JANUARY 2012 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 1 Jewish Foundation for the Righteous NEW APPOINTEES TO H OLOCAUST COUNCIL Annual Dinner: Remarks by Rosie Sansalone Alway (JTA)—Holocaust survivors and Roman Kent, and geno- cide survivor Clemantine Wamariya are among fi ve new appointees to the U.S. November 29, 2011 Holocaust Memorial Council. Good evening. It is a distinct honor and privilege to speak with you this eve- President Obama appointed the members, who were announced Oct. 28. Other ning as the recipient of the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust new members are Joseph Gutman and Howard Unger. Education. I would especially like to thank Stanlee Stahl and the Jewish Founda- “These fi ne public tion for the Righteous (JFR). Stanlee’s tireless efforts with the JFR and its mis- servants both bring a sion have certainly paved the way for my standing before you this evening, as depth of experience well as ensuring my ability to effectively teach the lessons of to and tremendous dedica- my students. tion to their new roles," As an English teacher I have found that the most effective tool to use with Obama said. students is the telling of stories. I teach my students to look past the surface of Professor Wiesel, the words, and to search for the author’s intent. What is the author revealing to us the Nobel Prize-win- beneath his words? When we as readers are successful in fi nding this understand- ning writer and activist, ing we are given a gift: we discover again what it means to be human. This is my has been on the council approach to teaching the Holocaust, the ultimate example of man’s inhumanity since he was its found- against man. I fi ght against the dehumanization. I teach life. I tell stories about Elie Wiesel ing chairman in 1980. Roman Kent what it means to be human. Kent, the president .. .the story of 39 red roses of Namor International Corp., is chairman of the American Gathering of Jew- .. .the story of a dog named Lala ish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants and treasurer of the Conference .. .the story of a young boy from who has taught me that “Every name on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. He is also president of the Jewish has a story” and that “indifference is never an option.” Foundation for the Righteous and the International Auschwitz Committee. These stories, these lessons of the Holocaust have woven themselves into ev- Wamariya is an undergraduate student at . ery novel I read with my students, every lesson I construct, and every interaction Gutman, managing director of Grosvenor Capital Management, is the son of I have with my students and colleagues. I wear my amber bracelet from a Holocaust survivor. He is an active member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial as a constant visual reminder of these lessons, so that I may incorporate a human Museum’s offi ce and the Birthright executive committee. touch in all I do. Unger, founder of the investment fi rm Saw Mill Capital, is a member of the I am blessed to have the opportunity to teach at an incredible school: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience, the arm of the Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a Catholic Independent council tasked with stimulating worldwide action against genocide and other School that encourages me as a teacher to follow my passions, to teach from my crimes against humanity. heart, and to inspire my students “to share fully the gifts given to them by God; to grow in grace and wisdom; and to become people of character who improve the world they inherit.” Father Philip Seher, our school chaplain, recently told me the Soviet Refugees To Get Hardship Payments story of his decision to become a priest. He was a young boy growing up in post- By Stewart Ain, Jewish Week World War II Europe. He would often ride his bike to an abandoned concentration Thanks to the efforts of representatives of the American Gathering, one-time camp to ponder and pray. It was on this site—a place which had infl icted so much Hardship Fund payments of about $3,300 will now be available to certain horror and agony—where he decided to become a priest. He wanted to make the who fl ed areas of the Soviet Union ahead of the advancing Nazi army and whose world a better place. He has. homes were never occupied. Those eligible will include certain Jews who fl ed In addition, the JFR and the incredible men and women I have met as a result from Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad during specifi c time periods. of my association with this organization have reinforced this lesson of humanity. It is the fi rst time that the experiences of these Jews who fl ed for their lives I had the privilege of meeting Jadwiga and Jerzy Sliwczynska at the Rescuers’ from the Nazis is being recognized by Germany, according to the Conference on Luncheon hosted by the JFR in Warsaw Poland in the summer of 2010.1 can still Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which negotiated for the payments. feel the soft touch of Jadwiga’s hand in mine as we greeted each other. Their Nazi victims still living in former Soviet block countries are not eligible for the example gives me the courage to lead my life following the example of the righ- payment. teous... with a human touch. Hardship Fund payments are also now being made available to eligible appli- This “human touch” is the core of my educational philosophy. I tell my stu- cants who never received German reparations and were citizens of certain West- dents that certainly my lessons in grammar, vocabulary, writing, poetry, and lit- ern European countries at the time of Nazi persecution and also at the time of that erature are important; however, it is my primary goal to teach them to be human country's Global Agreement with Germany. beings with a solid character and integrity, and more importantly righteous hu- In addition, a one-time payment of about $2,500 is for the fi rst time being paid man beings who refuse to be indifferent. to those born in 1928 or later who lived in former Soviet bloc countries, whose This is what we must teach our students. This is the primary lesson of the parents were murdered due to Nazi persecution and who have never received any Holocaust. When we teach our students to see each other as human beings, indif- German reparations.

cont’d on p. 3 To apply, call 646-536-9100.

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January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 1 Those who desecrate the Holocaust should have no place in society TOGETHER By Menachem Z. Rosensaft, The Post January 2012 Volume 26 Number 1 The abhorrent rally in Jerusalem’s Shabbat c•o•n•t•e•n•t•s Square on December 31, 2011, featuring haredim Remarks: Jewish Foundation for the Righteous by Rosie Sansalone Alway...... 1 wearing yellow stars and simulated concentration New Appointees to Holocaust Council...... 1 camp uniforms brings to mind Walt Kelly’s obser- Soviet Refugees to Get Hardship Payments by Stewart Ain...... 1 vation in the classic “Pogo” comic strip: “We have Desecrating the Holocaust by Menachem Rosensaft...... 2 met the enemy and he is us.” Partisans Honored by Hillel Kuttler...... 3 “It’s like how it started with the Nazis—very Judge Who Ruled Holocaust a Fact Dies...... 3 slowly,” said one ultra-Orthodox demonstrator, an Names of 30,000 SurvivorsNow Searchable...... 4 American yeshiva student named Salomon Hober- Haredi Protestors’ Use of Holocast Imagery Condemned ...... 4 man, steadfastly insisting on his and his cohorts’ right to discriminate against and Window Opening on Nazi Prosecutions by Steve Lipman ...... 4 even physically abuse women and girls. Rosensaft Profi led by New York Times ...... 5 It is important to recognize that this latest misuse of Holocaust imagery and Israel Marks 70 Years Since Babi Yar ...... 5 Nazi analogies did not occur in a vacuum. In 1995, posters of then-prime minister Albanian PM: Ahmadinejad is the New Nazi by Itamar Eichner...... 6 in a Nazi uniform were displayed at right-wing demonstrations op- Conference Calls on Romania to Acknowledge WWII War Crimes...... 6 posing any political accommodation with the Palestinians. In December of 2004, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum by Morris J. Vogel ...... 7 Gaza Strip settlers compared then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to pull USS St. Louis Redux by Sergio Carmona...... 7 out of Gaza to the Holocaust and announced that they would start wearing orange “Hitler Wasn’t All Bad” by Allan Hall...... 8 stars (orange being the color of the antidisengagement movement) in protest. Claims Conference Negotiates New Pensions...... 8 Eight months later, IDF soldiers were confronted in the Gaza settlement of Israeli Museum Refuses to Return WWII Spoils...... 8 Kerem Atzmona by Jewish children with yellow Stars of David pinned to their Charity Team Runs Marathon for Holocaust Survivors by Renee Ghert-Zand...... 9 chests, intentionally evoking images of Jews being deported to their deaths by Construction of Holocaust Memorial Starts in Nashua by Jake Berry...... 9 the Nazis. First Graduate Program in Israel for Holocaust Studies by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu...... 9 Nor is the use of Nazi imagery limited to the right wing. Last May, a group of Prague Jewish Museum Marks 70th Anniversary of Terezin Deportations...... 10 left-wing Israeli, Palestinian and Polish activists, including a former Israel Air Force Swiss Acknowledge Those Who Helped Jews Flee Nazis...... 11 Warsaw Jews Debate Demolition of Holocaust-era Building by Roman Frister ...... 11 pilot named Yonatan Shapiro, sprayed the words “Liberate all ghettos” in Hebrew It’s Never Too Late to Find Missing Family by Susan Kent Avjian...... 11 and “Free Gaza and Palestine” in English on remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto. Florida’s Holocaust Survivors Win Battle Against French Railroad by Scott Travis.....12 No one should be surprised, therefore, when the ultra-Orthodox, some of Renault Heirs Revisit Company’s Link With Nazis by Angelique Chrisafi s ...... 12 whom have long compared Israel to at anti-Zionist demonstra- Israel Puts Eichmann Items on Display by Aron Heller ...... 13 tions in New York and elsewhere, chose to up the ante by employing ever more UNESCO Cuts Funds for Palestinian Magazine by Matti Friedman...... 13 provocative and evocative tactics. National Library of Wales Scandal by Sion Morgan...... 14 Even more troubling than the December 31 rally is the silence of so many Return of Books Stolen By Nazis by Brian Rapp...... 14 ultra-Orthodox religious leaders in its aftermath. While certain Jewish religious Journey of Self-Discovery by Vanessa Gera...... 15 leaders have voiced their dismay, most of the prominent Hasidic and other hare- BND Destroyed Files on Former SS Members by Klaus Wiegrefe...... 16 di personalities seem to have developed convenient laryngitis. Holocaust Survivor Gets the Diploma Nazis Denied Him by Valerie Hauch ...... 16 Unfortunately, we have reached a point at which politicians and media com- Education Budget Cuts in North Carolina byAmanda Greene...... 17 mentators, eager for a sound bite on the evening news, think nothing of exploit- Cardinal Claims Jews Want Sainthood for Paul II by Paul Berger...... 17 ing the Holocaust and Nazi terminology—and apparently, the crasser the better. “All Minds Blurred and Darkened” by Madeline Chambers...... 18 In the , reactionary radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has Researchers Expose a Nazi Past by Nir Hasson...... 19 repeatedly likened President to Hitler, with virtually no one in In Memoriam...... 20 Searches (contributing editor Serena Woolrich)...... 23 the Republican Party taking him to task. In Limbaugh’s own words, as broadcast “Searches” is a project of Allgenerations, Inc. to his nationwide audience, “Obama’s got a healthcare logo that’s right out of ’s playbook”; “Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like IF YOU HAVE AN E-MAIL ADDRESS Hitler did”; the president “is sending out his brownshirts to head up opposition AND WISH TO RECEIVE NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS to genuine American citizens who want no part of what Barack Obama stands for BETWEEN and is trying to stuff down our throats”; and “Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, TOGETHER PUBLICATION DATES, also ruled by dictate.” Others are no better. Participants in Tea Party rallies have brandished images PLEASE SEND IT TO: [email protected] of President Obama with a Hitler-like mustache and signs with “Obama” writ- ten under a swastika. The president of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel American Gathering Executive Committee County in Maryland wrote on the group’s website that “Obama and Hitler have SAM E. BLOCH • ROMAN K ENT a great deal in common.” MAX K. LIEBMANN The head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty MENACHEM R OSENSAFT • ELAN S TEINBERG Commission declared that the Obama administration’s healthcare reform “is not something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely what the Nazis did.” And Glenn Beck, another well-known talk show host, disparaged the presi- dent’s plan to expand the Peace Corps and its domestic counterpart, AmeriCorps, TOGETHER as “what Hitler did with the SS.” AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Not to be outdone, former House speaker Newt Gingrich has declared that the AND THEIR DESCENDANTS Obama administration’s policies represent “as great a threat to America as Nazi 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 · New York, New York 10001 · 212 239 4230 Germany or the Soviet Union once did.” Really? Death camps? Gas chambers? Founding President Vice Presidents Publication Committee BEN MEED, K”Z EVA FOGELMAN SAM E. BLOCH, Chairman Gulags? Honorary President ROSITTA E. KENIGSBERG HIRSH ALTUSKY, K”Z VLADKA MEED ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS ROMAN KENT The brutal massacre of millions? To be fair, Democrats and liberals have not President JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT MAX K. LIEBMANN SAM E. BLOCH MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT VLADKA MEED been blameless in this regard. In September 2009, Alan Grayson, then a Demo- Honorary Chairman STEFANIE SELTZER ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS cratic congressman from Florida, called the healthcare crisis “this Holocaust in ERNEST MICHEL ELAN STEINBERG MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT Chairman JEFFREY WIESENFELD ELAN STEINBERG ROMAN KENT Secretary America.” Managing Editor Honorary Senior JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE PHILIP SIERADSKI Last January, another Democratic congressman, Steve Cohen from Tennes- Vice President Treasurer Editor Emeritus WILLIAM LOWENBERG, K”Z MAX K. LIEBMANN ALFRED LIPSON, K”Z see, who, like Grayson, happens to be Jewish, called the Republican rhetoric on Senior Vice President Regional Vice-Presidents healthcare “a big lie just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you MAX K. LIEBMANN VIVIAN GLASER BERNSTEIN Counsel BERNARD KENT ABRAHAM KRIEGER repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it. Like blood libel... The Germans MICHAEL KORENBLIT MEL MERMELSTEIN SERENA WOOLRICH cont’d on p. 6

TOGETHER 2 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 55 Jewish partisans honored for “extraordinary measures” in resisting Nazis By Hillel Kuttler, JTA Allen Small, 83, and Leon Bakst, 86, hugged each mistress of ceremonies. the Partisans” in the original Yiddish—the dinner other so tight, Small said, “I couldn’t let go.” Their The event marked a high point for the San Fran- underscored a central theme of transmitting the resis- embrace at a synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East cisco-based Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, tance’s history to subsequent generations. Side was 65 years in the making. the sponsoring organization whose executive direc- Some 5,000 American educators utilize JPEF-de- Small and Bakst grew up a few houses apart in tor, Mitch Braff, admitted knowing nothing about veloped curricula and programs in their classes, said partisans until meeting Braff, who reported being pleasantly surprised at a a fi ghter from Lithua- 2010 conference for soda! studies teachers at which nia and founding JPEF 450 teachers signed up with JPEF. Board president 11 years ago. Elliott Felson said that JPEF over the next decade The November 7 hopes to reach 100,000 educators and 2 million stu- dinner combined strong dents with the lessons of the partisans’ heroism. elements of reunion, Family members of honorees concurred in be- tribute, historical pres- ing thrilled to witness the evening’s tribute to their ervation and educa- loved ones. tion. Both the partisans Helene Gradow Kingston, who accompanied her and JPEF’s U.S.-born 86-year-old father, Jeff Gradow, a Los Angeles resi- offi cials emphasized dent, said the event “makes me very proud.” Gazing the importance of ad- at her son Elliott, 17, she added of her father, “He justing World War II’s was [a partisan] at my son’s age. These were amazing record to account for feats of courage.” Reunion of Jewish partisans in New York. Jewish heroism amid Paula Berger, 77, of Denver, as a young giri from the Shoah’s slaughter. Novogrudek, Belarus, was sheltered in the Bielski Ivye, Belarus, attending the same school and syna- “Tonight we honor your bravery and your courage,” brigade. gogue before reality turned black, back when their said television actor Edward Asner, representing his “If there’s anything any of us ever wanted, it’s names were Avraham Schmulewitz and Leibel Bakst, cousin Abe, a 95-year-old partisan from Eishyshok, that someone would tell our story because we didn’t and Ivye belonged to Poland and the Nazis had not Belarus, who lives in Windsor, Ontario. “Thank you think we’d survive. It was such a horrifi c time,” said yet invaded. They last saw each another in 1946 at a for putting the lie to the [claim] that Jews didn’t fi ght Berger, whose two daughters, son and granddaughter displaced persons camp in Munich. back. For inspiring all of us to stand up against tyr- accompanied her to the dinner. During the two years preceding their liberation by anny, I salute you and I applaud you. We all applaud “The people who are putting in the time and the Red Army in 1944, the then teenagers fought the you.” money to keep the story alive and retold—I think Nazis in separate brigades in the vast Nalibotskaya Attendees ignored Asner’s request to stifl e clap- it’s wonderful. It’s another Chanukah nes [miracle] Pushcha forest. For their daring. Small, now living ping while portraits of each partisan appeared on- or Purim nes because Purim was about saving Jews’ in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and Bakct, of Dallas, screen. When the lights returned, Asner uttered som- lives and Chanukah was about saving our spirit,” she along with 53 other Jewish partisans from across berly, “The list is too short. I’m sorry that there aren’t said. “This was both.” more with us.” the United States, were honored here at a synagogue The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust With central roles assigned to partisans’ descen- reception Nov. 6, 2011 and a gala dinner the next Survivors and Their Descendants was represented by dants—Matthew Bielski, grandson of the late Zus evening. its president, Sam Bloch, and his wife Lilly. Like many partisans interviewed, Bakst down- played his role, saying that sheer survival was the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous great motivator. Some had carried rifl es, sabotaged Annual Dinner German supply trains and attacked the enemy. Oth- cont’d from p. 1 ers served as scouts, guides and cooks. Bakst and his older brother, Yehoshua, were deployed to secure ference becomes an impossibility. bread, butter, cheese, potatoes and meat from neigh- In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie boring farmers; anything not given was taken. The Wiesel said that “action is the only remedy to indif- boys were intimately familiar with the region from ference, the most insidious danger of all..there is so traversing the woods every year to visit their grand- much to be done, there is so much that can be done... mother, Bakst explained. one person of integrity can make a difference.” “Even if we saved a few lives and shortened the One person of integrity can make a difference. war, we made a contribution,” he said. This is what the story of Egle Bimbiriene, Aurimas The nearly 350 relatives, friends and admirers Allen Small (center) with American Gathering President Sam Ruzgys and Mary Eriich has taught me. Thank you who gathered in a converted theater for the dinner Bloch and his wife Lilly. to these courageous individuals who inherently un- were lauding the 55 partisans and their absent or de- Bielski, leader of the eponymous brigade featured in derstood this lesson of refusing to be indifferent by ceased comrades for being “ordinary men and wom- the 2008 fi lm Defi ance, recited the HaMotzi prayer, seeing each victim as a human being. They took ac- en taking extraordinary measures to protect Jewish and Shira Ginsburg, a Manhattan cantor whose pa- tion, and thus saved a life. I shall share your story lives,” said local newscaster Dana Tyier, the dinner’s ternal grandparents were partisans, sang “Hymn of with my students whom I have here with me tonight in my heart, and it is my sincere hope that they listen, JUDGE WHO RULED H OLOCAUST A FACT DIES they leam from your example, and they accept my challenge to carry forward the stories and the lessons LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Thomas Johnson, a California judge who ruled that the Holocaust was “a fact and into the next generation. not reasonably subject to dispute,” has died in Pacifi c Palisades, Calif. He was 88. Thank you for the honor of standing before you As a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, Johnson imposed a major setback to Holocaust deniers this evening. I take to heart the words of Roman Kent in 1981 with his ruling in a case pitting Mel Mermelstein, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, against which he said to group of JFR teachers during the the Institute of Historical Research in Torrance, Calif. In 1980, the institute, which labeled the Holocaust as Summer Institute for Teachers in July of 2009, “In a myth, had offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who could prove that Jews had been gassed at Auschwitz- your hands is the future of mankind. It is up to the Birkenau. Mermelstein submitted a notarized account describing how he saw Nazi guards take his mother teachers.” I think of his words every morning when I and two sisters to what he later learned was the Birkenau gas chamber. When the institute reneged on the walk into my classroom. Thank you. payment, Mermelstein sued for $17 million. During the trial, Johnson resolved the most controversial aspect of the case by applying the doctrine of Rosie Sansalone Alway is a teacher at Summit Country cont’d on p.8 Day School, Cincinnati, Ohio

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 3 Names of 30,000 Holocaust Haredi Orthodox protesters’ use of Holocaust imagery victims now searchable condemned WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The names of 30,000 Holo- JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli leaders criticized a serious injury to the memory of those killed in the caust victims are now searchable online through the haredi Orthodox demonstration in which protesters Holocaust,” said opposition leader Tzipi Livni. World Memory Project. wore yellow stars to indicate that they are being op- Eli Yishai, of the haredi Orthodox Shas Party, The joint venture of the U.S. Holocaust Memo- pressed like the Jews in Nazi Germany. condemned the use of Holocaust symbolism. But, he rial Museum and Ancestry.com announced Wednes- More than 1,000 haredi Orthodox protesters gath- added, while only a small minority of haredi Ortho- day that four collections of names from the museum ered in Jerusalem New Year’s eve to protest what dox people are involved in the controversial actions, would now be available on Ancestry.com at no cost. they described as persecution against their way of there has been “incitement” against the entire haredi "The collections contain information on thousands life, including separation of the sexes. Orthodox community. of individuals including displaced Jewish orphans; Many of the protesters wore yellow stars with the Condemnations also came from Holocaust survi- Czech Jews deported to the Terezin concentration word “Jude” written on them, using Holocaust imag- vor organizations. camp and camps in ery to hammer home their point. Young haredi Ortho- “Holocaust survivors express their utter contempt occupied Poland; and dox children were also brought on a makeshift stage at this disgraceful exploitation of these dramatic and French victims of wearing striped prison garb along with their yellow tragic symbols of the brutal effort to destroy the Jew- Nazi persecution," a stars. One child held up his hands in an imitation of a ish people,” said Elan Steinberg, vice president of statement said. famous image from the Warsaw Ghetto. the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and The World Mem- “Zionists are not Jews, they are racists,” read one their Descendants, in a statement. “The Nazis made ory Project aims to sign in English. Protesters also shouted “Nazis” at no distinction in their murderous treatment of our expand the accessibil- police securing the demonstration. people—whether one was ultra-Orthodox, tradition- ity of the museum’s “Prisoner uniforms and yellow patches with the al, or non-believer, you were marked for cruelty and archival collection, which contains information on word ‘Jew’ written on them in German are shocking death. We who survived and witnessed these Nazi well over 17 million people targeted by Nazi racial and appalling,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud crimes are particularly offended that demonstrators and political policies, and enable millions to conduct Barak in a statement. “The use of yellow patches so blithely used children in this public outrage. They online searches. and small children raising their hands in surrender have insulted the memory of all the Jewish victims, The project is built in part by volunteers who tran- crosses a red line which the ultra-Orthodox leader- including those who were ultra-Orthodox.” scribe historical records into the database. ship, who are largely responsible people, must not Avner Shalev, director of Yad Vashem, told Israel "To date, more than 2,100 contributors from accept,” he said. Radio Sunday that he condemns “in the strongest around the world have indexed more than 700,000 “With all due respect to the right of groups in the possible manner the phenomenon of using symbols records," the statement said. "Anyone, anywhere can haredi community to protest, and that is their elemen- of the Holocaust. It is unacceptable. This comes from contribute to the project by simply typing informa- tary right, to put a yellow star on their children does an extremist attitude and a clear desire to provoke.” tion from historical records into the online database."

