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Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived

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Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived Despite All Odds, They Survived, Persisted — and Thrived The Hidden® Child VOL. XXVII 2019 PUBLISHED BY HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION /ADL DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED FROM HUNTED ESCAPEE TO FEARFUL REFUGEE: POLAND, 1935-1946 Anna Rabkin hen the mass slaughter of Jews ended, the remnants’ sole desire was to go 3 back to ‘normalcy.’ Children yearned for the return of their parents and their previous family life. For most child survivors, this wasn’t to be. As WEva Fogelman says, “Liberation was not an exhilarating moment. To learn that one is all alone in the world is to move from one nightmarish world to another.” A MISCHLING’S STORY Anna Rabkin writes, “After years of living with fear and deprivation, what did I imagine Maren Friedman peace would bring? Foremost, I hoped it would mean the end of hunger and a return to 9 school. Although I clutched at the hope that our parents would return, the fatalistic per- son I had become knew deep down it was improbable.” Maren Friedman, a mischling who lived openly with her sister and Jewish mother in wartime Germany states, “My father, who had been captured by the Russians and been a prisoner of war in Siberia, MY LIFE returned to Kiel in 1949. I had yearned for his return and had the fantasy that now that Rivka Pardes Bimbaum the war was over and he was home, all would be well. That was not the way it turned out.” Rebecca Birnbaum had both her parents by war’s end. She was able to return to 12 school one month after the liberation of Brussels, and to this day, she considers herself among the luckiest of all hidden children. In Hungary, Eva Nathanson had both wartime and postwar struggles, yet she too considers herself blessed for having lived a “relative- RESILIENCE IN THE LIVES OF ly successful and productive life.” TRAUMATIZED HOLOCAUST CHILD The least fortunate among us are those who have no prewar memory, and worse, SURVIVORS no knowledge of identity. This is so for Dr. Wladyslaw Sidorowicz, whose daughter Eva Fogelman, PhD Izabella Nagle continues her father’s ongoing search for his parents. Yet, despite all odds, all survivors featured here persisted, and thrived! 16 They had no choice! Michel Jeruchim states in the prologue of his memoir, “I have lived much longer than those early tumultuous years, but their effects have never escaped me. They loom A SURVIVOR’S AFFIRMATION OF LIFE large in my rational and irrational thoughts, in my interpretation of events, and in my Éva Paula Nathanson view of the world. Yet, they have not subdued me, or controlled every aspect of my life. After immigrating to the U.S, I adapted because I had to adapt.” We chose a photo of an 21 exuberant young Michel for the cover of this issue because it exemplifies the positive transformation for most hidden children. Eva Fogelman concludes, “The generation that survived the Holocaust as children DO YOU KNOW ME? has much to teach the mental-health profession about resilience. The lost childhood, the murder of one’s parents and siblings, can never be undone. The nightmares, post-trau- CONTINUED... matic stress disorder symptoms under conditions of stress, fear of abandonment, Izabella Nagle trust, anger at the persecutors and the passive bystanders will never fully disappear. 26 But these emotions have not impeded most child survivors from leading productive, satisfying, meaningful lives at work and maintaining satisfying intimate relationships.” Indeed, all our contributors have achieved a lifetime of fulfilment and success, and have most likely exceeded their postwar aspirations for ‘normalcy.’ THE SAVIORS Ingrid Kellerman-Kluger Rachelle Goldstein, editor 28 HIDDEN CHILD FOUNDATION/ADL 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-3560, © 2019 Anti-Defamation League (212) 885-7900 Fax 212-885-5869 BOOKS Vol. XXV E-mail: [email protected], 31 EDITOR Rachelle Goldstein ADVISOR Dr. Eva Fogelman CO-DIRECTOR Rachelle Goldstein CO-DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR, SOCIAL SERVICES Carla Lessing DIRECTOR, FAMILY TRACING SERVICES Evelyne Haendel Cover Photo: Michel Jeruchim, riding a bike in Brooklyn, New York, around 1950 or 1951. DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED DESPITE ALL ODDS, THEY SURVIVED, PERSISTED — AND THRIVED FROM HUNTED ESCAPEE TO FEARFUL REFUGEE: POLAND, 1935-1946 By Anna Rabkin I am one of the lucky few who survived gained a new perspective on the struggle World War II in the formerly Polish city that I and all refugees and immigrants of Lvov. Of the 200,000 Jews who lived confront — adapting