FEBRUARY 2011 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 Kissinger’s ‘Despicable’ Comments THE BACKGROUND OF THE RECENT About Gassing Soviet Jews Revealed in NEGOTIATIONS WITH Nixon Tapes GERMANY By MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT, JEWISH WEEK By ROMAN KENT I cannot remember reading anything as despicable or callous as Henry Kissinger’s obser-vation, captured The last round of negotiations with the German for posterity on secret White House recordings newly government was described by the Chairman of the released by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Claims Conference at the beginning of his memo that “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is dated December 6th, 2010 to the Board of Directors not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they as follows, and I quote “I am pleased – no, let me put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is be more candid to my fellow board members – I not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian am delighted to inform you that the Claims concern.” Conference has successfully negotiated an Kissinger, then National Security Adviser, made the odious remarks on March agreement with the German government to provide 110 million Euros 1, 1973, to President Nixon after Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had requested (approximately $145 million) for homecare for Holocaust victims in 2011.” American intervention on behalf of Soviet Jewry. The results of this meeting were similarly expressed at a press conference. Nixon’s response was no less disconcerting. “I know,” he said. “We can’t It was the Claims Conference’s achievement. There was no mention of my role blow up the world because of it.” in the negotiations. For practical purposes I did not exist. Kissinger and Nixon would have been right at home with the most extreme I received many calls and letters from survivors asking for clarification of elements of the America First crowd who desperately wanted to keep the United what appeared to be an oversight. As an example, I received the following letter: States out of any European conflict during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. “Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany who are “Dear Roman: neither American, nor French, nor English citizens, but citizens of Germany?” “Some of us know the crucial role you have again played in securing asked the hate spewing Father Charles Coughlin in January of 1939. German Government approval of these vital added funds. It may not be Along the same lines, Charles Lindbergh, reaching essentially the identical obvious or known to the Jewish community at large or even the survivor community what your work means to the lives of needy survivors, but basic conclusion as Kissinger would 31 and a half years later, declared in a speech those few of us who know the facts are privileged and honored to be in Des Moines on September 11, 1941, that “the leaders of both the British and counted among your friends.” the Jewish races, for reasons which are as understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to Accordingly, I feel obliged to describe my role in obtaining the $145 million in involve us in the war.” home care funding for survivors. The Executive Board of the American Gathering The literary critic George Steiner once wrote that if Hitler had ceased his felt the same, and I was asked by them to describe my role in the October/ territorial expansionism after the annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, November, 2010 German negotiations. “Dachau, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt would have operated in the middle of As Chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, I twentieth-century civilization until the last Jew had been made soap. There would take my responsibility on behalf of survivors in America and throughout the world have been brave words on Trafalgar Square and in Carnegie Hall....But no foreign very seriously. That is why, as a survivor of Auschwitz, I have worked for many power would have taken action.” years in various Holocaust-related organizations including the Claims Conference. Kissinger’s mindbogglingly perverse 1973 comments validate Steiner’s thesis. I have been particularly involved in the negotiations conducted with the German Since the United States had not yet become a party to the 1948 Genocide government. Unfortunately, German sources have provided only a limited amount Convention during the Nixon years– Congress did not ratify it until 1988 – Kissinger of funds to give adequate solace to survivors for the suffering they endured. clearly did not believe that the United States had even a moral obligation to There are generally many facets in our negotiations with the Germans, but in implement the Convention’s spirit. In his utilitarian conception of American foreign the last few years it became more and more clear to me that something must be policy, “if they put Jews into gas chambers...it is not an American concern.” done about home care for the aging survivor population. I firmly believed that this Kissinger’s attitude toward his Jewish identity has always been, to say the key issue now becomes the focus in our negotiations with the German government. least, conflicted. On his first visit to Israel as Secretary of State, he was reluctant As such, I advised the members of the Claims Conference negotiating team to visit Yad Vashem and only agreed to go to the country’s official Holocaust that I planned to introduce this to the Germans. In the beginning, we were able to memorial when it was pointed out to him that other foreign ministers did so as a receive a very modest amount of funding, namely about 9 million Euros. This matter of course. In 1985, he publicly supported President Reagan’s controversial allocation was slowly increased until in March, 2010 at the yearly negotiation decision to lay a wreath at the German military cemetery at Bitburg where meeting with the Germans, it reached 55 million Euros (approximately $70,000,000 members of Hitler’s Waffen-SS lie buried. He opposed building the U.S. Holocaust U.S. dollars). Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., warning ominously that having such a After receiving the amount of 55 million Euros during the March, 2010 museum on federal grounds would constitute “too high a profile” for American negotiations, I realized that it was totally irresponsible and impractical to wait a

Jews and would “reignite anti-Semitism.” cont’d on p. 2 cont’d on p. 3

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February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 1 Kissinger’s ‘Despicable’ Comments cont’d from p. 1 TOGETHER The crux of the issue, of course, is that Kissinger, in addition to being the quintessential court Jew, is also a hypocrite. He obviously has no problem with February 2011 Volume 25 Number 1 the fact that he and his family were given refuge in the United States when they c•o•n•t•e•n•t•s fled Nazi persecution in 1938. Unlike the biblical Joseph who used his position of Kissinger’s ‘Despicable’ Comments by Menachem Z. Rosensaft...... 1 power in Egypt to save his people from famine, the motto Kissinger lived by The Background of the Recent Negotiations with Germany by Roman Kent...... 1 seems to have been, “hoist the lifeboat’s gangplank now that I’m on board.” Op-Ed: Claims Conference Must Bring In an Ombudsman by Elan Steinberg...... 3 Indeed, Kissinger has consistently been far warmer toward his native Germany, Deal Reached for Needy Survivors by Stewart Ain...... 4 which he and his family fled in 1938, than toward the people into which he happened Report Urges Claims Conference to Reopen Goodwill Fund...... 4 to have been born. Upon receiving a medal in 2007 from the German state of More Than 10,000 Unrestituted Nazi-Looted Art Objects Now Listed on Internet...... 5 Baden-Württemberg, for example, he euphemistically referred in passing to “the Jewish Assets Seized by Nazis Funded 30% of WWII Expenses by DPA...... 5 Holbrooke’s Swiss Bank Diplomacy by Stewart Ain...... 5 difficulties of my childhood” before bestowing lavish praise on Germany and Former POW Donates Unique Artifacts to Museum...... 6 German society. Not a word about Nazism. Not a word about having been a Comptroller Slams ‘Deficient’ Efforts to Return Assets to Holocaust Survivors persecuted Jew. Not a word about the millions of Jews murdered by Germany by Dana Weiler-Polak...... 7 during World War II. Pope’s Praise of Pius Dismays Holocaust Survivors...... 7 Still, Kissinger has disingenuously exploited his refugee status when it suited Holocaust Survivor Reaches Out to Students by Sally Kalson...... 7 his purposes. His biographer, Walter Isaacson, quotes him as telling Jewish leaders Germany’s Foreign Ministry Was Complicit in Holocaust, Study Says “How can I, as a Jew who lost thirteen relatives in the Holocaust, do anything by Richard Connor & Andrew Bowen...... 8 that would betray Israel?” Norwegians Worked in Nazi Camps...... 8 In 2007, Kissinger was the keynote speaker at New York City’s annual citywide Henry Kissinger Faces Tarnished Reputation Over Ugly ‘Gas Chambers’ Remark About Holocaust commemoration at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Presumably, had Jews by Toby Harnden...... 9 Swede Sentenced to Prison for Auschwitz Sign Theft...... 9 the organizers known that he considered the prevention of another genocide against Greek Holocaust Survivors to Have Citizenship Restored by Jonathan Beck...... 10 Jews to be no more than “maybe a humanitarian concern,” he might not have Albanians Who Saved Jews During WWII Honored in Pristina...... 10 been invited. Germany Donates $80 Million to Preserve Auschwitz Memorial by Mara Gay...... 10 Now that Kissinger’s true nature has been exposed, the Jewish community The Secret Story of the Jews Saved by Corsica in WWII by Michael Cosgrove...... 11 and Jewish institutions must draw the appropriate consequences. The Hebrew Polish President Reunited in Washington with Jew Saved from Holocaust...... 11 University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute should The Day I Discovered an Unsung Holocaust Hero by Bernie M. Farber...... 12 strip him of the honorary doctorates they bestowed on him. Similarly, the American Life is Beautiful for 107-year-old Holocaust Survivor by Theunis Bates...... 12 Jewish Committee should demand that he return its American Liberties Medallion, Polish ‘Gold Diggers’ at Treblinka Nazi Death Camp? ...... 13 and the ADL should rescind the America’s Democratic Legacy Award with which Worth A Thousand Words...and More by Leslie Bell...... 13 they honored him. German, Austrian Interns Try to Heal Holocaust Wounds by Kaitlin Meehan...... 14 No Period of Limitation for Nazi Crimes by Alexander Vatutin...... 14 Sheer intellect, without more, is not enough for statesmanship. Perhaps our Only Two Survivors Remain from Treblinka by Aron Heller...... 15 fascination with a man whose moral compass turns out to have been non-existent Holocaust Survivor Reunites with Protector’s Kin by Rob Morrison...... 15 has finally come to an end. Yad Vashem Compiles List of Over 4 Million Names of Holocaust Victims Menachem Z. Rosensaft is Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law by Nir Hasson...... 16 School, Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Syracuse University College of Reunion by Meredith Moss...... 16 Law, and Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Testimonies Build Holocaust-themed Concert Libretto by Aaron Howard...... 16 Survivors and Their Descendants Announcements...... 17 Letters...... 18 In Memoriam...... 18 Searches (contributing editor Serena Woolrich)...... 22 “Searches” is a project of Allgenerations, Inc. The American Gathering led the condemnation of Henry Kissinger’s horrendous 1973 remarks. In addition to Menachem Rosensaft’s article, published by the IF YOU HAVE AN E-MAIL ADDRESS Jewish Week the day after the remarks first appeared in the New York Times, AND WISH TO RECEIVE NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS the JTA carried the American Gathering’s reaction that “Henry Kissinger’s comments are morally grotesque and represent a disgraceful perversion of BETWEEN American values. He owes an apology to all victims of the Nazi Holocaust.” TOGETHER PUBLICATION DATES, After Kissinger’s article, “My remarks to Nixon, in context,” was published in PLEASE SEND IT TO: [email protected] the Washington Post, Rosensaft compared the former Secretary of State’s “palpably grudging” apology in a JTA op-ed article to “the allocution a defendant has to make in open court before the judge accepts a guilty plea,” and American American Gathering Executive Committee Gathering Vice President Steinberg declared in a statement also carried by the SAM E. BLOCH • ROMAN KENT JTA that, “It is a shame that it took two weeks and the Jewish public’s expression MAX K. LIEBMANN of shock and moral indignation for Henry Kissinger to at last apologize for his MENACHEM ROSENSAFT • ELAN STEINBERG grotesque comments. As a result of this sad episode, for many of us, our view of Dr. Kissinger will never be the same.” TOGETHER Save the Date AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS Yom Hashoah Commemoration 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 · New York, New York 10001 · 212 239 4230 Founding President Vice Presidents Publication Committee BEN MEED, K”Z EVA FOGELMAN SAM E. BLOCH, Chairman May 1, 2011, 2 PM Honorary President ROSITTA E. KENIGSBERG HIRSH ALTUSKY, K”Z VLADKA MEED ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS ROMAN KENT President JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT MAX K. LIEBMANN at Temple Emanuel in New York City SAM E. BLOCH MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT VLADKA MEED Honorary Chairman STEFANIE SELTZER ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS ERNEST MICHEL ELAN STEINBERG MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT Chairman JEFFREY WIESENFELD ELAN STEINBERG ROMAN KENT Secretary Editor “Major donations not shown since the Honorary Senior JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE JEANETTE FRIEDMAN Vice President Treasurer Editor Emeritus WILLIAM LOWENBERG MAX K. LIEBMANN ALFRED LIPSON, K”Z November edition was published will be Senior Vice President Regional Vice-Presidents MAX K. LIEBMANN VIVIAN GLASER BERNSTEIN Counsel BERNARD KENT ABRAHAM KRIEGER included in our next edition.” MICHAEL KORENBLIT MEL MERMELSTEIN SERENA WOOLRICH

TOGETHER 2 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 THE BACKGROUND President Rau’s remarks consisted of the following Op-Ed: Claims Conference cont’d from p. 1 …in the name of the German people I ask for your whole year until the March, 2011 meeting for forgiveness. His apology was heartfelt, and of course must bring in an additional funds to be negotiated for the urgent home I offered an appropriate reply.” ombudsman I went on to say to President Wulff that although care project. I was receiving phone calls on a daily By ELAN STEINBERG his words were also well meaning in addressing basis from survivors pleading for help, and I knew NEW YORK (JTA) — survivor issues, as was the case with President Rau, that the health-related problems they were Elderly Holocaust experiencing were becoming more critical each and they are still only words. In actuality, the rhetoric does survivors are in fear. every day. not help desperate, sick survivors in their hour of need. Recently the U.S. Therefore, at the March, 2010 meeting, in President Wulff was surprised and immediately Justice Department consultation with Ambassador Eizenstat, we opened asked his associate, Director-General of Foreign charged employees of a dialogue with the Germans emphasizing that the Affairs Ambassador Von Goetz, to get some more the Conference on issue of additional funds for home care could not wait information from me and I spent a good part of the until the 2011 meeting and it must be addressed no following day with him pleading our case. Before Material Claims Against Germany, known as the later than the end of 2010. This way, the survivors saying good-bye to the President I told him I realized Elan Steinberg so desperately in need could receive continuous help that as President of Germany he does not have Claims Conference, without interruption. The Germans agreed to have a complete political power, but that in my humble with participating in a “mini meeting” at the end of 2010 which would pertain opinion, he represents the heart and soul of the $42.5 million fraud that saw the plunder of two major only to the home care issue. German people. Furthermore, I emphasized the fact programs of Holocaust reparations. According to In the interim, a working group was established that the funding of home care was not really a political prosecutors, the thefts had been going on for nearly consisting Germans and Claims Conference issue, but rather a matter of moral responsibility for two decades. personnel. They were assigned to review the figures the German nation at large. At agencies and offices such as ours that deal needed for this program. I must commend our staff I left the meetings in Berlin completely drained with the survivor community, the phone calls were for presenting a very comprehensive case for the both physically and mentally, but with the promise emotional and desperate. Of course the reactions need of close to 200 million Euros to provide even that although we would not be able to get the total reflected the palpable anger and outrage felt by the half-way adequate home care for the aging population amount of funding requested, we would receive over entire Jewish community. of needy survivors. 100 million Euros for home care. I knew this was not “How could this happen?” and “How could it have I believed that I had to do something drastic to enough, but I was pleased that at least the funding gone on for so long?” were the repeated refrains. save and to increase this vital program. I consulted would continue and we would have more than half of But we were haunted by the questions and two survivors on the negotiating committee, and told what was asked for. I felt that under the poor concern posed most often. Survivors, in their 80s and them that since I had a good relationship with the economic conditions which prevailed, this was the 90s, were afraid. For all too many of our fragile German State Secretary, I would try to set up an best we could accomplish. remnant of the greatest Jewish tragedy of our time, appointment to meet with him privately to discuss the I fully realize that regardless of how much help the present circumstances are one of bleakness and matter. I also had in mind to arrange a meeting with and support survivors receive from the Germans, no uncertainty. Often a reparations check supplemented the German President, and I would do so as a survivor. amount of money could ever compensate us for the by a Social Security payment are all that stand I was convinced that a face-to-face meeting with loss of our loved ones and the suffering we endured between an elderly survivor and their daily needs — me, a survivor of Auschwitz, would make the difference and are now experiencing in our old age. But at least food, medicine, utilities. They were too frightened to just as it had done in the past. I decided that I would there will be some form of justice in receiving funds be angry. They wanted to know if their slim payments do all I can to make sure that the home care issue for home care which will help those who are sick were in jeopardy or what was to be of their would be addressed just in terms of morality and the and desperately in need of such assistance. applications for restitution funds. human suffering that was endured by survivors, and In conclusion, I am indeed sorry that recent Many knew that following discovery of the fraud not in terms of dollars and cents or on a percentage developments at the Claims Conference have created at the Claims Conference, payments and applications basis as it was discussed in the working group. dissatisfaction among survivors. I just hope that all of for the Hardship Fund were suspended for three With this determination, I was able to secure a the worthwhile work the Claims Conference has months. During that period even legitimate applicants personal meeting with the German State Secretary. achieved on our behalf for so many years will not be in dire need could not receive payments from the forgotten. On November 1, 2010, I went to the State Secretary’s fund. There was also a great deal of misinformation, Roman Kent is Chairman of the American Gathering and office in Berlin, and for more than an hour pleaded or more precisely a lack of information, which was Treasurer of the Claims Conference “a survivor’s cause” for the desperately needed home driving these fears. We needed to assure survivors care funds. that the Claims Conference has said repeatedly that their future payments are not at risk. But no, we could not I cannot describe the whole hour of our tell them what the full extent of the fraud might reveal and what the ultimate consequences might be. conversation in detail, but I will say that in spite of the fact it was extremely emotional for both of us, Our survivors needed answers and assurances. In these tense circumstances, the American Gathering of the impact of our discussion proved to be more than Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants called its National Executive Committee into emergency persuasive. I will repeat only one remark that stands meeting. It was, of course, important to vent our outrage and demand that those responsible for this catastrophe out….“I a prisoner of Auschwitz looking straight into be held accountable and brought to justice. But the burning issue before us was, what is to be done now? your eyes say that I do not hold you responsible for After long discussion, there emerged a sense that an institutional channel to credibly deal with survivors’ fears what your forefathers did to us. But I, survivors in and complaints was lacking. Simply put, most present agreed, there was no address for redress. general, and history, will judge you for what you do The mood at the meeting was sober and realistic. We knew there could be no quick panacea, but something or not do now. As a matter of fact, if you have any practical, doable and responsible had to be proposed. From this came the idea of establishing an office of children, if they look into your eyes as I am doing ombudsman within the Claims Conference. By definition, an ombudsman could take on the critical role that now, and ask, daddy, did you take an honorable stand the present delicate situation demands — a trusted intermediary who can represent the interests and concerns when called upon, you will have to answer to him or of the ultimate constituency of the Claims Conference, the survivors of the Shoah. We therefore called for her and that will be even more difficult than your “the Claims Conference to engage an Ombudsman acceptable to the survivor community to advocate on response to me.” behalf of and represent the interest of the survivors.” My meeting with the German President was also For those present one thing was certain — changes had to be made in the restitution and disbursement very emotional, and I stressed the same moral and process to restore the confidence of shaken Holocaust survivors. An effective ombudsman can be one important ethical points to him that only a Holocaust survivor element in those changes. But to fulfill this role the ombudsman must be more than a complaint office. He or could articulate in a truly effective manner, she must act as an independent agent with a clear mandate allowing for broad authority to remove obstacles particularly when presented in such surroundings as to the advancement of constituent rights and interests. The ombudsman can in fact serve as the herald of the Presidential Palace in Berlin. I continued to speak forcefully, but with the proper respect and dignity. other necessary changes. The gist of my conversation with President Wulff We are under no illusion. The establishment and the effective functioning of the office of an ombudsman can be condensed as follows: is merely a first step. At the same time, it is a categorical affirmation that the central purpose of Holocaust “As I stand beside you today in the Presidential restitution funds is to address the needs, the concerns and the insecurities of the dwindling remnants of the Palace, I am reminded of a ceremony that I attended Shoah. We have no choice. We must deal with the realistic fears of survivors today before an even greater a number of years ago which was also here in the and more shameful scandal emerges. Presidential Palace. When speaking to us at the time, Elan Steinberg is Vice President of the American Gathering.

