r(G)) lU[]~NA]L AID SOCIETY

TMII , .TMI fT 0' TMI iLAUGI-ITI 1''rII 'I"" 1'1 ' 0' A UT 100 000 Ylert I - , . . ' . 0" TMI ILIIC DIATM 'CAMII . . . . THI URDll 11 JIWI .,- .,.. - W WIRI · 'I I.ID IITWIIN '1IRUA'f A D DleIMIIK' ff41 -- " .NAI-I ·GI MANY . , . IA.TH. DO NOT C Y 0 f . LIT TMI"I I1 NO 'RIITI PLACI 'OR MY OU .CRYl JOt·",'1 . MARTIN HELLER

5 North End Road • London NW11 7RJ Tel 020 8455 6789 • Fax 020 8455 2277 enlail: [email protected]

simmons stein & co. SOLICITORS

58 Queen Anne Street London \\11 ~l 9LA Telephone 020 7224 6006 Facsimile 020 7224 2764 \veb site 'vvww.simmons-stein.co.uk e-n1ail [email protected] Gary Simmons and Jeffrey Stein wish the '45 Aid every success SECTION I QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE VAUDIlY OF ART AS CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS Page 4 DOCUMENTAllON OF THE HOLOCAUST Sam Dresner Page 37 SECTION 11 PAST AND PRESENT Page 5 ONE SMAll STEP FOR THE THE '45 AID SOCIElY AND THE BOND OF EUROPEAN UNION INTIMACY Aubrey Rose CBE Page 38 Reuven Sherman Page 5 THE YOUNG ONES, FOR THE MARTYRED ARllSTS MALES ESPECIALLY Marc Chagall Page 6 Aubrey Rose CBE Page 39 MENDEL PRETER'$ STORY SAM FREIMAN'S STORY Moniek Goldberg Page 7 Sam Freiman Page 39 SURVIVING SURVIVAL - THE WAY IT FELT MY LOST WORLD RECOVERED Ono Grunfeld Page 8 FROM THE PAST SURVIVING SURVIVAL - A PERSONAL Sam Frelman Page 40 PERSPEcnVE G-D AT THE WHEEL Otto Grunfeld Page 9 David Turek Page 41 A MILITARY FAMILY SHAVO UT, YIZKOR 5776 Janina Fischler Martinho Page 11 Rabbi Jack Riemer Page 42 MY VISIT TO POZNAN MESSAGE OF JOHN PAUL 11 TO THE Jerry Herszberg Page 13 CHIEF RABBI OF ROME Page 44 WHAT HAPPENED TO US CONTINUES TO LIVE KADDISH FOR A PRIEST WITHIN US FOREVER Stanislaw Musial SJ. Page 46 Ruto Krieger Horowicz Page 14 FR. STANISLAW MUSIAL EDMUND HOLKA Prof, Stanisl.aw Obirel< Page 51 Jerzy Lando Page 15 SECTION rv TO SCREAM WITH TH E VICTIM - 60TH LEONARD MONTEAORE MEMORLAL LECTURE ANNIVERSARY OF THE LODZ GHETTO - RESPONSES TO JEWISH IMMIGRAllON INTO Piotr Upinski, Jerzy KlOpiwnicki BRITAIN 1656 - 1914 Translated by Janina Fischler Martinho Page lS BASED ON AUTHOR'S 2003 MEMORIAL LECTURE B£LZEC: FINALLY LAID TO REST His Honour Israel Finestein Page 52 Robin O'Neill Page 21 SECTION V KURIMA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1942 SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION Page 54 Judith Sherman Page 22 REPORT ON '45 AID SECOND GENERATION DISCUSSION DEPORTATlONS 1942 EVENING 18TH MAY 2004 Judith Sherman Page 22 Philip Burton Page 54 PRESOV GESTAPO PRISON EXPERIENCE OF POLAND CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1944 Bryan Huberman & Caroline Spencer Page 56 Judlth Sherman Page 22 THE EARLY LIFE OF MY COURAGEOUS RAVENSBRUCK: SIEMAN'S SUBCAMP GRANDFATHER Judlth Sherman Page 23 Genna Splro Page 57 MY LAST EIGHT MONTHS IN THE I WANT TO BEUEVE WARSAW GHETTO Rachel Spiro Page 58 Edyta Klein-Smith Page 23 TRIP TO POLAND WHERE WAS GOD IN AUSCHWI1Z Melody Wilder Page 59 Mlchael Etkind Page 26 PHAB PAUL RUNS MARATHON ON BUCHENWALD AS SGT, PEPPER Michael Etkind Page 26 Paul Wilder Page 60 REVENGE? - PILSEN MAY 1945 MARATHON MAN Michael Etklnd Page 26 Jeremy Turek Page 61 WHAT IT TOOK TO SURVIVE WINDOWS ON THE WORLD Steve Mermelsteln Page 26 Talya Halkin Page 62 EMBARKATION OF FUGHTS TO UK BY "THE BOYS" SECTION VI IN 1945 WAS FILMED AT PRAGUE AIRPORT BOOK REVIEWS Page 64 Suzanne Bardgett Page 28 LOOKING BACK GOING FORWARD SECTION m BY HERMAN TAUBE HEREAND NOW Page 29 Michael Berenbaum Page 64 ADDRESS BYTHE CHIEF RABBI SECTION VII OR JONAltiAN SACKS - CORRESPONDENCE Page 65 HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY BELFAST Page 29 lElTER TO LOUISE ELLlOT FROM FIVE PAST REALfTY AND FUTURE HOPES LADIES IN WINDERMERE Page 65 JONATHAN MARSHALL THE SECTION VIII DIRECTOR OFTHE PLYMOUTH REUGIOUS OBITUARIES Page 66 AND CULTURAL RESOURCE CENTRE HARRY BALSAM REFLECTS ON THE VISIT OF A Stephen & Colin Balsam Page 66 HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TO PLYMOUTH Page 31 JUUA BENNET Hettle & Alec Ward Page 67 YOM HA-SHOA 18TH APRIL 2004 Delivered by IDA ZWIREK 1928 - 2004 The Chief Rabbi Dr lonathan Sacks Page 31 David Zwirek Page 67 THREE SPEECHES DEUVERED BY 17 YEAR OLD SECTION lX STUDENTS OF IMMANUAL COLLEGE Page 33 MEMBERS' NEWS Abigall lfield Page 33 Complied by Ruby Friedman Page 69 Joseph Skelker Page 34 SECTION X Naomi Grant Page 35 NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS IN MANCHESTER IF Compiled by Louise Elliott Page 70 Michael Etkind Page 35 SECTION XI SEFTON MEMORIAL PROJECT FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND 14TH JANUARY 2004 ANNOUNCEMENTS Page 70 Louise Elliot Page 36 SECTION XII YOM KAATZHAUT APRIL 28TH 2004 ANNUAL OSCAR JOSEPH Judith Sherman Page 36 HOLOCAUST AWARDS Page 70

3 CHAIRMAN'S

ho of us in our 'Wildest the origin of all evil and corruption are using their people's sufferings as imagination would have conspiring to take over the world. an excuse for their atrocities. The W believed I hat fifty-nine Judaism itself is presented as a Israelis have a grim advantage over years after our liberation and fifty-six sinister, immoral religion, based on the rest of us. Their enemies have no years afrer the rebirth of the State cabals and blood rituals, \vhile doubt that their objective is to of Israel , we would have to focus Zionists are systematically equated destroy tsrael. Without that clatity, it our minds once again on anti­ \\11th or identified as criminals, racists would be dHficult for a democracy to Semitism around the world. It seems or Nazis. The aim is not simply to take measures needed to win. paradoxical that at a time when Jews de-legitimise Israel as a Jewish State Americans after September 11 th are enjoying so much freedom and and national entity in the Middle believed that Al Queda's mission was prosperity with equal rights and East, bur to dehumanise Judaism and to hann the United States in every opportunities with all other citizens the Jewish people as such. conceivable way. The Europeans are that the "old cancer" of anti-Semitism Tt is not surprising that the not so convinced that the terrorist should be rearing its ugly head again. promise of a reward in heaven and threat is mortal! lsrad understands In spite of a falling Jewish population the constant propaganda and exhor­ that its enemies respect only in this country, the emphasis on tation [0 kill the infidels has resulted strength. To provide the best condi­ Jewish education has never been in the creation of a volunteer army of tions for peace, Israel has to greater. There are more Je\vish suicide bombers who are threatening convince the Palestinian leadership schools now than ever before. Jewish not only the Slate of Israel but also that terrorism \-vill not succet::d the stability of the world. contribution to the social, cultural, and to eliminate a11 options except Unfortunately, far too many states­ artistic and economic life is, in negotiations. " men are hiding their heads in the proportion to their numbers, far Tt is most upsetting that there are sand. They do not understand (he higher than the average of the popu­ many Jews who publically condemn, impending danger or perhaps they lation. Yet their Concern for their sometimes viciously, the Israeli gov­ do not want to understand. safety and future is real. Undisguised ernment that was elected to defend Fortunately, President Bush, as well anti-Semitism in the Western world her citizens. The Israeli government, as our Prime Minister, Tony Blair, do continues to be nurtured both by o[ course, like every other govern­ unders[and . They also understand secular and religious bodies and by ment, is not beyond criticism, bLH it the Israeli predicament. the Left as well as the RJght. In needs to be measured against the There are too many people in Britain the number of anti-Semitic damage it can do. Their cIiticisln, England and in the Western World by very often, gives ammunition to our incidents rose 7Y}o in the first who, influenced by the biased media, enemies and undennines the exis­ quarter of the last year and four believe thal if only Israel would be tence of the State of Israel. They Jewish cemeteries and Lhree syna­ more conciliatol)', all the problems in mean well but their action is not gogues have been attacked and the Midd le East would be solved. much different from the way some covered in swaslikas and excrement. They ignore all the efforts that Jews behaved in the Ghettos and The Chief Rabhi Jonathan Sacks previous lsraeli governments, espe­ received a letter telling him to leave Cially that o[ Rabin, Peres and Barak, concentration camps when they Britain, saying "\\That Hitler did will have made to achieve peace. If, collaboraled with the Nazis. At least, seem like a wet week-end ID by a miracle, the Israeli-Palestinian they collaborated with the hope lhat Blackpool". conflict were ro be solved, the threat their lives would be spared. Those Anti-Zionism has become a from lvluslim fundamentalism would who criticise Jews today do not subterfuge for anti-Semitism. The still be looming large on ou r horizon understand how the Jews were present conflict between Israel and and it would need urgent anention. despised and humiliated when there the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza The German people in the 1930s 'Aras no jev.rish State. If Israel were to is fuelling a new Judeophobia. It found it convenient 10 ignore where be overwhelmed by her enemies, the needs to be stressed lhat present day the consequences of Hitler's racist consequences [or the Diaspora Jews anti-Semitism, although serious, in policies would lead. It started with would be equally catastrophic. At no way compares wit.h the conditions the Jews but, in the end, fifty million such a critical time in our history, the that prevailed in Europe in the people were killed , including seven need [or our unity in support of 19305. Islamic Fundamentalism is million Germans, the loss of a large Israel has never been greater. We, l he the main anti-Semitic danger today, pan of Eastern Germany and the survivors, understand what can as it is, indeed, a danger to our civil­ expulsion of about five million happen to a divided people. vVe isation. In recent years it has become Gennans from these territories. know that israel's security guarantees increasingly apparent lhat the In a recent article published in the our security and we must do eve .... Y­ anti-Semitic virus has taken root in Sunday Times, Michael Portillo wrote thing possible to transmit this the body politic of Islam to an "V/hen we show strength, we make message especially to those who were unprecedented degree. The Jews are ourselves safer, and when we are hes­ fortunate not to experience the life in portrayed in Arab cartoons as itant, we increase our vulnerability. the Galul and its consequences. demons and murderers, as a hateful, Terrorist leaders who are themselves loathsome people to be feared and rich and who shelter in repressive Wishing you all a happy and avoided. They are invariably seen as regimes that impoverish their people healthy New Year.

4 PAST AND PRESENT THE '45 AID soclm AND THE BONDS OF INTIMACY

Reuven Sherman

Reuven is the husband of Judith Sherman and is a regular contributor to our Journal.

ntimacy is described as bdng feeling of safety in the group. I the SOCiety in the ultimate success close to another or others, sharing Sibling-like bonds formed and you and accomplishments of the mem­ I deeply held personal feelings, were helpful to and protective of one bers and the help it extend to the secrels and experiences. \Ve think of another. larger community in the tradition of it as a bonding with a spouse, The group acquired an identity its own his[Ory We cany this legacy children, or friends. It can be a long­ of its own. Being a member of the into our own families and can see it lasting relationship or even a group helped to confer a much with our children, grandchildren moment shared with a stranger. It needed individual identity on each and beyond. It is particularly worthy can be mutual, or one person sharing member along with a sense of of pride that this group was not with a good, sympathetic listener. belonging somewhere in this world. formed by any outside agency. It was The oprosites of intimacy and Here, at leasl, you are somebody - a self-created. closeness are alienation, separation, somebody with a past, present, and Of course there are also issues in or distance. future. This helped to provide a intimate relationships. We are all foundation on which each of you For 60 years the Society has been different. We are different in styles, could build and go [orv.rard with playing a vital role in the lives of its tastes, goals, interests, education, some confidence knowing that the members and friends by building occupation, the influences of the group is vvith you. The group and sustaining bonds of intimacy cultures among which we live, the becomes an extended fami I y of alnong them. As one who "married" roles we choose to assume, the brother and sisterhood with the into the Sociely 50 years ago, I both changes that take place within us as a common purpose of supporting and experience and observe this crucial result of growth and development launching its members in the larger bonding. (and yes, decline). We even have society. The original members were tom different languages of intimacy and As the members go off into that from their homes and families at an loving. What is close for me may be larger SOCiety, they make a decision lO either suffocating or much too early age - su ffered dehumanising "fonnalise their group into an official distant for you. My sense of privacy tortures 0 r body and spirit - were adult organisation, the '45 Aid may be your sense of being excluded. subjected lo every effore to render Society. The Society keeps faith with My drive for action and change may them alienated and isolated. You its origins by continuing to nurture came to tngland alone, aged youths, the bonds of brother and sisterhood upset your ""ish for stability and with you r pain, and hopes for the across lime and geographic distances. peace. Misunderstandings and future. You found one another in the Though most of you have created miscornmunication can also cause hostels and places 1i ke the Primrose families of your own, the Society difficulties. Such differences often Club. You shared mostly unspoken remains an extended family, always initiate conflict. Conflict may pro­ grief and memories with a word, a there, always offering closeness and duce greater distance. nod, the name of a camp. intimacy. lnternational Reunions, So it is in the Society. There are This individually different, yet regular meetings of the society and differences and conflicts among shared past, created powerful bonds, sub-groups within it, and this individuals and sub-groups. But as further reinforced by the shared lnagazine are part of that project. in most reasonably functioning experience of being strangers in a The Society reaches out to members falniJies, we accept, work around, strange land with a sLrange language in need and many come together or resolve the differences. The and culture, and Hnally sealed by the to celebrate personal and family importance of the group, our fact thal you had all somehow simchot. There is a vibrant collective history tOgether, and its personal survived. In these circumstances you celebration of life. And all feel proud value to each of us transcends discovered common cause and of the accomplishments of every the differences. understanding with one another. In individual member. I feel personally fortunate to be turn these evolved into two of the It is historically very important to welcomed as an adopted member of vital elements of intimacy; trust and a recognise the role of the group and this group.

5 FOR THE MARlYRED ARTISTS Translated by ALfred Huberman from Yiddish

Alfred came to England with the Windermere group and, due to ill health, stayed in the sanatoria at Papworth, Ashford & Quare Mead. He subsequently settled in Brighton where he and his wife Shidey now live. ilst visiting the Jewish succeeded in geuing a copy for me. to the USA in 1942. \rVhen he Museum in Paris, I came Marc Chagall's Yi.ddish is so beau­ returned to Europe i.n 1945, most of W across this foreword, writ­ tiful, it appealed to me and I thought his contemporary artists had per­ ten by Marc Chagall in 1951, to the it would be interesting reading for ished. Since he had survived, his book entitled "Our Tortured Artists" the Boys. feelings of guilt come through in his by Hirsh Fenster. My 'French' niece Marc Chagall escaped from France writing.

T see how they drag themselves, now in rags, bare OUR TORTURED ARl·ISTS footed on silent roads. The brothers of lsraels, Pissarro and Modigliani, our Hirsh Fenster brothers. With a foreword by Marc Chagall Paris 1951 Leading them, roped togelher are the sons of Durer, Cranach and Holbein - to death in the crematoria.

For the Martyred Artists How can I, how should 1 shed tears?

They have been soaked for a long time with the salt Did 1 know them all? from my eyes.

Have I been to their studios? They turned them into dry ash, making Ine lose my last hope. Have 1 seen their art from near or afar? Where should 1 cry? As everyday I hear them tt:aring And now 1 withdraw from myself, from my years and out the last board from my roof. go to their unknown tomh. \A/hen 1 am exhausted from fighting a war [or the piece They call me, they drag me into their graves of eart 11, on which 1 remain standing and in which 1 wili later be laid to rest. Send the innocent to the guilty. I see the fire, the smoke and gas which begins to rise to They question me: the blue sky and turns to black clouds.

Where were you? - 1 ran away. ... 1 see the tom out hair and teeth .

They were led to the death baths where they savoured They cover me in an angry hue. the taste of their sweat. 1 stand in a desert amid mountains of boats, clothes, Sometimes they saw the light from their unpainted ash and rubble and whisper kaddish . canvases. And as 1 stand like this - I visualise the painted David They counted the unlived years which they guarded \vi.th his harp in his hand. He wants to help me cry and waited La achieve their dreams - and play chapters of psalms.

Restless s1eepers. Behind him, emerges our Moses and says: "Fear for no one and rest in peace", until he will, once more carve They searched their heads for the children's corner, out new commandments for a new world. where the moon, surrounded by stars promised them a The lasL spark is extinguished, lhe last soul vanishes. bright future It becomes quiet, as before a fresh deluge. Young love in dark rooms, on grass, on hills and daJes, The cut down fruit, drenched in milk, sprinkled with I rise and say my goodbyes to you . flowers, which promised them paradise. 1 take the road 10 the new house of prayer and light a The hand of their mother, candle to your painting. Her eyes bid them farewell at the station, to a distance place. I Marc Chagall, Paris 1951

6 he last time Ben and Arza were walk. Together "'rith Huberman in Miami and we all got MENDEL PRrrER'S and some others he was put into the T together, Ben asked Manny if hospital right away. He barely caught he would write about his life experi­ STORY the train that was taking us to ences for our JournaL Manny said it Prague, given his limited ability to would be very diffi.cult for him as he Moniek Goldberg walk. Fortunately, the train was gets extremely upset when he de1ayed and he came with us to recounts his early years . When Fay Moniek came to England with Windermere. and I came to London for David and the Windermere group and Manny was taken to the hospital in Windennere where he stayed until Olive's anniversary celebration, Ben emigrated to the United asked again if I would talk to Manny January 1946. From January 1946 States in 1948. He has been a about sharing his narrative . until July 1946 Manny was in regular contributor to this Manny said he could not do it. Ashford Sanatorium. From July However, he gave me a copy of an Journal from its inception. 1946 through February 1950 Manny interview that he had given to some­ was in Alton Hospital (special 1. B. bone unit). In February 1950 Manny one when he was in Quare Mead. As persuaded the Polish manager to let it was in German, Thad it translated, his father and brother come to the was in Quare ~1ead until they closed but when Mann)' and I read the farm by bribing him with their it up. transcript we decided to disregard it. rope-making equipment. I would li.ke to insert here what He then agreed that he would give In September 1942, his mother, Sister Eve Kahn Minden writes about me the pertinent dates and places two sisters and youngest brother Manny in her book, "Road Back". if I would write it as an article. were taken away to Trebhnka. From "Dear Elisabeth, real joy pervaded So, here are the basic facts. I am May 1943 throughJuly 1943, Manny, the house. Mendel has arrived! After limited in my ability to tell his his father and his brother were in years of separation because of the "story". I recognise 1hal 1 cannot Majdanek. need for special treatment in the TB. aptly depict the suffering that he and To many of us (survivors) there are unit in AltoD, he has joined our his family endured and \vitnessed. many traumatic events that have group again. It was like a reunion The follOwing is a brief biography of stood out and stayed with us, causing of brothers. He is a little boy Sft Mendel (Manny) Preter. repeated nightmares. Manny is no nothing, I suppose, but his big per­ Manny "vas born on October 7, exception. In Majdanek his younger manent smile gives him his height. 1927 in a little [Own called brother died and Manny ended up in He had to retire to his room after his Czemernikasz near Lublin. Poland. hospital. One day the SS came into strenuous journey, but when 1 came He was the oldest of five children, the hospital whereupon they were all in he was all smiles again. He shares having had two brothers and two ordered to stand naked. One by one, a room with Arthur and Ernest and is sisters. His father had a rope-making they were asked questions "What is not alone in case of need. His gait is business. They also leased land from your number?" "Are you Jewish 7" not perfect yet, but he is not worri.ed. a farmer on which they used to grow They all knew what it meant if your What a pleasant whiff that young vegetables that they would sell. His number was written down. Manny's man spreads around . No wonder childhood was typical of a Jewish boy number was written down. After the they were looking forward so much from the Shlell: School , Cheder and SS left, Manny broke down and to having him around." helping his parents as much as he started to cry, only to pass out. A Manny came to London and went could. His childhood is full of happy Czech doctor took pity on him and to Pitman's College where he learned memories. Vvith the help of a Polish doctor, they bookkeeping and general orrice His father was called up to the arranged to switch his number with a work. He was only allowed to do Polish army just before the war broke man that had died. The next day he this on a part-time basis, as he still out, only to return home after four was discharged under the dead man's needed a lot of rest. weeks fo ll Owing the German occupa­ number and returned to his barrack Manny got a job with an tion [hat changed everything. The where he was reunired with his accounting finn where he worked for Jews of his little town experienced father. Soon after that they took him twelve years. He migrated to the same humiliations, depredations, and his father to Skarszysko where California to be near his in-laws and mistreatments as all Jews under they stayed from July 1943 to July where he lived for eight months. In the Gemlan boot. There was no 1944 working in work C. His father January 1965 he came to Miami, longer a school to attend. The syna­ died September 1943. Florida, where he had a very respon­ gogues and Torahs were a1l burned. The Russian front was moving sible position as Controller at the Manny says that from 1940 into closer and in July 1944 they closed Jewish Home for the Aged for 1941 things were hard , but bearable. Skarszysko and sent them to many years. Before he retired, he His mother bartered anything of Czenstchovva. In December 1944 trained his son Barry to take his job. value to secure what little food she they took them on wagons to Manny has since returned to could for the family. In January 1942 Buchenwald. At the end of March part-time work as he became very Manny went to work on a farm run 1945 Manny was on that infamous bored with retirement. by the SS under a Polish manager. transport to Theresiendstadt. L did not know \t1anny in England. This farm had a dis[ illery where they May 8 1945, Manny was liberated. vVe met Manny in the early 70s when made alcohol from potatoes. Manny Manny was very ill and could hardly the late Szaja and Sala Newton, Aron

7 and E\'Clyn Zylberszac and Fay and 1 family joined us for holidays and ride, rvhnny is always there. Sister rook a holiday together to Miami. social occasions. Eva's said, "he is five foot nOLhing," Aron introduced him to us. When Our children and grandchildren, but to me, he is 1 Oft at least, he has \ve moved to Miami in 1977, Manny v... ·ho are in Miami, have grov.·-n lO to be, how else could he house that became like a member of our family. love him very much. Manny is great big heart of his? At that time, his children, Barry and indeed an exceptioni:ll fellow. He is Michelle, were in their early teens, always ready to do anything for any Moniek Goldberg and Fay made sure that Manny and of his fliends. If anybody needs a June 20, 2004

he greatest of all moments - in non-ceasing criticism of others, the realisation that my war was SURVIVING SURVIVAL wi.thout good reason . Was it a form Tover, my life spared, and that of compensation, a projection of now 1 dare look ahead beyond a pre­ The Way It Felt pent-up feelings of resemment? Did sent which had held me captive; look my former humiliation stir up pride requiring revenge? Not enough of forwan..l to a future when 1 could live Otto Grunfeld \vithout [ear, hunger or privation - this inner process became apparent [hat moment, alas, 1 could nOl hold. to prevent people occasionally It simply slipped away from me and Otto came Lo England with remarking: "Why don'L you ever say that profoundly desired freedom did the Windennere group. you hate them?" not come about. Instead 1 was Throughout his life his inter­ No! I felt as though a play, enacted exposed to a new reality 1 was not ests have centred on music on a stage, had gone honibly wrong, equipped to deal with; a growing a.nd psychology, the former the incredible drama invading the state of melancholy and withdrawal being the basis to his profes­ auditorium, the audience becoming held me in its grip so that, lrauma­ sional life as a teacher, the helpless puppets manipulated by tised in my innermost being, I let l.alter a springboard to coun­ macabre forces. The whole business life toss me hither and thither. My selling. He is married and progressed irrespective of the judge­ will, engaged as it had been the father of five children. He ment and will of rhe individual's entirely ro\vards surviving an has lived for the last forty present. in such a scenario, v,,;110m unpredictable and utterly ruthless years in North Yorkshire, does one point one's finger at? But benearh my cynicism another present, continued to function in a England. similar mode and, for what now and far more fundamental substra­ seems to have lasted a liretime, 1 tum exerted its influence which I can engaged in a never-ending slruggle chosen in preference to dark hair only describe as my realm of the simply Lo cope, with no sense of and brown eyes, and, ahove all, the sacred. I, ~he unbeliever, held on to achievement or completion. People glasses: that haPmark of the despised an undisclosable powerful bcli.ef and events, came and passed like a Jewish intellectual. But who was which called me to worship al an dream, somehow alone remove. Life chosen? altar of disaster, a shrine of death. took place somewhere 'over the other Now my existence was lived in no­ Many taboos I kept as guardian of side' and I watched: delached, mans-land. Alienation is a state of this sanctum [or the expiation of the bemused, depressed. darkness which shuns the light, cardinal sin of survival: Thou shalt Into this gloomy space entered an obscures vision; a malady Vv·hich not allow life to seduce you!' t~ey overpowering sense of loss or every­ filches away meaning. I might have commandt'd. 'Thou shall not find thing that ever had meaning ror me. prayed to God, but 1 had no such joy; thou shall reject love! Thou shall The so long held-back memories helpmate. Upon this self-contained remain a visitor, wherever you are, came nooding wa\e on wave, over­ miasmic state forces came to play unwanted and unworthy! And thou whelming me , drowning me in a which I would have absorbed, but shall keep lhis holy place inviolate dark pit of inconsolable grief. To add remained unconscious of the power until the end of thy days!' to this misery, or perhaps as a conse­ of a kind look, a caring act, an \rVhat an amazing and fonnidable quence thereof, my survival felt like encouraging word, quiet empathy defence system erected against the treachery rowards my family who and, most importantly, an undemon­ vital sources of exislence! My had been exterminated. strative acceptance. My hungry fiX;l(ion, rigid and yet unconscious, Why spare me? \Vhy should 1 being must have sucked it dl in like disallowed any form of genuine have been forever separated from my a babe on its mother's milk - greedily commitment to present reality, since brother during that gruesome night oblivious. all values and meaning were secreted on the railway platform in The picture l ?resen( so far is away in an unretrievable past. Thus, Auschwit=, after we had been herded incomplete. A victim is not. really an during the many years of drifting 1 out from the catcle trucks, spared en1pty vessel waiti.ng to be fi!led with hUrl many a tender heart, repulsed simply by being screamed at to turn the milk of human kindness, meekly kindness and concern; in short, back and follow not him who was receptive; at least not in n1y case. 1 remained inst: nsitive towards others. destined fOT the gas chambers, but admil, sadly, of less innocent senti­ The work of love continued, those earmarked for the labour ments; for in my immature and though, relentlessly nibbling at ~he camps. tv[y blond hair and blue eyes limited awareness I tended to wallow foundations of my defences.

8 Acquaintances, friends, later on my of darkness into light. Such loving. I rejecting the present reahty in favour new family (and who knows what believe, is the stuff of life itself: not an of a total fixation on the past, "'Will other influences) became donors of extra, a luxury, but the one vital link indeed resist any offerings of love, potions which in course of time to our future. alloWing destructive forces (0 began to take effect, facilitating Defences, like mine were, can be increase their hold and take over not gradual healing. It is my experience breached - not at one go of course, only the person, but communities that unconditional and spontaneous not by persuasion either; the acting and society at large. Are not past and loving, caring and compassion, agent is man, call him or her your recen t events testimony to age-old simple and ego-free, unhampered by neighbour... However, the inner phenomenon of hate, bursting out tribal, national or creedal ties, duty­ determination to hold on to resent­ over and over again with insane free, become the guides leading out ment and, or, a dogged persistence in ferOcity?

he implications or life's sacred­ [rine and dogma, are easy prey to ness are many, and they relate SURVIVING SURVIVAL reductionism and denial; are we not T to some divine, some spiritual, ready for a new approach, open and some cosmic agency which brought A Personal Perspective positive? If our hunch is, or our intu­ it about and keeps it in continuous ition prompts us to believe, that there existence. For that reason venerating is more to our existence than meets Otto Grunfdd life means, at the same time, venerat­ the eye, or is revealed by electronic ing this Source, Originator, Creator. microscopes, test tubes, telescopes, My sanity, call it equanimity, or By the same token, it also means mathematical formulae, ere., then we call it balance: they all depend venerating the life of others. begin to tread the path leading to largely on two premises I hold, The view I take involves total sub­ some awe-inspiring revelations and namely, that all life is sacred; mission to a greater cause of which 1 humbling realisations. We need not that I am chosen as trustee of be seers, or gurus, or holy men, to be am a minute, but not unimponant, my life and the life of others. . link. My view is not particularly struck by the infinite variety of living religious, neither does lt lean on things, the apparent infinity of the science, for reasons given below. its extremist wing of orthodox dog­ macro and micro worlds, the myste­ No special inSight is required to matism loudly proclaiming its rious presence of consciousness, in realise that religion, on the whole, is 'truths', the man or woman searching bacteria, beetles, you and me; the giving way to an all-pervading scien­ for meaning is forever sliding on infinite progression of changes tific orientation amounting to a belief shifting ground, his or her desire to brought about by consciousness system, a gradua1 shift from spiritual find answers leading to realms scien­ within time, perhaps within a time­ and mystical grounds, held by tific; for these realms abound with less cosmic consciousness. religions, to the impressive world of alluring statements of facts. On the None of this leads us to total science which includes theories of other side, the scientist, deep dov..rn, knowledge; nor does it lead to an the origins and subsequent evolution may become sceptical of the endless apprehension of the Course. Faced of hfe, with man at its pinnacle. strings of theories, often one in con­ with the phenomena whose inner Scientific theories, moreover, tradiction to another, never a definl­ essence remains hidden, beyond our strongly support the hypothesis of tive answer in sight. The lurking limited perceptions, we but shudder, chance events which brought about sense of another reality behind his thrill, and stand in awe. And so we life and consciousness. materialist propositions \vill offer a are bound to make a choice, not nec­ So now we have two opposing much-needed balance which, of essarily a conscious choice, between perceptions about life. One assumes course, cannot be seriously included accepting purpose in our existence, it is God-given, as is espoused by in his official pronouncements. or opting lO believe in chance. The religion; the other that life is [he sages of old PUl it in mythological result of chance . Besides, the protag­ terms, speaking of {God the Creator', onists on either side of the divide * * * emphasiSing the vital need to con­ will, to some extent at least, enter The time has come to say with strong template existence in terms of a into collusion \vith their anathema, emphasis: the answers to all the divine Source. We rightly disbelieve resulting in the religious person important questions on our exis­ the story, but the message it contains making concessions to science, tence, the whence? Wherefore? we ignore at our peIil. For Purpose the scientist - overtly or covenly - Whither? Can only be answered by: is integral to a continuing creation clinging to aspects of a religiOUS con­ we do not know! Even daring to say: event, whilst Chance inevitably leads notation. The effect of ambivalence we cannot know! To me this would to chaos and di.sin tegration. of this kind is hardly beneficial to be an honest admission. However, existential security. Adding to the we can - and do - intuit, draw confusion it is noticeable how many insights from what we see and what * * * people will muddle spirituality with we experience. To be sure, none of I refer back to the title of my writing. religion, and religion with the this will constitute proof; but then, Vve - all of us - are survivors, our dif­ church. Since there is such wide­ do we need to look for proofs? Vie ferent past experiences more or less spread vagueness in this sphere, with have suffered the rigidities of doc- traumatic. Contrary to logiC the

9 greater the survivor's trauma, the Originator (or Source) which gives it creation as a fundamentally spiritual harder surviving becomes. The Meaning; thirdly affirm that event, opening the floodgates to assumption that a catastrophic past Originator, Source, Creator, Ultimate despair. experience should engender an Reality, God, place all existence Supposing that creation is not a increase of motivation and fuller within the realm of the Sacred. regimented affair, directed from on engagement in life, entering more T believe that surviving survival high, but a free giving and sustaining joyfully in a new and promising depends on the affirmation of the blessing to the world, in which all present, becoming more deeply sacredness of existence and of life, of creatures go through a process of involved in activities, relationships, which we are a part, all of us, good learning and loving in order to grow in work and society generally, is, and bad; and this affinnation is in the into responsive and responsible sadly, a misconception. Over and NOv\! rather than the past, the NOW maturity; in which, moreover, certain over again we meet the victims of d is­ rather than the future . For the truly omissions and transgressions of these aster, persecution and other tragedies realised NOW redeems the past. two conditions result in inescapable who seem to have lost their zest for Only then can we plead, in cathartic consequences? Is then, within this life, lost interest and motivation, revival, for a way forward, releasing context, a critique of the Divine remaining aloof in their ovvn inner survival from its notorious gUilt and justified? Man, just like you and i, world in dissociation, emptiness, render it a blessing. To me it seems can turn to evil, or condone it. Not greyness, depression. Far from being that the sun·ivor of the grossest God, but man was responsible for the joyful, the occasional mask of misfortune tends to journey in catastrophe of the Holocaust; and humour and laughler hides a barren reverse, believing that to dwell in [he man must continue 10 ponder on the scape and an obstinate preoccupa­ past, re-opening the wounds of the enonnity of it, the profound depth of tion with the pasl. indeed, the past past, is an honourable and holy duty. depravity whtch allowed it la take becomes the only raison d'ine of There is another factor to consider. place. In contrast, our ability to lheir existence, the sanctity of the It is a well-known psychological be responsive and responsible, NO\iV being sacrificed for a sanctity dynamic of human behaviour to elsewhere termed compassion, is a of a PAST, to which the present must assign fault to others. In little things gift given us through the agency of remain subservient. Idolatry of the I will blame you for having broken a consciousness, and its by-product, past is decidedly not the same as pro­ glass, for were you not scanding in conscience, to respond and act for found respect [or, and responsibility my way; had you not caused my the good of all. But the reverse of to, the past. Memory, this agent o[ inattention? etc. In larger issues these two gifts results, eventually, in the past, is given to us for a reason; the blame is directed further. crimes against creatures and persons, but memory should not become the Dreadful, outrageous crimes which crimes against races and nations, sole arbiter of the presenL For mem­ were committed chroughour history, crimes against humanity and the ory is only one of the conditioning are oecuning at the present time, whole created world. factors which make up the NOW, with sickening frequency. Whilst the A free gift is not an 'article' the true and has its rightful place. I fear, for historian will point to the human Giver intends to manipulate. It is we many of us - and no doubt 1 was one causes of these events, the victim o[ who are under obligation to honour of them - memory has been, and is, injustice and hate will, in the end, it and fulfil its potential. Seen from an autocratic dictator broaching no blame God. Is that a possible reason this perspective, history appears opposition, usurping the present to why, since God is believed to be the more like a curse than a blessing, such an extent as to render it almost giver of life, a way of blaming God is highlighting, as it does, the greed, sterile. to cut off ones attachment to life by brutality and powerlust of man in his retreating into the past, engaging in devious dealings. Of course, this is "1 have lost all - there is self-damaging compulsions, even an incomplete picture on account of nmhing to live for", or tenninating life ahogether. The the fact that millions and millions of "There is no God - a mercifu I Jewish Holocaust survivor may point compassionate individuals are less God would nOl have allowed this his accusing finger at Hitler, but, frequently documented, most times to happen to me", or ultimately, he is pointing his finger at not noticed or forgotten. Even so, "1 have no feeling, the world is his God. the scenario presenting itself to us grey. .. ", and a variety of similar could not be more grim, the gifts negative expressions coming from "How, in Thy mercy, could you bestowed on us not more grossly the heart. have al10wed this to happen?!" abused. Remorselessly, the gift of Or, more pOintedly stilL responsiveness and responsibility It is surprising, then, that a psyche "The world and man Thou hast extends beyond me toward all fixated on the past, the dead past created, Thou created them imper­ mankind. In that sense it seems [0 now worshipped and brought back fectly! !" become a burden, espeCially when to life, will devalue the experience of my ego stands on guard. Yet the free the present to the point of meaning­ The first accusation implies a gift of divine dispensation is not lessness? To survive survival, 1 will, cnllque of the power of God, the mine only, it is universal, but firstly, affinn Purpose in creation second type of accusation is a tending, within my frail individuality, against the reductionist view of critique of God's wisdom. Both to be 'watered down' so to speak, chance; secondly, affirm that types of accusation lead inevitably becoming selective, parochial, parti­ Purpose, as a reality, presumes an to a turning away from the vision of san, constricted by the force of

