Issue No.38 2015 INDEX
SECTION I Page 34-35 WINDERMERE 1945 Page 53-54 GRYN-ING ALL Page 4 CHAIRMAN’S ‘THE BOYS’ THE WAY MESSAGE Mala Tribich and Suzanne Baum David Zuck Page 5 THE PRIME MINISTER Page 54-56 ’45 AID SOCIETY AND Page 35 A TRIBUTE TO MY SECOND GENERATION Page 6 SECTION II UNCLE MEYER SUBMISSION PAST AND PRESENT BRZEZINSKI Maurice Helfgott Page 6 CHANGING OF THE Sam Freiman GUARD Page 56-57 CRAIG RINDER Robert Sherman Page 35-36 KOPEL KENDALL’S STORY Page 57 SECTION IV Page 7-8 SHOA PRESENTATION Vivienne Kendall ANNUAL MEMORIAL Judith Sherman MONTEFORE LECTURE Page 37 RESEARCHING William Tyler Page 8-12 RACHEL LEVY INDIVIDUAL FATES RETURNS TO HER AT THE WEINER Page 57-59 1943: THE TIDE TURNS VILLAGE OF BHUTZ LIBRARY Dr Christine Schmidt Page 59-61 1944: HOPE AMIDST Page 12-14 THREE MIRACLES THE GLOOM THAT HAPPENED TO Page 38 COLETTE LITTMAN PINHAS DURING Judith Sherman Page 61-62 1945: 70 YEARS ON THE WAR Page 38-39 REMEMBERING Page 63-64 SECTION V Page 14-19 LIBERTY FRATERNITY BRITISH HEROES OF CLAIMS CONFERENCE Erica Wagner THE HOLOCAUST Eric Pickles Page 64 SECTION VI Page 19-22 BERKOVICH DIARY OBITUARIES C.B.E D. Univ Page 40 POEMS Page 64-66 STANLEY FAUL Michael Etkind Page 22-24 THERE IS NO Page 67 MANNA FRIEDMAN WINSTON CHURCHILL Page 41 SECTION III Zdenka Husserl Aubrey Rose SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION Page 67-68 MANNA FRIEDMAN Page 25-26 MEMORIES Page 41-45 DR BONNIE CHANDLER Judith Sherman Aubrey Rose Page 45 ABE WERTMAN Page 68-69 ALFRED HUBERMAN Page 26-28 MONIEK JOSEPH Debbie Pottins GOLDBERG Page 69-71 BOB OBUCHOWSKI Fay Goldberg Page 46 SHLOMO RAZ Sue Bermange
Page 28-29 REMEMBER Page 47 SHELLEY SIMONS Page 71-72 YISROEL RUDZINSKI Maureen Hecht Written by a grandchild Page 48-50 WALKING THE SAME Page 29-32 AT THE FIFTH PATH, MY VISIT TO Page 72-74 MICHAEL BANDEL – SESSION OF THE POLAND EULOGY WORLD COUNCIL FOR Chloe Kaye Martin Bandel YIDDISH AND JEWISH CULTURE IN LONDON Page 50 MY JOURNEY WITH Page 74-75 MAYER CORNELL Avroham Kwaterko HOLOCAUST ECHOES Marilyn Cornell Ilana Gelb Page 32-33 AUSCHWITZ 70TH Page 76 SECTION VII ANNIVERSARY: Page 51-53 70TH ANNIVERSARY NEWS FROM ONE SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ MANCHESTER GOES BACK TO CAMP LIBERATION Darren Richman Simmy Richman Page 77-79 SECTION VIII THE QUILT
2 ’45 AID SOCIETY
CHAIRMAN BEN HELFGOTT
VICE CHAIRMAN ANGELA COHEN
TREASURER ALAN GREENBERG
SECRETARY KIM STERN
COMMITTEE MEMBERS V GREENBERG, S IRVING, H OLMER, H SPIRO, D PETERSON
SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS Philip Burton, Julia Burton, Ros Gelbart, Maurice Helfgott, Michael Helfgott, Gary Spiro, Sue Bermange, Jamie Beale, Jonathan Kingsley, Amy Stern
SECRETARY (MANCHESTER) MRS LOUISE ELLIOT
JOURNAL OF THE ’45 AID SOCIETY EDITOR BEN HELFGOTT
All submissions for publication in the next issue (including letters to the Editor and Members’ News Items) should be sent to:
KIM STERN, 10 YORK HOUSE, ROYAL CONNAUGHT PARK, BUSHEY, HERTS WD23 2RF Email: [email protected]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ARZA HELFGOTT for her kind assistance. PEGGY LUCAS for the typing of the Journal. ANGELA COHEN (daughter of Lottie and Moishe Malenicky) for facilitating the printing of the Journal.
Design by DOUGLAS & LEE
3 SECTION I CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
Ben Helfgott
his year marks the 70th anniversary of our liberation and the start of the Tarrival of our members in Britain. You will notice that this year’s journal has an increased number of contributions from the 2nd and 3rd Generation The commitment and participation of the 2nd and 3rd Generation to the work and goals of our Society are indeed very gratifying. In this connection, I want to mention the Memorial Quilt Project. The project is the brainchild of Julia Burton daughter of Olive and the late David Herman. The project has resulted in the formation of many new friendships between the 2nd and 3rd Generation members and the working together of survivors and the next generations. The quilt is a memorial to our loved ones and plans are afoot for it to go on display in museums and exhibitions and I have no doubt it will serve as an invaluable learning tool. Our thanks go to Julia and her team for the many hours they put in to bring the idea to fruition. . (See cover). We are proud too of the stance the 2nd and 3rd Generation took towards the UK Holocaust Commission 2014. They were proactive in debating among themselves and submitting their thoughts to the Prime Minister’s Commission for consideration. As yet another example of the active involvement of the next generations, I quote from an article by Kalia Pissarro-Stern. Kalia is the granddaughter of Meir and Marion Stern. In 2012 Meir took his children and grandchildren to his hometown of Munkacs and on her return Kalia shared this thought with us in an article she sent in to the Journal “Having the good fortune to have grandparents who can share their stories, it feels that the least I can do to honour and carry out our piece of history, will be to provide my own children in turn with a solid understanding of where they came from, and why we are all so lucky to be here at all...” It is indeed very encouraging that our children and grandchildren - the 2nd and 3rd Generation are active as a cohesive unit and we take pride in their involvement with the ‘45 Aid Society and its legacy.
4 5 SECTION II PAST AND PRESENT The changing of the guard Robert Sherman e commemorate the uncertain. But the mission is W70th Anniversary of Robert is married to Judith in good hands. The Holocaust the liberation of the concen- (nee Stern)who lived with her will be remembered and its tration camps and the younger sister Miriam in message of destruction will end of World War II and the West Courtney. She studied be used to build tolerance, founding of the 45 Aid Social Science at the L.S.E. respect, and peace in place of Society. That is seventy years Both of them, with their the destruction wrought by of growth and strong actions daughter and grandchildren, the Holocaust. Our great taken; 70 years of successful are regular contributors to grandchildren and their actions on behalf of remem- our Journal. descendants will know a brance and fighting against better world. This can only be hatred; 70 years of increasing accomplished by connecting efforts to build tolerance Passing the responsibility to others in general and our and peace among the broad to the next generations is a own future generations in diversity of mankind ~ a complicated process. The particular. seemingly impossible, but next generation did not per- We train our children in sonally witness or experience absolutely necessary mission. tolerance and respect, to the Holocaust. Bearing Your mission. Not alone, but move up and out. Therefore, second hand witness is not in concert with as many allies many are leaving Judaism to the same as experiencing it. as can be gathered. Indeed, a join other secularists or other They have to find the words reaching out to the world. faith traditions or enter into and the images and set the The 2nd and 3rd genera- intermarriages. We have tion of survivors have been terms of the argument to their contemporaries so the strong motivation to connect enlisted in this mission of strongly and Judaically to remembrance and peace. And message can be conveyed and our own future generations they are assuming greater received and acted upon to and show them the beauty and greater responsibilities. create a better world. They and power of being Jewish. We are fortunate that the must also generate the We must teach that our succeeding generations are powerful motivation and stepping forward. Almost all energy to urge them forward. destiny is to be a light onto the officers of the Society Fortunately, there are still the other nations of the are now 2nd generation some survivors remaining world, to embrace God and members. We are in good who inspire and help. co-create a better world for hands. All honour to them. The emphasis remains to all. We do this not just to May the 2nd and 3rd genera- remember in order to engender fear as through the tions yield “geborim”, heroes, create a better world. Holocaust, but by providing a like Ben Helfgott and his Holocaust deniers will positive image for the world. companions who put forth have a new weapon. Today’s Look what the survivor’s tremendous efforts to pursue newspaper carries a story of achieved! Look what Jews the mission. how the mind can distort or have achieved over genera- Our marvellous leaders even create memories that tions! But we must do it both pass one by one to their never existed in fact with the together and individually. eternal home. They do so person’s firm conviction that Hillel got it right: “If am not normally and naturally, not they are real. The deniers for me, who will be for me? If as the Nazis would have will claim that the eye I am only for me, who am I? If wished. We can mark witnesses either distorted or not now, then when?” their graves, honour their engaged in the mass produc- We thank our future achievements and celebrate tion of faulty memories that generations for accepting their lives. May those who never existed in fact. the responsibilities and are still with us live long and Never mind the multitude of leadership of the Society and fulfilling lives and continue documents and films that its mission. to make each day count as portray the truth. they always have. As always the future is 19.02.2015
6 Shoa presentation, Ricklis Memorial Committee - April 2013 Judith Sherman hat we know today: We and concreteness. An un- Wknow our today is of Judith (nee Stern) lived with Auschwitz funeral. yesterday and of today. We her younger sister Miriam in God, we say, our memories are Holocaust Survivors. Weir Courtney. She studied will forever embody We know, in the morning, Social Science at the L.S.E. Auschwitz and yours should at breakfast we know, that and later emigrated to the too. And we say also, God, let daily bread daily had is as USA where she lives with her us, our children, our good as it gets. husband Reuben in New children’s children be your We know every day words Jersey. Both of them are witness through awe, appre- in their terror and normalcy: regular contributors to our ciation and joy. The challenge hair, shower, gas, trains, Journal. of our experience and the selections - we remember essence of our faith. the terror and cherish the Today we know that during normalcy. and human connections. the Holocaust no one could We know that our wrinkles Israel for safety. For Joy. have survived without the and grey hair are a badge of World, yes to Israel! Yes to help of someone - in or out of life - age allowed to happen. Israel! the camp. And today we know Age allowed to happen. We relish options. We own that in normal times too Children. We give the sturdy shoes and say; feet connections with others are names to our children of you now have options to roam essential. The Ricklis murdered loved ones but in all directions. We relish Memorial Committee has want the legacy to be of options. Words like yes, since its inception in 1984 people who lived and danced words like no. We remember celebrated our existence and and prayed and baked bread - that choiceless universe. added a valued dimension to people of life. People of life... We know the value of a tooth- our existence… witnessing. of life brush, a book, photograph, Ricklis members stand by Families. We are prayer book, aspirin, songs. survivor members and mothers mothering. Fathers Friendships. Community. together we reach out to give protecting. Children who Today when I pass a forest, meaning to “never again”. outgrow their shoes. the inevitable question is Our Tikun Olam muscles are Grandparents holding still. Is this forest dark strengthened by each other. children’s hands. And we enough, deep enough to hide By Each Other. want our Jewishness to be so me? Today in this good life I Yes, we are witnesses. We light, so safe, so kol b’seder. have metamorphosised into speak out loud. With tears Today, no matter how visibility. Today I have no or dryness, confidence or Italian the restaurant, I do fear lest a human should shyness, we speak. We say - not order pasta I order appear. In Camp gallows are where you are make goodness potatoes. In Ravensbruck a the only trees. Today we say happen. We say - you must potato is a promise fulfilled. lucky trees we do not have to be more than law abiding - Another day’s future assured. eat your leaves. you must stretch your Today when I visit my grand- Today - Cemeteries. responsibility. We say: this children in Westchester I Ground. A tombstone. time let us be on time - not bring them home-fried Rituals. Sadness, but a echoes of past silences nobly potatoes. Not cake, not marker of civilization. A moaning ignorance. This treats. Potatoes. The marker of existence. Today: time, with bread in hand, on ultimate gift. my husband and I have 12 time. On time. On time. America, to you we give cemetery plots reserved just To teachers we say “Math, thanks for our good life here. for the two of us. Twelve plots science and literacy compute Israel - Israel is in our DNA. for the two of us. On a hill into monstrosity if not Israel for historical, spiritual under a poplar tree. Ground anchored in morality. To the
7 world we say “Your brother’s We are not heroes. We are note the stars not branding keeper be but do not make a not more heroic than our our chest. list of who the brother is. No murdered parents, sisters, Our today is of yesterday list. No list. No list. “ brothers, friends, We are not and today. We have the We know now that we are better, only more fortunate. connections and we have the owned by a past we cannot Yes, we live on two tracks. In determination and muscles to abandon. It is in our pores - our daily lives - in our yearly - live - here - today. Two track in our soles. In memories of events - into our old age - living is work, hard work but day - in dreams of night. We there is nothing that does not worthy work. We do it. We know that we can choose a connect us to the past. choose to do it. life of despair rooted in our Nothing is not a trigger. We Holocaust past but we choose note the star is in heaven, - and let us say Amen renewal of life. We chose life. and on the flag of Israel, we Rachel Levy returns to her village of Bhutz, Ukraine - May 2013
t began in March 2004 elsewhere but the purpose of hearsay, that Bhutz would be Iwhen I spent the evening this synopsis provides a little roughly located within this at home in the company of background. 9km triangle and was no my good friend, Rabbi Mark The most poignant aspect longer Czech but in Ukraine. Daniels. We talked about my of their story, and that which To further complicate mother, Rachel Levy, born relates to our journey, was matters it had been Ruzena Slomovic, and how that Uncle Chaskel had Hungarian, Romanian and during the spring of 1944 at returned to Bhutz after the the locals considered them- the age of 14 she, along with war. He had been shocked selves to be sub-Carpathian her mother, her elder brother and fainted when he saw his Ruthenian. This meant Chaskel and three younger family home taken over by villages and towns had siblings, were forced by the others who had adorned the names in up to five different Nazis to leave their home in once orthodox Jewish home languages. the tiny Czech village of with Christian icons. After By 3:00am the following Bhutz deep in the finding my mother he refused morning we had found Carpathian Mountains. They to take her back to Bhutz to multiple scanned pages of an were first sent to a ghetto spare her the same shock - old 1925 map which we near the Romanian border at their home was no longer were able to print and stick Solotnva and, after about one theirs. Later it was rumoured together. For the first time month, they were forced on to that the village had flooded we had a useful map of the trains and transported to the and no longer existed. border areas of Ukraine, death camp at Auschwitz. Rabbi Daniels and I tried Romania and the Carpathian This was the last time my to find the village of Bhutz Mountains and the triangle mother saw my grandmother, using the very few clues I of the three Apshas was Shlima, and the younger sib- had. From my mother’s clearly shown as it had been lings as they were sent on verbal accounts it was within during my mother’s time. arrival directly to the gas walking distance of the small There was no place called chambers. My Uncle Chaskel town known in Yiddish as Bhutz but we knew it was was separated from my Unter (Lower) Apsha. There somewhere nestled in those mother and they were not was also a Mittel (Middle) mountains! This was a very reunited until after liberation and Ober (Higher) Apsha not exciting outcome. when miraculously he too far away and with the Fast forward eight years tracked her down on a farm limited internet resources during which time much near Bratislava. These available to us in 2004 we research had taken place. heart wrenching stories are discovered, from what Thanks to the Jewish thankfully well documented amounted to no more than Genealogy website and the
8 collection of related material my mother’s day it was a long impassable, the toilets would and modern day maps by my journey over the mountains be lacking toilet paper, the Hungarian sister- in-law we by horse, taking two days and food would be inedible, had acquired a lot of informa- an overnight stay in the nobody would understand us tion. My husband David and I forest when she, as a child, and we might even be robbed! had our first serious discus- was allowed to go on this It was not all true! sion about attempting a trip exciting trip from Bhutz to On the morning we to try and find Bhutz and we see her grandparents and departed the broached the subject with family. Hungarian/Ukrainian border my mother. For absolutely The enthusiasm of our was suffering from computer obvious emotional and family to join this journey problems and delays were practical reasons she was into the unknown escalated reported to be worse than only lukewarm about at quite a pace; from the ever - it could take six hours returning to her place of USA, my brother Martin and to cross. Our guide, Bela birth. It would be a long, his children Hannah and Huber, knew this in advance complicated journey to an Michael. Three of the four so he instructed our drivers inaccessible region to try and Israeli cousins and their to take a 50km detour find a village that was wives, Danny and Daphna, through Slovakia and enter virtually undocumented. For Asher and Shlomit together Ukraine on a quieter border a woman in her 80s, having with Alon, Rotem and Omer crossing. This worked very survived the horrors of the children of Igal and Anat. well indeed and we crossed the Holocaust, undertaking My Uncle Chaskel had both borders in less than two this journey could be unimag- survived the Holocaust but hours with no doubt a little inably frightening. The the effects had damaged his help from the nice lady churning up of unwelcome health and he tragically died border guard who just thoughts and images was in his 40s. His two daughters, happened to be on very a disturbing possibility. the last remaining Slomovics, friendly terms with one of our Nevertheless, my mother was Fiona from London and drivers! very brave and agreed to Sarah who is living in the We headed through make the journey. USA, decided to join the trip. Uzhhorod on a fine motorway Some months later during This was truly a great delight but once we had crossed a wedding in Israel David to the whole family and the city it was very first mentioned the idea of especially my mother, having different indeed. The roads the trip to one of my mother’s her children, grandchildren, we suddenly encountered Israeli cousins, one of four cousins and now her nieces were far worse than anything Steinmetz brothers. The idea by her side. In total seven- we could have imagined. was instantly adopted with teen people, three genera- There were enormous pot much enthusiasm from all tions from three continents. holes everywhere, forcing the the brothers and their wives. Emails flew across the traffic on both sides of the The caveat was that my planet and finally, after road to zig-zag to find the mother had to be on the trip many months of discussing best route. We were in a large too for many obvious reasons logistics, the family was to coach and came face-to-face but also to represent their meet up and stay at the with oncoming traffic far too mother Rivka Steinmetz, her Kempinski Hotel in Budapest many times for comfort. Our aunt, who had died only and then early the next drivers being local recently and who had told her morning take a contracted Ukrainians thankfully knew sons that she regretted not 41-seater coach with two the roads very well and they making the trip herself when drivers and a Jewish proved to be excellent at she had an opportunity. It Ukrainian guide to the town keeping us and the vehicle was my grandmother of Tychiv, Ukraine. safe. Shlima’s sister, Rivka, who We had been given lots When we weren’t dodging had told us the tales of of advice and warned gaping holes we encountered Ternova, their birthplace. constantly that the part of numerous horses and carts This is a larger town in the Ukraine we were visiting and plenty of cows wandering Carpathians and is featured would be akin to the “wild in great herds in the middle on maps on a main road. In west”. The roads would be of the road right in front of
9 us. This was local life, it was We ate in an atmosphere of a poor affair mainly made up unusual and fascinating and wonderful togetherness and, of individuals selling their it was not going to be a quick still for me, amazement that own fresh milk, dried journey! However, we were we had all managed to get mushrooms, a few herbs, able to take in the scenery all this trip off the ground homemade wine and an array around us, the Carpathian and had made it all the way of already sprouting potatoes. Mountains are beautiful and to Ukraine. The evening However, the “money men” the sun was shining. My continued with us all sitting were found and in a not mother sat at the front of the around in a circle and talking particularly discreet corner coach and using the micro- about what motivated us as bundles of cash came out of phone, told us all about her individuals to come on this their pockets and exchanges memories of a very happy long journey. It was moving, were made. It was a very childhood before the war and emotional, insightful and at peculiar feeling and did not commented on what we were times uncomfortable to feel entirely secure but we seeing along the way. At verbalise our feelings about were assured by Bela that it other times we moved around family history, but by being was all fine. When we were the coach chatting and taking all together there was a back on the coach and worked it in turns to listen to my feeling of genuine empathy out the exchange rates and mother recollect. It was a and understanding. We went commissions, it proved that very special time for the to bed exhausted but full of we had been given excellent whole family. anticipation about what we’d rates and charged a very After a nearly twelve hour discover over the next couple low commission. Another journey we finally arrived at of days. Ukrainian surprise. our destination, the Hotel The following morning we That day we were going to Oksana in Tychiv. We had all enjoyed a breakfast full of look for Bhutz and we set off kept our expectations of our mainly unidentifiable in the coach to the town of accommodation for the Ukrainian goodies. Pancakes Lower Apsha, only about 30 next three nights as low as and pastries featured heavily minutes away and climbing possible. However, once we and so did the dairy products into the mountains. Along the got past the unsmiling that were so gloriously rich way and in the town itself Ukranian cleaner who and fresh. The milk was raw we were astounded at the greeted us, we all found our with so much cream floating size and diversity of the rooms to be surprisingly on top, a really delicious treat houses. The area was mainly spacious, nicely furnished, compared to our usual semi- inhabited by Romanians and spotlessly clean and skimmed obsession! Later it we learnt that members of unexpectedly stocked with was discovered that the hotel these families spent much of toilet paper! In fact the owner’s cow lived in the back the year working hard towels and bed linen was so garden and was a well fed overseas and away from their well laundered they could and busy beast! loved ones. The reward was have stood up unaided. We Our first stop of the day that they came back each had never encountered such was to visit the market. It year with money that crispness and in such was not to purchase goods as they used to build the most contrast to the fluffy luxury one might expect, but to ostentatious properties. at the Kempinski in exchange money. We had Some looked like fairytale Budapest! been warned that getting castles befitting a Disney It was quite late in the hold of Ukrainian currency movie. Many were unfinished evening when we arrived but would not be easy. The banks and the remaining members the hotel staff produced and the ATMs were not of these families, mostly the copious amounts of soup and reliable. Much effort had elderly and young parents, chicken, even two loaves of been made before our trip to lived in one or two rooms. bread that vaguely resembled buy currency but it had not Each year more money would challah and along with some been possible. Even in be available and more of the wine, Asher the eldest of the Hungary we had no success house would be finished. It Steinmetz brothers led us in and here we were with no was a long term investment the brachot and Shabbat local money at all. for the next generation. The dinner was served. The market itself was quite competition was evident by
10 the size of the gates and mountainous road and on moment that we had so little railings installed and their and on we cautiously expectation of even finding pride was apparent from the travelled. At one point Bela the village and here we care that was taken to keep stopped the coach and went were in Bhutz talking to a the gardens and outside to talk to a young lady. When woman who had known our features looking pristine. If asked about Bhutz she family and sharing the one you have ever wondered confirmed she knew it and photograph we have of our where all the garden gnomes was heading that way. She family and my mother and go when they disappear, we boarded our coach and Uncle Chaskel as a young girl found them in abundance chatted to our guide who and boy. adorning the front gardens in translated what she told us Old she may have been, a these areas - quite a bizarre about the locality, her life bit deaf and blind, but she and amusing discovery. Such in the mountains and her was sharp and had a great is the distrust of the banks family. sense of humour. During the due to corruption and infla- We came to a sign on the time we spent with Maria tion in Ukraine, the locals side of the road in Cyrillic she made a comment to a had another way of keeping BEHMKHtf BOYI4 / neighbour that my mother their assets safe and that was MA/1MM BOyiJ. Translated picked up on instantly. It was by investing in gold. This and transliterated it said not very polite but it was precious metal was evidently Great Bouts and Small Bouts hilarious and to our utter kept close at hand as we (pronounced Bo’uts) 2km surprise it was in Yiddish. had never seen so many away. The spelling of my My mother made her repeat people with mouths full of mother’s village, Bhutz, was it to make sure she had heard gold teeth. taken from the Yiddish spo- correctly, she did, she had Lower Apsha was a revela- ken as their first language. and we all laughed like tion with its fantasy houses Many variations are possible drains! This was yet another and was unrecognisable including Bahutz and totally unexpected remnant when compared to old Berhuts. We clambered out of of life in and around a Jewish photographs we had found of the coach and took pho- village where the local the area. The further into the tographs, not quite believing Romanians were employed, mountains we went the more what we were seeing. Could it traded and integrated with evidence we saw of the really be that we were just the Yiddish speaking popula- traditional wooden one storey 2km away from actually tion. It was a very reassuring houses that were familiar to being in my mother’s village? feeling to know that such a my mother. Many of them When it was explained that strong culture was still still existed, scattered my mother was Dudye’s imbedded in the area. We amongst the more modern granddaughter she cried out said farewell to Maria and alternatives. Our guide, Bela, and took my mother’s hand in her family knowing that we informed us that he had hers. We all had tears in would never forget the day managed to glean some local our eyes and the impact of we met her and how central knowledge and had an idea this moment was immense. she would become in our where we might find the Maria’s nieces and neigh- collective memories. I hope village of Bhutz. We slowly bours had brought out all the that at this late stage in her continued our climb through available chairs and when life she takes comfort from the mountains, the roads they ran out we were offered knowing that, despite the became very rough and very comfortable logs with anguish of witnessing the narrow and we headed into cushions on top. Our whole deportation of her Jewish areas that were sparsely group sat with Maria and her neighbours, some did survive populated and not on any family outside her house for a and they went on to have map. very long time, everybody good lives and families. Stopping frequently along was introduced and Maria During the time we were in the way to let traffic pass, was overwhelmed, as were Bhutz some of the younger Bela took advantage and we, when she met my and fitter members of the talked to the local people, mother’s children, grandchil- group climbed the mountains asking about Bhutz. They dren, nieces and cousins. It at the back of the village and kept pointing further up the did feel like a miracle at this made their way to where we
11 were told the Jewish Before we left Bhutz we “kosher toffees from Bhutz” cemetery had been. It had visited the small shop and and in my opinion tasted all been demolished during the made every effort to boost the the better for it! communist regime but it was local economy. Water, soft The next stop on our important that we recognised drinks, ice creams and journey was back down the the importance of the place sweets were purchased in mountains to Solotnva where and a yahrzeit candle was lit abundance. It wasn’t until we the ghetto was located near and kaddish was said. were on the coach again that to the Romanian border. My The Carpathian Mountains I discovered the enormous mother has no recollection of are absolutely stunning. The bag of chocolate covered how she got to the ghetto, scenery around Bhutz is lush, toffees I had bought was not such was the shock of being green and magnificent. I can only made in Ukraine but captured by the Nazis and now see why my mother were kosher and the packet being deported from her enjoyed her childhood was covered in hechshers to home. Was she made to walk growing up in such a setting. prove it! Who would have or was there transport? The They lived a comfortable life believed that Kosher food ghetto was no longer visible with family, good food and would still be found in a but there was a plaque com- religion at the centre of their village where no Jews had memorating it on the wall of world. They were employers, lived for decades. I found this a building. We were able to successful and well respected very amusing and from then light a yahrzeit candle and in the community. Life was on, every time the big bag of say kaddish together. It was good for the Slomovics of sweets came out on the coach, an exhausting yet most Bhutz. they were known as the uplifting day. Three miracles that happened to Pinchas Gutter during the war
Pinchas came to England hen I was in Majdanek with the Windermere group. Had I remained in Wthere were selections for He first went to live in South Majdanek I would not have the gas chamber on a daily Africa. He moved to Ontario, been writing to you now. basis, even after the original Canada, where he now lives. When I stepped out, this was selection upon arrival. The the first Providential miracle. Nazis played games. The second miracle Suddenly we would have a then the SS men went and happened in Skarzysko. roll call, either a couple of asked people what kind of When typhoid became barracks, or a single barrack, trade they had and pulled rampant I became ill and for and they would ask for arti- them out of the “appel”. The as long as I could I went to sans, plumbers, electricians, same was happening in other work because if you went to tailors. More often than not barracks. We were then the Kranken shtubbe, and the people that stepped out marched to a barrack and you did not recover quickly, a and others that were taken told to undress naked. And truck would come, take all out of the “appel” (roll call) most of us began to say the ill people to the forest to would be sent to the gas Shma Yisrael because we shoot them. So I did not want chambers. So, we were prepared ourselves for the to go to the Kranken warned not to volunteer. gas chamber. However, once Shtubbe. Spotted typhoid has After being in Majdanek from we were undressed, doctors a crisis day where you have a the second week in May of ‘43 came in with stethoscopes very high fever and you till the end of July/beginning and examined each one of us either get over it or you don’t. of August ‘43, there was a roll carefully. Some of us were And I was unable to walk call of our barrack and again chosen and others rejected. I or move. My friends and I they asked for artisans. I was chosen and told to get decided to put me on the top stepped out. Some other dressed again and I was then bunk in our barrack and people also stepped out and shipped to Skarzysko. cover me with straw. We had
12 night shift and day shift of the Austrian Commander of tried to burrow myself like an twelve hours each. When our camp, came a couple of animal to hide. night shift returned in the hours later and told us that As soon as this happened morning, they went to their he is going to call out names. everybody in the camp was barracks and the day shift Those people whose names running and the Jewish left for work and the barracks were called out had to stand Commander and the police were supposed to be empty. on the other side and as the and the Werk Shutz started The barracks were inspected camp is being closed down, rounding everybody up and by the Jewish police and the we are going to be shipped by looking for those who were Ukrainian werk shutz. After rail to the next camp. The hiding. Fortunately for me a few hours the Jewish ones whose names were not the person that found me was policeman came into the called out would have to walk a Jewish policeman, called barrack, stood on the bottom as there were not enough rail Katz. I had been working in bunk and inspected the upper wagons for everyone. He his commando all the time I bunks. He came to my bunk, started calling out names, my was in Skarzysko. In the and saw me, looked into my name, my best friend’s name, beginning when I arrived in eyes, and shouted to the and we went to stand on the Skarzysko, when I was Ukrainian guard, “Reiner other side. The Jewish assigned to his command, he da!” No one is here! He risked administration of the camp, found out that I was from himself and saved me. The which we called the Lodz as was he and he knew next day I was changed to Prominente, had special my family. He had his wife night shift, working with the privileges and their lives living in the police barrack women inside, much lighter were quite different from us. but unfortunately she was ill work and I recovered. And The Jewish police and the with TB and slowly dying. He the thing that really stays in Jewish Camp Commander, asked me that I should my memory, one of the who was a woman, the become her nurse, wash women gave me an apple. doctors, and the rest of the her and clean her and do The third miracle administration could even whatever I could for her after happened on the eve of Tisha have their families with coming back from work. I did B’Av in “44. We came back them. One of the women that for several months and from our labour. The camp doctors, who was on good after she died Katz still kept was surrounded not only by terms with Schultz, had her an eye on me and gave me the Ukrainian Werk Shutz elderly mother with her in some extra food. When he but also by SS. As soon as we the camp. He called out the found me under the barrack, arrived the Jewish police told mother’s name but did not he said, “I will help you” He us that we must go to the call out the doctor’s. She ran took me to the police barrack, office of the Austrian up to Schultz, pulled on his took all the rags off me. I had Commander of the camp. He shirt sleeve and obviously paper on my feet instead of sat in his office at the window begged him to let her go with shoes and he washed me, and as we arrived at the her mother. He wouldn’t combed my hair, gave me window he asked our names agree and as she continued to completely new clothes, and I saw him make a tick. pull at his sleeve, he lost his police boots, rubbed lipstick, After everyone had their temper, took out his revolver left over from his wife, into names taken we were back in and shot both her and her my cheeks, and he said, the barracks as usual, mother. We looked around “There is going to be a new except the camp was heavily ourselves and we saw that appel and Schultz is now guarded. More so than usual. most of us whose names were going to choose those that are When we woke up in the called were either in rags or going to be murdered. With morning to go to work we yellow from working from G-d’s help you will survive.” were told to stay behind. picric acid. We realized that We were mustered into a new Nobody was going to work. this was a selection and we roll call and Shultz went from The Jewish police rounded us started running. I first hid in row to row pulling out people up and made us stand on an a chest with dead bodies and that he felt were not able to appel and we were told that then I jumped out and hid work any longer. He came to the Commander is going to underneath the barrack my row where I stood right in come and talk to us. Schultz, which was built on stilts and front. My best friend stood
13 next to me on my right hand had died in Russia. He stayed Zelazna Chuta camp. When side. Shultz stopped in front on in Poland, became an he got up to say good-bye, I of me, looked at me and with- academic in the Warsaw noticed that the shoe on his out looking at my best friend, University. As I returned to right foot was built up and he pulled him out and threw Poland in 2002 with my limped slightly, which I did him into the ring of con- family, I decided to contact not notice when he arrived. I demned people surrounded this man, Jacob Gutenbaum. realized then that this was by Jewish police and Werk We met in Warsaw and had Yacov, my best friend in Shutz. I grieved for this tea together. He asked me Skarzysko, who was the only friend for years as I felt that how I survived the last one who limped because his he was a sacrificial lamb on selection in Skarzysko and I right foot was slightly my behalf. Shultz looked at told him. I then asked him shorter. We of course did not me but took him. But there is how HE survived and he told recognize each other as we a happy ending to this story. me that he was actually were both old men when we Years later, in one of the ‘45 taken by Shultz to be met in Warsaw. Aid journals, I read a story murdered but when he stood Ben, of course, you knew about a boy who was in some in the ring where the Jewish Jacob Gutenbaum because he of the camps where I police and the Werk Shutz was in Shlieben and if you had been and also had been were holding hands to keep hadn’t published his story in liberated in Terezin. He did everybody in, he bit the hand the journal I would still be not come with us as he smug- of one of the guards and he grieving for him. There is the gled himself back to Poland, started running. They shot possibility that I might also hoping to find his father and after him but he wasn’t hit. send you an article about my uncle who had run away to He hid and the next day or so involvement with the New Russia. He found his uncle was shipped to Shlieben. I Dimensions in Testimony, the but unfortunately his father was sent to Chestohowa hologram. Liberty Fraternity Erica Wagner
Reprinted from The Times Magazine January 11 1997
At the end of the Second World War, 732 orphaned concentration camp survivors were sent to start a new life in Britain. And together they found the strength to make a triumph of survival. Erica Wagner meets the boys.
