the Triumphant Spirit

Portraits and Stories of Holocaust Survivors... Their Messages of Hope and Compassion

Created and Photographed by Nick del Calzo I NTRODUCTION

he Holocaust, the planned execution of millions of people by the German government, was not an T accident. It happened because people and governments made choices that allowed prejudice and hatred to determine their actions. The civil rights in that society were destroyed and the result was the horrific death of so many people. Only by learning and understanding the event can we become aware of the value of tolerance and diversity and be sure that nothing like that ever happens again.

s you read this special newspaper supplement, you will come to know some of the survivors of this A dark period of history. From their inspiring stories you will learn about courage in the face of unbelievable horror. You will also read some of the history of this period, from 1933 to 1945, so that you can begin to understand what happened. The study of raises hard questions and there are no easy answers. The issues are complicated. You may want to check your library or the Internet to read more about what you learn.

P REFACE

One highly acclaimed witness to mankind’s most days after reaching our shores, they became grotesque episode in recorded history said it best: productive citizens. These new Americans established careers, built successful businesses, rebuilt their “People can live without pleasure but not without hope.” families, and made many positive contributions to Holocaust survivor and celebrated author Nechama the social and economic fabric of our community. Tec summoned these poignant words from the depths These inspiring examples also underscore of her soul after half a century of living with the important values that have begun to fade, but which memories of humanity’s darkest hours. need to be embraced again by all Americans, regardless Yet these nine words have a renewed, powerful of age, religious beliefs, or social and ethnic origin. meaning for the youth of our nation, many of whom These commemorative portraits and stories illuminate have jettisoned any possibility of living a full, abundant the American Dream. As it came true for them, so it life in pursuit of their dreams. Instead, they feel can for the youth of our nation, too. Each person can oppressed, disheartened, angry, and vengeful. Amid truly fulfill his or her constitutional guarantee of “life, this emotional and spiritual fog, significant numbers of liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” today’s youth fail to grasp that they live in The Triumphant Spirit is more than a reminder about a free society, and that within America’s borders reside the Holocaust a half century ago. These images and vast educational resources and opportunities. stories transmit a unified theme of present-day hope, Out of the depths of mankind’s darkness compassion, and tolerance. emerge inspiring messages from individuals Self-fulfillment is achievable for those who had every reason who embrace a not to have hope. personal vision, These extraordinary possess an unswerving individuals are bright determination, take beacons for all humanity, advantage of and their stories rekindle educational resources, the human spirit in each and never abandon of us. hope. These values These portrayals form a rich palette of present Holocaust opportunities from witnesses who came which everyone may to America, spiritually begin to create his or ignited by Miss Liberty’s her own dreamscapes. torch of freedom. Within — Nick Del Calzo

2 T HE H OLOCAUST – A SUMMARY

his is a specific event in world history – the planned killing of Jewish people in Europe by Nazi between 1933 and 1945. Although millions of other Tpeople were also murdered, including Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, and others, Jews were the main target and six million of them died. Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. He changed the way the government there worked and did away with many of the freedoms people had, giving more power to himself and his political party – the National Socialist German Workers Party – "Nazi Party," for short. The Nazis believed they were better than people of other races and ethnic backgrounds and they began to spread hatred about other groups. They blamed these people for many of Germany’s economic problems, and they planned to murder and torture them because of that.

H A TRED S PREADS

The spread of hatred led, in November 1938, to an attack against synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses, the arrest of many Jewish men, the destruction of many of the homes of Jews, and the murder of some people. This riot became known as Kristallnacht, which is German for "Night of the Broken Glass," referring to all the windows that were destroyed in the turmoil. Part of the diabolical German plan involved scientific experimentation to "improve" the human race. People who were considered inferior – those of other races or the handicapped – were sterilized so that they could not have children. At the same time, the Nazis began to arrest people they thought to be "enemies of the state." They locked people up in concentration camps. The first of these roundups of people began just after Kristallnacht. Many Jews left Germany, moving to Palestine (what is now ), the , Latin America, or other countries in Europe (where many of them would later be caught by the Nazis anyway). Some Jews did not wish to leave, not wanting to give up the country they had loved and not wanting to lose their families. Some people stayed but sent their children to live with friends and family in other countries, where they thought they would be safe. They did not know what horror was ahead for them and most never saw their children again. THE EVENTS IN HISTORY Some people went into hiding, often helped by non-Jewish friends. They hoped that they could stay hidden from the Nazis until they were safe. Some A DOLF H ITLER hid in attics or barns, closets, or even in holes in the ground. One of the most famous of these people was a little girl named Anne Frank, who hid with her family until they were found by the Nazis. Anne wrote a diary that survived the dolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. That made him the Holocaust even though she didn’t, and her book has been read by millions of Amost powerful man in Germany’s government. He was the head of the people. She wrote of her time in hiding and of her thoughts that mankind was political party known as the Nazi Party. He immediately ended Germany’s still basically good. democratic form of government and began changing laws to restrict many freedoms, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom to gather in groups. These changes in the laws made life very difficult for Jews. They could not go to public schools or visit certain sections of Germany. Jewish children were not allowed to participate in sports or social events with German children. They couldn’t go to movies, parks, museums, or playgrounds where German children were playing. At this same time, Hitler began to publicize his prejudiced and racist views. He preached that Germans, who he referred to as the Aryan race, were superior to people of other ethnic and racial backgrounds. Soon that hatred spread throughout Germany. Germans claimed themselves to be the "master race" and saw the Jews and others as threats to their power and their plan to rule Europe. Propaganda, or misinformation about Jews, spread throughout Germany, fueling the fire of hatred against the Jews and the others. The new German laws led to boycotting (refusing to engage in any commerce) of Jewish businesses, and many Jews had to quit their jobs. In 1935, laws known as the Nuremberg Laws were passed, declaring Jews to be second-class citizens. Between 1935 and 1939, more and more laws were passed restricting the freedoms for Jews.