10 prejudice. And thus emerges the were, \ve are, given the tools, not to frequent defence, in itse1f it is an image of the struggling human fashion an image of God, but to opting out of a responsibility of identified by the famous words:.. . the fashion man in the image of God, paramount importance. To be a spirit is willing, but the f1esh is that is, to realise our true potential, to survivor of shattering events, be weak... which I am tempted to become, as it were, 'divinised'. they personal or global, involves amend to: the spirit is given but shouldering the burden of being a seldom consummated; equally, there witness as well as a mourner; stands the image of a struggling * * * one who remembers and recalls what humanity forever enmeshed in hates From what has been said above has happened, one who mourns and conflicts. the conclusion might be drawn and honours those who perished. The great task, it follows, begins that 1 advocate, if not a denial, but a But those who) from political or NOW, with ME. The path leads distancing from the past, that, in a racial motives, insist on denying the beyond the ME to US, in the reality sense, the past is best put aside, the of the PRESENT. I would almost say NEW fully engaged in. Nothing cruel realities of the past must surely DESPITE THE PAST, seeing the task could be more mistaken. Although be condemned as either just gullible as a journey out of darkness into we have met - and ourselves been ignoramuses, puerile phantasists, or li.ght. The mission is personal to start that way inclined - those veterans evil liars. The sacred wiU triumph. with; it must become global if and vlctims who keep silent with The sacred had been tainted by mankind is to survive. The onus lies, regard to their past suffeling, or man who conSistently committed without any doubt, on us, not on cover their pain under a blanket of sacrilege; but man, try as he might, God, to put our house in order. We casualness, an understandable and has no power to vanquish it.

n the 19305, my Mamma ran a lean, very hard times economically. dressmaking atelier. It was, really, AMILITARY FAMILY Mamma's elegant Cracow clientele I a workroom, but "atelier" is such a I almost immediately found them­ splendid word ... Janina Fischler Martinho selves in straitened circumstances, The Cjankiewicz family was one of burdened with problems, anxiety Cracow's best known and most janina lived in the Krakow and suffering... There was no respected military families . They Ghetto from where she sewing, no work for \1amma to do. lived. the parents and their two escaped at the time of its final The channing, smiling ladies did not grown-up children, a son - Piotrus, require Mammas services. A new liquidation in March 1943. frock , a new outfit was the very last and a daughter - 01enka, in Plac She survived the war in Jabonowskich - a lovely square thing on their minds. They, like hiding. Her story is told in almost directly opposite the everybody else, were feeling the ]agiellonian University. Mme her book "Have You Seen My pinch in everyday life. We all knew Cjankiewicz and M1le Olenka were Little Sister?" Like many that the military families had been Mamma's clients. \A/hen and by others who did not come to particularly hard hit in the very first whom they were recommended to England with the "Boys", days, very first weeks of the war. Mamma I do not know, but there was she joined our Society in Their men - the fathers, husbands, true truSt and great liking on both recent years. She is a regular some had been called up even before sides. We were, all, particularly fond contributor to our journal. the word "War" was in circulation. of Olenka. She was then, just before Major Cjankiewicz had been caned the outbreak of war, in her twenties. up, as had Piotrus - the married son, A golden-haired, fair-complexioned, finger-tips - she was exquisitely man­ as had Olenka's fiance ... maybe a little plump, young lady nered and genuinely well-disposed It seems strange to me now, in the whose smooth cheeks dimpled when towards all living creatures including year 2004, strange and, with hind­ she smiled. Olenka was charming. her Jewish dressmaker's small Sight, presumptuous, that we, the Jews, could for a moment have We knew that she would marry soon. daughter. Her smile was so friendly believed that it was within our power Marry very well. and warm. She would invite me to to bring solace, to offer spiritual com­ We had no telephone... and "come in') . I have retained a misty although I was only nine years old , T fort, to assuage distress ... . but it took impression of an over-furnished, knew Cracow wen. I quite often time to lose the natural reflexes of over-laden room dominated by a acted as a messenger for Mamma freedom. Mamma and I went to caU large claret-coloured velvet sofa. The who would quickly pen a few words upon the three ladies with a small on thick, starchy letter-paper in her light, softened by fine lace curtains, posy of fresh Oowers. How pleased small, neal handwriting, sign it with streamed in through two tall win­ they were to see us, how graciously a little flourish, fold the sheet in half dows. 1 was always offered a bonbon they received us. Young Mme C. and slip it into an envelope. This from a round porcelain dish ... . now lived with her mother and time it was addressed to Mme C. and In 1939, when war had broken sister-in-law. We stayed a while .... in the left-hand corner, boldly, she out, and Germany had invaded It was Mamma who had made the had written "By Hand". Poland, apart from the terrible young Mme C. s long, white wedding Sometimes, Mme C. herself humillation of being a vanqUished, dress. It was cut on the bias - a opened the door. A lady to her de feared nation, we fell upon very phrase I liked very much, "na

11 ukos .. . " it was considered, I remem­ Mme C. explained that Olenka human exhalations. Mamma ber, very elegant, velY sophisticated. was very downcast, almost despon­ knocked at a door. We heard the When Mamma was working on it, dent lhese (hys. She thought that a very faintesl click of the"] udas" shut­ the whole dress \\1 ,1 5 hardly ever pretty new frock might restore her ter and we knew we were being entirely exposed. It reposed in a spirits, put a smile back on her face ... appraised from within. A wizened, white, fine linen reticule, and only Could Mamma obtain some nice little old lady, bewigged and bespec­ the part which was act ually "under fablic? "Silk? A lovely new summer tacled, opened the door. We sat construction" would be cautiously frock, that might help... Can I leave down at her kilchen table and whilst drawn GUl. The sleeves were long it all to you? The fabric , the acces­ Mamma explained why we had and slim and had no cuff, but ended sories.... Olenka wants something come, what we wished to purchase, in a triangular point which went over simple .... she likes navy-blue, maybe the old lady listened, but continued, the wrist and, lightly, on to the hand with a light noral pattern .. . might be her mortar between her knees, to itself. Mamma, swaddled in white, nice ... " grind some substance, pleasantly hemming, almost invisibly, the wrist The very next day Mamma and I smelling of cinnamon, with her edge and the point and only the set off for Kazimierz, the pre-war pesLle. In the end she left off lowest part of the sleeve peeping out Je\vish Quarter. Kazimierz - with its grinding and said: ('1'11 see what 1 can of the reticule... 'vVhen the bride-to­ specific odours, colours, with its find ... " Mamma whispered to me: be came for a fitting a double white wealth and its poverty, its inhabi­ "They had one or the best shops here, sheet was spread over the rug [0 tants. That exotic gallery is still [0 be in Kazimierz, wonderfully stocked protect the hem of the dress. found, alas not in the flesh, but in with high quality merchandise ... " No news was ever received from paint.. .. ChagalJ, Goulieb, Behrman The old lady's treasures must have either the Major or from Olenka's have rendered them so faithfully, been cunningly hidden for it was a fiance . They disappeared \vi.thout alive, as they once were... . '\Jow, in while bdore she came back bearing trace. In the early winter of 1940, a 1940, there was a tick, grey pall three bolts of sll k fabric. All three miracle took place. Piotrus, all skin suspended over Kazimierz. Another were lovely, but 1 knew tha[ Mamma and bone and in rags, canle back, year? Two? In the streets there was had made up her mind straightaway, from a German Prisoner-of-vVar no sign of the dark-garbed, long­ although she gave the impression of camp on Polish soil, to his wife, bearded, round-hatted Orthodox pondering, heSitating. I understood. mother and sister. 1 remember Mme Jews - The German's favourites ... I was already familiar with [he twists C. describing the scene to ~1amma: They had learnt, much to their cost, and wrns of the buying and selling "He walked into the room early one that it was wisest not to set foot protocol. morning, we could hardly recognise out-or-doors. Still, at communal Mamma chose a length of navy­ him .... l.idka (his wife) was still in prayer-time, the bravest, the most blue silk lightly scattered \vith small her dreSSing gown... He does not religiously ardent of them could be delicate turquoise and pale-yellm\T stop coughing... . Day and night, he seen standing in the doorway, vainly flowers. The old lady said: "1 like it does not stop ... " attempting to render themselves [00, it used to sell very wen .... " She We did not see the Cjankie\\ricz invisible, whilst assessing, warily, then pulled out a long drawer in the ladies for qUite some lime, but one the lie of the land - Could one make kitchen dresser. it was divi.ded into day, in 1940, Mme C., the mother, it to the Synagogue without being square containers. Mamma found in did call on Mamma . She was invited targeted? And if the streets presen[ed them all the accessories she needed: to sit in our besl, most comfortable no visible danger, they would scuttle, navy-blue sewing silk, shoulder chair. Her frock was hanging loose.ly, scurry along, their white stockings pads, petersham ribbon, a long zip­ limply on her once pleasantly femi­ peeping from under long black fastener and a neat mother-of-pearl nine frame ... anxiety, uncertainty, kaftans... to praise the Creator.. . buckle. A few minutes spent in hean-ache ... Mamma and she talked Here and there a beshawled old cordial bargaining, and we walked qUietly for a while, And then Mme woman would pass by as sWifrly as away with a nicely tied parcel around C. said: You know that lovely her swollen legs would allow... Even which the old lady had placed "Fablics and Trimmings" shop in Plac the children, and Kazimierz was several out-of-date newspaper sheets Ssczepansl

12 Olenka stood in front of the looking­ word, of which I was so fond, for a ties" gave full vent to a deep sense of glass very pleased with her own long time. Tenderly, I smoothed out outrage, of horror. .. reflection. And Lt "called up that spor the ratty pages. A newspaper! The These officers, the cream, the of joy in her cheek ... " sacred printed word" I knew nothing pride of Poland's army, were mur­ Tn the summer of 1943, long after about the progress of the war. dered on Stalins orders ... so they my family had perished, long after Military movements, campaigns, said... A list of names followed, [or my world had been "liquidated" - I advances, retreats - nothing! But 1 the officers) fully clothed, had their use this verb advisedly, for I learnt to remembered the terrible "do\Vl1turn" identity papers, family letters and combine It, then, with my people in people's hopes when, in June photographs, diaries, log and record and our "assets" - harmless people, 1941, Germany invaded Russia.. . I books ... on them ... modest assets. I found myself in a The Jews could talk of nothing else. The list, arranged in alphabetical small village - Nogila - not far from The tears welled up in people's eyes, order - published, I believe, in instal­ Cracow, in the service of a farming coursed dov.lYl their cheeks .... Bereft ments - was long. Having read family. A lowly servant, a general of all hope, the Jews wept openly. A columns "A" and "B", some way dogsbody, but chieOy, now that deep \ black depression descended down the page 1 found column "(". summer was here in full flight, to upon the Jews - like a wave upon Some way down column "c'" 1 found drive the cow, twice-a-day, out to wave of devouring locusts. .. . 1 stiU Major Cjankiewicz... 1 still did not pasture. The co\v, a docile animal, did not understand, except that they understand the enormity of the grazed peacefully. The grass \-vas so were winning the war, that it was statistics, why, for what reasons, green and fresh. I would sit under a bad for us, Jews. And now Lhis news­ by whom .. . ? I did not have lhe tree and spin my thoughts - pre-war, paper described a place, in Russia, background necessary to such war-time, and, as a treat, as a luxury, called "Katyn Forest" where the un de rstanding .. .. daring post-war thoughts... "What if victorious German armies, so 1 knew though, instinctively, that I survived?" they said, had come upon, had dis­ the Cjankiewicz family, in their home One day I noticed a large white covered, had disinterred the tragic, in Plac Jabonowskich, must be grief­ patch hooked onto the grassy knoll. grisly contents of human mass-graves stricken - that I understood very I gathered it up. A newspaper! A - the remains of the Polish Army well, and my hean went out to them, double sheet! It was the "Krakauer Officers Corps.. . The language, the for I, too, carried great sorrow within Zeitung" - come on the wings of the imagery in which this terrible evi­ me. breeze? A war-time newspaper dence, this heinous act of murder The family have long been dead published under rigorous Gennan was described could not have been now. Olenka never married. She control for the consumption of the more gory, more horrific... They, the kept her promise; she waited for the local Polish population. I had not Germans, with their clean hands, Inan she loved, but he did not come seen, I had not read the printed clear consciences, delicate sensibili- back from the war. ..

y home town is Poznan at the hotel offering guidance and which before the war MY VISIT TO POlNAN transport. They are the jOint authors M had the reputation, \N"ith of the book "The Jewish Cemetery in some justification, of being very J erry Herszberg Lodz" and they are also the authors antisemitic. There was a saying that (March 2004) of a second book on the new if a Jew goes to Poznan, he returns Cemetery. They both proved most unrecognisable, which sounds better Jerzy came to England with helpful - unobtrusive when the in Pohsh: the Windermere group and situation required but in matters practical Danuta saved me from Ii ved in the Loughton and GDY ZYD JEDZIE DO POZNANIA foolish purchases as my luggage was Belsize Parh hostels. He is a WRACA NIE DO POZNANIA. temporarlly mislaid. bri 11 iant mathematician and Our first organised function was a I was a little surprised when taught for many years at the restaurant dinner, at Bronek's invita­ another Jewish survivor from University of London. (ion. There I met one Jewish person Poznan, Bronek Bergman, last now living in Poznan and feeling year sent me a copy of a letter very much at home there although he from Danuta and Lech Muszynski is in fact a Holocaust survivor. informing me of a possible Perhaps I should add that, so far, he reunion of Jews who lived in did not receive any compensation. Poznan before the war. I agreed to There were also representatives of the participate. Ten Jewish survivors Polish-Israeli Friendship Society ex.-pressed some interest in coming based in Poznan. but only two turned up. Bronek and Our next event was a meeting with myself. the President of Poznan, Wejciech The hotel in Poznan was of very Szczesny Kaczmarek (no need to high standard. I arrived there in pronounce it!) And the Vice­ the evening and on the following President Ryszard Olszewski. The morning Danuta and Lech calfed Jerry Herszberg with Mayor of Poznan. highlight came with a traditional

13 toast to our mutual friendship drunk Zbigniew Pakula, a reponer working found the restaurants to be of a very in a very strong Polish vodka. for the Poznan newspaper (Gazeta high standard and the food very Our next dinner was at the invita­ Poznanska) . satisfactory, both in quality and tion of Robert D. Gamble, President VVhen the official programme was quantity. My hosts were very caring of "1vledia Rodzina (family) of over, I was invited by Danuta and and most generous. Poznan, Inc." . On that occasion l Lech to spend the Sunday with them. On my return to London, whilst was delighted to meet a fellow math­ This proved most enjoyable and very waiting in the crowded Poznan ematician, Professor Jerzy Albrycht, moving. The \Jazis destroyed the airport lounge, Lech surprised me. with whom I was able to talk about Jevvish cemetery but the Poles have Danuta had had to go to work. Lech many mutual acquaintances in the managed to retrieve some of the came to wish me a happy journey world of mathematics. gravestones which they carefully and on hehalf of them bmh, Lech Our later meeting with many transferred lO a small town, gave me a warm handshake - a members of the Polish-Israeli Miloslowo. 1 was taken there and touching gesture which I shall Friendship Society at which Bronek was very moved to disco\'cr that [his remember for a long time. and I were the guests of honour, was had happened. My father di.ed juSt At Heathrow, while 1 was waiting the scene of a very friendly discus­ before the war and, although he had for my luggage, a lady addressed me sion which we both enjoyed. Bronek no stone, 1 am glad to know that so in Polish and asked me in a friendly actually met a lady who remembered many of the headstones have been way, about my visit. When 1 told her him as a child. restored. that I stayed six days in Poznan she 1 was also asked to appear, with Later that day 1 was shown a gate said with some surprise: "But you are Bronek on 1v[[ Gambles radio pro­ 'vvith a Hebrew inscription, carefully a Jew." 1 look Italian to Enghsh gramme to answer various quest10ns preserved. A further drive and 1 saw people, but Jewish (0 the Poles. asked by local people. As I had less a stone with Jewish writing on it. When 1 told her how much I enjoyed experience in it than Bronek, I gave Lech proved better at reading it, but I my visit, her face brightened up and only brief answers but the lady in was better at understanding, so she said: "I shall now walk, as a Pole, charge was very anxious to get my between us we somehow managed to with great pride." views on what opportunities I had puzzle it out in pan. We then took a 1 found the visit very moving) very had to associate with pre-war neigh­ walk in the forest. followed by a drlve enjoyable, and I wish to express my bours and what expeliences I had round the countryside for a visi t to a sincere thanks to the organisers, but had of antisemitism. 1 was also pho­ small castle of Kornik with beautiful especially to Danuta and Lech who tographed in front of the house furniture and pictures. Finally, we started out as my guides and ended where I used to live before the war by enjoyed anmher very good meal. I up as much valued friends.

May Their Memory Be earth and to execute the Final Blessed WHAT HAPPENED Solulion according to Nazi style. Murder has become a profession. TO US CONTINUES Even tOday, almost 60 years after [he My gratitude to ltzhak Reichebaum furnaces have ceased to operate, new [or his help in writing this article. Itzhak and his brother Adulek of TO I.lVE WITHIN US and poisonous antisemitism spreads Blessed Memory were put on one or against the Jewish people in Europe­ the trucks near the railway station. FOREVER anti-Semitism which compares the His father showed resourcefulness State of Israel and its Army to the and at the last moment Look both of Ruta Krieger-HorowlcZ Nazi thugs. them 0[( the truck and thus saved Many large groups of Gennans are their lives. Ruta was born in Piotrhow prepared neither to listen nor to 1tzak stayed in the Blizin camp Tryb. She was in the discuss the events of the Shoah, and later on in Auschwitz, Piotrhow Ghetto, in hiding or claiming that they are not responsible Sachsenhausen and Mathausen. He in various concentration for crimes which were executed so was liberated on the 4th May 1945 in camps. After the war she many years ago. the Gunskirchen in Austria by the settled in Israel with her The Shoah, however, happened in 71 st Infantry Division of [he mother. She is very close to a "humanitarian and cultured Europe" American Anny. nu.mber of our members in which raises its eyes to high heavens IsraeL She resisted talking or in self-righteousness and moralises to us Jews who still continue to be writing about her e.xpeJiences * * * burnt and bombed. until very recently. The events of the Shoah are an Buses are being exploded in our integral pan of Jewish History, the streets and their passengers being most horrific chapter in which Here, the dangerous combination burnt alive. In places which are human cruelty has reached new of modern technology and racial and buzzing with human activity, our peaks, such cruelty which has been tyrannical regimes found their youlh are being burn(~ our children unknown to us hitherto, the likes of expression which has no revulsion are being murdered and slaughtered which has not happened throughout towards any means to wipe out the on peaceful roads and babies in their history. Jewish people from the face of the cots.

14 In retrospect, I wish to re-tell were loaded on to anny trucks and Below are the names of the four aboul a traumatic event which were brought to the area of the sta­ children who were murdered in thar happened in Piotrkow at the end of tion. It is impossible to describe the incident. July 1943, an event which forever horror and despair of the parents will remain engraved on the hearts during their journey to the camp of HENIK STASHEVSKY of us all. The memory burns inside Bhzin, leaving their children behind ASTOSIA DUNEV1TCH me like naming Hre and does not give to their bitter fate . MOSH[ FINKOSHVITZ me respite. 1 wish lO record The unfortunate children were FELUSH FINKOSHVITZ this story about the murder of the brought into an isolated place in the children. town where they stayed for a few How strange and mysteriOUS are Al that time, in the month of July days. One cold and rainy day the the ways of fate even in such cruel 1943, the "Block" was abou t to be children were taken outside the town events. In the days when [he journey liquidated, part of the people were where a pit was dug for all of them to to Blizin was organised, Rifka, the just about to be housed next to the be buried together. German soldiers sister of Henik Stashevsky, got high Kara glass factory and another part with musical instruments played fever. following the advice of her were going to be lodged in the Bugaj beautiful tunes on trumpets and aunt, Eva Gilda, Rifka's mother factory. Families with chi.ldren, drums, while the half naked children decided not to join that transport to however, were about to be sent to the were ordered to dance before these Blizin. work camp of Blizin. inhuman people. From that time onwards, Rifka The lists were compiled rapidly, To the sweet sounds of the music, was inseparable from her aunt Eva; parents were given false promises of [he soldiers opened fire and the chil­ their route took them from Bugaj via the good condition that their dren collapsed while still half alive Ravensbruck until they reached children would receive in (his camp. into the common grave. Many hours Bergen-Belsen, where they were The parents \\fished to believe; did afterwards, the earth above these liberated by the allies. they have any alternative? But to young victims trembled as if the RHka, at [he time or her liberation, everyones regret, this terrible lie was lives which had been terminated was only seven years old. Today she soon discovered. prematurely with such immense is the Director of Manuscrtpt and Near the railway sration of cruelty vvere protesting against this Archives in the National Library in Pioakow a children's selection gross injustice. Jerusalem. had been carried out in utmost This chapter is no doubt, one of One and a half million Jewish chil­ cruelty. The children were torn away the mOSL horrific in the history of dren were murdered by the Nazis. from their parents. Amongst heart­ Piotrkow and will remain forever in Every child who was murdered was a breaking screaming, people were (he memory of everyone who was whole world with great potential for compressed into rail cattle wagons in the ghetto at the lime and who the future. They were lost to us and and the crying and shouting children survived the Holocausl. to the Jewish people.

Back in February 1943, four wall and almost next to the infamous months after my escape from the EDMUND HOLKA Umschlagplatz, from where tens of Warsaw Ghetto at the age of nine­ thousands of Jews had recently teen, my father, who lived in hiding By ] erzy Lando been transported to Treblinka. 14 on the Aryan side of Warsaw, Oanuary 2004) Mloci?ska Street was a sprawling suggested to me to see Mr Holka, one Single storey corner building. A of his customers from before the war, narrow, shabby entrance door led to and ask him for help in finding me ]erzy Lando's booh "Saved by a lobby serving as a waiting room, work. With an Aryan appearance, I my Face" was published large enough to accommodate a table had a reasonable chance to survive about three years ago and has and two chairs. The door-plate on under a new Christian identity, bUL enjoyed considerable success. another door on the left said without being seen to be employed "Kancelaria, or Office". Full of I would find it impossible to find On December 12, 2002, Edmund apprehension, I knocked on a small a place to live without raising HoIka, a Polish Christian was window above it, and a young man suspicions. came out. posthumously awarded the title of Next day, from a tram stop in 'Could I see Mr Edmund Holka? 1 Okopowa Street, close to the Righteous Amongst the Nations am Stegan Wojtyla. Mr Jakub Lando Powazki Cemetery in the Stawki area for helping Jews u.nder the Nazi suggested I should come and see of VVarsaw, I took a short walk to occupation. I was one of those he him.' The young man went back to Mlocihska Street. I might have been helped. I shaH describe what he the office and a tall, slim gentleman in the country; it was an area of did to deserve such honour and of ans(Qcratic appearance, in his low buildings and sheds standing give an account of the award cere­ early fifties, with greying hair and on their O\VO plots of land. Some mony that took place in my native bright deeply set blue eyes, came out. of them, squalid and neglected, 'I am Edmund Holka. What can 1 do evidently served as workshops. 1n town, Lodz, during the inaugura­ for you?' Without waiting for a reply, these rural surroundings, I found it tion of the forthcoming 60th he ushered me into the office, most hard to believe (hat I was only a few anniversary of the last days oJ the of it taken by a massive oak desk. On hundred yards away from the Ghetto Lodz ghetto. one side, close to the only window,

15 sat a swarthy man, who said "Dziendobry, good day" in a strong foreign accent and the young man who had let me in. 'Do you Inind leaving us on our ovm for a few minutesT Mr Holka asked, turning towards his companions and, when we were alone, he was ready to hear me. He asked me to sit down. 'You can speak now. This \vas my son Janusz and my very close friend and partner, Fritz.' 'My real name is Jerzy Lando,' I said, almost in a whisper, 'but I managed to get a Kennkarte in the 2nd on the left: President of the City of London, 3rd from left: Janusz Holka, 4th name of Stegan Wojtyla. Here it is.' I from left: another recipient of Yad Vashem medal. pulled it out of my pocket, as if I did not think that he would believe me without seeing it. 'My father is his business was conflscated by lhe The Centre ceased to exist in August safe and sends his best regards. \ German authorilies. In March 1940, 1944 at the outbreak of [he \Varsaw My words must have sounded he was expelled from Gniezno to the Uprising. Throughout the firm's hackneyed in the circumstances. '1 General-Gouvernement, where he existence Edmund Holka regularly escaped from the Ghetto in OCtOber. settled 'with his family in Warsaw In shared the profits with all his 1 need a job. l can speak and write the spring of 1940, he established [he sleeping partners, most of them in Gemlan. I have secretarial qualifica­ Warsaw Recycled Raw Material hiding, thus provi.ding them \vith tions and good experience in book­ Centre, that he ran until 1944, the means of survival. keeping and general office work. I year of the Warsaw Uprising. After Roman PoHrsztok was brought do need a job.' 1 repeated the words the Cprising he went to live in daily to work from the Ghetto, while but tried lO sound as if 1 had many PiotrkUw Trybunalski and in his wife l.usia and son remained in alternatives. 1 could not banish from r :t:bruary 1945 \ haVing crossed the the Ghetto. 1n the Centre he was in my mind the thought that if Mr Soviet-German frontline, he returned charge of finances and organisati.on. Holka granted my request he would [0 Gniezno. He died in 1972. In He was the key confidential partner be exposing himself to mortal spring 1940, after arriving in of Edmund Holka. One day, in danger. A Pole gUilty of knOwingly Warsaw, he got in touch with a group August 1942 (one month into the helping a Jew was punished Vlith the of Jews who suggested a joint busi­ liquidation of the Ghetto) Edmund death penalty 1 was a leper. ness venture for the colleellon and Holka went home at a1. Jasna for He looked straight into my [ace sale of waste mateliaIs for recycling. lunch. As soon as he arrived he and replied after a short hesitation The partners were Mr Fajwlowicz received a phone call from the Ghetto 'Yes, I will offer you a job. We can do Uewish), \Ifr Hersz Gezundheit informing him that the family here with a cashier and a re liable Uewish), Mr Edmund Holka Polirsz[Ok were detained at the clerk. But nobody except myself (Christian), Mr Roman Polirsztok Umschlagplatz. He immediately must know your real name. You can Oewish), Mr "Fri.tz" Tugenthat made his way there, though 1. cannot start lomorrow if you wish, when I Uewish) . Edmund Holka and Fritz tell how he got there. When he shaH sort out your salary' 'You are were full-time working partners right arrived, the Polirszwks were already very kind,' 1 resorted to another to the end, while the others were inside a railway wagon. Ldmund platitude, hardly believing my luck sleeping panners for much of the Holka, who could speak German and trying hard to hide my joy Was time. The business was located in like a native, approached the com­ it all a dream? Warsaw, first at ul. Okopowa 76 and mandant of the Umschlagplatz to then at ul. MIoci ?ska 14. Initially, for intervene on behalf of Roman a while, the office staff consisted of Polirszlok, arguing that the man was * * * Ben, Janusz Holka, "Inzynier" Cl don't an indispensable specialist in his Sixty-one years have passed since, remember his [ull name), Zenon fi rm. He presented dOCulnents but it was only a few years ago, when Rychlik. In early] 943, jerzy Lando from the Warsaw District and from 1 was collecting malerial for my book joined ir, The manual work was the German firm, Rohstofrzentrale "Saved By My Face" that 1 read the done at first by a group of Jews from Warschau, (once sorted, the finn's following account by Edmund the Ghetto. From the time the produce, ra\v materials, were Holka's son, Janusz, of some of Ghetto was sealed off until its final regularly shipped to Germany). the events of the years 1939 - 1944 liqUidation, they were being brought FollOWing Edmund Holka's interven­ concerning his father, of which I from there each day At some stage tion, the German ordered Roman kne\v nothlng: non-Jewish workers had to be Polirsztok to be let out of the wagon, "My father, Edmund Hol ka, a employed. This arrangement but the latter would not leave businessman, was born in 1890 provided a chance for smuggling withoul his wife and son. Further and lived in Gniezno, where rrom Jews to the Aryan side of Warsaw. arguments followed, until the com­ 1914 [ill 1939 he o\VYled a wholesale From 1942 the firm was loosely mandant was persuaded to allow the textile firm. In October 1939, at the connected wilh the German firm whole family to leave the train just beginning of the German occupation, Rohstoffzentrale GmbH in \rVarsaw. before it departed. The following clay

16 the whole PolirszLok family anived at in this largest Jewish cemetery in at the end, the lights came on, I was (he warehouse at Mloci?ska Street as Europe, spread over 105 acres some surprised to see that the place was pan of the group of Jewish workers. 180,000 people were buried. The crowded with hundreds of Polish Roman Polirsztok went back to the first burials took place in an area schoolchildren. They were learning Ghetto each day, but Lusia and her speCially deSignated for the victims of the [ate of the Jewish children in the son remained ou[side the Ghetto. a cholera epidemic. Some 43,000 Ghetto and the Ghetto's history. Thanks to Edmund Holkas acquain­ people died in the Lodz Ghetto and They heard that the \/azis started tance with Father Krauze of the were buried along Bracka Street the establishment of a separate area Priests' and Missionaries' Rest Home in the undeveloped areas of the for Jews in the district of Baluty in in Marki near \Varsaw, Lusia and her cemetery, called the Ghetto field . February 1940. Cl was "lucky" to son were alloweJ lO slay in Marki till At 5 pm in the magnificent hall of have been deported with my parents May 1943, when they left to live mirrors of the Poznanski Palace - from Lodz to Cracow in December with friends at ul. Jagielo?ska in now a museum - the representative 1939). The Ghetto was sealed off Warsaw-Praga. Roman Pohrsztok) of the Israeli ambassador delivered and isolated from the rest of [he city meanwhile, did not turn up for work a moving speech in which she on April 30. It was one of the most as usual one day in February or explained to the audience the hermetically closed and guarded March 1943. He had been meaning of "The Righteous amongst ghettos in Poland. During five years, deported and perished, probably in Nations". She underlined the debt of more than 200,000 Jews passed Sobibor. None of Edmund Holka's gratitude owed to them by the State through the Litzmannstadt Ghetto interventions produced any results. of Israel and by all Jews. Two Poles (the Germans' new name ror Lusia Polirsztok and her son sur­ who ignored all risks lO save Jewish Lodz) that included inhabitants of vived the occupation. In 1947 they lives were going to be honoured town and villages of the region and left for France and made their home loday, one of them Edmund Holka. of Western and Central Europe, in Nice. Lusia changed her name She handed his Yad Vas hem medal to including Prague, Vienna and Berlin. from Polirsztok to Szepewwska. She I his son, Janusz. The Lodz Ghetto was a gigantic maintained conlact by correspon­ The hall was packed with people. labour camp where clothing, dence with Edmund Holka till 1972. For this and the days other events footwear, blankets, uniforms and Ben, who was Jewi.sh, perished in many dignitaries and representatives even underwear to satisfy the needs 1942 in Treblinka, "Fritzll Tugenthat, of Clergy, of the civil and state of the Reich, were manufactured. Jewish, who came from Bielska Biala authorilies and armed forces were Not only adults but also children and lived throughout the war on the invited by the President of the City of were working. In 1942 the Gennans Aryan side of Warsaw, survived. 1 Lodz. "Today we must return to the went ahead with transporting Jews to met him in the years 1946-47. memory of the tragic events of the the death camp in Chelmno-on-Ner, "lnznier", a former officer in the pre­ war affecting the Jews. This is starting with criminals and then the war Polish Forces, survived the war. enough. vVe need no other reasons" unemployed, the aged, the sick, 1 was in touch with him in the years - spoke Jerzy Kropiwnlcki. Those but also children who were referred 1946-48, Zenon Rychlik - Jewish - a that were present were to remember to as 'surplus elements, because not lawyer, survived the war. I met him children who met their death in the working). In July - August 1944, in 1946-47. He wore the uniform of Lodz Ghetto from s[arvation, cold the remnants of the Jews in the an officer in the UB (Urzad and exhaustion, those who perished Lodz Ghetto, nearly 70,000, were Bezpieczenstw a Department of in Chelmno-on-Ner, in Auschwitz deported to Auschwitz. Of those, Security). Mr Fajwlo\vicz with his and other death camps, and the few between five and seven thousand family lived in hiding on the Aryan who survived with their memories people survived the war. On 29 side from 1941 onwards. After the branded for ever by those tragic August 2004, the 60th anniversary war he emigrated to Paris. Hersz evenlS. of the liquidation wi1l be commemo­ Gezundheit and his family survived Across the rain-soaked courtyard, rated in Lodz. in hiding from 1942 and eventually in the adjoining, now disused ghost The next day I vlsited the Jewish emigrated to France." of a cotton mill, a concen "Children Community offices in Pomorska On seeing Januszs account, L sub­ of the Lodz Ghetto", a projection of Street. They looked pristine, with mitted it to the Yad Vashem and an animated film, "The Last impressive facilities, offices, rest eventually received a long awaited Generation" and presentation of the rooms, a canteen for the members, invitation from the Israeli Embassy in exhibi.tion, "The Legend of [he many newly arrived, ostensibly Vv'arsaw to attend on October 2nd Children of the Lodz Ghetto" took happy to live amongst their non­ 2003 the award of the Yad Vashem place. T found my way to the cast Jewish neighbours. Mr Keller medal to Edmund Holka's famtly in factory hall in the dark; the presenta­ explained that at the time of the Iraqi Lodz where his son Jives at present lion had already started, and L had crisis, Poland was probably tbe only and where T was born. A Christian great difficulty in finding an empty country where no anti-war or anti­ friend collected me and my wife from chair. An audio-visual with a live Israeli demonstrations took place. the Warsaw airport and on the fol­ orchestra and choir graphically I was glad I made the vi.sit to lowing clay we made our way to Lodz depicted in words, music, and Poland. Both my v.rife and myself in his car. We were passing close to pictures, the gruesome images came back emotionally drained, but the Lodz Jewish cemetery and I took accompanied by deafening drum Henry Fieldings' words seemed the opportunity to visit the graves of beat , close-ups of faces of starving appropriate fOT our visit. "When I'm my grandparents, both of whom had youngsters, scenes or parents forced not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd died in the Lodz Ghetto in 1941. to del iver for deportation their own enough. I've done my duty and I've During the years from 1892 to 1939, children under the age of 10. When, done no more."