Window Opening On Nazi against whom a specifi c crime could not be proven, course, nations are not bound by the legal precedents Prosecutions which made it diffi cult, if not impossible, to bring to of other nations. By Steve Lipman, Jewish Week justice many thousands of those who murdered Jews “What the German prosecutor ultimately did is during the Holocaust.” exactly what the Nuremberg prosecutors had done at In the years since the Holocaust, fears have increased Zuroff, author of Operation Last Chance: One their postwar trials: assign guilt according to orga- that the window of opportunity to bring Nazi war Man’s Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice nizational membership [whether one had joined the criminals to justice is closing — perpetrators and (Macmillan, 2009), announced last week the launch Nazi Party], or, in this case, whether one served as a witnesses are dying, and many countries’ political of “Operation Last Chance II,” a Wiesenthal Center guard in a death camp,” Rosenbaum said. “It mere- will to bring charges against old men and women is project (operationlastchance.org) that will “focus pri- ly simplifi es the burden of proof: all the prosecutor diminishing. marily on the new cases—those of the people who must show is that the defendant wore a uniform and Recently, the window opened a little. served in the [SS mobile killing carried a gun in a death camp, regardless of what he Germany, following the conviction in May of ac- squads] and the ‘pure’ death camps, Treblinka, Bel- or she might have actually done while serving in that cused death camp guard John Demjanjuk, announced zec, Sobibor and Chelmno.” capacity.” that it would reopen dormant investigations of hun- How many people who served in SS killing units “It certainly has symbolic signifi cance,” said Me- dreds of other people, mostly men, who also served as are still alive? nachem Rosensaft, who teaches law at Cornell Uni- guards at death camps during World War II. Because “Approximately 4,000 men served in these units. versity and Columbia University, and is a leader in of a precedent set in the Demjanjuk verdict, German Even if only 2 percent are alive, that’s 80 persons,” “Second Generation” activities of children of Ho- courts will for the fi rst time seek convictions of in- Zuroff said. “Assuming that half cannot be prosecut- locaust survivors. He called the expansive German dividuals who are proven to have served as guards, ed for medical reasons, that still leaves at least 40 verdict “a very positive development, many decades even if there are no witnesses or other evidence to who can be convicted and punished.” He declined to too late …[it] should have been made many years link them to specifi c criminal acts. name the leading targets of such prosecutions. “The ago. Other countries may follow suit — I don’t think The German precedent, observers say, will in- higher the rank, the bigger the priority.” they’re likely to.” crease the government’s ability to prosecute accused Zuroff, in an e-mail interview with The Jewish war criminals, may be used in the court cases of oth- Week, said he is coordinating his work with Kurt The precedent of convicting a war criminal on er countries and will certainly carry symbolic value: Schrimm, head of Germany’s Central Offi ce for the the basis of organizational affi liation not of proven Germany, where the Final Solution originated, is still Investigation of Nazi War Crimes. crimes “is clearly not a novel move,” Rosensaft said. the home of the world’s greatest number of people “We stepped onto virgin territory, and the court in The German precedent, he said, is similar — but not who participated in mass murder under the swastika. Munich validated us,” Schrimm told The New York identical—to the standard employed in the Justice “There is no question that the legal precedent set Times, explaining his legal victory. Department’s three decades of denaturalization and in the Demjanjuk conviction”—Demjanjuk, 91, is The application of the precedent by other coun- deportation proceedings against accused war crimi- free, pending appeal — “can pave the way for the tries’ judicial processes — including the U.S. Justice nals and collaborators. Someone proven to have lied, conviction of numerous Nazi war criminals who Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecu- when applying for U.S. citizenship, about his or her otherwise would never have been prosecuted,” said tions Section, which handles Nazi war criminal cases membership in a banned wartime organization is Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal — is unclear so soon after the German decision. subject to deportation from this country. Center’s Jerusalem offi ce and coordinator of a long- “The cases in Germany might be used as precedent “All [American prosecutors] have to establish term, worldwide effort to locate Nazi war criminals. in future trials [abroad],” said Thane Rosenbaum, au- is that they [the accused naturalized] citizen lied,” “Until now, the German prosecutors ignored anyone thor and lecturer in law at Fordham University. “Of Rosensaft said.

TOGETHER 4 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Menachem Rosensaft Profi led by New York Times and Honored by NYC College of Technology American Gathering vice president Menachem guished Humanitarian Award from the Jewish Fac- Rosensaft was profi led in a New York Times feature ulty & Staff Association of College of article on November 5, 2011, about the course on the Technology for his lifelong “endeavors in sustaining law of genocide he teaches at Columbia Law School. the memory of the Holocaust.” “The law often tries to weigh matters clinically,” At the City Tech ceremony, Rosensaft was intro- wrote Richard Pérez-Peña, “but a class that dwells duced by the renowned novelist and journalist Pete on atrocities cannot escape emotion. And it cannot Hamill who spoke about their more than two-de- help being personal when the professor is the Jewish cades-long friendship. Hamill recalled how Rosen- son of two Holocaust survivors whose families were saft had been his consultant on Yiddish pronunciation wiped out. and Jewish religious practices during the writing of “Yet Mr. Rosensaft, 63, who is teaching the class Hamill’s 1997 novel, Snow in August. at Columbia for the fi rst time, manages to take an al- Professor James Goldman, the Former Acting most dispassionate approach, as if to say that outrage (l-r) Pete Hamill, Menachem Rosensaft and City Tech President Dean of Continuing Education at City Tech, said that is fi ne, but then what? He peppers his lectures and Russel K. Hotzler. “If Elie Wiesel deservedly is considered the preemi- conversation with hypothetical questions devised to nent voice of Holocaust survivors, then Menachem avoid easy answers. immediacy to an already powerful subject. ‘In this Rosensaft is surely among the foremost eloquent “’Where are the lines separating free speech, hate class, you can’t be detached from what you’re talking voices of the children of Holocaust survivors, that is, speech and incitement to genocide, which was a ma- about,’ said one student, Sira Franzini, who is from the Second Generation.” jor factor in Rwanda?’ he asked his class recently. Italy — especially when ‘the professor is part of that Borough President Markowitz’s proclamation ‘Which one is it when Ahmadinejad calls for the history.’” noted that Rosensaft, “born in the displaced persons eradication of Israel?’ Most signifi cantly, according to Mr. Pérez-Peña, camp of Bergen-Belsen,” has become “a leader in “Noting that at Nuremberg, the Allies imposed “Mr. Rosensaft stresses that the fi eld his class cov- Holocaust remembrance activities” as “founding new laws retroactively, to prosecute people who ers is new, and still evolving. Until the Holocaust, chairman of the International Network of Children of could claim that their actions were allowed under the term ‘genocide’ did not exist, ‘crimes against hu- Jewish Holocaust Survivors, chairman of the edito- wartime German law, he asked, ‘How is that different manity’ was not yet a legal term, and international rial board of the Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Proj- than if the Union had prosecuted Southerners after courts did not try national leaders. It was generally ect and vice president of the American Gathering of the Civil War for having been slave owners?’ understood that if a nation slaughtered people within Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants “He draws students’ attention to inconsistent ver- its own borders, neighboring countries would not in- among so many other endeavors.” Last year Rosen- dicts and sentences at Nuremberg, and the fact that, tervene. saft was appointed by President Obama to the United decades later, nations pivoted quickly from treating “’Each instance of genocide has its own charac- States Holocaust Memorial Council which oversees Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president, as a dig- teristics, and each time we learn how the law can be the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washing- nitary, to calling him a war criminal. fl exible and adapt,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, we’re ton, DC (he had previously been named twice to that “’There are always political elements to these cas- still learning.’” body by President Clinton), and is also the immedi- es’ he said. ‘There are always ambiguities.’” Several days later, November 9, 2011, the 73rd an- ate past president of Park Avenue Synagogue in New The article points out that Rosensaft, general niversary of Kristallnacht, was formally proclaimed York City as well as a former national president of counsel of the World Jewish Congress, also teaches Menachem Z. Rosensaft Recognition Day in Brook- the Labor Zionist Alliance. similar at the law school of Cornell and Syracuse. lyn, NY, by Borough President Marty Markowitz on “His Columbia students say his experience gives an the occasion of Rosensaft receiving the 2011 Distin- SAVE THE DATE Israel marks 70 years since Babi Yar massacre SUNDAY By Aron Heller were ordered to be murdered. JERUSALEM (AP) — With tears in his eyes, Michael At Babi Yar, the Jews were forced to hand over

Sidko laid a wreath of fl owers at Israel’s offi cial valuables, strip and line up on the edge of the ravine. APRIL 22, 2012 Holocaust memorial during a solemn ceremony They were then shot with automatic fi re and covered AT 2:00 PM marking 70 years since a World War II massacre he by dirt. The Nazis gunned down 33,771 Jews over two barely escaped. days. Similar mass murders took place throughout Sidko was six when he was taken with his family to the former Soviet Union. “2012” ANNUAL the Babi Yar ravine outside Kiev, — then part After the war, a 1961 poem about the massacre GATHERING OF R EMEMBRANCE of the Soviet Union — to be murdered along with the by Yevgeni Yevtushenko was turned into music, and IN OBSERVANCE OF Y OM H ASHOAH rest of that city’s Jews. In the two-day killing spree in Babi Yar became a symbol of Nazi evil. September 1941, Nazi troops gunned down more than “At that area, the mass murder systematically HOLOCAUST R EMEMBRANCE D AY 33,000 Jews and buried them in mounds of dirt. started and for many years it was denied,” said Avner TEMPLE E MANU-E L Among those murdered were Sidko’s mother and Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust two of his siblings. He and his older brother, Grisha, Memorial. “That very famous piece of poetry started OF THE C ITY OF N EW Y ORK were among the few who managed to escape the a new process and immediately it caught the minds FIFTH A VENUE AND 65 TH S TREET killing fi elds. and hearts of so many people in the world.” “How is it that everyone was killed and only we Babi Yar also served as a slaughterhouse for non- NEW Y ORK C ITY survived?” he asked, hands quivering. “I still can’t Jews, such as Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war. believe what happened there and how I managed to According to a Soviet estimate, 100,000 people were get away. I thank God I am here today.” murdered there. At 76, he is one of the only living survivors of an Sidko said he was gathered along with a small atrocity that has become one of the defi ning events of group of children while the adults were being the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews. slaughtered. For some inexplicable reason, a German The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June guard allowed him and his 13-year-old brother to 1941 marked a turning point in the German plan break off from the group, and then they fl ed. to “solve the Jewish problem.” Einsatzgruppen They returned home, but a Ukrainian neighbor paramilitary death squads were sent out to follow the reported them to the and they were sent to German armies. Babi Yar was one of the fi rst mass a concentration camp. The brothers escaped that as killing sites. well and were on the run for two more years, until Of the 160,000 Jews in Kiev prior to the Nazi the end of the war. Michael Sidko’s brother Grisha is invasion, some 100,000 managed to fl ee. The rest no longer alive.

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 5 Albanian PM: Ahmadinejad is the new State of Israel.” Will you vote against a unilateral recogni- Nazi tion of a Palestinian state at the UN General By Itamar Eichner, Israel News Assembly? “We have yet to decide whether to abstain When Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha talks about Israel, one might mis- or vote, but we defi nitely won’t vote in favor.” take him for a Zionist leader who could easily fi t into the Likud or Yisrael Beit- What is your stand regarding the Iranian einu parties. But when these statements are made by a Muslim leading a moderate threat? European Muslim country – they are defi nitely surprising. “A nuclear Iran is the biggest threat to peace The highlight was at the United Nations General Assembly, after the famous in the Middle East and in the entire world. It’s clash between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President not just against Israel. The latest IAEA report Mahmoud Abbas over the Palestinian statehood bid. showed that Iran is working to acquire a nucle- When it was Berisha’s turn to talk, he openly criticized the Palestinian move. ar weapon and won’t allow its facilities to be His General Assembly address did not exactly benefi t Albania’s relations with supervised. The Security Council must take all Muslim countries, especially Iran, but he refused to take it back. steps necessary to prevent a nuclear Iran.” “Iran and its leader, (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, are the new Nazis, If diplomatic efforts fail and Iran acquires a and the world must learn from the Holocaust and stop them before it’s too late,” nuclear bomb, will you support a military strike Albanian Prime Minister Berisha says in an interview to Yedioth Ahronoth. “The Holocaust taught the free on Iran by NATO? Sali Berisha world’s conscience not to let such a scenario repeat itself.” When asked if Albania, as a NATO member, will join a military strike against “We’ll support any NATO decision.” Iran if and when such a decision is made, he immediately replies: “We’ll support And if Israel decides to attack? such a move and join it, just like we supported the operation in Libya. It won’t be “I believe it has to be coordinated. At the moment there is an international against the Iranian people, but against the nuclear facilities.” document, and the best way is through Security Council resolutions.” It’s no wonder that during his recent visit to Israel, his third, Berisha held You must have supported the Arab Spring. meetings with the president, prime minister, Knesset speaker and foreign minis- “Regimes based on religion have no future. Those who protested on the streets ter, and was praised for his courageous opinions. Foreign Minister Avigdor Li- in Arab countries were fi ghting for freedom and values shared by all human be- eberman even informed him of his decision to open an Israeli embassy in the ings, regardless of their religion. Western countries must reach out and help them Albanian capital of Tirana. build their democratic institutions.” Berisha did not settle for these meetings and even visited the , Is Albania a good example of how a moderate Muslim country should look where he received a blessing from the holy site’s , Shmuel Rabinovitch. He like? didn’t visit the Temple Mount mosques. “Albania is a country of religious tolerance. We are a multi-religious country. Why did you oppose the Palestinian UN statehood bid? The majority of the population is Muslim, but never in our long history have we “The unilateral Palestinian move does not advance a political solution, but had inter-religious incidents. Religion has no infl uence on politics.” sabotages the peace process. The attempt to bypass Israel and the US is a mistake. Israelis have stopped traveling to Turkey because of the crisis, and many are Peace between Israel and the Palestinians must go through direct negotiations going to Greece and Bulgaria instead. Perhaps they should come to Albania. and by guaranteeing the security of both states. Shortcuts will do no good.” “I believe Israelis will return to Turkey, but they’re more than welcome in Were you pressured by Arab countries or Iran because of your stance? Albania. In the past year we have seen a signifi cant increase in the number of “We are in no way against the Palestinians. Whoever says that is completely Israeli tourists. This year we were picked by Lonely Planet as the No. 1 tourist wrong. But we have our own opinion, and we believe it’s the right way. Some destination, and we have a lot to offer Israeli tourists. countries, which have pushed the Palestinians to take radical steps, have taken an “In general, many Israeli companies invest in Albania, and I call on Israelis to unacceptable stand against Israel. The solution must bring full security to both continue doing business with us.” states, but I have not seen any support for the acceptance and recognition of the Holocaust Desecration cont’d from p.2 Conference calls on Romania moment declined to attend. There was, however, to acknowledge WWII war offi cial representation by the embassies of Austria, said enough about the Jews and people believed it— Azerbaijan and Israel, as well as lawmakers from believed it and you have the Holocaust.” crimes Ukraine and Moldova. All of these blatantly inappropriate Nazi and Ho- (JTA)—A conference focusing on Romania's “We are not demanding fi nancial compensation locaust analogies, whether made in Israel, the United Holocaust-era war crimes in Ukraine and Moldova from Romania,” Feldman said. “They cannot bring States or anywhere else, undermine our ability to called on Romania to acknowledge and apologize for their victims back to life. Even though the Romanian bring the moral authority of Holocaust memory to the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews. ambassador did not attend the conference, we are bear when it really matters. The Holocaust and all it The conference, which ended on the anniversary pushing forward with this process until justice is represents should only be invoked in our contempo- of Kristallnacht, was convened to bring the full scope achieved.” rary political discourse when human beings, Jews or of World War II Romania’s fascist state-sponsored The conference adopted a series of three non-Jews, are actually persecuted or threatened with genocide to light. The conference examined resolutions that Feldman called “a small fi rst step of destruction. Romania’s role in the Holocaust in Ukraine and other a long journey before us.” It is not enough to condemn the haredim who countries of the former Soviet Union, particularly The resolutions call on Romania to recognize compared themselves to Jews in Nazi Europe at the Moldova. publicly and offi cially its role in the murder of December 31 rally and then allow the incident to be C o n v e n e d hundreds of thousands of Jews from the territories of dismissed and forgotten as merely another outrage in by Ukrainian present-day Ukraine and Moldova; to issue a formal a succession of many outrages.Those who organized l a w m a k e r apology to the Jewish communities of Ukraine and or took part in this obscene demonstration should be O l e k s a n d r Moldova; and to play an active role in cooperating made permanent pariahs, as should the ultra-Ortho- Feldman and with Ukrainian and Moldovan governmental the Ukrainian dox and other leaders who refuse to denounce J e w i s h and nongovernmental organizations in programs it. Desecrating the memory of the Holocaust is as Committee, designed for memorializing Holocaust victims of reprehensible as spitting on a girl, and the social de- Oleksandr Feldman which Feldman Romania-occupied territories. generates who do either of these things have no place serves as Next to the Nazis, Romania was responsible for in a civilized society. president, the conference brought together some 70 the deaths of more Jews during the Holocaust than participants from Ukraine and Moldova comprising any other German-allied country. During World The writer’s parents survived the Auschwitz and Bergen- a mix of Holocaust survivors, scholars and public War II, the Nazi-allied Romanian government was Belsen concentration camps. He is an adjunct professor fi gures. complicit in the murder of approximately 400,000 of law at Cornell Law School, lecturer in law at Columbia The Romanian ambassador to Kiev initially Jews, both on Romanian soil and in villages and Law School, and vice president of the American Gathering accepted the conference’s invitation but at the last forests throughout Ukraine and Moldova. of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.

TOGETHER 6 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 The Lower East Side Tenement Museum: Telling the Stories of Survivors By Morris J. Vogel they were self-suffi cient and needed no additional The Lower East Side Tenement Museum tells the support from HIAS. Like an earlier generation of story of the great wave of turn-of-the-20th-century Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side, both immigration through its interpretation of 97 Orchard Kalman and Regina Epstein worked in New York Street, a tenement that housed 7,000 people from City’s garment industry. Their children enrolled 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. The Museum at P.S. 42 and Seward Park High School, studying has transformed this once-abandoned building into alongside children of other recent newcomers to the a symbol of the immigration experience, turning Lower East Side, including Puerto Ricans who had the stories of the immigrant families who lived here begun to settle the neighborhood at the same time. into America’s story. The Museum has twice been The Epsteins registered to vote for the fi rst time honored for this achievement at the White House, while they lived at 103 Orchard. with the National Medal for Museum Service and the Museum research in the records of HIAS, the Preserve America Presidential Award. The Museum United Service for New Americans and the New is also a National Park Service affi liated site, paired formally by Congress with Ellis Island and the York Association for New Americans, and the Statue of Liberty. The National Trust for Historic National Council of Jewish Women documents the Preservation identifi ed the Lower East Side as “the general experiences of Holocaust survivors drawn to most culturally important square mile in the United the Lower East Side for jobs in the garment industry and opportunities in small retail shops. Museum States.” The Trust’s citation noted that, “More of followed their dreams to this country and built new researchers would like to conduct oral history almost everything that is distinctively American has lives here. its roots here than anywhere else.” The Museum will use its time-tested and highly interviews with survivors and their children who The Museum’s fl agship building is a National successful exhibit format, displaying apartments in lived and worked on the Lower East Side in the late Historic Landmark. The Museum hosts 175,000 which actual families lived in order to present their 1940s and 1950s. visitors annually; it is an iconic institution telling the stories to visitors. It hopes to start with the story There is a larger story in this presentation as well. story of what gave New York’s Lower East Side its of Kalman and Regina Epstein, who were among America’s restrictive quota laws contributed to the special character as freedom’s portal. the handful of refugees from Nazism admitted horror of the Holocaust. The admission of Jewish If anything is missing from this success, it’s that under President Truman’s Emergency Directive of refugees from post-war Europe, which subsequently the Museum has thus far not been able to tell the December 1945, which temporarily suspended the included major refugee acts in 1948 and 1949, spelled story of the Lower East Side’s second life as a refuge immigration quota system; the Epsteins created new the beginning of the end of the notorious quota in which Holocaust survivors built families and lives at 103 Orchard Street after resettlement by the system even as it shaped a new and more generous homes after the war. That’s because the Museum’s Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). policy towards refugees and asylum seekers. Ending landmark tenement was condemned as unfi t for The Museum would very much to locate and race-based immigration quotas allowed America human occupancy and shuttered in 1935. Now, the interview children and grandchildren of the Epsteins. to re-establish its oldest dream as a refuge for the Museum has acquired a second property, an 1888- There is also much useful information in the public era tenement at 103 Orchard Street, on the corner record, and museum researchers have uncovered persecuted of other lands. This new exhibit will help of Delancey, that housed newcomers in the decades signifi cant elements of the Epstein story in the tell the story of the lives these survivors and their after the war. This building will allow the Museum to HIAS records, Ellis Island Arrival Records, U.S. children made in America. highlight the story of post-World War II immigration Naturalization Records, NYC Board of Elections and to interpret it with the same emotional power that Records, and NYC telephone records. We know, for Morris J. Vogel is President of the Lower East Side it devoted to the earlier waves of newcomers who example, that shortly after the Epsteins arrival in 1947, Tenement Museum.

