AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM

Vol. 40-No. 4 ISSN 0892-1571 March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 THE CHANGING IMAGE OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM AND ITS YOUNG LEADERSHIP ASSOCIATES HELD ITS SIXTEENTH PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION MARCH 9, 2014. his program is a collaborative Associates, gave the opening greet- director of the Department of the thoughtlessness, and the kind- T effort with the Association of ings of the program. He spoke about Righteous Among the Nations at Yad ness and the cruelty of which human Teachers of Social Studies of the his family’s connection to the Vashem, led an engaging discussion beings are capable. United Federation of Teachers, the Holocaust and their experiences dur- about the significance of the heroes “The main point to keep in mind in Educators’ Chapter of the UFT Jewish ing the war years, and how this of the Holocaust who helped save this regard is the magnitude of the Heritage Committee, and the School impacted his own understanding of Jewish lives despite the grave risk to loss to the Jewish people. of Education of Manhattanville the importance of documenting themselves and their families. His Specifically, students should be College. Participants in this year’s Holocaust survivor testimonies to remarks and workshop, which were taught about the lives and rich civiliza- conference, which included educators tion of the Jewish world before 1939. from six states, received in-service The total loss is examined and appre- credit for attending the program. ciated in the context of what was lost This conference, organized by Dr. rather than of how the destruction Marlene W. Yahalom, Director of was carried out. Education of the American Society for “Rather than emphasizing dead Yad Vashem, has proven to be an bodies and horrific methods of mass important educational resource for murder, we remind students that each educators interested in enriching their victim had a face, a life built around a knowledge and educational tools family, and a community that was about this subject. The mission of the destroyed. Each victim was a mother, American Society — Holocaust a father, a daughter, a son, a neighbor remembrance and commemoration and a friend. When we present the through education — is presented facts as a chain of events not limited and promoted through this program. to death and destruction, our stu- This conference was created in 1999 dents’ comprehension is increased by Caroline Massel, Founding Chair and the learning process can be most of the Young Leadership Associates. fruitful. Students can then evaluate Through the workshops offered this the loss in terms of the dangers of year, participants were encouraged to injustice, discrimination, and intoler- learn more about the importance of Carolyn Herbst, Past President/Past Chairperson of the ATSS/UFT; Abbi Halpern, YLA co-chair; ance so that they can become sensi- using survivor testimonies in the Professor Mordecai Paldiel; Barry Levine, YLA co-chair; Peppy Margolis, workshop presenter; tive to the consequences of extreme Dr. Marlene W. Yahalom, ASYV Director of Education; Helene Alalouf, workshop presenter. classroom, the experience of growing behavior.” up as a member of the “Second commemorate the event and honor well received, included case studies Dr. Yahalom added that “our own Generation” and the valuable educa- the memory of the victims. Carolyn of non-Jews who were recognized by awareness of Holocaust survivors tional resources developed by the Herbst, Past President and Past Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the should include the changing image of International School for Holocaust Chairperson of the Association of Nations, and offered recommenda- Holocaust victims who survived and Studies of Yad Vashem. Dr. Yahalom Teachers of Social Studies of the tions on how to incorporate this topic who perished. For those who perished, presented a workshop introducing United Federation of Teachers, spoke into the classroom as a tool for teach- we need to consider how they want to these resources and a second work- about the relevance of Holocaust ing students the importance of having be remembered. For those who sur- shop introducing participants to the education as a vehicle to raise aware- the courage to “do the right thing” vived, we should realize how they dangers and challenges of Holocaust ness about intolerance and injustice. despite overwhelming challenges. have been transformed from victims to denial and the need to include this She also offered insight about the les- r. Yahalom spoke about how heroes. They are our eyewitnesses to topic in Holocaust lesson plans and sons of the Holocaust and their con- Dstudying the Holocaust allows history, and their resistance efforts are curricula. nection with current education legisla- us to see a range of behavior: the symbols of the strength and of the Barry Levine, co-chair with Abbi tion. beauty and the horror, the hope and resilience of the human spirit.” Halpern of the Young Leadership Professor Mordecai Paldiel, former the despair, the thoughtfulness and (Continued on page 3) IN THIS ISSUE ASYV conference on Holocaust education...... 1 Deal with the devil...... 2 Holocaust documentary raises questions of guilt...... 3 Two Among the Righteous Few...... 4 How America saved paintings while letting Jews die...... 5 Jewish children hidden twice over by the Church...... 7 ASYV hosts inaugural Florida Tribute Dinner...... 8 Photos from the ASYV Young Leadership Associates winter gala...... 9 “I know tomorrow will be my last day”...... 10 Three children under the swastika...... 11 Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 DEAL WITH THE DEVIL The first part of this article appeared answer yes or no. Answer the ques- Hecht: Himmler, if I could believe eign intelligence, Walter Schellenberg, in the preceeding issue. tion. Musy, understood that the war was and Schellenberg instructed, according Hecht: We wanted to exploit the lost. to the Himmler-Musy agreement, by BY JOANNA M.SADEL political situation in order to explain to Tamir: Since when did he under- means of radiotelephone to THE TIMES OF ISRAEL Himmler that, by releasing the Jews, stand this? Buchenwald, that they should cancel his section of the testimony pro- he was approaching more his political Hecht: Since the end of 1944. That those evacuation orders and not carry T vides a fascinating look into the intentions. was the basis which made this nego- them out. psychology of the negotiations with Tamir: What were his political inten- tiation possible. CONFIRMATION AT NUREMBERG Himmler. tions which he would have By April 1945, Musy was told that Tamir: Why was it to his advantage approached more? Himmler had agreed to the nonevacu- n testimony which he gave to to release the Jews? Hecht: He wanted to get in touch ation of the camps (which violated the IColonel John Harlan Amen, chief Hecht: We received information with the West, and for that he needed orders of Hitler) by bargaining for a interrogator during the Nuremberg war then from Musy that a struggle for some point of connection. And proof guarantee of nonexecution of the trials, on January 4, 1946, power had developed between Hitler for this is that the negotiations with camp guards. The United States was Schellenberg confirmed that Hitler had and Himmler. Hitler wanted to fight the Jews served him in this. consulted and agreed to the terms. overruled Himmler’s command not to until the end and to annihilate the Tamir: To approach the West — that Tamir: Do you know anything, not evacuate the camps. Himmler then Jews, and Himmler wanted to means to divide between the Allies, from hearsay only, about Himmler’s countered Hitler’s order with a second approach the West. He had illusions between Russia and the West, is it command against the annihilation of command to stop the evacuations. in this matter that this was possible, not so? the Jews in the camps? Walter Schellenberg: I mean, for and that he wanted to utilize. Our Hecht: In our opinion no, but in Hecht: Through Musy’s connection instance, the fact that after the hope was to make clear to him that he Himmler’s opinion yes. with Himmler, we transmitted Reichsfuehrer SS (Himmler) very had no hopes because of his atroci- Tamir: So you misled him at least Himmler’s request to Eisenhower, that, reluctantly agreed, through my per- ties toward the Jews, but if he ceased on this point? under the condition of not fulfilling suasion, not to evacuate the concen- these atrocities immediately and Hecht: Yes. We knew from the Hitler’s command, one would deal with tration camps, Kaltenbrunner — by released the remnant of six hundred Americans that this was out of the the guards of the concentration camps getting into direct contact with Hitler to eight hundred thousand Jews, this question, but they agreed that we as with prisoners of war. That was for — circumvented this order of terrible impression would be some- should give him this answer. us proof. In addition, the promise was Himmler’s and broke his word in what reduced. Tamir: Did you think that you could given by Eisenhower that, if these respect to international promises. Tamir: And you thought that it would deceive Himmler? guards would wear the uniform of the Ernst Kaltenbrunner was chief of the convince Himmler to tell him that he Hecht: Yes. Wehrmacht, they would personally be Reichssicherheitshauptamt — Reich had no hopes, only that the terrible Tamir: And this without expertise in responsible for all their crimes, but Main Security Office — and president impression would be less terrible? the international political situation? before a military court. This example, of Interpol. He was one of the highest- Hecht: No, this is a bit complicated. Hecht: On the basis of talks with which I brought before (in previous tes- ranking members of the SS to face Tamir: Your line was more far- Woods, it was possible to assume timony) about Bergen-Belsen, was for trial at the Nuremberg trials. He deliv- reaching… you raised in him hopes this. He explained to us that if it was us additional proof, when the highest ered Hitler’s orders. on purpose? John Amen: Do you know of any Hecht: This is the same thing. We particular case in which wanted to show him that by not anni- Kaltenbrunner had ordered the evac- hilating Jews, it could be that he had uation of any one concentration a chance to find a way by means of all camp, contrary to Himmler’s wishes? these actions. Schellenberg: Yes. Tamir: What chance? Which way? I Amen: Will you tell the Tribunal do not ask through what and by what about that? means. Schellenberg: I cannot give you the Hecht: To bring before the public exact date, but I believe it was in the through the press in America, which beginning of April 1945. The son of would see that the annihilation of the the former Swiss president, Musy, Jews had stopped. who had taken his father to Tamir: What chance would he have Switzerland, returned by car to the from this? Buchenwald concentration camp, in Hecht: That he would think he had order to fetch a Jewish family which I a better chance to negotiate with the myself had set free. He found the Allies in some way. This was his idea. camp in process of being evacuated Tamir: Your line was to convince Hungarian Jews on the Judenrampe (“Jewish ramp”) after disembarking from the transport trains under the most deplorable conditions. Himmler that by releasing the Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau, May 1944. To be sent rechts! — to the right — meant the person had been When he had, three days previously, he could get nearer to the Allies? chosen as a laborer; links! — to the left — meant death in the gas chambers. driven his father to Switzerland, he Hecht: I would formulate this differ- necessary to pay compliments to the levels of the Wehrmacht alleged before was given definite assurance before ently. Our line was to free Jews and to devil in order to save Jews, it was Musy that the occupying armies had he left that the camps would not be exploit the illusion which seemed right allowed to do so. We would do the arranged a lynch-trial of the guards, evacuated. Since this assurance was to us for achieving this line. reckoning with him later on. and they applied again to the American also intended for General Tamir: You wanted to mislead Tamir: Instead of encouraging the chief of staff, in order to renew the… Eisenhower, he was doubly disap- Himmler? Nazis with a hope of money, you according to the Eisenhower-Himmler- pointed at this breach of promise. Hecht: It is difficult to answer the wanted to awake a hope of political Musy agreement. Musy junior called on me personally question. advantage? The Court: All this went through the at my office. He was deeply offended Tamir: Did you tell Himmler the Hecht: Yes, because in this manner, Committee? and reproached me bitterly. I could truth? Answer my question: Did you we wanted to solve the entire prob- Hecht: All this was discussed in the not understand what had happened, wish to mislead him or, on the con- lem, whereas with money we were Committee at the time. An additional and I at once contacted Himmler’s trary, awake in him illusions and convinced that there would be every proof is that Musy junior arrived just at secretary, protesting against this sort hopes? time additional expulsions in order to the moment in which, in spite of the of procedure. Shortly after, it was Hecht: We certainly had no inten- make additional extortions. agreement, one had to evacuate the admitted that the facts, as depicted by tion to do Himmler any favor at all. Tamir: And based on what did you camp — I think that was the Musy junior, were true, although it Tamir: I did not ask you whether believe that those Nazis, those crimi- Buchenwald camp — for the death was still incomprehensible, because you wanted to do Himmler a favor. nals, after they murdered six million march. And Musy was even told that Himmler had not given these orders. I Why do you evade answering every Jews, would fall into your trap? about 40% of those participating in was assured that everything would be single question? Hecht: Because part of the Nazi those marches would die on the road. done to put an immediate halt to the Hecht: It is difficult to reply to those criminals were in a great panic and This was told to the senior Musy. evacuations. This was confirmed on questions yes or no. were convinced that the war was lost. Musy junior went therefore immedi- the telephone personally by Himmler Tamir: It is definitely possible to Tamir: Among them was Himmler? ately to Berlin, to the Nazi head of for- (Continued on page 13) March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3 HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTARY RAISES REMEMBER HOW DANES DONNED YELLOW QUESTIONS OF GUILT STARS TO PROTECT THE JEWS? THAT NEVER HAPPENED hen your enemy is sworn to harsh with others but also with him- W exterminate every one of you, self. spirited away in October 1943 to can you — should you — try to cut a very day, he faced demands BY ALEXANDER BODIN SAPHIR, Sweden, a neutral country, where