umber 27 Belsize Park “The club wasn’t just a “We were so keen,” says NRoad is an ordinary club; it was a home. We used Kendall. “If you played house on an ordinary street. to meet there six days a football for Primrose and you A very nice house on a very week, a lot of us coming lost a game, you wouldn’t nice street. In point of fact, straight from work. We had show your face on a Sunday but not one that seems distin- the finest instructors, in night because you’d let the guished in any particular ballroom dancing up to the club down. It was really way from its neighbours. But standard of silver and gold, something wonderful.” that’s not quite true. five football teams…” Kendall and Balsam are In 1947, 27 Belsize Park “Table tennis,” interjects in their late sixties. Both Road, in north-west London, Harry Balsam. “Do you greying, both a little balding, was first a hostel for 32 boys remember? We had a but both full of an energy and then the home of the national champion to teach that fills the small library of Primrose Club. Kopel us table tennis, and speakers the synagogue across the Kendall’s eyes are lit with every Friday night. Moshe street from the old Primrose delight when he recalls the Sharett (Prime Minister of Club. I met them, and two place that was so much more Israel, 1954-55) came to more old members. Ben than just another youth club. speak to us.” Helfgott and Harry Spiro, on
14 the street corner just across told their story in his book of energy belie an innate from No. 27; I arrived early The Boys: Triumph Over seriousness. and watched these four Adversity. Friendly with He is, says Balsam, “a men meet and embrace with Gryn for more than 20 years, walking encyclopaedia” on the kind of warmth, affection Gilbert has been attending the Boys, and all agree that it - and remorseless teasing - the Boys’ reunions for the was his urging, his desire to seen only between the closest past 18 and has been have the Boys tell their of brothers. And brothers, President of their associa- stories, that brought the book despite their lack of blood tion, the ’45 Aid Society, since into being. But it wasn’t easy relation, is what these men 1988. His book is a labour of to get them to tell their tales; truly are. love. the book’s existence is Helfgott, Kendall, Balsam Recounted through the testimony to his persistence. and Spiro are four of “The vivid testimony of the Boys “It’s one thing when you Boys” – as they still call themselves – there were girls meet someone and you’re themselves. They make up a among them, but not many, confronted with questions group of Holocaust survivors as they less likely to survive that you have to answer,” who came to this country in the camps – the book is a Helfgott says. “It’s another the immediate aftermath remarkable account of much thing to be able to collect of the war, brought on the more than the horror of the one’s thoughts and then to initiative of Leonard Holocaust. write. The majority of us had Montefiore, chairman of the The Boys’ accounts bring to stopped our education when Committee for the Care of life the vanished world of war broke out in 1939; we children from the Polish and Hungarian Jewry lost six years of schooling. Concentration Camps, an before the war; a world of When we came to England, arm of the Central British close communities, happy we learnt some English and Fund (now World Jewish families and great learning. some maths and history, but Relief). They make real the struggle very soon we went out to As the Second World War to come to terms with a new work. We wanted to be ended, the Central British life in a strange country, to independent. Most thought it Fund had sought permission succeed against the greatest was beyond them, but I knew from the Home Office to bring of odds. this was not the case, that some of the orphaned Although the book’s author everybody can write, children who had been in is Gilbert, its true genesis lies especially if he has a story to concentration camps to with Helfgott. Born in tell.” Britain. The Home Office Pabjanice, Poland, in 1929, Lack of education, gave its consent for 1,000 when war came he, along however, wasn’t the only children under the age of 16 with his parents and his obstacle. “It’s the same as to be granted entry, although sisters Mala and Lusia, was going back to Poland,” only 732 could be found. confined in the Piotrkow Helfgott continues. He has Britain was to be a stepping ghetto. His mother and been back a number of times. stone to lives farther afield; Lusia were executed in 1942 “One is so far away from it. most, it was assumed, would in Buchenwald, he was sent It’s been so many years. One move on, perhaps to to Schlieben slave-labour is afraid of what one is going Palestine. camp. Only he and Mala to find there. As it happened, nearly half survived the war. “But once one has the number remained in this Helfgott is the chairman of returned, one discovers that country, becoming pillars of the ’45 Aid Society. He is a the anxiety was unfounded the Jewish community; the small, thickset man – it is and wonders why one was late Rabbi Hugo Gryn was no surprise to learn he waiting so many years to face one of their number. The was a British weightlifting the past. Because one learns Primrose club was but one of champion, competing in the a great deal about oneself if the schemes devised by 1956 Melbourne Olympics, one is confronted with reality Montefiore and others the 1960 Rome Olympics and of where one comes from. involved with the Fund to the Commonwealth Games in “Those who thought they’d help the Boys adjust to their Cardiff in 1958 – whose never be able to write any- new lives. cheerful demeanour and thing suddenly discovered Sir Martin Gilbert has now seemingly inexhaustible fund that they could do so – it was
15 quite an exciting revelation. stories,” he says, “I tried to ghetto deportations in They are all intelligent encourage them to fill August 1942; he never saw people. If the war hadn’t the gaps. What was quite them again. After the war, broken out, they would have unusual was that there really he began in the menswear had a very good education – wasn’t much need to – there business with Spiro but soon one more thing that was lost were none that couldn’t be branched out on his own, at because of the war.” published because they might one time running 11 shops in Kendall nods. He was born be in any way embarrassing and around London. in Bialobrzegi, Poland, in to the people concerned, “Kendall was black, filthy 1928 as Kopel Kandelcukier. although some are very dirty black; I thought he was Along with 300 other Boys, at personal. a black man, and I’d never the end of the war he was “It is their story in the raw. seen one before. But he was evacuated from a displaced- I felt my main task was to black from the soot, sitting persons camp in encourage them to tell their making coffee and selling it Theresienstadt to Prague and stories without feeling any for a piece of bread. I went then finally, in August 1945, inhibitions; because very few over to him and I said, ‘Will to Britain. of them had written anything you sell me some coffee?’ And These first Boys were before, I felt they did that. he said, ‘What will you give taken initially to Windermere They weren’t writing with a me for it?’ I said, ‘I’ve got in the Lake District; Kendall view to it being published; I nothing to give you.’ And he took his new name from was amazed at how open and said, ‘You can’t get any coffee, nearby Kendal. Married for direct some of the things then.’” 40 years to Vivienne and were that they wrote.” Hearing the story again, about to retire from a It is a little wonder that Kendall laughs too, rocking successful clothing business, the stories were not easy to back in his chair and wiping he shakes his head as he tell. Most of the Boys were his eyes – but his tears, it is recalls trying to get his story imprisoned in slave-labour plain, are not from laughter down on paper. camps such as Schlieben in alone. “My God,” he says, “My wife helped me to Germany and Skarzysko- “I’m nearly crying – it’s so write it, and every time we Kamienna in Poland. strange - Harry thought I sat down, after five minutes Skarzysko-Kamienna, one of was a black man when he were nearly had a divorce the most notorious camps, met me; when I met Ben because it’s not easy to put was an armaments factory (Helfgott) in 1945, he saw me down what you’ve gone run throughout the war by a as a Chinese – because I was through. German company based in yellow.” “And so to make up, I’d Leipzig. Hugo Schneider Helfgott had arrived at have to buy Vivienne either a Aktiengesellschaft. About Schlieben from Buchenwald mink coat or a diamond ring, 24,000 Jews were sent in 1944. Schlieben, too, was and Martin Gilbert wrote me there during the war; more an armaments factory, and back a lovely letter when I than two-thirds of the total Kendall had been working finally sent him my story. He population – up to 17,000 there making anti-tank wrote: “Thank you very people – perished there. weapons; the poisonous much, Kopel – but at least Balsam, who arrived at the chemicals had turned his now Vivienne is very well camp in 1943 from Plaszow, skin yellow. “The Germans kitted out!’” survived ñ and it was there wore protective clothing, but The Boys is Gilbert’s that he encountered Kendall. we didn’t, so we were yellow fiftieth book and it is, he “When I arrived at and the food tasted bitter. says, very different from all Skarzysko-Kamienna, I saw The first time I saw Ben, he the others. It is a “collective a person sitting in a corner asked me how long I had biography”, written from the with a little fire and two been in the camp and I said, accounts the Boys themselves bricks, and I’m looking at three years – and he’s saying sent him, and supplemented the person and I can’t see to himself, well, if you could by correspondence. He anybody,” Balsam recalls, survive…” eventually built up a laughing. Born in Gorlice in “When we arrived from collection of about 500 1929, he was separated from Buchenwald in December letters. his mother, sister and one of 1944 and we saw these “Their stories were their his brothers during one of the people, we almost passed
16 out,” says Helfgott. “I’ve It is a feeling that seems family in this country I never never seen human beings in only to be made stronger knew I had,” says Balsam. such an appalling state.” by the sorrow of loss that “At the time, I was living in “When they arrived,” says underlies it. What makes the hostel in Loughton. They Kendall in his deliberate, the stories of these men were very excited because I matter-of-fact way – his remarkable is the strength was the only member of the voice, like the voices of all of that they were able to draw family who had survived the them, is still accented by his from each other, both in the concentration camps in native Polish, “it was soup camps and then later in Poland and they immediately time, and soup time was England. wanted to take me into their a gamble every day. All four of these Boys house. And I went there – for Sometimes the kapo who was lived together in a hostel one night. I ran away. I dishing it out gave someone a in Loughton. In the initial came back to the hostel.” full ladle and the others a evacuations, some of the “Most probably they didn’t little bit less – there were boys had been flown want him,” Spiro says slyly. usually two or three people to Windermere, where “That’s correct,” Balsam at the end shouting and they were housed in accom- jokes. “But you see what I’m screaming and crying. Some modation built by the getting at. As much as they soup spilled on the floor and Ministry of Aircraft wanted me, I wasn’t happy we were licking it up. And Productions; hundreds of with the family. I wanted to this young man,” he says, other Boys flew from Munich, come back to the hostel.” grinning at Helfgott, “was in November 1945, to But hostel accommodation looking at us and thinking, Southampton, where they could not be provided forever. ‘How can people live like were housed in Wintershill Friedmann knew that the that?’” Hall, a lovely old house lent Boys had to move on. “He But strong bonds for the purpose by its owner. knew that he had to be kind are formed in such awful But these were temporary and that he had to be hard,” conditions. Balsam and arrangements for the Boys’ says Helfgott. “He knew that Spiro’s business partnership gradual introduction to a in the initial stages, food and had its beginnings on “normal” life; by the early education had to be provided, the 1945 death march days of 1946, the Boys had but the next step in our from Rehmsdorf to been scattered throughout rehabilitation was to learn a Theresienstadt. Three the country in hostels to trade. thousand set off, only 600 continue their education and “He didn’t want us to stay arrived. learn a trade. too long in the hostels Taking cover from an Allied That they should be kept because then we would air raid in a field, Spiro found together in hostels was the become institutionalised. some beetroot, which he hid notion of Dr. Oscar But he was also aware that in his shirt. But he was Friedmann. A pre-war once we lived in digs, we spotted by another boy, who refugee from Germany, would lost contact with each threatened to reveal his Friedmann had been sent to other and this would result in secret if he didn’t get a share; an orphanage in Berlin at the a kind of loneliness, and it was only when Spiro age of ten, and knew loneliness could lead to threatened the boy with a first-hand the perils of life in depression. That is how the knife that he was left alone. institutions. idea of the club came about.” Balsam was the boy, and that In 1938, he brought a large The club’s great success encounter was the unlikely number of German Jewish was due in large part – start of a 50-year friendship. children to Britain, where almost entirely, if you listen It seems extraordinary he remained, committing to the Boys, although he him- that tales like this can be told himself to caring for the self is more modest – to the with laughter, even with joy. mental health of wartime involvement of Paul Yogi Joy suffuses the room during refugees. The hostels made Mayer, a prewar refugee our conversation, almost pal- for a “family life” that youth leader from Germany pable in the air as the glad supported the Boys far better who had served in the Special shouts of children in a nearby than the real family they Operations Executive during schoolyard drift in through sometimes found. the war. Mayer had gone on the open window. “After two years, I found to work with the Brady Boys’
17 Club in the East End of fencing or swimming. That ability of the human spirit to London, and was brought was a very remarkable remain magnanimous in the in to help the Boys by psychological insight. most awful of circumstances. Friedmann and his commit- “He understood that one As the war ended, many of tee. Mayer's approach was had to build a new life, in the boys were given the caring but briskly practical. part because he had himself opportunity to take revenge “I never spoke to the boys been a refugee from Nazism, on their tormentors; none of about their pasts, and they but more I think because of them, so far as anyone didn’t want to talk about his own character. Of course knows, took it. Survival – not their pasts,” Mayer says now. they had counsellors they revenge, not despair – was all At 84 he seems as vigorous as could speak to, to deal with that was important to these ever, and the Boys confirm he their past, but he said ‘try children during the long has hardly changed since and do it this way’ – out on years of their suffering. they first knew him. the sports field. And that Harry Spiro was the only “I was only interested really did work.” one of his family to survive to link them up wit the Mayer stresses the fine the war. His mother, father normal life of young people in behaviour of the boys. The and sister were deported this country. At first the title of my piece, he says, from Piotrkow in October, committee wanted their should be “Boys became 1942, and he never saw them money only to be spent on the Men”. “They were anxious to again. Just before the depor- Boys and not on other build up a decent life; and tations began, his mother children, but I said if I don’t they rejected anything they pushed him from the house get other youngsters to come felt was indecent, of that with the words, “At least let in, I cannot do the job. We world they had seen – that one of our family survive.” need other young people to was the darkness. And that Spiro is still in awe of her give them a normal life.” is quite amazing. strength of will, and sees his As a consequence, other “The only fighting we ever family – three children and boys and, importantly, girls – had was when we played nine grandchildren – as his hence the dancing lessons – football on Hampstead Heath victory over Hitler. were brought into the club. and they lost. They beat up Recently he returned to Helfgott points proudly to at the other team. I was furious Prague with a group of least 20 marriages that about it; and they said to me, survivors who were liberated resulted from this. ‘We can’t take any losses any from Theresienstadt; a few The club opened formally more,’ But that was the last Jews who had been born in on July 6, 1947, and ran until of the fighting.” Mayer is still England came along on the the mid-Fifties, later in a deeply involved with the trip. “At one place, the guide house in Finchley Road Boys, and still calls Helfgott showed us a gas chamber, owned by the Jewish Youth “Benjamin my son”. and told everyone what had Fund. “It was a normal kind It is impossible to pretend happened – to us, the of club,” Mayer says. “You that the experiences of the survivors, it didn’t mean could come and sit and read Boys – in the ghettos, in the much, but the English the paper, have a meal.” He labour camps, on the death people, they were crying with laughs. “You should have marches – haven’t left marks. the trauma. One of them seen the size of the portions. “Outwardly, we are very came over to me and said, “Ben was from the happy people,” says Kendall. ‘Tell me, Harry – you were beginning the leader. He’s “But even after all these there; did you ever think of remained the leader for over years, when you see a film or committing suicide?’ And I 40 years.” read the paper – you get the looked at him and said, ‘What “The Primrose Club was odd nightmare. Now and are you talking about? It terribly important to them,” again you get to a point never entered my mind.’ He Gilbert says. Mayer’s work, where you feel you want to couldn’t understand it, and he adds, was invaluable. “He die, you feel very emotional. said, ‘Oh, you must have seen pushed them forward into a I don’t think anything will the light at the end of the competitive world, as sports- ever cure me of that.” tunnel.’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t men, as competitors, to be And yet the story of the even know what that meant equal to their equivalents Boys is one not only of sur- at the time. It was just a in the world of football or vival and success but of the matter of another day, and
18 another fight to survive.’” are not victims.” even outsiders like myself. Evil, Helfgott says, did not And indeed, attending a The story of the Holocaust infect them. “We had a taste party held at King’s College, is a story of horror and terror, of what a normal life was. London, to celebrate the of man’s inhumanity to man We had wonderful parents book’s publication was like on such a scale as to dwarf who cared for us, we lived in taking part in a stupendous the imagination. But here a wonderful atmosphere full family reunion. About 150 was the evidence that this of love for one another – it of the Boys were there, along story had another side, not was really a beautiful life. with their wives, their merely of survival but of When the war came, all we children and grandchildren – triumph. Harry Spiro’s saw around us was evil; we Hugo Gryn was much missed, mother, deported and were repelled by it.” but his widow Jaqui and his destroyed 54 years ago, has This family life, lost forever son David and daughter surely won her battle. in the war, was in a sense Rachelle were there; Yogi “Few people have endured reconstructed by the Boys Mayer was there, as was as much as we did,” Helfgott among themselves and their Thelma Marcus, who, with said to his devoted audience new families, a bulwark of her late husband Solly, took that night. “But we have not strength and happiness in a over from him as club leader. allowed Hitler to have a new world. Rabbi Hugo The speeches started late posthumous victory.” Gryn’s daughter Naomi says because so many books had “The book, our story, is that growing up with the been presold that Gilbert was pour encourager les autres. Boys was like “growing up about two hours signing them People need to read it, with the most phenomenal all. The room was filled with because every day there is collection of uncles – the bond warmth and light and someone who feels helpless, between us is so strong you embracing; with love for dear feels a need for support. The can’t imagine it. They recon- ones seen often and love that best way to do it is to find out stituted a family between comes at reunion. how other people coped. Now, them and they are the most Three Boys – Menachem if we, who have experienced zestful, life-affirming people Waksztok, Menachem such terrible atrocities, were on the planet. They aren’t Silberstein and Chaim Liss, able to cope and come out of it victims – my father brought with their wives ñ made the with an increased zest for his seed to this country and trip from Israel to be there. life, then anybody else should met my wonderful mother to It was a gathering that be able to do it, too. I hope replant his tree. The victims spanned years and genera- that this is the message that are those who have died; we tions, and drew into its joy comes over in this book.” Berkovich Diary Berkovich Binye
Kaf Tet in the month of Nisan in the year Taf Shin Bet (April 16th 1942)
1. This is twentieth week difficult and oppressive getting longer, but nobody since the big slaughter and moments start at dawn. All notices that. the second since the killing of the efforts to change my Twenty-two days following the Judenrat. The pain did thoughts are to no avail. On the outbreak of war on the not ease, not a bit. On the the one hand starting work 27th of Tamuz taf shin alef contrary, the beautiful days late is good for me simply (June 22nd 1941) until 18th of the early spring increase because the day is too long. of Kislev taf shin bet the darkness and deep The people are on the move (December 8th 1941): very sorrow of the wounded heart. from dawn. The “world” pre- long weeks and an eventful Mixed emotions overwhelm pares itself for the day of period. No moment passes my brain: what if it was like work. It is impossible to think without some news e.g. an this or like that then perhaps of anything other than of the edict the Jews are forbidden we could be saved. The most big slaughter. The days are to walk outside the town or
19 leave their homes without bring back to the Ghetto leave me. Ideas and feelings their “badge of shame” - the some food that was left there pile up in my head and dis- yellow star. Each edict such as some flour. They have perse, the brain weakens and ended with the threat of forgotten that the houses the heart breaks and there is death for not abiding by the were not theirs. Jews don’t no escape, no relief. rules. On top of that we own any property. And also The 22nd week. The spring had to work beyond our another slaughter, 40 people is at its height. The hills are strength supplying the arrested on the way to a vil- green around the Ghetto as if “Komendantura” with furni- lage, without the “badges of to highlight the separation ture, utensils etc. from the shame” and not hiding in between us and the free Jewish assets. One could dugouts and caves. world. The sun is shining as feel the poison in the air, it did last year, as if to show something unknown was 2. On another occasion four that nothing happened to it, approaching, the remnants Jews were caught: three were as if it says: “I am not to of naked bodies... On on guard duty, one was from blame”. Unlike the poet who Wednesday, Friday and the Karelich Judenrat. Three called it “the deceiving sun”. Sunday in the month of July were shot and burned in the a number of people were middle of the night; the 3. But on the other hand picked out under the pretext fourth was miraculously left there are the words of the of being taken to work, but alive. All these slaughters did Russian author Dostoyevsky they were murdered instead. not cause great excitement. “the world will be destroyed Fifty Jews lost their lives by However, the next incident (in order) to save a child from the order of the “good” of “Harugei Malchut” tears”. komendant. (slaughter of the royal rulers And a thought troubles my This was only a short - ironically), when twelve heart: thousands of children interval, but it was rich in members of the Judenrat are slaughtered in horrific events. This was going on were killed, shattered cruelty under the same sun, until those horrific days of everyone in the Ghetto. It their screams pierce the sky, December. One was under was an attack on the right to but the sun continues to the impression that all the life of the members of the shine as before in a perfect previous threats and tortures administration. regularity... were a prologue to a bigger Ideas dart through my However, if you think and more horrifying drama. head: it is absurd to continue about it, there is no base for The period after the my life. Indeed what hope such complaints, even those slaughter, twenty weeks to could I have? There is not a people who by some luck date, could be considered as ray of light penetrating the stayed alive after the usual, if one neglects to think dark clouds that cover our murderer’s sword was lying of the constant pressure on sky. All my family: my wife on their thoughts, even those the heart. The little slaugh- and two dear sons, my sister forgot already everything. ters are usual occurrences, and her husband, my father - Life goes on, the same laugh small things, there is no time all of them were brutally and wit. This is for me so to stop and think about them. killed by the murderers who shocking and infuriating. Even the dates of the are building a “new Europe”. The justification of the deaths are forgotten by all But on the other hand I am known adage: “Eat and drink except the living relatives of gripped by another idea. I for tomorrow we will die” can- the victims. For example, the must live to be able to take not sooth my irritated nerves. shooting of three women part in the Day of Judgment The 25th week (since the after the slaughter, on Friday which must come, a day of first slaughter). the December 14th. If you revenge and retribution. I Till now there was no wish, it was not an unusual must live in spite of my obvious change in the life of or different slaughter; it was will so that when I will taste the Ghetto. The monotonous just an epilogue of the former. the blood of the killers of life crawls slowly. The news On the other hand it could be innocent children on the lap about the slaughters in Lida, considered to be their own of their mothers and in front ?, Ivia, ? and the burning fault: could you imagine of their parents, it may be alive of the Jews of ? don’t three women have decided to possible to sooth my wounded freeze the blood of the Ghetto walk to their own houses to heart. Those thoughts don’t Jews. Their hair doesn’t
20 stand on end, as it would wanted to get some milk and much to study that book. have happened before the a piece of bread from his Though Job’s grievance is slaughter in Novogrudok. gentile acquaintance when he directed towards the divine I try to explain that was shot. Another two fellows leadership, meaning world reaction to myself and I think who went with him managed order in general, this is the that the reason is the egotism to escape. A week ago a 17- old problem of the tragic fate of the human being; before year-old girl was killed, a on earth of the humans. the slaughter each feared woman who walked beside But there is nothing in his that it would be his fate too. her was wounded; they were grievance regarding social But when the slaughter was shot “without intention” only injustice and human relation- over and by miracle or by because a militiaman wanted ships. This could be because bribing a gendarme one was to practise his “sacred” in Job’s generation there saved from death, one knows profession of shooting. This wasn’t yet a developed that in the meantime, as long happened on their way back culture and the wonderful as there is no other slaughter, from work. This is the situa- invention of the “cultured” his hope to live strengthens tion in the Ghetto now, life German people; people again and he rejects any goes on as normal, as before. of visionaries, thinkers, frightening thoughts. When the month of Av philosophers and poets; the I think that it is worth- (July) comes “one reduces racial theory. Then, in the while to write down the one’s festive activities”. ancient days, people under- approximate numbers of The horrifying rumours stood that German blood is those slaughtered. In Lida - from Slonim have been no better than Jewish blood. 5500, ? -1200, Ivia - 2400, confirmed, a real slaughter of Volozin -1300. The brutality Jews in all details. Of the 5. Saturday (August 1st) is unlimited, even Stalin approximate 10,000 people Parshat Ekev (Deut. 7:12 - could not invent such who were alive after the first 11:25) methods, such as making the slaughter in the winter, There is restlessness in the victims to undress near approximately 7,000 people Ghetto. Today all tradesmen the trenches, throwing in were killed in this second were called to the court toddlers and babies alive in slaughter (a small slaughter house. The Judenrat was front of their parents. It is of about a dozen Jews is not ordered to select 150 people certain that to hear things included in this account). to act as the service people in like that breaks everyone’s Approximately 2,500 Jews the Ghetto: the Judenrat, heart, sorrow overwhelms were left. There is a rumour police, bakers, hospital you, yet after a day or two passed on in whispers of a attendance and the kitchen. those feelings disperse. slaughter in Molchad. The others are to go to work Sometimes some moaning According to that rumour outside the Ghetto. A fear of or a belated tear from the eye everyone was slaughtered, the unknown prevails. of an old woman as she is no-one was left. The aim in Hearts hammer in fear with peeling potatoes... Molchad had been achieved: the events in Slonim fresh in it is clean of Jews; no one mind... no one wants to put in 4. The 30th week. will disrupt its future words what is felt inside. The head cools down; development. Tuesday (August 4th) the ideas are fewer and The impression is that Parashat Ra’eh (Deut. 11:26- concentrated. There is the those rumours did not impact 16:17) feeling that it is possible heavily on the life of the Yesterday late at night already to create a complete Ghetto. One starts to get Hauptmann (captain) ? picture of all that happened used to the idea of death. And visited the hospital, the till today. It does not mean really, why should we expect residence of the Jewish that it is the final account different things from those doctors and a few other of the slaughters of the who are already asleep houses. A watchtower was multitude or of a few, because eternally underground. built opposite the Ghetto and every week something The 9th in the month of Av machine guns were mounted happens. A fortnight ago a (July 23rd 1942) the religious there. An electric light was young man, Binyamin Jews study on this day the installed on the watch tower Kushchinski was killed. He book of Job. I, though I am and in the night the Ghetto finished his day’s work and not religious, would like very was illuminated.