Scott Miller, United States “That was an incredible moment for me person- USS St. Louis Redux Holocaust Memorial Muse- ally and for our search,” Miller remarked. “It was our By Sergio Carmona, Florida Jewish Journal um’s director of curatorial af- fi rst success story using the media.” fairs, discusses the museum’s project to uncover the fate of When asked how many passengers are still alive A United States Holocaust Memorial Museum every refugee aboard the pas- in an interview, Miller said there are approximately representative recently revealed a once unsolved senger liner S.S. St. Louis. 50-60. One of these passengers, Herbert Karliner, mystery to the local community. (Staff photo/Janeris Marte / resides in Aventura. Karliner shared his story at the Scott Miller, the USHMM’s director of curatorial December 14, 2011) ATJC presentation. When asked about his goals in affairs, discussed the museum’s ten-year project to vors’ registry and said he was a child on the ship sharing his experiences, he replied “I think it’s im- uncover the fate of every refugee aboard the passen- who’s looking for other children he played with and portant that we talk about this because we should ger liner S.S. St. Louis at Aventura Turnberry Jewish that at that moment, they knew they wanted to un- learn a lesson and tell the new generation what hap- Center and Valencia Reserve in Boynton Beach. In cover what became of these passengers. As a starting pened to us.” 1939, the St. Louis, which carried 937 people, most point, he said the museum had a list of passengers, Jack Karako, director for the museum’s Southeast of them Jews fl eeing Nazi Germany, was refused names, what year they were born and what country Regional Offi ce in Boca Raton, said the highlight of save haven by both the Cuban government and the they were sent to in its archives. Through this re- the discussions was the commitment the museum has United States and returned to Europe. search, he found out that a couple hundred passen- in remembering the Holocaust’s history and its indi- In an interview, Miller said that when the passen- gers made their way to the U.S. and survived the war. vidual stories. gers went back to Europe, there was a gamut of Ho- The museum even put out advertisements looking for “As he locaust experiences and individual stories. passengers. [Miller] said, “There were close to 250 [passengers] that were “We put ads in the newspapers and also went to it wasn’t deported to Auschwitz and Sobibor and there were radio and we even went to television,” he remarked. just 937 pas- those who survived in hiding by faking their iden- “The Holocaust Museum even sent me to media sengers, but tities and there were those who made their way to training to be on television.” 937 individ- the U.S. but it’s stunning to think that this group of Miller said that although the museum was origi- ual stories,” people was off the coast of Miami Beach,” Miller nally skeptical this could work, early on in the search, Karako add- said. “This shouldn’t have been a Holocaust story; a man named Michael Barak, who was known as Mi- ed. this should’ve been an immigration story.” chael Fink as a fi ve-year-old aboard the ship, told Miller remarked during the ATJC discussion that them he read an ad in a Tel Aviv German language in the mid-90s, a man went to the museum’s survi- newspaper. S.S. St. Louis

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 7 “Hitler wasn’t all bad”: One “Young, open, tolerant? The ideal of an open, so- Claims Conference cially minded younger generation remains, as a cur- in ten Austrian teens think rent study shows, an illusion,” said Austria”s Stan- Negotiates Pensions for Nazi leader did “good things,” dard newspaper. Additional Survivors “Youth are openly hostile to foreigners and are Thanks to the efforts of representatives of the shock survey reveals anti-Semitic to an amazingly large degree.” By Allan Hall, MailOnLine American Gathering, certain Holocaust survivors “Too many Turks live in this country,” said 43.6 who have been denied German compensation percent of the respondents. Austrians are shocked by a new survey which pensions will now be eligible to receive them as a Perhaps more sinisterly, in a statement that harks shows that one in ten young people think Adolf Hitler result of Claims Conference negotiations with the directly back to the Nazis, 18.2 per cent of them de- was not all bad and that he did some “good things.” German government. clared that “Jews have now, like before, too much Many are also anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner Prior to the negotiations, certain survivors were infl uence over the world economy.” despite years of multicultural teaching in schools. only eligible for pensions from the Claims Confer- It was feeding on prejudice like this in the socially The country”s Kurier newspaper called the fi nd- depressed atmosphere of the 1920s and 30s that al- ence Article 2 Fund and the Central and Eastern Eu- ings by the Youth Culture Research Institute “fright- lowed the Nazis to demonise Jews, isolate them and ropean Fund (CEEF) if they had been in a ghetto, in ening”—particularly as it is coupled with the general fi nally exterminate them on a massive scale. hiding, or living under false identity for at least 18 mistrust and dislike of non-Austrians. The Youth And Zeitgeist study was carried out months during the Nazi era. This minimum time pe- Austria’s Ku- among 400 young people in the capital Vienn—the riod of persecution was part of the eligibility criteria rier newspaper city where Hitler lived as a down-and-out in the days established by the German government, and which called the fi nd- before WWI and where his hatred of Jews fl ourished. the Claims Conference for years has been working ings by the Youth Those who carried out the survey said that the to change. Culture Research most extremist views were expressed by the less edu- As of January 1, 2012, the minimum time period Institute “fright- cated—but they said that even well-educated young- ening.” Above, a for having lived under any of these conditions will be sters harboured extremist viewpoints but expressed group of young reduced to 12 months. them in more “subtle” ways. Austrian neo-Nazi youth. neo-nazis attend The Article 2 Fund makes monthly payments of In total, 40.5 per cent of respondents agreed with an annual military festival in Karnburg, south of Vienna. €300 and the CEEF makes monthly payments of the statement that “for many immigrants, the Austri- Austria has struggled with its relationship to Na- €260 to certain Holocaust survivors who meet all eli- ans are viewed as a lesser people”. zis in general and Hitler in particular ever since 1945. gibility criteria, which encompass factors other than This, again, is a viewpoint straight from the text- The country was taken over by Hitler—himself an persecution history: book of the original Nazis. Austrian by birth—in 1938. They expressed great fears for future job pros- Further, as of January 1, 2012, those survivors Welcomed by euphoric crowds at the time, post- pects and felt that Turkish immigrants were rivals to age 75 and over who were in a ghetto for less than 12 war Austrian retreated to a psychological comfort them for work, said study author Beate Grossegger. months but a minimum of three months will be entitled zone whereby they classifi ed themselves as the “fi rst “Political education has failed,” she said while to a special monthly pension of €240 if they live in the victims” of the regime. Bernhard Heinzlmaier, chairman of the institute, said West or €200 if they live in the countries of the former The new survey asked youngsters aged between xenophobia had “arrived” among the well-educated Soviet bloc, if they meet the other eligibility criteria 16 and 19 what they thought of the dictator. young people of the middle classes. of the programs.This liberalization will drastically Pollsters were astonished when 11.2 per cent of “They do not express themselves politically incor- change the compensation programs, especially for them said that Hitler “did many good things for the rectly in public but they are coolly amoral entrepre- those who endured the Budapest Ghetto. people.” neurs for whom others are not fellow human beings These liberalizations will largely affect child And one in four of them believe there are “too but competitors.” many Turks” in Austria, the predominant immigrant survivors, whose special plight has been a primary He blamed years of “neo-liberally brainwashing” group. focus of recent discussions between the Claims for their viewpoints. Conference and the German Ministry of Finance. The above liberalizations, especially for victims who JUDGE WHO RULED H OLOCAUST A FACT DIES Israeli museum refuses to survived in hiding, will have a substantial impact cont’d from p. 3 return WWII spoils on heretofore uncompensated child survivors. The judicial notice, which allows courts to recognize as Dutch News.nl Claims Conference and the German government fact information that is common knowledge. The Israel Museum in Jersusalem is refusing to re- have agreed to establish a working group to review “The court does take judicial notice that Jews turn a Torah cover stolen by the Nazis during World were gassed to death in Poland at Auschwitz in the the special plight of child survivors, defi ned as those War II to the Jewish community in Leiden, the NRC summer of 1944,” when Mermelstein and his family born in 1928 or later. recently reported. were there, Johnson ruled. Together, the Article 2 Fund and CEEF have paid The 17th century cover for religious scrolls has , Mermelstein’s attorney, de- pensions to more than 109,000 Holocaust survivors been at the center of a dispute over ownership for scribed the judge’s “courageous decision” as “the since 1995. Both programs were created as a result years and the Leiden community now hopes the greatest ruling I could have hoped for.” of intensive Claims Conference negotiations with the Dutch government will get involved, the paper says. “This was the fi rst case to confront Holocaust de- German government. The Torah mantle had been given on loan to the niers head-on, and we were fortunate to have a judge The Claims Conference meets regularly with Jewish Historical Museum in 1936 and was stolen by who could not be bullied by these characters,” Mer- German government offi cials to negotiate changes to the Nazis during the occupation. Four years ago, the melstein said in a phone interview. these and other programs so that additional Holocaust Israel Museum admitted it had been given the cover Johnson, a native of Kentucky and a World War victims may receive compensation payments. by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, an organiza- II veteran, presided over a number of headline-grab- Negotiations focus on expanding the criteria for tion established in 1947 to deal with the collection and bing cases, however, none of these cases, the Los compensation programs, so that the experiences redistribution of unclaimed Jewish cultural property. Angeles Times commented, “matched the historical of more Holocaust victims are recognized, and on signifi cance of the lawsuit that asked him to decide Julie-Marthe Cohen, curator of the Amsterdam increasing payment amounts. whether the Holocaust actually took place.” Jewish museum, told the NRC it took until 2007 for The Claims Conference will continue to press Mermelstein, who is still the active owner of a the Israel Museum to give in to pressure and produce other issues of concern in future negotiations with pallet-manufacturing company, ultimately won a a list of over 700 items given it by Jewish Cultural $90,000 settlement and a formal apology from the Reconstruction and without a clear provenance. the German government. institute. “In addition, there are not enough photos and the The information here does not constitute a full The trial was dramatized in 1991 in the television descriptions are limited,” she said. and comprehensive description of the criteria of the movie “Never Forget,” with actor in According to the NRC, Israel Museum director Article 2 Fund or CEEF or of any amendments to this the role of Mermelstein, and described in detail by James Snyder says its role is to preserve the cultural program. Eligibility criteria for Article 2 and CEEF Mermelstein in his autobiography, By Bread Alone. heritage of the pre-war Jewish community. payments are determined by the German government.

TOGETHER 8 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Charity Team Runs NYC Among The Blue Card team’s NYC Marathon runners, including some from , Argen- Marathon for Holocaust tina, Brazil, Australia and Israel, is Dr. Arnold Bre- Survivors itbart. The 52-year-old plastic surgeon from Great By Renee Ghert-Zand, The Shmooze Neck with practices in Manhattan and Long Island will be running his 25th marathon, and his 8th NYC Organizers of this year’s ING New York City one. He began running seriously back in medical Marathon run on November 6 hoped that runners school, and has used his participation in marathons as would raise $1 million per mile. That’s a total of a way to raise money for causes that are dear to him. $26,200,000 for charity. Among the offi cial charity The Blue Card’s mission of supporting the day- teams this year were 70 runners raising money for to-day medical and living needs of poor Holocaust The Blue Card, a non-profi t organization that sup- survivors is one especially close to his heart. His ports the everyday fi nancial needs of 2,000 destitute far raised $600,000 this way, with the bulk of it from parents and his maternal grandparents are Holocaust the NYC Marathon. It aims to raise $200,000 for the Holocaust survivors in the United States. survivors. His father, who survived on the run and in November 6 race, which would account for about 8% “Some survivors have commented about how they hiding, lost his entire family during the war. He kept of the organization’s total annual fundraising of $2.3 are honored and fi nd it interesting that while they a diary while in hiding, however, and years later Bre- million. All fundraising revenue goes directly to the were once on death marches, now younger people itbart used it as a guide when he went back to Poland are raising money for them by running,” noted The Holocaust survivors, with overhead covered by legacy to retrace his father’s footsteps. He recently pub- Blue Card’s executive director, Elie Rubinstein. “It’s revenues and investment income. lished his father’s diary along with additional mate- not ‘run for your life,’ as it was for the survivors dur- This was The Blue Card’s third NYC Marathon, rial from his trip under the title, Awaiting a Miracle . ing the Holocaust, but rather ‘run for someone else’s and it has also fi elded charity teams in marathons in For needy Holocaust survivors throughout the life.’” Miami and Atlanta. Just this past March, runners ran U.S., it was miraculous that they survived the Nazi This will not be the fi rst time that the organization, for The Blue Card in the fi rst ever Jerusalem Mara- whose history dates back to 1934 in Germany, fi elded thon, and Rubinstein is planning to recruit runners for genocide. Breitbart and his fellow runners believe it a running team. In fact, it has been using marathons Rome in March 2012. The Minsk-born Rubinstein, 46, is only natural that they, who enjoy good fortune and as “an alternative revenue stream,” as Rubinstein participates when he can, but not by running. “I’m a health, run to help others live with dignity in their put it, for the past three years. The Blue Card has so walker,” he told The Shmooze unapologetically. old age.

Teeboom, who lost much of his extended family foundation. Construction of Holocaust during the Holocaust, fi rst conceived of the project Once the concrete is poured, construction will memorial starts in Nashua, NH in 2009, and he quickly enlisted Weidman, director stop until the spring, when planners hope to have By Jake Berry, Nashua Telegraph of the Andres Institute of Art in Brookline, for the enough money to continue the work. NASHUA – Plans have been coming together for sculpture. The basic construction should be complete next years for a Holocaust memorial in downtown Nash- Together, the two developed the design – six gran- year, with landscaping and other fi nal touches to fol- ua, but the foundation is just now taking shape. ite walls representing the six death camps operated low in 2013, Teeboom said. Construction crews took the fi rst steps toward by the Nazis during the Holocaust, among other piec- “When people see it going up, they’ll see it’s not building the memorial, setting a frame for the con- es. And they set about raising funds for the $150,000 just a paper thing,” Teeboom said. “Hopefully that crete foundation next to Rotary Common on Main project. will help” raise money.” Street. Last year, the Board of Aldermen agreed to pay When it’s complete, the monument will be 28 feet The memorial is still years from completion. about $6,500 for general site work and to create four in diameter. It will consist of the granite walls, each Workers will return shortly to pour the concrete, and parking spaces on the site, next to Steve King Auto. engraved with barbed wire and the name of a camp the body of the statue by local sculptor John Weid- But the remaining funds will come from private do- on the back. A black cube will sit in the center, show- man won’t be constructed until the spring at the ear- nations, said Teeboom, who grew up in Amsterdam ing the refl ection of all who come to visit. liest. during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. “We see ourselves in that,” Weidman said of the “This is the start,” said Weidman, who was re- Members of Holocaust Memorial in Nashua have cube. “It’s a dark period in our history that we have cruited by former Nashua Alderman Fred Teeboom raised about $40,000, Teeboom said. That money to acknowledge.” to take part in the project. “It’s the start of a long has gone to the initial design and a preliminary en- The message of the memorial “is we can’t with- process, but it’s good to get it going.” gineering study, and it will cover the laying of the draw from the things going on around us,” he said. European Union Funds First Graduate Program in number of Holocaust deniers grows. The Haifa program will include study tours to Preservation of Auschwitz Israel for Holocaust Studies Germany and Poland where the students will visit (JTA) The European Union has donated more than By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, ArutzSheva museums, archives and historical sites. $5 million to preserve the site of the Auschwitz Nazi The fi rst Israeli graduate studies program in The course includes the history of World War II death camp. Holocaust studies is opening next at Haifa University and Nazi Germany, the Nazi policy of extermination, Auschwitz authorities announced Wednesday that for students from around the world. Polish Jewry in the interwar period; social history the $5.3 million awarded by the European Commis- The three-semester program for English speakers during the Holocaust period, psychological aspects sion, the executive body of the EU, will be used to allows students to access to Holocaust archives of Holocaust trauma, international law and genocide, preserve the women’s barracks at the Birkenau site of in Israel, Germany and Poland. The program is and representations of the Holocaust in European the camp, improve security and expand the database being headed by Prof. Aryeh J. Kochavi, head of novels and movies. system. the Strochlitz Institute for Holocaust Studies at the The Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Center, The funds came after talks between French Prime University of Haifa and a prominent scholar of World the Ghetto Fighter’s House museum in Israel and Minister Francois Fillon and European Commission War II, diplomatic history of the 20th century and academic institutions in Poland and Germany are President Jose Manuel Barroso. prisoners of war. participating in the Haifa University program. “Holocaust survivors welcome the European Holocaust Studies has emerged as a central contribution as a tangible expression that the hor- fi eld of scholarship in the Humanities and Social rors of the Nazi era must remain a lesson for future Sciences as Holocaust memory has become a global IF YOU HAVE STORIES, ARTICLES, AND generations,” Elan Steinberg, vice president of the phenomenon, while many questions in Holocaust LETTERS THAT DO NOT EXCEED 1,000 American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Studies still remain unanswered. WORDS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN their Descendants, said in a statement. “The protec- TOGETHER OR ON OUR WEB SITE, SEND The recent opening of archives in Eastern Europe TO THE AMERICAN GATHERING. PLEASE tion of Auschwitz represents more than the physical of newly uncovered documents has opened up UNDERSTAND THAT WE CANNOT PRINT preservation of a site; it is a symbolic preservation of opportunities for further research of the Holocaust as EVERYTHING THAT IS SUBMITTED. memory.” the number of survivors is rapidly dwindling and the

