AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM

Vol. 43-No. 5 ISSN 0892-1571 May/June 2017-Iyyar/Sivan 5777 WE WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP THE FLAME OF REMEMBRANCE SHINING BRIGHT ANNUAL BENEFIT GALA IN LOS ANGELES here wasn’t an empty seat or a mentaries dealing with the incompre- forgotten…will never be twisted, dis- commitment that these heroes have T dry eye in the Beverly Wilshire hensible reality that was the torted or denied. In this room tonight, shown in becoming vital parts of their Hotel Ballroom as the American Holocaust were being produced.” Wilf we bridge a powerful nexus of communities. Society for Yad Vashem — Western announced an eight-day international, Hollywood and legacy.” As the number of Holocaust sur- Region and the Jewish Life multigenerational mission to Vienna Bill Bernstein, Western Region direc- vivors continues to diminish every Foundation hosted their annual benefit and Israel in July, 2018 marking tor of institutional advancement of day, the importance of keeping the gala on June 14, 2017. The evening Israel’s 70th anniversary year, and ASYV, recognized the 40 Holocaust memories alive plays a crucial role in honored the late Edita and Abraham invited all to participate. survivors that were in attendance and educating future generations about Spiegel family, represented by daugh- onsul General of Israel for Los introduced Max Webb, the oldest the Holocaust. Shaya Ben Yehuda, ter Rita Spiegel; the feature CAngeles Sam Grundwerg also Holocaust survivor in Los Angeles, Yad Vashem’s managing director of film Denial; and world-renowned musi- noted the contributions of the enter- who recently celebrated his 100th the International Relations Division, cian, singer and famed KISS reinforced this concept in his co-founder Gene Simmons poignant remarks, when he and his mother, Holocaust sur- stated, “We will continue to vivor Flora Klein. keep the flame of remem- Karen Sandler served as brance shining bright.” the gala chair and introduced Following video messages Chairman of the Yad Vashem from Harvard Law Professor Directorate Avner Shalev, Emeritus Alan Dershowitz and who began the program with from Deborah Lipstadt, author a powerful message welcom- of the book History on Trial: ing the guests and recogniz- My Day in Court with a ing the evening’s honorees. Holocaust Denier, on which Lenny Wilf, chairman of the feature film Denial was ASYV, enumerated several of based, Jonathan King, execu- the important areas of Yad tive vice-president of Vashem’s efforts, including Participant Media, presented the ongoing work of the the Vanguard Award to Denial Holocaust History Museum, producer Gary Foster. “We and the International School have been overwhelmed by for Holocaust Studies, which the response to the film,” said educates tens of thousands Foster. “Deborah’s story has of scholars and educators moved people to tears and throughout the world in how emboldened them to speak to teach the Holocaust to Lenny Wilf, chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Gene Simmons, recipient of Legacy Award; Rita Spiegel, out. We live in a world where future generations. Lenny recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award; Gary Foster, recipient of the Vanguard Award; Ron Meier, executive director facts mean nothing and false recognized the ongoing sup- of the ASYV. narratives are everywhere. So port of the Hollywood community, tainment community, stating, “We birthday. Bernstein stated, “For me, at how do we differentiate between truth which “has for many years been an salute Hollywood to show apprecia- this challenging time in world history, and lies?” He continued, “That is why essential partner; starting in 1945, the tion for those who use their God-given Yad Vashem takes on a very special we need places like Yad Vashem. It year that marked the end of World talents and voice to insure that the meaning and responsibility. It is gives us our best chance to make an War II and the liberation of the con- stories, lessons and truths of the through the lessons learned from the impact on future generations.” centration camps, films and docu- Holocaust will never be Holocaust that we must remain vigilant “It would’ve been enough to tell in reminding the world that it is incum- Deborah’s story, but to have a film that bent on us…that without concerted elevates an issue that is so much in the effort from every corner of this earth, news and on our minds these days IN THIS ISSUE this terrible human tragedy will contin- made it even better,” Foster said. ASYV and Jewish Life Foundation Annual Benefit Gala...... 1, 8,16 ue to rear its ugly head.” “There is a difference between truth, The unbelievable heroic story of Ireland’s “Oskar Schindler”...... 2 hil Blazer, founder and presi- lies and opinion. There is a difference.” The Holocaust: Who are the missing million?...... 3 Pdent of JLTV, introduced his Ron Meier, ASYV executive direc- Roses in a Forbidden Garden...... 4 long-time friend and a Holocaust sur- tor, paid tribute to the Spiegel fami- Japan and the Jews...... 5 vivor, Jack Nagel, who recited the ly, heralding their building of the The clear and present danger facing Sweden’s Jews...... 6 HaMotzi blessing. Blazer, celebrating Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem ASYV Annual Spring Luncheon...... 9 over five decades in media, reflected as Edita and Abraham’s “crowning The Mufti and the Holocaust, revisited...... 12 on the powerful platform that JLTV achievement.” He went on to say, for children of survivors, the trauma’s in the genes...... 14 has provided in telling the stories of “What they built changed the He remarkably escaped the Holocaust...... 15 Holocaust survivors and the deep (Continued on page 16) Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 THE UNBELIEVABLE HEROIC STORY OF IRELAND’S OVERLOOKED “OSKAR SCHINDLER” application to Yad Vashem to have its Italian government collapsed ilies from the city.” BY MICHAEL RIORDAN, local hero, who is credited with con- O’Flaherty organized a group of s the Nazis began transporting THE TIMES OF ISRAEL cealing hundreds of Jews from the priests, anti-Fascists and diplomats to A Roman Jews to the camps, Gestapo, listed as Righteous Among help shelter Jews, escaped POWs O’Flaherty walked Ines Ghiron and s the Gestapo surrounds the the Nations. and refugees. He set up a network of her friends through the Gestapo-filled A palace of an Italian anti-Fascist O’Flaherty grew up the son of a golf safe havens in rented apartments and streets relying on false Vatican papers aristocrat, an Irish priest dashes to steward in Killarney, Ireland, and his religious houses throughout Rome. for safe passage. Ghiron wrote in her the cellar. He is wanted by the Nazis skill at the game helped ease his way Claudio-Ilan Jacobi, now living in memoirs that they all arrived safely at for his role in the daring rescues of Israel, is one of the Jews a convent in Monteverde run by Jews, POWs and refugees, but this O’Flaherty saved. He was Canadian nuns. time it seems there is no escape. away from the ghetto After the Gestapo became aware of Miraculously, a coal delivery being when the Gestapo raided O’Flaherty’s activities, it painted a white made to the palace offers the perfect it. line across St. Peter’s Square, dividing cover — the cleric blackens his face, “I saw the Monsignor the neutral Vatican from Fascist-con- hides his cassock and slips away to many times,” Jacobi wrote trolled Rome. Guards were placed freedom through the narrow cobbled in his statement for Yad nearby ready to snatch the monsignor streets of Rome. Vashem. “He helped my if he ever crossed. As a result, This dramatic scene, recreated in mother, my grandparents O’Flaherty became known locally as the 1983 movie The Scarlet and the and me find refuge from the Scarlet Pimpernel because of the Black starring Gregory Peck as the Nazis.” many disguises he donned during his Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, was just “He got false papers for forays into the capital. one of a number of close shaves for us from the Vatican as well The modest monsignor only came the doughty Irish priest and Vatican as food cards,” Jacobi to public attention in the 1960s when diplomat during his heroic campaign Lieutenant General John C.H. Lee presenting the US Medal of said. “I remember the books about his exploits were pub- to thwart the Gestapo in the Eternal Freedom to Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty. great appreciation my lished. City during World War II. mother had for all he did.” Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental, “Monsignor O’Flaherty left the safe- into Roman society. The priest played On one occasion O’Flaherty even who was the keynote speaker at the ty of the Vatican to run his escape with social luminaries such as threatened the doorman of Jacobi’s 2013 presentation of the annual line,” said Jerry O’Grady, chairman of Mussolini’s son-in-law Count apartment with excommunication for humanitarian award named in honor the Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty Galeazzo Ciano, as well as the former speaking too freely about the Jewish of O’Flaherty, told The Times of Israel Memorial Society in the priest’s Spanish King Alfonso. All his connec- family hiding inside. that “If he saved one Jew it’s as if he hometown in Killarney, Ireland. “The tions were to become very useful “The test for recognition by Yad saved thousands.” Gestapo had a price on his head and when he took on the unforeseen man- Vashem is very rigorous,” said O’Flaherty died in 1963 — just as they tried to kidnap him many times.” tle of rescuer. O’Grady, “so we are continuing to try his exploits were becoming the stuff The Society is now preparing an In the last years of the war, as the to trace Jewish survivors or their fam- of legend. NEW WHITEWASH OF FDR’S FAILURE TO BOMB AUSCHWITZ that were situated in the slave labor part in the Warsaw airlift. War II.” One was the internment of BY RAFAEL MEDOFF, sections of Auschwitz. When George McGovern first men- Japanese Americans; the other was THE JERUSALEM POST On August 7, 1944, US bombers tioned publicly, in 2004, that he had the decision “not to go after attacked the Trzebinia oil refineries, just been one of the pilots who bombed Auschwitz.... God forgive us for that f only Alonzo Hamby had met 21 km. from the gas chambers. On the Auschwitz area in 1944, interview- tragic miscalculation.” George McGovern! I August 20, a squadron of 127 US ers from the David S. Wyman Institute It’s a shame Hamby never met Hamby is the author of a new biog- bombers, accompanied by the all– for Holocaust Studies flew to South McGovern — he would have disabused raphy of president Franklin D. African American unit known as the Dakota to videotape his recollections. Hamby of the absurd notion that Roosevelt which defends FDR’ s fail- Tuskegee Airmen, struck oil factories McGovern described to them how, Auschwitz was out of America’s reach. ure to bomb Auschwitz, on the less than 8 km. from the gas chambers. at age 22, he piloted one of the B-24 ut then again, McGovern’s grounds that it was too far away for A teenage slave laborer named Elie “Liberator” bombers that targeted the statements about bombing US planes to reach. McGovern, the B Wiesel witnessed the August 20 raid. oil factories at Auschwitz. Auschwitz have been widely available US senator and 1972 Democratic A glance at Wiesel’s best-selling book “There is no question we should on the Internet for more than a presidential nominee, was one of the Night would have enlightened Hamby. have attempted... to go after decade now. Hamby could have World War II pilots who actually Wiesel wrote: “If a bomb had fallen on Auschwitz,” McGovern said. “There located them with even the most cur- bombed oil sites at Auschwitz — prov- the blocks [the prisoners’ barracks], it was a pretty good chance we could sory search of the literature on the ing that it was, in fact, not out of reach alone would have claimed hundreds have blasted those rail lines off the subject. Thus one suspects that even at all. of victims on the spot. But we were no face of the earth, which would have if Hamby had known of McGovern’s Hamby is a prominent historian and longer afraid of death; at any rate, not interrupted the flow of people to those experiences he would have looked for the author of a biography of Harry S. of that death. Every bomb that death chambers, and we had a pretty some other way to exonerate the Truman as well as several other well- exploded filled us with joy and gave good chance of knocking out those Roosevelt administration for its received books. us new confidence in life. The raid gas ovens.” refusal to bomb Auschwitz. Reviewers are already heaping lasted over an hour. If it could only Even if there was a danger of acci- But FDR and his administration do praise on his new FDR biography, as have lasted ten times ten hours!” dentally harming some of the prison- not deserve to be exonerated. well. Evidently they are unaware of There were additional Allied bomb- ers, “it was certainly worth the effort, Dropping a few bombs on Auschwitz the colossal error he makes in his ings of the Auschwitz oil factories despite all the risks,” McGovern said, or the railway lines leading to it would account of Roosevelt’s response to throughout the autumn. Allied because the prisoners were already not have undermined the war effort; it the Holocaust. bombers also flew close to Auschwitz “doomed to death” and an Allied simply would have conflicted with “The death camps were located in in 1944 to resupply the Polish Home bombing attack might have slowed Roosevelt’s view that the war against areas largely beyond the reach of Army forces that were fighting the down the mass murder process, thus the Jews was a sideshow which was American military power,” Hamby Germans in Warsaw. On August 8, saving many more lives. not America’s concern. The president writes in Man of Destiny: FDR and the British planes began air-dropping McGovern noted that he remained who presented himself to the public Making of the American Century. And: supplies to the Poles. Their flight an ardent admirer of President as the champion of the “forgotten “Auschwitz was in a Soviet area of route