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 3 Deal Reached For Needy The decision of the German government to camp, and I escaped from the march. I was 18 and double the amount of money for home care — the slept in the snow and have had arthritis since then.” Survivors largest single amount ever — came following 18 Worldwide, there are 101 agencies serving 58,000 BY STEWART A IN, Jewish Week months of negotiations between Werner Gatzer, home care recipients, nearly 20,000 of whom live in At the age of 89, Holocaust survivor Joseph Germany’s state secretary at the Finance Ministry, Israel. Friedman is finding it difficult to live alone in Flatbush. and the Claims Conference, whose representatives “We are trying to make sure that every survivor “My wife passed away four years ago and it’s included Gregory Schneider, the executive vice who is poor has a minimum standard of living,” not easy to struggle and manage by myself,” he said. president, and Stuart Eizenstat, a former U.S. Schneider said. “Without the home attendant, I would not be able to ambassador to the European Union. He noted that some states like New York provide exist.” Although the negotiations were completed Nov. home care services while others such as Florida The home attendant, Wanda Ortiz, comes five 16, Eizenstat said the Germans asked that the provide none. days a week for three hours each day to do the announcement be delayed “until they could check “So we are saying that no matter what you cooking, cleaning and laundry, with their Bundestag receive from your state, we feel you should live with and to accompany Friedman [parliament] Committee.” a minimum standard — a certain dignity.” on the bus when he has to visit The agreement came at a That standard of home care ensures that those the doctor. particularly sensitive time, just who need it get the same maximum number of hours “Medicare provided a days after the FBI announced of home care per week — 25. tempo-rary home care the arrests of 17 individuals — The new agreement should have an immediate attendant when I came home including six current and former effect of eliminating waiting lists for home care from the hospital after surgery, Claims Conference employees attendants, Schneider said. but it was only temporary,” he — for engaging in an alleged “In the past, the need has exceeded funding,” he said. “I’m very thankful to $42.5 million fraud against the said. have a steady home care Claims Conference. It is alleged When the home care program was first started attendant.” that they conspired over the in 2004, the German government allocated six million The attendant is provided course of 16 years to file and euros or about $8 million based on today’s exchange by Selfhelp Community approve fraudulent claims for rate. That amount increased in each successive year, Services with a grant from the people who were not Nazi nearly doubling in each of the last three years. Conference on Jewish victims and thus not entitled to But David Schaecter, president of the Florida- Material Claims Against Germany. As a result of 18 German reparations. based Holocaust Survivors Foundation, USA, said this months of negotiations with the Claims Conference, “The drama was that this was one week after the money is still “woefully inadequate” to meet the needs the German govern-ment agreed to provide 55 million fraud case, and we weren’t sure if they wanted the of survivors. euros (one euro is equal to about $1.33) to provide meeting,” Eizenstat said. “They said come. And this “They are denying survivors the help we homecare to 58,000 Holocaust victims in 32 countries was also in the midst of the European financial crisis.” desperately need from day to day,” he said. “This worldwide this year, about 2,000 of whom live in New Roman Kent, treasurer of the Claims Conference minimum level of dignity is such a blatant and ugly York. Next year, that figure will double to 110 million and a key negotiator, said he met privately with Gatzer gesture that it is meaningless and hollow.” euros ($145 million). for more than an hour before the negotiating session Although the average age of survivors is 80, Kover The extra money is expected to ensure that as began to impress upon him the importance of home said his clients’ average age is about 85. It is estimated people like Friedman age and require additional help, care to survivors. that two-thirds of survivors in the U.S. live alone. Selfhelp will have the money to increase the hours of “I told him that this is a question of human He pointed out that his organization projects that homecare up to 25 hours a week, if needed. suffering and that you have an obligation to help the there will still be about 19,000 survivors living in New Currently, Selfhelp receives nearly a million dollars survivors reach the end of their lives properly,” he York in the year 2025. Through the year 2020, the to provide home care services to 499 survivors in the said. “I said it is a moral and ethical issue. ... He number of survivors here who are older than 75 — city and Nassau County, according to Elihu Kover, was impressed by this. I’m very satisfied with the the age at which they often begin needing help — the group’s vice president for Nazi victim services. result of $145 million.” will be more than 24,000. The money was provided for two programs: Eizenstat said that after the amount was agreed The Selfhelp study prepared a year ago said this housekeeping services that survivors are unable to to, he made it “very clear that while we felt it was a “last generation of survivors is likely to have complex do themselves (generally once a week for three very positive outcome, it is not the end of the road needs. Fully 35 percent of survivors will be coping hours), and home health care services for those with because the needs of survivors will continue to grow with serious or chronic illness, and 51 percent will be medical needs that prevent them from bathing and until 2014 when, because of attrition, the needs will ‘very poor’ or ‘near poor’ under federal guidelines. getting out of bed themselves, or other physical frailties go down. We were able to produce a convincing Therefore, this group of survivors will have significant that require hands-on help (two to three days a week paper on that, which was validated by the German needs for home health care and financial assistance.” for up to four hours a visit). Social Welfare Agency.” The need for such help will come years after the Kover said that if many more hours of long-term That paper pointed out that of the 520,000 income derived by the Claims Conference from the assistance are needed, “we help people apply for survivors worldwide today, 260,000 are living at or sale of heirless East German property has been Medicaid, because we can’t provide 24-hour below the poverty line — earning less than $21,660 depleted. service.” annually. Of the 127,000 survivors living in the United Menachem Rosensaft, vice president of the Initially, the extra money from Germany will be States, 25 percent live at or below the poverty line; American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, used to provide home care to more survivors rather in Israel that figure is 35 percent, and in Eastern said this is the time for the “Jewish community to than increasing the maximum assistance of 25 hours Europe and the former Soviet Union it is 90 percent. step up to the plate” to help survivors. per week per survivor. Kover said he has no waiting Ailments common to old age, such as arthritis, “There are organizations that are taking credit list, so if he does receive “significantly more money, are often exaggerated in survivors. One 85-year-old for assisting survivors when they are doing so we would do more outreach to inform more survivors survivor from Borough Park, Brooklyn, said it is exclusively with funds from the Claims Conference,” that home care is available.” increasingly difficult for her to walk because of arthritis he said. “Selfhelp is now trying to raise its own funds He said it is estimated that there are 40,000 that she contracted in a Nazi concentration camp. to make sure it is able to serve its constituency, and survivors in New York, of whom 5,200 are being “I had no shoes or coat, just a striped dress, and that is something all organizations should be doing.” served by Selfhelp, the largest provider of care to I slept on the floor,” said the woman, who asked to “But the major onus should still be on Germany,” survivors in North America. remain anonymous. “One day they took us from the Rosensaft stressed.

Report urges Claims Claims Against Germany, better known as the Claims survivors may mean the heir of the Leipzig Conference to reopen Conference, for property in Leipzig which used to businessman, as well as many other claimants of Goodwill Fund belong to a local Jewish businessman as part of its Jewish property, won’t see any of it. compensation for unclaimed Jewish assets in East Zita Ben-Tal – who escaped Germany to the UK By GIL SHEFLER, Jerusalem Post Germany. as a child just before World War II broke out – is not By 1994, the German government had given But complicated moral and legal issues over how entitled to the money because she learned of the estate 260,000 euros to The Conference on Jewish Material to use restitution money to best serve Holocaust cont’d on p. 6

TOGETHER 4 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 More Than 10,000 Unrestituted Nazi-Looted Art Objects Jewish assets seized by Now Listed on Internet Nazis funded 30% of WWII The Nazi records and photographs of the looting processing and sorting the looted objects at the Jeu expenses of more than 20,000 individual art objects from Jews de Paume, then dispatching them to repositories in DPA, Haaretz in France and Belgium are now online in a searchable Germany and Austria. The database presents each Historians have uncovered evidence leading to database, which shows that at least half the objects of these records in electronic form, listing index card the estimation that the Nazis’ wartime confiscation have not been restituted to their original owners. This numbers, artwork titles, artists, and detailed of wealth from Europe’s Jews financed about 30 new listing – searchable by item, artist, owner, and descriptions of each work. Many entries include percent of the expenditure of the German armed whether items have been returned – should be forces during WWII. consulted by museums, art dealers, and auction houses The official study of the German Finance Ministry to determine whether they hold any Nazi-looted art, under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945 was conducted and by families seeking long-lost valuable heirlooms. by historian Hans-Peter Ullmann. Many families know or believe that relatives killed Recently a similar study of the German Foreign in the Holocaust owned artworks, but may not know Ministry under the Nazis established that its diplomats the pieces’ names or artists; this list can help them and bureaucrats played a key role in the Holocaust. search family holdings. However, there is no Ullmann, a Cologne history professor, said the centralized claims process for unrestituted works in German Finance Ministry under the Nazis actively this database. Unlike previous attempts to identify worked to “destroy Jews financially” and to loot wealth looted art, which have focused on museum collections in the nations the Germans occupied. or lists of claims from individual victims or their heirs, Even Jews who managed to escape from this new database aims to reconstruct the totality of Germany before the Holocaust had to leave part what was seized and from whom, as well as what of their wealth behind in the form of an “exit tax.” has been restituted, so as to produce a listing of looted Tax laws discriminated against Jews from 1934 art objects still believed to be “at large.” onwards. “Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter The ministry raised money for the war effort Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de through taxes, borrowing and “outright theft,” Ullmann Paume,” at www.errproject.org/jeudepaume, is a said. project of the Claims Conference with technical The research began last year with a request to support provided by the United States Holocaust report back after three or four years. Memorial Museum. It reveals the fate of each of more than 20,000 art objects taken from more than 200 private Jewish collections in German-occupied France and Belgium between 1940 and 1944. photos of the artworks or objects as well as a scan of The Third Reich engaged in an unprecedented, the original Nazi record. The database can be PLEASE SEND US YOUR STORIES, systematic campaign to plunder the cultural property searched by owner, artist, or collection, or a ARTICLES, AND LETTERS FOR of Europe’s Jews through theft, confiscation, and combination of criteria. INCLUSION IN TOGETHER. PLEASE forced sales. A special task force, the Einsatzstab The database brings together the original ERR UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT PRINT Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), gathered hundreds records that had been scattered after the war relating EVERYTHING THAT IS SUBMITTED. of thousands of art objects and millions of books and to the looted art processed at the Jeu de Paume. The SEND TO: archives stolen from Jews and other victims, as well records and historical data in the database had been [email protected] as from museums, libraries, and other cultural dispersed among three major repositories—the institutions. The ERR worked in Nazi-occupied National Archives and Records Administration of the territories, with branches stretching from Paris United States, the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) eastward to Gorky, Russia. of Germany, and the Archives of the Ministry of In Paris, the ERR documented each of more than Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE) of France. and how the Swiss were stonewalling. After a few 20,000 art objects on index cards or inventory lists, hours, he said, ‘I need to resolve this.’” In the ensuing discussion, Holbrooke suggested Holbrooke’s Swiss Bank Diplomacy setting up an independent commission to search Swiss by STEWART AIN, Jewish Week When he died at the age of 69, Holbrooke was banks for dormant Holocaust-era accounts, and to By most accounts, Edgar Bronfman, the hailed as the diplomat who brokered the accord that the immediate establishment of a $200 million Swiss Seagrams heir and former head of the World Jewish ended the war in Bosnia, and he was serving as a Humanitarian Fund for all needy survivors. Congress, was the hero of the special representative for Steinberg said that when the fund was first historic Swiss bank deal. He Afghanistan and Pakistan. But discussed, the figure of $100 million was suggested is widely credited with in 1996, as vice president of and Holbrooke replied, “That’s nothing; it’s a rounding launching the initiative that Credit Suisse First Boston, error on their books.” eventually led Swiss banks to Holbrooke called Elan Holbrooke left the meeting and arranged for the agree to a $1.25 billion Steinberg, then executive WJC to meet with representatives of the Swiss banks. settlement to resolve claims director of the World Jewish Eventually, the humanitarian fund was created and in that they hoarded bank Congress, to express concern 1997 it distributed between $350 and $1,500 to each accounts opened by Jews who about an intensifying campaign of nearly 120,000 needy survivors. were murdered by the Nazis. against Swiss banks. The $1.25 billion settlement eventually paid But with the recent death The anger stemmed from 452,000 individuals a total of $1,218,000. Another $10 of Richard Holbrooke has the banks’ insistence that there million went to Yad Vashem in Israel and the U.S. come fresh details of the U.S. were only 755 Nazi-era Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington to diplomat’s pivotal and secret dormant accounts and their memorialize the names of Holocaust victims. efforts in 1996 to convince Swiss banks to take the denial that they hoarded thousands of savings Judah Gribetz, the special master appointed by steps that led to that settlement. accounts of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman to oversee Holbrooke entered the picture at a time when “We had dealt with [Holbrooke] on property distribution of the fund, said $711 million went to the the Swiss banks were being accused by some of restitution issues when he was assistant secretary heirs of 18,000 dormant Swiss accounts and that stonewalling on this issue; there were even calls for for European affairs,” Steinberg recently recalled. 231,000 needy survivors received a total of $205 the Swiss banks to be barred from doing business in “He wanted to know all the bank issues, so he came million, and 198,000 slave laborers received $288 America. to my office and I reviewed the bank accounts issue million. February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 5 Goodwill Fund to The Jerusalem Post. “Thus, it has the right to cont’d from p. 4 raise any policy issue it wishes. MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE- In light of the Gruder Report to the British Board, her grandfather left in Leipzig only in 2009, about A LIVING MEMORIAL TO THE HOLOCAUST five years after a deadline that permitted heirs to seek the latter will determine whether it adopts the position AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST compensation. reflected therein and, if so, I would expect that it will SURVIVORS A ND THEIR DESCENDANTS The Claims Conference became sole custodian request that the matter be placed on the agenda at WARSAW GHETTO RESISTANCE of the revenue raised from the sale of the property the forthcoming Annual Meeting of the Claims when the deadline passed in 2004 and maintains Conference and it is in that forum that the matter will ORGANIZATION reconsidering compensation for heirs of unclaimed be fully debated and voted upon.” property in East Germany may jeopardize the He added, “The issue of current Goodwill Fund INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN THE payments it provides to needy survivors. guidelines was widely debated in 2002. At that time, But a new report submitted to the British Board a committee was appointed to review the issue of Deputies recently has criticized the Claims [publication of the list and re-opening of the Goodwill Annual Gathering of Conference’s practice regarding heirs like Ben-Tal, Fund deadline after what had been a nine-year filing Remembrance saying they deserve to be reimbursed even if it comes period].The Goodwill Fund proposed policy was In observance of Yom HaShoah at the expense of other Holocaust survivors. distributed on July 9, 2003, discussed at the Claims The paper, which was commissioned by the Board Conference Board meeting of July 22-23, 2003, and Holocaust Remembrance Day of Deputies and written by barrister Jeffrey Gruder, was adopted. Board of Deputies delegates Paul Edlin Sunday, May 1, 2011 calls on the Claims Conference to reopen the Goodwill and Ben Helfgott were in attendance at that meeting. 2:00 PM In the subsequent seven years, neither delegate from Fund, which has paid hundreds of millions to claimants Congregation Emanu-El of Jewish property and is still dealing with others who the Board of Deputies or any other Claims applied before the 2004 deadline and have yet to have Conference Board member has requested a review of the City of New York reached settlements. of the policy, which was approved in 2003.” Fifth Avenue and 65th Street “I am of the view that the Board should seriously Part of Ben-Tal’s grievance is the Claims consider requesting the Claims Conference to reopen Conference’s alleged disregard of her initial inquiry. We urge you to respond as soon as possible as the Goodwill Fund for a limited period of time after Ben-Tal said she was met with silence when she first seating is limited. the publication of a comprehensive list of claims made approached the group in November 2009 about her A voluntary contribution of $36 per person is and settled with the names of the relevant owner or family’s property in Leipzig and that she only recommended. the business, the address and the amount claimed or discovered of its existence after an independent settled,” Gruder wrote. “I think that limited time investigation. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR should be no more than one year.” “I am uncertain as to how representative these TO RESERVE TICKETS PLEASE CALL The Claims Conference has rejected reopening instances are of the general attitude of the Claims 646.437.4227 the Goodwill Fund after it was sealed in 2004 citing Conference to inquiries by heirs or relative of property BETWEEN THE HOURS OF several reasons. owners,” Gruder wrote reviewing Ben-Tal’s case and 10:00 A.M. AND 3:00 P.M. First, the organization said it had done everything several others. “However, ignoring requests for MONDAY - FRIDAY in its power to notify claimants of the pending information by heirs or, indeed even worse, the OR E-MAIL [email protected] deadline, placing ads in newspapers around the world obstruction of their attempts to obtain information is, and making a list of unclaimed Jewish property in in my view, regrettable to say the least and has the TICKETS MUST BE RESERVED BY East Germany available to the public. effect of exacerbating the sense of bitterness felt by APRIL 22 Second, money raised from selling property in heirs who already feel aggrieved by the fact that the WWW.MJHNYC.ORG/ANNUALGATHERING East Germany is earmarked to provide welfare Claims Conference has received and is disbursing to services to Holocaust survivors. Any curtailment of other victims of the Holocaust what the heirs regard payments to ailing survivors could have “devastating” as their inheritance.” effects, it warned. The Claims Conference said it could not respond Former POW Donates Unique In addition, the Claims Conference said it to Ben-Tal’s complaints on time for this article Artifacts to the Museum managed to extend the deadline on the submittal of because the staff which treated her inquiry was on The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum claims by Jewish heirs several times in its deliberations holiday. in Washington, D.C., recently welcomed Anthony with the German government. Over the past few years, the Claims Conference Acevedo, a U.S. Army medic during World War II According to Gruder, however, the list of Jewish has come under attack from critics alleging profligacy who was held captive at Berga am Elster, a section property in East Germany without heirs provided by and corruption in the organization. For instance, last of the Buchenwald concentration camp for political the Claims Conference was incomplete; it did not month, 17 people were arrested in New York for prisoners. include first names of the owners or the street names allegedly defrauding $42 million. According to their During a moving event, Anthony generously of the properties’ locations and did not appear indictment, the group of Claims Conference donated some of his personal artifacts to the consistently on its website. employees and their accomplices filed bogus claims Museum’s permanent collection. These precious Furthermore, Gruder said that, despite the for nonexistent survivors and split the money among keepsakes include his medic armband signed by his potential for a flood of new claims that might tie down themselves. fellow prisoners and a diary he kept to preserve the funds that could be used to help Holocaust survivors Some have alleged the organization has memory of those who did not survive. in need, claimants should be given the opportunity to intentionally refrained from cleaning house after the The Museum has since created a short video of receive reimbursement even though the deadline has fraud was revealed in order to cover up more Anthony recounting his experiences and explaining passed. malfeasance within its own ranks. However, US his decision to donate his artifacts to the Museum. Claims Conference chairman Julius Berman said envoy on Holocaust issues Douglas Davidson told There is very little evidence from Berga, and in response to the report that it did not rule out The Jerusalem Post recently he believed the Claims thanks to Anthony’s reopening the fund, but that such a decision would Conference had taken the necessary steps after it generosity, it is now have to be reached at the next meeting of its board, discovered the fraud. able to share his story which seats two Board of Deputies members. The Gruder report, however, limited itself to the for generations to “As I have set forth in my written response to handling of Jewish assets in East Germany. come. Vivian Wineman, the president of the Board of “I see powerful arguments that the disposition of Deputies of British Jews, on Friday, December 17, the Claim Conference’s funds and the choice of Former POW Anthony the Claims Conference is a multi-organizational body projects are management decisions, which is not in Acevedo donated his wartime diary to the with a Board of Directors that determines its policies my province to criticize, nor do I have any basis for seeking to second-guess the decisions of the relative Museum (courtesy of and the British Board is a constituent member with U.S. Holocaust Memo- executives of the Claims Conference,” it stated. two designees on the Board,” he wrote in an e-mail rial Museum)

