DOCSLIB.ORG

SURVIVORS Photo: Vesna Domany, Age 10 Months, of the When Separated from Her Mother

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SURVIVORS Photo: Vesna Domany, Age 10 Months, of the When Separated from Her Mother THE A PUBLICATION OF HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ADL HIDDEN VOLUME XXIV 2016 CHILD 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE INFANT SURVIVORS Photo: Vesna Domany, age 10 months, OF THE when separated from her mother. Zagreb, 1942. HOLOCAUST THE LAST WITNESSES INFANT SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE AFTER THE HOLOCAUST, e are dedicating this 25th anniver- alone, and they did and I think throughout THE HOLOCAUST CONTINUES sary issue to the youngest among most of my life… events just happened.” 3 Wus—the last witnesses—because When discussing their experiences, hid- time now weighs heavily upon all survivors, den children will often speak of fears and and because the lot of the infants, ignored confusions that seem unique to them. Our LIZZI, WAR AND MY FAMILY or dismissed for decades by older survivors, readers will gain great insight from the historians, scholars and psychologists, has study of infant survivors, written by Elisheva 7 been given its due only recently. van der Hal and Danny Brom, which deals We’re pleased to bring you articles from, with topics such as “Attachment, Loss and PORTRAIT OF A HIDDEN CHILD: and about, infant survivors in this year’s Coping” and “Remembering and Identity.” RENEE SACHS publication of The Hidden Child. The con- If there is one passage in this issue that tributors range from distinguished Israeli best encapsulates the state of infant survi- 10 psychologists, Elisheva van der Hal (born vors, it is the one expressed by Rabbi Joseph in Amersfoort, Holland, in 1944) and Danny Polak on page 5, and abbreviated here: Brom (also born in Holland), to prominent What then does it mean to be a witness A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER scholar and rabbi, Joseph Polak (born in to such an event which you don’t remember, IN WARTIME CROATIA The Hague, in October 1942), to remark- especially amidst the urgency that you may 14 able survivors, Renée Sachs (a teacher, born be its last witness (shades of Job’s servants: in Paris in March 1940) and Vesna Domany “and I alone have escaped to tell thee...”)? Hardy (a teacher, translator and journalist, What does it mean to witness an event EDUCATION OF HIDDEN JEWISH born in Zagreb in May 1941). Each had to which, when someone describes it, is not believ- CHILDREN DURING THE SHOAH overcome a lifetime of thoughtless taunts, able? What does it mean to witness an event “What can you remember?” and careless which, when you inquire about it during 19 comments, “You’re so lucky not to remember!” your early years, no one hurries to describe? Meaning, so lucky “not to have suffered.” What does it mean to witness an event MY WORK IN CLANDESTINE EDUCATION Most survivors, including the infants, which by your very survival, you negate? IN THE PIOTRKOW GHETTO succeeded, professionally and personally, The answer to these questions is that one in most surprising ways. Yet many still feel experiences one’s self as an utter fraud, and 22 that life’s gifts are ephemeral, mere shad- this sense of fraudulence carries its own ows that can be taken away from them in apparatus of destructive corollaries. It is INFANT SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST one catastrophic instant. As Joseph Polak to experience the utter de-legitimization of says in his recently published book, After one’s childhood; it is to be penalized as 24 the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring, “You can no other child for the normal amnesia of lead a reasonably healthy and productive pre-verbal childhood; it is to be discouraged life, while constantly feeling that it can into probing too deeply into one’s past, out of AN EMOTIONAL HANDICAP happen again, at any moment.” fear that whatever is unearthed will by defini- 33 There is a separateness that inhabits all tion be illegitimate; it is to join the hapless hidden children, the youngest most par- roster of other self-invalidated witnesses – ticularly. Renée Sachs expresses it best: they for their madness, you for your infancy. TREASURED MEMENTOS “…you’re just watching the world around you. We hope you will enjoy all the articles You’re never really a part of it. So every- in this special issue. 