took them within a few kilome- Roosevelt. man,” as someone who embodied operations and at the outer limit of ters of Auschwitz. They would fly that “Franklin Roosevelt was a great humane values and cared about the American bomber range.” route 22 times during the two weeks man and he was my political hero,” he downtrodden, turned his back on the And yet, American bombers did to follow. In September, President said in the interview. “But I think he most compelling moral challenge of repeatedly bomb German oil factories Roosevelt ordered US planes to take made two great mistakes in World our times. May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3 THE HOLOCAUST: WHO ARE THE MISSING MILLION? “Every new name we can add to our This is apparent in the decreasing about 4.5 million Jews were mur- BY RAFFI BERG, BBC NEWS database is a victory against the number of Pages of Testimony it dered. Nazis, against the intent of the Nazis receives — down from at least 2,000 This is because while there was an iselle Cycowicz (born Friedman) to wipe out the Jewish people. Every remembers her father, Wolf, as G new name is a small victory against a warm, kind and religious man. “He oblivion.” was a scholar,” she says, “he always The institution, a sprawling complex had a book open, studying Talmud, of buildings, trees and gardens on the but he was also a businessman and western slopes of Mount Herzl, gath- he looked after his family.” ers details about the victims in two Before the war, the Friedmans lived ways: through information from those a happy, comfortable life in Khust, a with knowledge of the deceased, and Czechoslovak town with a large from archive sources, ranging from Jewish population on the fringes of Nazi deportation lists to Jewish Hungary. All that changed after 1939, school yearbooks. when pro-Nazi Hungarian troops, and Today Giselle has come to dedicate later Nazi Germany, invaded, and all her father’s name, nearly 73 years the town’s Jews were deported to after he was killed, a small piece in a Auschwitz. vast jigsaw. Giselle last saw her father, “strong She is helped by trained staff and healthy,” hours after the family through the process of recording Edik Tonkonogi from Satanov in Ukraine was murdered after the Nazis entered the town in 1941. arrived at the Birkenau section of the Wolf’s details on a Page of Testimony, per month five years ago to about organized, official process of arrest death camp. Wolf had been selected a one-page form for documenting 1,600 per month currently. and deportation further west, in the for a workforce, but a fellow prisoner biographical information about the he memorial is trying to raise east whole communities were under orders would not let her go to deceased, such as where they lived awareness, including among marched off and massacred without him. T before the war, their occupation and Holocaust survivors who have not yet any such formalities. “That would have been my chance the members of their family, and, if come forward. For decades, for many An estimated 1.5 million Jews alone to maybe kiss him the last time,” available, a photograph. of them, the experience was still too were shot to death by the painful to talk about. Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing “It’s quite a common occurrence, squads) in what has become known not only in Holocaust survivors but as the Holocaust by Bullets, after Nazi survivors of prolonged and extreme Germany invaded the Soviet Union in trauma in childhood,” says Dr. Martin June 1941. Auerbach, Clinical Director at In Babi Yar, in Ukraine, for instance, AMCHA, a support service in of the 33,000 Jews from Kiev and its Jerusalem for Holocaust survivors. surroundings who were slaughtered That began to change, he says, in a ravine in September 1941 in the after about 30 or 40 years, when largest massacre of its kind, about many survivors started talking about half are yet to be identified. what happened, not with their Others not murdered by the childr.en but with their inquisitive Einsatzgruppen died, without a trace, grandchildr.en. Dr. Auerbach sees the from starvation or exhaustion in ghet- Names Recovery Project as a valu- tos and labor camps, or were killed in able part of the healing process. nearby extermination camps, where Two-thirds of European Jewry was murdered by the Nazis. “Filling out this page of information they had been herded without any saying this was my father, mother, kind of processing. Giselle, now 89, says, her voice “Only two-thirds of the way down do grandfather, nephews and nieces — ad Vashem is working with cracking with emotion. we ask where they were during the you cannot bury your relatives who YJewish organizations in those Giselle, her mother and a sister sur- war and what happened to them,” perished, but you can remember countries to try to reach remaining vived, somehow, five months in “the Cynthia Wroclawski, deputy director them in a way that will commemorate survivors in the former Soviet Union, hell” of Auschwitz. She later learned of Yad Vashem’s Archives Division, them forever, so this is very important where the Holocaust was not officially that in October 1944 “a skeletal man” points out. and also therapeutic for many sur- commemorated, who may have little had passed by the women’s camp “We’re interested in seeing a person vivors.” awareness of the memorial’s exis- and relayed a message to anyone as a person and who they were alive in there from Khust. before they became a victim.” “Tell them just now 200 men were It is, the institution says, a kind of brought back from the coal mine. Tell paper tombstone. So far Yad Vashem them that tomorrow we won’t be here has collected 2.7 million Pages of anymore.” The man was Wolf Testimony. Friedman. He was gassed the next They are stored in black boxes, day. each containing 300 pages — 9,000 Six million Jews were murdered by boxes in all. They are kept in climate- the Nazis and their accomplices during controlled conditions on shelves sur- World War II. In many cases entire rounding a central installation, a 30- towns’ Jewish populations were wiped foot-high conical structure lined with out, with no survivors to bear wit- the faces of men, women and children ness — part of the Nazis’ plan for the who were murdered, rising up total annihilation of European Jewry. towards the sky. Since 1954, Israel’s Holocaust Here in the Hall of Names, groups of memorial, Yad Vashem, has been visitors pass through in quiet contem- In Western Europe, the Nazis kept records of victims, such as this Frankfurt to Theresienstadt working to recover the names of all plation. There is space on the shelves deportation list. the victims, and to date has managed for 11,000 more boxes — or six mil- While Yad Vashem has made great tence. to identify some 4.7 million. lion names in all. strides in identifying victims from It is a massive and often complex “Every name is very important to With the last survivors dying out, Western and Central Europe — task. The memorial holds some 205 us,” says Dr. Alexander Avram, direc- Yad Vashem is facing a race against about 95% have now been million Holocaust-related documents, tor of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names time to prevent more than a million named — far fewer names have which are examined meticulously and the Central Database of Shoah unidentified victims disappearing been uncovered in Nazi-occupied in the search for names. [Holocaust] Victims’ Names. without a trace. areas of Eastern Europe, where (Continued on page 7) Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 A MOTHER’S DIARY: SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST IN UKRAINE, 1941–1944 A Mother’s Diary: Surviving the n the slim, absorbing volume by streets. Jews were soon ordered to How Sosia and her little family Holocaust in Ukraine, 1941–1944. ISosia Gottesfeld Zimmerman enti- live in a ghetto. A Judenrat was estab- lived through all of this is nothing By Sosia Gottesfeld Zimmerman. tled, A Mother’s Diary: Surviving the lished to fulfill Nazi orders vis-à-vis less than a miracle. Sosia credits Bookstand Publishing: Morgan Hill Holocaust in Ukraine, 1941–1944, we the Jews of Skala. At the start, these her husband, Zysio Zimmerman. He CA , 2015. 180 pp. $18.95 softcover. read the heart-wrenching and heart- orders dealt with supplying the Nazis was always somehow able to find stopping tale of surviving not just the with workers for their labor camps. REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN that unique Ukrainian farmer who — Nazis, but their “conscientious” and “The only purpose of this work was to for payment of money or gifts — “The Ukrainians were more than loyal helpers, the Ukrainians. Thus, exhaust the workers.” Indeed, “it was would take the family in for a short willing to carry out the extermina- set in Skala, a typical impossible to survive while. She also credits one particu- tion. They enjoyed watching the shtetl in eastern Poland in the camps for lar Ukrainian farmer who — despite Jews being killed in the streets (Galicia), the Diary long,” as laborers the shrewish anti-Semitism of his and fields, robbing them of their clearly and interestingly worked hours without wife, forever threatening to throw possessions and clothes after reveals with what obvi- end, continually beat- them out — kept the family for a total death, and their unquenched thirst ous jubilance the en by Nazi and of fourteen months. In return this for Jewish blood never ceased. Ukrainians awaited Ukrainian guards. farmer took everything the family The Ukrainian intellectuals and their supposed “libera- Then in September had. Still, it must be remembered, clergy urged Hitler to accelerate tors,” the Nazis, from 1942, hundreds of some Ukrainian farmers took every- the ‘final solution.’ If at all possi- their overlords, the Jews from Skala thing Jews had, supposedly as pay- ble, their enthusiasm for killing Soviets. It reveals with were put on trains for Jews and orgy of blood might have what appetite the extermination . . . at ment for hiding them . . . and then surpassed that of their masters.” Ukrainians awaited the Belzec. Assisting in betrayed them to the Nazis! From the Forward by Daniel moment they could this, too, were the inally, the Diary made this Zimmerman and Vivian pounce on all that the Ukrainians — who Freviewer think of her own fami- Zimmerman Furman-Rubin to Jews in their midst pos- knew, better than the ly and their survival among the A Mother’s Diary: Surviving sessed, making it their Nazis, just who the Lithuanians. Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, the Holocaust in Ukraine, own. At the same time Jews were, and one of the few, if not the only rabbi to 1941–1944 we follow the story of where, if they took survive the Kovno ghetto to be liber- utside of Holocaust survivors, Sosia and her immediate family — a flight from the ghetto, they could be ated by the Russians, once told her Ofew people know of the eager husband and son — in their desper- hiding. For that matter, at times the that for the Jews of Lithuania, the collaborators Hitler and the Nazis ate efforts to survive the evil of their Ukrainians, having organized them- Lithuanians were their umglik (dis- found to murder Jews as they made Ukrainian neighbors and the Nazis, selves into militias, rounded up Jews aster). They, like the Ukrainians, their determined, relentless, and who couldn’t have been happier with on their own and presented them to knew just who the Jews were, where bloody path through Eastern Europe. the more-than-willing accomplices the Gestapo! During these ruthless they could be hiding, and took pleas- It’s way past time they were more fully they discovered. captures, Ukrainians also stole as ure in identifying them for the Nazis. “recognized”! There were the Needless to say, just as they did much Jewish property as possible — It appears that for the Jews in Skala Lithuanians. There were the Latvians. everywhere, when the Nazis came to even returning with wagons to col- and the accompanying region, the There were the Estonians. There Skala in July 1941, they immediately lect piles of more Jewish posses- umglik was the Ukrainians! were the Ukrainians. It’s very difficult began their destruction of the lives of sions they couldn’t initially carry Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor of to figure out which group was worst! the 1,550 Jews who lived there. away. In fact, the Diary plainly pro- Media, Communication, and Visual Unfortunately, they all tie for that infa- Jewish homes were ransacked. Jews claims that it was “like a holiday for mous position! were attacked and murdered on the them.” Arts at Pace University. ROSES IN A FORBIDDEN GARDEN Roses in a Forbidden Garden: A We also learn about valiant efforts certain Jewish prisoners dared to ing accounts of ways other Jewish vic- Holocaust Love Story. Inge’s fiancé, Schmuel Berger, made make to aid others, in defiance of tims — much like Carl, Inge and By Elise Garibaldi. Decalogue to survive his own horror story. Sent unforgettable and unforgivable evil. Schmuel — refused to be victimized. Books: New York, 2016. 