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 9 Prague Jewish Museum marks 70th anniversary of Jewish Detention Camps in Terezín deportations Cyprus Remembered Nov. 24 marks the 70th anniversary of the fi rst Cyprus Mail deportation of Jews from Bohemia and Moravia to The University of Cyprus recently hosted a lec- Terezín, from where many of them were sent on to ture by Professor Emanuel Gutmann entitled, “The Auschwitz and other death camps. Prague’s Jewish Jewish Detention Camps in Cyprus (1946-1949): the Museum is commemorating the occasion with lec- Memories of a Contemporary Witness.” tures, concerts and assorted events with Holocaust In the second half of the 1940s Cyprus become survivors and historians offering valuable insights to the temporary refuge for tens of thousands of Jews. put the tragic events into a contemporary perspective. These events have been well documented in Israeli “I think it’s important to understand that the 70th history but relatively untold in the history of Cyprus. anniversary, like any round anniversary, is a kind of The camps played a role in both the independence checkpoint, in the sense that you have the possibility movement of Cyprus and the creation of the state of to rethink what you are doing and what the memorial © ČTK Israel. In this light, the testimony of Prof. Gutmann A meeting of former prisoners of the Terezín ghetto, held by the is of great interest in understanding the history of the of the Holocaust is about,” Michal Frankl, the head Terezín Memorial in association with the Terezín Initiative. of the Shoah History Department at the Jewish Mu- detention camps. seum, told Czech Position. on the synagogue walls. “They created this memorial Fleeing post-war Europe, survivors of the Holo- Frankl says that ideally we could reinterpret and concept, which is unique in many respects. It’s not caust found themselves barred from entering Pal- reconsider the Holocaust without needing anniver- only a list of names, it’s a work of art,” Frankl said. estine due to British quotas. Forced to immigrate saries, but society needs landmark dates to focus The painters spent much of the ’50s painting the illegally, they boarded ships and ventured into the on history. In the case of this round anniversary it names on the wall of the synagogue and the memori- Mediterranean unsure of their fate. is even more relevant, as in all likelihood it will be al was opened in 1959. Frankl points out the discrep- The British Navy overtook 39 of these ships, the last round anniversary that Holocaust survivors ancy of a Holocaust memorial being allowed during carrying a total of 52,000 passengers, and sent the themselves can mark. a highly anti-semitic period in communist Czecho- people to Cyprus. On the island, the British govern- During WWII, the Gestapo turned the garri- slovakia, following the show trial and execution of ment created a series of son town of Terezín (Theresienstadt) into a Jewish Rudolf Slánský and other party offi cials, the majority detention camps in or- ghetto. More than 33,000 of the 150,000 Jews sent of them Jewish. der to prevent Jewish there from and abroad died within “In this context, talking about the Holocaust – refugees from another its walls, mainly due to the appalling conditions aris- or anything Jewish – might even be dangerous and attempt at entering Pal- ing out of extreme population density. About 88,000 hardly anyone did it, but my interpretation of this is estine. These detainees, that the Pinkas Synagogue was seen as a purely reli- the vast majority Holo- inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other ex- A Cyprus detention camp. termination camps. At the end of the war there were gious space that belonged to the Jewish community caust survivors, endured 17,247 survivors of Terezín. but didn’t belong to or speak to the public space.” deplorable conditions in The fi rst time former prisoners met at the site it- Opening up the synagogue today is an attempt to Cyprus, some for a period of years. At its peak there self was in 1991, but Frankl says that it was hardly make it a part of the Czech public space and thus were nine camps in Cyprus, located at two sites about seen as big news at the time. Times have changed, make the names memorialized within it part of the 50km apart. They were Caraolos, north of Famagus- and the 60th anniversary in 2001 resulted in much larger Czech story. ta, and Dekhelia, outside of Larnaca. greater interest from the media as well as among stu- Postwar years Emissaries from Palestine lived with the refugees dents and educational projects, municipalities install- The Jewish Museum is also intent on broadening in the camps as representatives of various Zionist ing plaques and changes in Czech textbooks. the Holocaust dialogue to include the postwar ex- movements including the underground strike force of “We all are totally sure that it’s very relevant, but perience of survivors. ‘I think in some respects it’s the Haganah. Gutman, who had emigrated from Ger- we cannot avoid giving it a new meaning. Theoreti- important to realize that, on a personal level, the Ho- many as a youth, was a member of the Haganah (he cally, it would be nice if we could do this without locaust didn’t end in 1945.’ also served in the British armed forces during the war any anniversaries, but the way societies function we “I think in some respects it’s important to realize in His Majesty's Jewish Brigade) and it was his job to need anniversaries to do this,” Frankl said. “This is a that, on a personal level, the Holocaust didn’t end in lead refugees from Europe to Palestine. story of partial successes, but also some failures. I’m 1945, and that these people are not only survivors Eventually, through the intervention of the Israeli not sure it always leads us to rethink alternative ways who suffered during the Holocaust but that they have government, the British slowly allowed detainees to to the tell what happened in the Second World War, their stories after the war. They generally were liv- leave the camps and head for Palestine. On February especially how we tell the Czech story of the war.” ing in an environment that wasn’t open and friendly. 10, 1949 the last Jews fi nally were freed from the Frank cited recent mainstream examples of Czech They also had to cope with the fact that their families confi nes of the camps, 267 days after the establish- publications that deal with the war as showing more were incomplete, as their family members had usu- ment of the state of Israel. tolerance and openness towards minorities while ally been murdered,” Frankl said. Gutmann was born in Munich in 1924 and immi- remaining highly ethnocentric. “It’s a strange com- Frankl also sees their situation as a good starting grated with his parents to Palestine in 1936. After his bination of talking about minorities only in certain point for thinking about the postwar period. With the stay in Cyprus he studies Political Science at Colum- contexts and means that they are not that essential to country virtually cleansed of its minorities through bia University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1958. He went the core of the story.” both the Holocaust and the subsequent expulsion of on to an illustrious career fi rst working in the Israeli A public space Germans the situation for the members of minorities consulate in New York and later as a much published One of the events meant to reach out to the Czech who remained or came back was all the more tenu- professor at Hebrew University, where he taught un- public was the opening of the Pinkas Synagogue. The ous. til his retirement in 1991. site of the memorial to the Czech Republic’s 80,000 The Jewish Museum is not confi ning its interest Holocaust victims was one of major projects of the in this topic to the anniversary, but has been work- Nazis and their collaborators. postwar Jewish Museum in the ’50s and one of the ing for the past two years on an oral history project If you are a Holocaust survivor, descendant or ways it tried to cope with the legacy of the Holocaust. focusing on the postwar experience of survivors, re- relative and you have information regarding assets of Frankl says how the director of the Jewish Mu- visiting with previous interview subjects and asking relatives or acquaintances that died in the Holocaust; seum at the time, Hana Volavková, was close to artis- them to elaborate on issues such as postwar memo- if you would like to locate and claim the assets of tic circles and brought in two painters, Václav Boštík ries of the Holocaust and their relations with the Jew- your loved ones in Israel, please visit Hashava’s web- and Jiří John, to hand paint the 77, 297 victims’ names ish community after the war. site to see if your family members are listed. Apply through the Hashava website. Documents are very HASHAVA SEEKS SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS helpful, but not required. If necessary, Hashava will Hashava, The Company for Location and Restitu- of the Holocaust. They have more than 60,000 assets assist you with research. tion of Holocaust Victims' Assets in Israel was estab- located in Israel available to the legal heirs of those In the U.S. call 1-800-475-1049, or call the Tel lished in 2007 to provide historical justice to victims who owned those assets and were murdered by the Aviv offi ce at +972-3-516-4117

TOGETHER 10 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Swiss acknowledge those who took it upon themselves to help Jews escape Nazi actions were right and proper does not include any persecution. The Swiss courts punished those they compensation. helped Jews fl ee Nazis caught on the grounds that their actions had violated Of the 137 people rehabilitated, 59 were Swiss, GENEVA (AFP) — Switzerland said it had fi nally Swiss neutrality. 34 French, 24 Italian, six German, three Polish, with fi nished the process of rehabilitating more than a According to historians, several hundred people one Czech, one Hungarian, a Spaniard—and several hundred people punished during WWII for having lost their job, were fi ned and in some cases even jailed others who at the time in question were stateless. helped Jews escape Nazi persecution. for having sheltered Jews hiding from the Nazis. Thus According to the work of the researchers some of But only one of the 137 people vindicated by the a 25-year-old commercial traveller was jailed for two them acted for purely humanitarian reasons and oth- report actually lived to see their name cleared. and a half months by one court for having helped a ers out of a sense of patriotism, while some were also “All these people are today dead,” Alexandre Viennese Jew get into the country. The Jew he helped Schneebeli, the secretary of the Swiss parliament's motivated by the money that refugees offered them. was also jailed for two months —and then sent back The commission completed its work after eight rehabilitation commission, told AFP. And of them over the border. years, having started in 2004, Wednesday's statement only Aimee Stitelman lived to see her name offi cially While Switzerland helped nearly 300,000 refu- from parliament said. cleared, several years ago. gees from Nazi-occupied Europe during the war Its research had brought an important chapter of In 1945, a Swiss military court ordered her detained years, it also turned back 20,000 of them, most of the country's history to public attention, publicising for 15 days for having helped 15 Jewish children who them Jews. A committee of historians concluded in the actions of people who until now were unknown, were fl eeing the Nazis, some of them orphans, enter 2001 that the policy pursued by the Swiss between Switzerland. The rehabilitation commission struck 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany and Wednesday's statement said. down the conviction in March 2004, when she was 1945, when he was fi nally defeated by the Allied "This recognition was essential in the eyes of the 79 years old. She died a year later. forces, had been “excessively restrictive.” people concerned and those close to them," the state- The committee was set up in 2004 to acknowl- The Swiss parliament adopted the rehabilitation ment added. edge the injustice done to people in Switzerland who law as a result. But the offi cial recognition that their Warsaw Jews debate demoli- A group of Polish and Jewish architects and in- American Gathering applauds tellectual businessmen see the building set for de- David Duke's arrest tion of Holocaust-era building molition as a crucial part of the site, which is also By Roman Frister, (AP) The American Gathering is applauding Ger- home to a Jewish theater and the only synagogue that man police for taking former Ku Klux Klan leader Sixty-six years after the end of the Second World survived the Nazi rule. Today, in addition to being War, Warsaw’s Jewish community is debating wheth- David Duke into custody before he could address a the central place of prayer in Warsaw, the synagogue er or not to destroy a building on old ghetto territory, far-right gathering. hosts concerts and exhibitions. in order to replace it with a 180-meter-tall tower. Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Warsaw’s city council has an encouraging approach The old offi ce block in question is situated in the Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descen- to the center and its surroundings, which are currently heart of the city. Plans are in place to demolish the dants, said the move “sends an important signal that undergoing a process of renovations intended to return historical building, and replace it with a tower that fi rm action against those who advocate hate must re- their historical character. Those who oppose the de- would include residential and offi ce spaces, as well main central to Germany’s moral and legal agenda.” molition are trying to get the building heritage listed, as a hotel for ultra-Orthodox Jews – a project that is Cologne police say Duke, 61, was taken into cus- which would prevent any changes being made to it. expected to attract signifi cant revenues. tody before his speech for breaking a travel-ban to Community chairman Piotr Kadltz’ik said in an inter- Heads of the community maintain that the build- many European nations including Germany. view with the magazine Midrash that he sees the at- ing, which underwent certain changes in the 1990s, They say the US resident was released and forced has practically lost its historical value, and it no lon- tempt to preserve the building in its current form as an to leave the country and that they do not know where ger fulfi lls the needs of its institutions. According to act that counters the basic interests of the city's Jewish he is now. Duke’s website called the incident “thug- Poland’s virtual exhibition of Jewish heritage (under population. Kadltz’ik fi led an objection, opposing the construction) the building was built in the mid-19th request for heritage listing. gish communist-style oppression to suppress the century and in addition to housing the community of- The community has been granted an extension of right-wing.” fi ces, which served about 300,000 people, it was a three months to explain its position. The fi nal deci- medical clinic for the poor. During the Holocaust it sion on whether or not to demolish the building will also served as a temporary hospital. be made early in the coming year. Magen Dovid Adom Aids Survivors Holocaust survivors living in Israel and in need of It’s Never Too Late to Find next day made it offi cial. Elena’s great grandmother emergency medical care will no longer have to worry had been my father’s aunt, an aunt he never knew about fi nding the money thanks to the efforts of Ma- Missing Family existed! She had been killed by the KGB. Elena had gen Dovid Adom donors in Britain and . By Susan Kent Avjian been researching her genealogy and when the KGB The contribution, which affects the more than I still have the chills thinking about it. June 1, fi les were opened she found the picture and various 240,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel, was recently 2010 a typical day on the phone with my father who correspondences. It turns out there was an additional revealed at Britain’s annual MDA dinner in London. lives in New York that turns out to be anything but sibling, an aunt who had lived in Germany that had Stuart Glyn, the chair of the UK branch, explained typical. Some background information: also been previously unknown to my father. that the organization and its French partner would My father is a Holocaust survivor from Lodz, Po- Through translators, email and Skype have now underwrite all MDA-related costs incurred by land. He has lived in the United States since trans- opened up a world of new found family. This in it- survivors. At present, those expenses are paid for ported here in 1946 after liberation from Flossenberg. self is quite unbelievable but it gets better. Late De- from insurance or individual savings, yet more than An active businessman and philanthropist who has cember I receive yet another call from my father; he half of the survivors live below the poverty line and dedicated his life to helping Rightgeous Gentiles, fel- is again speaking fast and excitedly. He had just re- struggle to pay bills. low survivors and the education of youth about the ceived a phone call from a gentleman in Maryland, Israel does not have a national health service, and Holocaust. His surviving family had consisted of his my state of residence, and it turns out he, too, is fam- individuals often have to pay when MDA, which is sister, brother and one fi rst cousin. Unfortunately ily! His grandfather had been Dad’s uncles. Immedi- largely staffed by volunteers, is called out to their both his brother and cousin have since passed away. ately after hanging up with my father, I was on the rescue. “Over half [of survivors in Israel] are unable Dad is in his 80’s and has watched his surviving fam- phone with Feliks and we discover that we live only to pay for the most basic of medical services,” Glyn ily dwindle away. 15 minutes from each other and less than 30 from said. “We believe this situation to be unacceptable.” Earlier that June day my father had received an his daughter and her family! We have had many get- The plans chime with those of the British ambas- email from Russia. The email came to him through togethers since that call. sador to Israel, Matthew Gould. Earlier this year Mr an organization in which he is active and stated, “I We have been riding a whirlwind of discovery. Gould announced plans to help combat loneliness have information that shows that we are family.” He Our “dwindling family” has now grown exponen- amongst survivors by raising £2 million for social called me with excitement and shock in his voice, tially, something we would never have believed projects. so many years after the war, could this be possible? could happen. The Holocaust tore families apart but He called the MDA UK plans a “wonderful ges- Since the hour was late and it would be the middle of it is heartwarming and chilling to see and know that ture. We owe it to the survivors to ensure that they the night in Russia he was unable to follow up until even now, more than six decades after the war end- live out their lives in comfort and dignity. This an- the next day. A phone conversation and picture the ed, discovery and growth of family is still possible! nouncement is an important step towards that goal.”

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 11 Florida’s Holocaust survivors win battle against French railroad Ray said SNCF also hopes to work with the edu- By Scott Travis , Sun Sentinel cation department in the future “They want to whitewash history. I just don’t feel State law requires public schools to teach students A French railroad that helped shuttle thousands of this is a company that should teach about the Holo- about the Holocaust. Students read materials in class, Jews to their deaths in Nazi Germany will have no caust in our Florida schools,” said Rosette Goldstein, watch videos and listen to speakers who share les- part of teaching Florida’s children about the Holo- 73, of Boca Raton, whose father was forced onto on sons from the era. caust, the state education commissioner has decided. an SNCF train and ultimately killed. “Until SNCF SNCF became involved with Florida last year SNCF America, the U.S. subsidiary of the French comes out and apologizes and pays reparations for when it sought to bid on a planned $2.6 billion, high- National Railroad, had agreed to pay $80,000 to what they did, I think they should not be allowed to speed rail project. During that time, it proposed the the state for a program focusing on France’s role in do any work here in the U.S.” Holocaust education sponsorship and agreed to con- the Holocaust. But Education Commissioner Ge- SNCF issued a statement of regret last year about tinue its support after Gov. Rick Scott killed the train rard Robinson told an SNCF administrator in a let- the Holocaust, adding the trains were commandeered proposal. ter last week he was terminating its partnership af- by the Nazis. The company also said it’s part of the Linda Medvin, a Broward school district employ- ter “thoughtful consideration of numerous concerns French government, which has reparations programs, ee who chairs the state’s Holocaust Education Task raised.” and that it wanted to support the Florida program as Force, supported SNCF. She had traveled at the com- Holocaust survivors, who fought a passionate part of its commitment to education. pany’s expense to , visited the Shoah Memorial battle against the railroad, which transported about “We believe that while history cannot be unlived, and learned about the railroad’s Holocaust education 76,000 Jews during World War II. The survivors said it need not be repeated. The best way to accomplish efforts. the company hasn’t taken full responsibility for its this objective is through the education of future gen- But other members of the task force, including role in the Holocaust and should have no part in the erations,” SNCF America spokesman Jerry Ray said. several Holocaust survivors, said the agreement state’s Holocaust education efforts. Ray said the curriculum was being drafted by the was made without proper discussion, and they only Their fi ght received support from Florida Sens. Shoah Memorial of Paris, a Holocaust museum and learned about it after it had been signed. These op- Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio as well as 11 U.S. documentation center. SNCF’s only role was paying ponents sent letters and emails to lawmakers and De- House members. In September, they wrote a joint let- for the program, he said. partment of Education offi cials in hopes of reversing ter to Robinson criticizing the department’s involve- “It is important, in France and in Florida, that the the decision. ment with SNCF. teaching of the history of the Holocaust be held to Medvin couldn’t be reached for comment, despite “We are told again and again that all it takes for the highest standards of scholarship and accuracy,” calls to her work and home. evil to succeed is for people to do nothing,” said Rita he said. Goldstein said it’s tough for average people to G. Hofrichter, 84, of Sunny Isles Beach, who lost In his letter, Robinson said the Holocaust educa- take on giant companies such as SNCF, but she’s not her parents and other relatives in the Holocaust. “We tion program is committed to teaching “tolerance and surprised she and others prevailed. have done something, and I’m very proud of that ef- good citizenship,” and he left the door open for pos- “This is the United States of America. I came here fort.” sible future collaborations with SNCF. as a young girl, and this country opened up its arms,” The survivors said SNCF hasn’t paid reparations “While we are declining to continue our partner- she said. “My home country of France failed me. But to victims, and they saw SNCF’s donation as a public ship at this time, we sincerely hope that, in the future, here in America, I had the chance to fi ght this, and we relations ploy in its efforts to secure billions of dol- different circumstances will enable partnerships such have people who represent us and listen to us. This is lars worth of U.S. rail contracts. as this one to succeed,” Robinson wrote. wonderful. It’s democracy in action.” Furor as Renault heirs revisit to rewrite history. The Communist Party said it vehe- mently opposed ‘’any attempt to rehabilitate Louis PLEASE KEEP US IN company’s link with Nazis Renault.’’ By Angelique Chrisafi s , The Sydney Morning One of the grandchildren bringing the case, He- MIND WHEN YOU Herald lene Renault-Dingli, said the battle was about how PARIS: It was one of the most shameful and shady unfair and unconstitutional the state had been in THINK OF THE FUTURE chapters of French history: the collaboration of in- confi scating the company. “This is not a re-reading Our mission as members of The American dustrialists and business owners with the Nazis dur- of history,” she told TV channel TF1, and said she Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors ing the German occupation. welcomed a new debate among historians about what & Their Descendants is to perpetuate the A historical can of worms was reopened in a Paris really happened in Mr Renault’s factories during the remembrance of the Shoah through education court recently when the grandchildren of the inven- Second World War. and commemoration. tor and car maker Louis Renault began a legal battle There is no doubt among historians that Re- We educate our future generations while claiming his famous company was unfairly confi s- nault provided motors, vehicles and technology for remembering and commemorating our past. cated by the state as punishment for allegedly col- the Nazi occupiers during the war. The question is In order to leave a lasting legacy to show that laborating with the occupiers. whether the company did this willingly or whether, our lives have made a difference, each of us Mr Renault, who founded the car maker in 1898 as the family suggests, it had no choice. can be a part of ensuring that our sacred task of with his brothers, died in prison while awaiting trial The celebrated war historian, Henry Rousso, told remembrance will continue in years to come. for collaboration in 1944, two months after the lib- Le Figaro: “Renault worked for the German war As you plan your legacy, we would be eration of France. In January 1945 Charles de Gaulle economy. With what degree of enthusiasm or con- honored if you would consider The American and the provisional government signed a decree con- straint? That remains largely to be studied.” Gathering as a part of your “future.” You can fi scating the company and nationalizing it, accusing Some historians point out that other big French arrange to leave a bequest to The American Mr Renault of working for the Germans and provid- industrial groups, Peugeot and Citroen, who also Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & ing their armies with vehicles and services to help the worked for the Germans, chose to support the resis- Their Descendants in your will. The following Nazi war effort. tance and Allies from 1942 to 1943. Mr Renault’s seven grandchildren have now wording is recommended: seized on a new law introduced by President Nicolas “I give and bequeath ______to The Sarkozy to argue that the confi scation did not abide American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust by the French constitution. Their lawyers argue that Survivors & Their Descendants, a not-for-profi t no other company was subjected to the same treat- corporation, with its principal offi ce located at ment as Renault and that it was unfairly nationalized 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205, New York, as punishment without Louis Renault ever going to New York, 10001” trial. They are demanding fi nancial compensation We are humbled by the task ahead of us and from the state. grateful to each of you for your confi dence and The case has sparked outrage from the Commu- support as we begin the second decade of the nist Party, communist trade unions, deportee groups Louis Renault (center) presents a car built by his group to, from 21st Century. left, Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering and the leader of Nazi Ger- and some historians, who accuse the family of trying many, Adolf Hitler, in 1937. Photo: AFP