TOGETHER 6 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 Comptroller slams ‘deficient’ efforts to return assets to Holocaust survivors 684 million respectively. names were listed and published by the company as The report found that though the company was entitled to claim assets by July 2008, failed to contact By DANA WEILER-POLAK, Haaretz instructed to locate the heirs of Holocaust victims the company and more than 1,000 claims that were The Company for Restitution of Holocaust entitled to the money in their custody, the active filed were rejected. Victims Assets has been deficient and slow in search for heirs, as opposed to claims filed by heirs, According to the report, returning assets to victims and heirs for the last four was a minor part of the starting from July 2009 the years, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote company’s activity. company was entitled to use in a recent report. The report presented severe and The company’s budget assets worth NIS 176 million and often critical defects in the company’s actions, while from 2007-2009 dedicated to the revenue made from selling the number of Holocaust survivors has rapidly allocating Holocaust survivors them to assist Holocaust decreased over the last few years. was NIS 636,000. By 2009 the survivors and for Holocaust “Returning the assets of Holocaust victims to their company only handled 57 filed remembrance. heirs is a moral duty, however it has not been done claims. The report also stated that for years,” the report stated. “Repairing the defects, The report also stated that the company failed to formulate in a short time frame, could slightly repair the injustice the company failed to publish Micha Lindenstrauss long-term policy to help Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi that has been done to the owners of the assets and their assets globally, as they Holocaust survivors and failed to their heirs, and to help Holocaust survivors in their were obliged to do three do enough to detect their needs, last years of life.” months after the time they were founded, and started while granting NIS 2.9 million to other organizations According to financial reports from 2007-2008, their international campaign three years late, in April established to assist Holocaust survivors, who failed the company held the money for Holocaust victim’s 2010. to meet certain criteria to count as acknowledged heirs in trusts worth over NIS 680 million and NIS Meanwhile, more than half of the people whose organizations. Pope’s praise of Pius dismays progressed down the Vatican’s road to possible anyone else,” Benedict said, offering perhaps his most sainthood when the pope last year formally hailed sweeping praise of Pius’ papacy to date. Holocaust survivors his predecessor’s “heroic virtues.” But Steinberg contended that that assertion “is categorically contradicted by the known historical ROME (AP) — A Holocaust survivors group has He notes pleas from Jewish groups and historians record.” voiced dismay over Pope Benedict XVI’s assertion that sainthood efforts be put on hold until the Vatican Neither Benedict nor Steinberg cited numbers. in a new book that wartime pontiff Pius XII was a opens up its archives on the 1939-1958 papacy. The An Israeli diplomat, Pinchas Lapide, wrote in 1967 “great righteous” man who saved more Jews than Vatican says the documents, which Benedict says that Pius and the Catholic church should be credited anyone else. number in the “hundreds of thousands,” will be opened with saving between 700,000 and 860,000 Jews from Benedict’s “comments fill us with pain and up to scholars when archival work is ready, likely in certain death. Holocaust scholars dismiss the figure sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican- a few years. as guesswork. Jewish relations,” said Elan Steinberg, vice president Benedict reveals in the book that he “ordered an If Pius becomes a saint, that would create an of American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and inspection of the unpublished archival records, “unfathomable breach” in Catholic-Jewish relations, their Descendants, in an emailed statement late because I wanted to be absolutely sure.” The Steinberg said. “Pius’ silence during the Holocaust Saturday. “records confirm the positive things we know, but was a profound moral failure,” he said. Some contend Pius didn’t speak out enough not the negative things that are alleged.” Benedict reiterated the Vatican position that against mass deportation and killing of 6 million Jews “The decisive thing is what he did and what he protesting publicly against the Germany occupiers of by Germany’s Nazi regime and its collaborators. tried to do, and on that score, we really must Rome would have endangered the lives of Jews who In “Light of the World,” to be published on acknowledge, I believe, that he was one of the great were sheltered in convents and monasteries. Tuesday, Benedict lavishes praise on Pius, who righteous men and that he saved more Jews than

Holocaust survivor reaches out to students the eastern front. Rations were crusts of bread and By SALLY KALSON, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “I feel a special responsibility to do what they watery potato peel soup. A lot of stars had to align just right for Moshe would have done,” he said. He knew it was only a matter of time until the Baran to survive the 1940s in Poland. Whether it was His sister lives in the unit next door. His daughter Nazis laid waste to the ghetto, and that there was a his own wits, blind luck or a higher power, something and her family live down the street. Another daughter, resistance movement building up in the forests. If he kept moving the grand machinery, opening cracks for Bella, an artist, resides in Jerusalem with her family. could get there, he would try to hook up with the him to slip through. Her paintings decorate Mr. partisans, but the admission fee Each time he hoped to live just one more day in Baran’s walls. was weaponry. the village, the ghetto, the work camp, the woods and It’s a cozy life, “a lot like He contacted friends swamps, the resistance and the Russian army. The my shtetl [a Jewish village],” working in a warehouse where prospect of a long, full life never crossed his mind. he said. “Everything someone the Germans collected guns It came to him anyway, after the war, in New my age needs is right here. abandoned by the retreating York City, where he and his wife lived for nearly 40 People know you, they greet Russian army. They smuggled years, and Pittsburgh, where they moved in 1993 to you.” parts into a junk pile and Mr. be near a daughter. Mr. Baran turned 90 in December That shtetl is long gone. Moshe Baran Baran retrieved them. and had a party to celebrate the occasion at The Germans leveled it, except Photo: Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette “One guard was a mensch,” Community Day school in Squirrel Hill, where his for one brick building that held Mr. Baran’s he said, using the Yiddish word for a good person. daughter, Avi Baran Munro, is the principal. synagogue and school. Today it’s a bank. He knows “He let me take junk from the pile. Because of “I belong to so many organizations, we needed a this because he went back in August with two Lieutenant Miller, I am sitting here.” lot of room,” Mr. Baran said with a laugh. One of grandsons, his only return in almost 70 years. There A woman in the ghetto knew where other them is the Holocaust Survivors Association of he located a resident who, as a child, saw the Jews escapees had set up camp. They dug their way under Pittsburgh, of which he is president. being rounded up. a fence and walked 15 miles through the night to join “My philosophy is ‘I am because I belong.’” He had grown up in the village of Horodok, in the group. As the sun rose, Mr. Baran realized he’d Today he lives in the Squirrel Hill apartment he what was then Poland. The Nazis arrived in the spring been looking down so long, living like “a hunted shared with his wife and fellow survivor, Malka, until of 1942. He and others were rounded up and sent to animal,” he’d forgotten what the sky looked like. her death in 2007. From his window, he can see Beth Krasne, site of the region’s last ghetto. He was 22. Soon he was joining sabotage missions — mining Shalom synagogue, where he goes to pray every Not long afterward, Horodok was destroyed. roads, planning ambushes, setting fires on horseback morning, carrying on for those who would be doing As an able-bodied man, Mr. Baran was forced to mark the spot for an airplane weapons drop. He likewise had they not been killed. to work 12-hour shifts laying railroad ties to supply cont’d on p. 17

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 7 Germany’s Foreign Ministry was complicit in Holocaust, study says by RICHARD CONNOR & ANDREW BOWEN Steinberg in a statement. “This report is a pointed Historical Museum in Berlin detailing how most A recently published report reveals that diplomats reminder of the broad cross section of German society ordinary Germans revered Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler actively assisted the Nazis in their campaign of and institutions which were implicated in the and eagerly backed his war aims and hatred of Jews. genocide against the Jews, contradicting post-war Holocaust and the brutalities of the Nazi regime.” attempts to portray Germany’s wartime Foreign The ministry’s role has long been controversial Ministry in a positive light. because many Nazi-era diplomats continued to work GERMAN EMBASSIES TOLD TO “The Foreign Ministry actively supported all for the ministry after 1945—many claiming they had REMOVE NAZI-ERA PORTRAITS measures of persecution, rights deprivation, expulsions always been opposed to Hitler’s regime. Despite (AFP) Germany’s foreign ministry has instructed all and the Holocaust,” Eckart Conze, one of four decades-long efforts by ministry employees to its embassies abroad to take down portraits of pre- historians asked to investigate the role played by the present the foreign office as a place of opposition 1951 ambassadors to remove any association with ministry in the Holocaust, told the German newspaper during the Third Reich, diplomats were actually Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “The willing participants in the Nazis’ campaign against the Nazi era. Foreign Ministry was actively involved in every the Jews, the report concluded—from spying on The order says that only portraits of operation to persecute, strip away the rights of, expel Jewish-German emigrants abroad to actively “ambassadors appointed since the creation of the and exterminate the Jews from the very beginning,” contributing to the mass murder of Europe’s Jewry German Federal Republic’s foreign ministry in 1951 Conze said. until 1945. can be displayed,” a spokesman told AFP late Conze, who spent five years researching Mr. Conze, a history professor at Marburg Tuesday. diplomatic archives, also condemned the ministry University, and his three colleagues spent four years Portraits of ambassadors named since 1951 but during wartime as a “criminal organization” in the preparing the 900-page government report called The who had links to the 1933-1945 Nazi regime will German news magazine Der Spiegel. Conze said Office and the past: German diplomats in the be accompanied by an “explanatory text explicitly post-war claims that officials within the ministry had Third Reich and the Federal Republic. Mr. mentioning this,” the spokesman added. resisted Nazi policies were untrue. In fact, he said, Westerwelle told German Television ARD that he The instruction follows the publication of an the ministry had often been proactive in its efforts to was thinking of making it mandatory reading material carry out the will of the Third Reich leadership. “The for all future diplomats. official report in October exposing active complicity German Foreign Ministry collaborated with the Nazis’ For decades, leading employees of the Foreign by Nazi Germany’s foreign ministry in the systematic violent politics and especially assisted in all aspects Ministry had always upheld the notion that their slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust. ministry was not involved in executing the Nazis’ “Holocaust survivors welcome the removal of fascist ideology and also not involved in the “final these portraits as a symbolic signal of modern solution”—the mass murder of European Jewry, Germany’s moral and political maturity,” the Mr. Conze said. American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Yet, several documents the team of historians their Descendants said. retrieved during their research in 32 different “This additional step demonstrates that present- archives world-wide and material they found out day Germany is serious in its efforts to painfully and about in dozens of interviews with eyewitnesses, honestly confront its dark past. painted a starkly different picture. Leading staff members of the Foreign Office were involved in “It is gratifying that Germany is in a sober and the organized killings of Jews, the historians’ report serious manner acknowledging the moral account it shows. has with the Jewish people and humanity as a whole.” For example, Conze said, documents indicate Franz Rademacher, head of the ministry’s so-called Norwegians worked in Nazi Jew Department, traveled to Serbia during the of the discrimination, deportation, persecution and Third Reich to help organize the killing of Jews in camps genocide of the Jews,’’ said Conze. eastern Europe. The historians found Rademacher’s The Norway Post The study, commissioned in 2005 by former travel expenses from a trip to Serbia in October 1941 Documents just released from German archives have German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, looked at which he had titled “liquidation of Jews in for the first time presented proof which show the activities of ministry between 1933 and 1945. His Belgrade’’—one of many documents the historians that Norwegian citizens worked in Nazi consentration decision was prompted by a public debate over the said showed employees were aware and actively camps during World War II. ministry’s Nazi past, after it became known that the supported the Nazis’ efforts. So far, three Norwegian citizens who worked in ministry was still publishing well-meaning obituaries The report also noted that young Foreign Ministry the camps have been identified, NRK reports. Two about former employees who were committed attaches’ were made to visit Dachau concentration were in their twenties, one somewhat older. Nazis.Fischer was quoted as saying that he was camp in Bavaria as part of their training up until the They were from the counties of Vestfold, “horrified” by the level of support and advice offered outbreak of World War II in 1939. Though mass- Hedmark and Buskerud and worked in the Stutthof by the ministry to help war-crime suspects escape scale extermination of Jews had not begun by that Camp in today’s Poland and at Mauthausen in Austria. Germany after the country’s defeat. “As I read this point, the mandatory concentration camp visits would “We do not have an exact count of how many report, I became more and more shocked,” said have set a very anti-Semitic tone within the ministry, Norwegians altogether worked in the death camps, Fischer. the historians concluded. but I believe less The report was praised by current Foreign Similar indoctrination methods by the Nazis were than a hundred,” Minister Guido Westerwelle as “an important work” also carried out at other ministries, the police and the says senior resear- that would contribute greatly to the ministry’s courts with the goal of creating an ideologically cher at the Holo- knowledge of its own past. uniform elite. In addition to looking at the ministry’s caust Centre in Westerwelle’s predecessor, Frank-Walter Third Reich past, the historians also looked at how it Oslo, Terje Ember- Steinmeier, said the fact that it had taken 60 years re-employed known Nazis immediately after the land. since the end of the war to begin the inquiry was war—some then went on to have successful careers The Norwe- “incredible.” in postwar West-Germany. In some cases, Foreign gians carried out The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors Ministry staffers even went a step further and helped various guard duties, or served as instructors and their Descendants also hailed the report. convicted war criminals from getting arrested abroad. for Nordic prisoners. “Germany has taken an honest and painful look “Even in the 1950s and 1960s, convicted war “The documents show that Norwegians served at its past...and that “previous efforts to whitewash criminals were warned again and again by foreign in all branches of the SS. This is an important part of the role of the Foreign Ministry and its personnel in office staffers to not travel to certain countries where the history of WW II, and gives us a whole new per- the crimes of the Holocaust are now categorically they might have been arrested,’’ Mr. Conze said. spective of Norway during the German occupation,” refuted,” said the group’s vice president, Elan An exhibition opened recently at the German Emberland says.

TOGETHER 8 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 Henry Kissinger faces he referred to “quotations ascribed to me in the as Gerson points out, the comment can be seen as transcript of the conversation”, as if casting doubt on “not the expression of a quirk but of an argument”. tarnished reputation over what he had said), Kissinger burst into print on Those who “mispeak” (that great American ugly ‘gas chambers’ remark Chirstmas eve in the Washington Post with a word) often cite misquotation (not available to grudging apology accompanied by an exhortation to Kissinger in this case) or “context” or passage of about Jews view the comments in historical context: time in their defense or as mitigation. For someone who lost in the Holocaust many Kissinger is finding out, however, that certain By TOBY HARNDEN, The Telegraph members of my immediate family and a large words are difficult to unsay. Henry Kissinger is 87 years old but he remains a proportion of those with whom I grew up, it is hurtful figure of considerable to see an out-of-context remark New database to strengthen controversy. This Christ- being taken so contrary to its mas, he has been battling to intentions and to my convictions, Holocaust research prevent his reputation being which were profoundly shaped By JENNIFER LIPMAN permanently tarnished over by these events. The European Holocaust Research a 1973 remark he made to He argued that the remarks Infrastructure (EHRI), which has cost more than President Richard Nixon were offensive “when read 37 £6 million, will collate archive and research that was published on 11th years later,” as if they were material on the Nazis from Israel and 12 European December, buried deep in a somehow inoffensive at the countries. The information, from millions of New York Times article: time, and failed to address the documents, will be searchable through 5,000 The emigration of Jews sheer weirdness of what he keywords. from the Soviet Union is not said—there was no Soviet plan Israel’s education minister, Gideon Sa’ar, was an objective of American to send Jews to the gas in Belgium for the project’s opening on November foreign policy. And if they chamber and neither Nixon nor 16. He was joined by Avner Shalev, the chairman put Jews into gas chambers anyone else had made an of Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, as well as in the Soviet Union, it is not allusion to the Holocaust. dignitaries including Herman Van Rompuy, the an American concern. Kissinger seemed Maybe a humanitarian President Richard M. Nixon and particularly exercised by an president of the European Council. concern. Henry Kissinger. oped by Michael Gerson, the The EHRI is intended to give researchers Nixon replied: I know. We can’t blow up the world former George W. Bush speechwriter, that placed easier access to the vast array of information on because of it. his gas chambers remark in the context of the moral the Holocaust and the Nazi era and help them put Kissinger (a Jew who fled Nazi Germany with bankruptcy of foreign policy realism. Key to together “what happened, when and to whom.” his family in 1938) was excoriated. The Atlantic’s Kissinger’s self-defence is his insistence that he Yad Vashem has been involved in the project, Jeffrey Goldberg des-cribed the words as “among quietly managed to increase Jewish emigration but which has been led by the Amsterdam Institute the most vile ever spoken by a Jew about his own this was scuttled by the Jackson-Vanik amendment, for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, since people.” Kissinger’s nemesis Christopher Hitchens which he was arguing against when he made his its inception. may be likely to go to his grave before the former US remark. Mr. Shalev said the EHRI shows a European Secretary of State but he was not about to let what The problem for Kissinger is that, as Menachem understanding “that the Holocaust has unique might be a final opportunity to blast the man he “tried” Rosensaft points out, the emigration figures appear standing in the joint European historical narrative.” in book former nearly a decade ago, writing: not to support his argument: He added: “The nature of the events of the In the past, Kissinger has defended his role as Unfortunately for Kissinger, he seems to have Holocaust, and the chaotic state of Europe in the enabler to Nixon’s psychopathic bigotry, saying that gotten his facts wrong. As Richard Schifter, Assistant immediate post-war, coupled with the Nazis’ effort he acted as a restraining influence on his boss by Secretary of State for Human Rights in the Reagan to destroy not only the Jewish people, but all playing along and making soothing remarks. This can admini-stration, pointed out in the Forward, memory of them, has meant that information about now go straight into the lavatory pan, along with his “Kissinger’s analysis is not reflected in the actual the Holocaust is spread all over the world. other hysterical lies. Obsessed as he was with the emigration data. He was close on the 1970 emigration “To begin to piece together what happened, Jews, Nixon never came close to saying that he’d be figure, which was 1,027. His quiet diplomacy during information that is located in numerous archives indifferent to a replay of Auschwitz. For this, detente did increase that number to an annual average throughout Europe must be connected.” Kissinger deserves sole recognition. of 20,516 from 1971 to 1974. But after Jackson- It’s hard to know how to classify this observation Vanik’s passage in 1974, the average for 1975 to 1978 IF YOU HAVE STORIES, ARTICLES, AND in the taxonomy of obscenity. Should it be counted as dropped only slightly to 18,271 annually. LETTERS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN tactical Holocaust pre-denial? That would be too mild. Some have leapt to Kissinger’s defence, TOGETHER OR ON OUR WEB SITE, SEND TO: It’s actually a bit more like advance permission for suggesting that this should be seen as a clumsy [email protected]. PLEASE another Holocaust. attempt to ingratiate himself in as a Jew in an anti- UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT PRINT After initially resisting an apology (in a statement, Semitic White House. The difficulty, though, is that, EVERYTHING THAT IS SUBMITTED.