236 pp. by train with other young men to the Identified now as acts of stealth altru- he holding camp that held the $19.95 paperback. Auschwitz death camp, he was ism, these prohibited behaviors T Katz family was best known for spared on arrival for involved bravery, its extraordinary cultural life, one REVIEWED BY ART SHOSTAK slave labor and not compassion, empa- complete with a secret “university,” esperate to improve his family’s sent to a gas cham- thy, morality and sac- many musical organizations, a Dchances to avoid Holocaust ber. Later he was rifice. In bringing teenage-produced magazine, and martyrdom, Carl Katz, a former suc- transferred to the stealth altruism in even hidden late-night cabarets cessful businessman, agreed to help Dachau concentra- from the shadows, where humor offered invaluable com- administer a major dorm facility in tion camp. When it Roses in a Forbidden fort and distraction. Tragically, it was Theresienstadt, a Nazi transit camp. was evacuated by Garden adds to the also an overcrowded, disease-ridden, His dual role — vulnerable captive Nazi collaborators, he conventional horror high-anxiety site from which only and yet also camp administrator — escaped from a story an overdue about 17,100 of nearly 141,000 Jews was held in various forms by compa- derailed train strafed redemptive and held at one time or another survived rable victims in hundreds of other by several low-flying inspiring help story. Its to liberation. About 33,500 prisoners Nazi camps. Like Carl, many such Allied aircraft. He combination of horror died in the camp itself from disease, men and women, to their everlasting sought aid thereafter and help offers a wel- and exposure to the elements, filth, credit, became secret resisters. from German citizens come contrast to a malnutrition, overcrowding, over- Inge Katz, Carl’s young daughter, by pretending to be a predominantly woeful work, plagues, starvation, torture, and had a tender romance while impris- laborer who had Holocaust narrative. so on. Almost 90,000 were sent by oned in Theresienstadt, proving that come from the east to Finally, this enlight- train to gas chambers elsewhere. life there, at least for some, although work. Before his liber- ening and uplifting Carl was asked by the Council of incredibly difficult and precariously ation by American biography is distinctive Jewish Elders (aka Judenrat), a gov- uncertain, was not devoid of positive forces, Schmuel drew strength from in that its author, Elise Garibaldi, is an erning body beholden to the SS, to human experiences. Many decades unswerving faith in God’s protection American-born family member. One administer a very large dormitory that after captivity, Inge’s account of the and his heartfelt desire to be reunited hopes far more relatives of aging sur- housed the frail elderly, the camp’s entire experience details how resolute with Inge. vivors, especially creative and ener- insane inmates, and a large cooking prisoners like Carl and his daughter Throughout the book attention is getic grandchildren, will soon adapt her site. In return, he would receive effectively resisted dehumanization. paid to little-known forbidden efforts example and provide their own engag- (Continued on page 11) May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN POLAND FIND RESTITUTION CLAIMS “LIKE A CAROUSEL” — still in the name of her grandfather people whose property was seized before the war. About three million BY NINA SIEGAL, — remain, and Ms. Rosenberg is during the Holocaust, according to a Polish Jews were murdered in the THE NEW YORK TIMES fighting for their ownership, so that new report by the European Shoah Holocaust, along with at least 1.9 mil- she can give them to the family who Legacy Institute, based in Prague. lion other Polish civilians. ania Rosenberg was born in saved her. he report, more than 1,200 The report says that Holocaust vic- 1934 in Oswiecim, an industrial H “In Poland, there was no official pages, was based on three tims across Europe — not only Jews, town in the Galicia region of southern T process for this: You have to go to the years of research in 47 countries that but also Roma, gays, disabled people Poland. The concentration and exter- courts,” she said in a phone interview endorsed a 2009 pledge, known as and others — “had to navigate a fre- mination camp the Germans built quently unclear path to recover their there after their 1939 invasion, called property from governments and Auschwitz-Birkenau, would take the neighbors who had failed to protect lives of 1.1 million people. them, and often, who had been com- “No one was poor, no one was rich: plicit in their persecution.” We were all about average, like any It added, “Law was not the sur- small town,” Ms. Rosenberg, 82, vivors’ ally; more often it was their recalled. “I remember our backyard, enemy, providing impunity for thieves with dogs, hens and geese, where we and those who held stolen property.” had a cow, which my father bought In Poland, the injustice was com- when I was born because he said you pounded because “comprehensive should have your own milk. It was a private property restitution legislation happy childhood.” in the post-Communist era” was Her father imported and exported never enacted, according to the straw, hay and coal. He died in the report. camps, along with most of the town’s Although the issue is longstanding, Jewish community. Ms. Rosenberg it has been complicated by the rise to and her mother survived the war — Hania Rosenberg, who now lives in Stockholm, Sweden, survived the Holocaust and is now trying power in 2015 of the right-wing Law she hid with a gentile family, and her to get back the properties that her family had in Poland. and Justice Party. Party officials mother endured forced labor at a from Stockholm. “We did go to the the Terezin Declaration, to establish a acknowledge the enormity of the munitions plant. They later made their courts, but it was like a carousel: You restitution process for “immovable Holocaust, but they emphasize that way to Sweden. go around and around and around property” like land, homes and busi- Poland was the victim of both German Her grandparents had a three-story and around. You have to produce the nesses. and Soviet oppression and that many house and a general store, farmland documents that they need, and then It found that Poland had only partly minorities suffered; debates over and two garden plots in the nearby it’s not enough. There are always complied with an obligation to return remembrance have bedeviled proj- town of Ledziny. During the more documents you need to pro- communal Jewish property like syna- ects like a new World War II museum Communist era, the house and store vide.” gogues and cemeteries. in the seaside city of Gdansk. were expropriated. A shopping mall Poland is the only European Union The issue of restitution is especially “On what basis should Poland and new houses stand on what was nation that has not established formal fraught for Poland, which had decide that those with Jewish ances- once farmland. But two garden plots procedures to resolve claims made by Europe’s largest Jewish community (Continued on page 7) JAPAN AND THE JEWS intriguing topic. Nevertheless, it The American banker and financier, anti-Semite in Japan during the 20th BY SHELDON KIRSHNER, remains still largely untapped. Jacob Schiff, was instrumental in century. He had been influenced by THE TIMES OF ISRAEL Medzini’s wide-ranging book fills the securing loans for Japan during its French anti-Semites while serving as gap quite admirably. He deals with the war with Russia. Japan’s military attache in Paris dur- Japan’s attitude and policies influx of Jews into Japan from the Medzini claims that The Merchant of ing World War I. toward Jews from 1933 to 1945 — mid-19th century, the image of Jews Venice, translated into Japanese in the Nevertheless, the few thousand the years that coincided with the in Japanese society, the export of 1880s, had an impact on Japanese Jews living in Japan before World rise and fall of Nazi Germany — is anti-Semitism to Japan, the treatment perceptions of Jews. “Many Japanese War II were never seen as fifth colum- the subject of Meron Medzini’s fine meted out to Jews in Japanese-occu- readers thought that the typical Jew nists determined to undermine and fascinating work of scholar- pied Manchuria, China and Southeast was Shylock: clever, sly, untrustworthy, Japanese culture, says Medzini. ship, Under the Shadow of the Asia and the policies Japan formulat- and given to devious intrigues and “They were, at best, part of the foreign Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews ed with respect to Jewish refugees. manipulations,” he writes, adding that community, and therefore they did not During the Holocaust Era, pub- Portuguese conversos — Jewish this stereotype would reappear with arouse the passionate, often hysteri- lished by Academic Studies Press. converts to Christianity — were the greater strength from the 1920s cal response [Jews] encountered in he historiography of the first Jews to visit Japan. Jewish onward. Japan’s ruling elites had a Nazi Germany. Since they were never Holocaust is rife with books T traders and entrepreneurs estab- keen interest, verging on admiration, seen as an integral part of Japan, and about the mass murder of European lished themselves in Japan in the late for Jews, who they believed pos- subsequently were not viewed as Jews, yet Japan — a member of the 1850s, following the arrival of an sessed special talents in finance and enemies of that country, Japan’s soci- Axis alliance and a close ally of Nazi American flotilla commanded by international politics and wielded vast ety saw no need to destroy them.” Germany — is rarely mentioned in Mathew C. Perry. The majority of the influence over governments. Nazi ideas infiltrated into Japan this grim catalog of terror and mass newcomers were initially from nti-Semitism seeped into Japan toward the end of the 1930s as Adolf murder. The reason is clear. While Southeast Asia, China and Western after Japanese forces entered Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Alfred many of the 40,000 Jews living in A Europe. Later, Jews arrived from the Siberia in 1918. Japanese officers, Rosenberg’s The Myth of the Japan and its overseas possessions Middle East, Eastern Europe and the having been exposed to White Twentieth Century were retranslated were subjected to restrictions and United States. They largely settled in Russians who poured scorn on the and distributed. These turgid tracts theft of property due to their status as the cities of Nagasaki, Yokohama and 1917 Bolshevik revolution and dis- may have reinforced the Japanese foreign nationals, they were not Kobe. played hatred of Jews, brought back notion that Jews were disseminators humiliated or persecuted because The majority of Jewish migrants these ideas to Japan. By no coinci- of liberal, secular, universal, demo- they were Jews. Nor were they sin- were businessmen, but Albert Mosse, dence, the army officer who translat- cratic and Marxist ideas. gled out for extermination. Indeed, a German Jew, played an important ed the Protocols of the Elders of The Japanese government support- one Japanese diplomat single-hand- role in the development of the 1889 Zion into Japanese had been posted ed Zionist aspirations for a Jewish edly saved thousands of Jews. Meiji constitution. Still other Jews, in Siberia. An infantry officer, General national homeland in Palestine and Medzini, a Hebrew University histo- though not residents of Japan, were Shioden Nobutaka, would become endorsed the Balfour Declaration rian, is one of the few scholars who of immense assistance to the country. the most well-known and outspoken (Continued on page 11) has exhaustively delved into this Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 WHY REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST MATTERS MORE THAN EVER feet — the first casualty of this tragic were annihilated in Auschwitz. left arm — the numbers, 98706, his BY DORIAN GEIGER journey. Riteman was later transferred to Auschwitz prisoner ID — are forever “A fellow behind me, a tall fellow, he Dachau concentration camp. After etched there. Although the ink on his hilip Riteman was just 13 when says, ‘Maybe you can try shifting, being liberated by the Americans in arm has faded, the horrific memories the Nazis shoved him and his P move your feet, maybe one inch, 1945, he spent time in a displaced have not. The pain — and bitter- family onto a train bound for everybody moves an inch, and see if persons camp. He weighed just 34 ness — from his time in Auschwitz still Auschwitz from the Pruzhany ghetto we can put the dead body to the wall.’ kilograms. ring heavily in his voice. in Poland. At the time, he and his fam- We did this.” Then, in 1946, he landed in “That’s got to be told to our children, ily had no idea they were being carted The train continued rolling through Newfoundland, then pre- our grandchildren, great, great, great- to their deaths. the countryside. For Confederation Canada. grandchildren. So long as the world what felt like days, a This is just one gruesome snapshot exists, they should make sure that young mother’s baby of the Holocaust, which claimed the doesn’t happen to anybody. Period.” began crying. Its lives of about six million Jews during Today, Riteman is 95. He’s tired, screams still torment World War II. More than a million and hard of hearing. Yet, he’s still Riteman to this day. Jews like Riteman were hauled off to quite spry. At his quaint Canadian Then, it stopped. Auschwitz, but only a handful made it home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which “The baby died in the out alive. At least 960,000 perished he shares with his 85-year-old wife mother’s arms,” said there. Dorothy, whom he met in Montreal in Riteman bitterly. “She ccording to The Blue Card, an 1947, Riteman stares off into the dis- was hysterical.” A international organization that tance. Six or seven days provides financial assistance and For decades, he didn’t speak about passed. There was no, other resources to Holocaust sur- the horrors of the Holocaust, but it’s a food, water or bath- vivors, there are an estimated subject he now discusses openly — rooms. 