deal with him to at least save some Efrom the Nazis that he was TABLET they lived out the rest of the war in rel- ative safety. I first became aware of lives, knowing that others are obliged to comply with — but he did ou know the legend: At the the story of the “Miracle Rescue” from doomed? his utmost to delay or subvert them, height of the Nazi occupation of Y my grandfather, Raphael “Folle” The question lies at the heart of a and in the process enabled some to Denmark, Berlin ordered all Danish Bodin, who was a young, talented, new documentary by Claude avoid the death marches ordered by Jews to don the infamous yellow star up-and-coming Jewish tailor in Lanzmann, author of Shoah, the Hitler, while knowing that others were on the outside of their clothes. But the Copenhagen when the Nazis invaded hugely acclaimed tableau of the doomed. morning the decree was set to take Denmark. In late 1943, a high-ranking Holocaust. He is far from being a stooge or effect, Denmark’s King Christian X Nazi broke party rules prohibiting frat- The Last of the Unjust, explores a power-mesmerized monster, as other rode out into the city wearing a yellow ernization with Jews and came to buy moral dilemma that Lanzmann briefly Elders in the eastern European ghet- star of his own. By evening, the mes- a new suit at the tailor shop owned by touched on his 1985 masterpiece. tos were and as he himself was later sage had spread and the entire popu- my grandfather’s father-in-law on For three and a half hours, the view- portrayed. lation of Copenhagen was wearing Istedgade, in the red-light district of er is taken through an exploration of “By taking huge risks (in Vienna), he yellow stars, thwarting the Nazi pro- Copenhagen, where my grandfather Benjamin Murmelstein, the last presi- managed to get 120,000 Austrian gram by making it impossible to tell worked along with his brother-in-law, dent of the Jewish Council in the Jews out of the clutches of their per- Jew from gentile. Nathan Golman. “model ghetto” of Theresienstadt in secutors, and what he recounts is a It’s an incredible story — probably Nazi-annexed Czechoslovakia. magisterial lesson in history,” said the best-known example of mass civil imagine my grandfather taking Set up by SS colonel Adolf Lanzmann. disobedience and nonviolent resist- Imeasurements and calling them Eichmann as a ance to come out of World War II. The out to Nathan, who noted them down bogus town run by trouble is it’s just that — a story. It on a small index card to be filed away. Jews themselves — never happened, and couldn’t have, I imagine him trying to stop his hands a Potemkin village because the Danish Jews were never from shaking and sweating as he designed to dupe the forced to wear the yellow star. But the stuck pins into the trouser hems of a world — Theresienstadt tale was prominently featured in man who symbolized everything evil was one of the American news outlets during the in occupied Europe. And I imagine his grimmest chapters in war, and after making its way into astonishment when the Nazi, upon the long record of Leon Uris’ novel Exodus became one returning to collect his new garment, Nazi atrocities. of the great unchallenged myths of turned to the two Jewish men and It housed 50,000 European resistance. warned them that a roundup of the Jews at its peak peri- Nevertheless, the fact remains that Jews was imminent, telling them to ods. Over four years, the Nazis failed to deport Danish flee. more than 150,000 Jews in significant numbers, thanks to They took the warning seriously and inhabitants were Lanzmann and Murmelstein in Rome, 1975. an operation that became known as set about telling everyone they knew. killed, many of them the “Miracle Rescue,” by which the Thanks to this, as well as a subse- shipped to the gas chambers of “(...) One of the lessons of The Last of vast majority of Danish Jews were (Continued on page 14) Auschwitz. the Unjust, in my view, is that at a cer- “It was the peak of Nazi cruelty and tain point you no longer have any other perversity... a unique combination of choice than to comply and obey, that all THE CHANGING IMAGE OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS lies and naked violence,” Lanzmann, resistance becomes impossible. (Continued from page 1) She also acknowledged the inspira- 87, said in an interview with AFP in “That said, Benjamin Murmelstein Dr. Yahalom concluded that “we tional leadership of Leonard Wilf, February. fought tirelessly right to the end need to remember that although the Chairman of the American Society, To run Theresienstadt, the Nazis against the killers. As he said, the initial master plan of the Final Solution and how “through programs such as formed a Jewish Council, comprising Nazis wanted to make him into a pup- was to divide, destroy and annihilate the conference we can teach partici- 12 members and a leader, “the Elder pet, but the puppet had learned to pull a nation, this chapter in history has pants about the many themes to con- of the Jews,” or Judenaeltester in the strings.” been transformed into a topic and sider in this undertaking: the multifac- German. Those who refused the As the holder of a diplomatic pass- theme that creates appointment were killed. port issued by the Red Cross, unity, builds com- The first Elder was sent to Murmelstein could have fled abroad munities of respect Auschwitz in 1943 and killed six after the war. rather than division, months later; the second was execut- Instead, he voluntarily put himself and opens a door to ed in Theresienstadt in 1944. forward for arrest by the a better understand- The documentary describes the Czechoslovak authorities after a num- ing of human rights extraordinary and controversial tale of ber of Jews accused him of collabo- and of the dangers Benjamin Murmelstein, a former rating with the enemy. of extreme and Grand Rabbi of Vienna who became He spent 18 months in prison before baseless hatred, to the third and final Elder in being acquitted of all charges. He promote tolerance Theresienstadt and the only one in all went into exile in Rome, where he among individuals. of eastern Europe to survive the war. found life tough, but he never went to Through teaching (Left to right) Workshop presenter Helene Alalouf, Tracy Garrison- Survival meant that he became a Israel. about the Holocaust, Feinberg, and other engaged educators. target. In the early 1960s, Murmelstein’s recollections, said our program aims to raise ethical ques- eted contours of human behavior, the Murmelstein was bitterly attacked by Lanzmann, are doubly precious, as tions, praise rescuers as models of dangers of extreme and baseless some Holocaust survivors, who they prompt a new interpretation of behavior, and help students find hatred, the role of the Holocaust in accused him of collaboration. There Eichmann, who was kidnapped by sources of strength, hope, resilience, public memory, the lives of the heroes were even calls for him to be Mossad agents in Argentina and identity and renewal.” and the victims, and the overarching hanged, like Eichmann, whom hauled to Israel for trial, culminating in Dr. Yahalom also spoke about Eli challenge to make sure neither group Murmelstein knew intimately from his execution in 1962. Zborowski, z”l, founding Chairman is forgotten.” Vienna. German philosopher Hannah of the American Society, and his The documentary is based on hours Arendt, in her account of the trial, encouragement of the education For more information about our of filmed interviews that Lanzmann described Eichmann as the stereotyp- efforts of the American Society each Education Department, Young had with Murmelstein in 1975, 14 ical bureaucrat, embodying “the year, and the value of partnering Leadership Associates and Traveling years before his death. banality of evil.” with dedicated educators to pre- Exhibits, please contact Marlene W. In it, Murmelstein comes across as But Murmelstein portrays Eichmann serve and disseminate Holocaust Yahalom, PhD, Director of Education; hugely compelling, a man fiercely as a “demon,” fanatical in his anti- history through programs such as (ph) 212.220.4304; email: mwy@yad- intelligent, courageous and ironic, Semitism, violent and corrupt. this conference. vashemusa.org Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS TWO AMONG THE RIGHTEOUS FEW Two Among the Righteous Few: A Marty Brounstein’s slim, unpreten- her strength. Frans quickly answered, Nazis had not been visible in Dieden in Story of Courage in the Holocaust. tious volume entitled Two Among the “‘Yes, for three weeks. . . . We have the early part of the war, soon they By Marty Brounstein. Tate Righteous Few so very important and enough food.’” Then he went to see started to appear in town .... All of this Publishing & Enterprises: Mustang, a worthy gift to us all! the girl and learned she was Jewish. incalculable fear Frans and Mien Ok., 2011. 191 pp. $11.01 softcover. Brounstein introduces us to two sim- It didn’t change his mind at all about faced, courageously and voluntarily! ple people who did the extraordinary, helping her. True, at first Frans didn’t No, it isn’t at all surprising that in REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN the couple Franciscus and Hermina really know the dangers he would 1983 Frans and Mien were recog- oth pure evil and pure good Wijnakker (Frans and Mien). Both face by doing this. (The Nazis gener- nized as “Righteous Among the Bfascinate! Indeed, when it grew up in the small town of Haren, a ally murdered those who helped Nations” by Yad Vashem. They more comes to evil, the countless books “relatively poor” agricultural area “in Jews). Still, even when he did realize than deserved it! Indeed, Brounstein, and materials in all kinds of media on the southern part of the them, nothing changed. our author, would more than agree Hitler and every kind of follower of nation of the Netherlands, Moreover, as it turned out, since his wife’s parents and his wife his — including the common and the commonly referred to as this young girl would stay were saved by these wonderful peo- uncommon man and woman — more Holland.” When they mar- with Frans and Mien for ple. More wonderful still is that, after than prove that. (And with the years, ried in 1936 they went to much longer than three the war, the actions of Frans and the numbers of these items show no live in the nearby agricul- weeks, as would the goodly Mien would even be celebrated by sign of diminishing!) We are anxious tural town of Dieden number of other Jewish chil- their non-Jewish neighbors. For, to know where evil comes from and which “together with dren and adults whom Frans sadly, in many cases such did not where brutality is born. We want to Demen, its closest neigh- and Mien took in or Frans happen. In other places those who know how it is “nurtured” and what boring village” had a pop- found places for, “brokering” saved Jews during the war had to supplies the “food” it needs to thrive ulation of “a few hun- refuge for them. Soon the quickly leave their homes and escape and grow. For perhaps, having such dred.” There this gentle Dutch underground heard from their non-Jewish neighbors, knowledge — we sincerely hope — couple looked forward to about what he was doing angered at what they had done and will somehow make it possible for us a future where they would “work hard, and eagerly supported his work in more than ready to do something to prevent its destructive presence in be good Catholics, and raise a fami- every way! Then there were other about it! our midst! ly.” Heroics of any kind were not on important connections Frans himself Finally, this reviewer can’t help but Our reaction to absolute good is their minds nor even imagined! But made to feed and care for those Jews think how strange it is that Holland much the same. We want to know then the war came . . . and Frans and who came to him. and Germany are so very close . . . where it comes from. We want to Mien easily slipped into another role eedless to say, though, the dan- and the people so very different. know what nurtures it. We want to entirely . . . . Ngers arrived too! There was the Then again, Norway is also very close encourage its development. Frans was traveling in Amsterdam town priest — all-powerful in such a to Germany . . . and look at what Unfortunately, however, the amount selling meat and eggs (money was small community — who was horrified Norway did for its Jews, intent on sav- of material on this in books and the always in short supply, so Frans did when he learned what Frans and ing them; and what Germany did, hell- general media is much, much less . . . this, undoubtedly, to supplement what Mien were doing. Moreover, he could- bent on murdering every one of them and we all so desperately need it! he was making as a miller). While n’t understand WHY they were doing it could find! It really is curious, amaz- For, in fact, all those who study there, he met a doctor who, learning it. In fact, at one point he frustratedly ing, and exceptionally thought-pro- humans already know how powerful that Frans lived in a rather isolated cried out, “‘They hung our dear LORD voking! good role models are. The social sci- area, asked a favor of him. Could he on the cross, and you take them in ence literature is full of this finding. take in a child for — say, three your home!’” Then there was the Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor of Role models show us the good and weeks? She was underfed and need- police chief in the town who threat- Media, Communication, and Visual the way .... And this, in fact, makes ed time outside the city to gain back ened Frans .... Then, too, while the Arts at Pace University. BOOK TRIES FOR BALANCED VIEW ON ROOSEVELT AND JEWS FDR and the Jews. thing he could. But they maintain that the United States. plan to relocate millions of threatened By Richard Breitman and Allan J. his overall record — several hundred But some leading Holocaust histori- European Jews to sparsely populated Lichtman. Harvard University Press: thousand Jews saved, some of them ans welcome FDR and the Jews for areas of Latin America and Africa. But Cambridge, Mass., 2013. 