21 All that means something. go to my grave, having family (she is still alive). I Those are preparations for crossed over from life to a ask the person who will find the second slaughter. void. these notes to try to establish Friday, the 15th in the The mood is depressed. The if my sister, brother-in-law or month of Elul, taf shin bet issue is clear. Europe will be any of the children are still (August 28th 1942) cleaned out of Jews. We will alive and if he will find them Today is the third week all die; our fate is death. to give them these last pages since the second mass The execution of the rest of mine. This is my last testi- slaughter. Three weeks ago was postponed only for a mony: Jews! A people who at this hour I was lying in a short time. live alone among nations (am hole above the Ghetto Victor Hugo wrote a whole la’vadad ishkon) remain like hospital. The hole was dug in book” The Last Day of a that, don’t act for other the wall. No, I don’t want to Condemned Man” about the people, and don’t work other think again of the events. thoughts of a man who was people’s fields! In one hand The voices of the babies, condemned to death and was hold the hoe and in the other toddlers and children, who waiting to be executed within the sword of revenge. should be going to a an hour or two. There is no Revenge our blood and the school, they are going to the need to write a book about spilled blood of our children! slaughter, their screams and our secrets and thoughts, The name of my sister, who cries: “mummy,... me”. No, no. resignation. lives in Bialystok, is Bluma I have to stop writing, I am (Alter?), her husband’s name choked by tears. Why didn’t I 6. There are rumours about is Meir Itzchak. Pre-war they come out of my hiding place a third slaughter in Slonim. lived in ? Street 48, flat No 8. approach a gendarme and Perhaps I should not write I forgot to add a small note: ask him to shoot me in my anymore. The Byelorussians a week after the slaughter I heart? But before that I and the Poles know all the met two young women, their would like to ask him a details of the tortures and husbands were taken with simple question in a resigned slaughters. I have no the “third party” last year. I voice: “My dear Mr. German, strength left to write asked them what they did You are a son of the nation of anymore. I noted only a few with their babies (the women writers and thinkers, why do psychological moments and survived by bribing??). Their you kill small children? You mentioned a few events. answer was short: they cried too must have small children My name is Binye (B”R) so the mothers strangled in Germany and they must be Yehuda Berkovich. My father them. The mothers did not basking now in the beauty of was …. (a cook?). I still hope cry. Now they are waiting. nature”. And then getting or to stay alive. My only sister Their turn will come. There is expecting an answer I would lives in Bialystok with her no salvation. There is no Winston Churchill Aubrey Rose C.B.E. D.Univ.
Aubrey is a lawyer of great distinction and has played an active role in many fields. He was a senior Vice-President of the Board of Deputies; he was an original member of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative; he set up and chaired a working party on environment which led to his book “Judaism and Ecology”. He spent five years as a Commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality. He is a Co-Chairman of the Indian Jewish Association; a Trustee of various charitable trusts and is Deputy Chairman of the British Caribbean Association. He has written many books, including his autobiography “The Rainbow Never Ends”.
short time before Hitler and his colleagues not. Both a big lie or a small Athe Second World War and also receiving advice. lie was in order. erupted in 1939 there sat in One thing he learned from The descendants of the Berlin the Mufti of Goebbels was the vital impor- Mufti learned that lesson Jerusalem, a prominent tance of propaganda. It didn’t well, exceptionally well. Muslim cleric, advising matter if you told the truth or Whether in the 1940s or now
22 in the 2010s they are quite Israel’s towns and villages, phe.’ Their catastrophe was brilliant at it. By contrast, whilst cynically placing the to show utter contempt for the Israelis have no idea how launching sites in schools, the U.N. by engaging in a to project their case, and that hospitals, amongst people, war, an illegal war, a criminal case is a strong one. Just caring not a fig about the war, alongside four Arab imagine what Muslim people. armies, to destroy a State Jihadis, terrorists, would do Hence the deaths and recognized by the U.N. with the following: injuries. Indeed, these would The catastrophe was not 1. Israel, concerned about have been far greater had abiding by the U.N.’s lawful human life, has Israel not shown compassion decision. They could have abolished the death by alerting Gaza’s civilians in had a State over 60 years ago penalty, even for advance of the attacks. and worked alongside Israel terrorists and Britain, in 1944/5, peacefully in Agriculture. murderers. continued to bomb German Science, Education. Instead, 2. In the last 60 years cities. Deaths resulted. they instilled hatred into Israel is the only country Britain had sought not war, the young, encouraged the in the Middle East that just as Israel sought no war. blasphemy of suicide has changed its Every missile and rocket sent bombers, self-destruction government peacefully by Hamas was an act of war. contrary to their Prophet’s through the ballot box The world media showed the injunction. and the Democratic distress of Gaza, but no Tiny Israel defended process. equivalent concern about herself, did her best for her 3. Israel is the only country women and children in Arab citizens too. All in the area that has Israel’s air-raid shelters and religions are practised in her voluntarily given up the effects on them. There land. Israel even provided land, the self-same Gaza, were no eloquent words from Nobel Prize Winners. But and more, for peace. an Israeli equivalent of Israel has no idea how to tell Indeed, Israel is the only Winston Churchill. her story. She needed and country in the world that He would have had much needs a Winston Churchill. has given up oil wells to say about the United But there is no Winston (Sinai) in pursuit of Nations. What are they doing Churchill. Yet, being the man peace. in Gaza when there are he was, he would have looked Arab/Muslim countries with at a far wider picture than There is no other country unlimited funds to help their just Israel and Gaza. For that has done so much in the brethren? Indeed Churchill years he was almost the sole cause of peace, but the story would have upbraided the voice warning of the World is not told. U.N. for its hypocrisy and dangers of Nazism. Today he There is no Israeli Winston racism. He would have asked would have warned of the Churchill. the U.N., “What did you do World crisis in and from He would have a few things for the 850,000 Jewish the Arab/Muslim world. This to say about rockets and refugees in 1948/9 who fled is immensely sad for peace- missiles. When in 1944/5 the for their lives because of Arab loving Arabs and Muslims, Mufti’s Nazi friends sent racism, at least 200,000 for those Arabs who sought hundreds of missiles to more than the Palestinian human rights, democracy, attack London and England, refugees?” just as Nazism was tragic for Britain responded as Israel He would have asked what peace- loving Germans. has responded. Britain has the U.N. done to help He would have been sought the launching sites resettle those people and horrified by the attacks on and attacked them wherever what has the U.N. done to Christians, on Hindus, on they were. For the people of help them to obtain compen- Yazidis, on fellow-Arabs, by London it was a question of sation for their property left the human disasters that are life or death. So it was for behind in a dozen countries? Iraq and Syria. Imagine his Israel, except that the Hamas Churchill would have barked, eloquence at the million dead criminals sent far more “Nothing, nothing.” in the pointless Iran/Iraq missiles than were ever sent The Palestinians refer war. And his concern would against Britain, bombing to the nakba, their ‘catastro- be even wider, as Muslim
23 minorities have created out what they know. It the return of a Medieval, problems in China, Burma, happened just the same in barbaric code of conduct? Is Thailand, Philippines, Africa the 1930s. Churchill spoke there an Arab Churchill, a and elsewhere. He would out. but today there is no Muslim Churchill, who can have seen that Gaza was just Winston Churchill. overcome prejudice, who has one element in a world threat Are we to have, with the courage to speak out? I to freedom and democracy, as modern weapons, another doubt it. were the Nazis. forty or fifty million deaths, Sadly, there is nowhere Imagine his eloquence at even while the terrible loss of another Winston Churchill. the proposed killing of a human life in 1914-1918 is person just for changing his now recalled? or her religion. Brunei still Are there enough voices in has death by stoning. Most of the-Arab/Muslim world who the Western leaders, for can see the dangers, who various reasons, do not speak are prepared to condemn
Churchill knew it before anyone else... This amazing. Even more and, after a lifetime of service religion paralyses the social amazing is that this hasn’t to his country, was accorded a development of those who been published long before State funeral. follow it. No stronger retro- now. grade force exists in the HERE IS THE SPEECH: world. Far from being mori- CHURCHILL ON ISLAM: “How dreadful are the curses bund, Mohammedanism is a Unbelievable, but the speech which Mohammedanism lays militant and proselytizing below was written in . on its votaries! Besides the faith. It has already spread 1899...(check Wikipedia - The fanatical frenzy, which is as throughout Central Africa, River War). dangerous in a man as raising fearless warriors at The attached short speech hydrophobia in a dog, there is every step; and were it not from Winston Churchill, was this fearful fatalistic apathy. that Christianity is sheltered delivered by him in 1899 The effects are apparent in in the strong arms of science, when he was a young soldier many countries, improvident the science against which and journalist. It probably habits, slovenly systems it had vainly struggled, sets out the current views of of agriculture, sluggish the civilization of modern many, but expresses in the methods of commerce, and Europe might fall, as fell wonderful Churchillian turn insecurity of property exist the civilization of ancient of phrase and use of the wherever the followers of the Rome ...” English language, of which Prophet rule or live. A he was a past master. Sir degraded sensualist deprives Sir Winston Churchill; Winston Churchill was, this life of its grace and (Source: The River War, first without doubt, one of the refinement, the next of its edition, Vol II, pages 248-250 greatest men of the late 19th dignity and sanctity. The fact London). and 20th centuries. that in Mohammedan law He was a brave young every woman must belong to soldier, a brilliant journalist, some man as his absolute an extraordinary politician property, either as a child, a and statesman, a great war wife, or a concubine, must leader and British Prime delay the final extinction of Minister, to whom the slavery until the faith of Western world must be Islam has ceased to be a great forever in his debt. He was a power among men. prophet in his own time. He Individual Muslims may died on 24th January 1965, show splendid qualities, at the grand old age of 90 but the influence of the
24 Memories Aubrey Rose C.B.E. D.Univ.
e all live with memories, efforts of people like Arieh School nearby. They had Wmemories of people, of Handler, but, above all, by marched all the way experiences, of our early forming a common bond in from Jarrow in the north; years. I cast my mind back. associations of which the ’45 protesting about poverty and My parents came to Britain is so notable. unemployment. I often spoke from East Europe and What is equally to them. They were the best retained vivid memories of remarkable is how those behaved band of working their young days, but very same youngsters grew to men I have ever seen. What different recollections. My adulthood, achieved so much a contrast to some recent father remembered “Der in daily work, created parades and marches! Heim”, the large growing families, sons, daughters, Yet another aspect family, the parents and grandchildren, second and on which I ponder is the grandparents. My mother third generations who shortness of our memories, recalled only the anti-Jewish maintain their witness to the sending into obscurity expressions and acts and events of the past. members of our community had no wish to recall that Yet the memory of events, who have done so much for period. of individuals, especially of us. I remember Sammy She was sixteen when she names, often becomes hazy as Fisher, a twinkle in his eye, came in 1902. My father time passes, the present Barney and Elsie Janner, came in 1897, at the young generation cannot, Frances Rubens, Zena Cohen very time Queen Victoria despite all the films and and Eva Mitchell, Chief celebrated her diamond books, begin to appreciate the Rabbis Hertz and Jakobvits, jubilee, just as our present courage of Winston Churchill and others who toiled for our Queen will shortly celebrate and the British people, the community. There may still hers. degrading evil of Nazism, or be a word about Rabbi Hugo I remember vividly my even the terrible experiences Gryn, and there certainly is upbringing in London’s East of those in the camps. about Lady Jakobovitz, a End, but even more vividly Perhaps that is why older lovely soul, who passed from the nightly bombing of generations give grateful us far too soon. London, sleeping on under- thanks to be living in a free, When I chaired the Board’s ground train platforms, democratic country, and why Defence Committee I mar- diving to the ground when younger generations take so velled at the energy and ded- the V1 engine cut out before much for granted, are full of ication of Ajex members and its descent. Yet, despite the dogmas of rights so often of men like Dr Jack Gewirtz all this, there can be no bereft of the elements of duty. and Martin Savitt, year in, memories in any way compa- Like many others my year out, combating anti- rable to those of members of memories of London’s East Semitism wherever it raised the ’45 Aid Society. End is always with me. They its head. Who talks of them How can we, ensconced are happy memories, unlike now? Who, outside of their in safe England, project others who had a hard time. families, remembers them? ourselves into the hearts I had no worries about For three years I worked and minds of those who money, sweets were a penny closely with Israel Finestein experienced the bestial a bag. Every Sunday a in Communal Affairs. I met horrors of Nazi Germany. I mass of uncles, aunts and with him every week, some- am amazed how survivors cousins, assembled at times every few days. He was have overcome their past and my cake-making, cholent- a Q.C., a distinguished the mental pictures that the making, strudel-making Judge, a splendid historian, a past evoked. Not least in the grandma. I felt immensely fluent speaker blessed with a curative process was the secure, though unaware of never-failing memory; above welcome from Jews in this at the time. all, an upright man of worth. Britain, such as Leonard A contrast were the men I think of him often. He is Montefiore, the constructive who lodged at Smith Street among my memories, yet who
25 else remembers him, refers to our despatching events, communal safety, education, his work, writes about him? personalities, names, from care and well-being. These are but a few our minds. The profundity is I do hope we can repeat, in examples. The passage of when we remember those we memory of those who have time can close down the past loved and respected, held in gone before, the words so effectively. There is high regard, not merely those expressed in the Cenatoph something strange and close to us in our families and service, “We Will Remember profound about memories. friendships, but those who Them”. The strangest reflects made such efforts for our Moniek Joseph Goldberg Fay Goldberg first met Moniek in mother’s brother, who left IOctober of 1945 at the Poland before WWI and had Loughton Hostel. We were settled in Toronto. He was asked by our Madrich from married with grown children. Habonim to visit the Boys A neighbour of his saw the ad and welcome them. About and brought it to his atten- five girls, me included, went tion. One of his sons, who for an Oneg Shabbat. lived in Detroit, Michigan, We did not know what to had a brother-in-law going to expect. We were greeted very London on business, He nicely by about 30 boys looked for Moniek and found nearly all wearing caps and him queuing up for a picture led into a large room with show. chairs set up in a circle. They Moniek had always wanted spoke very little English so to emigrate to Palestine and I we conversed in Yiddish. was to go with him but as it Given that my parents came was so difficult to smuggle in from Lithuania, my accent people the only women they gave them all a very good would take at that time were laugh. We sat and sang nurses, for which I had no songs. When it was time go Goldberg family. training. Moniek went up to home we found that we had Bloomsbury House to speak missed the last bus and had ORT for training. Moniek to Mr. Freedman who advised to walk quite a distance to roomed with Janek him to go to Canada and the train station in the pour- Goldberger and found a job in reunite with the remnant of ing rain, arriving thoroughly a fur factory. his family; if he did not like soaked. When the Primrose Club it, he could always go on to Some of the boys in our opened up the Boys always Palestine later. Chevra joined us in later had somewhere to meet. It We were engaged by now visits. They even brought had a small restaurant in the and I had an aunt living in bicycles for some of the Boys, basement. A committee was Montreal. So he went to which were gratefully also formed and Moniek and I Toronto and three months received. After a while some were both members. later I left to go to Montreal of us paired off. Moniek and I As our relationship became where we married shortly started to go out and meet more serious, Moniek moved afterward. away from Loughton. to Upper Clapton to be In October, 1950 our After a period of time the nearer to where I lived. In the papers came through permit- hostel was closed down and meantime, notices were ting us to emigrate to the the boys went into separate published in Jewish newspa- United States. In December, lodgings (arranged by the pers all over the world by sur- 1950 I arrived with our son Committee), found employ- vivors in search of relatives. Philip in Detroit. Moniek had ment, or went to school or Moniek had an uncle, his left two weeks earlier to find
26 a flat. He then went to work Learning Spanish on the fly, business grew as a family for his cousin who manufac- he quickly established a loyal partnership with our sons, tured ladies suits and coats work force and by default Philip and Stephen in Costa where Moniek trained as a became a father figure to Rica. David and I ran the cloth cutter. many of his Gente. Feared, Hialeah factory and Moniek After a couple of years his loved, and respected, he was shuttled back and forth. Our cousin went out of business referred to as Mr. Joe and daughter, Karen was also and Moniek went to work at several mispronounced nearby in the Miami area. Ford Motor Co. as a cutter. versions of the same. Our family grew to include 10 Our family grew to four Mothers asked him for grandchildren, five girls, five children; three sons and a domestic and financial boys and one great-grandson. daughter. Moniek went into advice. Sons-in-law who were We now had over 400 business with a partner, a drinking too much were employees. We established a fellow survivor, making coats brought before him and full time on-site medical clin- and suits in Detroit. Years inevitably received the ic that provided periodic den- later, Moniek bought him out. upbraiding they deserved. tal checkups. Our clients still Running a small factory in Babies were named after wanted more work. So, Mr. Detroit became harder and him. One of the younger Joe went partners (this time harder. As soon as operators mothers, Seidi, one of the not with a fellow survivor) in became good at the machine favourites, approached another factory to handle they left to work for the car Stephen when she was far the new business. They companies where they made along in her pregnancy and purchased a building on the more money. asked him to write down on a other side of town. Two years Towards the end of 1975 we piece of paper J-O-S-E-P-H or later, much to the relief of the made our first trip to Costa S-T-E-P-H-E-N. rest of the family he bought Rica, (a country we knew Towards the end of 1978 we out the partner. We now very little about) to explore became contractors. The had a payroll approaching a the possibilities of relocating worst was over, there was thousand employees. the business in a favourable light at the end of the tunnel In 1990 we bought an labour market. Moniek liked and we were over the HUMP. adjacent property next to “La what he saw. We trusted his By April, 1979 we had 55 Goldberg” (that’s how the instincts; closed up the shop employees in Costa Rica and locals referred to our factory) in Detroit; sold our home; and had emerged from two years and built another factory. set up a base in Hialeah, of being in non-stop panic Approaching 70, Mr. Joe sold Florida. In January, 1977 mode. the business in 1997 to one of he opened a small sewing The business established a our customers. factory, aptly named well-earned reputation Throughout the more than Industrias Goldberg S.A. for customer service and 20 years in Costa Rica, with four employees in a very excellent labour relations. By Industrias Goldberg S.A. small town called Barrio San the end of 1980 we had more contributed to the growth of Jose de Alajuela. It was love than 100 employees and El Barrio San Jose de at first sight. purchased some property to Alajuela. A backwater town Describing the first two build our own factory. The when Mr. Joe arrived at the years there as a struggle is a new factory was ready at the junction of 2 secondary roads, gross understatement. end of 1981 and we had with no park, one stop sign, a Despite the advice of his grown so fast that by the time corner store, a couple of accountant, suppliers, it was ready for occupancy it cantinas and one restaurant, bankers and others, to give was too small and we had to the Barrio now has a up the ghost, Moniek continue renting another gymnasium, numerous ploughed on. He never lost installation. Mr. Joe main- restaurants, a park, a faith in his idea or in his tained cordial relations with pharmacy, a used car lot “Gente” (the Spanish word the local priest who was where our first rented for people and used to happy to bless our building building stood, two traffic describe our employees). He with prayers and holy water lights and daily traffic jams. knew that sooner or later we at our ceremonial opening. Besides contributing to the would get over the HUMP. After a number of years the economic growth of the
27 Barrio, Mr. Joe gave a great Joe was ill, a large group of stand-in for the Cantor, given deal to the community. our former employees the honour of Baal Shacharit He donated the land for a organized prayer groups and on the Yom Tovim and sat on water treatment plant, sent a collection of letters and the Board of Directors as the created a pension plan for his best wishes. Ritual Committee Chair. He employees, made numerous We always suspected that loved to chant Haftorah and personal non-interest loans, his affection towards besides working with his paid off mortgages in the Costa Rica was some form of grandchildren he helped form of spontaneous bonuses, nostalgia for the Poland he many of the Shul’s children created scholarships, and grew up in, but with a twist. prepare for their Bar/Bat contributed to road pavement When asked before his Mitzvah. His dedication to projects. Besides a yearly passing if Costa Rica in family never ceased to be Christmas party for our general and El Barrio in his raison d’etre. Success in employees we also had a particular reminded him of the family business was a matinee affair for their Poland without the anti- means to a better life for the children with clowns, Santa, Semitism? Without hesita- family. ice cream, gifts and pinata. tion he replied, “yes, a lot like One of his proudest He continuously attracted that”. moments came as a result of business investors to Costa Moniek, was a maker, not a a chance reunion in Israel Rica, never entertaining and taker. He was a giver - not a with a lady who credited her often turning down offers of a taker. survival to Moniek’s having commission. He became a After he retired, he shared his bread with her. He key figure in the clothing continued to work as a asked for no recompense, industry respected by his consultant for the company which was rare under the peers and consulted by that bought the business and depraved conditions of the government officials. helped David with the camps. He helped. He gave Years after having left Hialeah cutting room that because that is who he was - Costa Rica he remained an was not part of the sale. his parent’s son. And that is important influence in the He became very active with who he remained his entire life of his Gente. When word our Shul where he held an life: a helper, a giver, a reached el Barrio that Mr. honoured position as a lay maker. Remember Maureen Hecht he October mist parted the memories still linger. Tas we walked between the Maureen is the wife of Jack Everyone has a story to tell granite stones and marble. Hecht. from WW2 and this is one of Our feet scrunched on mine. It concerns one of the muddy sandstone path This was written after the Jack’s cousins who lived in leading to a hole in the green funeral of one of the Czechoslovakia. She had covered earth. ‘The Boys’ beautiful blonde hair and The cloth fell away as the could easily pass as a box was lowered. non-Jew. The Nazis were No flags of glory here to see smell prevailing on the still everywhere, nowhere was yet still with dignity and air. safe. Her mother told her to respect and prayers to send It was only a bonfire, go in the city and get a job. him on his way. composed of autumn leaves, She followed her mother’s How different from his not rare. advice and soon found a job sisters, parents, brothers But we looked at each with an elderly lady. She was and our families too, whose other as if to say ‘Remember?’ a very hard worker and her lives were cut short, without Too soon the earth was employer was pleased to have warning, in ghastly ceremoniously shovelled on her. design. The memories were to his last resting place. A Life went on in this mode heightened by a burning new place for him but for us until at last the Allies began
28 a relentless bombing another problem. She had to small village called Roscova campaign. The two women leave the kind lady because of in the Carpathian mountains had to run for the shelter the threat of reprisals if she in Romania. They are crying - each night. There was only was found to have harboured one because he had had to one problem. In the dark a Jew. So she packed her bag leave Israel to settle his would be sitting a Nazi who and left without trace. affairs, the other because he screamed out each time a Eventually she met her had never been there. The bomb fell “go on - kill more husband and they began a first man was Jack’s father, Jews”. The cousin went to successful business making the other a friend. They were bed with a heavy heart and children’s wear in Melbourne cried herself to sleep. She Australia, which is still in unaware then of the terrible wondered about her family operation. fate which awaited them. and whether she would ever Jack’s father would be killed see them again. ------in Auschwitz, his friend At last the war was over Picture the scene. Two men would live to tell the tale. but now she was faced with are sitting on a bench in a What a cruel world we live in. At the fifth session of the World Council for Yiddish and Jewish Culture in London Reports from a delegate Avroham Kwaterko
will warn you straight famous spa town near As in the other Polish Iaway that I’m not Warsaw. He drove me to Jewish shtetls, the children writing an accurate report his house – for hotels in went to heders and schools, of what actually happened ~ London are very expensive – and the youth went to the big the World Council will introducing me to his cities to seek their fortune. surely provide this ~ but I pleasant wife, born in They lived there until will merely limit myself to Vienna, and his son. After Hitler’s murderous troops my impressions of the we finished the fulsome attacked Poland in proceedings, meetings, evening meal we had a long September 1939. discussions, and particular and interesting conversation. When the Nazis took conversations. Shloyme Freiman is a Jeziorna, Shloyme Freiman My British Airways plane warm-hearted Polish Jew was only 13 years old, and was two hours late in born, as I said, in Jeziorna, of now felt the taste of hunger London. Whilst in Warsaw, petty- merchant parents who and poverty, oppression and the weather was sunny, but sold leather goods, hab humiliation. The murderers the British capital was erdashery and food to the shamelessly and openly clouded. It was a cold and visitors at the spa. 3000 robbed Jews, taking anything rainy day, making people families lived in Jeziorna of worth, beating up their depressed. Amongst those until the outbreak of the war, victims. Shloyme Freiman waiting for the arrivals, I making a living from trade went to peasants who had noticed a medium-built Jew and crafts. In the shtetl there dealt with his father, to beg in his early 60s, with a round was one large paper factory, for some bread, for which he and smiling face, holding a still working today. Jews had to work as a shepherd placard on which my name were not allowed to work and do different and difficult was written in large letters. A there, so they had small work in the fields. He was friendship was established cobbler and tailor, cap-maker later in the ghetto and straight away, even though and gaiter-maker workshops. was deported to various con- we had never met before. They would sell their centration camps, including He was Shloyme Freiman, products in the marketplace Skarzysko, Buchenwald, originally from the shtetele on market day, or go round Sulijow and Schlieben, where Jeziorna-Konstancin, the the surrounding villages. he went through all the
29 circles of hell. More than about Yiddish culture. South Africa, Brazil and once, he would fall into In the effort to spread the Argentina, not to mention the despair, seeing no way out of Yiddish activities to new European countries; France, the camp, and wanted to end areas, the World Council Belgium, but only one repre- his life. This was when he turned to the survivor group sentative from Poland, and a was seriously ill, but his headed by Ben Helfgott to large group came from the fellow inmates, boys of his renew Yiddish cultural work United States. The greatest age, stopped him from taking in London, and it received a surprise came from the youth the fatal step. He was freed positive answer. The few group of 20, who irradiated from the Teresienstadt camp hundred in the ‘45 group not the celebration, not only with by the Red Army. He and only provided the initiative, their external appearance ó several hundred youths were but also provided the attractive and slim young settled throughout Britain, financial means to realise men and women ~ but also with the majority remaining this important undertaking. with their rich and fluent in London. Thus, London was the site of Yiddish. Together with the This group of ex-inmates of the fifth session of the world chairman of the “Yunge Dor” the Nazi camps set up the ’45 Council of Yiddish and (Young Generation) there Society – they had come in Jewish Culture. were educationalists and the year 1945 – and were One should also mention professors, and on their later pioneers of the revival that this group has kept breasts shone white badges of Yiddish cultural life in together since 1945, when with “Yiddish” written on London. It is noteworthy to they came to London. them. mention some of them: Ben They would gather on various I knew some of those who Helfgott (Pietrkow), Dovid occasions and would remem- were present from previous Turek (Warsaw) Shloyme ber the tragic experiences of congresses and deliberations, Freiman (Jeziorna) Hershl the Hitler era, they would but many I saw the first time. Balzam (Krakow), Koppel help each other through I met here my old childhood Kendelzucker (Bialobrzegi) difficulties, offer advice at friend, Yossel Mlotek. We Moyshe Nurtman (Warka-on- significant moments, and both spent some time at the-Vistula), Khayim Kon, they formed a harmonious the world-famous Medem Khayim Orman and others, family. Recently, some of the sanatorium in Miedzeszyn refugees from Poland, all 45s came to Warsaw to “on the Otwock line”, where people who still remember participate in the ghetto poor Jewish children from all the beautiful Yiddish commemoration (Ben over Poland were able to rest language, the way of life, the Helfgott, Shloyme Freiman) and recover their health. I wonderful Yiddish folklore and visited Treblinka. remember that at that time, from their former home and Shloyme Freiman also visited in the 30s, he already all who have a love of Yiddish his old home in Jeziorna near manifested his poetic talents. culture. Warsaw. Together with the teacher London, as we know, was Notke Gilinsky, he wrote a 45-50 years ago a major The Festive Opening children’s play “Lialkes”, centre of Yiddish culture. which was a very successful. They had Yiddish daily The festive opening session of He also worked as a capable newspapers, magazines and the World Conference for reporter on the books. There were Yiddish Yiddish and Jewish culture Folkstsaytung. The last time theatres and a Writers’ Union was on 5 July at 4pm, but I we saw each other was on 1 and a Yivo centre. arrived an hour earlier. The September 1939, the day of Whitechapel was particularly beautiful bright-blue Beit Hitler’s attack on Poland, on known as pulsating with Hillel Hall and B’nai Brit Smocza St. and we sadly Jewish life, where one heard house, began to fill up with a pointed our hats to the blue mame-loshn in the streets large public, men and women sky, from where the aero- and in the clubs. From all all dressed smartly, always planes with the black cross this, nothing remains today, smiling faces. They were threw bombs on the peaceful and even though there are a delegations from 12 countries Polish capital. Later, the quarter of a million Jews throughout the world, even tempests of war drove him to here in London, no one knows from as far as Australia and distant Shanghai. Today, he
30 is a notable figure in Yiddish world famous artist David friends I encountered in the life in the United States, Tuszynski, born in Poland, hall of Beit Hillel of B’nai holding responsible posts, who studied sculpture in Brit House in London. These including educational Plock and in Lodz. When are not only lovers of, but also director of the Arbeter Ring Hitler fell upon Poland, fighters for Yiddish, stubborn schools and Vice- President of Tuszynski took part in the the builders of Yiddish the World Council for Yiddish heroic defence of Warsaw culture. and Jewish Culture. It is a and survived the German The festive opening was joy to the heart when one occupation in various camps. conducted by Ben Helfgott, sees such a rapid advance of In 1948 he left for Paris to chairman of the Yiddish com- a close and warm human further his studies in the mittee in London and one of being. French Art Academy and the above mentioned ‘45 I saw Professor Yitskhok became a teacher in a school. group. He said that it was for Warszawski, also a warm With his miniature drawing, him a profound experience to human being, who was an book illustrations, posters, be given such a great honour. activist in the “Union of theatre designs and A greeting in the name of Polish Patriots” in Moscow, costumes, the artist joined the Board of Deputies was which helped students. In the great masters of the past. given by its general secretary, liberated Poland, he worked David Tuszynski exhibited Hayim Pinner who, though in the Youth Section of the his work in Paris, Monaco, born in London, spoke a fine Central Committee of Polish Israel, Belgium, Holland, Yiddish he had learnt from Jews. Together, we organised England, South Africa and his grandmother. hostels for the surviving the United States. In coming, “The fifth session of the Jewish children of Poland together with his wife, to the world Council for Yiddish and and published a monthly sessions of the World Council Jewish culture” ~ he said — Journal Oyfgang (Sunrise). for Yiddish in London, he “was a significant event for Later, Yitskhok Warszawski manifested his love for the Board of Deputies and for was the secretary of the Yiddish culture. him personally and it was a first Yiddish newspaper in There appeared in the hall great joy that the executive of (post war) Poland with the my long-standing friend from the movement for Yiddish symbolic name Dos Naye the Warsaw years, Yitskhok had chosen London for the Lebn (New Life). Since 1949, Kom the tailor from Twarda meeting. This was probably he has been abroad, in St. and later heroic ghetto because London had played France and then Israel, fighter who, on the Aryan such a significant role in where he held important side, took the pseudonym Yiddish life. Here, there posts in Yiddish institutions, Wlaclaw Jablonski. Indeed, were published Yiddish news- including executive director because of his Aryan looks, papers and Yiddish books, of the world Council for he was able to smuggle there were Yiddish schools Yiddish and Jewish Culture. arms to the Jewish fighting and Yiddish theatres.” Amongst those gathered, organisation into the ghetto. “Whitechapel, where I one could see that great He came here with his wife come from,” said the speaker, Polish Jew Dr Heszl Klepfisz, from Australia (Melbourne) “has to this very day a troubadour of the destroyed where he is an activist in the reputation throughout Jewish community of the movement for Yiddish and the Yiddish world. Vistula Land, the spirited Jewish Culture. Unfortunately, many Yiddish essayists and author of the I also saw Khayele Ash, positions have now disap- book Echoes of a Lost Time, actress in the Yiddish peared, though this is not the in which he expressed the theatre, living today and time to analyse the reasons spiritual and cultural life of active in Philadelphia. She for this. It is, however, Polish Jews before the Shoah, recited and sang in Yiddish. the fact that the draw of and of many other literary At the end of the 1940s, she assimilation was powerful in and historical items. One of lived in Walbrzych in Lower Jewish society, and that the his books did, indeed, appear Silesia, where she performed rich English culture was with the assistance of the in Yiddish theatre. victorious with us to a great World Council for Yiddish. Limitations of space don’t extent. Recently, it must be Next to him was sitting the allow me to mention other said, there has been a certain
31 revival of Yiddish, and the in the greetings of other Artistic Literary academic activities in both speakers. All place high value programme Oxford and London are most on his useful work and we significant. If new winds are wish him a long life. This part involved blowing in the Jewish Street One after the other, the well-known Yiddish in London, it is to a great speakers expressed their actress Anna Tzelniker. extent because of the efforts warm feelings for Yiddish Yiddish theatre goers in of the Chairman of the World and Jewish culture. Dr pre-war Poland remember Council, Itzhak Korn, who Yehuda Avner, the Israeli her theatre appearances. has made great efforts in this ambassador in London, Yosef Anna Tzelniker told us direction, and therefore Mlotek, Vice-President of the of the former Yiddish deserves congratulations as World Council, Dr Dovid theatre, of the beautiful is manifested by the applause Katz, director of the Oxford artistic family, of her in this hall”. Yiddish programme and Dr S father the famous actor. She Yes, it is true. Itzhak Korn Levenberg, Chairman of the told us of interesting is a great figure in the Jewish Agency. episodes, and it was a Yiddish world. He is a The official part of the pleasure to listen to her, dynamic activist, an ener- assembly closed with a indeed, piece of theatre getic organiser, a tireless lecture by Itzhak Korn history. She then recited builder of Yiddish culture, a entitled “The Yiddish fragments from Jacob person of many initiatives Question in Our Times”. Gordin’s immortal work, and of inventiveness for the All listened with rapt “Mirele Efros”, which was spread of this significant attention. received by the audience with movement, with him at its In a further article, we will warm and prolonged head. We heard, indeed, return to the problems applause. much praise for his address discussed in the lecture. Auschwitz 70th Anniversary: one survivor goes back to the camp Darren Richman
Darren Richman joins his grandfather, Zigi Shipper, on his journey back to Auschwitz.
