The Hidden Child VOL. XXV 2017 PUBLISHED BY HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION®/ADL

THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY: TESTAMENT, ANGUISH, AND SOLACE THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

STILL SEARCHING FOR THE HIDDEN CHILD 1991 AND COUNTING …

3 t a festive 25th anniversary luncheon, on December 14, 2016, the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL presented its Founder Award to its five most significant creators I WAS AN INFANT SURVIVOR A— Abraham Foxman, Myriam Abramowicz, Eva Fogelman, Ann Shore, and Nicole IN GREECE David. (The first three founders were handed their awards at the event; Ann and Nicole, 7 who were unable to attend, received theirs at a later time.) The focus of the was on the remarkable 1991 gathering that gave birth to our self-discovery and forma- tion. Until then, most Hidden Children had spent decades in silence, never talking about FOR A FEW CRUMBS OF MATZO what we had experienced in our childhood. That initial contact with others — just like 10 us — proved to be life-altering, productive, and, thankfully, long-lasting.

EXPLAINING THE SUCCESS OF MOST CHILD SURVIVORS OF THE SHOAH 13

FROM HIDDEN CHILD TO 16

A TURN IN FORTUNE 18 Left, Ann Shore, founder and first president of the Hidden Child Foundation, 1991 to 2013. Center, From left to right: Founders, Dr. Eva Fogelman, Second Generation, noted social psychologist, psycho- therapist, author and filmmaker; Myriam Abramowicz, Second Generation, creator of the film, “As If It Were I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE PAIN Yesterday”; and Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Emeritus, ADL. OF MEMORY THAN TO FORGET Right, Nicole David, founder of the Hidden Child Foundation, in 1991. 22 We celebrated our endurance with joyful music, nostalgic reminiscences, and DANCING AFRAID reflections on current and future paths. If there was a common thread among the three attending honorees’ speeches, it is that their own connection to the Shoah always 26 called out to them, eventually influencing their professional lives. Revealing this human tragedy and its aftermath became a solemn obligation that each founder fulfilled with HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ dedication, passion and grace. Hence, all Child Survivors and their descendants will ADL HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION forever be indebted to them. We dedicate this issue to the obligations, burdens and gifts of memories that have 28 impelled, tormented and comforted Child Survivors throughout the years. Despite the odds we have faced, we have triumphed beyond all expectations — from others and HISTORIC INHERITANCE OF from ourselves. Let this victory be our lasting legacy! IN Rachelle Goldstein, Editor 31

THE MAN WITH TWO DAUGHTERS HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ADL 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-3560, 38 © 2017Anti- League (212) 885-7900 Fax 212-885-5869 Vol. XXIIV E-mail: [email protected],

BOOKS EDITOR Rachelle Goldstein 40 ADVISOR Dr. Eva Fogelman CO-DIRECTOR Rachelle Goldstein CO-DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR, SOCIAL SERVICES Carla Lessing DIRECTOR, FAMILY TRACING SERVICES Evelyne Haendel

Cover photo: Rachel Silberman, age 2, Brussels, late 1941. THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

STILL SEARCHING FOR THE HIDDEN CHILD By Andrew Griffel

Of survivors remaining on father’s employees. They told her to fol- this earth, I am among the youngest. I was low. Together, they walked the two miles born in , , in October 1942. from the ghetto to the factory, taking care My January 1942 conception coincided with not to be seen. Once there, they climbed the , where the Nazi a back staircase. high leadership signed off on the Final In the building’s attic, my mother found Solution. Seventy-five years ago, I came a midwife waiting. The midwife induced into a world primed for my destruction. labor while my mother bit down on a piece When my father died, shortly after I first of wood against the pain. Below and ter- moved to in 1968, I found a small slip rifyingly near, guards watched over of paper among his possessions. It bore a the factory’s workers; for my mother to cry single line of , in the hand of the out would have cost everyone in the room Belzer Rebbe, a man my father revered for their lives. When I emerged, my first cries his wisdom. It read: “Wait until the salva- were also stifled, with a cloth to my mouth. tion — geulah — to circumcise him.” He And then, knowing this was the only way to had kept this note in his wallet for over a save me, knowing she might never again quarter century. lay eyes on the child for whom she had My father had regarded the words of put her own life in jeopardy, she handed the Belzer Rebbe, smuggled to him in 1942 me, by previous arrangement, to a chem- from Krakow, as prophecy, nevuah. He had ical engineer at the factory named Jan wanted to know, if my mother should Szczepanski. give birth to a son, whether he needed to “Hidden children” is the term that has observe Jewish law and have him circum- been given to those, like me, who were of cised eight days after entering a world tender years during the Holocaust, who turned upside down. He had read the managed to survive because good, brave Rebbe’s response and what he had seen people took us in. Sometimes the “hidden” was the absence of qualifying words: he part was literal, the child kept out of sight. Polish rescuers and foster parents, Jan and Alexandra would have a son, and the salvation would In other cases, such as mine, identity was Szczepanski, with their daughter, Helena. come to him, my mother and me. the hidden element. I was given a birth I have wondered all my life why Henryk certificate with a new last name and taken and Sura Perl Werchaizer Griffel persist- in by a Polish Catholic family. For me, ed in having a child in the midst of the though, there has always been another Holocaust. Nazi soldiers targeted pregnant dimension to the label — the experience Jewish women. They stripped them bare itself is hidden from me, beyond the reach and thrust bayonets into their wombs. of memory. Whatever it feels like to be a There are stories of the Nazis hurling Holocaust survivor, I’m not sure I’ve ever Jewish infants into the air and shooting really felt it. Throughout the world there them for target practice. are gatherings of hidden children, all of us In an unimaginably dangerous time, preg- now long in years. I have never been able nancy put my parents’ lives at even great- to identify with the label, never felt as if I er risk. For three years, they had been belonged in such company. imprisoned in the Radom ghetto, which the What I did feel, as I grew up in the United Nazis had begun to liquidate, sending its States, was the pervasive sense that I should denizens to concentration camps. Shortly consider myself a victim. My parents before I was born, my mother saw the instilled this in me directly and indirectly. Gestapo drag her brothers and her father What they had endured during the war into the courtyard of the leather factory he had left them broken, and I was stranded owned and shoot each of them in the head. on an uneasy bridge between two shores The Nazis took over the factory, directing of Holocaust experiences, a first- and second- its output to the boots that were trampling generation survivor alike. Their unspoken Europe underfoot. message was that I must in some way Just before her due date, my mother was be broken too — that I was, at the least, approached on the street by two of her Contined on next page

3 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

fragile and should be treated accordingly. baby whom we named Tali. Five years get to the waiting area outside. There was I rebelled against this sense of self, much later, I moved back to Washington to Tali, in the arms of a close friend, a big smile as I wrestled with the feeling that I did take a job at a prestigious international radiating from her face when she saw me. not fully belong in my own family. My par- economic consulting firm. This was a pro- When I saw her, something clicked deep inside ents had spent the remainder of the war, fessional opportunity I could not pass up. me, a certainty that, somehow, I would find the after my birth, hidden by another Polish I knew I had to leave Israel. Just as firmly, emotional wherewithal to help my daugh- Catholic family in Warsaw, some 65 miles Anita knew she wanted to stay. ter deal with what she had just endured. north of Radom. What we might call clarity has eluded Tali’s physical wounds were minor — In 1945, when Russian tanks beat back me for the better part of my life. The scratches and scrapes, really. Her psycho- the Germans, my parents returned to long shadow cast by my earliest years, logical wounds, however, were unknowable reclaim their then three-year-old child. In something I now struggle with conscious- and my primary concern. She had given my mother’s version of our reunion, the ly, was, until my forties, an unconscious clear and precise testimony to the Israeli one I heard growing up, I had run to my fight played out in self-doubt, wavering police; she seemed to remember the inci- mother as if guided by instinct. It was not commitments, and poorly defined goals. dent in full. until I was 50 years old that Hela Spus, Clarity finally found me, minutes after From the moment I arrived back in Israel, the woman who had hidden my parents, midnight on my 43rd birthday, in the form I received well-meaning and often conflict- told me the truth: Alexandra Szczepanski, of a phone call from that would ing advice from psychologists and social Jan’s wife, had to push me towards my change my life forever. workers. “Do not take Tali to the funeral,” birth mother, as I clung desperately to said some. “Yes, take her to the funeral,” the only mother I had ever known. And so, counseled others. “Do not send her back in the midst of what was supposed to be to school immediately; Yes, send her back a period of gradual re-acquaintance, my to school. Keep her in Israel; Take her out of parents abruptly snatched me back. For Israel.” The instincts I had felt when I first them it was a blessed natural reunion; for saw her at the airport — paternal, protec- me it was a rupture. tive, loving — were clear and powerful, so We fled through Czechoslovakia to a I put my trust in them above all. displaced persons camp established by When I look back at that time, especial- the Allies in Stuttgart, Germany. We ended ly the first year after the shooting, I can’t up, like so many immigrants before us, in Andrew Griffel at 3 months. fathom how I held it all together. Tali had New York’s Lower East Side. Though set- witnessed the murder of her mother and tled, the sense of being displaced never six other people close to her, and had narrowly left me. In America, I felt at home; in my I write this, more than 31 years after escaped death herself. I, meanwhile, was own family, less so. that , living once again in an Israel contending with the grief of losing my wife. One thing I did feel part of, however, where peace remains elusive. In 1985, Yet I faced our lives with a confidence felt was the special time in history when a the tranquil Sinai beach resort of Ras in innumerable moments, both quiet and Jewish homeland was at last a reality. Burka was under Egyptian sovereignty fraught, through decisions big and small. This In 1968, I traveled to Israel for a year of but accessible to Israeli tourists due to was altogether new to me. It’s not that I post-graduate study, knowing neither that the 1978 Camp David Accords. In one of always made the right decisions; I made my decision would be a fateful one, nor our regular phone calls, Anita had told me mistakes, and plenty of them. But for the first that this pilgrimage would mark the begin- that she planned to camp there with Tali time in my life, when it mattered most, I had ning of nearly sixty years of personal wan- and a couple of other families over the the strength of conviction. dering — of never, definitively, calling one Succoth holiday. One day, Anita and the I had never felt such certainty before, place home. Since then, I have lived a total other parents sipped Turkish coffee with a feeling that endured throughout Tali’s of twenty-seven years in Israel. But these the local detail of Egyptian soldiers, while childhood and adolescence. From where years have been interspersed, in more their children played on the sand dunes; did it come? I felt that I had somehow than 50 moves, with nearly equal time the next day, one of those soldiers opened been prepared for this awesome respon- spent in New York and Washington, DC. fire on the group. Two boys escaped by sibility. Perhaps my pain had prepared Despite this apparent inability to put running down the dune, back to the Israeli me, the accumulated residue of my own down roots, in Israel I met Anita, who encampment. The only other survivor was separations and displacements, and of was also there to study. We fell in love. six-year-old Tali. When the shooting start- having been raised by parents with their We married, returned to the States for ed, Anita shielded our daughter beneath own emotional scars. two years to help my mother and sister her body. Anita was hit and bleeding Where my parents had inculcated in relocate after my father died, and then, in to death, but she found the strength to me a sense of victimhood, I vowed to do 1971, we decided to make a life together whisper words of comfort to Tali until she the opposite with Tali. In contrast to the in Israel. At the age of 35, I served in the drew her last breath. silence that had surrounded the source Israeli Army and managed to put behind Less than 24 hours after that phone call, and subject of my family’s grief, I was me some of the sense of victimhood that I was the first person off the plane when it determined to let Tali know, by word and had hung over my childhood. landed at Ben Gurion airport, the first through example, that it was okay to let it all out. I In 1979, Anita and I adopted a newborn customs and, running quickly, the first to Contined on next page

4 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

wanted to spare her from what I had expe- time. The infant’s name? Andrzej-Marek. rienced in my own childhood — the sense “What happened to him?” that my emotions, however strong, had to “His biological parents came and took be pushed deep down. him away at the end of the war.” As it turned out, my efforts to help Tali Would she agree to meet this 50-year- bore unexpected fruit. During the years old American man who claims he was born when my focus was squarely on her well- in secret in a leather factory in Radom in being, feelings that I had suppressed since 1942 and was immediately handed over to childhood started to surface. Shortly after a young man who worked there? my 50th birthday, I resolved to try to find “Come now, quickly,” she told the archi- the part of my past that had been lost. vist. “I have the child’s birth certificate. I And so, I made my first trip to Radom. have pictures.” My grandfather’s factory complex was still As I stood waiting for Helena Szczepanski standing, a majestic red brick facility four to come to the door of her apartment, I stories tall, with a huge chimney reaching reached into my coat pocket for a crum- high into the sky. I approached the place Andrew, age 3, in Krakow, a few days after being pled photograph my mother had given me where I had been born in secret. My heart reunited with his Jewish parents. long ago: me at three months. Helena opened aching, I tried to imagine my mother’s feel- the door with one hand; in her other hand ings on that night a half century before. was a picture of a baby boy. The director of the factory, a musta- istry, where the young archivist had one We were holding the same picture! chioed young Polish man, introduced me word for my story: “Impossible.” I don’t know why it took me so long to to a 68-year-old worker who had been a “You cannot be who you think you are,” return to Radom, to find the family that, teenager in 1942. He had lived near the he told me through my translator. “No at great risk to themselves, had taken me factory and remembered the events of Jewish baby born in Radom in October in as a newborn and saved my life. As it that time vividly. 1942 could have survived the liquidation turned out, Helena had only been at home He had heard about the young woman of the ghetto. No Jewish baby could have that day to answer the archivist’s call who had been smuggled into the factory lived undetected by the Nazis or their because she had forgotten documents from the ghetto, who gave birth and then many Polish informers.” she needed for a meeting later in the disappeared, her baby’s whereabouts also He took out the old records that, to my afternoon. It was, she told me, the only a mystery. The tale, for so long legendary, amazement, had come through the war intact. time she had come home from work in the had been handed down through genera- Yes, there was a leather factory named Elgold middle of the day. tions of workers at the factory. He couldn’t owned by Israel Werchaizer and located at Now that I had finally made the trip, seem to believe that the baby, now a 9 Czarna Street. Yes, Israel Werchaizer and his connected at last with this lost part of my middle-aged man, was standing right in wife Leah gave birth to Pola Sura Perl and history, I was stricken to learn that Jan front of him, the story made flesh. He had 12 other children. No, there was no record and Alexandra were no longer alive and to touch me, as if to verify that I was real. of Sura Perl marrying Henryk Griffel, no I would not meet them. Helena told me, How was it, he asked, that not one of the record of the birth of a son. through tears, of their grief when my bio- 100 or so Polish factory workers betrayed I asked the archivist to look in the Radom logical parents had taken me away. Until my mother to the Nazis? Why did they phone directory for Jan and Alexandra she died, her mother held an abiding faith instead stand guard, protecting her? He Szczepanski. He chuckled as he told me that I was still alive. called it a miracle. “Your grandfather was that the name Szczepanski is one of the Helena had an envelope full of photo- a fair and decent man and treated every- most common names in Poland — “Like graphs to show me. There were pictures one with respect,” he told me, emphasiz- Smith or Jones in America,” the translator of me with her parents. There were also ing, “no matter who they were.” added. He reluctantly agreed to go through pictures of me with my birth parents, sent He led me to where my grandfather’s the list of 22 Szczepanskis in the Radom to the Szczepanskis after I had been taken house once stood, about 30 yards from directory and began calling. First on the away. She had my forged birth certificate, the factory. It was a huge house, he said, list, no answer; second on the list, never with the surname “Gawlowski” — chosen, big enough for my grandfather’s 13 chil- heard of Elgold or Werchaizer — and so presumably, for its distinctly non-Jewish dren. He showed me where the stables once on through a dozen or so Szczepanskis. character. Finally, there was a letter from stood, stalls for eight horses. All these Then, on perhaps the thirteenth or four- my father. In a formal tone, he thanked the buildings had been burned down. He told teenth call, a woman answered. Her par- Szczepanskis for taking such good care of me what he had witnessed as a teenager, ents Jan and Alexandra had died five years me. It was dated September 3, 1945, with watching through the factory gate as the ago, and she was living in their apartment. a postmark from Krakow. My father had Gestapo shot my grandfather and all his Yes, her father had been a chemical engi- lived in the city before the war, and had sons, including one who was confined to a neer in a leather factory — Elgold sound- attended law school there. After taking me wheelchair. With tears in his eyes, he told ed familiar. Yes, her parents had taken in back, my parents had made a brief stop- me that he would never forget. a newborn Jewish infant, born in secret at over there on our way to Czechoslovakia. My search for the first mother and father the factory to the factory owner’s daugh- A wooden cross in the entryway of I had known began at the Radom city reg- ter. Helena had been 19 months old at the Contined on next page

5 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

Helena’s apartment caught and held my to end this tale. attention. Helena confirmed it had hung With time, however, I’ve come to see in every apartment that we had lived in, the emotional truth as existing between during our years together as a family. We these poles of triumph and despair. There had, I learned, moved quite a bit during is, on the one hand, the enormous satis- that time, as a precaution against questions faction and relief of having helped Tali that neighbors and acquaintances might overcome her trauma. I was able to be have about my fitting into the family. there for her in a way that my father and That cross is something I would have mother had not been for me. And there seen every day during my first years. A is the knowledge, tinged with gratitude, simple geometric form once perceived that through committing myself to raising by newborn eyes, it spoke to the selfless my daughter, I was able to consciously nature of the Szczepanskis’ actions. Jan and confront what had been tormenting me Alexandra were, Helena told me, as deeply Grandfather’s leather factory where Andrew was born. unconsciously for years. I managed to observant in their Catholicism as Henryk reclaim some measure of what had been and Sura were in their Judaism. Yet, even hidden from me. as they raised me as their own, with no excelled in academics and athletics, and But there is also so much that lies assurance that my birth parents would graduated with honors. She was chosen forever beyond my grasp, so much that return to reclaim me, they did not have by her peers to give one of the gradua- can never be reclaimed no matter where I me baptized. tion speeches, before heading to Brown travel, or whom I find, or how much I may What other memories might I have University for her freshman year. want it to be otherwise. When Tali came reclaimed had I returned to Radom while Ten years after my first return to Radom, of age and my sole focus was no longer Jan and Alexandra were still alive? What Tali and I visited Poland together. She exclusively on her wellbeing, I was left hazy aspects of myself might have snapped surprised me with the trip for my 60th with myself. That self is still incomplete, into focus? I look back on my life and see, birthday. From the airport in Warsaw we still wandering, still feeling too intensely in Radom, the genesis of my long years of drove to Radom. We visited the factory the irony of not being able to consider any disassociation and detachment. together. We looked for Helena, knocking place a “homeland.” Jan and Alexandra had taken me in because on the door of the apartment where I had Are these feelings distant echoes of a it was the right thing to do. Jan’s affection visited her before, but she was no longer war that ended more than 70 years ago, for my grandfather, his employer, had there. To this day, I feel terrible for not or just several of the thousand natural prompted this heroic act. Alexandra had staying in better touch with her after sud- shocks that all flesh is heir to? This ques- fed me from her own breast, as she had denly coming back into her life. It saddens tion seems to me to get to the heart of Helena. Helena considered this a bond as me that my tendency to disconnect from what it means to be a hidden child, at strong as blood; she thought of me as her those around me had extended to my least for those of us who carry around “milk brother.” And so together, milk sib- long-lost “milk-sister” I had gone to such this experience without the substance of lings, we made the short trip from her apart- lengths to find. memory, like some phantom limb. Part ment to the graves of Jan and Alexandra. I took Tali to the city registry where of the essence of being a survivor is to We lit candles for each of them and stood the young archivist had helped me find remember; in that remembrance, true, there silent in the summer afternoon, my Helena the first time. He was still there, resides much of the pain — the experi- arm wrapped around her shoulders. now the director and chief archivist. He ences one cannot forget, the sights one Post-traumatic stress disorder — PTSD remembered me, and extended an enthu- cannot un-see, the screams one cannot — can surface at any time in the life of a siastic greeting. In halting English, he told unhear. But I, one of the youngest of those person subjected to trauma. Tali had, in Tali how, when I came to him ten years who remain, bear a pain nonetheless — Anita, a remarkable and loving mother before, he refused to believe I had sur- one I cannot fully understand, the locus of for her first six years, which no doubt vived the Nazis’ purge of all the Jews in which no map can reveal to me. contributed to the amazing resilience she the city. “I am happy,” he said, “that your I am a survivor of the Holocaust; yet, I do showed in the years after Ras Burka. The father convinced me I was wrong.” not feel like a Holocaust survivor. It is the open communication that I worked so Where does the story go from here? It contradiction within, still unresolved. n hard to foster between Tali and me meant is a question that has plagued me since that there were times when Tali vented her I first attempted this account. During Andrew Griffel has extensive experience anger at me, openly blaming my absence that return trip to Poland, I went for an as an international lawyer and economic for what had happened to her and her early morning run in Krakow. As I passed consultant to multi-national corporations, mother. It was hard to hear but I was through the city’s Jewish quarter I found and was the head of an international devel- glad that she did not keep those feelings myself spontaneously yelling out, “Fuck opment agency working in Africa, Latin bottled up. And as time went on I was you, Hitler! You didn’t win!” On reflection, America, Asia and the Former . relieved to see the accumulating signs that I was struck by how my uncharacteristic He currently advises companies on creating she was okay. We moved to New York, emotional outburst contrasted with my business-nonprofit partnerships, institution where she was admitted to the presti- mother’s resigned and oft-expressed view building and restructuring, board leadership gious Dalton and Fieldston Schools. She that “Hitler won.” It seemed a fitting way training and corporate social responsibility.