100,000 survivors still Philip Riteman was just 13 when the Nazis forced him and his fam- “I peed every day in alive today, many of ily onto a train bound for Auschwitz. my pants. Everybody whom live in poverty. [defecates] in their pants and pees, “I will never forgive, “Three o’clock in the morning, and everybody screaming, crying — and I will never forget,” somebody [yells] and I see the unbelievable they could do this to said Fanny Starr, 95, German sitting with a gun and human beings.” another Polish screaming, yelling, ‘Out, out, you Then, one morning, they finally Holocaust survivor Jews!’” Riteman recalled. arrived at Auschwitz. Riteman was who endured the ter- They walked to the railroad tracks separated from his family, and it was rors of Auschwitz. and Riteman saw freight trains the last time he would ever see them . Starr, who now lives stretching as far as his eyes could “In the afternoon, my parents in Denver, Colorado, see. Riteman, a Polish Jew, said already was gassed,” he said, with lost her mother, two of about 100 people were crammed into tears in his eyes. her siblings, and many the trains, which measured roughly 8 “Trains after trains coming in. They other family members Fanny Starr. by 20 feet. The Nazis told them it gas them. Could you imagine? I could- to the gas chambers of would be an hour’s ride. n’t believe it. I was there a month and I the German concentration camp. She and something he treats as a duty — “Two hours gone, three hours didn’t believe they’d do this. I thought I remembers the atrocities well. Ashes largely so history doesn’t repeat itself. gone — all day on the train. [On] the was still going to see my parents. I will of burnt bodies fell like snow from the “You people are lucky,” he said. train we shake. The train slow, slow, still see my sisters, my brothers. Then I Auschwitz crematoriums, she said. “You’re living in heaven. You don’t you hear rifle shooting, but you can’t found out. I see people going to the “That was such a heinous crime even know it. I want you to wake up see it because you look to the boards. crematoriums, and they gassed 5,000, against humanity to try to annihilate and make sure it doesn’t happen And we stay, all glued together. Could 10,000 at one time. It’s very, very hard our race,” Starr added. “But thank again. That’s the reason I’m speaking you picture this? Can you imagine? I for me to talk about it.” God, they didn’t succeed. Six million in schools, universities. Make sure wouldn’t do this to animals.” Riteman’s entire family was extermi- people lost. People who committed [you] don’t hate nobody, don’t do no As the train clicked along the tracks nated by the Nazis. His father, moth- no crime, they killed nobody, without harm to anyone. Be a good person. on the seemingly endless ride, a man er, five brothers, two sisters, grand- no reason, we were just slaughtered.” Maybe we could make a better world soon dropped dead at Riteman’s parents, and nine uncles and aunts The black tattoo ink on Riteman’s to live for everybody.” THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER FACING SWEDEN’S JEWS Who is really stirring up anti- village. As was often the case with destination for the extraordinary res- tion, we were taught to approach our Semitism to new heights in survivors, Frajda and Jankel, in an act cue of Danish Jews across the Straits Judaism as a distinctive but guarded Sweden? It’s not who you thought. of perseverance and survival, formed of Öresund, and as the home for the bond. Non-Jews were commonly a new bond upon their arrival. The White Buses that rescued my grand- referred to as “Swedes” by my par- BY DANIEL RADOMSKI, HAARETZ first result of this union came in 1946, parents. ents, and, even though I never knew n 1945, my paternal grandparents in the shape of their firstborn — my n 1969, my family again experi- any other homeland, for many years Iwere brought to the Swedish sea- father, Chaim. Ienced the embrace of Swedish this paradox seemed natural to me. side industrial town of Malmö on My grandparents worked hard to salvation. My mother Dora, a 19-year- We took great pride in being part of a buses organized by Count Folke integrate into Swedish society and to old Polish student of chemistry, was minority that united us and gave us Bernadotte’s Red Cross. Recently build a new life. The Sweden that given a way to escape from the new strength as well as a sense of identi- saved from the unspeakable horrors offered a new beginning had chosen wave of anti-Semitism that engulfed ty — unique features that willingly of Auschwitz, Frajda Rozental and a self-proclaimed neutrality through- Poland in the late 1960s. Sweden’s separated us from the Swedish main- Jankel Radomski did not know each out the war, with the clear and prag- provision of yet another new future for stream. Although the Jews integrated other upon arrival in Sweden. They matic intention to protect the country my family secured my everlasting after the war and subsequently had both suffered dreadful losses — against invasion at all costs. This gratitude. However, the country’s war- excelled both in academia and in a but they had survived. included allowing the German troops time history still soiled its virtue. When wide array of professional pursuits, For Jankel, his parents and siblings, of the Engelbrecht battalion free pas- compiling a high school essay on the internal will to retain the group’s as well as his newly founded young sage via railroad to Norway, enabling Sweden during World War II, I separate and special standing was family, had all been executed. Frajda its occupation. Subsequently, over encountered graphic photographs of always present. lost her father, her mother and all her 1,000 Norwegian Jews perished in students of my very own school Many Jews who sought either a siblings except one sister, a Zionist, the concentration camps. Toward the demonstrating in Stockholm’s Öster- Zionist or Jewish religious lifestyle who had left for Palestine before the end of the war the tide turned, and malmstorg Square in 1942. On their would seek it elsewhere, in Israel, the war, and as a result was considered Sweden allowed Allied bombers to placards: “Stop the Import of Jews.” U.S. or the U.K. Leaving Sweden was the black sheep of their small Hasidic refuel on its territory, acting as the As children of the postwar genera- (Continued on page 13) May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 THE HOLOCAUST: WHO ARE THE MISSING MILLION? (Continued from page 3) material is greater than ever, and has been available online since 2004. whose parents fled Germany in the “There is a lot of documentation advances in technology mean it can It has led to emotional reunions of 1930s, believed she had lost four or where there are names that are very be a less arduous task to gather infor- survivors who had lived their lives not five relatives in the Holocaust. A scattered,” says Dr. Avram. “Names mation and manipulate the data. knowing there was anyone else from search of the database to help with mentioned in a letter here or a report However, the fewer the names left their family left alive. her daughter’s homework revealed there. This can be very labor inten- to uncover, the more activity it takes Last year two sets of families that in fact 180 family members had sive. Sometimes you have to go to find them. belonging to two sisters, each of been killed. through thousands and thousands of The digital age also means there whom thought the other had perished Further research, however, revealed pages just to retrieve a few dozen through a signature on a Page of names.” Testimony the existence of cousins of The difficulty is compounded by the her husband, living in Hamburg. The fact that sources can be in 30 to 40 families now speak to each other different languages; most are hand- each week on Skype. written and can be in different scripts, Ironically, a chief architect of the such as Latin, Hebrew and Cyrillic. Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, lived as a “Our staff not only need to be linguists fugitive in the same neighborhood as but they need to know calligraphy,” Claudia when she was a child in says Dr.. Avram, himself a language Argentina, as she would later learn. expert. The importance of the mission to One of the biggest gaps is with chil- recover victims’ names received glob- dr.en, of whom some 1.5 million were al recognition in 2013 when the murdered in the Holocaust. Only United Nations cultural agency, about half have been identified. UNESCO, included the collection in “It’s one of the saddest things,” says its Memory of the World register. Dr. Avram. “We have reports where The agency lauded it as “unprece- parents are named with, say, three or dented in human history,” pointing out four childr.en, unnamed. They were that the project had given rise to sim- little childr.en and people just don’t Claudia de Levie lost many family members in the Holocaust, but found new living relatives. ilar efforts in other places of genocide, remember.” are more tools at researchers’ dispos- in the Holocaust, were united after a such as Rwanda and Cambodia. The aim is to turn them from anony- al than ever before. The department chance discovery through the Pages Despite the millions of names mous statistics into human beings searching for names recently took to of Testimony. It transpired the sisters recorded so far, there is still a long again, like seven-year-old Edik social media, including Facebook, in had lived out their lives just 25 min- way to go if all six million are ever to Tonkonogi, from Satanov in Ukraine. a push to reach untapped survivors. utes away from each other in northern be recovered, but those behind the His childish innocence and sweet- The campaign generated many new Israel, but passed away without ever project remain determined. ness of character come across in a Pages of Testimony. being aware. “I personally would like that we do letter he wrote in 1941 to his parents, “When you’re talking about social n 2015 a pair of half-siblings, nei- reach that goal, that at least among who were travelling with a Russian media, you have the younger genera- Ither of whom knew the other was those who perished there won’t be a theater troupe. tion now understanding that those alive, were reunited as a result of person who remains unknown. It’s Edik was murdered after the Nazis names are not in our database and searching the database, and in 2006 our moral imperative,” says Sara entered the town that same year. His trying to find out the information from a brother and sister, one living in Berkowitz. name was later memorialized in a their family members,” says Sara Canada and the other in Israel, were “Until I sit in the office and days will Page of Testimony by a relative. Berkowitz, manager of the Names reunited 65 years after becoming sep- pass by and I won’t have work to do, s time moves on, the task of Recovery Project. arated in their hometown in Romania. I’ll know that we’ve more or less A finding missing names is get- There is another significant, some- The project has also brought to light raked the universe to try to get to ting harder in some respects but eas- times life-changing, outcome of the other, unfortunate findings. every name and there is no more ier in others. The availability of source growth of the names database, which Argentinean-born Claudia de Levie, there.” HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN POLAND FIND RESTITUTION CLAIMS “LIKE A CAROUSEL” (Continued from page 5) countries, including the United States, Jewish Religious Communities in he issue is not just symbolic but tors get compensated, whereas to resolve wartime property claims, Poland, said current policies made it T also practical, said Mr. Belarussians, Poles, Ukrainians or Polish officials say. far too difficult for claimants — effec- Piszewski, whose group represents Crimean Karaites, or Tatars and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, a histori- tively denying justice by delaying it. nine officially recognized Jewish com- Germans — all of whom used to live an who has written about restitution “Attitudes have not changed at all,” munities, with an estimated 10,000 to here before the war — shouldn’t be issues, said the report focused too he said. “Courts issue negative deci- 20,000 members. “Restitution is the compensated?” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, narrowly on Jewish victims. While sions or prolong the process to the only financial tool to maintain Jewish the leader of the governing party, Polish Jews “faced the extraordinary extent that the claimant resigns from communities as well as the Jewish asked supporters last year. (The terror of total extermination,” he said, the process.” heritage, including 1,200 cemeteries,” Karaites and Tatars are minority Polish Christians “faced the ordinary The new report was presented at a he said. groups that speak Turkic languages.) terror of partial annihilation.” conference in Brussels organized by Ms. Rosenberg told her story at the “Is Poland able to turn back time and ast year, Poland’s constitutional Holocaust survivors and groups that conference, after much hesitation. compensate all those who suffered in Lcourt upheld a 2015 law that sig- represent them, and hosted by the The family that saved her has been those tragic events?” he asked. “Does nificantly limits the restitution rights of European Parliament. recognized by Yad Vashem, the it mean that the descendants of poor those whose property in Warsaw was Gideon Taylor, the operations chair- Holocaust remembrance center in Poles are supposed to pay the seized during the war. man of one of the groups, the World Jerusalem, as being among the descendants of those who were rich? “Polish law treats everyone equally,” Jewish Restitution Organization, said Righteous Among the Nations, non- This is what it comes down to.” the foreign minister, Witold he hoped the conference would be a Jews who risked their lives to save There is also a morass of legal Waszczykowski, said in Israel last “rallying call” before time ran out for Jews. A house her father owned in issues. Poland says it is not to blame year. “Any legal or natural person, or survivors, 72 years after the war’s Oswiecim has been given to the fam- for the crimes of Nazi Germany, and it their heir, is entitled to recover prewar end. ily. points to a 1952 agreement in which property unlawfully seized by the Nazi “We have a very narrow window of “Maybe this conference will make a West Germany agreed to pay Israel German or the Soviet authorities, or time, while survivors are still alive, to difference,” she said. “I really hope reparations for wartime crimes. the postwar Communist regime.” carry out some kind of symbolic jus- so. We have been trying on our own Communist-era governments also However, Leslaw Piszewski, chair- tice, some kind of recognition of what for 26 years. They say that maybe reached agreements with several man of the board of the Union of has happened,” he said. something will change in 20 years, Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ANNUAL BENEFIT GALA OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM AND THE JEWISH LIFE FOUNDATION

Holocaust survivor Dr. Erica Miller; Bill Bernstein, Western Region director of institutional Nathan Sandler, Karen Sandler, gala chair; Beth and Lenny Wilf. advancement of the ASYV; Gerri Knilans.

