, 83, with her granddaughter, Shira Sheps. says, has fueled members of 3GNY to or- fects of intergenerational trauma. means to be a member of the Second ter” only strengthened Biterman’s desire ganize speaking events at middle schools “It gives me an excuse, gives meaning to Generation and to grow up with a parent “to connect with my family history and to in the hope that sharing their grandpar- [my studies]. It’s a fixation,” she says in an who lived through the Nazi atrocities and my story.” In 2006 he started a Facebook ents’ stories with the next generation — interview. “I’m bearing witness. I’m doing World War II, she says it also has helped group for grandchildren of the Holocaust a demographic that he worries will feel a what I was taught for the purpose of re- those of the Third Generation to better un- that today has more than 2,000 friends. wider disconnect to the events of the membering.” derstand their own parents. “It’s just a network to organize, ask ques- Holocaust — will leave a lasting impres- She is among the many grandchildren of Though his grandfather died before he tions, get answers, and educate others,” sion. Holocaust survivors — often referred to as was born, Aaron Biterman, 29, says the ex- he says. “For them, [it could become] like talking the Third Generation — who feel an obli- perience of living in a home with a parent “It is important that the past not be for- about the Civil War,” Brooks says. “It gation to share memories of the Shoah. suffering from the trauma of surviving the gotten,” Biterman says. “There is a lot of doesn’t compare to listening to a survivor, The bond that many in the Third Gener- Nazi death camps took a toll on his father misinformation out there, but we had direct but we carry on our grandparents’ stories ation have with their grandparents has and aunt. His grandfather never talked experiences with [Holocaust] survivors. and the lessons of the Holocaust. It hits been noted by psychologists and re- about the Holocaust, he was so trauma- We are the ones with the biggest obligation them.” Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 CELEBRATING THE ST PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AMERICAN SOCIET

Matthew Levy; Sima Katz, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree; Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem, delivers his address at the Annual American Society for Yad Vashem; and Marilyn Rubenstein, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Chair. Spring Luncheon.

Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Adam Lindenbaum; Iris Lifshitz Lindenbaum, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree; Stella Skura, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Rochel Berman, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Guest Speaker, delivers her speech at the Annual Co-Chair; Cheryl Skura; Mrs. Lindenbaum; and Elizabeth Zborowski, Cultural Director, American Spring Luncheon. Society for Yad Vashem.

Young Leadership Associates. Matthew Levy introducing his grandmother, Sima Katz, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree. May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 TRENGTH OF WOMEN TY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON

Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Iris Lifshitz Lindenbaum, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree; Cheryl Skura, mother of and introducer of Iris Lifshitz Linden- baum, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree; and Marilyn Rubenstein, 2012 Annual Spring Lunch- Rita Levy, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Co-Chair, speaks before the audience at the Annual Spring eon Chair. Luncheon.

Sima Katz, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree (seated third from left), and her family. Marilyn Rubenstein, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Chair, opens the Annual Spring Luncheon.

Iris Lifshitz Lindenbaum, 2012 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree; and Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem (center), with a group of Young Leadership Associates. Gloria Jacobs; Celina and Marvin Zborowski; and Doris Gross. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM

THE INSPIRING STORY OF ELI ZBOROWSKI HISTORIANS RACE CLOCK He established the American Society for BY GREER FAY CASHMAN, Yad Vashem, which he led for 30 years, TO COLLECT SURVIVORS’ STORIES THE JERUSALEM POST and through which he raised more than Since its establishment in 1953, Yad $100 million for Yad Vashem. n April, the Israeli launch of the book A BY MEREDITH MANDELL, USA TODAY Vashem, an Israeli governmental authority, “During the darkest days of the Shoah, has collected 400,000 photographs, Life of Leadership: The Life Story of Eli vi Shefel recalled the day the Ger- I we all dreamed of Israel. How appropriate recorded roughly 110,000 victims’ video Zborowski – a survivor of the Holocaust man army arrived at his Polish town that the launch of my memoirs is in Z testimonies, and amassed 138 million and one of the key torchbearers of its of Slonim in the summer of 1942. The sol- Jerusalem,” he said. pages of documents on the Nazis’ geno- memory – took place at Yad Vashem. diers immediately began mass extermina- ad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev cide of Jews in Europe. It was after the Speaking emotionally before a packed tions and eventually killed more than noted that at a young age, Zborowski Holocaust that the United Nations ap- room in the Yad Vashem Synagogue – Y 25,000 Jews, including his mother, father, took on the responsibility of caring for his proved in 1947 what many Jews had where Judaica from destroyed syna- and sister. family and that this sense of responsibility is sought for decades: a permanent home- gogues of Europe are on There is nothing in that town that Shefel, what has constantly land in what is now modern Israel. display – Zborowski’s 87, can find about his family, he said while motivated him. At Yad Vashem on April 18, Israeli Prime voice shook as he recalled attending the Yad Vashem Holocaust me- “His commitment Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a his parents, Moshe and morial April 19 for the “Day of Remem- and mission to- speech that the lesson of the Holocaust is Zisel, and the role models brance” commemoration of the 6 million ward Holocaust re- not only to remember the past, “but to learn they were for him. Jews killed in the Nazi genocide of World membrance is so the lessons, and more importantly to im- Zborowski, who was War II. deep that he is will- plement those lessons, to ensure the fu- born in Źarki, Poland, “I’ve visited all the archives in Belarus ing to say, ‘naa’se ture of our people.” found himself as the head to find the names of people, but they v’nishma’ – I will do espite the immense scholarship on of the family when his fa- weren’t there because the archives of and I will listen,” the Holocaust, many unknowns re- ther, a successful leather Slonim were burned by the Germans D Launching of the book A Life of Leadership: said Shalev. “It has main, including the identities of roughly merchant, was murdered when they retreated — but we have to Eli Zborowski at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. been his lifelong one-third of the Jewish victims. by the Poles in 1942. Yet it keep the memory of what happened in mission to commemorate the Holocaust.” In 1955, Israel began creating a page of was also Poles who gave a place of refuge order to never forget,” he said. Prof. Dina Porat, chief historian of Yad testimony for each victim, and by 2004, to other members of his family. Zborowski The annual remembrance was ob- Vashem; Dr. Yitzhak Arad, deputy chair- Yad Vashem had 3 million names when it was a member of the Jewish Combat Or- served in Poland and other nations as man of the Yad Vashem Council (and for- first uploaded the names database to the ganization, acting as a courier between well, and it took on special meaning this merly chairman of Yad Vashem); Dr. Lilly Internet. Survivors have since added pic- ghetto fighters and Polish partisans. After year to historians who are trying urgently Naveh, Zborowski’s daughter; and Rabbi tures and scanned letters to the victims’ in- the war, he rescued more than 100 or- to collect the remaining testimonies of R. Yehoshua Berman of Bar Ilan Univer- dividual pages in what have become phans and developed a youth village in the eyewitnesses as their numbers dwindle. sity, who is the son of the book’s authors “virtual tombstones.” At the end of last Feldafing DP camp. One survivor dies in Israel every hour, Rochel and George Berman, also spoke of year, 4.1 million names had been recov- He subsequently moved to the United according to the Foundation for the Ben- Zborowski’s dedication to commemorating ered, Wroclawski said. States, where he built up a successful ca- efit of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, a both the Holocaust and the Jewish world “We are trying to find them by name, reer in business and dedicated his life to nonprofit group based in Tel Aviv that Holocaust remembrance and education. that once existed in Europe. which is an expression of an individual’s helps care for needy