JJJANUARY 2008 VVVOLUME 21 NUMBER 4 SURVIVOR ADVOCACY GROUPS SPLIT ON companies, three State commissioners who would represent the 50 states PROPOSED LEGISLATION and act as the U.S. delegation, and three Jewish commissioners—one They came out of the concentration camps of Europe skeletons, representing the Claims Conference, one representing WJRO, and one diseased, their bodies destroyed, their souls in turmoil. With their loved representing the Israeli government. The Chairman of the Commission ones annihilated, their former lives no longer liveable, their home was Lawrence Eagleburger, a former Secretary of State. countries anathema to their existence, they reached out for assistance ICHEIC ended its claims process in March 2007, having facilitated from the world that had betrayed them and discovered there would be the payment of some $500 million to approximately 48,000 claimants, little help, that if they were to continue they would have to do so on their even though the majority of claims were primarily anecdotal, without own. And they did. By and large Holocaust survivors have been a any substantiating documentation that would support such claims in a remarkably adaptable and self-sufficient people, achieving mjor success court of law. Part of the willingness of the signatories to submit to ICHIEC’s and achievement since crawling out of the carnage that was war-torn dominion was the promise of legal peace, that once matters had been Europe. resolved there would be no continued legal demands. Even so, a codicil Over the years, “Never again” has cried out to the world to remember was put in place that anyone still desiring to initiate a claim against a the six million Jewish slain. “Never signatory could do so at no cost to the again” has filled the air with protest Statement of the American Gathering survivor and without regard to any statute against bigotry and discrimination. The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust of limitations. “Never again” has brought a moral Survivors and Their Descendants affirms its Despite all this, and under the instigation of certain suvivor groups and rectitude to all who would return man unequivocal support of the right of Holocaust to his basest levels. And the survivors their legal representatives, on March 28, have trumpeted a spiritual revival of survivors to pursue claims of moral and material 2007, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen such passion that many a people restitution in every appropriate venue. In this regard, introduced H.R. 1746, which would require have been influenced by their pleas we would welcome legislation that strengthens and the disclosure of Holocaust-era policies by for the betterment of mankind. Even insurers and establish a federal cause of in the face of continued perfidy by advances such rights with respect to insurance and action allowing individuals to pursue claims the very countries that betrayed them, other restitution claims. While there are positive arising out of a covered policy in U.S. courts. they persevered...and came away aspects to H.R. 1746, we believe it to be flawed in Those opposed to the proposed legislation with some justice. that it appears to be principally motivated by the argue that the public disclosure requirement Since the beginning of World represents a violation of individual privacy War II, and continuing for the next avarice of lawyers, and in that it raises unrealistic rights, especially those statutorily mandated sixty years, few Holocaust survivors expectations in the survivor community. We look in some European countries; and, that the were able to recover the proceeds of forward to working with Members of Congress to draft federal cause of action would both preempt foreign policy decisions of the Executive their unpaid Holocaust-era insurance proper legislation that truly advances the cause and policies. During that period, branch and enable an undesirable and costly survivors faced enormous obstacles interests of the survivors. stream of litigation. Furthermore, a previous in their efforts to obtain payment on Supreme Court decision even brings into such policies - thousands of which remained unpaid. Insurance companies doubt the need for such legislation. certainly were not eager to pay or even give a fair hearing to such claims. The American Gathering, a participant in the Claims Conference and Indeed, there are chilling examples of companies insisting that claimants ICHEIC, has come under attack by these groups because it will not support produce death certificates from Auschwitz of the policy-holders. The actions that it deems contravene moral obligations that have been negotiated statute of limitations, the absence of relevant documentation, and the with relevant parties. In addition, few of the claims made by these groups prohibitive costs and time involved proved insurmountable obstacles to can be documented and, as a result, only a few survivors, if any, will ever successful recovery for the overwhelming majority of claimants. receive the compensation they seek and the legal proceedings will take many As these several different factors came to a boiling point in the late years. On the other hand, ongoing negotiations that will benefit thousands 1990’s, the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims of survivors are now threatened by this pending legislation as those affected (ICHEIC) came into existence. One of the main reasons for the creation now see agreements made with Jews as lacking substance. of the Commission was the arrogance and lack of feeling displayed by As Roman Kent, chairman of the American Gathering has indicated, European insurance companies toward Holocaust survivors. They “The recent tumult in many ways tarnishes the memory of the six million understood nothing because they didn’t want to. This being the case, the who perished. The public bickering among the various organizations and Commission was formed to force the insurance companies to honor their the lawyers troubles me. The expectation of millions, if not billions (as some obligations. The founding organization consisted of twelve commissioners: would have it), diverts attention from the unprecedented evil that was the There would be one each from the six largest member European insurance cont’d on p. 2

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January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 1 TOGETHER TOGETHER

AMERICAN GATHERING OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS January 2008 Volume 21 Number 4 AND THEIR DESCENDANTS c•o•n•t•e•n•t•s 122 West 30th Street, Suite 205 · New York, New York 10001 · 212 239 4230

Founding President Vice Presidents Regional Vice-Presidents Publication Committee BEN MEED, l’’z EVA FOGELMAN ISABEL ALCOFF SAM E. BLOCH, Chairman Survivor Advocacy Groups Split on Proposed Legislation...... 1 Honorary President ROSITTA E. KENIGSBERG MEL MERMELSTEIN Hirsh Altusky, l’’z VLADKA MEED ROMANA STROCHLITZ PRIMUS JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT Jeanette Friedman Of Memory and Remembrance by Sam E. Bloch...... 3 President MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT MARK SARNA Dr. Alex Grobman The New Museum at Bergen-Belsen by Menachem Rosensaft...... 4 SAM E. BLOCH STEFANIE SELTZER CHARLES SILOW Roman Kent Honorary Chairman ELAN STEINBERG Counsel Max K. Liebmann Jewish Foundation for the Righteous by Roman Kent...... 4 ERNEST MICHEL JEFFREY WIESENFELD ABRAHAM KRIEGER Vladka Meed Chairman Secretary Director of Communications Dr. Romana Strochlitz Primus I Came to Bergen-Belsen by Gloria Bloch Golan...... 5 ROMAN KENT JOYCE CELNIK LEVINE JEANETTE FRIEDMAN Menachem Z. Rosensaft Honorary Senior Treasurer Editor Emeritus Dr. Philip Sieradski Pakistan Attacks Survivors...... 5 Vice President HOWARD BUTNICK ALFRED LIPSON, l’’z WILLIAM LOWENBERG Claims Conference...... 6 Senior Vice President Claims Conference Giving $550,000...... 6 MAX K. LIEBMANN Claims Conference Information Notice to Assist Survivors Applying for New German Government Ghetto International Day of Commemoration at the UN Labor Compensation Fund...... 7 It Happened in Prague...... 8 in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust Monument Men Honored...... 8 Monday, January 28, 2008 Winds of Change in Holocaust Museum by Manar Fawakhry...... 9 Poland’s Hidden Jews by Vanessa Gera...... 9 6 to 8:30 P.M. Stella by Dr. Salomea Kape...... 10 In Memoriam...... 11 [TICKETS REQUIRED] An Appreciation of David Kranzler by Jeanette Friedman...... 13 The ceremony will feature a concert by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Tribute to E. Edward Herman by Helen Z. Schwimmer...... 13 Music Symphony Orchestra, Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the Hafner’s Paradise...... 14 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta. They Announcements...... 14 will perform Paul Ben-Haim’s Psalms, Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre-Adagio on Holocaust resisters weren’t only those who carried weapons Hebrew Melodies for Cello & Orchestra, and Ludwig von Beethoven’s Sym- by Jeanette Friedman...... 15 Kupferberg Holocaust Center...... 15 phony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67. Remembering the Horror by Audrey-Marie Winn...... 16 At the midpoint of the concert, a keynote address will be given by U.S. Letters...... 17 Congressman Tom Lantos on the topic “Civic Responsibility and the Preser- Searches (contributing editor Serena Woolrich, vation of Democratic Values.” Allgenerations@ aol.com)...... 18 The systematic deconstruction of universal values, the rule of law, hu- man rights and democracy led to the perilous breakdown of society in Nazi Germany and allowed the Holocaust to occur. This keynote message will emphasize humanity’s responsibility to uphold these values and fight acts of intolerance, racism and discrimination.

SURVIVOR ADVOCACY GROUPS SPLIT ON Agenda of United Nations Activities PROPOSED LEGISLATION Holocaust Remembrance Week cont’d from p. 1 (call 917-367-3541 for information) Holocaust. It is unfortunate that the Holocaust now relates to gold, bank accounts, insurance policies and other assets and not to the systemic Monday, January 28: B’nai Brith International discussion on education and extermination of the Jewish people. With the help of the Jewish community, screening of Paper Clips Project—1:30-4:30 P.M. we survivors have committed ourselves to preserve the memory and Tuesday, January 29: “Rescue and Responsibility: Saving Jews During the uniqueness of the Holocaust and have achieved this through educational Holocaust”—12:30-2.00 P.M. programs, museums, commemorations, etc. The extraordinary Tuesday, January 29: Opening of Yad Vashem exhibit on Rescue of Jews by accomplishments for the cause of Holocaust remembrance are diminished Albanian Muslims—6-8 P.M. and tainted by organizational infighting and the importance placed on material Thursday, January 31: Screening of Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the rewards. Before the matter gets further out of hand, some sanity should be Kindertransport— 6-9 P.M. restored and justice prevail.”

NOTICE TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Dear Friends: NEEDING ASSISTANCE If you are moving, have already moved and Financial assistance is available for needy Holocaust survivors. If wish to continue receiving Together, please you have an urgent situation regarding housing, health care, food or other emergency, you may be eligible for a one-time grant. These grants contact us with your new address. The post are funded by the Claims Conference. office does not forward Together. If there is a Jewish Family Service agency in your area, please discuss your situation with them. If there is no such agency nearby, mail a written inquiry describing your situation to: If someone has passed away, please contact Emergency Holocaust Survivor Assistance P.O. Box 765 us as well with the information. This is Murray Hill Station important for the Registry as well as to New York, NY 10156 preclude unnecessary mailings. Thank you.