Michael Fisher, director of the American Desk of the International Relations Division; Shaya Ben Yehuda, managing director of the International Relations Division; Helmut Biemann; Yossie Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson, Patrons of the Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem. Hollander, Visionary Member, Yad Vashem.

Gitta and Jack Nagel, donors; Edward and Elissa Czuker, honorary co-chairs. Fela Shapell and Rochelle Shapell Buchman, Visionaries of Yad Vashem. May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AMERICAN SOSIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON

Ron Meier, executive director of the ASYV; Dr. Na’ama Shik, featured speaker from Yad Vashem Jerusalem, Israel; Leonard Wilf, chairman of the ASYV; and Tova Friedman, featured speaker Mark Moskowitz, Rose Moskowitz, Spring Luncheon Committee; and Adina Burian, Luncheon and Holocaust survivor. Committee.

Merry Cohen, Rebecca Altman, Marilyn Rubenstein, Helene Dorfman, Leslie Adler, Susan Levy, Shelley Paradis, Sharon Halpern, Gladys Halpern, Maeira Werthenschlag, Luncheon Committee Judy Bloom, Susan Goodstadt. members; and Jaci Paradis, Luncheon co-chair.

Eillene Lesitner, chief development officer, ASYV; Abby Kaufthal, Luncheon co-chair; Goldie Sarita Rausnitz, Shirley Podolsky, Rachel Shnay, Luncheon co-chair; Gabriela Shnay. Hertz, Luncheon Committee; and Shara Levy. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 COUSINS TORN APART BY THE HOLOCAUST MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME AT YAD VASHEM “It is difficult to describe how I feel,” would the Jews be gone, but there database of names of our 6 million BY DEBORAH FINEBLUM, JNS.ORG said Bilkay. “My father always would be no trace of them. This kind victims. The candle is about to be searched for members of his family of reunion proves that they failed.” extinguished. With the number of hen Fania Bilkay and her son, and dreamed of finding them. He was The Band/Borenstein family mys- people with their Auschwitz numbers W Evgeni, stepped up to her alone. But in this meeting today, his tery, however, is not completely tattooed on their arms growing ever desk, Sima Velkovich was winding dream has finally come true.” solved. The two Borenstein sisters smaller, it’s very important and neces- down an ordinary work day in the Jenta’s daughters had also grown know that their brothers Avram and sary that all this information be con- archives division of Yad Vashem in up believing “that we had no family, Hercz-Lejb survived the war, but they centrated in one single database with Jerusalem. She was then suddenly that everyone was murdered in lost track of them decades ago. “We six million names.” pulled into the center of a complex Poland,” Henia said. haven’t given up,” said Yad Vashem The simple act of adding a relative’s family drama that reached its climax “If someone on the phone told you spokesman Simmy Allen. “The broth- name to Yad Vashem’s database can in mid-December of last year. that you have first also prove therapeutic for families, During a recent tour of Poland to cousins who want noted Myra Giberovitch, author of the explore her roots, Bilkay had visited a to meet you, you 2014 book Recovering from Warsaw synagogue, where she dis- could be suspi- Genocidal Trauma. covered a document from Yad cious,” said Lital “Submitting this information enables Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Beer, director of family members to find some peace Victims’ Names that counted her Yad Vashem’s by knowing they have fulfilled their father, Nisan Band, and his family Reference and holy mission to bear witness,” among those killed by the Nazis. Information Giberovitch said. “Why is he listed as murdered?” she Services. “But the Family members’ names can be asked, confused — given that her sisters — Henia added to the database of Holocaust father survived the Holocaust and died and Ryvka — were victims by contacting the Shoah of natural causes in 1983, though he very open and Victims’ Names Recovery Project at lost three children during the war and excited. Their meet- [email protected]. had always told Bilkay and her brother, ing was so moving. The names are ultimately added to Gennadi, that their entire extended They brought family The Band and Borenstein families unite at Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names the Pages of Testimony in Yad in Jerusalem. family had been wiped out. photos to share and Vashem’s Hall of Names. The pages, The document that erroneously discovered, to their amazement, that ers are what our researchers are said Giberovitch, “are a paper ceme- reported Nisan’s death had been they’ve all been living all these years working on now.” tery that provides a final resting place completed in the 1950s by Symcha near Tel Aviv.” o date, Yad Vashem has identi- for their loved ones, thereby preserv- Borenstein, husband of Nisan’s sister, “I felt a connection at first sight. My T fied more than two-thirds — 4.6 ing their memory for future genera- Jenta. By disputing the record of her family has grown overnight,” said million — of the Jews who were mur- tions. In the words of one survivor: ‘It father’s death, Bilkay spurred Yad Henia. “Thanks to Yad Vashem, we dered during the Holocaust, recorded lessens my pain.’” Vashem researchers to discover that discovered that we are not alone.” in the Central Database of Shoah But for the Band and Borenstein Jenta and Nisan both survived the uch a reunion is perhaps the Victims’ Names. It’s an ongoing task families, this week is less about pain Holocaust, and both spent their lives Sultimate defeat of Hitler, said Dr. that Chairman of the Yad Vashem and more about celebrating. When thinking they were the sole remaining Thomas Kuehne, director of the Directorate Avner Shalev calls “a mis- Yad Vashem staffers offered the members of their immediate family. Strassler Center for Holocaust and sion to uncover the names of those Borenstein sisters a ride home after In a tear-filled scene at the Genocide Studies at Clark University who have no one to remember them.” the reunion, they politely declined Jerusalem museum on December 13, in Worcester, Mass. Holocaust survivor Rabbi Yisrael because their newfound cousins Fania and Gennadi were united with “The Nazis wanted to kill the Jews Meir Lau, the former Ashkenazi chief insisted on driving them. their first cousins, sisters Henia but also to erase the memory of rabbi of Israel and current chair of the “The five of them squeezed into the Borenstein Moskowitz and Ryvka them,” he told JNS.org. “If they had Yad Vashem Council, said, “Our obli- car together,” said Yad Vashem’s Beer. Borenstein Patchnik. been completely successful, not only gation, above all, is to complete the “After all these years, they are family.” A MOROCCAN HERO TO JEWS leadership. father, Moulay Yousef, replaced his out to be one of the great misjudg- BY RICHARD HUROWITZ, Born the third son of the reigning older sibling on the throne when his ments in French colonial history. LOS ANGELES TIMES sultan’s younger brother, Mohammed brother abdicated because of the When Paris fell to the Germans in was an unlikely ruler from the start treaty. July 1940, the sultan, then 30, was his year marks the 75th anniver- put in a precarious position as sary of the release of T Morocco came under the rule of the Casablanca, which immortalized quiet collaborationist French Vichy regime. acts of resistance against Fascism at Among their first acts, the new over- the murky crossroads that was seers sought to impose anti-Semitic wartime Morocco. laws in Morocco, as per Nazi protocol. The legendary scene at Rick’s Cafe ews had lived in that part of the in which refugees, led by Paul world since well before Carthage Henreid, drown out Nazi officers by J fell, and over a quarter of a million singing “La Marseillaise” became an called Morocco their home in 1940. instant inspiration to moviegoers as Members of the community had World War II was raging. served the sultans’ court as ministers, The location of the film was no acci- diplomats and advisors. Mohammed dent: Casablanca was a haven for V took seriously his role as those fleeing for their lives. And it was Commander of the Faithful, which he also the scene of a much greater — Morocco’s Mohammed V, wearing white robes, walking with the country’s Grand Vizier Si viewed to include all “people of the and real-life — act of heroism, one far Mohammed El Mokri after he placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc book,” meaning everyone belonging too little known or recognized: the de Triomphe during a visit to Paris, France around July 4, 1930. to the Abrahamic faiths — Jews, protection of the Jews of Morocco by and certainly an unexpected hero. Fifteen years later, upon his father’s Christians and Muslims. He bravely, the young Sultan Mohammed V. A series of international disputes death, 16-year-old Mohammed was publicly declined to assist in the per- At a time when anti-Semitism and between France and Germany led to named sultan largely because the secution of his own Jewish citizens. Islamophobia are on the rise globally, the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and French French viewed him as more docile “There are no Jews in Morocco,” he we should honor this overlooked but control of Morocco. Mohammed’s than his older brothers. This turned (Continued on page 13) remarkable example of enlightened May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 JAPAN AND THE JEWS (Continued from page 5) because it was bound up with entry and residence permits. Japan Sugihara, the Japanese vice-consul when it was issued by Britain in German-Japanese relations. “The treated them and other foreigners fairly in Kaunas, Lithuania, is indicative of November 1917. In explaining why problem was how to avoid doing any- while maintaining close surveillance Japan’s balancing act. The Japanese Japan backed the Zionist movement, thing positive for Jews that would over their activities. The situation government forbade him to issue Medzini says Japanese decision- harm Japan’s ties with Nazi Germany changed after the arrival of German transit visas to Japan to a group of makers had an inflated view of Jewish while also avoiding alienating colonel Joseph Meisinger in July 1942. Polish Jews, but he ignored his supe- power and placed the Middle East low American Jews, whose economic The Gestapo’s senior representative in riors’ order and issued 6,000 visas for on the totem pole of Japan’s priorities. power was seen by Japan as domi- Japan, he had committed war crimes individuals and entire families. Among Outside of Japan, Jews found them- nant,” writes Medzini. against Jews in Poland. the Jews he rescued from 1940 selves under direct Japanese rule Given such conflicting considera- n conversations with Japanese onwards were 300 rabbis and yeshiva after Japan’s occupation of tions, he goes on to say, Japan struck Iarmy officers, Meisinger called for students. After being transferred to Manchuria in 1931. Many of these something of a compromise toward a series of stringent measures to be Berlin, he issued 69 transit visas to Jews lacked any nationality and refugees, deciding that no visas enacted against Jews in Shanghai. German Jews. sought the protection of the Japanese would be issued to stateless Jewish Japan rejected most of his draconian In Japan itself, American and British army. Japan acceded to their request, suggestions, but on Jews were interned, but Jews holding hoping its benevolence would prompt February 18, 1943, other foreign passports seem to have wealthy Jews to invest funds in the Japanese authorities estab- faced no problems. Neither the emper- development of Manchuria’s vital coal lished a “designated area” or nor government ministers ever and steel industries. for 14,000 stateless Jewish issued statements about Jews, but in apan’s fixation with Jewish capi- refugees in the working- 1944, the home minister made it clear Jtal gave rise to the Fugu Plan, a class district of Hongkew. that Japan’s policy was to eradicate scheme hatched in 1934 by the pres- Russian Jews were exclud- discrimination based on race. ident of the Southern Manchurian ed from this ordinance. Life Still, 170 anti-Semitic books were Railway, Matsuoka Yosuke, to lure was hard for the residents published in Japan from 1936 until 50,000 German Jews to Manchuria. of the Hongkew ghetto, but 1945. Some major dailies, Key officials in the Japanese govern- they were not physically notably Asahi Shimbun, carried anti- ment supported it, but it remained molested, and American Semitic articles, but refrained from stillborn, never having been accom- refugees and that Jews holding valid Jewish organizations were permitted publishing stories about Nazi atroci- panied by a detailed operational plan. German and Austrian passports to send funds for their upkeep. ties in Europe. The German embassy Nonetheless, Japan cultivated a should be persuaded to seek shelter Jews residing in other Japanese- in Tokyo disseminated anti-Jewish relationship with Jews. A senior in countries other than Japan. Jews controlled Chinese cities, like Mukden material to the Japanese media, but Japanese army officer who already holding entry visas to a third and Tianjin, were not harmed either. the Nazi regime never considered the addressed a meeting of the First country would be permitted to obtain But in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Jewish Question a high-priority issue Congress of the Jews in East Asia in transit visas to Japan. Batavia and Rangoon, the local in its deliberations with the Japanese Harbin in 1937 told delegates that Medzini’s chapter on Shanghai Japanese ruler confiscated the government. In any event, most Japan held no prejudices against deals, of course, with refugees. From homes and real estate holdings of Japanese people were oblivious to Jews, did not subscribe to racist ide- 1938 to 1941, 15,450 Jewish Jews, froze their bank accounts, and Jews and, therefore, anti-Semitism. ology, welcomed friendly ties with refugees, the bulk from Germany and seized their gold and jewels. In