survivors. Today, identity. The Nazis tried to exterminate not there are 198,000 survivors in Israel; only the people but every memory of the RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS FROM 88% are 75 or older. individual and strip away their humanity Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial contains and any memory of them,” Wroclawski UKRAINE HONORED BY YAD VASHEM the largest archive in the world of historic said. ad Vashem posthumously honored hiding in the city. Some time later, Vladimir material related to the Holocaust — or Shefel created the Slonim Jews’ Associ- YVladimir Chaikovski and his parents and Yehudit left the city for a village named Shoah, as it is known in Hebrew — and it ation in Israel for the few survivors from Pavel and Teofila Chaikovski, as Right- Kordybanovka, where his parents Pavel has been intensifying its campaign to Slonim, which is now a part of Belarus. He eous Among the Nations from Ukraine. and Teofila lived. His parents received record the accounts of survivors. Teams and members of his group have been put- Bogdan Chaikovski, son and grandson Yehudit graciously, hiding her in the grain of historians have been dispatched to in- ting together a list of names from memory of the Chaikovskis, and the son of the sur- silo under haystacks. terview elderly survivors in their homes and came up with 3,000 for the Yad vivor, accepted the medal and certificate of Searches on the Chaikovski’s farm en- and collect artifacts. Vashem remembrance project. honor on their behalf. sued, but luckily Yehudit wasn’t discovered “We are really racing against the clock “It’s very hard to connect the names,” On the eve of World War II, more than in her hiding place. Fearing for her life, to find every survivor and get their stories said Shefel, who read off the names of his 4,000 Jews lived in Buczacz, in the Vladimir and Yehudit began moving from told before they die,” said Cynthia Wro- family members who perished, as did Tarnopol district, about half of the town’s clawski, manager of the Shoah Names many others at the memorial. But “without population. On July 5, 1941, Buczacz was Recovery Project. history, there is no future.” captured by the German forces. Giselle and Joseph Ackerman lived in SURVIVOR DONATES PRIZED PRAYER BOOK Buczacz with their five children: Radzia, Yehudit, Malka, Dora, and Chune. Yehudit TO YAD VASHEM was born in 1924 and at 17 years old went to work cleaning homes in the city. Among hen Holocaust survivor Irene Haya “She was sent one way and her parents the houses she worked at was that of W Weiss of Toronto heard her daugh- and brother went the other,” Dror said. Michail Chaikovski. ter was going to Yad Vashem to take part After several months, Weiss was trans- On November 27, 1942, an Aktion took in an education seminar, she gave her a lit- ferred to a munitions factory where condi- place in Buczacz and some 2,500 people tle blue prayer book to donate to the Holo- tions were somewhat better. were sent to the Belzec extermination caust museum. There, she found a booklet and wrote the camp. The siddur, which she had written by transliterated Hebrew prayers onto its Among those murdered in the Aktion place to place, with Yehudit posing as hand from memory in 1945 while in a Ger- empty pages using Hungarian script. She were Yehudit’s mother Giselle and Yehu- Vladimir’s sister, Olga. man forced labor camp, had been in her dedicated the makeshift prayer book to her dit’s three younger siblings. Her older sis- After the war, Yehudit and Vladimir re- possession for 66 years. parents and brother, hoping they would be ter Radzia was discovered hiding with her turned to Buczacz. In 1950, they married It helped her live through the worst time reunited after the war. They were among young son, and they were shot to death on and had two sons. In 1999, their eldest son of her life. But now, at age 91, Weiss felt it the six million Jews murdered by the was time to donate it to the museum in the banks of the river. Bogdan moved to Israel. Yehudit herself Nazis. After the massacre, Yehudit’s father lived in Israel for a year’s time, after which Jerusalem. After the war Weiss made aliya and parted from her, telling her to “save herself she returned to Ukraine, where she cur- “She said she would like to share it with raised a family. After her husband died she at any cost.” In that same year Joseph rently resides. Vladimir passed away in other people in a museum so that all may moved to Toronto to be with her daughter Ackerman was murdered. Ukraine in 2001. see,” said her daughter Tova Dror. “At and her family. Yehudit turned to her employer’s brother In 2011, the Commission for the Desig- home it will just sit on a shelf.” Vladimir, who had been outspoken in his nation of the Righteous Among the Nations Originally from a village outside Satmar Yad Vashem will add Weiss’s little blue empathy for the Jews and in his willing- at Yad Vashem decided to award Vladimir (nowadays Satu Mare, Romania), she and siddur to its growing collection of Holo- ness to help them. Vladimir hid Yehudit in Chaikovski, and his parents Pavel and Te- her family were deported to Auschwitz in caust-related artifacts so that future gener- his rented apartment in Buczacz while si- ofila Chaikovski, the title of Righteous 1944. Upon arrival at the death camp she ations may learn about the genocide multaneously supplying food to other Jews Among the Nations. was separated from them by Josef Mengele. during World War II. May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 EXCRUCIATING DETAILS EMERGE ON JEWISH GHETTOS tion — some of it from non-Jews divulging She also wrote an encyclopedia entry Another encyclopedia on World War II BY RANDY HERSCHAFT locations of unmarked mass graves. for Dubno, her Polish birthplace, where ghettos was published in 2009 by Yad AND VERENA DOBNIK, AP Researchers at the U.S. Holocaust Me- her father and two brothers were dragged Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel’s official me- morial Museum in Washington painstak- from their home and murdered in the local morial to Holocaust victims. The Encyclo- ven after decades of in-depth Holo- ingly collected details for the cemetery. The ghetto was established pedia of the Ghettos sums up the story of caust research, excruciating details E encyclopedia’s more than 2,000 pages there on the first day of Passover in 1942. are only now emerging about more than from the communities where Germans 1,100 German-run ghettos in Eastern Eu- herded Jews and killed them if they tried rope where the Nazis murdered hundreds to escape. of thousands of Jews. esearchers and writers scoured the And there were about 200 more ghettos world to find new witnesses, study than previously believed, said Martin R archives opened after the fall of commu- Dean, editor of the recently published En- nism and read thousands of survivors’ texts and testimonies in many languages. For town after town, vil- lage after village, and even just spots in the countryside, Dean and his team assembled pieces of a grisly puzzle, which he said “shows that the Nazis made a con- certed effort to find every last Jew in every last In this October 26, 1943, photo, Jews are gathered at an assembly point in the Kaunas ghetto in place” and eliminate each Kaunas, Lithuania, for a deportation action, most likely to Estonia. one. Hunger and diseases took their toll, she each ghetto for either lay readers or re- Dean is a Holocaust wrote, and on a lilac-scented May day, a searchers. scholar at the museum’s deep ditch was dug nearby. SS troops he two-part tome compiled by the Center for Advanced armed with whips and dogs rounded up U.S. Holocaust museum and pub- In this ca. 1941–1942 photo, people walk on a commercial street in Holocaust Studies and T the elderly or ill and shot them to death. lished in early May by Indiana University the Lublin ghetto near a sign forbidding entry, Poland. former senior historian for The rest were forced to work for the Ger- Press includes more listings, with exten- cyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933- the Nazi War Crimes Investigation Unit at 1945, Volume II. It’s part of a long-term mans in factories and construction, and sive scholarly footnotes and bibliogra- Scotland Yard in London. on the railroad. phies. effort to document every site of organized One tiny town in Ukraine, Mizocz, re- Nazi persecution, beyond the well-known Some of the Jews who lived in the Pol- The two projects “are complementary,” flects the horrors repeated over and over ish city of Krakow were helped by Oskar says Dan Michman, the head of Yad Warsaw ghetto and extermination camps across Eastern Europe. Its entry was writ- like Auschwitz. Vashem’s Institute for ten by a survivor who now lives in Penn- Holocaust Research, who It “gives us information about ghettos sylvania and is one of the fewer than 10 wrote the introduction to that would slip into historical oblivion and percent of Eastern European ghetto its encyclopedia. be forgotten forever if we didn’t have this dwellers who survived the war. The rest of the seven- volume,” Holocaust scholar Lawrence Helen Segall, now 81, was 11 when she volume U.S. project is ex- Langer said. “Who knew there were more