17 his is the very last moment LO I PL: Can nothing be done about these remember the events of the TO SCREAM WITH two problems? T Lodz Ghetto, whilst those who were of it, who passed through it, are THE VIC1·IM: Nothing. At times children playing still alive . Wrangling, elbowing, have in the courtyards dig up fragments of no place here. Please, do not ask, 60TH ANNIVERSARY human remains. I want to sort this therefore, how this one, or that one matter out, if only symbolically - that reacted towards this project at its OF THE is, rebuild a section of the cemetery inception - says Jerzy Kropiwnicki .... wall. I want a decent job done by the LIQUIDATION 60th anniversary. Piotr Lipihski is speaking to the To approach and carry out the Mayor of Lodz, the Chainnan of the preparations for the 60th anniversary ZchN-U. OF ·rHE LODZ GHETTO properly, I have made sure I knew what work had been done before I Piotr Lipihski : The city of Lodz has been Piotr Lipinski, took up office. Ten years ago, under bearing in mind, Jor a number of jerzy Kropiwnicki the auspices of my friend, Grzegorz months now, the 60th anniversalY oJ the Paka, the 50th anniversary was com­ liquidation oJ the Ghetto, and it is being Piot}' Lipinski interviewed memorated, but somewhat privately, discreetly.... A plaque was affixed, said in town that you, sir, are holding Jerzy KropiwnicniJ the Mayor but nobody knew exactly where... At talks about the Jews with sincere willing­ Lodz and Chairman of the ness and singular knowledge. \Vhen did oJ the same time, 1 realised how sizeable the Chairman of the ZchN-U bf'Come right wing United Christian the Jewish Communi.ty in Lodz had interested in the Lodz Jews? National Party (NchN-U). been. In 1933, it accounted for one The interview took place in third of the inhabitants of Lodz - Jerzy Kropivv'T1icki: A year ago, before April 2004 and was printed 250,000 people! A very large pro­ the Referendum on the European in "Ku Itu ra" the weekly portion H! It has not even entered [he Union, the Minister, \\iladysaw Polish Paper consciousness of the people among Bartoszewski, arrived in Lodz. He whom L live today - a large, vibrant asked me to turn my full attention Translated by community "vas obliterated .... I have to\vards the preparations [or the 60th concluded that I carry the burden of Janina Fischler Martinho anniversary of the liquidation of duty, a duty which was unfulfilled by the Lodz Ghetto, in August 2004. my predecessors. To begin i-vith, I His first argument considered it a PL When you were strolling about had to explain, to make clear to the challenge that those who survived Lodz's "Ba/LIt)' area" did you know, City population, what my concerns are... And not only to those who the ghetto are now ID their dld you sense that it was in that very showed opposition, but to the seventies and eighties. Many wish neighbourhood that tht' Ghetto came to be present in. person at the into being? Jews as well . tor the latter, it Commemoration services and this was, of course, a positive move, but unexpected! will, in all likelihood, be the last and No, and 1 did not know something the greatest journey of their lives. else , which is worse. About a year The second argument is that it P.L How many people opposed? ago, I was speaking to a representa­ will be, most probably. the only inter­ tive of the JeWish Community and I national remembrance ceremony 1 am unable to answer that, but I ,vi 11 learnt from him that Lodz LS deemed relating to World War 11. The V/est outline the problem and I \-vill share to be the most anti-Semitic cicy wishes to forget; the memorial and my thoughts, plans, ideas, equally, commemoration services in 1995 globally. The walls here are smeared with my supporters and those who covering the 50th anniversary of with anti-Semitic graffiti. I have seen opposed me - the detractors. the end of the Second V/orld War such slogans in Paris, in Strasbourg were , for many people in the West. and in various German towns, but EL How did you set about convincing the final closing of that chapter. that justifies nothing. At one time them? Only Poland accords the various the City Council maintained that successive anniversaries remem­ these acts of hooliganism were the I came to the conclusion that it was brance and dignity ourcome of social conditions. It is fruitless to cOlnpare the wrongs and the City Council's role to condemn ' the losses. If SOlneone began to mea­ PL Were you already, earlier; Jamiliar and right such altiLUdes . The Jews sure, to weigh the suffering of the with the histoJY oJ the Lodz GheLLo? are aware thac there is a change. Poles and Jews dudng World War Il,

They noticed Lhat I took part in I I would say that we are talking at ln perfect candour - only vaguely. I scrubbing the walls clean .... CToss-purposes. That from behind knew that there had been one, [hat VandaHsm, simply, receives zero the barbed-wire Jews were being the Jewish Community had been tolerance. There is another, even deported to extermination camps. sizeable. I knew the name of Chai m more dramatic problem in Lodz; we Outside the barbed-wire lived the Mordechai Rumkowski, that he was walk over, we drive over, human citizens of Lodz. 1 understand that the Judenrat leader in the G hetLo, remains. Many years ago a block of I here, in Lodz, life was harsher pretty much everybody in Lodz flats was put up on the land of a than elsewhere, because 24% of the knows his name. But that was Lhe Jewish cemetery. A street corner also population here was German. Both extent of my knowledge. abuts onto that land ... Wladysaw Bartoszewski and Jan

18 Nowak-Jezioranski told me that where a person being despatched in a I might not have the necessary when, during the war, one came to transport came to the Lodz Ghetto. sensitivity. Last year at Katyn, I Lodz, it \vas wisest not to remain Many malerial artefacts have been understood that the emotional overnight, for one of the tenants in preserved. The Germans did not frontier between the Poles and the the building was bound to inform the bum do'A'l1 the Ghetto buildings - Russians is Virtually impassable. police. Here, it ~:as not possible to only the tenements around it were We were not able to understand carry out the same secret negotia­ demolished so as to form a dividing each other concerning the memOlial. tions as in other Polish cities. passage between the Ghetto and the The feelings, the emotions displayed Nonetheless, the question a1ways rest of the city. The railway station were very deep. Offence was caused, remains "how was the local popUla­ building has also remained, as have even though the other side did tion, who lived here, aGing towards the spur-line, the ramp.. ... The rails not mean to be ill-intentioned or those behind the barbed-wire?" still bear the imprint "Krupp 1939". offensive. What could lhey do, how could they help. when neighbours, friends of PL: THE LAST STOP EN ROUTE TO PL Were there great outbursts of long-standing and from the school­ DEATH - FROM HERE TRANSPORTS emotion on both sides? room were being seized, arrested, WERE DESPATCHED TO EXTERlv1[~ vanishing without trace ... ? I have NATION CAMPS. On the side of the Poles. The given a great deal of thought to the Russians felt slighted, because the position of the witness of the crime - This station, named Radegaast, is [he Poles would not accept thei r design one thinks of the two sides the killer most important site for the Jewish for the monument which was, and the vlctim. It is seldom that we people. Other important objects, indeed, beautiful and poetic. 1 am are aware of the presence of third around which there will be marches, not being ironical! In their minds, it person - namely, the witness. In are the buildings in the very body was to be a monument dedicated to Lodz - the criminals, the killers were of the Ghetto; and, of course, the the nameless victims of the SovieL the Germans - [he victims - the Jews. cemetery, the largest functional Totalitarian regime. Even though the And the witnesses those who were Jewish necropolis in Europe. The NKVD had been committing atroci­ not isolated, penned in the Ghetto - cemetery was a simple enough ties, murder in those killing fields in this case - first and foremost, the matter. The Nissenbaum Foundati.on long before and long after the Polish people. In murder the role of has authority to administer within execution of the Polish officers. At the killer and the victim, for all time, its preCincts, although the City of the base of the monument there were clearly delineated. The killer selects Lodz has for some years now made a to be religious and national insignia. his victims, the method and the tools contribution towards it maintenance, Then a kjnd of springboard and a of the crime. But the "lNitness faces an but we are not involved in its parabolically curved wide ribbon ineluctable moral obligati.on. With administration. The cemetery is the flying towards the skies. They the recognition, the evaluation of the responsibility of the Jewish believed it to be the correct murder, the witness may choose to Administration. I have given instruc­ symbolism. They wanted it to be remain silent, as does the murderer, tions, however, fOT the roads leading gigantic, permanently lit up. They or he may choose to scream with the to it to be neat and tidy, for the could not comprehend why we, the victim. And when I reached that paving to be nice and even, for the Poles, insisted that it need not be so conclUSion, 1 decided that there is no surfaces to be smoothed out, but no large, but that there must be a flat need lO ponder further. Silence is asphalt or concrete is to be laid. 1 wall, on which there will be engraved morally unacceptable. In a crime of have further given instructions [or the names of the once living men, at this magnitude and horror the wit­ greenery to be arranged in such a the base of which flowers may be ness must scream with the victim. way as to camouflage the 200 metre placed, candles may be lit. We were long avenue leading to a nearby able to convince them that an altar PL THE VOICE OF THE VICTIMS estate; to give it an aspect of solemni­ mus[ be erected at which mass can be CAN ONLY RARELY BE HEARD - BY ty, gravity... The station presented said, but they did not understand FAR THE MAJORITY OF THE LODZ more of a challenge. 1 felt that it that a wall with names, so wholly GHETTO JEWS WERF MURDERED . needed more than for the building to "unmonumental" is, for us, Poles, so be given a coat of fresh paint. I do important. I was afraid that I, too, When the German army began to not wi.sh that the day after the cere­ might have an idea, a concept - retreat from Lodz, 830 Jews were still monies, on the 30th August, we something which the Jewish left in the Ghetto - the workers of the shou1d feel that it is all over and slde would find unacceptable. I Cleaning and Sanitation Brigade. All done... 1 want these old people to have, therefore, recruited Czeslw were "liquidated", but the front-line leave here wi(h peaceful minds Bieleckl, who describes himself had moved forward more sVviftly knOwing that when they, too, have as a "Polish-Jew" - uttering both these than had been foreseen. From gone, it will not fall into disrepair, words with pride. He understands amongst [hose trapped in the GheClo, become abandoned or erased from both sensitivities - Polish and Jewish. 10 - 12 people had survived. The human memory. The station has to last transport departed on 29th be reconstructed in such a manner EL: How did people view your August - the Russian troops were that it is the most pOignant monu­ activities - people who associated you then about t\velve kilometres from ment, a memorial dedicated to that chiefly with the post of Chairman of the Lodz. Of the ghettos on Polish soil, which took place here, then, in those Z(hN-U the Lodz Ghetto is the best docu­ days .... mented. Most of the (ransport lists 1 lacked confidence in these You know, there are moral obliga­ have been salvaged; it is known from matters. I do not have je\vish roots. tions which I see as perfectly natural

19 and they have never interfered with gone through. But it took half a year. when the survival of a nation, of a my membership of the ZchN-L. 1 Well, when the memorial column has people 1S at stake, how much ground take as my example Pope John Paul been erected, the tunnel) the station may one cede in order to ensure that Il. His conduct no longer surprises built, when the cattle-truck has been survival? Fven though one has the anyone loday. pOSitioned on the siding - then what very best intentions. Chaim should its interior look like? Mordechai Rumkowski said , when Pt: And colleagues from the ZchN-U? the Germans demanded that the chil­ PL: During this last year, thinking oJ the dren be surrendered: "Only yeslerday Accepted, straightaway. 1 went to role ~f the witness, have you identified, 1 drew up a register of children up to them and told them what I have just emotionally, with the victim's tra~edy? the age of nine years. I wanted, at told you, Only I spoke [or a -few least, to save the older children... I hours. I explained what it all Ineans 1 am very cautious. If 1 enter that have managed to rescue the chi IdTen and what difficulties we are facing, territory, 1 might blunder, I might from the age of nine up... May this what the moral choice is. And that, cause offence. It is a most delicate be a solace in your suffering .. ." As really, a decenl human being does subject. I wanted to have informa­ for the sick, the infirm, [hose in poor not have a choice in this situation. tion/direction notices placed (at health, "there are many patients who various points of the (rajectory) in maybe only have days, maybe weeks, PL And the supporters of Radio Polish, Hebrevv, English and German to live. .. You attempt to keep them Maryja? languages. i made enquiries via the alive at the cost of undermining your Internet through which I have been own health. We give our bread, our I have convinced them too. Just like in touch with the Jewish comnlunity meagre ration of sugar, our small the Local Council. A year ago, when 1 have received e-maits , altogether piece of meat... And what is the I embarked on this project , I was not 250, from Brazil, from Toronto, from outcome? It is of no benefit to them, certain if I would succeed in getting it Israel, from Western Europe. They but it endangers our health, leads to passed through the Local Council. ask: "Why is there no Yiddish?" illness. ... We must sacrifice them in Actually, I was only certain of a few Marek Edelman himself has been in order that those in health, who want votes from the members of the Lodz touch - he is being telephoned from and can live, may endure!" Citizens' Association, because [ had Paris to lake action in this matter. I I am famili.ar with Rumkowski's thrashed it out wiLh them, but 6 mention this, as the last time he rang [ate . In the end. he did not receive votes out of 43 is on the meagre me was fifteen years ago. It appears the promised Aryan credentials, nor side.. . But when it came lO voting that it is very important for the was a cosy nest set up for him - such to commit (he City to support Jewish community to have Yiddish. measures and comforts would have the marches, 1 received a full They lived, loved, died v.'ithin the turned him into a scoundrel and a complement or VOles. Thus, today, I cultural framework of the Yiddish collaborator. He was deported to tend somewhat reluctantly, to tongue. It is their mother-tongue. AuschwllZ - tnle, in a first class car­ remember what went on before. in No point in squabbling. Yiddish it riage - not knowing what awaited the past, and those who were anti . I wiU be, and that's that. him at the end of the journey. He have been able to convince them all And then came a second wave, not was certain, right up to the end. that that this matter is not a subject of through the e-mail, but in private his approach of convincing the political controversy. That we , all of conversations. Does the German Gennans of the Jews' usefulness in us, have no choice hut to bear language have to appear on the the Third Reich's Annaments War witness. The 60th anniversary is the inrormation/direction notice boards? Lffort, was sensible. He believed that very last opportunity when we can It seemed to me that yes, it does. If this way he would save a goodly sttll do something positive for those only lO infonn young Germans of number of Jevvish lives. I do not still alive .... what their daddies and grand-dad­ know how a man whose nation, dies practised here. But I was tOld whose people are destined for H we adopt this allitude, then that such information should be exterminarion should conduct there is no point in , no reason for confLned to speCial gUide books. On himself - one who is seeking a splitting hairs, nor for pettiness. I public notices, however, which will method, a means to save, at leasL, a ask you, therefore, please, refrain be worded in solemn, respectful handful of them? Where does one from asking me about what the language, we should use Hebrew, draw the line beyond which one attitude of so-and-so may have been, Yiddish, Polish and English. That must not venmre? It is hard even to at the beginning, towards [his will be enough. German, for them, is imagine how one would act under undertaking .. . a language of nlisery, crime, tragedy. those circumstances. We are familiar, That is how they remember it. from history, from literature with PL Does your experience: bear out the such beautiful stories; a ship is fact that lack oJ goodwill towards PL: There is one aspect in the histoJY of sinking, there are not enough life­ the Jews is the resulL of Hule, or no, the Litzmanstadt Ghetto which ttJ1ments boats ... for everyone .. . A decision is knowledge oJ their hL~tory? me in particular; have you considered, reached; women and children first. sir, how those Jewish paren~, whom It is an impulse of the instinct of self­ 1 have not considered that point. 1 the Germans forced to hand over their preservation . I do not even want to have not had the time. Time is of the children , felt? think of finding myself ever in such essence . And one step a[ a time. I straits. Only the Jews themselves can have to prioritise. Is my project This is the gravest, most painful judge Rumkowski. going to be accepted by the Public consideration - emotionaUy and Indigence Office? Fonunately, it has intellectually. For the question is) PL There were 250,000 Jews in Lodz.

20 How many are there now? probability. My mind refused (0 You are not the first to put that accept it and it is all crystal clear - question to me. I have only one There are about 350 registered at the really, there is no choice. Lp to now answer: there are obligations which Jewish CounciL I have not encountered any such must be fulfilled. And the price? manifestations, nor any signs of One will have to pay it... or not. .. I PL Are you not apprehensive about hatred, none whatever. am doing all [ can to win the public anti-Semitic demonstrahons during the over, to convert it [0 my point of marches? PL Taking the "business" of the view. Jews to the people, did you not It is an odd thing. I was warned at fear loss oj popularity amongst your Translated by Janina Fischler­ first that 1 must reckon with this supporters? Martinho, Croydon 2004

first stepped foot on the site of the who had travelled from all over former Nazi death camp at Belzec BELZEC: FINALLY the world, plus about 500 local I in 1974. For many years I have people who attended to pay their returned annually and paid my respects. Leading the dignitaries respects to the innocenl men, women LAID TO REST was the Polish President Alexander and children that lay beneath my Kwasniewki and an entourage feet. As I walked the perimeter 1 of political, religious, and could not imagine what those poor Robin D'Neill ci.vil personages. The two hour people went through during those ceremony, broadcast live in Poland, piliful and fatefu1 months between Robin is a Jormer CID Officer. incorporated speeches from March and December 1942. He took his MA at University Ambassadors, Dr Reinhard Scheppe It is well known that for many College, London, under Sir (Gennany), David Peleg (Israel) and decades the site of the former death Martin Gilbert . He is in Christopher R Hill (America). Flanked by 400 Israeli army camp has been contenlious due lO the process of completing his the neglect and failure by local PhD - Jews In Galtcia - personnel, the Polish President reminded us all and stated: authorities to respect the enormous Transportations to Belzec. He 'This whole Jewish universe of significance of what happened here. took part in two archaeolOgical Galicia was wiped off the map and On the many occasions I have visi.ted investigations which were buried in this grave'. Then, led by the site small bone remnants could earned out between 199718 at the President and in small groups, a be found on the surface having been the site DJ Be1zec extermination walk of remembrance commenced. exposed by the elements over the camp and his report appeared On entering the memorial site the years. our issue walkway cuts into the hillside 1 was in Belzec between 1977 in Journal number 22 descending 30 feet below ground, and 2001 as a guest of the Polish - Autumn 1998. then rising via steep steps to another archaeological team when a scientific walkway and exit. The exit path is forensic examination cHscovered ladies related to me how they had 33 lined with memorial stones depicling mass graves. The point of this exer­ jumped the trai.n and fled under towns from where the Jews were cise was to avoid intruding on the Aryan identity to Gennany but were transported. It is estimated that mass graves area when the memorial betrayed and sent to Auschwitz. no less than 600,000 Jews were was built. This was done under the Annie showed me her number: murdered here between March and watchful eye of (he Rabbi of Warsaw 38330 with a triangle (political December 1942. Michael 5chudrich. A photographic prisoner) clearly visi.ble on her arm, The ceremony was a grand record of the memoria1 building perhaps her Jewish identity had been political occasion but for me the progress can be seen on our web preserved. To have escaped Belzec most moving part of this ceremony site:www.dearhcamps.org and Auschwitz is remarkable. Our was not at the memorial site but On the morning of 3rd June 2004 own Helen Goldman, now living in the overwhelmlng greetings our five coaches left central Warsaw Sutton, also escaped by this method procession of coaches received on flanked by police cars with blue and lived to record the events of entering Belzec village. For over 30 lights and sirens wailing. lt occurred 1942 when as a young girl she years I have always detected some to me that this was not so much a jumped from a Belzec transport to indifference by the local population security precaution but an exercise to freedom and safety. of Ckrainians and Poles to the ensure that we arrived in Belzec on Arriving on the oUlskirts of Belzec demise of the Jewish people in time. It is a 4 - 5 hour drive from on time, we viewed the arriving heli­ the camp. To a man, woman and W'arsaw to cover the 130 miles to copters transporting the President's child the whole village had turned Belzec. I travelled in one coach with men. Once collected together the out in their Sunday best and stood a group of relatives and holocaust procession proceeded into the fanner respectfully on . the roadside. survivors from America. Several death camp site which had been Factories, shops and all other families gave me their memories as to prepared with platfonn and micro­ means of daily life came to an how Belzec has affected them. Some phones, television screens, rows of abrupt halt to pay respect to the had escaped the onstaught and had chairs and many security personnel. Jewish people entering their village lost their nearest and dearest [0 the The ceremony was attended by for their day of memory and perhaps, Nazis" final solution'. Two elderly 500 invited guests and relatives hnal reconciliation.

21 KURIMA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1942 PRESOV Judith Sherman GESTAPO PRISON, Judith (nee Stem) lived with her younger sister Miriam in Weir Courtney and in Lingfield Hot/se. She studied Social Science at the L.S.E. and CZEC HOSLOVAKIA, later emigraLed to the U.S.A., where she lives with her husband Reuven in New Jersey. In recent years she has been lecturing 1944 on the Holocaust. Judith Sherman Evka's Request fares. Evka was five and her brother Isaac three when he ldt. In every letter he states the tickets will arrive Your years a tale here are only a handful of "soon." Every letter brings hope and jev..'ish families left in the disappointment. Evka knows him by 1 recognize you TvilJage. My friend Evka's the one coloured photograph he sent. family is for the next transport. Evka who passed through It is in a Silver-plated frame on a comes by with a request. and left your marks small lace coloured table. Out of "As soon as we get there, T v...111 on these prison walls hurt and frustration her mother turns send our ne\v address to you so you the photograph face down when can send us Papa's letters," she says. Evka leaves Cor school - then, on her Your years a tale "1 will," I reply. "But why return from school, Evka rightens it. or harmonica sounds don't you send the add ress to him of planted corn directly?" This regular ritual is never discussed. mended shoes She looks hurt. "Papa is llsed to They are sweetly protective of each writing to this ad dress. " other whilst from far away America "Promise you will check for Papa keeps the hurt and hopes alive. you carried little ones his letter every day at the post Maternal grandparents keep the across the brook office. 1 told them to give it to you." family fed. you prayed - you whistled 1 promise. I pick up one lettt;;r from the post fixed the roofs and lit the lamps fvka badly wants Papas leaers office, but receive no forwarding made bread - made wine and she is equally concerned that address. Evka must not have an danced and teased address. lhey not be sent back to him, lest he dran k buttermilk stop writing. At what point are the letters no Papa's letters come only about t'-'vo longer delivered? No longer written? to three times a year. Her father left What does he make of this - that fear not, fear not for America seven years ago. Then papa in America whose photograph may these walls rot the plan was that he would send [or in Kurima moves from upright to ere 1 forget your the family as soon as he saved up the dov,'T1right to upright. years, your tales

You who come here after me recount DEPORTATIONS, 1942 my taJe my years my brevity. Judith Sherman

he town crier ;:mnounces know - but she seems very old grandmother down the steps and deporlations will take place. and frail. Szuri and grandmother into the waiting truck. TThe language used is "resettle­ are among the first families to be Very shortly after, village people deported. I am there to - to - to be loot the house. A villager looks ment to the East." More informatiun there. 'vVe do not say goodbye at the needle-point picture, and is not provided, except for the because we do not yet comprehend then throws it onto the heap on luggage allowed - one suitcase per what deporLalion is. 52uri stands in lhe [loor wit h the other no person. The deportations are by the small front room fingering the longer valued items. The glass categories. Young people, men, needle-point picLUre on the \-vall. shatters and the frame breaks. families with no exemptions and on. Her mother made it. The frame is He takes with him the coffee 5zuli lives with her grandmother. oval and not very large, bur Szuri has pot and umbrella. I stand hidden Just the two of them. Her parents no room in her suitcase. "It will be behind the drapes and cry - for died several years ago. Szuri is here after the war," she says, stroking Szuri, because she is not here to do twelve. Her grandmother - I do not it gently. She leaves lO help her her own crying.

22 Close call. El1a's, she is not aware of my absence RAVENSBRUCK: until my return when 1 am being "tucked" in by the Blockalteste. y aunt EIla is working in SIEMAN'S SUBCAMP Soon Ella whispers, "tomorrow the Siemens factory, manu­ 1 will show you where the urine M facturing parts for German Judith Sherman bucket is." That will be good. In annaments. When 1, aged fourteen, the dark we stay indoors without am miraculously released from lavatories. It is winter. It gets dark not put on the light and orders every­ Revier, the T.B. hospital, I am early. When I wake up during one back into their bunks, schnell! allowed to join her. Conditions in that night I see Ella standing and Me she drags to my bunk pushes me this sub-camp are better, perhaps watching me, shaking her head, up onto the second tier and quickly because Siemens prisoners work in covering me. covers me with the blankel 1 share close contact 'vvi.th Gennan civi.lians. t should be worrying about But the slightest infraction in the with my bunkmales. hanging and shooting and torture factory is seen as sabotage resulting "Macht alles normal! Alles and the pain caused others, and all I in severe punishment, death, and normal!" she keeps whispering can think of is how does the quick replacement. anxiously and angri Iy up and down Blockalteste manage to have a Appell here is shorter, the soup is along the row of bunks. housecoat? She is the first and only thicker. However, the toilets are She lS terrified and furious. If they woman 1 see in Ravensbruck wearing outside. I go there during my first come in to investigate the shooting, a housecoat. My thoughts will not night and from the watchtower my behaviour will be seen, or will move beyond this topic. 1 have the guard shouts, "Halt! Halt!" I run certainly be assumed to be, an been wrapped in a housecoat before. - he shoots. I keep running and he attempt to escape. Nothing enrages I know of that. A noose around keeps shooting. I cannot see the them more than escapes. The my neck, a bullet into my body .. my bullets but hear and smell them all Blockalteste wil1 be held responsible mind refuses .. . around me. When 1 manage to for my behaviour and she and the The night passes ·without anyone get back into the barrack everyone whole block will be punished. investigating. The Blockalteste says is awake, awakened by the noise Punishment. .. they have a prescribed nothing more to me and sometimes outside. repertoire. she gives me soup from the bottom. The Blockalteste, dressed in a As for Ine. .. attempted escapees 1 work out this scenario: she owes housecoat, grabs me as 1 enter and are publicly hanged or shot after her li re to my fast running and is yells, "Are you mad to go out there? torture in the punishment bunker. grateful. When I am not totally on How can they keep a watch on you in Age is no protection. the edge, I indulge in heroic fantasies the dark, you stupid Jew!" She does Since 1 am on the bunk above ... at least survival fanLasies.

am \vriting these words ttying to exits black unifOlmed Ukrainians all recall events so unbelievable my MY LAST with weapons at the ready The I concentration wanders... Here 1 Jewish police also in large numbers sit surrounded by beauty and EIGHT MONTHS were near the buildings, near the colour. Around me a garden of gates of the buildings which just lovely flowers, majesLic cypress IN THE opened as if for another Ghetto day, trees, umbrella pines, delicious every man armed with a truncheon. honeysuckle - so quiet and tranquil. WARSAW GHETTO Walls were plastered with proclama­ Did I really live through these limes I tions in German and Polish will tly to describe now? Yes, I did! Edyta Klein-Smith languages, stating that only people In this account, I shall omit all with special passes and jobs valued misery of my life in the Warsaw Edyta and her mother survived by the Germans could stay in the Ghetto since November 1940 and on the Aryan side and after the Ghetto. Others were destined for start with July 22nd 1942 - the war went to the U.5.A. She has resettlement in the East. We had nOl yet heard the world Trebhnka. How declaration of the Final Solution. lived with her husband Tom in The beginning of the end. England for many years and is to find a valuable job? Where to go? V1here to hide? The tenants of a As we got up that morning and, a valued member of our as always, gJanced through the large apartment in whi.ch we had a windows at the world outside - SOciety. room huddled in a long corridor, literally, since we had a wall on crying, hugging each other and SWietojerska Street that divided the contained many dead bodies barely whispering. All that was very strange Ghetto from the Aryan Warsaw, covered with papers, to be collected to me since before it was always just the pavement on the other side with later in the day, our side has changed a polite 'Good morning'. I grew up normal life actlvities, clean children, this morning of July 22nd. It was very qUi.ckly. people going to work - life! But our early, well before the curfew ended. The deportations started immedi­ side, the side of poverty, hunger, The street was full of Polish police, ately. The Jewish police had to the tragic side that in the mornings rows of Germans and on the wall and deliver to the departure point, The

23 Umschlagplatz, 6,000 people a day; black market which kept the Ghelto transport. If to the right, the inmate within two days, the number was alive [or 20 months just stopped. I had to remain standing and was increased to 10,000 a day, and more. don't remember eating any meals the marched back into the factory in a Some poor and hungry volunteered first days of the Action. Again, group. We were always facing because the Germans promised through bribery and protection, select ion in rows of five. At one food on departure. The first victims my stepfather, Sranislaw, became section, standing in the row with my were patients in hospitals, orphan­ employed in a shoemaker:S depart­ parents, I realised that we had no ages, and old people. My paternal ment of Toebbens. Another card chance for three out of five to survive grandparents came (0 say goodbye, of life! We had to move nearer the selection. I n a second I pushed and LO see me ror the last time. ' the Toebbens factory to a miserable, my mother lO the front and my They were told that the block in rat-infected place. The workers had stepfather to the back. Strange which they lived would be evacuated to be inside the gates at 6 o'clock in people automatically stepped in the next morning. Hot July, blue the morning ... My parents with their their place to keep the row or skies - on the street complete Ausweisses (passes) and the help of five. We passed the seleclion. pandemonium. People scurrying the Jewish police smuggled me inside Did I hasten anybody's final back and forth, avoiding being the factory gate every morning in the moment? Who knows, but 1 do caught, trying to get a pass for a tailoring department. 11y mother think about it. German-owned factory. Many was finishing buttonholes of boys' Blockades of whole sections, small so-called shops opened up, clothing, all in thin blue fabric. empty buildings and continuous rain employing people. Three large Some days she ironed, patched of feathers - where did all the feathers factories already existed - Toebbens, and cleaned uniforms. She worked come from? Schultz and Brushmakers. For the at the table approximately four feet Our Toebbens shop was located nrst couple of weeks we were still long and three feet wide with the on Leszno Street, in what was once a allowed to live in our Ghetto flat in unfinished merchandise under the gymnasium. One hot and sunny which our small ramily of four had table. That was my hiding place. I morning towards the end of AU6'Ust, lived for 20 months. We clung to was lying between the boys' clothing a Nazi director, Herr Bauch, called lhe miserable normality which was or uniforms at my mother's feet for everyone lO the courtyard. He said slipping away. My uncle Jozef, twelve hours daily until the 6 pm that it was common knowledge that through connections and bribery, whistle, when everyone ran to the children were hiding in the premises. was employed by the Schultz shop courtyard to collect a bowl of watery 'Tt prevents parents from doing their and had a pass, an Ausweiss - a soup. But that routine was too best and hampers the productivity Lebenskarte as we called it. One peaceful. That first big Action needed for the Reich.' The nice man down, three to go. The 'Action' was continued until mid-September and arranged for nurses to accompany raging. Somet imes as many as deported about 310,000 people. the transport to an open space for the 13,000 a day were deported. The Even the cards of life were not safe. children to play in the fresh air and a landlord of our Ghetto flat became a Selections started inside the kettle of porridge to eat. All under foreman in the tailoring department factories. Mid-August my young the threat of death - dovn.1 in ten of Toebbens' shop. He was a wonderful uncle Jozef was taken minutes. Thirty or 50 children from professional tailor. He tried to from Schultz's factory. Thousands of different departments canle down, employ people who owned sewing people caught and brought lO the including myself. I was just about to machines. He took my mother into Umschlagplatz were literally shoved join the group at the gate when a boy his department and now she had the into the cattle wagons. A Jewish 1 knew stopped me. 'Come, come card of life! policeman, a friend who was also a with me~' He knew his way around At the beginning of August, pharmacist, and before the war this old school, and soon we were the walls were tightening up. The employed by my grandfather, triecl safely hidden in the attic. vVhen we fortunate exempted from immediate frantically to pull uncle Jozef oU( of heard the whistle at 6 pm we came deportation had to live near factories, the transport. He was not successful. down and joined the others in the or the JeWish Council or Jewish That evening he told us what queue for soup. Everyone realised police blocks. The rest of the Ghetto, happened. It was a terrible blow. that the children were not coming called wild, was off-limits. But At first we were timidly uncertain back. Mothers were hitting their thousands of people were hiding in that such a place as Treblinka heads on the walls, some screamed, special camouflaged places - attics, could exist; but as the name was some stayed deadly quiet. When I basements, etc. more and more \vhispered by the walked up to my mother, she had a The Action continued. Every few Ghetlo inmates, our hopes of survival wild bewildered look. Without a streets one or two open lorries with diminished. word or looking aL anyone, she German gendarmes, carbines, and The Toebbens also started selec­ grabbed me. and ran through the even machine guns, waited to fill it tions. Whatever one reads and factory gates lO our hovel. No soup up for transport. The catching, knows, one cannot imagine the that evening. After that tragedy it struggling, round-up and beating of feel ing of standing in front of a was impossible to hide in the shop. people were left to the Jewish police. tall, handsome, impeccably gloved No-one was allowed to SLay in the The final blows were left for the hand, which, if moved to the left, living quarters. All the doors had to Germans. All the stores and food indicated the inmate had [Q sit on be left open, and the Germans supplies ceased to exist. The thriving the paveluent or road, ready [or continuously checked the buildings.

24 For a couple of days T moved from fast. 1 knew the young man. ln the people with a whip. This whi.p had place to place. My poor mother was winter of 1941 there was a small an iron ball on the end. My mother in constant hysteria. Without telling lce-skating rink in the ghetto. Both was struck on the side of her head. my parents, l decided to go to of us, being good skaters, had spent This was catastrophic, since sick Hen Bauch's office, the same some time together enjoying these or wounded would never pass the Herr Bauch who a fevv days before moments. selection. In a panic I somehow sent the children to Lheir death, Before we left the Ghetto for managed to wrap her up in a scarf. and personally ask him to issue good, we managed to escape many We had to hold up our Ausweisses me with an Ausweiss. His office 'kettle' situations. The Ukrainians (passes) high over our heads in our was on the ground Ooor, guarded were always shooting for fun, and right hand. At the end of the street, by the German police. With my the Nazi monster nicknamed more SS , more police, more open nicest smile, 1 told them that T Frankenstein was looking for lorries. The bosses of each factory wanted to see Hen Director Bauch. victims. were present but djd not want Unbelievably, they let me and, Dirty, undernourished, and everyone back. With my parents I even more unbelievably, with lice-infested, 1 became very sick, moved towards the Toebbens group. an even sweeter smile, 1 informed with a high temperature. A strange We passed! Bauch that my mother worked yellow colour covered all of me, 1 estimate that after that day there in the tailoring department, that l including my eyes, nails and were less than a hundred thousand was very skilled in tailoring, and even my gums. 1 had yellow jaun­ people left. About half that number could I please have an Ausweiss? dice, a miserable and contagious were in the factories and Jewish His secretary issued one on the spot. disease. My parents dressed me police; a hospital still existed, groups 1 now had my Ovvn card of life, and carried me inside the Toebbens of people were working outside and my own bowl of watery soup in gates. \Io-one was allowed to the Ghetto, doing dirty jobs, sorting the evening. stay home. We struggled in this rot.ten vegetables, working on the Selections continued. Miracu­ fashion for two days but 1 did railways, etc. There were day and lously, we hung on. More and more not care then if I hved or died. 1 night shifts. The rest were so-called often in the evenings the Germans begged my parents to leave me. They "wilds", hiding wherever they could. would have an open lorry waiting for covered me with blankets, threw We existed in misery near our shop. the Jewish police to fill it up with some old clothing over the bed, and In mid-January 1943 the Jewish people rushing to their hovels from I stayed that way until I heard at underground killed the Jewish chief work to eat their soup and have a few different times each day the Germans of police, had a few skirmishes and a hours of rest. in many cases, the checking the rooms, poking beds few Germans were killed. Our shop Ausweisses (passes) did not help. with their guns, moving to the next was a separate world. We just heard One time the three of us running building. The toilet was frightening about it. Early in March, yet another home realised that the street to use since the rats sitting on meeting with WaIter Toebbens at the was blocked by lorries at both ends. the pi pe seemed to be waiting courtyard. After endless selections, In the Ghetto slang, we ca1led this for me. Miraculously, my parents 'kettles', diseases, we were a small 'in the kettle'. No way out. My did not get infected) and within group of a few thousand. He called stepfather had a cousin living 10 days I was much better and us his faithful workers. He decided in a building next to where we back at Toebbens. ~o doctor or to move the factory to Poniatowa stopped. The cousin had a very medication! within the next couple of weeks. ingenious hiding place. My stepfa­ Through all the Final Solution, the Lots of fresh air and good country ther, Stanislaw, knew it. We ran up worst day in my memory was food were promised. Amazingly, the steps, knocked and were let in September 6th. By that time, at least with all our Ghetto deprivations, just at the last moment. In the very half the population had disappeared. some telephones were working. narrow space stood about a dozen The rest were told to gather together My mother got in touch with friends people. The outside was perfectly in a couple of streets which on the Aryan side. They said that camouflaged. A young woman was were once inhabited by the very mother and 1 could get help and false holding a baby, who started to cry poor. People crowded into empty documents but that they could not vVithout a word the young mother buildings, sat on (he pavements risk helping a man. Bribing the opened the wall and threw her baby everywhere. We were waiting for the guards who watched the commando oue. No-one scopped her. We all main selection. Only the ones with workers aSSigned to sorting out wanted to live . The Germans shot the card of life would be allowed to rotten potatoes outside the Ghetto the child. The Action over, we went pass. The ones without the card of walls, mother and I left. Toebbens home. life would try lO knock down a did take his faithful workers to A few days later, in an almost weaker person and take their card. Poniatowa. They were made to dig identical situation, caught 'in a kettle' In these tragic moments) we were their own graves on November 4th by myself, 1 did not know which way losing our sense of morality. In the 1943, and then were all shot. One to run. A Jewish policeman on a meantime, the Jewish police were victim was Stanislaw. Mother and I, bicycle just scooped me up and helping the SS to keep all the who had both already left the Ghetto, protecting me \vith his back drove thousands of people sitting. The watched from the outside as the me out of the 'kettle'. The Geffi1ans blows were coming from all sides. Warsaw Ghetto burned. Part of us were shooting. It all happened very One 55 officer on a horse was beating died with the others ....