TOGETHER 12 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Israel puts Germany marks “day of shame” UNESCO cuts funds for items on display on pogrom anniversary Palestinian magazine By Aron Heller , BERLIN (AFP) — Germany recently marked the By Matti Friedman, AP JERUSALEM (AP) — Fifty years after Holocaust 73rd anniversary of the Nazi pogrom that paved mastermind Adolf Eichmann was convicted in an the way to the Holocaust with solemn ceremonies JERUSALEM—The U.N.’s cultural agency epic trial that helped shape Israel's national psyche, throughout the country and the opening of a new recently announced that it is pulling funding for a the Israeli parliament put on display for the fi rst synagogue. Palestinian youth magazine that published an article time dozens of artifacts from the daring 1960 opera- suggesting admiration for Hitler. tion in Argentina that captured the Nazi criminal. The magazine, Zayzafouna, published an article The gripping public testimony during the trial by in February written by a teenage girl who presented more than 100 Jews who survived torture and depri- four role models: a medieval Persian mathematician, vation captured world attention and vividly brought a modern Egyptian novelist, the Muslim warrior to life the horrors of the Holocaust. It also brought Saladin, and the Nazi leader. to light stories of Jewish bravery and resistance that UNESCO said in a statement it “strongly deplores shattered the myth of Jews meekly walking to their and condemns” the “unacceptable” material and deaths. As a result, more survivors went public with would cease funding the magazine. UNESCO also their experiences, which greatly helped research said it funded three different issues later in 2011, and commemoration efforts. and not the one in question. “We carried out justice, partial, reduced, even The magazine also receives funding from minuscule compared to the crime, but of tremen- the Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed dous symbolism and the symbolism is that those Palestinian government in the West Bank. who murder millions and those who plan the murder The Kristallnacht pogrom, also known as the In the article, the author has Hitler telling her in of millions will pay the price,” Prime Minister Ben- Night of Broken Glass, saw Nazi thugs plunder a dream that he killed Jews “so you would all know jamin Netanyahu said at the opening of the exhibit. Jewish businesses throughout Germany, torch about that they are a nation which spreads destruction all “The capture and the bringing to trial of Eichmann 300 synagogues and round up some 30,000 Jewish over the world.” He advises her to be “resilient and was a turning point in which the state of Israel and men for deportation to concentration camps. patient concerning the suffering that Palestine is the Jewish people began carrying out justice against Chancellor Angela Merkel called November 9, experiencing at their hands.” their tor- 1938 a “day of shame.” “Thanks for the advice,” the narrator replies. mentors.” “Germans hunted Germans because they were A translation was made public by Palestinian Known Jews,” she told a conference in Berlin. Media Watch, an Israeli organization that tracks “This insanity culminated in an unprecedented as the “ar- incitement in Palestinian media. crime, it ravaged the continent and it cost the lives chitect of The magazine’s director, Shareef Samhan, did of millions around the world. When we talk here the Holo- not dispute the translation, though he said the girl and today about the future, we do it thinking about caust” for was “accusing” Hitler and not praising him. He said the victims of this insanity that broke out in our his role he had not been aware of the text and noted that country, in Germany.” in coordi- UNESCO was not a central backer of the magazine. Some 90 Jews were killed in the Kristallnacht nating the He defended the publication. “We depend in orgy of violence, the pretext for which was the mur- Nazi geno- the content of our magazine on the participation of der of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris by cide policy, Eichmann fl ed Germany after World school students, and it’s not our job to prohibit the a student, Herschel Grynspan, who sought revenge War II and assumed the name Ricardo Klement in freedom of speech,” he said. for the expulsion of his family from Germany with Argentina. He was hunted down and captured by The publication sparked a written protest by Israeli Mossad agents in an operation that remains about 15,000 other Polish Jews. the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S.-based Jewish one of the most defi ning episodes in the country’s Throughout the country commemorations took group, to UNESCO, and that protest appears to have turbulent history. Eichmann was hanged after his place at Jewish community centers and the sites of triggered the U.N. agency’s decision and public 1961 trial in Jerusalem. former synagogues. statement. The exhibit, which will be on display in parlia- “UNESCO strongly deplores and condemns the ment for three weeks before moving to a Tel Aviv During the 1961 trial, Eichmann sat on a wooden reproduction of such infl ammatory statements in museum, showcases items that had been classifi ed chair inside a bulletproof glass booth — also on a magazine associated with UNESCO’s name and and stashed away for decades: the cameras used by display in parliament — and calmly listened to the mission and will not provide any further support Mossad agents to track Eichmann, the briefcase in testimonies of Holocaust survivors. to the publication in question,” read the statement which they carried fake license plates, the keys to Eichmann’s defense was that he was merely fol- issued from the agency’s Paris headquarters. Eichmann’s Buenos Aires apartment and the forged lowing orders. Covering the trial for The New York- The statement also said UNESCO “is deeply Israeli passport — with the alias Zeev Zichroni — er , the political theorist Hannah Arendt famously his captors used to smuggle him out of Argentina. committed to the development and promotion of coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe There are also original photos, documents and education about the Holocaust.” the gloves used to nab Eichmann, as well as per- Eichmann. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, sonal effects found on Eichmann’s body — a comb, Six million Jews were killed by the German Ghassan Khatib, said the article was “not a pocket knife and a plastic cigarette holder. Nazis and their collaborators during World War acceptable.” The agents who participated in the operation II, many of them following Eichmann’s blueprint “We educate young people in our textbooks about slipped into Argentina as part of an offi cial Israeli drawn up for liquidating the entire Jewish popula- the Holocaust and the massacres of Hitler against delegation that arrived for Argentina’s 150th anni- tion of Europe. Jews and against others, and we refer to these versary celebrations, said Neomi Izhar, the exhibit’s Eichmann was convicted in December 1961 of massacres as crimes against humanity,” Khatib said. historian. war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was “This instance is exceptional, and the editor will try Rafi Eitan, who headed the operation, said he hanged the following year — the only time Israel to be more careful in the future.” identifi ed Eichmann by searching his body for dis- has carried out a death sentence. A U.S. group, the American Gathering of Jewish tinctive scars on his arm and stomach. Until they heard the public testimony of Jews Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, “Notice how back then with primitive means we who survived torture and deprivation, many Israelis released a statement praising UNESCO’s decision. carried out an operation like this,” Eitan, 85, told looked down on the survivors as weak victims, at “As victims of the horrors of Nazi brutality, we The Associated Press. “There were no communica- odds with the macho image of the “new Jew” of Is- learned with deep shock that a Palestinian children’s tions, there was no Internet, there were no comput- rael. The emotional descriptions of the horrors they magazine could approvingly speak of Hitler’s ers, no weapons and this exhibit shows that even survived changed the perception for many Israelis extermination of Jews as an example to be emulated. with primitive means you can do great things.” and allowed more survivors to go public. This was monstrous and grotesque,” the group said.

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 13 National Library of Wales “risked reputation” by accepting German project returns to Jews £300,000 donation from Nazi collaborator books stolen by Nazis By Sion Morgan, WalesOnline By Brian Rupp, m&c news Leipzig, Germany—A team in the German city of THE Welsh Government has accused the National American advance from Normandy into , the Leipzig has scoured the local university library, go- Library of Wales of putting its reputation “at risk” group were forced to retreat along with the German ing through endless obscure records to return books after accepting a £300,000 donation from a known army. stolen by the Nazis to their rightful heirs. Nazi collaborator. Many members were provided with false papers Germany’s 1933-45 Nazi regime not only plundered and following the war many of the organisation’s art and other valuables from Jews, but also books. members fl ed to Ireland. Searching for books seized by the Gestapo proved Feutren left Brittany and travelled through Wales hard work, explains librarian Cordula Reuss, who on his way to the where he set- heads the project in Leipzig. tled and married. For more than two years, the librarian deciphered He taught throughout his career and his wife faded handwritten lists, went through boxes of index- worked as a nurse. es and examined thousands of books dating back to His wife died in 2008 and he died in 2010. the pre-1945 period. Minutes taken from a National Library Board Reuss knows her way around the winding corri- The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth meeting in September, which the Western Mail has dors of the Biblioteca Albertina, as Leipzig Univer- seen, reveal that the National Library took legal ad- sity library is called. Louis Feutren was a leading member of Breton vice before accepting the bequest. She stops at one of the many archives, yanks the groups who worked with the Nazis after their inva- Giselle Davies, from law fi rm Geldards LLP, told handle of the sliding shelves, and takes out a book. sion of France during the Second World War. the board that there was no evidence to suggest that The fi rst page bears a stamp reading Institutum Ju- After he died in 2010, he bequeathed a collec- the money donated had been generated from involve- daicum Leipzig. This volume was confi scated by the tion of papers and tapes to the National Library of ment with the Third Reich. Gestapo during Adolf Hitler’s rule and ended up here Wales in Aberystwyth, along with a fi nancial dona- The board meetings also state: “Giselle Davies shortly after World War II. tion worth £300,000. emphasised that the reputational risk to the Library “We found in our archives a total of 3,409 books After leaving Brittany, Feutren had traveled should be considered purely in fi nancial terms, i.e. that had been seized illegally from institutions or pri- through Wales on his way to Ireland, where he even- the question to be asked was, would acceptance of vate libraries run by Jews or resistance fi ghters dur- tually settled. the legacy give rise to more fi nancial loss to the Li- ing the Nazi era,” Reuss says. The library claims the archive sheds light on the brary than the sum it would gain by accepting it.” The Nazi-Looted Assets Project aims to return the life of a Breton who was a member of the Gwenn-ha- Defending the decision to accept the bequest, largest possible number of the works to heirs or their Du and Bezen Perrot movements during the Second Lord Dafydd Wigley, President of the Library said: legal successors. World War. “This is a notable collection that includes material of Reuss and her team of two had to do true detective But the Welsh Government, from which the li- signifi cant historical importance. work at fi rst, as the Gestapo book records were often brary had sought advice over whether to accept the “Though I utterly condemn his political lean- obscure. donation, condemned the move. ings and activities during the War, we had no right, “Frequently, the title of the book had not been en- Heritage minister Huw Lewis said: “This was a as Board members, to allow our feelings to interfere tered, but they had written things like, ‘A bundle of decision for the trustees of the library to take. with our decision.” 172 Marxist brochures,’” Reuss explains. “However, the Welsh Government was ap- The library said the archive and the fi nancial do- The researchers were luckier with books classifi ed proached about this matter and our view was sought. nation had been received in accordance with the Roy- as “banned and damaging literature,” which had been “I made our position perfectly clear that we felt al Charter and the Library’s collection policy, which documented more thoroughly on extra lists by police. the acceptance of this bequest could affect the repu- identify the need to collect, and ensure public access A total of 81 different institutions or persons have tation of the National Library of Wales, one of our to, material of Celtic interest. now been identifi ed as the legal owners of some of most respected cultural institutions. It said its board had also acted in accordance with the books in the library. “Louis Feutren was a Nazi collaborator and a the requirements of the Charity Commission and fol- Research into the origins of property stolen from member of the SS. That is an abhorrent fact of his- lowed expert legal advice in coming to this decision. Jews has been carried out more intensively since the tory. The library said a portion of the funds received 1998 Washington Declaration. In that document, Ger- “I am therefore disappointed by the decision of will be allocated towards projects associated the de- many and 43 other nations agreed to identify in their the National Library to accept these funds and do not structive effects of war and fascism. collections art works and other assets confi scated by believe that anyone in Wales would have challenged A spokesman said: “Feutren’s archive is the latest the Nazis and to restitute them to their rightful owners. them if they had chosen not to accept the bequest.” in a series of archives of Breton authors and poli- The former West Germany “felt that individual He added: “I now very much hope that this legacy ticians which have been kept safely in the National restitutions and compensations had been sorted out can be used in a suitable fashion. Library of Wales over the years. in the post-war era,” says Uwe Hartmann, head of “I feel that the creation of an educational resource “This is compatible with the Library’s Charter, the Bureau for Provenance Investigation, which was for children in Wales that will highlight the terrible which states that some of the Library’s objects are: established in Berlin three years ago. impact of war, intolerance and fascism would be an to collect, preserve and give access to all kinds and “But lots of looted items have still been found in appropriate use for this funding.” forms of recorded knowledge, especially relating to the archives of some institutions,” he adds. As the The Bezen Perrot movement was a Breton col- Wales and the Welsh and former East Germany had blocked all demands by laborationist force during the Nazi occupation of other Celtic peoples, for war victims for restitution, that part of the reunited France. the benefi t of the public, Germany —where Leipzig is located—is now prov- Led by Célestin Lainé and Alan Heusaff, as many including those engaged ing a treasure trove for property stolen by the Nazis. as 70 to 80 people joined the ranks of the group. in research and learning. The Berlin bureau helped to fund the two-year Before the second world war Lainé had created The spokesman added: project in Leipzig, the results of which will be pre- the organisation Gwenn ha du as a Breton nationalist “The Library also has a sented in an exhibition in November. direct action unit modelled on the IRA. duty to collect in the fi eld The owners of the stolen books included Victor The activists behind this were defi ned as members of Celtic Studies and we Armhaus, a Jewish interpreter from Leipzig who died of a group called Service Spécial. will continue to do this in the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp in While a member of that group it has been claimed whilst at the same time 1942. Two nieces of his in Israel have made contact. that Louis Feutrent was an enthusiastic young col- reducing the purchase of “It is very moving when there is an heir who re- laborator who participated in arrests and conversed printed works which are members a person,” Reuss says. Some of the 59 vol- in German with Nazi offi cers in 1944. more marginal to our us- umes in Armhaus’ private collection will now be sent In the later stages of World War II under a rapid ers’ needs.” Louis Feutren to his nieces.

TOGETHER 14 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 A Polish woman’s heroic journey of self-discovery By Vanessa Gera , AP

WARSAW, Poland—As Nazi troops imposed their terror on Warsaw, an 18-year- ing myself?” Gebert recalled her saying. The realization made her giggle like a old Polish girl slipped into a Warsaw church with an elderly rabbi to teach him teenager. how to dip his hand in holy water and cross himself. The rabbi, his newly shaven After that evening, she began to cultivate a relationship with Warsaw’s Jewish beard leaving his cheeks white, approached the lesson with gravity, skimming the community and to attend services at Warsaw’s Nozyk synagogue. water in the church font and crossing himself with slow reverence, hoping this It was another discovery fi ve years ago that confi rmed her sense of Jewish- would help him pass as Catholic. ness completely: the discovery of documents showing that her father was Jewish. “You’ve already exposed yourself! You’re dead already!” the teenager whis- Grodzka-Guzkowska had grown up attending a private Catholic school for girls, pered in his ear, and showed him how to perform the sacred gestures the way she and her father’s parentage had never been discussed in the family. and other Catholics did, so quickly and automatically that she barely touched her As she was sorting out old stuff cluttering a closet, she found identity docu- head and chest. ments in a suitcase that showed both her paternal grandparents were Jewish. This “Without respect?” the rabbi asked. revelation, more than anything, caused a profound shift in her identity and made “Without any respect!” the girl replied. her fi nally think of herself as a Jew. It was 1943 in Nazi-occupied Poland and any mistake could cost him his life, She learned a few Hebrew words and delved into reading the Old Testament. and hers, too. The Nazis would have killed her for helping a Jew. She envisioned herself wrapped in a simple white shroud with mourners placing What she did not know back then: She was a Jew herself. stones on her tomb, rather than the fl owers found in Catholic cemeteries. ------“I will be buried in the Jewish cemetery as a Jew,” she said. Chief Rabbi Mi- Magdalena Grodzka-Guzkowska’s journey of self-discovery is pieced togeth- chael Schudrich confi rms her wishes will be carried out. er from interviews with her and people close to her, emails made available to Grodzka-Guzkowska’s gradual embrace of paralleled cultural shifts The Associated Press, information provided by Yad Vashem, her memoir Lucky within Poland after the 1989 collapse of its communist government, as it began Woman , and documentary footage. its painful but ultimately successful transition to democracy. ------These days, although there is occasional vandalism of Jewish cemeteries and Decades after she helped save the rabbi and about a dozen others, mostly chil- some anti-Semitism persists, Polish Jews sometimes say they feel safer walking dren, by teaching them Christian customs, Grodzka-Guzkowska discovered doc- the streets of Warsaw in a yarmulke, or skullcap, than they would in many West- uments in an old suitcase showing that her father and other close family members ern European cities. were Jews. Growing up she knew vaguely that one of her great grandmothers was As Poles with Jewish roots feel freer to explore a heritage that once spelled Jewish but nothing more about those roots. death, the nation’s Jewish traditions also are going mainstream, with students Shared humanity, not ancestry, impelled her to heroism. packing Jewish history and Hebrew courses and all kinds of people fl ocking to “I remember running with children through the city. It was horrible,” the now Jewish festivals held in Krakow, Warsaw and even in smaller towns. frail Grodzka-Guzkowska told The Associated Press, her hand trembling as she In 1939 Poland’s Jews numbered nearly 3.5 million, about 10 percent of the sat in a wheelchair. population. Today, there are no fi rm statistics on how many people in this nation “And I felt I had to help.” of 38 million identify themselves as Jewish. The Conference of European Rabbis Grodzka-Guzkowska knew Catholic prayers and customs so well that the an- estimates that Poland’s Jewish population has grown from just a few thousand to ti-Nazi resistance tasked her with teaching them to Jews. Today, at age 86, she’s more than 20,000 over the past 30 years. living out her last years waiting to be buried in a white shroud according to the Many of the prewar Jews were traditional Orthodox believers who lived in ancient customs of her ancestors. villages or shtetls that formed the archetypal image made famous in Fiddler On The discovery of Jewish roots is a growing phenomenon in Poland, where The Roof. Many others became fully integrated into mainstream Polish society: increasing numbers of Catholic or secular Poles in recent years have learned, doctors, writers, military offi cers, scientists. often from deathbed confessions of loved ones or from chance discoveries of Amid Poland’s cultural changes, aging Poles with family secrets feel it is fi - documents, that they are of Jewish descent. nally time to pass them on to the next generation. In some cases, such discoveries Poland, for centuries a refuge for Jews in a largely hostile Europe, once was spark personal transformations, inspiring adult men to undergo circumcision or home to Europe’s largest Jewish population. Many Jews became culturally as- to take on new names. similated before World War II, while some sought survival through baptism dur- Most of those who decide to live as Jews are in their 20s or 30s, with the older ing the German occupation of 1939-1945. generations often still too fearful of antisemitism to want to live openly as Jews. Such knowledge was often repressed due to the trauma infl icted by the Hitler Grodzka-Guzkowska is a prominent exception. era and anti-Semitic persecution during the communist decades that followed. “It’s an amazing story,” said Rabbi Stas Wojciechowicz. “Three generations Today, as democracy here matures, many Poles who discover their Jewishness after the war people are rediscovering their Judaism and some are undergoing for- have turned from hiding their Jewish roots to celebrating them, and non-Jews mal conversion. ... It’s the third and fourth generation that is closing this cycle.” also are fi nding themselves drawn to the rich Polish-Jewish past. He said he also has been struck by how so many Polish Jews belong very For Grodzka-Guzkowska, a true understanding of her identity, and the danger much to the Jewish and Catholic worlds simultaneously. His synagogue, for in- it could have posed, came late in life. It inspired her to immerse herself in the To- stance, practically empties of worshippers around Christmas and All Saints Day, rah, dream of visiting Israel and ask Poland’s chief rabbi to bury her in Warsaw’s a major Catholic holiday when Poles visit the graves of ancestors. Jewish cemetery. “They say they are sorry but they need to be with their parents at those times,” Like many Jews in prewar Poland, Grodzka-Guzkowska’s Jewish great- he said. “Almost everybody has this story of a divided family, with one part Jew- grandmother, a pediatrician, intermarried. Her descendants were so well integrat- ish—mostly the younger generation—while the older one isn’t.” ed into Catholic society that the matriarch’s Jewishness meant little to Grodzka- Not long after Grodzka-Guzkowska embraced her Jewishness, it proved an Guzkowska when she was growing up. obstacle to her being honored for her wartime heroism. “The most important fact about my great-grandmother was that she was a A Jewish boy she had rescued was reunited with her in 2007 as a grown man. doctor, not a Jew,” Grodzka-Guzkowska said in 2007 in an interview for a docu- William Donat petitioned Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to name her a mentary in progress, I am a Jew , by fi lmmakers Slawomir Grunberg and Katka “Righteous Among the Nations” in recognition of her wartime heroism. Reszke. But Yad Vashem hesitated on the grounds the award only recognizes non- “During the war I saved Jewish children while not being aware that I was Jew- Jews. ish,” she recalled. “I saved them because that is what had to be done.” As Yad Vashem wavered, Chief Rabbi Schudrich and her friend Gebert, a One landmark on her path to a new identity came during a dinner at the home prominent member of Warsaw’s Jewish community, made the case that she should of a Jewish friend in the 1990s, when she mentioned her Jewish great-grand- be given the award because she had acted during the war with the consciousness mother—her mother’s mother’s mother. of a Catholic, not a Jew. The friend, Konstanty Gebert, explained to her that this precise lineage was “Magda decided in a moment to save Jewish children,” Schudrich wrote in a signifi cant because Jewish law traces Judaism from mother to child, meaning that 2008 email to Yad Vashem. “Why are we taking so long?” technically speaking, she was Jewish, too. The Jerusalem-based institute ultimately ruled in her favor: It honored her in “This means that instead of saving those children, I should have been protect- 2009.

