AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR

Vol. 41-No.4 ISSN 0892-1571 March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 70 YEARS AFTER : RESEARCH, RESOURCES AND REMEMBRANCE ASYV SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE ON he Education Department of the American Society, in 1999. the conference participants, she students to realize the importance of T American Society for Yad on Meier, executive director of emphasized the importance of learn- documenting the Holocaust to meet the Vashem and its Young Leadership Rthe American Society, gave ing from the lessons of the Holocaust. challenges of . The Associates held its seventeenth greetings on behalf of the American Carolyn remarked on the challenge of workshop topics complemented the annual professional development Society and spoke about the impor- teaching this topic without reducing theme of the program: Using Survivor conference on Holocaust education tance of this program as one of many the topic to numbers and statistics, Testimonies in the Classroom; on March 22, 2015. vehicles the American Society has to and emphasizing the human ele- Ripples from the Holocaust — This program is a collaborative offer in its efforts to raise Holocaust ments of the events — victims, res- Learning about the Second effort with the Association of Teachers awareness through education. cuers, perpetrators and bystanders. Generation; German Rescuers of for Social Studies of the United Carolyn Herbst, past president /past Professor Karen Shawn, visiting Jews: Unbelievable but True; and Federation of Teachers, the chairperson of the ATSS/UFT, associate professor of Jewish educa- Global Perspectives on Holocaust Educators’ Chapter of the UFT Jewish emphasized that this conference is a tion at Azrieli School of Jewish Education — the Efforts of , Heritage Committee, and the School of Education of Manhattanville College. Participants in this year’s program, which included educators from all five boroughs of New York City and from the tri-state area, received in-service credits for com- pleting the conference. The program also included a display of the educa- tional unit developed by the International School of , “Keeping the Memory Alive: International Poster Competition.” Through teaching we warn about the consequences of extreme and baseless hatred and prejudice. We educate to promote tolerance in the hope that through our efforts, future generations will make sure that the Holocaust, a low chapter in human history, will not repeat itself. This con- ference, organized by Dr. Marlene W. Yahalom, director of education of the American Society for Yad Vashem, has proven to be a strong vehicle to promote the mission of Holocaust (Left to right) Helene Alalouf; Caroline Massel, executive board member; Abbi Halpern, YLA co-chair; Professor Karen Shawn; Marlene W. remembrance and commemoration Yahalom, PhD, director of education, ASYV; Carolyn Herbst, past president, ATSS/UFT; Ron Meier, executive director, ASYV; Barry Levine, co- chair, YLA. through education over the years. The conference was created by valuable resource for increasing Education and Administration of Israel and the US in This Process. Caroline Massel, founding chair of the awareness and sensitivity to intoler- Yeshiva University, spoke about he American Society for Yad Young Leadership Associates of the ance and injustice. In her remarks to “Understanding Jewish Life in the T Vashem has recently been Shadow of Destruction.” Her remarks awarded the 2015 President’s Award offered a window of opportunity to by the Association of Teachers of learn about the bravery and heroism Social Studies/United Federation of IN THIS ISSUE of Jews during the Holocaust. She Teachers for the Society’s contribu- My pilgrimage to Auschwitz to honor the ghosts of my murdered family...2 gave an informative and engaging tions to social studies education No banality in this evil...... 3 presentation of case studies of nationally. This is the first time this Soviet propaganda during World War II...... 4 Jewish heroes and heroines during award was given to an organization. How the Philippines saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust...... 5 the War. The award represents the A Holocaust survivor tells of Auschwitz at 18 and, again, at 90...... 6 Our program and theme, “70 Years ATSS/UFT's recognition of the valu- Photo highlights from the YLA winter gala...... 8-9 after the Holocaust: Research, able part the American Society plays Living with the shadow, creating with the light...... 10 Resources and Remembrance,” in social studies education, and of the UNESCO recognizes Yad Vashem’s Holocaust testimonies...... 11 offered educators strategies on how to American Society's turning to the Surviving the Nazis, only to be jailed by America...... 15 incorporate Holocaust studies into their ATSS/UFT for assistance in bringing Save the date: ASYV Annual Spring Luncheon...... 16 lesson plans and curricula to enable (Continued on page 15) Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MY PILGRIMAGE TO AUSCHWITZ TO HONOR THE GHOSTS OF MY MURDERED FAMILY schnapps, tell stories and play cards those years ago. You drive through from the weather next to Block 10. BY ALEX BRUMMER, DAILY MAIL and checkers. cultivated fields that could be This was a gruesome spot, where His mother would busy herself in the Hampshire, past white-painted hous- sterilization experiments were carried ramed against the grey sky, the kitchen preparing her specialties, es with bright orange roofs. out on the helpless human guinea rabbi clambered on to the ruins F including rolled cabbage leaves filled By the time we crossed the railway pigs. of the Auschwitz crematorium, lifted with meat, rice and spices, served tracks and saw the most chilling sta- y mind flashed back to the the sacred ram’s horn to his lips and with paprika and tomato sauce. tion name in the world, the sky had hushed tones of my childhood: sounded the plaintive notes handed M ver the decades, as I’ve lis- darkened, with a swirling wind and the visiting my Auntie Sussie in Hemel down the generations since the bibli- tened to the reminiscences of rain pelting down incessantly. The Hempstead after she had given birth cal days of Joshua. O my two aunts, an uncle and cousin — horror of what faced us became real, to a tiny baby, who was kept alive only Then there was a moment of death- who all, miraculously, survived the and a dull ache grew in of my by the skills of modern medicine. ly silence. For a few brief seconds, I death camps — the image of Sandor stomach. Josef Mengele’s henchmen had has become imprinted in my psyche. Today, this is not some remote, hid- experimented on my father’s sisters, Travelling to Auschwitz and being so den-away facility; it is surrounded by who were barely out of puberty at the close to the spot where he and my industrial buildings and modern time. grandmother perished had brought Polish army bases. But the Nazi doctors failed. Having him back for a few precious moments. There are shops and petrol stations, survived, moved to suburban Britain That was 17 years ago. But the whose architecture blends into that of and married, they were eventually, emotion of my first visit to this place of Auschwitz 1 — the death and torture, where my relatives main camp — itself. It suffered and died, still lives with me. is a death camp in For most of my childhood in suburbia. Brighton, the industrial killing of six And yet the smell of million Jews was a verboten subject burning corpses, only talked about in knowing whis- which more than five pers. decades later still per- What I learned, however, was that it meates the cremato- was the courage and tenacity of my ria, is a constant wit- first cousin, Shindy — then still a ness to what took teenage girl — who helped to keep place inside the gates my two similarly aged aunts, Rosie with their iron sign that and Sussie, alive at Auschwitz reads “Arbeit Macht despite the best efforts of Josef Frei.” Mengele and the Nazi doctors. There is nothing It was Shindy who bargained for immediately alarming bread and made the deals that made about Auschwitz 1. survival and eventual rescue possi- Superficially — with- ble. out the icy wind, and And yet the smell of burning corpses, which more than five decades My father Michael, who had trained the rain that had later still permeates the crematoria (crematorium in the Nazi Alex’s father Michael Brummer with son to be a naval officer, was able to flee turned the tracks to Auschwitz concentration camp pictured above), is a constant witness Martin circa 1948. Hungary and escape to Britain in mud — the recon- to what took place inside the gates with their iron sign that reads 1939, though not before anti-Semitic structed barracks, sur- “Arbeit Macht Frei.” could visualize my paternal grandfa- thugs had beaten him up and guards rounded by grass verges and lined with great difficulty, able to conceive. ther, Sandor, standing at my side, his at the Czech border turned back his with trees, could be mistaken for a The physiological scars may have long, red beard swaying in the wind, younger brother. pleasant housing estate. healed, but the psychological impact wearing his long dark Sabbath coat, It was only after the war, in 1947, But at Block 4, there is a quiet, terri- has cascaded down the generations. emaciated from illness and hunger, that my father — by then settled in ble reality. In a stark room, where the The survivors in my family live with but smiling to see me there. Brighton — received out of the blue a smell of chemical preservative takes the past every day. My Aunt Rosie lost Both my grandfather and my grand- telegram from the Swedish Red one by surprise, human hair is piled her sense of smell because of the mother, Fanya, died in the killing Cross. It said that the group had in up like a mountain. stench of the camps. The filth she fields of Auschwitz, and so I never got safekeeping three young women with Shaved from Jews as they were led was forced to live with has left her to meet them. Neither have I ever the name of Brummer, who claimed to to gas chambers, much of the hair is with an obsession with cleanliness. seen a photograph. have relatives in Britain. Was this so, grey now, turned so by time and poor When I recently spent time with my In the haste in which they were and could they be returned to the conservation. Yet still I searched for a Uncle Martin (my father’s younger marched away from their home town family? trace of red — a family trait — as if it brother), in a vibrant Israeli suburb, of Tiszaujlak — in the foothills of the It was an affecting and joyous could be possible there was a direct his body began to shudder and he Carpathian Mountains in what was moment. Nothing had been heard of link to be found here. was quickly moved to tears as he then Hungary — in June 1944, the them and it was assumed that, like We passed the terrifying exhibits: remembered his own ordeal in a dif- family snaps were lost. my grandparents, they had perished enough spectacle frames to equip a ferent death camp. But I have been told about the sim- in the gas chambers. small nation, the enameled pots, pans And if you set foot in one of these ple life my grandparents led before Their survival has always felt like a and jugs which were part of the vic- places, even for a few hours, it is easy the darkness descended upon them. small victory against the inhuman cru- tims’ chattels, and leather suitcases to understand why passing through Their lives as dairy farmers were elty that cost my grandparents their each carefully marked with names, the gates into such misery was truly a tough, with my grandfather up before lives. But still the shadow cast by the dates and towns. The party vainly life sentence. the crack of dawn to do the milking. Nazis will always fall blackly upon my looked for a familiar name among the How could it not be so if you stood But there were relaxing family family, which is why I felt it so impor- hundreds of suitcases. witness to monstrosities such as moments, too. tant to go and pay my respects at the The Polish guide was asked if any- Auschwitz’s ‘Wall of Death’, where On Sabbath afternoons, in fine place where they fell. one had ever spotted a family mem- thousands of prisoners, having been weather, he would gather the children We came to that place of death to ber among the hundreds of photo- tried by kangaroo courts, around him under an overhanging bear witness, to heed the words of graphs on the walls. “Yes,” she were summarily shot and their bodies pear tree in the garden of the family Nobel Peace Prize–winning author replied. “Yes, they have.” She then dragged away on carts to the perma- home, reading from the Bible with the Elie Wiesel: “Never shall I forget revealed that since she began work- nently smoldering funeral pyres? elder boys. these things, even if I am condemned ing in this place she had discovered Next to the wall today, barbed wire In the evenings, he would be joined to life as long as God himself. Never.” that one of her uncles — with Jewish still stands bleakly against the sky. on the terrace by friends from the vil- he journey from Krakow airport blood — had died here, too. And nearby, one can climb down lage, they would drink a little T to Auschwitz took me an hour all Out in the bitter cold, we sheltered (Continued on page 12) March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3 NO BANALITY IN THIS EVIL A new documentary