25 WHERE WAS GOD IN REVENGE? - PILZEN MAY AUSCHWITZ ... ? 1945 ON Michael Etkind BUCHENWALD Michael Etkind Michae1 came to England Ah yes - revenge with the Windermere Group Michael Etkind How many times I swore and lived at the Ca rdross To take it Hostel in Scotland. He is a Oh Buchenwald - why should I forget When the war would end poet of high standing and was you But was I sober when I swore dubbed by our President, You were my destiny Or drunk with hate Martin Gilbert, a~ the Can he who's never seen you know Society's poet. He has been a what man's nature is But then when freedom came I gave them water frequent contributor to our And he who was not in you and From a well Journal. never felt your blows The Russian soldiers looked What does he know of freedom They shook my hand And then I saw the tears in their eyes Was it a test who only freedom knows As they embraced me We had to undergo Oh Buchenwald - my past One by one Like that of Job Who cursed your fertile soil - I walked away without a word Long long ago your sky above To see if our faith survived Who put a spell upon your tall If I could recreate The chamber filled with Zyklon B... majestic trees Six million tests .. ,? Who's sown the seeds that grew The way I felt that poison plant On that May afternoon ... Of course we prayed That peace ... that thoughtless When Satan closed the door Oh Buchenwald - my ever present Unexpected unpremeditated bliss And darkness fell past That weightless walk on air (A drowning man will clutch at You've robbed me of my youth That calm straw) destroyed my faith That glimpse of paradise You've left me stranded and alone ... and so they died And taught me how to look at men It did not last Your Name upon their lips stripped to their naked A motor bike revved up Your very Name bones Beneath the mount on which I lay And brought me down to earth But where were You Oh Buchenwald - you graveyard when Children fed the flame ... ? of a million dreams. That timeless moment did not last.

O[ long ago - as a matter of a lumber mill, a general store, fact, this last March 20th WHAT IT TOOK TO and the police station that he built N 2004 - Lhad the opportunity next to our house. \Ve were quite to celebrate lhe 50th wedding SURVIVE comfortable, but it came with hard anniversary of David and Olive work on my father's part. In 1933 Herman. At that get-together, 1 met Steve (Shimi) Mermelstein and 1934, two of my brothers and some of [he London Boys and Girls one si.ster made Ahya to what was whom I had met as a result of Steve came to England then Palestine. It broke my mother's coming to England in 1946. The in June 1946 with the heart to part with them, especially celebration inspired me to contribute Czech/Hungarian boys. He my oldest brother Arje whom she to this years journal, and tell my lived in the _~helter in the adored; after all he was the first-born. story of survival and my time in East End. He subsequently David and Bella also were great England. Without exaggeration, I emigrated to the States and Zionists and determined to help must say [hat when I became one now lives in Los Angeles. build the State of Israel. All three are of the 100 boys and girls that were gone now, bur they left a wonderful, chosen for the last group out large family, which currently consists of Prague to Lonuoo, it was I was born in a small village called of over 50 members. In 1937, probably one of [he happiest days in Zsdenyova in the Carpathian my mother unexpectedly died my life. It was about 15 months Mountains of what was lhen of meningitis and we were all devas­ after my liberation and I was very Czechoslovakia. We were a family of tated at the loss. 1 was 8 years old. uncertain of what the future would ten children, five boys and five girls. In 1938, Hitler divided bring for me. 1 was the youngest. My father owned Czechoslovakia and our part became

26 Hungary. Cp unril then 1 was promptly returned to my sisters -they were ready to march them to [he attending Czech school. After that, apartment and felt lucky that I had railroad station. When she appeared however, my father enrolled me into run into this friend, othenvise 1 at the apartment with this German the Russian school instead of the would have wound up in Auschwitz. soldier 1 was shocked and scared. Hungarian one. Life for theJews was This was my first lucky break on the She calmed me down and told me to getting worse. 1'v1y father's store and road [0 survival. There were other pack up a few clothing items and that lumber mitt were gone, because Jews lucky breaks as well. On October 15, this soldier would escort us to the could not own a business; however, 1944, I was taken away la a labour hospital. As a reward, my sister gave he managed to make a li\.ing as a camp near Budapest, but because 1 him my brother's harmonica and his lumber contractor delivering lumber was working for a few weeks in a fur clothing in case he eventually would to different countries and larger cities factory [hat made coats for the want to change his unifonn into in Hungary. Hungarian anny, my o1dest sister Sari civilian clothes. The war was coming During this time, three of my was able to get me out of there after to an end but not the clanger [or the sisters - Sari, Esti, and Cili - 1eft and 5 days by bribing a Hungarian Jews. Once in the hospital with my moved to Budapest. At the end of officeT. My three sisters all worked in sister, 1 felt much safer. 1941, my sister Esti came home for hospitals. Sari, the oldest, worked in The winter of 1944 was very harsh Rosh Hashanah and asked my father the je'-Nish hospital that [he Gennans and cold. We had no warm water, to let me go with her to Budapest, took over, and Esti and CHi worked very little to eat, and stepL on the where the three sisters would take in the relocated Jewish hospital floor on a straw mattress. There was care of me. By then, my father had under [he protection of the Swedish not a day that I was not afraid of remarried and was not in favour of Red Cross and the help of Raoul dying. A lot of people had died in me leaving. But in (he end he agreed Wallenberg. During those 5 days, we the hospital and were stacked up like that there was no future in the small had very little to eat. One day as lumber in the yard. They could not village of Zsdenyova, and he let me we were marching to work in the be buried because there was fighting go. morning, I decided to run into a in Budapest and there was lOO much When I came to Budapest, it was bakery and buy a loaf of bread. I still snow Because the corpses were my first experience in a big city. My had some money with me. VI/hen the rrozen outside in below zero weather, favourite thing was to switch the guards were on the other side of there was no health hazard. It just so lights on and off, run the water our column, I ran into the bakery, happened that one of my best faucet, and flush [he toilet. We had put the money on the counter, friends, Willie Rosenberg, whom you none of those luxuries where 1 came grabbed a loaf of bread, put it under all know from london, was also from. In Budapest 1 attended school, my overcoat, and was back in line saved in the same hospital with the and \\lorked as a delivery boy in a wi.thin 45 seconds. 1t was daring, help of his sister. store that made ladies' clothes. but 1 was hungry and decided to take Finally, onJanuary 10th 1945, the Although when I came to Budapesr I a chance. Russian Army liberated us. After a could not speak the language at all, About two weeks after I came few days, my sister Cili and I decided in a very short time 1 became fluent back from (he 5-day labour camp, to go home to the Carpathians. Since in Hungarian. In 1942, my brother my sister Cili, who \vas a nurse, trains were not running, we wound Kalvin also came to Budapest. The declded to get me into the hospital as up in a Russian repatriation camp only one that remained "With my a patient. This was a very risky about 60 miles from Budapest. The father was Bennet and my sister undertaking, because even though by food was wholesome and cooked by Hudje. Her husband had been taken some unexplained miracle, the Jews the Russian army women. Six weeks away to labour camp, and she had a of Budapesl were spared deportation later, we finally left for home. It was 3-year old girl. Until 1943 my life as a whole, they were picked up on just before Passover 1945, and we was not threatened, even though it the streets one by one and shipped spent it with our only surviving aunt was scary, to say the least, to be a Jew. by the hundreds to Austria or who was then 45 years old. By some New laws would come out daily Germany. As my sister Cili was miracle she survived Auschwitz. against the Jews, restricting our lives, coming to take me to the hospital, We found out that the rest of our and ordering us to wear a yellow she was picked up and put into a family did not survive it. lvIy father, Magan David. holding area, which was a yard in an stepmother, grandmother, and one After moving to Budapest, I went apartment building where there were sister Hudje with her 3-year old home evelY Passover to be with my stores on the ground floor. One of daughter Reizale died in Auschwitz. father but, in 1944, as I was going to the storekeepers allowed her to make My sister, Hudje could have survived the railroad statlOn, I met a friend a phone call to my oldest sister Sari if she had given up her baby. But she who had just come from the who was now working in the original chose not to. Carpathians and asked me where I Jewish hospital taken over by the We were very lucky that nine of was going. I told him that 1 was Germans. Cill told her that if she the ten children survived, which was going home for Passover. He put wanted to see her again, she needed unusual. We always thought that our his hand on my chest and said that I to go to the head cook, Maria, whose mother was watching over us from better nOl go because they had just boyfriend was a German officer, above. There are only 3 left now, gathered all the Jews in the and do something. The officer sent a Cili, Bennet, and 1. The rest of 1945 Carpathians, and were shipping so1dier on a bicycle to the address and the first five months of them to Poland. We did not know it where Cili was being held and 1946 were spent between Munkacs, was Auschwitz. Needless to say, I literally plucked her out of the line as Budapest, and Prague. I did black-

27 marketeering and wondered where September 20th 1959. Our first ' and Karen . We were married in 1987 to emigrate to out of that wretched daughter Sandy was born in Buffalo (the children were either going to part of the world where anti­ in 1960. college or had their own homes). 1 Semitism never really stopped. Even though 1 had a good job and always say that 1 have only wanted to When I found out about the English v,'as earning well above average marry tv-rice in my life. when I met transport it was in the week of wages, my aim was to go into Ella, and when I met Marsha. 1n Passover 1943. After many anxious business with my two older brothers, both cases it was love at first Sight. 1t days I was chosen to go with the Bennet and Kalvin. After many turns out that Marsha's family first group out or Prague. As you all attempts, we were finally reunited came to the L.S.A. in the latter part know, this became our new family in Los Angels in 1961. We started of the 18805 from the Ukraine. Her The bond that T made then our garment business with 12 parents were born in America. 1 felt with some of our group and other rented sewing machines, which grew very lucky to have met her. She groups have lasted to this day. It to 200 of our own by the time we brought my life back to normal. would be too much to write in detail sold our business in 1979. We had Between us, we have six daughters about my experienct'~ in London . All become very well known in and six grandchildren. My youngest I can say is that it was an education the garment industry as one of the daughter, Elisa, has one boy and two to live there, learn the language, best contractors of ladies' sportswear. girls, and Marsha's oldest daughter, work in the garment industry, Vvhen my brother Kalvin unex­ Helaine, has three girls . and become a pattern maker in ladies' pectedly passed away in 1978 The Holocaust did not leave me

clothes. at a very young age, Bennet and I I 'Without scars. Because of the harsh Since most of my family was decided to sell the ractory and conditions under \vhich I lived moving to the l'nited States, I concentrate on the real estate during the war, I most likely had decided to do the same. In market. We have been doing it I rheumatic fever that damaged my December 1950 1 left Southampton to lhis day and, thank God, quite aorric valve. It had to be replaced in for New York on the Queen Elizabeth successfully. 1983 with a porcine valve, and in 1. V/hen 1 arrived in the U.S.A . I In Los Angeles, my family grew lO 1992 with a mechanical valve. missed my friends in London, and it 4 daughters, with the arrivals of Thank God it works fine and I am took me a while to get used to the Elaine, Suzanne, and Elisa. In 1975, able to have a normal life . ~ext year new life. 1 finished studying pattern when the youngest was not quite 7 will be the 60th reunion of our group making at the Fashion Institute of years old, Ula passed away at the and we hope to attend. It is very Technology in New York in June very young age of 34. 1t was a blow important that we let the younger 1955, and got a job in Buffalo, New to the whole family. She was able generations know what happened to York. It was a very important step in to overcome the Nazis, but lost her us during the Holocaust. My oldest my life, because by moving to Buffalo battle with cancer, a battle she had daughter, Sandy, is a high school I was able to meet a wonderful girl, fought for j years, For 12 years I teacher and for the past 15 years she Ella, who came to the u .S.A. \vith her stayed single, concentrating on has invited me to her classes to tell family in 1948. She was born in bringing up the children and running my story of survival. Lvov, Po land, in 1940, gi ven to a a business. Life was difficult, but I We all have stories to tell gentile family in order to survive the had no choice other than to do the wh ic h are an important part of our war, and reclaimed by her surviving best lhat I could. lives. This is my story, and I tell it in parents in 1945 after [he war. We gOt Fortunately, in 1982, I met Marsha memory of my family who did not engaged in April 1959 and marrieu who also had two daughters, Helaine survive. EMBARKATION OF FLICm TO THE UK BY 'THE BOYS' WAS FILMED

Suzanne Bardgett Project Director, Holocaust Exhibition at The Imperial War Museum

aders will be now almost and to Paul Sargenl, Deputy Keeper children, with travel bags packed, certainly have heard of the of Film, who, once alerted, found bound for the LK. the section of film. The dope It is only today - with the benefit R creening at the Annual sheets completed by the RAF film of all that has been written and Dinner of original film footage I cameraman suggest that the told about 'The Boys' - that the full showing the departure of some of departure of the young refugees was Significance of this sequence can be 'The Boys' by Stirling aircraft from recorded almost by accident. The appreciated. Czechoslovakia in August 1945. The principal story was to have been the Members of the '45 Aid Society 'surfacing' of this film in the Imperial story of the Czech Air Force's return wishing to purchase the video may War Museum's Film Archive is due to to the base, but bad weather caused do so by sending a cheque for £.20 the good memory of Sir Marlin [heir arrival (0 be delayed, and lhe (includes postage and VAT) to Gilbert, who told film director Herb cameramans attention was caught Matthew Lee, Film Archive, Imperial Krosney that he had seen such a clip instead by the arrival at the War Museum, Lambeth Road, in a German television documentary, aerodrome of a mysterious group of London SEl 6HZ.

28 HERE AND Now ADDRESS BY CHIEF RABBI OR JONATHAN SACKS HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY - BELFAST 27 JANUARY 2004 n the beginning, we read: "And six years, making no secret of his * * * God formed man from the dust of plans. In Rwanda months, years beforehand, people had been The Chief Rabbi Dr }onathan Sacks I the earth, and breathed into him delivered the follOWing two speeches warning of the bloodshed to come. the breath of life" - to teach us that at the Europe Against Anti-Semitism when we do good, we are little lower And the world wasn't listening. People sometimes ask me: "where conference in Brussels on Thursday 19th than the angels. But when we do February: evil, we are dust, lower than the was G-d in the Holocaust?" But beasts. the real question is: "where was Keynote Speech - "The Greatest Tonight we have remembered two humanity?" Weapon of Mass Destruction" dark nights of evil, when humanity G-d was in a voice that has been Closing Remarks - "If not Now, descended into the depths of hell. speaking since man first walked on When?" Which of us will forget 9/11 when earth . In the words, "Thou shalt not 3,000 people were murdered on a kill. " In the words, "Do not oppress Keynote Speech - "The single day? a stranger." In the words, "Your Greatest Weapon of Mass During the llolocausl, on average, brothers blood cries to me from the Destruction" 3,000 people were murdered every ground." Since 9111, there is a phrase we have day, 365 days of the year, for five and G-d wasn't si1ent in the Holocaust. heard repeatedly: weapons of mass a half years. G-d wasn't silent in Rwanda. But destruction. The greatest force of And in Rwanda, in the spring of when G-d speaks and we don't mass destruction, however, is not 1994, three times as many, for 100 listen, even G-d can't save us from anthrax or sarin gas, not chemical, days. ourselves. biolOgical or even nuclear weapons. How do we begin to imagine evil And stil1 we aren't listening. It hves in the human heart, and its on such a scale? Throughout the world today name is hate. The techniques and The only answer is to think of preachers of hate are still pouring technologies may be new, but the individuals. Each of the victims was out their pOison, demonizing their problem is as old as time. a human being like you and me, with opponents, inciting their followers to It follows that when all the wars hopes for the future, fears , dreams. violence. Even today the world is are fought, all the laws passed and all Everyone of them was like us. silent while the viruses of anti­ the policies pursued, a problem And evil happens when we forget Semitism, racism xenophobia mutate will remain; a spiritual problem, a that other people - whose faith or and claim their victims one by one. sickness of the soul. That demands a way of life is different from ours - are Which is why we must never spiritual, even a religiOUS response. still people like us. And their forget what happened if we are to But here we face a dilemma. In his­ deaths are no less evil because they prevent a happening again. How? tory, nothing has been a greater force happened long ago or far away. By telling the story, as we've done for love than religion, yet nothing has Three things connect Rwanda and tonight. been a greater force for hate. It the Holocaust. By remembering how people like Religion is like fire. wanns, but it also bums; and we are the guardians Those who died were killed not Mary B1ewitt have worked with the of the flame. because they did anything but simply survivors, helping them rebuild their How is it that after more than fHty because they were born into the shattered lives. years of Holocaust education, anti­ wrong religion, the wrong tribe, Above all, by teaching our chil­ racist legislation, human rights dren that it doesn't have (0 be this because they were different, because declarations and interfaith dialogue, someone said, they're not like us. way. That one who isn't in my image we are still, in Europe, in 2004, Secondly, in both cases genocide is still in G-'s image. That humanity talking about anti-Semitism? became possible because for years, lives in the face of a stranger. That To understand this we must first people were taught to see other difference doesn't threaten, but understand what anti-Semitism is. people as less than human. The en1arges the world. It is not a coherent belief. In the Jews were vermin. The Tutsis Our children are capable of great 19th century, Jews were hated were inyenzi, cockroaches. They courage, every act of courage gives because they were rich and because weren't just demonized, they were birth to hope, and hope has the they were poor; because they were dehumanized, so that people could power to defeat hate. capitalists and because they were believe that kUling was a kind of Let us honour the memory of Communists; because they kept to decontamination. those who died by teaching our themselves and because they got And thirdly, people knew in children to honour life and never to everywhere and controlled every­ advance what was going [0 happen. forget that the people who are not thing; because they were faithful In 1939 Hitler had been in power for like us, are still people, like us. to ancient beliefs, and because

29 they were rootless cosmopolitans, Therefore we as Jews say to our when they received a phone call from believing nothing. Christian and Muslim brothers and their son saying: "Mum, Dad, we Anti-Semitism is not a belief but a sisters: we worship the same God, have to leave France, it's not safe virus. The human body has a pow­ the God of Abraham. 'vVe are part of [or us here any more". The next erful defence against viruses, the the same family. For heavens sake, morning 1 opene.d La Stampa to see a immune system. How then does a let us fight hate together and remove cartoon of baby Jesus in a crib virus defeat an immune system? By Lhe weapon of mass destruction that surrounded by Israeli soldiers mutating. In our time that is what is still lives in, and destroys, the human pointing a machine gun at the child, happening to anti-Semitism. Lt is heart. and undernfath, the caption: "they mutating in such a way as to defeat are cruCifying me again," 'vVeeks later the most powerful immune system Closing Remarks - "If Not my own daughter came back from an ever created in Vv'estern civilisation; Now, When?" anti-globalisation rally that quickly the effon, after the Holocaust, to The Jews of Europe loved Europe. turned into an attack on Israel and make racism taboo. They lived here for a thousand years, Jews, and said to me wiLh tears in her How has it done so? By attacking in some places, 2,000 years. They eyes: "Dad, they hate us" . This is no lsrael rather than Jews; by loved its languages, its literature, its way for Europe [0 write its future . demonising it and blaming it for all landscapes. Whenever they could, I do not wish to exaggerate. Th is the troubles of the world. It is they enriched its arts and sciences, is not 1942 or 1938 or 1933. But then able to turn the whole system, busi ness and industry, politics seeds are being planted that one day created to protect Jews, into a and cl\,il life. They helped make will bear fruits of pure poison. They weapon with which to attack Jews. the Europe of modern times. In phi­ are coming from the anti-globalisa­ Accuse Israel (and by implication losophy, Wittgenstein. In Hterature, tion left, the faT right and the Muslim Jews everywhere) or racism, Heine, Proust and Katka. In music, street. They are coming from other apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and Mahler and Schoenberg. In sociolo­ pans of the world, spread by email, you are then able to say: if you are gy, Durkheim, In anthropology, satellite television and the internet, against these things, then you must Levi. Strauss, in phYSiCS, EinsLein, in using inflammatory images anu be against Israel and Jews. By this economics, David Ricardo, in art, incendiary speech. Tens of millions demonic mutation, the ancient virus Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine. They of children are being taught that i.s able [0 infect the minds of other­ loved Europe, and that love was alone among nations, Israel has no wise good and decent people. It is an betrayed. right to exist and that all the troubles outrage and a blasphemy. Think only of the words Europes of the world are. the work of Jews. All Who is protesting? Jews. That is treatment of the Jews added to the the old mychs, from the Blood Libel why I turn to my Christian and vocabulary of mankind: exile, expul­ to the Protocols of the Elders of lion Muslim friends and say, with all sion, inquisition, auto-da-fe , ghetto, are being recycled - and this after the power my inadequate voice can progrom - and the word for which more than 50 years of saying "Never convey: Jews must not be left to fight there is no word: Holocaust. That again." Three ideologies dominated anti-Semitism alone. The victim suffering runs like a blood-red Europe in the 20th century. Fascisln cannot cure the crime. It is not the stain through [he pages of European came and went. Communism came one who is haLed, but (he one who history. and went. Anti-Semitism came and hates, who needs to change. Just as But we do not look back on those stayed . What would future genera­ 1vluslims should not be left to fight years with hate. After 2,010 years of tions say if the political and religiOUS lslamophobia alone, just as slavery and attempted genOCide in leaders or Europe saw all this and did Ch.ristians must nOL be left to face ancient Egypt, Moses commanded nothing? The English writer Thomas persecution alone, so Jews must nOL the Israelites, "Do not hale an Hardy once said: "The resolution to be left to fight anti-Semitism alone. Egyptian , for you were strangers in avoi.d evil is seldom framed till the Anti-Semitism is not the only, but his land." Why did Moses say this? evil is so advanced as to make avoid­ it is in the oldest, longest and most Beca use you cannot build a free 50ci­ ance impossible". Let it not be said virulent racism in European history. ety or create a free people on the of us that we saw the tiny Oame but Why were Jews hated? Because they basis of hate. Hat.e is a prison, the did not put it out until it became Cl were differenl. Because, in Christian prison of the past. Had Moses raging fire. Europe, they were not Christians. allowed the Israelites to hate their Therefore, we, the Jews of Europe, Because in the Islamic Middle former enemies, he would have taken say this. We will fight Islamaphobia. East, they weTe not Muslims. Anti­ the Israelites out of Egypt but he But you as Muslims must fight Semitism is dislike of the unlike, [ear would not have taken Egypt out of J udeophobia. We will fight for the of the stranger, suspicion of the one the lsraelites. To be free you have to right of Christians throughout tht who is nOl like me . let go of hate. world to live without fear. But we That is why, in the opening Therefore we look to the future, ask you, the Christian churches, to chapter of the Hebrew Bible, God not the past. But the signs are not fight for the right of Jews to live as declares that He has made man in His good . Today throughout Europe Jews without fear. own image: to teach us that one \-vho Jews wait anxiously [or the next news And to the politlcalleaders we say: is not in my image is still in God's of a synagogue vandalised, a ceme­ Anti-Semitism does physical hann to image. Though his language is not tery desecrated, a Jewish school set Jews, but it does spiritual hann to the my mine, his colour not Inine, his on fire, Jews attacked in the streets. very soul or Europe. For the sake of retLgion not mine, still he is in God's In April 2002, spending the heaven and humanity, take a stand - image. That is the most powerful Passover in Italy, 1 was walking with [or if we do not do it, who will? And antidote (0 hate ever created. a French couple through Florence. if not now, when?

30 OllY lrYing, a Jewish Holocaust begin to imagine the utter desolation survivor, spent four days with us PAST REALITY AND and pain that Sally has endured, the Sat the end of January. This was inhumanity that he has witnessed. Solly's fourth 'visit and this year he FUTURE HOPES But here in Plymouth he talks of spoke to nine different school future hopes and the possibility of a groups, addressed a university Jonathan Marshall The better world. How can we pOSSibly gathering and attended l wo evening Director of the Plymouth ignore him and those like him who sessions, including a moving evening have also survived terrors beyond Religious and Cultural at The Religious and Cultural I imagination? I[ seems to me that the Resource Centre on 27th January, Resource Centre reflects on only real hope for the future comes Holocaust Day itself. vVe are very the visit of a Holocaust out of the possibility of learning from grateful to 50lly and are mindful of survivor to Plymouth the depths of man's inhumanity jusl how precious and unique this and somehow recreating an even opportunity was. (Copy of article sent to loeal greater depth of humanity. This is As I travelled around vvith Solly, I newspaper 12.2.04) the deepest need today as it was in was deeply moved by the way pupils the past. Education in its widest and staff listened in silence to being with him and hearjng talk after and most real sense is vital. Another extracts from his story which he talk of details regarding the most Holocaust survivor, who went on to oflen entilles, "Destined to Survive". unimaginable inhumanity. I found become a head teacher in America, Questions, sensitively put, gave myself responding fairly immediately. said "Reading, writing, arithmetic are Solly further opportunity lO respond These visits are certainly at the heart only importam if they serve to make to particular aspects and often T our children more human ... " extremely painful experiences. Solly of what the Centre is for. cannot was parted from his parents and four sisters in 1942 when he was just eleven years old. He never saw them again. Solly told groups of youngsters that in the future he hoped that they would continue to be "witnesses'" for the survivors whose numbers continue to dwindle with the passing of each year. This is a major task when we consider that already there are those who dispute the facts and scale of the genocide during the Holocaust years. On one occasion after a school visit, Solly asked me how 1 felt about Solly Irving "Past Reality and Future Hope"

esterday in synagogue, reading safe and free? Didn't they believe the sedra of Shmlnl, a scene 1 YOM HA'SHOA 2004 everything they read and heard, that Y have read so many times, now at last there was an age of suddenly caught me unawares: "And 18 APRIL 2004 enlightenment, of rationality, high it came to pass on the eighth day" 1t culture, liberty and equality. And at should have been the day of days, the LOGAN HALL, LONDON the very height of those hopes came moment for which the Israelites the nightmare, a hell on earth our had been preparing for months - the Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks imagination still struggles to begin to consecration of the mtshhan, the understand. inauguration of the sanctuary, the Three and a half years ago our us, that after all we suffered in first collective house of God. And at world was changed by 9111 in which Egypt, finally we were safe and free . the very height of the celebrations, 3,000 people were killed on a single tragedy struck. Two of Aaron's four And now this? Aaron, 1 beg you. day. During the Shoa, on average sons died. In the midst of joy, grief. Don't give up. Don't lose faith. Don't 3,000 Jews were killed a day, every Moses tries to comfort his brother: despair." day of every week of every month for Hu asher diber Hashem: Bikrovai And what did Aaron reply? five and a half years. Vayidom ehadesh. "This is that what God Vayidom Aharon. Nothing. Not a Aharon. There are no words. Just meant when he said: Amongst those word. Vayidom Adharon. Aaron was grief and memory and tears. closest to me I will be sanctified." silent. There is a grief too deep for How the Jews of Europe loved Your children died because they were words. Europe. They had lived in it holy. They died a1 Kiddush hashem. That is our grief today. for a thousand years, in some Aaron, my brother, don't give up Didn't the Jews of Europe bebeve places, 2,000 years. They loved its now. I know your heart is broken. that their troubles were behind them, languages, irs literature, its land­ So is my mine: Didn't we think, you that after all they had suffered for a scapes. They enriched every aspect and I, that our lroubles were behind thousand years, at last they were of its life. They helped make the

31 blaming the troubles of the world on a convenient target. And Jews, whether in the Diaspora or lsrael, as individuals or as a nation, are always a convenient target, because we are small , vulnerable, because we are di fferenr. And though the language is different, the results are the same. As Amos Oz said: in the 19305, anti­ Some survivors and their grandchildren lighting memorial candles on Yam Hashaah 2004 Semites said, "Jews in Palestine." Today they say, "Jews out or Europe o[ modem times. They loved have the courage to sunive, knowing Palestine." They don't want us to be Europe, and that love was betrayed. what they knew, seeing what they here. They don't want us to be there. saw. They had the greater courage to They don't want us to be. Bacho tivheh balayla tell the story so that the world would Therefore I say to my generation There are ni.ghts when I hear their not forget. And they had the yet and our children's generation: those weeping. greater courage to do so not in anger who died in the Shoa have left us a sacred responsibility. What they died Vedimawallecheya or rage or desire for revenge, but in for, we must live for: the right to be The tears on their cheeks. the name of life and humanity and tolerance and peace. How they had - Jews without fear. Ein lah menachem mikal ohaveha and have - that courage, I do not We will fLghl this battle in three Among all who loved them, there is know, but I find it awe-inspiring. ways. First. we will fight hatred in all none who can bring comfort. One day they will be seen to its fonns, whoever preaches It, and Kol reyeha bagdu vah stand among the giants of the human whoever it is directed against. Their friends betrayed them. spirit. Second, we will seek allies, among Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Hayu lah la-oyevim among people of conscience, They became their enemies. * * * whatever their colour, whatever their And now we mUSl turn our eyes to creed. Let me say with all the power And as long as there are Jews the future. For 13 years you have my inadequate voice can convey: on the face of the earth, we \vill given me the privilege of speaking at Jews must not be left to fight anti­ remember. \Ne will remember the these gatherings - and i[ has been a I Semitism alone. The victim carmot young, the old, the weak, the [rail, privilege. But with every privilege cure the crime. It is not the one who the children, 11/2 million of them, comes responsibility, and che next is hated, but the one who hates, who whose only crime was to have a [0 generation must now shoulder that I needs change. Just as Muslims Jewish grandparenl, whose only responsibility That is my call today. must not be left to fight Islamaphobia crime was lO be born. Those like me, born after the alone, just as Christians must not be vVe will remember the chassidei Shoa, believed the world when it left to face persecution along, so umal olam, the righteous gentiles, said, "Never again". We believed that Jews must not be left to fight anti­ who showed that evil is nO( after the greatest crime of man Semitism alone. inevitable, that with courage we can against man, people would learn; Third, we will fight in the name of rise against it. that after the death of 6 million Jews, the sanctiLy of human lire, in the This year, the sixtieth anniversary anti-Semilism itself would dle. name of the one thing in the universe of the destruction of Hungarian II hasn't. on which God has set his image: jeVvTY, we remember espedally Raoul Today throughout Europe, syna­ humanity itself. Wallenberg, the hero who saved gogues are vandalised, Jewish Therefore we say to all those who lhousands, perhaps tens of thou­ cemeteries are desecrated, Jewish practice terror in the name of God, sands of lives among the Jews of schools set on fire. Terror still seeks who call murder, martYTdom , who Budapest, the man who died in Jewish victims. Jews die. Anti­ take hate and call it holy: (hat is not obscurity, the hero without a grave, Semitism lives. the God of Abraham, the God Jews, of whom \ve say in the words of People say, we exaggerate. We Christians and Muslims worship, the Isaiah: we will give you - don)t. We do not say that today is God whose name is peace, the God "A memorial and the name 1944 or 1933 over again. But we do who commands us to love the better than sons and daughters, an say that a terrible hate is being born - stranger, the God who shed tears everlasting name that will never be and let it not be said of us that we when his children shed blood in his rorgotten. " saw it as a tiny flame and did nothing name. And we will remember the until it became a raging fire . And we say to you, the survivors: survivors. In all the 13 years 1 have People say it is not anti-Semitism. we will not let you down. vVe will been Chief Rabbi, when people ask Tt is anli-Zionism, criticism of Israel. not rest until your message is heard, me who have been the greatest And yea, it is different from the anti­ until the Dan1es of hate are extin­ people I have met, my answer is not Semitism of the past. No new hate is guished, until your candle of memo­ the statesmen or politiCians, not the exactly like the old. Viruses mutate. ry lights the way to a world that hon­ religious leaders or academics, but That's what helps them survive. ours life. May [he God of life give us the Holocaust survivors. Every one Bm the psychological mechanism the strength to sanctify, dignify and of them is a hero. Not only did they is the same - the scapegoating, cherish life . Amen.