6:54PM GMT 23 Jan 2015 can remember the number, a Zigi was born in 1930 lifetime after these things in Lodz, Poland. He was It starts with a number and occurred. thirteen when he arrived in that number is 84303. He said: “The question Auschwitz, in 1944. After My grandfather, Zigi should not be how can I years in the ghetto, he was so Shipper, often uses the word remember but how can I hungry that when he arrived “lucky” in relation to his life; forget?” He explained that, and saw smoke rising from an interesting attitude more often than not, he will the chimneys, he instantly towards enduring the hell on think 84303 is his PIN, and assumed fresh bread was earth that was Auschwitz. begin to type it into the card being baked. It is a memory However, one way in which machine when paying for his that will never leave him. he is fortunate is that he does shopping at a supermarket. Nevertheless, at the end of not have the number tattooed He usually ends up having to the last year, my grandfather, on his person, unlike so many call my grandmother for a now 85, went back to who were interned in the reminder. Auschwitz. I went with him, concentration camp; for The horrors he witnessed along with several other reasons he still doesn’t quite remain his first thought members of my family. After understand. when he wakes, his last the horrors he witnessed I once asked him how he before falling asleep. there, it would be under-
32 standable if he never wanted be useful where he was going. the man, but Zigi does not to set foot in the place again. For days afterwards, seem old to me. I find it But instead, this man, who simply the sight of everyday peculiar that the Holocaust is spends his days talking about objects, such as hairbrushes considered textbook history his experiences in schools for and glasses, which had by some when it is a living the sole purpose of educating been preserved behind memory for a man I see so and inspiring young people, glass at Auschwitz, was often. wanted to go, and encouraged enough to provoke extreme My grandfather likes to us to join him. emotions. boast that “we’re not like I had been to the camps In Birkenau, we concluded other families” and that before, as a teenager, a day our trip by reciting might be stretching the truth that I spent quoting TV the mourner’s Kaddish a little, but he is certainly not shows with a friend in a bid while sheltering from the like other men. To hear him to shield ourselves from it all. unrelenting rain under an speak for upwards of an hour, This trip was very different, arch. Mourners say Kaddish without a trace of bitterness, and its intensity never let up. to show that despite the loss about the things he experi- My overwhelming sensation, they still praise God. enced is to be in the presence for most of the day, was a Regardless of one’s religious of greatness. desire to hold someone. beliefs, the scene was Zigi with his grandson Inside Auschwitz-Birkenau devastating. My uncle, an Darren. it rained constantly, atheist, was in tears. We all My own visit to Auschwitz which seemed completely were. proved an amazing appropriate; somehow you The following week, when experience, but there are still can’t imagine the sun ever we reconvened for Shabbat many things I struggle to shining in that place, even if dinner and made the make sense of. logic suggests otherwise. traditional Hebrew toast, Should Auschwitz continue Anything one might l’chaim, it really meant to exist as a memorial? associate with everyday life something to us. To life. How is it that I heard seemed incongruous; even A few weeks after the trip, people chanting about the the existence of restaurants we were reunited in concentration camps in north in Krakow seemed wrong. synagogue for Zigi’s bar London just a few months The silence was uncanny. It mitzvah - the day when ago, and when I approached was as if the birds knew Jewish boys achieve the police, they refused to better than to sing in such a manhood - usually at age 13. help? How could students at place. Zigi was in Auschwitz aged my university sing, “One My grandfather, just about 13, but at 84, his time had man went to gas, went to the most optimistic and good- finally come. gas a Yiddo”, when humoured man on Earth, Some would see him Tottenham Hotspur were on was uncharacteristically having this momentous television? quiet and withdrawn. None occasion, after all these I don’t know what to of us had ever seen him like years, as the perfect riposte make of the fact that this, but he wasn’t the only to the Nazis. Zigi didn’t; he my grandfather receives one struggling to cope. said our family was already compensation from the Most of us broke down at the perfect riposte. German government for what some point or other, the The first time he returned he went through, and I death and destruction to Auschwitz, with his two cannot work out why I, a overwhelming. daughters, he held them in third- generation survivor, There was so much it was his arms at the exact spot should have nightmares impossible to fathom, from where the dreaded selection about the camps fairly the mounds of human hair to process took place, when frequently. the enormous pile of shoes. men chose who would live But one thing I know is Among the latter, I spotted a and who would die. that my grandfather is no can of shoe polish, and Zigi looked to the sky that longer a number. silently despaired for the day and said: “Hitler did not And I also know that if I optimistic soul who had succeed.” ever have a son, his name thought such a thing might Perhaps it is the vitality of will be Zigi.
33 Windermere 1945 - ‘The Boys’ by Mala Tribich and s we were to attend a David Zuck Prague on 15th, landing at Ameeting in Kendal at the Carlisle airfield at 5 p.m. beginning of July 2013 we with thirty children and did a Web search for other other concentration camps three or four accompanying events of interest, and were and extermination centres, adult survivors on each. delighted to find that an and his detailed knowledge Accommodation had been exhibition about ‘The Boys,’ of the Holocaust and of the prepared on the Calgarth was about to open in the individual survivors; and Estate, a prefabricated Windermere Library. Even were greatly surprised to find enclave previously occupied better, we were introduced to that a region about as far as by the families of aircraft the organizer, Trevor Avery, one can get from the main engineers who had been at the annual reunion of the Jewish communities in building the now redundant adult version of the boys, the this country is an active Sunderland Flying Boats ‘45 Aid Society, where he and thriving centre of Holocaust which had played such an his wife were among the education. important part in defeating guests, and were promised a After the end of World the u-Boat menace which personally conducted tour. War Two the Home Office during 1942 and ‘43 had come So at 9.30 a.m. on Thursday gave permission for one near to bringing Britain to its 4th July Trevor called for us thousand child survivors knees. The history of the at our hotel and drove us from concentration camps to Calgarth Estate is a topic of through the confusing one- be brought to the U.K. for local interest also, strangely way system in Kendal to rehabilitation, provided that fused with the story of ‘The Windermere. they were no expense to the Boys.’ The exhibition, ‘From Government, and did not stay ‘The Arrival’ tells of the Auschwitz to Ambleside,’ is permanently. The responsi- early days, the problems mounted by ‘Another Space,’ bility and the administrative of adjustment to plenty, of a registered charity of arrangements were under- dispelling the need to hoard which Trevor is the Director, taken by the Jewish Refugee food, bowls and cutlery. It which has produced a Committee of the Central quotes the first reactions of number of exhibitions, static British Fund. In the event the children to the luxury of and travelling, concerned only 732 children could be individual clean comfortable with education about topics found, 80 of them girls. beds, of baths, regular ample of communal interest. These Groups of them were taken to meals, and the kindness that are listed on its web site. For several centres in the British surrounded them. the current project it has Isles, and detailed informa- ‘When this man woke me received support from the tion can be found in the book up I must have talked to him Arts Council, the Big Lottery, of their experiences, ‘The for about ten minutes about the Heritage Lottery Fund, Boys,’ edited by Sir Martin the pleasure of sleeping in a Cumbria County Council, Gilbert. This exhibition bed by myself with this clean, the Imperial War Museum, is concerned only with the clean linen...’ (Ben Helfgott). the Getty Library, HET, children who were taken to ‘I was reborn in Windermere and a number of local Windermere. in 1945. The promise of organizations. It is an exten- Large posters with contem- England was a dream to a sion of the Lake District porary photographs and teenage boy who no longer Holocaust Project, a newspaper reports illustrate believed he could believe travelling educational the stages of the project. in dreams.’ (Michael exhibition which started in ‘The Journey’ shows how by Perlmutter). ‘It felt like 2005, and now runs educa- 11th August the children, lib- heaven.’ (David Hirszfeld). tion workshops and study erated from Thereisinstadt, They enjoyed the country days. We were greatly were assembled in Prague. and lakeside environment, impressed by Trevor’s The following day ten walking and swimming, travels to Thereisinstadt, modified Stirling bombers set and forged links with one Auschwitz-Birkenau, and off, and returned from another that have survived
34 ever since. Next came to hostels in different parts of the memory of the young for- ‘Adaptation,’ the learning the the country, from where eigners who were planted in language, for which they they were able to attend their midst, and seek to were encouraged to watch school and catch up with incorporate them into their English films, and the search their education before local history by means of this for the names of family training for an occupation. permanent exhibition. We survivors on the lists To us it was wonderful that have to thank Trevor Avery published by the Red Cross. local people, non-Jewish, and his colleagues for a mem- Once acclimatized and some who were children orable and heart-warming literate the children were and now as old as the ‘Boys’ day. transferred in smaller groups themselves, should cherish His last slice of bread A Tribute to my Uncle am writing this as there is – Meyer Brzezinski My uncle perished of Ino-one left to remember my starvation. I am the only one uncle Meyer or his family. left who remembers him. They were all murdered in Sam Frieman Before the war he was a Treblinka. baker and shopkeeper. He Meyer was my mother’s Sam came to England with taught me to ride a bike so sister’s husband and so not a the Windermere group. He that I could deliver chollas blood relative. I loved him! lives in London and has for and rolls for Shabbat to He and his family were many years been a member of visitors who came to our constant visitors in our home, the ’45 Aid Committee. town – Konstantin – Jeziorno as were we in his. – a holiday resort near Meyer and his family were I would see him once a Warsaw. deported from the Warsaw week in the showers in Werk Meyer was such a kind, ghetto to Treblinka. His 10- A. He was heartbroken with happy person and I long to year-old beloved daughter cherish the good memories I grief and had lost the will to was taken away from him in have of him. Radom and he was sent to live. My name is Solomon Skarzisko. He was always waiting and Frajman but my mother He was sent to Werk A at looking out for me to give me called me “Schlomole”. To my the same time that I was in his bread ration. He said he friends I am “Dundela” – but Skarzisko in Werk B. wanted me to live. that’s another story! Kopel Kendall’s story Vivienne Kendall y husband, Kopel was that’s when real trouble Mborn on the 7th March on Friday 1st September began. All the Jews had to 1928 in a little town called 1939, and life changed wear the Yellow Star on their Bialobzgi in Poland. He lived dramatically for Kopel. arms to indicate that they with his father, mother and Transports of German were Jewish. Half the town two sisters. He went to a soldiers arrived in his town. was turned into a ghetto by Catholic school till 3pm and There were no more schools the putting up of fences. then he went to a Jewish for Jewish children and all They then had to share their school. His father was a Jewish businesses were home with other families and religious man and Kopel closed down, including live in cramped conditions. went with him every Kopel’s father’s business. There was no food so they Saturday to Synagogue for Life became more difficult. had to sell their possessions Shabbat. In 1940 the Germans set to the Polish people to get Germany invaded Poland up an office in the town and money to buy food.
35 His father disappeared with shoulders back. Towards the end of (and they never saw him Unfortunately, Kopel February, the prisoners were again) so Kopel had to look caught typhus, but he was put into wagons, about 40 after the family. one of the lucky ones as a prisoners per wagon, and two He was friends with the nurse took pity on him and old guards. This was where local commandant’s sons who hid him in a corner when the Kopel met his friends Jan fortunately helped him by SS came to take the sick Goldberger and Simka giving them some food. In away. If you were taken Lieberman. The three of the Ghetto many Jews got away, you were never seen them found a little corner typhus and died as there was again. together. The journey should no proper medication or In the summer of 1941, have taken about eight hours sanitation. Kopel was sent to but, in fact, lasted fourteen In the summer of 1942, the Buchenwald Concentration days, during which time they deportations started. The Camp. It was whilst he was were given no food. people in the ghetto were there that he met some of The Allies kept bombing given five minutes to get to the boys who also ended up the track, so every time the the town square. Kopel, his in England with him after train stopped the guards mother and his sisters got liberation. would let a few prisoners out there safely as the SS were He then worked in a to find food as the guards shooting all the time. Kopel quarry carrying rocks up and didn’t have any food. was hit on the head and down. Kopel and his friends were pulled away by his friendly He was then sent to thrilled to see Allied planes policeman and was put in a Schlieben in Germany where and they thought maybe the working column. Kopel he worked in another Allies were winning the war. found out later that his armament factory called Finally, they arrived in mother and sisters were sent Hasag. Again, they asked his Theresienstadt. They were straight to Treblinka, an age and he said 16 and a half. in Czechoslovakia. Not many extermination camp where He had very little food and survived the journey and Jewish people were killed on conditions were terrible. they were finally liberated on arrival. The slave labourers were 8th May 1945. In 1942, Kopel was told making warheads for the Kopel arrived in that he was going to be sent Panzerfaust, an anti-tank Windermere on the 13th to work in a camp called gun. They had to use August 1945 with some other Skarzysko Kamienna, a chemicals like liquid mustard survivors. He came with 732 forced labour camp for Jews for the warheads and being child survivors, including a to work in an armament exposed to poisonous gases few girls. They had all lost factory, making war heads. made them all turn their families and they all The conditions were terrible yellow and everything tasted became a new family. Even in the camp as it was still bitter. The German SS today, they are still one big being built. wore protective clothing, family. They really needed Kopel was only 14 years but the prisoners just wore each to talk to as they under- old, but he was told to say he their pyjama-like stripey stood each other, having lived was 16 and a carpenter. uniform. through similar experiences. By 1943 the camp was Later some prisoners I met Kopel at a dance in finished, there were bunks sabotaged the factory which 1955. We noticed each other stacked up one on top of the was inside a forest. The straight away. We married other. Kopel decided to sleep factory was badly burnt in 1956 and have three on the top bunk as it was the and the forest was on fire. lovely children and six grand- driest place as inmates would They ran away and it children. We had a lovely life urinate during the night took the SS guards some together. I miss him but it where they slept. time to round them up. is important to keep his Every so often there was a Unfortunately, they had memory and his story alive, selection where he had to nowhere to hide. which is why I told his pass in front of the SS guards By now Kopel was getting story in our Synagogue. for them to see who was still very weak and he had to Since then it has changed my fit to work. Kopel was terri- work hard to rebuild the life and given me so much fied but tried to walk upright factory. confidence.
36 Researching individual fates at the Wiener Library, London Dr Christine Schmidt International Tracing Service Archive Researcher
“Your search revelations documentation related to the documentation from the came as quite a shock...after fates of over 17.5 million archive about the fate of years of speculation about people who were subject to family members. For one the fate of family members.” incarceration, forced labour, enquirer, who had been “My mother was very and displacement during and separated from his father as emotional to realize that after World War II. Opened a child in 1944, finding some formal traces of her for research only in 2007, evidence of his father’s war experience are not the collection is a relatively whereabouts on a death vanished. Thank you for your recent addition to the march from a concentration tremendous efforts in finding growing reservoir of camp the following year what you have found.” declassified sources now enabled him to narrow down “Thank you for taking the available to historians the geographic location of time and making the effort examining this period and its where his father had likely to make these historical aftermath. perished. The document materials relating to my The original paper archive we found was not only a relative’s personal history is located in Bad Arolsen, significant historical source, readily accessible.” Germany, where post-war but also a profound and These humbling messages efforts to trace and reunite irreplaceable connection to of gratitude peppering my families torn apart by the the enquirer’s personal e-mail inbox make the work war centralised. The digital history. that I do at the Wiener ITS archive includes Nazi- The Wiener Library is the Library for the Study of the created and other wartime only access point in the UK to Holocaust and Genocide documentation that was the ITS digital collection. worthwhile and fulfilling. As repurposed for tracing after Since we launched the digital the International Tracing the war, as well as millions of copy in late 2013, we have Service Archive Researcher pages on displaced persons, received more than 500 at the Library, I have the relief and rehabilitation, requests for information, privilege of helping survivors, and emigration. Tracing the most of which have focused refugees, and their descen- fate of one individual within on tracing individual fates of dants navigate the depths of the digital archive enables Holocaust victims but include the vast digital archive of the us to witness through a many academic research International Tracing Service multitude of documents the enquiries as well. For those (ITS), often to find the last far-reaching and persistent researching their own or remnants of documentary impact of the war. their family’s history, we evidence of their families’ Among the most rewarding conduct the research on their lives. and important tasks I behalf. The Library also The collections of the ITS have is helping Holocaust works to promote the archive constitute over 100 million survivors, their families and for use in Holocaust research pages of Holocaust-era descendants in recovering and education.
To submit an enquiry and for further information, please visit http://wienerlibrary.co.uk/lnternational-Tracing-Service. Dr Christine Schmidt International Tracing Service Archive Researcher
37 Colette Littman Colette has for many years been a staunch supporter of our Society.
While I was in Israel, I was invited to dinner for the Sabbath eve at a home for mentally handicapped adults. I was so moved that I wrote a poem. It was my most beautiful Sabbath eve for a long time.
Waiting for the Sabbath Their brain did not process the prayers’ words All the same they knew now They waited huddled together Yes they unmistakably knew Some unable to stand They knew that IT had arrived. They waited quietly For the special meal maybe In a country threatened on all sides Or for the songs perhaps Cared by those respectful of life No matter they waited confident. They rejoiced, they laughed Justified in their trust They sat around the table In the peace of the Sabbath evening Some needed help For IT was among them The desert was ablaze outside. For It had come for the love of them. They showed no impatience Perhaps they remembered 29/06/2013 Only birdsí songs were heard. Colette Littman.
They sipped their grape juice Kafr Raphael. Home for mentally They ate their morsel of chollal handicapped adults. Negev, Israel.
Remembering British Heroes of the Holocaust Eric Pickles e’re here today to But her fate was still Wrecognise British heroes Eric Pickles, M.P., is the uncertain, because Stan was of the Holocaust – brave men Communities Secretary a prisoner of war, captured in who risked their lives to save France in 1940 and now a helpless victim of Nazi forced to work on a local brutality and barbarism. being moved to Stutthof farm. The story of Hannah Sarah concentration camp. Together with their fellow Rigler’s survival is truly As the Red Army prisoners, and at great risk to extraordinary. Every time I approached, the inmates their lives, they conspired to hear it, I marvel at this were driven on a merciless save her. young girl’s survival. death march towards the Hannah was hidden in a By January 1945 she Baltic coast. hayloft, right in the middle of was only 16 years old, but Against all the odds she their prisoner camp. had suffered unspeakable managed to escape from the They nursed her back to hardships. SS guards and hide in a barn, health, and ensured she Her father was one of the where she was found by a was safely transferred to first Jews to be taken by the British soldier – Stan Wells. advancing Soviet troops. Nazis in her home town in Hannah later recalled his Today we are honouring Lithuania. He was sadly greeting: “Don’t move. I am three of these heroes. never seen again. English. Don’t be afraid.” And I’m delighted that the She had survived three Hannah said at that point families of William Ernest years in the ghetto before “I knew I was saved”. Fisher, Edwin Alan
38 Hambling and Bill Keeble are British Holocaust survivors. Nazism, and serves as a here today to accept their I come with money! powerful symbol of renewal medals. Today I can announce and hope for the future. But their bravery and we’re providing £1.5 And I just want to make compassion 70 years ago are million of new money to my true feelings about this only well-known today fund a number of clear. because of Hannah Rigler, important projects. The key thing about the and her dedication to be This will include: Nazi killing spree – they re-united with her saviours Over £1 million for didn’t just want to kill Jews, and tell their story. the filming of survivor they wanted to wipe the It is a powerful reminder: testimonies in ultra-high memory of Jews from the face that as the Holocaust fades definition, to ensure their of the earth. They wanted to from living memory, we stories are enshrined in destroy family memories, cannot rely on survivors to history photographs and religious preserve its memory. A world-leading interactive objects. This was clear when I testimony project at the So every time a letter is attended the 70th anniver- National Holocaust Centre in completed on that scroll, it’s sary commemoration of the Newark… another victory against liberation of Auschwitz. The …allowing children to Nazism and fascism. This incredibly moving ceremony question survivors, even once Government is dedicated to was all the more poignant, those survivors are no longer preserving the memory and because it’s likely to be the with us. lessons of the Holocaust. last significant anniversary And Sajid Javid, Secretary But we all have a duty to attended by survivors. of State for Culture, is today guard against this hatred, as It’s now vital we take steps providing £100,000 for the well as the different kinds of to ensure the next generation translation and digitisation hatreds that have driven never forgets the horrors of written Holocaust survivor different kinds of genocides, caused by anti-Semitism. testimony held in Britain’s although none on the indus- That means building on Wiener Library – one of the trial scale of the Holocaust the good work of tireless world’s most extensive Extremist behaviour has campaigners like Grand collections which for too long no place in modern Britain. Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger. has been left inaccessible. Constant vigilance is For years you have been We are also using ground- required, so we are at the forefront of saving breaking British technology determined to never let the and preserving Jewish to complete the first ever smallest bit of hatred take Cemeteries and mass graves complete 3D scan of Bergen- root. all over Europe, and we’re Belsen, liberated by the That requires the personal honoured you have joined us British 70 years ago next acceptance that discrimina- today. month. This technique has tion and persecution are This Government is uncovered new facts about always wrong, and should doing its part committing £50 heritage sites all over the always be confronted. million to support a new world – from the pyramids to Today we can draw inspira- National Memorial to the St Paul’s cathedral. Goodness tion from those who saved Holocaust... knows what we will learn Hannah Rigler. ...a world class learning from this – but it’s absolutely They didn’t turn away. centre... right that we do it. They didn't leave it to others ...and an endowment fund I also welcome the project to do the right thing. to secure the future of by From the Depths, which They all took personal Holocaust education for ever will enable Holocaust responsibility to protect her. The new UK Holocaust survivors to complete a Torah I really hope these medals Memorial Foundation set up scroll saved from the Nazis in will ensure their acts of by the Prime Minister and 1939, so it can used and bravery are never forgotten, Chaired by Sir Peter cherished by future genera- and inspire countless genera- Bazalgette is also taking tions of Jewish people. tions to confront injustice and forwards incredibly impor- Its restoration after 70 hatred. tant work on recording and years is another way in which preserving the testimony of we mark the defeat of Thank you
39 SENTENCED TO DEATH AND YET … WE MUST
‘Life’ Under the Nazis Michael Etkind
Michael Etkind A thousand deaths Sentenced to die We die each time Today We catch Tomorrow A glimpse and see a fragment In a month…? Of the Holocaust.
By bullet or by rope A thousand deaths Starvation Loss of hope The train arriving at the ramp – The barking dogs ... By gas…? The capos and the SS guards.
In bed The mothers with their children In your own home urged to hurry up. Upon a bunk And yet … we must Or in a wood Relive the past A field And feel the pain … A yard And keep the outrage live .…
The street And never let it fade and vanish from the psyche of Mankind. The time and place…. unknown. THE LONGEST HATRED ANTI-SEMITISM THE PAIN WILL LAST Now changing to ANTI-ZIONISM Michael Etkind Michael Etkind The pain will last so long As dust and ashes last In spite of Hitler The gas And his entourage The smoke the crematoria fire In spite of Auschwitz And that poison gas The dead will drift until the world That hate … lives on Will end And even then That hate is like a snake The pain will stay behind From time to time It sheds its skin And fill the emptiness But cannot lose With cries Its venom and its spleen So long as winds will blow And afterwards In spite of Hitler And his spite When silence will descend. In spite of Our darkest ‘Night and Fog’ That hate … lives on.