and a new . Laor skimmed Laor. “It was a sale, but for him it was path from Gmund to Tel Aviv, and who book look at Himmler and Eichmann through the documents and knew that getting rid of these documents.” had held them along the way? through newly discovered letters. he had found something remarkable Above all, Rosenthal was worried that Rosenthal, who had been a painter BY SAUL AUSTERLITZ, TABLET that needed to be shared with the the papers would fall into the wrong and a cultural-affairs officer for the n 2006, a prominent Israeli psychi- general public and that someone hands, winding up in a neo-Nazi flea state of Israel, had told different sto- Iatrist named Dr. Nathaniel Laor would have to be brought in to shape market somewhere, or worse, in the ries at different times about how he received a telephone call from the material. “I realized that it’s a gold hands of Holocaust denialists who had acquired the Himmler papers. He American real-estate mogul and phi- mine,” said Laor. might somehow use these domestic had originally stated that he pur- lanthropist Leon Charney. Laor, a pro- fter visiting Rosenthal’s apart- letters as proof of Himmler’s “inno- chased the papers at a flea market in fessor at both Tel Aviv University and A ment, Laor called Vanessa cence.” Lapa’s father wound up pur- Brussels in the 1960s. In a 1982 New Yale’s Child Study Center, was told Lapa, a Belgian-Israeli television pro- chasing the letters for his daughter’s York Times article, Rosenthal claimed that a friend of Charney’s knew a man ducer whom he had met when she production company, Realworks, for a to have purchased 700 letters and who had come into possession of a had worked for the two diaries for $40,000 from a former remarkable trove of papers. Would he Channel 1 and Channel Nazi officer living in Mexico. care to look them over and assess 10 news. By the time Rosenthal had also served as a cul- their historical value? Laor and Lapa encoun- tural attaché in the United States in Soon Laor visited Chaim tered Rosenthal, he was the 1980s and had possibly acquired Rosenthal’s apartment in the leafy a broken man, his spirit them at a flea market in Los Angeles Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv, worn down by the per- during his term of service. Or he had where a battered suitcase lay on the verse responsibility of borrowed the letters and diaries from floor under the bed. He opened the the Himmler papers. a couple at the Mexican-American suitcase and discovered hundreds of Rosenthal had reached border and then neglected to ever letters written by , out on numerous occa- return them. Rosenthal was now too Reichsführer of the SS and Nazi min- sions to German news- frail to remember, or had jumbled up ister of the interior, to his wife Marga papers in the past in the the contradictory stories he had told in hopes of piquing their the past about the letters. Having hit a and his daughter Gudrun, and their Himmler with his daughter Gudrun. letters to him. There were also family interest in his cache but dead end, Lapa decided to regroup photographs, diaries, and notebooks had been unable to attract their atten- relatively nominal sum. and look to the contents of the letters, detailing familial expenses. A near- tion. “[Rosenthal] knew the enormity Lapa was tantalized by a single and not just the story of their owner. complete record of the personal life of of the find, and somehow he couldn’t question: How had Rosenthal “Only then, I realized that maybe one of the most infamous Nazi war get the attention of the world,” said acquired Himmler’s personal corre- there is a bigger story or a more inter- criminals had been in the state of Laor. “Something with these docu- spondence? Lapa spent the first year esting story,” said Lapa. Israel, unbeknownst to anyone, for ments was bothering [him], it was like digging for answers about the letters’ he Himmler papers were the decades. a bone stuck in his throat. He needed provenance. The papers had been, at T private record of an eminently “To come into a three-room apart- to clear his house.” war’s end, at the Himmlers’ home in public man, his musings on his horrif- ment in Tel Aviv to find an old suitcase Now Rosenthal, in his late sixties, Gmund-am- in . ic work, and the mundane details of containing these pictures of the archi- wanted to sell the papers — not to Marga Himmler had been questioned his family life, echoing his pro- tect of the Holocaust and his family, make a profit, but simply to pass the by American forces in September nouncements as one of the highest- with his steady type of calculations, burden on to someone else. “It was 1945 and had testified that all of her ranking officials of the Nazi Party. his diaries, his letters, for me it was a clear that the man was under stress husband’s papers were in the safe. Their discovery would be part of a larger shock,” said Laor, the descendant of while selling these documents,” said Where had they stopped along the (Continued on page 7) BUDAPEST RESIDENTS REMEMBER LOCALS’ ROLE IN HOLOCAUST “She was deported to the camp in each apartment. Time and again community as it commissioned a BY MARTON DUNAI, REUTERS Bergen-Belsen and died there, two Fascist commandos raided such World War II memorial that Jews think amas Marton was a Budapest days after the camp was liberated. houses and killed dozens of Jews at a whitewashes the responsibility of T schoolboy in 1944 when She received food and her eviscerat- time. Hungarians in the Holocaust. Hungarians allied to ed body could not handle it.” Of the 2,000 buildings so designat- Although Orban has repeatedly helped to deport half a million Jews, He remembered that on one occa- ed, 1,600 still stand in the Hungarian pledged zero tolerance for anti- including his mother, to death camps. capital, and in June resi- Semitism and said Hungarians were Seventy years on, as Hungarians dents of the 76 participat- indeed complicit in the genocide, he still grapple with the past and many ing houses, many of them rejected full blame for it and said that support the far-right Jobbik party, the Holocaust survivors, wel- without German occupation there government finds itself in conflict with comed visitors and told would never have been death trains the Jewish community over Hungarians’ them about the horrors. leaving Hungary at all. role in the Holocaust. The Open Society Archives Many Jewish organizations have The Open Society Archives brought called the events the Day of boycotted government efforts to com- that role to the fore last June, opening Starred Houses, designed memorate the Holocaust anniversary up to the public 76 buildings where to spread out across in protest. Jews were gathered during the war. Budapest in the hope of After the far-right Jobbik party Many were either slaughtered on the making the events as visi- gained an unprecedented 21% in a spot or transported to death camps. ble as possible. parliamentary election in April, tens of In the courtyard of one building, Resident Tamas Marton, 84, stands at the window of his apart- Although Jewish culture thousands of Hungarians took to the ment in a building where the Open Society Archives organizes has flourished in Hungary street to protest the rise of the far right Marton, now 84, talked to about 100 a Holocaust commemoration in downtown Budapest. people about his personal memories. since the fall of Communism in the country. He said he watched helplessly as sion, at a building across the street, and Budapest is again home to one of To people like Tamas Marton, that is Hungarian Fascists deported his the Fascists responded to gunfire Europe’s largest Jewish communities, little comfort. To this day he lives in mother from their home in an ornate from a top-floor window by herding anti-Semitism is a growing problem the same house where the atrocities building in central Budapest. She was every Jewish resident into the street. that Jews and others view with alarm. happened to his family during the war. first taken to rural Hungary. When she They took the women and children to udapest now has about 100,000 For decades he used to live side by escaped and came home, an informer the ghetto, but not before executing BJewish residents, compared side with the building manager who reported her. the men in front of their families. with more than 200,000 before the turned his mother in. “A day after she came back, the Buildings were earmarked for Jews Holocaust. “He lived right in this building,” he building manager showed up with a with a large yellow Star of David, The government of center-right said. “Of course he tried to avoid me. Fascist commando and took her away many of them housing hundreds of Prime Minister Viktor Orban found He never really looked me in the eye again,” Marton said. people, several families crowded into itself in confrontation with the Jewish after that.” Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS MOTHERLAND IN DANGER: SOVIET PROPAGANDA DURING WORLD WAR II Motherland in Danger: Soviet rification of patriotism and loyalty, not censorship of any information that discovered, information about it did Propaganda during World War II. to him, but to the “Motherland” — could possibly aid the enemy. (And appear in the Soviet media. But, just By Karel C. Berkhoff. Harvard iron-willed Stalin calculatedly mobi- Stalin’s boundless paranoia is well as all the leading Allies did—specifi- University Press: Cambridge, lized all his people for total war! known!) It also easily allowed for the cally Britain and America — the Massachusetts, 2012. 407 pp. $31.32 Indeed, Stalin was a great believer in “enormous... cover-up of the early Soviets “buried” the murder of Jews hardcover. the power of propaganda. It could disasters” Russia suffered on its front within the pages of newspapers and unite and move people like nothing — a knowledge Stalin was convinced REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN the media generally. Instead, the else. It could, and according to him, his countrymen should not have since British, the Americans and the Soviets otherland in Danger: Soviet would, convince his people to die for it would cause a “panicky and felt much more comfortable “univer- MPropaganda during World War the Motherland rather depressed mood” and saliz[ing]” the victims of Nazi crimes. II by Karel C. Berkhoff is an important than surrender — consequently hinder Why? Among the many and diverse work full of fascinating information which according to victory. This, even as reasons, one striking reason com- everyone should know. Stalin was nothing the slightest of achieve- mon to them all was anti-Semitism . . . Why? Unfortunately, the world still more nor less than the ments were “exaggerat- which frighteningly must lead one to generally knows little about the crucial act of a cowardly trai- ed.” Then, as the war ponder the unthinkable: Would the role Russia played in liberating a tor! wore on, the above eas- Allies have fought as hard if the war good part of Europe from the Nazis Thus we read how ily allowed for the atroc- had been made more about saving during World War II. People know “on June 24, 1941” — ities committed by the Jews? even less about its enigmatic, deter- just a few days after enemy, wherever it was Obviously, for Stalin, much simpler mined leader during those years, Russia was attacked met, to be brought and easier to handle propaganda- Stalin — controlling, calculating, and by Germany, its sup- home to the Russian wise was the glorification of the Soviet hell-bent on destroying his treacher- posed ally — “the people! According to patriot: the soldier who fought on ous archfoe Hitler and Nazism. Soviet Information Berkhoff “The goal regardless of his wounds or the odds At the same time, readers of this Bureau was founded [here] was less to against him, the farmer on the home newspaper — many of whom were, with the explicit aim of expose crimes than to front who voluntarily and hence patri- undoubtedly, liberated by the Red monopolizing all infor- mobilize. These materi- otically worked on beyond the quota Army and know very well Russia’s mation about internal, international, als were supposed to develop hatred expected of him, the women, children crucial role in the war — will find and military affairs. No major event . . and ready the mind for merciless and invalids in the cities and the Berkhoff’s book no less fascinating. . could be reported before the Bureau vengeance.” Which brings us to countryside who did all they could and Why? We get an exceptionally inter- mentioned it, unless . . . the reporter Stalin and the Jews, who suffered the more for the war effort. All of this, esting and keenly nuanced view of was Stalin himself or others from his most under the Nazis. . . . constantly and consistently talked how Stalin felt about the Jews and the inner circle.” A day later “the Politburo ince this reviewer does not wish about in the Soviet media, presenting Holocaust. In fact, because of this vol- confirmed a decision by the Council of Sto give away what many reading the image of a united people, in fact, ume, sadly, we begin to understand People’s Commissars obliging all here will find most thought-provoking was exceptionally successful in creat- how and why he handled the timely people to hand in all radio sets or about Motherland in Danger, let’s just ing a united people . . . selflessly fight- information he received about what other radio transmission devices . . . .” say Stalin’s approach