3 W O RLD W AR II G ERMANY A TTACKS

orld War II began in September 1939, when Germany Wattacked . Thousands of Poles, including Jews, were sent to concentration camps. Thousands of Polish children were kidnapped by the Nazis and sent to Germany to be adopted by German families. Later, when it was decided that was not a good idea, many of those children were killed. As the war began, Hitler ordered many people killed. Those ordered to death were sent to specially built gas chambers where they breathed in a gas that choked them and resulted in their death. These chambers were later used for the planned mass murder of millions of people in the camps. The Germans continued to conquer much of Europe. They succeeded in taking over Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and the Netherlands. In June 1941, the German army attacked the Soviet Union. By that time, the Germans had been joined in their fight by Italy, Romania, and Hungary. This group of countries was known as the Axis Powers. Fighting against them were the Allied Powers of Britain, Free France, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

M ILLIONS D IE T HE F INAL S OLUTION

ore and more Jews were killed, not just in the camps, but etween 1942 and 1944, the Germans moved millions of Min mass executions. More death and labor camps were Bpeople into the "extermination" or "death" camps to achieve formed throughout Eastern Europe. Underground resistance what was called "The Final Solution." The Final Solution was the organizations, people fighting against the Nazis in occupied plan to kill all the Jews. They were transported by train, in cattle countries, were also formed. In Poland, Jews were forced to live cars, to the camps. The trip often took several days with no heat, in contained areas called "ghettos," where they were separated no room to move, no food or water, and no bathroom. Upon from the rest of the people. Living conditions in the ghettos were arrival, families were separated. Children were torn from their awful and food was scarce. Tens of thousands of people in mothers’ arms and many never saw them again. All were forced ghettos in Warsaw and Lodz, died of starvation, exposure to to undress and hand over any valuables. Some were chosen for cold, or disease. Many Jews were forced to work for the immediate death, and herded, naked, into the gas chambers, Germans without pay, and many died from the exhausting labor. which were disguised as shower rooms. Others were put to work. Some groups of people were fighting against the Nazi plan. One of the most famous of these resistance fighters was Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish man who helped rescue tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in 1944. Millions more people, however, stood by silently, letting the Nazis continue with their horrors. But in 1944, when the war began to go poorly for the Germans and the Allies were heading to Germany, the SS (the German Security Police) and the Special State Police (known as the Gestapo) decided to try to cover up the horrible crimes they committed by emptying some of the outlying camps. They did not want the Allies to find the prisoners there and see what had gone on. They forced the remaining people in the camps to go on "death marches" – long, torturous journeys on foot that moved them further inside the country. Many of them died. In May 1945, fell. People still in the camps were set free (liberated). They had lost their homes, families, and businesses, but they had survived, and they had to begin their lives anew.

4 S ELENE B RUK

HOLOCAUST EDUCATOR & SURVIVOR OF THE BIALYSTOK GHETTO AND STUTTHOF, AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU, RAVENSBRÜCK, AND NEUSTADT CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“Not everyone can be rich but everyone can be enriched by having a positive attitude about life.”

hese Jews, they were here!” said an angry SS officer who Bruk watched as the selections began. A soldier shouted out T entered the room where Selene Bruk and her family were “Right!” or “Left!” as he inspected the prisoners. Bruk saw that hiding. Bruk was hiding under a bed and could see the reflection her mother was sent to the line of those who were sick and of her face in the officer’s polished boots. “My heart was racing. I elderly, so she pushed her mother into the other line, saving her prayed he wouldn’t look down.” life. Bruk and her family were hiding from the SS as the ghetto of They were both sent to Birkenau where they worked for a Bialystok was being liquidated. Bialystok was Bruk’s hometown year in an armaments factory. Out her window, Bruk could and also home to 60,000 other Jews. When Germany and the see the chimney of the crematorium. “Day after day, I heard the Soviet Union divided transports arriving. Poland in 1939, the I looked at the city came under chimney and it was a Soviet occupation. red flame—like a red In 1941, Germany tongue reaching up invaded Soviet- to the sky, and occupied Poland. Two I wondered which thousand Jewish men of my cousins, my were burned alive grandparents, my in Bialystok’s main aunts, my uncles— synagogue. As the who, I asked, was city burned, people going through that ironically were able chimney now?” to escape death in the When the Soviet cemetery, one of the Army approached, few places not in Germans forced the flames. inmates on a week- Thousands of long death march Jews were periodi- to Germany. She cally taken from the and her mother ghetto. Soldiers said survived the march the Jews were being and two more camps, taken to other cities Ravensbrück and to work. Instead, they Neustadt. were being murdered. Bruk and her Bruk remembers mother were hiding during the SS liberated by the roundups in the Soviets in May ghetto. “We hid in the 1945. They then attic and listened to returned to Poland to the killing and search for family. shooting outside.” Selene found letters Selene was from her father arrested in one roundup who was living in and thrown in jail with 200 other teenage girls. Her brother America. Her brother was in the Soviet Army. She returned to convinced the Germans that she was needed on a construction Germany and had intended to immigrate to the United States. On project. All the other girls were killed. Bruk’s uncle and a train, she met Barry Bruk, a survivor from Lodz. They were grandfather were taken away in another selection. married in Montreal in 1950, the same year Bruk graduated from After the Bialystok ghetto was liquidated, Selene, her brother, high school. They now live in the United States. and her mother remained in hiding for three months. Each night, Selene Bruk has two children and five grandchildren. She is Bruk’s brother would rummage for flour and collect water from the longtime chairperson of a committee for the Anti-Defamation toilets. They were discovered by a Pole, however, who turned League in that conceived of and engineered the Bruk and her mother over to the Germans. Her brother escaped League’s model Holocaust education workshop. She frequently to the forest and joined the partisans. speaks about her experiences to school and community groups Selene and her mother were sent to the Stutthof and is also involved with other Jewish organizations. concentration camp for two months and then on to Auschwitz.

5 E MIL G OLD & ZESA S T ARR

BOTH ARE RETIRED FROM THE RETAIL CLOTHING BUSINESS, VOLUNTEERS IN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION & SURVIVORS OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“Freedom is the most important thing. Enjoy it and live with respect for your fellowman.”