40 SECTION III SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION Dr. Bonnie Hayward Bonnie is the daughter of ust one week before Rosh Howard and Elsa Chandler. was badly neglected, there JHashanah 5775, I had the Howard came to England were chickens and garbage privilege of accompanying my with the Windermere group there and it looked like the parents, Howard and Elsa and now lives in Ontario, town might destroy it to build Chandler, to Poland. We Canada. some homes. were travelling for a specific Somehow, with courage, we purpose - to attend the went to speak to the Priest in long-awaited placement of a been back to Wierzbnik on the church with a request memorial plaque in the town many occasions. that the Jewish Cemetery square (the “rynek”) in my In 1988 Dad and his should be preserved and Father’s home town of childhood friend Martin cared for. He was pleasant, Wierzbnik/Starachowice. Baranek first went to but we doubted that he would It was a memorial that was visit their home town. They change anything. Instead, my a long time coming, but, the were a little scared and Dad and the Wierzbnik local government was finally apprehensive since many society worked hard to make commemorating the 4500 unpleasant things transpired sure the Cemetery was kept murdered Jews of Wierzbnik there after the war. They up, they hired a man to take and some of the surrounding found the town was virtually care of it, arranged for a towns. On October 27, 1942, the same, nothing changed proper fence to be erected and 4500 Jews were herded into and they were surprised and each of the stones were the town square of Wierzbnik happy to see that the Jewish catalogued, photographed and deported to Treblinka, cemetery was still there, and mapped. where they were all killed. but unfortunately, badly But my Dad’s mission was Another 200 Jews were shot neglected. Upon returning not complete yet! The visits on the spot. As a 13 year- old home they reported their to Wierzbnik continued, boy, my father was a witness findings to the membership and in fact became even more to this. His life, and those of of the Toronto Wierzbniker frequent. his brother Harry and his Mutual Benefit Society. In addition to his many father Leibke Wajchendler In 1989 my parents and I, trips to Poland as a and another two thousand with my uncle Harry z”l and “Survivor” with the March of Jewish people were Aunt Doreen Wajchendler, the Living, my father also temporarily spared because visited Wierzbnik, and of led three trips to Poland with they were already working course other memorial sites an organization called in the town’s ammunition from the Shoah. Poland was “Classrooms Without factory. But two years politically changing, and Borders”, taking Jewish and later, when they were no grocery stores were empty. non-Jewish students and longer needed, they were This time we visited a non- educators from the US on transported to Jewish resident whom my visits that always included a Auschwitz/Birkenau. Dad remembered from before stop in Wierzbnik. On these Despite the horrors that the war. We also went inside trips he was always, always fell on Wierzbnik’s Jewish his home, and the new accompanied by some of community on that day in “owners” invited us inside so his children and grandchil- 1942, or perhaps because of I was able to see, in person, dren. Each visit was an those very horrors, my father the home he described in opportunity to ensure that has never severed his ties to many of the childhood stories the memory of the town’s his home town of Wierzbnik. he told the four of us children former Jewish community In addition to being an during Shabbat dinners. We and its inhabitants will live active member of the saw the ammunition factory on, and that the Jewish Wierzbnik Mutual Benefit which was still standing but cemetery is properly cared Society in Toronto, Dad has empty. The Jewish cemetery for. As well, each trip also
41 42 43 included a meeting with the gather in this Rynek (town In the Jewish religion, Mayor of Wierzbnik, with square) under the most remembering is a command- whom Dad remained in terrible and brutal ment, and that is what I do contact between visits, too. conditions. every day. I can see in my It has taken him several Over 200 Jewish people mind those thousands of years to convince the were shot and murdered innocent murdered souls municipal authorities to immediately, then about 4500 hovering over us being place a memorial plaque in people were marched to the thankful that their lives were the town square. Adding to railway station and taken by not forgotten. my father’s frustration was awaiting freight train to what I would like to express my the fact that a monument we now know was Treblinka, sincere appreciation to the had been erected in memory the extermination camp. honourable Mr. President, of Poles who were killed by They were murdered on Sylwester Kwiecien and his the Germans, but nothing arrival, including my mother, council on their leadership in was in place to remember my older sister and my this very important and the destroyed Jewish younger brother. The 2500 meaningful memorial. Community. remaining able bodied Jews It took great courage and Finally, last month, after that already worked in the conviction to do this and the several delays, and many ammunition factory were former Jewish citizens from emails to develop and agree temporarily spared their fate. Starachowice, Wierzbnik on the wording, we received These are the people for thank you for doing the right an invitation to attend the whom this memorial is being and proper thing, and for this official unveiling of the commemorated. we are extremely appreciative plaque!. Wierzbnik was my family’s to you. There, on the very square home. My grandfather built People have the gift of where, as a young boy he this house across the street memory, this allows us to watched the community and I lived there until the remember not only the past destruction 72 years ago, my Germans took over when I but also what happened here. father stood again, to address was 13 years old. Those who did not study the the town’s officials, guests We were a community that past are bound to repeat it and the citizens of the town contributed to society in many and something like this and we received a very warm ways. We were shopkeepers, should never happen to and cordial reception by doctors, artisans, manufac- anybody. the authorities and the tures... families. In addition Ladies and gentlemen I population. we served in the armed forces, would ask that you join me making supreme sacrifices, for a minute of silence in My father made the following together with our fellow remembrance of the murdered remarks to those present: citizens. We celebrated with people of Wierzbnik”. our neighbours no matter It was a touching ceremony, “Mr. President, ladies and what their beliefs were. We complete with a red carpet, gentlemen. were like everyone else, except the presence of local officials, This is a very emotional, we prayed in the synagogue an honour guard, flowers, yet, meaningful day for me. and not the church. and even a local choir. But Seventy-two years ago on I would like to emphasize to most importantly, there it October 27, 1942 the Jewish the younger generation that was, the plaque: A small community who lived around tolerance, understanding and memorial in a little-known this square numbered about respect for your fellow human Polish town, but an official 4500 people before the World being is imperative. and public acknowledgement War II. During the German Ignorance breeds hate. of the tragedy that befell the occupation an additional I am one of the very few Jews of Wierzbnik. 3500 Jewish people were who stood on this very place forcibly moved into Wierzbnik and experienced the trauma Even the press took notice of from surrounding towns, witnessing the destruction of this moment in the local including Lodz and Plock. On the very vibrant Jewish papers. that day all the Jews were community of Starachowice, At the end of our trip we forced by the Germans to Wierzbnik. went to visit the new
44 Holocaust Museum in address the group. The done by my parents and other Warsaw. It is a beautiful students treated my parents survivors to retell their story building built on the property like celebrities, and gathered is not in vain. The next where the monument to the around them to talk to them. generation will remember. At Warsaw Ghetto is. While we That’s when I broke down the end Dad sang Hatikvah were there, there was a group and cried. It was so touching for them as we all hugged of grade 12 Israeli students to see these kids surround my together as family. touring. They heard that parents and offer them so It was a fitting end to our there were two survivors much respect. This was journey and a good beginning there and asked my father to evidence that all of the effort for Rosh Hashanah. Abe Wertman Debbie Pottins e was born in the town of the camp. He never forgot HGora Kalwaria in Poland Abe came to England with that and adopted it as a and studied under the the Windermere group where philosophy for life. He never famous Gere Rabbi before the he was subsequently taken believed in looking back and war broke out. His parents with a group of survivors to lived life to the fullest and three sisters all perished Ontario, Canada. without any bitterness. He in the war. He was the only was truly an inspiration. son and the only survivor of He had a passion for his family. I believe that everything and in doing so long distance running and when he came to England became successful at that as participated in many he went to the Yeshiva well. marathons. He and my for a short while hoping to He met and married my mother were married almost fulfil his father’s wishes of mom, Sarah, in 1953 and 61 years. They had a becoming a Rabbi but he did they had four children - my wonderful life and travelled not stay. Instead he learned older brother Joel, myself, my the world together. He has watch-making. He came to younger brother Mark and been described by everyone Canada in 1948. At first he my younger sister Risa. who met him as having a worked repairing watches. A Between us there are ten charismatic smile and a few years later he opened his grandchildren. twinkle in his eye and he is own store and not only At one time or another profoundly missed. repaired watches but sold throughout the years, each of He is survived by my mom jewellery and gift-ware. our children have made my Sarah, my brother Joel, his He had a very successful dad the subject of a school wife Liza and their children business and owned his store report regarding the Ethan and Shane, myself, my until 1980, at which time he Holocaust - his life story husband Stephen, our sons, became a builder. As it was, made such an impact on us Jonathan, Harlan and I’m sure, with most of you, all. He once told me that Mathew, my brother Mark, he had a limited formal when he was liberated from his wife Sarah, their children education but that never the concentration camp he Gabriella, her husband Eric, stopped him from learning. heard the Russian soldiers Daniel, Rebecca and Yoni, my He really knew nothing about who liberated them yelling sister Risa, her husband the building business but he over and over again “go David and their sons Zachary was determined to learn forward” as they approached and Michael.
45 Shlomo Raz Shlomo is the son of ibbutz Kiryat- Anavim is Moishe and the late Steffa Moreover, after the summer Klocated by the highway to Rosenberg. of 1948, survivors in the Jerusalem, about 10 km. combat units were of vital from the city. Kiryat Anavim importance, despite the fact was a landmark during the white square tombstones tell that many of them were sent battle for independence of the story of many of the brave to the battlefields without the State of Israel - the fallen. Among them: adequate training. They Jewish State. The kibbutz, didn’t even know Hebrew, so established in 1920, in an Shalom (Shalomke) the authorities had to publish area surrounded by arab Finkelstien born in information and instruction villages, was an important Poland, immigrated in booklets in Yiddish, Polish, base for the Hagana, its 1947, died at the age of 16 Romanian, Bulgarian, combat units - the Palmach Hungarian and Arabic. and the I.D.F.- Zhahal in Shlomo Mandel born in The new immigrants, the heroic struggle in 1948 Czechoslovakia, immi- the survivors, became the during the War of grated in 1947, died at the dominant factor in combat Independence, just off the age of 24 brigades like Hativat Harel. highway to the isolated City Their lack of military and Of Jerusalem, which was Peretz (Gerhard) Ritrich combat experience was made under a siege, cut off from the born in Germany, immi- up for by their determination, rest of the Jewish territory. grated in l948, died at the self-sacrifice and bravery. The headquarters of the age of 21 The figures of the dead and of Palmach brigate-Harel the casualties speak for (Hativat Harel), under the The moment they were themselves. command of Yitzhak Rabin, liberated from the camps or Half of the soldiers who was based in Kiryat -Anavim. the ghettos or came out from died in the War of The battles in the area were the forests, the survivors Independence were very hard, and the number of were determined to go to Holocaust survivors. the dead and the wounded Palestine in order to build In recent years, awareness was extremely high. During their lives in the Jewish of the vital role Holocaust the day the warriors State. They disembarked survivors played in building themselves dug holes for from the ships, many of them the State of Israel has graves before going out to the as illegal immigrants, and increased. battlefields at night. were taken directly to the They literally played and At the edge of Kiryat- combat units. Many of them still play a major roll in every Anavim, nowadays a thriving were last scion to their family field - economy, culture, art, and tranquil kibbutz, is a - all alone in the world, with science, education, academia, small graveyard where many no mother, no father, no politics, security and more. of the victims from the brothers, no sisters. We, the second and the battles over the highway to In 1947 and 1948, half of third generation, are Jerusalem are buried. the combat force of the honoured to follow you and Hagana, and later the I.D.F, wish to salute you thank you The inscriptions on the silent were Holocaust survivors. for all you have done!
46 Shelly Simons Shelly is the daughter of am the third child of four Gina and the late David burdened and consequently Iand the only girl. I think if Schwarzmann. guilty for daring to feel that any of my brothers had burden. been asked to write this I believe the ramifications article, their experiences and six of us. Meal times were of my earliest emotions memories would be markedly challenging, constantly manifested itself in the ways different to mine. I believe presenting me with regular my own life has played out. I that not only because I am battles as I could not finish don’t feel my own journey the only female sibling but as everything on my plate. has always been a straight- the only daughter of a child Friends at school would talk forward one. I ended up survivor. Mum was seven about getting together with marrying very late in life. Yet years old when she last saw grandparents and cousins, I was blessed to have four her own mother before being aunts and uncles and I would children of my own and I taken into hiding in July wonder why life centred just think it is no coincidence that 1942. My mum had been around the six of us. I had a I too gave birth to three sons banished from Janusz grandfather in America who and a daughter (in the same Korzchak multi-faith kinder- occasionally we would see order). When I was quite garten (for Christians and and another in Israel who we young, around six years old, I Jewish) a few weeks after rarely saw at all. There was think, I distinctly remember starting there at the age of always a sense that we could asking my mother why she five. I think from the day I never trust anyone outside had children at all - a started school, my life the family, that I didn’t need question that I must have must have been a constant friends as I had my brothers. asked in response to her reminder of all the things Although I don’t carry the melancholy that day. She mum never had the opportu- happiest of memories from answered ‘to laugh in Hitler’s nity to do. In me, growing up my very early childhood, I face’. At that age, I didn’t in a safe and easy world, learnt much later on that know who Hitler was. she would have identified the confusion, upset and So in our way, I suppose with the little girl she was loneliness I felt, is in fact you can say we are laughing. forbidden to be. totally understandable and Alongside my own four There is no doubt that rational to those in any way children, there are seven mum did so much for the four affected like me by the more grandchildren. My of us. My mum and I did Holocaust or to those who mother is the sweetest, most not have the easiest of rela- have made learning about thoughtful, loving grand- tionships for many years but the Holocaust their cause. mother. She brings so much that does not take away from With this mixture of joy to her grandchildren and I her my acknowledgment that emotions, an additional can see they do to her too. she did her very best for us. complexity was added in Life has been hard and cruel She fought our corner and later years, in the shape of for her but she has eleven wanted the best for us. After guilt. Not a survivor guilt as I sparkling jewels, who engulf attending the local primary understand survivor guilt but her with their smiles and comprehensive, where I do a guilt for not having the hugs whenever they are with not recollect knowing much tools to understand sooner her. We survived, we are about being Jewish, she the world my mother was surviving and as our children sacrificed a lot to send the born into. It’s a guilt for grow up and PG go on to have four of us to Carmel College, feeling sorry for myself that I their own, they will be in an a Jewish boarding school that did not have it as easy as my emotional place to live life to is sadly now no longer. For friends who I saw growing up its full. me it was a life saviour. I carefree and with easy As for being a mother loved boarding, having straightforward social lives myself? I too am trying my friends and discovering what and family dynamics. There best. I wish for my kids, who being Jewish meant. was also guilt about my are my absolute life, a fun My very earliest memories feelings that I too in my own loving, carefree environment though, are ones of feeling way felt like I too was a where they grow up proud different. I don’t remember survivor. Of course, I did not of their Jewish identity, much laughter around the bear anything of the sort of confident in themselves and house. There weren’t many hardships my mother surrounded by a wonderful friends. Life in hindsight was endured but whilst I was extended family and friends. quite intense around the born into a free world, I felt So far, so hopeful!
47 Walking the same path, my visit to Poland Chlie Kaye y Grandpa is a to any other Jew who Mspectacular man whose Chloe is the granddaughter of stumbled across the little history has always enthralled Harry and Margaret Omer. village. It was Charshninza, me. He has a dark past, my Grandpa’s childhood being part of the biggest home - a village full of Jews persecution of the Jews in the through ‘the parted sea’ I seventy-five years ago and Holocaust but even the started to understand the now it was home to Poles darkest memories need to be meaning; I am a Jew and memories. As we stood explored. My Grandpa had a and although we have been opposite the sight where my mission - to take all his persecuted in abhorrent Great Grandma’s house once children and grandchildren ways- the Nazis did not win stood, we came across an old to witness the horrors he and we can pass through to man. It turned out that the experienced in Poland from freedom. old man remembered my 1942-45, and as one of the The long journey to Grandpa and could even youngest grandchildren, I Skarzysko was next, a bomb recite the names of his family, was in the third trip he had making factory where my in ten minutes everyone in taken. Grandpa was forced to work the village was out of their Many of my friends will left me pondering what homes and watching us. We discover Poland through would be there today. There were the tourist attraction - organised trips run by was a monument standing the ‘one’s that survived the schools or youth organisa- there where the ammunitions ultimate atrocity’. The Poles tions, but I was in a unique who lived in the Charsznica factory was. While my position, with a trip that seemed polite, however Grandpa was translating the was personal to my family. I something that surprised me writing from Polish to needed to hear from my was when my Grandpa Grandpa the horrors he had English all of our jaws understatedly said “Terrible endured in Plaszow, instantaneously dropped. It times”. The old man just Skarzysko, Buchenwald and read that 35,000 people had shrugged his shoulders and Thereisenstat concentration given their lives so that replied, “History”. How could camps to fully understand my others could live, it did not someone who witnessed history. mention Jews and referred to seventy years ago Jews being I flew to Warsaw along them as ‘people’. As a matter rounded up and shot give a with my parents, brother, of fact, those 35,000 dead reply like that? He showed no sister, cousin, uncle and of were all Jews and had not sympathy and I realised the course my Grandpa. The first decided to give up their lives, perpetrators of these acts stop was the Warsaw Ghetto they were forced to in against humanity were memorial; a communist conditions described by my ordinary people. The dilapi- monument that although Grandpa as “hell on earth”. dated shuls in the village beautifully designed could Not only was there no were still covered in not justify the 400,000 Jews mention of the Jews but the swastika graffiti; no one had living in terrible conditions monument had a cross on it. thought to remove it in as prisoners in their Where was the Magen David? all these years. I couldn’t own country. The Jewish This is not what my Grandpa have been happier when museum, which was not yet deserved after almost dying we left Charsznica, which open, was positioned next to from constant explosions surprisingly still seemed full the monument; the outside of and deadly diseases for of racism. the building was made to look six months; there was no We stayed the night in like the splitting of the Red recognition, just a Christian Krakow, in the Jewish Sea. To me, this seems ironic monument to 35,000 dead quarter which was re-built - the passing through the Red ‘people’ instead of a Jewish for the film set of ‘Schindler’s Sea represents to a Jew monument for 35,000 dead List’. It all felt slightly awaited freedom, but in a Jews. surreal. They were selling museum in the heart of The Nothing could have Hassidic Jewish fridge mag- Warsaw Ghetto none of the prepared me for the next part nets and commercialising the Jewish people felt freedom so of our journey; it was not a Jews in a way I had never how could this relate? concentration camp and seen. We travelled the Despite this, when walking would have been meaningless surprisingly short distance to
48 Poland’s number one tourist bones. The new memorial Curator standing there attraction - Auschwitz. It was was a breath-taking sight, holding a massive board. On heaving with people, and our something that dwarfs even the board was the story of my tour had around fifty people Yad Vashem. A sea of rocks Great Grandmother who on it. Although my Grandpa covered the entire sight of the unfortunately lost her life at did not go to Auschwitz in the former camp, darker rocks Belzec. The board was part years 1942-45, his sister did represented where the mass of the exhibition. I expected and survived it, and for that graves were. The Curator of my Grandpa to look sad as it reason it felt more personal the museum explained how was his mother’s story and than just a museum. when the Nazis were finished how she died so young; but Auschwitz-Birkenau was a murdering all the Jews from when looking at his face I place where people of all southern Poland, they noticed he looked proud and different races mourned the planted hundreds of trees to grateful, people from all over dead, as we walked along the cover the evidence. Only ten the world will read the story iconic railway track line years ago those trees were of his mother and he couldn’t leading out the camp we cut down. However, when have been happier to keep remembered those 1.2 million walking round the memorial the memories of her alive. My who could not make that I saw a few lone trees -1 was Grandpa now has a close journey out. confused as to why these relationship with the Curator That evening it was trees had not been cut down. of the museum, and Shabbat and we went to the I later found out that those consequently she took us on main Shul in the centre of the few trees had been planted in an insightful tour around the Jewish quarter in Krakow, I the 1920’s - they were the museum. The tour ended was expecting a little Shul only living things that with us entering a massive, with just a few people in it survived from the camp and empty, dark room it was and not a proper service had borne witness to what at least 200m long and the going on. To my surprise the the Nazis did. The trees had room was just empty; Shul was so busy; as we seen how in true Nazi there was no information in danced and sung familiar ‘efficiency’ they would have there... just emptiness. There songs I felt a sense of pride. gassed 1,000 Jews at a time did not need to be any infor- Jews dancing, dancing in a and buried them within two mation though, it was self- Shul in a town where Hitler hours. explanatory. The massive tried to wipe us all out - and We walked down the long emptiness represented the it had not worked evidently tunnel; surrounded on either huge emptiness in our hearts as there were no seats left in side by mass graves and even and as a nation because of the ladies section to sit on though you couldn’t see the the Holocaust. during the service. gas chambers we knew All together, I think Belzec The next part of our underneath the rocks there was a part of my trip I will journey was crucial for my were 500,000 people with never forget, it was close to Grandpa and for us to see; it 500,000 stories. At the end of our hearts and very powerful. was 20km from the the tunnel there was an I also realised there why my Ukrainian border and was imposing memorial, my Grandpa wanted to go back the Extermination Camp Grandpa recited Yizkor to Poland and visit where he called Belzec. Belzec was not and Kaddish- and we lived, worked and lost his like Auschwitz, you went to remembered my family and family. It’s not that he Belzec - for the purpose of how the Nazis stole their wanted to - it’s that he had to. death. 500,000 Jewish people precious lives. We were the Without him going to visit had been murdered there only people walking around where he lost his family, the in nine months and this the massive memorial, Belzec story of his mother which is included my Grandpa’s does not tend to be part of the on a board in the centre of the mother, two sisters, aunts, Jewish Poland tours - this is museum would not be there. uncles and cousins. I knew somehow shocking as it is a They only have 2,000 names that it would be an emotional place so many lives were of those who died in Belzec day. The museum at Belzec is lost and pure death camps because whole towns were a fairly new museum which like Belzec need to be wiped out, but my Grandpa opened in 2004; before then remembered. going back to visit gave my Grandpa said there was After the emotional walk twenty untold names of just a small memorial around the memorial, we people he knew who died in enveloped with overgrowing went into the museum and Belzec. Sometimes we have to trees and dogs digging up we were greeted by the revisit the past to keep the
49 memories of our loved ones spend more than five minutes My visit to Poland with my alive. in the barracks; I could not Grandpa was one my family On our last day we visited imagine how people lived in and I will remember forever. Majdenek concentration there on boiling hot days To be able to have had my camp. This was a true packed in with 300 other Grandpa as a guide who representation of the people. witnessed the anti-Semitism Holocaust as nothing had Walking through the gas and evil caused by the Nazis been destroyed - everything chambers which were was intact as if it was in unchanged was extremely was extremely special. It is 1944. We stood at the top of powerful, the walls were still up to us as the Third the steps of the open round covered in blue which was Generation to keep the mausoleum which housed the caused by the excessive use stories alive when the ashes of 18,000 Jews - but it of Zyklon B. I could still Holocaust survivors are no wasn’t just ashes it was a smell the pungent gas; this longer around. Even in the representation of the six reminded me that seventy face of evil itself you must million Jewish men, women years is just a small time- not show and tell so people can and children who were long enough to remove the learn from it. This is why my completely annihilated. It smell of death. There was Grandpa is so incredible. He was a boiling hot day and as also a barrack completely full re- lives the evil every time we entered the old barracks of rotting leather shoes, the the stench of wood hit me, not stench was overpowering but he goes to tell his story to a only was the smell too strong we stayed in there and looked school, a shul, a church and but the heat engulfed me and at them. A lot of the shoes when he visits Poland to give I had to leave as soon as were toddler’s shoes, there tours. You have to re-live evil possible. It was too hot and we no words to describe how in order to make the world a the smell too bad for me to we felt. better place. My journey with Holocaust echoes Ilana Gelb 2000 eyes stare at me, antici- sible inhumanity, and is pating heartbreak. I stand at Ilana is the granddaughter of the origin of my desire to the podium in the school Judith and Reuven Sherman. understand and prevent auditorium with my grand- Due to her global human human violence. This quest mother. My grandma begins, has taken me to the red light interests, she spends much of “Sixty-five years ago I do district of Varanasi, India; her time studying and not die, though my death the slums of Thika, Kenya; sentence is proclaimed in volunteering around the the crematorium of Ravensbruck Concentration world. Auschwitz, Poland. In each Camp. I am witness to that place I find much hurt and time of terror and death and empowerment. My grandma much heart. In Varanasi, I today my granddaughter, has taught me that survival traded jovial dance lessons liana, is witness to my means creating a life in with the girls. In Kenya, I survival and my life.” I which music, laughter, and sang around campfires with continue, “I know the joy are plentiful. By day I the farmers’ families. In immorality that the world is intern in refugee resettle- Poland, I laughed for hours capable of and feel that I ment, and by night I sashay with my family over pierogi must gird and guard against across my jazz funk dance dinners. These joyous it. In this Holocaust presen- class. Between chapters of memories give me optimism, tation, I am a witness; but in my human rights textbook, I and the memories of human my life, I am an activist.” My play Mumford and Sons suffering I witnessed moti- grandma and I speak of songs on my ukulele. After vate me to continue the fight death, slavery, starvation, racial equality protests in towards equality and peace. and torture. We tell of the New York, I indulge in As much as the Holocaust continuation of these horrors homemade feasts with haunts me, it has fostered my today. Then we talk about friends. My grandma’s drive to participate actively hope and survival, and trans- description of the Holocaust in lessening hardships and formation of trauma into has shown me incomprehen- spreading joy.
50 70th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation: ‘Why I had to visit this Monstrous Memorial’ Simmy Richman
Simmy Richman, who had long believed that visits to the concentration camp were little more than macabre tourism, took a journey that he never thought he’d take. n the late 1970s, two According to one version of passage. But, I reasoned, IAmerican television series events, once my grandfather there are also those who were shown in the UK. One had put his wife and two chil- jump at the chance to visit was called The Holocaust, the dren on a plane to England, any site of historic eveil – other was called Roots. As an he remained in Frankfurt to Ground Zero, the killing impressionable 13-year-old tie up some loose ends and fields of war, the trails of boy living in what was then a was taken to an internment serial killers and so on. Why predominantly Jewish north camp and detained until fur- didn't they just tear London suburb, one of these ther payments were made. Auschwitz down after the shows was to have a deep and Whatever it is that actually war, I would ask whenever lasting effect on me. Over the happened back then, it’s safe the subject came up. following decades, I would to say that things could have Who needs to see such read everything I could lay turned out differently for me monstrousness in person, my hands on related to the and my family. and why? subject. From the horrors of The concentration camps Meantime, when I was the Middle Passage to the were literally the stuff of about six years old, one of my bruised optimism of the civil childhood nightmares and my brothers started dating a girl, rights movement to the art of younger years were haunted Michelle, who is now his wife the Harlem Renaissance… no by a succession of what-ifs; of some 37 years. Michelle’s aspect of the African- what if I had been born a father quickly became part of American experience would mere 20 years earlier? What our expanding family. I escape my attention. if my father had not escaped? called him “uncle” and have Psychologists call this What if I had grown up always thought of him as “displacement” (loosely, the surrounded by some or all of such. I knew, too, that Uncle redirecting of thoughts and the many Rajchmans left Ziggy was a “survivor”, feelings about one subject on behind? though he had steadfastly to another) and, though I As I got older and ventured refused to speak of his didn’t know it back then, I out into the world away from wartime experiences for some was a classic case. The that Jewish suburb, I came to 50 years. intended genocide of the the conclusion that religion The breakthrough came Jewish people in the Second was not a pick-and-choose when Ziggy Shipper was World War was too close to pastime. You were either in interviewed by the historian home to deal with. How it, or you were out. So while Martin Gilbert for a book close? My father was born in I’ve always strived to be a called ‘The Boys’ in the Frankfurt, his father in a good person, I have always mid-1990s. Once he had told Polish shtetl (small town). been a terrible Jew (I was the his story to Gilbert, it was The Rajchmans’ – my father first Richman, or Rajchman difficult to stop him and, changed the name just before to my knowledge, to “Marry ever since, Ziggy has been I was born – eventual escape out”). Consequently, the idea speaking tirelessly on behalf was a subject we never spoke of ever returning to any of the of the Holocaust Education about, but through whispers scenes of the Nazis’ crimes Trust (HET) up and down the and guarded answers to never particularly appealed. country. He has told his insistent questions, it seems The very thought of visiting story to prime ministers, that my grandfather paid his the concentration camps politicians, schoolchildren immediate family’s way out themselves felt positively and the England football with the judicious help of dia- macabre. I have known team. His central message is monds from his gem-cutting many Jewish people who that once you let hate business. have done this as a rite of into your heart, it can lead
51 anywhere. When people tell constantly being told to stick been to see my bedroom?” he Ziggy, as they do frequently, with our own. If you marry jokes at one stage, pointing to that he is an “inspiration” for non-Jewish partners, parents one of the grim wooden his HET work, he tells them and teachers would tell you barracks that were originally that his wife of 60 years is frequently, you would be horse stables. more of a survivor than he is. doing Hitler’s work for him. There are sights and In this way he deflects the If all Jews were to marry out, stories so horrific that the glare. Hitler would have won. It is gloom can only be lifted by A few months ago, I was a heavy burden to put on such attempts at humour. talking to Ziggy at one family young shoulders. Many carry Human beings have a limited event or another. I don’t it around with them for the vocabulary to describe what understand, I said to him, rest of their lives. Others, they are seeing. Words why anyone would want to myself included, not only such as “Terrible” and visit Auschwitz. His reject such responsibility, “unbelievable” will be heard response was brief and but actively believe in many times throughout the brooked no argument: assimilation – the melting day. And the permanent “Everybody should.” pot, multiculturalism, the “exhibits” are, of course, And so it is that I find mixing up of gene pools. This unforgettable; the piles of myself on a coach trip in way, too, surely blurs Hitler’s shoes, suitcases and human Poland ñ organised with vision of “racial purity”. hair can hardly fail to evoke a some degree of excellence by The grim horror of the response. The mere sight of a a man called Chuni Kahan – preserved concentration barbed-wire fence has stung to visit the concentration camps is unrelenting. Now a me ever since. camps of Auschwitz and vast “museum”, there is Finally, in a room near the Birkenau (Auschwitz II). much to support my initial end of the tour, is The Book Ziggy is the guest of honour reticence to visit (the selfies of Names, a document and there are about a dozen at the gates aspect of the painstakingly compiled members of his family and “tourist” experience, the that aims to preserve the mine on board. For me, it is bizarre selling of items such identities of as many of the an excuse to spend some time as a postcard with a picture people killed by the Nazis as with Ziggy (neither of us is of empty Zyklon B canisters is possible. The Book of getting any younger) but the in the shop etc) and much Names is about the length of trip is also a chance to see that offers the opposite view. a bus and each page is first-hand whether there Throughout, there is an approximately three feet might be anything to learn obsession with numbers that high. I find two pages full of from something I have spent serves only to numb. the Rajchmans I will never my whole life trying to shut Thousands, hundreds of know. out. thousands, millions… It is no surprise to be Ziggy has, of course, made Soviets, Poles, Gypsies, moved by these things but it this trip more times than he homosexuals… The statistics is left to chance exactly what cares to count. He speaks become impossible to digest. will get you and when. For often about the first time The sheer scale of the camps me, it is the room with wall- he did so with his two themselves is unimaginable. to-wall projections of black daughters; he remembers Auschwitz and – when that and white films of Jewish standing at the end of the was no longer big enough – families going about their train track that leads into its nearby annexe Birkenau, day-to-day business before Birkenau, at the precise were nothing less than vast the war. point where the dreaded murder factories; slaughter The contrast of these “selection” processes on an industrial scale. Those scenes of bustling life against occurred, looking towards the who were permitted to live a backdrop of a place like this sky and telling Michelle and were largely allowed to do so hits with some force. And her sister Lu that they were to keep the factories and though the Nazis were keen the living proof that Hitler surrounding fields manned. not to document the actual did not win. Ziggy spent much of the war gas chambers, there are It is a phrase that has in the Lodz ghetto, in Poland, photographs, from something complicated echoes for me. but was transported to known as The Auschwitz As Jewish kids, we were Birkenau in 1944. “Have you Album, of people from
52 Hungary and Lodz straight anyway, many of them festivals attended almost out of the cattle cars, waiting want me to know that their entirely by Roman Catholics. on a grass verge for their families are not originally There is a newly opened turn in the “shower”. The from Germany. Museum of the History of look of hope on their faces is A few weeks ago, David Polish Jews. The Polish devastating. Cameron made his own way government continues to Could they really not have along the same paths we did fund the Auschwitz Museum known what was about to and talked about his and is determined to keep the happen? I ask Ziggy what “overwhelming sense of visitors coming (in record he had thought the giant grief”. Later this month, numbers) to learn about the chimney stacks were for. He Ziggy will be going back once evils of the Nazi invaders in tells me that when he more to commemorate the their country. stepped off the train and saw 70th anniversary of the And so we come, finally, to them in the distance, he felt camps’ liberation. As to why the point at which any writer relieved that at last he had Auschwitz and Birkenau worth their salt would reach arrived at a place where they have been preserved, well, if a satisfying conclusion on the were baking fresh bread. He you learn nothing else from question of whether or not was 13 years old, starving visiting these places it is people should go to see these hungry and hardened by that the majority of Polish landmarks of lunacy for what he had seen. Even he people want it to be known themselves. Perhaps, after could not begin to imagine…. that while their country decades of avoiding the Outside, I ask a group of undoubtedly had (and has) subject as much as is German school kids what its share of anti-Semites, the possible, I can finally report they have made of their own atrocities committed here that my mind has been visit. They repeat the now were nothing to do with changed, my eyes have been familiar words: “terrible”, them. opened and that I, too, “unbelievable”. I tell them In fact, there is a like Ziggy, now believe that I am Jewish and ask determined effort on the part that everybody should them how the experience of many young Poles to visit these miserable feels to them as Germans. celebrate their country’s memorials. I only wish it it is the same, they say, Jewish heritage. There are were that simple. wherever you are from. And klezmer (Jewish music) Gryn-ing all the way Suzanne Baum ust like the late Rabbi Gryn grew up in a very JHugo Grun, his grandson The grandson of the late creative family and became Isaac hopes to be loved and Rabbi Hugo Gryn has interested in acting at a very respected for his work in the embraced the world of young age. same way he believes his theatre. Suzanne Baum “I went to Akiva Primary grandfather was. However, chats to Isaac Gryn about School and we had a fantastic rather than a pulpit, it is the making a name for himself in and inspiring ex-Ballet stage where Isaac is already Billy Elliot and his next Rambert Dance Company making a name for himself as steps. teacher called Mari he pursues a career in acting. Mackenzie who gave dance Having already appeared and musical theatre classes. in a number of musicals, at my happiest,” enthused “She inspired me to perform including the West End Gryn, who lives in Highgate. and take an interest in production of Billy Elliot, “I am proud of knowing theatre and we still remain 16-year-old Gryn is very who my grandfather was and close family friends.” much at home in musical what role he played within Having played all the lead theatre. the Jewish community. My roles in his school plays, as “I absolutely love dream is to be as successful well as performing in a local performing. I come alive an actor as he was a rabbi.” theatre production of the when I am on stage and am As the son of two artists, musical Oliver, Gryn’s big
53 break came when he got the having to get up at 6am in Educational School in role of Tall Boy in Billy Elliot order to get ready for school. Chiswick, Gryn intends to – a part he played for a year “What it made me realise is get as much experience as in 2010. (Tall Boy is the son that I loved the work and I possible. of a miner who crosses the also loved my school and so to “I’m doing everything I can picket line to work. He maintain a school life and right now to enhance my appears in the opening scene work balance, I had to chances of making a name for and later in the boxing scene become very self-disciplined, myself as a professional with Billy and Michael doing diligent and focused – actor. push-ups – a part that qualities which have “My goal is to one day have required Gryn to do many remained pretty strong leading roles in film, TV, push-ups on stage and within me every since.” dance, musical theatre and additional ones during More recently, Gryn traditional theatre.” rehearsals). performed in the National “One of the most exciting Youth Musical Theatre’s As for the future, Gryn parts of being involved with production of West Side hopes to move abroad and try the show was the fact I got to Story, a musical which and make a name for himself work with some of the best happens to be his favourite. in America. Should he find directors in the industry,” “My agent is Curtis Brown fame, he is adamant it won’t explained Gryn. and they have been go to his head. “The whole experience of absolutely fantastic. I have “If I follow my dreams and being in such an amazing been put up by them for my career takes off my musical was a great learning many auditions for major family will ensure I remain curve for me. film, theatre and TV roles grounded. “They have “I realised very quickly over the last few years and always supported me as they that it was not at all as they have helped guide my know how alive I feel when I glamorous a job as it looks. career. am on stage.” It was, in fact, hard and “Even if I don’t get the In the same way that Rabbi repetitive work. I had no parts, I always relish the Hugo Gryn was deeply compensation from my school challenge and see auditions admired for his work, it for the fact that I was as a great learning seems his grandson may working many nights until experience.” soon be following in his 11pm and then was still Now attending the Arts grandfather’s footsteps. ’45 Aid Society and Second Generation our submission to the UK Holocaust Commission 2014
n 2014 Prime Minister of human history, we stand in Ben Helfgott and Jack IDavid Cameron estab- admiration of what our Kagan, participated actively lished a Commission, Holocaust survivors have as Commissioners, and Chaired by Mick Davis to given to our country and following consultation with determine the best way for we stand united in our resolve members, Maurice Helfgott the UK to commemorate to fight prejudice and dis- wrote this submission on the Holocaust for future crimination in all its forms.” our behalf. generations. In January 2015 The result of the the recommendations of Prime Minister Pledges Commission’s work, the cross-party Holocaust Prominent Holocaust including the setting up of a Commission were accepted. Memorial for Britain new permanent UK Mr Cameron said: Holocaust Memorial “Today we stand together - The ’45 Aid Society and Authority Chaired by Sir whatever our faith, whatever Second Generation have been Peter Bazalgette, and a £50m our creed, whatever our at the heart of the campaign commitment to kick-start politics. We stand in remem- for remembrance and plans to establish a National brance of those who were education for over 50 years. Memorial/Learning Centre murdered in the darkest hour Two of our members, with on-going education.