Swede sentenced to prison for Auschwitz sign theft “We commend Poland for not allowing this to WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Swedish man was became an active opponent of the extreme right, happen,” the group added, calling the court ruling recently sentenced to two years and eight months in according to Expo, a research foundation. an act of “historic justice.” prison for instigating the theft a year ago of the Prosecutor Robert Parys said the main motive of The theft occurred before dawn on Dec. 18, notorious “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from the former the group of six that carried out the theft was financial. 2009. Acting on tip-offs, police tracked down the Auschwitz death camp. A judge at a regional court Judge Jaroslaw Gaberle also approved plea sign less than three days after it was stolen, finding it in the southern Polish city of Krakow approved a deals for two Polish men, Marcin Auguscinski and cut into three pieces and hidden in a forest in northern settlement that Anders Hogstrom, 35, had reached Andrzej Strychalski. They were convicted of Poland. with prosecutors, court spokesman Rafal Lisak said. involvement in stealing the sign and given sentences The cynical slogan on the sign at the camp’s Hogstrom had confessed to involvement in the of 2½ years and two years and four months entrance has become a potent symbol of Nazi December 2009 theft and was convicted of respectively. Three other Poles also involved in the Germany’s atrocities during World War II and the instigating it. He is expected to be transferred to case were convicted of secondary roles in the theft Holocaust. Sweden in the coming weeks to serve his term. and given prison terms earlier. Between 1940 and 1945 more than 1 million Experts on Sweden’s far right say Hogstrom “For Holocaust survivors, the theft at Auschwitz people, mostly Jews, were killed in the gas chambers founded and led the Swedish neo-Nazi group was not just about stealing a sign but about stealing of Auschwitz-Birkenau or died of starvation, disease National Socialist Front in the 1990s. However, he our collective memory and pain,” the American and hard labor at the camp, which Nazi Germany left the organization in 1999 after two of its members Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their set up in occupied Poland. were convicted of a high-profile police murder, and Descendants said in an e-mailed statement. The sign was replaced by a replica after the theft. February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 9 Greek Holocaust survivors to have citizenship restored Albanians Who Saved Jews By JONATHAN BECK, Jerusalem Post During WWII Honored In ATHENS – Holocaust survivors of Greek extraction will soon have their Greek citizenship restored in an expedited process, the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitrios Dollis, who accompanied Prime Minister Pristina George Papandreou on his official visit to Israel in late July, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. PRISTINA (RFE) — A ceremony honoring the That survivors have been denied their citizenship until now was a “result of the paranoia of consecutive Albanian concept of besa and those Albanians who governments,” Dollis said. saved Jews from Nazi persecution has been held in Dollis, a veteran politician who was an exile in Australia and a member of the Labor Party there, said that Pristina, Radio Free Europe/RL’s Balkan Service as a longstanding supporter of Israel, he had been pushing for Holocaust survivors to be naturalized as Greeks reports. again for a long time. He added that the initiative had been in the pipeline since Papandreou came to power in October 2009, but had been delayed “for various reasons,” and would have been undertaken regardless of the recent improvement in bilateral ties. “They’re our people... It’s their natural right,” he added, characterizing the current state of affairs as a “moral injustice that had to be corrected.” There are approximately 100 survivors in Israel who will be granted citizenship. Dollis and Papandreou held a meeting with some of them during his visit in July. Dollis told the Post that the papers would be processed within months, and the survivors would be holders of Greek ID cards by early 2011. While all of the survivors are elderly and the move would be mostly symbolic for them, Dollis said their descendants would then be able to file requests with the Greek Embassy to receive citizenship as children of naturalized Greek citizens. As a member state of the European Union, Greek citizenship automatically grants its holders all the privileges of being a citizen of the EU. Speaking at a meeting with Israeli journalists on Monday – attended by members of the Central Board of Jewish The event on October 7 was marked by the Communities in Greece, as well as Israeli Ambassador Aryeh opening of the photo exhibit “Besa: Albanians Who Mekel – David Saltiel, the board’s chairman, told the Post that Saved Jews During World War II,” by American the previous governments’ refusals to give citizenship to Greek photographer Norman Gershman, at the Kosovo Art Jews who fled the country during the Holocaust was a remnant Gallery in Pristina. of the country’s anti- Israel past. That past, he said, was Besa means “keeping your promise” and taking expressed in some “anti- Semitic legislation” his organization care of those in need, even under difficult cir- was trying to overturn. cumstances. It is the backbone of Albanian culture Saltiel, who only recently took over as chairman, is using the flowering ties to leverage an improvement in and at the heart of Albanians’ code of honor. the condition of the Jewish communities in Greece. The exhibition displays some 70 photos that He said that since Papandreou’s efforts to improve ties with Israel had gone into high gear, the community profile Albanians from both Albania and Kosovo was finding it easier to book meetings with government ministers and that the government had been cooperative who hosted, protected, and otherwise helped Jews in repairing and restoring synagogues and cemeteries. during World War II, when more than 2,000 were Saltiel attributed anti-Israel sentiments in Greece partly to a religious- based anti-Semitism, but expressed saved from the Nazis. optimism that now that the government was changing course, the Greek population would follow suit. Gershman said besa is at the center of his work. “Anti-Semitism in Greece comes from ignorance and from books where you read about the crucifixion of He told RFE/RL he studied the concept and traveled Christ,” he said, adding that thanks to the Board of Jewish Communities’ efforts, today “elementary school extensively for more than four years in Albania and books speak about what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust.” Kosovo so he could publicize the untold story of Jewish survival during Nazi occupation in that part of Europe. A book published by the board in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious “To collect these photographs and the moving Affairs in 2008 (and in 2009 in English) was shown as an example. Titled Young People in the Maelstrom of stories behind them, [Gershman] met with family Occupied Greece, the Persecution and Holocaust of the Jewish People 1943- 1944, the book contains members who remain and who bear witness to these personal accounts and testimonies by survivors. Saltiel clarified that such a publication would certainly not acts of besa, those who remember honoring your have been possible just a few years ago. beautiful tradition of protecting and caring for guests Victor Eliezer, a member of the board, added that Papandreou’s harsh condemnation of a recent incident as if they were their own children,” said Michael in which a synagogue in Crete was vandalized was an unprecedented reaction to anti- Semitism. Murphy, a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in “Still, there’s a problem of education of Greek society,” Eliezer said. Kosovo. “Without Mr. Gershman and others these “There are anti-Semitic articles in the press, and we still always expect Greek society to react in a certain stories may well have remained hidden as they did way,” Eliezer added. He cited incidents of vandalism of monuments and cemeteries in several towns following for so many years behind the communist curtain in Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip two years ago. Albania and Yugoslavia.” The Jewish community in Greece numbers a mere 5,000 people today, down from 77,000 before World Murphy added that the Albanians who saved the War II. The community in Thessaloniki flourished so much that the city came to be known as “Jerusalem of Jews “stood up to defend the innocent and to do what the Balkans,” Saltiel said. was right and what was just despite the risks.” Leke Rezniqi, whose family is one of those who Germany Donates $80 Million hosted and saved Jews during World War II, said to Preserve Auschwitz Memorial the vast majority of them Jews, at the Auschwitz camp that “Albanians in Kosovo helped Jews to reach in southern Poland during World War II. The the promised land, as they called Albania during by MARA GAY, AOLNews structures originally built to facilitate the genocide World War II.” Germany has pledged to donate $80 million toward have been preserved as part of a museum since 1947 The Rezniqi family is honored for its actions in the restoration of the memorial at Auschwitz- but are now in serious disrepair. Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem museum on the Holocaust. Birkenau, the most notorious Nazi death camp in Germany’s donation is the largest so far to the The Rezniqis helped more than 40 Jewish families in Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau Fund, the organization working the Kosovar town of Decan during the war. The Jews The barracks and gas chambers — physical to preserve the memorial. The United States has saved by the Rezniqis were from other parts of evidence of the Holocaust — are on the verge of pledged $15 million, and other countries, including Yugoslavia and other European countries. collapse. Turkey, Switzerland and Austria, have donated as Albania is one of the few countries in Europe in “Germany acknowledges its historic responsibility well. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Fund said it needs $160 which the number of Jews at the end of World War to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.” million to complete the restoration. II — more than 2,000 — was higher than the pre- The Nazis murdered more than 1 million people, The site receives 1.3 million visitors each year. war period, when there were about 200 Jews.

TOGETHER 10 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 The secret story of the Jews Post-war historians had discovered documents Meanwhile, from shepherds to office workers, from France’s Vichy government archives which blacksmiths to barmen, Omertà was used to keep saved by Corsica in WWII tended to show that almost no Jews had been turned the Jewish presence a secret from prying eyes. Local By MICHAEL COSGROVE over to the authorities by Corsica, which was asked village Mayors would often issue false identity papers Here is the wonderful and hitherto little-known to root them out using any means possible, and they and food ration cards. When suspicion fell on story of how many Corsicans risked their lives to were taken at face-value. The Corsican authorities’ someone, they were transferred to another village save most of the thousands of Jews who fled there explanation for not having any Jews to hand over and given new papers. This cat-and-mouse game went from Nazi-occupied mainland France in order to was that there were none on the island to begin with. on for most of the war. escape deportation and death. It’s the irony of This explanation was accepted by Vichy because it Another ruse was to change the papers of some Omertà. was widely believed on the mainland too that there Jews in order that the name of their country of origin The long-standing French exasperation with their were hardly any Jews there. These documents were was changed so that it was not included in the list of incorrigible Corsican fellow citizens and their ignored for years because historians had assumed Jewish national origin criteria that Vichy had sent. “troublesome” little island just off the French the same thing. One Prefect had the idea of declaring that all the Mediterranean coast is accurately summed up by the But the reality was different, as recent research Jews in his area were of Turkish origin, thus saving well - known quip, “We should cut the mooring ropes has pointed out. There were in fact thousands of Jews their lives because as Turkey was a neutral country and push it out into the sea.” in Corsica during the war, almost all of whom escaped their citizens were inviolable. Again, Omertà ensured The troubled relationship between the French the Nazis. They were sheltered by villagers in the that this secret, like many others, was never mainland and the offshore region of Corsica compromised. essentially exists because of the following argument: The hundreds of similar stories which have Many Corsicans don’t like the French much and that surfaced have even surprised Corsica itself, because is why there have been constant attacks over many many inhabitants are too young to have known about years against property and businesses owned by those them. on the mainland by nationalist and separatist groups These revelations have resulted in the setting up such as the FLNC who are protected as much as of an association which honors those villages that hid possible from being caught by Corsica’s regrettable Jews during World War II. One of those Jews is Jean Omertà traditions. Omertà is the “Code of Silence” Wohl, who was a child at the time and was hidden in imposed on populations by Mafia organizations, most the village of Canari. He attended a recent notably in Southern Italy and on some Mediterranean commemoration of the events and said, “We lived islands, including Corsica. through the war. We lived through humiliation and But Omertà can also result in positive acts, as fear and the yellow star, but we also lived with the was the case when it was used to protect Jews from welcome we received in villages, the arms being caught by the Nazis. The details are revealed outstretched to help us. The France we love is that in a recently published report in Le Figaro. outlying areas of the islands. France.” Mainland France under Pétain organized a census Some zealous police and locals tried to denounce Charles Gregorj, a villager who remembers the of its Jewish population which was subsequently used the few people they suspected of being Jewish, but events and is now the Mayor of Canari answered as part of the hunt for the thousands of Jews who the Corsican authorities misinformed them, saying him with a jovial “See, there is a good side to Omertà.” were rounded up before being put on trains and sent they had looked into the allegations and found them All of which is beginning to make me seriously to the death camps. When the fate of their fellow to be unfounded. One local Prefect wrote to Vichy wonder if things wouldn’t have been better the other Jews became known in France, those who had not to declare that “I have the honor of being able to way round during the Second World War. Maybe yet been arrested tried frantically to find shelter with inform you that none of my military section leaders hundreds of thousands more Jewish lives would have those comparatively few sympathetic French people have found any Jews that are being hunted under the been saved if tiny Corsica had been able to cut the who were prepared to hide them. government’s criteria.” Another wrote, “Enquiries ropes and give its big brother France a mighty push Many went to Corsica, where there had been a made by my services have established that no which would have sent it out into the middle of the small but welcome Jewish community for many years. Israelites are present in my sector, except possibly a Atlantic? And over three-quarters of them survived. few tourists.” Teenagers Sentenced Polish president reunited in Washington with Jew saved from NineMSN Holocaust Three Austrian teenagers were sentenced recently by AFP to up to six months in prison for attacking Holocaust WASHINGTON (AFP)—Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski made public for the first time recently survivors and shouting Nazi slogans at a former that his family was one of many in World War II Poland that sheltered Jews from Adolf Hitler’s Nazis. concentration camp last year. A court in Wels found At the start of an official visit to Washington, Komorowski was reunited in a moving ceremony at the the three guilty under a law banning Holocaust denial, Holocaust Museum with Zeev Baran, who, along with his mother and a sibling, were hidden by the Komorowskis after they attacked visitors during a commemoration when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, triggering World War II. ceremony at the former Nazi camp of Ebensee, Baran, who moved to Israel after the war, emotionally recalled how his father had been killed alongside where some 100,000 prisoners died. the uncle of Komorowski, whom he referred to as Bronek, the diminutive of his first name, usually used by The teenagers, none of whom were previously close friends and family. known to police, fired compressed air rifles, injuring Komorowski began a two-day visit to the United States with a visit to the Holocaust Museum, which two visitors, made Nazi-style salutes and shouted stands as a memorial to the six million Jews slogans like “Heil Hitler” and “Sieg Heil,” according who died at the hands of the Nazis in World to witnesses. This was “no youthful prank,” the War II. prosecutor argued. More than half the Jews who died in the The incident had sent shockwaves through Holocaust were Polish. Many Holocaust Austrian society, prompting fears of a rise in neo- victims were killed in death camps built by the Nazi activity. Nazis on Polish soil, including the infamous The three teenagers will now each serve a six- Auschwitz-Birkenau camp near Krakow. month suspended sentence, but they can still appeal their sentence. A fourth teenager was found not guilty. The Mauthausen Committee, which campaigns President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski against racism and fascism and was named after began his visit to the U.S. at the Holocaust another former Austrian concentration camp, Museum in Washington. The President was accompanied by Consul General of Poland in welcomed the verdict but insisted the authorities needed to do more to prosecute neo-Nazis. Jerusalem Zeev Baran. Photo: PAP February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 11 the horrors they endured. Nationalist government retreated to Chongqing, The day I discovered an unsung And yet, there have also been times when I have leaving Shanghai harbour with no passport control or been disappointed by the lack of action against any authority to check documents such as visas. Holocaust hero human-rights abuses or acts of hate. It made me That’s when Dr. Ho put his ingenious plan in By BERNIE M. FARBER, Globe and Mail wonder what makes one person do nothing in the place. It was the perfect ploy – he provided Jews face of horror, while another will take whatever who were not allowed to leave Austria without proof I never expected to meet a Holocaust rescuer heroic, dangerous steps necessary to stop it. of emigration a visa to Shanghai, where no one would while travelling in China this summer. Yet on a I still don’t have the answer. Instead, I celebrate check their papers. From there they could find safe sweltering summer day in Shanghai, I was introduced those who do take action to make this world a better haven elsewhere in the world. to just such an unsung hero. place. Despite intense pressure from his superiors to The son of a Holocaust survivor, I I found someone new and stop, he spent two years signing thousands of visas spent my childhood listening to my eminently worthy to fete on my recent for Jews. He averaged 500 to 900 visas a month. father’s stories about the family he lost, trip to China. My wife and I were there I was stunned. How could I have never heard of his daring escape from the train that as part of a visit with our daughter, who Dr. Feng Shan Ho? How could it be that people the was supposed to carry him to his death was teaching English in the region. We world over hadn’t shouted his name and his story of and his will to live life to the fullest on knew we couldn’t miss Shanghai, and courage from the rooftops? Israel had recognized him behalf of those who would never have made our way to this crowded, with the title of Righteous Among the Nations, but that chance. fascinating city in the height of summer. his should be a household name, like that of Raoul I learned many lessons from these It was our good fortune that the Wallenberg and Oscar Schindler. Even at the time, stories, the most important being that World Expo was taking place while we Dr. Ho remained unknown to most of those whose we all have a responsibility to protect were there. So we stood in long lines, lives he saved with visas. That felt so wrong. the vulnerable around us. sweating in 40C heat, trying to get into I decided Canadians needed to know more about These lessons informed my life. I the country pavilions. We began in the this man and his great deeds. I arranged to be studied sociology at university, then astounding China pavilion, and slowly connected with his daughter, Manli, who happened became a social worker for the made our way to the small but truly to be in Toronto recently filming interviews for a Children’s Aid Society in Ottawa. I Canadian pavilion. But it was at the Chinese documentary on her father. We had a lovely spent a number of years trying to protect at-risk Israeli pavilion that I had my epiphany. dinner in October, and I told her of my plan to make children from the imminent dangers in their lives. As I walked through the space, I noticed a small her father a household name. A commemoration and Despite all my efforts, it always hurt to know that display honouring a Chinese diplomat from the late exhibit to honour him in Toronto is already in the works there were people around these incredibly vulnerable 1930s. I was intrigued by the notion that Israel would – a partnership between the Jewish and Chinese children who saw what was happening, but chose to give such a place of honour to a Chinese citizen. communities of Canada. do nothing. It turned out to be a man who should be famous In the Jewish tradition it is said, “When you have Eventually, I moved on to a new phase in my the world over for his heroism. Dr. Feng Shan Ho no choice, mobilize the spirit of courage.” Dr. Feng career, becoming an advocate for Canada’s Jewish was one of the first diplomats to save Jews by issuing Shan Ho understood that living in a time of evil, he community. I’ve spent nearly 30 years doing this work, them visas to escape the Nazis and the Holocaust. had no choice but to act. By honouring this man, I and for most of it I have been heartened by the will Appointed the Chinese consul general in Vienna hope that his courage, which inspired me, will also of so many Canadians to fight hate in all its forms. months after Germany’s annexation of Austria, he inspire other Canadians to take their own steps, big I’ve had the opportunity to work with many was repelled by the Austrians’ fanatic welcome of or small, to make the world a better place. Holocaust survivors who inspire me through their Hitler and the country’s treatment of its Jews. Bernie M. Farber is CEO of the Canadian Jewish willingness to keep fighting for a better world despite When Japan occupied China in 1937, the Chinese Congress. Life Is Beautiful for 107-year-old Holocaust Survivor By THEUNIS BATES, AOL News Sommer began playing the piano at 5 and was was a “show camp”: The Nazis allowed the Jews to LONDON — Former concert pianist Alice Herz- soon taking lessons from Conrad Ansorge, a pupil of stage concerts and plays to convince Red Cross Sommer is living proof of the power of music. The Franz Liszt. By 16, Sommer was giving lessons inspectors the inmates were cared for. At the same world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, who celebrated her herself and touring as a pianist. In 1931, she fell in time, however, Theresienstadt was being used as a 107th birthday recently, endured the deprivations of love with fellow musician Leopold Sommer, and the staging post for tens of thousands of prisoners, who the Prague ghetto, imprisonment in a Nazi couple married two weeks later. Their only son, were ferried to die in other camps. concentration camp and the murder of her husband, Raphael — who would later become a famed concert “Whenever I knew that I had a concert, I was mother and countless other family members. Only cellist — was born in June 1937. happy,” she told Haaretz. “We performed in the her love of music, she says, sustained her throughout Raphael wouldn’t get to the chance to enjoy council hall before an audience of 150 old, hopeless, those years of darkness and heartbreak. Prague’s cultural delights, though. Hitler’s forces sick and hungry people. They lived for the music. While her tale of survival is astonishing, what’s marched into the city in March 1939. Soon after, It was like food to them. If they hadn’t come [to perhaps more remarkable is that, despite seeing Jewish musicians were banned from performing. For hear us], they would have died long before. As we humanity at its worst, Sommer remains a fierce a short time, Sommer was able to make money by would have.” optimist and a believer in the fundamental goodness giving private piano lessons, but that soon became Sommer was separated from her husband in of mankind. “This is the reason I am so old, even impossible when Jews were prohibited from teaching September 1944. Leopold was sent to Auschwitz, and now, I am sure. I know about the bad things, but I non-Jews. “Everything was forbidden,” she told then to Dachau, where he died of illness shortly before look only for the good things. The world is wonderful, Haaretz. “We couldn’t buy groceries, take the tram the war’s end. Raphael almost met the same fate. it’s full of beauty and miracles, art and music.” or go to the park.” He took part in a performance of the children’s opera Sommer was born in Prague Things would get far worse. Brundibar staged for Red Cross officials in 1944. in 1903 to a secular, German- In the summer of 1942 her mother, Soon after the show, all the children — except speaking Jewish family. Her father Sophie, was issued a deportation Raphael and one girl — were sent to the gas ran a precision scales factory in the order. “I went with her to the chambers at Auschwitz. “Of the 15,000 children in city and her mother was a talented assembly point and stayed until the our camp,” Sommer told the Times, “Raphael was pianist who had been a childhood very last moment. To this day I do one of only 130 to survive.” friend of Gustav Mahler. not know where she went. It was Soviet forces liberated Theresienstadt in May At the turn of the century, the lowest point in my life.” 1945, and when Sommer arrived in Prague a few Prague was a thriving melting pot of Czechs, Germans The rest of the family was ordered to leave months later, she realized the true scale of Hitler’s and Jews. And her family home served as a salon for Prague in 1943. Sommer, her husband and Raphael butchery. “Nobody else came back. The whole family the metropolis’s greatest writers, scientists, musicians — then only 6 — were herded onto a train and sent of my husband, several members of my family, all and actors to gather and debate. to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Bizarrely, this cont’d on p. 14