464 pp. $22.69. thanks to little-known initiatives — remaining dispassionate in a debate it does, the authors say, provide exceeds that of any subsequent pres- too often marked by anger and accu- important new detail and context to REVIEWED BY J. SCHUESSLER, ident in responding to genocide in the sation. that episode, as well as others that THE NEW YORK TIMES midst of fierce domestic political d hominem attacks don’t help have long loomed large in the popular or decades, it has been one of opposition. “A uncover the historical truth, imagination. Fthe most politically charged “The consensus among the public is and this book really avoids that,” said They pointed in particular to the fate questions in American history: What that Roosevelt really failed,” Deborah Lipstadt, a pro- of the 937 German Jewish refugees did Franklin D. Roosevelt do — or, Mr. Breitman said in a recent fessor at Emory University on the ocean liner St. Louis, who were more to the point, not do — in interview. “In fact, he had and a consultant on the turned away from Cuba in May 1939 response to the Holocaust? fairly limited options.” United States Holocaust and sent back to other European The issue has spawned a large liter- Such statements, backed Memorial Museum’s per- countries, where 254 died after war ary response, with books often bear- up by footnotes to hundreds manent exhibition about broke out. The episode, made famous ing polemical titles like The of primary documents (some the American response to in the 1974 book Voyage of the Abandonment of the Jews or Saving cited here for the first time), the Holocaust. “If people Damned and a subsequent film, has the Jews. But in a new volume from are unlikely to satisfy read it and don’t ascribe to come to seem emblematic of Harvard University Press, two histori- Roosevelt’s fiercest critics. the authors an agenda, it American callousness. ans aim to set the matter straight with Even before the book’s could be very important.” There is simply no evidence, Mr. what they call both a neutral assess- March 19 release, the David FDR and the Jews offers Breitman and Mr. Lichtman say, to ment of Roosevelt’s broader record S. Wyman Institute for no dramatic revelations of support accounts that the United on Jewish issues and a corrective to Holocaust Studies, a research organ- the sort Mr. Breitman provided in States Coast Guard was ordered to the popular view of it, which they say ization in Washington, has circulated 2009, when he and two other col- prevent the refugees from coming has become overly scathing. a detailed rebuttal, as well as a rival leagues drew headlines with evi- ashore in Florida. What’s more, they In FDR and the Jews, Richard book, FDR and the Holocaust: A dence, discovered in the papers of a were turned away from Cuba, the Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman, pro- Breach of Faith, zeroing in on what it former refugee commissioner for the authors argue, as part of a backlash fessors at American University, con- characterizes as Roosevelt’s person- League of Nations, that Roosevelt against a previous influx of some tend that Roosevelt hardly did every- al desire to limit Jewish immigration to had personally pushed for a 1938 (Continued on page 15) March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 “THE MONUMENTS MEN” SHOWS HOW AMERICA SAVED PAINTINGS WHILE LETTING JEWS DIE opening Palestine to refugees and Some refugee advocates openly he feared for the safety of its famous BY RAFAEL MEDOFF, TABLET scotched the idea of negotiating with questioned the administration’s priori- medieval architecture. (That was the the Nazis for the release of Jews. The ties. In full-page advertisements in the same McCloy who rebuffed requests to he story behind the creation of release of large numbers of Jews New York Times and elsewhere, the bomb Auschwitz, on the grounds that T the “monuments men” team, “would be relieving Hitler of an obliga- activists known as the Bergson Group such air strikes would require “divert- depicted in George Clooney’s new tion to take care of these useless peo- said the establishment of the monu- ing” planes from battle zones. In fact, feature film by the same name, ple,” one British official asserted. ments group was “commendable. … It throughout mid- and late 1944, U.S. begins in the spring of 1943, after the hen the Bermuda conference shows the deep concern of the [Allies] bombers — including one piloted by Allies had confirmed that Hitler was W ended, the two governments toward the problems of culture and civ- future U.S. Sen. George McGovern — carrying out what they called “his oft- kept the proceedings secret rather ilization. But should [they] not at least repeatedly struck German oil factories repeated intention to exterminate the than acknowledge how little had been show equal concern for an old and adjacent to Auschwitz, some of them Jewish people in Europe” — while accomplished. But the meager results ancient people who gave to the world less than five miles from the gas cham- looting priceless works of art from his were obvious. As Congressman the fundamentals of its Christian civi- bers.) victims. Jewish leaders and members Andrew Somers (D-N.Y.) put it in a lization, the Magna Carta of Justice — o doubt part of the problem was of Congress asked Allied leaders to radio broadcast, Bermuda proved that the Bible — and to every generation Nhuman psychology. When tens take steps to aid the refugees. “the Jews have not only faced the some of its most outstanding thinkers, of thousands, then hundreds of thou- Roosevelt administration officials unbelievable cruelty of the distorted writers, scholars and artists? A govern- sands, then millions of people are mur- replied that they could not divert mili- minds bent upon annihilating them, mental agency with the task of … sav- dered, they become a kind of faceless tary resources for nonmilitary purpos- but they have to face the betrayal of ing the Jewish people of Europe is the blur, a numbing statistic in the public’s es; the only way to rescue the Jews, those whom they called ‘friends.’” least the [Allies] can do.” mind. By contrast, the specific images they claimed, was to win the war. But of famous Rembrandt or Picasso to head off growing calls for rescue, paintings were personally familiar to the U.S. and British governments many Americans — and that familiarity announced they would hold a confer- engendered the sympathy needed to ence in Bermuda to discuss the bring about intervention. refugee problem. The talks had been Perhaps there is also something to be “shunted off to an inaccessible corner learned from the mass outpouring of so that the world would not be able to sympathy for endangered animals. In a listen in,” American Zionist leader biting essay at the peak of the Darfur Abba Hillel Silver charged. genocide, New York Times columnist Assembling the American delega- Nicholas Kristof complained that tion to Bermuda proved to be no sim- Americans would care more about ple task. President Franklin D. Darfur if the victims were puppies. He Roosevelt’s first two choices to chair recalled that the public contributed the U.S. delegation, veteran diplomat $45,000 to rescue a terrier stranded on Myron Taylor and Yale President a burned-out oil tanker in the Pacific in Charles Seymour, turned him down. 2002. And the eviction of a red-tailed So did Supreme Court Justice Owen Left to right: Dimitri Leonidas, John Goodman, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Bob Balaban hawk from its nest atop a Manhattan Roberts. FDR expressed disappoint- in The Monument Men. apartment building sparked an interna- ment that Roberts would not be able to It was becoming painfully obvious In the autumn of 1943, the Bergson tional outcry, with actress Mary Tyler enjoy the lush beauty of the island, that when it came to saving European Group’s allies in Congress introduced Moore and others rising up in passion- “especially at the time of the Easter lil- Jews, nobody had much interest. a resolution urging the president to ate defense of the bird’s rights. “A sin- lies!” In any event, the president When it came to saving European create a commission to rescue Jews. gle homeless hawk aroused more joshed, “You can tell the Chief Justice paintings, however, the response was At a hearing on the resolution, New indignation than 2 million homeless that while I yield this time, I will issue a very different. Which is where the York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia Sudanese,” Kristof commented. subpoena for you the very next time story behind Clooney’s The pointed to the creation of the monu- During the 1940s, some refugee you are needed!” And as it turned out, Monuments Men came in. ments commission: “This very impor- advocates noted the same phenome- that next time was coming soon. *** tant problem … is not like the destruc- non. Meeting with a U.S. senator in The conference was doomed before hortly after the Bermuda meet- tion of buildings or monuments, as 1943, Rabbi Meyer Berlin (namesake it started — because, as Synagogue Sings ended, The New York terrible as that may be, because, after of the future Bar-Ilan University) Council of America President Dr. Israel Times published an editorial titled all, they may be rebuilt or even repro- remarked: “If horses were being Goldstein pointed out, its real purpose “Europe’s Imperiled Art.” The newspa- duced; but when a life is snuffed out, slaughtered as are the Jews of was “not to rescue victims of Nazi ter- per, which showed little interest in the it is gone; it is gone forever.” Poland, there would by now be a loud ror, but to rescue our State Department fate of Europe’s imperiled Jews, The Roosevelt administration dis- demand for organized action against and the British foreign office from pos- urged strong government action to patched Assistant Secretary of State such cruelty to animals. Somehow, sible embarrassment.” The American rescue “cultural treasures” from the Breckinridge Long to Capitol Hill to when it concerns Jews, everybody delegates (led by last-minute choice battle zones. The White House testify against Bergson’s rescue reso- remains silent, including the intellec- Harold W. Dodds, president of agreed: Here was something that did lution. Long declared that the United tuals and humanitarians of free and Princeton University) arrived with strict merit the diversion of American mili- States was deeply concerned about enlightened America.” Two years instructions: no focus on Jews as the tary resources. In June 1943, the the Jewish refugees, but after all, “you later, in a sad fulfillment of Rabbi primary victims of the Nazis; no Roosevelt administration announced cannot send a regiment in there to Berlin’s dire prediction, U.S. Gen. increase in the number of refugees the establishment of a U.S. govern- pull people out.” Paintings presented George Patton diverted U.S. troops to admitted to the United States, even ment commission “for the protection no such difficulties, apparently. rescue 150 prized Lipizzaner dancing though immigration quotas were not and salvage of artistic and historic Historians have noted that the work of horses, which were caught between even close to full; and no use of monuments in Europe.” the Monuments Men was not the only Allied and Axis forces along the American ships to transport refugees Finding a chairman for the new res- instance in which the Roosevelt admin- German-Czech border. — not even troop supply ships that cue agency was not too difficult: FDR istration diverted military resources, or None of this detracts from what the were returning from Europe empty. turned to Justice Roberts, who may altered military plans, because of non- Monuments Men accomplished, of The conferees also rejected the not have had time for the task of res- military considerations. A U.S. Air Force course. Their rescue of precious artwork idea of food shipments to starving cuing Jews but quickly found the time plan to bomb the Japanese city of and other historical treasures is deserv- European Jews. That would violate to chair a commission to rescue paint- Kyoto was blocked by Secretary of War ing of praise. But it’s also a story that has the Allied blockade of Axis Europe, ings and statues. The Roberts Henry Stimson because of the city’s to be told within its historical context: the and no exceptions could be made, Commission set to work planning the artistic treasures. Assistant Secretary failure of the Roosevelt administration to they declared. Closing off the last mission that was to be carried out by of War John McCloy intervened to accord the rescue of human beings the remaining options, the British dele- the team that would come to be divert U.S. bombers from striking the same level of concern it accorded the gates at Bermuda refused to discuss known as the Monuments Men. German city of Rothenburg because rescue of cultural treasures. Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER

SELFHELP HOME HOUSES WORLD’S LAST GENERATION OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS It was November 9, 1938, mates. Suddenly she was reminded he home actually started as an BY SHARON COHEN, Kristallnacht — the night of broken of a Nazi commander dubbed “the T association in the mid-1930s HUFFINGTON POST glass — when the Nazis coordinated a death finger” because he’d point, then when a branch of a New York organi- wave of attacks in Germany and declare with a “you, you, you,” those zation called Selfhelp formed in isten to the many harrowing sto- Austria, smashing windows, burning to be exterminated. She trembles just Chicago. Selfhelp was more than a ries of war, suffering and sur- L synagogues, ransacking homes, loot- thinking about it. name; it was a philosophy for vival, all under one roof. ing Jewish-owned stores. They trashed Oppenheimer now lives in a cozy, refugees who didn’t want to depend On the third floor, there’s Margie. A the family’s apartment and small sunlit apartment filled with four gener- on public aid. Instead, they started a prisoner of Nazi labor camps, she department store in Oelde, Germany. ations of family photos. She and her support group, collecting meager hauled backbreaking cement bags So began seven years of terror that husband — an Auschwitz survivor — dues to help each other find jobs or and was beaten with clubs. took Oppenheimer from the Riga had decided long ago they’d eventu- apartments, learn English and navi- Sometimes, she had only a piece of ghetto — escaping mass killings by ally move to Selfhelp, but he died gate daily life. bread to eat every other day. She German squads — to a series of labor before there was a need. “The mission was to create a safe weighed 56 pounds when she was and concentration camps. She broke Oppenheimer has found comfort oasis where they could start again,” freed. concrete, shoveled sawdust, laid there. “I’m happy to know that there says Ciocci, whose husband’s grand- Down the hall, there’s Edith. Though bricks, glued U-boats. She fought are people here who went through the mother was an early member. pregnant, she miraculously avoided hunger and fear, lice and typhus, same thing,” she says. Gerry Franks, one of the home’s the gas chamber at Auschwitz. She repeating to herself: “I will be strong. I Oppenheimer doesn’t share her founders, had come from Berlin. Now lost her mother, father and husband in want to live.” story unless asked, but has written a 92, he still remembers being 17 years the camps. After liberation, she faced One day at the Stutthof concentra- memoir to record events her three old, watching from his bicycle the even more heartbreak: Her son died tion camp in Poland, Nazis marched children weren’t all that eager to hear. hateful frenzy of Kristallnacht as Nazi days after his birth. Oppenheimer and others naked into “My kids didn’t want us to talk about storm troopers painted small crosses Up on the eighth floor, there’s Joe. an open field for inspection. Those it,” she says. “They’d say, ‘You’re in a in the corner of windows of Jewish- As a boy of 10, he was herded onto a strong enough to work were directed free country now. Enjoy the freedom. owned businesses so mobs would cattle car and transported to a con- to the right. Oppenheimer, who was Forget the past.’” know