6 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

Around 1990, I met Judith and Milton I was born in a hospital on April 1, I WAS AN INFANT Kestenberg in my hometown, Thessaloniki 1944, in Thessaloniki Greece. My mother, Greece. They were touring Europe, record- Rebecca Pissirilo-Franco, was 21 years SURVIVOR IN GREECE ing testimonies of child survivors. Dr. Judith old, and my father, Leon Franco, was 24. By Esther Franco Kestenberg, a child psychiatrist, worked Both came from educated and prosperous with Holocaust survivors and founded the Sephardi Jewish families who were in the International Study of Organized Perse- textile business. They spoke many lan- cution of Children, an organization that guages — Spanish, Ladino, Greek, Yugo- coordinated the interviews of over 1,500 slavian and some French. My mother had child survivors throughout the world. Her been born on March 16, 1923, in Kastoria, a husband, Milton Kestenberg, a lawyer and small, beautiful town on a lake in the north- real-estate manager had helped with rep- ern part of Greece that borders on Albania and Yugoslavia. Kastoria had a Jewish community of about 750 people, about one third of the total population. After the war, only 8-10 Jews were alive. My moth- er’s father, Pepo (Yiosef) Pissirilo, and her mother, Hannah Cohen-Pissirilo had both been born in the same town and the same year, in 1900. My father was born in 1920 in Bitola, a town in Yugoslavia, as it was called in those days, located exactly on the border with Greece and very close to Kastoria, my mother’s hometown. Bitola, a much bigger town than Kastoria, had a larger Jewish community. My father and his younger brother, Dario, had fled Bitola when the Germans occupied the area. Their parents, my grandmother, Esther, and my Esther’s mother, Rebecca Pissirilo-Franco, as a high Esther’s father, Leon Franco, in 1943-44, age 23-24, school student in Kastoria, Greece. c. 1938. in Kastoria, Greece. grandfather, Yiosef, had stayed in Bitola with the rest of the family that comprised many aunts, uncles, and cousins. All gone. arations for victims of the Holocaust and The two brothers had hiked through had organized aid for the children who the woods, going south across the bor- survived the war. ders, arriving in Kastoria, which in 1942 I spent two days with the Kestenbergs was still free of Germans. They had gone in their hotel room, telling them every to stay with relatives in what they believed detail about my family and me during to be a safer place. In 1942, life in Kastoria those horrible years when evil conquered under the Italians was still normal and free Europe. Before they left, they suggested I of fear. The Italians were rather friendly put everything down, which I did between toward the Jews. Life was peaceful. On 1994 and 1998. After many years of keep- certain days, young people gathered for ing old secrets deeply buried, I was ready afternoon teas, or ‘’après-midis’’ as they to get it all off my chest, and “The Game were known. They went to dances to have of Roles and the Second Generation of the fun and to meet one another under adult Holocaust,” a book of 253 pages (in Greek) supervision. That was how my parents poured out of me. It was well received by met, fell in love, and married in 1943. both critics and readers. I wrote about There had been no fear of our Italian con- the beliefs and lies that for centuries had querors. been well hidden in Greece, and I told My parents were very young, good-look- about my childhood and my problems with ing, charming, and I’m told very much in my identity. Contined on next page

7 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

love. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, I need- so big that I am incapable of compromis- ed to find out about my parents. I met with ing and accepting it as a real fact. There relatives in the U.S., Israel, Yugoslavia and are no excuses for this massacre, none! It is Greece, and with their former friends and too much to accept and beyond any logic. classmates, collecting information about When my parents arrived in Thessa- them. loniki, the Red Cross asked the Germans Soon, my mother, was pregnant with to let my mother go to a hospital, because me. But by the beginning of 1944, the Ger- she was about to give birth to me. At the mans had come to Kastoria, bringing with last minute before going into the trains, them their atrocities and violence. They “we” were pulled out of the line. My father began gathering the Jews, stealing their and my mother’s mother tried to go with valuables, and recruiting willing Greeks my mother, but both were dragged back to cooperate with them. Suddenly, every- violently. My mother gave birth to me all thing changed. alone on a Saturday morning, the 1st of On march 25, 1944, using every means April, 1944, in an unfamiliar town with of transportation, all Jews from the north- strange people. Now we were two; and we only had each other. When my mother Esther as a high school student, age 14-15, in understood the impending danger, she Thessaloniki, Greece. begged a nurse to save me. The nurse kept her promise and brought me to her family. My mother was hiding, under a false children, aged 23, 20 and 15, were kind Greek name,trying to avoid arrest, but and compassionate. They loved me, and I some said she was betrayed by a Greek loved them — yet, from early childhood, woman, a collaborator. Or was it, as oth- I was an unhappy, depressed child. I had ers thought, the director of the hospital, numerous, difficult issues that are hard to that gave her away? describe here. I was only 3 months old when my moth- On my first day of high school, at the er was arrested and taken to prison. On age of twelve, I was told my real name and the 8th of September, 1944, my mother was about my real parents. They could not executed by Greek collaborators, along with have picked a worse moment to tell me seven other Jews. It was the last execution. the truth! Twelve is a difficult age, even What irony... under the best of circumstances. For me, My father and his brother, my grand- it was hell! It required too much growth parents and my mother’s younger sister, and maturity for one day: first day of high Esther as a student at NYU. c. 1963-64. school; first day with my real, but new, name; first day with my new-real parents and their new names — names I couldn’t ern part of the country were transferred even pronounce. to Thessaloniki, about 200 kilometers away I went through all this without any from Kastoria. Here, they were gathered kind of psychological help. Depression into a transit site, close to the railway sta- was inevitable. Although I experienced tion, from which the trains, fully packed great difficulties, I felt somewhat relieved with our people, were sent to the death to finally learn “the truth,” In a way, I had camps. been expecting such a day. Children sense My mother was in the last days of her what’s amiss. All through the years, I knew pregnancy, getting horrible messages of that something was wrong with our fami- humiliation, hunger, cold, atrocities, vio- ly. We were so different in every way, out- lence, and killings at the hands of the side and inside. Silence and lies had not Esther’s paternal grandmother, Esther Franco, in Germans. Little more than a child herself, Bitola Yugoslavia. helped me. I had always felt tormented. she undoubtedly felt fear, agony, anxiety Since then, the word “truth” has become and depression, and surely, she transmit- a preoccupation in my life. ted all this to me. No unborn child should only 16 years old, were all executed in From that time on, I began a new jour- ever sense such cruelty. Yet I must have, Auschwitz. Victor Frankl says, the best of ney, a search for my identity. I needed because within her womb, I shared all my us perished, and I believe it. Very few of to know about my family, and most of mother’s extreme emotions as she was our people were left in Greece and Europe all, about my parents. My foster family chased by a bunch of sadists — while the after the Holocaust. became distant and unwilling to help. In world watched in silence. I grew up as Aliki Papadopoulos in a fact, they seemed annoyed, even hostile, To this day, I am unable to accept the poor, Greek Christian home. My foster when I expressed a wish to establish rela- callousness of the perpetrators. It is a crime parents, aged 44 and 55, and their three Contined on next page

8 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

tions with my family and with Jewish peo- “mother and family.” The “bad people” ple. They hid as much as possible — my were the Jews, and the “good” were the family photos, names of relatives, objects Christians. What an irony for a victim of that had belonged to my parents. Some the Holocaust, a small child, to have to go were sold, others destroyed. They were through such lunacy. sensitive people … Why such cruelty, I It would have been much easier for wondered. me, and I would have been a happier Were they afraid? Afraid that I would adult, had I grown up with my own peo- stop loving them, or care for them? Were ple since early childhood. Unfortunately, they feeling inadequate, not up to the task my foster family did not understand the of raising a Jewish child? Surely, many wounds they were adding to my soul, or complicated and difficult emotions were the problems they laid upon my shoul- involved, and I can understand their fears. ders. Was it ignorance? Still, I could not grasp how loving my real Psychologically, my journey was a diffi- family would make me stop loving them. cult one. It wasn’t until I was 25 years old On the contrary, I felt obliged and emo- that, for the first time, I had the help of tionally moved by their kindness. psychotherapy.

Maternal grandmother, Hanna Cohen-Pissirilo, with her daughters, baby Foula and Rebecca, around age 6. Kastoria, Greece.

teacher for one year only. I was not inter- ested. A year later I earned a full scholar- ship to study drama and I obtained my master’s degree. I worked as a theater actress for but a few years. In 1977, I decided to go to Israel and learn Hebrew while working in a kibbutz. I stayed 10 months. I love Israel. It is the only country that feels like Home to me. It brings tears to my eyes for many reasons. I never felt that I belonged in Greece. It is a country where ninety-five percent of the Jew- School children in costumes, celebrating Mardi Gras in Kastoria, Greece. Rebecca Pissirilo, Esther’s mother, is in the middle of the back row. ish population was killed in the Holocaust. In the early 1980s I hoped to make my life’s dream come true. Since childhood, I Yet I can’t excuse their behavior hoped to make the U.S. my home. I applied towards my family and my people. When for an audition at the drama department I was between the ages of three and six, of UCLA because of its excellence in the- they refused to let me go to my blood ater studies. I wanted to continue my relatives, family members living in New studies and get a master’s degree so as to York who wanted me. They even hired be able to teach drama in the U.S. I was a lawyer, and with the protection of the accepted as a student after auditioning Greek court, they kept me away from in Greek drama and Shakespeare, but the my relatives. Why? Was it out of love, or committee was not willing to give me the something else? Was it for some financial scholarship I had applied for. support they were expecting to receive? I am afraid it was naïve of me to confess The Joint and the Jewish community of to them how much I wanted to immigrate my home town all tried to take me away to the U.S. It was a fatal mistake. I did not from my foster family. They wanted me have the money to pay for tuition, board and to grow up as a Jew, living under better con- expenses. So, with a lot of constant bit- ditions, with my own people — to live the Esther’s family in Bitola, Yugoslavia, c. 1940-42. Paternal terness, I gave up my dream. Through the “truth” of my identity, name and ethnicity. grandmother, Esther Franco, is on the right. years, I was married twice and divorced But my foster family refused to give me up. twice. I did not want to have children. I I remember very well the chasing and I finished high school in 1962. I went to was not qualified for motherhood. hiding I had to go through during this the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Today, I live alone. I have no relatives. time. I was afraid of the “bad people” who where I studied literature and received my I’ve had a difficult life because of the were coming to take me away from my bachelor’s degree. I worked as a high school Holocaust. n

9 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

FOR A FEW CRUMBS OF MATZO By Roland Teichholtz

Pessach is near… For the Jews in Nice, exclaims. a real Seder, up to the Halachic standards “Sure, sure, Rottenberg answers ironical- of, and conformity to, age-old traditions is ly, “and when are you going?” evidently out of the question. There is “Ah well… I mean…” Tannenbaum mum- no way to get any kosher meat, and all bles, “to tell you the truth, I have no idea other foodstuffs are strictly rationed. at all where the Ardèche is situated.” Though Nice is within spitting distance of After a few moments of uncomfortable “Jules and Rose Legrand,” Ruchamah’s parents, in front the famous vineyards of the Bouches du silence, a little voice is heard, coming from of the house in Bordeaux Rhône, it is impossible to organize super- the bottom of the room: “I am ready to go!” vision for the pressing of kosher wine. All heads turn instantly toward the young And as far as Matzo is concerned, finding woman of twenty-five who has just spoken where we will be next year?” any would be sheer utopia. Nevertheless, so resolutely. Someone shouts: “Next year in Jerusalem!” the hosts of the Hôtel Rochambeau let “Yes, I can travel to the Ardèche, she Someone else laughs, but apologizes their imagination go haywire from time to repeats, that is…if Joe agrees to let me go?” instantly upon receiving dirty looks from time as they think about Pessach. “You are out of your mind, Joe protests, the rest of the group. Precisely when everybody has given up you do not realize what dangers you would Upon the other’s insistence, Joe finally all dreams for a decent Seder, one of the be getting into. Just imagine how many agrees reluctantly to let Ruchamah go. hotel guests, David Rottenberg, receives checkpoints you will have to go through She will leave next Sunday, to maximize a letter from his brother-in-law who has before even reaching the Ardèche! Then, her chances of being back home before managed to cross over the Spanish border you will have to find the clandestine fac- Shabbos. and is presently on standby in Valladolid tory. You can’t just walk up to people and The next morning Ruchamah, who has — in care of the American Joint — pend- ask them (here Joe imitates Ruchamah’s previously studied the map of southern ing his receipt of a visa to immigrate to squeaky young voice), “Excuse me sir, , calls her sister Léah on the phone. Argentina. In his letter, he tells Daniel — in where can I find a kosher Matzo bakery, The latter works for a clandestine printing covered terms — that he has heard about you know, the unleavened bread the Jews shop, belonging to the Jewish branch of a clandestine bakery, located in a small eat for Passover?” the Résistance, situated in Montélimar, village, deep in the wild country of the A few halfhearted laughs are heard. where Ruchamah’s false identity card was Ardèche, where enterprising young men “Then, Joe continues, if any Germans printed. work day and night to produce as many check your bags on the way back, what Léah is overwhelmed with happiness Matzos as is possible under the present will you tell them you are carrying, dog when she recognizes the voice of her conditions. The village’s surroundings are food?... Anyway, by the time you come beloved elder sister, but she suddenly infested with partisans and the Germans home, all you will be left with is a pack becomes serious when she hears about hesitate to venture in rough terrain that of unrecognizable matzo crumbs. Forget the purpose of the phone call. Indeed, they’re not well acquainted with, making about it, this is a ridiculous idea!” Ruchamah tells her that she hopes to be it an ideal spot for clandestine activities. But Ruchamah has a mind of her own: on the Nice – Montpezat train next Sun- That same evening, while a handful of “Now let us consider the positive aspect day. The train will stop for one minute Jews are sitting together, as they do of the idea, she answers, I am French, look only in Montélimar, at eleven fifteen AM. almost every other evening, in Joe and and speak like a French woman … If I get Ruchamah insists that Léah should come Ruchamah’s room to discuss current mat- dressed like the local peasants, nobody to meet her at the station, if only for one ters, David breaks to them the news would ever suspect I am a Jewish woman minute. At first, Léah refuses: her work is too about the Matzo bakery. A total silence trafficking Matzo!” important to be neglected, even though it welcomes his announcement, all are lost “You are completely crazy, Joe screams would take her only half an hour to make in dreams of munching crusty, crunchy uncontrollably, you are not going… period!” the round trip to the train station. “Every Matzo, sprinkled with bitter herbs…bitter “Joe, Ruchamah insists, just think about single identity card we print can potential- herbs maybe, but Matzo?... it for a second, Matzo, the age-old symbol ly save one extra life, she argues, I cannot “If some vershluggener Yid has the guts of Jewish freedom being eaten here in afford to leave work during office hours!” to bake Matzo under the nose of the Boch- Nice, under the noses of the Boches. Who Still, Ruchamah does not give up: “Léah, es, some other Yid must have just as much knows if this is not our last chance to she says softly, this might be our last chance guts to go and buy them!” Tannenbaum ever perform such a Mitzvah. Who knows Contined on next page

10 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

to ever meet again. If you don’t come I shall taste of it could be a source of inspiration brother is hiding somewhere in France. never forgive you!” and renewed confidence for the men in We have no news of Shalom.” (The latter Who can resist such a powerful argu- our little fugitive community.” was in Auschwitz; he will come back alive ment? Léah surrenders, she will be at the Around eleven thirty, only a quarter and well.) train station! of an hour late, the train penetrates the A whistle blows and Ruchamah barely Sunday morning has arrived. As she Montélimar station. The city is famous for its manages to jump back onto the train before suggested herself at the meeting in her hotel world–renowned nougat, but Ruchamah it starts off towards the high grounds of room, Ruchamah dresses like a peasant has other things on her mind. She is lean- Ardèche, between the Cèvennes and the woman: a faded pleated skirt, an off-white ing out of the window, ignoring the dusty Massif Central. Ruchamah remains at the blouse with worn out lace and, on her wind that makes her eyes blink. She scru- open window, waiving her hand while watch- shoulders, she wears a multicolored shawl tinizes the platform, looking for the famil- ing the elegant shape of her sister shrinking with long black fringes, held together at iar silhouette of her little sister. in the distance. Then she returns to her her waist with a rope belt, tied in her back. There she is! In her dark colored two compartment and sits down with a sigh of Joe cannot refrain from smiling when piece suit, she looks like a secretary, out satisfaction: “One good thing accomplished!” he sees her in such attire. Ruchamah car- on a coffee break. Ruchamah’s heart leaps A smile on her lips, she falls peacefully ries a carpet bag filled with rags that she with joy; it must be more than a year since asleep, rocked by the rhythmic sway of the will later dispose of, replacing them with she last saw Léah! carriage. the precious Matzos. Leaning on the rusty latch and push- Her departure is a moving affair: no ing the heavy door with her whole body, ••• tender words are exchanged between the Ruchamah jumps down onto the platform When Léah leaves the train station to spouses, yet their eyes reveal eloquently and throws herself into her sister’s arms. go back to work, she feels lighthearted. what it means for them to part in such cir- “Ruchamah was right, she thinks, it was cumstances, even if it will probably only a wonderful experience to meet her again be for two or three days. after such a long separation!” She has no Walking out of the hotel, Ruchamah is idea of what on earth is driving Ruchamah welcomed into the street by a wonderful, to go up north to the Ardèche, but who glorious morning sunshine: the Riviera in cares, she looks healthy and in good all the splendor of an early Mediterra- shape. Besides, she probably knows what nean spring. She stands still for a second she is doing. to deeply inhale the crisp, fresh air of Leaving the Avenue de la Gare, Léah turns Provence. “Such irony, she thinks, to be left, into the rue Longchamp, and suddenly in a world famous, classy vacation resort walks faster without knowing why. Some in the quality of a refugee having to hide inexplicable foreboding causes her throat in order to save one’s life!” to tighten and her stomach to feel unsettled. Walking away reluctantly, Ruchamah At the next crossing, just before making a crosses the street towards the train sta- right into the rue Saint Hilaire, where the Henri and Shalom in French uniforms, the first as a tion. Even though it is only six in the morn- foot soldier, the second as an Alpine Hunter. clandestine press’ cellar is located, she ing, the entrance hall is already crowded suddenly notices a German military truck. with people. There are mainly soldiers, She sees how armed soldiers emerge from but also peasants and some businessmen. After a long, tight hug, the sisters babble underneath the tarpaulin, jump onto the Throwing a glance at a shop window, at the same time. Then, stopping for a sidewalk and proceed swiftly towards the Ruchamah can barely recognize herself in moment, they burst into laughter. Finally, office she left barely an hour before. the colorful reflection of a typical peasant Léah informs Ruchamah about the situa- Her heart skips a beat. She thinks about woman of Provence. tion of the rest of the family, in a low tone, Rachel, Maurice, Jacques and the others… “May G-d help me” she whispers to her- since the platform is full of people and one Alas, there is nothing she can do to help self while climbing the flight of steps lead- never knows what evil ear is listening in. them. She crosses the square rapidly and ing to the platforms. She picks out a half “Our parents left Metz, Léah tells jumps onto the first bus that passes by, empty compartment and tucks her bag Ruchamah, and live now in Bordeaux, where without even knowing where it is heading inside the overhead net. She has just seat- nobody knows them. They call themselves to … she just wants to leave the premises ed herself, when the train starts rolling. Jules and Rose Legrand. as fast as possible. Luckily, the bus rides While the train threads through the Henri, the youngest brother was made past the train station, where she gets luscious back country of Provence, a prisoner of war on the very first day the off. Fearing arrest if she goes home to Ruchamah, insensitive to its blissful beau- Germans invaded France. Since nobody collect her things, she takes the train to ty, turns her thoughts towards her Cre- knows he is Jewish, he has not been trans- Bordeaux with the intention of hiding for ator. “My G-d, she murmurs quietly, Your ferred to a concentration camp. Instead, some time at her parents’ home. desires are our orders and Your orders are because he speaks a perfect German, he our desires. Who better than You, knows works on a dairy farm. I received a letter ••• the importance of a piece of Matzo, Pes- from him. The farmer who employs him Meyer and Reizel Kaufmann, Léah’s par- sach for simple Jews like us. The mere sounds like a half decent guy. The oldest Contined on next page

11 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

ents, live in Bordeaux in a nice little pro- name, under the circumstances!) Legrand. ing for the door, the officer said: “And you vincial villa surrounded by a wonderful gar- In the eyes of the Bordelais, they were can start looking for a new job starting den, planted with fruit trees of all kinds. considered a “famille de vieille souche,” an tomorrow!” They lead a peaceful life under a false old respectable French family. They spent identity, as if no war raged around them. the rest of the war without ever having ••• Before the war, they used to live in Metz, been bothered by anyone. In Montpezat, Ruchamah left the train on the German border, where they owned While the Kaufmanns/Legrands were hid- to board a bus that took her to the village, one half of an ancient patrician mansion in ing in Bordeaux, their home in Metz, being where she had no trouble at all finding the the Bertrand de Goth Street. one of the most luxurious buildings in town, clandestine bakery. The place was swarm- Well before the German onslaught, the was requisitioned by the Germans and ing with partisans and no Germans could French police had rounded up all Ger- turned into the home of the local com- be spotted for miles around. man nationals, keeping them in detention mander of the German forces. The way back too went smoothly, with- camps as potential collaborators with One anecdote, relative to this period, out any incidents. the enemy, which is perfectly ironical merits mention, since it is quite unusual. Joe remembers: “I have never had a Pes- when one knows how the French police One evening, according to a neighbor who sach like that one! I don’t think I really got itself behaved only a few months later. Meyer Kaufmann, born in Lemberg, which belonged to Germany at the time (today it is called Lvov and is in Poland) was thus arrested as well. When his son Shalom — who was at the time fulfilling his military duties — came home on a three-day pass and heard the news of his father’s arrest, he ran straight away, still in his uniform, to police head- quarters. When the officer on duty refused to release his father, Shalom got angry at him and ransacked the office, shouting at the officer: “If you don’t release my Daddy right this minute, I’ll tear down the whole building!” He was indeed capable of doing just that. The Kaufmann children (L to R): Charles, Léah, Shalom, Gittel, Ruchamah and Henri. At first, the superintendent looked flab- bergasted, yet he quickly composed him- self, speaking quietly: “Young man, in other happened to be present at the time, the an olive worth of Matzo… but what Matzo! circumstances, I would have you arrested commanding officer noticed what looked “Mayim Ledavid Hamelech” really! (Water too, and court-martialed on top of it! Yet, like a white shoelace sticking out of the for King David: an allusion to a story in Tal- I have myself a son your age, and I would maid’s bag, as she was getting ready to mud Sanhedrin, in which David’s knights like to think that he would do the same for leave. He called her, asking: “What is this?” risk their lives to bring him water, under me. Go home, you have my officer’s prom- “Oh…nothing, really!” The maid answered. the nose of the Philistines.) ise that your father will be back home “Still, insisted the officer, let us have a It is only after the war, that Ruchamah before sundown.” look!” Pulling at the lace, he took out a heard how her stubbornness had saved her And so it was, Meyer came home the tiny pair of spotless white baby shoes. sister’s life. same day. Only people who have never met “Please, he ordered, put these right back So, when my mother, Ruchamah, used Shalom can be surprised when hearing exactly where you found them!” to say every Seder night: “I don’t know why, this story. Outraged, the maid answered back: “You really, but somehow, this is my favorite Now, when the Germans conquered Metz, don’t really think that the kikes who lived Yomtev,” we the kids, knew perfectly well they found in the French police files that here will ever come back, do you? Every- what she meant! n Meyer Kaufmann was arrested on suspicion body knows perfectly well what’s happen- of being a German sympathizer. Nothing ing to them after you ship them to the East!” Roland Teichholz is the third son of the could have pleased them more. So they “Madam, the officer replied in a controlled, late Joe and Ruchamah, the main protag- left him, and his family, alone. even voice, if the Israelites who used to onists of this short story, which is part of a Nevertheless, Meyer was no fool, he knew live here will ever come back is neither my serialization. Born after the war in Belgium, that this situation would not last. So, lock- business, nor yours. But if they do, and Mr. Teichholz now lives in Israel with his ing up the house in Metz, he moved togeth- inasmuch as I am in charge around here, American wife, 15 children and many grand- er with his wife and his little girl, Gittel, to they will find all things exactly as they left children. A translator, freelance writer and Bordeaux, where nobody knew him and them…including these, he added, point- poet, he has published a book (in Hebrew) where they enjoyed a quiet life under the ing at the shoes.” on Jewish thought, and many articles for names of Jules, Rose and Germaine (a funny Then, as the red-faced maid was reach- French and English language magazines.