witnessed SS troops torching her town of pected to be completed in than 1,000 ghettos?” about 2,000 residents, with hundreds of the next decade, tracking More Jews died during World War II in hidden Jews burned to death before they more than 20,000 sites of Poland and the western Soviet Union — could escape. Others were killed outside wartime persecution of today’s Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania — the town. both Jews and non-Jews. than the estimated 1 million gassed in “People had to undress and walk in The new volume covers Auschwitz, Langer said. small groups into the trench and lie face ghettos from Moscow to “The people are dead, but at least we down, where they were shot by an SS today’s German border, have the memory of the place where they man helped by a Ukrainian Schutzmann,” In this July 1941 photo, civilians drag a Jewish man through a street and St. Petersburg to lived and some knowledge of who killed she wrote, using a German word for local in Riga, Latvia, as a member of the German police looks on. Yalta, in Ukraine. them,” said Langer, an 83-year-old pro- policeman. The next volume will fessor emeritus of English at Boston’s In two days — Oct. 13 and 14, 1942 — Schindler during the liquidation of the cover camps and ghettos run by states Simmons College. the 300-year-old town “ceased to exist,” ghetto there, later working in the enamel aligned with Nazi Germany, like Vichy The museum fields inquiries daily about wrote Segall, who is now writing her own factory portrayed in the film Schindler’s France, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slo- survivors’ families using the new informa- memoir. List. vakia, Italy, and Croatia. WIESENTHAL CENTER ADDS THREE NAMES TO MOST WANTED NAZIS LIST ered his past, he was stripped of his Cana- played a key role in the deportation of ver the past 11 years, about 90 Nazi BY OFER ADERET, HAARETZ dian citizenship – but it was reinstated in 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz in the spring of Owar criminals have been convicted 2007, a move ratified by a Canadian court 1944. After the war he, too, fled to Canada. for their wartime deeds by courts world- n the eve of Holocaust Remem- in 2010. However, new evi- The Canadian government wide, and some 80 new indictments have brance Day, the Simon Wiesenthal O dence has surfaced recently stripped him of citizenship been filed against those suspected of war Center announced three new names had of Katriuk’s alleged war in 1997 and he left the crimes, Zuroff said. Also, more than 3,000 been added to its list of most wanted Nazi crimes, which the Wiesen- country voluntarily, and is new investigations have been opened war criminals. All three have a Canadian thal Center hopes will lead to now living in Hungary. against suspected Nazis. connection and two are currently in a reconsideration of his “Despite the somewhat Appraising the justice meted out by dif- Canada. case. prevalent assumption that it ferent countries where Nazi war criminals The Wiesenthal Center, based in Los An- Oberlander likewise has is too late to bring Nazi mur- live, Zuroff lauded German authorities but geles, which tracks Nazi war criminals and had his Canadian citizenship derers to justice, the figures took the governments of Latvia, Lithuania, anti-Semitism, has given Canada failing repeatedly revoked on ac- clearly prove otherwise,” Estonia, and Ukraine to task, along with marks on pursuing Nazis within its borders. count of his Nazi past, but said Efraim Zuroff, the cen- Sweden and Norway, which he said refuse The two suspects in Canada are Vladimir then restored, and it is now ter’s director in Israel. “We to prosecute war criminal suspects be- Katriuk, said to have been the commander pending again. The Einsatz- are trying to ensure that at cause of their statutes of limitations. of a Ukrainian army unit that committed gruppen, to which he was al- least several of these crim- A Wiesenthal Center report gives high mass murder in Belarus, and Helmut Ober- legedly deployed, are Helmut Oberlander was a mem- inals will be brought to trial marks to the United States, Italy, Spain, lander, who allegedly served in one of the believed to have killed more ber of a notorious Nazi death during the coming years. and Serbia, along with Germany, for their squad that executed 91,678 peo- mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen, than 23,000 people, mostly While it is generally as- pursuit of perpetrators of Nazi war crimes. ple in southern Russia. that murdered large numbers of Jews in Jews. sumed that it is the age of The prosecutor’s office in Hungary also got southern Ukraine. The third wanted man is Laszlo Csatary, the suspects that is the biggest obstacle to high marks for its efforts, but the center re- Katriuk fled to Canada after the war, but who as a police commander in Hungarian- prosecution, in many cases it is the lack of buked Hungarian courts for their laxness in 1999, after Canadian authorities discov- occupied Slovakia is alleged to have political will, more than anything else.” in actually trying suspected Nazi criminals. Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 CELEBRATING THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON (Continued from page 1) prise, Eli was disappointed, but very calm rooms: a pool with cold water, another with has been in the forefront of Holocaust re- still feel like the guests who attend are my and collected. Diplomat that he is, he said warm water, and finally a sauna – the membrance and can be credited with nu- ‘Yad Vashem family.’ And speaking today to me in Yiddish: Er speit mir in ponim un shvitz. Even if there were other children merous ‘firsts’ in this country, including: about the life of Eli Zborowski, I feel that I ich muz zogen az es regent – ‘He spits in there, I preferred to stay close to my father. “The first Yom HaShoah commemoration; have been invited to talk about the family my face, and I have to say "It's raining!"’ He thoroughly scrubbed my body with a “The first survivors umbrella organization; patriarch. “George and I embarked on this book brush made out of dry leaves that had an “The first publication, Martyrdom & Resist- “Eli Zborowski has been a central figure project three years ago. In A Life of Lead- extraordinary aroma – one that was incred- ance, devoted to Holocaust remembrance. in my life for the past two decades. I must ership we sought to do two things in telling ibly powerful, especially in the sauna. The “In each of these endeavors he has gath- admit, it hasn't always been an easy rela- Eli's story: weekly bathhouse excursion made me feel ered around him a cadre of people who tionship. He's far more diplomatic than I “Place his pre-war experience in a histor- very cared for and drew me even closer to were inspired by his vision and dedication am, much smarter, and certainly a better ical context; my father.’ and chose to lend their support to these negotiator. In any difference of opinion, I “Trace and analyze patterns in Eli's life “In the Zborowski home in Forest Hills, projects. rarely came out ahead. Despite this, there that would help us understand the scope stories about Žarki and der grig – the “In the case of the first Yom HaShoah is a feeling of mutual admiration and trust. of his post-Holocaust leadership activities. war – were ever present. It is interesting to program in 1964, which took place at the The projects we have undertaken together For example, we traced his interest in chil- note that even though Lilly and Murry had YIFH, he mobilized not only the entire con- have been interesting, challenging, and dren and young people from his rescue of never met their paternal grandfather, for gregation, but the entire organized Jewish productive. teenagers who were orphaned by the years they both fantasized about his return community in New York. His efforts were “Born and raised in Eastern Europe, Eli Shoah to his establishment of a Youth Vil- into their lives. the impetus for making Yom HaShoah an is part of a generation of Jews who do not lage in the Feldefing Displaced Persons “ELI NEVER SAW HIMSELF AS A VIC- annual event, institutionalized in houses of often give a compliment directly. Instead Camp. In this country, he was the Grand TIM: Feelings of victimization are common worship throughout the world. he voices his appreciation through a third Marshal of the Israel Day Parade and among survivors. So why did he not regard *** person. In 1999, our son Josh interviewed Chairman of the American Zionist Youth himself as one? “We have been overwhelmed and grati- Eli for Lifestyles Magazine. Before they got Federation. In 1975 he established a chair A victim is someone who is helpless. As fied by readers' response to the book: down to tachlis, Eli told Josh, ‘You know I in Holocaust Studies at Yeshiva University, a bright handsome child, he was the fa- “Yocheved Zemel, an Israeli book critic, have great respect for your mother's ability and in 1996, he created the Young Lead- vorite among his extended family. This has referred to Eli as a modern-day and talent.’ When Josh repeated this back ership Associates of the ASYV, which contributed to building his self-confidence. Ulysses. She said, ‘But unlike Ulysses who to me, I was amazed, but at the same time launched an educational program for His mother taught him to speak pure Pol- suffered from false pride, Eli has maintained flattered. As a matter of fact, it gave me the teachers of the Holocaust. ish, while his father provided a great deal his humility and his belief in God and his fel- courage to apply for the job of Executive “It took two people to write the book, but of business knowledge, negotiating skills low man despite all his ordeals.’ Director of the ASYV. more than 50 people to tell the story. We and moral strength. As a result, Eli's Holo- “On a lighter note, I would like to share “When I got the job, Josh asked, ‘So, researched archival material and reached caust experience was about STRUGGLE the response of a middle-aged non-Jewish why do you think he hired you?’ I immedi- out to family, friends, communal leaders, and COURAGE rather than VICTIMIZA- woman I met at the gym. She came run- ately shot back with, ‘Because I speak Yid- and business associates throughout the TION and DESPAIR. ning up to me after she read the book and dish!’ To some that might be an inadequate world. When we completed the manu- “Over the years, Eli has maintained a very said: ‘I think your book is fantastic. It's reason to hire a person for a key adminis- script, George said: warm relationship with non-Jews in Žarki even more exciting than Harry Potter. Are trative position. But for us, Yiddish speak- "’After having worked with Eli for 20 you planning a sequel?’ and with the Polish government, by whom ers, the language telegraphs a years, I feel that I have finally truly encoun- “And finally, Sir Martin Gilbert, Winston he is highly regarded. This enabled him to commonality of experience and trust. It tered him. Now I know who I want to be Churchill's official biographer, who wrote the play a significant role in opening the door to means you emanate fun undzere when I grow up.’ Foreword to the book, said: ‘In this book diplomatic relations between Israel and mentchen – you come from our people. “So what did we learn? Let me share there is not a single dull page, not a single Poland. Indeed, Eli Zborowski is a cosmo- In essence you are part of our inner circle. some highlights: story that does not resonate today, with the politan who speaks many languages and “I recall on one occasion, during my “ELI LEFT ŽARKI, BUT ŽARKI NEVER capacity to inspire new generations.’ strides confidently on the world stage. tenure as Executive Director, a very promi- LEFT ELI: His vivid and detailed childhood *** “ELI IS AN ENTREPRENEUR PAR EX- nent person in the Jewish community memories bring to life a world that van- “I wish to thank all of you, MY YAD CELLENCE: As a young immigrant, he agreed to be the guest speaker at the So- ished. He told us about his erev Shabbes VASHEM FAMILY, for being such a gra- ciety's annual tribute dinner. After the invi- visits to the mikvah which served as a bod began peddling camera parts door to door cious audience. And George and I would tations were mailed, he wrote to say he – a bathhouse – on Fridays. in Manhattan. Within a decade, he became like to thank you, Eli, for allowing us to doc- couldn't make it. I ran to Eli's office in a “‘I started to accompany my father to the president of Sheaffer Latin America. ument YOUR remarkable journey and in rage. I wanted to write this guy a letter that bathhouse – when I was about three years “ELI IS AN INNOVATOR AND A PER- so doing providing us with the most fulfill- would make the paper burn. To my sur- old...The bathhouse consisted of three SON OTHERS WANT TO FOLLOW: He ing personal and professional experience.” FOR LITHUANIA, $50 MILLION HOLOCAUST COMPENSATION A STEP FORWARD, BUT JEWISH BITTERNESS REMAINS On the flip side, many Lithuanians say In April, Felstein convened a group of 18th century Jewish sage known as the BY BEN SALES, JTA Jews focus too much on the Holocaust. Lithuanian and Jewish community leaders Vilna Gaon. Three years ago, during negotiations for a discussion in Chicago focused on im- Today, only about 3,000 Jews live in ithuania’s 800-year-old connection to Lits Jewish population broke down in over Holocaust compensation between the proving ties. Lithuania. 1941, when the Nazis invaded the country Lithuanian government and the Jewish “If you’re going to do a reconnection be- In recent years, ties between Lithuania and murdered nearly all of its 200,000 community, a Lithuanian tabloid ran a tween the Lithuanian and the Jewish peo- and Israel have been improving. Between Jews – often with the complicity of local cover featuring an oversized American ple, you don’t want to enter into the 2009 and 2011, Israeli and Lithuanian Lithuanians. Jewish official demanding money from a situation through conflict,” Felstein said. diplomats visited each other 20 times. Last In April, 70 years on, Lithuania finally miniaturized Lithuanian prime minister. “You want to do it through learning and year, Lithuania designated 2011 as the passed historic compensation legislation to “Give it now!” screamed the headline. nurturing. If our project is successful, there year of commemorating the Holocaust. provide some $50 million in compensation The president of a Lithuanian museum in won’t be any negativity left.” The Lithuanian ambassador to the United to Jewish families whose property was Chicago, Stanley Balzekas Jr., said Jews he idea for the project was born when States, Žygimantas Pavilionis, said he be- confiscated during the Holocaust. Jewish should not take Lithuanian anti-Semitic in- T Felstein’s 16-year-old, Benjamin, trav- lieves that differences between the com- groups hailed the move as a milestone for clinations “personally.” eled to Lithuania in 2010, found Jewish munities will dissipate as Lithuania moves Lithuanian-Jewish relations. “The Jewish leaders have to be sensi- cemeteries in disrepair and sent photos to away from the anti-Semitic legacy of the But lingering bitterness on both sides tive,” he said. “The terrible consequences his father. Felstein, who works for a ceme- Soviet Union. over the discussion of Lithuanian complic- that happened with the Holocaust aren’t tery as a funeral counselor, was inspired. Just as it took countries in Western Eu- ity in the Holocaust remains an obstacle to going to go away. That shouldn’t be forgot- “We want to reconnect the Jewish world rope decades to examine their roles in the better ties. ten. But it shouldn’t cloud the future.” back with the Lithuanian people,” Felstein genocide of the Jews, so too it will take Some Jews are concerned that Lithuania has Harley Felstein, an American Jew with told JTA. “If we don’t take action now, the time in Lithuania, Pavilionis said. “It took yet to confront its own role in the Holocaust. Lithuanian roots who lives in Washington, next generation won’t have that informa- some time to build from scratch, from the “Relations have to be promoted within a wants to focus on positive aspects of tion available to them. Our time with sur- distortion of reality,” he said. context that is based on mutual respect and Lithuanian-Jewish history. Last fall, he vivors who have that linkage is limited.” Already, Pavilionis said, the Lithuanian respect for historical truth,” said Jonathan launched a campaign called the Sunflower Lithuania has a rich Jewish history. The government is training teachers to educate Brent, the executive director of the YIVO In- Project to promote Lithuanian-Jewish country’s capital — Vilnius, known to Jews schoolchildren about the Holocaust. stitute for Jewish Research, which was events in the United States, and organized as Vilna — was the center of Orthodox Ju- Alexander Domanskis, past president of founded in prewar Lithuania. “Everywhere Jewish trips to Lithuania, including ex- daism in Eastern Europe, home to the orig- the Lithuanian World Center in Chicago, you go searching for the truth, the truth can- changes of high school students between inal YIVO, and the hometown of Rabbi said Lithuanians should learn about the not be found without conflict.” Israel and Lithuania. Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, the Holocaust. May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13