TOGETHER 2 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 The event was attended by over 1000 guests, including several hundred Of Memory and Remembrance survivors and their descendents from the United States, Israel, France, Canada, The New Holocaust Museum at Bergen-Belsen Poland, Hungary, Belgian, Holland, Greece, Italy, and Russia who came Inaugurated on October 28, 2007 especially for this occasion. The ceremony began at the Roundhouse on the By Sam E. Bloch grounds of the former DP camp, which now serves as a NATO Base. It was my privilege to address the inaugural ceremony on behalf of the World Federation Bergen-Belsen has become a symbol of of Bergen Belsen Associations and the American Gathering of Jewish both the horrors of the Holocaust and the Holocaust Survivors. miracle of rebirth and the return to life of the Additional addresses were delivered by leading political figures of the Jewish survivors. The infamy of the Nazi German Federal Republic, of Lower Saxony, and by representatives of survivor concentration camp will remain with its name associations from various countries. There was also Menachem Rosensaft, till the end of time. The concentration camp representing the 1,000 Jewish children who were born in the DP camp, and Bergen-Belsen was for several years (1940- Yocheved Ritz, representing the Israeli survivors. The entire assembly then 1945) a place of unspeakable horrors. Tens of gathered at the Memorial Wall on the former camp grounds next to the mass thousands of innocent Jewish victims met their graves, where wreaths were laid in solemn memory of the over 50,000 victims death at the hands of the Nazi criminals, of the concentration camp. From there, participants gathered at the Jewish through hunger, starvation, shooting, torture, monument where traditional prayers and kaddish were recited prior to the and disease. Over sixty-two years ago on April ribbon cutting ceremony at the new museum building. 15, 1945, the victorious British troops liberated For seventeen years, the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Survivors the camp. They were shocked by the horrible Associations and the Irgun She’erit Hapleta of Israel were actively involved picture they found there: tens of thousands emaciated human shadows crowded in the overall project to construct a memorial museum that would document into narrow, filthy barracks, and thousands of corpses lying about in every the full history of the concentration camp and its post-liberation history. As we corner of the camp. The images from Bergen-Belsen of the piles of dead gathered together at the museum, we were overwhelmed with emotion upon bodies as they were bulldozed into mass graves were seen around the world. the completion of this monumental project. Our hope was that this museum During the first weeks after liberation, 14,000 more people died of the and documentation center would be a fitting memorial to the victims as well consequences of the hunger and diseases they had suffered during their as serve as a record of the strength and vitality of all those who survived. imprisonment. The importance of the comprehensive history of the return to life of the After the camp’s liberation, the barracks were burned down in May 1945 survivors of Bergen-Belsen which is so effectively depicted in the exhibition to curb the spread of the raging typhoid epidemic. A camp for the liberated galleries reflects in depth their vitality and creativity in every aspect of human prisoners was set up in the immediate vicinity of the mass graves in the barracks endeavor. Our hope was that visitors from all over the world would come to of the former German Army Panzer training camp, which, as a Jewish displaced the site and see the Jew not only as a victim, brutally murdered and buried in persons camp, developed into the largest Jewish DP Camp in Germany and a mass graves, but rather as proud human beings, and creative and useful vibrant community major center of rehabilitation, reconstruction, and rebirth members of society everywhere. manifested by both individuals and organized groups. The Memorial Museum and Documen-tation Center presents the story of When freedom dawned over Bergen- Bergen-Belsen in full with the of contemporary Belsen in April 1945, it seemed to awaken research displayed with highly detailed exhibits all the dormant springs of Jewish creativity containing photos, documents, recorded and sent them streaming in all directions. memoirs, original artifacts, and never before The survivors, uprooted and homeless, seen films. despite their suffering and losses, possessed The Bergen-Belsen Museum, with its a vision. They had emerged from the valley extensive facilities, will fulfill its objective to of death with a strong will to rebuild their keep alive the memory of the Bergen-Belsen lives with boundless dedication and camp and of the people who suffered and died determination. there, and to honor those who survived—the Bergen-Belsen became a symbol of the brave men and women who emerged from the physical, emotional, and spiritual revival of ashes of the Holocaust to stand valiantly for the the surviving remnant of European freedom and rebirth. Jewry, and of the extensive and dynamic national and cultural activity that Christian Wulf, Minister President; Bernd Busemann, Culture Minister and turned people who were almost lifeless skeletons and heaps of bones into a Chairman of the Memorial Foundation; Bernd Neumann, Minister for Culture creative Jewish community that lasted for five years. The liberated Jews were and Media of the Government of Lower Saxony; and Wilfried Wiedemann, unwilling to return to their countries of origin and were waiting to emigrate Drector General of the Belsen Memorial, stressed the important role of the primarily to Palestine or to other free countries. newly founded Memorial Museum at Bergen-Belsen during the opening The victims of the Nazi terror of the war years became the carriers of a ceremonies: renewed Jewish life. Each aspect of life and culture filled the DP camp—a “We must not and will not allow the memory of what happened at Bergen- kindergarten, elementary and secondary school, adult education, a theater Belsen, and thereby the importance of the events themselves, to be in any way and orchestra, sports clubs, a library, a printing press, a weekly newspaper, affected with by the passing of time. The inhuman crimes that were committed and a vital center for the publication of books documenting the Shoah. here and the infinite suffering they have caused for so many people must Shortly after the liberation, the survivors erected the first memorial on the never be forgotten. To achieve this, it is vital that the Bergen-Belsen Memorial grounds of the mass graves to commemorate their own suffering and that of becomes a place of information and self-reflection, a place for emphasizing the victims. As early as 1945 the British military government ordered the and discussing the significance of human rights and everybody’s duty to never construction of a memorial site with an expansive wall of memory and an violate them in any way. obelisk bearing major inscriptions in Hebrew and Yiddish and twelve other “We also need to show that at least 12,000 Jewish people living in the languages. Jewish DP Camp managed to develop new prospects for their lives despite all The survivors of Belsen came from many lands, diverse cultures and the suffering they experienced there. They founded new families. Children traditions and various ways of life. Not withstanding all this they were were born there. Through these new beginnings, Bergen-Belsen has also motivated by a strong feeling of their common fate. This feeling became a become a symbol for the strength and courage of the survivors who managed part of their consciousness and forged a brotherly unity of common hopes, to look to the future. aspirations and values. The Memorial’s task is to further the research into and documentation of A very important step on the way to effectively commemorate the story of events at Bergen-Belsen in collaboration with institutions all over the world Bergen-Belsen, in all its aspects, was taken on Sunday, October 28th when the and to provide historical political education and elucidation. This includes newly completed Bergen-Belsen Memorial Museum and Documentation Center organizing guided tours, exhibitions, seminars, lectures, talks and youth work was inaugurated with ceremonies opening this most impressive exhibition camps over several days.” and building. January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 3 The Meaning of the New Museum The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Honors at Bergen-Belsen Harvey M. Krueger & Irena Walulewicz Remarks by Menachem Z. Rosensaft at the Opening of the New Museum On November 27, 2007, at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, The Jewish Bergen-Belsen, October 28, 2007 Foundation for the Righteous honored Harvey M. Krueger, a distinguished banking and investment executive and an inspirational philanthropist who night fragments created has worked tirelessly for the State of Israel. In addition, in a moving ceremony in fire shadows that brought tears to many of the 700 attendees, 82-year-old Irena Walulewicz, we are the last and the first: a deaf and mute Polish righteous gentile, was reunited after 62 years with the last to taste ashes Golda Bushkanietz from Swieciany, Poland, whom she hid and saved from from the cursed century’s valley certain death at the hands of the Nazis. During the program, Roman Kent, of unwilling passers through President, The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, made the following where God revealed His face remarks: to them alone; and the first Dear, dear friends transfixed by still burning yesterdays It is indeed an honor and a privilege to reach beyond heaven and its clouds to address such a distinguished beyond crimson ghost illusions assemblage to pay homage to the true into ourselves heroes of what is known today as the imploding Holocaust. in search of memory. As the president of The Jewish Foun- ation for the Righteous and as a Holocaust Bergen-Belsen epitomizes the nadir of the human experience as well as survivor who witnessed the torture and the most exalted victory over evil. Belsen is simultaneously the largest Jewish murder of my family and six million of cemetery in Western Europe and the fountainhead of Jewish physical, my brethren during the war, nothing can spiritual and cultural rebirth in the aftermath of the Shoah. I am one of more be more important to me than recognizing than 2,000 Jewish children who were born here between 1945 and 1950. and isolating the causes of man’s bestiality For us, both the Belsen of death and the Belsen of life are integral parts of to his fellow man and preventing its our being. I am here today because my parents, Josef and Hadassah occurrence in the future. It is also of Rosensaft, are not. utmost importance to acknowledge the “Earth Conceal Not the Blood Shed on Thee,” commands the Jewish courage and bravery of a handful of Monument that has stood guard over the mass-graves of Belsen for more individuals who came to the aid of others regardless of their creed and religion than 61 years. during this horrific period in our history. The new museum at Bergen-Belsen now joins this monument to preserve As a survivor, I desperately long to forget what our lives were like during for all times the memory of the the Holocaust. Yet, I must resist forgetting, otherwise Hitler would be horrors that were perpetrated victorious in killing us twice…. once physically during the Holocaust, and here. But the museum also bears now spiritually by killing the memory and existence of the innocent victims witness to the Jewish inmates of and the heroism of their rescuers. Belsen who did not allow Nowadays there are too many people who say that it is necessary to themselves to be dehumanized, forget the trauma of the holocaust in order to go on living. I for one believe who refused to wallow in self- it is imperative to recall the past so that our lives and those of generations to pity after their liberation and come will have more meaning. For me, the memory and lessons of the instead defiantly demanded and Holocaust are not negotiable, and not a subject to be forgotten. obtained the right to rebuild their The noble acts of the Righteous made it possible for many of us to lives in dignity and on their own survive the horrors, and their unselfish actions gave us hope then and give terms. us hope today for a better tomorrow. In an age when new In a way, the battle against Hitler was won by the allied military forces, genocides are being perpetrated but the war against Hitler’s evil was won by the daring deeds of the Righteous in Darfur and elsewhere, when Gentiles. Yet the Righteous Gentiles insist that their valiant behavior was enemies of the State of Israel still ordinary, but we know it was much more than that. How often does one risk threaten its destruction, when his own life and the lives of his or her family to save others? concerted attempts are made to I know from personal experience that in the days of the Holocaust, in the deny not just the Holocaust but days of the night, the darkest hour in mankind’s history when world other genocides such as the mass-killing of the Armenians, and when indifference to evil was evil itself, the ordinary became extraordinary, and survivors of man-made and natural catastrophes continue to fill refugee that is why we must honor them today. camps throughout the world, the new Belsen museum stands as a reminder, Righteous Gentiles…. Their deeds proved to the world that the answer to a warning, and an inspiration: a reminder of the consequences of bigotry, a oppression and indifference is involvement; they were a moral torch in a warning against indifference, and inspiring proof of the moral and spiritual time of tyranny and darkness …. an example of what could have been done strength demonstrated by the survivors who, under my father’s leadership, and an indictment of what was not done. turned the Displaced Persons camp of Belsen into a virtually autonomous Such heroism must not be forgotten with the passage of time and should Jewish community three years before the establishment of the State of Israel. be an inspiration for generations to come. The courage and humility, and Thanks to them, Belsen has come to symbolize two of the most fundamental the fearlessness they displayed on behalf of mankind must become an integral principles that form our identity: Z’chor, Gedenk, Remember, and Am Israel part of history. Chai, the Jewish people live. Let me end by saying that the example set forth by Righteous Gentiles should be a shining illustration that the world need not be too dangerous a place in which to live because of people who commit evil, but rather a safe PLEASE SEND YOUR place because there is enough goodness in people to prevent evil. E-MAIL ADDRESS AND THOSE OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS TO This is why I, and all of us, should support the Righteous Gentiles. They [email protected] have more than earned the right to spend the twilight of their lives in dignity, YOU CAN ALSO SEND MATERIAL a privilege they so richly deserve. Your help will make this possible and is FOR CONSIDERATION FOR PUBLICATION greatly appreciated.

TOGETHER 4 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 I Came to Bergen- The trees were shedding their leaves, the moss any other Holocaust memorial, the entire story of was overgrown, the grass was turning brown and rehabilitation of the Belsen survivors in the a fine mist was falling on our faces. We walked Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp is Belsen through newly-cleared areas with excavations of exhibited in full force. Pictures of my mother as a By Gloria Bloch Golan the stone foundations of some barracks and student in the dental lab or my parent’s wedding, buildings that had been the birth of my brother- in- I came to Bergen-Belsen, as I have for many consumed by the fires set by law and other friends in the years, as a daughter of survivors to pay tribute to the liberating British who DP camp’s hospital, and the memory of the victims of the Shoah. My wanted to stem the tide of images of the Belsen impressions of Belsen always relate back to my epidemic disease after the survivors, active in the first visit at the age of 13, when I accompanied camp’s liberation. We said World Federation of Bergen- my parents, along with my sister, to commemorate little to each other, it was all Belsen Associations, who the 25th anniversary of the liberation. understood, as my son came to dinners on Friday The youngest member of that pilgrimage, I captured the images he nights, or with whom we am still haunted by the indelible images of the needed: A twig on the left, a spent summer vacations, mass graves—mounds of earth covered with grass mound of earth on the right, brought tears to my eyes. and moss situated in an eerily quiet park-like and the emptiness and Then the picture of my then setting. The silence was deafening and the earth silence that permeated the 22-year-old father, standing seemed to cry out. Every step I took was tentative. area. on the steps of the Jewish I felt that I was disturbing the graves of those The new Memorial monument made me glance buried in this hallowed ground. The mass graves Museum stood in front of us, for a long time at my 22- surrounding me stood as markers; how much a large, gray, concrete year-old son David, who has blood had been shed beneath my feet? building, simple in design yet grown up in freedom and as I have been back to Belsen several times, but powerful in impact. Inside, a proud Jew. We had come this visit felt somehow different. I did not know the full story of Belsen was full circle and Belsen would what to expect. Accompanied by my son, a recent depicted in the form of forever be an important part college graduate who was completing a video original artifacts, documents, of our family’s history. project on Belsen, we were there to both view the and photographs. The voices of recorded memoirs I will visit Belsen again, and my hope is that new Memorial Museum and to capture additional of survivors from around the world flooded the my children’s children will visit Belsen, to recite footage for his documentary. corridors, and the sound of film reels rolling never- Kaddish for the martyred and to view those It was a gray, cold, and damp day as we before-seen footage behind black curtains drew precious images of our family’s return to life, walked through the grounds of the former us in deeper and deeper. images that represent our roots—roots that now concentration camp. I cannot remember the Up a flight of stairs we came face to face with stand firmly planted in the ground. weather being any different on any other visit. images of familiar faces of long ago. Here, unlike

Joint NGO Letter would constitute unjustifiable stereotyping to Pakistan and UN Islamic Bloc Dear Ambassador Khan, label an entire group — particularly surivors Slammed for Attacking We, the undersigned human rights groups of a genocide — on the basis of the alleged and non-governmental organizations, write to actions of a few. Holocaust Survivors express our grave concern over certain We believe that Holocaust survivors, remarks that you delivered before the UN elderly men and women who are often frail Geneva—An international coalition of non- Human Rights Council , which offend and suffering from illness, are deserving of governmental organizations published a protest Holocaust survivors around the world and our sympathy and respect, not denigration in against a UN speech by Pakistan that accused harm the cause of equality and human rights a speech at the United Nations. Holocaust survivors of “campaigning against for all. We also regret that the baseless accusation Muslim symbols in the Western world” and that In your statement on behalf of the of discrimination on the part of Holocaust called hatred of Muslims “a cruel form of anti- Organization of the Islamic Conference, you survivors was compounded by remarks that semitism.” The letter was sent to Masood Khan, addressed the issue of “Defamation of effectively deny these and other victims of Pakistan’s UN envoy in Geneva, who made the Religions.” As representatives of civil society, Antisemitism recognition of their particular comments before the UN Human Rights Council, we express our firm condemnation of all form of suffering. Islamophobia, Christiano- speaking on behalf of the 56-nation Organization violations of freedom of religion. We strongly phobia, and antisemitism are the recognized of the Islamic Conference. support universal respect for citizens of all terms for the hatred of Muslims, Christians The letter was signed by a coalition of nine faiths without discrimination. and Jews. However, saying that Islamophobia NGOs from Switzerland, Russia, and the U.S., We therefore can neither comprehend nor is itself a “form of Anti-Semitism” only serves including UN Watch, the Becket Fund for accept your unprecedented remarks which to corrode and confuse the very meaning and Religious Liberty, the World Union of effectively accuse Holocaust survivors of existence of Antisemitism, the term coined in Progressive Judaism and the Friedrich-Ebert- practicing discrimination and promoting the 1870’s by proto-Nazi Wilhelm Marr as a Stiftung foundation’s German Forum Human disharmony. In addressing accomodation for euphemism for the German Judenhass, or Rights. Muslims in the Western world and the “Jew-hate.” The Islamic group holds signficant influence potential for political and social harmony, you Not only is it nonsensical to claim that at the UN’s highest human rights body, and has said that “in many instances Holocaust groups other than Jews are the objects of Jew- continued its recent practice of debating reports survivors, instead of promoting such hatred, but it has the pernicious effect of on the alleged “defamation of Islam.” The harmony, are campaigning against Muslim blurring the meaning and impact of any council has adopted 11 Islamic-sponsored symbols in the Western world. They should condemnation of Antisemitism. We are resolutions against Israel since its inauguration be the most ardent advocates against gravely concerned that this is not the first in June 2006, but none against any other state. discrimination. Islamophobia is also a cruel time that Pakistan has made such statements “The U.N. human rights commission was form of antisemitism.” at the UN. founded in 1946 in response to the Nazi We are unaware of any such Once again, pursuant to the values of the atrocities, and so it is tragic that some are now “campaigning” by Holocaust survivors. UN Charter, we express our unqualified perverting its principles and denying its history,” Moreover, even if it were true that individuals support for the respect of all religions, and said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the were engaged in such an alleged effort, it opposition to discrimination of any kind. Geneva-based UN Watch.