e came through,” said Emil Gold. “How? I don’t know how to they wanted more food, they should murder their father. The father Wanswer. There is no answer.” There are no adequate words or said, “Kill me, or you will be killed, too”— and they did to get an descriptions that explain how and what Emil and his brother Zesa extra piece of bread. And they recall how in one cell block, where Starr witnessed, endured, and survived during the Nazi Holocaust. prisoners were sent for punishment, Nazis distributed belts to the Born in Lubraniec, Poland, Emil and Zesa are the only survivors prisoners. “Every morning you woke up to find 10 or 20 people had of an extended family of 26. Between the two of them, they endured hanged themselves,” recalls Emil. “That was what the Germans 21 concentration camps. During the war, they were separated and wanted.” spent two years apart, Emil and Zesa not knowing if the endured more camps: other was dead or Buna, Buchenwald, alive. Weimar, and Bergen- Both ended up in Belsen. En route to the Poznan labor camp one camp, the in 1940. There, they inmates’ train was were stricken with mistaken for a typhoid fever. In six German military weeks, recalled Emil, transport and was nearly 800 people bombed by the died. There was no British. Of 1,000 medicine and no prisoners on the train, water. “People died 250 lived. Emil, who like flies.” Zesa became had been shot in the too sick to work, leg, walked to a Red always a death Cross hospital and sentence for camp was operated on by inmates. He was put a German physician on a transport destined whom he credits for the gas chambers of with saving his life. Auschwitz and Emil was Birkenau. “When I liberated from heard he was going, I Bergen-Belsen by went with him,” British troops on recalls Emil. “I was not April 15, 1945. The selected to go, but I U.S. Army liberated went with him. Zesa Zesa from Dachau on told me not to.” April 29. Emil began They arrived at asking others about Auschwitz-Birkenau where, instead of being selected for death, they his brother’s fate. By chance, a friend had seen Zesa. Within two were made slave laborers. Standing side by side, they were tattooed weeks, they were reunited. Emil went to Israel and fought for the with their inmate numbers, 111834 and 111835. Their job was to Israeli underground and in the Israeli Army. Both brothers sort the clothing that was removed from the thousands of people eventually immigrated to America and are now retired from the murdered in the gas chambers. “We went through their clothing retail clothing business. They have settled in Colorado. inch by inch. This was not the way we wanted it, but sometimes we Zesa and Emil are grateful beyond words for their children would find some extra food.” and grandchildren and for the opportunities and freedom they They recall how after an especially large transport to Auschwitz, have found in the United States. They speak frequently about the the Nazis killed 9,000 people in the gas chambers in a single night. Holocaust in schools, warning young people about the dangers of They recall how a Nazi approached a Hungarian Jew and his three hate groups. They implore the young to respect and protect the starving sons in the camp and taunted the sons. The Nazi said that if freedoms they have.

6 F RED E NGLARD

INDUSTRIAL FABRICS SPECIALIST, COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER, HOLOCAUST SPEAKER & SURVIVOR OF THE LODZ GHETTO AND AUSCHWITZ AND SIEGMAR-SCHOENAU CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“If you wish to find the spark in our life, look in the ashes.”

aus! Raus!” yelled the German guards. “Women over here! Just before the Allies liberated the camps in 1945, Englard and R Men this way!… Right, left, right!” That is how Fred Englard the other Jews were forced to march day and night. They marched lost his mother and father. There were no good-byes on the from one city to another because the Nazis did not know what to do selection platform at Auschwitz. That is where the Nazis separated with the prisoners. Fred, weakened from malnutrition, summoned those destined to die from the able-bodied prisoners. Women who all his strength to keep marching. On May 10, 1945, nine days after refused to leave their small children, the ill, and the elderly Hitler perished, Nazis assembled Fred’s group at gunpoint in a farm were all immediately sent to their deaths. There were no burials, field and declared them free. The SS, fearing recrimination, fled for no tombstones, no their lives with their chance to say weapons. Kaddish, the Hebrew Three weeks later, prayer for the dead. Fred returned to his Englard learned from home in Lodz, and fellow prisoners that learned that he was his parents had been the only remaining sent to the gas member of a family chambers upon their of more than 250 arrival at the death people. He discovered camp. A young man that, in addition in his twenties, Fred to the murder of was made a slave his parents, his laborer. three sisters with Englard’s family their husbands and was from Lodz, children were all Poland, and they exterminated at the had been there for five Majdanek death generations. His father camp. was successful in the Fred Englard textile industry. immigrated to the Shortly after World United States in 1953 War II began, the Jews and raised his own of Lodz were ordered family. He worked in to assemble and were the industrial fabrics forced into the aftermarket, and has barbed-wire-enclosed remained a vigilant ghetto. There was no voice from the connection with the Holocaust. He is a outside world. Fred’s frequent writer of three married sisters had fled to Warsaw in the hopes of better letters to magazines and newspapers to set the record straight and conditions, but all died there at the hands of the Nazis. In 1944, after defend history as he experienced it. The word “Holocaust,” he says, four years in the ghetto, Englard and his parents were put in railroad has become overused and loosely defined. He prefers the word cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. “Shoah,” the Hebrew word for Holocaust to describe the atrocities Ten weeks after his arrival there, an order came down for 400 against the Jews. Englard is a collector of literature about the war and prisoners to be sent to Germany to work as slave laborers. Englard’s is a voracious reader of historical accounts of the Holocaust. He also barrack was one of those chosen for the detachment. They were is a collector of poignant quotations that somehow, for him, assign sent to the Siegmar-Schoenau labor camp, a sub-camp of the meaning to what happened between 1939 and 1945. Among his Flossenbürg concentration camp, where the prisoners worked in a favorites is the quotation above by a fellow Holocaust survivor and variety of German factories. By the spring of 1945, half of Fred’s scholar, the late Primo Levi. fellow prisoners had died of exposure, malnutrition, beatings, and shootings.

7 H ARRY G LASER

RETIRED CLOTHING RETAILER & SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ, BUCHENWALD, DORA, AND BERGEN-BELSEN CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“All human beings are precious and should always be treated with respect.”

arry Glaser and his parents and sister arrived at Auschwitz stormed the camp gates thinking they were about to be freed. Hin 1942. Glaser was 22. Amid the chaos of sorting out Harry was shot in the leg and lay wounded until British soldiers which prisoners were to go to the left and which to the right, arrived. Glaser was then liberated along with his sister, Freda. He Glaser persuaded his father to rejoin his mother in the opposite had not known her whereabouts during the war, but during the line. “Be together with Mom,” he whispered. His father obeyed liberation of Bergen-Belsen, they were reunited. Freda cleaned his son’s plea, not realizing they were headed to their deaths in his wound and promised she would return with the gas chambers. food. Glaser never Harry and his saw her again and is family were from convinced that she Romania. His parents died after eating had been in the bread that the SS merchandise business. had laced with rat After he was poison. deported to Auschwitz, The British Glaser was sent to liberators found Buchenwald and thousands of dead then to Dora. From bodies at Bergen- there, he was sent to Belsen. Mass graves Bergen-Belsen. He were dug and recalled the three-day bulldozers were rail trip to Bergen- brought to shovel Belsen, packed in a in the dead. boxcar without food The 60,000 camp or water. Many prisoners suffered suffocated and died from a typhoid en route. Glaser was epidemic—so lethal ordered to help stack that the camp had the dead bodies in to be burned down. another railcar where An estimated he was able to 14,000 of the newly breathe and lie down freed inmates died to rest. There among within a few days the dead bodies, Harry believes his life was saved. He said he because their emaciated bodies were unable to respond to could not have survived the trip if he had remained in the cattle medicine or nutrients. British troops took films of Bergen-Belsen car with the others. that were broadcast throughout the world. In September of that At Bergen-Belsen, Glaser again tended to the dead. He year, 48 Nazis from the Bergen-Belsen camp were tried for their dragged dead bodies by the ankles for burial in mass graves. “I crimes. Eleven, including the camp commandant, were executed. remember the bodies scattered everywhere. There was no food Harry Glaser immigrated to the United States in December and no water.” 1947. He lived in New York until he moved west and settled in On April 15, 1945, as British tanks advanced on Bergen- Denver, Colorado, in the summer of 1954. He is now retired from Belsen, the SS machine-gunned some 25,000 prisoners who had the retail clothing business.