and reaction to ing to the death a bloodthirsty enemy was happening to them as he did. . . . “The resolution did allow public all he heard about the Jews and the of the Motherland — Hitler and his So, what does propaganda have to organizations to use wireless radio Holocaust were uneven. For in fact, ruthless followers! do with all of this? Put simply, through receivers but ‘exclusively for collec- as Berkhoff tells us, “there was no a tightfisted control of information tive listening of radio broadcasts at Soviet policy to remain silent or Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor of offered his countrymen, and, con- strictly defined hours.’” Needless to vague” about the mass murder of the Media, Communication, and Visual comitantly, through a heightened glo- say, the above easily allowed for the Jews by the Nazis. As evidence was Arts at Pace University. VIOLINS OF HOPE (VIOLINS OF THE HOLOCAUST-INSTRUMENTS OF HOPE AND LIBERATION IN MANKIND’S DARKEST HOUR) Violins of Hope. from dry — the reader will even shed at holiday time, when Moshe, Golda Auschwitz but had not touched it By James A. Grymes. HarperCollins tears — beginning with the Weinstein and their children Amnon and Esther since. The man, who finally decided Publishers, NY, 2014, 336 pp. $12.78. family in Tel Aviv, Israel, sat at a table along to give it to his grandson, wanted whose second generation with “four hundred Amnon to restore the damaged instru- REVIEWED BY RABBI ZOBERMAN continues to repair violins ghosts.” ment. Upon opening up the violin, uthor James A. Grymes, noted along with broken hearts. Upon Moshe’s pass- Amnon shockingly found human A professor of musicology at the Those violins serve as elo- ing in 1986 his son ashes that had blown into it from University of North Carolina at quent though bruised wit- Amnon took over the Auschwitz’s crematorium, when the Charlotte, grew up in Virginia Beach. nesses not only to the business, and later on owner was ordered to perform out- His latest book, Violins of Hope, is Holocaust’s vast tragedy, grandson Avshalom doors. However, only in the 1990s he truly a unique contribution to but also to the power of was trained to become felt the need to find and restore those Holocaust literature and the outcome music to save lives and a luthier as well. special Holocaust violins. A well- of a significant labor of love. It is ded- even move ardent Nazis. Amnon repressed the received 1999 presentation by Amnon icated to those whose violins made a Both Moshe and Golda Holocaust for years in Drezden, Germany, before the difference at a time of monumental Weinstein, who moved to following his traumatic Association of German Violinists and challenge, when Nazism sought to then Palestine from exposure early on to Bowmakers would spur him on in his silence the free flow of humanity’s Lithuania as professional the nightly cries of the sacred worldwide project of collecting transforming music and the arts in musicians in 1938, lost refugees who were Holocaust-related violins. Especially general. their entire families in the Holocaust. housed in his home. He changed those unidentified ones are most The meticulously researched The crying absence of the many course when approached by a sur- dear to him, representing the account by the academic author is far slaughtered relatives was deeply felt vivor who had played his violin in (Continued on page 13) March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 HOW THE PHILIPPINES SAVED 1,200 JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST Philippines has inspired two docu- “They had a shared view of the businesses.” BY MADISON PARK, CNN mentaries and talk of a possible world, they were men who under- Hershfield’s idyllic days of playing movie. stood what was happening in under the Manila sun came to an ven at the age of 7, Lotte “We know about stories like Anne Europe,” said Russ Hodge, co-pro- abrupt end as the war came ashore to Hershfield knew her world was E Frank, Schindler’s List — the things ducer of the documentary Rescue in the Philippines. crumbling. that grab popular imagination,” said the Philippines. That documentary She avoided the benches with the JAPANESE OCCUPATION Michelle Ephraim, whose father, was screened in the Philippines with sign: No dogs or Jews allowed. She Frank Ephraim, escaped to the the country’s president, Benigno tarting in 1941, the Japanese couldn’t attend public schools. And Philippines after in 1938. Aquino, in attendance last year. occupied the Philippines. In the Nazis and their growling German S “Once you bring an Asia element, it Over poker, the men devised a strat- some respects, the Jewish refugees shepherds raided her family’s house, becomes so complicated, interesting egy to bring Jewish throwing their books into a fire. and surprising.” refugees to the As a child, “we were very aware,” About 40 of the Philippines refugees Philippines. said Hershfield, now 84. Jews weren’t are alive today, according to docu- The Philippine welcome in their own home. mentary filmmakers. They were chil- Commonwealth Growing increasingly fearful, her dren when they arrived in the remained under parents and her older brother left their Philippines over 70 years ago. U.S. supervision, so hometown of Breslau, Germany, in “That was like a rebirth,” said Noel it could not accept 1938 and journeyed to an unlikely Izon, the filmmaker of the documen- people who would new home — the Philippines. tary, An Open Door: Jewish Rescue in need public assis- About 1,200 European Jews fled to the Philippines, in which he inter- tance. The refuge the Philippines from 1937 to 1941, viewed several Jewish refugees. committee sought escaping the oppression of the Nazis “They went from certain death to this highly skilled profes- only to face another bloody war under life.” sionals such as doc- Japanese occupation. Among them was Frank Ephraim, tors, mechanics and Many of the Jews came from Austria who arrived in Manila at the age of accountants. and Germany, as the anti-Semitic eight. He recounted his experience in By 1938, a stream policies, including the Nuremberg his biography, Escape to Manila: of refugees arrived race laws, intensified. Unable to emi- Ursula and Martha Miodowski fled the Nazis through the Philippines From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese including a rabbi, in 1939. Martha’s husband was Jewish, which meant that her daugh- grate to countries such as the United Terror. doctors, chemists ter’s life was also in danger. Kingdom and the United States, thou- and even a conductor, Herbert Zipper, were treated considerably better than who survived Dachau concentration Filipinos. What protected the Jews, camp and later became the founder of ironically, was their German pass- the Manila Symphony. ports with the swastikas — they were Quezon’s ambitions to settle 10,000 viewed as allies. Jews in the southern island of “It occurred to me later, that’s what Mindanao were dashed as the war kept us from being interned,” said arrived on the shores of the Ursula Miodowski, who was 7 years Philippines. old at the time. The Japanese interned British and A NEW HOME IN THE TROPICS American residents in camps. or the European Jews who Filipinos and American soldiers were Farrived in the Philippines, “it was forced to march 65 miles in the infa- a cultural shock,” said Hershfield. “We mous Bataan Death March, in which didn’t know the language. We had an estimated 10,000 prisoners died. never seen any other than white peo- Japanese officers confiscated resi- ple before.” dents’ homes and also hoarded crops The humidity was thick, the heat for Japan’s military. The local economy overpowering and the mosquitoes shriveled and food became scarce. gigantic. Life under the Japanese was hard From 1937 to 1941, about 1,200 European Jews found refuge from the Holocaust in the Philippines. But the young Jewish refugees saw and brutal, surviving refugees said. Their migration was part of an effort by Philippines President Manuel Quezon, the Jewish- the Philippines as a new adventure. When Allied forces began taking American Frieder family, and an American official, Paul McNutt. Several of the Jewish refugees Children climbed mango trees, swam back the Philippines, bombs fell daily. pose with Mr. and Mrs. Lex Frieder in this 1940 picture in the Philippines. in the bay and learned Filipino songs. Families hid in bomb shelters, not sands of Jews escaped to places “My father got a lot of positive atten- Hershfield became friends with local knowing where the next one would such as Shanghai in China, Sosúa in tion, coming from a place where Jews neighbors, played sipa (a local kicking fall. Frank Ephraim spent days hiding the Dominican Republic, and Manila. were exiled and treated so poorly,” game) and relished tropical fruit such in a ditch, shaking with a mattress Those who arrived in Manila didn’t said his daughter, of his escape from as papaya and guava. Life in Manila covering his head. One of realize that they had escaped the Europe. Frank Ephraim died in 2006. was running around in sandals and Hershfield’s friends died after step- Holocaust only to be caught in the “The Filipinos were incredibly kind summer clothes. The experience dif- ping on a mine. war in the Eastern Front, where the and treated him extremely well. There fered for her parents. “Fires were going on all the time,” Philippines came under attack. was an element of something so “It was very difficult for my parents,” said Hershfield. “You could see the “We were going from the frying pan redemptive.” she said. “They never really learned black clouds, smell the bodies, lying to the fire,” Hershfield said. “We went Tagalog. They had been westernized, there and decaying.” from Nazi persecutors to the HOW THE PHILIPPINES and they stayed mostly within their As the Japanese were losing Japanese.” BECAME A HAVEN circle of other immigrants.” Manila, the imperial troops launched The Philippines capital was liberat- anuel Quezon, the first presi- Many of them lived in crowded com- a brutal urban campaign. Rapes, tor- ed after a grueling, month-long cam- dent of the Philippine munity housing where fights would ture, beheadings and bayoneting of paign in the Battle of Manila, one of M Commonwealth, and a group of break out. They had gone from being civilians were widely reported, so the bloodiest battles of World War II, Americans that included future U.S. wealthy in Germany to having noth- much so that a Japanese general, which now marks its 70th anniversary. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and ing. Tomoyuki Yamashita, was later exe- FROM PERSECUTION the Freiders, the Jewish-American “It wasn’t what they’d known before cuted for having failed to control his TO A WELCOME brothers, became increasingly con- in Germany,” Izon said. At the same troops. cerned about the treatment of Jews in time, “they were able to practice their “The Japanese decided to destroy his little-known chapter of histo- Europe during the late 1930s. religion, able to intermingle and have (Continued on page 13) T ry about Jewish refugees in the Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TELLS OF AUSCHWITZ AT 18 AND, AGAIN, AT 90 who had survived. For two years, was among those arrested and jailed something is missing. One simply BY ALISON SMALE, she said, she was bedridden — in 1951. To get a job, she was forced learns to live with such trauma. And THE NEW YORK TIMES because of a congenital condition to divorce him, something he could if you don’t get to the point where that left her unable to sit for long not forgive when he was released you can forgive them, then I think igh above the hubbub of periods after the camps — in their after Stalin’s death in 1953, she said. you can’t go on living.” Budapest’s main tourist street, H home in Nove Zamky, now part of They parted, with Ms. Fahidi “I needed a lot of time,” she said. Eva Fahidi flits, birdlike, around her Slovakia. Her uncle, a doctor forced remarrying in 1959. Before that, “Six decades.” warm apartment, lined with books by the anti-Semitic laws of post- Europe’s turbulent 20th-century his- After that 2003 visit to Auschwitz- and plants. The setting is cozy, and World War I Hungary to get his med- tory again shook up her life. Birkenau, Ms. Fahidi declared it her the hostess and narrator, at 90, a lin- ical training in Vienna and Prague, Hungary’s rebellion against duty to share what she remembered, geringly beautiful charmer. So the was, like her, an avid reader. He Communism in 1956 created a brief and wrote her memoir, Die Seele der contrast with the Holocaust horror gave her Marx’s Das Kapital, which window of freedom during which she Dinge, or The Soul of Things, pub- she is describing is all the more com- lished in German in 2011 and later in plete. Hungarian. When she was 18, she was, as she She hopes especially to encourage put it, “ripped off the school bench to scrutiny of the past in Hungary, be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau,” which like other central and eastern one of an estimated 437,000 European nations has not really Hungarian Jews rounded up outside examined its history of the era. Budapest and dispatched to death “At some point it has to come,” she camps in just 57 days in 1944. said. “Because much repeats in his- Auschwitz-Birkenau, she recalled, tory, and if you don’t know what hap- “was not ready. It was too fast. The pened and what consequences it gas chambers were big enough that has, then