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 5 time in hiding or living under false identity. Full eligibility criteria are available on the Claims Conference website at www.claimscon.org. Claims Conference Accomplishments The Article 2 Fund has paid more than $2 billion to more than 73,000 Holocaust survivors since it was established in 1992 through negotiations In a breakthrough for Holocaust survivors, the Claims Conference with the German government. Monthly payments are approximately $320. has successfully obtained a major revision in its Article 2 pension program When the Article 2 Fund was established, the German government agreed that will result in an estimated $250 million in payments over the next 10 to pay only 25,000 Holocaust survivors. Due to Claims Conference annual years to an additional 6,000 survivors worldwide. The shift came following negotiations with the Ministry of Finance to liberalize eligibility criteria, months of negotiations with the German Ministry of Finance, which will including the recognition of incarceration in additional camps and work provide the funding for payments to those who are eligible. battalions, more than 96,000 survivors have been approved to date for monthly The new eligibility, as specified by German government criteria, is pension payments from the Article 2 Fund and the related Central and Eastern partially determined by income below US $16,000 or its equivalent in European Fund. local currency after taxes. Now, many benefits paid to elderly survivors will no longer count toward that income limit. With 51,000 survivors Open Issues currently receiving Article 2 payments, this will lead to a more than 10 Despite recent successes in liberalizing certain criteria for the Hardship, percent increase in the number of people who will qualify for payments. Article 2 and CEE Funds, open issues remain, and the Claims Conference There will be no change for present recipients. continues to fight for inclusion of Holocaust survivors who, among others: “This was, first and foremost, an issue of principle,” said Gideon Taylor, · Were in forced military labor battalions and in concentration camps not Claims Conference Executive Vice President. “Since its establishment, currently recognized as such by Germany; the Claims Conference has argued that Holocaust compensation payments · Were subjected to persecution for periods of time less than currently are symbolic and should not be based on need.” stipulated; These negotiations established that as of October 1, 2007, only the · Were confined in open ghettos; net income of the applicant shall be taken into the account (not the · Have income in excess of the current income limit (for the Article 2 income of his or her spouse). All old age pensions—including Fund); governmental pensions, social security payments, occupational pensions · Were citizens of Western countries who received a small amount of and retirement plans—as well as pensions awarded for a reduction in previous compensation under the Global Agreements between Germany and earning capacity, industrial injury, occupational disease, and loss of their countries and are not covered by liberalizations. life, or any comparable payments will not be counted towards calculation In addition, the Claims Conference is pressing the issue of applicants to of the income limit, effectively granting payments to thousands more the Claims Conference Hardship Fund who had not been able to meet survivors. eligibility criteria at the time of application and wish to reapply for payment, These changes reflect the long-standing Claims Conference position as well as the establishment of a parallel Hardship Fund for residents of that compensation payments, which recognize Nazi persecution and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union who did not emigrate to the suffering, should not be based on income criteria and should be paid West and are therefore not eligible for payments from the existing Hardship irrespective of financial need. In previous negotiations, the Claims Fund. Conference had obtained the exclusion of social security payments from The Claims Conference also continues to negotiate a series of other the computation of income for persons age 70 and older who met all other administrative issues relating to these programs. fund criteria. The negotiating committee, comprised of Holocaust survivors, is Specific details (including which payments constitute comparable committed to obtaining a moral victory over those who destroyed Jewish payments and limitations regarding assets of the applicant) are still life and lives during and after the war and in assisting survivors worldwide being discussed with the German Ministry of Finance. in regaining the dignity that was taken from them. While there can never be Eligibility for the Article 2 Fund is determined by the German total compensation for all that was suffered and lost, it is hoped that whatever government and is also based on a survivor’s persecution history, can be derived from their negotiations will at least help assuage some current including incarceration in certain camps or ghettos, forced labor, and needs. Claims Conference Giving $550,000 to Assist Nazi Victims in Conflict Zone Near Gaza On Deember 12, 2007, a day that at least 15 Kassam rockets struck assistance without having to use the telephone. Services also include Sderot, a visiting Claims Conference delegation announced more than home modifications, counseling, security, and socialization $550,000 in new services to assist Nazi victims living in the area that programs. has come under fire. · Establishing a new branch in Sderot of AMCHA, the National Elderly Nazi victims in Sderot and other areas who have come Israeli Center for Psychological Support of Nazi Victims. The Claims under rocket and missile fire from Gaza will benefit from Conference is allocating up to $50,000 to establish the center, which approximately $550,000 in additional assistance from the Claims will serve Nazi victims in Sderot and surrounding areas, and for Conference to help them cope with the difficulties of life in the staff to provide ongoing support and counseling. Such services are conflict zone. This will supplement existing Claims Conference- essential for Nazi victims now, who may be especially traumatized funded services in the area. In addition, the Claims Conference is by once again living under attack. working toward funding reinforcement of the emergency room at · The Claims Conference is allocating $211,000 to expand and Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, to withstand rocket and missile reinforce the day center of the Association for the Elderly in Sha’ar attacks. Hanegev, where the majority of attendees are Nazi victims. The following initiatives of the Claims Conference were · The Foundation for the Benefit of Nazi Victims in Israel uses announced at a December 12 visit to Sderot of a delegation of Claims $260,000 yearly from its Claims Conference allocations to provide Conference leaders. nursing care to Nazi victims in Otef Azza. · Subsidies for memberships in “supportive communities,” which Meir Panim in Sderot receives $22,800 per year in allocations to provide ongoing services to help enable needy elderly residents to provide daily hot meals to 250 Nazi victims. In 2007, the Claims remain in their own homes. The Claims Conference is allocating Conference also allocated $145,360 to Eshel Ashkelon for two years $250,000 for memberships to all Nazi victims in Otef Azza. Members of hunger relief for needy Nazi victims. The agency provides hot of supportive communities receive emergency life buttons, which meals to 140 Nazi victims. The Claims Conference has also funded enable elderly residents to easily call directly for emergency medical Passover food packages for Nazi victims in Sderot.

TOGETHER 6 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 Important New Information for Holocaust available confirmation should be attached to the application form. In this case, Question Nos. 3.2 – 3.4 do not need to be completed. Survivors Claims Conference Information Notice Regarding Question No.4.4: to Assist Survivors Applying for New German As noted in the box above, the work cannot have been forced labor. The Government Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund payment in recognition of ghetto work is only awarded for “work” carried out “without force.” This means that the applicants must either have “found the work him- or herself ” (the first box under Question No. 4.4), or have In September 2007, the German government announced the establishment been “placed in th[e] job on demand” (the second box under Question No. of a new Ghetto Fund to pay symbolic compensation for work without force 4.4). in Holocaust-era ghettos. The application form for the Ghetto Fund, issued by the German government’s Federal Office for Central Services and Regarding Question No.5: Unresolved Property Issues (“BADV”), is available on the Internet as follows: The period in a ghetto may not already have been taken into account in an In English: http://www.badv.bund.de/ 003_menue_links/ f0_ghetto/ old age pension from Germany or any other country. 04_Antragsformular_en.pdf In German: http://www.badv.bund.de /003_menue_links /f0_ghetto/ Regarding Question No.6: 03_Antragsformular.pdf It is important to include the Swift code and the IBAN number with the bank The Claims Conference is not involved in the administration, implementation details. The payment in recognition of ghetto work will only be paid to the or processing of applications for this program. beneficiary’s account. In this Information Notice, very important general information is Contract of assignment provided regarding the Ghetto Fund and the related application form: It is not permissible to obtain payments for ghetto work from both the Ghetto A victim of Nazi persecution may be able to obtain a one-time payment Fund and under the German Pensions for Work in Ghettos (“ZRBG”). The of 2,000 euros if s/he: one-time payment of 2,000 euros must be repaid if a ZRBG pension is 1. Was held in an open or closed ghetto; and awarded. The contract of assignment authorizes the BADV to deduct the 2. Worked “without force” during this period; and 2,000 euros, either in one amount from a retroactive payment or in 3. This work has not already been taken into account for an old age pension. installments from the monthly ZRBG pension. PLEASE NOTE The application form should be sent to: Regarding Question No. 4.4 of the Application Form: Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (Federal Office The work inside or outside of the ghetto must have been performed for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues) 53221 Bonn “without force.” This means that an applicant must either: have “found the work him- or herself,” in which case the first box under No. 4.4 should be Full details can be obtained at the phone number: checked, or have been “placed in th[e] job on demand,” in which case the +49 (0) 22899 7030 1324 second box under No. 4.4 should be checked. If the applicant was forced to work and checks the third box under No. 4.4, An English translation of the guidelines issued for the Ghetto Fund by the “I was forced to do the work,” the work would constitute forced labor and German government is available at:http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de the applicant WILL NOT qualify for a payment under the Ghetto Fund. Information issued by the German government regarding the Ghetto Fund A. General information on the Fund is available in German at: http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de An application must be made for the one-time payment. The German government does not presently recognize a previous application to German The website for the German government’s Federal Office for Central Pensions for Work in Ghettos (“ZRBG”) as an application for this new one- Services and Unresolved Property Issues (“BADV”) may be found at: time payment from the Ghetto Fund. Only survivors themselves, and not http://www.badv.bund.de/003_menue_links/f0_ghetto/ heirs of survivors, may apply for a one-time payment from the Ghetto Fund. However, should an applicant die after submitting an application, the one- The information presented in this Notice is intended for informational time payment may be paid to the surviving spouse or children. purposes only. The information is not intended as legal advice and is not legally binding. It is a summary of certain issues and does not represent a B. Information on the application form definitive or complete statement of the Ghetto Fund program.The information The application form must be: may not address the special needs, interests and circumstances of individual 1. Fully completed; and recipients. Individual situations differ and applicants are urged to seek 2. Signed; and individual advice. Individuals seeking specific information are urged to 3. Authenticated. contact the Ghetto Fund program or to consult their social service agency or help center representative. To the best of our knowledge, the information Regarding Question No. 2: provided in this notice is correct as of the date of this document, however, Confirmation by an official authority. The personal details (requested in this information may change subsequent to the said date – December 19, Question No.1) also can be confirmed by the Jewish communities or Jewish 2007. social service agencies possessing a seal. The only definitive documents regarding the Ghetto Fund are those issued Regarding Question No.3: by the German government. If the applicant is already a recognized victim of Nazi persecution, any For more information: www.claimscon.org Funds Available To Help Holocaust Survivors With Home Health Care Westchester Community NewsWhite Plains, NY—With funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc., Westchester Jewish Community Services is offering Holocaust survivors a subsidy for home health care. Services can include personal care, light housekeeping, shopping and cooking. In order to qualify, an individual must meet all of the following criteria:

- Be a Holocaust survivor living in Westchester County. - Have an income that does not exceed 200% of the 2007 Federal Poverty Income guidelines. - Obtain a recommendation from a doctor or nurse for home health services. For more information, contact Valerie Rissman, LMSW, Holocaust Claims Outreach Coordinator, at 761-0600 ext. 344.