8 C LARA I SAACMAN

AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, LECTURER & MEMBER OF THE BELGIAN UNDERGROUND, AND HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

“Everything you do is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. Make it count for something purposeful.”

he did not see sunlight or breathe fresh air for two and one half The family went into hiding. “There were times when I dared Syears. Clara Isaacman hid with her family in 18 different places not move. All I could do was just sit there for hours. And every time between the summer of 1942 and the spring of 1945—sometimes in I heard a noise or a footstep, I thought it was the Gestapo or SS rat-infested cellars, sometimes in homes—always, always in coming to kill me.” darkness. One night, Clara’s father ventured to the home of people he Isaacman, born Clara Heller in Romania, moved with her family believed to be sympathetic to the Jews. He brought them diamonds to Antwerp, Belgium, to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism. and jewels to trade for bread. He was betrayed by those people and There they lived a normal life of a middle-class family until 1942. was later gassed to death while he was asleep in his apartment in They were reluctant Antwerp. Her older to leave this home brother also was during the war; Clara’s killed at Auschwitz. father did not believe Fifty thousand Hitler intended to kill Jews lived in Antwerp the Jews. Isaacman before the war. remembers the event When Isaacman was that convinced them liberated in April of otherwise. 1945, she was one “One afternoon, of the 5,000 who without telling my survived. For her family, I skipped efforts with the Hebrew school to go to Belgian underground, a birthday party. When Isaacman received a I got home from the treasured citation from party, our house was King Leopold III. in an uproar. Mama After the German was crying. Daddy was defeat, Clara met pacing the floor. a young American Neighbors were soldier named Danny sobbing, clinging to who had come to a one another. When community center to Mama noticed me offer his help to standing in the the remaining Jews doorway staring at of Antwerp. They them in bewilderment, married, came to she gave a shriek and the United States, rushed toward me. completed their ‘Clara, Clara,’ was all education, and she and Daddy could embarked on long say as they embraced me. Little by little, everyone told me his or her careers of teaching and service to the international community. When he version of what happened that afternoon. A German army truck had died in 1982, Dr. Daniel Isaacman was president of Gratz College. been parked across the entrance to my Hebrew school. All of the Today, Clara Isaacman is a survivor delivering history with a teachers and children inside the school were herded into the truck voice of passion. She has written her memoirs in a moving book and driven away. I didn’t question the quirk of fate that had kept me titled Clara’s Story. She has also written a manual for teachers about away. I could only think, I should have been there. Where were my teaching the Holocaust to young people. It took nearly 50 years after friends now? Where were they going? Would the teachers look after the Holocaust for Isaacman to write her book—50 years for the pain them? How would I have behaved had I been with them? The to recede enough for her to talk about what happened. In her incident at my Hebrew school showed us the true face of the beast writings and in her classroom lectures, Isaacman warns audiences that was bearing down on us. But it was too late. Every known that man’s inhumanity will kill us again and again if we continue to avenue of escape had been closed. We were trapped.” dismiss history as irrelevant to everyone today.

9 1933 Chronolog

January 30th – Adolf Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany February 28th – German government restricts basic freedoms March 20th – First concentration camp at Dachau opens April 1st - Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses April 7th – Laws bar "non-Aryans" from holding university and government positions April 26th – Gestapo established May 10th – Public burning of books that are banned by the government July 14th – Laws strip European Jewish immigrants of German citizenship, permit sterilization of gypsies, disabled, African-Germans and others considered "inferior" 1934

August 2nd – Hitler proclaims himself Fuhrer and Reich chancellor and controls military October – First arrests of homosexuals in Germany 1935

May 31st – Jews prohibited from serving in the German military November 15th - Nuremberg laws that discriminate against Jews passed, Jews not considered German citizens or allowed to marry Aryans 1936

March 3rd -Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions March 7th – Germans invade Rhineland August 1st – 16th – Olympics held in Berlin October 25th – Hitler and Benito Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis 1937

July 15th - Buchenwald concentration camp opens 1938

March 13th – Germany annexes Austria April 26th – Jews must register all property August 1st – Adolf Eichmann establishes Office of Jewish Emigration to increase the pace of forced immigration September 30th – Munich Conference – England and France agree to German occupation of Sudetenland October 5th – Germans mark all Jewish passports with "J " to restrict Jewish immigration to Switzerland October 28th – 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany are expelled November 9th – 10th – Kristallnacht, or night of broken glass – synagogues and Jewish businesses destroyed, 30,000 Jews sent to concentration camps November 12th – All Jewish business to transfer to Aryans November 15th – All Jewish students expelled from German schools, segregated schools are created December 12th – German Jews fined one billion marks for destruction of property on Kristallnacht 1939

March 15th – Germany invades Czechoslovakia August 23rd – Germany and Soviet Union sign non-aggression pact September 1st – Germany invades Poland, beginning of World War II September 21st – Directives are issued to establish ghettos in Poland October 28th – First Polish ghetto established November 23rd – Jews forced to wear armbands in German –occupied Poland gy of Events 1940

April 9th – Germans invade Denmark and Norway May 10th – Germany invades Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France May 20th – Concentration camps established at Auschwitz June 22nd – France surrenders August 8th – Battle of Britain begins September 27th – Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis formed 1941

January 21st – 26th – Hundreds of Jews are killed during anti-Jewish riots in Romania March 24th – Germany invades North Africa April 6th – Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece June 22nd – Germany invades Soviet Union September 28th – 29th – 34,000 Jews massacred at Babi Yar outside Kiev October – First group of German and Austrian Jews are deported to ghettos December 7th – Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; United States enters the war December 8th – Chelmno extermination camp begins operations 1942

January 20th – German leaders plan "Final Solution" to exterminate Jews March 17th – Extermination begins in Belzec concentration camp May - Extermination by gas begins in Sobibor concentration camp Summer - Jews deported to extermination camps in Belgium, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Poland. Armed resistance by Jews in Russian ghettos Winter – Deportation of Jews from Germany, Greece, and Norway to extermination camps 1943

January – German army surrenders at Stalingrad April – Wausau ghetto revolt – Jewish underground resist until June Summer – Armed resistance by Jews in several ghettos in Poland Fall – Liquidation of large ghettos in Soviet Union October 14th – Armed revolt in Sobibor concentration camp 1944

March 19th – Germany occupies Hungary May 15th – Nazis begin deporting Jews from Hungary June 6th – Allied invasion at Normandy, France Spring – Summer – Soviet army turns back Nazi forces July 20th – Group of German officers attempts to assassinate Hitler October 7th – revolt by inmates at Auschwitz November 8th - Death March of 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria 1945