TOGETHER 12 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 Polish ‘gold-diggers’ at photograph symbolizes the vast, continent-wide plunder of Jewish wealth.” Treblinka Nazi death camp? A Golden Harvest is based on an article published A Golden Harvest, which will be in bookstores in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily three years ago by in Poland in February, could cause as much Piotr G³uchowski and Marcin Kowalski under the controversy as Jan Gross’s Neighbours (2001), which headline “Gold Rush in Treblinka,” which describes described a pogrom by Poles against Jews in the town how the area around the camp became a magnet for of Jedwabne. gold diggers. “It seems at first commonplace: a photograph of The new book by Gross—who was born in peasants at harvest time, after work well done, resting Warsaw in 1947, but emigrated with his family to the contentedly with their tools, behind the fruits of their US in 1969 after an antisemitic campaign was labor,” reads the publisher’s blurb for the new book launched by the communist authorities—continues his by the Polish-American academic. exploration of Polish attitude to the Holocaust and is “But when one finally notices that what seemed bound to cause a storm of controversy. innocent on first view becomes horrific: the crops group of peasants—“diggers” atop a mountain of A Golden Harvest will be published in Poland scattered in front of the group are skulls and bones. ashes at Treblinka, where some 800,000 Jews were by Znak. The English language version is to be Where are we? Who are the people in the photograph, gassed and cremated. published by Oxford University Press (US). and what are they doing? “The diggers are hoping to find gold and precious “The starting point of Jan Gross’s A Golden stones that Nazi executioners may have overlooked. Schindler’s List can be sold, Harvest, this haunting photograph in fact depicts a The story captured in this grainy black-and-white judge rules (JTA) — A Manhattan judge has ruled that an original USLIM GROUP ENDORSES AZAN VISIT TO OLOCAUST MUSEUM U.S. M G H copy of Schindler’s List can be sold. WASHINGTON (JTA) — A U.S. Muslim umbrella taken delegations of Muslim leaders and imams to New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis group strongly endorsed plans to bring Gaza Strip visit the museum, and each time, we have seen how York ruled recently that dealer Gary Zimet may youths to the U.S. Holocaust museum in the wake transformative an experience it is.” auction off what is believed to be the only privately of Hamas opposition. Hamas over the weekend called on UNRWA held original copy of Oskar Schindler’s list of Jews, The Islamic Society of North America wrote to not to include the museum on its tour, Ynet reported. which saved more than 1,000 Jews from the Nazis the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which “UNRWA must focus on materials regarding the during the Holocaust. solicited endorsements in the wake of reports that rights of the Palestinian refugees without dealing with Zimet, a historic document sales specialist in Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, had persecution in other areas of the world,” Ynet quoted upstate New York, announced in March that he criticized the the United Nations Relief and Works Hamas as saying. “The memory of the children of would sell the document on behalf of an anonymous Agency for including the museum on a forthcoming Gaza cannot withstand the suffering of all of the seller, offered on a “first-come, first-served” basis U.S. tour for top Gaza students. persecuted people around the world. The suffering on his Web site, MomentsInTime.com. Marta “We want to ensure that the UNRWA delegation caused by the Jewish occupiers is enough.” Rosenberg, an Argentine woman who wrote a of students visits the nation’s capital and its various Schneier in a statement called the Hamas biography of Schindler and his widow, Emilie, museums and institutions, including the U.S. statement “another example of extremists trying to contends that the will of Schindler’s widow gives Holocaust Memorial Museum,” Islamic Society impose a distorted view of history upon its followers. her the exclusive rights to anything that belonged to national director Sayyid Syeed said in a letter to Fortunately the voices of those who are seeking the couple. She also alleged that the list held by Zimet Rabbi Marc Schneier, the president of the peace and tolerance between Jews and Muslims are is a fake. foundation. “We believe that this museum, in louder than those seeking to further divide us.” The list, dated April 18, 1945, records 801 names particular, has tremendous educational value and UNRWA is the U.N. agency that administers on 13 pages. It was compiled by Schindler and his helps visitors appreciate the historical result of relief and education to Palestinian refugees. accountant, Itzak Stern, and made famous decades unbridled hate and human manipulation. We have later in the Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List. Worth A Thousand Words . . . And More After the Holocaust, Yehuda helped supervise a boatload of survivors from Italy through the British By LESLIE BELL his wife and eight fighters to join his Bielski cousins, blockade to successfully reach the shores of Palestine. Recently I was in Israel on a fact finding research part of a small group of Jews who were in hiding. He joined the Irgun. Commissioned an officer by the project and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Dismayed with what he saw and recognizing the new Israeli government, now IDF Lt. Yehuda Bielski memorial in Jerusalem. I had visited the museum crucial necessity of structure and discipline, Lt. Bielski fought in the 1948 War of Independence during which before, but was interested to see the new exhibit of immediately spoke: “We have come here into the he was wounded again. His valor earned him honors the original Auschwitz blueprints bearing the forest, my dear ones, not to eat and drink and enjoy and distinction. Historic photos of Yehuda and Lola signatures of Heinrich Himmler (organizer and ourselves. We have come here, everyone of us to are available on the Yad Vashem web site (archive file overseer of the concentration camps, extermination stay alive. We must think only of one important thing: No. 9248). Additional photos, data and revelations are camps and Einsatzgruppen) and Hans Kammler (head revenge and revenge again on the murderers.” With also available by googling “The Bielski Forest” and of the SS building department). these words and more, according to New York Times “The Cousins Bielski.” But I especially wanted to see the huge photo of correspondent and author Peter Duffy, he organized the Bielski partisans Yad Vashem had chosen to the military wing of the Bielski partisans. display, because it is the singular picture in existence After Yehuda’s wife was killed in a German which includes women, children and my father, ambush, he befriended Lola Hudes (my mother) who Commander Yehuda Bielski. had joined the Bielski partisans, her fourth partisan Yehuda was raised and educated in Novogrudek, group after escaping under barbed wire and Belorussia. In 1939 Lt. Bielski was badly wounded searchlights from the Stolpce ghetto (Belorussia). while fighting at the front in the Polish army. He Lola was originally from Lodz, Poland. made his way to a Warsaw hospital where the good My parents spoke about their pre-war and nuns helped him escape an SS sweep. Yehuda wartime lives with their children. They were managed to maneuver his way back home where in particularly explicit and graphic about their survival 1941 he found himself face to face with the Germans in the forest. Yehuda’s ultimate goal was to survive again when they initiated Operation Barbarossa. He the Holocaust so he and Lola could go to Palestine Dr. Leslie Bell points to her father, Lt. Yehuda survived two selections in the ghetto and then because he insisted that “we have to build a Jewish Bielski. Photo credit: Yad Vashem engineered an elaborate escape to the forest taking country.” cont’d on p. 18

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 13 GERMAN, AUSTRIAN INTERNS TRY TO HEAL HOLOCAUST WOUNDS said it was built in the Alps to hide the Nazis’ work late BY KAITLIN MEEHAN, SkokiePatch.com “I believe one cannot comprehend the agony, only in World War II. The camp serves as a constant Intern Florian Müllegger, 21, stood at the exit of guess what people suffered from.” reminder to Müllegger of his country’s dark history. It the Goodman Auditorium in the Illinois Holocaust Maternus explained how she is reminded of motivated him to apply for the work he is doing now. Museum and Education Center at the end of a Kristallnacht in her hometown of Bielefeld, where there Though their goals are the same, Müllegger has Kristallnacht commemoration on Nov. 9. As people is a large, white synagogue in the center of the city. additional motivation to work for the peace filed out, they stopped to shake his hand, wish him “When I walk in the city, I see big stores and organization. This is his alternative to picking up a luck with his work and thank him in German. remember the pictures of that day in 1938 when gun, he said. “I will need it,” he said politely. Jewish businesses were destroyed,” she said. “Then The competitive selection to participate in the For audience members who came to remember I ask myself, ‘What happened to those families? What Austrian service program is an alternative to his the night of Nov. 9, 1938, what many now consider are their stories?’ “ country’s compulsory six-month military service. the beginning of the end for Holocaust Jews, the Maternus is one of 25 volunteers spread across Instead of a military uniform, Müllegger joked that presence of Müllegger and his co-worker Marie the U.S. in positions serving the Jewish community, he preferred one of khaki pants and a collared shirt. Maternus, also 21, was a remarkable opportunity to according to the program’s literature. The Action He is serious, however, about changing the heal old wounds. Reconciliation Service for Peace was founded in an Holocaust discussions in his country. The two young employees are working in Skokie attempt to restore credibility to the German Protestant “I’m here to learn different approaches of how to for one year on behalf of international service Church and atone for the crimes committed under teach this history in order to have a basis for future organizations. Maternus is a German native sent to the Nazi regime. The program has placed 750 generations,” Müllegger said. “We have to prepare the U.S. by Action Reconciliation Service for Peace; Germans in the U.S. since 1968. ourselves that the survivors won’t be able to speak Müllegger is an Austrian native representing the When it was his turn, Müllegger spoke and stand up in the future. Someone else has to do it.” Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service. passionately about Austria’s need to catch up to In addition to standard internship duties, such as Both say they are in the U.S. to change minds reconciliatory efforts of Germany. The Austrian leading school field trip visits, Müllegger said they about their countries and have theirs changed in the Holocaust Memorial Service was founded more than also contribute on a more substantial level. He spends process. 30 years after the German organization. a lot of time in the museum’s archives translating “As natives of Germany and Austria, respectively, “Why did they wait so long? Austria created the letters that haven’t been read in 50 years. Marie and Florian are residents of nations whose convenient idea of victimhood, denying our past and “This feels like a social year to me because I’m histories are deeply intermeshed with the history we denying our responsibility for the future,” Müllegger said. very interested in history and I like to help people and teach here at the museum,” said Lillian Gerstner, “There are still a lot of people who say, ‘Why talk about hear the witnesses and survivors,” Maternus said. director of special projects at the museum. it? It was in the past.’ I’m not cool with that.” Though they work from 9 to 5, four days a week, The national perspectives they bring here enrich Katie Rinehart, 71, of Gurnee, came with her and 10 to 4 on another day, Maternus and Müllegger the educational experience for everyone, Gerstner said. housemate to the commemoration because she said try to get out of their Evanston apartment whenever Maternus and Müllegger each had a moment in Kristallnacht was a story that still haunted her as a they can. They say they busy themselves by taking in the spotlight on Nov. 9 when Gerstner gave them an German-American. The wave of violence against skyscrapers, Chicago Bulls games and unhealthy food. opportunity to address the audience, which included Jews in November 1938 is often called the Night of Müllegger and Maternus are contributing Austrian several Holocaust survivors. In a momentous 20 Broken Glass, and took place in Germany, Austria and German perspectives to Holocaust education in minutes, the interns appealed to survivors as and parts of Czechoslovakia the U.S. In return, Maternus said she wants to know representatives of the countries many of them fled. “To hear the German girl speak was really if America is “just like she sees in the movies.” Maternus later said it was her first time giving a moving,” she said. “A lot of people still feel ashamed Life is Beautiful speech in English. of what happened. It was nice to know she is doing cont’d from p. 12 “In ARSP, the ‘reconciliation’ stands for the something to change that.” my friends, all the friends of my family, nobody came symbolic acceptance of responsibility for the Müllegger grew up in Bad Ischl, a town where back. It was a hard time.” consequences of National Socialism,” Maternus said. the Ebensee concentration camp looms nearby. He With no reason to stay in Czechoslovakia, which was now a Communist regime, Sommer and her young O PERIOD OF LIMITATION FOR N worldwide, are convinced that there are no and can son fled to Israel in 1949. She lived there for almost 40 NAZI CRIMES be no terms of limitation for acts classified by the years and made a living teaching music at a conservatory Nuremberg Tribunal as crimes against humanity,” by ALEXANDER VATUTIN in Jerusalem.In 1962, she attended the trial of Adolf Lavrov said. “International justice should be based on collective Eichmann — the architect of the Holocaust — in the The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that even effort and enjoy international authority,” Foreign city. “I have to say that I had pity for him,” she told the smallest compromise with “the demons of the Minister Lavrov said in the German city of Nuremberg, Haaretz. “I have pity for the entire German people. past,” historical forgetfulness or attempts to rewrite where he arrived to attend the opening ceremony of They are wonderful people, no worse than others. ... history are fraught with risks of new the War Crimes Trial Courtroom Museum, dedicated [What they did] was a terrible thing... Evil has always tragedies. ”Without this principled stand, it will be the 65th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg existed and always will. It is part of our life.” difficult to hope for success in joint responses to new Trials. The event gathered officials from Russia, Twenty years ago, Sommer joined Raphael in threats, primarily international terrorism – an France, Great Britain, the U.S. and Germany. London and still lives happily in the British capital. ideological heir of Nazism,” the diplomat pointed out. The international military tribunal over major Nazi Her son suddenly died of a heart attack during a Terrorism is an equally barbarian ideology that war criminals was established at the initiative of the concert tour in 2001 at age 65. Despite this tragic preaches violence, aggression and complete disregard anti-Hitler coalition leaders. Such proceedings were loss, she is still able to find an unlikely cause for of morals and the value of human life. As the necessity destined to uncover all crimes committed by the Nazis gratitude. “Raphael died without pain,” she told The to resist this evil grows, the principle of equal and in both Germany and the occupied territories. The Guardian. “It is the greatest miracle and the greatest indivisible security, which it so strongly sought today, Allies then set a precedent for present-day UN law privilege in our life, to die without pain, so I am full of is coming to the fore,” Lavrov said. enforcement agencies, since historical lessons drawn thankfulness.” This stand enjoyed the from the ’30s and ’40s remain just as relevant today. As for her own long life, Sommer partly puts this full support of Lavrov’s Nazism and neo-Nazism are still justified by down to diet — she eats chicken stew most days, German counterpart Guido certain politicians, Sergei Lavrov pointed out in his and doesn’t touch coffee, tea or alcohol — and to Westerwelle. He said, in speech.” There is no other explanation for annual her strict piano-playing routine. But there is a more particular, that the meeting marches of former SS members in a number of important factor. “In a word: optimism. I look at the in Nuremberg drew European capital cities, the prosecution of anti-fascist good. When you are relaxed, your body is always together not the victors and veterans or the judicial recognition of the swastika as relaxed,” she told Haaretz. “When you are the vanquished, but cultural heritage of the Balts. In Germany itself, calling pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. partners who are jointly into question the outcome of the Nuremberg Trials is It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. working on a new security Russian Foreign a criminal offense. I believe that all those present, When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. system. Minister Sergey Lavrov. just as the overwhelming majority of people Photo: EPA When you give, you receive.”

TOGETHER 14 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 ONLY TWO SURVIVORS REMAIN FROM TREBLINKA

By ARON HELLER, The Associated Press million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor. BAT YAM, Israel — They are believed to be the Teigman said he recalls the uprising vividly, and last two survivors of the most chillingly efficient that resisting the Germans was a “dream” for the killing machine of the Nazi Holocaust: the Treblinka prisoners. extermination camp in occupied Poland. He entered Treblinka holding the hand of his Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Teigman, 87- mother, who was quickly pulled away from him and year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to murdered. He left watching a Nazi flag burning in trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people the distance from a blaze they had set—a small systematically murdered in a one-year killing spree piece of revenge after nearly a year of torment. at the height of World War II. Almost all of them “It was hell, absolutely hell,” said Teigman, who were Jews. lives in a retirement home south of Tel Aviv. “A Only 67 people are known to have survived the normal man cannot imagine how a living person camp, fleeing in a brazen revolt shortly before could have lived through it - killers, natural-born Oded Balilty / AP Treblinka was destroyed. Following the recent death killers, who without a trace of remorse just murdered Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Teigman of a prominent chronicler, Israel’s national Holocaust every little thing.” memorial says the two Israeli men are now the final Teigman, who wandered in the Polish one time, saying it was too painful to go back again, living link to one of the most notorious death camps countryside for nearly a year after his escape, said while Willenberg has gone on several occasions. in human history. his most lasting memory of Treblinka is fellow “There are only two of us left. After we go, “The world cannot forget Treblinka,” said prisoners who had to remove bodies—often their there will be nothing,” said Willenberg. “All I will Willenberg. own relatives—from gas chambers. leave behind are my sculptures and most importantly, “Soon there will be no one left to tell,” added Treblinka holds such a powerful grip on the my daughter and my grandchildren.” Teigman. Jewish psyche that the will of a recently deceased Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as Holocaust survivor in Israel instructed her children perhaps the most vivid example of the “Final to cremate her body and sprinkle her ashes at the Holocaust Survivor Solution,” the Nazi plot to rid Europe of Jews. Polish memorial site—so that she could finally be Reunites With Along with the lesser known Belzec and Sobibor reunited with her relatives who perished there. Protector’s Kin camps, it was designed with the sole intention of After the war, Willenberg and Teigman made By ROB MORRISON, CBS2 exterminating Jews, and Treblinka was by far the their ways to Israel, where they pursued careers NEW YORK (CBS 2) — It’s been 72 years since deadliest. Victims, transported there in cattle cars, and raised families. Willenberg became a surveyor the horror of Kristallnacht or “night of broken glass.” were gassed to death almost immediately upon arrival. in Israel’s Housing Ministry, while Teigman was an German Jews were systematically rounded up and Only a select few—mostly young, strong men importer. The survivors have maintained their special sent to be tortured and killed in concentration camps. like Willenberg and Teigman, who were both 20 at connection, meeting each other often over the years. For Holocaust survivor Ernest Michel, the images the time—were spared an immediate trip to the gas David Silberklang, a senior historian at Israel’s of Kristallnacht are still all too vivid. His family and chambers and assigned to maintenance work Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said that in friends were killed that night in 1938 and shipped to instead. contrast to other camps where Jews were also used Auschwitz. Michel also expected to die, but he didn’t. On Aug. 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some for industrial labor, Treblinka truly represented the “I survived by a miracle,” Michel said. weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the essence of the Nazi Final Solution. Michel said his job — falsifying death certificates woods. Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed “Treblinka had nothing, just killing, and they — kept him alive. The Nazis did not want a record of by Nazi troops in the surrounding mine fields or almost finished the job. These camps left us almost their systematic executions and forced him to invent captured by Polish villagers who returned them to nothing,” he said. causes of death. He remembers two in particular — Treblinka. Without the survivors, he said “it would just be “weak of body” and “heart attack.” The survivors became the only source of a black hole, we would know nothing. With them, “I had to write nobody died of being gassed in knowledge about Treblinka, because the Nazis all we know quite a lot,” he said. Auschwitz,” Michel recounted. but destroyed it in a frantic bid to cover their tracks. One of the men most responsible for Michel was chosen for the job by a fellow Willenberg said he was shot in the leg as he documenting the atrocities was Eliahu Rosenberg, prisoner — not a Jew but a Communist — who noticed climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence who was tasked with removing bodies from gas his fine penmanship. Michel credits that man with and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead chambers and dumping them into giant pits. He saving his life. friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and “non- passed away in September, but before his death “He took me to the next room and said, ‘Look Jewish” look allowed him to survive in the recounted his experiences in a video testimony to you can stay here overnight. Don’t worry about it. countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining Yad Vashem. I’ll take care of you. You won’t be sent up the the Polish underground. “It poisoned, choked people within 25 minutes, chimney,’” Michel said. Later in life, he took to sculpturing to describe all would suffocate. It was terrible to hear the Decades later, there was another extraordinary his experiences. His bronze statues reflect what he screaming of the women and the children. They twist to Michel’s story when the great nephew of the saw—Jews standing on a train platform, a father cried: “Mama!” “Tata! (Dad)” but in a few minutes man who saved him reached out after reading his removing his son’s shoes before entering the gas they choked to death,” he said. memoirs and recognizing the story of his uncle. chambers, a young girl having her head shaved, “The crematoriums were train rails which lay Now bonded, Dr. Peter Kurz — the Mayor of prisoners removing bodies. on a concrete base. On them were wood planks, Mannheim, Germany — and Michel share a message “I live two lives, one is here and now and the we called it ‘grills.’ We threw the body parts onto of harmony. other is what happened there,” Willenberg said in those ‘grills,’ and with a match everything burnt. Mannheim was the very city where Michel an interview at his Tel Aviv apartment. “It never And we stood there ... and it burned all night, all experienced Kristallnacht. And today, the men say leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me night long.” their friendship is proof that good can come from evil. always.” After the revolt, the Nazis attempted to destroy His two sisters were murdered there. He all evidence of their atrocities. The camp structures described his survival as “chance, sheer chance,” were destroyed, the ground plowed and planted over. Today, all the remains at the site are a series of choking back tears. “It wasn’t because of God. He Ernest concrete slabs representing the train tracks, and wasn’t there. He was on vacation.” Michel. In all, the Nazis and their collaborators killed mounds of gravel with a memorial of stone tablets Photo about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The representing lost communities. CBS2 death toll at Treblinka was second only to The two remaining survivors have returned to Auschwitz—a prison camp where more than a lead tours of the site. Teigman made the trip just