34 thing around you just happens. And if you don’t make waves… they’ll leave you Rachelle Goldstein, Editor HISTORY IN A BOTTLE 38 HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ADL 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-3560, BOOKS © 2016 Anti-Defamation League (212) 885-7900 Fax 212-885-5869 Vol. XXIV E-mail: [email protected], 42 EDITOR Rachelle Goldstein ADVISOR Dr. Eva Fogelman CO-DIRECTOR Rachelle Goldstein CO-DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR, SOCIAL SERVICES Carla Lessing DIRECTOR, FAMILY TRACING SERVICES Evelyne Haendel 2 INFANT25TH ANNIVERSARY SURVIVORS ISSUEOF THE HOLOCAUST INFANT SURVIVORS 25TH ANNIVERSARYOF THE HOLOCAUST ISSUE AFTER THE HOLOCAUST, THE HOLOCAUST CONTINUES By Joseph A. Polak Joseph A. Polak survived two concentration camps, Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen, as an infant. With permission of the author and Urim Publications, the following article has been excerpted from After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring, Rabbi Polak’s prize-winning mem- oir. (The book received the 2015 National Jewish Book Award; Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir.) This passage appears in the book as Chapter 8. (See also the Books section, page 41.) Below the proscenium of my childhood, children. somewhere in my third year, a massive Yet the population numbers, the death curtain starts to rise. Some gray corduroy counts, yield another story. Belgium lost of exceptional heft is rolling up perfectly, 50% of its Jews, even Germany too lost as if onto a bale for the first time. I alone “only” 50% of its Jews. The Netherlands, am on the stage, looking out into the on the other hand, lost 90% of its Jews. Of world. With the hiss of the curtain’s rise, 135,000 Dutch Jews, fully a 108,000 were the darkness of the stage is no more. From sent off to their deaths: 80% of Dutch Jewry. here on in, I am privy to all experience, in In his book, Hitler’s Bounty Hunters, Ad Technicolor. The amnesias of childhood Van Liempt (Berg Publishers, Oxford/NY, are finally over. I am not very self-aware. 2005), describes the particular zealotry I am old enough to retain memory. No exhibited by bounty hunters delivering Jews more deleted scenes of Westerbork or Ber- to the SS. In the years directly after the gen-Belsen. I am able to take in (“appre- war, these bounty hunters were indeed hend” the philosophers say) the world as prosecuted and sometimes executed, but my own. The curtain rises to a streaked, the picture emerging from these legal flawed dawn. depositions is in stark contrast to the world of the Resistance, and to the Dutch ••• as a humanitarian nation. To understand, though, the times in In fact, when the surviving Jews emerged which my mind finally opened up so that from hiding after the war, or limped home memory could form in a coherent, recov- from the camps, and they encountered erable way, to understand the times, the their old gentile neighbors, they had little culture, the background in which Mother certainty as to whether they were meet- and I, but especially Mother, found our- ing friend or foe, hero or villain, supporter Joseph and his mother, reunited. The Hague, Netherlands, selves facing in those immediate post-war or betrayer. circa 1946. years, allow me to depict in a few lines, As Judith Miller has pointed out,* the COURTESY, URIM PUBLICATIONS. the sheer headiness, corruptness, madness Dutch poured millions into the Anne Frank and – yes – joyous exhilaration of those days. house to give the impression that every Remember that no country in Europe Dutchman had been hiding a Jew in his – certainly Western Europe – bore within attic, when this was tragically very far from it such deep and enigmatic contradictions the truth. in its politics and ethics, its sadness and Returning Jews, moreover, encountered joy, and in its guilt and innocence, as did a Dutch community that in addition to its the Netherlands. overall grievous war experience had also Time and again, certainly early in the faced a massive food shortage in the last Nazi occupation, the courageous Dutch year of the war. Thousands had died of stood up to their conquerors. Serious pub- hunger, and so, not unlike the Poles, the lic marches and vigorous protests were Dutch saw themselves as victims of the organized. An effective Resistance was Nazis and not as bystanders – certainly developed that engaged in all kinds of sub- not as perpetrators. terfuge against the German military and The treatment of returning Jews was the SS, and managed to hide hundreds of awful – some were placed in concentration Jewish families and close to 5,000 Jewish Contined on next page 3 INFANT SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE camps on the Dutch border. Their fellow Was it cruelty beyond cruelty? You come sipation of the plague. It is also surprising- inmates often included Nazi perpetrators back from Bergen-Belsen, and Theresien- ly well depicted in Paul Verhoeven’s film awaiting trial. The Jews were detained until stadt, physically and emotionally decimat- (2007) Black Book. they could prove their Dutch nationality. ed, having no certainty that anyone in Others, upon reaching their homes, found your family is left alive — not even your ••• their houses occupied by strangers and children. You then engage in what must It must be April 1947, and although the were permitted only the partial return of be history’s most desperate, harrowing sun is shining, the Dutch spring still feels their confiscated effects.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Holocaust Narratives and Their Impact: Personal Identification and Communal Roles Hannah Kliger, Bea Hollander-Goldfein, and Emilie S