January 17th – Evacuation of Auschwitz – beginning of death march January 25th – Beginning of death march at Stutthof, Poland April 6th – 10th – Death march for inmates at Buchenwald April 30th – Hitler commits suicide May 8th – Germany surrenders – end of World War II in Europe November – October 1946 – War crime trials held in Nuremberg J ACOB M ELLER

RETIRED BUSINESSMAN & SURVIVOR OF THE KOVNO GHETTO AND DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

“See and feel the freedom in this country. You have the opportunity to accomplish whatever you desire.”

fter he was liberated in 1945 from the Dachau concentration Cruelty was boundless at Dachau. When prisoners stepped on A camp, Jacob Meller did not part with his prison uniform. Still a strip of grass too close to the barbed-wire camp boundary, the SS stained with blood and sweat, he kept it with him after liberation and guards in the watchtowers assassinated them without warning. everywhere he went; from Europe to the United States, from Flogging, punishment at the stake, and executions were carried Cleveland, Ohio, to Los Angeles, California. It connects him with the out at a predetermined spot known as the Lagerarrest. Dachau past, he says, and does not let him forget. was also one of the camps where Nazi doctors conducted medical Meller was born in experiments on Kovno, Lithuania, a defenseless prisoners. city that, before World American War II, was home soldiers liberated the to nearly 40,000 Jews. camp on April 29, He was in his twenties 1945. Miraculously, when the Nazis forced all his siblings had them into the Kovno been spared in the ghetto. That same year, camps. In 1951, Jacob his mother was taken came to the United away, along with States, where, like so 10,000 other Jews, many other survivors, and was led to the he became a part of infamous Ninth Fort the American dream. near Kovno. It was the He started a business murder site of more and raised a family. than 130,000 Jews He is extraordinarily from all over Europe. humble. Asked about Jacob and his how he wants to be father were sent remembered, he says to Dachau; his two just as “plain Jacob sisters and four brothers Meller.” Asked about were sent to other his life’s achievements, camps. During his four Meller says, “None. years at Dachau, he I’m just a survivor of witnessed the death of the Holocaust.” his father, and many, Decades later, he many others. Dachau had the evil distinction of being the first Nazi still marvels at the freedom and opportunity in America. Decades concentration camp, “the perfect training center” for the SS specialists later, it is still his uniform that is a reminder of the hell he endured who learned how to persecute the Jews. and the parents he lost. Now behind a protective cover at the Signs of construction were documented as early as March 22, 1933. Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust in Los Angeles, In 1937, the camp, designed to hold 5,000 prisoners, proved to be Jacob Meller’s Dachau garment speaks soberly to the nonbeliever too small, as Hitler’s Final Solution expanded throughout Europe. who seeks to deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Still, upon Records show that 206,000 prisoners were registered at Dachau closer inspection, the stains on the uniform offer an undeniable, between 1933 and 1945. But the exact figures are unknown, because haunting visual refrain when words are simply inadequate. thousands more prisoners were taken there without being registered.

12 E VA & EMIL H ECHT

EVA: HOLOCAUST SPEAKER & SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ, LANDSBERG, AND DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMPS EMIL: RETIRED BUSINESS EXECUTIVE, HOLOCAUST SPEAKER & SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ, MAUTHAUSEN, GUSEN, AND GUNSKIRCHEN CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“Spread knowledge, enlightenment, and tolerance among your fellowman.”

hey had both been warned that their only way out of the scornfully, “you are one day closer to freedom.” In 1944, Eva was T concentration camps was through the smokestack of the sent from Auschwitz to Landsberg, and then to Dachau. On April 29, crematorium. Today, Eva and Emil Hecht are survivors of the 1945, she was liberated, along with her sister, Magda, by the Holocaust and they speak freely and often about the dangers of Americans. hatred and intolerance. Eva is from Hungary and Emil was born in Emil also had been an inmate at Auschwitz. From there, he was Czechoslovakia. sent to Mauthausen. Once there, prisoners selected for slave labor Eva was 16 years old when she entered Auschwitz. She and her were made to stand at attention for hours. “Then an SS officer sister, Magda, were separated from the rest of the family in arrived with a whip and a German shepherd at his side. He pointed the selection lines. his whip at the tall Eva never forgot her chimney nearby and father’s parting words: yelled, ‘Jews, you see “Watch out for that over there? That Magda.” Eva and her is the only way out of sister were together as here for you, through they survived the Nazi that chimney.’” concentration camps. Next, Emil was Today, they live two sent to a labor camp blocks apart. called Gusen I. Also, today, Eva’s Though beaten and memories are deprived of food and inescapable. She sleep, he helped drill remembers Alice, a tunnels into the red-haired, 20-year- mountain where old Slovakian girl who Germans planned to was placed in charge of shield their new the 1,200 female airplane factories inmates in Auschwitz’s from Allied bombs. Barrack #9. Alice Emil was 19 warned the inmates when he was standing about being “fooled” at the end of a line of by Dr. Josef Mengele, sick prisoners in the chief physician at hospital at Gusen II; Auschwitz, known as each was given an the Nazi “Angel of armpit thermometer Death.” to record their body Mengele would temperature. A doctor enter the barracks, was separating ill impeccably outfitted prisoners from the with white gloves, healthier inmates. mirror-polished boots, Emil realized that a and a crisply pressed SS uniform. A sweet and innocent-sounding high temperature was a death sentence. Knowing he was ill, he held Mengele would request all the ill and infirm in need of special the thermometer between his two fingers in his armpit area, deftly treatment to step forward. He asked for any pregnant women to exposing the instrument to the heat of his feverish skin for only the come, too, and assured them in a kind and gentle manner that their last moment. Emil produced a normal temperature reading. He was needs would be met. Anyone who stepped forward was sent to the not among those sent to the gas chambers that day. gas chamber that night. Near war’s end, the crematorium being built to murder Emil and Young Alice, already a three-year veteran of the camp, had given 17,000 other Jews was luckily not completed. Emil escaped death the girls stern warnings against falling for Mengele’s entrapment. So when General Patton’s 3rd Army and the 761st African-American angered was she when his deception succeeded that she beat the few Tank Brigade liberated the prisoners at Gunskirchen. He weighed women who dared step forward. “To you, nothing matters anymore. only 66 pounds. Tonight, you will escape through the chimney!” Her cruelty was her Eva and Emil Hecht met in 1947, and immigrated to the United way to instill a lifesaving message in the numbed psyche of the States in 1951. They raised two children. They continue to educate remaining inmates. “Each day you survive this hell,” Alice said youth in the community about the Holocaust.