where to attack. centration camp — the first of five emaciated, was ordered to the left She can’t. He saw a schoolmate pick up a he’d be shuttled to over five cruel with hundreds of older women. She “What happened yesterday — I chair lodged in an already-shattered years. was placed into new barracks and can’t remember,” she says, “but what store window and hurl it into a magnif- These Holocaust survivors share a had the Roman numeral II scrawled happened at that time ... it’s still with icent chandelier. “I tell you, it broke history and a home: a retirement com- on her left forearm. me. I can never forget it.” something within me,” Franks says. “I munity founded more than 60 years Death seemed inevitable. ven when it’s unspoken, the thought, ‘What the heck am I doing in ago for Jews who’d been victims of “I’m thinking this is the last time I will past is the emotional glue for this country anymore?’” His family left Nazi persecution. For decades, it was E see the sun,” she recalls. these survivors. soon after. a refuge for those who’d endured the That night at the camp two friends “I think it has been very important for living hell of Auschwitz, As a Selfhelp founder, Franks along did the unimaginable: without saying them to live as a group, even though Theresienstadt, Mauthausen and with others decided after about a anything, they pulled Oppenheimer they don’t talk about it,” says Ethan other camps. And a haven, too, for decade to start a retirement community under an electrified fence to another Bensinger, who made a 2012 docu- those who’d fled before the dark night for their parents and other refugees, side of the camp. She scrubbed off mentary, Refuge, about the place his of German occupation fell over their many attached to Old World ways. one number on her arm so she was 101-year-old mother, Rachel, calls homeland. About 15 years ago, with increasing no longer marked for death. She home. “Whether it’s subliminally or In its heyday, the Selfhelp Home, as numbers of survivors dying, Selfhelp stayed in those quarters and at the unconsciously ... there’s a feeling of it’s called, bustled with Jewish — which offers everything from inde- next day’s 6 a.m. roll call, she tried to togetherness.” refugees from Germany, Austria and pendent living to around-the-clock hide her skeletal, barely 5-foot frame Rachel Bensinger’s story is not Czechoslovakia, the dining room a care — began opening its doors to behind a tall woman. uncommon. She left Germany as babel of central European tongues. Jews who weren’t European war “The commander said, ‘There is one Hitler’s dictatorial grip tightened. She Hundreds were on a waiting list. But refugees. person extra. Who IS that person? moved to what was then Palestine, that was long ago. As time passed, Soon, the reason this home was Come forward!’” Oppenheimer but her life was unalterably shaped by the need for a special sanctuary founded will cease to be. recalls, her high-pitched voice imitat- the Holocaust — she lost 25 mem- faded. Others who had not endured “In a matter of years, this communi- ing his stern tone. “My face was hot. It bers of her family. the genocide moved in. ty will be gone, this sense of culture was on fire. I thought if anybody sees These traumas have been enor- Only 12 Holocaust survivors — the will be gone, these last links to what me, they’ll know I am the one who mous, but they’ve not been all-con- youngest in their mid-80s, the oldest central Europe was before the war will isn’t supposed to be there.” An elder- suming. 102 — remain. So do a few dozen no longer be with us,” Bensinger ly woman was pulled from the line “They don’t want it to be the focus of other Jews who escaped Hitler’s says. “There’s a great sense of sad- and dispatched to her death. who they are, they don’t want to be reach, often leaving behind family as ness for all of us.” “She was killed because of me, marked,” says Hedy Ciocci, the they started new lives in Kenya, That sorrow, though, has been tem- because I wanted to be free,” home’s administrator. “They want to China, Colombia and other distant pered, by those still here to write the Oppenheimer says, her eyes clouding be defined by who they became and lands. last chapter. with tears. “And I feel guilty about that what life they’ve had.” They’re now the last generation to Edith Stern sometimes thinks her until this living day.” Many became doctors, lawyers, bear witness to one of the greatest memory is too strong. Oppenheimer eventually became a artists, businessmen, teachers, nurs- horrors of all time, a resilient commu- She remembers her improbable nurse, but couldn’t bear to work with es. With roots in Berlin, Prague and nity of friends and neighbors sharing wedding ceremony in Theresienstadt. children. “Here you have happy, love- Vienna, many also had developed a what once seemed impossible: long ly kids,” she explains. “All I saw were love for the arts that the home sus- A concentration camp inmate with lives. When they’re gone, their stories kids being pulled from their mothers tains today with lectures, Sunday con- meningitis, she was too weak to will be preserved in history. But for and killed. Those are the pictures that certs and visits from a movie critic. stand, but strong enough to take her now, their voices still echo in these I still have in front of me.” “It represents this world that they vows. Her head was bandaged and a halls. The past never totally disappears. remember, that they had to leave,” pink silk gown peeked out from her Seventy-five years ago, Margie One night at dinner someone asked if Bensinger says. He describes it with blanket. Her groom stood at her side. Oppenheimer awoke with a Nazi everyone had received plum cake. the German word: gemutlichkeit — “All the people cried,” she says with pointing a rifle in her 14-year-old face. Oppenheimer pointed to two table- comfort or coziness. (Continued on page 12) March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 JEWISH CHILDREN HIDDEN TWICE OVER BY THE CHURCH document says. “For children who no “For a historian, it is very tempting to France in 1953. BY REBECCA BENHAMOU, longer have their parents, given the talk to the press, especially when you n 1944, two Jewish boys, Robert THE TIMES OF ISRAEL fact that the Church is responsible for discover something big. But had I Iand Gerald Finaly, were sent by them, it is not acceptable for them to talked, I would have lost my credibili- their parents to a Catholic nursery in eopening a scandal that broke be abandoned by the Church or ty and the Church’s trust.” Grenoble. After the parents were Rin 2004, the new French book entrusted to any persons who have Poujol admits, however, that without deported and died at Auschwitz, their L’Eglise de France et les enfants juifs no rights over them, at least until they the 2004 scandal, the French Church uncle and aunt, who were living in (The French Church and Jewish are in a position to choose them- would probably not have granted her Israel, attempted to get the children Children) is a 10-year investigation selves.” access to its private archives. back. into one of the most controversial rchbishop of Lyon Monsignor “The Church felt cornered, and at In 1948, French Catholic nurse postwar Catholic Church policies. A Gerlier — credited with rescu- first adopted an inward-looking Antoinette Brun baptized the children The book, which recently hit French ing 120 Jewish children from deporta- stance. But soon it realized that deny- without the family’s permission and bookstores, opens with an October formally adopted them, omitting to tell 23, 1946, directive from the French the judge about the existence of other Apostolic Nunciature that author relatives. Catherine Poujol found in the Church The affair reached the national spot- archives in 2004 in Issy-les- light when a police investigation found Moulineaux, a commune in the south- that several nuns of the Notre Dame western area of Paris. de Sion order and Basque priests had Leaked to the Italian daily newspa- arranged and executed the kidnap- per Corriere Della Sera without her ping and smuggling of the children in permission on December 28, 2004, Spain in February 1953. the document — written in French Robert and Gerald Finaly, the most notorious case of French baptized Jewish children hidden after The boys were returned to their fam- and “approved by the Holy Father” — World War II. ily on July 25 after an eight-year legal forbids Catholic authorities from tion in Vénissieux — received the let- ing the access to these postwar doc- battle that divided the French public allowing Jewish children who had ter on April 30, 1947, along with uments would fuel the scandal even opinion. been sheltered by Catholics and bap- another document, entitled “Note more.” Poujol explains, “The Finaly Affair is tized to be returned to their families from the Abbot Blanc.” After examining countless sources the most emblematic example of the and communities. Explaining the opinion of a theolo- and traveling throughout Europe, the Church’s ambivalent attitude. The “For Jews today, children or grand- gist consulted by the Vatican envoy in US and Israel, Poujol came to the debate opposed on the one hand children of Shoah survivors, the letter France, Angelo Rocalli, the document conclusion that even if this document Monsignor Gerlier, who did everything from the Nunciature is written evi- states: “Baptism is what makes a clearly outlines the Church’s intention he could not to hand over the chil- dence of what was once feared,” Christian, hence it ‘cancels the Jew,’ of keeping baptized Jewish children dren, and on the other hand, Poujol writes. “We knew that after the which allowed the Church to protect under its custody, it doesn’t cast Monsignor Caillot, archbishop of war, Jewish organizations did every- so many endangered Israelites.” blame on the entire Catholic Church. Grenoble and fervent supporter of the thing in their power to obtain a letter To this day, there are no reliable fig- “Many priests and bishops acted Vichy government, who lobbied from the pope, a memorandum ask- ures on how many French Jewish completely independently and didn’t actively to return the boys to their ing institutions looking after hidden children were hidden and saved by abide by the directive,” she says. family. Jewish children to hand them over. Catholics, or directly affected by this Poujol notes that there is very little “French public opinion was divided “Today, we have the evidence that a Church directive. evidence as to which members of the into two opposing camps, clericals contrary order came from the Vatican, For almost a decade, Poujol has Church did receive the note. against anticlericals, Zionists against and affected some of these children,” refused to talk to the press about her “After the war, the Church was in an anti-Zionists, and canon law against she adds. discovery. Now, she explains the rea- unprecedented, exceptional situation republican law,” she adds. The formal Church directive outlin- sons behind her silence. — and wasn’t prepared for it,” she In France, 11,600 Jewish children ing how to deal with requests from “I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire says. “On the one hand, a sacrament, died during World War II, but another Jewish organizations looking for hid- without properly investigating the sub- in this case baptism, was adminis- 72,400 survived. den children throughout Europe fails ject — and this was a very complex, tered to save individuals from a likely “There are many gray areas when it to mention the atrocities of the lengthy process,” she told The Times death. But on the other hand, comes to the role of the Catholic Holocaust. of Israel. Catholics truly believe in the rescue of Church during and after the war; we “Children who have been baptized “When the media published the souls via this sacrament.” cannot jump to a clear-cut, black or must not be entrusted to institutions directive, they had no evidence what- Amid numerous, well-documented white conclusion,” says Poujol. “The that would not be in a position to guar- soever of its origin and its actual examples, Poujol mentions the Finaly very goal of my book is to show that antee their Christian upbringing,” the impact on the field,” she continues. Affair, which consumed and divided we need to adopt a nuanced stance.” CZECHS HAIL WARTIME JEWISH LEAGUE nside the walls of the transit camp Theresienstadt, the Jewish footballers Hirsch — who later perished in The ghetto prisoners also played Iof Terezin, Jewish footballers used used their favorite sport as a means of Auschwitz-Birkenau — created a sys- international games, such as Prague their favorite sport as a means of psy- psychological escape from Nazi tyran- tem of football leagues including the versus Vienna. chological escape from Nazi tyranny ny — if only for the duration of a match. “Terezin League,” several divisions, as But player transfers scheduled – if only for the duration of a match. Between 1941 and 1945, a total of well as children’s and junior leagues. every Monday from 10 am to 2 pm The league was finally granted official 152,659 Jews passed through the “Even in such cruel conditions the were a cruel reminder of the horrifying recognition by the Czech Football giant Terezin complex. About 34,000 folks played football — and football situation the footballers found them- Association. of them perished from disease due to helped them survive,” says Stanislav selves in: the lineups changed from Locked up in the Nazi transit camp of poor sanitation, while 87,000 others Hrabe, head of a Czech Football week to week as players were deport- Terezin, Jewish prisoners created their met their death after being deported Association historical committee. ed to death camps. own football league, which Czech foot- to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Named after the jobs the players had Terezin players included ones with ball recently commemorated by finally Just 16,852 of the Jews who passed in the ghetto, such as “Cooks,” “Used international careers, such as Paul granting it official recognition. through Terezin camp survived the war. Clothes Storage,” “Electricians,” and Mahrer of the “Butchers” team, who “Playing football, we didn’t think of In March, the Czech Football “Butchers,” the seven-a-side teams as a DFC Prague star had played six deportation or the stress caused by life Association executive committee played games of two 35-minute halves games for the former Czechoslovakia in the ghetto,” famed Czech novelist declared “the football competitions in the courtyard of a former army bar- in 1923–1926. and playwright Ivan Klima once said. and their organization in the Terezin racks as thousands of fans watched. Mahrer survived Terezin and has Sent to the ghetto near Prague aged ghetto during World War II an integral In 1943, the “Used Clothes Storage” since spoken of his experience, telling just 10, Klima played for the children’s and important part of its history.” team came top of the first Terezin Frantisek Steiner, author of Football team “Blauweiss” (Blue-whites). n 1943, a committee of Czech, League, after six victories and three Under a Yellow Star, “For us, football He was far from alone. IAustrian, German, Danish, French draws. The “Butchers” won the first was a kind of comfort in hell’s waiting Inside the walls of the former and Italian Jews led by German Fredy Terezin Cup in the same year. room.” Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM HOSTS INAUGURAL FLORIDA TRIBUTE DINNER epresentative of major commu- to become active in raising money for “Though he is a Holocaust survivor, ner is ‘Global Guardian of Holocaust Rnity organizations and three Yad Vashem. Both of them assumed my father is by far the most forward- Remembrance.’ Yad Vashem was generations of South Floridians gath- leadership positions in the Society thinking and optimistic person I have established in 1953 through an act of ered at the B’nai Torah Congregation and in turn have inspired me and ever met…. His interest in Yad the Knesset. In 1965 Yad Vashem in Boca Raton on Sunday, March 2, other members of the Wilf family to Vashem is about our future as a glob- was small. Now, with the help of many 2014, for the Society’s Inaugural follow in their footsteps.” al community with human rights for all loyal supporters, it has grown into the Florida Tribute Dinner. Two hundred people. Two decades ago our family impressive structure it is today. seventy guests came to ne of the purposes pay tribute to honorees “Oof Yad Vashem is Aron Bell (Bielski) and to remember the six million Brenda Weil Mandel. Aron Jews who perished, which Bell, who lives in Palm included members of my Beach, is the last surviving family…. So many inno- member of the Bielski fami- cent lives snuffed out. ly and a founder, along with Loving life is not enough. his older brothers, of the Doing for others is the real Bielski partisans. Brenda purpose of life. It is a won- Weil Mandel is a Trustee of derful feeling to continue in Yad Vashem and a mem- the tradition of my parents ber of the second genera- and family to support wor- tion of survivors. Consul thy causes. Lou and I try General for Israel to Florida to follow this principle, hop- Chaim Shacham updated ing to be a link in the chain the audience on current to bring about a better events in the State of Israel. world. I know my parents Yad Vashem Builder Jimmy and family of blessed Resnick introduced Senator From right to left: Chairman Leonard Wilf, Honorable Chaim Shacham, Shelly Pechter Himmelrich, Senator Marco Rubio, memory would be very Brenda Weil Mandel, Jack Pechter. Marco Rubio, our keynote happy to see that we are speaker, who participated in the event onsul General Chaim Shacham undertook to establish the doing this. Yad Vashem needs to exist through the help of Benefactor Cspoke about the important role International School for Holocaust to ensure that future generations Norman Braman. A Yad Vashem video of Yad Vashem in the face of numer- Studies. Today, each year, the School remember the past.” presentation, “Remembering the Past, ous threats that currently face the Shaping the Future,” introduced by State and people of Israel: Yad Vashem Benefactor Jack Pechter, “Yad Vashem means Holocaust provided a panoramic view of the Yad remembrance. Israel is built on Vashem campus on the Mount of remembrance. For most states, Remembrance in Jerusalem. Shelly remembrance is a pastime. For Pechter Himmelrich, a member of the Israel, remembrance is our purpose. ASYV board of directors, ably and And for Israel, Holocaust remem- graciously presided over the dinner brance is a permanent proactive pol- program. icy.” Greetings and tributes were provid- Shacham stated that “For Israel, for ed by a number of dignitaries. my government, this is 1938.” He then Leonard Wilf, Chairman of the Board, emphasized the danger of history recalled the founders of the Society in repeating itself if Iran were to gain his remarks: nuclear capabilities. “No Israeli gov- ”At this Inaugural Dinner — a mile- ernment will sit idly by as Iran gains stone event for the Society — I would nuclear capability. This is true like to pay tribute to the memory of Eli because Holocaust remembrance is a Zborowski, its founder. For more than permanent and proactive policy of the

Aron Bell accepting the Yad Vashem Remembrance Award. From right to left: Mickey Bielski (son of Bielski Brigade leader Tuvia Bielski), Chairman Leonard Wilf, Aron Bell (Bielski), Henryka Bell, Leah Johnson (Bielski partisan). attracts more than 100,000 students, The tribute to the Bielski Brigade 50,000 soldiers and thousands of began with Stuart Schulman, who educators from Israel and around the assisted Aron Bell in the writing of his world. Courses are taught in eight lan- reminiscences in the forest. Stuart guages other than Hebrew.” presented a dramatic reading from In her acceptance speech, Brenda the book, Forest Scout. He was fol- Weil Mandel said: lowed by Mickey Bielski, the oldest “I was just a little girl in 1965 when son of Tuvia Bielski, the commander my parents, Julius and Tony Mandel, of the Bielski Brigade. Mickey shared took me on a trip to Israel to visit some thoughts about his father: members of our family. At that time “Tuvia Bielski, my father, was an there were many places we were not extraordinary man who was caught allowed to go, including the Western up in one of the most horrific Brenda Weil Mandel accepting Yad Vashem Guardian of Remembrance Award. From right to left: Wall, the Kotel. Two years ago my moments of the twentieth century S. Isaac Mekel, Director of Development at ASYV; Louis Frock (husband to Mandel); Brenda Weil husband, Lou, and I travelled to Israel when the extinction of an entire peo- Mandel; Chairman Leonard Wilf. with 80 congregants and friends from ple had been set in motion by the three decades, Eli was the driving State of Israel.” our synagogue with the specific pur- Nazis. Tuvia became the command- force behind this organization. In the Shelly Pechter Himmelrich talked pose to visit Yad Vashem, where Lou er, the visionary, the holy warrior of early ‘80s, Eli marshaled the efforts of about her family’s role in her introduc- and I dedicated the Flag Terrace in the Bielski Otriad. Because of his survivors like my father, Harry Wilf, of tion of her father, Yad Vashem remembrance of our family. leadership, Tuvia, along with broth- blessed memory, and my Uncle Joe Benefactor Jack Pechter: “The theme of this year’s tribute din- (Continued on page 13) March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM YOUNG LEADERSHIP ASSOCIATES WINTER GALA

Barry Levine and Abbi Halpern, co-charis, Young Leadership Associates; and Leonard A. Wilf, chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem.

2014 Young Leadership Associates Gala Committee. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM “I KNOW TOMORROW WILL BE MY LAST DAY” For years Soviet Jewry’s were murdered in two operations, in approach were quite similar — they the authorities accused them of being Holocaust was a forbidden secret. May and September 1942. They were gathered the Jews together and then traitors.” Now, through letters found in lined up and shot into the killing pits. murdered them — but for us it is asha Yonin, born in St. archives, Yad Vashem is working Some of them were buried alive. important to learn how they coped. MPetersburg and now working at to make the voices silenced behind But who was this Eleonora Parmut We are speaking about enormous Yad Vashem, grew up in the shadow the Iron Curtain heard. who left us this chilling letter? And amounts of material — diaries, and of this ambiguity. what was the fate of her brother letters that will require many more “After high school I went to study in BY SMADAR SHIR, YNET NEWS Yuzik? years of work.” Estonia because in the city where I o my dear brother, our city Around one and a half million Jews was born, Jews were not accepted to BRUTAL AND QUICK OPERATION “T Priluki was taken over quite were murdered in the territories of the study the humanities,” she relates. “I suddenly and very quickly by the e will never know,” says Dr. former Soviet Union, “mainly in studied literature and Russian lan- German occupiers. My brother — you “W Lea Prais of the ravines — the most famous of which guage and then returned to St. cannot imagine what terrible months International Institute for Holocaust is Babi Yar,” says Shalev. “The Nazis Petersburg, and together with my hus- we have been through — famine, Research, who is attending a confer- led the Jewish village to large killing band we joined the new Jewish move- extreme cold, abuse, looting, humilia- ence in Kharkov dedicated to the col- pits where they threw the slain — ment that was set up by refuseniks. tion…. I wanted to die so many times lection, research and mapping of the sometimes 10,000 people. These The Holocaust ripped up our roots, instead of continuing this life! Even murder sites of the Jews from the for- places have never been documented and we met in the refusenik under- when I regretted not dying in the mer Soviet Union. “In Poland, and this is the task before us now. We ground, in private homes, to study bombings, I still retained one hope — Germany and France we found have identified more than 2,000 death Hebrew. Under the Stalinist regime to see you again — even if for just a diaries that people wrote in hiding, but pits and we are researching each site: Jews changed their surnames and from the Holocaust in the Soviet who fired, in what language the order were afraid to go to the synagogue, Union we found only one diary.” was given and the level of satisfaction Jewish culture was wiped out, and The absence of such diaries is not reflected in the reports detailing the cases of assimilation were wide- accidental. “The Holocaust in the for- completed mission.” spread. The proof of this is in the fact mer Soviet Union was very brief,” she he written eyewitness accounts that by the time the gates were closed, explains. “The country was occupied T speak for themselves. A report most of the Jews who wanted to leave within several months — the opera- from July 16, 1941, which is catego- the Soviet Union did not request to go tion was brutal and quick and the rized “Confidential Matter of the to Israel but to United States.” Jews were exterminated before they Reich,” states: “In the first hours after had an opportunity to develop a com- the Bolsheviks’ retreat the local munal life under occupation. Ukrainian population undertook some “The Soviet Jews were also afraid of praiseworthy actions against the writing diaries. This was a result of Jews. For example, the synagogue in years of the Stalinist regime where Dovreimil was torched. In Sambur, 50 any personal writings put them in dan- Jews were beaten to death by an ger. They didn’t know who was going angry crowd. The Security Police to find the diary. For the same reason rounded up 7,000 Jews and shot they also spoke little and sparingly them as revenge for their horrific and even during conversations with family inhuman actions.” Tomer and Aharon Guntser’s letter to their The only picture left of Eleonora. sons a day before they were murdered. members. Instead of diaries they left A soldier called Franz proudly wrote minute — before my eyes are closed. behind letters. A letter is a small thing to his parents: “Until now we have Unsurprisingly, the KGB did not But this wish will also not be realized. that does not require a lot of time or sent around a thousand Jews to the relate positively to the Jewish Hebrew Yuzik, I know that tomorrow is my last thought, and I see them as a more next world,” and SS officer August studies in private homes. day, but I am strong and do not fear democratic way of expression. They Hepner wrote from the town Belaya “They used to come and turn the the end of my life. I am certain that are the voice of everyone.” Tserchov, Ukraine: “The Wehrmacht house upside down searching for you will avenge the death of your sis- Eleonora’s letter from Priluki was soldiers have already dug a ditch that Israeli newspapers, and if they found ter. Take revenge on those responsi- found by Dr. Prais in the Yad Vashem will serve as a grave. The children them they accused the house owner ble for the deaths of Tulya, Mara and archives. “Her family members lived were brought by tractor. They were of undermining the state. When they thousands of others. I kiss you and in Azerbaijan and kept this letter and lined up on the edge of the ditch and confiscated the papers, they planted send greetings to your friends, to my her picture like a lucky charm. When shot to death so that they fell within. drugs among the bookshelves in brothers and sisters, and I hope that they came to visit friends in Israel, It’s impossible to describe the howl- order to accuse all present of dealing one day you will avenge our spilt they gave the letter and the picture to ing. Some children had to be shot four in drugs, which carried a more severe blood.” a woman named Leah Basentin who or five times until they stopped.” punishment than nationalism. They This farewell letter, which is now yel- in turn gave them to Yad Vashem. But The research at Yad Vashem has wanted to ensure that we would low and fading, is signed Eleonora she didn’t have any additional infor- led to the conclusion that the receive long prison sentences, as in Parmut, from the city of Priluki, mation and also didn’t know how to Holocaust in the former Soviet Union the case of Minister Edelstein who sat Ukraine. She was 15 years old and locate the visitors from Azerbaijan. must receive special consideration. in prison, and they also wanted to was not expecting a miracle. It was “In the last few years we have tried “During the Soviet period the humiliate the movement. They often clear to her that within hours of the ink to make contact with Basentin, with- Holocaust was presented as an inte- used to say: “Who are the members drying on the paper, they would stand out any luck. Let’s hope that as a gral part of the World War in which the of this movement? They are both her in a line, and aim their rifles at her, result of this article someone will turn Nazis murdered Soviet citizens — nationalists and drug dealers.” and her body would plunge into the to us. Perhaps we will be successful some of whom were Jews,” explains Despite the fear of being sent to killing pit. and find a clue that will lead us to the Shalev. “The Holocaust was not men- prison, the movement’s members And that is how it was. Around 6,000 relatives of this girl.” tioned in the government educational continued to meet in the Jewish Jews lived in Priluki at the end of the “The Holocaust is the most system and harsh sanctions were underground, “and alongside learning 1930s. Many of them fled in researched topic in the world,” says applied to any researcher that dared Hebrew we studied Torah, Jewish his- September 1941 when the city was Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. to study this area. Some lone sur- tory and also about the Holocaust that seized by the Nazis. Some of those “In our library we have 140 thousand vivors, those whose entire families was never mentioned in the Soviet left were sent to the ghetto, and oth- titles, and the research will never be were murdered in the killing pits while Union,” Yonin relates. ers were sent to hard labor