it can happen very quickly people could still be suffocated to again.” death. But the crematories could not n the 70th anniversary of the manage. So corpses were being liberation of Auschwitz, she burned on open fires.” O spoke at a Berlin ceremony hosted “Really, at the very first moment by Chancellor Angela Merkel, then you knew something was wrong. It traveled with Germany’s president, was the huge stench of burning Joachim Gauck, to Auschwitz for corpses — only we didn’t know.” commemorations there. Her 22-year- Ms. Fahidi lost 49 relatives in the “Time does not help. It only deepens the feeling that something is missing. One simply learns to live old granddaughter, a photographer Holocaust, including her mother and with such trauma,” said Eva Fahidi. who had previously evinced scant sister Gilike, then 11. Her last she read “from the first word to the landed a job at a foreign trade enter- interest in her grandmother’s past, glimpse of them was on the ramp at last.” prise. Even after the revolt was was along. Birkenau, where arriving Jews were “I knew,” she smiled, “that the cap- crushed, Ms. Fahidi’s precious for- Now she had asked her grand- sorted into those sent instantly to the italist world cannot survive, that my eign languages, imparted by her mother to draw her section of gas chambers and those — like Ms. father was an exploiter and the only upbringing in the polyglot former Birkenau. Instead, Ms. Fahidi had Fahidi — selected for hard labor and theology that can make people Austro-Hungarian empire, enabled made a collage on wood, which she thus a chance at survival. She was happy is Marxism. All this, with my her to continue work in the field — in fetched for a visitor. Uncannily, it later transferred from Auschwitz to bourgeois background!” the end, for 42 years — and thus somehow captured Birkenau’s deso- Münchmühle, a camp near er embrace of Marxism led to a travel abroad. lation. Stadtallendorf, in the German state young man who within a week It was not until 1989, when anti- Not one to sit still — she cracked of Hesse. H became her first husband. The Communist revolt was again brew- open a bottle of red wine and fielded Her father also perished in the haste, she said, reflected her loneli- ing, eventually felling the Berlin Wall at least three calls during a two-hour camps, whose horror she has chron- ness and sense of displacement. and the Soviet Union itself, that her talk — Ms. Fahidi has a new goal. icled in a memoir in this 70th year It is “unnatural and unworthy, how I distant past bubbled up. Last year, she was bitterly disap- since the liberation of Auschwitz, and lost my family,” she said. “At my age Hungarian newspapers published pointed when one of the few surviv- which she wishes to see judged, now, it is normal not to have grand- announcements that officials in ing Auschwitz guards indicted at this finally, when a former Auschwitz parents, parents, uncles or aunts. Stadtallendorf were looking for sur- late stage by German justice died in guard goes on trial in Germany in But when it happens as it did, you vivors of the Münchmühle camp. Pennsylvania, a day before an extra- April. cannot simply get over it.” “That was my camp,” she said. “I did- dition order was to be executed. The “When I came home from the Marrying within a week happened n’t want to believe it. What in heav- deceased man, Johann Breyer, was Holocaust,” she said, using an every- “because we felt so terribly alone en’s name did they want now, after born in her year, 1925, and she had day phrase in German that seems that it was quite natural to say yes, 50 years?” wanted the chance to look him in the implausible when containing so now at least I have a husband, and “It turned out,” she said, that the eye at the trial and ask how he could much tragedy, she ran right past the one belongs somewhere.” Germans of Stadtallendorf “wanted have stood on the ramp. house in Debrecen, eastern “We were both young and happy to ask our forgiveness.” Now the German authorities are Hungary, where her prosperous fam- and determined to save the world Slowly, Ms. Fahidi embarked on a preparing to try another Auschwitz ily had lived. with Marxist theories.” She smiled journey through memory that took her camp guard, Oskar Gröning, 93, in The house was so rundown, she again. “We didn’t quite succeed.” back to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 1, April. Her fervent wish is that he not said, that “I knew instantly I would Young Jewish Marxists like Ms. 2003, 59 years to the day after she die before her. not have anyone to look for.” The Fahidi and her husband “did not real- had arrived in 1944. “The trees had “Nothing is too slow for German inhabitants “were complete strangers ly realize that Russia had been grown beautifully,” she sighed. But justice,” she said, displaying gall for who really did not let me in my own promised all the Eastern countries” nature could not eradicate the pain. the first time. “They are doing every- home.” at talks in Yalta and Potsdam, she “One of the biggest lies is that time thing so you won’t have a trial, It turned out, in late 1945, that she said. When the Communists turned could help,” she said. “Time does not because either the delinquent dies, did have a distant aunt and uncle on Jews as enemies, her husband help. It only deepens the feeling that or gets senile.” March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 NO BANALITY IN THIS EVIL (Continued from page 3) story told by the family’s correspon- who had had to have his bowels man- not only the perpetrators, but those process of finding or revisiting the pri- dence is the record of the cozy rela- ually emptied after his experiences who looked after the perpetrators. vate words of prominent Nazis, sepa- tionship between a murderous father killing Jews, but goes on to talk about Lapa has expertly pared down the rating out the fictions they peddled in and his admiring daughter. On the some “intestinal issues” he was him- Himmler material into a spare narra- public from their personal beliefs. For occasion of Gudrun’s first birthday, self experiencing. tive whose silences are often as while Lapa and Laor were sorting Himmler draws the outline of her hand Himmler liked to present himself as expressive as its words. through their find, a German philoso- into the “bang journal” he and Marga the iron-boweled, unbending, morally *** pher was visiting archives around kept about Gudrun’s development. upright paragon of Nazism, but the he Himmler papers are not the Germany, painstakingly assembling Marga writes to her husband about letters tell a subtly different story. “We T only previously hidden or the complete text of a series of con- how a worried Gudrun had asked her have a moral right, an obligation, to ignored sources about the inner lives versations, held after the war in whether “Uncle Hitler” will ever die. our people, to take the people who of Nazis to recently re-emerge. Argentina, that she believed might Their humdrum domestic life stands want to kill us, and kill help her understand the mental world in marked contrast to Himmler’s them,” he wrote in of none other than . bloodthirsty brutality elsewhere. 1942. “But we have no The two discoveries would ultimately Current events become familial tri- right to enrich our- offer, as we see in two recent artistic umphs. Shortly after the Austrian selves with a single fur, works, a perspective on high-ranking Anschluss, Gudrun was still thrilled by a watch, a single mark, Nazis — and the way they thought of her father’s Viennese trip: “At this a cigarette, or anything themselves and their work — unavail- time yesterday, Daddy went in!” else.” Mass murder able from any other source. Himmler’s rigid sense of Nazi morali- was allowed, but theft Himmler’s letters and Eichmann’s ty affects his domestic life. He tells was a shocking crimi- transcripts offer a privileged view Marga that a “healthy marriage” nal act — or so he inside the personal lives and thoughts requires at least four children. The claimed. In the next of Nazi leaders otherwise intent on Himmlers wound up adopting a boy letter, Himmler men- maintaining an unflinching public named Gerhard, whose unruly behav- tions a gold bracelet pose, allowing us to glimpse not only ior presumably prompted some of he was sending along, their actions, but also their motiva- Heinrich’s disquisitions on the need with a fur coat that was tions for order in his letters: “Order creates on its way — both pre- *** the nation, the culture, and order cre- sumably booty from The . he Decent One, the film Lapa ates the state.” Later, Heinrich cruelly some of the Jewish T ultimately made, is an epistolary suggests to Marga that she should inmates he encountered. German philosopher Bettina documentary, drawn entirely from the not sign her letters to Gerhard Himmler insisted on believing in Stangneth’s powerful new book Himmler family’s letters and diaries. It “Mother,” but could resume doing so if himself, and the SS officers who car- Eichmann Before Jerusalem (Knopf) begins when Himmler was still a child, his behavior improved. (Gerhard was ried out the genocide of the Jews, as uses the so-called Argentina Papers enthusing about a visit to see a eventually sent to join the SS at the fundamentally upstanding people. In — transcribed records of a postwar Passion play, but picks up steam age of 15 after being caught smoking a 1943 speech quoted in The Decent South American study circle com- shortly after his graduation from uni- a cigarette, and became the youngest One, he told a crowd of SS men in posed of Adolf Eichmann and other versity, when Himmler joined the Nazi German prisoner of war in the Soviet Posen, “Most of you will know what it unregenerate Nazis — to transcend Party and began corresponding regu- Union before being released in 1955, means when a hundred corpses lie the clichéd cog-in-the-machine larly with Marga Boden, a clinic owner 10 years after the end of World War side by side, whether there are five stereotypes about Eichmann. Like the seven years older than him. Their II.) hundred or one thousand, and to Himmler letters, Eichmann’s tone is initially playful — he suggests n first impression, Himmler endure that and, apart from a few Argentina Papers offered the chance a ceremonial pact in which she must Oseems a doting father, at least to exceptions, to remain decent, has to hear a confirmed Nazi present his exercise twice daily and cook him Gudrun, but Lapa and her co-writer Ori made us tough, but it is never men- version of the truth. This was not court soup — but even during these early Weisbrod soon found jarring notes tioned, and will never appear in the testimony, but opinions and observa- years with Hitler, he bristles at any intervening. Gudrun was invited to tour glorious annals of our history. We can tions shared with the assurance that Dachau with her mother and aunts in have but one desire as to what is said no one other than true believers 1941, and writes with enthusiasm of about us. ‘These German soldiers, would ever hear them the trip: “We saw everything. The veg- these German generals: they were The Argentina Papers were never etable patch, the mill, the bees.” What decent.’” The Decent One is unnerv- lost, but they might as well have sort of father brings his 12-year-old ing for its demonstration that Himmler been. During his trial in Jerusalem, daughter to visit a concentration truly believed he was, at the very last, Eichmann had claimed that the inter- camp? “This is what I mean when I say a decent man. view transcripts were the result of an he was not that amazing, loving Lapa proceeds chronologically encounter with an unscrupulous father,” argues Lapa. “Because an through Himmler’s life, telling his story Dutch journalist named Willem Some of the documents first found in the amazing, loving father would protect in his family’s own words, her careful- Sassen, who preyed on the drunken Himmler family house in 1945, hidden in Tel his own child from this.” Even his out- ly selected suite of images serving as Eichmann in a local pub. None of it Aviv for decades and sold to the father of the lining of his one-year-old daughter’s a bitterly ironic counterpoint and a could be admissible, he argued, and Israeli documentary filmmaker Vanessa Lapa. fingers is followed by the comment that reminder of everything left unsaid. A the panel of Israeli judges agreed. questioning of his devotion to the Nazi she would not hold her hand still. “He’s letter from Himmler to his daughter After all, even if the transcripts were cause. “Why are you going to a Hitler educating, judging. She’s not good Gudrun about a package for her is genuine, how could they be proved to rally,” Marga wonders in one of her enough,” observed Lapa. “You always illustrated with an image of prisoners correspond with actual conversations letters, which are read in voice-over have the perverted twist, the nasti- being shot by a firing squad. He when, in many cases, the original by actors in The Decent One, “when ness. This is what amazed me time writes to his wife, apologizing for hav- tapes were nowhere to be found? you know what he will say?” Himmler and time again. I knew that it would ing missed their anniversary, pleading Many researchers took Eichmann at frostily responds, “I must go to Hitler’s come at a certain point.” how busy he has been the past few his word, and ignored or downplayed rallies, because I organize them and We are reminded time and again in days, over images of Jews being the significance of the Argentina am jointly responsible for them.” the letters that the extermination of clobbered with two-by-fours, Jews Papers as mere drunken boasting. The prewar letters (the precise the Jews was the daily business of being shot, dirt being piled into mass In reality, Eichmann and Sassen Himmler numbered his correspon- the Himmler family. Marga writes of Jewish graves. had been friends, both members of a dence) are the missives of a traveling purchasing 10,000 bars of chocolate The film is intensely disturbing for group that met regularly in Sassen’s salesman, constantly on the road, as a Christmas gift for the soldiers of the ordinariness of the exchanges; as living room to discuss and debate and checking in on his family back at the SS. Heinrich tells his wife that Himmler plans the genocide of the Nazi ideology and history. Eichmann home, with the only notable distinc- “despite all the work, I am doing fine Jews, he is also offering advice about had been invited as the Argentinean tion being that the product Heinrich and sleeping well.” All his assurances his children, bantering with his daugh- Nazi known to have the most first- Himmler was selling was Nazism. to the contrary, the business of geno- ter, and flirting with his mistress. We hand knowledge of the war against Himmler’s daughter Gudrun was cide took a physical toll on him. He are through the looking glass, seeing the Jews. Sassen and his friends, born in 1929, and the most haunting had dismissively mentioned an officer the Holocaust from the perspective of (Continued on page 12) Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AM YOUNG LEADERSHIP ASS March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 MERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM SOCIATES WINTER GALA Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM LIVING WITH THE SHADOW, CREATING WITH THE LIGHT NEW EXHIBIT: “THE ANGUISH OF LIBERATION AS REFLECTED IN ART, 1945–1947”