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 7 On the day after the demonstrations, a former Czech interior minister, IT HAPPENED IN PRAGUE Frantisek Bublan, who once was a Catholic priest, wore a yellow Star of David on his lapel during an interview on the country’s most watched TV PRAGUE (JTA) - With several hundred neo-Nazis preparing to descend upon news show. Prague’s Jewish quarter for a brazen march on the anniversary of The massive outpouring of support extended even to leaders of the Kristallnacht, Prague’s small Jewish community found some unusual allies: country’s Muslim and Gypsy communities, who publicly expressed support anarchists, a Muslim leader and thousands of non-Jewish Czechs. for the Jews ahead of the planned neo-Nazi march. The Young National On a freezing Sabbath afternoon that marked the 69th anniversary of Democrats - a group anti-racism advocates say is a front for the National the Night of Broken Glass, the neo-Nazis got the boot in the Czech capital - Resistance, a well-known international neo-Nazi organization - had scheduled literally, in some cases. Thousands of Czechs filled the streets Saturday to the original march. protest the neo-Nazis in an unusually large and emotional show of solidarity Experts estimate that there are less than 1,000 active neo-Nazis today in with the country’s Jews that in some cases turned violent. Masses of non- the Czech Republic. However, as is the case across Europe, neo-Nazis Jews marched through the streets, many wearing yellow Stars of David increasingly are using the Internet to network and create more international inscribed with the word “Jude,” while a few anarchists clashed with neo- gatherings. About 600 neo-Nazis from Germany, Slovakia and Poland were Nazis in bloody street fights. The anarchists kicked and stomped two neo- expected to march in Prague on the Nazis until they lay dripping with blood in front anniversary of Kristallnacht, when the Nazis of the Charles University Law School. led brutal attacks on Jews and Jewish The violence notwithstanding, the Czech Jews property in Germany and Austria. Their and non-Jews said they were inspired by the march never materialized, however, as massive turnout against the neo-Nazi extremists, police blocked the neo-Nazis at metro stops who had scheduled their march for the Jewish and sealed off the Jewish quarter. The few quarter but were barred from the neighborhood dozen neo-Nazis who managed to make it by a court ruling. The neo-Nazis said they would to the perimeter of the Jewish quarter were march anyway, but some 1,400 police prevented attacked by anarchists and anti-fascists. the several hundred who came from entering the Police in riot gear, on horseback and armed city center. with water cannons blocked about 1,500 “We are told about ‘Never again,’ “ said Alena to 2,000 of the anti-fascist marchers. Some Hladkova, 33, a non-Jew who on Saturday found sought to demonstrate peacefully while herself waving an Israeli flag in front of the Prague others, especially anarchists, went looking Jewish community’s headquarters. “But unless for neo-Nazis to beat up. you are ready to defend that, it doesn’t mean One Czech Jew who survived a Nazi anything.” concentration camp said she was buoyed by the sight of her fellow citizens Saturday’s events marked the first time in recent memory that residents standing up for her. “Two weeks before this day I couldn’t sleep and had of a former Eastern bloc capital took to the streets in large numbers to terrible dreams,” said Zuzana Ruzickova, who survived Terezin. “It’s demonstrate against anti-Semitism. Observers hailed it as a milestone and something extraordinary to see so many people come and support the Jewish said the demonstrations should serve as a model for responding to neo- community.” Nazis elsewhere in Eastern Europe. On the Old Town Square, Mayor Pavel Bem addressed thousands during “This is a turning point for Czech civil society,” said Gert Weisskirchen, a ceremony sponsored by the Jewish Liberal Union. a member of Germany’s parliament and the Organization for Security and “We need to cultivate the national memory to avoid what happened in Cooperation in Europe’s special representative against anti-Semitism. the past,” he said. “After the Velvet Revolution, society was a bit quiet. But today Czechs The Nazis murdered 80,000 of Czechoslovakia’s 120,000 Jews during showed loudly and publicly that neo-Nazis have no chance here.” World War II. Tomas Homula, 43, was among the Jews who marched to The grass-roots Czech participation in the day’s events, Weisskirchen the city’s famed Old-New Synagogue wearing the yellow Star of David. said, should serve as a model for Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, where Homula, who brought his 14-year-old daughter, is the son of a Holocaust right-wing extremist groups have formed national guards or gained seats in survivor. parliament. “We are not afraid today to show the extremists they are unwelcome,” Only about 1,500 Jews live in Prague, but some 3,000 to 4,000 Homula said. “We wear this star today with pride and not with fear.” demonstrators turned out for the day’s events. They included a prayer service A young Israeli watching the spectacle Saturday of black-masked anti- in front of the Old-New Synagogue, a march through the Old Town where fascist protesters taking over glitzy Pariszka Street shouted, “Jews 1, Nazis the Jewish quarter is located, musical performances and presentations by 0.” Holocaust survivors that were projected on a large outdoor screen.

Monuments Men Honored Allies Recovered It, identifies 12 living members of the 350-member team. Edsel said the Monuments Men, who received their nickname from American In early 1943, the U.S. and its allies learned that the Nazis were GIs during the war, collected art that had been stored in salt mines, caves confiscating great works of art across Europe. In response, President Franklin and castles. Much of the confiscated artwork was for Adolf Hitler, who wanted D. Roosevelt established the American Commission for the Protection and to build a personal museum near his birthplace. Edsel called it a “premeditated Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. The men assigned theft of unparalleled proportion” and said he’ll create a foundation to make to the job became known as the “Monuments Men.” And 64 years later their sure that the Monuments Men’s work is remembered. efforts are finally being honored. Harry Ettlinger was a member of the There were once more than 350 “Monuments Men.” Now, only 12 unit. “To give is more rewarding than to survive, and four were honored recently at a ceremony on Capitol Hill. take,” said Ettlinger, 80, who was drafted Congress paid tribute to the small band of art experts that tracked down tens into the Army after his Jewish family fled of thousands of pieces of stolen art and cultural artifacts by masters such as Germany in 1938. He worked for the War Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Picasso and da Vinci. Department’s fine art and archive section “This is long overdue,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who and was assigned to locate and store art, presented flags to four of the men: James Reeds of Kansas City; Horace from paintings to church bells. He worked Apgar of Oklahoma City; Harry Ettlinger of Rockaway, NJ; and Bernard on more than 900 cases during World War Taper of Berkeley, CA. II. Dallas author Robert Edsel, who has written a book on the Monuments The value of the art catalogued and Men, organized the congressional salute, saying it was an attempt “to saved by the Monuments Men is estimated celebrate and honor an overlooked group of heroes.” The book, Rescuing at more than a trillion dollars. Sixty years Harry Ettlinger Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe’s Great Art—America and her later, their efforts have been honored.

TOGETHER 8 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 only one claim: Israel is responsible for every single regarded as a tool to fool the world into legitimizing Winds of change in shooting, fire and flame. the Israeli occupation. Holocaust Museum The Arab world today is filled with misery, and This is what charges the Arab mind. There is it constantly wants to put on a mask to protect its no place for Jewish suffering when that suffering By Manar Fawakhry dignity and honor. It craves praise. For better or is associated with Israel, the Israeli occupation over WASHINGTON - He swallowed, opened his eyes worse, this is a region filled with the victims of the Palestinians, the history of 1948, and a new wide, put one foot forward and one foot back. His victims. Its people will always play the game of Middle East that is accompanied by unprecedented eyes were full of regret or fear, perhaps because chicken and egg, chasing history in circles and traumas and losses. Despite all my complaints and he had just shaken my hand and dared to greet pining for victory. Moreover, Israel is always on issues with the Arab reaction, there are good me. Or perhaps they were just the eyes of an angry reasons why they cannot hear the suffering of “the man who despises whoever even mentions the other.” name of the enemy. I couldn’t tell. Whatever it But they hear it through me and the anomaly I meant, this was the reaction of an Arab man when represent. I try to convey a model of suffering I, a Palestinian woman, greeted his group at the where there is space for people to express, face U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is what and relate to suffering from a humanistic point of happened when I told him I am from Israel. view. I do not fight hatred with hatred, nor violence The group gathered around a table where I with violence. If there is one lesson to learn from offered them coffee, tea and cookies. Silence the Holocaust, it is how hatred led Nazi Germany pervaded the room but for the faint sounds of and other countries to commit human atrocities. I distressed breath- the breath of years of Palestinian- believe we all must face our mistakes, past and Arab diaspora and despair; the breath of years of present, and share responsibility for our role in anger and feelings of betrayal; the breath of agony human tragedy. Pain should not be a divider but over scattered refugees, and the unforgettable rather a bridge—enabling us to identify with human memory of the founding of Israel regarded by suffering, humanize our enemies and foster a much Palestinians as “the catastrophe.” So there I was, a the battlefront, ready to fight or defend. Israel healthier world in which to live and grow. young Palestinian-Israeli woman, representing a provokes the Arab world through humiliation, It is rather astonishing to watch Arab men new paradigm that troubles and shakes the humiliating Arab fathers in front of their children visiting a Holocaust museum. Their visit is a suffering of my own people by working with the and showing off its “successful” democracy—one statement that dismisses any accusation of suffering of the “enemy” at a Holocaust museum. that does not equally include me. extremism or antisemitism. Their visit is a gesture Suspicious eyes gazed at me from all As part of my work as a Palestinian-Israeli for positive change. directions, wondering what a sell-out I had become woman at the museum, I have had the unique When the time came for the group to leave, to the Zionist establishment. This is the reaction I experience of introducing audiences from all over the visitors shook my hand, this time confidently, often get at the Holocaust Museum, particularly the world to the subject of the Holocaust. It seems one by one, with their other hand on their chest, from Arab men. It is a bizarre reality I live. I meet to me that few make the distinction between the almost like a bow, a gesture of respect. It was a people from all over the world, and they usually Holocaust as a human story and Israel as a political remarkable experience for a young Arab female welcome me with great respect and a smile. But story. Certainly, for the Arab world, they are to receive this nonverbal sign of respect in the midst there is something about the word “Israel” that intertwined. In the Arab world, the Holocaust is of such controversy. But the fact that they are here, brings down the Arab men and women. not a story about human suffering, capacity for and I am here, even as we both maintain our There are obvious political realities that explain evil or indifference. It is understood only as an commitment to a just solution for the Palestinians, why there is so much hostility to the existence of excuse for Israel to exist. It is perceived as a is evidence that there is a wind of change moving this “entity.” The unstable war zone in the Middle political vehicle through which Israel gets U.S. aid people to face history, their enemies and, most East leads to corruption, destruction and an and is thus paid to be strong, stable and annoying important, themselves. unbearable cycle of violence driven by blame and to its Arab neighbors. Among scholars, Manar Fawakhry is a graduate student at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason humiliation in each party’s name. No one wants to intellectuals, educators, political leaders and the University. Her e-mail is [email protected]. This article listen to “the other”—or even one another. There is average person in the Arab world, the Holocaust is is distributed by the Common Ground News Service.