    LITJCS001prelspi-xiv 25.03.2008 09:58am Page iii Jewish Cultural Studies volume one Jewishness: Expression, Identity, and Representation Edited by SIMON J. BRONNER Offprint Oxford . Portland, Oregon The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2008 LITJCS06p151-174 28.01.2008 08:13pm Page 151 six Holocaust Narratives and their Impact: Personal Identification and Communal Roles hannah kliger, bea hollander-goldfein, and emilie s. passow Scholarly attention within the humanities and social sciences has con- verged on aspects of trauma and its aftermath, especially the effect of trauma on personal and cultural formations of identity. Studies that range in perspective from the anthropological, the sociological, and the historical to the literary, the psychological, and the philosophical examine the long-term consequences of the experience of trauma on human beings and how their constructions of traumatic memories shape the meanings they attribute to these events (Brenner 2004; Lifton 1993; Van der Kolk, McFarlane, and Weisaeth 1996). Researchers from a variety of perspectives have investigated the history of the concept of trauma, and have offered their observations on the impact of overwhelming life experiences on those affected by genocidal persecution (Caruth 1996; Leys 2000). For the Jewish historical and cultural narrative, particularly of the last century, the experience of trauma and dislocation is communicated on two levels, as fam- ily discourse and as communal oral history. Friesel (1994) has noted the ways in which the Holocaust affects contemporary Jewish consciousness. Bar-On (1999) describes the interpretative strategies that survivors and their children employ to communicate real and imagined lessons of the Holocaust. From these and other studies, the forms of recording and transmitting the experiences of Jewish Holo- caust survivors offer lessons in the modes of adaptation and meaning-making in the aftermath of trauma.
    [Show full text]
  • Sprawuj Się (Do Good): Using the Experience of Holocaust Rescuers to Teach Public Service Values
    SPRAWUJ SIĘ (DO GOOD): USING THE EXPERIENCE OF HOLOCAUST RESCUERS TO TEACH PUBLIC SERVICE VALUES ARTICLE * CHRISTINA A. ZAWISZA Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1051 I. Krakow Conference Theme: Lawlessness and the Holocaust ......................... 1056 II. The Therapeutic Jurisprudence Framework ................................................... 1059 A. TJ Principles ............................................................................................... 1060 B. TJ Techniques and Methodologies ........................................................... 1061 III. Attributes of the Altruists in the Holocaust .................................................. 1064 A. Individual Rescuers.................................................................................... 1065 B. Group Rescuers .......................................................................................... 1067 C. Why Would the Altruists Do What They Did? ........................................ 1068 IV. Rewinding and Reframing the Krakow Conference Through a Therapeutic Jurisprudence Lens ..................................................................... 1072 V. Teaching Professional Service Values from this Rewound and Reframed Lens .................................................................................................. 1075 A. Attributes of the Millennial Generation ................................................... 1075 Conclusion ............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived
    The Hidden® Child VOL. XXVII 2019 PUBLISHED BY HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION /ADL DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED FROM HUNTED ESCAPEE TO FEARFUL REFUGEE: POLAND, 1935-1946 Anna Rabkin hen the mass slaughter of Jews ended, the remnants’ sole desire was to go 3 back to ‘normalcy.’ Children yearned for the return of their parents and their previous family life. For most child survivors, this wasn’t to be. As WEva Fogelman says, “Liberation was not an exhilarating moment. To learn that one is all alone in the world is to move from one nightmarish world to another.” A MISCHLING’S STORY Anna Rabkin writes, “After years of living with fear and deprivation, what did I imagine Maren Friedman peace would bring? Foremost, I hoped it would mean the end of hunger and a return to 9 school. Although I clutched at the hope that our parents would return, the fatalistic per- son I had become knew deep down it was improbable.” Maren Friedman, a mischling who lived openly with her sister and Jewish mother in wartime Germany states, “My father, who had been captured by the Russians and been a prisoner of war in Siberia, MY LIFE returned to Kiel in 1949. I had yearned for his return and had the fantasy that now that Rivka Pardes Bimbaum the war was over and he was home, all would be well. That was not the way it turned out.” Rebecca Birnbaum had both her parents by war’s end. She was able to return to 12 school one month after the liberation of Brussels, and to this day, she considers herself among the luckiest of all hidden children.