54 Response from ‘45 Aid As second and third gener- Suggested Principles for Society Holocaust ation we have joined with our Consideration: Survivors and parents and grandparents to Second & Third continue their mission today 1. Please don’t confuse Generation and into the future. the ‘universal’ and the ‘particular’. The Holocaust May, 2014 RESPONSE TO THE was a unique historical event COMMISSION - SOME in a particular place and BACKGROUND TO ‘45 SUGGESTED time. It has universal AID SOCIETY/SECOND PRINCIPLES: and timeless lessons for GENERATION: humanity. Historical and http://www.2ndgeneration.org.uk/ We have respect for, and other comparisons made to gratitude to, the Prime illustrate universal lessons - Of the very few Jews that Minister and HM or still less, to score political survived the death camps, Government for taking points - denigrate the slave camps and death Holocaust teaching and memory of the victims, as marches of Hitler’s Reich, commemoration seriously, well as undermine the sixty nine years ago, 732 of and for establishing this message. those survivors, most of them Commission. We are proud boys, about eighty of them citizens - proud of Britain’s 2. Take the long view. girls, made the journey to long history as a liberal, The Commission might study Britain. They travelled under democratic nation, that the historiography of the the auspices of the Central courageously fought the Holocaust before finalising British Fund, a Jewish Nazis and champions its conclusions. The way the organisation that had been tolerance and the rule of law history of the Holocaust has active in helping refugees - and proud Jews, following been studied and taught, and since the rise of Hitler in in our traditions, close to our the attitudes toward it, have 1933. community and integrated in evolved rapidly over just 70 What this particular group society. years, and inevitably will of orphan refugees had in We fully endorse the continue to do so. Accuracy common, apart from their importance of the Prime and integrity must take wartime experiences, was the Minister’s goal for the priority over empathy and journey they made together. Commission: “to make sure engagement: because only In the months and years that we learn the lessons of the truth can last. followed other Holocaust dreadful events that survivors joined them from happened” and to ensure that 3. Personal stories can across Europe, all needing a “in 50 years’ time, in 2064, bridge the gap between new start to life. when a young British history and statistics - and In 1963, the ‘Boys’ set up Christian child or a young engagement and under- their own ‘45 Aid Society - British Muslim child or a standing. Testimonies of the Holocaust Survivors’ - a young British Jewish child victims of Nazi persecution charitable organisation, wants to learn about the can and should be brought named after the year they Holocaust, and we as a to life. Specifically we, first came to Britain. Their country want them to learn as Holocaust survivors mission has been to remem- about the Holocaust... it is as and second and third genera- ber those who were lost; to vibrant and strong a memory tion, can play a role in con- help their members who as it is today, with all of you tributing to understanding. needed help; to teach the ‘Survivors’ standing here in Explaining: “this happened to lessons of the Holocaust; to this room”. me/to my mother/to my spread the message of We are familiar with much grandfather” can be powerful tolerance; and to help others of the material the experts and persuasive. more widely. will submit to the The ‘45 Aid Society has Commission and therefore 4. Teaching teachers and remained proudly indepen- will not repeat in this society’s role models is a dent, operating solely as a submission, offering, instead, priority. The Holocaust voluntary organisation a number of principles we and its meaning is not a without professional hold dear that we would ask superficial subject. Teachers administration the Commission to consider: should benefit from the
55 continual preparation and (http://www.anotherspace.org marches of Hitler’s Reich, we depth of understanding .uk/a2a/). respectfully ask that the required to teach and answer term ‘survivor’ be used questions from a position of 7. There is already a lot carefully and appropriately. knowledge and confidence. going on - increased This is not because we believe transparency and commu- that the term should imply 5. Great Britain played a nication, as well as co- ‘automatic status’ or ‘the vital role in defeating operation. An independent, pinnacle in a hierarchal Nazism, and, led by comprehensive, dedicated classification of suffering’. its Jewish community, and well resourced website, The losses and suffering of welcomed Jewish mapping and helping access each victim of Nazi persecu- refugees before the war, all resources and activities tion is individual and not for and survivors after it. should come up first for comparison. Each testimony Without propaganda or online search is valid and equally valued. bombast, Britain’s role and We do, however, believe that values should be positively 8. Mind our Language. for our great grandchildren to recognised. We should take care not to remember the victims and forget that the victims of learn the lessons in 2064, and 6. Grass roots initiatives Nazi persecution that 2164, and 2264, historical are important as well suffered the greatest loss accuracy and careful use of as centralised ones. A were those who did not language must prevail. balanced spread of Holocaust survive. In recent times the For the record, as children education, commemorative term “Survivor” has evolved and grandchildren of sur- events, memorials and from applying to those who vivors, the second and third museums, should continue to who were caught up in Nazi- generation, we categorically develop. Top down AND occupied Europe after do not regard ourselves as bottom up. Just one example, September Ist 1939, to a survivors and we reject close to our particular hearts, looser definition, for example absolutely the notion that we is the wonderful exhibition including refugees who left are victims. that has captured local before the beginning of the imagination in the war and, sometimes, modern Maurice Helfgott Windermere Public Library. Jewish communities in this On behalf of the ‘45 Aid Originated and staffed by generation who assert “we Society Holocaust local volunteers, it tells the are all survivors too”. Survivors/Second & Third story of 300 of the “the Boys” Generation who came to the “paradise” As Holocaust survivors who that was the Lake District endured the death camps, London, May 2014 after their liberation in 1945 slave labour camps and death Craig Rinder Craig is the elder son of um is the daughter of Angela Cohen, who is the felt relieved to leave. The MMoshe Malenicky, one of Vice-Chairman of the ’45 Aid next day we went on to the Boys who were liberated Society, and the grandson of Auschwitz. Despite this trip from Theresienstadt and Moishe Malenicky. being nearly 17 years ago, I settled here nearly 70 years can remember every detail as ago. Zaida Morry, as he was Poland, where he was born if it was yesterday. It was a known to me, and his four and lived with his parents, very emotional, tough few other grandchildren, was younger brother and three days and yet one of the most very much the dominant younger sisters. Zaida was memorable moments was figure in our family. He the only survivor. Piotrkow witnessing the bond between passed away in 2001. felt like a town that stopped my Zaida and a number of his In 1998 I went with Zaida when the war commenced in contemporaries. I had never and some of the Boys to 1939, and had yet to re-start. seen him in this environment Piotrkow Trybunalski in We spent a day there and I before and the closeness
56 between the men and women to the fore was the large My Zaida was a man of the was something to behold. For increase in French Jews world, interested in other all the horror that these emigrating to Israel. During cultures and religions. A people had been through, the last six years there has proud observant Jew, he they all retained their human been a significant rise in respected everyone’s right to traits. There were tears, but support for far right parties live how they wished. He there was also laughter and across Europe. A number of loved Britain and the fact he joking. The one feeling that I people would say many of had built a wonderful life can’t remember was hatred. these incidents are a direct here. Indeed his story of None of these men or women, result of Israel and the success is something of a and my Zaida in particular, conflict in the Middle East, metaphor for a number of ‘the never hated. and I think it is fair to Boys’ who have prospered To hate.... To dislike attribute some of these here over the last 70 years. It intensely or passionately. incidents to that. is story we must embrace and To feel extreme hostility or Nonetheless it appears that never forget. As the third aversion toward something or Israel has become something generation I see it as my someone.’ of a convenient camouflage as responsibility to educate and In 2014 the CST recorded Anti-Semitism comes to the remind. The annual reunion 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents fore again. 2008 saw the must be celebrated so that worldwide. This was more onset of the worst financial the 5th and 6th generations than double the previous crisis since the Great continue it for their year’s figure. In January the Depression of the 1930s. children and grandchildren. terror attacks at the Hyper It doesn’t appear a huge The ‘hate’ is still there Cacher Supermarket in Paris co-incidence that in such an …The ‘Boys’ never hated, shocked much of the civilised age of economic hardship they remembered but world. However, another ‘the hatred’ has come to the never hated. We must do the issue these attacks brought surface again. same.
SECTION IV THE ANNUAL LEONARD G. MONTEFIORE LECTURE
William Tyler
To some it may seem like only yesterday, to others as remote as 1066. 1943: The Tide Turns William Tyler
s 1942 turned into 1943, the defeat at Stalingrad, since Japan’s attack on the Athe tipping point of the before a specially selected American fleet in Pearl war was being battled out at audience, and broadcast Harbour. There are in fact in Stalingrad. The Russian vic- across the nation. Goebbels 1943 two great wars being tory at Stalingrad in early ended with this peroration, fought, the war in Asia and 1943 was, in hindsight at ‘Now, people rise up and let the war in North Africa and least, the beginning of the storm break loose!’ in Europe. the end - although Stalin As for Hitler, by 1943 he But let me turn first to the recognised this at the time was taking a concoction of at situation in Germany itself. when he remarked, ‘The least twenty-eight different German home-grown resis- cause of German fascism is drugs - and he was becoming tance to the regime was lost’. The tide is turning. more dependent on them. His beginning to make itself The Nazis themselves mental and physical decline heard in 1943. Sophie Scholl, realised this in February in is becoming increasingly her brother and a third Goebbels’ so-called ‘Total evident. The tide is turning. colleague were executed by War’ Speech. The speech was By 1943 the world war has guillotine for distributing delivered in Berlin, following been global for over a year, anti-war literature at the
57 University of Munich. Her them as conscientious juggernaut is moving slowly, own motivation was her objectors. After the war they but inexorably, towards its strong Catholic faith. She is were denied a war pension. target of Berlin. And as I reported to have said at her They have been described as noted at the beginning it was trial, ‘Somebody, after all, ‘Britain’s Forgotten Secret the Russian victory at had to make a start. What we Army’. Their service wasn’t Stalingrad that began the wrote and said is also officially recognised until process that is to end in believed by many others. 2008. Hitler’s Berlin bunker itself. They just didn’t dare express As for the war Britain and On the last day of January themselves as we did’. its Western Allies, the Free 1943, Von Paulus surren- As she went to her French of General De Gaulle dered at Stalingrad and execution in Munich’s Prison and the Americans, were ninety thousand Germans she added, ‘How can we fighting, the scene in 1943 were taken prisoner by the expect righteousness to moves from North Africa Russians. All this despite prevail when there is hardly to the European mainland Hitler’s order that they anyone willing to give in Italy. In May of ‘43 should fight on to the last themselves up individually to Rommel’s Afrika Corps man: ‘Forbid surrender. The a righteous cause. Such a finally surrendered at Tunis. army will hold its position to fine, sunny day, and I have to A total of a hundred and fifty the last soldier and the last go, but what does my death thousand Germans and cartridge, and by its heroic matter if through us Italians were taken Prisoners endurance will make an thousands of people are of War. Two months later unforgettable contribution to awakened and stirred to Allied Forces landed on the the building of the defensive action?’ The tide is turning, if island of Sicily, and the front and the salvation of by very slow degrees. Italian King, Victor Western civilisation.’ But the war is to run for a Emmanuel, dismissed his In July the great tank further two horrendously Chief Minister and the battle of Kursk was fought murderous years, and Fascist and real leader of the and won by The Red Army, although other Germans country, Benito Mussolini. thus turning back the were indeed stirred to action; The new Prime Minister, German counter attack on in the following year we have Marshal Badoglio, and the The Eastern Front, spear- for example the Von king, hesitated for six weeks headed by a million men and Stauffenberg Plot, yet Hitler before declaring for The three thousand tanks with is destined to die not at an Allies and breaking their Moscow as their objective. assassin’s hand but at his alliance with Nazi Germany. The tide IS turning. own, his whole world having Of course by then The Allies The RAF and The USAAF come crashing down around had landed in Italy itself, at are now targeting German him. Salerno, and offered the cities. On 19th August In Britain, on The Home Italian Government an Brendan Bracken, the British Front, some people were armistice. The Germans Minister of Information growing tired of this constant flooded into Italy as far south said, ‘Plans are now being and draining war. A war that as Naples in order to stem made to bomb and burn and was now clearly going to be the Allied advance, whilst ruthlessly destroy in every longer even than the First Victor Emmanuel and way available to us the War; and American Marshal Badoglio abandoned people responsible for this Servicemen added a je ne sais their positions. The tide is war’. quoi to wartime life. turning. In the month of November, In December the first of Mussolini himself was for example, two thousand forty-eight thousand Bevin rescued from imprisonment tons of bombs were dropped Boys were called up for the by the Germans and installed on the city of Dusseldorf in first time to go and work in as a puppet leader of Italy. less than half an hour of the coal mines to boost During the year Free aerial bombardment. It is production levels for the war French forces liberated the also the year that saw the effort. The boys themselves first part of European famous Dambuster Raid. The were selected by lot, and France, the island of Corsica. tide is turning. most were none too pleased, The tide is turning. The tide is turning and the especially as many thought of To the East the Soviet Allied Leaders are looking
58 towards the ending of this Orde Wingate leads his area. Up to summer 1942 war. Chindit force behind enemy estimated one hundred In November Churchill and lines. thousand died of starvation, Roosevelt met in Cairo with And where we ended disease, or were executed. Chiang Kai-Shek and agreed last year’s talk, with the In July 1942 300k were on fighting for the uncondi- unspeakable horror of The sent to camps, most to tional surrender of Japan, Final Solution, so we turn Treblinka. and putting the clock back, in again this evening to The In 1943 Himmler ordered terms of territory, to the pre Holocaust which was now an end to the Jews of Japanese conquests of 1894. reaching truly horrendous Warsaw. The two Western Leaders levels across Europe. There was resistance as also discussed the next On 29th July 1969 Josef the Germans moved in at Conference, which was duly Blosche was executed in 6am on the 19th April. held in Teheran at the end of Leipzig, East Germany. He In a month of fighting 60k the month. This conference was shot through the neck. inhabitants of the Ghetto was attended by Stalin and He had been a member of The died. Estimated only 100 marks the moment when SS. To the Jews of The Jews survived the uprising. Churchill, and Britain, are Warsaw Ghetto he was The horror goes on, but the clearly seen as playing known as ‘Frankenstein’. tide has begun slowly to turn second figure to The USSR He was found guilty of the and The USA. Among what is multiple rape of women in against Nazi Germany. agreed are plans for D-Day the Ghetto and then of There is light ahead but it and for the post war peace. their subsequent murder. would not have seemed so in Stalin, however, refuses to For his actions in Warsaw he the POW camps and least of budge on the question of had been awarded The War all in the camps of the declaring war on Japan. Merit Cross. He remained Holocaust. The USA and Britain fight undetected for twenty years, I therefore end on a on in The East without until 1967. positive note as the year 1943 Russian support. The The Ghetto Uprising took turns into 1944, by quoting Americans continue with place during April and May. from a speech given by their policy of island hopping By January 1941 eighty Winston Churchill in 1954 at closer and closer to Japan. thousand Gentile Poles The Lord Mayor’s Banquet: 1943 sees the battle of had been removed and one ‘For myself I am an optimist - Guadalcanal won by the hundred and fifty thousand it does not seem much use Americans. In Burma, the Jewish Poles forcibly moved being anything else’. charismatic and mercurial in. 350k in a 3.5 sq. m. Europe in 1994 Hope Amidst The Gloom New Year 1944. East are making slow, but now there is some light at the methodical, progress towards end of the tunnel. Some hope We here in Britain have been the main Japanese islands amidst the gloom. at war for over four years, themselves. As for the Germans, 1944 since September 1939. In Europe, the Allies are was the year when the The Americans have been forcing their way up the war really did come to their in the war for two years, Italian peninsula, despite country. 1943 had seen since the bombing of Pearl heavy German resistance. serious German reverses on Harbour in December 1941. Plans for an amphibious The Eastern Front (at In both the war with Japan, landing in Northern France, Stalingrad and Kursk) and and the war with Germany, to strike at the heart of total defeat in North Africa, the tide is turning in the Germany, are well advanced. culminating in The Allied Allies’ favour. We might here in Britain invasion of Sicily, then of the The Americans in The Far feel war weary but at least Italian mainland, and finally
59 of the collapse of Hitler’s ally, towards the occupied Baltic (6th June) the Allies secured Mussolini, and his Fascist States, and in February took victory at Monte Cassino and regime. prisoner two German Army they also broke out of the In October 1943 the new Corps south of Kiev in Anzio bridgehead to link up Italian Government declared Ukraine. with troops advancing from war on Germany. Many On the 8th February plans the south. They still faced Italians continued to fight for Operation Overlord, the stiff German opposition in with German forces and in Normandy landings, are Northern Italy; but the tide effect an Italian civil war approved, quickly followed by has turned. Finally, in India raged within the greater the setting up of SHAEF Slim had forced the Japanese European conflict. Many (Supreme HQ Allied to abandon their invasion Germans, including high Expeditionary Force) here in plans for India. ranking Nazis, failed to Britain under the American The scene is now set for the realise, however, that the command of General great set-piece - The invasion war had now turned Eisenhower. American GIs of occupied France. D-Day against them. Others became were everywhere in Britain. 6th June 1944. critically aware that the On the 19th February, a D-Day was but the victories of The Wehrmacht week of heavy bombardment beginning of a long hard fight were things of the past. By by RAF and USAAF aircraft to cross The Rhine, enter the end of 1944, for example, is targeted at industrial Germany and defeat Hitler. the food situation was cities, beginning with The Russians continued to becoming a serious problem two nights of bombing of the advance from the east. across Germany. eastern German city of Other events also took From an Allied point of Leipzig. place in the second half of view the year 1944 can In March Major-General 1944. German atrocities perhaps best be summed up Bill Slim and the 14th Army continued. In June at in the message sent by halt the projected Japanese Oradour sur Glane near General Eisenhower to his invasion of India at Imphal Limoges 642 men, women troops just prior to the D-Day for four hard months of and children were killed in landings in Normandy on 6th fighting before the Japanese barbaric fashion, shot and June: “You are about to retreat. Giving rise to the then burnt alive by the embark upon the great famous Kohima epitaph: Germans as they destroyed crusade, toward which we “When you go home, tell them the town and its people in have striven for many of us and say, For their reprisal for actions of The months”. Even so a successful tomorrow we gave our today”. French Resistance. France outcome still could not be There are of course has left the village just as the taken for granted, and setbacks still to come - in Germans had left it as a Eisenhower had in his pocket March 1944 the eccentric, yet forceful reminder of such a second message, never successful, Orde Wingate is barbarism. issued, in case D-Day had killed in an air crash; and In August Warsaw rose in turned out to be a failure. right at the end of the same anticipation of the Russian In January 1944, The Red month the RAF suffered advance. For two months and Army crossed into German heavy losses in a bombing a day the Polish Resistance occupied Poland. raid on Nuremberg. held out against ferocious Hard fighting faced the As spring comes the German counter attack. It is British at Monte Cassino in Americans bomb Romanian estimated that between 150 Italy. oil fields, a vital German thousand and 200 thousand On the 20th February the resource and then the civilians died in The RAF dropped 2,300 tons of German Army is forced out of Uprising, in addition to 16 bombs on Berlin. The war has The Crimea by the advancing thousand members of The been taken to the enemy now Russians. The 27th April sees Polish resistance with a with a vengeance. a dress rehearsal for D-Day further 6 thousand badly The Allies create a bridge- go horribly wrong in Devon at wounded. 25% of Warsaw’s head in Italy at Anzio, when Slapton Sands when at least buildings were destroyed, the fighting is particularly 946 American troops are and having won the Germans tough. killed. demolished another 35% of The Russians pressed Shortly before D-Day itself the city. By the war’s end 85%
60 of Warsaw had been arrival. In the same month Frost was taken prisoner. destroyed. 67,000 Jews were sent V2 rockets hit Britain In between these two from the Lodz Ghetto to before the year’s end, but the events occurred the plot Birkenau. On the final day of war IS being won. Hitler calls against Hitler. Had it October the Germans began up all men between the ages succeeded in killing him then dismantling Birkenau to of 16 and 60 to fight. the war might, but only hide the evidence of their Allied political leaders are might, have come to a swifter barbarism. now thinking seriously about close. By the summer of 1944 The end of the war may be the post war world. In August a number of senior military in sight, but there is still a at Dumbarton Oaks in USA, figures had come to the long way yet to go. VI rockets it is agreed to establish a UN. realisation that Germany hit Southern Britain, but by Here in Britain Butler’s would not win the war and September the blackout is Education Act becomes law - that Hitler would drag them replaced by a dim out. Surely secondary education for all in all down with him in a this war can’t go on for much post war Britain. hopeless fight to the death. longer? And on 25th August, 1944 ends but the war is to The key figure was Von De Gaulle marches down The drag on for months yet as the Stauffenberg, a member of Champs Elysee in personal sobering words uttered by Hitler’s staff. triumph. Hitler in 1939 come to mind, The horror of The In September the first “We may be destroyed, but if Holocaust continues across Allied troops enter Germany we are, we shall drag a world Europe throughout 1944. from the west at Aachen. But with us - a world in flames”. There seemed no end to it. On September witnessed also the Chilling words on which to 7th March 3,860 Jews were dreadful defeat of British end the story of 1944. Yet gassed at Birkenau, in airborne forces at Arnhem. hope, real hope, is stronger August 835 Jews were Two thousand killed, seven on New Year’s Day 1945 than deported from Italy to thousand captured or listed it had been twelve months Birkenau and 559 were as missing and only four previously. The Allies hold gassed immediately upon thousand returned. General the initiative. 1945: 70 Years On 1945. evidence of the camps as the on 30th April. Two days Allies advanced. before Mussolini was The Year the war ended. The dropping of the atomic shot and strung up with his Twice. bombs on Hiroshima mistress in Milan. Eighteen VE Day on 8th May and VJ and Nagasaki in August, days previously President Day on 2nd September. following the first successful Roosevelt had died of a brain But 1945 is a lot more explosion of an atomic bomb haemorrhage. than just the coming of by the Americans in New And the future shape of our peace. Mexico on 16th July. own country, of Europe, and The full horror of The The firebombing of of the wider world begins to Holocaust was brought into Dredsen by The RAF in be drawn. the searing light of day as the February. Nearly sixty Here in Britain Churchill camps were liberated by thousand are killed. On 28th loses the General Election in Allied Forces, beginning with March, Churchill tells Harris July and Labour, under Auschwitz on 26th January in a memorandum that “It Clement Attlee, forms a by Soviet Forces of The Red seems to me that the moment Government, committed to Army, and for us in Britain has come when the questions the implementation of the horror becomes very real of bombing of German cities The Beveridge Report, com- with the BBC reports from simply for the sake of missioned by Churchill’s Bergen-Belsen from April increasing the terror, though Government as the war still 15th. But the horror had not under other pretexts, should raged. The Welfare State is ended before the Nazis be reviewed.” about to be born. attempted to obliterate any Hitler committed suicide In Europe the outlines of
61 The Cold War start to form, surrender in the dark days of end of The Cold War has done with Stalin announcing at 1940; and had Britain fallen little, if anything, to lessen the Conference at Yalta in then the light of democracy the prospect of another bomb February that at the war’s and freedom itself would being dropped some day by end will come a difficult time have been extinguished in some Power (in our Post- as The Allies will then be Europe for an unknown Cold War World, Power may divided by what Stalin period of time, and many of mean not a nation state, euphemistically called you who are Jews simply even a rogue one, like Iran or ‘diverse interests’. In wouldn’t be here at all. North Korea, but by a December US Senator James We have in recent days non-State body of some group Eastland is already warning been reminded of all this as of terrorists, at the moment of the dangers of The USSR we commemorated the 50th the most likely being following the conclusion of anniversary of Winston fundamentalist Muslims). the war in Europe. Churchill’s death and funeral We also live in a new In March Marshall Tito in 1965. The man whom Europe in which the leading had proclaimed a Federal above everyone symbolised Power within The European Republic in Yugoslavia. our stand for freedom and Union, which we ourselves In August Sukarno right and led us finally to joined late and have declared Indonesia indepen- victory just 75 years ago, remained semi-detached dent of its former colonial even though he himself on members of ever since, is a masters, the Dutch, and in VE Day, speaking from the re-united and vibrant Vietnam the French begin a balcony of The Ministry of Germany; but Germany futile war to hold the country Health in Whitehall, claimed itself, along with France, within its empire, whereas in that the victory was the have sizeable and growing Korea the country is divided peoples. His voice was Fascist Parties; And Greece between the Allies, Russia, temporarily drowned out as seems anxious, under its new and The United States. The the crowd roared, ‘No, it’s Left Government, to deal days of European Empires is yours’. with Putin’s Russia. coming to an end, the days of Many ordinary Britons The world, even the The Cold War are beginning. turned out in London last European world (with In The Middle East on 29th week’s for the commemora- violence continuing, as we May French troops shoot at tions to mark Churchill’s meet tonight, in Ukraine) is demonstrators in Damascus funeral, as they had done for perhaps a less peaceful and who are protesting at the the funeral itself fifty years calm place following the end continuing French presence ago. of The Cold War even than it in Syria. Secondly, we remain deeply was in those years when we The dreadful horrors scarred by the horrors of The all felt we lived in the shadow of Japanese POW Camps Nazi Regime, above all else of the bomb. gradually filters through to and overshadowing every History never ends, and the world as prisoners are other horror, The Holocaust, History never repeats itself. released by advancing Allied that saw so many millions of But all the old issues Forces. European Jews murdered continue to re-surface On 20th November the in the most gruesome and because humankind never trials in Nuremberg begin. inhumane ways. changes its spots. 1945 marks a line drawn in After those two points our Democracy which this the sand, but it does not views may begin to diverge country defended during the usher in a new Utopia, far one from the other. war, carrying high the torch from it. We wonder, thirdly, of freedom to hand on to new Now 75 years on from 1945 whether we could have done generations is still a how do we view this seminal anything to have prevented challenge for us today. year and its events? the years of The Cold War, Democracy, the rule of law, Firstly, we remain relieved and, fourthly whether the freedom itself has always to that our country survived manufacture, and subse- be guarded, defended against when it could so easily quent use, of atomic weapons those who would wish to have followed France into has made our world a more destroy it and us. the realms of defeat and fragile one than ever? The
62 SECTION V CLAIMS CONFERENCE
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
AID TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS IN UK TO INCREASE IN 2015; CLAIMS CONFERENCE ALLOCATING €3.75 MILLION FOR HOMECARE, OTHER SERVICES
Negotiations with German Government Led to Sizeable Funding Increase Worldwide
EW YORK, NY - more help at home than they continue to increase as they NDecember 15, 2014 - currently receive as well as age. Elderly Jewish Holocaust those needing care for the In 2015, total Claims victims in the UK, the last of first time. Abandoned by the Conference allocations to their generation to have world in their youths, social service organizations endured the horrors of the Holocaust victims deserve all around the world will total Nazi genocide, will receive the aid and comfort that it is USD $365 million, a 21 significantly more aid in possible to give them in the percent increase over the 2015, announced Julius twilight of their lives.” 2014 amount, and will aid Berman, President of the “As Holocaust victims in Holocaust victims in 47 Conference on Jewish the UK continue to age, their countries. The allocations Material Claims Against needs are growing. For more derive from German govern- Germany (Claims than a decade, the Claims ment funding, proceeds from Conference). Conference has been pressing recovering Jewish properties In 2015, the Claims the government of Germany in the former East Germany, Conference allocation to about its obligation to help the Harry and Jeanette the Association of Jewish care for the survivors who Weinberg Foundation, the Refugees in Great Britain want to remain living in their Austrian government and the will be €3.75 million, an own homes. We are pleased Swiss Banks Settlement. increase of more than €1 that this increased funding With this substantial million over 2014 funding, will help make that possible increase in allocations, the with most of the increase for additional survivors in Claims Conference will be earmarked for homecare, the the UK,” said Ben Helfgott, a able to provide more help for top social welfare priority for survivor leader in the UK the urgent, essential and these survivors. and a member of the Claims special needs of Holocaust The Claims Conference Conference Board of victims. is the only organization Directors and its negotiating These allocations are assisting Holocaust survivors delegation. entirely separate from the worldwide by supporting individual compensation homecare and other vital EMBARGOED UNTIL payments also distributed by services specifically for Nazi DECEMBER 15, 2014 the Claims Conference to victims. Holocaust victims. “All Shoah victims should The increase stems Ironically, while the be able to receive the help from Claims Conference number of Jewish victims of and support that they need to negotiations with Germany, Nazism dwindles every year, live the rest of their lives in where support for homecare the day-to-day needs of the dignity, after having endured has been an urgent priority aging and ever frailer victims indescribable suffering in for more than a decade. With continue to increase. In 2013, their youth,” said Claims this substantial increase in the Claims Conference Conference President Julius allocations, the Claims brought this message to its Berman. ‘This tremendous Conference will be able to annual negotiations with the increase in funding will provide more help for the German government. The directly help many survivors, essential and special needs of resulting agreement yielded including those who need Holocaust victims, which a landmark USD $1 billion
63 sum to be allocated by the tance such as light About the Claims Claims Conference through housekeeping and cooking, Conference 2017. ‘This agreement was while others, more infirm, finalized in 2013, a time of require help with the basic The Conference on Jewish budget austerity in Germany, activities of daily living, such Material Claims Against making it all the more as dressing and hygiene. The Germany (Claims significant,” said Ambassador additional funding for 2015 Conference) represents world Stuart Eizenstat, Claims will be used for all of these Jewry in negotiating for Conference Special purposes. compensation and restitution Negotiator. “We thank This remarkable increase Germany for recognizing and in funding will enable Jewish for Jewish victims of Nazi continuing to address its social service agencies to persecution and their heirs. historic obligation to continue to support those The Claims Conference Holocaust victims.” survivors already receiving administers compensation Homecare funded by homecare assistance, as funds, recovers unclaimed Claims Conference alloca- well as survivors who find Jewish property, and tions encompasses a wide themselves in need, for the allocates funds to institutions variety of services, intrinsic first time, of homecare that provide social welfare to enabling survivors to help. Funding for 2015, to services to Holocaust victims remain living in their social service organizations and preserve the memory own homes, in familiar working with survivors, is and lessons of the Holocaust. surroundings, affording them based on the projected unmet For more information: a sense of safety, security, needs that such organiza- www.claimscon.ore. comfort and community. tions have reported to the Some survivors need assis- Claims Conference.