32 THREE SPEECHES DELIVERED BY 17 YEAR OLD STUDENTS OF IMMANUEL COLLEGE Abigail Ifield numbers so huge that they are up the trunk of every tree. Above inconceivable. Even now, after our heads the sun was shining on the having been to the concentration leaves, and the sky was blue. The Last December, I embarked on a camps and all the deserted towns, the place seemed perfect. We started journey which proved to be one of numbers are still incomprehensible. walking through the forest - and then the hardest things 1 have ever had to Being in Poland was an immense we came to a clearing. Three large do in my life - 1 went to Poland. struggle for everyone there - we've round pits, with yarzheit candles 1 knew this was something 1 all read the poems, been to the around their edges. I felt horror needed to do in my life. T felt it museums, seen the films - but flooding through me. This beautiful important that I should go, in order the emotions felt then pale in com­ forest had suddenly turned into a to remember all those who perished parison to being in those places place of cruelty. I felt deceived in Poland - and also in order to pass oneself. One of the hardest aspects I and betrayed - how could such a on the story of the Holocaust to my persona1ly had to cope with was how picturesque place be the scene of so children, so that it should never be deceiving the place was. One day, much murder. forgotten. about halfway through the trip, we That moment of shock is one I will Therefore, when the fonns for the went to Tycochjn. Tycochin was a never forget - that moment when I school trip came out, it seemed like Jewish tmm that we were told had realised what had really taken an ideal opportunity to go. once been one or the most thriving place where 1 was standing. I felt The first few days of the trip were towns in Poland, as it was on a disgusted with myself at ever spent in Krakow. We arrived during riverbank, and so good for trade. thinking the place was beautiful. daylight hours - and so the first thing However, when the railway became The most tragiC thing was it probably we did after leaving [he airport was an importam part of trade, the Rabbi, had been beautiful at one time - and to walk around some of the streets of who was the leader of the tovln, then it was destroyed by the Nazis, Krakow. The experience was surreal. didn't like the idea of change - in just as they destroyed everything My father had told me that this is typical Jewish style, he wanted to else. where my great-grandparents were keep hold of traditions - and so Whilst I was in Poland, I could not from, and so my head was filled with the town was no longer to the shake orf the feelings of loss. the thought 'Tm walking where foreground of the trade marker. Everywhere we went, the vastness of my great-grandparents walked." Nevertheless, there was still a large what had been lost followed us. Many other people in my group also Jevvish community living there. Even if we had gone to Poland just had ancestors from Krakow, and we When we arrived, we went into a for the sake of one person who had all shared the same feehngs of beaulifully decorated shul. There died, we would have grieved for that strangeness at being there, where were prayers ill ustrated on the walls. loss. But everywhere we went - the they had once lived. It felt as though We sang and danced in the shul, waste of life was immense. The faces we had gone back in time - to creating a "ruach" (an atmosphere) in that I had seen in pictures of Jews, another era of history We could a place where Jewish voices and people from other ethnic groups, have been a part of those would once have been heard every seemed to stretch away endlessly, photographs that we had seen so day - we sang every single tune into a never-ending horizon. often of Jews on the streets of Poland we could think of to the words on It seemed that everywhere we - especially as everything around us the walls. went, the horror was never-ending. was grey, just like a black-and-white We then got back on to the In Auschwitz, as I stood "davening" photograph. coaches and drove for around 10 - 15 (praying) in the watchtower, the In 1933, thousands of Jews lived minutes. Outside, deep blankets of camp stretched before me as far as in Krakow, and there was a large snow covered the landscape through the eye could see. Standing at the community there. However, when which we were passing. There was entrance to the camp, I looked we went back, there was barely a sunlight on the fields that had filtered straight ahead of me down the train handful of Jews - about 9 or 10 through the clouds. Everywhere track - the rails seemed to extend we were told. The drastic change seemed peaceful and tranquil. infinitely into the distance. Standing in numbers that had occurred When we got off t he coaches, we by the boundaries that separated was chilling - a whole community were standing at the entrance to the different parts of the camp, all I could wiped out. woods. Vv'hen 1 looked up, all I see was an endless amount of barbed As our journey in Poland could see were taU trees, way above wire, and endless concrete bollards. continued, we heard of more and my head - each tree was slightly bent, To the right and the left, before me more whole communities that had which allowed a delicate coating of and behind me, the area was vast. been annihilated. The Nazis had soft snow to remain where it had And there was nothing alive. We completely destroyed Jewish life - fallen, on the side of their trunks. were the only things that moved. It whole generations of people, These lines of white snow stretched was cold outsi.de, but there was no

33 wind that shook the leaves on trees, I that everyone make this visit - nO[ com memorating the events. If or blew through the grass to create just Je\vs, but also everyone else in national and ethnic groups claim the movement. There were no animals the world. 'vVhat dISgusts me the Holocaust as their tragedy and not a to be seen on the landscape. Ir felt Inost is that even after all these human lragedy, ir we are arguing over like time had stopped still. I only horrors have happened, there is still who it happened to as opposed to saw one bird in the sky the whole persecution going on in the world being appalled that it happened, ti me we were there. of different people. Yet I believe what hope is there of preventing ln the past , l[ L have ever been that if everyone makes the same futu re evil? VisitOrs will only graffiti standing in a place where perhaps journey that my teachers, my a monument if they feel that what it ::iomeone famous has stood, or some­ friends and [ made, it is impossible commemorates is of no relevance to thing wonderful has happened, 1 to then want to do anything them" have become ecstatic wirh the BUT strive for peace, and makes Those of us who went to Poland thought of it. But standing in those sure these horrors never ever happen had a lesson on the importance of places, where murderous men had agaIn. freedom and tolerance. We returned stood, and terrible things had taken with a heightened awareness of their place, my feelings were at the other Joseph Skelker fragility in the world today. In this end of the spectrum. I never thought country there is a reluctance to [ would be affected in that way - but accept outsiders, shown in the During our trip to Poland we visited it is impossible to remain passive current debate about immigration. many places where atrocious acts of when you look around and realise In Europe racially motivated violence took place. One such place just exactly where you are standing. attacks are on the increase. Extreme was Zebilitowska Gura, \vhere deep The strangest thing about this religious and political ideologies are in the forest were twO sets of mass journey through the horrors of the fragmenting societies and increaslng graves. In one are the bodies of past was that throughout everything hatred. In this context the rallying leading political and cultural figures cries of "Never forget" and "Never we S~lW\ my bellef in Hashem, the capable of rallying Polish resistance again" are more important and more Almighty, never wavered - if any­ against the Nazi occupiers and in the thing, I (elt even gladder that 1 was other are hundreds o[ Jewish distanl than ever. Jewish. T expected to start doubting children. These graves had been dug The truth is that the world after Him or disbelieving in Him - but by Polish boy scouts as their last the Holocaust denies its lessons. nothing like that happened. There action in this world. We \,isi(ed a Polit ica I opposition is rut hlessly will always be the question of "why grave site in the Lupochowa Forest, crushed in many partS of the world, did He let this happen?" 1 have read where all the Jewish residents of the in, for example, Zimbabwe, Burma many papers and theories that have nearby small town, Tekocin, were and China. There have been savage tried to ans\ver this question, yet, marched and shot row by row into a ethnic killings in R'vvanda and the. even though I ached Vvith pain at collection or mass graves. And, of Bal kans. The slaughter in both what I \vas seeing, I still felt proud to course, we visited the camps where Cambodia and Rwanda has been on a be Jewish. millions were ruthlessly murdered. scale to justify the use of the word On the last day of the trip to For my generation the two Holocaust. It is not unthinkable to Poland, my group visited a Jewish phrases most associated with the imagine an occurrence like that at school in Warsaw. Tt was a few days Holocaust are '"'Never Forget" and Zebilitowska Gura in any continent berore Chanukah, so we took with us "Never Again." Perhaps it is because of the world today. dreidel and chanukiah-making kitS of this that one of the things that 1 he lessons (0 be learnt from the to help them celebrate Chanukah. struck me most in Poland \vas the tragedy do not belong to anyone We did activities with the kids an day graffiti on the memorials. To me the group of people but to humanity. long - and they loved us being there. graffiti shows indifference; it shows The greatest obstacle to their being Being in [he school and seeing so that after only 60 years there is a learnt is the absence of shared many Jewish children in Poland, failure to take the lessons of the responsibility. The two greatest made the trip end on an upbeat. Holocaust seriously. At Tarnov all teachings in .Judaism are "Love lhy We had shared with them a day of that remains or the main synagogue neighbour as thyself" and the such happiness - even though we is the imposing Bimah, the platform fact that human klnd is created in were only there for a day, we had all from which the services are led. the image of G-d. The purpose or created a strong bond with each It is covered in hird droppings and commemoraling the Holocaust is to other - and it really fell as though we graffiti. I also saw graffiti, the tell-tale ensure that these lessons are learnt. were bringing some Jewish life hack evidence of indifference to the evenls During the trip to Poland we were to Poland. that occurred in both Auschwitz and spoken lO by a Catholic woman Although to be in Poland \vas one Plashow. called Paulina. Paulina was 16 years of the hardest Things I have ever had At Plaszow, 1 was struck by old during the Nazis occupation of to do, I also feel that it was onE: of the the existence of two n1emorials, the Poland. When she spoke to us she most imporLant. There are so many larger one erected as Cl memorial for told how she and her family put people out (here in the world today the non-Jewish victims and the their lives at risk by saving Jews in telling lies about the Holocaust - second later memorial for the Jewish the suburb of Krakow where they claiming It never happened, and that victims. From the visits to Auschwitz lived. The danger they ran arose the Jews made it up, etc., etc. 1 and Maidenek it is clear that there because they were reacting to events

Therefore, I think it is important is ethnic and national conflict even in I on their doorstep. We have got to see

34 the world and its problems as if they trivialise the Holocaust and make are happening on our doorstep. it into a showpiece. In contrast After my visit I read Edward with this, Majdanek used no such IF... ? Bond's poem 'If'. Bond argues that tools and shoes were lefl untouched Ausch\vitz could have been located in their original surroundings. Michael Etkind in any countly where the culture For me, this had a much greater dehumanised individuals, even in effect because it was indisputable If Hitler had invaded Britain, England. In his last stanza he evidence that allowed me to make a imagines how the smoke could have connect.ion between the place and which he almost did/ drifted over the green hills of the the e.vent. 1 felt there was a danger sites would have been found Home Counties. l have come back in taking articles out of their for concentration camps. from Poland convinced of the truth original context because there is The British police of the last four lines of his poem. the possibility of alienating their would have assisted meaning and therefore limiting in the rounding up of Jews) "Our culture makes us barbarians t hei r significance. communists/ le does not allow us [0 live There is a further problem. humanely and other "undesirables" .. , From a purely practical point of An "Auschwitz" would have We must create a new culture view, leaving items exposed to the been built Or cease to be human. elements means that they will decompose. In years to come, on England's green and therefore, these items will not exist. pleasant land. Yom Ha-shoah One is forced to make a decision Neighbours would have between prioritising their preserva­ informed Speech tion or providing the public with on neighbours, an accurate display: I came to and the HBoard of Deputies" Naomi Grant support the position of the former, would have submitted lists, since the multiple messages of Another j'Rumkowski" would the Holocaust exist not just As a student of Immanuel College, I have emerged ror immediately forthcon1ing have had access to an education that to claim that he should be communicates the scale and horror generations, but for all generations. In trying to gather my thoughts on IIDer Aelteste der Judenll ... of che Holocaust. My grandmother is A uCzerniakow" would also a survivor and has often spoken what 1 saw, I concluded that the only about her experiences and the way to truly honour memory is to have committed suicide tragedy that befell her family. educc1 te. 1t was only through rather than comply Despite [his connection, however, seeing that I began to grasp the and make lists UNa before the Poland trip, I had no extent of what I saw and relate Wysiedlenie", .. (for deportation) understanding of what the word to it through the medium of an Those trying to fight experience. I learnt to appreciate "horror" entailed, finding it almost would be silenced impossible to translate the enonnity the importance of adopting both personal and communal by "Common Sense" - of genocide into something tangible Telling them that and real. responsibility and the need to be Our visit to Poland LOok us to active in our response to injustice or hundreds of innocent victims camps such as Majdanek and evil political dogma. would be executed Auschv.ritz where we saw articles of Finally, I now feel a desire to for every German killed; clothing, shoes, and other belongings return to Auschwitz and Majdanek, and, when ninety per cent of those who perished. The just as one would to \risi( any grave. of the ghetto population anonymity and inhumanity was 1 belong [Q a generation that is had disappeared, overwhelming. Nevertheless, L felt fortunate enough to speak to an heroic uprising survivors, fortunate enough to hear there was a conflict between the need would have taken place, to display these objects for the sake first hand accounts of the events The uNever Again ll would have of education, and the responsibility that occurred; and fonunate enough to maintain the dignity of those who to see the canlps as they once had to wait died. It seemed disrespectful to were. This is an experience that until the Americans exhibit these items in a museum my children may not have. It was liberated Britain) environment where they run the risk important for me to visit Poland and the Russians overrun of becoming historical arteracts so thal this connection will remain the whole of Germany rather than personal possessions. alive when there are no more and the rest of Europe .. In a similar way, I felt chat the survivors. If I return to Auschwitz, concept of a display was problematic I continue my relationship All this would have in itself. in Auschwitz 1 \ a pi1e of with the place and its hiswry. shoes lay scattered on a ramp behind In this way, the victims of the taken place, a glass walL Such;J. presentational Holocaust can be remembered if Churchill did not refuse to device was effective in eliciting a as people rather than as casualty "negotiate" with Hitler, response, but it has the potential to figures.

35 SEFTON MEMORIAL PROJECT ON 14TH JANUARY 2004 Yom HaAtzmaut Louise Elliott Judith Sherman - April 28, here were twenty of us who we were made very welcome by the went by coach to Troutbeck, dignitaries and the people there, 2004 T Windennere. What 1 under­ which included an elderly woman stand happened was that Unison, who when she was 11 years old, Ancient among the nations who are campaigning against wav~d the coaches in when they we witness your rebirth, racism, anti-Semitism, bullying etc ., arrived at the Camp and remembered like a magnet you draw us had arranged to make a big event to the day very well. There was a short land of our ancestors publicise their aims. The leader o[ speech from Mark, from Mr Nigel the Cumbrian branch of Unison Flanagan, who was a co-director of Your pull solders our yearnings, (Mark CoHins) was dealing vvith the the project, and the Head Teacher. we arrive on the Magic Carpet project. He went on a trip to Canon Or Richard Pratt read from of winged metal Auschwitz and there he met Arek verses in English and Mayer Hersh and make the mountains sing. Hersh who was taking a party of read them in Hebrew. The plaque school children to the Camp (some­ was unveiled by Arek Hersh. After Operation Moses, thing he does at least three Limes a this we were all invited to refresh­ Moses in the Promised Land - year). \laturally, they got talking and me~ts in the school. Ike Alterman awe among the cypresses Arek told Mark about The Boys and his partner have a beautiful cedars, rocks, and rattlesnakes who went to Windermere and if he home on the lakeside and invited all our party there [or refre~hments wanted to know more he should read Crowded boats - floating holes and we spent a couple of hours 1vlartin Gilberts book "The Boys". made room for more reminiscing, and old photographs Mark wanted to know if any of The one more, three, four, all, were passed around. Shortly before Boys who were in \lVindermere were Chaver, here take my hand 6 pm our coach arrived to take us to alive and he confirmed this and said the Windermere Hydro where if he wanted to know any more he there was a reception followed by Come behold should contact me. Mark came back dinner. For our benefit they had put your land to England, bought [he book, and on a vegeLarian meal and also fillet your land was enthralled to find that a group of of salmon. The mUll was beautiful, Your land The Boys went to Windermere and the company was wonderful,. and he set about finding the place where the evening progressed beautlfully. From bondage we come for they stayed in their huts. He found There were 13 speeches and after a connection, that the huts had, of course, by then welcome by Mark, Cannon Dr from lands of plenty been demolished and in its place The Richard Pratl said grace. After din­ to fill the soul - Lakes School had been erecled. vVith ner, Mark spoke again . Mr James shevet achim gam yachad the pennission of lhe Head Teacher, Cropper. Lord Lieutenant. of Mrs Julie Christie, it was agreed Cumbria, Mr Frank Hont, Unlson We come for unbranded stars that a commemorative plaque could North West Regional Secretary, and sandal-footed children, be erected in the [oyer of the Councillor Mike Ash, Cumbria for the pink stone of Jerusalem School and the project took place. County Council, Mr Paul Moo~e, inviting the Sun into shelter 1vlark contacted me and , in turn, 1 Head of Children &: Families SOClal wrote to our Manchester Members Services, the head Teacher of The Wail no more you Wailing Wall and found out who wanted to Lakes School, Mrs Julie Gilchrist, Mr attend this momentous occasion. we shall fill your crevices with Glen Williams, Chairman of Sefton laughing Many calls and e-mails ensued and Holocaust Memorial Project, Mr then Mark told me that they words of praise and God will smile Nigel Flanagan, Co-ordinator of and say anew "Behold it is good" could only accommodate 20 persons Sefton Hotocaust Memorial Project, as the hall would only hold Arek Hersh, and 1vlayer Hersh, with a Israel, how great your task - 170 people. He also said that closing address by Mark Chfrord. make peace amidst the roar of war, ITV and BBC would be at the Our coach took us safely back to dedication service. There were only Manchester and we arrived home at Lord, grant safety to her defenders, 8 of the Windermere boys who were about 1 pm. We all had a most mem­ wisdom to her counselors able to auend, with and without orable day, which I don't think any of partners, so we had one 2nd us will forget and especially the We rebuilt Jerusalem Generation - Jacky Field (Mayer warm atmosphere which existed we made the desert green, Bomsztyk's daughter), David Arnold between The Boys and all the others now help us, Lord, (2nd generation and President of the present. abide in peaceful habitations, Manchester & Sal ford Communal There was a small article about Council) and a very good friend of the event in the Jewish Chronicle, In safe dwellings Arek's (known to all the Boys) made as well as a photo of Herben, and let gladness up the numbers. who attended [he Kindertranspon be found When we anived at the Lakes exhibition ar the Imperial War therein. School, the foyer was packed and Museum in Manchester.

36 ome tj me ago I answered a could be seen as trivialising questionnaire sent to me by QlIESIIONNAIRE ON THE what happened? SKale Forde, who was doing a dissertation on the validity of art as VAI.lDITY OF ART AS so: Art can never be trivialising. documentation of the Holocaust, Talk can be sometimes. titled "The Lie of Truth". In her DOCUMENTATION OF THE KF: Do you think it is necessary to be dissertation Kate Forde makes involved on both an intellectual some poignant points abour the HOLOCAUST and an emotional level in order to trivialisation of the Holocaust by truly understand the extent of the the mass medi.a. She also raises the Sam Dresner horror? Or do you Jeel that facts question "can any inrormation be in textbooks adequately explain delivered in an objective manner or is events? it only possible to really know the Sam came to England with the truth if we have experienced events Windermere group. As he was SD: Facts in textbooks don't mean at first hand?" suffering from tuberculosis, he very much unless one is was taken from Windermere emotional! y involved. One has QUESTIONNAIRE to Westmorland Sanatorium to have some kind of empathy just a few days after his with the victims; to be able to KF: Do you feel that historians and arrival. He was subsequently relate that this victim could people investigating the Holocaust transferred to Ashford & be you, your father, brother, could learn a lot from these Quaremead sanatoriums where mother or sister. Otherwise the drawings? Why? he stayed till the early fifties. date is meaningless. SD: Not really, as there is plenty of He went to art school and now KF: Do you feel thUL due to their data and descriptions of the lives in London as an artist ambigUity, secondary sou rces camps. But as there were no with his wife and family. could be seen as less informative photographers in these places, and true as primary sources? If it probably helps visually to so, why? fire-start the imagination. concentration camps, was to me and my fellow prisoners like SO: Secondary sources are defi­ KF: \Vhy do you think artwork was a holiday nitely less in formative and true made in the camps? For example but they can have a stronger a..c; document, as remembrance, as KF: How mLtch exaggeration do impact on the imagination and hope, eic? you feel they contain? Or can sensibilities than descriptive anything applying to the primary sources, if the artist SD: Partly as documentation or Holocaust be seen as exaggerated? succeeds in his expression of remembrance, but I think the his vision. main motivation was as a form SD: I have never yet seen pTimary of resistance and as a form of drawings of conditions in the KF: Have you seen either of the films defiance, as it meant the risk of camps which were exaggerated. 'Schindler's List' or 'Life is losing your life it found out. If anything, they were limited Beautiful? If yes, do you feel that in what one can describe in a these films dilute the narrative to KF : How accurately do these drawing. make the horror easier to bear? If primary drawings and paintings so, how great is the element of demonstrate the living conditions KF: Do you feel that art could heIp truth? in Lhe [amps? How were they bring the events that took place to different? the Jorefront, and mane the SD : I have seen 'Schindlers list'. I Holocaust more accessible to the don't feel that the narrative was so: They are as accurate as far as younger generations? Or do you diluted to make the horror the artist's skill allows. In the feel there is a danger that artists easier to bear. 1l 1S more likely examptes enclosed they are could exploit what happened in that it was diluted to fit within quite factual and typical of order to draw attention La their a certain time limit and have a scenes seen daily. I happened work? stronger impact. to find myself in 'lhe little camp' in Buchenwald towards SD: Art could definitely make KF: Do you agree with Jean Amery the end of the war, in the the Holocaust accessible to the when she states 'only those enclosed drawing by Auguste younger generations; at the who were sacrificed to the Nazis' Favier the scene is typical but same time there will always be logiC oJ destruction can truly by 1945 they removed the artists who will exploit the understand its horrors? tables and put more bunks in Holocaust to draw atten lIon to the block 1 was in. The camp their work. As I know, there are SO: Not quite. I don't think was extremely overcrowded as some now who banalize it anybody can understand the they evacuated camps in the without being aware that they horrors. I have read a lot of East and brought them to are doing so. books on the Holocaust and Buchenwald. In spite of the there is not a day that I don't overcrowding Buchenwald, in KF: Do you feel that talking think about it, but 1 still don't comparison to the other about 'art of the Holocaust' understand.

37 he European Union ran into a Good heavens, Lhere are more lot of trouble. Tt has a body ONE SMALL STEP FOR people in Greater Cairo or Mexico Tcalled EUMC, the Luropean City than there are Jews i.n th02 Monitoring Centre on Racism and THE EUROPEAN UNION whole wide world, Israel and Xenophobia. EUMC reported on USA included. World domination anti-Semitism in the EU in 2002 Aubrey Rose CBE., D.UNIV indeed! Thi.s is a people who have and 2003, "the largest report ever losL one-third of its number in done on anti-Semitism in Europe", Attbrey Rose is a lawyer of living memory through a villainous, based on data from its network in 15 great distinction and has barbaric German attempt at world countries. played an active role in many domination! Such is the madness of media - The excellent Director of EUMC, {ields. He was a Senior Vice Beate Winkler, sLated, "these reports addicted and indoctrinated popula­ 'President of the Board of tions. 1 need not add thal the Israel are a clear indication of the serious­ Deputies; he was an Original ness with which the European Union government still has not the faintest member of the Commonwealth takes the subjeC[ of anti-Semitism idea ot lhe vital importance of public and our determination to tackle it)'. Human Rights Initiative; he seL relations, even though it has a The outgoing Chainnan of EUMC, up and chaired a working party first-rate case. Rising to that Bob Purkiss, a elevoted fighter against on the environment, which challenge would help all Jewish racism, confirmed this view. led to his hook Judaism and communities. But the EU dragged its feet, its Ecology. He spent five years There is no doubt that. leaving cold feet, and had to be pushed into as a Commissioner of the aside the perennially racist Right and publication. \A/hy? 1 quote from The Commission (or Racial the morally myopic Left, the increase Sunday Telegraph (23rd November Equality He is aco-Chairman in anti-Semitic racism can be laid at 2003) oJ the Indian JeWish the door of Muslims, Muslim-backed "The 112 page survey found AssodaUon, a Trustee of states and agencies. The EU has been too frightened lO lhat many anli-Semitic inci­ various charitable trusts and he admit this, but truth will always out. dents were carried out by is Deputy Chairman oJ the Mushrns and pro-Palestinian 1t is a problem not merely for British Ca ribbean Association. groups. According to reports Jews, but also for the peace-loving, officials admitted a 'political non-racist Muslims, usually of an decision' was taken not to measure the scope of the problem" older generation. How are they publish partly because of fears based on a systematic computation of going to lrve in peace with all other that it would increase hostility data. minorities, not merely with Jews? towards Muslims." Detailing anti-Semitic incidents How \-\·i1l they express their loyalty counLry by country, those with lhe and allegiance, as Jews have always I thought appeasemenL ended in lowest incidents were Ireland, done, to the countries in which they 1939! Luxemburg, Portugal and Finland. live? Bob Purkiss was not to be BelgiUln had a marked increase, EL: YlC set out clear guidelines moved and confilmed thal EUMC, including a fire-bombi.ng of Jewish which redounds to the independent "an independent body of quality property. Germany showed an experts credit. 1 was interviewed for and integrity" would con(inue its increase, particularly in incitement nearly 3 hours by two such experts, study. and propaganda. A worrying trend Victor vVeitzel Cof Luxemburg) \ One newspaper stated that the in the Netherlands and Denmark was and Dr Magdalena :)rodq (of Warsaw report was shelved after it was "lhe increasing dissemination 01 anti­ University), both patient and found that V1uslims and Palestinian Semitic matelial on the Internet". perceptive people. I was impressed groups were behind many of the The UK showed 350 reported by their lhoroughness. incidents. incidents in 2002, including attacks The Report sets out eight specific There was outrage at the attempt on synagogues and cemeteries, courses of action, from a common to stifle the report. However, evenLU­ but france, as any \isitor to urban criminal law [0 examination of ally, in March 2004, it was issued, suburbs can confirm, showed "a school text books, all positive and wgether with the vi.ews of members Significant rise in anti-Semitic violent practical procedures. of Jewish communities. So some incidents and threats, including The one crucial and overwhelming progress has been made, but the aura many assaults and attacks on Jewish need is to educate young Muslims of Munich 1938 hangs over Brussels. property". as to their duty living in a free demo­ V'/hat of the EU\1C? Created in While there appears to have been cratic society They must also learn 1997, it is based in Vienna with a few'er physical assaults in Greece, the terrible consequences of the staff of 31. It has a Management Austria, Italy and Spain, lhere racist mentahty which aftlicts so Board of independenL experts. Next exists, particularly in the first rh ree many of them. year, 2005, it will become the EU's countries, a kind of "popular anti­ The EU has a major but vital task Human Rights Agency, 'With an even Scmitism" in al~ their dealings. ahead. Can it overcome itself, its bigger Lask, as the Union expands to There is even a "large. section of own fears, show courage, and rise to 25 states. the Greek public subscribing to the challenge it now faces? The published report scates "this conspiracy theories of Jewish world is the first large scale attempt (0 domination". April 2004.

38 ernard Shaw, when asked in suppon of the Soviet Refusniks, whether he thought there THE YOUNG ONES, but never a hint of violence. Bwas life on other planets, And among the older generation of replied, "Yes, and Earth is their MALES ESPECIALLY my Muslim friends, my Afro­ lunatic asylum". A recent letter to me Caribbean friends, my Indian by a woman of some distinction Aubrey Rose CBE., D.UNIV friends, there is nothing but courtesy referred to our world of "organised and peacefulness. schizophrenia!" David Bel1amy. that horrifying, young men slicing off the We may not understand yet outstanding conservationist, told a limbs of others, the Rwanda night­ the overvv'helming visual impact of ne\vspaper years ago that what he mare, racism and slavery in the television and the media. One film feared most was "an expandi.ng Sudan, which I believe prompted Dr can stir up all kinds of passion. population with exploding material George Carey's recent remarks about There is lhe copybook effect too. To desires". V/hat he feared has come to the failure of Islam in the last few understand the present outburst pass. centuries, compared to earlier cre­ among young Muslim males it would These thoughts occurred lo me as ative periods. In Sri Lanka the Tamil be well worth studying Elias Canetti's I watched thousands of young tigers have indoctrinated young works on the psychology of groups Muslim males marching or parading teenagers, even recruiting them as and crowds. through st.reets, often holding aloft suicide bombers. Those who lived in Germany in guns, shouting slogans of hate, Is it, as Professor Bellamy suggests, the 1930s will see parallels between burning flags, with a mass fervour simply the inevitable result of an the Nazi exploitation of the young that bore resemblance to rHuals of out-of-control population exploslon? and Muslim clerics who incite against the Hitler Youth, if not of the whole Is it a frustration at lack of material Jews, Americans, Crusaders (why despicable Nazi movement. progress - The Economist recently can't they be honest and say V/hat is it about young males? itemised the appaHing poverty and ChrisLians?) as well as Hindus. 'vVe saw similar explosions in Britain's illiteracy in so many Arab lands? Even words such as Holy War (the inner cities in the 1980s when Is it a reaction against forms of thousand-year Reich), martyrs. disaffected young men of Afro­ colonialism, but then most former (Nazi use of teenagers in 1944-5), Caribbean background brought colonies have been independent for the slogans (Ein Yolk. . .) The banners, violence to cHy streets. Even [he over 40 years? Lhe perversion of media and visual 'poll tax' demonstrations of the early Is it linked, and many will pooh­ propaganda, all these show parallels 19905 erupted in violence, young pooh [he idea, to the polluted naLUre that are now pan of a work-wide white males being then the main of our food , not such a remote confrontation that can erupt any­ dislurbers of the peace. proposition in view· of trials in where, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, even What is happening today to young American prisons, where a dietary on streets in British ci.ties . Muslim males worldwide must be of change produced an amazing 1 think of the kindly devout great concern to their older genera­ reduction in prison violence. Muslim homeopath, the learned tion. Among the latter I have many Is there the influence of alcohol Muslim lawyer, the constructive, friends. devout, hard-working, with some, the frustration at the pleasant Muslim businesswoman, peace-loving people, who appreciate banning of alcohol in others? Is it an and how they must feel when the the benefits of living in our free, excess of testosterone, a macho dis­ world 'Islamic' become synonymous democratic country. But, as a play? Muslim women are notahle by with 'terrorist'. Muslim peer recently stated publicly, their absence. It is the men who rant 1 just hope these good people can these people are frightened [0 speak and rave like inebriated football fans overcome the seeds of destruction out in view of the militancy and - think of male football supporters on among many of their young which, hatred of a highly vocal younger the rampage in European cities. unless overcome, will bring forth bit­ generation. l have been involved in Jewish Ler fruits of dealh and destruction. VVhat has happened throughout marches, but there has been no hate, Aflica in the last four decades is no aggression. Thousands marched April 2004.

n a cold January night when I kept moving from village to vil­ the Germans marched into SAM FREIMAN'S STORY lage, knocking on doors and singing O Poland, all the Jews of my for my supper. I sang old folk songs home town in Jeziorno were driven Sam came to England with the 1 had learned at school and because I out of their homes. Anyone who Windermere Group and subse~ had a good voice and people fel t resisted or made any commotion was quently stayed in the Ascot sorry for me, they would give me shot there and then. We were taken Hoste1. He has been an active scraps to eal. lO the Warsa\v Ghetto. and popular member oJ our I slept in the fields seeking shelter In the Ghetto, I scrambled out Committee for many years. under trees or whatever was around. each day and \vent back to the village To this day I sing and write songs but to get food for the family. Once I was the Ghetto and not to come back. I never forget those awful days of my caught in my village and narrowly was to go to my uncle who lived near youth in Poland. escaped being ShOl, so my father Jeziomo. When 1 arrived, 1 found One of my most vivid memories, decided not to continue my going for that they too had been driven out of apart from having to leave my family, food. rnstead he told me to ger out of their homes by the Germans. is of the day my l wo uncles were

39 hanged in front of me in Skarzisko rockets. Finally, 1 went to Therezin met my wife at the Primrose Club Camp. They were shoemakers by Concentration Camp in and we married when she was seven­ trade and had dared to take a Czechoslo'vakia where I was liberated teen and 1 was twenty-two. We few scraps of leather while mending by the Russians. bought a lovely house in Kew the belts o[ the machines in the I was offered the choice of making Gardens and when we were told it German factory They \vere killed as a life in Britain or Palestine and, had been a guest house, we made it an example to [he others. It was being a Jew, Palestine was my first into one again. That is how we terrible . I saw them hang a few steps option, but that was where everyone became hoteliers. away [ram me and 1 could do wanted to go, so I was sent to my My life has been good and I have nothing about it. It still haunts me . second choice - Britain. From the my close extended family with "The The rest of my family died in the gas moment I alTived in Windermere, I Boys". I always felt the need to redis­ chambers, but I have never been able was glad that I had come to Britain. 1 cover my roots so I went back to my to find out where. 1 didn't want to stayed in the hostel for many old school in Poland and traced my leave them but I had no choice - my months as a I adjusted and was registration records and reports. It father wanted me to survive. shown nothing but kindness by [he gave me a sense of where I had come 1 was in concentration camps in hostel staff. from and has helped to give me inner Skarzisko Kamienne [or two and a Eventually, a friend of a friend peace. The awful memories will half years; Buchenwald [or three recommended me [or a job with a never go away but this has helped months, and the Schlieben, working furtier as a fur cutter. I worked in me. I have been able to come to on Panzerfausten's anti-tank many dlfferent jobs over the years. 1 terms with my past.

Finding Bella surpnsed and excited one Friday to MY LOST WORLD receive a call from someone in During my most recent visit to Israel, America who said that she was the 1 went, not for the first time, to Yad RECOVERED FROM daughter of Bella Pelzman (nee Vashem , trying to find out if anyone Winograd) saying that her mother from my home town, Jezornia, had THE PAST would love to speak to me . Then a survived. This time, however, 1 had most excited lady spoke and we were very good help from a friend who Solomon (Sam) Freiman in conversation for a very long time. works there . Today there is much She told me that she had kno\VTl more data, now stored on computers. Sam lost all his family and until my mother very well and that my mother had been very kind to her This time, we began with the name of very recently did nor even have and her friend \ who now lived in my shtetl, Jeziorna. any contact with people from his New York. She described my home, Suddenly, among the "Pages of hometown as he Lhought that they were all ktlled in the Shoa. He still shop and kitchen; my brothers and Testimony" 1 noticed the familiar has no photographs oJ his family sisters and myself as a boy, almost Bar names VJinograd and Rozenzweig, and they exist only in his memOly. mirzvah, who just ran in and out. our local Rabbi and the shamas! She was also a friend of my aunt, my Their respective daughters had fathers youngest sister. We had resident in the U.s.A .. near my wife's entered their parents and siblings' many long talks by telephone after cousin in New Jersey. Even so, 1 names. that. I curtailed my stay in Israel and Without much hope, I decided wasn't hopeful, as so many things brought fOlward a planned visit to that I had nothing to lose, so I would could have happened since the the U.S.A. write to t he address given by the testimony was given. After all, I have since visi.ted Toms River Bella V/inograd Pelzman now people move, die, ete., so I was most and met Bella following a short visit to rhe Rabbis daughter in New York whom 1 hope to get to know better. Bella was so excited and made my wire and me so welcome thar we are going to stay with her over the week­ end. COincidentally, she is a good friend of the sister of Mick Zwirek v..ri.th whom I was in Skarzisko Werk B. I don't know how Gerty (Mick's sister) never mentioned in all these years that she had a friend who was from Jezornia. Through them 1 discovered a Moshe Haiven who lives in Haifa and was a student of my grandfather, who was known to him as "Moshele Melamad'~ and taught him his Bar mitzvah, after which he became a Sam Freman with Bella Winograd Pelzman. Yeshiva student in Warsaw.

40 The weekend together

Finally, we met Bella and found that G-O AT THE WHEEL she was a really wonderful person with a really happy family who David Turek aH loved to take care of each other. Five sons and a daughter, all devoted David came to England with the Windermere group and lived in the to their mother and can't do Stamford Hill Hostel. He is in the diamond business with his sonJeremy enough for her. We spent an and travels often to Israel. interesting afternoon getting to know her family and then arranged to stay ittle did we know when we encounter, 1 reacted Vo.1.th a combina­ for Shabbat. Friday was great. arose that morning in Israel tion of doubt and excitement. Children, daughters-in-law and L that we would actually see the Unfortunately, Israel is forced to have grandchildren seemed to pour in hand of fate guide us through what a surfeit of ambulances but what are through the door and just make turned out to be a deeply meaningful the chances of being confronted by themselves at home. and entirely memorab1e day. just this one? Anyway, being my Next morning we went to SchuL While there is really no such thing usual cool, calm and collected self Cl) Even my wife Sonja consented to as a regular day in Israel, this one I immediately formulated a plan. I attend the service and enjoyed it. We started out normally enough. 1 had advised Anna to place a call right were asked to tell our story to the left early to go to work while Anna away to the Magen David Adorn and entire congregation. First Bella enjoyed a more leisurely breakfast. verify the location of the home base of the said vehicle. spoke, telling the (ale rrom her side, Despite the seasonal vagaries of the When making a call to any admin­ then I spoke about how we found her weather in mid-February she then decided to take a short stroll. istrative office in Israel one normally on the computer at Yad Vashem and ends up feeling like a ping pong Making steady progress, she had just hope to keep in touch for as long as ball having been bounced around to reached the corner of Hayarkon and we can. at least six different departments Frischman streets when a vehicle without gelting any answers. screeched to a reluctant halt in front Bella~s story However, we were again fortunate in of her. The red traffic light at the that a helpful young lady by the Bella Winograd survived the junction may have discouraged name of Annette picked up the Holocaust as 'Marianna Soroczinska'. immediate progress for the vehicle phone. Anna recounted her story o[ though that is rarely the case in She exchanged work papers with the the '45 Aid SOCiety ambulance and its daughter of a Polish farmer known to Israel! While it is fair to s~ that rapid departure after she knocked on her as a neighbour who wanted to Anna is somewhat less eaglr-eyed the window. Annette was soon able keep his daughter at home. Bella than she was 50 years ago, she to identify the vehide as ambulance tells us that the Germans could not noticed something unusual about number 32 and to locate its home distinguish between Poles and Jews this vehicle and for some unknown base. She further arranged an reason was immediately drawn easily and she was blonde, spoke appointment for us both to view the towards it. good Polish and knew all the Polish vehicle at the nearby home base the What was immediately clear was church prayers. The Poles, however, foHowing day at 3 pm as long as it that the vehicle in question was an would have known she was Jewish was not called out to respond to an ambulance. What was not immedi­ and exposed her. By going to work emergency. Annette imparted the ately dear was why it said "Holocaust in Germany as a housemaid, she was relevant information and was aboul Survivors" on the side of it. Kow able to keep the act up. Later, when to hang up when she asked a strange that Anna's curiosity was really question. Annette asked Anna how her employer was sent to work at piqued, she subjected the whole Auschwitz, it became far more far away she was from the original vehicle to closer inspection and soon 'meeting' location. Anna responded di rficult to continue the pretence. realised that she was standing before There was the daily smell from the that she was not far away, at which the ambulance donated to Magen point Annette asked her to go back to cremation ovens and she had to keep David Adorn by the '45 Aid Society! that junction as soon as she hung up her tears in her heart and not let In her excitement she banged on the from the call . While not averse to them show. window in her attempt to establish a catching some more fresh air, Anna dialogue with the emergency wondered why she was 'schlepping' A comment from wife Sonja workers inside the vehicle. They back and forth. As she approached looked aghast at her, their expression the corner she was surprised to be 1 am pleased that there is someone, if apparently doubting her mental met by three 'angels'; three brave and not a relative, for Sam to share his equilibrium and immediately caring members of the emergency memories with and even to expand acceleraled away even though the crew of the ambulance who she had them as Bel1a's recollections of his light was probably still red! briefly encountered earlier in the day. parents, especially of his mother, are 1\ow, unlike the ambulance crew, Annette had been kind enough to all good ones. Let us hope that for as in more than 55 years of marriage I dispatch them in her direction and many years as possible we have now have always had the good sense to they were kind enough to immedi­ found someone with whom to keep never question my wife's mental ately introduce themselves and to in touch. state! Nevertheless, when she called apologise for departing so hastily me (0 inform me of this chance from their first 'meeting'. Thereafter,

41 .~ \ hope that in times of peace their sole preoccupation will be rushing expec­ tant mothers to hospital to give birth to healthy babies. As we walked away frOlu there, we walked on air. vVe felt particularly grateful to have been afforded such considerale treatment from Magen David Adorn. '\Ale felt particularly privileged to have been afforded the opportunity to meet "The Boys' Ambulance". This was a uniquely heartwarming David and Anna Turek, G-D at the wheel. Israeli story but one continues to be amazed by how 'Bashert' this they gave her a tour of ambulance way we jumped into a store improbable encounter truly was. number 32 . and purchased a disposable camera. After all if Anna had embarked When 1 received a report of these You can see the impressive results on her constitutional a few seconds latest developments, my scepticism here. earlier or later none of (his incredible rapidly turned inlO excitement. When we anived at the ambu­ story would have unfolded. While 1 am not known for my lance station we were fortunate As we gazed in wonderment at impatience U), I fell I could not again to find the ambulance 'waiting' ambulance number 32, we felt wait 24 hours to see 'our' ambulance. for us! We were immediately enonnous pride at our collective I advised Anna that I would immedi­ surrounded by all the emergency accomplishments. For surely this ately return to meet her and that personnel who warmly welcomed parLicuiar ambulance represents a we would proceed forthwith to the "Frischman People" into their very remarkable victory for our small the home base in order to see the midst. ""le were given a very com­ group of Boys (and girls) who ambulance. Half way there I realised prehensive tour of the ambulance survived against all the odds and I did not have a camera with me. and of the support facilities. They who today, in our own long How was l to share the experience gave us a real insight into their daily dreamed-of Jewish Homeland, help with my family and friends? On the mission in life and we expressed our others to surVIve.