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 15 REUNION happened,” said an excited but nervous Rosenstein, Yad Vashem compiles who arrived at Dayton International Airport holding list of over 4 million By MEREDITH MOSS, Dayton Daily News the doll that she brought to America. Two crying names of Holocaust A chance encounter between two strangers in husbands looked on as the beaming women Brooklyn, N.Y., led to a remarkable reunion for a immediately began asking each other decades’ worth victims local woman. of unanswered questions. By Nir Hasson, Ha’aretz On vacation in New York, Monique Valvot was Both had unsuccessfully tried searching for one The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and greeted with “Bon Jour!” by Rabbi Levy Goldberg another through the years. Museum has compiled a list of 4 million confirmed who overheard her speaking in French. The two It was thanks to Goldberg, a determined stranger, names of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. During struck up a conversation that eventually led to the that Rosenstein and Valvot were reunited. the past decade, Yad Vashem has confirmed the story of a little girl who’d been taken in by Valvot’s A few days after the two met he invited Valvot names of 1.5 million Jewish victims. family at the end of World War II. to a Brooklyn cafe for “a surprise,” then handed her “It is a moral imperative, an obligation for us, The little girl was Cherie Rosenstein of Trotwood his cell phone. who was recently reunited with Valvot, the French to retrieve information and commemorate each and “This call,” he said, “is for you.” every individual who perished,” Avner Shalev, Yad woman whose passport helped save her life 63 years Vashem chairman, said yesterday. ago. Names have been collected in past years via a After Rosenstein’s birth parents were killed in Cherie Rosenstein,right, and data base that was posted on the Internet in 2004, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, the woman whose passport saved Cherie’s life after the when Yad Vashem had a list of 2 million confirmed the 5-year-old child was taken in by a Parisian family Holocaust, Monique Valbot names. Names are added in two ways: via who had a daughter her own age. The two girls had not seen or had news of one another since the day from France, reunite at Day- testimonial pages on which families of Holocaust ton International Airport. victims list the names of loved ones who perished, Valvot’s mother used her daughter’s passport to deliver Cherie to a new family in Cincinnati. and also via the collation of data on lists that are Photo by Jim Witmer available in European archives. “I haven’t been sleeping or eating since this all A decade ago, Yad Vashem launched a “rescue” operation for the identification of victims Testimonies build Holocaust-themed concert libretto by means of testimonial pages filled out by relatives. By AARON HOWARD, Jewish Herald Voice This operation yielded half a million new names; Decades after the Holocaust and shortly before the last of the survivors pass from this world, we find much of the information was provided by Russian ourselves still struggling to find authentic ways to tell stories of what happened. speakers. Of the 4 million confirmed names, 2.2 For musical composer Lawrence Siegel, a commission to produce a thematic concert piece on the Holocaust million belong to victims whose relatives and enabled him to use testimonies of living Holocaust survivors to build the core text (the libretto) of a unique acquaintances filled out testimonial pages. choral symphony, Kaddish: I Am Here. In his statements yesterday, Shalev indicated The Kaddish libretto is inspired by and fashioned from the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, skepticism regarding the possibility of Yad including Houston survivors Celina Fein, Walter Kase, Bill Morgan and Naomi Warren. Vashem’s retrieving the names of the additional The original commission for Kaddish came out of a celebration of the Cohen Center for Holocaust two million victims of Nazi crimes. “I don’t see Studies’ 25th anniversary. The center, located at Keene State College in New Hampshire, was about to that we will get to every last name,” Shaled stated. become a center for Holocaust and genocide studies, a rather unusual mission in this country. He referred to the difficulty of verifying the deaths “World-commissioning this piece was a way of making an event out of or survival of young persons, and also of those who their expansion,” said Siegel. were moved between death camps in Europe. It was a project dear to Siegel’s heart. For more than 20 years, he’d Yad Vashem researchers add that the main been working, using a method he created called The Verbatim Process. challenge in the obtainment of additional victim Based on oral histories, Verbatim Project pieces use creative team- building names pertains to Jews murdered in Eastern ideas to assist groups of people to unearth those values that they hold dear Europe and the Soviet Union. Mass executions and to bring them out into the open for all to celebrate in a production of committed in these areas at the start of the musical theater. The script and lyrics solely are derived from the people genocide seldom found documentation. themselves, “in their own words.” Through Siegel’s facilitation, people create Also, the researchers say, the liquidation of a distinctive piece of work that speaks to their history and vision for the entire communities makes it difficult to obtain future. additional names. The Cohen Center commission offered Siegel the opportunity to create In general, the ability to obtain victim names a Holocaust-themed concert piece using his Verbatim Process. There also rises as Holocaust researchers move westward in was his background: a Jew whose grandparents came from Eastern Europe, Europe. With regard to countries such as France, although they came to the U.S. before the Holocaust. Holland, Italy and Germany, virtually all the names “So, there was a consonance between my way of working and my of Holocaust victims are known and confirmed. sphere of influence which combined to make this a choice project for me,” Shalev alluded to hopes that researchers would Lawrence Siegel said Siegel. identify at least 5 million of the victims in years Kaddish became simultaneously an example of modern musical theater ahead. The 6 million figure, he noted, is largely and an example of Jewish response to catastrophe. calculated on the basis of pre-war census tallies “This is a concert piece, a choral symphony,” explained Siegel. “It’s got theatrical aspects and could be of Jews who lived in areas from which Jews were dramatized. What people will hear with the Houston Symphony is a concert performance, standing on the brought to death camps or otherwise murdered. merits of the music and text itself. Yad Vashem has stepped up efforts to identify “In terms of a Jewish response, the Holocaust is one of the topics that people have wrestled with. For victims on the basis of lists accessible in the Jews, it’s personal. There have been phases of that expression that parallel the responses of survivors European archives. In Hungary, for instance, Yad themselves. The first years after the Holocaust saw a stunned silence. Artists were enjoined from working on Vashem operates a major project for the systematic it. ‘You can’t do art about the Holocaust’ was the first message that came from scholars and the survivors. obtainment of documents from local archives, in You can’t normalize something that wasn’t normal. the effort to confirm additional names. A similar “By the mid-1970s or ’80s, there was a warming, in a sense. The oldest of the survivors died. And, the large-scale project should be launched next year younger ones in the camps – along with the passage of time – made people more willing to talk about it. Artists in Poland. were willing to do something artistically with the experience. So, there was a shift of experience. Yad Vashem has in recent years intensified its “For example, Kaddish ends in an upbeat way. In an earlier phase of history, it would have been impossible efforts to identify victims partly in response to for a piece of Holocaust-themed art to end this way. We now know the Holocaust is like other genocides – recent trends of Holocaust denial, spearheaded by although for a Jew, it was worse, especially because of the machinery of the [German] state that went into Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. affecting the Holocaust. The survivors I spoke to were, in many cases, people who have gone on to have cont’d on p. 18

TOGETHER 16 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 The 15th Annual Mandell JCC Hart- Film Festival (March Special “Matzevah Marker” 26 - April 5, 2011) will feature the New Available for Survivors’ Graves Survival has placed upon us the yet dramatic, maker will reaffirm our England premiere of responsibility of making sure that the uniqueness and our place in history for Fourth international multidisciplinary conference, to La Rafle (The Holocaust is remembered forever. Each of future generations. be held at the Imperial War Museum, London, 4-6 Round Up), the us has the sacred obligation to share this Our impressive MATZEVAH marker is January 2012 harrowingly true task while we still can. However, with the now available for purchase. It is cast in solid CALL FOR PAPERS story of the arrest passage of each year, we realize that time is bronze, measuring 5x7 inches, and can be This conference is planned as a follow-up to the and deportation of against us, and we must make sure to utilize attached to new or existing tombstones. three successful conferences, which took place at 13,000 Parisian all means for future remembrance. The cost of each marker is $125. the Imperial War Museum in London in 2003, 2006 Jews by the Vichy A permanent step toward achieving this Additional donations are gratefully and 2009. It will continue to build on areas previously government in Nazi- important goal can be realized by placing appreciated. a unique and visible maker on the Let us buy the marker now and leave investigated, and also open up new fields of academic occupied Paris in gravestone of every survivor. The most instructions in our wills for its use. This will July 1942. enquiry. The aim is to bring together scholars from a meaningful symbol for this purpose is our enable every one of us to leave on this earth variety of disciplines who are engaged in research We are search- Survivor logo, inscribed with the words visible proof of our miraculous survival and on all groups of survivors of Nazi persecution. These ing for French HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR. This simple, an everlasting legacy of the Holocaust. will include - but are not limited to - Jews, Gypsies Jewish Holocaust The cost of each marker is US $125 including shipping & handling. and Slavonic people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Survivors, Hidden Make checks payable to: American Gathering homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war, political Children or their and mail to: dissidents, members of underground movements, the descendants, who American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants disabled, the so-called ‘racially impure’, and forced may have a direct 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 labourers. For the purpose of the conference, a connection to this New York, NY 10001 ‘survivor’ is defined as anyone who suffered any form event 68 years ago of persecution by the Nazis or their allies as a result and are willing to Please allow sixty (60) days for delivery. of the Nazis’ racial, political, ideological or ethnic share their experi- Name ______policies from 1933 to 1945, and who survived the ences. Address______Second World War. Our screening The organizers welcome proposals, which focus of La Rafle, direc- City ______State __ Zip ______on topics and themes of the ‘life after’, ranging from ted by Roselyne Phone______the experience of liberation to the trans-generational Bosch and starring Number of Markers ______impact of persecution, individual and collective Jean Reno and Total Amount Enclosed $______memory and consciousness, and questions of theory Melanie Laurent, and methodology. will be sponsored by As previously, we welcome new research in the the Kirstein Family Fund for Holocaust Education at following areas: the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater survived Treblinka. They married in the newly formed • DPs in post-war Europe Hartford and the Embassy of France. State of Israel, and in 1954 moved to New York. • Reception and resettlement La Rafle was France’s 2010 box office hit, and He spoke five languages at the time — Yiddish, • Survivors in central, east and southeast Europe made headlines as thousands of young people came Polish, Russian, German and Hebrew — but not a • Exiles, émigrés and refugees in the recon- to learn about this dark wartime stain on their word of English. He learned it by immersion, reading struction process country’s history. and listening. • Legacy and impact • Rescuers and liberators Please contact Harriet J. Dobin, Hartford Jewish Mr. Baran worked many years in real estate • Child survivors Film Festival Director, at the Mandell JCC, 860-231- management. His wife had a long career in early • Women survivors and gender issues 6350 or via e-mail at: [email protected]. childhood education. After retirement, they carved • Trials and justice • Reparation and restitution Thank you in advance for your help in creating a out a comfortable niche in Pittsburgh doing volunteer • Testimonies and record building memorable film experience for the entire community. work — he tutored immigrants applying for U.S. • Film and photography • Memory and amnesia [If you wish to respond to the above request, citizenship, she taught small children and gave book • Trauma and intergenerational transmission please contact Harriet Dobin directly at: (860) 231- reviews. People marvelled at how quickly they • Remembrance and memorials 6350 or via e-mail at: [email protected] settled in. • Museums and archives “You can sink deep roots where the ground is Holocaust Survivor Reaches Out to Students Please send an abstract of 200-250 words fertile,” he said. cont’d from p. 7 together with biographical background of about 50- Only in Pittsburgh did the Barans begin talking to 100 words by 28 February 2011 to: Johannes-Dieter also arranged for the rescue of his brother, sister and students about European Jewish life before, during Steinert, email: [email protected] mother — to his knowledge, the only mother from and after the Holocaust. The reasons, he said were All proposals are subject to a review process. his shtetl of 300 families to survive. His father stayed twofold. One, they felt comfortable: “This is a small Fees: No more than GBP 150 for speakers. The behind in Krasne to care for another daughter who place [compared to New York]. People get to know fee includes admission to all panels and evening was ill. They died when the ghetto was liquidated. you. There’s more opportunity to get involved.” And events, lunches, coffees and teas. Further information For nearly two years, Mr. Baran lived in hiding two, they had a message: “Hatred was the root of and registration details will be made available in 2011. with the resistance. They scavenged from local fields the Holocaust. If you hate, it makes you blind.” It is intended to publish a selection of papers in a and farms to ward off starvation. In winter, they slept Often he is asked if he still believes in God. Vallentine Mitchell series on Survivors of Nazi atop a bed of coals with snow as a blanket. When “My faith evolved,” he says. “It is not the faith Persecution. Proceedings of the third conference: the Germans advanced, they moved deeper into the of my father or grandfather. It is a rational belief that Suzanne Bardgett, David Cesarani, Jessica Reinisch swamps. we need oversight in order to do the right thing. So I and Johannes-Dieter Steinert (eds), Survivors of In July 1944, the region was liberated. Four live as if there is a God. I wear my kippa [skull cap] Nazi Persecution in Europe after the Second World months later the Russian army conscripted him and as a symbol of the limitations of man. It points to War. Landscapes after Battle, 2 vols, London: sent him to the front in Gdansk. He could have become what is above and beyond us.” Vallentine Mitchell, 2010 and 2011. Proceedings of cannon fodder, but they learned of his bookkeeping As he begins his 10th decade of life, with six the first and second conference: Johannes-Dieter skills and put him in an office where he stayed until grandchildren as his answer to the Nazis’ nihilism, he Steinert and Inge Weber-Newth (eds), Beyond the war ended in May 1945. considers faith a defense against another Holocaust. Camps and Forced Labour. Current International There was no home to return to, so Mr. Baran “If the people who did this to us believed in my Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution, made his way to a displaced persons camp in Linz, God,” Mr. Baran said, “it never would have Osnabrück: Secolo, 2008. Austria. There he met his future wife, who had happened.”

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 17 Having read Worth A Thousand Words BEN A LTMAN the New York cont’d from p. 13 Years ago, Times article, Ben Altman Secret Papers Several weeks after my return to New York, stumbled upon an Detail U.S. Aid Yad Vashem sent me a beautiful photo album art class at the for Ex-Nazis highlighting my visit. I thought about how warmly I Jewish (November 14, 2010), I would like to make the had been welcomed by Director of the International Community Center of San Francisco. The retired tailor following observations as a child survivor of Relations Division Shaya Ben Yehuda and several was in search of a cathartic way to depict the Auschwitz who lost my parents and my home in the members of the museum’s staff. They expertly terrifying experiences he and his family endured during Holocaust. guided me through various exhibits as a Yad Vashem the Holocaust. After the liberation of Bergen-Belsen on April photographer clicked away. Altman found what he was looking for: Once he 15, 1945, I was shipped to different DP camps. After As I stared at the photos in the album, I recalled picked up a paintbrush, he couldn’t put it down. The being held in the Ostia DP camp in Italy for two years, how Dad, described by former partisans as the Holocaust survivor, whose artwork of both Jewish I received my affidavit to the United States. In a “eydle” Bielski (“refined” in Yiddish), often reminded and scenic imagery was highlighted in local exhibits, meeting with the U.S. Consul in Naples, I was refused his children that “people who do things say nothing; recently died in San Francisco. He was 98. a visa, while the very people who had perpetrated people who do nothing or very little, make up Born in 1912 in Czestochowa, Poland, Altman the atrocities on us were permitted to enter the United stories.” Even though he avoided any publicity, I served as apprentice to his father, a tailor. By age 8, States. I had to wait two more years as a Displaced think he would have been delighted to see his picture he discovered a love for art. Person before receiving permission to enter the U.S. displayed in the museum. However, what Yehuda “I went to the buttonhole-maker on an errand,” As for the disclosure about Switzerland, it is often Bielski was most proud of was that his fellow Jews said Altman in 2002. “I saw a painting on the wall overlooked that much of the gold that was being sold gave him the privilege to lead men in re-establishing and stood before it a long time. The owner said, to the Swiss was taken from the teeth of victims of the Jewish State. ‘That’s the prophet Jeremiah.’ While looking at it, I the Nazi gas chambers. Also, while I was in decided if I become a painter, I would paint Auschwitz in the summer of 1944,representatives NOTICE TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Jeremiah.” from the Swiss International Red Cross came to NEEDING ASSISTANCE In 1938, Altman married and settled in inspect the camp. They made the children write Financial assistance is available for needy Soznoweicza. He and his wife, Madzia, had a son, postcards to their relatives overseas, making the death Holocaust survivors. If you have an urgent situation Marek, and lived happily until war swept across camps sound like a children’s camp, and mailing them regarding housing, health care, food or other Poland, carrying them off along with countless other emergency, you may be eligible for a one-time grant from different locations, of course. Years later, the Jews to ghettos and concentration camps. funded by the Claims Conference. International Red Cross admitted that these postcards Five years later, while Madzia and Marek stayed were falsified to appease Hitler. If there is a Jewish Family Service agency in your area, please discuss your situation with them. behind in the ghetto, the Nazis shipped Altman to a Sincerely, If there is no such agency nearby, mail a written series of labor camps, including Marksztat, Faulbreck Catheryne Morgan inquiry describing your situation to: and Graditz. Emergency Holocaust Survivor Assistance His wife and son perished in Auschwitz. But P.O. Box 765 Altman hung on. “I wasn’t frightened,” he said during Despite the fact that I am now almost 62 years Murray Hill Station the 2002 interview. “I just kept out of trouble. old, I will always be a child of Holocaust survivors, a New York, NY 10156 Sometimes I felt sorry for the guards. They did the legacy that I carry with me every day of my life. As job, but they hated it. I’d repair their slacks, and they’d a child of survivors, I do not agree with the idea of Holocaust themes concert libretto give me a piece of bread. And we survived.” putting a memorial to the Holocaust on the Atlantic cont’d from p. 16 While in Faulbreck, Altman met Erma, whom he City Boardwalk. would eventually marry. The couple moved to Munich During the summer of 1992, I was fortunate to satisfying productive lives and raise families. It was after the war and had a son, David. In 1949, they be part of a life changing program for teachers, in that experience that I found the message of hope immigrated to San Francisco, where Altman started by Vladka and Benjamin Meed, which took and triumph, although triumph is a loaded word.” established a successful business as a tailor, counting small groups of teachers from all over the United The narrative arc of Kaddish is: what was, what the San Francisco Opera among his customers. States, and sent them to Poland and Israel to study happened and how the community responded. One After 65 years in business, Altman retired. In his the Holocaust in hopes that they would come back of the high points of Kaddish is the tune, “Nothing Is free time, he traveled, painted and frequented Café as better informed educators, bringing their newly as Whole As a Heart Which Has Been Broken.” by the Bay, a weekly Holocaust survivor group acquired Holocaust knowledge back with them into The verses include testimonies from three survivors sponsored by Jewish Family and Children’s Services. their classrooms .The program worked beautifully, (the “enter into your life” part). The chorus comes But most of all, he enjoyed time with his family, and is still going strong today, despite the fact that from the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. including his two great-grandchildren, who were born Benjamin Meed is now of blessed memory, and Vladka “I loved that particular saying of Rebbe shortly before he died. no longer travels along with the teachers on these Nachman’s for years,” said Siegel, “so I looked for —by Amanda Pazornik, Jweekly.com trips. This holds some sadness with it, because more of his writing. I found the parable of the ship there was something so special about having that has been rebuilt. I added exegesis from Rabbi MARGIT BRAND Vladka and Ben Meed lead these trips. Firstly, they Nachman. Once I hit on the form of the piece, the My mother, Margit Brand of Monsey, New York, were both Holocaust survivors, and who better to writing came quickly. It’s a strophic form: verse- passed away from natural causes at age 107. She lead such educational experiences, and secondly, they chorus.” was a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who was were also exceptionally loving and tolerant human Lawrence Langer, in his book, “Holocaust able to get fake documentation from Swiss envoy beings, despite what they had lived through as Testimonies,” wrote: “This memory, and the loss it Carl Lutz to protect her family from being sent to a Holocaust survivors in Poland. They had the right records, has meaning only insofar as it engages the death camp. idea—the only idea, really—that “education” is the consciousness of us as audience. Otherwise, it My mother lived an interesting, yet difficult life. way to go when attempting to memorialize this awful remains mere archival anecdote.” Siegel seems to She was born in 1902 to a small, poor family in period in our history. say something very similar in his formal statement Nyiredhaz, Hungary. When she was 14, she moved It behooves us, as Jews, to take the funds that about “Kaddish”: “I believe [the testimonies] cause out of her home to become a nanny in Budapest, are being raised for the building of a memorial in a an empathy with survivors, which is key to my effort Hungary. She eventually got married and had four totally inappropriate setting, and use that money, to lead the audience to want to be part of making a children abut because of the Holocaust, she was left instead, for education, the education of our young better world.” to raise her children on her own. people. With education, will come knowledge and “I absolutely make common cause with Langer In 1960, she moved to Israel to escape understanding, and hope, hope for a better world whom I adore,” concurred Siegel. “That’s very much Communism in Hungary. In 1962, she moved to the where someday, maybe, we may be able to live in in my mission: to use these testimonies to provide a U.S. to reunite with her children in New York. She peace with everyone. window into the soul of the survivors – or, as the lived in the Bronx and then in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Anne Kabo Cohen Rolling Stones would say, ‘to shine a light.’ “