12 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

EXPLAINING THE SUCCESS OF MOST CHILD SURVIVORS OF THE SHOAH By Jacqueline Silver, EdD

What explains the astounding fact that the war’s traumas. many child survivors of World War II’s Many hidden children had formed strong chaos, trauma, and personal wounds man- attachments with their rescuers and aged to rebuild their lives quickly and suc- faced confusion and loss when surviving cessfully? What accounts for the personal parents returned to claim them. Such and professional success of the majority chronic trauma had a negative impact on of child survivors of the Shoah? These are child survivors into and throughout their such important and confusing questions adult lives. that many decades later social scientists Yet, despite dissimilarities in their back- are still looking for answers. Referring to grounds and in the Shoah’s negative con- the resilience of Holocaust survivors in their sequences, many were able to rebuild their 2009 article, Greene and Graham stated, lives, become devoted spouses, parents, Although reports of severe and grandparents, and contributors to fields such debilitating disorders, such as chron- as medicine, politics, religion, literature, ic anxiety and depression, must art, music, and science (Suedfeld, 2001, p. never be taken lightly, there is also 3). In fact, a large percentage of survivors clinical and empiric evidences that completed their academic or trade educa- many survivors actually are ‘resil- tions, even achieving prominence in vari- ient, creating families, developing ous professions: Roald Hoffman, the 1981 careers, and leading creative and Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry, was productive lives despite the ordeal.’ hidden with his mother in a Polish school However, there is insufficient attic, and François Englert, the 2013 Nobel research about what contributes to Prize laureate for physics, had been a hid- survivors’ ‘posttraumatic healing den child in Belgium. (Gerstl, 2014) and mastery of intrapsychic inju- It is interesting to note that many child ries,’ including their ability to lead survivors have spent their working lives successful lives and contribute to in service professions, and a large number society in the aftermath of trauma. have dedicated their post-Shoah years (Greene & Graham) to Tikkun Olam (healing the world) by The Nazis’ War Against the Jews had a lecturing about the Shoah and working for particularly strong and lasting impact on liberty, equality, and justice. Many wonder children whose mental, emotional, cogni- how such traumatized individuals have tive, moral, social, spiritual development, been able to live not only exemplary and resilience were impacted, and, in many private lives but also lives dedicated to cases, these effects hindered their ability the prevention of the kinds of horror they to form later attachments. Moroz (2005) had endured. stated that the physical result of child- In assessing postwar success of sur- hood trauma even alters basic regulatory vivors, some social scientists have noted processes in the brain. that the ages and stages of development Although there was relief and joy when children first encountered Nazi at war’s end, many child survivors were anti-Semitic policies influenced the chil- again traumatized when they returned to dren’s reactions, both short- and long-term. their prewar homes and found themselves We know that varied conditions marked in hostile environments amid anti-Semit- children in different ways, both during the ic former neighbors and, for some, under war and long term. Soviet conquerors. Often, relatives and The age at which children had their friends had been killed; homes and all lives disrupted is relevant as well as their belongings had been seized. Surviving wartime and postwar circumstances. Where children were frequently without family, they were, which adults were with them, friends, homes, or homelands. For many, and their ages at the end of the war is the long-awaited liberation exacerbated Contined on next page

13 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

critical when considering the long-term good person, that we want you to be ing to note that younger child survivors effects WWII had on children. Children a mensch (2002, p. 67). often married non-Jews and not survi- were likely to respond according to their These last words were typical of many vors, while older children usually married physical, emotional, social, and moral Jewish parents as they were separated from Jewish survivors (Valent, 2002, p. 277). development at the time, or times, of the their children, knowing they would most The effect education had on children trauma they had endured. In Masten’s likely never meet again. Many survivors during the Shoah is clear to see. Howev- view “children are capable of resilience have related the impact these last words er, it is not easy to evaluate the impact it and recovery from disaster if their basic had on them, not only after liberation but had on the total postwar development of needs are met but responses vary by the also through the rest of their lives. Viktor Jewish children. Perhaps it is safe to say developmental level and personality of Frankl, himself a survivor of Auschwitz that receiving ‘schooling’ during their each child as well as the situation of the concentration camp, who lost his entire wartime experiences did give some child child.” (Masten, n.d.). family except for a sister, found that sur- survivors a modicum of help in moving Child survivor accounts show that those vivors, who had been brutalized and lost on and achieving success in their postwar who were provided a sense of safety with everything, could often find the strength lives (Silver, 2015). their biological families during childhood to survive and build new lives if they had Returning to education after the war were capable of responding to nurturing meaning in their lives. For many survivors, certainly played a part in the healing adult care, routine and stability. They could that meaning and will to live and contrib- process. It is fair to state that, generally, talk and express themselves verbally, ute to society had come from their pre- education has been and remains of great through play and drawings, and respond war childhood family recollections. value to Jewish people. Reading memoirs to educational activities. They would also Moskovitz wrote about “the frequen- of Jewish survivors, it is clear that across be more capable of continuing their edu- cy with which survivors returned to the the board, whether families were rich or poor, secular or religious, lived in rural or urban areas, usually some type of educa- tion was stressed for children. While education during the war defi- ...MANY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO LIVE FULLY nitely helped add normalcy and interest to life for some children, wherever they HEALTHY, HAPPY LIVES. THIS FACT IS EASILY UNDER- were, it is hard to know whether this gave impetus to survivors to complete educa- STOOD. WHAT IS LESS UNDERSTANDABLE IS HOW SO tion after the war or if that would have MANY CHILD SURVIVORS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DEAL happened under any circumstances given the value that had been placed on learn- WITH THEIR MEMORIES AND SCARS ENOUGH TO CON- ing prior to the years of trauma. Also, after traumatic events, people do tend STRUCT HAPPY, SUCCESSFUL, AND USEFUL LIVES. to return to normal activities, including education. Since schools offer normaliz- ing experiences, returning to them can be reassuring that life might be normal cation and building healthy adult lives values held by their murdered parents again. This was certainly true for millions after liberation. and destroyed communities to serve as of Jewish children who had survived the Many survivors have spoken or writ- a framework for their lives…” She wrote Shoah’s catastrophic events. ten about their parents’ last goodbyes that the need of child survivors to perpet- My own cousin, who arrived in the Unit- before separation or deportation. Almost uate their parents’ legacies “as an agent of ed States at sixteen after ghettoization, always, the last words terrified parents continuity may be so strong that where incarceration, and finally liberation from told their children was that they loved no remembered legacy exists, it may even Dachau, insisted on completing her high them; they bade them to take care of be fantasized and invented (in Krell, p 17)”. school studies before doing anything else. themselves, to try their best to survive, to Before the trauma began, older children The Nazis had interrupted her education remember that they were Jews and to live had already acquired education, culture, when she was in primary school, had killed accordingly. In his memoir, George Lucius traditions and identity, plus close family her mother and little sister, destroyed Salton recalled his final few minutes with ties and warm memories. They may have the world she had known, and nothing his parents before they were deported. been exposed to and become proficient was going to stop her from finishing her His mother’s last words to him were, in more than one language (Levy, letter, education and moving on; and she did. Goodbye, my dear child. I love 2016). These children had an easier time In fact, she is more typical than different you. I will miss you. I will keep you rebuilding their lives after the war and from most other child survivors. in my heart and think of you every were generally able to complete education, In some instances, survivors have relat- day. Take care of yourself and live. form friendships, and establish families. ed the ways in which wartime education And if it should happen that you Development had been set before the war for did influence their postwar lives. Young grow without us, remember that we older child survivors and this accounted people who received private education want you to grow up and become a for some of their resilience. It is interest- Contined on next page

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Greene, Roberta R. & Graham, Sandra A. (2009). Role of Resilience Among Nazi Holocaust Survivors: A Strength- Based Paradigm for Understanding Survivorship. Family and community health: January-March 2009. Vol. 32, Issue 1. Levy, A. (2006). Letter to the author. Masten, A. (n.d.). Examples of age differences. Retrieved from www.impact.arq.or.doc/file_1164457491.pdf Moroz, K. (2005). The effects of psychological trauma on children and adolescents. Report prepared for the Vermont Agency of Human Services, Department of Health Moskovitz, S. in Krell, R. (2007). Child Holocaust Survivors – memories and reflections. North America & interna- tional. Trafford Publishing. Silver, J. (2016). … and yet they learned : Education of Jewish children in Nazi occupied areas between 1933- 1945. North Charleston, SC. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform Salton, G. L. (2002). The 23rd Psalm. Madison, WI. The University of Wisconsin Press. Suedfeld, P. (Ed.). (2001). Light from the ashes: Children Children study at their desks in a classroom of a postwar OSE home (possibly Fontenay-aux-Roses). who survived the by twenty-six survivors. CREDIT: HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM, COURTESY OF WALTER LIMOT. Ann Arbor, MI: Press. Tedeshi, R.G. & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Post-traumatic growth: Conceptual foundation and empirical evidence. Philadelphia, PA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. while in hiding such as Elbaum (2010), ing hard to rebuild their lives. PTG states Valent, P. (2002). Child survivors of the Holocaust. New Zandman (1995), and Harvitt (Con, 1985) that often after reflection on their trauma York, NY: Brunner-Routledge. related how their education in hiding aided and on themselves during it, the individ- Zandman, F. (1995). Never the last journey: A Fortune their successful return to and completion ual’s self-perception changes to one as a 500 founder and CEO tells the story of his life from of schooling as well as influencing their survivor rather than one as a victim. In victim of war to victor on Wall Street. New York, NY Schocken Books. adult lives. People who survived incarcer- this way, survivors are able to create a ation in Terezin have stated how lessons more empowering future for themselves learned in that Ghetto affected their post- and others. The authors give examples of how Jacqueline Silver is an American-Israeli war choices with some becoming musi- “the frightening and confusing aftermath educator, who taught for over thirty years cians, artists, and, in one case, a cerami- of trauma, where fundamental assump- in the United States, Honduras, and Isra- cist and interior designer. tions are severely challenged, can be fer- el. Throughout her professional career she Some child survivors have recalled tile ground for unexpected outcomes that has been interested in teaching children how even negative wartime experiences can be observed in survivors: post-trau- to believe in themselves and to fulfill their were helpful after the war. One survivor matic growth” (Tedeshi & Calhoun, 2004). potential while learning the values and prin- recalled how being moved from one fos- World War II’s tragedies remain etched ciples of a democratic society. ter home to another in Holland taught her to in the minds and souls of child survivors Jacqueline earned her EdD in 2015. Her quickly adapt to different people and their and many have not been able to live fully dissertation was entitled, “Education of Jewish expectations. Her proficiency at “reading” healthy, happy lives. This fact is easily children in Nazi Occupied Areas Between people helped her become a successful understood. What is less understandable 1933-1945.” She is the mother of two grown therapist later in life. is how so many child survivors have been daughters, grandmother of two boys, and Other possible factors explaining the able to deal with their memories and scars presently lives in Seattle, Washington. successful lives of child survivors have to enough to construct happy, successful, be considered also. Alexander Levy has and useful lives. This article has provided a suggested that survival of one or both few theories about the successes. Perhaps parents often influenced a child’s adjust- there is an indomitable spirit inherent in WE WELCOME ment and ability to regain normal life (Levy). most people that wills them to survive and Of course, the physical and emotional even to overcome some of the most diffi- YOUR ARTICLES state of the parents would have been an cult obstacles imaginable. n important factor. Where surviving adults Submit your life- or were still capable of healthy parenting, References Holocaust-related children received needed love and guid- Con, L. (1985). Seven seventy. Westfield, NJ: Published articles ance. In cases where surviving parents privately. needed help themselves, children had two Elbaum, G. (2010). Neither yesterdays nor tomorrows. Seattle, WA: Self-Published. By e-mail only, please difficult tasks: parenting their traumatized Frankl, V. (1984). Man’s search for meaning. New York, To: [email protected] parents while trying to regain their own NY. Touchstone. young lives. Gerstl, R. (2014). The super achievers – the vastly dis- To the attention of: Tedeschi and Calhoun’s theory of proportionate number of Jewish Nobel Prize winners in Rachelle Goldstein, Editor science & medicine highlights Jewish achievement and post-traumatic-growth offers an import- contributions to human well-being. North Charleston, ant explanation for Shoah survivors work- SC. CreateSpace Independent Publishers.

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FROM HIDDEN CHILD TO YAD VASHEM: THE STORY OF A HIDDEN CHILD WHO BECAME A MEMBER OF THE COMMISSION FOR DESIGNATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS By Jacky Offen

I was born in Belgium in 1939. My par- ents, originally from Poland, had married in 1918 and moved to Berlin in 1922. My father, Moshe Offen, owned a printing shop in Berlin; my mother, Mina, née Dorf, was a Jacky 1943 housewife. While living in Berlin, my parents had five children. (One of them, Heini, died was not allowed to speak German or Yid- of an illness at young age.) dish, our family’s spoken languages, and When the Nazis came to power, in 1933, was forced to learn French. A few months my family left for Antwerp where they had later, it seemed more prudent for me to be family (my mother’s brothers), and in 1934 brought to the Colin family in Fosses-la-Ville, they obtained from the Jewish Agency cer- where I was hidden until the end of the war. tificates to go to Palestine. However, the The Colins were truly special. The father, clerk persuaded my father to give the cer- Ferdinand, had been compelled into forced tificates to six young bachelors because labor at the Atlantic Wall, but he had escaped he maintained that life in Palestine would and returned home, where he too had to be too difficult for a family with four chil- hide from the Germans. The son, Alfonse, dren, the youngest being only 2 years old. had also been ordered to hard labor but The clerk promised to provide new certif- he disobeyed the command and also had icates whenever my father would decide to hide. The mother, Léonie, who had a young to take the family to Palestine. Although at daughter, Madeleine, 10 years old, had decid- the time this proposition seemed logical ed to take in a Jewish child so as to save to my father, it would prove to be disastrous. him from the Nazis. The Nazis invaded Belgium in May1940, The family received me as one of their and in August 1942 my father and my own, and with time I forgot about my 15-year-old sister, Mali, were taken to the old family and identified myself as Jacky transit camp of Malines/Mechelen, and were Colin. Life was not easy, Ferdinand and deported to Auschwitz by transport num- Alfonse had to flee each time the Germans ber 2. They never returned. came to search for them, but they usually My mother decided then that she and got an early warning from the underground the children should go into hiding, and with and ran off. Whenever this happened, the help of her brothers, she contacted the Madeleine took me for a walk to avoid any- resistance. We — my mother and my two one questioning me. sisters, Paula and Esther, my brother, Isi and My brother Isi and my sister Esther were I — were taken to a convent in Namur, St. hidden in the same village by other fami- Jean de Dieu, where each of us received lies, but I recognized them only as friends a different identity to avoid being recog- of my “sister” Madeleine. This displace- nized as one Jewish family. ment had an impact on me after the war I was then two and a half years old, when I returned to my biological mother. residing with my mother and siblings, yet One day we were visited by a woman, not permitted to make contact with them who was introduced to me by members or to call them by their names. Worse, I Contined on next page

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of the underground as my mother. She retirement. While I worked, I completed had come to take me home. Now around my studies at Bar-Ilan University, and I five years old, and well-integrated into the obtained a Master’s degree in history. Colin family, I refused to go. Ferdinand Colin I applied to Yad Vashem to have my promised to bring me home at a later rescuers recognized as “Righteous among time. About a week later, he took me “for a the Nations” and I succeeded in 1994. All ride on his motorbike (with sidecar)” and along, I wondered why the procedures were brought me to my biological mother who taking so long and was told that a lack of lived at the time in Namur. There I found “referents” and the accumulation of files the “friends of Madeleine” who persuaded were the reason. After I retired from my me that they were really my siblings, and professional activities, I was asked, as a they helped to reintegrate me into my real historian, if I would be ready to volunteer family. Madeleine and Frans at the wedding of Jacky and as a referent. Of course, I agreed and after Of course, in the beginning it was not Miry’s daughter in Israel - L to R: Madeleine, Jacky, a short vetting process, I was accepted as a easy. I went to school in Jambes, and Miry and Frans. member of the Commission and am active mainly on files from Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

YAD VASHEM’S COMMISSION FOR THE RIGHTEOUS Since its inception in 1953, one of Yad Vashem’s principal goals was to convey the gratitude of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holo- caust. In 1963, the Remembrance Author- ity embarked upon a worldwide project to grant the title of “Righteous among the Nations” to the few who helped Jews during their history’s darkest time. To this end, Yad Vashem set up a public commission, headed by a Supreme Court Justice, to examine each case and to confer the title. The recognized persons receive a medal and a certificate of honor, and their names are commemorated on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem (the site of Ferdinand and Leonie Colin Yad Vashem). The commission is divided into three sub-commissions, one each in Jerusalem, completed first- and second-grade. In the Haifa and Tel-Aviv. Special cases or prob- meantime, my sister Paula, who during the lems of principles are discussed occasion- war had been hidden in a convent, got ally by a plenary session, which consists married and left home, and my brother Isi of the members of the three commissions. immigrated to Palestine on the “Exodus.” Membership in the commission for the Still hoping for their return, my mother was designation of the “Righteous among the constantly searching for my father and Nations” requires extensive research and her elder daughter, Mali, who had been Jacky and Madeleine, 1945. knowledge on the history and geography deported. of the applicant’s local area. By the end of 1947 we moved back to Since not all members of the commis- Antwerp, and I had to change identity again. I Colin family in uniform and the reaction of sion are acquainted with all languages, was registered in a religious Jewish School, Léonie Colin was astonishing. She turned to one member, nominated as a “referent,” Yesode Hatora, where I had to find new her husband and said proudly: “You see, learns the case and submits it to the oth- friends, and learn new languages — Flem- it’s not a Jewish kid that we saved, it’s a ers in Hebrew. After the presentation, a ish, Yiddish and Hebrew. Sergeant in the Belgian army!” discussion and, eventually, a vote follows. As a member and a counselor in a Zion- After completing my military duties in Then the case is brought to the judge for ist youth organization, Bne Akiva, I knew I Belgium, I moved to Israel, in June 1959. final approval. Once the title is accorded, would make Alyah someday, but first I had I was employed in a number of different a ceremony is organized in which the to complete my military duties in Belgium. jobs, finally making a career as a civil ser- Righteous receives the medal and the While in the Belgian army, I visited the vant for the Israeli administration until my certificate. n

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At school I was taught that the twists to lose. Mother, Uncle André, his wife A TURN IN FORTUNE and turns of private lives lend their sheen Leah, and their three children found a By Daniel Vock to history. This story is certainly about a new hiding place in Mont Dore. “Florent,” turn in fortune. himself a Jew, had prepared the false For decades, I had wanted to meet papers. To their misfortune, Mother and Maud Coudurier, the daughter of Marguerite André return to Aix-les-Bains to fetch the Warren, the woman who saved my life rest of the family, but Leah and her chil- under circumstances still largely unknown dren remain in Mont Dore. The plan was to me. Until now, I have never written about to depart in separate groups at the end what I remember and what people have of December, when, in the early hours of told me about it. My brother and I, four- December 23, the trap brutally closed. teen and ten years old in 1943, were the Informants were rampant at the time. only two remaining witnesses. The others A denunciation was the likely cause for only partially lifted the veil on the secrets the arrival of the Gestapo, accompanied and ambiguities of the tragic night of Decem- by a Frenchman, at the door of the Her- ber 22-23, 1943, and they carried the truth mitage shortly after midnight on the 23rd into their graves. of December. It seems that several dozen Following the death of my father in 1934, Jews were arrested in the Savoy départe- my mother, her father, her two brothers, ment in November and December of 1943 her sisters-in-law and the children shared in contrast to 1,819 arrests in the Nice two dwellings in the Paris region from region, where the team of Alois Bruner was 1935 to 1941. My uncles joined the French active. This further supports my belief army campaign from 1939 to 1940, but was that we were the victims of an individual it bad luck they were not made prisoners? denunciation. (To my knowledge, the Jewish prisoners I will never know the reasons the Nazi of war, nationals of Western countries, who team left six children and two adults behind. had fallen into the hands of the Germans The five others, Aaron (“Henri”), age 44, between 1940 and 1945, were sometimes my mother Marguerite (“Denise”), age 37, victims of discrimination in comparison with Isaac (“André), age 36, Estreia (“Estelle”), Daniel Vock in 1943 their non-Jewish fellow prisoners, but were age 33, and my brother Philippe (“David”), not included in the “final solution.”) age 14, were taken to Chambéry, and then From 1941 to 1943, we were on a jour- detained for a few weeks in Drancy. From ney that was typical of some Jews in France: there they were transported to Auschwitz Aryanization of businesses, flight toward by Convoy No. 66 on January 20, 1944. The the non-occupied zone, first crossing of the four youngest survived. line of demarcation (at Chéry-Lury), pillage My aunt Sonia, then six months pregnant of the deserted household, regrouping in a was allowed to remain free. She told me, town in the southwest (Luchon), renewed “They ordered me to stay put. I feared the flight toward the Italian occupied zone worst. We had to leave within 48 hours.” at the end of 1942, and transformation of Suddenly, we were being treated like lep- the refuge into a mousetrap, after Italy ers: no one, neither Jew nor Gentile, was changed sides in September 1943. That willing to speak to us, and even less will- month, the Nazis and Alois Bruner’s men ing to risk their lives to take in a pregnant took control of the eight départements of woman, an old man, and six children who the southeast, which made up the former had already been recorded on the Ger- Italian occupied zone. mans’ list. These events found our clan (7 adults, Salvation came to us with the appear- 9 children) occupying a farm called the ance of Marguerite Warren, the future moth- Hermitage, 500 meters away from the ther- er of Maud. Marguerite was a friend and mal baths of Aix-les-Bains. The adults were a former employee. It was decided that we aware of the increasing threat. Every day would separate: my Aunt Sonia and her we heard of new arrests of Jews in the dépar- three children and her sister-in-law’s par- tement of Savoie. There was not a minute Contined on next page

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ents would go to meet Leah in Mont Dore, in Auvergne. Marguerite would take my grandfather (69 years old), my sister (12 years old) and me (10 years old) to her mother at Maisons-Laffitte to hide us there. By bringing us to Maisons-Laffitte to hide us with her mother under a false identity, Marguerite was assuming enor- mous and multiple risks. Her father, a British citizen and trainer of race horses (Mai- sons-Laffitte is the French capital for trotters) was being detained in Drancy as an “enemy alien,” which already rendered him suspect. Yet here she was preparing to assist three Jews to cross the line of demarcation in violation of a 1940 German order. This would expose her to heavy sanctions that could lead as far as deportation to Buchenwald. But, aware Dora, Denise, Daniel, and Philippe. Nice, 1943. of this danger, she made the trip from Aix and entered the gates of the Hermitage on December 26. That same day, Margue- lections of my stay of four or five months, refuge in this spa town of 10,000 inhabi- rite, my grandfather, and the parents of which, with time, has split into a series tants. The police superintendent would later Aunt Leah, altogether four adults and six of unrelated snapshots: the senior Mrs. tell Leah that he maintained two records children, set off for the Aix-les-Bains train Warren, the school, a letter from Drancy, bearing the names of the refugees. He station for what would be a significant the evening prayer in my grandfather’s would show the Germans the one where journey. bedroom, walks along the edge of the Seine the names of Jews (all fake) did not appear. After arriving at Lyon-Perrache sta- with Marguerite’s son Guy and with Mrs. At Mont Dore I was a Cub Scout and a tion, the group was split into two. The Warren’s little dog; Thursdays spent in Catholic, going to church devotedly. As Paris-bound sub-group was still waiting Paris with Gaby Ancelot and her nieces, absent-minded then as I am today, I lost there when a thief ran off with one of the at the movies, and the news reports filled my wallet, and Grandfather, ever uncon- suitcases and leapt onto a moving train. with lies and the German propaganda films. ventional and oblivious, returned it to the My grandfather ran after him, screaming Mrs. Warren’s fear when Grandfather, police! for help at the top of his lungs. Margue- eccentric as always, went to read the palms A very special memory marks the Liber- rite, mortified, was able to calm down my of the Germans in the neighboring barracks. ation: when classes were back in session grandfather, and the four of us got onto One image stands out above the oth- for the 1944/45 school year, I believe in the train. ers, a full-scale bombardment of the major October 1944, the instructor announced A few moments later, I lived through rail intersection at Houilles-Carrières on to the class that I had lived under an assumed the longest five minutes of my life: the train an evening in March or April of 1944. name. My fellow students began to snick- stopped at the line of demarcation and From the balcony of the first floor of 23 er and the instructor said, “Don’t make fun a German in uniform, an unteroffizier, I Belleforière Avenue, I saw a glowing sky, of him. He can’t help it if he’s Jewish. It’s believe, stepped into the compartment illuminated by searchlights and glittery, not his fault he had to conceal his identity.” and demanded, “papieren.” Marguerite white flak of antiaircraft firings, and heard We returned to the Paris region around handed him the forged papers. I do not the rumblings of airplanes and the deaf- February 1945. My mother, back from depor- recall any exchange of words. He exam- ening sound of exploding bombs. This is tation, maintained contact with Marguerite, ined them and his eyes met mine for an the only military action I witnessed. whom I saw only rarely after my depar- instant, which felt like an eternity. Then No recollection remains of my depar- ture for the United States in 1951. I went he handed the documents back, turned ture from Maisons-Laffitte. Gaby Robin back to Maisons-Laffitte only once, for the around, and left. We had all escaped accompanied Grandfather, my sister Dora funeral of the senior Mrs. Warren. Mar- deportation and death. I will never know and me to meet my aunts in Mont Dore, guerite remarried and had two daughters, if he knew the papers were forged. Any where I spent the last months of the war Maud, born in 1948, and Rita, born in response from us to the most trivial of in a small apartment with Grandfather, 1954. Mother always had me read the let- questions, such as, “What is your name?” my sister and Gaby. Of the third and last ters from Marguerite, and in later years, or “Where are your parents?” would have crossing of the cursed line of demarca- from Maud, who enjoys corresponding in given us away. And I will always wonder tion there is no story to tell. the finest French letter-writing tradition. if the unteroffizier of Lyon-Perrache chose The Gestapo was not very active in Mont Around 1980, Mother’s health deteriorat- to overlook our forgeries. Dore. There were arrests of Jews in 1943, ed, and she passed away in 1986. I have no memory of my arrival at Mai- but not in 1944, even though there were At that time, I took up the flame. Maud sons-Laffitte, but I have some vivid recol- relatively many of them who had taken Contined on next page