13 M ASHA L OEN

FASHION DESIGNER, AMATEUR POET, HOLOCAUST EDUCATOR & SURVIVOR OF THE KOVNO GHETTO AND THE STUTTHOF DEATH CAMP

“Don’t project hatred. It will only hurt you. Embrace love.”

asha Loen doesn’t know how her mother died, but she does Once there, they could obtain help to get to freedom in Palestine. Mknow why. Loen’s mother was hiding her children in the attic Masha immigrated to the United States with her husband, Cornelius, of their peasant house in the Kovno ghetto, and was caught by the in 1949. Nazis. Loen’s father, a tailor, was deported to Dachau in Germany. In California, Masha Loen worked, much like her father, as a Masha, her mother, and her two little sisters were deported to clothing designer. She has also worked to keep the memory of Stutthof in Prussia. On arrival, Masha was separated from her family. Holocaust martyrs alive, both through her writings and through her A couple of days later, she saw them one more time. They were work as a Holocaust educator. “People can’t understand why I work wearing civilian clothing and were being taken away. Masha never so hard to remember and not allow the world to forget the saw them again. Holocaust. I cannot Loen was born and will not forget Mariashka during what little Sapoznikow in 1930 in time I have left in this Kovno, Lithuania. The life.” city was home to over Since 1978, Loen 40,000 Jews before the has worked as a key start of World War II, volunteer with the including Masha, her Martyrs Memorial sister Itale, and her and Museum of the parents. Loen was 11 Holocaust in Los years old when her Angeles. She gives family was forced into frequent lectures to the Kovno ghetto. schoolchildren about Her baby sister, Rosale, the Holocaust with a was born inside the constant message of ghetto walls. The crime tolerance and love. that Loen’s mother She is observant of committed was to try the annual Jewish to save her children. holiday each April of In Stutthof, Yom Ha Shoah, the Masha, only 14 remembrance of the 6 years old, endured million Jews killed in starvation, slave labor, the Holocaust. “This is beatings by camp the time when I visit guards, the last march, in my mind the graves and typhus. Finally, of my family and Loen was liberated every Jew that in March 1945. perished under the She assisted other Hitler regime.” She survivors in going over also remembers the Alps into Italy. through her poetry:

“Poem from a Child Survivor” I wasn’t a little girl for long anymore, I had to survive to settle the score. I was a little girl, lost and sad The beating did not hurt, the hunger I forgot, My mother told me I was not bad, Only one thing was on my mind—to take revenge on the lot. Then, why the agony and pain The Nazis inflicted on me with whip and cane? The time came, and I marched out of hell and pain, My story I will tell over and over again. The question was unanswered because Mother was no more, The time has come—you’re a statistic no more— They took her away to settle the score. The Martyrs Memorial is settling the score. By hiding her children, she committed a crime, And that’s why they killed her—oh, mother mine. Itale, and Rosale, and one-and-one-half million children Who were killed during the Holocaust years, In the years to come, when I’m no longer here, Somebody else will walk by the plaque, and shed for you a tear.

14 N ATHAN S HAPELL

COFOUNDER OF ONE OF THE NATION’S LARGEST HOMEBUILDERS, COMMUNITY LEADER, AUTHOR & SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU, GÜNTHERGRUBE, AND WALDENBURG CONCENTRATION CAMPS

“Now, as then, the face of an innocent child is my guiding light of hope for the world … the reason to survive, to achieve, and to work for the future.”

or some, it was the Nazi atrocities against children that left the greasy soup pot and made no sound as I carried her past the guards Fdeepest scars. And for Nathan Shapell, it was the children’s plight and into the street. When I set her down at the nearest safe that made him want to survive and help. corner, the child turned her face up to me and asked, ‘Where shall I Shapell was 17 when the Germans occupied his hometown go?’ I had to tell her, ‘Child, I don’t know. Run, run!’” of Sosnowiec in Poland. His father murdered and his family Nathan was eventually deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, persecuted, Nathan used the only weapons he had to fight back: his and survived two death marches and two more camps, ingenuity, his resourcefulness, and his courage. Günthergrube and Waldenburg. At the war’s end, 23 years old, his When friends and home destroyed, and family were deported, most of his family Nathan worked dead, Shapell led a fervently to get them small group, including released. When his his only surviving mother was “selected” sister, out of the for the Targowa Russian-occupied ghetto, he used his zone of Germany and position as a sanitation into the American worker for the city to zone. walk into Targowa Determined not with his broom and only to rebuild his cart to bring her food. own life, but to Shapell rescued many help others rebuild men from Targowa, theirs, Shapell stayed disguising them as co- in Europe for five workers with official years after the war, armbands of the building a community sanitation department. for thousands of But he wanted to save displaced people and more lives. Nathan survivors of the knew time was camps. Nathan running out. No one immigrated to knew when the America in the early Germans would make 1950s with his wife, their next move. Lilly, and young On one trip into daughter. They later the ghetto, Shapell had a son. noticed large soup In America, kettles that were brought in to feed the thousands of people packed Nathan Shapell founded Shapell Industries, a highly successful into the ghetto’s few square blocks. He devised a plan to hide three real estate development company recognized as an industry leader children, one child in each of the three soup kettles, and carry them and role model for corporate philanthropy. In addition to his out of the ghetto. “We did not know the children, nor they us. As in business success, he has dedicated a great deal of his life to public the case of the men, we rescued whoever was at hand. The children service. Shapell has served on the executive board of the American we brought out in those few days left an indelible mark on my life. Academy of Achievement, as a member of President Reagan’s Private Although they were strangers to me, their faces live forever in my Sector Survey on Cost Control, as well as on the Commission memory. I have never forgotten, nor can I ever forget, their on California State Government Organization and Economy. He suffering.” also founded Building a Better Los Angeles, an organization that Shapell’s efforts to save people are documented in his book, helps the homeless, and has served as president of D.A.R.E. Witness to the Truth. One of his most vivid memories is of a five-year- America, a renowned drug abuse resistance program that targets old girl. “Like the rest, she dumbly accepted being placed in the youth.