want to say Kaddish [or a Sefer a gift that day He gave him the Torah today, for a Sefer Torah that I SHAVOUT, YIZKOR, 5763 miniature Torah scroll that rhey had in a red velvet wrapper ! lived for a fairly long time, and Rabbi Jack Riemer used, covered [hen disappeared in the sight of all and tucked into a small green box. the world. This arUcle was submitted by He said: "This little Sefer Torah is It is the story of a Sefer Torah Harold Tabac:znik who lives in yours to keep now, because I am that made its first appearance in Canada and is the son DJ MOLl.:l pretty sure that I will not geL out of the very depths of Hell, and that and Goldie Tabacznik Lhis place alive, but maybe you will. " made its last appearance in the "And you know how children are," heights of heaven. chanted aloud from the ancient scroll Joachim Joseph said when the LiSlen to its story, as it was told by in the singsong Hebrew melody that Vv'ashingwn Post interviewed him Debbi \Vigoren, a reporter who is not has been passed down [or hundreds by long distance phone. "At first , I JeWish, in the \Vashington Post. of years. didn't want to take It, but he insisted. The bar mitzvah took place before "There were people listening in He convinced me. And the condition dawn on a Monday in March, 1944 the beds all around ," joachimJoseph, was: I HAD TO PROMISE THAT IF 1 inside a barracks at the Bergen Belsen who is now a 71 year old Israeli EVER GOT OUT OF THERE, THAT concentration camp. physicist, recalls, describing the I MUST TLLL THE STORY, the story Those men who were strong narrow triple decker bunks where of my bar mitzvah." enough covered the 'vvindows and lhe Jewish men and boys slept. The story of that Sefer 'larah was doors wilh blankets and stood watch "Afterwards everybody congratulated told to the world on January 21st, to make sure that no SS guards were me. Somebody fished out a piece of when Elon Ramon, the first Israeli coming. a chocolate bar that he had been astronauL, held the scroll aloft during Four candles, scrounged from saving and gave it to me. And some­ a live teleconference from aboard the somewhere, gave off enough body else fIshed out a deck of playing space shutlle Columbia. flickering ligh( for Rabbi Samuel cards for me too. Everybody told "This Torah scroll 'A;as given by Dasberg to unfurl this tiny Sefer me, "now you are a bar mitzvah, now a rabbi to a young, scared, thin, Torah - the five books of Moses , you are an adult. We are so very lhirteen year old boy in Bergen handwritten by a scribe, on a parch­ proud of you. Mazel tov!" And I fdt Belsen," Ramon said from inside the ment scroll that was just four and a very good. space shuttle. "It represents more half inches tall. "And then everything was qUickly than anything the ability of the Thirteen year old Joachim Joseph taken down, and we went out to roll Jevvish people to survive. It repre­ chanted the blessings just as the call." sents their ability to go from black rabbi had taught him, and [hen he Rabbi Dasberg also gave Joseph days, from peliods of darkness, to

42 reach periods of hope and faith in the up in a barracks with Rabbi Dasberg, ship to Palestine, part of a generation future ." the former Chief Rabbi or the of refugees who were determined to And then, eleven days after that Netherlands. The rabbi had brought build a Jewish state. interview that Elan Ramon gave some ritual objects and some Jewish In 1951, Joachim Joseph pub­ from outer space, you know what texts with him when he was sent to lished the story of his clandesline bar happened. Space ship Columbia Bergen BeIsen, and he tried to study mitzVah in the Jerusalem Post. He disintegrated on its way back down and pray from them every day. hated talking about his life in the to earth, and Elan Ramon and the At first, such things were permitted concentration camps, and so he did ot her members of [hat crew were but, by 1944, conditions at the not want to write the article, but his killed. camp were steadily worsening. A father, who remembered the promise 1 don't believe that the Sefer Torah diary entry by a Dutch Jew desClibes his son had made to Rabbi Dasberg that Elon Ramon carried into space how Rabbi Dasberg and others to tell the Story, insisted. just disappeared. Not all of the were caught at the gates of the cre­ For the next four decades, experiments and projects that this matorium, reciting the Kaddish for Joseph said almost nothing about his mission was supposed to accomplish the dead. They were punished with experiences during the war. He were successful. Many of those extra hard labour for their crime. wanted to stop the nightmares he experiments perished with them. When Rabbi Dasberg heard that kept having, and he wanted to move The results of some of them were joachim Joseph was becoming 13 on. sent back dO'vvn to earth before the years old, the age of bar mitzvah, "1 screwed it down, deep dov.·Tl," Columbia crashed and so they were he asked if he could teach him. They he says, "I did my best to forget about not lost. But I think that the Sefer studied together secretly at night. it.)1 [orah fulfilled its mission more "We were sti II in a good enough con­ He studied atmospheric physics thoroughly than any of the other dition so thal that we could entertain and got a doctorate from UCLA in objects aboard that spaceship did. the thought of doing such a thing," 1966. He pioneered experiments in Let me explain how that Sefer Dr joseph remembers. But a couple how dust particles in Lhe aLmosphere Torah came to be on board Columbia of months later, Rabbi Dasberg affect the climate. And that is how he and why I [eel that it achieved its disappeared from his barracks. He came to meet Elon Ramon. When mission. died on February 24th 1945, just a Ramon saw the miniature Sefer Torah

One day a few years ago I Elon few months before British troops on the shelf in Dr Josephs home, he Ramon was visiting the home of liberated the camp. asked about it, and so Or Joseph told Joachim Joseph in I d Aviv. He Joachim Joseph used rags to wrap him the story. And then, a few noticed this miniature Sefer Torah on the green box thal held the Torah, months later, Ramon called from a shelf in Joseph's study and he asked and he hid it deep down at the Houston and asked him for permis­ him what it was. Dr ]oseph, who is bottom of his backpack. It stayed sion to take the Sefer Torah along now a well-known physicist in Israel, there) undetected, as conditions in with him when he went up into explained to him that this Sefer Torah the camp grew worse and worse. space. Dr joseph reluctantly agreed, was given ro him in Bergen BeIsen on As he approached his 14th birth­ not because he wanted any publicity, the day of his bar mitzvah. day, he weighed only 42 pounds. His but only out of courtesy to the He explained that he was born in feet, protected only by rags, rope, promise that he had made to his Berlin and raised in Amsterdam. The and two chunks of an old tyre, froze rabbi on the day of his bar mitzvah. young Joseph had watched with in the winter cold. 'vVhen he could And now, now that his grandchil­ interest as older boys in his neigh­ no longer join the regular work dren are 8 and 6 years old, and now bourhood celebrated their bar detail, the Nazis gave him an easier that they, hke eVel)'One else in the mitzvah. His father, a lawyer, was assignment. Arrer the morning roll world, have heard about the Sefer not particularly religiOUS, but several call, it \vas his job to limp from bunk Torah that went up into space, he is of his uncles were, and they would to bunk, checking to see if those who ready to tell them the story of how he sometimes take him with them when were still in bed were alive or had got ie As he said (Q the reporter from they went to synagogue. died during the night. If they had, it the Washington Post who called to Joachim Joseph was not particu­ was his job lO drag the corpse outside interview him recently, "can you hear larly devoted to je'A·ish rituals, but he and wait for a cart to come by, so he the noise in the background? Those did look forward to experiencing could load it on. are my grandchildren calling to me to the excitement of becoming a bar Freedom came out of the blue. In come out and play with them." mitzvah. February 1945, a maternal uncle Joseph says that he has no regrets And then the Nazis came. who had fought for the french about sending the Torah into space. The family were sent to a Dutch Resistance and then escaped to ''I'm not sorry that it is gone," he prison camp called Westerbork Switzerland, secured fake passports says, "it did what it, perhaps, was late in 1942. A year later, the for Joachim and his family from destined to do." josephs were brought to Bergen several Latin American countries - When 1 read that story, I had two Belsen, the concentration camp in something that was very rare so late reactions. One was: I am not sure if the T_ower Saxony region of Germany, in the war. The brothers and their that was what the miniature Sefer where sixty thousand people died, parents) emaciated and near death, Torah was destined to do or not. 1 including their landsman, Anne were reuni ted and put on a train, can't imagine that when his rabbi Frank. with captured foreign nations whom gave him this Sefer Torah as a gift on ]oseph's father and mother were the Germans hoped to exchange for the day of his bar mitzvah) that the senr to different sections of the camp. their own POWs. Months later, the rabbi, in his wildest dreams, could He and his younger brother ended family sailed on a British military have imagined that there would

43 someday be a Jewish state, that it do vou see?" And he said: "1 see the found its way, together with its would someday have a Jewish astro­ scr~lI being burneu, and 1 see the owner, Rabbi Dasberg, to Bergen naut, and that this astronaut would letters flying away." And with these Belsen) and that came out of proudly carry this Sefer Torah that he words, Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion Bergen Belsen intact, together with was giving to this child up far into died. the young boy who chanted from space. And 1 can't imagine that Rabbi 1 think that what the rabbi meant it on the day of his bar mitzvah, Dasberg could have imagined that by those words was that the physical and then made its way, together with this astronaut would hold this Sefer scroll, the parchment, could be him, from Bergen Belsen to the land Torah up proudly on world televi­ burned, but the Torah itself was inde­ of Israel. And then went from Td sion, and that billions of people all structible. As the parchment caught Aviv to Houston and from Houston around the world would see it and fire and began to bUll1, the letters to the very heights of heaven. before hear its story. flew up to heaven. it fell back to earth. It did its job. It When R:1.bbi Oasberg said to this And so it is, 1 believe) with this told its story to the whole civilised bar mitzvah boy, "Take this Sefer Sefer Torah that went up in smoke, world. Torah as a gift from me, and, if you together with those seven brave And now it can rest, wherever its ever get out of here, promise me that astronauts. The parchment may have remains may be, while the letters that you \vi II tell the story of how you got been destroyed - but the story will go were in it fly up to heaven to come it,)) little did he know how literally on. The story will continue. The back down again into some other and how powerfully this boy would story will live on. Sefer Torah someday, so that the story keep that promise! And so today, we say Yizkor, not that it contains, like the story in the And one more thought came to only for the souls of those seven Sefer Torah that was vvrapped around my mind when 1 read this story. It is brave souls who perished on that Rabbi Hanina ben TeradlOn, may a story that we read on Yom Kippur mission, those six Americans who continue to be told. during the martyrology service. It is represented the very best of Let us say Ylzkor today for a the story of Rabbi Hanina ben America, \-vho were male and female, miniature Torah scroll, that was Teradion, who was taken out to be white and black, Hindu and wrapped in rags and hidden at tortured wrapped in a Sefer Torah. Christian) and ror non Ramon. And the bottom of a knapsack, and The Romans tied him to a stake) we also say Yizkor for that miniature that survived the Holocaust and that and then they Ht the fire. And hi.s Sefer Torah that was originally told its story to the whole of students said to Rabbi Hanina ben written somewhere - 1 don't know humankind. May its story continue Teradion: "Our teacher) tell us) what exactly where - and that somehow to be told.

To the most distinguished The event lives on. engraved in my Dr Riccardo Di Segni MESSAGE OF JOHN PAUl. 11 mind and heart as a symbol of new Chief Rabbi of Rome TO THE CHIEF RABBI OF ROME developments in relations between the Jewish people and lhe Catholic Shalom! OR RICCARDO 01 SEGNI Church in recent decades after periods that were at times difficult "Behold, how good and pleasant it is FOR THE CENTENARY OF THE and troubled. when brO[hers dwell in unity! Hinneh m.a tov u-ma na"im, sheveL GREAT SYNAGOGUE OF ROME 2. Todays celebration, in whose joy ahhim gam yakhad!" we all readily jOin, recalls the first General for the Diocese of Rome, (Ps 133 [1321: 1). century of this majestic Synagogue. Cardinal Cmnillo Ruini, to represent It stands on the banks of the Tiber, me; he is accompanied by Cardinal 1. With deep joy I join the Jewish witnessing with the harmony of its Community of Rome which is \Valter Kasper) President of the Holy architectural lines to faith and to celebrating the centenary of the Great Sees Commission for Relations with praise of the Almighty. The Christian Synagogue of Rome, a symbol and a the Jews. They formally express my Community of Rome, through the reminder of the millennial presence desire to be with you on this day. Successor of Peter) jOins you in in this city of the people of the In offering you my respectful thanking the Lord for this happy Covenanl of Sinai. For more than greeting, distinguished Or Riccardo occasion. As I said during the visit I 2,000 years your community has Di Segni, 1 extend my cordial mentioned, we greet you as our been an integral part of life in the thoughts to all the Members of the "beloved brothers" in the faith of city; Lt can boast of being the most Community, to their President, Mr Abraham, our Patriarch, of Isaac and ancient Jewish Community in Leone Ilio Paserman, anJ LO all who Jacob, of Sarah and Rebecca, Rachael \JvTestern Europe and or having played are gathered to witness once again and Leah. In wfiling to the Romans an important role in spreading the importance and vigour of [he reli­ (cf. Rom 11: 16-18), St Paul was Judaism on this Continent. Today's gious patrimony Lhat is celebrated already speaking of the holy root of commemoration) therefore, acquires every Saturday in [he Great Israel on which pagans are grafted a special significance for religious, Synagogue of Rome. I would like to onto Christ, "for the gifts and the call cultural and social life in (he capital extend a special greeting to Professor of God are irrevocable" (Rom 11 :29), and canno( but have a very special Elio Toaff. Chief Rabbi enleritus; and you continue to be the first-born resonance in the heart of the Bishop with his open and generous spirit) he people of the Covenant (liturgy or of Rome! Since I am unable to attend welcomed me to the Synagogue Good Friday, General Intercessions, in person, [ have asked my Vicar when I visited it on 13 April 1986. For the Jewish People).

44 You have been citizens of this City definitively reaffirmed her rejection Unfortunately, the mere thought of of Rome for more than 2,000 years, of all expressions of anti-Semitism. the Holy Land gives rise in our hearts even before Peter the fisherman and However, the sincere deploration and to anxiety and sorrow because of the Paul in chains came here sustained condemnation of those hostilities violence that continues to stajn that from within by the Breath of the directed against the Jewish people region and the excessive flow of Spirit. NOl only the Sacred that have often marked history do innocent blood poured out by both Scriptures, in which to a large extent not suffice; we must also develop Israelis and Palestinians that hinders we share, not only the liturgy but friendship, esteem and brotherly peace in justice from dawning. also very ancient art forms witness to relations with them. These friendly Today, therefore, in faith and hope, the Church:S deep bond with the relations, reinforced and nurtured we are addreSSing a fervent prayer to Synagogue; this is because of that after the session of the Council in the the Eternal One, to the God of spiritual heritage which without last century, saw us united in com­ Shalom, so that enmity and hatred being divided or rejected has been memorating the victims of the Shoah, may no longer overpower those who made known to believers in Christ especially those who were WTenched rum to our father, Abraham - Jews, and constitutes an inseparable bond from their families and from your Christians and Muslims - and may between us and you) the people of beloved Jevvish Community in Rome lead the way to a clear knowledge of the Torah of Moses, the good olive in October 1943 and interned in the ties that bind them and the tree onto which a new branch was Auschwitz. May their memory be responsibilities that lie on each one's grafted (cf. Rom 11: 17). blessed and induce us to work as shoulders. In the Middle Ages, some of your brothers and sisters. We still have a long way to go: the great thinkers, such as Yehuda ha­ Moreover, it is only right to God of justice and peace, of mercy Levi and ?vloses Maimonides, sought remember all those Christians, moti­ and of reconciliation calls us to to examine how it would be possible vated by natural kindliness and an collaborate without wavering in our to worship the Lord and serve upright conscience and sustained by world today which is scarred by suffering humanity together, thereby their faith and the teaching of the disputes and hostihties. If we can paving the way to peace. The great Gospel, who reacced courageously join our hearts and hands to respond philosopher and theologian, well also in this city of Rome and offered to the divine call, the light of the known to St Thomas Aquinas, the persecuted Jews practical help in Eternat One will shine close to us to Maimonides of Cordoba 0138- the fonn of sol1darity and assistance, illumine aH peoples and show us 1204), the eighth centenary of whose sometimes even at the risk of their paths to peace, to Shalom . Let us death we are commemorating this own lives. May their blessed memo­ walk them with one heart. year, expressed the hope that better ry live on, together with the certainty relations between Jews and that for them, as for all the "just of 5. Not only in Jerusalem and in the Christians might lead "the whole nations", the "tzaddiqim", a place is Land of Israel but also here in Rome, world to unanimous adoration of prepared in the future world in the we can do many things together: for God as has been said: "I will change resurrection of the dead. Nor can we those close to us who are suffering the speech of the peoples to a pure forget, in addition to the official pro­ marginalisation, for immigrants and speech, that all of them may call on nouncements, the often hidden foreigners, for the weak and the the name of the Lord and serve him action of the Apostolic See which poverty-stricken. Sharing the values with one accord" (Zep 3:9) (Mishneh went to the aid of the Jews in danger of the defence of life and the dignity Torah, Hllkh6t Melakhim XI, 4) ed. in many ways, as has been recognised of every human person, we can Jerusalem, Mossad Harav Kook). by authoritative representatives of it increase our fraternal cooperation in (cf. We remember: A reflection on concrete ways. 3 . We have covered much ground the "Shoah", 16 March 1998). Our meeting today is, as it were, in together since that 13 April 1986 preparation for your imminent when the Bishop of Rome - the first 4. With help from Heaven, in solemnity of Shavu"ot and of our since the Apostle Peter - paid you a taking this road to brotherhood, the Pentecost which proclaim the Jullness oJ visit: it was the embrace of brothers Church has not hesitated to express I our respective paschal celebrations. who were meeting again after a deep sorrow at "the failures of her May these feasts see us united in long period fraught with misunder­ sons and daughters in every age" praying David's paschal Hallel. standjng, rejection and distress. (ibid.) And, in an act of repentance With the Second Vatican Ecumenical (teshuva) , has asked forgiveness for "HaHe1u et Adonay kol goim Council inaugurated by Bl. Pope their responsibility connected in any shabbehuHu kol ha-ummim John XXIII, and especially after the way with the scourges of anli­ hi gavar "alentt khasdo publication of the Declaration Nostra Judaism and anti-Semitism (ibid.). we-emet Adonay /e- "olam". Aetate (28 October 1965), the During the Great Jubilee, we prayed Catholic Church opened her arms for Gods mercy in the Basilica sacred "Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes, col­ wide to you, remembering that 'Jesus to the memory of Peter in Rome, and laudate Eum, omnes populi. was and will always remain a Jew" in Jerusalem, the city beloved by all Quoniam conJirmata est super nos mis­ (Commission for ReligiOUS Relations Jews, the heart of that Land which is ericordia eius, with the Jews, Notes on the correct Holy for us all. The Successor of et veritas Domini manet in aeternum" way to present the Jews andJudaism Peter went on pilgrimage to the hills Hallelu-Yah (Ps 117{l16}). in preaching and catachesis in the of Judea and paid homage to the Roman Catholic Church [1985]: lII, victims of the Shoah at Yad Vashem; From the Vatican, 22 May 2004 12). During the Second Vatican he prayed beside you on Mount Zion Council, the Church clearly and at the foot of that Holy Place. IOANNES PAClUS 11

45 KADDISH FOR APRIEST

Last Decembcl; I was invited by Joachim - Stanislaw Musial S.]., in an be the fault of extreme Jewish Russek, Lhe Director and dnvingforce of interview with \Vitold Bcres and groups, from Rabbi Weiss to the Cenl.re JorJewish Culture in Crahow Krzysztof Burnetko Rabbi Joskowicz, who talks to spean there ahout my experiences about extraterritorial status for both during and after the Second World STANISl..J\ W MUSIAL 5.].: In my Auschwitz? Wal: It iVas part of a programme early childhood, I experienced a leading up to the Annual Holocaust situation that allowed me to make an - First, it is necessary to realize that, Memorial Day which Lakes place in important discovery: that the same before the war, ten percent of the Poland on the 27th January. person can be a guardian angel to citizens of Poland were Jews. I presented a short outline, which was some and an executioner [0 others. Suddenly, those three and a half followed by an hour of questions It must have been 1942, and 1 million people disappeared from and answers. It was an open and would have been about four years the face of the earth. Yet there soul-search ing disclIssion. I was struck old. A Jewish man whom we knew was no mourning for them, no by the genuine interest of the partici­ knocked at the door of our house in lears. Nothing ... This is shocking. pants and their understanding of the Lososina G6rna, near Limanowa. He When we speak about Auschwitz Polish-Jewish predicament which they so asked for help. Man1a was packing today, we must bear this in mind ardenLly {lied to address. up some food for him when the above all. Among the participants was the Blue Police and German gendarmes Where do such hatred and evil famous Jesuit Priest, Father Stanislaw drove up. Father managed to slip emotions come from? From the fact Musiai, the scourge of the anti-Semites, away, and Mama, my grandfather, that, so far, we in Poland have not JervenL in the pu rsuit of truth and and we three children were left asked ourselves all the disturbing jWitice, courageous polemicist and a with that Jewish man, who did not questions. About our relations to the great protagonist in lhe dialogue want to !lee. je\vs throughout history, during the of Polish-Jewish relations. He made They were supposed to shoot us war, and after the war. All these an excellenl positive contribution to the [or aiding a Jew. As 1 was later told, issues await answers, but historians discussion. they lined us all up In a row in front are baSically not working on them. I had never met him before but, of the house. And thcn-l remember Other nations, such as the Germans, for nearly twenty years, T have read [his pan-l was led by some sort of French and Italians, have gone a many DJ his articles which appeared in a childish instincr [0 throw myself at long way not only in such research, number of leadtng Polish nnvspapers. [he feet of the Gennan who was in but also in accusing themselves. For They evinced great erudition, a sense command, and to grab hold of his us, this is still a taboo: we keep of justice and a love for humanity. legs. He was moved. He sent the defending ourselves. We want to be Meeting him was an honour, plivilege, other soldiers off to search for Jews at regarded as a nation that was inspiring and the highlight of my our neighbors?, and later he WTonged, but that never vvronged two-day stay in Kralww. Sadly, he remarked that he had left a son just anyone else. died suddenly at the age of sLxty-six like me behind in Gennany. ... What is The Church bears great "theologi­ th ree wcehs later, a wonderfLLI and more, from then until the end of the cal" guilt, as well. In practical terms, irreplaceable human being who had still war he brought me colored candies at the Jew was regarded until the so much to offer for the betterment C?i Christmas every year, which was Second Vatican Council as someone humanity. something incredible to me in those rejected by God. The everyday Below i.~ one oJ Lhe many interviews days. understanding of theology did not, in which Father Musial gave and which &, for that Jew whom we had principle, offer Catholics sufficient were published in the Polish Press and wanted to help: they tied him to motivation to help the Jew. if he is Widely read. It gives a flavour of the a horse, dragged him through the guilty of the sin of killing God, then kind of man he was. EdiLor. village, and killed him .... everything that befalls him is punish­ ment for that sin. Only with the Gazeta V\lyborcza, Neither mourning nor tears ... Vatican Council was there a dirferent January 9-10, 1999 vision of the Jews. Except that the WITOlD BERES, KRZYSZTOF way it was put into practice left a BURNETKO: Instead of uniting great deal [0 be desired. ationahsm is the greatest everyone in suffering, Auschwitz, or course, the Polish bishops threat to the Church the symbol of the Holocaust, is have promulgated two texts on the N in Poland Meanwhile, igniting much hatred today. What subject, but they were difficult and the Church around the world is the cause of this? Is it because rather theoretical documents. There is becoming increaSingly more anti-Semitism is still strong should have been a follow-up: 1 universal. If we do not rid ourselves among the Poles? Should we put suggested to the Church authorities of our nationalistic inclinations, we the blame on 45 years of commu­ that a letter should be issued are in danger of being n1arginalized nist indoctrination? Is the Church explaining to Polish Calholics in and cut off from the mainstream of insufficiently involved in this concrete tenns what the sin of anti­ the Universal Church issue? Or could it, paradoxically, Semitism consists of.

46 What does it consist of? because it was directed against the -l would ask them if they have ever Chosen People). Secondly, it was seen the face of a dying child. More Committing the sin of anti-Semitism perpetrated on an "industrial" scale. than a million Jewish children died means that, in everyday or political Thirdly, there was the silence of the during the Shoah. Can they imagine decisions, you are guided by whether authorities in the worlds of culture, the face 0 f someone who is dying in or not someone is of Jewish origins. politics, and religion. Especially the the gas chambers? What brutal agony You commit the sin of anti-Semitism latter. During the war, Pope Pi us XII that was, stretching almost into infin­ if you write anti-Semitic slogans on never used the word "Jew? ; he did ity, for death oeeu rred over the the walls, or if you toleraLe the indeed speak several times about course of twenty minutes of horrible writing of such slogans. JUSL ask extermination and about persecution suffering, If they were shown those yourself what a Jewish mother is on the grounds of faith or race , but faces, if they were told about those supposed to tell her child who comes he never indicated concretely whom staggering numbers, about that home terrified after reading such a he had in mind. It might even have abasement of human beings, (hen graffiti . You commit the sin of seemed conceivable that he was they might begin to understand the antiSemitism if, instead of the correct referring to the Bolsheviks-which is issue. term "Jew," you talk about "little how the Nazis explained it. The Jews" or "Jew-boys." You commit the Pope failed to utter even such a They often say: My mother also sin of anti-SemiLism if you deny the sentence as: "Christians, when died here, and her father was dimensions of the Holocaust And so you meet a Jew in need, help killed in the gas chambers, so I, on. him." No argumentation by the too, have a right to this place. The letter would have to be very defenders of Pius XII is going to concrete, almost like an inslrucrion convince me. -Poles died one way, and Jews died manuaL Theorizing won?t do any This 1S the sin that lies upon our another way. Jews died by good, because even definitions of conscience. For that matter, 1 would reason of their birth certificates. Two anti-Semitism exist by the score. go so far as to say that, if there is a philosophies of death. Death is crisis of Christianity and European always death, but one philosophy Yet, sometimes, there is little culture today, then it is because stands behind the death of desire for dialogue on the Jewish Christianity failed to live up to the Poles, and a different philosophy side. There may not even be any peoples expectations in the time of stands behind the death of the desire to learn about Poland the Shoah. Many Christians did, of Jews. and the Poles. Jewish people course, come to the aid of Jews-and I was born just before the war, and themselves have pointed out that yet we feel, deep down inside, that I am ahve. If I had been Jewish, I the young people who come to we did not meet the challenge. This probably would not have survived. Poland for the March of the Living is reflected in our present attitudes. That?s the first thing. The second take no interest in Poland or in This is why we react in such an thing is that we Poles have many talking with Poles. emotional way. And yet, one way or places of martyrdom in Poland and another, we must work things out around the world. For Jews from all -That is true. But the attitude of the someday. over the world, however, the one Jews who come to Poland is under­ I can, of course, hardly dictate to proper symbol of the extermination standable. They are interested in the Holy Father, but 1 would imagine of their people is Auschwitz. their own tragedy. Our obligation, on that, on the occasion of the jubilee of 1,300,000 Jews probably died there. the other hand, is to meel them the two thousandth anniversary That is more than ninety percent of halfway and try to understand their of the birth of Christ, he could issue the victims of Auschwitz. If Jews history. a special document in which he raise the issue of extraterrritoriality, acknowledges that Christianity is the suggestion is not off the mark Our most grievous fault burdened by the sins of many from a moral point of view. centuries of religious anti-Semitism, This is, after all, the bit of the earth's Perhaps the reason for these and that by failing to render aid to surface that has soaked up the most emotions is less comprehensible. the Jews in the time of the Shoah, Jewish blood. A sovereign Jewish Could it be that the tragedy of Christianity committed the sin of Auschwitz would be a true the Holocaust is so great that it renunciation agai.nst them. Half a monument to the Holocaust. overwhelms our conceptual appa­ page of sincere words would be Is Poland-the country that ratus? And that we do not know enough. Perhaps better limes would was the most hospitable place how to talk about it? then come for Christianity, as well. for the Jews in medieval Europe­ unable to afford such a symbolic -Certainly: in this case, we are fac­ If the Church had protested ... gesture? Especially since the majority ing a gigantic black walL of the Jews murdered here were The destruction of the Jews is But perhaps it is also necessary to Polish citizens? 1 am certain that the greatest sin that hangs over attempt to talk with the people the Jews would take pains over mankind. ln the first place, it was the who are erecting crosses in the the dignified remembrance of extermination of a people (at a gravel pit If you were to meet with all the others who were murdered, Vatican symposium on October 31, them as a pastor and to take a step including Poles. 1997, John PaullI pointed out that it to understand and persuade them, The struggle to prevent the world was a special case of genOCide, what would you do? from forgetting about the destruction

47 of the Jews is in everyone?s interest: yet th)s important letter to the Pope The attempt to nee from "anti­ thal of Jews and non-Jews alike. So is still unknown. (Cardinal Meissner, Semitism" is a grand falsification, [hat this horror can never again be the archbishop of Cologne, even because it means that we are fleeing repeated. asked [or a copy of the letter for the from responsibility. We will now Let us remind ourselves of the Edith Stein archives in Cologne, but attempt to say: "We were never anti­ Kristallnacht, on November 9, 1938: to no avail.) Semjtes, only anti-Judaists." In [act, i[ synagogues burned in Germany, All that is known is that Edith it had not been for centuries of theo­ Jews were murdered on [he streets, Stein mentioned this letter when she logical anti-Semitism, Hitler would hundreds of their houses and shops wrote a biographical note about her­ have had no foundations for his 'A·'ere destroyed. Yet none of lhe self in 1938. She states there with all racist anti -Semitism. The latter bishops raised his voice, not even the humility of a nun (she had taken would have been rejected, just as a Pope Pi us XL Yet if the \\7orld -- and the Carmelile vows) that everything healthy organism rejects a foreign the Church - had prolested against she had written in that letter was body. that crime, then perhaps it would not coming to pass. have had its tragic sequel. Hitler Who got the peasants drunk? treated Kristallnacht as a trial run. He Why is the Church afraid of that was testing how far he could go in his letter? You have been struggling for many hatred of the Jews. years in favor of Polish-Jewish The greatest fault of the Church -- T do not know. dialogue. Where does your was the fact that, while opposing fighting spirit come from? racism, it was nm against moderate Dangerous language anti-Semitism. What does this mean? - In my childhood, my surroundings It was agreed that the state has a free The communists manipulated were strongly anti-SemItic. J was hand in regulating the political, the language: they said that they born in 1938, in Lososina G6rna, economic and community tife of its were not anti-Semites, only anti­ near Limanowa. In Gahcia in the citizens and national minorities, Zionists. Yet today, some Church time of my great-grandparents (and including above all the Jews, who circles never mention anti­ not only here), the Jew was the were blamed for everything. Semitism; at most, they speak of middle-man between the lando'wner H we take the article on anti­ Christian anti-Judaism. and the peasanL) and so all the Semitism from a 1930 dictionary of villages hatred of the manor-house Catholic theology, written hy one of -This terminological shift is. was directed against the Jew. my fellow Jesuits, a German who highly dangerous. It is a flight from Let me give you an example. later became a close collaborator responsibility. Then it 'v\fill always Years ago) we had a discussion of with Pius Xll, \ve find it clearly be possible to say, "I was never an anti-Semitism at the Catholic stated that moderate anti-Sem1tism anti-Semite, only a theological anti­ Intelligentsia Club. Attorney Sila­ is permissible. Yet if we agree to Judaist." NOVvicki put forward the thesis that moderate anti-Semitism, then how The term "anti-Semitism"" arose in [he Jews had encouraged alcoholism are we to protest against the burning Berlin in 1879. We even know the among the Polish peasantry. Andrzej of synagogues or the deportation of l1anle of its author Wilhelm Marr. Potocki, president of the Cracow Jews? We \\rill remain silenl, because Etymologically, it is nonsense) since Catholic Intelligentsia Club) did we acknowledge that the slate is there are many Semitic peoples something that impressed me. He actlng within its rights. (including the Arabs). Yet this stood up and said, "It wasn?t the Jew The issue, lhen, is not that incorrect term was so faSCinating that got the peasants drunk 1 was the Christians failed to protesl in 1942. that, within a year of being coined, it one who got them drunk-as the By [hen, it was already too late. It was had begun functioning in all the landov.-11er. The Jew was my servant T necessary to protesl in the 1930s, European languages. For while set him up as my agent in the inn and when anti-Jewish legislation began hatred of [he Jews had a history of then squeezed him for money So appearing, even before Krystallnacht. more than two thousand years, there what was the Jew supposed to do?" To take one detaiL In April, 1933- had always been a lack of an appro­ The Church was, obviously, an after Hitler had come to power­ priate, high-sounding tenn. No one, important part of my environment as Edith Stein wrote a letter to Pope after all, is willing to simply proclaim I was groVving up. I was an altar boy Pius Xl just before she entered lhe their hatred, "Anti-Semitism," on the in my childhood. I liked [he services convent. She asked him for an other hand, was camouflaged by and the religiOUS books. An elderly encyclical on anti-Semitism. (Pius XI linguistic mysticism, sCientism, and teacher, Miss Odziomek, exercised laler spoke out on the subject of conceptual coldness. spiritual care over me. She wrote to racism, but that is not the same.) Yet perhaps the most important various religious orders, asking if To this day, her letter has not been reason not to give up the term "an[i­ they would accept me in the minor published! The person who was Semitism" is the [act that (in order to seminary (in preparation for taking made responsible by the Church for mollify the Arabs) Hitler recom­ monastic vows or for the major handling her canonization \-vas mended in 1934 that the term be seminary). The Jesuits said yes. 1 was allowed to see that letter, but without changed to "anti-Judaism." Giving up twelve years old. I lived with them in being able to make any notes, and "anti-Semitism" would thus represent Nowy Sacz and compieted the sev­ after being sworn to keep ilS contents a posthumous terminological victory enth class at the Mickiewicz primary secret And we canonized Edith Stein, for Hitler. school.