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and I first contacted each other directly particularly impressed by the visit to the day. He responds politely and appears very in 1988, at the time of an exchange of New aircraft-carrier “Intrepid.” interested: “I bought this house two years Year wishes for 1989. “I hope to have my Then the years slipped by. I made prom- ago,” he tells us. “I had tried, without suc- mother for as long as possible, but on the ises to visit Saint Laurent du Pont but did cess, to get some information on the his- day when she goes away, even if logically not give this trip the priority it deserved, tory of the Hermitage. Before that, I had I may no longer hear from you, I want to a fact that weighed heavily on me, and been living in Lyon in a house that had tell you that my own children shall know more so as the years elapsed. In 2000 we served as a hiding place to Jean Moulin. I of the high esteem which I have for you, again exchanged the annual best wishes have been decidedly drawn to the dramas not in the banalities of history books, but for the New Year. In her reply, Maud of the Occupation ever since.” as the living proof of human generosity.” inserted a small phrase, “I don’t regret not I point to the changes: the former chick- In 1989 my wife Susan and I visited knowing you,” which roused me as if from en coop is now a garage; the pig pen (I have Yad Vashem for the first time. While going a deep sleep. I seized the first occasion, a not forgotten the cries of the pig whose down the Way of the Righteous, I thought weekend between a journey in Africa and throat would be cut a few days before about Marguerite and had the idea to a short trip to Great Britain, to announce Christmas 1943) has been destroyed, but nominate her as a “Righteous Among the to Maud and Patrick that I would pay them Nations.” I wrote to the administration and a visit on April 1, which they accepted obtained the necessary forms to apply with manifest joy. for such a request. When I tried to con- Patrick and Maud waited for me at the tact Marguerite, I learned she had left station. The first contact was, without Maisons-Laffitte to move in with Maud at surprise, warm and relaxed. On the way Saint Laurent du Pont (Isère), situated 40 to Saint Laurent, Maud proposed to stop km away from Chambéry and just under for lunch, and then she asked, “Would an hour from Aix-les-Bains by car. you like to see Aix-les-Bains again this I wrote to Marguerite and she replied afternoon?” My heart leapt. I wanted very in a moving letter, declining the honor: much to see the Hermitage and to exor- “When I came to look for you and your cise it from my memory. So, after a pleas- sister Dora and your grandfather at Aix- ant lunch, we were off to Aix-les-Bains. les-Bains to take you to Maisons-Laffitte, I The view of Lac du Bourget, of the did so with all my heart, without thinking Dent du Chat and Mont Revard in profile for a single moment that my act might one on the horizon brought back memories. day become the object of such an honor.” More recollections surged when I stood Three years later, a new occasion pre- in an altered square facing the old ther- sented itself to honor Marguerite, or rath- mal treatment center. I remembered the er, her memory, since she passed away first time I saw German soldiers and Marguerite Warren, undated photograph. at the age of 83 in 1992, “the international women in uniform. The French dubbed day of the woman,” as Maud remarked. the latter “les souris grises” (the gray Our temple was involved in a fundraising mice). Turning right, we found ourselves parts of its foundation serve as a retain- campaign to modernize the building that nose to nose with the Hermitage, on the ing wall for a sodded terrace. After some houses the community center. My wife road with the same name. comments about other neighboring build- and I made a contribution, and asked that The gateway that I last crossed as a ings, Patrick takes a photo of the three of a classroom be dedicated to the memory young boy, suffering from the flu and in us: Maud, the owner of the Hermitage and of Marguerite. Our request having been flight from the Gestapo, is still there. Sud- me. I would like to say more but I am over- granted, I invited Maud to attend the inau- denly, I was seized by an emotion so deep come with emotion. Did all those things guration of the new room. She preferred that it is still difficult to explain its intensi- really happen? Why am I here? We take to send her son David, 17 years old, ty. I visualized once more the scene of the our leave to go to a nearby café, and I go because, she wrote, “Future generations arrest — Mother on her knees: “Sir, I beg into the first phone booth to call my Aunt must never forget the sufferings imposed you, leave my little son, who is sick.” The Leah in Florida, forgetting for a moment upon the Jewish people 50 years ago. This words kept ringing in my ears. What must that she owes her life to the circumstance trip will be engraved into his [David’s] my family have been thinking when they that she was away from this place when memory and will remind him to tell his got into the car, surrounded by the Gesta- the tragedy of December 23 took place. friends, and later, his children, about the po, headed for an unknown destination? Back at Maud’s and Patrick’s home, ceremony that he will have attended.” The main body of the Hermitage build- Maud offers me a charcoal drawing by Thus, David visited us, and he was hon- ing has been redone but its dimensions her own hand: it is the house on Avenue ored by the community that had gathered remain the same. Maud points out a man Belleforière. I accept it wholeheartedly. for the inauguration of the classroom, standing in the courtyard beside a black I shall hang it in a good spot behind my with my family present, almost 50 years vehicle. Curiosity overwhelms my unease, computer, a place where I spend a good to the day after my rescue by Marguerite. and we draw near to a man of about 40 part of each day. We exchange reflec- We visited together, and years of age. I explain who we are and what tions upon that afternoon, rich with emo- this nice, open-minded young man was led us to come visit the Hermitage on that Contined on next page

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tions. I muse over what finally pushed Memory suppresses or distorts whatever me to carry through my planned trip is troublesome, succumbing not just to to Saint-Laurent. Patrick supplies the “political correctness” and outside influenc- answer: “When I saw that Marguerite had es, but also to the unknown boundaries written, ‘I do not regret not knowing you,’ each person has set within themselves. I knew that you would come!” The little This mysterious process strikes me phrase again. I spent an agitated night, when I watch certain programs on televi- as did Maud, from what she told me the sion that feature old people relating sto- next morning. On Sunday, we run some ries involving themselves fifty years after errands in brilliant sunshine, and have the events they experienced. Why, I won- a good family meal before leaving by car der, didn’t they speak up before? Have their for Lyon-Satolas, the airport. I comment stories changed over the years, depend- that when our families’ fates cross, they ing on whether they told them five, ten, or pass through Lyon. “That’s right,” says twenty-five years after the events? Maud, “but if the trip of 1943 had ended One film, more than any other testimo- in Lyon, you and I would not be here to Maud and Daniel in front of L’Hermitage, 2000. ny, perfectly illustrates my sentiments. It talk about it.” is “The Sorrow and the Pity” by Marcel How should I end my story? I have Ophuls. This work, completed in 1969, allowed the incarnation of a ten-year-old to extricate themselves from difficult sit- is superior to other testimonies about boy to speak of this journey, but from the uations better than those who expect the Occupation, because it was realized perspective of a life that is now long, I can the worst. There is also a problem of before time and Memory transformed real- attempt to extract some lessons. I have perception: crimes and atrocities fill the ity. It is a film that grants nothing to myth learned that luck is very important in life. history books and make the front pages of and holds first place in the genre. Here, Napoleon recognized this when he said: “I the newspapers. Generous acts are often the witnesses speak with a freshness and don’t need a good general, I need a lucky anonymous, as are those who give them a spontaneity that is often lacking in later general!” Having been deprived of the sup- unstintingly. documentaries. And so, I wonder, would port and guardianship of my father from In my own case, I have not kept an my story have been different had I written my birth, luck was sometimes lacking in unpleasant memory of the years of occu- it fifty or sixty years earlier? I am sure my life, but fortune has also compensat- pation. I vaguely perceived the dangers it would have, and that raises endless ed me in ways that have allowed me to and risks, but I was always surrounded by questions. n overcome many obstacles. How else to people who were well-disposed towards explain that out of five of my close rela- me. Optimism was never lacking in me, and Born and raised in France, Daniel Vock tives sent to death by Convoy No. 66, with I lived more or less normally the tribula- graduated from Dartmouth College (B.A. 1,139 other men, women and children, tions of a 10-year-old child in occupied 1954) and from Harvard Law School (J.D. four of them, including my mother, were France, despite being deprived of my only 1957, cum laude) and was admitted to the among its 47 survivors in 1945? After the living parent. The contrast with my older New York bar the following year. Following war, my mother’s love and protection were brother, deported to Auschwitz at 14 years three years with the Judge Advocate General so precious to me during my adolescent years. of age, who came back alive but profound- Corps, United States Army, and a similar I believe that the greatest human qual- ly marked, created in me a feeling of guilt period with Shearman & Sterling, New York, ities, generosity and courage in particular, that still haunts me. Daniel embarked on a 26-year career with are taught to us by our parents. When a Lastly, in attempting to reconstruct these Mobil Oil Corporation. His positions included threat is inflicted upon an ethnic or social events of the past, my thoughts keep turn- General Counsel in Tokyo and London (with group, but for the exception, one can no ing to the goddess of Greek mythology Mne- responsibility for the North Sea countries), longer count on one’s friends and relations. mosyne (Memory), mother of the Muses. We Manager of Negotiations, U.S. and Canada, And, the more friends one has, the better remain so much in the trance of this most and finally Assistant General Counsel, Explo- the chances to meet that exception. In elusive and sly of the many forces touch- ration and Producing. occupied France, the France of racist ing the fate of man. Memory is malleable In 1989 he became an independent con- nationalism and denunciation, but also of like modeling clay, and that is why it can- sultant. He has advised governments in Africa self-sacrifice and courage, there are both not be trusted. The cult of this goddess and the Americas, and negotiated mineral white and black marks, but above all, a lot should not be pushed too far. Capricious development agreements and multiparty agree- of gray. and selective, she retains nothing of what ments for corporate clients in some thirty With age, the past becomes an obses- is gray or ordinary — only liking to accen- countries on six continents, with special sion: one fears that one will disappear tuate the contrasts and to present us with emphasis on Africa. He has also consulted without having paid one’s debts. To know unfinished flashes of memories. and lectured for several departments of the Marguerite, Maud and their family has done But what happened to all the rest? How United Nations and for institutions of higher much to build in me a more positive moral else to explain why I remember nothing learning in Europe and Africa. appraisal of the human race. In man there of my third crossing of the line of demar- A father and grandfather, he now lives exists both the best and the worst, but cation in 1944, while I have so many vivid with his wife, Susan, and his golden retriev- those who look for the best will be able memories of my crossings in 1941 and 1943? er Clio in the New York metropolitan area.

21 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE PAIN OF MEMORY THAN TO FORGET By Dasha Rittenberg, née Werdygier

I dedicate my story of survival to the blessed memory of my family members who were killed during the Holocaust: my parents, Telca and Mosze Werdygier; my brothers and their wives, Srul Shmil and Rifka; Leibl Arie and Chana, and their children, Tzipi, Leah, Yossl, Feigele, Glikele, and Sarahleh; and my brother Shlomo and his wife, Regina, and their child, Yossi; and to my youngest sister, Yochaved. They were all murdered in Auschwitz. My sister Chana and I were the only survivors. Chana died two years ago.

In My Parents’ Home punishment would be, and we also knew I was born in 1928 in Bendzin, Poland, from other towns that anyone taken to a into a tightly knit, happy family consisting work brigade was never seen again. The cry- of parents, three sons and three daugh- ing and mourning in every Jewish home ters, of whom I was the middle daughter. that evening is indescribable. Our house It was a real Jewish home where, in the was no exception. end, peace always prevailed. Because of the blackout rules, we could Our Sages tell us that the greatest gift not have any light, and our home was G-d gave to the Jewish people is the Shabbos. dark. My father was pacing back and forth My father was a great Chasid and scholar, like a shadow. From time to time he would and in my parents’ home the Shabbos was stop by the window, lift his arms, as if to a major event. We all took that gift very the sky, and moan deeply. My three older seriously, literally to the last letter of brothers stood in a corner and spoke among observance. Dasha at her workplace. themselves quietly. Every so often they In my parents’ home, preparation for raised their voices, and my sisters and I, Shabbos started as soon as the previous sitting in the next room, heard words that Shabbos was over. For us, Friday was like going to Friday night services dressed we could not quite understand, words like Erev Yom Kippur. There was the joy and in their best clothes. My mother, at last, “let’s fight,” “fight against being led to the fear to be ready for that moment when was able to relax after a week of toil and slaughter,” and other phrases which I was Shabbos would begin. labor, and we three girls set the Shabbos too young to grasp. On Fridays, my three brothers would table, praying the evening service, and My mother, sitting in the corner of the come home earlier from their place of learn- waiting for the King and the Princes to room, was deep in her own thoughts. Every ing to prepare themselves. My job, among come home. And so began the greatest of now and then she would look at either my others, was to shine their shoes until I all blessings to the Jewish people. father or my brothers and would quietly could see my face in them. My brothers cry within herself. used to tell me I was the best polisher. The End of Our Idyllic Life My two sisters and I sat stunned. We Of course, the kitchen was the busiest Life as we knew it came crashing down understood that a terrible misfortune had place in the house — with cooking and on us in 1939 when Hitler’s army invaded befallen our family even though we could baking, scrubbing the floor, washing hair, Poland. Our family, now including my mar- not absorb all of its implications. Tears boiling water, and ironing. There was so ried brothers’ spouses and their children, were choking us but we controlled our- much anticipation, it could have been were all forced to spend the next two and selves. In this way, we sat for many hours seen as a celebration to receive a bride. a half years in the ghetto of Bendzin. until sleep finally overcame us. I remember that I was allowed to eat When I was thirteen years old, in 1942, At about one o’clock in the morning, a the cakes that had been baked just for even this came to an end. I remember viv- terrible banging on the door awakened us. Shabbos. idly a cold winter evening that year, with We surmised that the Gestapo had come, In our home, there was an enormous biting frost outside and not that much more and we three sisters hugged one another distinction between weekdays and the warmth inside. The Gestapo had already closely. On her way to open the door, Sabbath. My entire way of thinking was confiscated warm clothing from all Jewish my mother yelled for us to hide. My two transformed at noon each Friday, when, at homes and sent it to Germany for their sisters climbed into a big box of clothes that hour, a white damask tablecloth was women and children. Wood or coal for heat- and covered themselves with the clothes. placed on the table, along with a silver ing was unobtainable. So, we had nothing I, however, did not hide. I was curious to tray and candle sticks that had been used to heat our home and insufficient clothing know what these brutes wanted so late at by my grandparents. Thus, the spirit of to warm our bodies. night. I did not have to wait very long to holiness seeped into our home and our On that day, placards had been posted find out. hearts. all over town ordering all Jewish men to They had come for my twenty-year-old Shabbos began, as in most Jewish homes, register for work brigades the next morn- sister, Chana. One of the Gestapo men took with the lighting of the candles, with my ing. Anyone failing to register would be out a list and yelled at me, “Where are dear father, together with my brothers, severely punished. We all knew what that Contined on next page

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your two sisters?” Of course, I said I did “be brave,” “be martyred,” and “the One had never even washed a handkerchief not know. Pushing my mother aside, they Who watches over Israel” have followed for myself. I lost my name and acquired a searched the house for them. Luckily, it me wherever I have gone. My father died number, 22944. did not occur to them to look in the box a martyr’s death, but his words are with A respite from my tragic existence is of old clothes. After they had ransacked me yet. the love and devotion that five girls and the house, they shouted at me to “Come I felt for one another. Whenever we had with us.” My mother then arose like a It is difficult for me to relate what hap- a chance, we were together. We tried to giant between the Gestapo and myself and pened to me after I left my dear home — a help each other, and keep up our spirits. screamed out, “She will not go with you. real Jewish home where every Sabbath If one of us was sick, we did her work Take me in her place.” was dedicated to G-d and to home, where and helped her with whatever we could. When he met such firm opposition from my father and brothers sang “Shalom Together, we also dreamed of a time when my mother, the leader of the group seemed Aleichem,” and we girls helped with the our suffering would end, and we would be confused and he explained to her that he other “Zmiros” (Sabbath songs), and where free. This friendship made our unbearable had an order to gather all the Jewish girls every holiday was welcomed with joy. life more tolerable. of working age so they could be sent away Instead, a volcano of hate erupted in our It is hard for me to describe the two and to work. My mother answered him that midst and gradually destroyed us, taking a half years I spent in that gloomy camp she could carry out the work better than I, me one day, another the next. I wondered where everything had to be carried out a thirteen-year-old, could. Then the leader if we could ever be united again, if our under a strict disciplinarian. The outside shoved my mother aside, grabbed my broken Jewish home would ever become world was mostly closed to us. Each day hand and pulled me after him. My mother whole again. was infinite. We wondered how long it fainted from the blow she had received, could last. Still, our young minds imagined and I, half asleep, with glaring eyes and that someday soon we would be reunited chattering teeth, witnessed this man’s with our dear ones, and be free to enjoy brutality against my mother. Everything in the world in freedom. The cruel reality me cried out to pounce upon the beast of our lives depressed us and robbed us and crush him like a spider, but his firm of our dreams and destroyed our spirits grip upon my hand made me realize my until we lost all semblance of normal human helplessness. All I could express was my beings. All we girls could feel was the contempt. One phrase tore itself out of my existing moment. That was our past and throat, “Why did you strike my mother?” our future. The bloody hand of the guard closed my One girl, Rifka, was a Hungarian from mouth. a religious home. I bonded with her. She My father looked as if he’d been strick- was desperate not to do hard labor on en. Tears were streaming from his eyes. It Shabbos. I also wanted to lead an obser- was the first time in my life that I had ever vant life and tried with all my will to do seen my father cry. As we were going out of so in the camp. I didn’t let our oppressors Left to right: The three young sisters, Yochaved, the house, the leader of the Gestapo thugs Chana and Dasha. touch my soul. called to my father that he should not Above all, truly above all, I did not make forget to come early in the morning with this decision alone. Nor could I have done his sons to register for work. This seemed I will not relate the trials and tribula- this alone. My story is also the story of to rouse my father from his shock. He tions of being separated from my family, others, observant and not, who dedicated jumped up, ran to the bookcase, grabbed most of whom were killed in Auschwitz, and themselves to Jewish Laws. a little ‘Siddur,’ and taking off his coat, he of traveling on foot or in carts from one And there was another girl, who spoke ran after me on the stairs. He put the coat camp to another. French but knew no German or Polish. Her over me, kissed me, and said to me, “Put it The crematoria at Auschwitz were not bunk was next to mine; she was a poet. on my child. You shouldn’t catch cold, G-d fast enough to incinerate all of us Jews, so She wrote lines of hope. She was the only forbid. In the pocket, you will find a little some of us were dispersed to be worked one who could read French. In the village, Siddur. Let it guard you against all evil.” to death in other camps. I was first sent to French POWs would sometimes throw Walking after me on the stairs, he spoke a “Durchgaangslager” in Sosnowiec, then rocks, with notes attached, to encourage to me with a strange voice. “Remember my to Blechammer, a horrific concentration us. We would hide the notes until the child, that you are a Jewish daughter and camp for men, (women were there only night and then gather around to hear as a Jew you may have to suffer. Bear it in transit). Finally, I arrived at Schatzlar, a them read. The notes would have news: bravely. Fight to uphold the Jewish tra- concentration camp in a little town in the the Germans were losing the war. There dition. If necessary, die a martyr’s death. Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. I remained is no calculating how such news renewed The One Who watches over Israel should there, working in a textile mill, along with my spirits to celebrate Shabbos. save you from evil.” 120 other Jewish girls of different ages. Our method of supporting one another My father’s words have remained with We worked fourteen hours a day on sounds simple, but in a place where one me always. Long after I had left my par- a hungry stomach, washing tremendous day was made to bleed into another without ents’ home, the words “Jewish daughter,” floors or soldiers’ laundry. Until then, I Contined on next page

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difference, where routines were repeated when such a choice must be made again, We slept in our clothing and someone endlessly, it was not simple. It’s impossi- Jews will have an example to follow. watched at the window. Near dawn on ble to remember every detail. There were I mention this not only to affirm that May 6th, the guards of the camp forced certain repetitions that helped us mark Judaism is a religion of laws and obser- us out of the bunks into a nearby forest the time. For example, on Saturdays, the vance, but also to affirm that Judaism is a where they lined us up. The woods were toilets were to be cleaned in the camp; on Family, one’s own and others’. As I look alive with the sounds of horses and shout- Sundays, we would be sent to clean the back, it was my mother who was concerned ing men. Through the trees, we could Germans’ barracks and houses. with my observance, my father only want- glimpse German soldiers on horseback We counted the days to Shabbos. And ed me to survive and come home. If bonds racing furiously in all directions. Smoke we counted, or tried to count, the days of loyalty and of steadfast faith are not poured into the forest and we thought we to the holidays. On Passover, we would broken, this Jewish family survives. would all be burned to death. (Later we trade bread for potatoes, so as not to eat found out that the director of the factory leavened bread. Once on Yom Kippur we in which we had labored, knowing that the fasted on the wrong day, so we created end was near, had shot his wife, his two another fast day. But we few girls who small children, set his villa in flames, and tried to be observant were not alone. then shot himself. I remember how pretty The older girls, twenty and above, were his wife was and how blond and Aryan- not observant, but they helped us. They looking the children were.) would trade workdays with us (at great We stood in line in the forest, not know- risk to themselves). They would work ing how the day would end. We did not on Saturdays so that we could work on know that the Russians were encircling Sundays. And if it were unavoidable, if the village and that this was the reason we were found out or forced to work, we the SS guards were panicking. would work the minimum of what was Finally, the SS guards decided to herd demanded. us all back into the bunks. We were all shiv- We girls in Schatzler wanted the world ering and praying. I still had my Siddur to know there were such people. Not I and read a lot of Psalms. We kept hearing alone, but I am the one to write this. Others Dasha with her son, Moshe. shots but we didn’t know if it would be never forgot their responsibility to retain our end or theirs. their Jewish identity. This effort took place Some days before our liberation, we in many other camps. The Beginning of the End had felt its coming. As it grew nearer, our Why did I do it? The obvious answer During the last six months, we began fear grew greater. Day by day, camp disci- is that observance was a part of who I to notice certain changes in the camp. pline became stricter. The nervousness of was, and to preserve my identity I had no The SS guards started putting us on long the guards became very noticeable. Their choice. But I often wonder, would I have marches from our camp to another camp shouts, and very often blows, became a taken the risks and made the sacrifices called Bernsdorf, which was several kilo- common occurrence. Wild rumors trav- if, for a moment, I had known I no longer meters away. This was in the winter of 1944 elled throughout the camp that some girls had my parents or my brothers and sister, and the weather in the mountains of the who showed a smile disappeared and if I had known the truth, that they had all Sudetenland was very severe. I remember were not seen again. We were not allowed been murdered, that I would not be reunit- marching in deep snow, wearing wooden to show we understood our liberation was ed with them and be able to assure them shoes that made it impossible to walk near. Still, depression hung over us: we that I had not been touched — that I had without tripping and falling. If any prison- were on the threshold of liberation, yet we remained a Jew and that they would be ers fell out of line, the SS dogs attacked wondered if we would live long enough to proud of me, proud to say this child is my viciously. One of the dogs lunged at me and see that day or would we also be among child, who kept the wishes of her mother ripped at my foot. I do not remember the the disappeared. and her father. At the end of the war there pain of the actual bite. What I do remem- One day, at dawn, when we got up for was no mother, no father, no brothers. ber is the beautiful white snow turning red line-up as usual to get our daily work I tell this story not as an act of arro- as I hurried forward, trying not to be left assignments, we found that the guards had gance or pride. On the contrary, my choice behind. disappeared. The firing of artillery sound- to practice my religion against all odds That March brought a change in the ed very close, a sign that our liberators was made for many reasons: none was weather and a marked change in the camp’s were close by. Now, we were restricted to particularly noble or individually heroic, atmosphere. The SS, once so imperious, our barracks, and we remained full of fear. not at all. Maybe my reasons were the began behaving nervously. The French POWs’ The day of liberation was Tuesday, May very opposite of such melodrama. But the notes, thrown over the fence, spread the 8, 1945. Toward evening we heard tanks choice was made and I want my fellow word that the war would soon be over. driving into the camp’s valley. Finally, we survivors and especially those who sur- One of the notes also passed on the news knew these were not Germans but our vive us to know something about how and that President Roosevelt had died. liberators. why that choice was made and, if when, For almost two weeks, our “elders” Suddenly the gate opened and a few G-d forbid, there should ever come a time assigned a night watch in each bunk. Contined on next page

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tired looking Russian soldiers, with dust young soldiers. He told us we were free One day, while taking a stroll, I passed an and dirt all over their faces, entered. With to go into the village the next day and old monastery. The gates were wide open much energy, they screamed, “My vas see that the SS women had their heads and I glimpsed inside. It was a quiet and vysvobodil.” “We are here to liberate you!” shaved and they were put in open win- serene island of tranquility. At that very We were free to go wherever we wanted. dows where they could be spit upon and moment a thought struck me, that the But now that freedom had come, we were beaten before they were taken away. Even best thing for me would be to become a stunned. Where should we go? One of the though we had suffered a lot from their nun. It would have been a life away from Russian officers identified himself as a sadistic behavior, we didn’t go there to the cruel world, a solitude I craved for, Jewish partisan (an underground fighter) seek revenge. and peace for the rest of my existence. from Poland. He understood our dilemma Slowly the bitterness of liberation fell However, soon after I was moved from the and spoke to us in Yiddish. He told us upon us. In spite of the words of the Russian DP camp and onto the road that took me we were free, that the enemy had been officer, we all decided to go back to our to Palestine and then to the USA. beaten, and that we could travel wherev- hometowns. Perhaps we would be the My sister and I joined an underground er we wanted to. Then he asked us to sit lucky ones and meet a relative or a friend. movement that took people illegally to down; he had something to tell us. We sat Palestine and, after wandering through many around him, and in a firm voice he said: Right after the war, survivors ran from countries — Germany, Czechoslovakia, one local concentration camp to another, Austria, and Italy — we finally boarded a “Dear sisters, your liberation has looking for family members. Out of my ship, the Dov Hos, that sailed towards the come. Each one of you surely plans whole family, I found just my older sister, shores of Palestine. But the British caught now to go back home to be reunited Chana, who had been in a nearby camp. us, and sent us back to Italy. A few weeks with your parents and brothers and We fell into each other’s arms and remained later, after a 72-hour fast, we were allowed sisters. Well, I have just come from together for about another week. Then we to board the Eliahu Golomb, this time as Poland. I also went to look for my began preparation for a different journey. legal passengers. dear ones. Instead, I found ruin and After two and a half years it was time to It is difficult to describe the reception desolation. The cities are destroyed. say goodbye to the other girls. We hoped the Yishuv gave us. An ambulance was The Jewish population has been that what the Russian officer had told us waiting to take me to Rambam Hospital. annihilated. No Jewish family can be was not true. Maybe some of our loved (During the voyage, I had caught diphtheria, found. Polish Jewry does not exist ones would be waiting for us. a contagious disease.) We started life anew anymore. I have wandered in doz- The village had a train station and sol- in our land, a life that gave us back human ens of Jewish towns and cities and diers were being transported east. They dignity and Jewish worthiness. This life have found nothing but desolation. took Chana and me with them. We traveled slowly healed our wounds, though the No doubt your dear ones met the in open cattle trains for four weeks, with no scars have remained with us always. I felt same fate. The only thing to do now shelter from the rain and dirt. We didn’t I had come back home — not the home of is to start life anew and the only know where the trains were going; we just graves but the home of Jewish life and its place you can do it is in the Land of stayed on. At last, we reached our home- upbuilding — the home my parents had Israel. Don’t depend upon the justice town, Bendzin. envisioned for themselves, for their chil- of the world. After such destruction of No one was waiting there; they had all dren and for their children’s children. n our people, they will feed you with perished — my parents, my three broth- high-sounding phrases. But nothing ers and their families, and my sister — that Dasha Rittenberg is a self-taught, very can compensate us for the sacrifices is how the liberation from tyranny began. warm and personable woman with many we made in this war. Take fate into When Chana and I arrived, we headed friends in all walks of life. She is definitely your own hands. Join underground for our apartment, where we had lived young in spirit, wise in life, and she has a movements with the purpose of before going to the ghetto. The present great sense of humor. She has one son, Moshe, going to Palestine and start to build tenant didn’t allow us to enter, even to who lives in Jerusalem with his wife, nine a new life.” take a mere look. children, and grandchildren. He is a very obser- Due to severe malnutrition during all vant Jew and a Talmudic scholar. Dasha is The words of the Jewish Russian offi- those war years, I became gravely ill. My a proud great-grandmother who visits her cer were like a thunderclap upon us. The body was covered with boils and I required family in Israel twice a year. moment when we should have celebrated a lot of medical care. When I began to She has held the same job in customer and danced for joy had turned to mourn- recover, I would run to the train station service for twenty-five years, working four days ing. We cried bitterly on one another’s every day, forever looking, forever wait- a week. During her free time Dasha likes to shoulders, calling to our mothers and ing … maybe they would come back on read and is passionate about ballet and clas- fathers, when we realized that liberation this train … or maybe on the next one … sical music. She used to take ballet classes was not the end of our suffering. It was maybe tomorrow. Eventually, I realized that and had a natural talent for dance. She finds only the start of facing the reality of the nobody would be coming back … nobody! peace and relaxation in nature, lakes, and tragedies and the loneliness. After many struggles and trepidations, mountains. Dasha is always seeking truth I remember that the Jewish officer I wound up in a DP camp in Innsbruck, a and justice. Her life’s motto is “Do not do stayed up all night with us to make sure beautiful Austrian town. I was still sick unto others what you do not want them to that no harm would be done to us by the and depleted, physically and emotionally. do to you.” (Hillel).