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 15 Intelligence Agency Destroyed sion has uncovered what is a true historical scandal. ing the destruction of the documents. Hechelhammer The researchers have found that the BND destroyed told SPIEGEL ONLINE that he regretted the loss of Files on Former SS Members the personnel fi les of around 250 BND offi cials in the documents. By Klaus Wiegrefe , Der Spiegel 2007. The agency has confi rmed that this happened. There have already been several curious incidents The commission claims that the destroyed docu- involving the BND archives in the past. SPIEGEL Historians conducting an internal study of ties be- ments include papers on people who were “in sig- recently requested access to BND documents relat- tween employees of the German foreign intelligence nifi cant intelligence positions in the SS, the SD (the ing to the former SS Captain Alois Brunner, who was agency and the Third Reich have made a shocking intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party) or once a close associate of Adolf Eichmann, the chief discovery. In 2007, the BND destroyed personnel the Gestapo.” They added that some of the individu- logistics organizer of the Holocaust. The agency in- fi les of employees who had als had even been investi- formed SPIEGEL that the 581-page fi les on Brunner once been members of the SS gated after 1945 for possible had been disposed of in the 1990s. That incident also and the Gestapo. war crimes. Historian Klaus- appears to have been carried out behind the backs of Preparations have already Dietmar Henke, spokesman the BND leadership. been made for Ernst Uhrlau’s for the commission, told The historical commission is now demanding retirement party next Wednes- SPIEGEL ONLINE he was that the BND consult it before any more “potentially day when he steps down from “somewhat stunned” by the valuable historical records” are destroyed. The histo- his post as the head of the occurrence. rians are also insisting that the 2007 incident be thor- Bundesnachrichtendienst Did Agency Employees oughly investigated. Commission spokesman Henke (BND), Germany’s foreign Seek to Sabotage Investiga- says the agency’s reaction will be “a test of how seri- intelligence agency, on his tion? ously the BND is really taking the investigation into 65th birthday. The offi ce of the chancellor has select- The incident inevitably raises suspicions that its past.” ed a posh location in Berlin for his farewell party and agency employees have deliberately tried to obstruct Angela Merkel herself is expected to attend. Uhrlau, Uhrlau’s efforts to investigate the organization’s his- a member of the center-left Social Democratic Par- tory. The historical commission had not yet been ap- ty (SPD), will be turning over his post to Gerhard pointed at the time of the documents’ destruction, Schindler, a member of the business-friendly Free but Uhrlau had already announced that he planned to Democratic Party. look into his agency’s Nazi past. At events like this, the successes of the person It is no secret that some people within the BND retiring are usually celebrated. In Uhrlau’s case, top- are unhappy about Uhrlau’s project. Some employ- ping the list are his efforts to review the problematic ees are fundamentally opposed to the agency shed- history of the BND’s creation after World War II. It ding light on its own past. Others are worried about has long been known that around 10 percent of the the reputations of their own families -- for many employees at the BND and its predecessor organiza- years, the BND deliberately recruited new staff from tion once served under SS chief among the relatives of existing BND employees. in Nazi Germany. In 2011, Uhrlau appointed an in- Within the BND, a working group headed by Historians have discovered that the BND, Germany's foreign in- telligence agency, destroyed fi les of employees who had once dependent commission of historians to research the Bodo Hechelhammer is responsible for cooperation agency’s Nazi roots. belonged to the SS and the Gestapo. This photo shows Reinhard with the historical commission. The group is current- Gehlen, the legendary founder of the BND, in 1972. Many for- Now, just before Uhrlau’s retirement, the commis- ly trying to shed light on the circumstances surround- mer Nazis worked for him. (AP) Holocaust survivor gets the diploma Nazis denied him

By Valerie Hauch , thestar.com and taken care of by the Jewish community. Chandler about a dozen talks at schools, in the GTA and nearby, got a job in a diamond factory and learned that trade about the Holocaust and his experiences, arranged by Sure, everyone was happy to be getting their high — there was no time or opportunity for education. the Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre of To- school diplomas at the traditional cap and gown In 1947 under a special provision for refugees — ronto. graduation ceremony in early November at Kitch- you had to be under 18 and orphaned — he was able “We are getting to be a smaller and smaller com- ener’s Eastwood Collegiate. to immigrate to Canada where he lived with an aunt munity,’’ he said, referring to how death has claimed But only one grad — the sole male in the bunch in Toronto and found work as a jeweller, a career some of the aging Holocaust survivors. whose tasselled cap was fringed by white hair — was which sustained him for the rest of his working life. “Students have to be made aware...They say you truly moved by Chandler met his future wife, Elsa, also a Holo- can learn more from a survivor than a book,’’ he says. the event. caust survivor, and they got married and had four “I tell them (the students) what I remember. I use H o w a r d children. His wife was able to go back to school here, plain language, I don’t have fancy language. They Chandler, 82, getting her high school diploma, going on to become ask me questions, they want to know different things had waited a a school trustee and eventually the chair of the North ... it’s hard to tell them when I was their age, I was an long time. York Board of Education. The couple’s 60th wedding old man already.’’ As a Jewish anniversary was Nov. 4, also the day that Chandler When asked if he found it hard to repeat painful boy of 10 years, “graduated’’ from Eastwood. memories, Chandler said, “no. Maybe it’s in my na- he was living in His diploma is “honorary’’ but it’s really Chandler ture. I am able to detach myself.’’ Howard Chandler celebrates receiving Poland and just who has done Eastwood the honour of speaking to His speech at Eastwood the day he received his di- an honorary high school diploma with entering Grade many Grade 10 students, over the years, of his expe- ploma won a standing ovation. He told the gathering, history teachers Darryl Weber, left, and Henry Winter, at Kitchener's Eastwood 4 when World rience as a Holocaust survivor and shining a light on also attended by members of his proud family, that Collegiate, where he has often shared his War II broke “one of the darkest moments in history,’’ said history even though the simple fact of being Jewish robbed story with students. out. Jews were teacher Darryl Weber. him of the opportunity of a formal education, he has prohibited from “We have adopted him as one of our own,’’ Weber “never stopped learning. To me every day is a learn- attending school and that was the end of his formal said in a speech at the graduation ceremony. ing experience. education. In his early teens, he was sent to the la- Chandler’s classroom visits always leave students “I have learned that education is the only thing bour and concentration camps of Auschwitz (in Po- “captivated,’’ Weber told the Star. “It’s really history that nobody can deprive you of.’’ land) and Buchenwald (in Germany). The Nazi re- coming alive for them,’ he says. “His story of sur- Chandler laughs a little, on the phone, remember- gime would eventually claim the lives of his parents, vival ... teaches them about discrimination, tolerance ing the pleasure of that evening. a sister and one of his two brothers. and acceptance and makes it relevant to today. They “It was a great honour for me,’’ he says. “From When the war fi nally ended and an emaciated become a secondary witness — it becomes their re- practical terms it may not mean anything. But my Chandler and his elder brother, who had been close sponsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’’ satisfaction is that they had the faith in me to give it to death, were liberated, they were sent to England During a year, the now-retired Chandler gives to me. It made me feel really great.’’

TOGETHER 16 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Teaching about holocaust fi nancial literacy. together across the state to raise money for NCCAT Perry now runs several Holocaust teacher train- programs, like the Holocaust course, to continue. endangered by state ings with retired school librarian Sandra Malpass at Perry was part of a reception fundraiser for the Holo- budget cuts the county and state level including “Teaching the caust Education Program at the City Club at de Ros- By Amanda Greene, StarNewsOnline.com Holocaust through Literature” and “Teaching the Ho- set, 23 S. Second St. Alfred Schnog, a Holocaust sur- Since 1995, teaching the history of the Holocaust locaust Through Picture Books.” vivor and NCCAT board member, hosted the event. to middle school students—and teaching other teach- She even started a Holocaust Lending Library “The infl uence of that teacher is paramount in a ers that curriculum—has become Angela Eichhorn section at the Burgaw branch of the Pender County child’s later career and in passing knowledge onto Perry’s personal passion. Public Library. their own children,” he said, adding that teaching The Penderlea Elementary School media special- “Most teachers think that if they’ve read Anne about the Holocaust now gives him hope that some- ist didn’t have ancestors who died in the Holocaust. Frank, they’ve done their part. But there’s so much thing similar will never happen again. Instead, a professional development course on the more to what people in the Holocaust experienced Many North Carolina teachers who have experi- Holocaust she took through the North Carolina Cen- than that,” she said. “NCCAT was absolutely won- enced the trainings wrote letters to legislators, im- ter for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) 16 derful and opened my eyes to a lot of things you ploring them not to close NCCAT’s completely. years ago sparked the fi re in her to dig deeper. don’t know about the Holocaust.” “I have been telling other teachers at my school That course and the center’s other areas of instruc- Courses are taught at NCCAT facilities on Oc- how excited I am about the session I am about to at- tion for teachers, however, are now being threatened racoke Island and Cullowhee, and the organization tend because it is all about current brain research and by the state’s tight fi nances. covers the cost of a substitute while a teacher is in understanding the factors that affect children’s learn- Along with the Holocaust program, the center also class. ing,” one teacher wrote. “As a reading specialist who offers teachers with at least three years of classroom But part of the General Assembly’s education cuts works with children who are reading below grade experience courses on the state’s new Common Core this year included slashing half of the $6 million NC- level, what could be more relevant to my job?” Standards, the Outer Banks wetlands, ways to cre- CAT budget. ate a physically active classroom or how to promote So Perry and other community leaders are coming that certain words familiar to both groups have to- tally different connotations. “It is precisely because Top Cardinal Claims Jews avoid canonization of this pope. And we have other we share so many of the same terms and use them Jews who come and say, ‘declare this Pope as Righ- in such different ways that it creates diffi culties,” Want Sainthood for Nazi-Era teous among the Nations,’” Koch said, referring to Weissman said. Pope the Israeli title bestowed on non-Jews who saved When Koch was asked about his statement re- By Paul Berger, The Forward Jews during the Holocaust. garding the cross as the eternal Yom Kippur and the The Vatican’s new chief liaison to world Jewry The ADL’s Greenberg said he was concerned that cross’s connotation to Jews as a symbol of persecu- met mixed reviews during his debut visit to the Unit- the cardinal “cites opinions of solitary or fringe Jew- tion, he said, “I know the history what Christianity ed States, thanks in part to statements on the pending ish voices to validate perspectives on these issues, have made with the cross and I think that it is our canonization of Catholicism’s World War II-era pope. giving them the same weight as mainstream Jewish duty to show that the cross isn’t a motive for hate. In In what turned out to be a bumpy start, Cardinal positions, which disagree.” the Christian view the cross is an invitation of recon- Kurt Koch angered some Jewish and Christian lead- Greenberg found other statements made by Koch ciliation and I can’t understand because Jews can’t be ers when he told an audience at Seton Hall Univer- troubling. “What does Koch mean that there is only content with this invitation.” sity, in South Orange, N.J. ‘one people of God’ and not ‘two peoples of God?’” After the talk, Rev. John Pawlikowski, former that many Jews approve Greenberg said. “Why does he choose to describe president of the ICCJ, said the cardinal failed to an- the potential canonization Jews and Christians as ‘thorns’ in one another’s swer questions “fully” and sometimes appeared to of the controversial Pope ‘sides?’ This is the language of the Crucifi xion.” skirt them altogether. Pius XII. The cardinal was chosen by Pope Benedict to “I don’t think he’s quite on a par with his prede- Koch added that the head the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Rela- cessor,” Pawlikowski said, referring to Cardinal Wal- long-demanded opening tions with Jews in July, 2010. ter Kasper, who left the post in 2010. of the Vatican’s Holocaust- This past July, he came into confl ict with Rome’s During the discussion, Cardinal Koch frequently era archives — which chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, when he wrote in the quoted the work of Rabbi Jacob Neusner. Neusner, many historians believe Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano , that the a prolifi c author on rabbinic Judaism, is a favorite of will help resolve allega- cross is “the permanent and universal Yom Kippur” Pope Benedict. tions that Pius did not do and a symbol of reconciliation. But audience members protested that Neusner’s enough to protect Jews — Di Segni responded in a subsequent edition of work on Catholic-Jewish history is not as highly re- Cardinal Kurt Koch would shed no more light L’Osservatore Romano , “If the terms of the discus- garded outside the Vatican as it is within. on the question. sion are those of pointing Jews to the way of the Pawlikowski, a founding member of the board of “The very important things [that need to be] said cross, it is not clear why there should be dialogue.” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in- are said and on the table,” Koch said. The cardinal’s Di Segni’s response was reported in English on the terrupted one of the cardinal’s answers in which he assertions — plus a few others such as that Jews can website Spero News. was quoting Neusner. “I hate to say it,” Pawlikowski look upon the cross as “a symbol of reconciliation” Similar tensions involving language and sacred said, “but you are barking up the wrong tree.” — were met with either blank expressions or grum- vocabulary arose in New Jersey during the hour-long Koch’s meetings the following day went more bling from the audience of about 60 rabbis, priests, question-and-answer session, which was organized by smoothly. The cardinal appeared at the Jewish Theo- theologians and specialists in interfaith dialogue. the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. logical Seminary for an invitation-only luncheon. Earlier in the day, members of this interfaith au- The cardinal answered questions slowly and de- Burton Visotzky, JTS professor of Midrash and dience were among hundreds who gathered at Se- liberately. But his English was shaky and there was interreligious studies, said he was “genuinely im- ton Hall to hear the cardinal deliver the 18th annual a palpable sense of frustration as the cardinal gave pressed” by Koch’s warmth and willingness to “lis- Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture titled, “Theological either opaque or rambling responses. At one point, ten and learn.” Questions and Perspectives in Jewish-Christian Dia- he was pressed a couple of times on the question “He seems like a very lovely man,” Visotzky said, logue.” of whether the Church believed that Jews could be “and when dealing with people you can respect as a Rabbi Eric Greenberg, director of interfaith affairs saved without accepting Jesus Christ. He offered a lovely human being, it augurs well for a lovely rela- for the Anti-Defamation League, said the cardinal’s long and winding reply that appeared vague until tionship.” opinions raised issues that demonstrate “the continu- an aide, Father Norbert Hoffman clarifi ed that Jews Visotzky said Koch’s references to Rabbi Neusner ing challenges facing Catholic-Jewish relations.” would ultimately be “safe,” though just how would were fi ne. He said Neusner made a signifi cant contri- Greenberg said the cardinal’s views on Pius XII only be known in “the last days.” bution to the study of Judaism and was a respected were of particular concern because they “espoused Shortly before the question-and-answer session, fi gure. the viewpoint of Pius XII apologists, rather than the Deborah Weissman, president of the International Later the same day, Koch met with members of majority of noted Jewish and Catholic scholars.” Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), said one of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Koch said some Jews have told the Vatican “don’t the major problems of Jewish-Christian dialogue is cont’d on p. 18

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 17 All Minds Blurred and Darkened’ Diaries 1939-1945 of truth against any resurgence of Nazism and totali- tarian impulses,” Robert Martin Scott Kellner, Fried- By Madeline Chambers 28, 1941: rich’s grandson and joint editor of the diary, told Re- (Reuters) - The newly published diary of an indignant “A soldier on vacation here said he witnessed a uters in an email exchange. small-town offi cial in Nazi Germany has stirred the terrible atrocity in the occupied parts of Poland. Documents show Kellner came close to being sent sensitive debate over how much ordinary Germans He watched as naked Jewish men and women were to a concentration camp but was careful enough not knew of atrocities committed under Hitler, creating a placed in front of a long deep ditch and upon the or- to let the Nazis get hold of proof against him. “If his wave of interest at home and abroad. der of the SS were shot by Ukrainians in the back diaries had been found it would have been over,” said of their heads and they fell into the ditch. Then the Feuchert. ditch was fi lled with dirt even as he could still hear In 1940, one Nazi offi cial wrote: “If we want to screams coming from people still alive in the ditch.” apprehend people like Kellner we will have to lure “...There is no punishment that would be hard them out of their corners and let them incriminate enough to be applied to these Nazi beasts.” themselves. The time is not ripe for an approach like That an occurrence like this was the talk of the the one used with the Jews. This can only take place town as early as October 1941 shows what informa- after the war.” tion was available. “Kellner realized there was more to be seen than PUBLICATION BATTLE was being shown. That is some proof that it was not After the war, Kellner helped decide which local impossible, maybe not even so diffi cult to see through Nazi party members should be barred from profes- things,” said Feuchert. sions and public offi ce. In the late 1960s he gave the Personal conversations, news reports and keen diaries to his grandson in the United States who faced observation convinced Kellner the Nazis were com- an uphill battle to get them published. mitting terrible crimes. “I had no idea it would take over four decades to On September 16, 1942, he wrote: “In the last few fulfi ll my promise. Publishers throughout the United days Jews from our district have been removed. From States and Germany did not want to take a gamble,” Friedrich Kellner here it was the families Strauss and Heinemann. I said his grandson. heard from a reliable source that all Jews were taken Eventually the chronicles caught the eye of Bush, The diary of Friedrich Kellner, All Minds Blurred to Poland and would be murdered by SS brigades. who put them on exhibition at his presidential library and Darkened: Diaries 1939-1945, came to promi- “This cruelty is terrible. Such outrages will never in Texas in 2005. nence thanks to the intervention of the elder former be wiped from the history of humanity. Our murder- That sparked interest in Germany and Feuchert U.S. President George Bush. ous government has besmirched the name ‘Germany’ and a team of colleagues started fi ve years of re- Filled with scathing commentaries on events, for all time.” search, verifying Kellner’s sources and conversation newspaper clippings and records of private conversa- Kellner also wrote a great deal about the crazed partners before publication. tions, Kellner’s 940-page chronicle gives an insight ambition of Hitler that would lead to defeat. Noticing The appearance of the diaries, 15 years after a ma- into what information was available to ordinary Ger- a lack of reports about German losses, he made his jor controversy over U.S. academic Daniel Goldha- mans. own calculations on the basis of death notices and gen’s book Hitler’s Willing Executioners , has revived Kellner, a mid-ranking court offi cial who was in came up with a fi gure of 30,000 per month. a debate on how much Germans knew about the Ho- his mid-50s when he started writing, vents his anger “That may not be the right fi gure, but the point is locaust. Goldhagen argued that many more Germans at Hitler, hopes his country will be defeated in the he realizes the losses are extreme and he concludes were complicit in carrying out Hitler’s plan to ex- war and laments reports of mysterious deaths at men- that the war cannot be won. This is very striking,” terminate Jews than had previously been acknowl- tal homes and mass shootings of Jews. said Feuchert. edged. “These diaries ... represent a towering refutation In the last few years, some focus has shifted to of the well-worn refrain of so many Germans after DISGRACE Germans’ own suffering, with documentaries and the war: ‘We knew nothing of the Nazi horrors,’” Kellner, realizing Germany was heading for tur- books on subjects from the Allies’ fi rebombing of Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holo- bulent times, set out to record them. He read newspa- Dresden and the rape of German women by Soviet caust Survivors and their Descendants said. pers from the Voelkischer Beobachter , the Nazi party troops to expulsions of Germans from central Eu- Kellner was a Social Democrat who refused to mouthpiece, and , the SS news- rope. join the Nazi party and his perspective offers a unique paper, to local papers from all over the country. Kellner’s diary features on Sueddeutsche Zeitung view, say historians. “The purpose of my record is to capture a picture newspaper’s “recommended reading” list. The pub- Born in 1885, Kellner was the son of a baker. He of the current mood in my surroundings so that a fu- lishers, Wallstein, are on the third print run, indicat- fought in World War One and became a government ture generation is not tempted to construe a ‘great ing unexpectedly strong demand with about 6,000 employee in the district court at Laubach, a western event’ from it (a heroic time or something similar),” copies sold and an English translation planned. town largely sympathetic to Nazis. he wrote on September 26, 1938. Der Spiegel weekly compared the diaries to those “The decisive thing is that he is not an intellectual, “I fear very few decent people will remain after of Jewish academic Victor Klemperer, whose ac- he is an ordinary employee sitting in the provinces events have taken their course and that the guilty will count of the climate of hostility and fear in the Nazi who reads the newspapers. He is full of anger about have no interest in seeing their disgrace documented years is widely used in Germany as a teaching text on what is happening,” said Sascha Feuchert, head of in writing.” the Third Reich. the Research Unit for Holocaust Literature at Gies- Kellner, who never pretended to hold Nazi views, “These magnifi cently edited volumes ... belong sen University, and editor of the volumes. was under surveillance and questioned by offi cials in every German library and if possible every book several times. shelf—next to the diaries of Klemperer,” wrote Der “NAZI BEASTS” “My grandfather was determined, at great risk to Spiegel. One of the most chilling entries comes on October his life, to provide future generations with a weapon Top Cardinal does demand that the archives be opened before a de- Williamson as long as his group, the Society of St. cont’d from p. 17 cision is made. Pius X, continues to deny the Holocaust, Schiffman At the meeting, Schiffman said, Koch reiterated said. Consultations, an umbrella group in charge of offi cial his view that there is nothing in the archives that is Schiffman recalled that when Koch’s predecessor, relations with the Vatican. not already known. But the cardinal did say the ar- Cardinal Kasper, took up his post 10 years ago, he IJCIC chair Lawrence Schiffman, vice provost for chives would be opened in three or four years. The too had a bumpy start. But the relationship became undergraduate education at Yeshiva University, said Vatican initially promised to open its World War II- a fruitful one. the meeting was “excellent” despite disagreements era archives 25 years ago, after a meeting between “I am hopeful that as he gets increasingly edu- regarding the Vatican archives. IJCIC leaders and Pope John Paul II. cated what this is really all about, we will also have IJCIC has no offi cial position on whether Pius XII The cardinal also assured IJCIC that the Vatican accomplishments,” Schiffman said. should be beatifi ed, Schiffman said. But the group would never accept controversial Bishop Richard