15 M AX K ARL L IEBMANN

RETIRED BUSINESS EXECUTIVE, STAFF VOLUNTEER AT THE AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS & SURVIVOR OF GURS CONCENTRATION CAMP

“The right to be different is a freedom we all should cherish.”

ne thing ensured the survival of Max Liebmann: perseverance. After a three-day train ride, they arrived in Camp Gurs in OLiebmann says, “During the time I was in the concentration France. Max spent nearly two years there. In July 1942, Liebmann camp, there was only one thing on my mind: I’m going to outlive was permitted to leave the camp and work on a French farm run by these Nazis! You had to fight and you had to be lucky. I believe that Jewish Boy Scouts. A week after he left, all the inmates at Gurs were all of us who survived did something to help ourselves.” sent to Auschwitz, his mother among them. She was killed there. Liebmann was born an only child in Mannheim, Germany, in The farm where Liebmann had taken refuge was soon raided. He 1921. The Nazis came to power during Max’s first year in high school, escaped to the nearby Huguenot village of Le Chambon where but as early as 1934, he was taunted and beaten by his classmates for he was hidden for four weeks by the French Resistance. They being Jewish. Liebmann provided him with remained in school as false identity papers long as he could, until and helped him Kristallnacht—after that escape across the Alps Jews could no longer to Switzerland. But attend school. Max and 35 others On the night of were caught by a November 9, 1938, Swiss patrol and were the Nazi discrimination ordered back to against the Jews turned France. Before being to violence. It became pushed across the known as Kristallnacht, border, Liebmann the night of the broken was singled out by a glass. On that night, Swiss noncommis- over 1,000 synagogues sioned officer who in Germany were des- loudly berated him. troyed and the re- Liebmann suddenly maining Jewish-owned realized the soldier businesses were was giving him a shattered, including one cryptic message with business in the building directions on how he where Max, his mother, and the group might and his grandmother return to Switzerland were living. The rear of without being caught. the building was rented Once released into to a Jewish business France, Max pleaded man who sold electrical unsuccessfully with fixtures. “The mob was the group to try to smashing all those return to Switzerland. fixtures. You can Only one man went imagine how much glass was smashed there. They had a field day.” with him. Liebmann followed the soldier’s directions and found a In 1938, Liebmann’s father went to Greece to try to build a new footpath that led to a Swiss village without being caught. He life. He was expelled in 1939 and went to France just before the remained in various camps in Switzerland for five and a half years. outbreak of the war. Two weeks before the Allies landed in southern Max Liebmann’s girlfriend later joined him in Switzerland. They France, his father was caught by the Nazis and deported to were married, had a child, and immigrated to the United States, Auschwitz where he perished. By the time World War II started in nearly three years after the war’s end. Once in the United States, September 1939, Max and his mother were trapped in Germany. In both he and his wife suffered and recovered from tuberculosis. 1940, they were deported to France with more than 6,500 other Liebmann worked as a business executive in New York City. Today, Jews. “Around 10 o’clock, the Gestapo came and said, ‘In the name he is a staff volunteer at the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust of the German people, you are under arrest. You have one hour to Survivors. pack what you can carry.’”

16 A NGIE & MO RITZ G OLDFEIER

JEWELERS, PHILANTHROPISTS & HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

“To future generations, we wish a return to strong family values, peace in Israel and the world, and to always hold onto a dream.”

hey brought five beautiful grandchildren. God should watch ground and the rabbi murdered. “From that moment on, I do not T over them and bless them all,” wrote the Goldfeiers about their remember going to the synagogue anymore.” own two children, and their children’s children. For survivors of the Moritz’s family, formerly in the clothing business, survived in the Holocaust, the children are the most precious testimony to their Brzeziny ghetto by manufacturing uniforms for the German Army. survival. Even young Moritz worked as a tailor. As the darkness of war and Angie and Moritz Goldfeier were nearly children themselves when persecution hung over them, Moritz’s mother arranged for him to they met after the war. He was 17 and she was 15. Moritz had study for his Bar Mitzvah. He recited the blessings and his Haftorah been liberated from in secrecy at the tailor Auschwitz with his 14- shop, with a group of year-old brother, Berek, men as witnesses. on January 27, 1945. The terror The brothers were the continued. Moritz’s only surviving two-year-old brother members of their family. was taken from the By October of that year, family during a ghetto they made their “selection.” Soon the way westward to Brzeziny ghetto was Regensburg, Germany. liquidated. Moritz and It was rumored that his remaining two there they could get siblings and parents visas for Palestine. were moved to “I wish we the ghetto of Lodz. had never gone to Selections continued. that town,” says At the end of 1944, the Moritz, as he recalls remaining Jews in the tragedy in Lodz were deported to Regensburg. Instead of Auschwitz. Moritz getting a ticket to never saw his parents freedom, the Germans or sister again. He and murdered his little his brother were brother Berek, killing selected for a work him for a bit of money camp. and his gold watch. “I They were was able to shelter him liberated by the from harm for almost a Russians in 1945 and year (after liberation) went to Germany. until this tragic end.” Moritz met Angie, The brothers had endured the camps, the ghetto, and terror in the 15-year-old girl who later became his wife. It was she and their hometown of Brzeziny, Poland, as the war began in 1939. other close friends who helped ease his sorrow when Berek was Moritz says, “I recall very vividly the summer of 1939 … we were in killed. The couple was married in 1948. They intended the country during our vacation … everybody was nervous and to immigrate to Israel, but when their visas arrived, they scared.” Moritz’s family returned home early from vacation that year discovered they had accidentally registered to go to America. and soon heard the news that the Germans had invaded Poland. The “This was our destiny,” recalls Moritz. They arrived in New York Germans ordered all men to assemble in front of their homes in the City on August 5, 1950. Angie was homesick, and at age 21, she was morning. They were taken away to work—some never returned the mother of their one-year-old son. Moritz, 23, recognized a future home. These work selections continued for weeks. Next came the for his family. He began importing antiques from Europe, then order that Jews had to wear armbands showing the Star of David. moved into the diamond and jewelry business. The Goldfeiers had a More orders: Jews were not allowed to assemble in groups of second child, and are now living their dream—enjoying a home more than three people. The Brzeziny Synagogue was burned to the overlooking Central Park and being with their five grandchildren.

17 S OLLY G ANOR

AUTHOR, MERCHANT MARINE CAPTAIN, TEXTILE BUSINESSMAN & SURVIVOR OF DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

“Make sure you’re not robbed of your democratic freedoms ... Democracy is as precious as anything can be.”