ESTONIA: “I THOUGHT I WAS THE LAST JEW LEFT” NAZI SAFE HAVEN Continued from page 6) Polish landlady who hid them went “The nanny said that one of her friends ixty-five years after many Fascist marching. On both sides I heard the Ger- through their belongings and found fur who knew about me told her husband. And leaders were sentenced to execution mans with the dogs and the gunshots. and a pair of crocodile-skin shoes the S he asked to know where she was hiding or prison, Estonia is in the spotlight for And we were marching in the middle of mother had smuggled. me and where mother was hiding. He told neo-Nazi activity acting as a shelter for the street, on the road, passing by every- “Until her very last day, mother always her that if they turned us in they could se- several convicted war criminals. one and certain that someone would made sure she was meticulously dressed cure their economic future forever. My With SS marches regularly held through- open fire at any minute. But no one paid and had an impressive look,” Yoram mother was smart enough to understand out the state, many fear the country is in- attention to us. stresses. “What is this, ma’am?” the Pol- the situation. creasingly embracing one of history’s “Hell on both sides, people being shot and ish woman shouted as the two returned “She trusted the nanny, but was afraid darkest chapters. terrible screams, while we marched in the from their short walk outside. “Where did she was being followed, so every minute One of the marchers – Mikhail Gor- middle as if we were air. With every step, my you get such expensive stuff?” was dangerous. She stopped outside a toy shkov – is ranked eighth on Simon heart went up to my throat and I sensed my The mother replied, “You want to know shop and asked the nanny to wait for us parents’ fear. It was a surreal situation. Min- where it’s from? It’s a great story, I must tell outside for a moment because she wanted utes of walking felt like eternity. you. But first I’ll feed the child for a few to buy me a present. “Four mounted policemen passed us, minutes, and then I’ll sit down and tell you.” “We entered the store and mother turned we felt the end was near, but they just Yoram’s mother prepared a small meal to the saleswoman and asked if there was kept on going, split to both sides while we for him, and when the Polish woman another exit. The woman pointed to a dif- marched between them toward the bar- wasn’t looking she packed a small bag and ferent door. We escaped, leaving the rier, crossed the barrier, and continued to slipped outside. nanny outside.” a different part of the ghetto, where we Yoram will never forget that night. In the got help.” freezing cold the two hit the road, all alone LAST JEW IN THE WORLD PEDIGREE DOG in Warsaw’s poor neighborhood. The next elena led Yoram to the last hideout, Veterans of 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of IN POOR NEIGHBORHOOD hiding place was at the other end of the Hwhere he stayed until the end of the the SS meet on the Sinimaed hills. Polish capital. hanks to the money hidden by the war, in the town of Żyrardów near Warsaw. Wiesenthal’s list of most wanted Nazi war “The curfew was supposed to start in a He lived with a Christian family which got criminals. T father, the Sztykgold family mem- short while and we knew there was no way bers remained in the ghetto until its very a lot of money for hiding him. “He directly participated in a murder of we would make it un- last moments. 3,000 Jews in Belarus in the 1940s. Docu- less we took a tram “At first there were 1,000 people on one ments proving it were provided to the Es- which only the Ger- meter (3.2 feet) in the ghetto until it be- tonian authorities,” says the chairman of mans could use. came impossible to walk on the pavement. the anti-Fascist committee of Estonia, An- Mother had nerves of Then there were the raids and the number drey Zarenkov. iron. She told me of people in the ghetto was reduced. Estonia’s anti-Fascist committee says “When I left the ghetto, two weeks be- some bedtime stories the proof of Gorshkov’s atrocities in a Be- fore the uprising, there was no one on the about the moon and larusian concentration camp is solid and street anymore. There was a terrible si- stars and then she undoubted. But instead of seeing off his lence. The only ones who remained in the said, ‘We’re getting on days from behind bars, he now lives the life ghetto were those who had a job. Father the tram.’ And I’m no of a free man in this Baltic state. got me and mother fake certificates and idiot, I understood “Gorshkov was deported from the US and we decided to escape, but at the last what that meant. stripped of US citizenship. That says a lot, minute he announced he wouldn’t be “We waited for it to doesn’t it? Tallinn gave him shelter and tried joining us. become even darker to hide him here, but then under interna- “Grandfather was a religious person, and walked to the Ger- tional pressure the authorities had to initiate and he thought that what was happening mans’ tram. We got on Yoram with his sister and mother. an investigation,” Zarenkov reveals. to us was a punishment from above, and the streetcar, mother looked in and inten- “I was pretty free to walk around there However, the probe yielded no results. that one can’t escape such a punishment. tionally chose to sit in the only place facing and get a breath of fresh air. They knew I After months of investigation, Estonian au- He insisted on staying, and father told us two German officers. She sat down confi- was Jewish, but they got good money to thorities closed the case. he couldn’t leave his father and escape, dently and smiled, and they smiled back at watch me.” The advisor of the office of Estonian even if he had a hideout waiting for him. her. When the announcement was made Prosecutor General Carol Merzin said that Mother and I escaped on our own to a “I was so scared I couldn’t talk. I wasn’t about the end of the war, Yoram assumed “A well-grounded doubt remains that the hiding place in one of Warsaw’s poorest scared I would utter nonsense; I was he had been left alone in the world. Gorshkov mentioned in the materials is not neighborhoods.” scared I would wet my pants and they “I hadn’t met even one Jew during that the Mikhail Gorshkov who is at present a citizen of the Republic of Estonia. The Yoram recalls the dog he had when the would discover our trick. period and I assumed everyone had died, case will be closed, as it has been impos- ghetto was established. “A beautiful pedi- “Mother was a beautiful woman and they that I was the last Jew in the world. I was gree dog which we had during our child- sible for the investigative team to find any fell for her charm. One of them courted her only nine, but I was concerned that I had hood, until one day my parents decided it additional evidence.” and the other reached out to me and put been left all alone and didn’t know what to was too much, that we cannot continue The decision raised eyebrows in Israel – me on his lap. Throughout the journey he do in the world.” keeping a pet and feeding it while people at first. But then Simon Wiesenthal’s center told me stories and showed me things His mother Helena and sister Wanda are dying of hunger. recalled which country they were dealing through the window. At the end of the trip managed to survive and unite on the other “Father bought poison and decided to with. they kissed my mother’s hand and we got side of the Vistula River, which was liber- put her to sleep. But three days later she “I called Washington, spoke to the peo- off at the station.” ated six months earlier by the Red Army. suddenly came back to life. We were a ple who handled his prosecution case Half a year passed before the mother and religious family and we decided to try ESCAPE FROM TOY SHOP about whether they had any doubt about again. Father decided to smuggle her out sister could reach Żyrardów and visit oram and his mother split. He was [Mikhail Gorshkov’s] identity. And they said and paid for the smuggling.” Yoram. no, none whatsoever,” insists Efraim Zurov handed over to the Christian nanny He never imagined he would see the dog Y They found him sick and weak, his body from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. who had taken care of him before the war. again, several hours after arriving with his swollen from hunger and covered with And the Gorshkov story is not a one-off He remembers the day he arrived with her mother at a hideout outside the ghetto. wounds. It took him months to recover. case. From sanctioning SS veterans’ at the playground overlooking the ghetto. “Father must have made sure that the His mother volunteered in a Jewish chil- marches to glorifying former Nazi collabo- He stood near the carousel, next to chil- dog would be returned to me. I was so dren’s home operated by the Joint organi- rators – this has been Tallinn’s policy for dren and parents amusing themselves at happy to see her again after everything I zation in Otwock and brought him there. the past decade. the sight of the burning ghetto. He was went through. It was a moment of joy. Alongside 130 children, many of them or- Recently, one man made just about “But less than half an hour later, Polish forced to pretend that he was entertained, phans left alone in the world, Yoram began every headline in Estonia. Almost on a crooks smelled an opportunity. They im- like everyone else, “by the sight of people a long rehabilitation process with his scale of a national holiday, in October the mediately suspected that we were Jews, falling off the rooftops like candles, from mother and sister by his side. country marked the 90th birthday of Harald because it was impossible for anyone in the gunshots and smoke. And that was In 1949, the children’s home was shut Nugiseks, the only remaining holder of the such a poor neighborhood to have a well- when I knew that my father and grandfa- down and Yoram moved in with his mother, Iron Cross, one of the highest awards in groomed pedigree dog. They immediately ther were still in there.” who had remarried a Jew who survived the Nazi Germany. asked for money so as not to hand us Only seven years old, he already knew Holocaust. The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced the over to the Gestapo. We were forced to what the end of the world looked like. At the age of 21, Yoram left Poland and Nazi leadership to either executions or flee again.” Mother Helena hid at a Polish friend’s immigrated to Israel, where he met his sis- prison terms 65 years ago. This trial of his- house. Every two weeks she visited her ter Wanda, who had made aliyah several ON GERMAN OFFICER’S LAP tory was meant to get rid of Nazism for son Yoram for several minutes at the years earlier. He enlisted with the IDF and good. But the SS marches in Baltic states, he new hideout didn’t last long ei- nanny’s house. One day, Yoram recalls, then studied architecture. He married and other cases of rehabilitation of Fas- T ther. While Yoram and his mother during a short walk, the nanny asked to tell Liora, and they have two children and six cism nowadays, suggest that history les- went out to catch a breath of fresh air, the Helena something. grandchildren. sons have not been fully learned. Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772