alive,” said Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israeli, the whole family is Catholic and you’re Jewish?’ Poland’s “hidden Jews” which seeks to bring so-called “lost” or “hidden” Jews She can’t understand why I do this but told me to from around the world back into the fold. go ahead—just not to be too obvious about it,” By Vanessa Gera (www.shavei.org) “It’s a connection that has survived persecution said Kujawa, a political science student who plans (AP) KRAKOW, Poland - Jacek Kujawa only and repression, and now that the world is opening to become an officer in the Polish Army. learned he was Jewish two years ago. He had up so quickly, it’s a connection that in many Kujawa’s mother’s maternal grandmother was known about the German great-grandfather who instances will become endangered,” he said. “So we Jewish, meaning he is Jewish under Jewish law, served in Hitler’s army, but his mother’s revelation need to seize the moment, and to strengthen these which traces religious status through the mother. that the Wehrmacht soldier’s wife was a Polish Jew people’s sense of connection to the Jewish people.” Many other hidden Jews, however, have their set him off on a search for her lost world. Poland was home to nearly 3.5 million Jews roots on their father’s side, and spend years With a Star of David around his neck and a before World War II, the largest community in preparing to convert. Others join youth groups or yarmulke on his head, Kujawa, 23, gathered with Europe. But the Nazis nearly wiped them out in taking part in Jewish cultural events. dozens of other Poles who, like him, have learned the ghettos and death camps set up throughout the Over the weekend, about 120 people prayed only recently of their Jewish roots and want to country after 1939. in the 17th-century Kupa synagogue. They shared reconnect with a culture that nearly vanished in During the Cold War, Jews suffered repression drawn-out Sabbath meals of herring, pickles and the Holocaust. and expulsions provoked by the Soviet-influenced gefilte fish and held discussions in an exhibition “We know we aren’t alone,” Kujawa said during communist regime. Many fled, while those who hall filled with photographs of Polish Jewish life a break from three days of praying, singing and stayed often hid their roots, either marrying Roman before the war. eating over the weekend in Kazimierz, the historic Catholics or simply adopting the atheistic ethos of Still, tensions remain. One Saturday, a group Jewish district in Krakow, a city just 30 miles from the communist regime. of young Jews encountered a Pole who appeared the Auschwitz death camp. But since the fall of communism in 1989, to be drunk, staggering toward them. The gathering began with the lighting of parents and grandparents with enduring memories Fearing the elderly rabbi accompanying them candles at sundown Friday to usher in Shabbat, the of their Jewish ancestors have slowly begun passing would be attacked, the group encircled him. But Jewish Sabbath. It wrapped up Sunday with the on the family secret. the Pole instead broke down in sobs, telling the launch of a new Polish-Yiddish dictionary, which In many cases, it is young Poles like Kujawa group it was the Germans—not the Poles—who organizers says is the first since the Holocaust. who are seeking their Jewish roots. carried out the Holocaust. “We just want to keep the connection (to Judaism) “My grandmother asked me rhetorically: ‘So “It wasn’t the Poles,” he said. “I am so sorry.” January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 9 “Sally,” she said,” it’s easy to fall for a good-looking boy. Seek the unseen STELLA values.” by Salomea Kape, M.D. Unconvinced, I followed Stella in her amorous pursuit for deeper values I am sending an essay dedicated to the memory of my friend and in the boy who avoided us like a plague. classmate, Stella Szafir. She symbolizes all the teenagers for whom “no bells But I should have known better, for Stella always found hidden charm in toll” and are only a statistical number. I was lucky to see the young girls and the most unexpected places: a swan neck on a shapeless body, a lovely boys in the school in the Lodz Ghetto and had the privilege to admire their smile on a plain face, a non-ending list of small wonders to which I was talent, beauty, high potential, bravery and their strength of their character. blind. Our “love” for the freckled boy lasted one summer and left him in a The story of Stella reminds us of our tremendous losses. It took generations state of exhaustion and bewilderment. I served as Stella’s appendage. I was to create teenagers like Stella and one murderous madman to kill her in a her devoted Sancho Panza and I would go with her wherever her imagination short time. I hope that my story shall restore Stella to life, even if only for a would take us. very short while. “Sally” Stella asked in the fall, “what would you like to do after the war? To eat six or more scrambled eggs or wait... six slices of bread covered with It was a very harsh winter in 1940, the first winter of the war. After the butter or...Here you go again dreaming only of food. I am asking what you golden Polish autumn, the frost came early and suddenly. Thick snow covered want to do with your life, your life, Sally!?” the streets of my native city of Lodz. Lodz, let’s face it, is an ugly city without I made no answer. I felt the smell of scrambled eggs in my nostrils and I a river and without a rich history or cultural tradition. The tall chimneys of couldn’t think of anything else. the textile mills exhaled tons of dirty and heavy smoke into the always overcast That year the school was closed and never opened again. The children skies. A chauvinistic Lodzer called the city “the Polish Manchester” to give of the lower race didn’t need an education. And bad news started to follow. it some international luster. Lodz’s native poet, Julian Tuvim (who spent The most popular girl in our school, the beautiful and bright Kristina, died most of his life in Warsaw), found a peculiar grace in its ugliness and declared of typhoid fever. “We must go and visit her mother,” concluded Stella. in his “Ode to Lodz”—“I love your bad beauty.” Ha, bad beauty—only a “Kristina was her only child and she must be in despair. We should involve poet could express such highly charged feelings blinded by love for his birthplace. For us, the city was without charm, unhealthy, provincial, a mere periphery of Warsaw. I met Stella in school in that first autumn of the war. We were 13 years old starting the first class of Gymnasium. Stella was a tall, slim girl; the right side of her white, unblemished by acne face was distorted by a muscle twitch which appeared once in a long while like a breeze on calm waters. The tic attracted attention to the uniqueness of the face adorned by oriental eyes seldom seen in Poland. The eyes must have been genetic remnants of the Tatar invasion of Poland many centuries ago and were handed down to her by her mother. Stella was a well-developed young girl going into womanhood in a very gracious way. The exotic, slant eyes were friendly and smiling. Our friendship started haphazardly, for we lived in buildings divided by a large courtyard, making it safe to visit Stella after the curfew ordered by the Germans. Stella’s family of four was forced by the Nazis to move to the slums of Lodz, to live in one room which in better times served as a kitchen. Already food was scarce and rationed causing a constant gnawing hunger. My body assumed an angular shape of a not-a-girl and not-a-boy silhouette. “Sally,” demanded Stella, “we must never talk of food.” (Talking, dreaming even hallucinating about meals was the favorite pastime during more girls to help her since Kristina had many friends. Her presence the war). “People in the ghetto talk only of bread, soup and frozen potatoes, brightened up our classroom; she was such a rare combination of talent and and look at them, they are already half dead. Instead, let’s read the poetry of beauty. Her mother may need us.” Tuvim.” We found her address and entered an almost empty room. In the corner She didn’t try to read the Romantics of the 19th century—their oh’s and Kristina’s friend, Maya, was sitting on a high stool wearing what seemed to ah’s of mostly unrequited romantic love were fine—but okay only on a full be Kristina’s dress and she was watching a woman who sat at the table and stomach. Even the love for the Fatherland expressed exuberantly in their looked like a very old Kristina. We approached the mother to introduce poems sounded now artificial, maybe because the Polish poets of the ourselves when Maya started to scream,” Go out of this apartment. We don’t Romantic era wrote it a century before, in exile, in their nice apartments in need your pity. Out, out!” The mother gave us a furious look and together Paris and Rome and not under the Nazi occupation in the ugly city of Lodz. they pushed us out of the room. I was devastated, humiliated and between But Tuvim, a modern poet and writer, struck a responsive chord in us the sobs I yelled at Stella. because his poetry had the juices of real life. The love in his poems was a “You and your crazy ideas. It’s a war, Stella. People die every day and blend of happiness and torment, a sensual love that increased the beat of our nobody goes on condolence visits. You’re unreal with your humanistic ideas, young hearts. The wind in his poems was not a zephyr but a hard blowing your poetry reading, painting, running after an ugly boy in the midst of a wind, a wind of change. In his knife-sharp poetry Tuvim described the prewar cosmic disaster.” I saw the little twitch appearing on her quiet face. How I corruption and the racial injustice in Poland. The sorrow of being a Jew in a regretted my mutiny! hostile society was ever-present in his verses, as if he felt that he was “Sally, okay. Return to your dreams of scrambled eggs and soon you’ll condemned to remain forever a foreign body in Poland. We overdosed on look like my father. You don’t see that there was something strange in that Tuvim for we read Tuvim in the night, Tuvim in the morning and Tuvim in house. The mother had a glassy look in her eyes and she acted like a the afternoon in a room with frozen pipes where we could see our own marionette in Maya’s hands. “I didn’t answer. breath as a whitish vapor. And so Stella transformed the former kitchen into The second winter of the war was a winter of hunger, cold and disease. a magic, literary salon. After reading poetry, she would move to the window I ran through the empty courtyard to see Stella but she was in bed each time. covered by frost, ice and snow to show me exotic flowers, stars, birds created “To conserve energy,” she explained. Sitting in the chair and covered by a by her vivid imagination. thick blanket, I immersed myself in reading, serving at the same time as a In the spring, Stella played the role of a typical teenager in atypical model for Stella’s drawings. There was no fire in the oven and the coldness conditions and although our sexuality was palid—the sex hormones were in the room colored our faces whitish-blue. My face in Stella’s portrait showed not produced in our thin, fat-depleted bodies—love was in the air. To fall in a triangular, almost cadaverous masque of a person of an uncertain age. love was her desire and a shy redheaded boy, the object of her affection, was “Ugly,” I said to my own face. clearly scared of our presence. “Stell—1 pleaded my case—why not love a One evening Stella confessed that she is in love with Richard, a 16-year- cute boy like Aaron?” old boy she met. cont’d on p. 16

TOGETHER 10 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 Morris Baker was the youngest son of Bernard and Rosa (1926-2007) By Frederick N. Rasmussen Frankel. In 1938, he fled Austria for Holland, and Morris Baker, a Holocaust survivor who spoke in 1939 was fortunate to join five of his siblings widely of his experiences during the war, died in New York City. His father died of a stroke in recently of complications from diabetes and Vienna in 1941, after which his mother immigrated kidney disease. The longtime Pikesville, MD, to Cuba and then to the U.S. resident was 81. Alfred was proud of his service as a sergeant On Jan. 15, 1943, Baker arrived at Auschwitz. in the U.S. Army in Korea during WWII. Like his Then 17, he had his head shaved and was issued father and grandfather before him, he was a furrier prison garb. The number 87601 was tattooed on Helen Ciesla Covensky when he first arrived in America. Later, he studied his left forearm. (1925-2007) accounting at CCNY and owned a delicatessen in In early May 1945, Baker was among Born Hanka Ciesla in Kielce, Poland in 1925, the Cleveland and a liquor store in Los Angeles. hundreds of camp inmates who were forced to family moved to Sosnowiec, where she enjoyed In 1951 he met and married Lola, his beloved march from Kaufering No. 11 into Bavaria. an idyllic childhood until World War II broke out. wife of 56 years. Lola is a survivor born in Liberation came when the German guards who Realizing that her green eyes, blond hair, and Oswiecim, Poland. They had two sons, Ronald and had been escorting them fled when they fluency in Polish and German would allow her to George. encountered American soldiers. pass as a Polish Catholic, her father obtained false Helpful, honest, compassionate, kind and After the war, Baker was active as a speaker papers for his daughter. She and two other Jewish loving, Alfred was a real mensch. with the Baltimore Jewish Council and traveled girls, also with false papers, made their way to throughout the area speaking to students and in Germany, where they worked in a labor camp near Judy Freeman Christian churches. He never turned down an Stuttgart. (1929-2007) invitation to speak and tell his story. After the war and good at languages, Hanka On October 23, 2007, Judy Freeman, resident of Boca started working for the United Nations Relief Raton, Florida, and formerly of Allentown, PA, lost her Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum Administration in Berlin. Her parents and sister two-year battle with cancer. (1921-2008) died at Auschwitz, but she was reunited with her In May of 1944, Judy Born in Poland in 1921, Berenbaum was a student brother David, who had survived. In 1946 she was deported from her at Ohel Torah Yeshiva in Baranovich and later married a Lithuanian-born U.S. soldier in a hometown of Uzhorod, studied at the Mir Yeshiva. At the onset of World wedding dress made from a parachute. Her Czechoslovakia, to Auschwitz. War II, he traveled with fellow students to Vilna, daughter, filmmaker Aviva Kempner, was born in She would never see her Lithuania. After receiving destination visas to Berlin. In 1949 the family moved to Detroit. Their father, mother, and sister Curacao, the students traveled across the Trans- son Jonathan was born in 1951. again. Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. From there they In Detroit, Helen Covensky received an art Later that year, she was traveled to Kobe, Japan, where they remained for degree from Wayne State University. moved from Auschwitz to seven months before being settled by the Japanese Divorced in 1959, she married professor of Guben Labor Camp. In Government in Shanghai.Rabbi Berenbaum traveled history Dr. Milton Covensky. Helen Covensky built 1945, after a grueling 10- with the remnants of the yeshiva to the United an outstanding career as an artist in Michigan, day “death march,” she arrived at Bergen-Belsen. States, where they settled in their current location culminating in a one-woman show at the Detroit Aftrer the war, she spent two years in a in Brooklyn, NY. There he became engaged to Institute of Arts in 1983. displaced persons camp near Munich. There she the eldest daughter of Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi married Louis Fried, whom she had known before Avrohom Kalmanovitz. In 1952, after the passing Celine Ehrlich the war. Upon arrival to New York’s Ellis Island of his father-in-law, he became the rosh yeshiva (1923-2007) in 1947, Lou and Judy legally changed their of the Mirrer Yeshiva together with his brother- Born April 17, 1923, in Amsterdam, Ehrlich grew names to Freeman, reflecting the way they felt in-law, Rabbi Shraga Moshe Kalmanovitz. He led up in Rotterdam. She spent her teenage years about their new life in the United States. The the yeshiva for the next 56 years. hiding in more than 14 safe houses during World Freemans soon moved to Omaha, NE, and then War II while most of her family was murdered at Flint, MI, followed by Allentown, PA, where they Marsha Berkman Auschwitz. According to family accounts, she was settled for the majority of their lives and became (1920-2007) warned by neighbors of her family’s imminent arrest well known members of the Jewish community. Born in Rosaine, Lithuania, in 1920, the third in Rotterdam in 1944, but whisked away to safety They lived out their final years in Florida. child of four and the only daughter, her father by a member of the Dutch underground disguised Judy helped create the Holocaust Resource was a cobbler too poor to afford the leather for as a police officer. Her only surviving family Center in Allentown, which recently dedicated his own shoes. He died when she was just 3 years member was a sister who was released from a “Clara’s Trunk,” a collection of Holocaust-related old. Her mother would never remarry and years cattle car as part of a prisoner exchange. educational material that circulates among later would be her source of strength in the After the war, she worked as a Red Cross schools, in her memory. concentration camps. As a teen, she wed Hlee Seno‘r. interpreter in Maastrict, the Netherlands, where By the age of 20, she was a daughter, wife and she met her husband, Robert, an Army captain Walter Gerson mother. from Springfield, MA. (1922-2007) In 1940 her family and friends were packed Ehrlich later became a sales fixture at several Walter Gerson, a resident of the Washington, into train cars and shipped off to Poland and to stores in the old Village Fair in Sausalito after D.C. area died Dec. 8 from cancer in San Diego. the horrific concentration camps. This would be moving to Marin, CA with her husband in 1978. He was 85. the last time she would see her husband. Next she The couple lived in Sausalito for 10 years before Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Gerson lived in would lose her only child. moving to Mill Valley. a Jewish orphanage until he was adopted at age After five horrendous years in the camps, she Her daughter, Judy Simone of Burlingame, 5. He immigrated to the United States in 1927 was liberated and then married a fellow survivor, said her mother’s resourcefulness helped her and grew up in Scranton and Williamsport, PA. Phillip Berkman. They immigrated to the United dodge close calls in her youth. “She escaped death After graduating from Penn State University, he States in 1948. several times,” she said. “She suffered so much enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. He served in In the early ’50s, she started working in the from when she was a child, yet she always tried to the Army Intelligence Service with the 80th wardrobe department of Paramount Studios. She make lemonade out of lemons,” Simone said. Infantry Division as an interrogater. After the war, sewed garments for such huge stars as Marilyn he worked for two years on the Nuremburg war Monroe, Yul Brunner, Alan Ladd, and Veronica crimes trial as a civilian for the Pentagon. Lake. Alfred Frankel In 1951, Gerson founded Walter Gerson and A widow for 20 years, she died on October (1923-2007) Associates, a marketing research and polling firm, 16th surrounded by her loving family and friends. Avraham Yaakov ben Berl passed away peacefully on July 27, 2007. Born in Vienna in 1923, Alfred and served as its president until 1972. January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 11 He earned a master’s degree from American began a clothing business in Brooklyn, NY. In University in 1953, and in 1987, at the age of 65, their 60s, Miriam began writing about her Renia Diament Morgen he earned a doctorate in speech communications wartime experiences. Enjoining Saul to write his (1924-2007) by Lauren Lebowitz from the University of Maryland in College Park. own, she translated his Yiddish transcript into On July 13th, my dear grandmother, Renia (Diament) He relocated to San Diego in 1988 where he their joint memoir, praised as one of the few Morgen, age 83, unexpectedly passed away. was a professor of marketing at San Diego State Holocaust memoirs written by a Treblinka “Mumma” as we called her, was born in Lodz, University, teaching until a week before his death. survivor. Saul and Miriam Kuperhand ultimately Poland on May 20, 1924. She had three sisters, He also ran Marketing Analysis Associates. retired to Boca Raton, Florida, where Saul Sara, Chana and Rose, and two brothers, Aaron Gerson will be buried at Arlington National recently passed away. and Sruel. Cemetery in the spring. In September of 1939, as the Nazi’s marched Marcel Marceau through Lodz, her world changed forever. At the Kurt Julius Goldstein (1923-2007) By Angela Doland age of 15, she and her sister, Rose, walked through (1914-2007) Paris (AP) -Marcel Poland to Warsaw and then to Bialystock, where (AP)-Kurt Julius Goldstein, who survived the Marceau, the master of they were eventually “saved by deportation” to Auschwitz death camp and went on to play a mime who transformed Siberia. From Siberia, she and her sister went to prominent role in fighting racism and anti- silence into poetry with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where they waited semitism, has died, the International Auschwitz lithe gestures and pliant out the rest of the war years. To earn a little extra Committee recently announced. He was 93. facial expressions that money, my grandmother would go to her friend Goldstein died in Berlin following a brief illness. spoke to generations of Seina’s home and borrow her sewing machine. It Born into a Jewish merchant family in 1914, young and old, has died. was here that she found her soul mate, Seina’s Goldstein later joined Germany’s Communist He was 84. brother and my grandfather, Mike, to whom she Party and was forced out of the country when the Wearing white face was married for 60 years. Nazis came to power in 1933. He fled to Palestine, paint, soft shoes and a Mumma was a true fighter. She survived the then went to fight in an international brigade in battered hat topped with Holocaust, open-heart surgery, colon cancer and the Spanish Civil War. When that war ended in a red flower, Marceau a long list of other things. We always said that she 1939, Goldstein was arrested and later handed over breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient had angels following her. She was the most to the Nazis, who sent him to Auschwitz. Greece. He played out the human comedy through amazing cook, seamstress, nurse, comedian and After World War II, Goldstein settled in his alter-ego, Bip, without ever uttering a word. friend. We miss her like you can’t even imagine, communist East Germany, where he worked until Offstage, he was famously chatty. “Never get but her precious memory will live on forever. 1978 as the director of a leading public broadcaster. a mime talking. He won’t stop,” he once said. During those years he also worked for the The son of a butcher, the mime was born Marcel Herbert Strauss International Auschwitz Committee, maintaining Mangel on March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, France. (1929-2007) by Alyssa Giachino contact with survivors on both sides of the Iron Marceau escaped deportation to a Nazi death camp Herbert Strauss, founder of the Lauri Strauss Curtain and reaching out to young people. during World War II, unlike his father who died in Auschwitz. Marceau worked with the French Leukemia Foundation and renowned advertising Cila Knaster Resistance to protect Jewish children, and later used executive, recently died at the age of 78. (1908-2007) by Rebecca Knaster the memories of his own life to feed his art. Twenty years ago, Strauss and his wife, My mother was born in Jasioniowka, Poland (near He took his art to stages across the world, Evelyn, created the foundation after losing their Bialystok). After the war she was all alone. Hitler performing in Asia, Europe and the United States, 26-year-old daughter to leukemia. Since then, the took all that mattered in her life: her mother, her his “second country,” where he first performed in foundation has raised more than $135 million to first husband and her two girls. Relocated to a 1955 and returned every two years. He performed help in the search for a cure for the blood disease. for Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter displaced persons camp in Bari, Italy, she began Strauss was born in Germany, but Nazism and Bill Clinton. chapter two when she met my father, Baruch. They drove his family to the U.S. Later he enrolled at “France loses one of its most eminent Princeton University, where he poured his heart soon married. My sister was born in 1947. In ambassadors,” President Nicolas Sarkozy said in into theater production. November 1949 the three of them arrived in New a statement. Prime Minister Francois Fillon praised York City. Six months later I was born. Life was Marceau as “the master” with the rare gift of After graduation, Strauss performed in several not easy for my mother. Her heart was still in “being able to communicate with each and playhouses but decided to move into advertising Jasioniowka and all that she lost. My mother everyone beyond the barriers of language.” to better support his family. His career as an worked hard to start a new life. She sacrificed so advertising executive and producer earned him a much to make sure life would be better for me Gilbert Metz Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and two Clio Awards. and my sister. And better it was. To the end of her (1929-2007) life she was fiercely independent and lived on her Gilbert Metz, who became known throughout own. She was amazing. At 99, she still shopped, Mississippi and beyond for his moving testimony Helen Beata Wyzsogrod cooked and cleaned without any assistance. about surviving the Holocaust, died recently after (1925-2007) by Dina Wyzsogrod Zlotogorski a 2 1/2-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was Helen Beata Rosenberg Wyszogrod died on De- Saul Kuperhand 78. As the only known Holocaust survivor living cember 18, 2007 at age 82. She was born in (1922-2007) in Mississippi, Metz frequently was called upon Zolkiew, Poland, the only child of Agatha and Born in Siemiatycze, Poland in 1922, Kuperhand to share his story about his imprisonment at Joseph Rosenberg. The family survived the Ger- had eight brothers and one sister, all of whom, Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. man occupation thanks to an elderly Polish Chris- including his parents, would perish in Treblinka. A native of French Alsace-Lorraine, Metz was tian couple who hid them in their cellar until the As he wrote in his book, Shadows of Treblinka, “I 14 when he and his family were carted off to Russian liberation. The family spent three and a lived in Poland. Now I do not live anywhere. I Auschwitz in 1943. When the Nazis evacuated half years in the Gabersee Displaced Persons camp survive. I do it in a time and place I can only call the Poland camp, he joined 60,000 prisoners on a outside Munich before immigrating to America “After Treblinka.” death march to the concentration camp in Dachau, in 1949. In 1952, Helen met and married Morris One of only two from his town to escape from Germany. Metz was the only member of his Wyszogrod, a graphic artist and fellow survivor. the infamous death camp, Kuperhand lived in the immediate family to survive the Holocaust. Throughout her life, Helen exemplified devotion, woods, finding fellow survivors and working with After the war, Metz, then 17, immigrated to caring wholeheartedly and lovingly for her aging partisans. Natchez to live with an aunt. He later attended parents, her husband, her children, and grandchil- After the war, he returned home and found Tulane University in New Orleans. dren, and a host of relatives, friends, and neigh- Miriam, a girl he had known in his youth. They A decorated Korean War veteran, Metz built bors. May her memory be blessed. were soon married. Immigrating to America, they a career in the garment industry before retiring.