25 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

DANCING AFRAID By Vera Meisels

Last June, for my 80th birthday, my daughter, Yael, and her children Naomi, age14, Assaf, age 10, and my son, Ofer, and his children, Roy, age 23, and Maya, age 12, held a celebration at Hotel Paris-Prague. The seven of us had been very interested in visiting my past in the Terezin Ghetto. I ordered a private tour with Pavel Batel, a researcher and expert in the history of this ghetto. Thanks to Pavel, we had an extraordinary tour. He took us to my Kinder Heim L 410, where, for the first time since the end of the war, I was able to touch the original gate that I had not found in my previous visits. But the most exciting moment came when Pavel brought the Mayor of the city to open the hall-room, where I had danced during the performance of the Fireflies in March 1945. When we entered the hall, I became an eight-year-old child again! My grandchildren danced with me, and this time, I was in heaven.

There’s no doubt the period I spent in we had been liberated in 1945 from the the Terezin Ghetto provided the basis of Nazi yoke. Nava had been the director of my future development. One might say it the ghetto performances of Fireflies. I only shaped me. I learned to be independent recently learned that the play had been and responsible, and I was given the staged before my time in the ghetto and chance to appear onstage in the children’s that I had replaced a girl who had been play “Fireflies.” What’s more, in the chil- sent to Auschwitz, in October 1944, in one dren’s quarters I received an education in of the last transports. I had arrived that hygiene, respect and manners. The tutors year on the 23rd of December. looked after us in the room where I was I have forgotten many things, but I given a place on a three-tiered bunk. I was remembered my director! I approached her eight years old. and told her I was one of her performers. It was only later, in Israel, that Willy, who She was so happy! Both of us were happy! had been my tutor over there, told me It turned out that I was one of the first of how much effort he had put into persuad- her girls that she had met after the war. ing my mother to place my twelve-year- The intellectuals concentrated in Terez- old sister and me in his care. That is how in ghetto were among Europe’s finest. Thanks we came to be in Children’s House L410. to the theater people and the composer Karel It had been our good fortune to have been Svenk, I was chosen to appear in the ‘musi- placed in this structured setting that kept cal,’ Fireflies, which was based on the us busy and attended to our education. book by Jan Karafiat. Nava read extracts I had met Nava Shanova at Theresien- from the book during the play. The pro- stadt House at one of the annual meetings duction included dancing and singing by held on the first Saturday in May, the day Contined on next page

26 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

characters such as fireflies and a ladybird. mistic, we didn’t know exactly when the their sockets as I watched the audience I was the ladybird. The many rehearsals war would end. The play was performed a rising and walking out of the hall. Nava and kept us busy and filled with the joy of number of times in the months before the some others came over with hugs and creativity. We knew it was actually going Liberation. The tune is delightful and the kisses, to praise, caress and encourage to happen when we were measured for composer’s name appeared on the original us. Everything seemed as before. It took our costumes. These are childhood expe- announcement. An entire chapter should me a long time to calm down. Until that riences one does not forget. be devoted to the great Karel Svenk, but moment, I had been poisoned for three Everything I had missed by force of it is beyond the scope of this writing. My years with the pessimism that character- circumstances over the two preceding excitement during rehearsals and before izes me to this day. By that time, I had years, when my mind had been blocked, the performance on the 20th of March, already heard it said that I was ‘going to was able to emerge and be fulfilled in the 1945 gave me butterflies in my stomach the slaughter.’ Standing in line at the Selec- children’s house, where a world full of cul- and a dreamlike floating sensation. tion, I had already heard that children, ture opened before me. I had thirsted for We performed in a big hall, the children old people and mothers with small chil- attention and knowledge, and all I had to on the brightly lit stage and the large dren were destined for Auschwitz — for do was to absorb and process. Not only audience in darkness. There was much the gas chambers. had my mind been blocked, but all that enthusiasm and, from the tremendous Thus equipped, I had seen the end of the had been expected of me before I arrived applause, I assume it was an outstanding performance as a trap laid for me. The at the ghetto was silence — I had kept the performance. Like professionals, we came pessimism, the tension of every moment’s questions choked in my heart. In any case, no onstage again and again to take our bows. potential for disaster, took root in me, one had answers, and so I didn’t persist. Then the lights came on, and what did I never to leave. Memories and associations have see? The front rows were filled with German But I must not forget — the fireflies, diverted me from the subject of my sing- soldiers and officers in black uniforms, even if only by their weak light, illuminat- ing and dancing role on the stage of the with white skulls on the officers’ caps. ed a path for me, for us, and gave us many Terezin ghetto. I can vividly remember Here it comes! End of the performance. moments of hope and happiness. The my part as Ladybird. On my back, I had They’ve come to take us. After all, children month of May really did come, the proph- a red canvas with black dots and trans- aren’t productive. This was the end of us — ecy was fulfilled and on its eighth day the parent wings. On my head, I wore a tight we were going to die. This is what I had learned gates of the ghetto opened on freedom. black hat with antennae. I think I was at the Selection. It was all a ruse! I was Spring! Spring in the lives of the very barefoot. I had to dance across the stage, trembling all over. There were no parents to few children who survived. n waving my hands up and down to the lean on. It was as if they had invested in us rhythm of the song that, freely translated for their own amusement. Now it was over. Vera Meisels, writer, poet and sculptor, from the Czech language, went like this: Finished! I didn’t even get a chance to say was born in Czechoslovakia on June 11, goodbye to my mother and sister. How cold 1936. At the age of eight, she was taken to In the springtime it was. Maybe it was just the fear. the Theresienstadt –Terezin Ghetto. In 1949 May will come again I looked around to see how they would she immigrated to Israel. Vera Studied sculp- flowers will bloom encircle us and herd us to destruction. I ture, and has a BA from the Avni Institute. and meadows green again. knew that a German in a black uniform She lives in Tel-Aviv. Vera gives testimonies meant disaster. A skull meant death! and lecturers about her childhood during the Although the words are rather opti- My eyes were almost bursting out of Holocaust to the college students.

World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust & Descendants 2017 Conference The 29th Annual World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors and Descendants will be at the Dan Registration Hotel on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, November 5-8, 2017. Once again, the WFJCSHD will team with GSI (Generations of the Shoah International) and KTA (Kindertransport Association) as well as the Israeli group YESH (Children and Orphan Holocaust Survivors in Israel).

This conference will include trips to the Knesset, Yad Vashem, and an optional opportunity to have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah at the Kotel. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony will take place on Wednesday, November 8, at 11 AM, after the close of the conference. It is only open to the first 100 people who register.

For further information, contact [email protected], or check the following website: http:// www.holocaustchild.org.

27 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ADL HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER By Eva Fogelman, PhD

Address delivered on May 5, 2016, Anti-Defamation League, New York.

Twenty-five years! Thank G-d we are Are we ghettoizing ourselves by not being ble because they were not in a ghetto or still here! It is heartwarming to be with part of the larger communal commemora- concentration camp for 18 months. you today, at the twenty-fifth anniver- tion? In order to respond to these ques- The neglect that most of these children sary of the Hidden Child Foundation at tions some background is in order. experienced when they were liberated the Anti-Defamation League, to mourn Most of the world did not view chil- resulted in complicated consequences to the destruction of European Jewry. The dren as being survivors of the Holocaust. their identity formation and their ability only thing that would make today more The image that most have is that of Jews to heal. The validation from others of pain special would be if my mother of blessed spilling out of the cattle cars, selected and suffering enhances the potential for memory were here. Her family fled Poland to go either “left or right,” and the chil- restoring the self. In order to heal, indi- by horse and buggy and by foot and they dren — all of the children — selected for viduals undergo the process of mourning, spent the war years homeless, hungry and death. The world expected that Jewish which ultimately results in the channeling cold in the northern reaches of Russia. Like children would not be among the wretch- of feelings into a search for meaning in many of you, she didn’t believe herself to ed, skeletal, survivors. one’s life. For child survivors, this nec- be a survivor, but of course, she was. It is estimated that only six to seven essary step came very late; nonetheless, The Hidden Child Foundation, and the percent of the Jewish children of Europe even at this late date, seventy-one years ADL, have truly special personal connec- lived through the Holocaust and experienced after the war, such recognition of suffer- tions for me. First, the ADL was my home liberation. It is impossible to calculate how ing is making a difference in waning years. away from home for several years when I many survived. Some are still hidden. Older survivors wrongly believed that founded and directed the Jewish Founda- Although Jewish children had witnessed those who were young during the German tion for Christian Rescuers. When Rabbi everything and lost so much before they occupation did not remember what hap- Harold Schulweis — whose vision the foun- matured, this cohort of Holocaust survivors pened to them. But the children, even if dation was — and I searched for a home — the children who survived — was large- they had not yet learned to speak, remem- for our foundation, we knocked on doors ly ignored by their surrounding societies. ber very well being forced out of their hous- of several Jewish organizations. Abe Fox- Despite the huge focus on Anne Frank es into ghettos, or escaping in the middle man not only gave us an office but he pro- — the quintessential hidden child of the of the night to hide with neighbors or vided us with seed money, which mush- Holocaust — and her diary, the world total strangers. They remember changing roomed into being able to support 1,600 did not seem to realize that there were their names and their family narratives rescuers in 26 different countries. When children and teenagers who, improbably, to take on new identities, or living with filmmaker and activist Miriam Abramowicz’s survived genocide. They remained anon- other children in orphanages, convents, vision to hold a gathering of hidden children ymous in the culture, and fell under the or Christian boarding schools; and there in New York got too big for us at the Kes- radar of the Jewish community as well. are those who remember deportations. tenberg International Study of Organized Scholars and social workers did not When adult survivors got together with Persecution of Children, I once again pay much attention to child survivors either. other adult survivors, the child survivors, approached Abe to afford us access to Orphaned child survivors were placed in sitting at the same table or eavesdrop- ADL’s conference personnel. He eagerly institutions. What was worse than neglect ping on the conversation about the war, agreed. One thousand six hundred hid- was the continued persecution of the German were excluded. den children worldwide showed up on reparation authorities who rejected appli- In 1979, when the Holocaust survivor that Memorial Day, 1991. cations of child survivors because young- movement came alive in the United States, I have been asked to address why, sters did not remember the date they were it was a child survivor, Yaffa Eliach, a his- with so many commemorations in the deported to a ghetto or other details. tory professor at College (along twenty-first century, do Holocaust child Therefore, if they did not remember, they with Stella Wieseltier) who started inter- survivors, and hidden children in particular, can’t possibly be affected. Those who were viewing others like herself. Two years need their own commemoration? Do we hidden clandestinely or openly with false later, in 1981, Judith and Milton Kesten- gain anything by having this subgroup? identifications or on the run were ineligi- Contined on next page

28 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

berg started their own interviews under years of being told they were too young a moment of realization that loved ones the auspices of the International Study to remember, child survivors admit there are indeed dead. poignantly of Organized Persecution of Children, a is what the psychologists would call some describes his arrival at a splendid cha- project of Child Development Research, narcissistic gratification in telling their teau in Ecouis, France, with other children which today is part of the Oral History stories their own way, and this has hap- from Buchenwald. Representatives of the Division of the Avraham Harman Insti- pened more often in recent years. As the OSE, a children’s service agency, gave tute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew older survivors become incapacitated and them tefillin, religious books, pencils and University and the National Archives of curtail public appearances, child survivors paper. Said Wiesel, “We held our first Minha Israel, with more than 1,500 interviews are sought out and asked to share their (afternoon service), and we all said Kad- worldwide. For the first time, empathetic stories with the world. dish together. Though we knew it well listeners provided opportunities to help In the late 1970s, Myriam Abramowicz enough, that collective Kaddish reminded child survivors do the inner work of inte- and Esther Hoffenberg directed and pro- us that we were all orphans.” gration. This integration starts the process duced As If It Were Yesterday, a film about For all survivors of the Holocaust, mourn- of incorporating the past into one’s iden- hidden children in Belgium. After showing ing is complex because of multiple deaths tity and provides ways to mourn. This her film worldwide and meeting many hid- and the chaotic, life-altering circumstanc- validation of pain, suffering, loss, and den children, Abramowicz’s mother said, es surrounding the experience. Adult sur- adaptation makes child survivors feel “Why don’t you bring all the hidden chil- vivors have their own, specific mourning understood, often for the first time. dren to my home and I’ll prepare a din- process, which is often somewhat different Most of the child survivors who were ner for them?” The living room was too than that of child survivors. Every child interviewed early on were ghetto and con- small for the hundreds that Myriam had survivor has to mourn a multitude of rela- centration camp survivors. Many children shared her film with worldwide, and she tives he or she knew and did not know, or who were hidden did not consider them- continued her mother’s vision of bring- knew and did not remember, in addition to selves survivors. It is as if there was an ing hidden child survivors together. She foster parents and foster siblings, whom unwritten hierarchy of suffering. Hidden approached Jean Bloch-Rosensaft and me they may or may not have loved but lost, children had to be convinced that they to turn her vision into a reality. With the as well as the loss of priests, nuns and too are Holocaust survivors and that help of Judith and Milton Kestenberg of Christian identity that saved them and their persecution and losses are not to be Child Development Research, we started sustained them, and which they still felt undermined. advertising the gathering of hidden chil- very loyal to. Permit me to do a bit of history. dren, and they began to meet weekly. The Hidden Child Foundation in New At the World Gathering of Holocaust New hidden children joined and report- York receives numerous telephone calls Survivors in Jerusalem in 1981, the sec- ers started to write about this upcoming that ask for help in the search for lost fam- ond generation organized a day for the event in New York Magazine, Newsweek, ily members. For example, a man named purpose of gathering and announcing a and local papers. Wladsky called because, as a doctor, he’d manifesto to continue Holocaust com- Hidden children sitting in dentists’ looked at his father’s medical records memoration and education. At the time, offices and hearing interviews on the radio and the blood type didn’t match his. He the child survivors were yet an invisible group, and did not have the same collec- tive mourning experience and catharsis. Nor did they have a voice at the Amer- ican Gathering of Holocaust Survivors HIDDEN CHILDREN HAD TO BE CONVINCED THAT THEY in Washington, DC, in 1983. In 1984 at the American Gathering in Philadelphia, TOO ARE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AND THAT THEIR Judith Kestenberg set up a table to recruit child survivors to be interviewed, and she PERSECUTION AND LOSSES ARE NOT TO BE UNDERMINED. convened a meeting for child survivors who attended the Gathering. Child survi- vors in California started meeting regularly, and together the east coast and west started to come out of hiding. As had been realized this man wasn’t his biological coast held a mini-conference in Lancast- the case with the World Gathering, this father, and when he had his DNA tested, it er, Pennsylvania, highlighted by a pajama event also provided a major opportunity appeared that he was of Semitic origin. He party to make up for a lost childhood. for communal mourning, something that is still trying to discover who his biolog- Local groups formed nationwide as child is vital for survivors recuperating from ical parents are, but in the meantime, he survivors started to give oral testimonies. historical trauma. The First International has been studying Judaism in an attempt Instead of remaining in a state of psy- Gathering of Hidden Children gave the to understand his historical identity. chic numbness and social withdrawal, “children” an opportunity to mourn togeth- At the end of the war, the Jewish chil- child survivors began to search for oth- er in a collective voice. But first they had dren who were hidden were not brought ers with similar backgrounds with whom to accept that those they mourned were to the town square to be given back to their they could mourn and share, and their gone forever. families or Jewish agencies. Jewish orga- collective voice began to be heard. After In each survivor’s recovery, there comes Contined on next page

29 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

nizations had to track them down; there What I am asking is something just as rev- were numerous lawsuits in Poland and olutionary. To allow others to act as if they Holland as families fought to keep children were survivors of the Holocaust. And by who were not their own. In addition to that, I mean that future Jewish generations, mourning their own biological parents, whether descendants of survivors or not, many child survivors also had to mourn need to take on the responsibility of our their foster parents. This became very collective past — just as we were all slaves complicated for those who had a surviv- in Egypt, we were all persecuted as Jews ing biological parent, or both parents, during the Nazi era. who wanted loyalty and love expressed to So, in answer to the original question: them and not to a stranger. They had no there’s no need any more for demarca- understanding that as a result of their pres- tions between adult and child survivors. sure, their child had experienced a loss. Nor between survivors and future genera- And now back to our question, why have tions. We are all one. And we need to find Carla Lessing, co-director, HCF, presents Founder’s Award a separate Holocaust commemoration for to Eva Fogelman. December 2016. a way to pass this message l’dor l’dor. Just hidden children and other child survivors? as it was controversial 25 years ago to It has taken many years for child survi- institute a separate group for child survi- vors to obtain the validation for their losses imate survivor. It should not be a compet- vors, I am suggesting another controver- and persecution. Being with others from itive game. To Hitler, all Jews were the same, sial group going forward — one of inclu- a similar background during a memorial destined for annihilation. To trivialize sivity of the past, present and future, just service reduces the emotional trauma of one’s pain would be detrimental to the as the Jewish people have always been. not being understood. It reduces the sense of well-being of any child survivor. My mother Leah was a child survivor isolation that one experienced an entire For three generations, sixty years, adult who made the best blintzes for Shavuot. lifetime. Mourning is a very personal expe- Holocaust survivors were the bulk of the My son Adam combines a profound sense rience. And a historical trauma cannot be survivor community. Today, the demograph- of traditional Judaism with a deep com- mourned alone. Those who don’t under- ics have changed. Child survivors outnum- mitment to social and political activism. stand may ask, how can you mourn some- ber adult survivors. Given the demograph- From the coldness of Tashkent to my one you did not even know? Or, how can ic reality that most living survivors are son’s activism on behalf of Israel and other you mourn someone you are not even those who were children under the age of causes, what has remained consistent from certain died? Therefore, one wishes to be thirteen at the start of persecution, the generation to generation is not what my with others who are remembering simi- tables have turned. Hidden children and mother suffered but the Jewish values, cul- lar tragic losses, who would understand other child survivors will be taking over the ture, history and faith that has sustained what it means to mourn a mother or father communal commemoration, and will have us, and all of you, past and present, throughout one never knew. the opportunity to be inclusive — inclu- the ages. It’s very hard to hold onto faith A collective tragedy, the annihilation sive, that is, not just for Holocaust survi- in the face of adversity. I salute you for of an entire group of people is personal as vor families and their families but also for triumphing despite the odds, and let us well as communal, and cannot be mourned the larger Jewish community. continue, as a unified group, to embrace in isolation. Furthermore, it necessitates I believe that having a separate com- the complicated, and often crazy shared an experience of belonging — after all these memoration for adult and child survivors past, but one which has provided us with years, of being told you are a survivor. It has become a moot point. Rather, the idea so much spiritual sustenance. n is reassuring to know that there are oth- now is to include the second, third and ers who understand what you endured, fourth generation survivors, to insure the Eva Fogelman is a founder of the Hidden not just during the Holocaust, but in subse- continuity of commemorations. The oral Child Foundation/ADL, a psychologist, film- quent years. Being with others, who share histories, begun so many years ago, are maker and author who pioneered groups for your past, means being with people who invaluable going forward for subsequent generations of the Holocaust. She is co-direc- do not find you strange for hiding your Jewish generations, including descendants tor of Child Development Research, founding identity, for still hoping your parents are of survivors. director of Psychotherapy with Generations of alive, for searching in vain for clues about After the 25th anniversary of the gene- the Holocaust and Related Traumas, TIMH and your ancestry, for using defense mecha- sis of the Hidden Child Foundation, child Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers, nisms that worked in time of survival but survivors are now carrying the torch for ADL (originally Jewish Foundation for the cannot be translated to peace times — for themselves and for adult survivors. And Righteous). She is the author of the Pulitzer feeling rootless. it’s a reminder for them to pass the torch Prize nominee: Conscience and Courage: The specificity has its emotional use- to all future generations of Jews, worldwide. Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust; co-ed- fulness. Not feeling legitimate for so many Passover has just ended. I thought about itor of the newly published Children in the years has taken its toll on many child sur- the passage in the Haggadah when we are Holocaust and its Aftermath; and numerous vivors, particularly the hidden children. asked to recall that we were once slaves other publications. She is the writer and Even with all the attention child survivors in Egypt. Though we really weren’t slaves, co-producer of Breaking the Silence: The Gen- have received in recent years, there is always we are asked to pretend that we were. Is eration After the Holocaust and an advisor a possibility of being dismissed as a legit- this taking identification a bit too far? No. to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

30 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

“What men do today and at every moment, what they think and expect, at once becomes HISTORIC INHERITANCE an origin of the future, which is in their hands. The only hope is for horror to become conscious. Nothing but the most lucid consciousness can help us. Dread of such a future OF HOLOCAUST may perhaps prevent it. The terrible forgetting must not be allowed to take place. […] That SURVIVORS IN UKRAINE which has happened is a warning. To forget it is guilt. It must be continually remembered. It was possible for this to happen, and it remains possible for it to happen again at any By Boris Zabarko minute. Only in knowledge can it be prevented.”1 Karl Jaspers