48 In 1952, at the height of Stalinism, I were singing Jewish psalms there, anti-Semitism alone. This document, the authorities closed down that things could be worse-bul it fortunately, was not signed by the the minor seminary. One July was a stupid joke, and to this day I Holy Father, but only by Cardinal night, the militia surrounded regret it. Edward Cassidy, chairman of the the monastery and brought in Suchecky visited Cardinal Vatican commission for dialogue bricklayers who walled off three Macharski, traveled to Auschwitz, \vith ]udaism. quarters of the building where we and wrote about the whole affair. The other circumstance in which I minor seminarians lived together That was what really set off protests live-and live in joy-is among the with the Jesuits. In this situation, in Jewish circles against the presence Jesuits. The society boasts a special the Jesuit fathers allowed the of Catholic nuns at the site of the vow of obedience to the Pope: always majority of us to take our vows even Holocausl. The Cardinal asked Jerzy obedient and united. However, some though we had not reached the Turowicz and me to help in this of my foreign brothers hold the so-called "canonical age" of fifteen. matter. It is therefore not true, as one thesis that there can be no genuine Thus; I donned the cassock as a bishop later suggested, that the obedience without a certain dose of fourteen-year-old boy .. delegates to the negotiations with "holy" disobedience. And it is hard After being consecrated as a priest, the Jews had nominated themselves. to say that they are wrong. If the I went abroad in 1965. And I That was when I began studying Jesuits had stood as one man in remained outside Poland until the problem of the destruction of the sixteenth century and opposed, 1979.1 studied in Rome for several the Jews. Tt was the fate of Jewish for instance, the burning of heretics, years, and then in Munich, and did children during the war that made then the Holy Father would not now pasLOral work in France, then in Italy the greatest impression on me. Such have to apologize (or at least not to again, then Gennany and France. as the memoirs from the Ukraine such a degree) for this sin by the During those fourteen years, I spent of two German army chaplains Church. less than three weeks in Poland. who described how the Germans What is more, I had no contact with assembled more than a hundred Prohibitions Poles living abroad, and so I missed Jewish children i.n one house. They out on all the Polish cultural and were marked for liquidation, but the We have heard that you have been political life of the period. Soon required personnel were unavailable. prohibited from speaking out on afterwards, 1 had another interrup­ The oldest child was ten. They certain subjects. It began with tion from 1981 to 1985, when [ was were left without food, without your November, 1997 article in Ausnia. In that period, I spent warm clothing, v.rith nOLhing. And «Black is Black" in Tygodnik t\VO years as a guest in a Trappist they took care of each other. Four­ Powszechny. You wrote that the monastery, which cured me year-olds and six-year-olds took care Church hierarchv should react forever of eaLing meat and of little toddlers. And then the to the anti-Semitic utterances of watching television. Although 1 met Einsatzhommando turned up ... the clergy, because otherwise many Jewish people and lnade That was a terrible shock to me. it will share responsibility for friends with them during these stays As a Christian, I began asking, the propagation of hatred in abroad, I never experienced any How was this possible? How could PoLand. Oournalistic circles turning point. my Church have kept silent? The regarded this as an act of civic older I get, the more the sin or the courage, and the monthly Press The Einsatzkommando silence of the Church during the awarded you the

49 on the other hand, talk about the Could that reliance on John What else, aside from your early positions that 1 had already taken. Paul II resuh from the very circumstances, have you freed 1 try to be faithful 1O this, although 1 structure of the Church? ln yourself from? have often been tempted to speak up the case of the removal of the in the "debate" about the gravel-pit Carmelite sisters from Auschwitz, - From a feeling of religious superior­ I do nOl believe that 1 will now be we were dealing with insubordina­ ity. I suckled Christianity along with violating this prohibition, especially tion by the mother superior. my nlother?s milk. And, as a in the light of my vows of obedience Only papal intervention saved Christian, 1 had a feeling of a certain to the Pope, if I try to defend the the day. superiority over people of other Holy Father in one matter. Tt is a faiths, and over non-believers. Now) 1 striking example of manipulation to -It's sad that there was no one in am becoming humble, for it is very refer to the first, seven-meter cross at Poland strong enough to stand up to difncult to interpret this world, with the gravel-pit, erected without the three or four women. (Or perhaps all its shades of light and darkness, consent of the Church authorities, as there were others sLanding behind in an unequivocal \vay. Today, [he the "papal" cross. The term "papal" those women 7) Lord appears to me as the ultimate can be used only with the assent of reality of full compassion, love , and the Holy Father. And then there is the issue of benevolence. When 1 was studying in Rome, I returning the church in Przemysl I used to think: You must be good, lived in Robert Bellarmine College, to the Greek Catholics there. In because then the Lord will also be which is called "papal" because that case, not even the Pope was of good to you. Now I think that the the Apostolic See agreed. The crowns any help .. . essence of Christianity is the fact that of several miraculous icons in God loves us vvithout demanding Poland are called "papal" because -These examples show that national­ anything, and without setting any they were sent by the pope. In the ism is the grealesl lh rear to conditions. meantime, as far as I know, no the Church in Poland. Meanwhile, cross at the gravel-pit was sent there the Church around the world There are those who would ask: by John Paul n. The fact that the is becoming increasingly more And what about responsi.bility? Pope celebrated the Eucharist-at universal. That is what the another time and place-in fronL Church of the Third Millennium - Responsjbihty is an important mat­ of that first CTOSS is not sufficient is going to be like. If we do not ter. But those who obtain grace and for that cross, erected out of hatred rid ourselves of our nationalistic attempt to understand that great for the Jews, to now be called inclinations, we are in danger of power of divine love and compassion "papal." Terminological falsehood, being lnarginalized and cut off from will surely become honest people. to which even members of the the mainstream of the Universal I would prefer that today the clergy have been susceptible, is Church. Church educated people in a spirit of an important component of the openness and hope, and not of fear connict. Perhaps it's not that bad. of God and the world. Of course, You have been chastised and the contemporary world contains Why is it that Poles do not obey there has been an attempt to get dangers. But it will be easier to the Pope specifically in the matter you into line. Then, suddenly, confront those dangers for people of the Jews? the bishops themselves resorted who have a positive attitude towards to the same arguments that you the real wortd, and who are con­ -The teaching of the Holy Father is had been making. if Archbishop vinced that there is more good than accepted selectively in Poland. Muszynski says that the cross evil around them. Where it is comfortable for us, we cannot be a sign of division, he's I feel bad about those Catholic accept it Where it is not, we remain practically quoting you. circles that spread fear. Now, t walk silent or in terpret it by our O~ll down the street and people come up lights. That is why the Pope's - rll leave others to assess that point. to me and say, "Father, do you know meetings with Jews are commented Comparing texts is a job for literary that they have decided in Brussels on according to the principle that scholars. that the population of Poland should 'There?s no avoiding meeting be only 20 million? Do you know, with them, but we know how things Before the Judgement Father, that the Jews are supposed [0 really stand." Seat buy up Poland?" How do they know At the same time, the Church in this? They heard it on a Catholic Poland displays little "autonomy." - I'm 60. Tha[5 an age when people radio station~ We keep passing the buck to the start fearing other people less, and Provoking phobias is irresponsi­ Holy Father: He?ll come here, fearing God more. Now 1 am indeed ble; it is a cTime against the little say something, shake lhings up, enjoying the gifl of freedom that God ones. They are poor anyway, and provide the solution. What's going grams lo all people. 1 may err, but now they have to live with such to happen in fifty years, when the when I stand before the Throne of additional fears aboul the future. Pope is an African who does Justice, I wi ll be asked not only about I wish that the Church had less not know Poland in detail and love, but also about what 1 did with false visibility, fewer boisterous holi­ is not going to come here every my freedom, and whether 1 was day celebrations and blessings of few years? myself supermarkets. All of this is the

50 uperiphery" of Christianity. 1£ My colleagues and superiors Stanislaw Musial, 5j., 60, is a there is too much of it, we will expected me to become a professor of Jesuit who was secretary of become secularized and suppress philosophy 1 let Lhem down. [ am the Polish Episcopate Commission our faith. merely the chaplain at a long-term for Dialogue vvith judaism from I would also like to see a great care facility run by the Trinitarian 1986-95. In 1987, he played act of national forgiveness. (To Sisters on Kol1ataj Street in Cracow: a decisive role in reaching an make things perfectly dear: Thanks 75 elderly, ill women. The encounter agreement Vvith Jewish representa­ to my parents, I knew from with them is, for me, a great divine tives in the controversy over childhood what communism means. grace-a meditation on human the site of the Carmelite convent father was proud of having My greatness, on life and death, on man at Auschwitz. Until 1991. he fought against the Bolsheviks.) Now I and God. was associate editor of Tygodnik meet people who are denied any My deepest dream-and 1 am not Powszechn y. He was the fi rst dignity because they once had saying this in order to provide a mov­ winner of the "Polish Puhczer something to do with the Party. ing point to the story-is lor a rabbi to Prize" (acknowledged just I am not talking about the leadership, say the kaddish over my coffin. Then who should be punished for their I could truly call myself a Catholic, berore Christmas, 1998, by Press crimes. Pm talking about the rank because Catholicism means magazine). and file who tried to build that "the whole" (the word "Catholic" Poland because they were convinced comes from the Greek kaL'hoton, or, Witold Beres and Krzysztof Burnetko that they were doing right. They "according to the whole"), the Jewish are journalists from the staff of deserve (0 be able to die with a roots and the shoots thal sprang from Tygodnik Powszechny. feeling of dignity them -Christian i ty

FJrrHER STANISLAW MUSIAL

Professor Stanislaw Obirek

StanisIaw Obirek holds the Chair of History & Philosophy qf Culture at the University School of Philosophy & Religious Pedagogy in Crahow and is the Director oJ the Centre oJ Culture and Dialogue. He took part in a recent one-day seminar at The institule oJ Polish-Jewish Studies in London and spoke on \Vhat are the Fundamental Philosophical Issues Currently Raised by the Holocaust Debates in Poland?

Fr. Stanislaw Musial was born on 1st May 1938 in Lososina Gorna near Limanowa in Poland. He died on 5th March 2004 in Cracow. It was probably [he first time - certainly in post-war Poland - that [he funeral of a Catholic priest was attended not only by hundreds of priests, nuns, and thousands of Catholics and other Christians (Protestants and Orthodox) but also by Jews and non-believers. The attendance at the Catholic funeral in a Catholic cemetery of three Rabbis and the Israeli Ambassador to Poland was indeed remarkable. The explanation is simple - the life and work of Stanislaw Musial was unusual. His commitment and collaboration was deeply rooted in his religiOUS convictions, so much so, that he wished to have a Rabbi say Kaddish for him at his funeral. To him Kaddish was as important as the Catholic prayers. Tt was moving to lislen to the prayers read by the Cardinal of Cracow followed by the prayers incanted by the Rabbi of Cracow. Stanislaw Musial. SJ

51 LEONARD MONTEFIORE MEMORIAL LECTURE

RESPONSES TO JEWISH IMMIGRATION INTO BRITAIN 1656 - 1914 BASED ON AUTHOR'S 2003 MEMORIAL LECTURE

By His Honour Israel Finestein Q.C.

ublic reactions renected monarch ordered the proceedings I abortive reform of 1753 was quietly successive diverse phases in to be quashed under the royal attained by an Act of Parliament in PBritish history There was a prerogative and declared that as long 1826. mixture of distrust and toleration; as the Jews were law-abiding, they Throughout the 18th century, envy and admiration; periodic bouts were not lO be molested and the fluctuating pressures on Jewish of religious bigotry and genui.ne awe should be allowed their own religion commumtles abroad impelled at Jewish survival against all the and customs. These declarations by westward emigration, with England odds. There was no ghettO. From Orders-in-Council long remained an attractive locale. The threat of the Cromwell's day they lived in free­ lhe protective legal basis for Jewish Hapsburg Empress, Maria Theresa, to dom, protected by the law of the residence in England. expel Jews from Prague in the 1740s land, but no-one could be indirferent Such experiences helped to induce caused a movement of Jews from to the Jews. They were perceived as in Jev.ri.sh minds a preference for Bohemia. When Frederick 11 of different, mostly unassimilable, with keeping a "low profile" . Meanwhile, Prussia considered the imposition of special interests and international there was an ever-increasing flow of additional speCial taxes on the Jews, connections of their own. Jews from conlinental countries, there was a like migration from that From the start in the 17th century, including Italy, Holland, and the kingdom. the ambiguity of public response newly-acquired territory of Gibralter. Jews also arrived from territories was evident. In the 16505, Cromwell By the end of the 17th century, there as diverse as North Africa and and the Council of State considered were two synagogues in London - Poland. In particular, the partitions Menasseh Ben Israel's famous peti­ one Sephardi and the other of Poland in the 17705 and 17905 led [ion to allow Jews lO resettle in Ashkenazi. The law increasingly (0 Jewish emigration, especially from England. They had been expelled by took account of the Jevvish minority. the extensive areas allocated to the royal decree in 1290. Rumour ran The Courts now permitted Jews to Czarist empire. through London that it was all a sue, to act as witnesses in Court and Jewish poverty became endemic Je\Vish plot to enable Jews to buy to swear on their own bible. in London. Unemployment was Sl Paul's for conversion ineo a Yet when, in 1753, an Act of rife . Jews formed a considerable synagogue. Whether or not William Parliament permitted foreign-born proportion of the numbers of poor Paynne, who diligently spread such Jews to be naturalised without taking roaming the streets. Street begging, tales, believed them, others certainly the custOmary Christian oath of unco-ordinated relief and petty did. Cromwell would have none allegiance, popular opposition was street crime increased pau perisation of this. His party, the Puritans, tradi­ violent. Tt spilled into the streets and and accentuated the need for a tionally had a high opinion of the became so widespread (inspired planned approach to a growing Hebrew bible and biblical prophecy. by an organised campaign of hostile "public nuisance". In any case, he saw the Jews as cartoons and pamphlets) that the A London magisrrate, Patrick natural allies against Spain and likely government felt obliged to cause Colquhoun, wrote a long report on economic assets to the Stale. Lhe Act 10 be at once repealed. The the subject in which he dealt in detail By the time his Republican regime fragility or toleration was exposed. \vith the expanding Jewish element was over and the monarchy restored This episode lived long in the in these problems. His strictures led (1660), at least thirty Jewish families Jewish communal memory. It played Dr Joshua Van Oven, surgeon to the lived in London openly as Jews. a part in further encouraging the poor of the Great Synagogue, to They included Marranos glad to do Jev.ri.sh habit of caution in Jewish devise a scheme in the 1790s for away with their disguise. public relations. This was perhaps occupational training of Jewish youth Immigration ineVitably increased. more marked among Sephardim than and a residential home for the Jewish Charles II and his successor, his among Ashkenazim. It may, to sick and aged . 1t was a beginning, brother James I1, confirnled some extent, explain the much later which had the financial support of Cromwells permissiveness in 1673 difference between Sir Moses Abraham Goldsmid, the financier of and 1685. Some merchants in the Montefiores caution in the emanci­ Dutch origin. The scheme was the Port of London had sought to lay pation campaigns of the 19th centu­ distant forerunner of loday's charges against Jews (under old laws) rv and the more robust attitude of Norwood. The attempted European for not attending church and for l~. ading Ashkenazim, headed by revolutions in and around 1848 were conducting their own services; each the Goldsmids. The object of the accompanied by successive waves of

52 migration , notably from Hungary The ceaseless immigration was in South Wales in 1911 had and Laslern Europe. In 1859, accompanied by the continuing their own particular local context, Ephraim Alex founded [he London assertion that some of the newcomers but they were a tell1ng reminder Jewish Board or Guardians (now were nOl and could not become of a continuing antipathy. By unrecognisably grown into Jewish Englishmen, that they prayed and 1914, the number of Jews in Care), to assist the poor, encourage hoped for their national restoration Britajn far exceeded 200,000. self-help anq facilitate [he manual to Jerusalem and that they brought The outbreak of war in 1914 halted training of Jewish youth. up their families in the same spirit. the immigration. The immigration declined sub­ These commen ts were sometimes The fashionabUity of anti-Jewish stantially on the outbreak of the directed not only to the immigrant prejudice had deep roots in society, French wars in 1793 and soon came Jews but also to those of longer regardless of immigration, yet social to a halt. At the conclusion of residence. Some supporters of emancipation long preceded civic the hostilities in 1815, Lhere were restricting immigration, such as and political emancipation in about 25,000 Jews in England, William Shaw, who founded the the United Kingdom. Anti-Semitism mainly in London, but with growing British Brothers League, supported is an ancient European malady, a communities in some ports and the Zlonist movement. The question state of mind. It is never short of market towns. vVhen all restrictions was raised as to whether a Jew could self-justification and "explanations". on en[ry were formally lifted in be a pat dot. It was posed by the 1t can become obsessional and a 1836, (he number of artivals grew Liberal politician and historian, danger not only to Jews but to the considerably until, from 1881, the Professor Gold'Win Smith. The main general public. Dislike of Jews in waves of arrivals, especial.ly through Jewish protagonist in that debate London and Hull, reached unprece­ was the Chief Rabbi Dr Hermann England sprang at first from the denred levels following the onset of AdleI. Such questions led to his ever often-mentioned dislike of the Russian programs. Many passed more strongly adviSing the Jewish the unlike, an attitude sharpened by through on their way to America. community of the need to Anglicise considerations of religi.on. Laler, it Those who remained in Britain and c'civillse" the immigram Jews. It became associated with ind ustrial transfonned the Jewish community was a most unfortunate phrase and economic factors and, still In London alone about one quarter of which his critics in the East End later, it became, in a sense, politico­ the Jewish population was in receipt did not easily forget. Adler in\,ited national. Weizmann agreed with of private or instltutional relief. conlinemal rabbis to discourage Jews Herzl that anti-Semitism was a The traditional Je\'vish trades were from emigrating to Britain, on the national issue - that once the number over-crowded. In the 1880s, there grounds that iL was difficult to find of Jews in a particular country or were about 60,000 Jews in this work and that immigration fuelled region reached a certain proportion country. Within 25 years, there were, anti-Semitism. In this he had in relation to the general population, in London alone, about 180,000 the suppon of some leaders of the anti-Semitism tended to follow. On Jews and about 25,000 in each of United Synagogue. this principle, it mattered nol Manchester and Leeds. After 1881 , major social and how great or distinctive were the During tne 19th century, the old economic issues were raised in the beneHts which the immigrants and ambivalence was still clearly in main areas of Jewish residence. their families may have rendered evidence. Some writers, including Pressure on housing, Lhe 1abour to society or their loyalty in peace Lord Byron, George Eliot, and Roben market and wage levels, added a new and war. Browning, showed respect and dimension to the ongOing debate on The Jews in Britain benefited from unde rstanding.. At (he same time, (he Jewish presence. Some trades the stability and the legal and Dickens' Fagin evoked the memory union leaders called for curbs on political traditions of the country. of Shylock and also helped to keep immigration and for some control They enjoyed the "free air" of the alive the unnatural stereoLypes of over "sweating" conditions in Jewish land. Until the 1930s the anti-Jewish medieval legends. The notable "factories", especially in the tailoring sentiment was never incorporated trades, many of which were estab­ essayist, Charles Lamb, expressed into the ethos of any political party puzzlement and distaste at any lished by former immigrants who Whatever may have lain behind a Jewish expressed desire for associa­ had aspired to "self-employment" certain aloofness and "distance" tion with gentiles, since he regarded and the status of "master". In the towards Jews in some quarters, a the Jews as, in reality, irretrievably 18905 the Tory party included in its highly-regarded Jewish figure in the self-centred, inward-looking and programme proposals to limil, if not foreign. It was argued that Jews stop, alien (i .e., je\vish) immigration. early 20th century, A1bertJessel Q.C., have more in common 'With Jews in Some Liberals and certai.n Jewish declared that anti-Semitism was the their lands of origin than with their politicians supported their policy. result of ostentation by rich Jews. next door neighbours in London. Demagogues were nOl slow to make Certainly the influence of certain Lord Derby, Tory Prime Minister, told political capital out of the changing wealthy Jews of recent foreign origin the House of Lords in 1857 that the scene. in the South Africa goldmining Jews are "with us but not of us .. ... In 1905 the Aliens Act was passed industry was much commented on, there is an impassible gulC'. Yet it by a Tory government, headed by as was the presence of prominent was his government which, the next Arthur BaUouy. It was not wholly Jewish magnates in the circle of year, put through Parliament the exclusjve. Immigration lawfully Edward VU . None of this was measure which opened the continued under the Act at a more related to the immediate practical Commons (0 profeSSing Jews. limited pace. The anti-Jevrish riots issue of Je'lNish immigration.

S3 SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION

REPORT ON '45 AID SECOND GENERATION DISCUSSION EVENING - 18 MAY 2004

ore than 100 people ORT, and by '45 Aid Society Israel today and provides a summary ttended the first '45 Aid Chairman, Ben Helfgott. of Anti-Semitic elelnents in the M Society Second Generation Middle Ea~r. It includes details Discussion evening which was on 18 F ilrn and Discussion of Anti-Semitic educational pro­ grammes and propaganda and media May at World ORT Headquarters in sessions Camden, North \Vest London. footage from the Middle East. This The meeting was primarily shocking and provocative material arranged for '45 Aid members and The evening started vvith a preview produced a number of passionate their children - the 2nd Generation - of pan of the excellent and reactions from the audience. to discuss future plans. The activity controversial film "Lest We Forger". was hailed as a greaL success by many This hard-hitting film, produced by a Discussion topics of those who attended. German Christian organisation, The evening was arranged and traces the rise of Anti-Semitism in the The fihn was followed by a debate in introduced by Second Generation world today: 4 separate groups. Survivors joined members Philip Bunon and Maurice The film showcases Anti-Semitism ' members of the Second Generation Helfgott. A warm welcome was in the Middle-East and compares to discuss their reactions to the film extended to all by Dr G idi::on Meyer, Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism. and to debate a number of points. Deputy Director General of World The film focuses on the violence in Discussion topics were :

1. Anti-Semitism today: Is there a problem? How real is the threat? Is the Jewish community exaggerated in its fears, or is it complacent? Is there a REAL difference between Anti­ Semitism and Anti-Zionism? Do we strengthen our case by arguing against them as a single phenome­ non, or do we weaken it?

2. vVhat is OUR responsibility? Do we, as Survivors and 2nd Generat.ion, have a distinct responsibility to remember the past and to teach its lessons? I r so, what is it, and how should we go about it? Does the 60th Anniversary rof the liberation or the Survivors, in May 2005] provide a focus lO allow us to do things together? If so, what activities and events are or interest?

Conclusions

The meeling wound up with a ple­ nary session to report back on the outcome of all the Discussion Groups. A number of suggestions were presented for future project activities for the Second Generation Left: Philip Burton, Right: Maurice Helfgott to undertake.

54 The Boys meeting with the Second Generation.

A few of the projects highlighted for making us to welcome for are summarised below: Next Steps providing all the facilities, rooms, Many participants felt that the reception an security to ensure it was 1. Educational programmes: To be Lime was right (0 begin passing the a successful meeting. developed for and delivered to balon of responsibility from the Particular thanks go to Gary Spiro, LJK schools, cheders; teachers; Survivors to the Second Generation. Leonard Herman, Alan Greenberg, Universities; our ovm children; Members of the Second Generation Nathan Helfgott, Charles HeTman and for others as applicable welcomed this suggestion, and plans and David Zwirek for helping to run (poli ticians, clergy.. .) were initiated for a follow-up the meeting and [or chairing the meeting to begin discussions on Discussion Groups and presenting 2. Promoting Understanding next steps. their conclusions. Our thanks are between communities: Foster A planning meeting for Second also due to the '45 Aid Society links with other religious and Generation members is scheduled in members who ensured that tea, community groups in UK - early July 2004 (details to follow) coffee and snacks were provided for suggestions included contact and with another follow-up meeting all 100+ attendees. joint events with. 'Muslim groups. planned for September 2004. 3. Media campaigns: various Video and D\lD copies of the film, "Lest We Forget", directed by Hugh campaigns suggested to achieve Want to be involved? better portrayal of Holocaust &: Kitson, produced by Johannes Facius The '45 Aid Society Second Jewish community issues; to gain and Chris McDennou, are available Generation would like to thank all more positive coverage of Jewi.sh in the UK from CFI who can be those who auended the meeting and community issues and to contacted on +44 (0)] 323 410810 for making it such a success. We counteract anti -Israe l bias. hope that many more Second Generation will attend future events, Further information 4. Suppon of Holocaust Memorial details of which will be published by or suggestions? day-Cs): 2nd Generation atten­ email. dance at and involvement Please contact - '45 Aid Society Please send your email address (0 in all key public ceremonies, Second Generation [email protected] or call undertaking speaking engage­ Email: [email protected] 0845 226 7545, or write to Second ments ete. Phone: +44 (0)845 226 7545 Generation, PO Box 47814, London Post: Second Generation) NW 11 8VVH, England. 5. Links with other Jewish PO Box 47814, community groups: Foster &: London NVVll 8\VH., maintain tin ks with relevant Acknowledgements and England. Jewish community and thanks Holocaust Survivor groups in the We would like to thank all the staff at Philip & Julia BuTton

UK and abroad. World ORT Headquarters in Camden I secondgenera [email protected]

55 l~ November 2003, a group of very close personal int.erest and 28 people lefl Gatwick ai~ort EXPERIENCE OF sadness to us. The visit was I on a bright autumn day We planned meticulously, even to landed two hours later in a grey POLAND planning what and when we ate. vVe misty Kr ako ...v. Rabbi Meycr led us all thought that it would have been from the Brighton and Hove Reform Bryan Huberman &. Caroline inappropriate and disrespectful to Synagogue, he was an extremely Spencer visit a restaurant on a day like knowledgeable and supponive nee Huberman, children of this. The organisers also carefully leacher. The trip was planned Alfred & Sylvia Huberman planned the vlSH to ensure that meticulously to ensure we had lhe we left the cam ps just before right balance of past, present and nightfall. future. the same views as previous genera­ How can anyone say that we were Being the son and daughter of a lions. The gUide also said that Israeli brave to go and visit under such survivor, we decided to make this chiidren often visil the area and she circumstances? We will never trip and the very fact that we \vere in would like them to mix with Polish understand what our families went a position [0 do so made us appreci­ children and get to know each other. through. We had a tour guide, the ate that we may not live in this Polish She felt (hat one of the problems was place was clean and had been com­ town., but we were proor that the that visiwrs often only come to visit pletely sanitised with flowers placed "final solution' had not succeeded. the camps and don't want to see the all over the site. We were surprised V./e knew that Krakow had once rcal Poland of today. to see flowers, probably placed with been a vibrant and thriving Jev.rish The Poland that we saw had all good intentions, but this made me community, which now nu longer mainly been redeveloped since the angry because it added some false existed . movie Schindlers List. The Jewjsh beauty to an horrific place. area consisted of a state run culLural In preparing for this trip, people Seeing the main gate with "Arbeit centre, Synagogues and newly had commented that we were bravc, mach Jrei" (work makes you free), opened Yiddish and Jewish style courageous and how cold Poland tree-lined paths and gas chambers ITSlauranrs selling pseudo traditional \vould be. But we were 'tourists' on a disguised as showers, proves what food. The group discussed whether weekend trip and we knew we would planning, lhought and deception the Polish v/ere cashing in on the be coming home. We were going was used to make this death ractory. success of the film . Certainly, my there LO see, learn and remember We also learnt that the people those who had not survlved . brother and I were pleased to see our deported to this place were even \Ve stayed in a \vann and comfort­ Jewish past was being recognised and made to pay for the train ticket, with able kosher hotel in the centre of that you could still get similar food to children's lickets half-price. Nothing Krakow, which had an excellent that eaten by our father as a child. and nobody was sacred, every basement bar where [he group spent Going to Shul on Saturday morn­ possible thought had been made lO hours reflecting philosophically ing was one of (he highlights of our make this place efficient and cost­ aboue the day's events. Everything trip. The Remuh Synagogue built in effective and so breathtakingly evil. \Ve saw and heard whilst on this trip the 18005 holds a regular servict: and generated long debates and discus­ greatly depends on vi.sitors attending AL least we have now been LO sions. The group became very close to make up a Minyon. For us it felt one of the places where lhe atrociLies took place. Vv'c have a during that weekend, as we realised like a great achievement La be sitting everyone had their own reason for in a Shul in the middle of Poland. better appreciation of the awesome making the trip. \Ve \-vere afforded The local community is now Liny, size and layout of the camps and can particular warmth and support from 'vvith only a handful of local people understand with slightly more the group when they became aware attending the service: most of the insighl what occurred in those we were the children of someone congregation was just there for [he terrible years. The enormity of Ihe who had actually experienced and clay. The most poignant moment was Holocaust is still difficult (0 beheve survived the camps. when a little boy aged about ten and we are left with more questions On Friday night we were joined by came in and we imagined that the Lhan answers. Since returning from a young Polish tour guide. We dis­ was how old our father had been, in the tri p, a simple railway track does cussed Lhe events thaL built LIp to lhe the 19305 before a11 the horrors not have the same meaning as it did war and lhe experiences of Polish began. before. But it was a very worthwhile people at the time. She descrlbed the We all felt well prepared for our experience and has left us feeling total lack of understanding between visit to Auschwirz Birkenau, hcl ving closer to the family that tragically ,,,"e Polish people and Jewish people, experienced the exhibition at The never knew. \vhich she fell was exacerbated by Tmperial VI/ar Museum, having We have no regrets about visiting isolarion of the [WO groups. She told vieV\:ed several films and, of course, Poland. The Polish people were us how she frequently takes groups havi.ng read 'The Boys' (Sir Martin polite and seemed happy to host us. or Polish children to Auschwitz so Gi.lbert telling the story of the 732 We have seen the white-barked tall they understand the past. We were children, including our father, trees that encircle the fores(s, walked also pleased to discover that The brought to England after the by the River Vistula and have Holocaust is taught to Polish children Holocaust). On l he day the group experienced a small aspect of the and this gave us hope that through seemed LO (ope \vith the visit in their culture of Poland. And then we came education they will nOl grow up wilh own way. Our experience was of home.

56 -rHE EARLY LIFE OF MY COURAGEOUS GRANDFATHER

Genna Spiro

Genna Spira) 15 years old, is the daughter of Gary & Lannis Spiro and the grand-daughter oj Pauline & Hany SpiJ'O

his story needs to be told. adored. him out from behind her telhng him This sLory needs to be told Slowly, families along his street to go to work a( the factory wh.ere he T over and over again. This began to disappear, mothers would had already worked for some story must not be forgotten . I am a be heard crying, children would be months. My grandfather would not grand-daughter of a Holocaust sur­ heard screaming and day by day let go of her; he only wanted to vivor. My grandfather survived one another family, another fliend of his follow his family to where the Nazis of the most evil and tragic events of was taken away, somewhere nobody were taking them and to all stick modem times. His family were part was tOo sure of. together. His mother turned round of Hitler's six mllhon victims. The poignant memory of my to him and said in a voice of a Many grandchildren are filled with grandfathers story is one which he desperate woman: "You can Slay a panic of the impending boredom finds hard to remember. lt is the day alive, you are strong and can work they fear when faced with yet when he received the "thump" at his for the Nazis and you can have the another story from a grandparent's door, the day that Nazis had come to chance to survive. You can make it family It was now through this terrible war, [he ruture is past. There is a well-knovvn brain take his away. shut down when you feel that the their (Urn. Like every twelve-year­ in your hands and you will carry on old boy would do, my grandfather the family name," and with this she story is of no interest or relevance to hid behind his mother whilst she and put both of her fragile hands on his you. However, each time my his father struggled away from the shoulders and pushed him out. grandfather begins, 1 am anxious to Nazis. The fear he felt was over­ le is quite remarkable to imagine hear, anxious to sit near him, anxious whelming. He w'as clinging onto his what a courageous, unselfish to become part of and experience another unbelievable story of his youth. In 1939, at the age or only ten, my grandfather was living a normal life in a town in Po1and called Piotrkow-Tryb which, looking back now, he took for granted. He came from a religious Jewish background. H is father used to go to synagogue every day and my grandfather used to accompany him on the Sabbath. Suddenly, without warning, the world that my grandfather knew anJ enjoyed came lO an abrupt end. From November 1939, he was forced to hve in a ghetto, which was the first gheuo in Poland. They were trapped, nobody was aHowed out, nobody was allowed in. They were now controlled by the Nazi strict regime. Gradually, my grandfather and his family were finding it hard to live on their food rations, they were given only a small supply and it was not lasting them through the bitter, numbing winter. What seemed like a game then, but really could have put my grandfather's life at risk, was Harry Spiro and his grandchildren, Genna and Stephen. the way in which his family received their food. Every week my grandfa­ ther smuggled himself out from the mother, clutching onto her skirt with woman she must have been. The ghetto to buy some rood. He thought clenched fist, holding onto her for exceptional behaviour is completely he was being brave, courageous and protection. She then acted in the contradictory to any motherly pleasing his mother whom he truly most extraordinary way. She pulled instinct (hat she must have been

57 feeling. My grandfather tells me that and think of his future it" he was to Lhe war was going to end and if he did nOl understand why his survive. things would ever return to normal. mother was dOlng this to him and The memories of the: years he After four years of being in the why he could not go with the rest of spent in the concentration camps concentration camps, the war ended. his [a m ily, but now he realises that il are overwhelming. The smell, the My grandfather had lost all his was the bravest, hardest thLng (hat a starvation, the cold, the torture, family and he was going to have to mother could do fo:- her son . everything that he experienced was make a new start. As he faced the My grandfather was not sure, at frightening . 1 always ask him if he future, he found the strength to cope rhe tLme , where they were deponed felt lonely and he replied, saying "1 by remembering the words his but after the war he found out made a few friends during my mothe.r said to him. '" At least one that his mother, father and younger experience, although you could not member of the family should sister were sent to the Treblinka get too close to anyone as you extermination camp. When he heard wouldn't know if you would both survive." about their fate, the pain in his hean return safely in the evening." The My grandfalher looks upon his was unbearable, but he knew he nightmares that he suffered were lhree childrenCall happily married) couldn't shed one rear; he had to awful , yet he knew the reality was and his nine grandchildren as being remain strong, focussed and stoic just as harsh. He didn't know when his greatest achievement.

want to believe it's. ~ver but. in "Promise me~" my heart I know Its only Just I WANT TO BELIEVE "1 promise." beginning. I suppose 1 should "Good . In answer to your ques­ I Rachel is 15 years old and is re-live rhe horror [or you. \1y name tion, 1 heard the gunfire and checked the daughter Ros and Leslie is (haim and I'm 16. 1 had a mama, DJ to see if you were all right and found a papa and a sister. Spiro and the grand-daughter your bed empty!" of Pau.line and Hany Spiro. It all started in 1939 - the first year So for the next fortnight we were She submitted this essay for the of the war. I live in a small house in starving. It was a misty morning and National Yung Writers compe­ Warsaw. We don't have that much at 6:00 I heard a knock at the door. tition age 12 - 16 and was money but we're happy. Happy until Since 1 thought 1 was the only one up placed third. the war started, I ran downstairs to open the door. I was asleep almost instantly but but t soon found that mama, This story is dedicated to my was woken up by the sound of a Grandpa whose life this is based on. papa and Gita had all beaten me to it. megaphone. "People of \Alarsaw, we 1 was horrified and terrified to are the Gennans, your new leaders. was in sight~ How could 1 go wrong? see a Nazi at the door. "Mrs Spiro all You are now part of the Warsaw I heard footsteps behind me and of you must go - you, Mr Spiro Ghetto. No one is to leave their turned round to see six Nazis armed and Gita LO the camp and (haim house after eight o-clock. Anyone with machine guns running in a line with us ." caught out after this time or outside towards me . From the bloodthirsty With thal he marched away calling "Pack your things, \ve will come [or the boundaries of the Ghe[tl) will be glint in their eyes I knew they had you at 8:00" shot! " seen me. Panic spread round my '

58 TRIP TO POLAND

Melody Wilder

Melody is the daughter of Paul and Suzanne and grand-daughter of KnLlik and Gloria.

Melody Wilder helping children at Warsaw School.

elody travelled to Poland memories, it would be impossible to support people in their time of need, with a school pany from forget. and how important it is to be a good M Immanuel College . It has now been nearly a week person. Between 19th and 23rd December after getting back from Poland . I Along with how nice people can 2003 they visited Krakow, would like [0 say that my attitude to be to each other, and how imponant Auschwitz, Lublin, Majdanek, life has changed, but 1 am not sure it friends are. Overall, on the trip I Treblinka and 'vVarsaw. Her diary has, yet. .. think I got a lot of inspiration from my fellow classmates, teachers, is very revealing and confirms Poland was overall such an incredible experience for me, it Madrichas and even tour guide. the importance of such trips. On the taught me so much. 1 learnt so much T would like to think that the trip 8th, the last day of the tour, more about my religion and the has changed me, if not immediately, the group visited a V.Jarsaw school. Holocaust that 1 knew very little then gradually, so eventually 1 will be The project was to make Chanukias about before. a better person. with the children (see picture). The 1 learnt a lot about the reality of This incredible experience has following is the conclusion with what happened, it was velY hard come and gone too quickly. It which Melody (aged 16) closed her to understand, but by the end of wiU definitely never be forgotten. diary:- the week I had a much better And I have my diary and photos as understand ing. memories. Conclusion 19.12.3003 - 1 realise how important family is to This trip made me realise how 23.12.2003 me, and shouldn't be taken for important family is, also the true granted as so many people lost their underslanding of what my Grandpa At the conclusion of my trip, where family in the Holocaust. and his family went through. And to start? "vVith all the happy and sad I learnt how important it is to how important family life is.