Documents examined by Medzini Jews and was ready to cooperate Austria, streamed into the Chinese Thailand, an ally of Japan until almost indicate that Japanese officials had with them in economic and commer- city of Shanghai, which came under the end of the war, Jews with U.S. little or no detailed information about cial spheres. After Japan joined the direct Japanese rule in the summer of and British passports were interned. the Holocaust. “There were virtually Axis Pact in 1940, the Japanese for- 1937. By then, there was already an German, Austrian, Iraqi and Syrian no Japanese reports of the mass eign minister, speaking on behalf of established Jewish community there. Jews were left alone. In keeping with killings of Jews,” he says. Japanese Japan’s emperor, told Lev Zykman, a The first wave of Jewish settlers had its stated policy of maintaining racial diplomatic and consular documents leader of Harbin’s Jewish community, arrived from Iraq, Persia and India in harmony in the occupied areas, relating to Jews focused instead on that Germany’s anti-Semitic policies the middle of the 19th century, fol- Japan gave short shrift to Germany’s visas and other matters pertaining to did not obligate Japan to adopt the lowed by Russian Jews in the wake of genocidal approach to Jews. Jewish migration. same position. the Bolshevik revolution. Whenever possible, In short, as Medzini suggests, The Jewish refugee question turned Jews arriving in Shanghai from the however, Japan tried to mollify Japan was neither obsessed by Jews into an important issue for Japan late 1930s onwards did not require Germany. The case of Chiune nor infected by anti-Semitism. ROSES IN A FORBIDDEN GARDEN (Continued from page 4) become and/or stay bedridden, there- led before being sent to Berger’s rewards from bravery, somewhat better living quarters, by exempting many from at least that Theresienstadt. prayer, and romantic commitment. along with an implied promise that as particular deadly trip. Had his ruse Inge’s participation in stealth altru- Taken together, this artfully told story long as he performed well, he and his been discovered, his entire family ism had her, as a keeper of official emphasizes altruism rather than wife and daughter would not be could have been sent to the gas data on daily deaths, dare to secretly atrocities; care, rather than cruelty; shipped out to a death camp. (Such chamber: the Third Reich was deter- keep a separate record of the names and valor rather than victimization. It arrangements existed in many other mined to repress evidence that the and death dates of Jews from her highlights our ability as care-valuing major Nazi camps.) ranks of the untermensch [subhu- hometown. She thought this “the only Jews to transcend the worst if we help Only after the family moved in did mans] included some who were com- way she could think of to honor them; one another hold on to the best. they learn their room was located passionate, ethical, and moral human that is, to retain some record of their Art Shostak is an academic sociolo- directly above a ward of insane pris- beings willing to risk all to help others. existence and of their death.” gist with degrees from Cornell and oners, from whom screams and ittle wonder, accordingly, that Discovery of her unauthorized illegal Princeton. He has taught at the shrieks were endlessly heard. As well, survey interviews secured by record would probably have had the L Wharton School, University of it lacked windows and included insa- survivor/scholar Alexander J. Groth entire family sent to the gas chamber. tiable bloodsucking bedbugs whose and his associates from 251 survivors n sum, then, three memorable pro- Pennsylvania and Drexel University. bites left Inge so ill she almost died. in the late 1990s found that “many Ifiles distinguish the story of the He is the author of 34 sociology books Taking great care, Carl chose to more see Jews [like Carl Katz] as Katz family experiences in and over 160 articles. He is the recipi- make secret desperate efforts to save doing what they could to help and Theresienstadt. We take away the ent of the Distinguished Career Award lives, as when, for example, he ameliorate conditions for fellow Jews instructive model of Carl Katz, a for the Practice of Sociology. Since learned a particular train soon to rather than the opposite.” In a fashion mench whose integrity as both a pris- 1971 Art Shostak has made 10 study leave Theresienstadt for a death consistent with this research endorse- oner and an administrator helped visits to Israel, and in 2017, a related camp would not accept bedridden ment, Carl, on returning to Bremen in save lives. We learn from Inge Katz book of his was published: Stealth passengers. He rushed about the 1945 after liberation, reestablished how to stay human in an atrocious Altruism: Forbidden Care as Jewish dorm urging his elderly wards to the Jewish Community Center he had setting. We are inspired by Schmuel Resistance in the Holocaust. Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 THE MUFTI AND THE HOLOCAUST, REVISITED the Führer was their representative discussions (not an exact transcript, was the mutual vision expressed in BY BEN COHEN, JNS and their master. but a summary of what was said), it Berlin in 1941, the distinctly Arab con- The second is that, as an Israeli was clear that both Hitler and the tribution to the achievement of the f a man was a Jew, it was good Jew, Netanyahu is naturally sensitive mufti were already in agreement that “Thousand-Year Reich.” enough for him to be killed or “I to the Palestinian Arab dimension of the Holocaust had to be visited upon As the German historian Matthias stamped out,” wrote a senior British the broader issue of collaboration with the Jews. For his part, the mufti Kuentzel has noted, the 700,000 official serving abroad to his superiors the Nazis, something I can relate to. expressed his appreciation of Jews in the Middle East were in in London in 1929. As a kid, I remember sitting around Germany’s commitment to the “elimi- Hitler’s sights when he received the From where was this gentleman — my grandfather’s table with his rela- nation of the Jewish national home,” mufti. Major Alan Saunders — writing his tives from Bosnia — men with sad while Hitler restated his “active oppo- “As Hitler envisaged it, after the dispatch? From Munich or Berlin or eyes and the muscles and paunches sition to the Jewish national home in assault on the Soviet Union, the any of the other German cities where of retired boxers, who had spent their Palestine, which was nothing other Wehrmacht would also occupy the Hitler’s Nazi Party was gaining sup- youths in the Socialist-Zionist than a center, in the form of a state, Caucasus and so open the way to the porters and street thugs? In fact, no. Hashomer Hatzair movement, gradu- for the exercise of destructive influ- Middle East....Part of this scenario ence by Jewish interests.” was the killing of the Jews,” Kuentzel For good measure, the Führer writes. Even though this grand ambi- added that “Germany was also aware tion failed, the mufti was still able, as that the assertion that the Jews were the prominent Israeli Holocaust histo- carrying out the functions of econom- rian Yehuda Bauer put it, to be “an ic pioneers in Palestine was a lie. The active partner in devising the Final work there was done only by the Solution.” The mufti also played a role Arabs, not by the Jews” — a slander in its implementation, raising three SS that could easily be expressed in the divisions composed of Bosnian and exact same words by the Boycott, Albanian Muslims in the western Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Balkans. movement that targets the “Jewish Nor did the mufti forget Palestine. national home” in our own time. The Israeli scholar Edy Cohen has That last point highlights a critical revealed how, in May 1943, he factor which the furor around blocked a deal agreed to by the Netanyahu’s speech — much of it British and the Germans to allow generated by visceral opponents of 4,000 Jewish children to enter Israel who only talk about the Palestine in exchange for 20,000 Holocaust when it justifies their back- German prisoners of war, while in ing of Palestinian violence against 1944, he parachuted a terror cell into Hajj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Heinrich Himmler (1943). Jews now — has largely missed. Tel Aviv with the intention of poisoning uring the 1930s, both Germany the local water supply. Major Saunders was the head of the ating to fight with Marshal Tito’s Dand Palestine were the sites of The mufti, disgracefully, escaped the British police in Palestine during the Communist partisans against the Nazi mob violence, boycotts, and discrimi- Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals mandate period, and his statement occupation of Yugoslavia that began in natory laws and regulations against and ended his days in Beirut in 1974. concerned the massacre by Arabs, in 1941. Men who, I realized with awe, Jews. The Nazis’ consolidation of His legacy survives in the daily incite- August 1929, of 69 Jews in Hebron, a had actually killed some of these Nazis power in the 1930s was what enabled ment against Jews that emanates from city where their community had been that I’d seen in the movies. them to launch their campaign of war Palestinian official and social media. a continuous presence for at least two And yet, when they spoke about the and genocide at the end of that So, when considering the latest millennia. war, their anger really flowed when decade. Netanyahu controversy, please I was reminded of Major Saunders’s they remembered the locals who had Had Palestine been conquered by remember this: Those Holocaust pithy summary of the motive behind assisted the Germans. Like the Germans from the British, there is scholars who criticized Netanyahu’s the Hebron pogrom when news broke Netanyahu now, what they found no doubt that the mufti would have speech nonetheless recognize the fun- of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin hardest to stomach was the spectacle Netanyahu’s speech to the World of those non-Jews who lived along- Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, in side them collaborating with the Nazi which he essentially argued that it extermination program. was the mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin n the pantheon of Nazi collabora- al-Husseini, who crystallized the idea Itors, Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini is of the mass extermination of the Jews right up there with Pavelić in Croatia, in Adolf Hitler’s mind. But before I talk Pétain in France, Horthy in Hungary, about the controversy that followed and all the other quislings — their these comments, I want to make name comes from the collaborationist some more general observations by leader in Norway, Vidkun Quisling — way of introduction. who implemented Hitler’s will. It was, The first is that, while Hitler unar- ironically, the British authorities who guably remains the most powerful appointed him to his position in 1921. and devastating anti-Semite to ever During the 1929 massacre in Hebron, hold state power, he was far from the as during the openly anti-Semitic only one at that time to approach the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, al- “Jewish question” in exterminationist Husseini proved himself a confirmed terms. As Major Saunders related Jew-hater and the natural ally of Hitler from faraway Palestine, about an in the Arab and Muslim worlds. episode that presaged the Nazi atroc- It wasn’t until November 1941 that ities that were to follow in Germany the mufti met Hitler in person. and then in occupied Europe and Significantly, in the view of many his- November 1943, al-Husseini greeting Bosnian Waffen-SS volunteers with a Nazi salute. North Africa, the same hatred of Jews torians, that encounter in Berlin took simply for being Jews was in painful place two months before the been installed as the local quisling, damental, bitter fact of Palestinian anti- evidence there. For there were thou- Wannsee conference, where leading and that the entire Jewish population Semitism and the mufti’s position in sands, even millions, of ordinary peo- Nazis led by Hitler’s security chief, would have been shipped to concen- fomenting it. It is the Palestinian lead- ple in Europe and the Middle East Reinhard Heydrich, plotted the imple- tration and death camps in Europe — ership and its supporters — who have who regarded the Jews as a social mentation of the “Final Solution” — assuming that the Germans and their offered neither an apology nor repara- and religious poison and wanted them the extermination of the Jews. Arab militias didn’t build similar tions for the mufti’s crimes against the — all of them — dead. In that sense, In the official German record of their camps in the vicinity, of course. That Jews — who don’t. May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 A MOROCCAN HERO THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO JEWS (Continued from page 10) FACING SWEDEN’S JEWS declared. “There are only Moroccan (Continued from page 6) many other subjects — are usually between hate for Israel and hate for subjects.” and is a case of pull rather than push, based on ignorance or malice, and Jews, although very popular with Vichy authorities soon forced as the established spectrum of pro- frequently both. We now risk making Swedish media and politicians, is not Mohammed V to promulgate two laws Israeli or religious activities here is not the same generalization regarding respected by the enemies of either restricting certain professions and comprehensive and distinctive Sweden, without looking at the core Israel or the Jews. The public accept- schools to Jews and requiring them to enough for some Swedish Jews. I issues at hand. ance of this type of anti-Israel attitude, live in ghettos. In an act of resistance, know, as I was one of these Jews that It is no coincidence that Malmö, with which directly harbors anti-Semitism, the sultan declined to fully enforce the left for Israel at the age of 18 to fulfill its large