These days it is generally accepted that 1941, about 2.7 million Jews lived in the terri- the Holocaust constitutes a key event in tory of Soviet Ukraine (within the borders human history. For me the Holocaust is not defined by the Molotov-Ribbentrop-Pact). only part of the past, but also of the pres- In terms of the number of Jews, Ukraine ent. Here, I will deal with the memories stood first in Europe and second worldwide and testimonies of the last generation of in mid-1941. During the war of extermination, survivors in Ukraine. I turn to this issue which lasted three years, the National Social- not merely because I am a historian, and ists and their collaborators­ murdered 1.5 not just because I survived the Holocaust, million Jewish men, women and children but because the memories of this tragedy in the territory of Ukraine. It was here that have remained with me for a lifetime. the highest numbers of Jews, nearly half I survived in a ghetto in the Ukrainian­ of all — all citizens of town of Šargorod in the region. the USSR at the outbreak of war — were Many innocent men, women and children extinguished; more than a quarter of all suffered and lost far more than I did, and I European Holocaust victims, that is, more wish to settle the debt I owe each one by than in all European countries, except preserving their memory according to all Poland, and the rest of the territory of the my powers and opportunities. USSR combined. We, child survivors, could not save our According to recent information by the families and loved ones from the flames Ukrainian historian Aleksandr Kruglov, that engulfed them. But our human duty 509,190 Jews were killed in the second half of and historic mission is to commemorate 1941, which is about a third of all victims. the Holocaust and its victims — to prevent In 1942, 773,700 people were killed, con- the martyrs from being forgotten, to keep stituting about half of the total number of history from being distorted, or truth denied, victims. In 1943, 150,000 lives were taken and to pass on the bitter experience and away. In the first half of 1944, 185,000-190,000 the lessons of the Holocaust to new gener- died. The overwhelming majority of them ations. This is what we, who survived the were murdered in the territory of Ukraine, hell of the Holocaust can do, and should do, more than 22 percent (about 340,000 peo- as long as we live. The freedom that was ple) were brought to Polish territory and brought to us in 1945 can only be defend- murdered­ there — in the camps of Belzec, ed by recording the Nazis’ terrible crimes Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Majdanek. In East- and by honoring the victims. ern Galicia, Jews were exterminated with- In the bloody slaughter, the Jewish peo- in two years; in Volyn, Podolia and right ple lost one third of their worldwide popula- bank Ukraine,2 within one and a half years; tion, two-thirds of European Jewry, includ- in South and left-bank Ukraine, within near- ing one and a half million children. Apart ly half a year. 3 from Jews, members of other groups were The annihilation of the Jews in Ukraine exposed to systematic extinction too — Slavs, was carried out mostly through mass shoot- Gypsies, disabled persons, homosexuals, ings; and within one to three days, tens of Jehovah’s Witnesses, political opponents. thousands of people fell victim to such Some of the worst disasters of the Holo- executions. Thus, in Kamianets-Podilskyi, from caust occurred in Ukraine. August 27 to 29, 1941, members of the “spe- When Germany invaded the USSR in June Contined on next page

31 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

cial action force” of the Higher Chief of SS collaborators and anti-Semites, whose cru- The search for answers to these diffi- and Police in South Russia, SS senior group elty and senselessness are incomparable cult questions has been left to us — we, leader (Obergruppenführer) Friedrich Jeck- even in the context of the Holocaust. In who by miracle survived the horrors of eln, assisted by the Police Battalion 320, Western Ukraine, 25,000 to 30,000 Jews ghettos and concentration camps; we, who Ukrainian police and a Hungarian platoon, fell victim to these pogroms. They were were doomed yet defended ourselves; we, killed 23,600 Jews in the course of three drowned in the Dniester and Southern Bug, who fought for our existence; we, who retained days. Among them were 14,000 refugees who burned in houses, synagogues, barracks our human face and defeated death. had been expelled from Hungarian-adminis- and pigsties (as in Odessa, where, from Could all survivors who preserved the trated Carpatho-Ukraine. This was the first October 23 to 25, 1941, the Rumanian memory of the Holocaust overcome the hor- massacre of such dimension. As German occupants shot or burned alive about rors they had witnessed? Many could not, historian Dieter Pohl points out, the mas- 35,000 Jews,12 or in Bogdanovka in Nikolaev and in their despair to break their silence sacre of Kamianets-Podilskyi occurring at region, where 4,000 to 5,000 sick Jews and rid themselves of their burden, they the end of August 1941 was “a turning point were burned in two horse stables and may have paid for it with their lives. Jean in the Holocaust, the break with killing tar- 43,000 were shot);13 they were confined in Amery, Tadeusz Borowski, Bruno Bettel- geted groups of mostly Jewish males to Odessa’s quarries or in alabaster mines heim, Primo Levi, Paul Celan could neither the indiscriminate murder of entire Jew- (such as in Artemovsk in Donetsk region),14 live with their memories nor speak about ish communities.”4 thrown alive into the coal pits of the Don- them. In Berdicev, a “major operation” was carried bass and into wells (as in the villages of Others have remained silent until the out on August 15, 1941, during the course Kherson and Nikolaev regions). They died end, living among people who never learned of which between 12,000 and 16,000 people a painful death from hunger, cold, disease, about the burden that robbed them of were shot in five trenches close to the air- torture and forced labor beyond their speech. One can understand them. But port.5 In Vinnytsia more than 10,000 Jews strength in the ghettos. Killing by means to remain silent also means to doom to were shot on September 19,6 in Nikolaev, 6,000 of exhaust emissions in cars were tested on oblivion a crime against humankind and Jews were murdered within three days Ukrainian Jews. an entire gen­eration. Concealment is also (21st to 23rd of September).7 In Kherson, Hundreds of thousands of innocent peo- murder, a murder of remembrance. And a 8,000 people died on September 24 and 25.8 ple were murdered and have no graves. murder of remembrance brings with it the In Kiev, in just two days, on September 29 They turned into smoke and ashes. In risk of new dis­asters, as stressed by Simon and 30, the Nazis shot 33,771 Jews at Babi Ukraine, there is not one Jewish family Wiesenthal: “The murderers of remembrance Yar. This was the largest mass shooting on unaffected by the Holocaust. The Ameri- prepare the conditions for tomorrow’s Soviet soil (neither earlier nor later, not even can historian Timothy Snyder emphasizes murders.”17 in Auschwitz or Treblinka have the Nazis that it is our task as humanists to “turn the Yes, it is difficult to accept the challenge extinguished that many Jews in one day).9 numbers back into people. If we cannot do pre­sented to survivors by the Holocaust. Practically every German-occupied area of that, then Hitler and Stalin have shaped The answer of the late writer, philosopher the Ukraine has its own “Babi Yar.” not only our world but our humanity.”15 And and Nobel Peace Prize winner, former Aus- From this point on, the total annihila- if we actually imagine the tragedy of these chwitz inmate Elie Wiesel was: “It is impossible tion of the Jewish communities in the big numbers, of 1.5 million murdered in Ukraine to talk about the genocide, but one must also cities of the country began. In Dneprope- and 6 million in Europe, and want to empa- not conceal it.”18 And an opinion from Ger- trovsk, 10,000 to 12,000 Jews (according to thize with it, then we should remember­ many: “We are not assisted in this task if other sources 15,000), either shot dead or that this was a total elimination, the exter- we or others spare our feelings,” German alive, were thrown into a 13 to 20-meter- mination of an entire people. president Richard von Weizsäcker said on deep gorge on the terrain of the Botanical Few could survive the strain of this hell May 8, 1985 in his speech on the 40th anni- Institute from October 13 to 15.10 “On 6 on earth. Their sense of relief at the moment versary of the end of the war.19 and 7 November 1941, the Judenaktion of liberation was mixed with the inescap- For a long time, the inaccessibility to which had been planned for some time, able knowledge of the terrible fate that had archival documents and the anti-Semitism was conducted in Rivne,” announces event befallen the huge numbers who could not be of the Soviet era inhibited­ the confronta- message no. 143 from December 8, 1941, saved. The joy felt about the newly-won tion with the Holocaust.20 In Ukraine, survi- “where approximately­ 15,000 Jews were freedom mingled with a painful sense of vors were silent for long, not because they managed to be shot.”11 shame, as described impressively by Aus- could not endure speaking about their These are some figures for massacres chwitz prisoner Primo Levi in his reflec- past, but because the state that had left in the big cities and towns, all of which took tions on the Holocaust.16 them alone with the National Socialists place in the second half of 1941. This ter- More than 70 years have now passed. did not want to hear their truths. Frankly, rible list could be continued. It is in these And throughout the decades we’ve tried for many years, other countries also did not months of a planned expansion of mass to understand: How did this unprecedent- show interest in exploring the history and murders in Ukraine, that the Nazis made ed tragedy happen? Why couldn’t the world lessons of the Holocaust. After the war, win- the decision to exterminate all European Jews. prevent this atrocity and the others that ners and losers turned away from the past The genocide of the Jews in Ukraine ensued? How can we preserve the mem- and set their eyes on the future. Nobody took on truly horrendous forms. They were ory of the Holocaust to prevent future wanted these former inmates with their bestially murdered in pogroms provoked genocides? Have people learned lessons histories and problems. Everyone strove to by the Nazis and perpetrated by Ukrainian that are relevant today? Contined on next page

32 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

conceal the memories. the cities of Kiev and Kharkov, located al Conference on “Jewish History and Cul- For a long time, the Jewish world kept on the eastern border of Ukraine with ture in the Ukraine” in Kiev, in September silent, too. The horrors of the past were too Russia, Cherkasy on Dnieper, Zhitomir, 1996, as well as published in anthologies.23 hard to grasp. There could be no rational Berdichev, Vinnytsia, and Tulchin as well We were sincerely grateful for the pres- conceptualization or explanation. “The shed as the regions of historic Podolia up to ervation of the memory of the catastro- blood was too fresh than for one to have Shargorod, which for many generations had phe. But it was shameful and unfortunate been able to think over it calmly.”21 been the center of vital Judaism. that this task — important, necessary No testimonies were collected from those Another criterion was the age of the wit- and timely both in scientific and hu­man who had survived the catastrophe. And no ness during the Holocaust. It was de­cided respect — had not been initiated by us, memories were gathered from rescuers. to record the testimonies of persons who Ukrainians (Jews or non-Jews, Holocaust There was no interest in the accounts of were at least twelve years old at the time survivors or born after the war), but by those who had been there, seen things of war. Information on the life of the family representatives of other countries (Israel, — in short, of anyone who knew the truth before and after the war was included in Germany, France, USA, etc.).While working about the terrible years of occupation and their narrations. The main focus lay on the at the Institute of World Economy and genocide. Sadly, the victims of the Holocaust exact description of all events in the life of International Relations of the National were not given a voice of their own until many the witness during the Holocaust, his per- Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, at the Joint were no longer able to make use of it. sonal experiences and feelings. Over the Distribution Committee (JDC), at the Insti-

Some of Dr. Boris Zabarko’s many books on the documentation of .

With much delay, we have only recently course of two years, 130 audio recordings tute of Social Workers, in the All-Ukrainian turned to preserving testimonies. In Ukraine, were collected from Jews who had survived Association of Jewish Concentration Camp the collection started in 1993 on the initia­ the Holocaust in Ukraine. and Ghetto Survivors, and at the education- tive of the Russian department of the The successful implementation of the al center “Commemorating the Disaster,” I Israeli Museum Beit Lohamei ha Geta’ot project attracted the attention of the sci- continued to collect remembrances, testi- (“House of the Ghetto Fighters”), led by entific community and the general public, monies and documents of Ukrainian Jews Dr. Pinchas Agmon, a former prisoner of and the Center for Documentation of Yale who survived the Holocaust and today live the . The selection criteria University and the United States Holo- not only in Ukraine but also in Russia, , for Holocaust witnesses held that they caust Memorial Museum in Washington Israel, Germany, the US and other countries. originate from places that had belonged approached the organizers of the project, Unfortunately, we were hugely delayed to Ukraine after 1939. It was assumed­ that proposing a joint program aimed at col- in adopting the task of preserving the memo- many of those Jews who had formerly lecting video testimonies in Ukraine. This ry of the Holocaust until the first generation lived in the territories of Western Ukraine project, carried out in summer 1994, took of witnesses had already died. It is bitter to (until 1939, Poland), Ukraine, Bessarabia and the organizers on a trip of more than 3,500 admit that much has been missed forever. (until 1939, Rumania), had immi- kilometers through the Ukraine, recording Not all human fates or circumstances of grated to Israel and other countries. 43 video testimonies.22 the catastrophe can be reconstructed, nor It was our goal to collect testimonies on The results of the collection of audio can “the kaleidoscope of Jewish life” (Saul the Nazi genocide of Jews in those regions and video testimonies of Jews, who had Friedlander) be recaptured in our country that very little, or nothing, was known about, survived the Holocaust in the temporarily and in other European­ countries. and that had only recently become avail- occupied territory of Ukraine from 1941 to Many who were young during the war able for research. The project involved 1944, were presented at the IV Internation- Contined on next page

33 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

kind will be uttered, there will be to say goodbye to it, because I place genocidal acts, anti-Semitism and its discussions and research, but all have my own Babi Yar. It was in my horrors and perversions, racism and its these will be merely assumptions, childhood, it remains with me until stupidity, religious and ethnic hatred and because the evidence will disappear the day I die. I bequeath it to my its dangers have not disappeared from our together with us. And even if some- children, so that they will remember lives), but by the fact that many of us were thing remains, if any of you survive, [...] All I can do to preserve the mem- affected precisely in childhood and ado- people will say that what you nar- ory of my perished relatives, is to lescence, in the time of the formation of rate is too horrible to be believed, tell about them, to let their names our character. Memories from our youth that all this is an exaggeration of be repeated by my children and are known to carry a special emotion- the Allied propaganda; they will grandchildren. My family, my rela- al significance, because the experiences not believe you, but us, and we will tives – this is the biography of the associated with them often determine the deny everything.”34 entire Jewish people. It is all very future life of a human being. Therefore, Until the Holocaust, many could not imag- tragic, since it has experienced memories and the unforgettable feelings ine such a possibility, either during or after war, genocide and anti-Semitism. It associated with them are so important for it happened. Many still do not believe it has to be remembered, this is ‘our these people. occurred or that it can repeat itself. In common biography’.”36 However, one must take into account order to disperse skepticism of the Holo- The efforts of Holocaust survivors to pre- that they went through these experi­ences caust and its excesses — self-deception, serve the memory of the past is also an act as children and adolescents with only little indifference and injustice — strong evi- of resistance against Nazism. For those experience in life, and that therefore per- dence is needed, especially testimonies who were to be annihilated, who survived secution and imprisonment were regarded and memories of eyewitnesses and partic- the madness­ of the catastrophe, it is an act and processed differently in their memo- ipants. Elena Shcherbova, who survived of resistance against today’s neo-Nazis ries from those of older survivors. Also, it the hell of the ghetto and a massacre in and Holocaust revisionists. It is our moral is not impossible that a witness added to his Drobickij Jar, remarks:­ “That which really duty towards those who perished, to testi- life story (be it unconsciously) testimonies happened, only eyewitnesses can know and fy about the Holocaust. By telling about it, and episodes that do not stem from his own tell.”35 we convey, even if only in our small ways, the experience but other sources, for example, If we preserve and pass on the duty of last will of the innocents who were killed. narrations of family members and other remembrance today, we are left with the Our books assemble authentic documents, people, documentary and artistic films. duty of education, which will be even memories of periods of life mainly asso- We also know that the human memory more relevant in the future. We know, of ciated with persecution and genocide, of is an imperfect instrument: Arbitrarily, it course, that the number of historians who times when death was the norm and life saves some facts, events and moments, want to preserve our terrible history on was a miracle. These people are pass- then suppresses others, which are often no paper is growing. They are certainly guided ing on living history, the way they have less important. Further, special features by good intentions. But they will never be experienced it and as it is imprinted on their of historical witnesses’ testimonies also able to reproduce our feelings and describe memory. Here, undoubtedly, truth is pre- include the tendency to see the past through the events for which we ourselves often fail served, a terrible truth that one cannot the eyes of the present, thus not to picture to find words. think up, that one can not even devise in the events of the past as they were perceived Those who found themselves in Nazi fantasy. at the time of their occurrence, but as they captivity, dreamed of surviving, as Primo They give the readers an understand­ are perceived today, decades later. There- Levi testifies, not only because they had the ing of something absolutely indispensable­ by, today’s testimonies offer not only a look at instinct of self-preservation, but because that would not be accessible by other the past, but also a view from the vantage they also sensed the need to report on what means. Their words make the numbers of of the present, and this can prove to be they had suffered. They wanted to prevent victims of the large and small cities, the a surprisingly profound and unexpected a similar, future occurrence; but, mostly, towns and villages of our country come alive immersion into the difficulties of the rela- they did not want their tragic history to be in flesh and blood, give them a human tionship between history and the present. forgotten. face. They stimulate our memory, knock on Holocaust victims have gone through This is what the surviving witnesses who our hearts. Not to evoke hate in us, but to suffering and terror, the loss of relatives and speak out in our books say, too. Through show how terrible hatred can be in practice. loved ones, shootings, hunger, cold, diseases memory, they all want to hold onto every So that the human mind can recognize evil and a constant fear that has not disappeared bit of their lives, as unbearable and as pain- as evil and reject it. Such information is of even to this day. Such inhuman and super- ful as this memory may be. Yuliya Pen- particular importance in view of ever-pro- human shock and mental anguish that zyur-Veksler, who spent her childhood in liferating neo-Nazi anti-Semitic literature, impacts on their emotions would not fail the small village of Tyrlovka in Vinnytsia aiming at trivializing or even total denial to appear. Their view of the truth is sub- region, says she roamed “in attics, in of the disaster. jective in any case. An involuntary distor- trenches and pits, in the abandoned chap- That the dark years of war and occupa- tion of the truth, which is not less harmful el behind the village, between bushes and tion still attract our attention so intensely, than a deliberate falsification, cannot be graves of the village cemetery” after her even after 75 years, is justified not solely by excluded. Not all details are accurate. whole family had been shot. She recalls: the fear of repetition (in many regions of Some are vague, and decades of silence “The past froze in me. I’m not going the world there have been and still take Contined on next page

35 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

years have left or are leaving rapidly. They concentration camps in the terri­tories of precisely their heart-rending memories and could have told us the precise particulars Ukraine occupied from 1941-1944, in the stories, which are a guarantee that no one and details of people, places and events, three-part work “Žizn’ i smert’ v ëpochu can distort history or deny the truth of the of the life and death of Jews in ghettos and Cholokosta” [Life and Death in the Era of the Holocaust. The survivors’ voices retain the camps. They could have spoken, not only Holocaust].29 living memory of the victims of the Holo- of cruelties and suffering, but also of the The President of the European Jewish caust and do not allow for the dark sides various forms and methods of everyday Congress and President of the Committee of the past to be erased from history. The resistance to German plans of a “final solu- of the (Forum “Let voices of those who emerged alive from the tion to the Jewish question.”24 my people live”), Vyacheslav Kantor, who Holocaust unite our collective conscious- We have missed the time, and we have supported the publication of the book, wrote: ness. It is thanks to them we remember robbed ourselves. All this can repeat itself “Unlike other peoples in the occu- the innocent victims. Their stories help us if we forget the Holocaust, if we do not pied territories, Jews had not the remember. And never to forget. Neither speak out the whole truth about every slightest chance to survive. There today nor in the future.”32 human being, be it the executioner or the vic- were for them no rules that one would Beside the recording of deaths, the doc- tim, the passive observer or the treacher- have been able to keep to in order umentation of life during the Holocaust ous collaborator or the “Righteous Among to survive. The testimonies and mem- has only recently also become accessible the Nations.” ories that have been collected in the to us, primarily due to survivors’ testimo- One has to face the historical truth as a three-volume work are for us of nies. We now know that not all Jews were whole, and in doing so, we must not omit great value not only from the sci- murdered during the first months of the the difficult, painful questions regarding the entific and historical point of view. war in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of them cooperation of a certain part of Ukrainian They serve the current and future survived under Nazi occupation for a year, society with the National Socialists, the generations as a reminder of the in some cases for up to two years, and a collaboration and anti-Jewish actions of crimes of National Socialism. We small number in Transnistria and some Ukrainian nationalists, who, as Ukrainian all should remember that silence other places even escaped death. This historian­ Jaroslav Hrycak notes, wanted to might be dangerous. The tragedy of requires an examination of their biogra- see the future of Ukraine as “free of Jews.”25 the Holocaust has shown the cata- phies and survival strategies. Equally, one must not omit the bright strophic consequences which the Recently, discussions in scientific and side of history, which official historiog- unresponsiveness of the population social circles have become the object of raphy has concealed: the role played by towards hostilities against people political speculations of Nazi and anti-Se- Ukrainians in helping and rescuing Jews. with respect to their nationality, race mitic forces. Those who deny the Holocaust Their actions were probably suppressed, or religion can have.”30 as a historical fact (calling themselves “revi- because the courage of these people was Together with Werner Müller, we have sionists,” a scientific-sounding designation) also an accusation against the local pogrom prepared a German edition of these books, refuse to allow any validity to the memories makers, executioners and police, as well as which hopefully can be presented to the of the victims. against the passive, indifferent spectators. public soon. Finally, the first volume of a Incidentally, information about the Holo- It proved that even in the darkness of the new, presumably last two-part work of mem- caust had elicited disbelief among contem- Holocaust one could make a choice other ories was printed in December 2012 in Kiev.31 poraries as the events took place. Repre- than wordlessly obeying or cooperating With each passing day, the significance sentative of American Jewry, member of with a criminal regime — one could also of this material grows because soon we will the Supreme Court of the United States and per- remain a decent person. no longer have the opportunity to speak to sonal friend of the President, Felix Frank- The first Ukrainian book containing dec- living witnesses. Only their knowledge can furter, reacted to Jan Karski’s account of larations and reminiscences of the victims contribute to closing the still-existing gaps how the Germans put their plan for the of the catastrophe, “We are the only sur- in recent history. Where there are blanks total extermination of Jews into practice vivors: Testimonies and Documents,” was rather than facts, the doors are wide open in Poland as: “I am unable to believe you.”33 published in 1999, when the Ukrainian peo- to distortions and falsifications. Unfortu- The truth seemed to be too horrible. ple commemorated the 55th anniversary nately, one can clearly observe that the This is exactly the reaction the Nazis of the country’s liberation from fascist more the witnesses and victims of the had expected from the beginning. Many who invaders.26 In 2005, the book was trans- Holocaust vanish, the more the deniers of managed to survive remember the cynical lated into English.27 Already one year ear- the Holocaust proliferate. pleasure that SS members employed while lier a German translation had been pub- Memories of Nazi victims present an reminding prisoners of the disbelief their lished and been met with great interest.28 irreplaceable source in a situation where narrations would meet: Together with my friends and colleagues, the traces of the crime and the witnesses “However this war may end — we Margret and Werner Müller from Cologne, have been destroyed, credible documen- have already defeated you in any who published the book in Germany, we tary material is missing and many archives case; you will all be extermi­nated, presented it in many cities in Germany and linked to the catastrophe are blocked. No so that there will be no witness- Switzerland. historical archive, movie or book can reflect es left, and if one does survive, Scientific research has continued: between the agonizing experiences of survivors as then nobody will believe him any- 2006 and 2008 we published the memories vividly as their personal accounts. As Israeli way. Perhaps suspicions of any of Jews who survived in ghettos, labor or President Shimon Peres stressed, “It is Contined on next page