TOGETHER 12 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 An Appreciation of David Tribute To E. Edward Herman Kranzler By Helen Zegerman Schwimmer Having suffered at the hands of the brutal Nazi regime, my mother refused to put her life in the (1930-2007) hands of German doctors when she was ready to give birth. And that’s how I came to be born at a by Jeanette Friedman Jewish hospital in Germany. As improbable as that might sound, a hospital for Jewish Holocaust survivors was founded by Dr. Zalman Grinberg, himself a survivor of Dachau, on the grounds of the St. Ottilien Monastery near Munich. David Kranzler, who recently passed away, When 19-year-old Bob Hilliard told his fellow GI, Ed Herman, was a religiously observant Jew enthralled with that he had witnessed survivors dying on the grounds of the St. the role of the Orthodox Jewish community during Ottilien displaced persons’ camp due to lack of food and medical the Holocaust. While the countries of the world supplies, Ed immediately went into action and forever changed closed their hearts and minds to the destruction the U.S. military policy toward all the displaced persons’ camps. of European Jewish life, David, a child survivor, Heroic deeds are usually honored with medals, plaques or discovered during his extensive research that one monuments. But for Bob and Ed there were no medals. There group of people, the Orthodox community, was no stone monument to honor the two Army Air Corps privates actively engaged in rescue. It would be an who single-handedly challenged and changed the negligent illuminating revelation that would direct his American policy toward the DP camps. But the survivors, their research for the rest of his life. children and their children’s children, are the living monuments, I first met David when I sought to learn more the enduring legacy that attest to the heroic life of E. Edward about the Kastner Transport, the train that Herman. transported 1,684 passengers held hostage in The story of St. Ottilien would have been relegated to a Bergen-Belsen to freedom in Switzerland in mere footnote in history but thanks to Ed’s vision and December 1944. My mother, a Polish woman, was perseverance the documentary films Displaced: the Miracle at St. Ottilien and Creating Harmony: on that Hungarian train, and so was David’s wife, The Displaced Persons’ Orchestra at St. Ottilien are inspiring audiences throughout the world and Judy. Agudath Israel archivist, Rabbi Moishe spreading desperately needed spiritual light during a time of escalating darkness. Kolodny, introduced us, and David and I worked A brilliant communicator and an extraordinary facilitator, his motto was, “Just do it!” This was together on some projects, notably The Goldberg Ed’s genius. For his love and devotion to the state of Israel, he received the 2005 Spirit of Israel Commission Report that reported on the inactivity Defense Forces Award and the 2006 Consulate General of Israel Award. Ed Herman passed away on of the American Jewish community during the Oct. 15, 2007 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was a visionary whose wisdom, limitless energy, and Holocaust era. He became a trusted friend, a generosity of spirit continue to be a source of inspiration to all of us who were blessed with his reliable source and someone who appreciated a friendship. May his memory be for a blessing. good, solid, knock-down, drag-out intellectual battle. Although David was a diligent and exact Japanese, Nazis and Jews, the document was a him on the defensive and sometimes made things researcher, he was nevertheless stubborn, tough read, but buried in the text were nuggets of tough. But when the editing of “Orthodox Ends” cantankerous and exacting. His writing style often pure historical gold—and an indisputable was done, David gave me a copy of Henry got in the way of the incredible facts he managed damnation of the American Jewish establishment. Feingold’s Medrash on American Jewish History to dig up from archives and interviews, driving a As an editor, I couldn’t help but pull out my blue as a present. He inscribed it in his own illuminated humble editor to distraction and despair. But he pencil and start cleaning it up, so I called him and way and I had it with me when I ran into Feingold admitted when you were right—usually after asked him if I could officially work on the at a meeting. yelling himself hoarse. On the day of his funeral I also had the final draft of “Orthodox Ends” his wife told me: “There were days he wanted to and asked Feingold to read it. Feingold was quick kill you.” The feeling was entirely mutual—and to remark that Kranzler couldn’t write. I said then she reminded me of his gentle, generous side. Kranzler could dig and that this document was David was a special soul. David’s doctoral edited. He did me a favor and read it. When he work was Japanese, Nazis and Jews, a massive was done reading, I handed him Medrash to work about the refugee community in Shanghai autograph and under Kranzler’s dedication to me from 1938-1945 and the rescue efforts of Jan he wrote, “Litvaks never succumb,” and then Zwartendyk and Chiune Sugihara. Published in admitted, though not in writing, that “Orthodox 1978 by Yeshiva University Press, it was one of Ends” may well be one of the best documents in many books that he wrote about the Holocaust. the report. (Among his other works are: Holocaust Hero: The David, you will be missed. You were, indeed, Untold Story of Solomon Schonfeld: An Orthodox one of the best. British Rabbi, (Ktav, 2003); The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour (Syracuse University Press, 2001); To Save a World (CIS, PLEASE SEND US YOUR 1991); Thy Brothers’ Blood: The Orthodox Jewish STORIES, ARTICLES, POEMS, Response During the Holocaust (Artscroll, 1987); AND LETTERS FOR INCLUSION and Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of IN TOGETHER AND OUR WEB Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the document. That’s how we began working together. Holocaust (Artscroll, 1984)). I contacted a personal friend, Tim Noble, one of SITE. In the early ’80s, as a member of the the finest editors I have ever known and then the [email protected] “Goldberg Commission to Examine the Role of op-ed page editor of The Record in Bergen County, American Jews During the Holocaust,” I read the New Jersey, who agreed to do the final vetting. It rough draft of a document he submitted called was tumultuous and noisy work, but we were “Orthodox Ends, UnOrthodox Means.” In determined to make this document air-tight, with painstaking detail, it described the rescue efforts little wiggle-room. One reason for this was that of Rabbi Michael Ber Wiessmandl and Gisi David’s degree was in library science, not history, Flieschmann in Slovakia and the Sternbuchs and so many mainstream historians treated him with others in Switzerland, as well as many other contempt while they “borrowed” his material attempts to save Jewish lives during the war. Like without giving him due credit. This naturally put

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 13 shrugs it off. When she further provokes him by saying that she has Jewish HAFNER’S PARADISE blood in her family, his shock can barely be disguised. Directed by Gunter Schwaiger While sitting beside a fellow German in an old folk’s home where he goes 72 minutes to socialize occasionally, Schwaiger asks Hafner if he believes the Holocaust German, English subtitles happened. After staunchly denying it, his friend admits that, unfortunately, it did take place. “I know,” he said, “because I know some of the people who Paul Maria Hafner is a little old man, were involved.” Schwaiger’s camera pans over to Hafner. He furrows his brow living a peaceful, minimalist existence in Madrid. He wakes every morning, with disappointment and covers his eyes. His silence says it all. brushes his bushy eyebrows, eats a simple breakfast of yogurt and fruit (he In another scene, Schwaiger shows Hafner disturbing scenes from is quite proud of having invented a yogurt maker) and swims daily. He rides concentration camps, images of bodies piled upon each other, of people the bus, fraternizes with friends, attends church on Sundays and plays chess… starving to death in barracks. “It proves nothing,” he says. “It’s a film... It’s even though, as he admits, he loses most of the time. He is in a word, propaganda.” sympathetic—a strange sort of reaction to have to someone who you know The climax comes when Schwaiger brings Hafner face-to-face with a is a former officer in the feared Waffen SS. He simply seems too innocuous, survivor from Dachau, the very camp where Hafner himself acted as an too frail even, to despise. officer. This painful scene is one you wish would end before it even begins. This is part of the masterful, subtle directing The Jewish victim shares his experiences with one of Austrian-born Gunter Schwaiger, who also of his torturers. He must look him in the face, see lives in Spain. We occasionally hear his voice in his lack of remorse, his ugly denial, and moreover his documentary, Hafner’s Paradise, as he the freedom which he enjoys. Worst of all, he must questions the Nazi, asking him about his day, walk away from the experience having achieved and slowly urging him to reveal his opinions and nothing in moving this man to pathos. recollections about the past. By the end of the By this point, Hafner’s heartless lack of film, shown as part of the recent Jewish Film repentance is nearly too much to be believed. Yet Film Festival, one can only shudder at having somehow, he never falls prey to stereotype. Though ever thought this man was pitiable. It becomes he believes, in his own words, that he is “a living quite clear that his is the face of evil. saint” deserving to live to 127 (“because Sarah did, At 84, Hafner has been living in Spain for and she was a great sinner”), it becomes obvious over half a century. He boasts about his health, that that this is indeed a man living in his own his lifestyle, his routine, but most of all about universe—one disturbingly nurtured by his the glory days, referring several times to Hitler as “the greatest figure in surroundings. history.” He can only dream of living to see a Fourth Reich. Schwaiger’s film is not just a psychological portrait of a Nazi, it also After WWII, Hafner found asylum in Franco’s Spain, protected from makes clear the close relations between Franco’s Spain and the Third Reich, allegations and surrounded by like-minded individuals. This is why Spain is particularly in giving refuge to Nazis after the war. It reveals an ugly side of “paradise on earth” for the man. It’s a place that allows him to continue to Spain, where Spaniards tolerate such monsters in their midst, allow them to nurture his fanaticism, and yet protects him from the scrutiny of international vent their opinions, and live in the splendor of Marbella’s sun without a hint justice. Between his banal conversations with Schwaiger about pig farming of remorse. It begs the question, how many more Hafners are swimming and yogurt-making, he insists that the Jews were sent to Auschwitz for their one lane over? Or sitting beside us on the bus? According to Hafner, in “own protection.” It was a “10-star hotel,” he says, compared to life in German Spain at least, it’s hundreds. cities where civilians lived under the constant threat of Allied bombs. This is a very different kind of Holocaust film, but one that may open He, of course, fiercely denies the Holocaust, telling his good friend (who some eyes to the complicity of certain countries in continuing to harbor just happens to be one of Franco’s daughters) that no Jew was ever killed Nazi criminals. If only Schwaiger had focused a bit more on those who under Hitler for being a Jew. When she confronts him about his beliefs, knowingly make Hafner’s life so comfortable, others might think twice before apparently for the first time, she tells him he’s living a twisted fantasy. He joining their ranks.