TOGETHER 18 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Israeli, German researchers expose the Nazi past of a prominent historian and ‘resistance hero’ By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Survival has placed upon us the The night of April 17, 1945 was a dramatic one in the Bavarian town of Ansbach. The Third Reich was on responsibility of making sure that the the verge of collapse and U.S. forces were besieging the city. They would take it in less than 24 hours. That Holocaust is remembered forever. night a small, courageous group of young anti-Nazis tried to get the town to surrender without bloodshed or Each of us has the sacred obligation destruction. to share this task while we still can. The tragic events of that night and the following morning would enable one of Germany’s most important However, with the passage of each postwar historians to clear his name of accusations that he was pro-Nazi. Through a web of lies and half- year, we realize that time is against us, truths, the historian, Karl Bosl, swept away his Nazi past and replaced it with the image of a brave opponent and we must make sure to utilize all of the Nazis. means for future remembrance. Research by Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar, the vice president of the National Academy of Sciences, and Peter A permanent step toward achieving Herde of Wurzburg University in Germany, has exposed what really happened that night, as well as Bosl’s this important goal can be realized by true Nazi past. As a result, the government of the Bavarian city where Bosl was born, Cham, announced about placing a unique and visible maker two weeks ago that it was changing the name of a square from Dr.-Karl-Bosl-Platz and removing a statue of on the gravestone of every survivor. Bosl from town hall. The most meaningful symbol for The two scholars discovered that Bosl had tried to gain anti-Na- this purpose is our Survivor logo, zi credentials through his previous contact with Ansbach’s true hero, inscribed with the words HOLOCAUST a young man named Robert Limpert, who had been Bosl’s student. Limpert, born in 1925, had established an anti-Nazi underground cell SURVIVOR. This simple, yet dramatic, in Ansbach. maker will reaffi rm our uniqueness In the days before April 18, he and his comrades posted fl yers on and our place in history for future city hall calling on residents to disrupt the defense of the town and get generations. it to surrender to Allied forces. Limpert even secured the deputy may- Our impressive MATZEVAH marker or’s consent to surrender, but he was overridden by Ansbach’s Nazi is now available for purchase. It is military commander, Col. Ernst Meyer, who insisted that the town fi ght cast in solid bronze, measuring 5x7 to its last bullet. inches, and can be attached to new or Limpert then took the courageous, perhaps crazy, step of cutting existing tombstones. The cost of each communications wires he thought linked Meyer’s headquarters with marker is $125. Additional donations Nazi forces in the town. But the lines were not connected. Limpert’s are gratefully appreciated. act of sabotage was witnessed by two members of the Hitler Youth, Let us buy the marker now and leave who turned him in to Meyer. Limpert was arrested at home, quickly instructions in our wills for its use. Karl Bosl convicted and executed on a gallows set up outside city hall. This will enable every one of us to On April 18, Limpert actually escaped his captors but was recap- leave on this earth visible proof of our tured. Meyer himself put the noose around the young man’s neck, but on the fi rst attempt the rope broke. The miraculous survival and an everlasting executioners were successful with their second try. Shortly after the execution, Meyer fl ed Ansbach and U.S. legacy of the Holocaust. forces captured the town. Three days later, Limpert was buried in Ansbach in a ceremony in which he was eulogized by his former teacher, Bosl. The eulogy was Bosl’s fi rst attempt to rid himself of his Nazi past, say Kedar and Herde. The cost of each marker is US $125 “He spoke about Limpert as if they had been on the same side,” Kedar said. An American offi cer, Frank including shipping & handling. Horvay, who was in charge of Ansbach’s denazifi cation, played a key role in further burnishing Bosl’s image. Make checks payable to: The two men apparently became friends. American Gathering The researchers obtained a letter in which Horvay wrote about Bosl to his teacher in the United States. and mail to: Horvay recounted the cutting of the communications wires but said Bosl was the one who carried it out. American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants This account found its way into a number of other letters, and in January 1946, Bosl received a document 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 from the American forces stating that although he had nominally been a member of the Nazi Party, he had New York, NY 10001 also been a member of the anti-Nazi underground who had risked his life to post anti-Reich notices. Please allow sixty (60) days for delivery. The document also noted Bosl’s purported act of bravery in cutting the wires. Horvay helped Bosl publish an account on the “New Germany” in an American publication, and the way was paved toward clearing his name. Name ______During his research, Kedar located Horvay’s daughter in Kentucky and was provided some of her father’s Address______personal papers. The truth came out after research into Bosl’s papers and interviews with two members of City ______State __ Zip ____ Limpert’s underground group who survived. The researchers dispelled Bosl’s claim that he had only been a Phone______member of the Nazi Party for a short time and had left for ideological reasons. After the war, Bosl became a E-mail ______leading historian of the Middle Ages. Stories surfaced occasionally about his Nazi past, but they were coun- Number of Markers ______tered by accounts of his alleged anti-Nazi activity. Total Amount Enclosed $______“Bosl was cautious,” said Kedar, a Holocaust survivor and also a historian of the Middle Ages. “He never said he had cut the cables himself, but he provided the letters in which others said so. When people inter- viewed him and asked him directly about the case, he said he didn’t want to talk about it.” NOTICE TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Kedar and Herde’s research was recently published in English by Hebrew University’s Magnes Press in a NEEDING ASSISTANCE book entitled Karl Bosl and the Third Reich. Bosl died in 1993. Financial assistance is available for needy Holocaust survivors. If you have an urgent German program uses Shoah funds to play down Holocaust situation regarding housing, health care, food or other emergency, you may be eligible for a one-time By Benjamin Weinthal , Jerusalem Post grant funded by the Claims Conference. The German Holocaust Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future (EVZ)” has used public mon- If there is a Jewish Family Service agency in ies to fi nance a second anti-Israel high school program that includes elements of , according your area, please discuss your situation with them. to a new report issued by the Jerusalem-based watchdog organization NGO Monitor. If there is no such agency nearby, mail a written The new revelations add to the bombshell disclosure in late September that EVZ provided 21,590 euros inquiry describing your situation to: to a dubious 2010-11 student exchange program between an east German high school (Gerhart Hauptmann) Emergency Holocaust Survivor Assistance and an Israeli- Arab school in Nazareth (Masar Institute for Education) to produce brochures delegitimizing P.O. Box 765 Israel’s existence. The brochure compared Israel to the former communist East German state and depicted Murray Hill Station Jewish pupils in distorted and biased terms. New York, NY 10156

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 19 ERNEST W. A BEL an incremental part of all aspects in the area. One of Ernest W. Abel passed away peacefully in San Fran- his anonymous community contributions is that he cisco on January 12, 2011 at age 100. Ernest was a collected discarded bicycles, restored them and gave Holocaust survivor who arrived in in it to a child in need. 1939 from Vienna where he had been a lawyer. In San Francisco he accomplished many positions start- BENJAMIN B EDZOW ing as a Fuller Brush Man. He graduated as a chem- Benjamin Bedzow, 78, passed away at home on De- ist from USF and he became a professor there. He cember 12, 2011. He was born in Lida, Poland on went to work for SAARCO. After his retirement he November 11, 1933 and survived the Holocaust in became a volunteer for legal aid and went back to the forests of Belorussia, one of the youngest mem- study law. He was written up in Time magazine for a Luck ghetto posing as a Christian with false papers. bers of the Bielski Partisan Resistance. Benjamin be- case he won before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ernest She joined the partisans until her capture and depor- gan his new life in Montreal, Canada in 1948 with was a long time member of Hadassah, Hebrew Free tation to the Majdanek concentration camp where the determination and vision of a young maverick Loan Association and B’nai B’rith. she performed slave labor in a stone quarry and as launching a 50+ year career in real estate develop- a translator. Forced into a death march in the fi nal ment that spanned North America in cities across months of the war, she was liberated in May 1945. Canada and the United States, focusing in Miami FRED A BELES After surviving the Holocaust, Mrs. Abramson after moving there in 1978. He was most proud of Fred Abeles, born in Austria on February 11, 1918, joined her aunt in Brooklyn, NY, in 1946. She gradu- his role as Building Chairman of the Shul of Bal Har- endured one of the lesser-known holocaust experi- ated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, bour, a structure to replicate and resurrect three of the ences ofWWII. He passed away on June 11, 2011. NY, in 1951 with a B.A. in Education. On September many synagogues destroyed by the Nazis. In March, 1938, Fred was arrested in his hometown, 7, 1952, she married her beloved husband Paul. Berndorf, a suburb ofVienna, and imprisoned for After relocating to Raleigh in 1970, Mrs. Abramson ACOB OLOMON ELIAK three months. By June 1938, the Gestapo gave him J S B became an active member of Temple Beth Or, work- Jacob Solomon Beliak, 88, of Phoenix passed away the choice to leave Austria or be deported to Dachau ing as the Director of Education for 19 years. She October 11, 2011. Jacob was born in Riga, Latvia and concentration camp, just for being a Jew. Fred was also served as a charter member of the North Caro- was a Holocaust survivor. He was a member of sev- able to go to Zagreb, Croatia. By 1941 he was ar- lina Council on the Holocaust from 1981 to 1996. eral valley synagogues. He took pride in his work as rested by the Italians, who were then in control of She was a devoted volunteer for Meals on Wheels of a cabinet maker and contractor. the region, and sent to a camp, Kraljevicha. By Sept. Wake County for 25 years as well. 1943 he was moved to an island off the coast of Dal- DA UGMAN ELIK matia called Raab. Rumors were that Italy was leav- I Z B LILLIAN A LEXANDER Ida Zugman Belik, age 81, of the Daughters of Sarah ing the war and the Germans would take over. He Lillian (Blumenthal) Alexander, 86, of Newington, Nursing Home in Albany, died on Saturday, October and a few hundred other Jewish prisoners used what- CT died November 25, 2011. She was born August 22, 2011 at Hospice Inn at St. Peter’s Hospital in Al- ever goods they had to rent boats and went back to 7, 1925 in Berlin, Germany. As a Holocaust survi- bany. Born in Ukraine, Mrs. Belik came to this coun- the mainland to escape and avoid being deported to vor, Lillian stressed the importance of civil liberties, try in 1978, and had been residing in Schenectady. Auschwitz. When he arrived on The Croatian Coast, that the right to vote should always be cherished. She She had been employed for 20 years for the payroll Fred had to fi nd the partisans in order to survive. He strongly believed in the signifi cance of the arts and department at OTB Headquarters in Schenectady and miraculously survived pneumonia during 1944. He education, instilling this passion in her children and was retired. She was a member of Congregation Agu- then boarded a ship waiting in the Danube, trying to grandchildren. She came to New York with her fam- dat Achim in Schenectady. Ida was a holocaust survi- get to Turkey and then Palestine, via Bulgaria and ily in January of 1941, where she studied art and de- vor and will be remembered as a loving grandmother Romania. Credible rumors again arose that the Ger- sign during high school. After marrying Saul, they and mother. She was married to Michael Belik until mans knew about this. Fred lived in fear on this ship moved to Hartford, CT to raise their family, where his passing in 1996. for about a week, left it one morning and made his she took leadership roles in the PTA, girl scouts, way back to the partisans. Although life hiding in the and cub scouts. Her artistic abilities were showcased BRHAM IELL forests with the partisans was diffi cult and danger- A B throughout her work with these organizations. It was Abraham Biell, 91 of Aventura, Florida passed away ous, this saved his life, and in March of 1945, at the well known to all that Lillian was also an accom- on August 12, 2011. Born in Lida, Poland in 1920, end of the war, Fred was 27, and went to Bari, Italy. plished chef and seamstress. A highlight of her life Abe was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust and he His cousin, Karl Abeles, a member of the American was the twenty years she spent as a History Professor saved many Jewish lives. It was this fi ghting spirit Air force in Italy, found him and brought him to the at Central Connecticut State University. for life that enabled him to live years beyond his doc- U.S. Fred was married to Charlotte in 1950 in NYC, tors' expectations. He was a dedicated, hard-working and worked as a designer and salesman for Fiberbilt, DR. NINO D AVID A SCOLI and loving husband, father, grandfather and great- Inc. until the age of 71. Connoisseurs of classical mu- On July 8, 2011, Nino David Ascoli, passed away. grandfather. sic, Fred, with his wife, frequented the Metropolitan Born in Rome, Italy in 1929, he was a Holocaust Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston survivor and moved to the United States in 1957 af- ETER ORKOWSKI Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood. He lived in P B ter serving as a Medical Offi cer in the Italian Army. Peter Borkowski, age 85 of Stratford, CT passed Whitestone, Queens, and was a member of the Clear- Nino was a respected General Surgeon who served away peacefully August 25, 2011, at the Jewish view Jewish Center and the Workmen’s Circle. as the Chief of the Medical Staff at Good Samaritan Home of Fairfi eld. Born in Chelm, Poland on March Hospital in the late ’70s and practiced in Baltimore 25, 1926, Peter was a Holocaust survivor, who as a GIZELLA A BRAMSON until the late ’80s. Nino also donated his time as a young man fought in the resistance. He left Poland Gizella Abramson, 85, a Polish-born Holocaust sur- volunteer doctor in Saint Lucia. and went to live in the newly formed country of Is- vivor who charged teachers and students across North rael before immigrating to the Untied States. With his Carolina not to hate, passed away the Hospice House SAMUEL “CLAUDE” BECK wife of 58 years, Halina, they were extraordinary role of Wake County. She had suffered from ovarian can- Samuel “Claude” Beck, age 76, of Chichester, owner models for their children and grandchildren. cer. The only member of her immediate family to sur- of Claude’s Bistro, passed away in Kingston, NY on vive the Nazis, Mrs. Abramson will be remembered July 30, 2011 after a short illness. He was surrounded for her frequent appearances in the public schools. JAY B ROTTMAN She often said she survived the Holocaust in order to by his loving family and friends. Sam was born in Jay Brottman, 79, of East Windsor, NJ, died Sept. 22, share her experience with young people. Paris, France on Feb. 7, 1935, a Holocaust survivor. 2011 in The Gardens at Monroe Health and Rehab, Since 1973, Mrs. Abramson became a highly He immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1955 to eventually Monroe Townhip. Jay was born in Poland, and was a sought-after speaker who visited middle and high become a proud U.S. citizen; as a matter of fact, he Holocaust survivor. He had lived in New Jersey for schools, teacher workshops, military bases, college was the proudest grandfather when his fi rst grand- 50 years, having come from Canada. He was self- campuses, churches, and police academies through- child was born, calling him “a true Yankee.” Sam employed as a manufacturer for ladies apparel. Jay out the state. was a Jack-of-all-trades: a tailor, diamond cutter, was an active member of the community. He played Born in Tarnopol, Poland, she was 13 at the out- cosmetician, barber, mechanic, broker, pilot small soccer for the Canadian National Team, was an avid break of World War II. Mrs. Abramson escaped the planes, and, his many friends’ confi dant. Claude was dancer, volunteered as a coach for the “Greek Stars”

TOGETHER 20 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 Soccer Team, and judged soccer competitions. He family. 15 years ago, Bill and Monique moved to the was an avid and great dancer, and also enjoyed play- idyllic island of Orcas in the San Juans. She was very ing cards with his family, but above all, he cherished active in her community, teaching French and quilt- his family. ing, planning community dinners, fund raisers, and assisting in local plays and other activities up to the SUSAN B UDLOVSKY day she died. On the island Monique fi nally found a Susan Budlovsky passed peacefully after a brief ill- sense of peace and safety that she had searched for ness in palliative care at St. Michael’s Hospital, To- her whole life, and she began to speak about her ex- ronto, on November 10, 2011. As a Holocaust sur- periences and the pain she suffered because of the vivor, she has been offi cially credited to saving the war and the pain of never having known her parents lives of many women, who, just like her, lost their in 1946 settling in Paterson. A Holocaust survivor, to students and groups on the island. youth to the concentration camps of Terezin and Aus- she was a member of the Eastside Social Center in chwitz. The women whose lives she saved were too Fair Lawn. ESTHER L AMPERT ill to go on a death march, and were left to dig their Esther Lampert, of Wayne, NJ, passed away at the own graves on the 31 of January 1945. A fi ercely pri- EMIL E LLENBERG age of 84 on November 21, 2011. Esther was bom in vate person, Susan was always there with encourage- Emil Ellenberg, 87 years of age, of Lyman Road, West Berlin, Germany in 1927, the youngest of four chil- ment and wisdom. Hartford, husband of the late Irene (Saks) Ellenberg, dren, to Jakob and Yentyl Kopelman. As the persecu- died August 29, 2011. Born in Poland, he was the tion of the Jews intensifi ed in pre-war Germany, and faced with increasing hardship and deprivation, Es- PAUL C SILLAG son of the late Zigmund and Ernestine (Krantham- ther’s sisters Miriam and Hannah, and brother Man- Paul Csillag, 90, of Indianap- mer) Ellenberg. He was a Holocaust survivor. Emil fred fl ed to London via Kindertransport to escape the olis passed away on Decem- was the owner and co-founder of Esquire Cleaners Nazis. Esther was too young to go and stayed behind ber 5, 2011. Paul was born which was founded in 1956. He was a member of the with her parents. It wasn’t long before her father was on May 23, 1921 in Hungary. Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford. arrested and all their goods confi scated, leaving her He and his beloved wife, the and her mother homeless. When Esther was 12 years late Rose Csillag, both Holo- LORRAINE E RLANGER old, HIAS found her and spirited her off to England. caust survivors, came to In- Lorraine Erlanger, 82, of Tinton Falls, died Nov. 7, Both her parents became victims of the Nazi confl a- dianapolis with their children 2011. She was born to the late Benno and Lucy Stern, gration. in 1956. Paul was a long time May 7, 1929, in Obernkirchen, Germany. Lorraine In England, after much travail including a stay and dedicated member of was a Holocaust survivor and came to the U.S. af- with members of the Christadelphian sect, Esther B’nai Torah. For many years, ter the war in 1946. She married the late Sgt. Max was reunited with her siblings. Her sister Miriam en- Paul was known as the “challah man” in the com- Erlanger in 1955, and lived together in New City, couraged her to take nurse’s training, and she spent munity. Every week he would make 50 challot from NY for 32 years before his passing. In 2007, Lor- the war helping wounded soldiers and enduring the scratch and deliver them to friends and community raine relocated to Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls, London Blitz. After the war, Esther immigrated to members. NJ. Lorraine was an administrative assistant for the the U.S., where she had relatives. She got work as East Ramapo school district for over 20 years and a nurse in Beth Israel Hospital in New York City, was an active member in the Jewish War Veterans MARIA D EVINKI which enabled her to send food packages to her sis- Ladies Auxiliary. Maria Devinki, of Leawood, ters and brother, whom she had left back in England. passed away Dec. 12, 2011, Esther and Sam were residents of Montclair, NJ at Menorah Medical Cen- DANIEL F RIED from 1976 to 1994. ter. Maria was born in Ha- Daniel Fried was born on July 4th 1921 in Uzhhorod, nover, Germany, in 1920. Czechoslovakia. As a 17-year-old, he experienced MARTHA L EBER She grew up in Wodislaw, the plight of World War II fi rst handedly when he was Martha Leber passed away on Nov 11, 2011 at the Poland, where she studied sent to a forced labor camp. After escaping from the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home in Omaha, Nebraska. at the Bais Yaakov Hebrew camp he came in contact with a group of Russian sol- The daughter of Esther and Abe Hyman, Martha was school. In 1942, three years after the onset of the diers. Luckily, a soldier in the group was Jewish and born in Aleksandrov, Poland on Mar 26 1926. A Ho- Holocaust, she married her beloved husband of 50 told him to keep going as fast as he could, and that he locaust survivor, she escaped the Warsaw Ghetto and years, Fred Devinki. Maria lost her father, both of did. He kept going until he made it to a ship that took spent years in a German labor camp before she was her brothers and over 100 relatives in the Holocaust. him to Ellis Island and his new life in America. After liberated at the end of World War II. She emigrated She survived with her husband and her mother for arriving, he took up making jewelry with his Uncle to the United States in 1949 and settled in Omaha 27 months in a bunker under a barn. Immediately af- Ernest in New York City. In 1955, he moved to Cali- through a post-war sponsorship by the Omaha Jew- ter the war, Maria and Fred started a grocery store fornia and while on vacation one year later in Miami, ish Community Center. She was predeceased by her in Sosnowiec, Poland, before moving to Regensburg, he met his wife of 56 years, Marlyn. She accompa- beloved husband of 64 years, Gerson Leber, who was Germany, where they founded a textile business. nied him back to California where he would occupy a survivor of both Auschwitz and Dachau. In 1950, the family immigrated to the United States. many jobs such as working for Douglas Aircraft and In 1955 Maria and Fred founded Devinki Real Estate the city of Los Angeles. Dan retired in 1987. He died in Kansas City. With the success of their business, of prostate cancer on September, 28, 2011 at the age CLARA L EVY Clara Levy, 90, née Kupferstein, died on Aug. 14 at Maria was able to do what she loved most, helping of 90. others. the Daughters of Miriam Nursing Home in Clifton, She supported the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy NJ. Born in Poland, she was a Holocaust survivor. MONIQUE R AYMONDE L USTIG G INCIG from its beginnings. One of Maria’s proudest mo- After World War II she lived in Italy where she met Monique Raymonde Lustig Gincig lost her battle ments came in 1992, when she and Fred dedicated her future husband, David, and came to the United with mutiple myeloma August 16, 2011. Monique a Torah scroll to Kehilath Israel Synagogue in honor States settling in the Passaic/Clifton area 50 years was born in Pont-a-Mousson, France on July 7, 1939. of their 50th wedding anniversary. K.I. remained one ago. She worked for her husband’s plumbing busi- In July, 1942 her parents were deported to Auschwitz of the most important institutions for Maria’s family. ness, David Levy Plumbing & Heating, and was a and she and her three sisters were placed in hiding She served for many years on the synagogue’s board housewife. She was a member of Cong. Adas Israel in various households until the end of the war. After and Sisterhood. Maria also helped found the Midwest of Passaic and the Yugoslavia Jewish Association. the war, she was taken in by family friends. In April, Center for Holocaust Education in 1993, and served 1961 Monique married her husband Bill Gincig an as a vice president and director emeritus there. American working on an Air Force Base in Nancy, HELEN K OERNER Helen Koerner of Rochester, NY, 97, formerly of Fair France. To them were born two children, Deborah Lawn, NJ, died on Nov. 29. She was a Holocaust sur- DORA D ORENTER and Didier. 1966 saw the closures of the U.S. military vivor. Dora Dorenter, 88, of Fair Lawn, NJ, died on Nov. bases in France and Bill and Monique chose to move 26. Born in Belchatow, Poland, she came to America with their children to Los Angeles to be near Bill’s cont’d on p. 22