59 PHAB PAUL RUNS MARATHON AS SGT. PEPPER

Paul Wilder

Paul is the son oJ Gloria and KnLlik Wilder.

t \-vas certainly not. a lonely hearts club, runnmg thIs yearS Flora I London Ylarathon, together with almost 33,000 other runners. Despite the atrocious weather conditions, the London Marathon was an awesome experience. AfLer completing my first FLM last year vvith an official lime of 4hrs 58mins 32secs, my goal was lO try and knock a couple of minutes off this time . 1 succeeded with an unoffi.cial time of 4hrs 42mins. The support from the crowds along the route was sensalional. Torrential rain did not deter the encouragement from the thousands of people that lined the streets. Cutty Sark, Canary Wharf and, of course, Birdcage Walk, stand out as the loudest supported spots. l:ancy dress runners make up part of the carnival atmosphere. t \-vas dn:ssed in a yellow Sgt. Pepper'~ uniform lhat kept my music theme going from last years Elton John suit. This year 1 even overtook other costumes, including: a giant running shoe, an extreme ironing board, a · Monopoly hat, not to mention the chicken and the egg amongst many. 1 ran 11 minute miles for the first 20 miles and seemeu to have plency (well, maybe not plenty) left in [he rank for the last few miles. My wife Suzanne and daughter 1v1elody were at the finishing line and said that I seemed to sprint the last few hundred yards. My charities, including Phab Kids and the '45 Aid SOciety, \-vill benefit from OVer £"2,000 in donalions from friends, family and other great supporters. Paul Wilder

60 MARATHON MAN I Jeremy Turek runs the London Marathon 2004

jeremy is the son oJ Anne & David Turek

ittle did I know that a passing After much encouragement from a word of advice from a surgeon Rhino, Scooby 000 and two bananas, Lfollo\ving minor surgery would I was gingerly edging towards the lead some time later to me lining up magic 26.2 mile mark. After a brief on Blackheath in anticipation of a encounter with my wife Susan and rather daunting 26.2 mile run ahead two of our children, Daniel and of me. Rachel, at the 25 mile mark (the That is exactly what transpired other two, TaHa and Benjamin, were aftcr a routine check-up, when my staying with Grandma and Grandpa consultant advised me to consider trying to spot daddy on television), I taking up running as a way to rounded the final corner close to improve my general fitness and aid Buckingham Palace and it was just my recovery Bearing in mind that at past Her :vtajesty's residence that the that time I had difficulty running for finishing line came into view and 1 a train, it was with a degree of reluc­ managed to hobble over it with tance that 1 started pounding the great relief in a time of 5 hours and streets around Elstree. Over the 30 seconds, a slightl y longer run than mOn{ hs my t raining progressed until planned but no less satisfying. my regular Sightseeing outings lOok So much of it is now a blur, but me to such far flung places as Radlett, the Sight and sounds of the million or Sr Albans and beyond. so people that turned out in such It was on a cold rainy Sunday conditions to cheer the runners on morning in April, following nine V\rill live in my memory. The bands, monrhs of training, thal I found music, and dancers all along the myself alongside 33,000 other run­ route defied the weather to give us so ners awaiting with trepidation for the much encouragement. start of the 24th London Marathon. The journey home by tube seemed Nothing could have prepared us for to take longer than lhe run but the such atrocious conditions although Jeremy Turek with his London Marathon hot bath that was waiting had never the showery rain did have a cooling Medal. been so welcome. For 2 or 3 days effect at times. after the run my body did not let me A 9.45 start meant a 5.30 wake-up Leukaemia and Vtagen David Adom forget that 1 had partici pared in a call and an early breakfast, where as left me in no doubt whatsoever that 1 marathon and for the next two weeks much fuel as possible was required, was going to reach the Mall at some the blisters on my feet constantly so it was toast and porridge for most. stage during the day (or night!) reminded me of my previous Some time later, I found myself I can't say the first 20 miles exertions. wondering if 1 would actually reach were easy but it was at this lime that I have so rar managed to collect the start line, let alone the finish line, modern technology al10wed me to over £3,000 for Children with as it seemed to take an age ror the make contact with the outside world. Leukaemia and Magen Da,rid Adorn thousands ahead of me to get A call to my parents, Anna and David and hope to return again next year to through . Lventually my turn came, Turek saying everything was going continue to raise money for charity. and all my nerves disappeared as 1 well was surely a precursor of an It was a tough and gruelling heard the first cheers of the specta­ imminent hiccough. At 21 miles my experience, bUl the opportunity to tors and started to soak up the recuning knee injury was screaming help improve the quality of life of atmosphere. at me to stop. A 20 minute pit stop people less fortunate than ourselves The knowledge that I was running was required but eventually through certainly made it all worthwhile, with to raise money for two such worth­ my Single-minded determination, 1 friends and family making it a day to while causes, Children with managed to continue. remember for ever.

61 WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

Talya Halkin Ardyn is the son of Roman & Susie Halter This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post 9th Apnl2004.

Painter and stained glass artisan Ardyn Halter sheds light on the darkest side of human nature

n 1981. two years after he moved Kigali. Rwanda, which offiCially not to do." from London to Israel, artist opened this week. Roman Halter was born in 1927 in I Ardyn Halter began working on a The Aegis Trust, which is respon- western Poland. one of the first areas series of large paintings he called stble for rhe creation of the Genocide to be conquered by the Germans in "The Family 1 Never Knew." Memorial in the Rwandan capital I 1939. He was sent first to the Lodz One of these paintings. which he of Kigali, was established by the I Ghetto. then to Auschwitz. and then showed me two weeks ago in his brothers James and Stephen Smith, to Stutthof. where he became a Pardess Hanna studio. is a portrait of two forty-something members of a forced laborer in a munitions factory. his paternal grandmother and her non-Jewish family who had already Only 200 of the 700 workers who children. Nazi slogans frame the used their own funds to establish Beit arrived there survived the first two composition. while Hebrew inscrip­ Shalom, the first Holocaust memorial weeks. He was then moved to an tlons placed below each figure bear in England. The center has been underground munitions factory in their names and announce their constructed by the Kigali City Dresden and managed to escape deaths during the Second vVorld Council on the outskirts of Kigali, during the bombing of the city by the Vv'ar. Roman Halter. Ardyn's father. is where it is estimated that 250,000 Allied forces. the only member of his large family people (of the total of approximately In 1945, at the age of 18, he was to have survived the Holocaust. 1,000,000 killed in the 1994 geno- sent to England by [he Central British "Working on that series of cide) are buried in a mass grave. Fund, which gathered surviving Holocaust paintings," he explained as The Rwandan center has received children. There he became an he arranged several of them along considerable support from the apprentice draftsman and then went one wall, "was for me a struggle to American, British, and Swedish to architecture school. About 30 understand how you could paint the governments, the United Nations, years ago, he stopped working as an Holocaust from [he perspective of the and many other international bodies. architect and started painting his second generation. I was trying to Like Beit Shalom (which is located in experiences of the Holocaust. He communicate \vith the past, yet 1 was Nottingham. three hours east of became an artist who, in addition to conscious of the fact thar there was London\ its conception has been creating stained glass windows, no real way of doing so." influenced by the lsraeli Yad makes the Royal Coat of Arms for In one of these paintings, a young Vashem and Beit Lohamei Hagetaot Queen Elizabeth II and for other child and a suitcase stand side by museums. In addition to Halter's official uses. side on a gray dais against a stained glass windows. it will include When Ardyn and his siblings white ground, which is covered in a a permanent documentary exhibi- Aloma and Aviva were growing up, repetitive series or black gothic letters tion. memorial gardens. and glass their facher talked about the war in that spell out the German term burial chambers for the bones of bits and fragments his children "Lebemsraum" (living space). tn those massacred. would then mentally put together. another, several pupils study in a At Lohamei Hagetaot, the Smith "My father's story is so harrovving Jewish cheder against the ghostly brothers had seen Yad Layeled, the and brutal- he saw such an appalling background of a town emptied of its memorial that Ardyn Halter designed gamut of destruction over that inhabitants. together with his father, an architect- sLx-year period ," he said. "Today, in "t didn't want to depict death turned-artist. in memory of the 1.5 the memoirs he is in the process of itself," said Halter - a tall, lanky million Jewish children murdered writing. he unconsciously tells things man in his late forties with an during the Holocaust. Together, the in the vocabulary of the age at which athlete's bearing and an intellectual's two had taken the drawings of chil- he experienced them." wire-rimmed glasses. "That would dren made in Theresienstadt and "Recently," Halter continued. "My presume a false, deceitful experience transposed [hem into stained glass father was reading a novel by Joseph of a time and place I did not know windows. Roth. He told me he thought Rorh fi rsthand." "They felt that it was partlcularly wrote beautifully but that the book This same sentiment has guided appropriace that a Holocaust survivor was unbearably painful. I wondered him since he was commissioned, this work on [his project, together with how someone who had been through past October, to create two monu­ members of the second generation," what he has been through could mental stained glass windows for the ! {alter explained. "1 said to myself - find the story of a bourgeOiS Jevvish Gisozi Genocide Memorial Center in this is too important a project for us family between the two wars so

62 unbearably painful. And then I also an artist. Each of the windows is and Suzy Halter's house in London, thought that it was, perhaps, because three meters high and almost three which has been converted into a reading involves the imagination - it meters wide, ano each is made of 25 stained glass studio. involves taking in another persons individual sections of the finesL "The project was so intense, that it pain. And it's almost as if over the cathedral glass from Poland, was important to work on it almost years, because he suffered so much Gennany, France, and England. The continually," Ardyn said. "Towards internally, to be able to absorb and windows are located in two small the end, 1 was working 20 hours a empathise with the scope of another's individual halls, with steps leading day, both because of the time con­ pain was almost impossible for my up to them and nothing around them straints and because it was extremely father." to distract the eye. absorbing and emotionally draining. By contrast, he explained, "If The first window, which is posi­ "There is something very prurient there's any meaning to the term tioned between the museum sections about genocide," he continued. "It 'second generation,' 1 would say it's "Before the Genocide" and "During engrosses one in an unhealthy way. almost like being a translator who the Genocide," depicts at its center a At the same time, you become can form a kind of bridge between f1ight of stairs that is blocked, like involved in trying to make something survivors and the rest of the world. the composition's foreground and beautiful. You lose yourself in the We are close to them, sensitised to middle ground, by swirling, semi­ aesthetic side of things, only to be their pain." abstracted forms of machetes. The reminded suddenly and repeatedly of Ardyn Halter was first publicly deep, brooking blues and reds stand your subject, which is why it helped acknowledged as a painter at the age in stark contrast to the bleached being under such time pressure of nine, when a solo show of his bones at the base of the window. The because you want to be out and artwork opened at London's dead are not shown as Tutsis or done." Haringey Gallery and he was billed as Hutus but only as broken skulls. While he was working on the a child prodigy. 'Jy'hen he finished Still, in the dark depths of the windows, Halter thought often about high school, art school seemed to composition, there are small areas of Goyas famous series of etchings The him to "be a place of theory, not of light. Disasters of War, in which the artist technique." Instead, he chose to The second window is positioned gruesomely depicted the destruction study English literature at Cambridge between the museum sections wrought upon the Spanish country­ before coming to Israel on aliya. "During the Genocide" and "After the side during the Napoleonic wars. After serving in the anny, he Genocide." Here, the sea of blues Goya titled one of them "10 10 vei" mamed sculptor Asnat Dror from and reds. with the mound of skulls ("1 saw it with my own eyes") - an Kibbutz Maagan Michael. Halter's resting at its bottom, parts open to impassioned declaration that trans­ paintings and prints have been reveal a different staircase, which formed classical battle imagery once exhibited in Israel, Europe, and the ascends unencumbered to a blue and for all into modem war imagery; US. In the past two years, his expanse of sky, studded with shards depicted from the subjective view­ work has been purchased by The of yellow that turn golden in the point of an individual reporter. Victoria and Albert Museum in sunlight. uDid Goya use that title as a sales London and by The New York Public The very creation of the Genocide pitch or as an expression of disbelief? Library. His series of 26 prints, Memorial Center in Rwanda is, We don't know what he saw, but his 'The Water's Edge," is on pennanent according to Halter, a move away mind was quite capable of imagining exhibition at The British Library in from pointing fingers of blame in any anything," Halter remarked. "V/hen London. one direction. you look at those etchings, you feel The Challenge in designing the "For Israelis remembering the exposed to the blackest side of windows for the Rwandan Genocide Holocaust," he remarked) "it is rather human nature. Nevertheless, you Center, Halter told me, was to avoid simple: We were all victims, and the carry on looking because they are so trying to create a personal vision perpetrators were on the other side. supremely well done." based on the experience of visiting The Rwanda case is immensely Halter would like people living in Rwanda and talking to survivors. complicated because there is more Israel to know that a considerable "That might seem cold ," he said, than just one side to the equation. amount of inspiration for the "but it was an approach born out Now, 10 years after the genocide, the Rwanda project was seeded by of dubiety concerning the scope of murderers are being released from museums here. the sympathetic imagination. Faced prison and going back to their "I don't say this as a source of with such a scale of genocide, there is Villages, where surviving families pride but so that Israelis can be a chasm you cannot and would live. Even to Jewish people, this conscious of the fact that indirectly not wish to cross. I realised that seems like a surreal situation. The or directly, we may be providing help however sensitised I might be to this sky and the prospect of hope in the to others in the world," he says. subject, I could never presume to second window can only be attained "The bones of the dead are there, comprehend so much death, and that when the eye has recognised the physically, in the museum. I didn't looking at bones and speaking to skulls - the nation's common dead - feel that people needed me to people there wouldn't help me." and moved from there up the steps describe them. I wanted to give them Roman and Ardyn Halter created towards the future." something that might, in some small the two windows together with The Halters worked on the way, lead them to think about the Aviva, Ardyns younger sister, who is windows in the top section of Roman possibility of a way forward."

63 AT 85, LOOKING BACK GOING FORWARD BY HERMAN TAUBE

Michael Berenbaum

Herman Taube, Looking Bach Going treatment of the Jews only seems t1es, scarves. Forward; New and Selected Poems humane when contrasted to the (Takoma Park, Maryland and San German policy of the "Final Solution EvelY piece of discarded shred had Francisco, California: Dryad Press, to the Jewish Problcln", but who an owner; I could see their faces. 2002) pp. 160. Price $16.95. imposed cruel living conditions I could hear their voices. 1 suspect ',hat not many communi­ that killed many escapees and hor­ They were my people. ties in the United States can boast rendous political conditions that He wntes of historical figures: of a senior statesman who \vas a cortured the soul even as the body Anhur Szyk, the subject of a brilliant gifted civil servant to the Jewish was wounded. exhibition currently at the United community and a "mter of consider­ Herman was in Siberia, living in States Holocaust Memorial Museum, able Lalent , a man \vho mastered nOl Cenlral Asia for three long and mis­ which documents his career as a only "mama loshen", but the native erable years. During (he most passionate Zionist and as one of tongues of the land of his binh, the intense period of the Holocaust, he the earliest voices inmiting the sys­ land of his exile, the je\vish state and was in Uzbekistan, that strange and tematic murder of the Jews before ~t his adopted country, a person who is far-off land that offered little refuge unfolded. at home with his people and their from the struggle to survive, but still He writes of Jan Karski, the recent­ many worlds - religious and secular, remained at a sare distance from Lhe ly deceased messenger from Poland political and intellectual, personal killing centres in Poland. And then who entered the vVarsaw Ghetto and and histone. In WashingLon, despite Herman found himself in Russia and travelled to a transport centre on the its impressive Jev.rish community, I a retumee to Poland as part of the way to Belzec so that he could bear know of only one such man, the ambulance corps of the liberating witness, having seen who he had to venerable writer, essayist, poet and Soviet army. see, flrst-hand. novelist Hennan Taube. There must Much of this material was written be others, elsewhere, of his genera­ contemporaneously with the events It wasn't easy to listen to you talk. tion, rooted deeply in Jewish he lived. It has the quality of testi­ It was difficult for me to concentrate experience and schooled so painfully mony written with insight and And absorb everything you said to and honestly by the anguishes of life . poignancy, without self-pity or self­ us all . But Herman holds a special place in aggrandisement, a falthful witness I was distracted by rage, listening to my heart. He was a colleague and who knew that he was living through your report ... menlor. He remains a friend . T have historic times. read of his work and time and again, Herman was an early vvitness to 1 knew I must have wept when you 1 am surprised by their depth and Majdanek, and hence of the destruc­ spoke. breadth, and by thelr passion. And tion. He wrote: Now, decades later when we meet, 1 then I am surprised by my surprise. smile, This work, Taube's 20th pubhs~ed fverywhere, I went, I smelled gas, You are the bird that sings once in a book, is a poetic autobiography that the odor of the "Oisin fectious lifetime. spans the years of his strength, to use Kammer," the Biblical designation [or those the smell of the barrels of human And of Herman Taube he writes in a who have lived n10re than four score fat. poem by Adam 1\·1 jc kiewicz: years. It begins in Siberia, to ,-vhich Herman escaped from his native I didn't feel fear, hale, pity, just a When I hear music by Chopin, read Poland, and describes in harsh and frozen numbness of mind and body, poems brutal tenns the angUish of those, raindrops by Yitzhak Katzenelson, when I hear like Herman, who escaped the ran dO""''l1 my face. My army boms [he names Nazis by wisely fleeing eastward only stepped on like 1\1arie Skl\vowska-Curia or to encounter the Russians, whose dead shells, parts of skulls, scattered Milosz,

64 When 1 thill k of Janusz Korczak, Jan I wonder if it is worth praying But Eve still lives in my memory. Karski, for longevity. Sometimes. I often dream of our Uzbeck nights. Mordec3, Anielewicz and Antak Zuckerman, Elsewhere, he writes: Elsewhere he \vrires of memory. I say proudly - I am a Jew from Lodz, Poland. Amazingly, all summer when the Loss and sUrvlval are nothing more treE'S blossom, than chance - But Herman wTltes nO( only of the we ignore their beauty. Only in My girl, her family and mine - all famous, but of the ordinary Jews who autumn, when perished. were an lnregral part of our extraor­ the foliage emerges, do we notice I survived and fell in love 'N1th dinary people at the moment of the splendor. another woman. absolute darkness. Years passed, and now I am at the He writes of old age with power They remind me of the falling years edge of my life. and withouL self-pity, distilling into of our lives. Still, in my lnind, in my dreams, verse the struggle LO live with dignity, I ask myself - why can't the autumn lives an image and the gradual le~sening of one's days of our lives Of a girl wiLh long braids, asking - physical prowess. be as beautiful as the trees' foliage? Remember me?

Being old is no disgrace, but I le writes of the love of a young Herman Taube has remembered When knees no longer bend \ man in the tones of Job and (he and transmitted. He has borne Arms are unable to be raised, Song of Songs: witness and has been as able a ser­ And insomnia rules the nights, vant of the Jewish future as he has It doesn't make you disposed Naked, I arrived in Uzbekistan, and been a messenger of the tragic and to go on hying. Sometimes Naked, alone, I returned to Poland. fabled Jewish Past.

LETTER TO LOUISE ELLIOT FROM FIVE LADIES IN WINDERMERE

Dear Mrs Elliot, sending funds when we can lO help for lsraelis and all Jewish people We are nve Christians who meet the needy Also, we send clothes everyv./here. However, we do under­ to pray for Israel every week. to the Distribution Centre in stand that they may not wish to be in We would like to be in touch with Jerusalem, along with many other touch. any of the Holocaust survivors British people. The family of one who came lO Windermere after the of our number was able to help We look forward to your reply. \var, and were here recently to the children when they came. [ see again the place and some of have the name of one survivor - Yours sincerely, the people who helped them to Mr Arek Hirsch. recover. Please could you advise us? We Shirley Wood (Mrs) \Ve feel Cl great responsibility [or do want them to know that we care for the Prayer Group here alllsraehs, and we do seek to comfort for them and wish to stand by them, connected with Windermere them - in prayer, and practically by especially in these difficult times Community Church

65 OBITUARIES ' ~------~~~--~~~~--~----~--~

HARRY BALSAM OUR DAD - "OUR HERO"

Stephen & Colin Balsam

rom as young as { can remem­ ber) I knew that our dad F was not an ordina ry man. The stories that he would tell us about his experiences as a little boy of nine years old, having to fend for himself, selling anything from bottles of lemonade to boxes of matches in order to try and support his mother, brothers and sister during the early years of the Nazi occupation of his home lOwn of Gorlice in southern Poland seemed incomprehensib le. However, all of his stories about his heroic fight for sUIvival were always told to us with pride and dignity. Never once did he show any bitterness or hatred tuwards those who had destroyed his family, nor­ mality and early years of childhood, which we al1 uke for granted. He only ever saw good in people and always tried to instil this quality in both eohn and myself. His gen­ erosity, modesty and thoughtfulness touched all who knew him. Harry Balsam His most special gift was being able to converse with people of all ages, from all walks of life, making shrewd and successful businessman Natalie, Jason and Adam, being their everyone feel they were important. was always to ensure that his family confidante, friend and soulmate. He always talked to everyone with would never endure any of the His love and friendship towards the utmost respect which, in turn, hardships that he had suffered as a his fellow survivors, (The Boys) was was always greatly reciprocated. child. This will always remain our both special and unique for all His smile and sense of humour greatest inspiration in life . around to see. His endless charity were infectious. His cheekiness and He had immense pride in seeing work in helping to raise monies for colourful language was never offen­ both eohn and myself married to those less fonunate never ceased. sive, spoken in a unique fashion that [WO wonderful girls in Rochelle and Our dad is, and always will be, our only he could ever get away with . Amanda, whom he loved and adored hero. We 'Will never stop missing He had a special ability to always as his own daughters. him, and the memories we have of make people laugh. He was always This legacy he created, of love, our life with him will help us through the centre of attention, forever respect and affection, will live on the tremendous pain. wanting to be surrounded by people rhrough his grandchildren, ~atalie, ~o words can ever express our and in turn, people loved being Jason, Adam, Jack and Emily. Not loss and the adoration we had for our around him. He touched the lives of only did they all adore him as a dad and closest friend. everyone who knew him. vvonderful grandfather, they all had It was a privilege and honour to · He dedicated his family life in pro­ uni.que relationships with him, from have been his sons. tecting, prOViding for, gUiding and the younger ones Jack and Emily, lOving our mother, eohn and myself. treating their Grandpa Harry as their THANK YOU FOR His hard work in becoming a playmate, through to the oldest, BEING OUR DAD.

66 ULlA BENNETT, who died JUIJA BENNETT should bring along other "Boys"as December 2003 aged 96, v,/as well. Mayer Perlmutter, who lives in America now, asked me some years the wife of the late Boris Bennett, Alec Ward Jthe famous Jevvish photographer ago to send him a photograph of the in the East End of London. Juha and Bennett family to remind him of Boris were ardent Zionists working children, they were overcome with those unbelievable Friday nights. vigorously to raise money and giving emotion and there and then decided On a Sunday morning, Julia and generously to numerous organisa­ to set up a Hostel for a sizeable group Boris and one of their kind neigh­ tions) especially to the Central British of "Boys" in Golders Green and bours by the name of Jack Cohen, Fund. financed it. came to the Hostel in two very big In 1970, julia and Boris Bennett A big house was loaned to us by black cars and took eight of us to the built a complex in Northern Israel, another Jewish philanthropist by the East End and fitted us out with navy in memory of one of their grandchil­ name of Fresh\vater and the house blue chalk-striped suits. People dren, consisting of a large recreation became known as the Freshwater looked and admired our beautiful halL a disco and coffee bar, syna­ Hostel. new outfits when we all walked gogue and mmher and child clinic. Julia and Boris took a great inLereS( together in North vVest London on a On a personal note, when 1 arrived in the "Boys". Their wonderful kind­ Saturday morning. Some of us were in Southampton in 1945, together ness and generosity to us was carried married in those sman sui ts. I could with a group of other young our in strict anonymity. le was not till go on but space is beating me. Holocaust survivors, I brought with after Boris sadly passed away in 1985 J uUa was a highly intelligent me wonderful news for the Bennetts, and the Museum of the Jewish East person. Her advice in many matters namely, that a niece of theirs survived End published a magazine of his life, was extremely beneficial. She was five years in various concentration thatJulia and Boris' good deeds came the epitome of a fine, generous camps, including Auschwitz and to light. and compassionate Jewish lady Bergen BeIsen, and that she was There was not a Friday night that whose memory I, my family and reasonably well. Julia and Bons Julia and Boris di.d not invite me for many Boys wi 11 cherish for the rest qUickly came to meet me in the Sabbath dinner when I lived in of our lives. Southampton and when they noticed the Hostel. They were not satisfied to There are few good people in the that many in our group were mere invite Ine alone but insisted that 1 world and now there is one less.

da Zwirek (nee Selner) was bom lOA lWlREK with her younger brother, rirst to on 16 December 1928 in Plock, Cambridgeshire and then (0 the I Poland. vVhen she was just one 1928 -2004 beautiful coastal Village of Mousehole year old, she left in the arms of her in Cornwall. However) it was an mother, Esther, to join her father, By David Zwirek inauspicious start to this eye-opening who had already made the journey to experience of life amongst the a new life in Lngland. country folk of the South West. None of them wanted to take Ida and As Esther and the baby lda left Max in as evacuees! Not because their old home for the last time, they were strange and foreign, or the remaining family waved them because they looked and dressed goodbye. One of them was Ida's differently, but who wanted a 12- four-year-old cousin, Abraham. year-old girl and her younger brother More than 20 years later that little I together? [da, though, would not be boy would become her husband. parted rrom her brother. She had lda was brought in the close up promised her mother she would look pre-war Jewish community of East after Max and stay vvith him and London, helping her mum run the when the little boy thought his sister house and looking after her baby might go without him he started brother, Max. lda was an intelligent crying. So they both stood in line girl and did well at school, wanting in Mousehole, a determined girl to become a teacher. She soaked up and a sobbing boy, unvvilling to be knowledge and yearned to travel the separated from each other, waiting world to see for herself some of the expectanr Iy. Eventually someone places she had heard about in chose them, and took these two the classroom. That seemed like a strangers into their house. distant dream which would never be This was a period in her Ii [e that a reality. my mum always remembered fondly When the war came it was Ida's and with happiness. To her and Max first chance to see beyond her own this was a new world, away from environment and to explore at least the streets of the big city and the what h fe in England, outside the cap­ bombs, to a completely different and ital, had to offer. She was evacuated I Ida Zwirek beautiful way of life. She told me

67 tales or hl'r brother running around always wanting to know more. She successful. We all wanted her to the village causing mayhem; of (he was loved by so many people and her change her mind, but knew she wonderful scenery and kind people infectlous enthusiasm for life and the wouldn't. When my mum had made and the unforgettable sight of all the things around her drew many to her mind up, that was it. little fishing boatS setting sail from appreClate her qualities. She may 'Ne thought it wouldn't be quick. tvlousehole to rescue che troops from never have become a schoolteacher She got through her own birthday, che beaches of Dunkirk. She loved bUL she taught many things to those again Dlaking great efforts to be (hat vi 11age and it showed her a world who knew her. with us and through Christmas, with she might never have seen. Her love One of her dreams did come true her family close by a( home. She of nalure and of the world originated though. As my father enjoyed [he went to hospital following Boxing from those halcyon days. fruits of his hard work and success, Day and died a week later, on On return to London, aspirations Ida travelled the world with him January 7th 2004, seven weeks after of becoming a teacher were put to from East to West. She conquered full diagnosis. one side. She left school and went her fear of flying, going to America, It \vas the day after my birthday. 1t out to \-vork to earn a living and Thailand, Israel and many other was typical of my mum's determina­ conttibute to family finances . She countries. She even went with Mick tion to do things the right way. She enjoyed being a teenager in London, on a 27-hour flight to New Zealand would never have let my birthday despite the war, working and going after dad had retired! She had a won­ remain tinged with sadness in the out dancing in the evening ""rith her derful time in that country and future . So she kept going and passed friends. She was good at her work talked about it when she got back. away peacefully, knOwing yet again and became a company secretary in Maybe the scenery reminded her of she had done the right thing. London, bur ir was the end of the war 1Vlousehole and those happy times as It is difficul[ to put into words that brought a new and unexpected a child, but it was an expelience how we all feel and 'A.-hat we all phase to her life. she never forgot. When she was a think. lela \-vas a courageous, refined , Most of you know my dad's story. war child, she would never have hardworking, inlelligent woman. Mick Zwirck came as one of the imagined that she would get to see She spent most of her life caring ror 'Boys' to this country and met his such a far-off place for rea ~. others - her mother, her husband, family members living in London - About three years ago Ida became her children, her brother. When she his aumie Esther and her children, unwell, not with the disease which needed it we tried to care [or her. cousins Ida and Max. Grateful for a ended her life, but with a muscle She was proud and brave to the very good meal and some fussing, he disease which was quite dLbilitating last. became a reguiar at their flat. and made walking difficulty. She There is a big gap in all our lives. Inevitably perhaps, Ida and Mick bore this trial with her cus[Omary She died knowing we all loved grew closer, and mum used to tell me stoicism, taking the dOClor's advice her and she did not unduly suffer at how (he 'Boys' teased dad that he was and medicines, but wanting [0 carry the end. For that we are graleful. in love \l\rith his cousin! They got on as normally as possible. 'she made My father has lost his soul mate married in 1951, and two vea rs la ter great efforts to do things, joining and wife of 52 years and we have all my older sisler, Helen, ~ras born. me and dad in Scotland when 1 lost either a mother, sister or good David was born seven years later. My was awarded a Master's Degree at friend. Tnother was happy hringing up her the UniverSity of Stirling. She even She had a happy and good life children, working and helping dad in travelled overnight on a train with lvfick . She saw places in the his furrier business. Life was normal and explored Glasgow with us. world she never thought she would and from humble beginnings they She always tried to protect her see and she knew it had been a full bought their own house and worked family from her own pain, but T life . Her last words to her husband hard. My mum loved that house and knew something was wrong when I were 'take care'. She was always she never moved from it, never spoke to her in mid-November last thinking of others. wanting to uprOOl herself from her year. She pretended there was not There were many tributes to her family home. Like any mother and much lO worry about, but [ knew when she passed away, highlighting wi re she was proud when her there was . her popularity and kindness and the children did well and would always IJa had cancer. It had spread and difference she had made. One of resolutely stand side-by-side with her the outlook was serious. \Vhen the those tributes stands out in my mind. husband. doctors told her she remained calm Somebody came up to me as I What can T say about lda? She was and stoical as usual and told Mick mourned my mother and said, with always my mum. She was \vitty, that ~he wanted everything to caD)' tears in his eyes: "She was really intelligent, determined and coura­ on as it had before. She did not want loved, you kno\v. She was one of the geous. She was always a lady, refined lo go through the trauma of extreme Boys" . and classy, eager to learn new things, treatmenl lhat would make her She would have liked that. God knovvledgeable in so much but unwell and was unlikely to be Bless you mum.

68 Compiled by Ruby Friedman

BIRTHS: DEATHS: BATMITZVAH:

• Dian &: Stanley Faull mazeltov It 1S with much regret that we • Jasmine & Michael Bandel on the birth of their grandson announce the loss of the lollovving mazeltov on the batmitzVah of Mackenzie born to Heather and members during the past year. their granddaughter Alana Ashley. daughter of Gaynor & Daniel. • Jeff Frydman mazeltov on the • Idel Adler • Carol Farkas and the late Frank birth of a grandson. • Hany Balsam Farkas mazeltov on the batmitz­ • Sara &: Jan Goldberger mazeltov • Jack Fein in Australia vah of their granddaughter Katya on the birth of their grand­ • Freddy Holt Hannah daughter of Emma & daughter Emily born to Rachel &: • Betty Lew kowicz Alan . Danny • Salek Orenstein • Olive & David Hennan mazeltov • Maureen &: Jack Hecht mazeltov • Mike Ross (Moniek Rotenstajn) on (he batmitzvah of their grand­ on the birth of their grandson • Moshe Sobov daughter Hannah daughrer of Noah Colln born to Kim and • Sam Walshaw Rosalynd &: Geoff. Sam. • Ida Zwirek • Anita &: Charles Shane rnazettov • Arza &: Ben Helfgott mazeltov on on the batmitzvah of their grand­ the bin h of their grandson We express our sincere sympathy to daughter Georgia daughter of Nicholas born to Danielle and those who have lost loved ones. Elton. Maurice. • Evelyn and Aron Zylberszac • Ivy lee and the late Michael Lee • Traute Batvenick on the loss of mazeltov on the batmitzvah of mazeltov on the birth of their her husband. their granddaughter Alhson grandson Michael born to Dvora • David Herman on the loss of his daughter of Gary and \tlandy. &: Chris. sister in Israe1. • Beanie Pollack and the late • Minia Jay on the loss of her SECOND GENERATION Baruch Pollack mazeltov on the husband Peter. NEWS: bi.rth of a great grandson ltamar • Shirley Kiersz on the loss of her Baruch born to their grand­ mother. • Congratulations to Paul Vvilder daughter Tammy &. Itat . • Sylvia Ped on the loss of her on completing the marathon and • Rene &: Anek Poznanski. sister. for his generous donation to the mazeltov on the birth of their Society of £500. Paul is the son grandson Joshua David born to BARMITZVAH: or Gloria & Krulik Wilder. Phillipa and Victor. • Also to Jeremy Turek who • Millie & Monty Graham cOTnpl.eted the marathon. Jeremy GOLDEN WEDDING mazeltov on the bannitzvah of I is the son of Anna &: David ANNIVERSARY: their grandson Jonathan son Turek. of Lorraine &. Max. • We wish to thank Nina Hecht for • Olive &' Davi.d Hennan • Sal.a Newton-Katz and the late donating a trip to Paris which • Rachel & Phin Levy Benny Newton, mazeltov on the when auctioned at the re-union • Beatrice & Leon Manders barmitzvah of their grandson raised £200. Nina is the • Margaret &. Harry Olmer Gavriel son of Rosalynd and daughter of 1vlaureen &: Jack • Judith &: Reuven Shennan Martin. Hecht. • Jeanette &: Zigi Shipper • Gena Turgil and the late • Hetty &: Alec Ward. Norman Turgil mazellov on the THIRD GENERATION • Shella &: Ray Wino. barmitzvah of your grandson NEWS: Benjamin. Mazeltov to you all and may you • Sybil Van Der Velde mazeltov on • Congratulations to Robert spend many more happy and healthy the barmitzvah of your grandson Richman on arraining a 2.1 years together. Daniel son of Gabby and the late degree in Mathematics and David Van Der Velde, and your Management at Manchester Congratulations to Arthur Poznanski grandson Harrison son of Joanne. University. Robert is the for receiving a presti.gious award Daniel and Harrison are the grandson of Jeanette and Zigi for services to the Redbridge grandsons of the late Joe Van Der Shipper and (he son of Michelle Community Velde. and Marcus Richman.

69 NEWS FROM I Compiled by Louise Elliot

MAYER BOMSZTYK reached the grand age of 7S in the audience were very moved by the content of the film December 2003. and again vowed to support the fight against anti­ Semitism and racism. February 2004: Hannah and Sam Gardners grand­ daughter Rochelle, qualified as a doctor and has taken up June 2004: Because of the barmitzvah mentioned a pOSl aL Jimmy's Hospital in Leeds \'vhere she hopes to above, we could not hold a reunion for our Manchester specialise in Paediatrics. members as we usually do after the Shool service and had to pick a later date. At one time it looked as if May 2004: We had our annual service at Steincoun we would not be able to have a get-together as we Synagogue with a Kiddush to celebrate the boys' had no volunteers of a house, but Steven and Jacqueline liberation. Fruhman of the Second Generation made an offer of the loan of their beautiful house and, to save expense, May 2004: Hannah and Sam Gardner's grandson Lily Bomsztyk and 1 have gone into the catering business Benjamin had his barmitzvah and a small group went and we are looking forward to a good and happy evening from Manchester and a very good time was had by all. togther. The barmilzvah boy and his two brothers are all good singers and sang beautifully at the service and the simcha June 2004: Ahce and [he late Joe Rubinsteins grand­ the next day. daughter Emily gOl engaged.

June 2004: A small group went to Liverpool to see the On a sad note, Ameha Flasz, the widow of the late Michael film "Arek>', which is based on Arel< Hersh's book, and Flasz, died on the 10th June 2004. he took a prominent part in the film which took place mostly in Poland. This again was all done by Unison and Sam Walshaw passed away on June 19th 2004. FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

YOM HA'SHOAH IHE ANNUAL OSCAR JOSEPH HOLOCAUST AWARDS The communal Yom Ha'shoah Commemoration will take The '45 Aid Society offers up to two Awards of £600 place on Sunday 8th May 2005 at 11am at the Logan each to assist successful candidates to participate in Hall, Bedford Way, London ECl. the Holocaust Seminar at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, which is held from 1st - 22nd July 2005. The overall cost of participation is about £1,000. * * * Applications are invited from men and women under the age of 35 who have a strong interest in Holocaust studies and a record of communal involvement. After 2004 REUNION OF OllR soclm their return, successful candidates will be expected to The 59th anniversary of our reunion will take place take a positive role in educational and youth work probably on 3rd or 4th May 2005. activities so as to convey to others what they learned and gained from their participation in the summer As always, we appeal to our members to support us by placing an advert in our souvenir brochure to be seminar at Yad Vashem. However, before applying published by the Society. for these Awards, candidates should obtain permission from Yad Vashem to participate in the seminar. Please contact:- Those interested should write, enclosing their CV and other details, not later than 5th March 2005 to: Zigi Shipper Ruby Friedman 6 Salisbury House 4 Broadlands 57 Gordon Avenue Hillside Road Stanmore Radlett Middlesex HA 7 3QR Herts WD7 7BH

70 ESTABLISHED OVER YEARS

11 11

1