Beyond focused on topics and themes of the “life after,” The Advisory Board consisted of: Dan Bar- ranging from the experience of liberation to the On (Ben Gurion University of the Negev), camps and transgenerational impact of persecution, Wolfgang Benz (Technical University Berlin), forced individual and collective memory and Gerhard Botz (University of Vienna), Helga labor: consciousness, and questions of theory and Embacher (University of Salzburg), Evelyn Current methodology. Also of interest were papers that Friedlander (Hidden Legacy Foundation, discussed the experience of victims of forced London), Atina Grossmann (Cooper Union, New international research on survivors of population transfers during the war and in the York), Wolfgang Jacobmeyer (University of Nazi persecution. immediate post-war years, including the Münster), Yosefa Loshitzky (University of East Third international multidisciplinary historiographical development from polemical London), Hanna Ulatowska (University of Texas conference held at the Imperial War and memoirist approaches to empirical, analytical, at Dallas), Inge Weber-Newth (London and critical studies. Metropolitan University). Museum, London. Specific conference themes were: It is intended to publish the conference The aim of this conference is to bring together • DPs in post-war Europe proceedings. The proceedings of the first scholars from a variety of disciplines who are • Reception and resettlement conference have been published by Secolo Verlag, engaged in research on all groups of survivors of • Survivors in Eastern Europe Osnabrück (ISBN 3-929979-73-x). The Nazi persecution. These will include—but are not • Exiles, émigrés and refugees in the proceedings of the second conference are in press limited to—Jews, Gypsies and Slavonic people, reconstruction process by Secolo Verlag as well. For further information Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Soviet • Rescuers and liberators please contact www.secolo-verlag.de or prisoners of war, political dissidents, members of • Child survivors [email protected]. underground movements, the disabled, the so- • Women survivors and gender issues The conference was organized by: called “racially impure,” and forced laborers. For • Trials and justice Suzanne Bardgett, Imperial War Museum, the purpose of the conference, a “survivor” is • Testimony and memory London; defined as anyone who suffered any form of • Film and photography David Cesarani, Royal Holloway, University persecution by the Nazis or their allies as a result • Psychological approaches: trauma, amnesia, of London; of the Nazis’ racial, political, ideological or ethnic intergenerational transmission Jessica Reinisch, Birkbeck College London; policies from 1933 to 1945, and who survived • Educational issues Johannes-Dieter Steinert, University of the Second World War. • Remembrance and memorials Wolverhampton. The organizers welcomed proposals which • Museums and archives

TOGETHER 14 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 Holocaust resisters weren’t only those who carried weapons By Jeanette Friedman from observing Judaism, blowing up ammunition trains, producing Yiddish theater and concerts, and surviving under impossible circumstances. NEW YORK (JTA) — In “Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust,” When the museum first opened, the curator at the time, Yitzchak Mais, the catalog that accompanies the exhibit of the same name, the director of gave me, the daughter of survivors, a preview. the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust puts “Do you know about spiritual resistance?” I asked. into print the question on everyone’s lips when the survivors were liberated. “Yes,” he replied. “Context is everything,” David Marwell writes. “In trying to understand I described a tiny piece of cardboard with Hebrew letters shown to me the study of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, this dictum becomes by a survivor in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn years before. The especially critical. If the reader has any doubts, he or she need only think about the oft-repeated question, ‘Why did the Jews go like sheep to the slaughter?’ “ Even now, 69 years after Kristallnacht and the beginning of the Holocaust, survivors are still putting to rest the accusations that they went like sheep to their fates. Some children, prompted by the attitudes of non-survivors in their milieu, even asked their survivor parents that question. As Tom Segev’s Seventh Million made clear years ago, and a recent demonstration in the streets of Jerusalem underlined, to those without context Holocaust survivors are dismissed as bars of soap, sabon. Worse, many American Jews snidely wondered about the survivors, and some still do, “What did they do in order to survive?” In the catalog’s final essay, psychologist Eva Fogelman notes that everyone blames the victim. It goes way back to Job: “Who ever perished, being innocent?” But Job’s friends didn’t understand him, and those who don’t understand the variations of Jewish defiance in the Holocaust simply don’t get it. To remain human, to maintain a shred of dignity in the midst of torturous mayhem, was to defy everything for which the Nazis stood. The definition of resistance wasn’t helped by scholars and pundits who counted only armed resistance and measured success by counting the number of dead Germans killed by Jews. To honor the achievements of the distinguished Holocaust scholar Israel survivor had used it in hiding to teach her little brother the Hebrew alphabet. Gutman, four stellar academics—Yehuda Bauer, Judy Baumel-Schwartz, “It’s in the showcase on the second floor,” Mais said. Robert Shapiro and David Engel—recently stood before an audience of about That piece of cardboard is a solid reminder of how tough the survivors 200 and put Jewish resistance in the Holocaust into context. still must be. It’s 62 years since the war ended and they still have to defy the Bauer was especially passionate. Amazingly, it was an Israeli who powers that be to maintain their dignity as they face disease and death. understood that what survivors and the Second Generation years ago called Unfortunately, those who owe the survivors the most are those who stole “spiritual resistance” was as important as armed resistance—and often much from them, treated them with contempt and appropriated their stories. But harder to maintain. The scholars broke it down to talk about women resisters, the survivors never give up. Our survivors, those who came from “there,” and religious, political and cultural resistance. have lots to teach us. They are role models of whom we should be proud. Bauer insisted that these stories of defiance be told and taught, otherwise They are not statistics that drain the economy. They are not sabon. future generations wouldn’t know how to resist those who try to dehumanize The Jews made their voices heard long ago, in hiding, in the camps, them and those who manipulate them politically. ghettos and forests. They made their voices heard when deniers began He is absolutely right. More interesting is that those who grew up in crawling out of the woodwork in the 1970s, and they make their voices survivor communities were surrounded by heroes who didn’t look or act heard now in their declining years. They demand that we remember. They like heroes at home. Some were short and dumpy, some could never master demand the right to medical care, food and shelter so they can live and die English or modern Hebrew, and few would talk about their experiences. But with dignity. It’s a battle they have fought before. walk through the exhibit and you may find your neighbors on the walls and As Marwell so eloquently says, “Just because Jews were powerless does in the videos, or read about them in the catalog. not mean they were passive.” You realize that you know other heroes who deserve to be up on those Not even when they get old. walls and in those pages, but there just isn’t enough room. They did everything

THE KENNETH & HARRIET KUPFERBERG of friends, family and neighbors victimized by the Nazi terror. A new exhibit, Ships to No Where, enables the viewer to experience the HOLOCAUST CENTER TO OPEN AT emotional frustration of those desperately trying yet unable to escape Hitler’s grasp. QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY Yet the power of the Kupferberg Center extends farther into the very COLLEGE lives of its constituents. Student interns are trained to interview Holocaust survivors and experience the agony, tears and loss suffered by these At noon on June 3, 2007, six shovels hit the ground at Queensborough people. Community College signaling the start of construction of the Harriet and Community members belonging to our Holocaust Educational Task Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center. It will be unlike any Holocaust center Force acquire an understanding of the legacy of individual worth and ever constructed and will undertake challenges never before presented to a governmental responsibility offered by these insights. The newly formed Holocaust center. Borough-wide Hate Crimes Conference will serve to equip our students With a campus hosting 137 different nationalities in the most diverse and residents with the tools necessary to combat hate crimes, a skill denied borough in the world, the Kupferberg Center will not only perpetuate the to the 6,000,000. memory of all that has been lost to the European Jewish community, but World War II ended 62 years ago. Yet the battle to preserve the utilize that experience to educate both students and community members. memory still goes on. And despite a growing chorus of Holocaust deniers The sacred memory of those destroyed in the Holocaust will be challenging the undertaking, the Kupferberg Center is empowered by transformed into a living experience for students and visitors as they view the knowledge that it is its ending commitment to preserve the memory the exhibits, Where Have All the Children Gone, The Anatomy of a Ghetto, of that which was lost in the Holocaust. Sosua: A Haven from the Holocaust in the Tropics, 1900-2000 A Genocidal For further information contact Dr. Arthur Flug, Executive Director, Century and Diplomats of Mercy. Each exhibit personalizes the experiences Kupferberg Center at 718-281-5770

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 15 eyes seeing these horrible things but my mind unable to comprehend them. Remembering the Horror As the officers put us into groups to look for survivors, the man that I had by Audrey-Marie Winn previously felt like disappeared and in its place was a small boy wishing for the comfort of his mother’s arms. Dear Journal, Like an automaton, I passed a blur of barracks, watchtowers, gas Last night I had the dream again, you know the one? It starts with chambers, and crematories, my mind too frozen with horror to comprehend the July sun shining through my window and that little girl laughing outside. what I was seeing. Finally, we reached the warehouse that was our destination. Remember her, the one that lived next door with the brown hair and shining Looming in front of us like a mighty fortress, the warehouse certainly looked eyes that reminded me of mother? Then, just like always, I open the window large enough to hold people who might have survived. My hope was soon to ask her why she’s up so early, and everything changes. Her eyes get crushed as another man in my group found the sign that read “Schuhe.” One lifeless, her hair gets thin, and the sun that had been warming my face turns of the more educated men in our group told us that this was the German into smoke. My town becomes the concentration camp at Majdanek. I yell word for shoe. We walked in and found thousands and thousands of shoes. to her to run but she never gets the chance. That Nazi man shoots her down We finally realized what the warehouse was for. Our commanders had said like he always does. In my dream the horrible rage of war takes over me that they confiscated all personal items from prisoners before their deaths. once again and I kill him, but she doesn’t stir. She never will again, not even This included their shoes. Thousands upon thousands of lives lay before me in my dreams. in hundreds of piles of shoes. As I walked around the room, I began to cry. You know journal, I’ve been thinking about that day a lot lately. The day Some of the shoes were smaller than my little finger. we freed that camp at Majdanek. We were the first army to try to free a It was on the way back from the warehouse, journal, that I strayed from concentration camp, so we didn’t know quite what to expect. I was so young. my group. Tears had blinded my eyes and I had become separated. That was It didn’t seem possible to me that people would, or could, be capable of when I saw her. The little girl from next door who laughed with the world doing such horrible things. Looking back now it all seems so otherworldly, and danced in the rain. Do you remember how she used to know the birthday those days were dark and I was unprepared for war. My childhood was of everyone in town’s pets? And how she used to tell those childlike jokes incredibly sheltered. I really was just a boy when I was recruited, even though that made you unable to wipe the grin off your face? I do, I remembered you and I both know that I considered myself a man. I was, actually, feeling quite well. Even so, I didn’t recognize her at first. She’d changed so much. very manly and grown up that morning as we marched to the gates of the Gone was the life in her eyes and her shoulders now drooped with the weight camp. of the world. I can’t imagine how you’ve managed to bear me for as long as you have The blank stare she met me with was unbearable, and I was walking journal. Because, if I remember correctly, I wrote something along the lines toward her when the Nazi walked out of the shadows. I don’t think a word of “We go into the camp as soldiers, free the people, and become heroes. had, or will ever leave my mouth again as loud as that. One word, yelled with This morning will be an easy one.” I was a very arrogant and naive youth. all the earth-shattering, silence-breaking sound I could muster from my tired, If that morning had, indeed, been an easy one, then it wouldn’t curse me sad body… run. But she never got the chance. He shot her and I killed him. with nightmares all these decades later. She was soaked with blood and tears as I carried her tiny, lifeless form away. The march to the gates was a short one, for our encampment had been The officers yelled my name as I walked out of that camp, never to only a few hundred yards from it in a dense forested area. I recall it striking finish my time in the army. No one, however, bothered to follow me as I me as odd that the camp seemed quiet. I had been listening to what our walked, carrying the girl, to the nearest town’s cemetery. Her funeral was a commanding officers had said and had been prepared for the sound of cries, small one, but my grief made up for the hundreds who weren’t present that or gunshots, or…something. The eerie silence that filled the air, however, was day. I still go back to her grave from time to time. the first thing since recruitment camp that truly frightened me. It was too Under a new name and in a new town I now live, Journal. But, then quiet, the kind of quiet that makes you want to scream loudly just to make it again, you already know that, don’t you. I am old now but the memories stop. I didn’t have to scream, however, because soon the silence was from the day we freed Majdanek haunt me to this very day. Maybe writing it diminished by the sound of the metal gate screeching open. down will help me because time certainly hasn’t. The night grows old. Sleep The reason for the silence was soon discovered. There was no one there. well my journal. No one alive at least. My first step into the gates made me vomit. Bodies Yours, littered the pathway and to get in you had to walk over them. My heart broke Andrej with every crunch of bone snapping under my shoes. I was in a daze, my Audrey-Marie Winn is a ninth grader at Pine Grove High School, Pine Grove, PA.