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Halper's “Prelude”
    p rism • an interdisciplinaryan journal interdisciplinary for holocaust educators journal for holocaust educators • a rothman foundation publication an interdisciplinary journal for holocaust educators editors: Dr. karen shawn, Yeshiva University, nY, nY Dr. jeffreY Glanz, Yeshiva University, nY, nY editorial Board: Dr. Aden Bar-tUra, Bar-Ilan University, Israel yeshiva university • azrieli graduate school of jewish education and administration DarrYle Clott, Viterbo University, la Crosse, wI Dr. keren GolDfraD, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Brana GUrewItsCh, Museum of jewish heritage– a living Memorial to the holocaust, nY, nY Dr. DennIs kleIn, kean University, Union, NJ Dr. Marcia saChs Littell, school of Graduate studies, spring 2010 the richard stockton College of new jersey, Pomona volume 1, issue 2 Carson PhIllips, York University, toronto, Ca i s s n 1 9 4 9 - 2 7 0 7 Dr. roBert rozett, Yad Vashem, jerusalem, Israel Dr. David Schnall, Yeshiva University, nY, nY Dr. WillIaM shUlMan, Director, association of holocaust organizations Dr. samuel totten, University of arkansas, fayetteville Dr. WillIaM YoUnGloVe, California state University, long Beach art editor: Dr. PnIna rosenBerG, technion, Israel Institute of technology, haifa poetry editor: Dr. Charles AdÈs FishMan, emeritus Distinguished Professor, state University of new York advisory Board: stePhen feInBerG, United states holocaust Memorial Museum, washington, D.C. Dr. leo GoldberGer, Professor emiritus, new York University, nY Dr. YaaCoV lozowick, historian YItzChak MaIs, historian, Museum Consultant GerrY Melnick, kean University, NJ rabbi Dr. BernharD rosenBerG, Congregation Beth-el, edison; NJ Mark sarna, second Generation, real estate Developer, attorney Dr. David SilBerklanG, Yad Vashem, jerusalem, Israel spring 2010 • volume 1, issue 2 Simcha steIn, historian Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • 1984 Holocaust Conference at Yale Education And
    1984 HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE AT YALE EDUCATION AND THE HOLOCAUST: NEW RESPONSIBILITIES AND COOPERATIVE VENTURES Sponsored by the Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale and Facing History and Ourselves October 28 - 29, 1984 Whitney Humanities Center 53 Wall Street New Haven, Connecticut PROGRAM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28,1984 Registration Display of Materials of Participants (Auditorium) Materials for display will be accepted from 10:OOam Conference Introduction (Room 208) Welcoming Remarks by Geoffrey Hartman Introduction of Participants and Organizations by Margot Stern Strom Challenges in the Field of Education Moderated by William Parsons An Urban Perspective - Marcia Littell The Washington Museum - David Altschuler A State University - Alvin Rosenfeld State Mandated Education - Edwin Reynolds Coffee Break Witness Accounts: Problems and Promises Lawrence Langer Discussion moderated by Lawrence Langer and Geoffrey Hartrnan Cocktails and Dinner Focus Abroad - Special Public Event CANADA ALAN BARDIKOFF FRANCE MICHAEL POLLAK HOLLAND RABBI AWRAHAM SOETENDORP ISRAEL YEHUDA BAUER WEST GERMANY JACOV KATWAN Auditorium - Open to the Public MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1984 8:30am - 9:OOam Coffee 9:OOam - 9:30am Connections: An Open Discussion (Room 208) 9:30am - 10:OOam Trying to Get Things Together: The Case of New Haven - Dorothy and Jerome Singer 10:OOam - 11:Wam Archival ~at&ial:Coordinating Access and Retrieval A Researcher's Perspective - Joan Ringelheim An Archivist's Perspective - Sandra Rosenstock Toward a Shared Communication System- Katharine
    [Show full text]
  • University of Southampton Research Repository Eprints Soton
    University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMTPON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Modern Languages Perceptions of Holocaust Memory: A Comparative study of Public Reactions to Art about the Holocaust at the Jewish Museum in New York and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1990s-2000s) by Diana I. Popescu Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2012 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHMAPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Modern Languages Doctor of Philosophy PERCEPTIONS OF HOLOCAUST MEMORY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC REACTIONS TO ART EXHIBITIONS ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN NEW YORK AND THE ISRAEL MUSEUM IN JERUSALEM (1990s-2000s) by Diana I. Popescu This thesis investigates the changes in the Israeli and Jewish-American public perception of Holocaust memory in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and offers an elaborate comparative analysis of public reactions to art about the Holocaust.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hidden Child VOL