that many completed, since the deeper we they were fighting at the front, later “The Soviet ideology was that all are did not survive. In the end, the major- delve, the more we find that there was came to the killing pits, collected eye- equal, that all the Soviet people suf- ity of the Jews remaining in the city — unique behavior in each place. The witness accounts and passed them fered during the Great Patriotic War, 1,300 men, women and children — general pattern and the basic on by word of mouth. Nevertheless, (Continued on page 12) March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 THREE CHILDREN UNDER THE SWASTIKA because we were children and a little Her slow realization that anti- went into hiding. Little Mariette was BY JONATHON VAN MAREN, bit more free to stare than the older Semitism was a new and enforced first hidden in an orphanage, and THE TIMES OF ISRAEL people.” policy started to surface around the then, she remembers, in Holland. The planes Joe den Bok saw, it same time — around 1939 to 1940, “I left the orphanage, [and] my often think that it is difficult for turns out, were only the first wave — Mariette supposes. “Not just kids on brother had taught me how to read a Imembers of Generation Y to fully the Rotterdam Blitz, in which much of the street, but kids I was playing with!” map. You don’t need to read, you can grasp the reality of the Holocaust and the city was leveled by the Luftwaffe, she told me. [just] follow the road,” she told me. just how recent the geographically was to happen on May 14. “They started to call me names, and “Henri had taught me all these sprawling and bloody events actually y grandmother Pia Dam also I thought it was because my mother things and I smuggled myself. I were. Living in widespread prosperi- Mremembers the beginning of had sewn a yellow star on my dress. I always left people without saying a ty — almost unprecedented in human the German occupation, even though used to tear it off my clothes because goodbye. That was the first thing I history — and possessing attitudes of she was only three (born September I wanted the kids to play with me. But was taught, you never say anything. I entitlement proportionate to that, the 17, 1936). On May 13, the day before they wouldn’t play — they started call- left the orphanage and I was to meet young people of the West in my gen- the Rotterdam Blitz, Pia was in the ing me a ‘dirty Jew,’ or ‘a dog.’ I could- someone on a motorcycle that was at eration have, generally speaking, city with her mother — “just before n’t understand — I kept saying to my a corner. It was a young man, and he never had to deal with the horrific Pentecost,” as she remembers it. mother, ‘I don’t think they like the yel- put me in the side cart and never reality of Western governments They were shopping for church low star!’” spoke to me the whole time he took slaughtering human beings based on clothes, and Pia’s mother bought her Indeed, immediately after the inva- me from Brussels to Holland. It was race or religion on a mass scale, or a pair of beige leather shoes. The fol- sion of Belgium, the Nazis instituted always at night. had to experience house-to-house warfare that might very well include our own house, or watch invaders gun down neighbors in the streets of our own villages and cities. We are the generation that possesses so much material wealth that we’ve coined the term “First World problems” — per- haps not realizing that a mere 70 years ago, the problems of the “First World” looked much different. In the 1930s and ‘40s, the unimaginable became a horrific reality. I’ve had several opportunities over the last several years to interview Holocaust survivors, and have always found it hard to reconcile the calm, collected demeanor of those I’m speaking with to the brutal realities they are describing, from the horrors of Auschwitz to family members who disappeared without a trace into the maw of the Nazi inferno. Then, recently, I spoke by phone with a love- German forces rolling into Amsterdam. The Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany for five years, from May 1940 until May 1945. ly Vancouver woman, Mariette Rozen, who survived the Holocaust lowing morning, Pia stood outside anti-Jewish policies, including severe “I remember the house with the hidden in the Netherlands. While and watched “the smoke and fire of restrictions of their civil rights and the windmills,” she recalls, “and that is thinking about her story, I struck upon Rotterdam rising in the sky.” The outright confiscation of their proper- how I knew I was in Holland. a way of contextualizing it by contrast- entire city center — including the ties and businesses. “[My brother] dropped me off out- ing her experience with those of my department store she had been at the Across the border in the side of this little town and I had to maternal grandparents, both of similar day before — had been destroyed by Netherlands, the Nazis lost no time in walk and I followed the map. My age and both of whom grew up in the German bombers. instituting similar measures against brother told me…you can’t ask Netherlands through the grueling Mariette Rozen’s memories of the Dutch Jews as well. Many questions, you can’t ask anybody years of the Nazi occupation. As their year 1940 are much different — she, Netherlanders moved quickly to anything. This was always at night, grandson, I can better connect with unlike my grandparents, was Jewish. assist their Jewish countrymen — anyways — very few people were and understand their experiences — She was born on May 10, 1935, in often at great cost. Pia remembers out there. I walked to this farm, and and then, perhaps, Mariette’s, as she Brussels, and the Nazis marched into being sick at home one day and see- the lady knew I was coming. I went lived through the war in the same tiny Belgium four years later in 1939. One ing a group of Dutch prisoners across to bed and the next morning I had to country, but under drastically different of the few memories she has before the street at a truck station, arrested go to the city hall to tell the Mayor a circumstances. she was taken into hiding was: by the Germans for hiding Jews. They message which I can say today was The Nazis swept into the “My mother and my sister Esther were wearing thin clothes and their that there was eighty Jews hiding in Netherlands in May of 1940 — and and my brother Jack and my brother wooden shoes, she recalled, as the this town and he had to tell them to my grandfather Joe den Bok, who Henri were walking down a road — Germans clearly hadn’t given them leave because the Gestapo were passed away last year, remembered turns out we were walking towards enough time to get dressed. When coming. I stayed with this lady [and] the event clearly. The Nazi bombers Paris to escape Brussels. On the road the Nazis spotted little Pia peering out acted like I was deaf and dumb to began to fly over his parents’ house in we met thousands and thousands of the window, they pointed their rifles at the neighbors until I learned to the village of Veen on May 10 — his people who were walking from Paris her to scare her away. She later speak and understand. It [took] seventh birthday. to Brussels — of course, I didn’t know learned that those arrested were mur- three months to learn [the] language “I didn’t have much understanding this ‘til years later. I know the memory dered by the Nazis. and speak it.” of war yet,” he told me. because I looked up and I saw silver n spite of new Nazi policies Mariette was entering a country “I heard that the Germans, they birds, which turned out to be Iagainst Dutch Jews, Mariette’s under siege — the Germans were entered the country…those planes planes…and those planes were div- family decided that sending her to the everywhere. Joe den Bok recalled came very low and they went to ing down the road where all the peo- Netherlands would be safest. Her that by the end of 1943, twenty-five Rotterdam, and Rotterdam was bom- ple were and they were shot at. My mother, unfortunately, had believed Germans were living in the large den barded very heavily. By nine o’ clock, brother pushed my mother, my sister, the Nazi lies that if she registered her Bok farmhouse and barn, taking up the German troops came through the and my two brothers and I into the family with the authorities, they would residence to look after the bridges in town. There were a lot of troops and ditch. And that was my first encounter be safe from arrest and deportation. the town of Veen. “First the Dutch horses, and so we were laying at the with death — people were falling and Her brother Jean, Mariette remem- blew them up so that the Germans side of the road and just observing it blood all over.” bered, was furious, and her family (Continued on page 15) Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 “I KNOW TOMORROW WILL BE MY LAST DAY” (Continued from page 10) teaching of the Holocaust of Soviet found his letter informing on her. 15, express the desire for revenge. which is what they called World War Jewry.” “We searched thoroughly — until we “We don’t like to stress the part II, and that the Jews were murdered hese activities include increas- discovered the fate of each Jew — about revenge since generally we like other Soviet citizens. If there was T ing dramatically the collection of who died, who fled to the eastern want to be perceived as cultured peo- material in the library or the archive materials from archives in Russia, parts of Russia and was able to sur- ple,” says Prais, “but it is impossible about the Holocaust it was in a Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states vive, and who went to fight on the to deny the fact that in their final let- closed, secret section which required and other places; uploading a new front and returned or died there. And ters upon parting from this life, the a special pass from the director of that and comprehensive website in so we were able to connect the Jews expressed anger, humiliation place, who in turn had to get approval Russian which incorporates educa- pieces of the puzzle, which until now and a desire for revenge. Some of the from the KGB. Ninety-nine percent of tional materials, virtual tours and was full of holes. letter writers did not know what await- the Holocaust survivors left in the online exhibitions; launching a ed them, but in the project ‘The USSR did not speak about what hap- YouTube channel in Russian; increas- Untold Stories — the Murder Sites of pened to them. Grandfathers were ing the number of academic publica- the Jews in the Occupied Territories afraid to tell their grandchildren — for tions in Russian; displaying various of the Former Soviet Union,’ we will fear that tomorrow the grandchild travelling exhibitions in Moscow; pub- present parting letters from those who would say something in school and lishing stories of the Righteous perished. They knew that they were then all the family would be in trouble Among the Nations who functioned in going to be murdered and they were and go to prison.” these regions on Yad Vashem’s totally helpless.” n 1990, with the opening of the Russian-language website; creating Each letter represents a mystery Igates, Yonin and her extended educational curricula for teachers and that is not always possible to unravel, family emigrated to Israel. She was for youth movements; and more. like the one from Tomer and Aharon 33 at the time and married. “A miracle Yonin was the first from Yad Guntser from Vinnitsa, Ukraine, to happened to me,” says Yonin, getting Vashem to go to Belarus, and discov- their two sons Yasha and Matya, who emotional. “A friend of mine met with ered the personal questionnaires of were serving in the Red Army. Dr. Krakowsky, director of the more than 12,000 Jews in its “I am writing to you both, my dear archives at Yad Vashem, who was archives. “It turns out that the Nazis The last letter from 15-year-old Eleonora children, perhaps for the last time. searching for a professional archivist. required that each Jew fill out a form Parmut to her brother Yuzik. There are no words that can express My Hebrew was not good then, but in order to renew his passport, includ- “But the picture is far from complete. our passion to continue living but it is within a month after making aliyah, I ing pictures and fingerprints. I opened In the area of the former Soviet clear that this will not be. We would began working.” one file and then another, and there Union, between one and a half and want at least to see you, my dear The connection between the Yad was no end to these surprises. This two million Jews were killed, and we ones,” their mother writes to them. Vashem archive and the government was a period of discoveries. Even the have only 25,000 names and person- “Don’t cry. Don’t be sad. If both of you archive in Moscow was established a archive director had no idea what al stories. We clearly understand that return from the front, don’t abandon year before the opening of the gates treasures were hiding there.” we will never succeed in finding each other. Forgive us if we ever hurt and the establishment of diplomatic The Belarus visit was also a strong everyone, because in the eastern you. Our only sin is that we did not relations between Israel and USSR. personal jolt for her. “My father came parts of the Soviet Union entire fami- walk to where you are, but who could According to Shalev, only after the fall from there,” she explains. “I found lies were murdered without anything have imagined that this is what was of the Iron Curtain did the void something that was connected to his being recorded.” going to happen? become apparent. aunt who was murdered in the ghetto. “Your dear Grandma is with us. She DON’T CRY FOR US “They were eager for knowledge Her Russian husband locked her in sends you kisses and also asks that about the Holocaust. In the last two the house so that she would not be r. Lea Prais, together with her you don’t cry for us. I am leaving ten years, thanks to support from the found, and one of the neighbors, who Dcolleague from the Genesis pictures to remind you of us. That is Genesis Philanthropy Group and the was a policeman, reported to the Philanthropy Group, found more than all that is left.” European Jewish Fund, a quiet revo- authorities that a Jewish woman was 200 letters in the archive. Many of And the father writes to his sons: “I lution has begun in the research and hiding in that house. In the archive I them, like the letter of Eleonora, aged (Continued on page 15) SELFHELP HOME HOUSES WORLD’S LAST GENERATION OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS (Continued from page 6) baby.” Bensinger, the documentary maker, Now in his twilight years, Chaba a wistful smile. “I laughed. I’d married Stern moved to Chicago in 1965 conducted 30 interviews five years thinks more about his days in a camp the man of my dreams.” and joined the staff of Selfhelp, devel- ago. Since then, more than two-thirds at age 10, constantly staring death in She remembers months later, her- oping an instant rapport with the other have died. the face — sometimes unloading self and her mother on a transport, refugees. “The reason I wanted to But on any evening, there