to new people and there, only 1,000 escaped the Nazis’ ethnic places, and trying to fit in. And eventual- cleansing. How did I escape death when ly, I had to accept that in all countries, to so many others perished? Part of the a greater or lesser extent, there is always answer, of course, is sheer luck; but also, the an unbridgeable difference between the gut-wrenching choice my parents made native-born and the newcomers. to smuggle my brother and me out of the On September 1, 1939, my comfort- ghetto, and the death-defying courage of able childhood ended. Hitler’s military a Catholic couple who protected us. machinery and hateful ideology rolled into After the war, committed organizations Poland. Divided into Russian and German Arthur and Anna Rose leaving from Gdynia, Poland, and kind people stepped up to help me sectors, Poland ceased to exist. My family for England. 1946. build a future. They created the foundation became refugees in their own country, I needed to adapt to my new circumstanc- and as has been for millions of displaced es, to strive for independence, and to dream people before and since, the years that fol- knowledge to land a job as a mechanic. of a stable life like the one I had before my lowed were marked by misery and serial We could get our meager rations. world was filled with hate and violence. escapes. Once the Russians established control Since September 1, 1939 until I settled Like thousands of frenzied refugees in Lvov, they polled the refugees who had in Berkeley, California in 1964, my life had from the west, especially Jews, we made come from the west to find out whether been one of serial escapes. When I, a Polish our way east to Lvov, seeking sanctuary they wanted to stay in the Russian sector child survivor of the Holocaust, arrived in in the Russian sector. Accommodations or return to the sector controlled by the England in 1946, I was warned not to think were scarce. It was not easy for Mother, Germans. Smelling a trap, Father chose or speak about my past, but to focus on Father, my brother, Artek, and me, accus- to stay and begged Grandmother to do the present and the future. I took that advice tomed to living in a spacious and well-ap- likewise. She, a committed anti-communist, seriously. It would take years for my story pointed apartment, to adjust to living in could not believe that the civilized Ger- to come out of hiding. a single room. Mother cried frequently. mans would harass people as much as When I started to write, it was for my Father shouted often. Artek’s spankings the Russian barbarians. She indicated she family — I didn’t want them to lose the link increased. I was berated for the smallest wanted to return to Kraków. My half-sis- to their past. Then, as Holocaust deniers infraction. ter Liana was given no choice; she was became ever louder, I felt an obligation to We were uprooted several times. I didn’t told by the authorities that she had to add my testimony to counter the lies being understand at the time that we were leave. Later we learned that a ‘friend’ had spread. But it was the drumbeat of immi- escaping roundups of ‘undesirables.’ We denounced her to the Russian Secret Ser- grant bashing and the stoking of hate had become ‘enemies of the people.’ Some- vice as a Nazi sympathizer. Why? Accom- against Muslims that induced me to go times Father had to go into hiding outside modations were impossible to find, and public. I realized that my early experienc- the city. He was being hunted because he her friend’s reward was the promise of es of displacement, deprivation, discrim- was a lawyer. At the age of four I had to Liana’s room. ination and death were not that different keep Father’s profession a deep secret. The reason for the poll was to cleanse to what so many refugees face today. The Russian secret service, NKVD, per- Lvov of potential subversives. Grand- Slowly hidden memories sneaked out. secuted people for a variety of crimes: mother and my sister ended up in a camp Retrieving my buried memories has made Father, because of his profession; others, near Omsk where they had to float logs me confront the destructive force of secrets, because they were capitalists, intellectu- down the river and do back-breaking, lies, and bigotry, and allowed me to cele- als or Polish Communists, who didn’t tow heavy labor. My sister succumbed to brate the saving power of courage, altru- the Stalinist line. typhus. Against all odds, my grandmother ism, and especially of love. Tackling writ- When Father wasn’t hiding, he looked survived. ing about my past required looking at it for work. No work, no ration cards. No Suddenly, in June 1941, Germany more closely and, at the same time, from ration cards, no food. Our always-resource- attacked Russia.
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