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 21 BLUMA L UDZKI Romania, the Sorbonne in Paris, and graduated from Bluma Ludzki (nee Liebowicz), 90, died Oct. 8. Born the Philadelphia Textile Institute in 1952. In 1979 he in Lodz, Poland, she came to America in 1951, set- bought Custom Maid Brassieres and continued to tling in Bronx, N.Y., until moving to Fair Lawn in work full time until his death. He was an active mem- 1969. She and her late husband were the owners and ber of Cong. B’nai Israel in Emerson for 25 years and operators of a luncheonette in Bronx, NY, before spoke nine languages. their retirement. They were both Holocaust Survi- vors and were liberated by the Russian Red Army HENRY D AVID from the Lodz Ghetto on Jan. 19, 1945. They were WEISSMANN two out of 800 survivors of the Ghetto which origi- chwitz in December 1943. In early April 1945, he Henry David Weissmann, nally had more than 350,000 Jewish prisoners. She escaped from an outcamp of Buchenwald by pushing 74, of Binghamton, NY, was a member of the Eastside Social Center in Fair aside a guard and fl eeing into the woods. He eventu- died peacefully in his home Lawn and was a longtime member of the Workman ally made his way toward the direction of American on December 16 after a Circle in New York City. Liberation soldiers. courageous 3 month battle When the war was over, he was sent to Landsberg, with melanoma. HANS M ARSAIEK Germany to a Displaced Persons’ Camp. Here is Henry was born January VIENNA (AP) - The Mauthausen Memorial Com- where he regained his weight and strength. He also 9, 1936, in Mannheim, Ger- mittee says Hans Marsaiek, a Nazi resister who confi rmed the reality that he was the only survivor many, son of Fred and Erna helped document the history of the former Nazi con- of his immediate family. He lost his mother and fa- Weissmann. A Holocaust survivor, he came to the centration camp, has died. The committee says Mar- ther and three sisters. David met his bride, Cela, who United States with his parents when he was four years saiek died recently at age 97. Marsaiek was arrested also had survived the war, and they were married in old where he grew up and built a thriving dairy farm and sent to Mauthausen, in upper Austria, in 1942 Landsberg. Just a few months after the wedding, they in Harpursville, NY. He was a graduate of Harpurs- for his opposition to the Nazis and survived there received notice that they were being sponsored as ville Central School, Perkiomen Preparatory School until the Allies liberated the camp in 1945. He was refugees by Beth Shalom Synagogue in Columbia. and WV Wesleyan College. He served as a Broome a leading member of the committee, which turned They were the fi rst of several Holocaust survivors County Legislator from 9th District and after retiring the camp into a memorial to the crimes committed sponsored by Beth Shalom Synagogue to come to from farming he went to work for Broome County, by the Hitler regime. The Nazis shot, gassed, beat or the United States in 1949. A member of Beth Shalom where he served as Manager of Risk and Insurance, worked to death about half the 200,000 inmates in Synagogue, he was also a member of B’nai B’rith Deputy County Clerk, Manager of Department of the main camp or its affi liates. About 200,000 people Men and was a former Mason. Motor Vehicles, and Director of Public Works. Fol- visit Mauthausen each year. lowing retirement from Broome County in Decem- RUDI H. NUSSBAUM ber 2007, he worked for Nezuntoz Cafe, where son, IRMA M ATHES Rudi H. Nussbaum, 89, born Scott, is an owner. Henry never expected to retire and Irma (nee Groeschel) March 21, 1922 died on July he worked up to two days before entering the hospital Mathes, 86, passed away 22, 2011. Born in Germany, for his last bout with cancer. on November 17, 2011. Rudi survived the Holocaust Always active in community affairs, he was She was born in Forcheim, in The Netherlands. After the founding President of Colesville Rotary Club, Germany, on March 24, war, he married his sweetheart, Past President and Treasurer of the Broome Tioga 1925, and fl ed to Switzer- Hansje Klein and eventually Holstein Club, member of Farm Bureau, Member land on a Kindertransport, settled in Portland as a physics of Afton Sertoma Club, Member and past Treasurer before arriving in New professor at PSU. Rudi was of Hillcrest Rotary. He served for 20 years on the York City, where she lived a passionate activist for peace, nuclear disarmament Board of Education of Harpursville Central School. until moving to Fort Lee, NJ 40 years ago. and social justice. In addition, he was active in the He served on the Boards of Children’s Home of She was an active member of the Hebrew Taber- Holocaust Speakers Bureau. Wyoming Conference and Metro Interfaith Housing. nacle of Washington Heights and was instrumental in starting Jewish adult education classes. Irma studied ESTHER P APERNIK EDITH I RENE WINGENS kabbalah for years and was a lifetime member of Ha- Esther Papernik, née Fisherman, of Englewood Edith Irene Wingens, 86, of Cliffside Park, formerly dassah. She was the fundraising chair for the Palisade Cliffs, formerly of Teaneck and Paramus, died on of Washington Heights and Hartford, Conn., died on Chapter in Bergen County and was named “Woman July 18. Born in Preshnitz, Poland, she was a house- Dec. 8 in Englewood, NJ. of the Year” in 1997. wife. She and her husband, Bernard, both Holocaust A Holocaust survivor, she was born and raised in She had an unbelievable commitment to the ideals survivors, were among the original founders of Cong. Loehnberg, Germany. When she was 14, she was in- of Hadassah. She was also a member of the National Beth Aaron in Teaneck, NJ. terred to Camp Westerbork in Holland, a Nazi con- Council of Jewish Women. centration camp, and was one of 876 liberated in GEORGETTE G ROSZ S PERTUS 1945. She married Herman Wingens, whom she met in Westerbork, and immigrated with him to the U.S. DAVID M ILLER Georgette Grosz Spertus passed away at the age David Miller died on No- of 86 on Descember 12, 2011. Beloved wife of the shorly after their wedding in Amsterdam in 1946. vember 28, 2011. Born in late Maurice Spertus and the late Alexander Grosz. A homemaker, she was a member of Temple Israel Warsaw, Poland in 1921, Georgette was born and raised in Hungary and sur- Community Center in Cliffside Park, Hadassah, Na- he was a son of the late vived the Holocaust there. She immigrated to the tional Council of Jewish Women, B’nai B’rith (Leo Baerisch and Ruchla Mill- United States in 1948. She was on the staff of The Baeck Lodge), and Hebrew Tabernacle. er. Mr. Miller was owner Art Institute of Chicago for 22 years. She was a con- of several package stores servator of paintings for many small museums, a phi- WERNER A. WYCK in the downtown Colum- lanthropist, member of board directors of the Interna- Werner A. Wyck, 90, of North Bergen, NJ died on bia area prior to his retire- tional Museum of Surgical Science and a member of Sept. 8. Born in Berlin, Germany, he was a Holocaust ment in 1984. Following a stroke, he was cared for the Board of Trustees of Spertus, A Center for Jewish survivor. Before retiring, he owned Wyck Jewelers by his loving and devoted wife, Cela, until her pass- Learning & Culture. in Teaneck and was a member of Thomas Wildey ing in 2000. Lodge in New York City. Mr. Miller was among approximately 5,000 resis- HARRY L. WECHSLER tance fi ghters who participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Harry L. Wechsler of Paramus, NJ. formerly of Cana- ERVIN Z ILAHI Uprising which began on April 19, 1943. He escaped da and Israel, 84, died on Sept. 17 in Atlantis, Florida. Ervin Zilahi died November 11th, 2011 in Ottawa. and was among the last of the Jewish population to Born in Bucharest, Romania, he survived the child Born January 17th, 1929 in Budapest, he was a Ho- leave Warsaw. His freedom was short-lived, how- labor camps and the Nazis during World War II. He locaust survivor, scientist, chemistry teacher and nu- ever, as he was captured and eventually sent to Aus- attended the University of Textile Engineering in mismatist.

TOGETHER 22 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012 FROM ALL- house on May 3 Street and moved there. Hersh Katz it was addressed to someone else at my address. I GENERATIONS, had a brother, with a wife, three sons and a daughter. have been trying to fi nd other Survivors in my area Inc. The sons were named Wilek, Lemek, and Moniek, for quite awhile. and the daughter was named Ruth.Toward the end of I am 88 years old and do not own a computer. I would September we were forced by the Germans to leave SERENA WOOLRICH, appreciate it very much if you could fi nd someone the city. We reached Novosibirsk Oblast, but were living in the “Conjeo Valley” area that I could get in PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER disembarked at different locations. The next thing touch with. PLEASE SEND RELEVANT RESPONSES TO: I heard about the family was in 1948, Wilek (Zev [email protected] Katz) was in Israel and was a member of the Israeli From Aneta Hoffmann, General Manager, The parliament. Kresy-Siberia Foundation, Warsaw, Poland: From Sylvain Brachfeld, a Survivor in Herzlia, For a long time we have wished to start our Polish- Israel: From Esther Gilbert, a 2g and historian, in Lon- Jewish project, “From Shtetl to Siberia.” We hope to Recently Yad Vashem has recognized Sister Superior don, UK: document the life of Jews who were deported and Marie Agnès Van den Peereboom of the convent “La Our family came from Czartorysk (also known imprisoned in 1940-56 to the Soviet Union (Siberia, Providence” at Hodimont - Verviers, Belgium as as Stary Czartorysk), and from Sarny. These are Kazakhstan) from Poland, and their fate. We are “Righteous Among the Nations.” I was hidden dur- the names associated with my family: Byk, Flejsz, looking for any archival materials in connection ing the Second World War in the orphanage for boys Fruchter, Goldberg, Goldschmidt, Manishen, Swarc, with this subject; written testimonies, video or in that place, with a dozen Jewish boys, and prob- Szapira. If anyone has any information about any of audio testimonies (recorded or gathered by anyone ably, a same number of Jewish girls were hidden in these families from Czartorysk, I would be very glad worldwide), photographs, etc. We would appreciate a place in the building for girls.There will be a spe- to hear from them. it very much if you could help in spreading this cial ceremony at the end of the year at the town hall information. Our previous projects, “The Kresy- or the building of the convent, to present the medal From Haydee Fabian, a 3g in Buenos Aires, Ar- Siberia Virtual Museum” (www.kresy-siberia.org) and the diploma of “Righteous,” in the presence of gentina: and the “Survivor Testimony Project” have been the Israeli Ambassador and many Belgian personali- I am writing to you, hoping you can help me to fi nd in operation for the past 2 years. Please send any ties; the nuns of the Order of the Sisters of Charity of the descendants of my great uncle,Max Meier, born in information you may have to directly to me at: aneta. Saint Vincent de Paul, as well as the close family of Hamburg, Germany, on October 1, 1893. He passed [email protected] or to: Aneta Hoffman, the late Sister Superior. I am searching boys or girls away in Quebec, Canada on April 4, 1954. I am the General Manager. Kresy-Siberia Foundation, who were hidden in “La Providence.” granddaughter of Herrman, the elder brother of Max Krakowskie Przedmiescie 64/3100-322 Warsaw. Meier. Max Meier was married to Alice (née Porges), From Hannah Berliner Fischthal, a 2g in Jamaica, born in Hamburg, Germany. They had two sons: 1). From Rabbi Dr. Norbert Weinberg, a 2g in New York : The older son changed his name to Fred Richart Mai- Encino, CA: My Mom, Lea Rubinstein Berliner, a Survivor born tland (he was born in Hamburg, Germany, on March My parents, Rabbi Dr. Wilhelm and Irene Weinberg, in Antwerp, Belgium, is looking for possible friends 19, 1923 and passed away on July 7, 1995). 2). The were in a DP camp in Hallein, Austria (near Salzberg). and acquaintances she may have known in Antwerp younger son, Frank Meier, was born in Hamburg, I would like to post a request for information from up until 1942, when she fl ed to France. Germany, on December 30, 1928 (if he is still alive, it anyone who was in that camp from 1946-1948 who is possible that he lives in Florida or North Carolina. may have known my parents. My father at that time Inquiry from Maxine Fisher, in New York: It would be wonderful if I could get in contact with was employed by the Joint Distribution Committee On a weekend in September of 1945, my father, Ser- Frank and his family and the descendants of Fred. in an adult education program which I believe was geant Norman Fisher, then serving in the U.S. Army run by ORT. in the 134th (mobile) AAA Gun Battalion in Kassel, From Gitta Rind (nee Thieberger), a Survivor, in Germany, was given the task of delivering a 15-year New South Wales, Australia: From Pessy Blum, a 2g in Brooklyn, NY: old Jewish Polish refugee boy by the name of Mau- I was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia and survived I am helping my mother complete “ZRBG500EN” - rice to the boy’s uncle in a suburb of Paris. This boy the war in Siberia. I spent 2 years in DP camps in claim for widow’s/widower’s pension for Survivors had been in 11 concentration camps in fi ve years; Italy; Trani, Barletta, Bari, St. Antonio and Bagnoli. of former ghetto workers residing outside Germany, his parents had died in one of them. He turned up I was in Italy between the age of 14 and 16, so the but since my father never claimed reparations we have without legal papers and became so beloved by the people I knew should still be alive; I am now 77. My American offi cers in my father’s outfi t that they gave no documentation. I managed to collect the following mother’s name was Matylda Thieberger, known as from a cousin who was with my father during that him an army uniform to wear and unoffi cially “ad- “Tylda;” she worked for IRO as a translator. I wonder period as my mother knows almost nothing of his opted” him. But by that date, the outfi t would soon be if anyone out there knows of Mirko Gluck and Sonia experiences: disbanded and the soldiers shipped back to the U.S. Lewin? Mirko was in St. Antonio during 1950 - 1951. My father, Lajos Schimmel, was born in My father found the boy’s uncle but was so horrifi ed He immigrated to the USA at the beginning of 1951 Szombathely, Hungary in November 1925. He was by the circumstances in which he was living, that he and lived in Los Angeles, California. Sonia studied in the Szombathely Ghetto from April 1944 to July could not in all conscience leave Maurice there. So medicine while waiting to join relatives in the USA. he spent the weekend searching for an alternative. Fi- 13, 1944, where he worked at whatever odd jobs, such as kitchen work, etc., were available.From nally, he found a chateau outside of Paris which took From Ruth Sprung Tarasantchi, a Survivor in Sao care of Jewish refugee children and there he left him Paulo, Brazil: there my father, along with other young men, were on Sunday, September 16, 1945. I have just learned I’m an ex-Yugoslavian Survivor and would like taken by the Hungarian Army (Munka Tabor/Labor all this by reading for the fi rst time my father’s war- to make contact with Branko Hohbauer and Raul force) to Koszeg. From Koszeg they were taken to time letters to my mother. My father is gone now and Spitzer, my colleagues in Castelnuovo del Bosco. Lesencetomaj and then to Pusztaszabolcs.In or near I have no way to fi nd out Maurice’s last name, or the They are also ex-Yugoslavian Survivors; they are Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary (near the Austrian name of the chateau that took care of Jewish refugee the same age that I am. I have some information that border), Samuel Porgesz who was in an Iron Cross children where my father left him. But I would like to Raul Spitzer had gone to the USA and Branco Ho- (“Nyilas”) uniform, provided the young men with fi nd Maurice if there is a chance in the world. hbauer went to Canada.I would appreciate if you had Raoul Wallenberg’s Swedish “Schutzpassen.” any information about them. Porgesz also helped them travel to Budapest. From Janka Metzger (Judith Chass), a Survivor My father remained in the Budapest Ghetto until in Jamaica, New York: From Ruth, a Survivor in Westlake Village, CA: Liberation. While in Budapest he worked for I lived in Jaroslaw, Poland, Badeniego 5. Hersh Katz, I am a Holocaust Survivor and am looking for oth- a shoemaker. Any information, suggestions of his wife, two sons and two daughters were my neigh- er ones in my neighborhood! I live in a small town resources for documentation, etc. of the above, such bors. They were suppliers of eggs for the whole city. called, Westlake Village in California. The other day as his having lived in the Szombathely Ghetto and Shortly before the war they purchased an apartment your paper, Together , was mailed to me by accident; the existence of the ghetto would be appreciated.

January 2012 visit our website at www.amgathering.org TOGETHER 23 An Urgent

Appeal Dear Friends, · Advocated our cause in newspapers and on television, with more than a dozen columns and hundreds of articles since the beginning of 2011; The American Gathering is your organization, and · Through direct intervention with state offi cials in Maryland, brought about to Our your generous contributions help us to carry out our the legal end of the infamous and bogus sale of so-called “Holocaust Torahs” unique mission. that were fraudulently claimed to have been found and rescued from that period; Readers As you know, for the past 27 years, the American · Promoted Holocaust education, with the participation of Yad Vashem, the Gathering, the largest umbrella organization of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the new museum at Bergen- survivors, has been at the forefront of all issues Belsen, through our Summer Seminar Program on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance pertaining to survivors and their families. This past that takes American teachers to Poland, Germany, Israel and Washington to give year has been no exception despite the them a personal appreciation of the Holocaust; challenges of extraordinary diffi culties · Worked with the U.S. Justice Department in the search for and prosecution and confrontations. of Nazi criminals, culminating in a special Justice Department Human Rights If you can, please consider Award recognizing our efforts; increasing your contribution to refl ect · Brought members of the second and third generations together with survivors the increased needs of our community. to strengthen our legacy and the lessons of Holocaust remembrance; If you did not yet send in your annual · Promoted the search for “lost survivors” sought by relatives friends, in contribution, please consider doing so at cooperation with All-Generations, Inc., under the leadership of our regional vice whatever amount you are comfortable president, Serena Woolrich; with. As described below, contributors · Continued the solemn observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance of $500 or more will be acknowledged Day, with the largest annual commemoration in the United States, in association and listed in our newspaper, Together. with New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the As survivors and their families, Holocaust; we are painfully aware of the toll · Maintained and updated the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish that the bleak economy has taken on Holocaust Survivors which now includes the records of over 185,000 survivors our available resources. Nevertheless, and their families who carne to North America after World War II; we are determined to continue our work. We · Disseminated Holocaust-related news and other items of interest to the know that together, with thanks to your generous survivor community on our website, www.americangathering.org. contribution, we will be able to insure that our fi ght for remembrance will live on. With your generous In order to continue these important efforts, the American Gathering needs support and that of the more than 80,000 survivor your ongoing fi nancial commitment and support, NOW more than ever. We, too, families who make up our organization, we will are facing tremendous fundraising challenges but we are confi dent that we can be able to continue our critical work in the coming count on you, our Survivor family, to help us continue to make the difference we do. year and build on our If you can increase your contribution please past accomplishments. The consider doing so. If you can’t, please know that any This past year alone, American amount you are able to contribute will be greatly we have: appreciated. · Continued to represent Gathering With your ongoing support comes a yearly survivors’ interests at now accepts subscription to Together, the largest publication diplomatic conferences Visa, in its field that reaches more than 80,000 survivor and negotiations in families, and which features news, opinions, notices of Europe and Washington Mastercard, commemorations and other events, book reviews, to secure and increase American searches, historical articles and personal reminiscences. reparations and restitution Express, and In addition, those who are able to contribute $500 for those victimized Discover by phone and in person or more will be acknowledged and listed in Together as by Nazi persecution Benefactors, Patrons or Guardians (see the enclosed card and plunder. Of particular for your convenience. for the levels for each of these categories). note was our success in (212) 239-4230 As we continue to raise our voices to defend the pressing Germany to obtain dignity and address the needs of Holocaust survivors, $150 million dollars for we turn to you at this time of introspection and new homecare and social services in 2011; beginnings to ask for your support for our ongoing efforts. Your generous, tax- · Fought those who would deny the evils of the exempt (U.S.) contribution to the American Gathering will help us greatly in our Holocaust, both here and abroad. continued activities. · Ensured that survivors receive proper care and We thank you in advance for your generosity, and wish you and your families assistance through our work with social agencies a successful, peaceful, healthy and happy 2012. like the Jewish Board of Family Services, Self-Help and Blue Card;

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TOGETHER 24 visit our website at www.amgathering.org January 2012