hey had been marching for four days in the cold and the rain. silence,” Solly recalled. “It was as if I was the only one left in the T Thousands of prisoners were dying of starvation, exhaustion, world. Not a soul was in sight, only the white expanse of the and exposure, or they were executed when they could walk no snow.” The German soldiers had all fled during the night. more. Solly Ganor, a Lithuanian-born Jew, was 17 years old. Ganor saw a truck carrying four Japanese-American soldiers It was April 1945, and the Nazis were fleeing the advancing approach. The soldiers were members of the U.S. Army’s much- Allied armies. Trying to cover up the atrocities they had decorated 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. Before they committed at Dachau, the SS ordered 35,000 prisoners on a death volunteered for army service, most had been internees march from the camp to the mountains on the German-Austrian themselves in U.S. camps, forced from their homes after Pearl border. There, they Harbor. Having were to be executed reached Dachau to and their bodies liberate it, the dumped in a lake. soldiers discovered “We marched in the camp was empty; silence, a long, grey the crematory ovens column of ghostly were still warm. figures at the end of They followed the our endurance. 60-mile trail of dead Toward evening, it bodies, and came started to snow. It had upon Ganor. soaked through our Solly will never prison garb, freezing forget his liberator, our frail bodies. The Clarence Matsumura. SS guards, tired from Reaching into his K the long march, were rations, Matsumura cursing the elements gave Ganor a and their superior chocolate bar, officers. It was long assisted him into a past rest time, and the vehicle, and drove order to camp for the him to a nearby night still didn’t village. The next come. During the last day, Ganor was two hours alone, they hospitalized. “I never must have lost more saw Clarence again.” than a thousand Solly Ganor prisoners, as they immigrated to Israel dropped one by one in 1948, where he from weakness and fought in Israel’s War exhaustion. Only the of Independence. dogs were tireless. After the war, he They snarled and barked as they ran up and down the columns of joined the Merchant Marine where he reached the rank of captain. marching men. They looked for all the world like innocent sheep In 1962, he became manager of a textile factory in Israel, married, dogs herding their sheep, but as soon as a prisoner fell, they would raised a family, and spent several years in the United States. begin tearing the fallen man apart. The order finally came to stop. In 1992, Ganor and his liberators were reunited in Israel. In the We camped in a clearing in the woods. I found a spot near a tall 50 years since his liberation, Ganor never cried. “I couldn’t. I was pine tree. I wrapped myself in my wet blanket, and the falling like an emotional amputee.” As he was reunited with Matsumura, snow soon covered me. I fell into a deep sleep. During the night, I there were many, many tears, now recounted in his memoirs, Light heard shots all around me as the guards were firing into the One Candle. “I felt weak and he was holding me up, just as he did sleeping prisoners, but I was too tired to care.” then, 47 years ago in the snow. That event had a profound effect As morning came, Ganor dug himself out of the snow. The on me. I became a changed person. And I still am.” Ganor can cry noise of the dogs and the gunfire was gone. “There was absolute once again.

18 Any study of the Holocaust involves difficult questions about human behavior. The answers are never simple. Racism, bigotry, hatred, harsh economic times and fervent nationalism were some of the guiding forces of the events and none of these is a simple concept. Here are some learning activities, involving use of the newspaper, to help students explore some of these and other related concepts. While it is difficult to understand some of the complex issues, these activities should facilitate discussion and lead to a clearer understanding.

ACTIVITIES

Among the legacies of the Skim the newspaper to find articles Holocaust was the creation of the about any conflicts between minority and United Nations in 1945. Can you find majority groups. Summarize the groups any references to the UN in the involved and the conflict. newspaper? Keep a clipping log of articles about the UN to help you understand 1 its function2 in global relations.

Skim The Holocaust is stories about a story of incredible other countries for information human cruelty and indecent about foreign governments. There treatment of others. Do you are, unfortunately, still ongoing think the world is a more decent accounts of mass killings in countries place today than it was then? Make a throughout the world. If you find such decision about this and then find stories stories, note the reaction of different in the newspaper to support your governments to the situations choice. Can you find stories that described. How do those give you hope about the reactions compare to the world condition, or do reactions34 of the US you find the stories government? Many of frightening? the stories in this supplement depict acts of heroism and valor. Read the The difficult times of stories and identify heroic acts. Then the Holocaust thrust people find other stories of courage or heroism into many different roles including: Some photos are used with in today’s paper. Write an essay about victim, oppressor, bystander, rescuer, permission from the National one of the people you found in the news etc. Find five people in today’s paper Archives and Records and why you consider that person a and discuss the societal role being Administration. hero. What are the important assumed by each one. qualities that make5 someone 6 The heroic? Nazis practiced many forms of censorship in the fine and literary arts as well as in the dissemination The Holocaust presented people of news and information. They with many moral choices. Discuss banned some books and certain styles some of those and then find people of painting. They controlled the news. facing moral choices in today’s paper. Today our Constitution and Bill of Rights What would you do in the situations guarantee us certain rights. Find of the people you found? examples in today’s newspaper of any of our rights. Write a A summary of the story Credits: great 7 Stories and and the right being deal of exercised. photographs Nazi propaganda excerpted from the depended on the book acceptance of certain Many of the stories The Triumphant Spirit by Nick Del Calso. stereotypes. It’s important to be in this supplement have valuable alert to stereotyping and its dangers. lessons to teach us. What are some of Design by Jeanine M. Reilly Discuss the stereotypes you have heard the lessons we can learn from reading Learning Activities by Debby Carroll. and how each might be hurtful and these accounts? Can you dangerous. Where might you find find a story in today’s paper that Copyright Hot Topics Publications 1999 evidence of stereotyping in the has an important lesson for 10% of the profit from this newspaper? Check the comic us to learn? publication donated to the 9 Triumphant Spirit strips for any examples of 10 stereotyping. Analyze Foundation any that you find.

19 A TRIUMPHANT RESPONSE

1998 “Best Books for Young Adults” (American Library Association)

First Place Life Stories: Writer’s Digest Magazine

First Place for Non-Fiction: Colorado Independent Publishers Association

1998 Small Press Own your copy of this Book Awards Finalist stirring, award-winning book. in Photograpy If you were touched by the previous excerpts from the book, The Triumphant Spirit, you’ll find the complete book to be a powerful and enduring testament of hope for you, a “Best Coffee-Table Book of the Year” – Westword loved one or a special friend. Available in either a hardcover or softcover edition, this mov- ing account of survival and triumph has touched thousands worldwide. The Triumphant Spirit, with 72 unforgettable stories and portraits (including those featured here), will surely be Major Feature on passed on to future generations. CBS Sunday Morning To receive your copy of The Triumphant Spirit, call toll-free 1-877-986-1919 or fax & CNN Live (303) 986-0123 for credit card orders or make your check payable to Triumphant Spirit and to be run for Publishing, and mail the completed form to: the next several years on CBS Eye on People cable channel, The Best of Us program TRIUMPHANT SPIRIT PUBLISHING Book orders, call this toll free number: 1 877 986-1919

Congressional Record ____ Softcover Copies (with slightly scuffed covers) @ $25.00 each= $______“... a magnificent and moving book.” ____ Plus $5.50 for shipping & handling $______

Colorado Residents add 6.3% sales tax= $______Holocaust Awareness Institute: “... a very special resource TOTAL (including shipping & handling; allow 4 weeks for delivery)= $______book that belongs in Name ______every public & school library.” Address ______City______State ______Zip ______Phone ( ) ______Parade Sunday Magazine: Credit Card No.______Exp. Date ______“This book is as important as the Schindler’s List story.” VISA ____MC _____ AMEX _____ Signature______

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