Muslim population, has seen is compounded by — among others — laws. A direct descendant of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, both Zionist and religious aspirations a vast increase in anti-Semitic the leading Social Democrat and for- through Muhammad’s daughter by volunteering at a kibbutz, studying attacks. Let me explain why. First, a mer Malmö mayor Illmar Reepalu, who Fatimah, the sultan refused to be at a yeshiva academy on Israel’s point of order: Swedes are sticklers stated publicly that his city’s Jews were intimidated. A French government northern border and serving in the for order and administration, even themselves to blame for the rise of telegram, discovered in Paris Israel Defense Forces. At no point compared to their fellow EU citizens, anti-Semitic attacks, as they did not archives four decades later, reported was this due to persecution or even and this includes the proper registra- distance themselves clearly enough that relations between France and the lack of acceptance of my religion tion of crimes. This goes some way from Israel. After the end of his term, Morocco became “much more tense by my fellow Swedes; rather, it was toward explaining the country’s dis- Reepalu was promoted by his party, since the day” the laws went into the manifestation of my own convic- heartening statistics reported in Sweden’s largest, to a seat on its pow- effect. In 1941, for the first time, tions. recent EU surveys. erful executive committee. Mohammed V made a point of inviting e need to call a spade a senior representatives of the Jewish W spade: There is no general community to the annual banquet cel- deterioration in the quality of life for ebrating the anniversary of his sul- Jews in Sweden because of anti- tanate and placing them in the best Jewish laws or a general persecution seats next to the French officials. of Jews. The recent debates regard- “I absolutely do not approve of the ing circumcision and kosher slaughter new anti-Semitic laws and I refuse to are symptoms of Swedish society associate myself with a measure I dis- unsuccessfully trying to come to grips agree with,” he told the French offi- with its colossal failure in integrating cials. “I reiterate as I did in the past the recent waves of Muslim immi- that the Jews are under my protection grants. As in many other countries, and I reject any distinction that should there are right-wing political parties be made amongst my people.” that are more than ready to cross the Although there were limits to his common line of political correctness power, Mohammed V ensured that and pick up these issues in the pop- there were never roundups of Jews in ulist pursuit of votes. Morocco; it remained a haven to the extent possible. During Vichy rule — Jewish refugees are ferried out of Denmark aboard Danish fishing boats bound for Sweden. October 1, 1943. which lasted more than two years — no Moroccan Jews were deported or similar choice is currently being Secondly, and more importantly, the killed; nor were they forced to wear the Amade by many Jewish families recent rise in anti-Semitic activity in yellow star. When Allied troops liberat- in Malmö, a town now globally infa- Sweden originates largely from the ed North Africa, the Moroccan Jewish mous for anti-Semitism. These fami- Arab and Muslim communities. Here, community was essentially intact. lies may leave Malmö, but rather than many immigrants have backgrounds The sultan’s actions offer a contrast going to Israel, they settle in the larg- that are directly linked to the Israeli- with those of other leaders who rallied er and more vibrant Jewish communi- Arab conflict, and hail from countries to the side of the Axis powers in ty of Stockholm. They have chosen an where classic anti-Semitism is com- hopes of driving the Jews from internal emigration rather than leaving monly accepted, encouraged by Palestine and the British from the Sweden’s borders. Bearing in mind politicians and even taught in schools. Middle East. The grand mufti of the reports, articles and surveys that Anti-Semitism in Sweden is common- Jerusalem, Haj Amin Husseini, for detail the anti-Semitic atmosphere in ly hidden under a very thin veil of anti- example, spent the war years in Sweden, what is behind this choice? Zionism and anti-Israeli sentiments. Berlin, courting Adolf Hitler and Why would the Jews of Malmö risk Therefore it’s relatively easy to see Heinrich Himmler, plotting the exter- staying in Sweden instead of leaving the direct correlation between certain mination of the Jews and recruiting Anti-Semitic hate cimes on the rise in Sweden. the country? Why would any Jew? events in the Middle East, such as the Eastern European Muslims to fight for Are the Jews of Sweden wishful Second Lebanon War in 2006, and an A city like Malmö has vast social the Nazi cause. thinkers or just ignorant? Doesn’t the increase in local anti-Semitic attacks. issues to be resolved, which is the rea- Mohammed V, on the other hand, majority of Swedish Jewry see the Thirdly, most crucially and discour- son for many inhabitants, including was a strong supporter of the Allies. clear and present danger that is being agingly, the current political climate in Jews, to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Throughout the sultan’s reign, he con- described, not least by the Simon Sweden is a key enabler for the rise However, the problem is not Malmö, tinued to protect his Jewish subjects. Wiesenthal Center and other interna- of anti-Semitic attacks. This is or even the predictable hate against When the Arab world reacted violent- tional anti-racist organizations? Swedish Jewry’s real clear and pres- both Israel and Jews that is being dis- ly to the declaration of the state of To understand the answers to these ent danger; a fatal combination of played and acted upon by certain ele- Israel in 1948, the sultan reminded questions, we need to look beyond political correctness, self-righteous- ments of its population. It is the eager- Moroccans that Jews had always the convenient and glib “truth” that I ness and obliviousness, as leading ness, with a small number of out- been protected in their country and hear too many times in Israel: politicians and opinion makers partic- standing exceptions, of the main- should not be harmed. “Europe — a continent of anti- ipate in or blatantly ignore a dispro- stream media, politicians and opinion Mohammed V died suddenly in Semites and Muslims — is lost. All portionate demonization of Israel that makers to ignore and hide current 1961, just four years after Morocco became an independent constitution- sensible Jews should make aliyah frequently crosses the line into anti- anti-Semitism under the cover of dis- al monarchy and he gained the title of and get the hell out of there!” As an Semitism. This has created a climate proportionate and unjustified criticism king. The outpouring of grief was advocate for Israel, I have grown where it is acceptable and encour- of Israel. These attitudes should not immense. Some 75,000 Jews publicly accustomed to the sweeping general- aged to support calls for Israel’s be tolerated in modern Swedish soci- mourned, the chief rabbi delivered a izations made by our adversaries. destruction, deliberately ignoring the ety, and until they are recognized and memorial address by radio, and Jews These generalizations — directed at effect such support has as a vehicle openly discussed, the tide of anti- were prominent participants at the Israeli settlements, wartime con- for the rise in Swedish anti-Semitism. Semitism against Swedish Jews will coronation of his son Hassan II and at quests, Israeli public opinion and The ever-so-convenient distinction continue to rise. the new king’s initial prayer services. Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 PHILLIP MAISEL AND HIS PURPOSE machine. I am listening and recording “I have two brothers. A twin brother Vilna where the Germans forced tens BY SARAH FARNSWORTH, ABC NEWS it, but when I go home and start to who is the best thing that ever hap- of thousands to live. think about it, then yes, I feel pain.” pened to me in my life. I am very Bella managed to avoid the harsh or Phillip Maisel the stories of grateful to my parents for him,” Bella and miserable conditions of the ghet- “THE LAST TIME SHE SAW ME” FHolocaust survivors are like said in the testimony. to. Using fake papers, she hid in plain watching lava bubbling up from deep n and among the DVDs and tapes rowing up in Vilna, then in sight, pretending to be Polish. inside: a burning trauma they need to Istacking up around him, is a story GPoland, the Maisel twins were “It’s extremely traumatic to live out- release. very close to his heart, that of his twin inseparable. side the ghetto and pretend that you “Testimony is a process where peo- sister Bella Hirshorn. “We would wear similar outfits. We are a Pole when you are a Jew,” ple expose their inner life to the pub- Bella rarely talks about the were at school together, at home Phillip explained. lic, and my aim as the interviewer is to together, on holidays Two years passed before Phillip get all the facts as close to the truth.” together,” Phillip recalls. was ripped from his sister completely. For the past 25 years, the tech- They also shared an She watched on as soldiers, liquidat- savvy 94-year-old has been recording unusual Yiddish accent. ing the ghetto, arrested her brother in the stories of survivors in his own Not that they needed to the street and dragged him away. makeshift studio at the Melbourne speak much. “I was working for a German institu- Holocaust Center. He’s helped by a “Wherever I went, my tion which could protect the Jews small band of volunteers. sister went with me.” from being arrested and deported,” “If people survived, it was a mira- When the Germans Phillip said. cle,” he said. arrived in Vilna in 1941, “So I showed him my papers and “When I want to convince people to their lives changed dra- [the solider] said ‘not today, no papers give a testimony, I just tell them ‘You matically. are valid.” had the privilege to survive the By September, Jewish “That was the last time she saw me Holocaust, you should talk for those Phillip Maisel has been recording the testimony of Holocaust families were being given in Vilna.” that can’t do it anymore.’” survivors for 25 years. 20 minutes to pack their Bella told a yet-to-be-aired docu- He’s recorded 1,600 testimonies. Holocaust. It is too upsetting. However, belongings and leave their homes. mentary called Not Without You, The longest runs for 10 hours. her love for her brother was made Phillip and his father were forced to about the day her brother was taken. “When I’m interviewing I’m a clear in her recorded 1993 testimony. move to the Jewish ghetto, an area of (Continued on page 15) HOLOCAUST REGENERATION: FOR CHILDREN OF SURVIVORS, THE TRAUMA’S IN THE GENES always felt overwhelming guilt after- psychiatry, says many Holocaust sur- says. Fearful of another genocide, BY VIVIEN FELLEGI, NOW MAGAZINE ward. “My parents lived through the vivors acquired a modification of a Yaakobi says, Holocaust survivors Holocaust. My issues paled in com- gene that amplifies arousal. were often overprotective and earl Goodman didn’t feel safe in parison to that,” she says. “This heightened attentiveness frowned on their children’s engaging Pher own bedroom. While we used to think that genes makes you more aware of your sur- with outsiders. Lying awake in her room late at were immutable, they can actually roundings,” she says. Children of survivors felt oppressed night, heart pumping, ears tuned to change in response to the environ- That might help you live through a by that tight grip, but guilt stopped noises outside, she was terrified even ment, says Rachel Yehuda, director of concentration camp, but the pumped- them from rebelling. “It was difficult to by the sounds of fire engines rushing the Traumatic Stress Studies Division up stress response can also lead to rebel against parents if they had suf- to the aid of the injured. at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine anxiety and post-traumatic stress in fered,” says Yaakobi. “Someone is in a life-threatening sit- in New York City, who along with survivors and their children. n spite of these challenges, many uation,” she thought. “Maybe me.” Mallory Bowers co-authored a study But not all the problems of Isecond-generation Holocaust vic- Goodman’s childhood fears were on the subject of “epigenetics” last Holocaust survivors and their families tims became successful occupation- not entirely self-created. To her, they year. have to do with genetic mishaps, says ally; their parents usually valued edu- were somehow linked to her parents’ cation as a means of promoting their tragic experiences during the children’s survival. Holocaust. Her Polish mother sur- Bowers hopes researchers will vived a slave labor camp. Her father someday figure out how to undo the endured a concentration camp. epigenetic changes brought about by “I inherited their sensibility that awful the Holocaust. For now, though, she things can happen at any time,” says recommends social support. Goodman. Yaakobi agrees. Participating in a Her mother was constantly on high group therapy setting can be very alert, concerned for her children’s helpful. “It’s very healing to be under- safety. When Pearl was in the bath- stood,” she says. tub, her mother would knock several What helped Goodman was finding times to make sure she was okay, as out that trauma can be passed down if her child could drown. She distrust- through the generations, a fact she ed her daughter’s friends and worried discovered during her training to about Pearl when she went on sleep- become a psychotherapist. overs. She could never say, “Go out “It was like a light bulb went on for and have a good time”; she had left me,” she says. her father and brother at a train sta- Suddenly, the events of her child- tion during World War II, thinking heir research shows that human Baycrest social worker Shoshana hood began to make sense. This nothing of it until they never returned T genes can change in order to Yaakobi. recognition