YOM HASHOAH POLAND'S HALT OF RESTITUTION PLANS AROUND THE WORLD (Continued from page 2) ANGERS MANY ily," Hermano said. work on the law, calling it “a disgrace for nections to find refuge in the West during Still bearing the camp number 3,241 tat- BY VERENA DOBNIK, AP Poland.” those hard times? tooed on his forearm, Auschwitz survivor Willy Komorowski, who is aligned with Tusk’s Manela recalled its unspeakable horrors. efore the Nazis arrived, Maurice De- How can one even begin to address governing Civic Platform party but is "Words cannot convey what happened luty’s life followed a rhythm familiar wrongs in a country that was invaded and B elected separately from the government, here in Auschwitz. It's unfathomable," said to so many Jews in small Polish towns. His occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union, also acknowledged what many critics fre- the Polish Jew who made a life for himself father, a grain merchant, would stop work and saw Warsaw and other cities razed to quently note — that Poland is the only in Ireland after the war. before dusk on Fridays to observe the the ground, 6 million citizens killed, and its young democracy from the former Eastern "It's my dream for the young people who Sabbath with his family, sitting down to a borders radically redrawn after the war? Bloc that hasn’t passed any reprivatization are marching here not to forget history. meal prepared on a wood-burning iron Since a large swath of western Poland or recompensation law. They aren't allowed! They cannot forget stove, the matzo bought from a bakery in once belonged to Germany, there are also The government says it will resume work what hate of fellow human beings can lead their small town near Warsaw. fears that a policy of compensation could on the law sometime in the future — but to," he added. Deluty’s parents and sister were killed in open a Pandora’s box of Germans seeking that will be too late for many of the elderly the Holocaust and his father’s grain ware- to regain former property. people who were dispossessed. house was destroyed. But the family home Yet Poland’s dispossessed owners and their heirs say property stolen by Commu- nists remains stolen property to this day, and that if this young democracy wants to live up to its ideals — and its constitution — it must honor the sanctity of private property. he United States was “deeply disap- T pointed” by the Polish decision to An elderly man looks at the portraits of Mace- suspend work on the law, Stuart Eizenstat, donian Jews who were killed in the Nazi exter- special adviser to U.S. Secretary of State mination camp Treblinka, displayed in the Hillary Clinton on Holocaust-era issues, Holocaust Memorial center of the Jews of said in March. “We believe this is a matter Macedonia in the country's capital Skopje. of justice for both groups,” he said. "My grandparents were in Auschwitz and That sparked an angry response from in the ghetto and if they had not been lib- Piotr Sokolowski, a psychology professor, speaks in front of a home that his family owned before Poland, which jealously guards its national erated by men like these, I would probably World War II, in Warsaw, Poland. sovereignty after two centuries during not be here today," said 27-year-old Shani The issue is often described as one of which it was controlled by outside powers from Israel. still stands — and the 87-year-old Deluty, “Jewish restitution,” but in fact only about 15 most of the time. "My grandparents were murdered here in who now lives in Queens, New York, says percent of the seized property in question is Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said: “If Auschwitz. Because the Allied soldiers lib- he deserves to get the property back, or at claimed by Jews, with the bulk of it claimed the United States really wanted to do erated the camp just in time, I had a future least compensation. He is the rightful heir by non-Jewish Poles who owned homes, something for Poland’s Jews, a good mo- and can now tell my grandchildren about and desperately needs the money as factories, and other property. Still, the issue ment would have been in the years the Holocaust," added 83-year-old Irving mounting medical costs eat up his meager weighs heavily on relations between Poland 1943–1944, when most of them were still Roth, who was freed by U.S. troops when income. and Jewish groups due to its unresolved na- alive, and when Poland pleaded for that he was a 15-year-old after the westward But it’s a battle he feels he has lost with ture and the fact that before the war Poland through the testimony of Jan Karski. Now January 1945 death march from Auschwitz a decision by Poland’s government to sus- was home to 3.5 million Jews — Europe’s the intervention is a little late.” to Buchenwald. pend work on a law that would have of- largest Jewish community. Karski was a wartime emissary of the fered compensation to people who had In some cases, the land was first seized Polish government-in-exile who had gath- private property seized during the Nazi and by the Nazi German occupiers and then Communist eras. He says he’s running out ered firsthand evidence of atrocities in the taken over by Communists in the postwar of time and energy, and has a message for Warsaw ghetto and the Belzec death camp era. Sometimes it came as part of a Com- Poland’s government: “Shame on you for and carried the reports to the West. munist policy of dispossessing aristocrats Though the Allies were by then already what you are doing to (Holocaust) sur- or others of privilege — or simply because vivors in this time of their great need.” fighting the Germans, Karski pleaded with the state coveted the real estate. them to do more to stop the genocide. The U.S. government also expressed its People have been struggling for years to disappointment over the failure to pass a Among the non-Jews who remain disap- regain property, and some have succeeded pointed at the lack of resolution over this law that affects both Jews and many non- through the courts. Many others fail. Jews, sparking an angry outburst from issue is 61-year-old Piotr Sokolowski, a Moldovans are seen through a Star of David as Deluty returned to Poland in 1992 and psychology professor who belongs to a Poland’s foreign minister, who made it obtained a deed to his home from munici- they wait to place flowers at the Holocaust re- third generation of heirs fighting to regain membrance memorial in Chisinau, Moldova. clear he didn’t appreciate a lecture from pal authorities. But a judge told him his an elegant prewar villa in Warsaw. Washington. house had been sold by the Polish govern- Israel's former chief Rabbi Meir Lau, as The pale yellow home, which overlooks The government of Prime Minister Don- ment after the deportation of the Jews from well as US and Canadian World War II vet- a small park, was bought before the war by ald Tusk argues that the financial crisis has the ghetto in his hometown of Nowe Mi- erans who liberated other Nazi death a great-uncle who was a government cab- left it too broke to pay even partial compen- asto. He might have been able to reclaim camps, notably Buchenwald, joined the inet minister in the 1920s. After the Nazis sation for seized property. Government it had he returned immediately after the march, which wound from Auschwitz to the invaded, the Gestapo took it over. Then in spokesman Pawel Gras said Wednesday war, but a wave of anti-Semitic violence killing fields of Birkenau. the 1950s it was seized by the Commu- that if the law took effect, the state would against Jewish Holocaust survivors There, six large torches were lit to blaze nists. Today it remains in state hands, with have to immediately pay out 20 billion zlo- prompted him to flee the country. in front of a memorial. the Polish Academy of Sciences — a state tys (€7 billion) to former property owners, The judge told him he had no right to the More than one million people, mostly Eu- institute — renting it to private companies. most of them non-Jews. He said it’s an ob- house “because ‘you did not come back to ropean Jews, perished at Auschwitz-Birke- Or “milking it” for the income, as ligation “impossible” for the debt-burdened live here,’” he recalled. “Instead of showing nau, operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Sokolowski sees it. state to meet for the next two years. a little empathy, he talked to me as if I’m Poland from 1940 until it was liberated by He and his siblings have been trying for That marks a change of tone from 2008, annoying him. ... ‘What do you want here?’ the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945. 