    The Hidden Child VOL. XXIII 2015 PUBLISHED BY HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION®/ADL AS IF IT WERE Two young children, one wearing a yellow star, play on a street in the Lodz ghetto, 1943. The little YESTERDAY girl is Ilona Winograd, born in January 1940. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Ilona Winograd-Barkal. AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY A JEWISH CHILD IN CHRISTIAN DISGUISE WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND 9 EXTRAORDINARILY GUTSY: THE MAKING OF THE FILM COMME SI C’ÉTAIT HIER (AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY) (1980) THE SEARCH FOR PRISONER 1002: RICHARD BRAHMER By Nancy Lefenfeld 14 One summer day in 1976, while on a heavily on Myriam’s mother, Léa; she asked visit to Brussels, Myriam Abramowicz found her daughter to visit Mrs. Ruyts and extend herself sitting in a kitchen chair, staring at the family’s condolences. AVRUMELE’S WARTIME MEMOIR the back of the woman who had hidden her Myriam had been born in Brussels short- 18 parents during the German Occupation. It ly after the end of the war and had spent was four in the afternoon—time for goûter— her early childhood there. When she was and Nana Ruyts was preparing a tray of six years old and a student at the Lycée TRAUMA IN THE YOUNGEST sweets to serve to her guest. Describing Carter, there was, in Myriam’s words, “an HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS the moment nearly forty years later, Myri- incident.” “In the courtyard during recess, 26 am ran an index finger over the curve that a little girl by the name of Monique—her lay at the base of her skull and spoke of father was our butcher—called me a sale the vulnerability of this part of the human Juif, a dirty Jew, and I hit her, and then my LA CASA DI SCIESOPOLI: ‘THE HOUSE’ anatomy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holocaust to the General Public in a Comprehensible, Yet Historically Accurate Manner
    A Study Guide By Plater Robinson Published by The Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS "The universe exists on the merit of the righteous among the nations of the world, and they are privileged to see the Divine Presence." -- The Talmud THE GOOD SAMARITAN And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinking thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
    [Show full text]
  • German Studies Association
    GERMAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION Forty-First Annual Conference October 5 – 8, 2017 Atlanta, Georgia Cover photo: Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph by David E. Barclay. Program of the Forty-First Annual Conference German Studies Association October 5–8, 2017 Atlanta, Georgia Sheraton Atlanta Hotel German Studies Association Main Office PO Box 1287 Indian Rocks Beach, FL 33785 USA Tel.: (269) 267-7585 www.thegsa.org e-mail: [email protected] President Mary Lindemann (2017-2018) University of Miami Vice President Johannes von Moltke (2017-2018) University of Michigan Secretary-Treasurer Gerald A. Fetz University of Montana Executive Director David E. Barclay Kalamazoo College GSA Board: Sara Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago (2019) Jennifer Kapczynski, Washington University in St. Louis (2017) Thomas Kühne, Clark University (2018) Eric Langenbacher, Georgetown University (2018) Imke Meyer, University of Illinois at Chicago (2018) H. Glenn Penny, University of Iowa (2017) Jared Poley, Georgia State University (2017) Nicholas Stargardt, University of Oxford (2019) Sarah Wiliarty, Wesleyan University (2019) Sabine Hake, University of Texas at Austin, ex officio non-voting Irene Kacandes, Dartmouth College (2018), ex officio non-voting © Copyright 2017 by German Studies Association Institutional Members Johns Hopkins University Freie Universität Berlin McDaniel College University of Montana Universität Erfurt National Chengchi University Florida State University Depauw University University of West Florida Cornell University University of Calgary University of Michigan Wartburg College German Institute American Friends of the Documentation Center of the Austrian Resistance Tokyo Daigaku Bungakubu Former Presidents of the Association David Kitterman, 1976–78 Reece Kelley, 1979–80 Charles Burdick, 1981–82 Wulf Koepke, 1983–84 Konrad Jarausch, 1985–86 Ehrhard Bahr, 1987–88 Ronald Smelser, 1989–90 Frank Trommler, 1991–92 Jay W.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holocaust, Museum Ethics and Legalism