are silver- piles of bodies from trucks — but thinking they were heading to a work there was I could never do any- haired, slightly stooped survivors, never contemplating it for himself. Life German labor camp where they’d be thing for my parents because they profiles of sheer will, determination was a day-to-day proposition. reunited with their husbands. Instead, were killed,” she says. “These people and fate, who gather for dinner and He quietly pulls two snapshots from they arrived at Auschwitz. Her mother could have been my parents .... I end another day. his wallet, handsome young men with was dispatched to the gas chambers, loved them and they loved me.” There’s Paula, 102, an artist and thick crowns of wavy hair. One is him, Stern to work. She was ushered into Now a stylish, lively 92-year-old sculptor, who was on the run in the other, his older brother, David, his the camp by a female guard who grandmother, Stern says she always France during the war with her hus- protector in five camps, now dead. pointed to the chimneys, and deliv- knew she’d return. Moving in 14 years band and young son. They were the only survivors among ered a chilling taunt: ago, she says, was “like coming There’s Trudy, 100, who settled in their family of seven. “You see those flames? Those are home.” Her younger sister, Marietta, Kenya with her husband, leaving her “By God’s sake I’m still alive,” he your parents, your husbands, your who spent the war with a foster fami- parents in Germany. She never saw says, his voice quavering. “God children burning.” ly in England as part of them again. helped me. I believe in God.” Stern also remembers the anguish Kindertransport, a rescue mission for when the pregnant young widow, Jewish children, lives across the hall. There’s Hannah, 93, the sole sur- The Selfhelp home has plaques and newly freed, arrived at a Prague hos- Stern says she and other survivors vivor among her family, who’s never art — some created by the residents pital. The staff, seeing a scrawny are forever bound by experiences few forgotten her sister’s parting words: — that recognize the terrible events of woman with a shaved head, thought can comprehend. “Hannah, you were my best friend.” long ago. But there is no single she was a prostitute and the baby’s “We had these terrible mutual mem- And there’s Joe Chaba, 85, and his memorial to the Holocaust that has father a Nazi. Stern says she was ories,” she says. “When I tell you about wife, Helen. Married 55 years, they’re brought them together. treated roughly at first. After three gru- my life, you cannot imagine it. But inseparable, holding hands on the It’s part of the home’s philosophy, eling days of labor, her son, Peter, these people can. For you, my story is rooftop garden, whispering to one says Efrat Stein, an outreach worker. was born. He had blood in his skull. like a novel. For them, it’s real life.” another, sharing meals. Helen, 89, There’s no need for constant He died three days later. Every one of their stories has been has dementia; they have 24-hour reminders of the past, she says: “This “He was,” she says, “a beautiful recorded on DVDs. nursing care. is a place to LIVE.” March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM HOSTS INAUGURAL FLORIDA TRIBUTE DINNER (Continued from page 8) around the world, learning about the Vashem you learn the names and the itself in today. A nation, as it has ers Asael, Zusha and Aaron, waged a horrifying realities of the Holocaust, faces and the stories of those, not just already been mentioned here by the war of survival and rescue for close to something that happened within the who lost their lives, but entire families Consul General, that was born of the three years in the forests of what is lifetime of those, many of those, who that were destroyed and histories that Holocaust, born of the memory of it to today the country of Belarus. In 2012 still live among us here today. And were rewritten and people’s lives. And ensure that there would always be a on Yom Hashoah, at Yad Vashem, the yet, no matter how much you read people that were never able to recap- place on this earth where the Jewish Knesset, the President, the Prime about it, no matter how many docu- ture the promise of their youth.” people could find a home and refuge. Minister and the entire country lis- mentaries you watch, the reality of it is The Senator continued by mirroring And yet today, Israel is surrounded by tened to the ceremonies in truly indescribable. And perhaps the the warning CG Shacham gave the uncertainty and danger unlike at any Jerusalem. Five minutes into the cer- only place on earth that allows you to audience earlier in the program: time in its modern history.” emony Tuvia Bielski was quoted from come face to face with it, in an unde- “The lessons of the past inform us Senator Rubio closed by saying: his 1946 book Jews of the he lesson of Yad Vashem that Forest. Tuvia describes an argu- “T one takes away as a visitor to ment among the very first it for the first time is how unbelievable arrivals when he orders the res- it is that something like that truly could cue of all Jews. ‘There won’t be have happened. How difficult it is to enough food.’ ‘They will find us.’ fathom that human beings can do that ‘They will kill us.’ Tuvia declares, to other human beings … That that ‘Let thousands come.’ level of inhumanity and atrocity could “Towards the end of the war, be systemized, that it can be carried Tuvia and his brothers emerged out at this level of government over from the forest, having saved an extended period of time. That peo- over twelve hundred Jewish ple could be relegated to simply num- lives. There are over twelve bers and statistics …. And while the hundred stories of triumph to be world, I believe, is a better place told. To the partisans and their today and has institutions put in place descendants, I send my love to prevent something like this from and respect. Those twelve hun- happening, it requires us to remain dred Jewish lives leave a legacy vigilant. To ensure that this not only that numbers in the tens of thou- never happens again to the Jewish sands.” people, but that it never happens to inally, Leah Bedzowski any people ever again. FJohnson, one of the oldest “The time will come when none of surviving Bielski partisans, left Bielski partisans joining together on stage to sing the Partisan Hymn. us will be here. For, no matter how the audience with this message: “Let niable way, a way that truly shakes for the future. Because, while the long we live, all of our times are limit- us never forget the struggles of our people to the core, is Yad Vashem. threats are different and the world ed. But Yad Vashem will be there to past. Stand up for what is right! It is And I had the opportunity to go there looks different, the threats are still remind future generations of what with remembrance and support of in November of 2010 upon my elec- real. There is still hatred in the world; once did happen and what must Israel that we continue to build a tion. there is still evil in the world, and there never be allowed to happen again.” strong community. You are the “I must say that before going there, are still hateful, evil people who are in The American Society for Yad future.” I had thought that I knew everything charge of some governments in the Vashem is grateful to the many organ- Senator Marco Rubio concluded the there was to know about this horrify- world. Some of whom openly seek the izations who assisted in this inaugural program with very moving remarks ing period in world history. I had read extermination of entire nations. One effort: The B’nai Torah Congregation, about his visit to Yad Vashem as the about it extensively, I knew people was mentioned here this evening. the Boca Raton Synagogue, the New first act he took after being elected to that had survived it, I knew families And this comes at a moment where in Synagogue of Palm Beach, the the US Senate, and about the impor- that had been impacted by it, and yet reality, though I don’t intend to give a Weinbaum Yeshiva High School, Next tance of Yad Vashem: never in my life have I been impacted political speech, I believe that never in Generations and the Florida Atlantic “We’ve all grown up, certainly here by an experience as much as I was our history has the nation, has Israel, University Center on the Holocaust in the United States and I hope upon that visit. Because in Yad been in more dire straits than it finds and Human Rights. DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (Continued from page 2) Musy, senior) that there are still Himmler’s betrayal enraged Hitler secret negotiations with the enemy, a few hours later. enough left in the camps. With that you and resulted in Himmler’s dismissal which they conducted without my I believe it was on the same day, too can be satisfied.” I think this was from all posts in April knowledge and against after a meeting of office chiefs, that I on April 10, 1945. 1945, and an order by my wishes, and by illegal- informed Kaltenbrunner of the situation WHEN THE COMMANDERS FLED Hitler for Himmler’s ly attempting to seize and expressed my profound concern arrest. In his last will power in the State for umming up these final days, at this new breach of international and testament, Hitler themselves.” Hecht spoke of Himmler in a assurances. As I paused in the conver- S accused Himmler of Unsuccessful in an January 1982 interview with sation, the chief of the state police, betrayal and treach- attempt to hide after flee- Professor Penkover: Gruppenfuehrer Muller, interrupted Hecht: He made a demand that all ery. ing in disguise from Berlin and explained that he had started the these leaders, these camp-beasts, Hitler wrote: to Flensburg, Himmler evacuation of the more important should not be treated as war crimi- “Before my death, I continued 120 miles internees from the individual camps nals, but as prisoners of war. This, in expel the former south toward the Elbe three days ago on Kaltenbrunner’s my opinion, was the biggest Reichsführer-SS and River, and, on May 21, orders. Kaltenbrunner replied with achievement of Musy’s action. Minister of the 1945, was arrested at a these words: “Yes, that is correct. It Because this was the reason that, Interior, Heinrich checkpoint on a bridge at was an order of the Fuehrer which was from a lot of these camps, the camp Himmler, from the Bremervorde. also recently confirmed by the Fuehrer commanders fled in the night, and party and from all Walter Schellenberg. On May 23, 1945, in in person. All the important internees the next morning the people saw offices of State… British custody at the 31st Civilian are to be evacuated at his order to the that the camps were open, and “Göring and Himmler, quite apart Interrogation Camp near Luneburg, south of the Reich.” He then turned to through this Musy-Himmler agree- from their disloyalty to my person, southeast of Hamburg, Heinrich me mockingly and, speaking in dialect, ment the rest of the Jews, a few have done immeasurable harm to the Himmler bit into a cyanide pill and said: “Tell your old gentleman (i.e., hundred thousand, were saved…. country and the whole nation by committed suicide. Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 REMEMBER HOW DANES DONNED YELLOW STARS TO PROTECT THE JEWS? THAT NEVER HAPPENED (Continued from page 3) changed his mind and ordered the former Danish Prime Minister Anders inevitable victory.” His conclusion quent warning issued by Rabbi bombardment of Århus and Fogh Rasmussen recently said that was simple: Each country should Marcus Melchior on the morning of Copenhagen, Denmark’s two main Denmark’s cooperation with Nazi think that it remained an Erev Rosh Hashanah, the vast major- cities, with leaflets claiming the Nazis occupiers during WWII was “morally ity of Denmark’s Jews escaped the were defending Danish neutrality unjustifiable” and that “if everyone in Nazis and the terrible fate of the against the threat of British aggres- Europe, if the Americans and the camps. It was an operation that sion. The leaflets included a warning, Russians, had thought the same as required coordination between the or a threat, that if Denmark resisted, the Danish lawmakers, then Hitler Danish resistance and ordinary the next time the harmless pamphlets would have won the war.” Danes who hid Jews in their homes, would be replaced with explosives. But while researching this emerging churches, and hospitals. Fishermen The Danish government capitulated; controversy of conflicting narratives risked their lives to ferry strangers the battle for Denmark lasted just a lit- for a play I was writing, I delved into across the Øresund, the narrow tle over two hours. my own family’s story and discovered waterway between Denmark and So began the Danish policy of nego- something startling: Before my grand- Sweden, in an estimated 900 boat tiation with Germany. The policy father’s brother-in-law Nathan died, trips. Of the nearly 8,000 Jews living allowed Denmark to maintain its own he revealed the identity of the high- in Denmark in 1943, only 472 were autonomy: its own parliament, royal ranking Nazi officer who warned them captured, and incredibly, only 53 per- family, judiciary, police force, fire to leave Denmark to one of my ished — that’s just 5.9 percent of the brigade and, amazingly, a standing cousins, Margit. The problem was population captured and 0.66 percent army of 3,000 troops. It’s this policy of that it didn’t make any sense: the Nazi killed. Given that 90 percent of negotiation that has been credited Nathan claimed had come into the tai- Poland’s Jews were killed and that with saving Danish lives, but recent lor’s shop all those years ago to deliv- Holland, a country as liberal as revelations have uncovered a darker er a warning to Copenhagen’s Jews Denmark and an equally proud truth: Denmark supplied Germany was Werner Best, the plenipotentiary Werner Best, 1942. resister of the Nazis, lost 75 percent with up to 15 percent of its agricultur- overseeing the Danish occupation — of its Jews, these figures are truly al needs, earning the country the a man better known as “The Butcher autonomous state under the aus- remarkable. nickname “Germany’s Pantry,” while of Paris.” pices of a Nazi umbrella. When est was a lifelong mem- asked where this theory of the “ideal Bber of the Nazi Party — satellite state” could be tested, Best as a teenager, he founded a immediately suggested Denmark. chapter of the National Youth t the end of 1942, Best arrived League — and a protégé of A in Copenhagen and soon went Heinrich Himmler. As second about trying to prove this theory. But in command of the SS, he was with the upswing of sabotage also a close member of attacks in 1943 he was instructed by Hitler’s inner circle. Why Berlin to deliver a statement to the would such a man have Danish resistance by making shown compassion toward Denmark Judenrein. With limited Denmark’s Jews? German troops at his disposal, and Margit, who worked in the fearing — probably rightly — a civil family tailor shop many years uprising if he deported 8,000 Danes later, knew the only way to to certain death he went about ful- verify Nathan’s story was to