SECTION VI OBITUARIES Stanley Faull tanley Faull (died peace- have been kind enough to their circumstances. Sfully at home on 11th May share with myself and my To me, this is particularly 2014 aged 84) (Full Version of family your own personal amazing given his tragic Eulogy by his eldest son examples of what my Dad start in life. I would like you Steven Faull) meant to you individually. We to hear part of his testimony My wonderful father was a all appreciate that and thank given in “Portraits for true Mensch in every you for your support. We Posterity’’, a project con- meaning of the word - a know how lucky we were to ceived by Steven Spielberg fantastic husband to my have had him in our family. for capturing Holocaust mother Dian, for almost 60 You have told us how he was Survivors first-hand testi- years of marriage, and a so kind, generous, charming, monies. It speaks of his early brilliant role model to myself humorous and incredibly years far more eloquently and my two brothers, thoughtful. Ironically, he than I ever could: Maurice and Ashley. He was dubbed himself “the wicked “I was born Salek an inspirational presence uncle” to his nephews Falinower on 29th to us and to his four grand- Jonathan and David and his October 1929 in Warsaw, children, Matthew, Emily, five nieces, because of course Poland, to a loving, Harrison and Mackenzie. He the exact opposite was true. middle class family who was also a pillar of the He was hugely proud of his owned a metal foundry. I community - generous and extended family and all their was not quite ten when caring to all who knew him. children as well. His great the war broke out and we He had that rare trait in an gift was to be able to connect were all crowded into the individual - real humanity. with people of all ages and Warsaw Ghetto living in Many of you here today backgrounds no matter what squalid conditions for
64 almost four years until Concentration Camp, a wise head, strong intellect the Warsaw uprising in miracle occurred. and a forensic curiosity about 1943. My sister Henia had Suddenly all the SS everything. In addition, he left home to join the guards disappeared and had a powerful determina- Resistance and was never we were liberated by the tion to succeed, which was heard from again. My Soviet Army on 5th May probably the single defining father was killed in a 1945. thread running throughout bunker in the Ghetto. Over 90 family members his life. After the Warsaw uprising in Warsaw perished. In business, from the was brutally suppressed, However, my elder humblest of beginnings, he my mother and I were brother Cheil (Gerald) rose to the absolute pinnacle. taken as prisoners to had been sent by the Even here, family ties were Majdanek concentration family before the war to incredibly important to him. camp, where my mother join an uncle in Brighton. He set up a scrap metal was murdered in the gas When the war broke out, business in Maidstone with chambers, whereas I was he immediately enlisted his brother Gerald, who had put to work as a slave in the RAF and became a been an RAF pilot during the labourer. Lancaster Bomber pilot. I war. The business succeeded So here I was at the age arrived in Britain with in no small part due to the 1 of 13 /2, having never “the Boys” in August 1945. extra special support they spent a day away from my After recuperating in received from his wonderful loving parents, suddenly Windermere, I was re- sister-in-law, my lovely Aunty alone in terrible circum- united with my brother June, who offered her stances and having and uncle in Brighton and engagement ring to be to fend for myself. I my life began again”. pawned for additional seed witnessed some horrific capital for the fledgling scenes (beatings, torture, All this happened before his company. murder by the guards was 16th birthday. From this small operation, commonplace and death My father mentioned “the my father was immensely by starvation, exhaustion Boys”. These were a group of proud to have risen to become or disease was rife), but boys and girls who had a Director of a major British somehow I survived. survived the concentration public company, quoted on I recall my first job as a camps. The Home Office the London Stock Exchange. slave labourer was in an agreed to allow a maximum The family connection ammunition factory, 1000 of these children under continued: Gerald was its boiling soap for machine 16 to come to Britain. Chairman and their cousin, lubrication. Late in 1944,1 However, only 732 were Philip Freeman, was also a was taken to Buchenwald found alive. Sir Martin Director. British Anzani was concentration camp to Gilbert in his book: “The Boys an engineering company help clear the damage - the story of 732 young con- famous, among other things, caused by Allied bombing centration camp survivors”, for producing the aircraft in the streets in Weimar. used the subtitle: “Triumph engine for Louis Bleriot’s first However, the worst was over Adversity”. My father’s ever flight over the English yet to come. subsequent life totally Channel. My father, together In March 1945, I was epitomised that phrase. He with Gerald and Philip, among 1300 people loaded was always incredibly significantly diversified the into open cattle trucks for positive, happy and forward company into one that could a journey known as the looking, never seeking to properly claim to be one of infamous Death Train. It look back or to dwell on his the earliest “environmentally was a horrific journey horrific experiences. aware” organisations in the into the unknown, lasting Most of the Boys had nick- UK. The company’s activities about two weeks. It was names among themselves. included metal re-cycling, freezing. There was My father’s nickname was hessian bag repair and reuse, no food and little water. “The Philosopher”. Even as a as well as paper pulping Very few survived. On teenager, his peers recog- and reprocessing. In the arrival at Theresenstadt nised that my father had a engineering field, Anzani
65 produced one of the first myself and my two brothers. Each and every one of ride-on lawnmowers - “The They were wonderfully these successes thrilled my Lawnrider” - and its range of supportive, both of each other father - probably more so outboard motors included the and of their three sons. than if he had achieved innovative Jet, which won Having lost the vast them himself. He was safety awards for being a majority of his family at immeasurably proud of all non-propeller outboard an early age, my father our achievements - as we engine and therefore positively kvelled in the were proud of him for setting suitable for use amongst achievements of his children such a wonderful example swimmers and children in and, more recently, his throughout his life. the sea. grandchildren. The one thing My father provided In property, Anzani trans- he always impressed on us all evidence to Lynne Smith for formed a 90-acre disused when we were away at school her book “Forgotten Voices of stone quarry into the thriving or university was only to talk the Holocaust”. He survived Quarrywood Industrial about successes once they what he called “some very Estate in Aylesford, Kent. had actually been achieved, terrible years” and believed The company was also one of rather than speculate on that his parents and sister the pioneers in reclaiming what might be. This was were watching over him and land from the sea in order to shortened in family folklore protecting him throughout build the first commercial to the phrase: his life. He believed the buildings for the Port Don’t want to hear “am purpose of his survival was so Authority in the container going to”; want to hear “have that he would have the port of Felixstowe. done”. opportunity to go on and In later years, and for The achievements of his found his own personal many years, my father ran a offspring are too many and dynasty. My father was successful property business varied to be listed in full particularly delighted to in the Brighton area, with here, but include two have recently received a Philip, who has been a rock of Cambridge University handwritten letter from support to my father degrees, an LLB from Kings the former Chief Rabbi, throughout his life. College, London followed by Lord Sachs, describing my Despite his many business an MBA in Business, a father as “a role model of successes, though, I am sure Chartered Surveyor, a courage”. that if you were to have Forensic Accountant and a There is no doubt in my asked my father, he would successful businessman. mind that there is no-one have said that his greatest His grandchildren ensured more deserving to go to achievement in life was his the nuchas kept coming for heaven than my father for family. him: having suffered, lost, He met my mother in A triple-scholar at survived, and then thrived Brighton and they married in Brighton College (academic, and contributed immensely Middle Street shul in October sport and music), a three- in his lifetime. He deserves 1954, nearly 60 years ago. times- running National his eternal rest and to be Throughout the whole of that Champion (who is still unde- reunited with his parents, time they were virtually feated) in powerboat rib brother and sister in the life inseparable. He was the yin racing, rugby honours with everlasting. I am sure I speak to her yang. They formed a Harlequins youth team, for everyone here when formidable loving partner- achieving a merit in high- I say, Dad, you certainly ship - I hardly remember a level drama exams, foot- “have done”. Your work cross word being spoken balling achievements with here in this world is between them in all that Southampton and complete. time. My mother was particu- Bournemouth academies, I am sure my father would larly heroic in the final few brown belt in karate by the appreciate it if I thanked you months of my father’s life - age of ten, 10 A*s at GCSE, all for coming and ended demonstrating the meaning horse-riding awards, mem- with one of his favourite of true love in its purest form. bers of touring Swing Bands, expressions by wishing you Together, they created a cricketing centuries and so all: “Zei mir gezint”. happy, safe, Jewish home for on.
66 Manna Friedmann
‘A VERY SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP Zdenka Husserl
first met Manna in spring remain in close contact with Israel. Also, I ‘phone her I1946 when I moved to Manna, she lived in Israel for every week. Manna, you Weir Courtney, Lingfield, some time, came back to have taught me so much in Surrey, with a group of England. my life, which I cannot thank child survivors from the In 2001 she moved to you enough for everyone who concentration camps. We the U.S.A. to a beautiful knew Manna is enriched by came via Windermere, our retirement home. Her niece Manna. I will think of you first rehabilitation centre Helen lives there and can always, and miss you. under the care of ‘Alice keep an eye on here. Manna died 16th Goldberger’. I visit her annually, so does November 2013 age 98. For over sixty years, I her niece and nephew from Manna Friedmann Judith Sherman
anna, I am saying these adults who want to provide Haydn’s Toy Symphony. Mwords on behalf of the not only necessities but Shabbat. The tables put Lingfield House Children. gladness and pleasure. And together, white tablecloth, November 23, 2013 have the energy to do so. flowers, candle-lighting, Manna, you came to Alice sets the tone, the goals, Shabbat prayers (taught by England in 1939 from obtains the means and you you) Sophie’s traditional Cologne, Germany, not by are there by her side. You are Shabbat dinner. Shabbat - choice - by necessity. You there. Manna, every bit the such a new experience for the came at the beginning of the Biblical Manna and more - youngest and good, back- war. We, the children of providing sustenance for both home memory connections for Lingfield House, came in body and soul. the older. For some, a first 1946 at the end of the war. We wake to the sounds of positive experience of You and we share the com- “Eine Kleine Nacht Music” - Jewishness, for others an monality of these involuntary you are practising for your affirmation of continuity. journeys - the commonality of violin lesson. You comb our Your brother, Salo, his wife the Holocaust. Upon arrival hair and add colourful Carol and six year old Helen, in England we range in ribbons. Those with visit in summer. A vision of ages 3-16. We speak Auschwitz shorn heads get an intact family. None of the various languages- Czech, bright clips and head bands. Lingfield twenty-four Hungarian, Italian, French, You ring the brass gong for children have intact families. Yiddish, German - but not breakfast- A meal of firsts - The Weindling family a English. Alice, and you and sliced bread, peanut butter, vision of normalcy. Of the staff speak to us in corn flakes, marmite, possibility. German. That harsh Sophie’s pastries. We learn We sit in the garden on the language of terror and not to hoard food. There will stone fence and learn your torture now has warm sounds be food tomorrow. Breakfasts many, many songs, English, of caring and support and of plenty. Hebrew, German, Yiddish - laughter. We come from a You teach us dances - the Alice on the harmonica and universe of atrocity and Hora and folk dances and you are always in tune. We murder into a life-affirming approximations of the sing along and are awed by world. From deprivation into minuet. We make costumes this world where songs can be generosity and sharing. We for the dances and under sung. When you leave for are suddenly surrounded by your direction perform Israel our bond to Israel is
67 strengthened and remains many beautiful works you from England and Vicky’s strong. produced. family from Seattle. Our And later, when I am in Your flat in Goldhurst daughter Ora and her Israel, you help me choose Terrace, London, is a place children Ilana, Sara, and the fabric for my wedding for tea and talk and music Michael are here today and dress and together at the and celebration. Your phone- are here frequently. Their dressmakers we decide on the line is ever open, your guest rooms are decorated with style. You treat me to my room ever occupied… by Manna made needlepoint, wedding dress. You also Lingfieid connections and their hearts filled with love approve of my choice of newer and older connections. for Manna - a most treasured husband. And during these When you come to America, person in their life. almost sixty years you have at Helen’s suggestion, her We, the Lingfield Children continued to approve. “take-no-for-an answer” - survivors of the Holocaust, When you return to suggestion our family is in live on two tracks always, the England to marry Oscar luck. An hour away from past and the present. Friedman, those training Twining Village we visit back Lingfield House provides us analysts at the Freud and forth. When son David with the healthy building institute learn about child visits from Milwaukee or blocks for a new life. Manna, development from an expert - Allen from Arkansas the you are there to help build by watching you in action at question always “When do we this foundation upon which the clinic. Anna Freud leaves see Manna?’ And they do. As we continue to build. This you her treasured possession does Mirjam from Arizona legacy remains. This legacy - the weaving loom. Our and her son Joshua from moves us in the direction house today is witness to the California. Zdenka comes “where songs can be sung.” Alfred Huberman
Shirley Huberman
y thoughts on my very him is to love him is certainly and care, we often thought Mspecial husband - Alfred true. they came to see him to (Abram) Huberman He said he had no talk and on occasion for Alfred came to England education - just three years. counselling. I don’t think with the first group of ‘The Despite this he spoke several many tailors are remembered Boys’ in August 1945, from languages. He loved sport, in a customer’s will - he was! Theresienstadt There was no won a medal for table tennis, The bequest went to Yad counselling at that time but played tennis (it was good to Vashem and was used to help despite losing everything, see him beat his much bigger teachers educate students suffering terrible hardship opponents) he enjoyed about the Holocaust. To him and degradation and still in swimming, cycling and people were important and his teens, Alfred emerged passed his driving test after family the most important. without bitterness but as a just five lessons. He enjoyed He gently guided our chil- perfect individual – I know walking on the seafront and dren and grandchildren with because I was privileged to adored our garden, the love and non-judgemental have been his wife for more flowers he planted shortly support. than half a century. He was before he died made a Alfred arrived in this good to be with, never wonderful display - a truly country, ill and with nothing - complained and just enjoyed beautiful legacy. a pair of shorts and a ladies life. He just liked and under- jacket. He worked to provide When we first married he stood people, was humble but for me and our family, when I said it was not necessary for wise, he taught me so much. said it wasn’t fair that he had partners to tell each other “I He enjoyed his work as a two jobs - tailoring during the love you”, it should be felt - tailor, mainly because he met day and a GPO telephonist at there was a lot of love in our so many different people, weekends and evenings (yes, home. The saying to know they appreciated his interest his English was so good they
68 accepted him for training) - and commenting on his experiences but if he was he told me “it doesn’t matter work, care and how they asked to speak he never who earns the money, so long enjoyed talking with him refused, speaking at Sussex as it comes in”. He bought and what a lovely man he University. Ford Open our house and we raised our was. Prison. Hillel House The children. Alfred had a terrific sense Catholic Mothers’ Union and The owners of of humour, a lovely smile and many local schools as he said, Hanningtons, Brighton’s a delightful personality, “if I don’t speak who will?” He largest department store, warm, caring and friendly. I was interviewed for the suggested he should have a feel that the help and support Imperial War Museum, a workroom in the shop - he we received when he died, DVD was made of him telling was an asset to the store and for which we are so his war experiences, a copy did their alterations. When grateful. Was a reflection of which is now housed at they closed, he continued the way people felt about Sussex University and the working from home, many of him. Weiner Library. his customers stayed with He was concerned about This unassuming man was him and still I receive ‘phone anti-Semitism and racism truly remarkable. As calls, asking if he will see because he knew what that Thomas Camphell wrote – To them and so many wrote could cause. He found it live in the hearts we leave sending sympathy messages very hard to talk about his behind is not to die. Bob Obuchowski
Sue Bermange
ad was born in Ozorkov, He made the journey to be fed again. DPoland on the 28 April England, one of 732 kids, The Northern community 1928. He lived a normal, known as The Boys. He was was very kind. These kids traditional Jewish family life on the first transport out of arrived uneducated, quite with his parents, grandpa, Prague in a Lancaster wild and were hard work. two sisters and a brother. His Bomber, which arrived in The Boys started to learn 1 whole life changed, aged 11 /2, Carlisle. They were taken to English; they rode bicycles when the Nazis entered his Windermere in the Lake and went to the cinema. They town. His brother ran away, District. In his words, he loved the cinema. My dad but never survived and went “from hell to paradise”. told the story of how one of his whole family, with the Dad always said he will never the boys would pay for a exception of his sister, Gittel, forget his first days in the ticket and then open the back were taken away and gassed UK. They had beds, fresh door of the cinema so they to death. During the war sheets and pillows and it was could all sneak in to watch he lived under terrible very strange to sleep on bed the films. We found out on conditions in the Lodz Ghetto linen. Most importantly, they our recent trip back to with Gittel, he endured were given food. When they Windermere that, in fact, the transportation by cattle truck got up on the first morning leaders who looked after to Birkenau-Auschwitz, and were given white bread them at the hostel would ask which is where he was and marmalade, they had at the cinema how many boys separated from Gittel, never never seen it before. Every slipped in and would then to see her again. Now he was day since then, for almost 70 pay for them. The Boys never alone, roughly aged fourteen, years, dad had toast and knew and it was felt but he survived death marmalade for breakfast. He important to let them be marches to other concentra- cut the toast in half, ate one mischievous! They stayed in tion camps, endured the half and wrapped the other to Windermere for three months horrors of these camps save and have with a cup of and were then dispersed. Dad and was finally liberated tea in the evening. Some of chose to go to Gateshead to in Thereisenstadt, the kids hid the food, because learn more about Judaism. Czechoslovakia. they didn’t realise they would He never lost his faith. He
69 also trained to become an A few years ago, dad took wedding ceremony he upholsterer and then moved us back to Poland. There said, “I now feel like to London. were nine of us on the trip. I’ve achieved everything in He met mum on a blind It was the most amazing life” date. He says it was love at experience. We visited dad’s • When dad was 80, his first sight, but she denies home town, Ozorkov and first great grandchild, this. Mum, a Holocaust went to his street, although Amelie was born, the Survivor herself, remembers his house is no longer fourth generation in a very little about her standing. We went to family that was nearly lost experiences during the war Chelmno, where his parents forever and has always appeared to and sister, Malka, arrived • Dad was a perfect be in the background. Dad dead in the gas lorries. We example of how one should devoted much of his later life visited the Lodz Ghetto and live their life. I have so to Holocaust Education, saw the street in which he much respect for him, for which he was very passionate lived, and we went to the way he managed to about. However, mum has Auschwitz, where he last saw pick himself up and get on always organised every his sister, Gittel. We all stood with his life, despite going aspect of dad’s life and in together in the gas chamber through the most horrific these last difficult months, and dad quietly said “I hope experience imaginable and she has been amazing, caring my sister didn’t die in here”. losing his entire family, at for his every need. In his This was the saddest part of such a young age words, his little treasure. the trip. At Auschwitz we • He came to the UK Mum, thank you for always said Kaddish for his family as a refugee and has being there for dad and for and, as you can imagine, it really made a positive us. was a very emotional contribution to society Together they raised a experience. We then left and • He was kind, generous, family, me and my brother, went back to Krakow, where cared for people and didn’t Ivor. We both went on to we were staying. We went for hate anyone. marry and he loved my a pizza and did some husband, David, and Ivor’s shopping there. It was a very Dad would chat to anyone wife, Lori, as his own. He bizarre experience, having and everyone in any became a grandpa to Louise, been to the concentration language. He made friends Josh, Katie, Jeni and Joe and camp just a couple of hours wherever he went. He once Zaida to Amelie and Freya. earlier. The fact that we could had a spell in hospital a few He was involved in our lives be normal tourists, following years ago. He was in a ward and loved us all so much. He this harrowing visit, shows with several men who looked and mum attended every you what an amazing man a little rough. They all had grandchild’s graduation my dad was. He said to us, tattoos and had probably ceremony as there was no “The Nazis didn’t win. I did, never mixed with anyone way he was going to miss out because here is my beautiful quite like dad before. The on these events. He loved family and we are all here next time we visited, one of Louise’s husband, Ben, and together”. them called over to dad and was particularly proud when said “Bob, shall we play Ben recited the Haftorah at • Dad was an extremely another game of Kalooki dad’s first Barmitzvah when warm and affectionate man when visiting is over?” he was 83. This year we had with a positive attitude and He also had a fixation our family Seder at mum and he always saw the best in with food. Whenever he went dad and he was so happy everything and everyone. anywhere with mum, he that we were all together, • When Josh graduated would tell us exactly what he including Katie’s fiance Rikki from university, he told me had eaten and give us a and Jeni’s partner Neil. “if someone had said I’d be rundown of the entire menu. My dad always says his here today watching my Every time someone came to achievement in life is grandson graduate from visit him during his illness, his family and he will be university, I’d never have he would try and get mum remembered and sorely believed it”. to feed them. When we missed at all the forthcoming • When Louise got said goodbye at the end of simchas. married, after her Jewish our visits, he would ask
70 if we were taking any food They have been friends since contract to 85 years, we home. arriving in the UK and are would have grabbed it”. Dad Dad loved going to Shul rather like a family. They are made it to 86. and he was so highly thought together in times of joy and I have one more thing to of by the congregation. We sorrow and have formed an say. I worked with dad in would like to thank you all independent committee, the recent years introducing him for your love and support. He ‘45 Aid Society, a charitable at schools and Holocaust also loved the Turkish baths organisation, named after the Memorial Day events with a and always had a good year they first came to visual presentation, helping schmeiss and a game of Britain. Amongst other him in telling his story. We cards. He stopped going to activities, they raise funds, called ourselves a double act the baths quite a while ago enabling them to give back to and this is the last time he and he really missed his society. We are so sad that will be here with me physi- weekly visit and all his dad didn’t make it to the 70th cally, but he will always be in friends. David took him for Anniversary of Liberation my heart. Dad, I promise you the fast time a few months Reunion. One of The Boys, I will continue with ago and dad was so touched Ziggy Shipper, said to me “If, Holocaust Education and I that everyone made such a at the age of 15, when we will always speak on your fuss of him. were in the camps, someone behalf as a witness for the I mentioned The Boys. would have given us a living and the dead. A tribute to Reb Yisroel Rudzinski
Written by a grandson
eb Yisroel Rudzinski Yisroel suffered indescribable incarcerated with him. Ro.b.m was born in 1927, torments during the ensuing At the end of the war, in the town of Piotrkow, years, and was imprisoned in Yisroel was liberated from Poland. In his youth Yisroel various concentration camps, the Theresienstadt camp, was greatly cherished by his including the infamous and was part of a group of a parents, Reb Chaim and Buchenwald. At one point in few hundred children who Chana Rochel Hy”d. He 1943, he suffered from were taken from Prague to clearly recalled learning in typhus and miraculously England. The group the local cheder and going to escaped being killed when he remained in Windermere, in his grandfather, Reb Moshe was warned about his the Lake District, for some Yidel for Seder night. These impending doom, by a Jewish time. The group was a idyllic years were shattered kapo. In his later years, Reb diverse group of survivors forever by the terrors that Yisroel felt that it was his from various countries who engulfed them during the responsibility to speak about were united in their desire to Second World War. Yisroel his wartime experiences. He recover from the ravages of celebrated his Bar Mitzvah was often invited to speak in the war. Yisroel was then amidst all the troubles schools in Stamford Hill and sent to a hostel in Gateshead, and suffering by putting on Golders Green, and always where he was assured of tefillin in the ghetto that was amazed his listeners with a being able to achieve his established in his town. display of indomitable faith desire to keep Torah. There, Tragically, his father was and trust in the Hand of the saintly Rabbi Moshe cruelly beaten when he was Hashem that guided Schwab o.b.m, took Yisroel trying to save sifrei kodesh and looked after him. He under his wing, and cared for (holy books) from desecra- displayed an invincible him, as well as the other tion, and died soon after- strength of faith in Divine survivors, like his own wards. The orphaned boy Providence that accompanied children. managed to find employment him through the whole of With great foresight, Rabbi in a nearby glass factory. his life. He was inspired with Schwab also helped them Later, he was taken away to the will to survive through learn a trade in order to be used for forced labour in the words of the holy Rabbi support themselves. The 20- an ammunition factory. of Radoshitz who was year old Yisroel was taught
71 tailoring, that would stand others, Reb Yisroel kept in torah was taken to the him in good stead through his contact with the other BOYS Borehamwood and Elstree life. From Gateshead Yisroel that stayed together with Synagogue accompanied by travelled to London where he him in Windermere after the singing and dancing. For met his future wife. She was war. Together they formed many of the “boys” this was born into the Sonnenschein the ‘45 Aid Society. They the happiest day in their family in Vienna, and was would have a reunion once a lives since the liberation. A brought to England before year to reminisce and to beautiful plaque was made the war by Rabbi Doctor strengthen each other. Reb engraved with all the names Solomon Schonfeld. Yisroel Yisroel was part of the in whose memory the sefer was 22 years when he committee who would have a torah was written. Since married his devoted wife meeting once a month. At one many of the “boys” unfortu- Thea. They lived in a small meeting when they were nately have no graves to visit flat in Evering Road, and discussing what to do for the (they do not know where he worked at first in 50th anniversary since the their parents are buried), employment in the West End liberation, Yisroel suggested they gather at this plaque of London as a tailor, that all the “boys” join once a year where they daven and later as an independent together and have a sefer mincha and recite Kaddish. tailor working from his own torah written in memory of Yisroel had the opportunity home. their parents. to meet Her Majesty The All his customers were Together Yisroel and his Queen, where he personally treated with the greatest devoted wife, Thea, worked expressed his gratitude to respect. He formed a personal tirelessly on this project. her for allowing the friendship with everyone who Letters were written and European survivors entry to had come to have a suit made mailed to all the “boys” the country. to measure. They were not over the world. To their Yisroel’s children, grand- considered in his eyes as excitement the money came children and great grandchil- mere clients - he always flowing in. Reb Yisroel and dren were his pride and joy. asked how they and their Thea went to Israel to have a He loved each and every one families were keeping. He look at some sifrei torah. of them dearly and they, too, had a natural positive They settled on one Sefer adored him in return. demeanour and was always Torah, and to the excitement Yisroel leaves behind his ready to do a kind deed of all, it was later discovered loyal wife who was his for anyone. His car was that this sefer torah had faithful support in all his always used for mitzvahs. actually been written by a endeavours, together with his His non-Jewish acquain- son of one the “boys”. (Mr son, daughter, daughters - in tances were also saddened to Kuszmiersky) - law, grandchildren and hear that he passed away, The procession was great grandchildren who are as they, too valued his planned and the excitement all following in his wonderful friendship. was felt in the air. Finally the legacy of honesty, kindness As part of his concern for big day arrived. The sefer and faith in Hashem. Michael Bandel – Eulogy