Buchenwald by the prisoners. With of the old familiar world in which they in the survivors’ self-portraits. Halina BY ELIAD MOREH-ROSENBERG impressive accuracy, he sketched the had hoped to rehabilitate themselves, Olomucki, a young 26-year-old sur- figures of the fighting prisoners, the they found only ruin and devastation. vivor of Auschwitz, draws the lines of t was between three and four Allied tanks at the entrance to the Henryk Hechtkopf documented post- her face like those of an old woman, o’clock, the date 11 April 1945. “I camp, and the gate on which the flag We waited in suspense and with was replaced. With punctilious detail, unprecedented tension.... Suddenly he even noted the exact time on the there were shouts, from the opposite gate’s clock: 3:15 pm. Thomas, direction, from the main camp.... We whose physical condition did not per- rushed out to investigate: our com- mit him to leave the camp’s barracks, pound was lifeless as before. ‘Look at remained at Block 29 for approxi- the gate!’ someone shouted. I lifted mately a month, where he drew this my eyes and searched for the pyra- picture and some 80 other drawings, mid-shaped roof on the main watch- each the size of a postcard. In a tower that stood out from beyond the detailed, almost scientific way, his art- main camp. The crooked cross of work documents his life as a prisoner Fascism had gone. Fluttering from the at the Auschwitz , the death march, Buchenwald and the moment of liberation. His stated goal was to share the pictures with his father, who had fled to England just in time. But there is no doubt Jakob Zim (Cymberknopf) (b. 1920), View of Buchenwald, a Few Days after Liberation, Buchenwald, that these creations also 1945. Watercolor on paper. Yad Vashem Art Collection, gift of the artist. made it possible for him to war Warsaw in a series of drawings revealing her unstable mental state process the trauma and that he created from 1945 to 1946. with the lines of a quivering pencil. mentally rehabilitate him- His beloved hometown appears total- Ilka Gedo from Budapest, two years self, while at the same time ly destroyed, strewn with piles of rub- younger than Halina, presents herself gathering physical strength. ble, and its main streets resemble a with no head, with skewed and frail On January 27, to mark ghost town of desolate structures. Yet shoulders, and hands wracked with Thomas Geve (b. 1929), We Are Free, Buchenwald DP camp, International Holocaust these apocalyptic sights do not just pain. 1945. Pencil, colored pencil and watercolor on paper. Yad Remembrance Day and 70 he young Yehuda Bacon finds a Vashem Art Collection, gift of the artist. years since the liberation of T renewed faith in humanity and Auschwitz, a special display opened life in general in the figure of the edu- symbolic flagpole was something at Yad Vashem’s Museum of cator Pitter Premysl. Premysl, who white. The moment we had so anx- Holocaust Art in the presence of saved Jews during the Holocaust and iously been longing for had come: the Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin was eventually recognized as cherished victorious minute, for which Netanyahu and survivor-artist Righteous Among the Nations, also our comrades had been waiting for Thomas Geve. The exhibit, entitled tended to the needs and rehabilitation 4,453 days and nights, was here at “The Anguish of Liberation as of children who survived the war, last.” Reflected in Art, 1945–1947,” including young Bacon. Like Orpheus includes 30 pictures and draw- leaving the underworld, Bacon ings by almost 20 artists, all from depicts himself bent over and led by Yad Vashem’s Art Collection. Premysl from the darkness of the Surprisingly, a comprehensive camps to the light of life awaiting him examination of post-liberation in Eretz Israel. artwork indicates that in contrast For Jakob Zim, who, like Thomas to Geve and liberators such as Geve, was liberated from Zinovii Tolkatchev, who marked Buchenwald, the meaning of libera- the event themselves, most of tion lay in the ability to discern beauty the survivor-artists did not com- even in the accursed landscape of the memorate Liberation Day village near the camp, and in the itself — the moment they longed renewed freedom to paint. In this time Alexander Bogen (Katzenbogen), Ruins of . for throughout the war — focus- of crisis and destruction, the possibili- Vilna, 1944. Pencil and charcoal on paper. Gift of the ing instead on other subjects. ty of having an aesthetic experience artist. Thus, the diverse post-liberation Eliazer (Elie) Neuburger (18911972), Ahasver, while giving voice to it in the con- In 1956, Thomas Geve (pen name work of survivors can be divided into Amsterdam, 1947. Oil on canvas. Yad Vashem scious act of painting is a testament to for Stefan Cohn) gave this description five main categories: references to Art Collection, gift of Yehezkel Kelman the vast powers of the mind. of the moment of liberation from the freedom; documenting the ruin and Weissblum Robin, Amsterdam. Ultimately, the survivors’ desire to cre- Buchenwald concentration camp, destruction; searching for identity; document the destruction caused in ate, to express pain, perception, emo- where he had been transferred from coping with trauma; and, to a lesser the wake of the bombings. Rather, tion and reflection through art reveals Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz. Yet at degree, the day of liberation. they also disclose the artist’s inner their fierce will to live in spite of every- the time of liberation itself, 15-year- ome of the artists returned to feelings, finding in the chaos outside thing. For them, choosing to paint is old Thomas chose the medium of Sthe places where they had expression for his personal suffering like choosing life, or in Jakob Zim’s drawing in order to document the grown up, searching for home or hop- and existential turmoil. words: “I live with the shadow and formative moment of the liberation of ing to find relatives. However, instead These difficult feelings also appear create with the light.” March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 THE NAZI WHO SAVED US FROM KRISTALLNACHT Shanghai for twelve years, living in Said Strobin: “Ilie never wanted to see Alois’s whereabouts. Nonetheless, all BY JILL WERMAN HARRIS, FORWARD the Jewish “” in Alois as anything but good.” the students in the “Finding Alois” Hongkew with 18,000 refugees, who Jane Rohman, whose public rela- class (a course which is no longer he Wachses were just another came primarily from Germany and tions firm has guided the book since its being offered) committed to continue T middle class Jewish family liv- Austria. It was there that they publication, said that without fail, if the search. As for Schroeder, he is ing in Vienna. changed their name to Wacs. Ilie Strobin or Wacs lectured, visited a looking for concrete evidence. Right Moritz Wachs and his wife Henia eventually went on to study art in school or appeared at a museum, now, he is seeking access to the Fach had two children: Ilie, who was Paris and became a fashion designer inevitably someone would ask, “What Austrian government’s tax records. born in 1927, and his sister Deborah, in New York. Deborah and the parents happened to Alois?” Curiosity from Only there, he said, can Moritz who followed in 1935. Moritz was a emigrated to Canada and New York. audience members and readers fueled Wachs’s employee(s) for 1937 or tailor who owned his own small tailor Deborah, who married and took her an interest in finding the German who 1938 be found. “Once we get that and clothing shop. His head tailor was husband’s name, Strobin, settled in helped the Jewish family. name, I think the barrel will just roll.” a quiet German man in his 20s San Francisco and devoted her time Late last year Wacs exhibited a col- arlier this year, a Jewish- named Alois. Considered a friend of to philanthropy. All family members lection of his paintings at the Museum EAmerican man sent the siblings the family, he often played soccer with who remained in a photograph of an aging, lanky man Ilie. Vienna were killed. in his 90s, sitting in a wheelchair. The After Nazi Germany annexed The siblings rarely sender said he had read the story of Austria in March 1938, the business spoke of their the search for Alois on the “Finding was “aryanized” and Alois, a member escape, their life in Alois” Facebook page and recognized of the Nazi Party, became its owner. Shanghai or Alois, in the description a soft-spoken One day in early November of 1938, of whom they never German man, who had worked for Alois warned the family that “some- heard again. They him as a salesman for twenty-five thing terrible” was going to happen, also did not know years beginning in the 1960s. He was and told them to remain quiet inside what happened to known as Al. While the two mostly their apartment at Lilienbrunngasse the tailor shop. had a phone relationship, the Jewish No. 7. “Keep everyone inside. You will That is until 1997, man remembers hearing that Al had not be touched,” said Alois. On on Wacs’s 70th been a Nazi. The businessman never November 9, in widespread birthday, when he asked Al about it because he had that became known as Kristallnacht In the summer of 1939, the Wachs family was en route to Shanghai on prodded his sister board the Conte Biancamano. never displayed any anti-Semitism, (“ of the crystal”), Jewish busi- to take a trip with despite knowing that his boss was nesses and synagogues were vandal- him to the United States Holocaust of Tolerance in New York. At the end Jewish. ized and destroyed, almost 100 Jews Memorial Museum in Washington, of the exhibit Rohman went out on a Because of the sensitive nature of were murdered, and thousands sent D.C. “I was reluctant to go,” she said. limb and commissioned a large poster the search, neither Strobin nor to concentration camps. Ilie and his “I didn’t want to be reminded of any- that read, “Help us find Alois.” Schroeder can give specifics about sister recall vividly the terror, and then thing. I never even wanted to talk When Rohman and others were this lead, which is one of several they the relief, as Nazi boots marched past about it.” hanging the installation at the have pursued. their door. The Wachs family n an exhibition on Jewish refugees Museum of Tolerance in preparation Wacs, upon seeing the photograph, remained safe, thanks to Alois. Iin China, Strobin saw a photo of for its opening, David Schroeder, a said that there was something familiar Alois protected the family in other herself, aged 5, with two other Jewish professor of criminal justice and about the man but he could not tell for ways. He secured several extensions children. “For me, it was pure horror. I forensic sciences at the University of sure if it was Alois. Wacs died of lung for them to stay in Vienna, as Moritz, was so shocked to see a picture of New Haven in Connecticut, passed cancer on September 7. who was Romanian and had deserted myself that I had never seen before,” through the museum along with sev- His family and friends say that Wacs the army, was stateless, and Henia she said. She concluded that the eral of his students. After he met always came back to Alois, giving was from Poland. Finally, Alois urged Japanese, who at the time had gov- Wacs and learned about Alois, considerable thought to the context of the family to leave Austria by August erned and occupied Shanghai as a Schroeder and a colleague decided to what was happening