20 years through the courts and other legal when Tusk vowed during a visit to he says. ... It was like talking to a dead The site was one of six German death avenues to regain it. Despite documents Jerusalem to get a law passed. “There is wall.” camps set up in occupied Poland, a coun- proving ownership, they have gotten nothing worse that saying I’ll give it back, The issue of righting these wrongs raises try which was home to pre-war Europe's nowhere. and then not doing so,” Tusk said at the complex moral questions. largest Jewish community. “I am fighting but I am hitting (a) wall,” time. s it right to compensate former Many Auschwitz victims were sent to its Sokolowski said. “The government uses Now that Tusk is not doing so, many are Ilandowners if it means cutting welfare notorious gas chambers immediately after furious. payments in a country burdened by an un- every possible trick in the legal book to being shipped in by train. Others were “Any democratic country which claims to employment rate of 13 percent, an endur- keep it for themselves.” worked to death as slave laborers. practice democracy and good human be- ing economic legacy of the painful In the meantime, the house seems to be Among the camp's other victims were havior has to practice it. Otherwise, it’s a transformation from Communism to a mar- falling into some disrepair, with plaster tens of thousands of non-Jewish Poles, So- farce,” Deluty said during an interview at ket economy? chipping off the front. He is convinced that viet prisoners of war, Gypsies, and anti-Nazi his Queens home. “How can they be dem- Should those Poles who suffered the op- the state is avoiding costly repairs because resistance fighters from across Europe. ocratic when they’re violating such human pression and deprivations of Communism it realizes one day it will have to give it Thousands of youth from Israel, the rights?” have to pay higher taxes today so that the back. United States and other countries marched Even Poland’s President Bronislaw Ko- state can compensate prewar landowners, In the meantime, he says his generation between Auschwitz and Birkenau to honor morowski condemned the decision to stop some of whom used their money and con- is grooming the next to keep up the efforts. the millions killed in the Holocaust. May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15

BOOK DETAILS GERMAN HOW A TOP NAZI’S BROTHER SAVED LIVES CITIZENS’ ROLE (Continued from page 5) manded of him. In late 1939, the younger A number of notes turn up in German president of Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie, Göring himself took an influential position, files that prove these stories were not sim- IN END-OF-WAR KILLINGS Austria’s largest film production company. becoming export manager for the Skoda ply made up. The Gestapo’s Prague bu- (Continued from page 4) Pilzer was Jewish, which gave the Nazis automobile factory in the Czech city of reau, for example, complained that civilians become involved, when it was al- the perfect excuse to ban his studios’ films Brno. From this position, he also supported Göring’s office at the Skoda factory was “a ready clear that the Nazis’ “final victory” in Germany — so they could subsequently the Czech resistance, activists later testi- veritable nerve center for ‘poor’ Czechs.” was a fantasy? take over the company when it began to fied. If their statements are accurate, Albert The general of the Prague police, SS- o answer this question, Blatman falter. When the Gestapo arrested the top- Göring revealed not only “the exact loca- Obergruppenführer Karl Hermann Frank, T cites the example of the guards, a pled film mogul in March 1938, Albert tion of a submarine dockyard” but also the considered Albert Göring “at the very least, group of people who had become merci- Göring intervened. a defeatist of the worst sort” and asked less sadists over the years. The concen- permission to arrest him in 1944 on “pro- SCRUBBING THE STREETS tration camp guards saw themselves as found grounds for suspicion.” IN SOLIDARITY frontline soldiers against the enemy within, Now the man who had helped others and as defenders of the Aryan race and lbert Göring used the power of his escape became the persecuted one. Mul- the superior nation. Now that they were no “Afamily name and pulled out all the tiple times, Hermann Göring had to inter- longer working in the camps, they contin- stops, first to find out where my father was vene on Albert’s behalf, all the while ued their mission, except that they were re- and then to make sure he was released im- warning him that he wouldn’t do so for- lieved of their prescribed routines. Worried mediately,” Pilzer’s son George later testified. ever — with every German plane shot about being caught by the Allied soldiers in That was no isolated incident, and many down, the once untouchable head of the the company of bands of walking skele- people had similar testimony to present Luftwaffe found his star was on the wane. tons, they chose to kill the potential wit- after 1945. Alexandra Otzop, for example, Shortly before the end of the war, Albert nesses instead. recalled, “My husband and his son from his fled to Salzburg, Austria. Similar motives also turned many people first marriage were persecuted in the fall of These two very different men met just on the home front into prepetrators when 1939. Mr. Göring managed to get them de- once more in an American detention cen- the trains filled with prisoners suddenly ar- ported, instead of being sent to a concen- ter in Augsburg. “You will soon be free,” rived in their towns. Mayors, local party of- tration camp.” the war criminal Göring is said to have ficials, and men with the Volkssturm militia It’s said that Albert Göring once even got This photo shows Albert Göring with his third told the younger Göring who saved Jews, were determined to prevent the oppressed down on his hands and knees to scrub a wife, Mila Klazarova. Hermann Göring did not on May 13, 1945. “So take care of my wife concentration camp inmates from gaining street in Vienna, out of solidarity with women approve of his brother's marriage to Mila, and my child. Farewell.” their freedom in their own backyards and who were being bullied by storm troopers. whose Slavic background made her an "Unter- While Hermann Göring, sentenced in exacting revenge for the injustices they The women’s tormentors asked his name mensch," or subhuman, in his opinion. But Al- Nuremberg, escaped execution by com- had suffered. This logic led them to believe bert married her anyway in 1942 in Salzburg. and were horrified by the answer. mitting suicide in October 1946, the Amer- that they were protecting the welfare and Hermann did not attend the nuptials. While his brother was hard at work per- icans remained suspicious of Albert safety of their fellow citizens by killing the fecting his air force, Albert obtained fake plan to break the non-aggression pact with Göring. His name had become a burden strangers in their striped prison uniforms. papers, warned friends of impending ar- the Soviet Union. This sensitive informa- for him. Although the last of a series of A decade of indoctrination, or what Blat- rests, and provided refugees with money. tion, the Czech resistance fighters stated, caseworkers did recommend his release, man calls a “genocidal mentality” that had Again and again, he deftly used his name was successfully passed on to Moscow Göring was turned over to the Czech Re- systematically dehumanized the Jews and to intimidate public officials. and London. public and tried in Prague for possible war the Slavs, led to the collective hunt. Adoles- It was a bizarre situation. The overly am- crimes, because Skoda had also manu- FLEEING TO SALZBURG cent members of the Hitler Youth often bitious Hermann knew about Albert’s activ- factured weapons. reached for their guns as a matter of course. ities, yet did nothing to stop him. Albert ut even that isn’t the whole story. Only after many former Skoda employ- Of course, there were also farmers who later testified that his brother had told him BGöring is also believed to have ees testified on Göring’s behalf were the handed bread or potatoes to the starving it was his “own business” if he wanted to saved prisoners from the Theresienstadt charges dropped, and Göring was ac- prisoners or concealed them. There are protect Jews, so long as he didn’t get Her- concentration camp in 1944. “He said, I’m quitted in March 1947. He died in 1966 also accounts of cases in which prominent mann in “endless trouble.” Albert, mean- Albert Göring from Skoda. I need workers,” in a Munich suburb, an impoverished and local residents, including a lower-level Nazi while, had a nearly schizophrenic Jacques Benbassat, the son of an associ- bitter man. Despite being a highly quali- official and a respected attorney in relationship with Hermann, trying