34 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

have washed details from the “banks of merely lead to the threshold of an under- prisoners, and a member of the Supervisory memory” like waves. Everything that has standing of history, it is still impossible to Board of the International fund Mutual Under- reached the surface of the memory, has understand the past and the present with- standing and Tolerance». been unconsciously wrapped into a veil out them. They do not allow to delete the Boris Zabarko is an honored worker of of fantasy. Myths and stereotypes that past, adding new infor­mation and expand- sci­ence and technology of Ukraine. He has have prevailed in society for a long time, ing the historical horizon. received the prize of the National Academy emerge and solidify, become something The problem is to check the information of Sciences of Ukraine and the European Bnai- unchangeable. received from witnesses in such a way Brith award of recognition for immortalizing It is not surprising that the witnesses that the assessments made on their basis the tragic memory of the Holocaust. Dr. Zabar- do not always remember the experiences of come as close to the truth as possible, that ko is the author of more than 230 books and arti- the past the way new historical research is, to take into account the totality of cles published in Austria, the UK, Hungary, describes them. In connection with this Pierre all circumstances (causal relationships), Germany, Israel, Russia, USA, and Ukraine. Nora’s observation is interesting: under which one or the other event has “Even if memory could not guarantee happened. This purpose requires other 1. Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History. Rutledge, 2014, p. 149 (German original: Munich & Zurich, 1949) the truth, it has guaranteed accuracy. What sources of information that allow a thor- is new and connected to the greatest disas- ough and objective comparative analysis. 2. Right bank Ukraine (Ukrainian: Pravoberežna Ukraina, Polish: Ukraina Prawobrzena, Russian: Pravoberežnaja ter of the era — the extension of the life Honoring the memory of Holocaust sur- Ukraina) is the historic name of the part of Ukraine sit- span, of the living presence of the past — vivors means not only to preserve it, but uated on the right hand (western) side of the Dnieper, which remained with Poland-Lithuania until 1793 after is the pursuit of an even ‘truer’ truth than also to assess, analyze, contextualize it, the truce with Russian tsardom in 1667, as opposed to is the historical truth: the truth of a living to bring to mind the whole problem of the left bank Ukraine. commemoration of what was suffered accompanying circumstances, and, using 3. Alexander Kruglov, Jewish Losses in Ukraine, 1941- through.”37 historical-scientific research, to reconstruct 1944, in: Ray Brandon / Wendy Lower (Ed.) The Shoa in Ukraine. History, Testimony, Memorialization, Indianapolis All these circumstances have to be taken that world from which they were torn by 2008, p. 279, 281 ff. into account when looking at the past that force and which has mostly ceased to 4. Dieter Pohl, The Murder of Ukraine’s Jews under has not yet lapsed, that still aches, and exist together with them. In this way, it is German Military Administration and in the Reich around which so many discussions, fights, necessary­ to anchor memory in the collec- Commissariat Ukraine, in: Ray Brandon / Wendy Lower (Eds.), The Shoah in Ukraine. History, Testimony, conflicts and battles revolve. tive memory. Memorialization, Indianapolis 2008, p. 31 f. We have assembled in our books the This is our duty. And we should fulfill 5. Dieter Pohl, Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht. Deutsche memories of different people who now live it because “without memory every people Militärbesatzung und einheimische Bevölkerung in der far away from each other (in different cit- will lose its roots, its experience and its Sowjetunion 1941-1944, München 2008, p. 270; M. H. 39 Dubovyk (Ed.), Dovidnyk pro tabory, tjur’my, ta hetto na ies, countries and continents), but who chance to continue living” as Jewish his- okupovanij teritorii Ukrainy (1941-1944), Kiev 2000, p. during the war were at the same place at torian Simon Dubnov, who was murdered 76 ; S. Elisavetskij, Berdicevskaja tragedija, Kiev 1991; the same time. Each of them reports the on December 8, 1941 in Riga by the Ger- Israel Gutman (Ed.), Enzyklopädie des Holocaust. Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Europäischen Juden, same events, but in very different ways. mans, wrote. 3 volumes., München / Zürich 1989, vol. I, p. 185 f.; Usually, facts are not distorted in the But we want to continue living. n Naum Epelfeld, „Möge mein Gedächtnis das Vergessen verhindern.“, in: Boris Zabarko (Ed.), „Nur wir haben process, but the account of details, the überlebt.“ Holocaust in der Ukraine. Zeugnisse event logic, the focus and the numbers Boris Mikhailovich Zabarko, Ph.D. (1935) und Dokumente, Berlin 2004, p. 110-129; Aleksandr vary, depending on the personality of the was a prisoner of the Shargorod ghetto (Vin- Kruglov, Katastrofa ukrainskogo evrejstva 1941-1944 gg., Charkov 2001, p. 30 f.; idem (Ed.), Sbornik doku- respective narrator, his education, his value nytsa region, Ukraine). He has a degree in mentov i materialov ob unictoženii nacistami evreev system, his intellect and the nature of his history from Chernovtsy State University and Ukrainy v 1941-1944 godach, Kiev 2002, p. 48, 64, 153; Bert Hoppe / Hildrun Glass (Eds.), Die Verfolgung world view. Each of them has his own histo- has taught and been principal at a rural sec- und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das ry. Nevertheless, it always amazes us that ondary school. nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945, Vol. 7: the similarities come to the fore to form Zabarko is a university professor with a Sowjetunion mit annektierten Gebieten. Besetzte sowje- tische Gebiete unter deutscher Militärverwaltung, the collective memory. post-gradu­ate degree from the History Insti- Baltikum und Transnistrien (im Folgenden Hoppe / Glass, It is time to pause and reflect, what and tute of the National Academy of Sci­ences Sowjetunion), München 2011, p. 42, 191; Il´ja A. Al’tman (Ed.), Cholokost na territorii SSSR, Moskva 2009, p. 76 how we commemorate today, whether we of Ukraine. He is a senior researcher at the ff.; Yad Vashem, Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during fulfill our responsibility for history. As Ger- History Institute and the Institute of World Holocaust, Vol. I, p. 35 f.; The United States Holocaust man President Richard von Weizsäcker Economy and Interna­tional Relations of the Memorial Museum (USHMM), Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Vol. II, p. 1517 ff. said in his speech on the 40th anniversary National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 6. Cf. Vinnickaja oblast’, Katastrofa (Šoa) i Soprotivlenie. of the end of war: “Remembering means head of the social department and coordinator Svidetel’stva evreev-uznikov konclagerej i getto, učast- recalling an occurrence honestly and undis- of the Joint Distribution Committee’s Holocaust nikov partizanskogo dviženija i podpol’noj bor’by, tortedly so that it becomes a part of our programme, director of the Institute of Pinchas Agmon / Anatolij Stepanenko (Ed.), I. Maljar / F. Vinokurov (Ed.), Tel Aviv / Kiev 1994, p. 11, 55-65; very beings. This places high demands on Social and Community Workers, chairman of Dubovyk, Dovidnyk (see footnote 5), p. 26; Boris our truthfulness.”38 the All-Ukrainian Association of Jews and for- Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ v epochu Cholokosta, 3 volumes., Kiev 2006-2008, here: Vol. 2, p. 272-277, 405-411, 484 Memory and history resemble each other mer ghetto and Nazi death camp prisoners, ff.; Gutman, Enzyklopädie (see footnote 5), vol. 3, p. and yet are different. But although individ- head of the scientific­ and educational centre 1604 f.; Kruglov, Katastrofa (see footnote 5), p. 224 ual recollection and memory do not equal Memory of the Catastrophe, vice president of f.; Anatomija Cholokosta. Poslednie svideteli, Fond „Kovcek”, Moskva 2002, p. 233-236; Kruglov, Sbornik the level of historical interpretation, of a the International Union of Jewish commu­nity dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. 46, 73, 163, 293, 300, 398. scientific reconstruction of the past, but associations and former Nazi death camp Contined on next page

36 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

7. Cf. Andrej Angrick, Besatzungspolitik und UdSSR“ 1941. Dokumente der in der 18. Elie Wiesel, «Silence helps the tormentor, never Massenmord. Die Einsatzgruppe D in der südlichen Sowjetunion I, Darmstadt 2011, p. 860 f. Cf. Dubovyk, the oppressed…» Speech at a conference at Boston Sowjetunion 1941-1943, Hamburg 2003, p. 242 ff.; E. Dovidnyk (see footnote 5), p. 198; Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ University http://www.ijc.ru/cen16.html [25.04.2016] Grinevic / M. Gol’denberg, Cholokost na Nikolaevšcine, ( see footnote 6), vol. 3, p. 35 f., 169-174, 326 ff., 484-493; Saporož’e 2001, p. 12-17; Dubovyk, Dovidnyk (see Kruglov, Katastrofa (see footnote 5), p. 285; idem, 19. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end footnote 5), p. 114; Alexander Kruglov, Bez žalosti i Sbornik dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. 106, 108, of war in Europe and of national-socialist tyranny. somnenija, part IV, p. 29, 36, 41, 126; idem, Katastrofa 111 f., 114, 116, 119, 122, 135 f., 139, 169 f.; Michail Speech by President Richard von Weizsäcker on May (see footnote 5), p. 222 f.; idem, Sbornik dokumentov Tjaglyj, Mesta massovogo unictoženija evreev Kryma 8, 1985 at the commemoration in the plenary hall of (see footnote 5), p. 67, 76 ff., 88, 139, 167 f.; Hoppe / v period nacistskoj okkupacii poluostrova (1941-1944 German Bundestag. http://www.bundespraesident.de/ Glass, Sowjetunion (see footnote 5), p. 316, 326, 331, gg.), Simferopol 2005, p. 60-68; Arad, Unictoženie (see SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Reden/2015/02/150202- 335, 453; Al’tman, Cholokost (see footnote 5), p. 648 footnote 9), p. 15 f., 182; Hoppe / Glass, Sowjetunion (see RvW-Rede-8-Mai-1985-englisch.pdf?__ f.; USHMM, Encyclopedia (see footnote 5), p. 1627 f. footnote 5), p. 370 f., 379-385, 390-394, 414, 436, 453, 455- blob=publicationFile [25.04.2016] 458, 461, 470. 8. Vgl. Il´ja A. Al’tman, Žertvy nenavisti. Cholokost v 20. Cf. Zabarko, „Nur wir..“ (see footnote 5), p. 22. SSSR (1941-1945 gg.), Moskau 2002, p. 183 f.; Pohl, 12. Cf. Jean Ancel, Transnistria, 1941-1942. The Romanian 21. Steven T. Katz, Jewish Faith after the Holocaust. Herrschaft (see footnote 5), p. 265, 270; Dubovyk, Mass Murder Campaigns, Vol. 1, History and Documents Four Approaches, in: ibid, Post-Holocaust Dialogues. Dovidnyk (see footnote 5), p. 180; Zabarko, Žizn’ i Summaries, Tel Aviv 2003, p. 182-291; Pinchas Agmon / Critical Studies in Modern Jewish Thought, New York smert’ (see footnote 6), vol. 1, Kiev 2006, p. 198 f.; Iosif Maljar (Eds.), V ogne Katastrofy (Šoa) na Ukraine: 1983, p. 90. ibidem, vol. 2 (Kiev 2007), p. 342 f., 490; ibidem, vol. svidetel’stva evreev-uznikov konclagerej i getto, 3 (Kiev 2008), p. 475 ff.; Gutman, Enzyklopädie (see ucastnikov partizanskogo dviženija. Beit Lohamei 22. Cf. Pinchas Agmon, Sochranenie pamjati. Nekotorye footnote 5), vol. 1, p. 183 f.; Kruglov, Katastrofa (see haGeta’ot Verlag, 1998, p. 84 f.; Arkadi Chassin, „Durch osobennosti audio- i videozapisi svidetelj ŠOA na footnote 5), p. 54 f., 330; Pavel Poljan, Sovetskie eine wahre Hölle“, in: Zabarko, „Nur wir…“ (see footnote Ukraine, Kiev 1996; Boris Zabarko, Ispytanie Katastrofoj, voennoplennye-evrei – pervye žertvy Cholokosta, in: 5), p. 84-92; Gutman, Enzyklopädie (see footnote 5), Vol. in: Chadašot Nr. 1/1996; Natan Birak, Proekt sbora Cholokost, Nr. 5 (23) 2003, p. 20 f.; Kruglov, Sbornik 2, p. 1057 ff.; Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ (see footnote 6), Vol. svidetel’skich pokazanij na Ukraine. Podrobnosti i dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. 63 f., 66 f., 69 f., 76 f., 2, p. 200-205; ibidem, vol. 3, p. 13-16,155 ff., 283-287; problemy, in: Informacionnyj bjulleten’ Doma-muzeja 168 f.; Hoppe / Glass, Sowjetunion (see footnote 5), p. M. Paškoveckij (Ed.), Istorija Cholokosta v Odesskom borcov getto imeni Icchaka Kacenel’sona, Kiev 1996. 283, 379, 453; Yad Vashem, Encyclopedia (see footnote regione, Odessa 2006; Ioanid Radu, The Holocaust in 5), Vol. I, p. 305. Romania. The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies under 23. Vinnickaja oblast’ (see footnote 6); Agmon / Maljar the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944, Chicago 2008, p. (Eds.), V ogne Katastrofy (see footnote 12) 9. Cf. I. M. Levitas (Ed.), Babij Jar. Kniga pamjati, Kiev 179 ff.; Kruglov, Katastrofa (see footnote 5), p. 237 ff.; 24. Cf. Boris Zabarko, Pamjat’ i istorija. Žizn’ v teni 2005; ibid, Babij Jar. Spasiteli i spasënnye, Kiev 205; S. Nazarija, Cholokost. Stranicy istorii (na territorii smerti, Vospominanija i svidetel’stva poslednego ibid, Babij Jar: Celovek, vlast’, istorija, vol. 1, p. Moldovy i prilegajušcich oblastjach Ukrainy, 1941- pokolenija, pereživšego Cholokost, in: Zabarko, Žizn’ i 84-163, 181-186; D. Budnik / Ja. Kaper, Nicto ne zabyto: 1944), Kischinau 2005, p. 156; Il’ja Al’tman (Ed.), smert’ (see footnote 6), vol. 1, p. 5-64. evrejskie sud’by v Kieve, 1941-1943. Konstanz 1993; Neizvestnaja Cërnaja kniga. Svidetel’stva ocevidcev Erhard R. Wiehn, Die Shoa von Babij Jar, Konstanz o Katastrofe sovetskich evreev (1941-1944 gg.), 25. Jaroslav Hrycak, Cy UPA brala ucast’ u pohromach, 1991; Boris Zabarko (Ed.), Živymi ostalis’ tol’ko my, Jerusalem / Moskau 1993, p. 97-108, 124-130, 134-143; a cy dopomahala rjatuvaty jevreiv?, in: Ukrains’kyj žurnal, Kiev 1999, p. 48 f., 127 f., 268-274, 277 ff., 280-283, Anatomija Cholokosta (see footnote 6), p. 171-179; Nr. 10, 2009, p. 35. 303 ff., 308-325, 337-352, 486-489, 497-518; ibid, Žizn’ Kruglov, Sbornik dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. 205 i smert’ (see footnote 6), Vol. 1, p. 119 f., 182-194, f., 422-426, 429-436, 438; D. Starodinskij, Odesskoe 26. The second edition was published in 2000. 248-253, 369 ff., 467-470; ibidem, vol. 2, p. 178-182, getto. Vospominanija - Okkupacija. Odessa 1941-1944 27. Cf. Boris Zabarko (Ed.), Holocaust in the Ukraine, 400-404, 412-417; ibidem, vol. 3, p. 97, 193-196, 209 ff., gg., Odessa 1991; L. Sušon, Transnistrija. Evrei v adu. London 2005. 229 f., 250-261, 267-273, 335 f., 380 ff., 422 f., 468-474, Cernaja kniga o Katastrofe v Severnom Pricernomor’e 527 f.; M. Koval’, Tragedija Bab’ego Jara. Istorija i (po vospominanijam i dokumentam), Odessa 1998, 28. Cf. Zabarko, „Nur wir…“(see footnote 5) sovremennost’, in: Novaja i novejšaja istorija, 1998, p. 68-89, 124-127, 137-150, 212-217, 233-241; R. Udler, Nr. 4, p. 24-42; Gutman, Enzyklopädie (see footnote 5), Gody bedstvij. Vospominanija uznika getto, Kischinau 29. Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ (see footnote 6) vol. 1, p. 144 ff.; Alexander Kruglov, Tragedija Bab’ego 2003, p. 24 ff.; Arad, Unictoženie (see footnote 9), Jara v nemeckich dokumentach, Dnjepropetrowsk p. 14, 30, 153-156, 164, 166, 390-394; Hoppe / Glass, 30. Vjaceslav Kantor, Pomnit’, ctoby predosterec’, in: 2011; ibid, Sbornik dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. Sowjetunion (see footnote 5), p. 65-68, 782 ff., 788- Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ (see footnote 6), vol.3, p.9-12. 77-83, 86 f., 95-99, 101, 105, 116, 140 ff., 158 f., 266- 793, 796-801, 811, 813, 819, 829; Ju. Fišer, Transnistrija. 270, 273, 288, 295 f.; Jitzchak Arad (Ed.), Unictoženie 31. Boris Zabarko, My choteli žit’… Svidetel’sta, Zabytoe kladbišce, Odessa 2002, p. 82-87, 102; Yad dokumenty, kommentarii, Kiev 2012. evreev SSSR v gody nemeckoj okkupacii (1941-1944 Vashem, Encyclopedia (see footnote 5), Vol. II, p. 540 gg.), Jerusalem 1991, p. 105 ff., 275 f.; Hoppe / Glass, f.; Grossman / Crenburg, Cërnaja kniga (see footnote 32. Shimon Peres, „U každogo celoveka est’ imja!“Appeal Sowjetunion (see footnote 5), p. 37, 296, 311-315, 378, 9), p. 61-69. by the Israeli president at the commemoration day for 415-419, 445 ff., 451 f.; Al’tman, Cholokost (see footno- the victims of the Shoah, Jewish resistance and the te 5), p. 41 f., 404 f.; Vasilij Grossmann / Il’ja Erenburg 13. Cf. Dubovyk, Dovidnyk (see footnote 5), p. 122; heroism of Jewish underground fighters. In: www.jewish. (Eds.), Cërnaja kniga. O zlodejskom povsemestnom Gutman, Enzyklopädie (see footnote 5), Vol. 1, p. kiev.ua/news/3427/ [25.04.2016] ubijstve evreev nemecko-fašistskimi zachvatcikami 227 f.; Kruglov, Katastrofa (see footnote 5), p. 40; vo vremenno-okkupirovannych rajonach Sovetskogo ibid, Sbornik dokumentov (see footnote 5), p. 426- 33. Cited in John K. Roth / Michael Berenbaum (Eds.), Za Sojuza i v lagerjach unictoženija Pol’ši vo vremja 429; Sušon, Transnistrija (see footnote 13); Arad, gran’ju ponimanija. Bogoslovy i filosofy o Cholokoste, vojny 1941-1945 gg., Kiev 1991, p. 17-25. See also Unictoženie (see footnote 9), p. 164 ff.; Hoppe / Glass, Kiev 2003, p. 137. German edition: Wassili Grossman / Ilja Ehrenburg Sowjetunion (see footnote 5), p. 67, 107, 780, 793, 803; (Eds.), Das Schwarzbuch. Der Genozid an den sowjeti- Al’tman, Cholokost (see footnote 5), p. 93 f. 34. Primo Levi, Utonuvšie i spasënnye, in: Roth / Berenbaum, schen Juden, Reinbeck 1994. Za gran’ju ponimanija (see footnote 38), S. 339. 14. Cf. Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ (see annotation 6), Vol. 10. Cf.. Dubovyk, Dovidnyk (see footnote 5), p. 64; 1, p. 355 ff.; Kruglov, Katastrofa ((see annotation 5), 35. Elena Šcerbova, „Naveki srodnila nas eta strašnaja Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ (see footnote 6), vol. 1, p. 95-98, p. 30; ibid, Sbornik dokumentov (see annotation 5), vojna“, in: Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert (see footnote 6), Vol 278 f., 473-476; ibidem, vol. 3, p. 416-421; Gutman, p. 193; S. Tatarinov, Artemovskaja tragedija, in: Ch. 3, p. 515. Enzyklopädie (see footnote 5), vol. 1, p. 355 f.; Kruglov, Aronov (Ed.), Katastrofa jevropejs’koho jevrejstva pid 36. Yuliya Penzyur-Veksler, „Moe rasstreljannoe detstvo Katastrofa (see footnote 5), p. 100 f.; A. A. Batjuk (Ed.), cas druhoi svitovoi vijny, Kiev 2000; Hoppe / Glass, ostalos’ v pamjati na vsju žizn’“, in: Zabarko, Žizn’ i smert’ Nimec’ko-fašysts’kyj okupacijnyj režym na Ukraini, Sowjetunion (see annotation 5), p. 415, 438-349; (see footnote 6), vol. 3, p. 25. Kiev 1963, p. 375; Kruglov, Sbornik dokumentov Al’tman, Cholokost (see annotation 5), p. 38. (see footnote 5), p. 117, 163 f., 280; Nelli Tsypina, 37. Pierre Nora, Vsemirnoe toržestvo pamjati, in: „Ich werde bis heute vom Geruch der erschossenen 15. Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands. Europa zwischen Neprikosnovennyj zapas, Nr. 23, 2005, p. 4. Leute verfolgt.“, in: Trägerverein Begegnungsstätte Alte Hitler und Stalin, München 2011, S. 410. Synagoge Wuppertal (Ed.), Hier wohnte Frau Antonie 38. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 16. Cf. Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, New end of war in Europe and of national-socialist tyranny. Giese. Die Geschichte der Juden im Bergischen Land, York 1988 Wuppertal 1997, p. 128-131; Hoppe / Glass, Sowjetunion Speech by President Richard von Weizsäcker on May (see footnote 5), p. 284 f., 315 f., 372; Arad, Unictoženie 17. Simon Wiesenthal, quoted in: Eliezer Maks Lesovoy, 8, 1985 at the commemoration in the plenary hall of (see footnote 9), p. 16; Grossman / Erenburg, Cërnaja Posledniy borets s fashizmom: Pamyati Simona Vizentalya/ German Bundestag (see footnote 20) kniga (see footnote 9), p. 51-56. Eliezer Max Lesovoy, Last fighter against Fascism: 39. Cited in Solomon Dinkevich: Pochemu bog molchal? Memory of Simon Wiesenthal http://midrasha. - “My zdes’”, No252, 1-7 April 2010 - http://www. 11. Klaus-Michael Mallmann / Andrej Angrick / Jürgen net/poslednijj-borec-s-fashizmom-pamjati-simona- Matthäus / Martin Cüppers (Eds.), Die „Ereignismeldungen newswe.com/index.php?go=Pages&in=view&id=2157 vizentalja [25.04.2016] [25.04.2016]

37 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

Editor’s note – In April, 1942, the Germans occupying Belgium, without warning, ordered THE MAN WITH all schools to expel their Jewish students immediately. The next day in Brussels, Rose Najman took her 11-year-old daughter Simone to visit Simone’s aunt, who had a backyard large TWO DAUGHTERS enough for Simone to play in while the family figured out how to continue Simone’s educa- By Simone Berman tion. The phone rang. It was Simone’s father Henri, who manufactured and sold men’s hats. A Edited by Lawrence Dietz customer who had patronized Henri’s store since the mid-1930s, a high-ranking Wehrmacht officer, had just burst into the store, grabbed Henri, pushed him outside and into the offi- cer’s staff car. As they drove away, a black car pulled up at the store and Gestapo agents got out. The officer had seen Henri’s name on that morning’s arrest list. The Najman family found temporary sanctuary, and arranged for Simone to board in the Brussels suburb of La Hulpe, at the School of the Holy Heart of Mary, a Catholic institution, where Simone would live, using a Christian name created for her by the Mother Superior and sworn to absolute secrecy. While Simone was at school, her parents and other family members found a safe house, on the Chaussée d’Alsemberg in Brussels, where they could live and work. The following appears in Simone Berman’s memoir as Chapter Twelve. Excerpt © 2016, Simone Berman. All rights reserved. Used with author’s permission.