    THE HOLOCAUST, MUSEUM ETHICS AND LEGALISM JENNIFER ANGLIM KREDER* I had dreamed, we had always dreamed, of something like this, in the nights of Auschwitz; of speaking and not being listened to, of finding liberty and remaining alone. PRIMO LEVI, THE TRUCE 47 (1966). Abstract: The “Holocaust art movement” has led to significant and controver- sial restitutions from museums. This article focuses on two emotionally driven claims to recover a suitcase stolen from a murdered man and water- colors a woman was forced to paint for Josef Mengele to document his pseudo-scientific theories of racial inferiority and his cruel medical ex- periments. Both claims are asserted against the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, which has refused to return the objects. These claims provide insightful case studies for examining the emotional and ethical as- pects of such disputes. Drawing from a number of disciplines, this article demonstrates the inadequacy of the dominant frameworks influencing the cultural property field, which are grounded in property law, morality and utilitarianism, for evaluating the Holocaust-related claims. This article also demonstrates that the International Council of Museums (“ICOM”) * Associate Professor of Law, Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center; B.A., University of Florida. The Author was a litigation associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where she worked on art disputes and inter-governmental Holocaust negotiations and litigation before entering academia. The Author wishes to thank Kristin Messer and Megan Mersch for their superb research assistance, Zan Burkhardt for her technological assistance and Chase College of Law and Northern Kentucky University for their support.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hidden Child, the Foundation's Publication, Vol. XXVI 2018
    THE SECOND AND THIRD GENERATIONS SECURE THE LEGACY MY HIDDEN MOTHER 3 IT’S IN THE DNA: EPIGENETICS AND INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA 6 n her book, Catherine Edmunds sets out to find her hidden mother by focusing “into the personal, the small, the everyday,” to see “what happens when an ordinary A GERMAN JEWISH REFUGEE life is thrown into disarray by extraordinary, vast, and terrible events.” Tammy TURNED AMERICAN SOLDIER FINDS IBottner, a physician, writes about her father’s and grandparents’ experiences; here, HIS PARENTS HIDING IN BELGIUM we publish her chapter on the transmission of trauma through DNA. At a family Shab- 8 bos dinner, Daniel Fachler, a third-generation in Costa Rica, is shown a copy of our 2017 issue and is inspired to send us his translation of his grandfather Shloime’s story A JEW SENT TO A CONCENTRATION of survival. In Canada, Hy Braiter finds his late father Samuel Braiter’s Yiddish memoirs CAMP FOR HELPING A JEW and has them translated into English. Krystyna Plochocki, a hidden child herself, trans- 13 lates her mother’s memories of Ravensbrück, where, in an odd but life-saving twist, she had been incarcerated for “helping a Jew” during the Holocaust. Putting all these family dynamics into perspective, noted psychologist Eva Fogelman speaks about how MY SURVIVAL IN POLAND the second and third generations confront the problems of elderly Holocaust survivors. 15 It took many decades and much courage for Pinchas Zajonc to write about the murder of his family in a Polish forest in February 1944. First-time writer Sylvia Hanna THE YELLOW STAR finally opens up about hiding in an underground bunker for two years.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hidden Child, the Foundation's Publication, Vol. XXV 2017
    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 celebration 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 YAD VASHEM 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.
    [Show full text]