in Germany in 31 of 1939, clearly knowing of the foreign concession, used the photos create a one-credit course for the fol- 1938 when a Nazi German came for- September 1 invasion of Poland, as propaganda. lowing semester, aptly titled, “Finding ward to help a Jew. which marked the beginning of the The experience triggered a desire to Alois.” Rohman remembers Wacs asking: Second World War, when wartime write a book about their lives. An With scant information, the students What is it in one person that makes conditions would make it more difficult Uncommon Journey was published by threw themselves into social network- them do that? “Even if we never find to escape. Barricade Books in 2011. Wacs was ing, creating a Facebook page, Alois,” she says, “what is it in one As instructed by Alois, the family unwilling to search for Alois, as he Finding Alois, and pursuing leads human being versus another who made its way through Italy to feared to find out that the man who coming in from as far away as sees injustice being done and does Shanghai, a city that didn’t require illustrated such great humanity to his Australia. something about it?” And morally, visas or passports to enter at that own family might have acted in polar But as the semester came to an end what does it mean if he then went on time. The Wachses stayed in opposite fashion to so many others. in May, the effort had not yielded to do some awful things as well? UNESCO RECOGNIZES YAD VASHEM’S HOLOCAUST TESTIMONIES he United Nations Educational, Testimony, commemorating some of Vashem has also employed volun- “This is an unprecedented initiative, T Scientific and Cultural the six million Jews killed in the teers to go to people’s homes and col- both in its scope and in its attempt to Organization (UNESCO) has added Holocaust, be recognized. The forms lect testimonies. recover names as a symbol of the the Pages of Testimony collected at were filled out between 1954 and “The Pages of Testimony project is a humanity of man.” the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial 2004 by the victims’ relatives and huge collective commemoration proj- or many, these testimonies museum to its register of documen- friends, many with accompany- “F are the only remaining link to tary heritage, which features items ing photographs, and the collec- their loved ones who were murdered deemed to have “world significance tion currently encompasses in the Holocaust,” added Avner and outstanding universal value.” some 2.6 million pages. Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem UNESCO established its Memory of Yad Vashem launched the proj- Directorate. “The German Nazis and the World Register in 1995, and it cur- ect of collecting and document- their accomplices tried to murder rently includes 299 collections and ing testimonies in 1954, and has every Jewish man, woman and child unique items from around the world, thus far managed to collect the and to erase any trace of their exis- featuring important archives, manu- names of about 4.2 million tence. Through this project of collect- scripts, map collections and more. . Many of the ing names and testimonies, we can The Pages of Testimony are among names were independently veri- restore their names and identities. I 54 new additions to the collection. fied through other documents, such ect for Holocaust victims,” Dr. call upon the public to commemorate Israel last year proposed to as community registries and Nazi Alexander Avraham, director of the their loved ones who were murdered UNESCO that the Pages of documents. In recent years, Yad Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, said. in the Holocaust.” Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 NO BANALITY IN THIS EVIL (Continued from page 7) Stangneth. “So, they tried to separate men of ideas, peddling their toxic that Nazism was not yet spent, was many of whom vociferously supported the dangerous pages from the not-so- notions of race and genocidal self- Gudrun Himmler. After the war, she the Nazi cause without having them- dangerous pages.” defense against the Jewish people. became a prominent force in an selves fought in the war, hoped Stangneth is also intent on situating Their letters and interview transcripts organization called Stille Hilfe (Silent Eichmann would prove what they the Argentina Papers within the provide an unfiltered look at not only Aid), which helped Nazis escape believed to be true: that the Holocaust unsettling world of postwar Nazi what they did, but what they thought Europe and provided financial and was a myth. Instead, and much to moral support to convicted war crimi- their horror, Eichmann proudly and at nals. Silent Aid fought to free convict- great length detailed his central role in ed Nazis and to prevent accused the , citing evidence Nazis from being extradited for trial. from books his friends procured and Himmler was neo-Nazi royalty, her lin- taking copious notes. eage granting her elite status within very weekend, they sit togeth- the airless world of unreconstructed “Eer for four or five hours, fascist ideologues. Saturday and Sunday, talking on a udrun Himmler, now Gudrun very high level about books about the GBurwitz, is now 85 years old, Holocaust,” Stangneth said of the still living in a suburb of . She Sassen circle. For Stangneth, these remains active in Silent Aid’s work, transcripts provided an incomparably presumably as a tribute to her intimate look at the mindset of one of father’s memory. “The way you want the architects of the Holocaust — one to assess someone is, what does that had been overlooked or down- she do when she comes to adult- played by other researchers for hood? What does she do after- decades. When Stangneth began her wards?” wondered Emory historian research, she found a jumble of disor- Deborah Lipstadt, when we spoke, with Heinrich Himmler and Himmler's daughter Gudrun. ganized pages scattered across “What does she do as the truth numerous German archives. She revanchists. Eichmann and his about their actions, and how they jus- comes out? Is she busy defending might come to the end of one page friends firmly believed that, suitably tified their nightmarish work to others. her father, or is she acknowledging and discover that the next was in cleansed of its tainted leaders The Himmler letters and the that her father was responsible for another archive, 100 miles away. (Himmler in particular was singled out Argentina Papers are primary mass murder?” The papers that Previous scholars had shown little as being beyond redemption), sources reminding us, in case we spent decades in a suitcase in a Tel interest in even assembling a com- Nazism could be revitalized as a polit- ever forgot, that these propagandists Aviv apartment document, among plete transcript. “I’m astonished that ical force. “You can lose the world were committed with undying ferocity other things, the irreversible warping there was so [little] curiosity about war, but you can be a winner if you to their own propaganda. Defeat was of a young mind. They are a record these papers,” said Stangneth. are able to write books,” said not an option, even when the war was of a life — make that three lives — After Eichmann was arrested, his Stangneth. “And this was the plan. To nearly lost — even when the war was permanently devoted to the propa- friends took the transcripts of the make the propaganda for the next long over. They are privileged gation of evil. By saving Heinrich Argentina Papers. “The original hundred years.” glimpses of true believers, reminding Himmler’s papers, Chaim Rosenthal papers were divided by friends of The Himmler and Eichmann papers us that Nazis were not only murderers did us all a service, preserving doc- Eichmann to save them, because are valuable in reorienting our under- and torturers, but also devoted follow- umentation of Nazi ideology’s Eichmann’s friends knew very well standing of these prominent Nazis’ ers of a totalitarian ideal. Doubt sim- calamitous effect not only on the that these papers were dangerous for interior lives. They were men of ply did not exist. Jewish people, but on Himmler’s Eichmann in Jerusalem,” said action, to be sure, but they were also One of the true believers, convinced own family, too. MY PILGRIMAGE TO AUSCHWITZ TO HONOR THE GHOSTS OF MY MURDERED FAMILY (Continued from page 2) drains running through the barracks, rass now grows around the Marcus stood atop the blown-up debris into the cool of the only catch the eye. Gbuildings, but at the entrances, of Crematorium 2, in which up to 1,000 not destroyed by the SS as Russian More than 1,000 people in each bar- where our feet sank into the mud and people a day were incinerated. troops approached. racks, each with a life expectancy — ashes, one could almost smell the Looking down at the large group he s I stood under the grates in the feces and urine which had brought to this spot, he pointed Aceiling, where the Zyklon B had would run down the pitted out that we, ordinary citizens of been poured forth onto naked Jewish tracks. Europe, were no different from those bodies, tears flowed down my face. We walked for a mile or who were driven here under the Nazi A faint smell of burning, from the so down the side of the yoke. Yet we would have filled only preserved crematorium next door, railway that brought the one-fifth of one barrack block. intensified the overwhelming effect. cattle trucks of Jews, gyp- Then, finally, came the tragic roll- Nearby, at Birkenau, whose pre- sies and political dissidents call, the names of the people in our served railway tracks were used in from every corner of occu- families who had perished: my grand- the opening scene from Spielberg’s pied Europe. parents Sandor and Fanya, my film Schindler’s List, there are rough Journeys of 2,000 kilo- uncles Danny and Ference, who fell wooden barracks as far as the eye meters or more, without in work camps after they were taken can see, punctuated by the chimneys water or food, journeys on from their families at the outbreak of of the Nazi death factory. which the corpses would war. Inside the barracks, the roughly outnumber the living. The prayer we spoke somehow hewn wooden bunks, which each held I recalled my cousin sanctified the ground and reclaimed five or six souls, remain intact. describing her departure for it a Jewish heritage. Seeing them, I recalled the memo- It was the courage and tenacity of my first cousin, Shindy (cen- from Hungary: the Jews Sheltering against the wind, I found ries of my aunts about how they ter) — then still a teenage girl — who helped to keep my two begged through the cattle a crevice in the rocks and quietly lit a dressed in rough, thin cotton paja- similarly aged aunts, Rosie (left) and Sussie (right), alive at truck openings for water single memorial light. The whole pil- Auschwitz despite the best efforts of Josef Mengele and the mas, huddling together for warmth in Nazi doctors. from their childhood friends grimage, I realized, was encapsulated a freezing Polish winter. and neighbors. Instead, in this moment of remembrance — for In the center of the room, crude, if they survived the selection for the they were offered salt. my grandparents, and the six million unfinished concrete latrines, with gas chambers — of six months. At the end of the track, a rabbi named who suffered and died with them. March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 SON’S POSTCARD TO LODZ GHETTO RESURFACES 72 YEARS LATER writing to his parents in Berlin until living in Stockholm as a retired man- parents’ fate. Last month, he received BY TOM TUGEND, JEWISH JOURNAL they were deported in October 1941. ager at SGS, a company that pro- copies of handwritten entries by a Nazi This was the time of Hitler’s greatest vides inspection, testing and certifica- official to the effect that Ernst and Ruth lmost 73 years ago, on March victories, and as the German armies tion services, primarily for internation- Prager were deported from Berlin 21, 1942, Stefan Prager wrote a A came closer and closer to Sweden, al shipping. October 27–29, 1941, to the postcard from Sweden to his parents, Stefan wondered, “Where would I go “A relative of mine found a postcard Litzmannstadt ghetto (German for who had been deported from their to hide?” he told the Journal in a at your museum which I sent to my Lodz). native Berlin to the Lodz ghetto in recent interview. parents from Sweden to the Lodz The next paper is an Poland. “In the [Swedish] village where my ghetto in 1942. … I never heard from “Announcement” from the ghetto’s He wrote about his recently cele- sister lived, there were several known them,” Prager wrote. “Eldest of the Jews,” dated May 22, brated 18th birthday, adding, “I’m feel- Nazis who would tell [the 1942, that Ruth Prager, now wid- ing healthy and the winter passed Germans that she was owed, was being moved from the one well. How are you doing?” Jewish].” room where she lived with her hus- Prager never got a response or Thus the story — like those of band to another room shared with heard from his parents. millions of other Holocaust vic- three other persons. Now, as Prager approaches his 91st tims — might have ended, but The last notice, dated October 13, birthday, the postcard has resurfaced for the resilience of this post- 1942, simply stated that Ruth Prager within the extensive digitized archives card, which eluded destruction had vacated her room the previous of the Los Angeles Museum of the through all the upheavals. day. Under “Reason for the Move,” an Holocaust (LAMOTH). The postcard’s n late 2011, Edward Victor, official entered “Death.” discovery has led, in turn, to new a retired Los Angeles LAMOTH president E. Randol inquiries and some answers about his I lawyer, donated to LAMOTH an Schoenberg noted that “the recovery parents’ fate. unusual collection of Nazi-era of the Prager postcard reinforces the Stefan Prager was born in Berlin, Stefan Prager, now 90, wrote this postcard on March 21, mementos that he had acquired point that even 70 years after the end the son of Ruth Prager and her hus- 1942, sending it from Sweden to his parents in Poland’s and organized during a 30-year Lodz ghetto; he never got a response. of the Holocaust, there are still undis- band, Ernst Wolfgang Prager, who period. It consisted of some 2,000 Melamed and his staff went to work covered documents, still descendants was wounded three times fighting in stamps, letters, identification cards, and tracked down the postcard in one of families searching for the fates of the German army during World War I. visas, school records and currency of his digitized files labeled Nazi victims and still large gaps in our The boy attended a Jewish school in receipts, which frequently traced the “Correspondence to and from Lodz knowledge of concentration camps. Berlin for four years, and in March fate of a given Jewish family from the ghetto.” “For instance, who has heard of the 1939, the parents sent their 15-year- beginning of the Nazi era in 1933 to No one knows how the card sur- Maly Trostenets extermination camp old son and 11-year-old daughter on a its bloody end in 1945. vived, but Prager speculates that “it near ? Yet, 65,000 Jews were (children’s transport) At LAMOTH, Vladimir Melamed, direc- was found at the Jewish administra- murdered there. to Sweden. tor of archives, library and collections, tion office [in Lodz] among lots of sim- “We owe it to the generosity of col- Stefan, a big-city boy, spent the war integrated the material in the museum’s ilar stuff following the total evacuation lectors like Edward Victor and the years with a farmer in a remote forest online archive, which now holds close to of the ghetto to Auschwitz.” dedication of archivists like Dr. area, living in a house without elec- a million document pages. With the recovered postcard as a Melamed and his staff that large parts tricity, a toilet or running water, feed- In December, Melamed received an lead, Melamed contacted the State of the still unknown history of the ing the livestock and chopping down email from Stefan Prager, who was Archive in Lodz for details on Prager’s Holocaust are coming to light.” large trees in the icy winter. He kept

HOW THE PHILIPPINES SAVED 1,200 JEWS VIOLINS OF HOPE DURING THE HOLOCAUST (Continued from page 5) Philippines in November 2013, the (Continued from page 4) Philharmonic Orchestra) both trying Manila. They were going to give them disaster brought in relief workers from many unknown victims. The simply and triumphant history with its open- a dead city, they set about doing that,” the American Jewish Distribution built violins are priceless to Amnon, tes- ing performance in Tel Aviv on said Miodowski. “They burned, they Committee. timony to the ordinary Jews who loving- December 26, 1936, conducted by killed.” Danny Pins, who is related to ly sustained their culture. “Amnon has none other than Arturo Toscanini of But wartime in the Philippines was Hershfield and is the son of a Jewish never known the names of any of his the New York Philharmonic. Giant “preferable to being in a concentration uncles, aunts and cousins who died in Toscanini pledged not to visit his camp,” she said. the Holocaust. Since they were buried homeland Italy nor Germany given The month-long urban street fight- in mass graves, there are no grave- their Fascism and anti-Semitism. ing for Manila left the capital in ashes, yards to help him piece together his The founder of the Palestine decimating its economy and infra- genealogy…. His only way of connect- Orchestra, celebrated Jewish violinist structure. The Philippines suffered ing with his family is through the craft Bronislaw Huberman, also stood up nearly a million civilian deaths during his father taught him: repairing vio- to Nazism. When Jewish musicians the war. lins…. Each violin is a tombstone for a could no longer be employed in Despite the trauma of facing both relative he never knew.” The author Germany, he conceived of establish- fronts of the war, Hershfield remains was motivated to write this book follow- ing a first-rate Jewish orchestra in grateful. ing a week’s visit with Amnon and his Palestine that would disprove the “We would not be alive today if not wife Assi in Tel Aviv back in February Nazi propaganda that Jews were not 2011. Assi, a journalist, is the daughter for the Philippines. We would’ve been great artists. While putting together of one of the heroic Bielski brothers, the destroyed in the crematorium.” what the New York Times described fighting partisans immortalized in the on February 9, 1936, as an REFUGE REMEMBERED book and film, Defiance. Lotte Cassel (now known as Hershfield) is seen “Orchestra of Exiles,” from 1935 to here is a theory that the violin, n 2009, a monument honoring the as a teenager in 1946 after surviving both the 1939 Huberman saved about 1,000 Philippines was erected at the Nazis and the Japanese occupation of the featured prominently in Jewish I T lives. Following the Holocaust’s Holocaust Memorial Park in the Israeli Philippines. cultural life and klezmer music, was heavy losses, some anguished musi- city of Rishon Lezion. The monument, created by Jews expelled from Spain refugee to the Philippines, headed its cians destroyed their German-made shaped like three open doors, thanks in 1492 who ended in Italy. Some assessment team. violins, with others practically giving the Filipino people and its president “For me it was like coming full circle Jewish violinists, such as Jascha them away to Moshe Weinstein. At for taking in Jewish refugees during and I couldn’t help but think of what it Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac the declaration of the founding of the the Holocaust. must have been like when my grand- Stern, acquired universal acclaim. state of Israel on May 14, 1948, this Many of the descendants of the parents and mother arrived 76 years Currently Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas unique orchestra played the national Jewish refugees who fled to the ago,” he said. “My going to the Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz are Philippines have not forgotten their Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan was acknowledged virtuosos. The author anthem, “Hatikvah” (The Hope), of a family’s place of refuge. very special. I was repaying a debt to exposes us to the Palestine reborn people. Indeed, “Wherever When Typhoon Haiyan struck the the country that saved my family.” Orchestra’s (now the famous Israel there were violins, there was hope.” Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 AUSCHWITZ BOOKKEEPER MAY BE LAST NAZI TRIED IN GERMANY FOR WAR CRIMES I am here in Canada, interviewing actual executioner himself. little children, and my grandma. The JOE O’CONNOR, NATIONAL POST them.” “Guilt really has to do with actions,” officer told the mothers not to fuss, if he accused is Oskar Gröening, Mr. Gröening told Der Spiegel. they wanted to stay with their chil- homas Walther is talking about T the so-called “bookkeeper” of “Because I believe that I was not an dren. And he put them all together, on T Auschwitz, and numbers, and Auschwitz, a former SS sergeant who active perpetrator, I don’t believe that the side that went straight to the gas. how the statistics of the Holocaust sorted and counted monies stolen I am guilty…. “We did not know where those peo- exceed imagination. What does it “I would describe my role as a small ple had gone for the first 10 days. And mean, for example, to deport 437,000 cog in the gears.” this was my arrival to Auschwitz. Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in the Mr. Walther has heard this defense Oskar Gröening didn’t kill with his span of 57 days in the spring and before, and views it as a fairy tale, a hands. But he was part of that killing early summer of 1944? What does it convenient narrative in which the oth- machinery.” mean to murder them at a rate of 3.5 erwise decent German gets caught Being a small cog, a guard in a Jews per minute, 24 hours a day, up in a killing mess, not of his making, watchtower, an accountant in seven days a week, so that by the and dutifully follows orders — without Auschwitz, was a well-trod road to end of the 57th day 300,000 of them blinking an eye — as many did during legal — and social, moral and eco- are dead? What does it mean to have the Nazi era. nomic — absolution for SS men after your parents, spouse, children and “Gröening will not deny anything,” the war. Of the 6,500 SS members relatives systematically killed in a Mr. Walther says. “He will only seek to who worked in Auschwitz, only 49 German Nazi death camp in German- diminish.” were ever convicted of a crime. occupied Poland, only to have them udy Lysy is a Holocaust survivor he German police, prosecu- counted by history as a lump sum? Jin Toronto. She met Mr. Walther “T tors, the local judges, they “I can speak about 300,000 dead at a dinner honoring him at a local weren’t interested in going after what people who are murdered, but synagogue. She is not among the co- were perceived as the small-fry war nobody can imagine what that means plaintiffs in the Gröening case since criminals, and this attitude persisted — such figures of death — while the Former SS sergeant Oskar Gröening counted the charges against him, for German well into the 1970s and beyond,” says Holocaust, this word, it is a part of money taken from dead Jews. He also stood legal reasons, only cover the 57-day Bernie Farber, former CEO of the families,” Mr. Walther says. guard on the Auschwitz train platform. killing frenzy associated with the Canadian Jewish Congress. “It is inside of human beings. It is from the murdered Jews, occasional- Jewish Hungarian deportees. (Mr. Many of those judges and lawyers something in the tears, if you wake up ly couriering it to his Nazi overlords in Walther would not disclose the identi- had Nazi pasts, while the German in the night and think about your Berlin. He also stood guard on the ties of the co-plaintiffs to me, explain- people — including the 20% of father who was killed. That is the train platform in Auschwitz, as cattle ing that, even today, there are those respondents to an American survey, Holocaust. And in the second genera- cars delivered their doomed Jewish unhappy with Groening’s prosecu- conducted in the American-occupied tion, in the children of survivors, those cargo. He did so in the belief that, as tion.) zone in 1945, who said they agreed who suffer the nightmares and mem- he told Der Spiegel magazine in Ms. Lysy, a Slovakian Jew, was with Hitler’s treatment of the Jews — ories of their parents — that is the 2005, the destruction of the Jews was raised in pro-Nazi, Hungarian-occu- weren’t willing, or even interested in Holocaust.” a “necessary thing.” pied territory. She arrived in confronting their complicity in the Mr. Walther, with his red running What makes Mr. Gröening, now 93 Auschwitz in April 1944. It was a Holocaust. Hitler and his high-ranking shoes, grey shoulder-length hair and — and a widower with a comfortable sunny day. She was 16. Nazi cronies were the real bad guys, rumpled-looking dark blazer, could home and robust company pension “There were these German officers, not them. easily pass for a university lecturer. thanks to his postwar career manag- very neat and clean,” the 86-year-old And the little Nazi fish, such as But his interest in the Holocaust isn’t ing a German glass factory — an says. Oskar Gröening, got married, had academic. The 71-year-old retired intriguing defendant is that he has “Oskar Gröening didn’t kill with his kids and came to be viewed as valu- German judge is a Nazi hunter, and repented, in a sense. He admits he hands. But he was part of that killing able employees. He applied manage- he travelled to Toronto and Montreal was at Auschwitz, and has spoken machinery. rial skills honed in Auschwitz to a civil- to interview Hungarian-Canadian openly about it. He took his story pub- “They asked for a translator, and ian job at a glass factory. Most Nazi Auschwitz survivors as co-plaintiffs lic several years ago, as he explained because I spoke Hungarian, German war criminals didn’t disappear into the for what could be the last Nazi war to a German reporter, to combat the and Slovak, I put my hand up. And I jungles of South America. They crimes trial in Germany. lies of the Holocaust deniers with the stood beside this officer telling the moved in next door. “Co-plaintiffs represent their mur- truth of someone who was there. people that those able and capable to And then along came Thomas dered parents and siblings, and I rep- And in his version of the truth, he is walk, would walk [to our barracks], Walther. resent the co-plaintiffs in court,” Mr. not guilty of any crime. Not in a legal and the old people and children — he “My youngest child went to universi- Walther says. sense, since he was merely a book- would send by truck. ty in 2006,” he says. “I was 63 and I “And to be sure that I find