During the winter of my first school year than me. Her parents, seated across from us, in La Hulpe, I required the care of a dentist talked with their daughter. I remained silent. in Brussels who specialized in orthodon- Suddenly, a message blared from the tics. On rare occasions, either Madeleine train loudspeaker. The train was coming to a or Sarah, my cousins living in hiding with stop because of an air raid alert and would not their parents and mine, came to visit me move until the alert was lifted. I looked at my in La Hulpe — always on a Sunday, of course. watch as the train slowed to a halt. It was An appointment was made with Dr. Biot. 4:45 PM. We were just 15 minutes away from My instructions were to take the train from Brussels. La Hulpe at 4:30 PM on the day preceding The train remained motionless for hours. the actual visit: I was to go to the house at We could hear the sounds of airplanes the Chaussée d’Alsemberg, where I would overhead and the distant thud of bombs spend the night. My appointment with the exploding. I kept looking at my watch. Time dentist was at 10 AM on the following day, crawled. We passed the 8 PM Jewish cur- after which I would return to La Hulpe. few. In spite of being seated in a well-heat- I had neither seen nor spoken with my ed train I suddenly felt very cold and very parents for six months. Even the anticipa- scared. Was I going to be able to reach my tion of painful dental work did not lessen parents before the final 10 PM curfew? What my excitement: being with my mother and would I do if we were still in this train at 10 PM? father after such a long separation meant I knew there was a permit to allow people everything to me. with reasons the Germans found appropriate La Hulpe to Brussels was a mere thir- to be out after curfew so they could reach ty-minute train trip. The train was to reach their respective destinations — work or Brussels at 5 PM, which would allow me to home — in Brussels or its outskirts. The arrive at my parents’ hiding place by 6 PM, Germans would ask to see an identity card if not before. We would have the entire before issuing such a permit. We would be evening and night to be with each other. taken from the train to a German police Curfew for Jews was 8 PM; 10 PM for station to obtain that necessary permit. the general public. At 10, all public trans- Finally, at about 9 PM, we heard the portation stopped, meaning curfew viola- all-clear alert siren and the train started. tors would have to travel on foot, easily It slowly made its way to Gare de Luxem- spotted by German patrols. My trip was bourg, arriving about 9:30 PM. Everyone arranged so that I would arrive in Uccle long stood up to get off the train. I simply could before either curfew. not move. I knew my life was over. I didn’t On the train, I sat next to a little girl who have an identity card of my own. When appeared to be two or three years younger Contined on next page

38 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

asked for my name, which name should I I could not sleep. I just lay in bed, think- My mother opened the door, followed use? I could not divulge my parents’ address ing of my parents’ worries. All they knew by my father and my uncle and aunt, all rush- for obvious reasons. I could not give out was that I had simply disappeared. There ing down the staircase. My joy at seeing any of my parents’ Christian friends’ was no way for me to contact them, since my parents was intense. We hugged each addresses even though I knew what those there wasn’t a phone in the house. Even other, laughed and cried a bit. Everyone was addresses were. I could not risk having them if they had attempted to call the Sisters talking at the same time but, eventually, arrested for helping a Jewish child. from the public phone across the street they listened to my story about what had I just sat there. A wave of nausea hit me. before the general curfew, it would have happened to me during the last 20 hours. In spite of my wool gloves, my hands were been useless. The Sisters would not have We all agreed that we would personal- ice cold. Like any school child, I had been given out any type of information to any- ly and thankfully recognize such fearless looking forward to summer — and my twelfth birthday in July. Now I was certain there would be no birthday celebration for me, ever again. I closed my eyes and remained seated. I suddenly felt the hand of the little girl’s father on my shoulder. Then he lifted me off my seat, offered me his other hand and said, “Tonight I have two daughters. Just join us and say nothing. I will do all the talking.” I obeyed blindly. I could not think, agree or disagree. I just did what he had told me to do, to “join us.” I did not say one single word. After we got off the train, the mother of the little girl took my hand as she held her daughter. We followed the father, who was going to file whatever was needed to obtain a permit to be out after curfew and then stood in line with other passengers from the train outside the building where Wartime photo of Chaussée d’Alsemberg, Simone’s destination, and her parents’ hiding place. those permits were issued. When we got inside the father showed his papers to an offi- cial who didn’t even look at them before one on the phone. I lay in bed and quietly intervention on that family’s part at some issuing the permit we needed. cried. Finally, I drifted into sleep. later date, during better times. Then I went There was a line of cars — taxis — Early the next morning, I could hear to the dentist. n awaiting the arrival of permit holders com- all the pleasant sounds of a family getting ing out of the building. Had I been holding ready to get up, eat breakfast and start the Editor’s note – After Liberation Day in Sep- my breath the entire time? I walked out usual activities of the day. I got out of bed, tember, 1944, Simone went back to the street with my “new family,” feeling like a rigid robot. dressed and went to the kitchen, where I was where she had spent that night, but could not We got into one of the taxis, which took us greeted with a smile and offered breakfast. identify the house. Simone immigrated to America, to the family’s home. I do not remember eating but I must have, married, and as Simone Berman, put the war We entered their house and went to their as I had had no food since noon on the into the attic of her memories. Her husband kitchen. We sat at a small round table and previous day. died, and in 1996 Simone went to Brussels to the mother served a long-delayed supper, The father asked me if I knew how to visit relatives. She found the order of nuns who needed after so many hours in the train. get home and whether I had the money for had since ceased operating the school, and I do not recall what it was, because I was the public transportation ticket. For the over tea learned that she had not been the absolutely unable to eat. I just sat, numb, very first time, everyone heard the sound only Jewish child being hidden, but was one in total silence. Somehow, I assumed that of my voice. I said, “Yes.” All three of them of 40. Moreover, the nuns had constructed a my silence would ensure my safety and the hugged me and wished me luck. safe room where they could hide their Jewish safety of my hosts. The mother and father Once outside, I looked for the street name students in the event of a German inspection, did not force me to eat, or speak. and exact address number. One day, in the a room which they “routinely” used for Under- After they finished their meal, the moth- distant future, I knew that I would be back ground operatives and as a way-station for er took her daughter and me to her daugh- to thank them. Allied flyers who had been shot down and were ter’s bedroom, where there were two single Within 45 minutes, I arrived at the house making their way back to safety. Simone reported beds. She gave me a very large pair of paja- on Chaussée d’Alsemberg. I rang the bell, all of this to Yad Vashem, which conducted a mas and put us both to bed. She turned using the pre-arranged code, two short rings 15-year inquiry and in 2011 honored the Mother off the light, wished us happy dreams and and one long, to ensure that someone inside Superior and the order of nuns as Righteous left the room. would know that it was me. Among Nations.

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BOOKS … AND YET THEY LEARNED “schooling” that gave them a semblance University of Jerusalem. Her most recent Education of Jewish Children in of normality and contributed to their lives book, Testimony and Time: Survivors of in other ways. the Holocaust Remember, was published in Nazi-occupied Areas Between The lessons learned from this research 2015 by Yad Vashem. 1933-1945 can certainly be applied to many contem- Eva Fogelman is the co-director of the By Jacqueline Silver porary conditions of war and adversity. International Study of Organized Persecu- Self-published paperback, 2016, 162 pages tion of Children and the founding co-direc- Available on Amazon.com CHILDREN IN THE HOLOCAUST tor of Generations of the Holocaust and For Jacqueline Silver, an educator who AND ITS AFTERMATH: Historical Related Traumas. She is the author of the lost many family members in the Holocaust, Pulitzer Prize–nominated Conscience and the need to know what happened to the and Psychological Studies of the Courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holo- children, and learn from it, had been very Kestenberg Archive caust and writer and co-producer of the strong since her own childhood in Amer- Edited by Sharon Kangisser Cohen, Eva award-winning documentary Breaking the ica. She knew she would never be able to Fogelman, and Dalia Ofer Silence: The Generation after the Holocaust. understand the decisions some people Berghahn, New York, Oxford, March 2017 Dalia Ofer is the Max and Rita Haber made to rescue and teach Jewish children The testimonies of individuals who sur- Professor Emerita of Holocaust and East during the Nazi era, but she decided to vived the Holocaust as children pose dis- European Studies at the Hebrew Univer- find out and tell the specifics about how, tinct emotional and intellectual challenges sity of Jerusalem. Her book Escaping the what, where, and why educators pursued for researchers: as now-adult interview- Holocaust: Illegal Immigration to the Land this highly dangerous undertaking. Her ees recall profound childhood experienc- of Israel (Oxford, 1992) received the Ben research, which began as a master’s degree Zvi award and the National Jewish Book thesis, developed into a PhD dissertation Award. She is the co-editor of Holocaust Sur- in 2015, and in 2016, culminated into this vivors: Resettlement, Memories, Identities fascinating and highly readable book. (Berghahn, 2012) and the editor of Israel in the Jacqueline was 9 years old when the few Eyes of the Survivors (Yad Vashem, 2014). remnants of her once very large family Her most recent work is The Clandestine arrived in the U.S. Her parents had taken History of the Kovno responsibility for helping them, and she has (Yad Vahsem, 2016). a vivid memory of “teaching” American his- tory to a 16-year-old who had not been in SATAN UNMASKED school since 1939 when the Germans had By Esther Austen taken over Poland. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Listening to survivors’ experiences, she Platform; 2 edition (April 12, 2015) came to understand why there was so little Paperback, 308 pages detailed information on their wartime edu- es of suffering and persecution, they also Available on Amazon cation. She says, “Memories are mostly invoke their own historical awareness and Esther Austern, née Goldschild, was born about terror and survival, not exactly what memories of their postwar lives, requiring into an upper-class, Orthodox family, in and how children were being taught.” Yet, readers to follow simultaneous, disparate Chust, Czechoslovakia. Her fairytale life was her research, which covers German-occu- narratives. This interdisciplinary volume forever changed when, at 17, the Germans pied Europe and North Africa, revealed brings together historians, psychologists, ransacked her home and deported her not merely the courageous efforts made and other scholars to explore child sur- whole family to Auschwitz. Miraculously, by some to educate Jewish children during vivors’ accounts. With a central focus on she survived hard labor and privation, and the Shoah, but also discovered the pos- the Kestenberg Holocaust Child Survivor being fluent in both German and English, itive results on these children’s lives. Archive’s over 1,500 testimonies, it not she served as translator for the Allied forc- Decades later, some child-survivors still only enlarges our understanding of the es that had liberated the concentration camp. speak and write about how the education Holocaust empirically but illuminates the Eligible for immigration, she sailed to they received in the ghettos, camps, for- methodological, theoretical, and institution- the United States on board the Ernie Pyle. ests, and in hiding helped them to con- al dimensions of this unique form of his- Once on American soil, she came under tinue their education after the war, thus torical record. the care of the Joint, and soon found work becoming successful adults. Many say they Sharon Kangisser Cohen is the Direc- as a Hebrew teacher. Her strict European benefited both emotionally and intellectu- tor of the Central Archive of the Jewish Peo- education clashed on many occasions with ally from such wartime, usually clandestine, ple at the National Library of Israel and the traditional American way of life, and education during the war and afterwards. the Director of the Diane and Eli Zborows- got her more than once into comical situations. Above all, this book shows that “despite ki Centre for the Study of the Holocaust Esther, the typical, well-mannered, Euro- severe restrictions and enormous hard- and Its Aftermath at Yad Vashem. She is, in pean eventually married the prototype of ship there often were adults who took addition, a lecturer at the Rothberg School the all-American boy: a Harvard educated, responsibility for providing children with for international students at the Hebrew ex–Marine, baseball fan. It was precisely

40 AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY BOOKS

the harmonious compounding of these is the story of Esther Stiller who was a became a successful teacher. Today she two extremes that got them through the Jewish teenager when the Nazis invaded speaks frequently about her experiences turbulence of American life and the diffi- her village in Poland. A few days before, during the war. One of Marguerite’s greatest culties of making alyah to Israel. The Aus- Esther received a package from America hopes is that “young people will feel good terns had a pioneer spirit: they were one containing a store-bought dress. After her about themselves so that they won’t pick of the first Orthodox families to settle in mother altered it for her, she went to show on other people.” Monsey, NY, and the first Orthodox family it off to her girlfriends. A Christian friend of the Anglo community of Savyon–Israel. invited her to spend the night, and when French Books The Austerns had six children and more Esther walked home the next morning, Reviewed by René Goldman than a hundred grand-and great-grandchil- she saw the Jews being rounded up. dren. They finally moved to Modiin Illit, She instinctively knew not to go home. MAMAN GRÈTE where Samuel Ezra Austern za’l, the fami- Instead, she joined a line of young Poles Une éducatrice venue d’Allemagne pour ly’s patriarch, passed away in 2015. preparing to travel by train to be slave des orphelins de la déportation en France This book is an amazing and epic col- laborers in Germany. Her quick thinking et autres portraits de famille lection of trials and tribulations experienced saved her life. Esther told the Nazis that By Michel Stermann by the author and her family — in concen- her papers had been destroyed and gave Edilivre, Saint-Denis, 190 pages, 32,50 euros tration camp and in the States. Told with them the fake name Edwarda Opatows- The subtitle of the book reveals its zest and humor, Esther also describes her ka. Esther spent the rest of the war hid- content, which is the story of a young journeys through American life. Her ups ing in plain sight, but in constant fear of German educator, who came to France and downs will make you cry and laugh discovery. After the war, she immigrated after the war to care for orphans of the with her. But be reassured, thanks to the Almighty, all ends well. Reviewed by Roland Teichholz, Israel (for bio, see For a Few Crumbs of Matzo on page 12.)

A BOOK BY ME PROJECT By Deb Bowen A Book By Me began as my dream to preserve stories of Jewish survivors. I thought of having students interview them, then write, edit and illustrate books about their lives. This idea resulted in an edu- cational tool teachers say their students love — books written by children for children. Today, there are three series: Holocaust, to America with her American soldier Shoah. In addition, the book contains photo- Human Rights and Heroes. Since its con- husband, who had been a witness to graphic and descriptive portraits of the ception in 2003, hundreds of students the liberation of Dachau. Esther shared families of both parents of the author. have participated in the writing process. her story with young readers. A German Michel Stermann’s mother: Grète (Mar- Dozens of the books in our series are now foreign exchange student named Laura grethe) Meitmann was born in 1923 in available on Amazon. We invite young Kase provided the artwork that brought the northern German port city of Kiel, authors (18 and younger) to find an import- Esther›s story to life. where a sailors’ mutiny in 1918 sparked ant story to tell. Writers’ guidelines are A Nazi Loved Me is the story of the revolution, which ended the reign of available at www.abookbyme.com. Each Marguerite Mishkin who was a small child the Kaiser and inaugurated the Weimar project requires a writing coach to guide in Belgium during the war. Her mother Republic. Grète’s father, a police officer, the student(s) and their instructions are arranged for her and her sister to live was the regional leader of the German online as well. with a Catholic family who owned a café Social-Democratic Party. Both parents Our first book was about three frequented by Nazi soldiers. Not knowing and grandparents were devoted Socialists. women, each named Esther, who lived in she was Jewish, the soldiers were always In 1927 the family moved to Ham- the Quad Cities. A Walk With Esther reads kind to Marguerite. One soldier brought burg and, eventually, to Berlin. In 1946 much like a Chicken Soup for the Soul her gifts and held her on his lap while eat- the young and eager pedagogue Grète book with different stories in each chap- ing his lunch. One day he remarked that took part in an international seminary ter. I am proud of my young authors and he “could smell a Jew ten miles away” in Switzerland, where she met and fell in artists, and those who have bravely told while holding her on his lap. Marguerite love with Remy Stermann, a young Polish their stories so that children in the next and her sister survived the war, but her Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. The two generations can learn about history, com- parents did not. Both girls were adopted settled in France, where they devoted passion, tolerance and more. by a rabbi and his wife who lived in Chica- themselves to caring for orphans of the Edwarda Opatowska Saved My Life go. They had a good life and Marguerite Contined on next page

41 BOOKS

BOOKS Shoah raised in children’s homes of two papers. dozen cases of babies hidden in Belgium Jewish organizations: first, the OSE, and In the process, he reconstructed the includes accounts of their own fates and then for several years the UJRE’s Com- history of his grandparents, great-grand- that of their parents, and exposes the mission Centrale de l’Enfance (CCE). parents, uncles and aunts. This captivating infants’ troubled paths through life. Their The principal homes of the CCE in which and deeply moving book is one illustra- scientific research powerfully refutes the Remy and Grète served were Andresy tion among many of the ways in which notions that, since babies have no mem- and Livry-Gargan. I was raised in these the Shoah forever impacted not only its ories, they could not suffer, could not two homes and, even though I did not survivors, but also the generation that remember being separated from their par- happen to live in them at the same time followed, sons and daughters born years ents, and in many cases, mistook their as Remy and Grète, I felt particularly excit- after the war. ■ caregivers for their parents. ed to read about their lives and activ- The authors contend that a baby is no ities there. Michel Stermann intended passive being; he is definitely affected by “Maman Grète” to be “a monument to NOUS ÉTIONS DES BÉBES CACHÉS disturbing events. Even before he acquires the memory of my mother,” as he put it. (We Were Hidden Babies) language, he becomes an actor, bonding The book is penned in the form of a long, Récits ã l’ombre de la Shoah with his mother, recognizing other adults, affectionate letter of a son to a beloved By Adeline Fohn & Henriette Englander particularly his father. Brutal separation mother he has scarcely known, since he Préface par Serge Tisseron and sudden change of environment are was little more than one year old when Editions Fabert, Paris, 2016, 251 pages, 25 euros detrimental to his learning ability and shat- she died at age 29, probably by her The 25th anniversary issue of The Hid- ters his sense of security. own hand, as she was bipolar, prone to den Child, published last year, bore the Babies that were passed from hand depressions, although an accident was not title “Infant Survivors of the Holocaust: to hand in a succession of hiding places ruled out. The Last Survivors.” This book deals with and through changes of identity were par- Remy married again, a woman who ticularly traumatized, developing anti-so- bore the same name, albeit in its Proven- cial attitudes as they developed, and suf- cal form, Magali. She became Maman Maga- fering as adults because of an inability to li, a good mother whom Michel accepted, attach themselves. but his sister Catia, several years older, Anxiety and distress experienced by did not. A rebellious child, resentful parents was borne by fetuses in their moth- of her father, she grew into a troubled ers’ wombs. Merely imagining what their adult who committed suicide at the age of parents suffered when they were forced 35. Nevertheless, the absence of Maman to give them up to strangers or institu- Grète always troubled Michel: he had tions was troubling enough for these been denied the knowledge of why and “last witnesses.” Infant amnesia did not how his natural mother died, and he had preclude pain: what they sensed impact- to abide the heavy silence that the fam- ed their future development. As adults, ily had clamped down on the subject. they became vulnerable to depression. She was never mentioned in conversa- the same category of survivors. At the Infants whose parents did not survive the tions, and Michel did not dare to pain time of liberation, few — if any — had Shoah were often registered after the war his father who had suffered so much by yet emerged from the age that a child retains under the names of their caregivers, never questioning him. As an adult, he even- consistent memories. Nevertheless, they learning their true identity, or discover- tually pieced together the story of his bear all the consequences of trauma. ing it late in life. mother’s life by lengthy and laborious Fohn and Englander, two Belgian clini- The consequences of their trauma are research in family archives, diaries, and cal psychologists, were themselves hidden at times reflected within their children, Grète’s letters, art work and personal babies during the Shoah. Their study of a born long after the end of the Shoah. While child-survivors asserted in the 1990s their distinctiveness from adult CORRECTIONS survivors, those who were babies during In René Goldman’s review of Face au miroir sans reflet by Charles Zelwer in the the Shoah felt themselves completely 2016 issue, Vol. XXIV, page 40, Prof. Goldman erroneously stated that Mr. Zelw- excluded, because they were unable to er’s younger son committed suicide. In fact, the attending physician concluded verbalize or concretize their traumas. that the young man’s death had been caused by a severe epileptic seizure. Also, The authors conclude that “hidden though Mr. Zelwer’s elder son is afflicted by schizophrenia, Mr. Zelwer, himself, babies” can overcome their emotional never had this ailment. Mr. Zelwer acknowledges only a condition of neurosis, difficulties and construct their selves now cured, due to earlier problems of identity resulting from his wartime expe- through encounters with good persons, riences as a “hidden child.” Finally, Charles Zelwer emphasizes his daughter is notably sensible professional psycholo- resoundingly normal — hence no need for modifying italics. gists, intellectual and artistic activities, and identification with Jewish culture.

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CEUX QUI RESTENT (Those Who Remain) By David Lescot FILM Entretiens avec Wlodka Blit-Robertson et Paul Felenbok NRF Gallimard, Paris, 2015, 122 pages REMEMBER US: THE HUNGARIAN HIDDEN CHILDREN As the subtitle indicates, the book is a A documentary about the hidden children of The Holocaust, 2017, 2h 29min record of dialogues held by David Lescot (prolific French playwright and musi- Director: Rudy Vegliante cian, laureate of the Grand Prix de Littéra- Writers: Holly Vogler (adaptation), ture Dramatique 2008) with a woman and John T. Wright (adaptation) a man. The woman: Wlodka Robertson, lives in London; the man, Paul Felenbok, “Remember Us,” a documentary filmed by Green lives in Paris. The two are cousins, who Leaf Productions, is about four Jewish children as children were miraculously extracted who were hidden in Hungary during the Nazi from the Warsaw Ghetto: Wlodka was occupation. Their experiences show the various pulled over the walls, Paul was smuggled ways in which their lives were saved, often with out through the sewers. the help of some Righteous Christians, or even The inspiration to write this book in one case, by the Nazis themselves. Evi Blaik- came to David Lescot during the course ie revisits her hiding place in the countryside of a conversation on a public bench, in with her granddaughter. Marika Barnett, Susan Lille, with the daughter of Paul Felen- Bendor and Gabor Vermes, who had remained bok, Veronique. Thereafter, Lescot met in Budapest, recall their harrowing experiences Paul and Wlodka and interviewed them, and narrow escapes during that terrible time. recording their stories as they narrated All four met in New York City at the first Interna- them in response to his questions. He tional Gathering of the Hidden Child in 1991, and made no attempt to compose a work of later formed a group known as The Hungarian literature and characterizes his text as Hidden Children of New York. The film is based “subjective and objective at the same on their book, “Remember Us,” published in 2010. The film received an Emmy time” – subjective, because the inter- Award and various other prizes. viewees narrated their stories in the first person, and objective in the sense that Lescot recorded facts and events in a fac- tual, almost unemotional, manner. The families of Paul and his brother, Ghetto! child in the Warsaw Ghetto. But as the and of Wlodka and her twin sister, were After the Liberation Paul lived in a 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghet- related, and they lived in the same build- Jewish children’s home in Lodz. In 1946 to Uprising approached, along with his ing on Warsaw’s Leszno Street. Paul’s he was brought to France, where he and I 79th birthday, Paul Felenbok accepted the father was a jeweller, Wlodka’s father were companions in the same CCE chil- opportunity offered him by David Lescot was one of the leaders of the Bund (Jew- dren’s homes, beginning with the Denou- to break his lifelong silence. ish Social-Democratic Party). In their val Manor in Andresy. Stimulated by Lescot’s play CEUX QUI RESTENT met homes, they spoke Polish, rather than the ambitions that his elder brother with considerable acclaim not only on the Yiddish. Forced out of their fairly comfort- nurtured in him, Paul made a remark- Paris theater scene, but also when it was able homes into the slums of the ghetto, able ascent to professional distinction: performed, with English subtitles, at Princ- the two families experienced gnawing his engineering and scientific studies eton University and poverty, distressing living conditions, in Paris and Berkeley were crowned in September 2016. and the terrors of the round-ups for by promotions to astrophysicist at the Treblinka-bound transports. After the Paris observatory, and member of René Goldman is a graduate of Colum- their rescue from the ghetto Paul and the scientific team in charge of the bia University and a retired professor of his brother were hidden for a while, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Chinese history at the University of British amazingly in the house that concealed Hawaii’s highest volcano, Mauna Loa. It Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is a the broadcasting station of the Polish is worth noting that the current presi- native of Luxembourg and a child-survivor underground resistance. Wlodka and her dent of the Observatoire de Paris is one of the Shoah in Belgium and France. René sister were sheltered by a succession of of Paul’s former graduate students. has published his own biography, A Child Polish families, beginning with one that Throughout his life, Paul refused to speak on the Move: Memoirs of a Child-Survivor lived across the street from the Warsaw in public about what he had endured as a of the Holocaust.

43 THE OBLIGATIONS, BURDENS AND GIFTS OF MEMORY

FIRST COUSINS – SOLE SURVIVORS OF THEIR PATERNAL FAMILIES – UNITED By Jeanne Kopolovitch

I was born Jeanne Brodmann in Bel- Brodmann. It was revealed that both fathers gium in 1940 to immigrant parents, who had been born in the village of Vishnitza in had arrived from Germany, though they were southern Poland. No other details were Left to right: Zehava Roth (née Brodmann), MDA originally from Poland. They first settled available, and no connection had yet been representative, Susan Edel, and Jeanne Kopolovitch in Antwerp and then moved to Schaerbeek, made. However, Zehava told Ita that in (née Brodmann). from where they were sent to the transit Jerusalem there was a Yeshiva called the camp of Malines and deported to Auschwitz Galiciana Collel, which, before September in January 1944. 1939 had been supported by the Brodmann From the little I know, my parents left brothers. me with Gentiles before being deported. Ita paid a visit to this collel in Meir When I became old enough to understand, Shar’im in the hope of finding a connec- I felt very alone and always believed I was tion between my father’s family and Zeha- the sole survivor on my father’s side of va’s. Ita did not find any connection here the family. In 1946, an uncle on my moth- either but did notice that large donations er’s side, who had gone to the U.S. in 1939, had once been sent every month from the found me listed as a survivor and brought Brodmann brothers. me to live with his family in New York. It was then suggested that I contact the Because I did not speak English, I first International Tracing service of the Red stayed for half a year with a very kind fam- Cross to perhaps find more information from ily named Levkowitch, who spoke French their archives. This was done with the with me. When I had learned sufficient help of an MDA representative in Israel, English, I moved back across the street to Susan Edel, and within 4 weeks, on June live with my aunt and uncle. 10, a reply was received from the Belgian In 1960 I came to Israel to a Kibbutz Red Cross. Now I was in possession of my to study Hebrew. Here I met some girls grandparents’ names — Avner and Leah. my own age with whom I became close This same friend, who knows Zehava Roth, friends. During this time, we toured Israel offered to call her to ask if she knew the and spent Shabbat in Meron, where I met names of her grandparents. my husband. We settled in Meron and had Imagine, Zehava gave her grandparents’ three children, but tragically my husband names as Avner and Leah — the same as was killed in the Six Day War. I struggled my grandparents, confirming that the two to run our farm, yet I was able to raise a fathers H”YD were brothers! Zehava didn’t lovely family. Today I have many grand- even know that her father had had an children and great-grandchildren. older brother, whose name was Hirsch, On Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memori- since he had left Vishnitza before Zehava al Day), May 10, 2016, I was watching the was born. All of a sudden, Zehava and I Yad Vashem commemoration on television. became real first cousins! The major speaker for the Lighting of the The first telephone call between us was Six Candles was a woman by the name very exciting and we arranged to meet on of Zehava Roth, (a sole survivor on her June 21, 2016, with her children and mine. father’s side) who mentioned that she was The Red Cross representative from MDA, born to Moshe and Chana Brodmann. After Susan Edel, also came. At this meeting, the program, I called a close friend who old photos were brought to compare had also heard the name Brodmann, and fathers and other family members. An she said she was acquainted with Zehava. atmosphere of deep emotion prevailed. The following day my daughter Ita called Now we have coffee together and call Zehava and explained who she was, add- each other before Shabbat each week. After ing that her mother’s maiden name was also more than 70 years we found each other! n