to keep ate of Albert’s, later related. “He filled the fied engineer, he had been unable to find Burgstall in the Altmark region of eastern the private person and the politician sepa- truck with workers, and the concentration work in postwar Germany. Being Her- Germany, rescued larger groups. rate. “As brothers, we were close,” he said. camp director agreed to it, because he was mann Göring’s brother, a fact that had But many of the marches ended in disas- But as time passed, Albert Göring aban- Albert Göring. Then he drove into the saved his life in years past, ultimately be- ter, as was the case in Gardelegen, a town doned the caution his brother had de- woods and released them.” came a curse. in east central Germany, where US soldiers found hundreds of charred and mangled bodies in a barn in mid-April 1945. They were the bodies of prisoners from various camps who had been forced inside. It was later discovered that people had volunteered to guard the prisoners, “includ- ing ordinary civilians, some of them armed with hunting rifles, who mutated into prison guards of their own volition,” Blatman writes. The massacres began when the prisoners were being marched to an empty cavalry school in Gardelegen, where they were housed temporarily, and where ado- lescents boasted: “We’re going hunting, to shoot down the zebras.” Men from the Volkssturm militia, police officers, soldiers from a paratrooper divi- sion barracked nearby, guards, and civil- ians helped drive the doomed prisoners into the barn. Then they locked the doors, lit gasoline-soaked straw on the ground and tossed hand grenades into the build- ing. Anyone who attempted to escape the inferno ran into a hail of bullets. Some 25 prisoners survived, while about 1,000 died. A few days later, the victims were given a burial with military honors. The Ameri- cans ordered the residents of Gardelegen to attend the ceremony. “Some will say that the Nazis were re- sponsible for this crime,” Colonel George P. Lynch, chief of staff of the 102nd US In- fantry Division, told the Germans. “Others will point to the Gestapo. The responsibility rests with neither. It is the responsibility of the entire German people.” International Society for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM AND RESISTANCE U.S. POST 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 NEW YORK, N.Y. Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org PERMIT NO. 9313 ** ** Editor International Society Eli Zborowski, (212) 220-4304 Editor-in-Chief for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL New York, NY 10110 NY York, New *Published Bimonthly by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance May/June 2012 - Iyyar/Sivan 5772 - Iyyar/Sivan 2012 May/June *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp In- mates, and Nazi Victims **deceased Eli Zborowski Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski Mandell William Sam Halpern Isidore Karten Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet Kovno Ghetto, Bershad Theresienstadt for 18 months. After being in- for 18 months. acob Lifshitz, active at the acob Lifshitz, active ghetto, buried all of his drawings in ghetto, buried all of Four Czech artists in “What is really characteristic and surpris- “Last Portrait: Painting for Posterity” runs J Józef and Wiktoria Ulma hid eight Jews It is “thanks to such people that about painting and sketching the patients he painting and sketching of each He recorded the date cared for. many of the deaths. portrait and dates of drawings, bring them with her to Israel, and Vashem. Yad donate them to the Jewish cemetery a few days before the the Jewish cemetery starvation. liquidation. He died of ghetto’s return, unearth the His wife survived to used caricature, a style which allowed them to capture the faces of many people Their subjects added in just a few strokes. captions to their likenesses such as that Ull- done by Max Placek on which Viktor man, the Czech composer who was sent Auschwitz in 1944, scribbled: “Don to Quixote and Sancho Panza.” ing is that we almost don’t find Holocaust attributes in these portraits,” curator Eliad Moreh says. “The message is that they wanted to be remembered as human be- ings and not as victims.” in Vashem Yad through Fall 2012 at Jerusalem. “Baruch (Benedykt) Semmel, in the attic of their house in the village of Markowa formed on in 1944, the couple, their six children, and the Jews they were hiding were all killed. 30 thousand to 40 thousand Jews sur- vived the occupation of Poland,” Jerzy Halbersztadt, the former director of the forthcoming Museum of the History of Pol- brochure for ish Jews, wrote in the official the coins. “And although most of our fel- low citizens did not know how to, or were unable to, resist the crimes, the accom- plishments of the noblest and bravest people should give us the strength to problems in our history.” cope with difficult 1943” by Arnold Daghani. Semmel escaped Arnold Daghani. 1943” by living August 1942 before camp in a labor from in a ghetto and moving to Israel. , . Sachsenhausen ghetto and started The Counterfeiters to revisit the printing press. MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM Theresienstadt “I don’t recall at all the faces except for portraits are grouped The exhibition’s Moritz Muller worked in the hospital of For Avraham Zolenfeld, who says he was Zolenfeld, Avraham For Sketches include those of men who About 6 million European Jews were About 6 million European those I saw after I was freed,” Zolenfeld, 87, says, shaking his head. “I don’t want to disappoint but I prefer to remember places rather than people.” thematically and into specific categories. The blurry lines and downcast glances of the subjects in one such group reflect the precariousness of existence in the camps and ghettos. the the youngest counterfeiter, the portraits are the youngest counterfeiter, to less significant than his two return trips Sachsenhausen cluded random executions, plunder, and cluded random executions, plunder, death camps. Most of the faces that look charcoal, pencil, wa- out from the exhibit’s and oil portraits didn’t survive. tercolor, printed fake foreign money for the Nazi regime and whose story was commemo- rated in the movie killed in the Holocaust during World War II War during World killed in the Holocaust across Europe that in- in a Nazi campaign Poland’s commemorative 2-zloty coins honor- Poland’s ing the Ulma, Baranek, and Kowalski families. “Peter Hans Edel (Hirschweh), “Peter an c. 1944-1945” by Felix Cytrin. Edel was money bills artist who worked on producing II. War during World when Nazi police, after being tipped off, set fire to houses where Jews were be- lieved to be hidden. December 1942, the Kowalskis, their five children, and the Jews they were hiding were among at least 34 people killed Camp, HOLOCAUST FAMILY WEEPS WEEPS FAMILY HOLOCAUST . The police killed . Mikhailowka . Other Jews were hid- Siedliska POLAND ISSUES COINS HONORING FAMILIES WHO SAVED JEWS WHO SAVED POLAND ISSUES COINS HONORING FAMILIES

Ciepielów vora Milka Semmel fixes us with a vora Milka Semmel resigned grimace. oland has issued commemorative coins to honor three Catholic Polish

AS LAST PORTRAITS OF VICTIMS GO ON SHOW IN ISRAEL SHOW IN GO ON VICTIMS OF PORTRAITS AS LAST Bar nods. Their mother took them to Bar nods. “The Nazis took the elderly out of a line- Her 79-year-old granddaughter, Nira Her 79-year-old granddaughter, She has a blue kerchief, lined face, and She has a blue kerchief,

P D Adam and Bronisława Kowalski hid two On March 15, 1943, German auxiliary The two coins, in denominations of two Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Mu- Vashem Yad Jerusalem’s seum often when they were children and “looked for so long” for something from her Her grandmother’s likeness, hung mother. hangs in grandfather, next to that of Gold’s an exhibition, “Last Portrait: Painting for Vashem. Yad at Posterity,” up — that was grandmother,” Gold says. up — that was grandmother,” the oldest “The minute they took her, daughter ran after and they were both shot. Right in front of everyone. I just wish there was a way to tell my mother” that the paint- ing exists, she says. “I’m crying for her.” with tears welling, as she seeks solace Amira Bar. from her 73-year-old sister Gold, stares immobilized at the painting Gold, stares immobilized brown eyes. She peers from a portrait brown eyes. She peers she was gunned painted months before with 53 fellow labor down by the Nazis camp inmates. “Dvora Milka Semmel, BY GWEN ACKERMAN, BLOOMBERG ACKERMAN, BLOOMBERG GWEN BY Page 16 Page den in other homes in the village. In Jewish neighbors in their house in the vil- lage of police discovered eight Jews hidden in the home of Wincenty and Łucja Baranek, in the village of the Jews immediately and then shot the Baraneks and their two sons in the backs of their heads. zlotys, worth about 65 cents, and 20 zlo- tys, worth about $6.50, honor the Ulma, Kowalski, and Baranek families. families who were killed by the Nazis for having rescued Jews during the Holocaust. 1943” by Arnold Daghani. In April 1943, Sem- Arnold Daghani. In 1943” by to- executed Zyla were daughter mel and their camp inmates. 53 labor with other gether