the right keeper, a brainwashed Nazi zealot “We would all be together, at the thought, if I can do something really words for them, the right feeling in a involved in executing the murderous end. I translated all this to Hungarian important, something that has to be German courtroom, this is the reason master plan of Adolf Hitler, but not an ladies, including my aunt, with her two done — then I would like to do it.” HOLOCAUST HERO FINALLY GETS HIS DUE IN HUNGARY soldier whose actions saved deported Hungary’s rural Jewish pop- much as the Nazis. The feeling was to and still seen as a key place for A some 200,000 Hungarian Jews ulation. mutual. After emigrating to the US, he Hungary’s Jews, and then at a gala has finally been recognized in The action, ordered by Regent was approached to help form a nucle- dinner at the Magyar Honvédség Hungary, 70 years after the event. Miklós Horthy, took place from July 5, us of Hungarian officers in the event (Hungarian Defence Force)’s Stefánia That year, 1944, the Normandy 1944 until the 8th, when the gen- of the US liberating Hungary from Palace, gave credit for Colonel landings weakened the position of the darmes were withdrawn. The 1st Communism. Koszorús’ action. occupying Germans in the country, Armored Division, his son, Frank or the first time ever, a modern During the Communist period, no one and the temporary Hungarian govern- Koszorús Jr. said, was being held in FHungarian government has rec- was allowed to speak of any people ment took the chance to take a step reserve to support Hungary’s with- ognized Koszorús’ action at a cere- rescuing Jews, as the idea was to paint that Germany would not like. drawal from the war. This eventually mony. Defense Minister Csaba the pre-Communist period entirely Colonel Ferenc Koszorús, interim took place in October, but the action Hende gave Frank Koszorús Jr., the black. However, in the last 20 years, commander of the Royal Hungarian failed. Hazáért Érdemjel (For the Homeland despite efforts by some historians, the 1st Armored Division, based in Koszorús, who was forced to flee Merit Medal) in honor of his father’s old Communist views have still held Esztergom, west of Budapest, using Hungary from his country’s Axis “ally,” action. sway. In that sense, despite having to the units under his command, blocked Nazi Germany, for fear of being exe- According to the the online Magyar wait 70 years for recognition, Koszorús’ a putsch by Hungarian Arrow Cross cuted by the Gestapo, also could not Nemzet newspaper, the memorial, brave action is finally being referred to members supported by units of the return after World War II, because the held first at the wall plaque at Dohány on (certain) television stations, radio gendarmerie, who had already Communists hated him every bit as Street, site of the former Jewish ghet- stations and the Internet. March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 SURVIVING THE NAZIS, ONLY TO BE JAILED BY AMERICA want to be seen as giving them pref- and live in filth like lazy “locusts,” and vivors because of lingering anti- BY ERIC LICHTBLAU, erential treatment over German he told of taking his commander, Semitism. THE NEW YORK TIMES P.O.W.s and other prisoners. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, to tour a At Bergen-Belsen, as many as Faced with complaints by outside makeshift synagogue set up to com- 12,000 Jewish survivors at a time n January world leaders gathered Jewish groups about conditions of memorate the holy day of Yom remained there until the camp was Iat Auschwitz to mark the liberation “abject misery,” President Harry S. Kippur. closed in 1951. Menachem Z. 70 years earlier of the Nazis’ most Truman sent a former immigration “We entered the synagogue, which Rosensaft was born at the camp in infamous concentration camp. official, Earl Harrison, to Europe to was packed with the greatest stinking 1948 to two Holocaust survivors. He Largely lost to history, however, is the inspect the camps. His findings were mass of humanity I have ever seen,” said in an interview that he believed cruel reality of what “liberation” actu- blistering. The survivors “have been Patton wrote. “Of course, I have seen that the survivors’ hardships after the ally meant for hundreds of thousands ‘liberated’ more in a military sense them since the beginning and mar- war had often been overlooked of Holocaust survivors discovered than actually,” Harrison wrote Truman veled that beings alleged to be made because “it doesn’t neatly fit the barely alive in the Nazi camps. in the summer of 1945. in the form of God can look the way story line that we won the war and Even after the victorious American “As matters now stand,” he wrote, they do or act the way they act.” liberated the camps.” and Allied forces took control of the “we appear to be treating the Jews as Other evidence emerged revealing Mr. Rosensaft, the editor of a new camps, the survivors — mainly Jews, the Nazis treated them except that we not only Patton’s disdain for the book by Holocaust descendants but also small numbers of gays, do not exterminate them. They are in Jews in the camps, but an odd admi- called God, Faith and Identity from Roma, Communists, Jehovah’s concentration camps in large num- ration for the Nazi prisoners of war the Ashes, added: “Nobody wanted Witnesses and others — remained for bers under our military guard instead under his watch. them. They became an inconven- months behind barbed wire and under of S.S. troops.” nder Patton, Nazi prisoners not ience to the world.” armed guard in what became known I ran across Harrison’s report a few Uonly were bunked at times with Joe Sachs, an 88-year-old euphemistically as displaced per- years ago while researching a book Jewish survivors, but were even Holocaust survivor who now lives sons, or D.P., camps. Many Jews on the flight of Nazis to the United allowed to hold positions of authority, outside Miami, said his three and a were left wearing the same notorious States after the war. As I examined despite orders from Eisenhower to half years in a displaced persons striped pajamas that the Nazis first the path the Nazis took out of Europe, “de-Nazify” the camps. “Listen,” camp were tolerable. He met his wife gave them. I struggled to understand how so Patton told one of his officers of the there, he learned a trade as a dental With the American forces over- many of them had made it to America Nazis, “if you need these men, keep technician, and, on most days at whelmed by the sheer numbers of so easily while so many Holocaust them and don’t worry about anything least, there was enough food for refugees under their control, underfed survivors were left behind. else.” everyone to get a piece of bread or survivors lived for months in decrepit One answer came in a copy of Gen. Following Harrison’s scathing meat. camps in Germany and Austria — a George S. Patton’s handwritten jour- report to Truman, conditions in the Compared with the Nazi camps, “it number of them on the same grounds nal. In one entry from 1945, Patton, camps slowly became more livable, was heaven,” he said. “But of course as the concentration camps. Even who oversaw the D.P. operations for with schools, synagogues and mar- we felt abandoned,” Mr. Sachs after conditions improved, thousands the United States, seethed after read- kets sprouting up and fewer restric- added. “We were treated not quite as of former prisoners remained inside ing Harrison’s findings, which he saw tions. But malaise set in, as survivors human beings. In a camp like that and in limbo for as long as five years — quite accurately — as an attack on realized they had no place to go. with a few thousand people, the only because the United States and most his own command. Hundreds of thousands of war thing you feel is abnormal.” other nations refused to let them in. “Harrison and his ilk believe that the refugees from Eastern Europe — The State Department finally In the early months after the war, Displaced Person is a human being, including many top Nazi collabora- approved visas for Mr. Sachs and his thousands of survivors died from dis- which he is not, and this applies par- tors — gained entry to the United wife and their 18-month-old daughter ease and malnutrition. Food was so ticularly to the Jews who are lower States in the first few years after the in 1949, just as Holocaust survivors scarce that rioting broke out at some than animals,” Patton wrote. He com- war, but visas were scarce for those were finally being allowed into the camps, as Allied commanders plained of how the Jews in one camp, left in the camps. Some Washington country in large numbers, and they refused to give extra food rations to with “no sense of human relation- policy makers were actively opposed left for New York City. Jewish survivors because they did not ships,” would defecate on the floors to the idea of taking in Holocaust sur- That, he said, was truly liberating. 70 YEARS AFTER THE HOLOCAUST: RESEARCH, RESOURCES AND REMEMBRANCE (Continued from page 1) offer connections between this sub- ry is the driving force behind challenge to make sure neither group the study of the Holocaust to the ject and other fields of study. Holocaust history. As educators we is forgotten.” public schools of New York City. She added that “our own aware- are aware how the events of the She concluded with a request to American Society for turning to the ness of Holocaust survivors should Holocaust include a wide array of conference participants acknowledg- ATSS/UFT to assist the American include the changing image of challenges to teachers and students ing that although members of her own Society for studying the Holocaust to Holocaust victims who survived and because of the complexity, horror, family — her parents and all four the public schools of New York City. who perished. For those who per- content and obligation of remem- grandparents — were fortunate to This award also acknowledges that ished, we need to consider how they brance this subject presents. To survive and rebuild their lives after the the ATSS/UFT commends the want to be remembered. For those meet these challenges, we offer Holocaust, not all Jews trapped in American Society for implementing who survived, we should realize how teachers connections between this Europe at this time were as fortunate. best educational practices in using they have been transformed from event and contemporary issues. In “One and a half million Jewish chil- documents, inquiry and critical think- victims to heroes. They are our eye- this way, we hope to raise aware- dren were murdered simply because ing and action for studying the witnesses to history, and their resist- ness and make the information more they were Jews. These children did Holocaust. ance efforts are symbols of the meaningful and relevant to our stu- not have the opportunity to build their Dr. Yahalom spoke about the strength and of the resilience of the dents.” lives and contribute to their communi- “importance of empowering educa- human spirit.” She also acknowledged the inspira- ties. I ask you, in the course of your tors to transmit the lessons of the Dr. Yahalom told the participants tional leadership of Leonard Wilf, important work as educators, to Holocaust to their students through that “as educators, by sharing the chairman of the American Society, remember these 1.5 million Jewish education. As an institution, Yad responsibility of teaching the les- and how “through programs such as children whose opportunities and Vashem is a symbol of both destruc- sons of this event to future genera- the conference we can teach partici- adulthood were taken away from tion and rebirth. Through education, tions, you make a positive and pants about the many themes to con- them.” these parallel messages are con- meaningful contribution to Holocaust sider in this undertaking: the multifac- For more information about ASYV veyed to the community at large. education and remembrance, since eted contours of human behavior, the educational programs and events, its One of the ways in which we provide your efforts help secure the histori- dangers of extreme and baseless traveling Exhibitis and its Young teachers with enrichment about this cally valid memory of this event for hatred, the role of the Holocaust in Leadership Associates, contact Marlene subject is to provide resources to the future. Documenting the public memory, the lives of the heroes Warshawski Yahalom, PhD, Director of teach about this subject, but also to Holocaust and preserving its memo- and the victims, and the overarching Education – [email protected]. American & International Societies for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE U.S. POST 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 PERMIT NO. 9313

Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org Society Editor (212) 220-4304 Editor-in-Chief for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for New York, NY 10110 NY York, New Ron B. Meier, Ph.D., Ron B. Meier, EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL *Published Bimonthly by the American by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates, and Nazi Victims **deceased Eli Zborowski** Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski** Mandell William Sam Halpern** Isidore Karten** Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet** March/April 2015 - Adar/Nissan 5775 Adar/Nissan 2015 - March/April MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 16 Page