TOGETHER 18 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 and eventually moved to Monsey, NY in 1978, where Friends of Greater Washington, B’nai Brith and other cities as she lived until her passing. Hadassah. In 1981 she was given the Pikuach Nefesh well. Her 12 -year-old great-grandson, Jonah, related Award by the Capital Chapter of the American Red In addition to her remarkable life to his class in 2008 as “Babi is a Magen David for Israel, citing her as “Woman of the YU honorary celebrity in Monsey. She is unofficially known as the Valor, For Saving 1500 Jewish Lives.” In 1982 the doctorate, Mrs. oldest woman in Monsey. People visit her from far New Life Award was presented to her by the State Hammer re- and wide to receive a blessing from her. When she of Israel Bonds. ceived many awards, including Yakirat Yerushalayim was 90, she finally became a U.S. citizen, and the In 1999, she was invited to Annapolis to speak and Eishet Chayil, and was a leading member in coolest part of it all was that President Bill Clinton on behalf of two separate bills that would save Emunah Women, Hadassah, Bikur Cholim, the League sent her a letter congratulating her. When she turned Holocaust survivors from paying taxes on European for Special Children, and more. She founded the 100, there was a huge birthday party for her and one reparations. flourishing Bracha chapter of Emunah in Jerusalem of the most awesome gifts she received was a letter The Washington Post wrote an article about her for English speakers. from President George Bush and Laura Bush in 1981, and the Silver Spring Gazette published an —by Maayana Miskin and Hillel Fendel congratulating her.” article about her in 2003. She used to hand out these articles to people she met. In this way, she was FRED ISRAEL MALVINA (NÉE speaking on behalf of herself and other Holocaust Fred Israel (Manfred Israelski) of Somerset New survivors. MALVINA GRUNFELD) Jersey was a holocaust survivor and a hidden child BURSTEIN during World War II. He was born January 22, 1941 Born in Trebisov, CHAYA (CLARA) to Benjamin Israelski and Ida Kuflik in a displaced Czechoslovakia, my HAMMER camp in Belzen, Belgium. At 18 months old he was mother was the youngest The colorful and placed in a cloister—St. Joseph in Munsterbilzen— of eight children born to in Limburg, Belgium. He was a hidden child from Mali Frieder and vibrant Chaya (Clara) Hammer, a long-time September 1942 to September 1944 when he joined Salomon Grunfeld. his parents and lived in and around Leige, Belgium. She became a popular teacher who was most recently His father was very active in the Polish milliner, until the Nazis underground resistance movement. Ida was hidden arrived and Jewish known for the “chicken fund” she ran single-handedly on behalf of in another cloister in Belgium as a cook. Both parents stores had to be closed. In the spring of 1942, when would walk to visit their son each week across the the local Nazis requested that all the single Jewish needy families in Jerusalem, recently passed away in Jerusalem. She was just a few weeks shy of her bombed out fields. girls in her town report on a given day, she hid instead. They were able to immigrate to America in Her family decided she should flee to Budapest. In 100th birthday. Dr. Hammer recalled her own experience with January 1948 and lived in Bronx , New York. Fred Hungary, she visited her aunt who gave her attended yeshiva and graduated from Stuyvesant High identification papers belonging to her Jewish maid, hunger. After she was captured as a young girl with her family while crossing the border between Romania Schoo and then City College of New York with a and she went to Budapest as Lea Engel. She worked degree in physics. He was a member of the Bronx where she could—as a maid, in a restaurant, in and Russia, the family was put in jail for seven weeks and given very little food. “I have never, never, never National Guard during the Viet Nam War. factories, and in a fancy dress shop on Vaci utca. He worked at Bendix Aviation in Little Ferry, NJ. When it became unsafe for Jews in Budapest, she forgotten that,” she recounted to Aish. “What it means to be hungry. What it means to cry, ‘I want another He designed many items including work on the 747, took the identify of Gizi Kovacs. 707 and Concord airplanes as well a the lunar space While there, she befriended a small group of piece of bread’ and the mother says, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have.’” module. When the space program was closing in Czech Jewish refugees, like herself. One of the young 1970’s and Bendix was moving— he taught himself men, Tibor Slezak, who worked in a pharmacy, posed From jail, the family moved to the Land of Israel, but was forced to leave their home in Haifa for the how to fix computers and learned everything about as a Nazi Army General and called the Hungarian them. He learned all the various computer languages government printing office to request 500 special United States after about a year when Clara’s mother took ill. and worked at developing many computer systems. government identification papers. He then asked “Gizi He has designed many systems at Citibank and was Kovacs” to pick up the papers. She picked up the Chaya married Efraim Hammer at a young age, having met him at an event whose themes of Torah, a senior systems analyst there for over 20 years. lifesaving papers and went back two more times, He married Sarah Timmerman Israel on January obtaining in total 1,500 papers. All the papers were Zionism, and the Hebrew language were to shape their shared lives together for the next several 17, 1971 in Albany New York and had two sons and given out to Jews in Budapest. two daughters. When the war ended, she returned to Trebisov decades. The Hammers lived in Pittsburgh, New York, to find out that 17 members of her immediate family, and finally in Los Angeles, where they were OSEPH ORZENIK plus extended family had all been killed. Her house instrumental in founding the area’s first Orthodox J K was taken over by her family’s maid and she never synagogue and mikvah. In 1969 she and her husband Joseph Korzenik, 85 years of age, of West was able to get the house back. She was not able to finally fulfilled a life-long dream and made aliyah Hartford, Connecticut, died January 16, 2011. get out of Europe right away and spent a year and a (immigrated) to Israel. They lived, for the rest of their Born in Southern Poland, he was the son of the half waiting in the Leipheim DP Camp in Germany lives, in the first building to be built in Jerusalem’s late Zallel and Mindla (Roth) Korzenik. During World and also in Munich. She arrived in America in 1947 then-new Ramat Eshkol neighborhood. War II he was first incarcerated in his hometown where she was met by a sister, Sylvia Greenfield, Chaya often recounted how one Friday, almost ghetto and later in seven slave labor and concentration who had emigrated in the 1920s and a brother, Irwin, 30 years ago, she was buying meat at her local butcher camps. At the end of the Holocaust he was liberated who escaped in 1939. She changed her name to and noticed a young girl receiving scraps of bone and by the American army. He arrived in the US in 1946. Malvina Greenfield, met and married Max Burstein fat. When she commented to the butcher, he explained In the US he attended Hartford High School and in 1951 in Washington, DC, where they settled and that the girl’s father was disabled and unable to work, Hillyer College, now known as the University of had two children. In 1960 the family moved to Silver the family was very poor, and the bone and thistle Hartford. He was a corporate legal administrator in Spring, Maryland. Max was an economist for the would be mixed in a soup to provide a bit of nutrition. real estate, communication and R/E development. Civil Aeronautics Board. Mrs. Hammer immediately told the butcher to Joe chaired the Annual Holocaust Commem- An accomplished painter who taught classes and give the girl two chickens and a pound of chopped oration in the Senate Chambers of the State Capitol exhibited her art twice at the Rockville Civic Center, meat every week, and to charge it to her account. in Hartford.He visited schools throughout New she liked fun, festive activities and to kibbitz with She then began to tell friends and family about the England, NJ and NY lecturing about the experiences people. She belonged to the old Jewish Community needy families in her community, and started to gather he endured as a young man, what he termed the Center in Washington and later the JCC in Rockville, funds for chicken for a growing number of families. stupidity of hatred, and “man’s inhumanity to man.” the Sisterhood at Temple Israel and sang in the Choir. By 2008, she was providing chicken to more than He was a member of The Young Israel of West She was a member of Sisterhood of Congregation 120 families a week. She also looked for other ways Hartford, ADL, Bnai Brith and Ararat Lodge #13. Har Tzeon, the National Council of Jewish Women, to help the families, such as by providing school supplies or clothing, and reached out to families in Red Hatter’s Club, and the Holocaust Survivors and cont’d on p. 20 February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 19 HELLA World War II he worked for a German bank, which Wild Geese II, Hanna’s War etc. It was at this time that the theatre world also MORITZ also dealt with confiscated Jewish assets. His mother, beckoned. Pitt founded her own theatrical touring Hella Moritz Alice Schwarz, was Jewish. Mulisch and his mother company and starred in many successful productions. died as she lived: escaped transportation to a concentration camp Pitt made her return to the big screen in the 2000 quiet, unas- thanks to Mulisch’s father’s collaboration with the production The Asylum. In 2003, Pitt voiced the role Nazis. suming and re- of “Lady Violator” in Renga Media’s production moved from the A frequent theme in his work is the Second World Dominator. The film was the UK’s first CGI animated bustling, tumul- War. Major works set against the backdrop of the film. tuous world in Second World War are De Aanslag, Het stenen After a period of illness, Pitt returned to the which she served. bruidsbed, and Siegfried. In 1963, he wrote a non- screen in 2006 for the Hammer Films-Mario Bava But as her life left fiction work about the Eichmann case: Case 40/61. tribute, Sea of Dust. an indelible im- Additionally, Mulisch often incorporated ancient Pitt’s first book, after a number of ill-fated tracts print on the Jewish legends or myths in his writings, drawing on Greek on the plight of the Native Americans, was a novel, community. mythology (e.g., in De Elementen), Jewish Cuckoo Run, a spy story about mistaken identity. Born in Saarbrucken in 1929, her family fled the mysticism (in De ontdekking van de Hemel and This was followed in 1984 by a novelization of the Nazi inferno and arrived in Brazil where Hella grew, De Procedure), well known urban legends and Peron era in Argentina, where she lived for a number studied and made the choices that led her to a lifetime politics. of years. of service. Mulisch gained international recognition with the In 1999, her autobiography, Life’s a Scream A witness to power, Hella was the secretary to movie De Aanslag (The Assault), (1986) which (Heinemann) was published, and she was short-listed the presidents of the World Jewish Congress. was based on his eponymous book. It received an for the Talkies Awards for her own reading of extracts Promoted throughout the decades, Hella charac- Oscar and a Golden Globe for best foreign movie from the audio book. The autobiography detailed the teristically preferred to remain with the title and has been translated into more than twenty harrowing experiences of her early life in a Nazi “secretary.” She was one of the few who met with languages. Concentration camp, her search throughout the every prime minister of Israel and who was able to His novel De ontdekking van de Hemel (1992) European Red Cross Refugee Camps for her father, speak at will with noble laureates, heads of state and was filmed in 2001 as The Discovery of Heaven. and her escape from East Berlin, one step ahead of leading religious officials. Among many awards he received for individual the Volkspolizei. With quiet humility, Hella played a critical role at works and his total body of work, the most important The Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters countless junctures dotting the modern history of the is the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Prize of Dutch (Batsfords) was Pitt’s tenth book. It was preceded Jewish people: from the release of Sharansky, Literature, an official lifetime achievement award) in by the Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers Mendelovich and Edelstein, to struggles for Holocaust 1995. (Batsfords). The Ingrid Pitt Book Of Murder, restitution; from peace agreements between Israel Torture And Depravity was published in October and its neighbors, to the exposure of Kurt Waldheim’s INGRID PITT 2000. Nazi past. Pitt was born Pitt died in a south London hospital on 23 Being close to power, Hella also bore witness to Ingoushka Petrov in November 2010, a few days after collapsing, and two the darker sides of men. Never wavering in her loyalty, Poland to a German days after her 73rd birthday. Hella stayed true to her principles and stood firmly father and a Polish as a moral compass and maternal guide to decades Jewish mother. of leaders who sought her counsel and advice, or DOV SHILANSKY During World War II happened to find themselves in her orbit. Former Knesset she and her family A remarkable polyglot, Hella mastered eight were imprisoned in a speaker and Holocaust languages, besting most linguists by not only speaking concentration camp. -survivor advocate those languages, but by professionally writing and She survived and in Dov Shilansky, a man editing in each. Berlin in the 1950s whose life story was Hella moved effortlessly among the tables of met and married an intertwined with the kings and presidents to the breadlines where she American soldier and ended up living in California. narrative of the birth worked after hours. From presidential palaces to the After her marriage failed, she returned to Europe but of the State of Israel, pews of B’nai Jeshurun, to the cots of the shelter in after a small role in a film, she headed to Hollywood died in Tel Aviv at the age of 86. which she slept as a volunteer several nights a week, where she worked as a waitress while trying to make “The People of Israel has lost one of its most Hella served others from morning until night with her a career in the movies. dedicated and exemplary leaders,” eulogized Prime dedicated spirit. In the early 1960s Pitt was a member of the Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “Shilansky was among Though our eyes well with tears from the loss, prestigious Berliner Ensemble, under the guidance of the founders of the national movement who survived we cannot help but smile knowing that the streets of Bertolt Brecht’s widow Helene Weigel. In 1965 she the Holocaust. He dedicated his life to ensuring the heaven are filled with angels — the purest of God’s made her film debut in Doctor Zhivago, playing a revival of the Jewish people on its land. servants — rejoicing in the return of one of their own. minor role. In 1968 she co-starred in the low budget “In all of his posts, but especially that of Knesset Hella Moritz died last week as she lived, an science fiction film The Omegans and in the same speaker, he was a symbol of integrity and the absolute unassuming servant of the Jewish people. year played in Where Eagles Dare opposite Richard commitment to the Jewish people, the memory of the —Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro is the former deputy Burton and Clint Eastwood. Holocaust, Zionism, the Land of Israel and moral secretary general of the World Jewish Congress. It was her work with Hammer Film Productions human values,” Netanyahu continued. that elevated her to cult figure status. She starred in Shilansky was born in Siauliai, Lithuania, in March HARRY KURT The Vampire Lovers (1970), a film based on Joseph 1924, and survived the Holocaust as a young man, a Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla, and Countess story that he recorded years later in his book VICTOR Dracula (1971), a film based on the legends around Darkness at Daylight. A fervent Revisionist Zionist, MULISCH Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Pitt also appeared in the he joined the IZL (Irgun) and operated in both post- Harry Kurt Amicus horror anthology film The House That war Italy and Germany before immigrating to Israel Victor Mulisch Dripped Blood (1971) and had a small part in the aboard the Altalena, the IZL-sponsored ship that was was a Dutch film The Wicker Man (1973). shelled by the nascent IDF. Undeterred, Shilansky author who was During the 1980s, Pitt returned to roles in served as a combat officer during the 1948 War of born in Haarlem and lived in Amsterdam from 1958, mainstream films and on television but her popularity Independence. Four years later, in 1952, Shilansky was arrested following the death of his father in 1957, until the with horror film buffs saw her in demand for guest while attempting to bring an explosive device into the end of his own life. Mulisch’s father was from Austria- appearances at horror conventions and film festivals. Other films Pitt has appeared in outside the horror Foreign Ministry. Shilansky was accused of Hungary and emigrated to the Netherlands after the genre are: Who Dares Wins, (aka The Final Option), smuggling in the suitcase bomb to disrupt the First World War. During the German occupation in

TOGETHER 20 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 negotiations between Israel and Germany over After the war, the Weinbachs eventually made their to dump out its German monetary reparations for the Holocaust. way to Israel, where Kurt served in the new Israeli contents. Allegedly a member of an unnamed underground army. In 1957, his mother, by then widowed, wanted to “Goodbye, mom,” organization, Shilansky was sentenced to two years in reunite the family in the United States; Bert had already he said, scattering prison. settled in Rochester. The family arrived in 1958. her ashes at the While working for years as a prominent attorney “We met in 1959 at the International Folk Dance former site of the and a member of the ethics committee of the Israel Festival at the YWCA,” Sheila says. “We soon Treblinka death camp in Poland, where the Nazis Bar Association and the International Organization of organized a singles club at the JCC (Jewish Community murdered 875,000 Jews during World War II. Jewish Law Professionals, Shilansky never lost sight Center),” and they were married in 1960. It was Lucy Werber’s final wish: to have her body of his ideology. Sheila and Kurt had two children, son David and cremated, her ashes taken to Poland and sprinkled at In 1977 he was elected to the Knesset during the daughter Susan. There are two grandsons. the death camp that killed her entire family, a fate she “Revolution,” when Shilansky’s former IZL Kurt retired at 61. “His motto was, ‘When the narrowly avoided when she was a young girl. commander Menachem Begin led his Likud Party to kids are educated and the mortgage is paid, you should “She remained a child who just wanted to be with election victory for the first time in Israel’s history. only work if you’re having fun,’” her parents,” Werber said. “She never made it to Once again serving under Begin, Shilansky was And Kurt continued, as he had since he arrived in Treblinka, but she probably felt that was where she appointed to serve as the Knesset representative on Rochester, to tell his survivor’s story wherever he was needed to go.” the Committee for the Appointment of Judges. After invited — at schools, service clubs, senior living The camp is perhaps the most blatant example of his reelection to the Knesset in 1981, he was made centers, churches. He always felt it was important to the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plot to rid Europe of its deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. share the story, to talk about the power of human Jews. Thanks to her parents, Lucy Werber managed Shilansky was appointed Knesset speaker in 1988, resiliency, of faith of family. to avoid being sent to Treblinka. But the camp haunted a position that he held until the 1992 elections. In 1993 her until her final days, her son said. he was a candidate for president, but was defeated ARNOLD H. WEISS Born in Poland, she spent the bulk of the war in the by fellow former IZL member Ezer Weizman. Born Hans Arnold Wanger- Warsaw ghetto. Her son called her a “natural survivor” sheim in 1924 to Sefan Wanger- who knew how to sneak out of the ghetto and smuggle HARRY STIEFEL sheim and Thekla Rosenberg, in food for her parents and baby brother. In 1943, just Harry Stiefel, 88, died December 20, 2010. He his parents divorced in 1930. before the family was deported to Treblinka, Lucy’s was born in Hamburg, Germany on September 11, 1922 Unable to support three children parents paid a Polish family to hide their 9-year-old to Louis and Sophie Stiefel. Harry was one of 5 (there were also sisters Beate daughter in a cellar. Of her parents, brother and extended survivors from a transport of over 2000 German Jews and Evelyn), his mother placed family, she alone survived the war. sent to Auschwitz. He came to the United States in Hans in an Orthodox Jewish After the war, Lucy was put in an orphanage in 1949 and worked in the restaurant-hotel industry orphanage in Furth, a suburb of southern Poland. Later, she married a fellow survivor, becoming a Captain at the Pierre Hotel in New York Nuremberg. He endured the became a teacher and had Alex in 1955. Two years City. rigors of his relative abandonment until 1938, when he later, the family moved to Israel, where Lucy had was placed on a Kinderstransport and sent to the another child and worked in a library and in book KURT WEINBACH United States. publishing. Kurt Weinbach A penniless refugee, he was shipped to Chicago, Raising her family in Israel, Lucy spoke little of “was always an where there were fewer refugees to compete for her own childhood experiences. It was only when she optimist, and always homes. But while in the train station he heard that became ill that Werber, a 55-year-old accountant, funny,” says Sheila there was a German speaking population in Milwaukee, learned of her unusual will. A longtime smoker, she Weinbach, his wife of and so hopped the train there. Once in Milwaukee, he died of lung failure at the age of 77. Her husband died 51 years. And when he lived at the train station and ate in soup kitchens until 38 years ago and is buried in Israel. talked about growing apprehended by the police and sent to an orphanage. “She was a very stubborn, opinionated person who up in Austria under Eventually a family in Janesville, Wisconsin took him knew what she wanted,” he said. Nazi rule, “he never in. While with them he went to high school and At first he said he was “insulted” that she did not told people how the Nazis killed family and friends. watchmaker’s college to learn a trade. He also want to be buried in her home in Israel, close to her He told people how their (Gentile) neighbors saved changed his name. grandchildren. After she died, when he was sorting his father’s store on Kristallnacht. He wanted people In 1942 he enlisted in the military and trained as a through her belongings, he began to understand. Inside to know they could make a difference,” she says. Kurt tail gunner until a crash landing broke both his legs. her black leather wallet he found a single black-and- Weinbach, 82, died in late September. During his recuperation, because of his German white photo of her father as a young man. Israel Weinbach, Kurt’s father, served in the Austrian language skills, he was recruited by the Office of “That explains everything,” Werber said, tears army during World War I as a clerk and unit photographer. Strategic Services, the World War II intelligence welling in his eyes. “She was probably ridden with After the war, he returned to his watchmaking business service, before joining the Counter-Intelligence Corps. guilt, feeling that she should have died there with her in Vienna. When the Germans annexed Austria in 1938, Sent behind enemy lines in 1945 to Dachau to family. A child who loses her parents at age 9 is Gen. Heinrich Stumpfl, Israel Weinbach’s commanding rescue high level prisoners, he was eventually charged traumatized for life. I suppose she felt this intense need officer during the war, was put in charge of Vienna. Kurt’s with the mission of substantiating Hitler’s death. It to join them.” father sent the general a congratulatory letter and was was on this mission that he discovered Nazi Party With a heavy heart, he executed her will. First he invited to visit him at the elegant Hapsburg palace. He Secretary Martin Bormann’s right-hand man, SS negotiated the release of her body and had it cremated took young Kurt with him. The meeting was friendly, Standartenfuhrer Wilhelm Zander, from whom he by a private company that keeps its crematorium’s and the general, who liked the elder Weinbach, retrieved Hitler’s last will and testament. location secret because the act is so taboo in Israel — promised to alert the family when it was time to leave. Upon his return stateside, Weiss studied economics it violates Jewish law and also conjures up images of He kept his word, advising them to get out of Austria and politics at Wisconsin University, then earned a law the Holocaust ovens. in early 1941 or risk losing their lives. degree there. He later worked as a lawyer for the Then, along with his sister and his son, he departed Getting out was easier said than done. Few Treasury Department, helped start the Inter-American to Poland, packing the ashes in his suitcase. It was a countries were taking Jews at the time, but Kurt’s Development Bank and became senior vice president tricky operation. He wasn’t sure about the legality of older brother, Bert, had made it safely to China and and general counsel for Emerging Markets Partnership, traveling with human remains and was afraid he would the family followed, settling in Tientsin (now Tianjang), an international private equity firm based in be turned back if he made his intentions clear upon a city near Beijing. Washington that specializes in infrastructure projects arrival in Poland — so he told no one from start to In China, Kurt attended a Jewish school and in developing countries. finish. learned Russian, Chinese, Japanese and English. The Arnold Weiss died Dec. 7 in Rockville, MD. He Access to Treblinka is open, so Werber didn’t draw family arrived in Tientsin during the Japanese was 86. attention. A German television crew recorded his occupation, but soon the U.S. Marines arrived, 40,000 actions. Werber says he doesn’t intend to ever return strong, Sheila says. And because Kurt could speak LUCY WERBER to Poland, a place he calls “one big cemetery for Jews.” both English and Chinese, the American commander Alex Werber calmly strode toward a patch of black In lieu of a real grave, Werber called the footage enlisted his help in billeting the troops. stones, pulled up his sleeves and opened a plastic bag his mother’s true “tombstone.”