filling Hitler’s order to the letter, find Werner Best’s measure- although not in the spirit the Führer ment card. She went to the likely intended. bureau that housed all their Best sent his naval attaché, Georg customer records and pulled Duckwitz, to Sweden to arrange safe out a dusty shoebox labelled passage and accommodation for The author holds a photo of his grandfather. “1940-43.” Inside, amid hun- Denmark’s Jews. (Duckwitz would What I was always told was that the small-arms factories on Danish soil dreds of cards that had been hidden later become West Germany’s Danes’ superior sense of morality, produced munitions for the German away for decades, was the one that ambassador to Denmark in the and the energy of their resistance war effort, and Danish construction sent a chill down her spine: it was 1950s and be awarded the honor of movement, had caused the hardest of companies built German roads and labeled “Dr. Karl Rudolph Werner Righteous Among the Nations for his hardline Nazis to soften: that was the bunkers. Best.” part in the Danish Jewish rescue.) “miracle.” Denmark was commonly These revelations have shocked the But that left an unanswered ques- And then Best himself walked into a referred to as the “Cream Puff Front” Danish public, whose contemporary tion: Why would the Nazi plenipoten- Jewish tailor’s shop in Copenhagen by German soldiers, and maybe the national identity is built, at least in tiary of Denmark, a lifelong Fascist, and warned my grandfather and his easy lifestyle the Nazi occupiers part, on grandiose stories of resist- order the round-up of the Jews one brother-in-law to leave — effectively found in their northern neighbor ance to the occupation and an unim- day and then undermine his own saving their lives and by extension somehow rubbed off on them. peachable moral character. (Indeed, it operation the next? The answer, I many more. But 70 years after the event, a new has recently emerged that many fish- believe, lies in the most human of all Ultimately, Denmark was tem- crop of Danish historians has discov- ermen who ferried Jews to Sweden impulses: ambition. porarily emptied of Jews. But Best ered something even more miracu- took payment for these trips, and in Werner Best was nothing if not undermined his own operation not lous — that the mastermind behind some cases charged incredibly steep ambitious. As a Himmler favorite, he out of an altruistic desire to save the “Miracle Rescue” was, in fact, the prices; no Jew was left behind not was being groomed for the very top human life, but out of a pragmatic Nazi whose job it was to eliminate because they weren’t charged, but of the SS, but an internal power need to maintain a stable status quo Denmark’s Jews. thanks to a fund set up by the Danish struggle in 1939 resulted in his in occupied Denmark and prove his resistance to cover the costs of pas- ouster by Reinhard Heydrich. theory of preserving the Reich’s *** sage.) As a result, Danes no longer Instead, Best was posted to France, influence. His success depended on n April 9, 1940, the Germans talk about the resistance throwing off where he took out his aggression on the willingness of the Danish people Oinvaded Denmark. Hitler initial- the yoke of Nazi oppression, but the French, earning his nickname to save their Jewish neighbors — to ly had no intention of occupying rather acknowledge the fact that we and a reputation for ruthlessness. refuse to see them as anything but Denmark at all and merely wanted cooperated with the Germans. Some Berlin took notice and asked him to fellow Danes. Maybe that, in the access to its air bases as a staging historians are even saying, in hushed write a paper on how to maintain the end, is the true miracle of the Danish point for invading Norway — but tones, that we “collaborated.” Indeed, Thousand-Year Reich after “their rescue. March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 THREE CHILDREN UNDER THE SWASTIKA “I KNOW TOMORROW (Continued from page 11) — he screamed ‘Murder!’ so loud you “They came and said that anyone WILL BE MY LAST DAY” couldn’t use them,” he explained, could hear it miles away.” that wanted to leave the country was (Continued from page 12) “and in the meantime some of the Mariette Rozen’s memories of the to go to the city hall and fill out this am leaving you this letter, perhaps my bridges were rebuilt again, because war years in Holland are also disjoint- form. I went because I didn’t trust last. Tomorrow we are going to the sta- the Germans did that. And as ’43 ed and traumatic. “Seeing people anybody, and acted like I was some- dium; if they will leave us there, then I went on, we basically had Germans in picked up,” she said in another inter- body else picking up papers for will write again. In meantime I will say our house…yeah, until the end of the view, “I remember a man with no nails another child and that my mother was goodbye to you. Be happy and healthy. war.” or toenails. I found out later on that sick at the time.” Behave well and remember us and In Nieuw Beyerland, the Dam family his nails were pulled out and he was Two years later, in 1947, at the age what we are going through. Continue to was also forced to host Germans. Pia tortured. Hunger. I don’t think I want of eleven, Marie Doduck left for grow and be good. Look out for and remembers two German soldiers to go into any more details than that.” Canada along with three of her sib- protect each other. If you are still alive, moving into their house. “Everything he war ended in May of 1945, lings, reunited by the Jewish it is a sign that you will continue to live. was nice and clean, the house had T with the Netherlands being lib- Congress. She had lost her mother Yours, Father, Aharon Guntser, with been whitewashed and painted,” she erated by Canadian forces. The and several of her siblings to the love and kisses.” said, “but the very first day, the two Netherlands was plunged into cele- Holocaust, the horrors of which the The day after writing the letters, the Germans went next door, stole the bration and an explosion of revenge. world was only just beginning to Guntsers were taken to the stadium in neighbor’s chickens, and slaughtered “I’ll never forget that morning when grasp. Vinnitsa and from there by trucks to the them in an upstairs room.” Pia’s moth- the neighbor came and said that the Fifteen years later, in 1960, Joe den killing pits where they were murdered. er, of course, was as furious as she war was over,” Joe den Bok recalled. Bok met Pia Dam and married her, “After much hard searching we dis- was helpless. “And even on that particular morn- and they too headed to Canada. They covered that one son died in a battle ot all Netherlanders, however, ing there was a German who was still settled down and raised a family in and did not get the parting letter from Nwere satisfied with being help- trying to shoot and kill some peo- Chilliwack, British Columbia, a mere his parents, but the other brother sur- less. Joe den Bok’s uncle, he ple…and as soon as the war was hour away from where Mariette now vived and did get the letter,” recalls recalled, was the head of a resistance over [the Dutch] got out the truck and lives. Prais. “We tried to find him, but it turned cell in that part of the country. “They loaded up all the NSBers [the NSB Mariette now focuses on bringing out that his wife is not Jewish and she tried to sabotage the Germans,” he being the Dutch Nazi organization].” her story to people like myself. While didn’t want to hear anything about Yad told me. “When [the Germans] were “On a Friday night,” Pia Dam my family, too, experienced Nazi per- Vashem, Israel or the Holocaust.” picking up people in town again, he remembered, “a neighbor tapped on secution, their experience pales in The information about the family of would try to reach our house and hide the window saying ‘We’re free! We’re comparison to the horrors that she Eleonora is also short on details, but in the haystack by us, so he did make free!’ Then the family knelt down and and Jews from Belgium, the Prais focuses on the photo of her in it to the end of the war.” prayed.” Netherlands and across Europe were which she is holding a book. However, not all resistance activities For the den Bok and Dam families, subjected to. The message she “Three years ago I was in Paris at ended well. Pia recalls that the Dutch the end of the war meant the long brings, however, is one of hope. an exhibition arranged by the munici- resistance in her area ambushed and process of struggling to support their “To us, we believe there is only one pality displaying photographs of killed the Nazi-appointed Dutch families in a country shattered by the God,” she told me from her home in Jewish children sent to the camps, mayor of her city. In retaliation, the four long years of Nazi occupation. Vancouver, “and we believe that one particularly to Auschwitz, and all of Germans “picked out the first ten For little Mariette Rozen, the Jewish person can save the world. One per- them were memorialized while they Dutchmen on bikes, lined them up on girl from Brussels, the future looked son can save the world. Change it. are reading. I also have a picture like the side of the road, and gunned them quite different. “We were all picked up That is what I am saying to you.” that, from first grade, holding a book down. One boy, about seventeen to and put in different age categories of And perhaps, if enough people hear in my hand. To me, that is a typical nineteen years old, was one of them orphanages and held there,” she said. her, we can. Jewish pose.” BOOK TRIES FOR BALANCED VIEW ON ROOSEVELT AND JEWS (Continued from page 4) documentary America and the of the Wyman Institute, which is dedi- son to some things that are out there.” 5,000 refugees to that country, who Holocaust. cated to furthering the research of Mr. In the end, however, their verdict is may have been admitted under the Many people, the authors say, Wyman, a former professor at the favorable, crediting Roosevelt’s poli- terms of a previously unknown deal believe that Roosevelt refused to University of Massachusetts Amherst cies with helping to save hundreds of between Roosevelt and the Cuban bomb the camp (an option, historians who is not directly involved in its day- thousands of Jews, as well as pre- leader Fulgencio Batista, who got note, that became feasible only in to-day activities. In A Breach of Faith venting a German conquest of Egypt reduced tariffs for his nation’s sugar in May 1944, after 90 percent of Jewish Mr. Medoff argues that Jewish immi- that would have doomed any future return. victims of the Holocaust were already gration levels in the 1930s were large- Jewish state. he book notes that the St. Louis dead). But the book contends that ly below established quotas because “Without F.D.R.’s policies and leader- T affair unfolded against a back- there is no evidence that any such of Roosevelt’s animus, not as a result ship,” they write, “there may well have drop of intense isolationist and anti- proposal came to him, though a num- of anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic been no Jewish communities left in immigrant sentiment in the United ber of Jewish leaders did meet with sentiment in Congress and the State Palestine, no Jewish state, no Israel.” States while Roosevelt was preparing lower-level officials to plead for bomb- Department. Mr. Lichtman pointed out that con- to press Congress to allow the sale of ing. And while the authors call the oosevelt’s vision for America temporary disagreements about Israel weapons to nations victimized by objections raised by those officials Rwas “based on the idea of hav- loom behind the Roosevelt debate German aggression. “specious,” they maintain (echoing ing only a small number of Jews,” Mr. today. Last year, the book notes, Prime “Imagine if Roosevelt had let in 937 others) that bombing would not have Medoff said in an interview. Mr. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel passengers but had limited success significantly impeded the killing. Breitman and Mr. Lichtman’s book, he cited America’s refusal to bomb easing the Neutrality Act,” Mr. “You’ve got two symbols” — the St. added, is just an effort “to rescue Auschwitz as providing potential justifi- Lichtman said. “He would be far more Louis and the absence of Auschwitz Roosevelt’s image from the over- cation for a preemptive strike against negatively judged by history than he bombing — “taken as the bookends of whelming evidence that he did not Iran’s nuclear facilities. is now.” American indifference and worse,” want to rescue the Jews.” Henry L. Feingold, the author of The The authors offer a similar calculus Mr. Breitman said. “But both symbols Mr. Breitman and Mr. Lichtman Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt for one of the most contentious issues are off.” scoffed at that charge, noting that Administration and the Holocaust, they discuss: the Allied refusal to By contrast, the book points to the their book is certainly not always flat- 1938-1945, bemoaned the rise of bomb Auschwitz. The idea that the War Refugee Board, established by tering to Roosevelt. They depict him “accusatory” history that elevates ret- Allies could and should have bombed Roosevelt in 1944, which they say as missing many opportunities to aid rospective “what ifs” over historical the crematories or the rail lines lead- may have helped save about 200,000 Jews and generally refusing to speak context. Roosevelt, he said, had one ing to them came to wide public atten- Jews — a number that, if even 50 per- specifically in public about Hitler’s overriding concern: to win the war. tion with a 1978 article in cent accurate, they write, “compares Jewish victims, lest he be accused of “The survivors said, ‘You didn’t do Commentary by Mr. Wyman, who well” with the number that might have fighting a “Jewish war.” enough to save us,’ and who could reprised it in a best-selling book, The been saved by bombing Auschwitz. “This is not an effort to write a pro- deny it?” Mr. Feingold said. “But do Abandonment of the Jews, which Such claims are not convincing to Roosevelt book,” Mr. Breitman said. you write history as it should have became the basis for the 1994 PBS Rafael Medoff, the founding director “It’s merely pro-Roosevelt in compari- been or as it was?” American & International Societies for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE U.S. POST 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 PERMIT NO. 9313

Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org Society ** ** Editor Leonard Wilf, Leonard Wilf, Editor-in-Chief (212) 220-4304 for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for New York, NY 10110 NY York, New EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL *Published Bimonthly by the American by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates, and Nazi Victims **deceased Eli Zborowski** Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski** Mandell William Sam Halpern** Isidore Karten Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet March/April 2014 - Adar/Nissan 5774 Adar/Nissan 2014 - March/April MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 16 Page