Martin Bandel
ichael was a special, on the Polish border. He com- gave out poverty he gave 9/10 Munique and unconven- pared it with the town of to Carpathia”. tional person and he would Anatevka from Fiddler On Dad was the second of four want us to do nothing but The Roof and, indeed, when I children, Vishnitzer Chasids, celebrate his life. After all, he went back with him in 1994 it of which he was always very did that every day - and still looked the same. Dad proud. He was brought up in never let us forget it. used to quote the late Rabbi a strictly orthodox household Michael was born in 1928 Hugo Gryn, one of The Boys with Yiddish as his mother in Yasina, a small Shtetl in who came from that region, tongue and which he always Carpathia, Czechoslovakia, who often said “when G-d spoke far better than English
72 even though he had con- us the importance of remem- Mechael Tzvi and Michael, he vinced himself, but no one bering who you are and also managed to acquire five else, that he had no accent at where you’ve come from. He nationalities-Czech, all! He attended Cheder at conducted himself both Hungarian, Russian, three, only learning Czech at morally and ethically to an Ukrainian and British - seven, when he had to go to exceptionally high standard having only officially moved the local school - but still do and expected us all to follow countries once! He also had half a day at Yeshiva right up suit. He learnt from his three different birth years. until 1944 when the family parents, amongst many First, his “real” year 1928, were deported to the camps. things, the mitzvah of secondly the year he gave He was liberated by the giving - without seeking when he was taken to the Americans in May 1945 and acknowledgement or praise. camps, 1926, to make himself considered himself lucky that His parents had a small two years older to avoid being he was only in the camps for grocery/general store and sent straight to the gas a year when some of his although they, themselves, chambers and thirdly after friends had suffered many had very little his father the war he gave his birth more. From what was once a would always provide food for year as 1929 to make himself large family he was left with Shabbat to those families younger so as to be eligible to very few but was fortunate who couldn’t afford it. He was come to the UK with the enough to meet up with his taught to always think of Central British Fund. This mother and eldest sister others before himself which never really caused a major in Prague a few weeks he did all his life. He became issue until it was time to after the war. He was a Samaritan volunteer which draw his pension! always perplexed, to say the he did for 15 years and I Having survived, he would least, about many events remember his Samaritan always say that every day surrounding the Holocaust name very well - Michael 248 was his birthday, driving us and would invariably pose - as the Samaritans never use crazy by never wanting to unanswerable questions to surnames. He volunteered at plan anything and living in numerous Rabbis. Ravenswood helping with the moment with his stock He arrived in England in disturbed children. He also response being “it’s a long 1946, one of the 732 child volunteered at the Jewish time till tomorrow”. Not survivors that were brought Care stroke club for 18 years. only would he never celebrate here by the Central British He delivered meals on his birthday - anyone Fund. Those 732 children, wheels with his friend Lolek. else’s, more particularly ours, whether male or female, They would joke that they were purely incidental -1 became known as “The Boys”, were the perfect team. Lolek don’t think that he even the ë45 Aid Society, and they could drive but barely walk remembered the dates! became a very large family whereas Michael could walk Gaynor & I have never met indeed from then on up until but didn’t drive. someone with such humility today. They were almost Before embarking on as Dad yet he had a great more important to him than his “second career” as a influence on so many people. anything else. He was on the volunteer, he was a furrier He was the least first committee and soon where he would pride himself materialistic person we’ve after became Treasurer, a on his handiwork, matching ever met. Possessions meant post he held for many years. up the backs or fronts of nothing to him so long as he More latterly he became the musquash so that you could had his health. Whenever Welfare Officer and there never tell where the seams Gaynor or I showed him were many times that we were. His trade slowly something that we’d bought would visit him and Mum disintegrated due - he would he would invariably say where he spent more time on say - to Linda McCartney’s “it’s ok” in a fairly dismissive the phone to a list of unwell ceaseless campaign against way, making it clear that members than he spent with wearing fur. She was he wasn’t particularly us. Paradoxically, when he definitely not his favourite impressed or interested. himself became unwell person. He and Mum met in 1956 we were under strict instruc- As well as Michael having when he was drinking coffee tions to tell no one as he four different names - in a bar in Baker Street couldn’t bear the fuss. Mikulas - the Czech name for and Mum was downstairs He always impressed on Nicholas - Misha, Yechiel dancing. He hated dancing
73 and she didn’t do coffee so our highly secretive family. they had to pack up or else! they got married in 1958. Sabrina would always When he retired he and Mum They say opposites attract impress him with her sense learnt to play Bridge which and they were certainly proof of determination to succeed he loved. of that! and get to where she Dad and his generation of To him a good name was wants which he felt she had survivors knew more than supreme, and he reinforced inherited from him. Dad any other in history the this to us, and his grandchil- always had strong political tragedies that befell the dren repeatedly. His face views and Marc, whose Jewish people. They believed would always light up when ambition is to study politics things would have been quite he saw Lauren Alana Sabrina at uni next year, would enjoy different if we’d have had a and Marc and he was so endless lengthy conversa- home land at the time. Their engaged with everything that tions or perhaps heated generation was so key in they were doing. He would discussions with him on a fighting for the creation of always be keen to talk to whole range of historical and Eretz Yisrael - and sacrificing Lauren about the surgery political topics. so much to establish it with that she witnessed as part of Dad and many of his strong foundations for future her training, in minute friends loved playing poker generations to build upon. All detail, and when I next saw and, I am told, Dad was the survivors are staunch him he would tell me about difficult to beat. There would supporters of Israel and this and always follow by be many evenings where a whilst they may debate long saying “I don’t know how she group of friends would meet and hard many of its rights can do it, I couldn’t - 1 take in each other’s houses for the and wrongs were always my hat off to her”! He was men to play poker and where steadfast and united to the so proud that Alana was the women would while away outside world. This is their training to become a teacher. the time playing kalooki until greatest gift and our greatest Uniquely she was also able to well into the early hours legacy. They, literally, turned find out from Grandpa what when the women would get a hope into a reality. Am was actually happening in thoroughly fed up and elect Yisrael Chai. what has been described as for Mum to go tell the guys Mayer Cornell
Marilyn Cornell
ayer Cornell, Majer patriarch of the family. His extra rations for the family MKochen who passed wife died in childbirth, as either by volunteering for away unexpectedly on well as his adored aunt additional work shifts or by January 8th 2015 was a Tauba (his mother’s sister) sneaking out of the ghetto, in wonderful, much loved Mayer also had seven young the dead of the night, on pain husband, father and grandfa- aunts and uncles from of death, to barter for food. ther. He was born in Kielce, his grandfather’s second The odds were stacked Poland, on 10th March 1927 marriage who were as close against the family and when into a warm, close knit to him as siblings. in 1942 the Kielce ghetto was Chasidic family. Additionally there was also a liquidated, Mayer found His early childhood was healthy extended family. It himself utterly alone, aged very happy as the middle typified many families in fifteen. He only avoided his child of Yehaskiel and Chaya pre- war Poland. Sadly, with family’s fate because he was Rifkah. He had an older the exception of Mayer, none outside the ghetto laying sister Rosa and a younger of them survived. cables for the German brother Yisroel Bear. They Aged just eleven, Mayer’s railway, as a slave labourer. were far from rich but life was turned upside down After that followed a familiar managed, through the by the Nazi invasion of tale of horror. Mayer cabinet making business his Poland in 1939. Life as he developed a canny ability to father owned. Mayer’s had known it ceased to exist. read a situation quickly and maternal grandfather was He and his brother would do accurately and that secured revered by all as the what they could to get his survival.
74 Despite the horror, the education he had the ‘45 Aid Society when degradation and dehumani- been denied during the war a committee was first sation, Mayer never lost his years. formed and among other humanity. At considerable Chronic TB dogged him things was responsible for risk to himself he would constantly. In Glasgow Mayer organising the reunions intercede on behalf of other started an engineering whilst in post. prisoners and do what he apprenticeship but was They set up home in could to keep them safe. forced to leave because of a London, establishing a warm, This is beautifully illustrated flare-up. It also prevented loving unit in Kenton. Mayer by a story told to the family him from realising his worked and Tauba (Tauby) by his dear friend and fellow dream of making aliya and was a traditional stay- at- ‘boy’ Aran (Zylberszac). He fighting alongside others of home mum. They were credited Mayer with saving The Boys in the 1948 War of totally devoted to each other his life during the ‘Death Independence. and to their children, March’ to Theresienstadt, in So it was, that four years Marilyn born in 1955 and 1945. Though both were after liberation, Mayer found Cherry In 1959. Mayer was weak and ill, Aron was more himself still troubled by exceedingly proud that both severely afflicted. Mayer active TB and quarantined in his girls graduated from carried him when necessary Quare Mead near Saffron university and have pursued because he knew that had Walden, with ten or eleven their careers whilst raising Aron faltered he would have other boys similarly afflicted. families of their own. Their been shot. Mayer made light It was a particularly happiness and pride swelled of this, saying anyone would challenging time for him; with the arrival of each have done what he had done. Mayer was exceedingly of their seven adored That was the kind of man he frustrated by the limitation grandchildren. was. his health was placing on his Mayer’s character was He hated to dwell on the ability to secure a future. forged in the flames of the horrors that ended with On one very ordinary day Holocaust and it made him his liberation from in October 1949, life began to the man he was, utterly Theresienstadt on the 8th look up for Mayer. He was devoted to his family and May 1945. His life recom- asked to meet a young to the people who were menced on August 15th 1945 woman, Tauba Tenenbaum, important to him, as well as when, together with other from the London train who giving him a lifelong passion members of The Boys, he was going to join ‘the boys’ in for justice and what is right. boarded a Lancaster bomber the hostel. It was virtually He was a fiercely proud, from an airfield in Prague love at first sight. They independent yet gentle and flew to Crosby in the soon became an item and man. He had charm and Lake District. Mayer chose to subsequently a couple. Going tremendous strength of travel to England for one against the advice of the character. To actively re- reason; as an ardent and life- medical staff, they married establish a strong, solid long Zionist, Britain held the on March 15, 1953. Mayer vibrant family after mandate for Palestine. His endured several more ups it was so very nearly intended destination on the and downs in his attempts to extinguished, was Mayer’s card he carried with him find a suitable career path. greatest achievement; it is from Prague was ‘Palestinia’. With a return to better health his legacy. Once in Britain, first in and a new wife, Mayer Mayer is survived by his Windermere and then yearned only for a degree of beloved Tauby, his soulmate Cardross in Scotland, life normality. To this end he of sixty-one years; daughters improved greatly. The changed the spelling of Majer Marilyn and Cherry; sons-in- warmth and generosity of to Mayer and adopted the law Martin and Sheldon and those caring for Mayer more English sounding his precious grandchildren: and the other young men, ‘Cornell’ as a surname. He Paul, Gilad, Victoria and her together with good food proceeded to seek a job rather husband Dov (to whom he and a secure environment than a career. Mayer and proudly gave Birchat worked miracles. Whilst Tauba retained active links Cohanim at their wedding) recuperating from chronic with The Boys’ throughout Liat, Talia, Shani and Tanya. illness, Mayer learnt their marriage. Mayer He is our hero and an English and eagerly resumed was elected Secretary of inspiration to us all.
75 SECTION VII NEWS FROM MANCHESTER
26TH SEPT 2013 - Mazeltov to Tania and Christian, Muslim and Reform faiths were Simon Nelson on their daughter Dalia’s present and each lit a Memorial Candle, as marriage to Alan. A wonderful wedding at well as Mayer Hersh and the Mayor of Bury. Mere Spa and Golf Club and, fortunately, beautiful weather. 27TH APRIL 2014 - Yom Hashoah 2014 - The presentation was exceptionally good and SEPT 2013 - Mazeltov to Estelle and Clive so very well attended by members of every Fisher (the late Sam Gardner’s daughter) on religion. A lot of hard work was put into the Rochelle being appointed Consultant presentation which this year was “Children of Paediatrician at Leeds Infirmary. the Holocaust”. There were stories of survivors who rebuilt their lives in SEPT 2013 - News has been passed to me Manchester and whose experiences as that there has been a Barmitzvah to Darren children were told by their children, the 2nd Walshaw’s son - grandson of the late Sam generation. and Elaine Walshaw. Mazeltov to all the family. SEPT 2014 - The annual Memorial Service at Agecroft Cemetery was well attended OCT 2013 - Sadly our member, Dorka although Reverend Brodie and Dayen Berger Samson, died and we send Long Life to her did not turn up. It transpired that Reverend daughter Helen and Son Harvey and their Brodie and his son “forgot” the date and respective families. Dayen Berger had moved and my letter evidently did not reach him. Fortunately, NOV 6TH 2013 - I went to the AJR 75th Rabbi Saunders was present and he very ably Anniversary of Kristallnacht at the Imperial took over and was later assisted by Rabbi War Museum North. Professor David Groundland. Chaim Ferster’s Eulogy was Cesarani OBE was the guest speaker and he responded to by his grandson. held the audience spellbound about events leading up to this terrible event. Chazan The Memorial stone and surrounds have been Michael Isdale, as usual, rendered the very well cleaned and all the pebbles renewed Memorial Prayer and Reverend Gabriel by the stonemasons - quite an expensive item Brodie said Kaddish, joined in by the but well worth it. congregation. It is a shame that only a few of our members attended. DEC 2ND 2014 - Some of our members were invited by the Home Office to the Lowry JAN 3RD 2014 - We heard the sad news that Centre and some the previous day to Nan Ferster, the wife of Chaim, had died and Manchester Town Hall where there were rep- she was buried that day in sufficient time for resentatives of all religions to discuss keeping the mourners to return to their homes in the Holocaust alive. Lord Ahmad was one of South Manchester before Shabbos. As well as the speakers who was very involved in the Chaim, she left three sons and the magnitude project, as also was Miss Cohen, a 17 year old of the crowd who attended the funeral was a student who gave a very good speech. Drinks fitting tribute to her. and food were provided for all participants. It was good to see Ben Helfgott from London and JAN 11TH 2014 - Israel (Ivor) Weissbaum members of AJR from south Manchester. It is was found dead at home and after I had a very understood that at least 30 different countries frustrating time with the Coroner and were represented at this gathering. eventually a scan, the Coroner gave the cause of death as heart failure and we were able to MARCH 8TH 2015 - The unveiling of a carry out the burial on the 15th Jan 2014. He memorial stone for the late Israel (Ivor) had no family and I had been looking after his Weissbaum took place, followed by a affairs for many years. He had appointed my Memorial plaque at the Cheetham Hebrew boss (a solicitor) and I to be the executors. Congregation and a La’ Chaim. Unfortunately there were only a few of our members present 27TH Jan 2014 - Bury Council arrange a but 2nd Generations made sure that we had a Holocaust Memorial Service each year and Minion. this year the presentation was excellent. The performance by students of various schools Unfortunately, as I was not well, I was not (both Jewish and non-Jewish) was excellent able to go to the yearly Memorial Service and, as usual, Rabbi Guttentag sang the arranged by the Local Authority but I under- Memorial Prayer. Representatives of the stand it was well attended and presented.
76 SECTION VIII THE QUILT
The idea of creating a Memory Quilt to commemorate The Boys, was first considered at a Second Generation meeting in 2013 after I was inspired by a quilt I'd seen made by the talented Sheree Charalampous. Today the Memory Quilt is complete. It has proven to be a massive project - both rewarding and emotionally exhausting at the same time. The Memory Quilt contains the names of all 732 members of The Boys and more than 150 quilt squares representing individual Survivors. It will be unveiled at the 45 Aid Society Annual Reunion in May 2015. Julia Burton explains how the amazing Memory Quilt has been a project which has surpassed all expectations – and particularly her own. It has been a real privilege for me to work on the Memory Quilt. Of the many aspects of this enormous project, probably the most memorable and significant for me has been talking to survivors and their families and hearing their stories first hand and their views on life, past and present. The uplifting, positive stories I have heard show how the survivors have celebrated life, creating families, friendships, careers and communities whilst never forgetting those who were lost. I also spoke to many Second Generation who explained how producing their quilt square had been an emotional journey for them. For some, it was an opportunity to tell their own children stories about their parents that they had not told before. For others it made them think about their backgrounds and what their parents had been through and, I believe, has been a cathartic process. Some told me how every stitch was sewn with love, others told me about their sleepless nights, about poring over old photographs and piecing stories together. And so their quilt squares were born. Alongside the quilt came the Memory Quilt book with photographs and stories about every square. Collecting all the stories to go with the squares took a while, but seeing them all together is quite amazing. None of this would have been possible without the incredible help from numerous creative volunteers and the Second Generation team. Today the Second Generation have created a tangible testimony to their remarkable parents, The Boys. The Memory quilt is a celebration of life and a wonderful tribute to all of us. I am so pleased that so many people came forward and submitted their squares for the quilt and I am excited to say that the quilt and its stories will be shared with many others as it starts its journey to museums first around the UK and then hopefully beyond. To know more about the quilt please see the Memory Quilt book and www.2ndgeneration.org.uk Memories of the volunteers for The Quilt
Three years ago, as a volunteer for Jewish Care, I created a collaborative memory quilt project for the Sam Beckman day centre that celebrated the lives of people living with dementia and resulted in a lasting legacy for the centre. The project required patience, immeasurable powers of persuasion and the creative skills to sew together 42 squares made of 42 different fabrics that fought against each other under the sewing machine needle . After completion , I sighed with pride and relief and had no intention of repeating the project. THEN, I received a phone call from Julia. Having seen the memory quilt at a presentation I made, she contacted me and asked if I would consider helping her create a similar project for the 45 Aid Society. Without hesitation, I jumped at the chance and for the past many months I have been a proud part of the team that have created the four quilts. I am deeply honoured to be involved in this amazing project celebrating “The Boys” who through unthinkable adversity , went on to build wonderful, inspirational, productive lives. I have no doubt that these quilts and the stories behind each square will touch the hearts of whoever sees them. Sheree Charalampous.
77 It has been my privilege to be involved involved in the Memory Quilt project and to meet some of the people whose stories have been summarised in these 28cm squares. Several years back I worked at the Holocaust centre and felt how special it was to work with the survivors. I valued my relationships and friendships and admired their strength of character, the great personalities and their amazing history. The experience of designing, capturing and sewing a life story lived over several decades has been extremely challenging. I realised how hard and emotional it has been for people to work on, both survivors and subsequent generations have invested so much time and thought to this challenge. So many of the Boys made a success of their lives, learning new skills, making a livelihood and building family life. The strong message was that from one survivor whole new generations emerged, this being the ultimate victory - triumph over adversity. I have loved working on the quilt both in paint and stitch and hope the end result will be source of inspiration to many future generations to come.
Joan Noble (quilt volunteer).
My experience as a volunteer for The Memory Quilt: The memory quilt project was created to mark the 70th anniversary since the Liberation. As a second generation of refugee parents from Hungary and Germany I felt moved to be part of this historical project. Every Tuesday I would pop into the Shalvata Centre in Hendon and meet with other volunteers involved in some way in the making of the Memory Quilt. It was so interesting to also meet relations and members of the 45 group. Their creativity in ideas for making up the ‘memory square’ was inspiring. Some of the people needed quite a lot of help whilst others were confident about what they were doing. It didn’t matter at all. Help was always at hand led by the talented and inspirational leadership of Julia Burton. The comradery and warmth of those weekly workshops spurred me on. I never realised that quite so much time would be taken into researching the correct historical maps for Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. I learnt a lot about how the borders have changed since 1937. It was important to be accurate so that the survivor's place of birth were placed in the correct country. I enjoyed making the maps look old and as far as possible, in keeping with the period. I was given lists of the people who lived in each country and the place they came from. Writing the names around the country I felt a connection… what was that person like, their family, their journey… The other part of helping was embroidering some of the names of the child camp survivors who were brought to England in 1945. There was quite a bit of experimentation to explore the size of letters, type of stitch and colour until a good sample was produced. I can’t wait to see the finished quilt hanging. It will be an emotional experience for everyone and most especially the members of the 45 group and their families. As a volunteer who has played a very small part in helping this project I am reminded of the text we chant in the AMIDAH – L’Dor Vador…. From generation to generation…
Barbara Burman (quilt volunteer)
78 Last December I received an email asking for volunteers with sewing skills to help construct a memory quilt for holocaust survivors. I have been sewing since my teenage years, encouraged and enabled by a local fabric shop owner, a Jewish woman from Germany and survivor of Auschwitz. It took me just a minute to decide that I wanted to help with this project. It was, as they say, ‘no brainer’. I grew up in America so this may partly explain why I had never heard of the Boys. My husband on the other hand is originally from Manchester but he too had never been aware of this particular group of survivors until I began to litter the house with fabric, thread and sewing tools. One day Julia Burton received a partially completed quilt square from America and by chance asked me to add the names of Berek and Bluma Wurzel, the boy and girl in the photograph stitched to the square. I immediately recognized the name Wurzel as the surname of a family who had been dear friends with my husband’s family. My husband then showed me photographs of the man he called “Uncle Berek” taken years ago. Bluma meanwhile had emigrated to America. I will never forget the torrential rain that came down on my wedding day nearly 30 years ago. It put us all off course. The ceremony was delayed because my father had forgotten to collect a guest of the groom from her hotel and bring her to the wedding venue. My brother was elected to fetch her. Fearing he would miss the ceremony he very reluctantly complied. That guest, the last to sign my wedding book, was none other than Bluma, the young girl depicted in the square I was asked to complete. I have since read an article where Berek was mentioned. The article described how young people were taken to Windermere and given cupboards to store their possessions yet they had no possessions other than the clothes they wore. Berek, Bluma and others may have accepted support initially but they gave back so much more to their family, friends and community throughout their lives. It’s been an honour for me to honour them.
Sara Taylor (quilt volunteer)
I became involved in the creation of the Holocaust Survivors Memory Quilt by sheer chance and it turned out to be one of the most meaningful, emotional and rewarding experiences of my life. It has been a great honour to be associated with the making of the Quilt. Initially I was asked to work with Zdenka Husserl who was born in Czechoslovakia. She was an only child who lost all her family during the war and came, alone in the world, to this country aged only 6. Together, we created a square full of symbolism incorporating a photo of herself with her mother which took her over 50 years to find. Zdenka, who in her working life had been a couture seamstress, did much of the work on the square herself and seemed delighted with the finished product. I thought my work was done but Julia had other ideas and I worked on four more squares. I also embroidered many names of survivors to go round the edge of the quilt and strangely it was these which had the greatest impact on me. When our children are born we give so much thought to the names we give them. So much love goes into the choice of these names and we look forward to a lifetime of joy watching these beloved children grow and mature and, in turn, give carefully chosen names to their children. With each name I embroidered I thought of the parents who did not survive to see these children thrive, and the children who were so cruelly deprived of their parents’ love and nurturing. These names are not just individual names. Each has a story which should never have been and by embroidering every name on the Quilt we are paying homage to these parents, grandparents and all their families. They should never be forgotten.
Michal Mankin
79 Abisch Henry Cohen Eli Adler David Condon Eva Adler Idel Cooper Sam Aron Ralph Cornell Meyer Balsam Harry Denderowicz David Banach Jack Dessau Kopel Bandel Michael Deutsch Eugene Baker Sid (Canada) Deutsch Ignatz Bart Yankel Deutsch Zolly Baum Issac Diamond Moishe Beale Mendel Diamond Sam Beil Adek Dichter Abe Becher Roman Dreihorn Bernard Belmont John Dzialowski Fievel Benedict Salek Elkeinbaum Abe Besserman Moshe Ellen Henry (Ellenbaum) Binki Sam Elliott Herbert Blobstein Lou Engel Hersh Bomsztyk Mayer Erreich Sol Borgenicht David Farkas Frank Brafman Harry Farkas Sidney Brandstein Peter Falkner Daniel Bresskin Nat Falinower Salek Broch Avraham Faull Stanley Brunstein Sztasiek Fein Jack (Australia) Buki Martin (Moniek) Finkelstein Issy Bulka Jack Fisch Jurek Burgerman Esther Fixler Adolf Burgerman Monty Flash Michael Carver Joe Frankel Morris Clara Miss (Madricha) Freikorn Menachem Cliffe Max Frenkel Esther
Forever in our thoughts
80 Fridel Edzia nee (Warszawska) Grossman Leon Frei Moshe Gryn Hugo Rabbi Friedman Gershon Guterman Majer Friedman Muriel Halter, Roman Friedman Norman Herman Abe Fischler Joseph Herman David Frischman Leo Hershelowich Moishe Fox Harry Herszberg Jerzy Fox Johnny (USA) Heymann Freddy Fruhman Mark Holt Freddy Frydman Doris Hilton Jack Frydman Edith Himmel Jack Fryenberger Leo Himmelfarb Willy (USA) Galka Hirschberg Munek Geddy Leo Honey Michael Geller Chaim Huberman Alf Gerry E. Huberman Nadia Gilbert Simon Iglieman Charlie Glickson Jack Jackson Izak Glazier Henry Jakob I. Goldfinger Mark Jayson Ariata Golan Chaim (Heini) Jonisz David Goldberg Moniek Kadasiewicz Alek Golding M. - Manchester Kahan Jack Goldman Freddy Kaminska Motel Goldman Johnny Kampel Fiszel Goldman Rushka Katz Bernard Goodman Leah Kaufman Jadzia (Balzam) Gottlieb Guta Kaye Henry Graham Eva Kaye Henry (USA) Graham Monty Kaye Sala Green Henry Kendall Kopel Gross Sam Kirsberg Alf
Forever in our thoughts
81 Klotz Marcus Montarz Jack Klappholtz Kurt Moskowitz Joe Klyn Shimon Moss Johnny Kohn Chaim Muench Danny Korman S. Neuman Hans Krowicky Jack Newton Benny Kurtz Jaszek Obouhoski Bob Kuszer Benim Obuchowski Bob (Berek) Kusmierski Moshe Oppenheimer Paul Kutner David Orenstein Salek Kutner Itzchak Orzech Charlie Lampert Martin Orzech Rubin Lazar Helen Pantoffelmacher Shloimo Lebovic Shoshana Parker Jerry Lee Micheal Perl Alec Lenczner David Pivnik Nat Levenstein Mordechai (Israel) Platt Masza nee Dobrowolska Levine Guta nee Davidowicz Pollack Baruch Lewkowicz Betty Pomeranc Yitzchak (Pom) Lewkowicz Charlie Posnanski Jerzyk Lieberman Simcha Poznanski Arthur Light Issy Putermilch Mietek Lipman Jack Radzinski Kopel Lister Oscar Rand M. Lister Rene Rapp Robert Mahrer Julie Riseman Yitchok Malenicki Moishe Robeson Leo Manders Leon Rosenblatt Selig (Jimmy) Manski Henry Rosenblum Chaskel Margulies Clara Rosenberg Leon Margulies Menek Rosenberg Willie Meier Bruno Rosenblatt Herman Mendelson Yitzchak Rosenblatt Sam
Forever in our thoughts
82 Ross Mike (Moneik Rotenstajn) Szenkier. R. Rozenblatt I. Targo Lola nee Goldherst Rubinstein Joe Tabacznik Motel Rudzinski Yisroel Tenenbaum Sam Salamon Abe Tepper Lipa Salt Charles Turek David Satz Yaakov Urbas Bluma Schwartzberg Zenek Van der Velde Joe Schwimmer Jack Wajchendler Harry Seligfeld Moniek Wald Nat Shane Chaim (Charlie) Walshaw Sam Shapiro Moniek Walters Alec Sheinberger Eliash Wegier Jerry Shepson Yankel Weinberger Sam Shiffron Israel Weinstock Ella Simmons Eddie Weinstock Romek Singer Mark Weissbaum Ivor Singer Hela Wheeler Alan Sindler Wiernik Danny Singer Lothar Wilder Krulik Slomovic Chaskiel Wino Sheila Smith Edyta Sobov Moriz (USA) Winogrodzski Ray Sommer David Wolreich Alfie Spiegal G. (USA) Wurtziel Berel Spiegel Eugene (USA) Wurzel Carol Stein Emil Zabialek Rene Stein Icky Zwirek Ida Stobiecki I. Zylbergerg Peretz Stone Joe Zylberger Julius Swimer Sam Zylberszac Aron Sunog Ernest Zeiring Hermann Szternfeld Mietek Zwirek Mick
Forever in our thoughts
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