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 21 FROM ALLGENERATIONS, and Kara. According to an YIVO document, Peter and Steffi Levi survived the Inc. SERENA WOOLRICH, war in Sweden.Perhaps someone in your e-mail group can put me in touch with PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER relatives of Kurt Levi. Hermann F. Weiss, Professor Emeritus of GermanDepartment of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesThe University of PLEASE SEND RELEVANT RESPONSES MichiganAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1275 TO: [email protected] Mordechai Wiesel: Seeking children who were in Langenbilo Sportshule, near Reichenbach. From Miriam Simpson, a 2g in Overland Park, KS: As so many, my family has a profound story. My father fled Germany via Sweden From Amy Elizabeth Wolff, a 3g in Champaign, IL: in 1939. He was from Eydtkhunen, East Prussia. His parents and aunt apparently I am trying to find information about my great grandmother and her children.My left Eydtkhunen, East Prussia in 1940 for Vilna which they thought was a safer grandfather, Isidor Wolff, was born on November 19, 1928 in Berlin, place. (My father, already in America, was trying to get them out of Germany.) Germany. As a baby, his biological mother, Herta Borowski, gave him up to They did not survive the Holocaust. I am searching for anyone who may know foster care. He lived with his foster parents until he was taken to the Jewish the fate of my grandparents and aunt. My father passed away 11 years ago. I Hospital on Iranischestraße in Wedding (from 1941 to 1945), where he survived believe he did know what happened, but did not talk about it. I am looking for the war. Following the war he was in several DP camps including Neu Ulm, information about the following people: Johann Keidanski; Maria (Tieles) Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, etc. In 1950 he moved to the US, departing from Keidanski; and Lena (Tieles) Salkind (from Eydtkhunen, Vilna , and Kybartai Bremerhaven in March. My grandfather has lived in Minneapolis, MN since he ). The Keidanski family was originally from Keidani. came here in 1950. We are looking for several people: Herta Borowski (born Wolff, 1908), her husband Richard Borowski, and their two children: Christel From Susan Stein Solomon, a 2g in Parsippany, NJ: and Helga Borowski, born in 1934 and 1936, respectively. My grandfather I am looking for the Stein family who lived in Hamburg during the 1920s and also has one older brother named Kurt Wolff who he never met. Kurt was born 1930s. The family included Karl (Kurt) Stein (my father), his sister, Gerda, and in 1927 but stayed with Herta. I know that between 1944 and 1945, the Borowski Martin and Frieda (Lande) Stein. My father came to this country before the family was sent to an Organisation Todt, presumably working in forced labor of war and left his family in Germany, who were to come over at a later some sort.If anyone has any information on any of these people, point. Gerde was a communist sympathizer who was captured and sent to a Herta, Richard, Christel and Helga Borowski and Kurt Wolff, please contact concentration camp. Martin died on the street before the war and what became me. of Frieda is unknown. Any information would be more than I know at this point in my life. I would also like to know what concentration From George Wolff, a Survivor in Sarasota, FL: camp Gerde was sent to and when. During the last two years of the war, I was a hidden child in a Catholic orphanage for boys run called St. Josefshaus From Suzanne Sondheimer, a 2g in West Bloomfield, MI: in Wettringen, Germany. My false name was Guenther My mother-in-law, Regina Sondheimer, nee Zylberstein, is from Berlin Brieger. Many decades later, I have often asked myself and went to England as a housekeeper in 1939. She is the only survivor whether I was the only Jewish child hidden there, or of her family and has never been able to discuss her past experiences. whether there might have been others, unknown to each At dinner this evening was the first time that she told me the names other. The Mother Superior, who was the only person to of her cousins. It just dawned on us that even if they survived they know my true identity, has since passed away. If any other could never have found my mother-in-law because she was married child survivors might have been at the St. Josefshaus in 1946 and her last name had changed. Has anyone any information orphanage also, I would love to hear from them or their about Leon Zylberstein, Sala Zylberstein or Anya Zylberstein from families. Warsaw, the children of Jacob and Leah Zylberstein? From Ruth Wolman, a 2g in Los Angeles, CA: From Joan Stone, a Survivor in San Jose, CA: Seeking relatives of Julius Sahlmann of Nuremberg. Julius was born in 1915 My grandfather, Heinrich Mendelsohn was born on November 2, 1866 in (approx.) in Nuremberg; married Rose, came to Brooklyn, New York in1938, Koenigsberg,East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia). He was the son of Wolf and later moved to Pasadena, California. Julius had a brother Kurt, who had a and wife, Henriette. He and his siblings moved to Berlin in the 1880s or 1890s. daughter born after WWII. Does anyone have any ideas how I can trace the family? From Amy Yuhasz-Richards, in St. Cloud, FL: From Judy Traub, a Survivor in Great Neck, NY: I found a picture of a woman who looks EXACTLY like me at the same age. It I am searching for a friend, Rywka Weinberg, who I went to school with in was taken at Bergen-Belsen, Germany on April 16th 1945. This was 30 years 1948 in Stuttgart, Germany. The name of the school was Bialik and was run by before I was born!! When I was at Yad Vashem I found a list of 33 victims that the Sochnut for DP children. She was slight, blond, and very smart. I heard that had my family name: Juhasz (in America they changed the name to Yuhasz). I she and her father left for Israel, and as an adult she became a college was shocked. I knew nothing of this background and was raised Christian! I professor. My name then was Irka (Yehudit) Hechtkopf. It’s been a long time am not a 2g or 3g. I just found this amazing picture in a book put out by since then, but Rywka, whereare you? My paternal grandmother was Minna Artscroll called, The World That Was Hungary/Romania. I contacted the Rosenthal nee Stensch born 24th November 1864 in Meseritz (Northern Hebrew Academy of Cleveland and that started me on this amazing journey. Germany) and who died in Berlin on the 21st of June 1935 living in Grenadier Since then I have been in contact with people all over the world. Most of all Strasse 35. I know that she had several brothers and sisters and would like to though it has educated me in a unique way about the Shoah. A copy of this find out if any survived and what happened to them. picture can be found at Yad Vashem entitled “Bergen-Belsen, Germany, Female Survivors Holding Bread.” It was donated to Yad Vashem by Hadassah Bimko From Hermann Weiss, Professor Emeritus of German, University of Rosensaft who has sadly passed on. The original picture is stored at the Imperial Michigan,in Ann Arbor, MI: A few months ago I participated in one of your War Museum and was taken by a Sgt. Harry Oakes of No. 5 Army Film and searches and I have been in touch with Mel Laytner ever since.I would very Photographic. I have spent many hours searching the pictures of Bergen-Belsen. much appreciate it if you could post the following search which has to do with I cannot explain why this is so important to me to find this lady but I wonder if my research on the Holocaust in Silesia. I have collected a considerable amount we look so much alike that we might be related and perhaps if she lost family of information on Dr. Siegfried Weiss (no relation) who was born in Breslau/ members that this might provide a connection for her and might get to the truth Germany in 1894 and lived in a small village in Silesia for many years until his about my family. My family is Hungarian. My great grandfather and great deportation in 1942. He died in Theresienstadt in 1943. So far I have been grandmother were from Hungary. I knew nothing about my possible Jewish unable to locate his relatives, some of whom are likely to live in the United heritage until I discovered the names at Yad Vashem. I do not know the States. My hope is that they have additional information on Dr. Weiss. His connection if any to these names. But I started asking questions of my family and nephew, Kurt Levi, born in Berlin in 1908, died in San Francisco on July 16, everybody just gets really quiet. This is my father’s side. My mother’s 1966. In an obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle the following family grandmother was a Diamond. I was raised Christian though I left Christianity members are mentioned: Kurt Levi’s wife Ilse, his sister Hilde, his son Peter, four years ago. My Dad was a Bible college professor of Old Testament History his daughter Steffi, and his grandchildren Steven, Sharon, Sandra, Pamela, Robin, and my mom was a professor as well. I guess my only qualification for being a

TOGETHER 22 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011 part of the group is that I am a seeker of the truth. The rabbi I talked to from I lost his address and I wonder whether you could help me to find him or maybe the Hebrew Academy said it was the “call of the blood” Do you know who this his children, if any. woman is? Do you know her name and anyway to contact her if she is still alive? I am not looking for anything but to find out if she is family. From George Ginzburg, a Suvrvivor in Melbourne, Australia: Do you know of any Ritchie Boys trained at Fort Ritchie, USA from From Werner Zimmt, a Survivor in Tucson, AZ: WWII who are still around??? (German Jewish boys who immigrated before My name is Werner Zimmt, and I was born in Berlin in 1921. My parents sent the outbreak of the war to the USA from Nazi Germanyand joined the US my twin brother and me to the USA in 1935 in a Kindertransport. Fortunately army stationed in Germany). If you can get hold of some contact adresses I we were all reunited in 1939. Since I left that early I have always hesitated to would greatly appreciate it. call myself a “survivor” which in my mind denotes a lot more suffering than I experienced. I am looking for information about an uncle of mine, Siegfried From Max Arpels Lezer, a Survivor, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, (Kai) Ostrowski. He was a prominent surgeon in Berlin and immigrated to and vice president, World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Palestine in 1939. I met him in the 1970s in Tel Aviv, where lived at 6 Mendele Holocaust: St. I am sure that he has died since then but I can find no record of his death, My foster family, Dijkstra, from St. Jacobi Parochie in Friesland, The not even that he ever lived in Israel. The Chevra Kadisha also has no record of Netherlands, is searching for a young woman by the name of Lola his death. Yet, he was active inestablishing a surgery ward in one of the Tel (Jael) Ekart. This young woman was in hiding with my foster family in 1942/ Aviv hospitals. The Medical Society has no record. Perhaps someone 1943. She also went by the false name of Jo.B. van der Steen. At the end of remembers him or knows when or where he died. 1943 she moved via Amsterdam to Paris, where she worked in a hospital. My foster family received some letters from her when she was in Paris. After the From Irene Zuckerbraun, a Survivor in Connecticut: war she immigrated to Tel Aviv, Israel. Here she also worked as a nurse in I am sending a search notice for a friend of Leo Gerechter, Irene Zuckerbraun, hospitals. In Israel she found, after eight years of separation, her sister, who who is living now in Connecticut, but grew up in the Heilbronner Strasse in had married and had a little boy. My foster family also received letters from her Berlin, Bavarian quarter. “I am searching for my best friend Renate Aron. We from Israel. The last letter is from February 1947. After this last letter they attended the synagogue in Berlin, Prinzregentenstrasse until 1938, after that heard nothing from Lola (Jael), and thought she had died. They had tried to get we lost contact. Her mother had fiery red hair as did Renate, and she was not information about Lola (Jael) from the Red Cross and from embassies. Jewish. Her father was Jewish and an undertaker.” Unfortunately they never received a positive reply. Now that they have found me after some 60 years, I advised them to start looking again. From Menachem Etkin, a 2g in Ramat Gan, Israel: My mother was born in Saloniki, Greece in June 1936. She left Greece From Rosian Kliot, a Child Survivor in Bend, OR: (with her parents and older brother) at the end of 1936. However, all I am still trying to find anyone who might remember my of her mother’s family, the Rubisa family, stayed in Saloniki, and maternal grandparents from Vilna; grandmother, Esther were all taken by the Nazis to Auschwitz. All were killed except for Borowick, nee Drujiian (killed in Stutthof); my grandfather, one brother who survived and returned to Saloniki after the war. His Israel Borowick; or my uncle, Abraham Borowick (killed at name was Albert Rubisa (he died in Saloniki). I am searching for age 10 in Auschwitz). Having been born at the turn of the anyone who might have known the Rubisa family. century, they would most likely not be alive today, but I am more interested in information about them from anyone who From Dorothy Tiano Melvin, a 2g in Los Angeles, CA: knew them. Also, I have never found any photos of any I am looking for anyone that may have known my grandparents, of aforementioned family on my mother’s side. She and my aunts, uncles in Salonika (Thessaloniki). My mother was Solika father survived by escaping from a labor camp while Varsano, daughter of Doudoun and Ovadia; my father was Mordoh Tiano, son my mom was pregnant with me. I hope someone may remember them or have of Itzhak and Ricoula (passed away young) and stepmother, Buena Tiano. photos. I have no other information about any of them as my mother could really never speak of them without great emotional difficulty, and I chose not to From Sandrine Rebibo, a 3g in Jerusalem, Israel: broach the subject. I am also looking for a survivor aunt in Israel on my father’s I am a 3g on my mother’s side. My mother’s family lived in Saloniki, Greece side: last name was Kliot. and Izmir, Turkey. All the Saloniki relatives perished. My mother lost her parents when she was a very young child. We are looking for any information. From Mrs Emanuela (Lita) Nadel (nee Singer), a Survivor in Sydney, Australia: From Renee Balaban, a 2g in New Jersey: I am a child Holocaust Survivor born in Lemberg ( Lwow), Poland. I am 78 My grandfather, Paul Katz, family lived in Yaroslaw, Poland. His mother’s name years old now and have been living in Sydney, Australia since December 1950. was Miriam Katz and father was Markus Hersh Katz. When the Gestapo took In 1948 and 1949 I lived in Paris until my mother and I immigrated to Australia. It over Yaroslaw they ordered all Jewish males over 18 to register for slave occurred to me that your organization might help me find some addresses of the labor. They took my grandfather’s uncles, Oscar or Oska Katz and Samuel ursing class I was a member of in Hopital Rotschild Paris metro Picpus (Ecole Katz, to rebuild the bridge over the San River which the Polish Army demolished d’ Infermiers). I only remember two names from my nursing school: Janine while retreating. The rest of the family, including Miriam Katz, left their homes (Janka) Gradstein, and Irena (Irka) Anikst. We were 20 girls housed in this instead of being rounded up. They were told that they had to cross the San hospital for a year. I presume that some of them immigrated to Israel. near Sieniawa abut 30 miles away. After crossing on a small rowboat to the Soviet side at Sieniawa they traveled to Przemysl and then were herded by the From Jacob Neufeld, a Survivor in Potomac, MD: Soviet Army into freight cattle cars. The trip took approx. 30 days until they I was in the Trani DP camp (near the city of Bari) from 1945-1950 (?). I’m not reached Novosibirsk in Novosibirsk Oblast. After being told to disembark and sure of the dates because I was only 4 at the time we arrived. Israelis, sponsored go thru a disinfecting process, they were transported to the port on the River by the JDC taught us Hebrew. I’m aware of refugees leaving for Palestine, the Ob and loaded onto a ferry to a small fishing village named Chingis, where they US, and Australia. My parents were survivors; my sister was born in Italy in were loaded onto trucks. The trucks proceeded deep into the virgin Siberian 1946. We were sponsored by my father’s uncle to come to the US in 1950. forest on dirt roads miles away from all civilization. They finally arrived at a While growing up in New York (Brooklyn), my parents belonged to the small clearing in the forest named Plashchatka, where they found a few large Buczaczer Benevolent Society. Sadly, most of the members I knew are deceased log type barracks. This was a Siberian Slave Labor Camp in Plashchatka. sharing space at New Montefiore Cemetery in Babylon, LI. Conditions were terrible. My great grandmother, Miriam Katz died there. I was wondering if any of your readers were taken to this location and knew From Henri Obstfeld, a Survivor in London, UK: anything about this or about any of my relatives. From an Obstfeld relative in the USA, I heard about the existence of one Chanan Obstfeld living in Brazil. Is there anyone out there who can put me From Leo F. Braun, a Survivor in Sao Paolo, Brazil: in touch with him? I am an Austrian survivor born in 1926 now living in São Paulo, SP, Brazil. In Vienna, Austria I had a school friend of my age named Hans Singer. As far as I know he escaped to Valparaiso or Santiago, Chile in 1938/39. Due to the war

February 2011 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 23 An Urgent

Appeal Dear Friends, work with social agencies like the Jewish Board of Family Services, Self-Help and Blue Card; The American Gathering is your organization, and · Advocated our cause in newspapers and on television, with more than a to Our your generous contributions help us to carry out our dozen columns and hundreds of articles since the beginning of 2010; unique mission. · Through direct intervention with state officials in Maryland, brought about As you know, for the past 27 years, the American the legal end of the infamous and bogus sale of so-called “Holocaust Torahs” Readers Gathering, the largest umbrella organization of that were fraudulently claimed to have been found and rescued from that period; survivors, has been at the forefront of all issues · Promoted Holocaust education, with the participation of Yad Vashem, the pertaining to survivors and their families. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the new museum at Bergen- This past year has been no exception Belsen, through our Summer Seminar Program on Holocaust and Jewish despite the challenges of extraordinary Resistance that takes American teachers to Poland, Germany, Israel and difficulties and confrontations. Washington to give them a personal appreciation of the Holocaust; If you can, please consider · Worked with the U.S. Justice Department in the search for and prosecution increasing your contribution to reflect of Nazi criminals, culminating in a special Justice Department Human Rights the increased needs of our community. Award recognizing our efforts; If you did not yet send in your annual · Brought members of the second and third generations together with survivors contribution, please consider doing so to strengthen our legacy and the lessons of Holocaust remembrance; at whatever amount you are · Promoted the search for “lost survivors” sought by relatives friends, in comfortable with. As described below, cooperation with All-Generations, Inc., under the leadership of our regional vice contributors of $500 or more will be president, Serena Woolrich; acknowledged and listed in our · Continued the solemn observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance newspaper, Together. Day, with the largest annual commemoration in the United States, in association As survivors and their families, we with New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the are painfully aware of the toll that the Holocaust; bleak economy has taken on · Maintained and updated the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish our available resources. Nevertheless, we are Holocaust Survivors which now includes the records of over 185,000 survivors determined to continue our work. We know that and their families who carne to North America after World War II; together, with thanks to your generous contribution, · Disseminated Holocaust-related news and other items of interest to the we will be able to insure that our fight survivor community on our website, www.americangathering.org. for remembrance will live on. 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TOGETHER 24 visit our website at www.amgathering.org February 2011