eventually led her to write home. help the body adapt to a stressful As a result of trauma, many her memoir, When Their Memories Goodman’s parents’ overprotective- environment. Trauma survivors often Holocaust survivors had difficulty giv- Became Mine: Moving Beyond My ness made it difficult for them to sep- say, “I am not the same person — I ing of themselves emotionally, says Parents’ Past. arate emotionally from her, too. left myself on the battlefield,” says Yaakobi. Stressful situations dealing Goodman says she’s come to terms “My parents couldn’t allow me to just Yehuda. These people have the same with their own kids exposed their vul- with her family’s legacy. She values feel differently about something with- DNA, but something fundamental has nerability, which could surface in the the justice, integrity and sense of out being threatened.” shifted as a result of what happened form of heightened anxiety. humor instilled in her by her parents. As a teenager, Goodman spoke up to them. And these alterations can be Rather than nurture their children, “In my soul I embody a sense that against some of her parents’ views. passed down to the next generation. some expected their kids to make up there was tragedy, and it’s terrible,” Heated arguments ensued. She Bowers, a postdoctoral fellow in for what had happened to them, she she says. “But I’m all right.” May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 HE REMARKABLY ESCAPED THE HOLOCAUST So, for the next couple of months, They were often placed in agricul- Ciano — the son-in-law of Benito BY ELLA NAYOR, Cesare hid in the cellar of an apart- tural settings where they could work Mussolini. A news photographer cap- FLORIDA WEEKLY ment building. During the day he and help rebuild war-torn farms. A tured an image of Cesare falling into esare Frustaci may be a strategized ways to survive. kind pig farmer and his family adopt- the dignitary’s arms as he stumbled CHungarian version of our own He collected tennis balls for tips at ed Cesare and renamed him Geza to give the flowers to him. After the Forrest Gump. the nearby tennis club. The money Babaly. He moved to a small village war, Cesare’s mother went back to On his own as a 7-year-old, he he made went for food. Then he named Apaggy, about 20 miles north her damaged apartment and found evaded the Nazis in 1941 in asked management at one of the of Budapest. the photo clipping, and set out to find Budapest, Hungary, for months clubs if he could clean the bath- fter liberation, Cesare’s mother her son. before being captured and moved to rooms, for free. This allowed him to A set out from Spandau in After a year and half of searching a detention camp, where he was take care of his hygiene needs. Germany to find her son. She walked village to village, she finally found imprisoned until the liberation. ne day, Cesare him. But a number of chance encoun- Orecalled, he was walk- “She never gave up (trying) to find ters with famous people, such as ing along the bridge that me,” Mr. Frustaci said. Italy’s foreign minister and a future stretches over the Danube The pair continued to live behind pope, would change his life. River when he heard shout- the Iron Curtain, as Hungary was a Forced out of Italy as a child with ing. He recalls a young SS Soviet satellite. There, Cesare com- his Jewish mother, the renowned officer shouting at a young pleted his primary education. As an Hungarian ballerina Margit Wolf, he woman carrying a baby. exceptional student, especially in was relocated to the Jewish ghetto in Cesare watched the guard math and engineering, he wanted to Nazi-occupied Budapest. His father, hurl the baby into the river go to a university in Italy. But the and shoot the woman. Italian composer Pasquale Frustaci, Communists said no. They didn’t “That was the atmosphere a Roman Catholic, was forced to want to lose a talented future engi- in the summer of 1941,” he remain in Italy. neer. said. “What was surprising Fearing that life in the ghetto was So, Cesare was again trapped. were the pedestrians. They about to turn for the worse, his moth- However, his mother’s friend knew didn’t do anything. They just er smuggled him out of the ghetto, a priest who thought he could help walked away. It was like it gave him his baptismal certificate — persuade the Hungarian government was just a normal day.” although he was Jewish by birth, he to allow Cesare to return to Italy. The Shortly after that incident, was baptized in his father’s religion Rev. Angelo Roncalli used what pull Cesare was captured and — and told him not to return. He he had, and Cesare emigrated from sent to a juvenile detention began to live on the streets of Hungary to Italy, where he complet- Budapest, as a 7-year-old. camp. Cesare Frustaci. ed his engineering studies. “It was well known that children and There, life was harsh. “I remember waking up next to all the way to Budapest. Mr. Frustaci Father Roncalli went on to become teenagers were rounded up by the Pope John XXIII. Nazis and drowned every day,” said dead children,” Mr. Frustaci said. compares his mother’s trek to that of The end of the war liberated the walking from Florida to Canada. Today, Mr. Frustaci spends his time Mr. Frustaci. “My mother was a traveling around the country sharing rather smart woman to separate from detention center and Cesare. She combed through nearly 200 his story. her son. She thought I might be safer But he would have a longer way to villages carrying a newspaper image “It is my mission since 2004 to pass on the street.” go in his journey. Unaccompanied of Cesare as a young child. When he the torch to the younger genera- Soon after, his mother was sent to children, like Cesare, were placed in was in kindergarten, he was picked tions — the history of Second World Spandau concentration camp near adoptive homes since their parents to give a bouquet of flowers to visit- War and the Holocaust,” he said. Berlin, Germany. were presumed dead. ing Italian dignitary Count Galeazzo PHILLIP MAISEL AND HIS PURPOSE (Continued from page 14) Germany returned hope to Phillip’s my sister.” “TELL THE WORLD “My father was very, very upset and life. The man was looking for his own Phillip rode his motorbike the equiv- WHAT HAPPENED” said I should have gone with him,” family when he struck up a conversa- alent of 500 kilometers to collect his she said. tion with Phillip. sister. t was while struggling to survive For years the twins struggled to sur- Iin an Estonian work camp that vive, each not knowing what had hap- Phillip made a promise he has kept pened to the other. to this day. Phillip was taken from Vilna to a “When you ask me is it sometimes hard labor camp in Estonia, then to difficult to listen to the testimonies, I numerous concentration camps am fulfilling something that I prom- across occupied Europe. ised, and this makes it a little bit eas- At one point both twins ended up at ier.” the Stutthof concentration camp at the The survivors’ stories have been same time, but neither knew the other told and retold to Phillip over the was there. decades. He says memories change and over time things become more A SAD KIND OF FREEDOM important to those who survived. hillip was liberated in 1945 while He has also started to interview the Pon a death march. third generation, to see if the trauma “First I was very happy. I was free,” of the Holocaust has affected the he said. descendants of Holocaust survivors. “But then I realized that I was some- At 94, Phillip can still be found film- where in Germany .... I didn’t know ing at the Jewish Holocaust Center. what had happened to my family. It Bella and Phillip, in 1929, could communicate just by “looking at each other.” He’d like to see his work publicly was a very, very sad feeling.” accessible one day. He was all alone. “He said you have a very funny Three million Polish Jews were “If the human race wants to sur- He would later discover his father Yiddish [accent] and I know another killed during the Holocaust. vive, we should be fully conscious of was killed at Klooga. girl who speaks with a similar accent. Seventy-two years on, Phillip rings being human beings, we should love Yet a chance meeting with a man She is in my camp,” he said. his sister every morning to ask how she each other instead of hate, and the from the American-controlled zone of “I said to him I know her name. It’s is and tell her the weather forecast. result of hate is terrible.” American & International Societies for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE U.S. POSTAGE 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID SMITHTOWN, N.Y. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 PERMIT NO.15

Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org Society Editor (212) 220-4304 Editor-in-Chief for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for New York, NY 10110 NY York, New Ron B. Meier, Ph.D., Ron B. Meier, EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL *Published Bimonthly by the American by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance May/June 2017 - Iyyar/Sivan 5777 May/June 2017 - Eli Zborowski** Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski** Mandell William Sam Halpern** Isidore Karten** Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet** American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates, and Nazi Victims **deceased or by phone at: Lenny Wilf returned to the As the lights went down, and As the lights illuminated candles and stars the ballroom, Cantor Seth Ettinger of Wilshire Boulevard along with a string trio, Temple, the audience teary-eyed left with a magical performance of Them.” Remember “We to present the Legacy stage to Gene Simmons, Award who accepted the honor for himself and his mother, Holocaust survivor Flora Klein. “While achieving exceptional success in America,” said Wilf, “Gene still considers Israel his home. He returned there in for the first time since 2011 leaving as a child, and has been a lifelong ardent sup- porter of Israel. He has been a vocal advocate for Israel in public and within the enter- Gene’s community.” tainment emotional and heartfelt response noted that the to the gift Jewish people’s world, as reflected in the words of the Ten words of the ongtime major donors Elissa and ongtime major donors Edward Czuker, honorary co- Edward Czuker, L chairs of the evening, led the audi- chairs of the evening, memorial serv- ence through a short ice in remembrance of the six million. those particularly Commandments, related to honoring thy mother and to him. were critically important father, For without the encouragement of his herself a teenage survivor of mother, Auschwitz, and her instilling in him the “will to win,” he would have never achieved professional success. , its victims, survivors and heroes victims, survivors , its Empower, educate and strengthen our educate Empower, can make a generous contribution You future by making an endowment gift to the future by making an endowment gift Your Vashem. Yad American Society for in Vashem Yad legacy will help to support Jerusalem and keep the memory of the Shoah alive forever. through a bequest in your will by desig- ASYV as a beneficiary of a nating or Charitable Trust Remainder Charitable can also contribute You Annuity. Gift MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE [email protected] would have parented. These eternal would have parented. will not bring back all those lights children —All it those ruined lives. can serve is as a concrete reminder that this great evil could happen — did happen — and must never hap- pen again.” Jewish child prematurely snuffed out. snuffed Jewish child prematurely and multiply the The mirrors reflect to remind us that not to infinity, lights perish, but only did these children whom they with them, their offspring, and Rita Spiegel, recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award; Donna Award; Achievement of Lifetime Rita Spiegel, recipient Coast development staff. West ASYV Elyassian, A PLANNED GIFT TO ASYV PLANNED GIFT TO A Shoah FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION: GENERATION: TO FROM GENERATION

OF REMEMBRANCE SHINING BRIGHT OF REMEMBRANCE

r. Miriam and Sheldon r. Adelson, long-time friends Our ASYV staff are here to help you accomplish your estate planning goals. are here to help you accomplish your estate ASYV staff Our Chris plan, please contact with your estate For more information or assistance

WE WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP THE FLAME THE FLAME KEEP TO CONTINUE WE WILL

D echoed In accepting the award, Rita Morton, Director of Planned Giving: through a life insurance or retirement plan, by naming ASYV as a beneficiary of a through a life insurance or retirement plan, by naming or other retirement vehicle. IRA life insurance policy, 212-220-4304, extension 213. the words that her father had spoken at the dedication of the Children’s Memorial: “Inside this building is a chamber illuminated by one and a half of light. Each points million separate little light symbolizes the soul of a of the late Edita and Abraham and of the late Edita the Lifetime presented Spiegel, Achievement Award to Rita of the entire on behalf Spiegel Adelson Sheldon family. Spiegel Yad “Miri and I visited stated, and the Children’s Vashem and Memorial in the late 1980’s Abe were incredibly moved. unique contribution and Edita’s for us. When we was a catalyst Abe returned home, I contacted and we began to deepen our relationship along with our com- Rita Vashem. Yad mitment to sup- has continued her family’s Vashem Yad port of the work of and the maintenance of the Memorial,” he contin- Children’s ued. “She demonstrated her commitment to Israel and the Jewish people through her lead- educa- ership in philanthropy, tion and community activities, while living in southern California and during the four- teen years she spent in Israel.” (Continued from page 1) (Continued from page memorialized Vashem; Yad face of murdered in their first son Uziel, all of the children Auschwitz, and who perished in the Page 16 proved to be an inestimable to the Jewish people and gift all humanity.”