STELLA cont’d from p. 10 to us.” In her pages the “unspeakable” changed into the “write-able”—a portrait of her father who was stealing food from his wife and children, a “Where Stella?” I asked, but I met an impatient look in her Tartar eyes. loving tribute to her mother who protected the children from the hungry- Now every night I got a full description of their secret meetings. I was mad father. For the first time, I discovered the inner turmoil in Stella who enchanted by their witty and interesting conversation and a jealousy crept observed her father’s moral decline, which was even deeper than his physical in. Why she didn’t share with me the object of her love? I was now a marginal deterioration. The exchange of diaries showed me a hungry Stella who made figure in Stella’s life, but I came faithfully every night to listen to a new an enormous effort to escape into the world of books, art and fantasy games. chapter of her love, a story of young love in a God-forsaken place, in the And there was her little poem in Polish that I’ve kept for more than 60 years ugliest part of the ugly city of Lodz under bestial Nazi occupation. in my head, to save it from oblivion. I never pressed hard for facts (“When do you see him?”) for I knew that One sunny day in the fall of 1942, during the brutal Shpera that lasted Stella rarely left the bed. The story came to an abrupt end at the beginning of ten days, Stella came to us. For the first time I saw her crying and the tic was the spring when the boy supposedly left Lodz for Warsaw. Thus, Stella again now like an electric current running through her wet cheeks. “Sally, the created, introduced and ended an imaginary romance. Gestapo took my mother and brother.” I don’t remember the spring or summer of 1942 very well—so many I looked at my friend who was then barely 16 years old. She had fought people around us died of starvation, tuberculosis or typhoid. We were both hunger and despair for two long years; a teenager who saw a garden full of working in a factory and our “salad” days were over. Stella now made straw- frozen flowers on the window, a friend who gave me, a much lesser person, shoes for German soldiers suffering from cold on the eastern front and she a lesson for survival. Without thinking I said, “Stella, now you must be on always found time to make little straw figures—miniature scarecrows your own.” She stared at me in silence and left. Why didn’t I take her in my somehow resembling us. We had less and less time to see each other. And arms and say,“You are not alone. Come stay with us.” then Stella came up with a new idea. “We must write a diary and we shall It is true that I was hiding with my parents to avoid deportation and a exchange our writing every week.” hunted animal is absorbed with his own survival. But the explanation is not My diary, in its erratic entries, contained all the dry facts of the day. good enough to alleviate the pain which has stayed with me all my life. Food was its main theme. My “creative” forces centered on “ersatz” coffee Time, the so-called best healer, erases faces, but is a poor analgesic. The mixed with brown sugar to form a cake. Stella’s diary was full of her naive expression “pain” is inaccurate, it is really a thought which wakes me up poetry, plans for the future “to survive, to let the world know what happened cont’d on p. 17

TOGETHER 16 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 Dear Editor, who were left. She may have known my parents, “My purpose in this letter is to explain the I am writing to Abraham Bursztajn and Miriam Briks, each now effect of the decision reached in your case. ... I you to respond, and deceased but who each left a legacy which am glad to be able to inform you that on 7 request correction, included telling me, their son regarding Dr. December 2005 the last class-action suit of the of an article Weiskopf’s thoughtful courage. Together with class-action suits relevant for the General published last other stories of courageous doctors in the Lodz Settlement and was rejected in the USA. Through spring in your newspaper “TOGETHER” ghetto, these narratives motivated my own turn to this, “legal closure” has been obtained...Initial regarding the actions of Belgium’s Queen Mother medicine. Please feel free to pass along this note payments to applicants are now possible” Elisabeth during the Holocaust years. to Dr. Salome Kape and let her know that I would [Decision reached on my application—of There were many major mistakes in that article, be delighted to make contact with her to hear more 1991!] namely, she did try to reach an agreement with as well as to work towards her goal of remembering “1. Losses of Elizabeth Trahan, born on 19 the Germans not only to leave Belgian Jews alone Dr. Weiskopf in Lodz. Perhaps he project currently November 1924. but all Jews living in Belgium at the time. underway at the Haifa University Medical School 1.1. Occupation/Education: student. The toss 1. The Talmud says: whoever saves a single to teach physicians regarding the ethical dillemas is assessed at US-$ 12,283.78. 2. Losses of Albert life is as one saves the entire world. This certainly faced by physiciansduring the Shoah and to relate Welt, born on 29 May 1895 [my father], is what the Queen Mother Elisabeth did for as long these narratives to medical decision making The applicant is entitled to an inheritance share as she was able to. She saved thousands of Belgian dillemas today may also have interest is this vital of 100%. ... The loss is assessed at 4,495.21. ... Jews and in the process Jews of other nationalities goal. The actual payment will only be a percentage too including older Jews, Jewish children, my Also please feel free to post on the web site of the value now assigned [emphasis as per mother, my two sisters, and I. and publish in Together the following story original], and is estimated to be something 2. My brother-in-law had a friend who was of regarding my father’s experience with doctors in approaching 18% in the equity-based process.” German nationality living in Belgium who was the Lodz gheto during the Shoah as well as a This would be funny, if it were not so saved by Her Majesty’s actions. Indeed, she photograph which includes my mother and her disgraceful. dispatched her private emissary and secretary, le working group in the Lodz ghetto which helped Baron de Streel, to the Caserne Dossin in Mechelen to create hiding places for the resistance Elizabeth Trahan Belgium where Jews caught all over Belgium remanents. Ok to include my e-mail adress for ended up before being herded onto trains - those who want to contact me directly. Also I destination Auschwitz. He demanded that all the wonder how I can read a copy of Dr. Edmund GOD Belgian Jewish children held in the Caserne be Wilameski’s book regarding doctors from Lodz by Kenneth Hale released in his custody and thereby also saved murdered by Nazis during the Shoah mentioned Jewish children of other nationalities like my in Dr. Salomea Kape’s moving essay. Germany 1938 brother-in-law’s friend. http://www.forensic-psych.com/articles/ A Nazi shot me God has avenged There is more, much more and it is all artShoah.php Pointblank in my face me described in a doctoral thesis by Betty Garfinkels, http://www.forensic-psych.com/articles/ A tear gas bullet God has saved me under Max Gottschalk, of the Sociology artHaroldsMom.php Blinding me for days from an evil Department of the “Universite Libre de Bruxelles” Hope I can continue to be of help. Criminal deed in 1965. Harold J. Bursztajn M.D. I know this guy God has allowed How sad that not only did the person who co-Founder We played together until me to live wrote the article not know anything about his Program in Psychiatry and the Law He was told not to God has saved my subject but also did not bother to find out about @BIDMC of the Psychiatry Department of Associate with Jews any sight it. Also sad is the fact that no one at your Harvard Medical School more Justice yes newspaper bothered to check the veracity of that [email protected] And no Jew could sue article either. www.forensic-psych.com For retribution It is imperative that facts regarding the telephone 617-492-8366 telefax 617-441-3195 Holocaust years be correct otherwise those who Return visit to Germany 1980 do will continue to deny that it ever took place. Dear Editor, I want to find and kill him I believe that Belgium’s Queen Mother Let me first stress that I read the information I found he had left Elisabeth deserves every recognition she got for conveyed in TOGETHER with great interest, and To go to Canada her deeds during those horrible years because not am most appreciative of the work you and your Where he had died only did she save one life but she saved thousands. colleagues are doing. Though my contribution may In an auto accident Thankfully and fortunately, those in charge be small, I am enclosing it as at least a token of at Yad Vashem know how to do their research. my appreciation. But this letter is primarily Sincerely, prompted by your Sept. 2007 article on Helene Guberek-Gettner “Restitution of Holocaust-Era Assets: Promises STELLA cont’d from p. 16 585 E. Wagon Bluff Drive and Reality.” Its purpose, I know, is a focus on Tucson, AZ 85704 assets rather than suffering, and it does not focus sometimes in the middle of the night or suddenly tel.: 520-742-1242 on just one country. All that is very important. creeps in during my daily procedures. I feel then e-mail [email protected] However, I wish the world would not forget in like the subhuman I was in the fall of 1942 and particular Austria’s behavior to those who barely all the achievements in my later life turn into Dear Editor, survived the Holocaust there, like myself, who nothingness. Thanks to Dr. Salomea Kape’s thoughtful never received any compensation but, though now The next day Stella gave herself up to the “Searching for Daniel” in the September 2007 finally acknowledged as having been affected, are Gestapo and never came back— suffocated in a issue of Together. constantly given excuses why their case is not mobile van that used its own exhaust fumes in an I was moved by Dr. Salomea Kape’s story yet processed. And this, though I documented in extermination camp of Chelmno. regarding Dr. Daniel Weiskopf of Lodz, Poland. a memoir, Walking with Ghosts: A Jewish Afterward, I saw Stella on the streets of Lodz— Her story was corroborated by what I heard my Childhood in Wartime Vienna (1998, 2000), the in every tram, cart or bus. My fantasy ran amok. I parents tell as I was growing up in Lodz where I hardships endured, and their consequences in Ten saw her giving me signals, “Meet me after the war, lived with them until 1959 and we all emigrated Dollars in My Pocket: The American Education of Sally.” to the U.S. Dr. Kape may have known my parents, a Holocaust Survivor (2006). Stella could have been a poet, a writer, an who like herself were among the 600 left in August Here is a telling passage from the most recent artist, a housewife, a mother. Nothing is left, not 1944 in the Lodz Ghetto who eventually went into communication I received from the General her drawings, not her diary, not her poetry, not a hiding as Dr. Weiskopf and his family to continue Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism. single picture. Only my memory. But as long as to resist the Nazi plans to exterminate al those Vienna, Sept. 6, 2007: my memory serves me, Stella is still alive.

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 17 COMPILED AND EDITED grandmother, until 1944. I am trying to find out what happened to the family. BY SERENA WOOLRICH, Esther and Zalman Wloch and their children whose names I do not have at the moment but can get. They had a small sweater factory in their home in PRESIDENT AND the city. I tried to find their names in Auschwitz when I was there May, 2005 FOUNDER, to no avail. The librarian there told me that in the very end, many names ALLGENERATIONS, inc. were not recorded as accurately as they had been. Another challenge in trying to find information is that their last name Wloch, means Italian in PLEASE SEND ALL RESPONSES TO [email protected]. Polish. So many documents refer to Wloch as the Italians. Do you think From Adela Peskorz in Woodbury, MN: In response to a SEARCH inquiry your network can assist me in my search? My mother, Dorothy Kagen, has from Pola Zylber: the names and dates of birth for all her family. She was born here in 1933. This is really quite a longshot, but since there’s some synchronicity in the names I may as well give it a shot. My maiden name is Zylber. My father’s From Rosine De Dijn, in Germany and Belgium: original surname was Zylberkant, but the tail got chopped off somewhere I am a writer and working on the story of the Serpa Pinto, a Portuguese ship down the line. He was from Ostrow in Poland, which is more central and I that was sailing between 1940 and 1945 from South America to Europe and believe closer to Lodz. He was born in 1919 and I know his mother’s name to USA. I would be interested in being contacted by survivors from the was Sara. I’m named after one of his sisters and I believe his other sister Serpa Pinto- sailing in 1942 - from Lisbon the 5 June 5th and arriving June was Bronia. All the others—none of whom survived—were brothers. I know 25th in that year in New York. his father’s name was Zev. My mother (also a survivor) passed away a year an-a -half ago and my father almost four years ago, so now that it’s just my From Lauren Lebowitz in New York: sister and I and our very tiny clan of children, so I’m even more conscious I recently discovered that my grandmother was born in Barycz Stara. I believe of wanting to find a connection. it is about 100 miles from Lodz. I have been having trouble finding information about it on the internet. I was wondering if anyone on From Jack Morgenstern in Clifton,NJ: Allgenerations knew of this town? I am looking for any knowledge or information about a family named Waintraub, who used to be in Sosnowiec (Poland) in 1941. From Fred (Fewel) Glassman, a Survivor in Des Plaines,IL: (Written by Mrs. Glassman, Fred’s wife) From Manny Paul Reisman, in Montreal, Canada: Fred was ten years old and living in Warsaw. His father was My name is Manny Paul Reisman (originally, RAJZMAN). murdered immediately after the occupation. His mother, two My father, Yitzhak RAJZMAN, was born in Suchedniow, sisters and himself were put into the Warsaw Ghetto. His older Poland in 1911. I believe his father was MENIEL and his brother Yankel had a grocery/farm store in another city - mother was Hinde. Yitzhak had 3-4 bothers. He was married which he no longer remembers the name of but believes it in Suchedniow or Kelce before 1939 and had a son. His wife was Nowyblanca. His two youngest brothers Avram and and son died in 1939/40 in Suchedniow. My father spent most Dovid just vanished one night. He was sent out of the Ghetto of the war in concentration camps and forced labor camps. to get to this brother for food. When he returned his mother After the war, he met my mother, Eva Taubler (born 1925 in was dead. Whether from disease or starvation or being taken Warsaw). She had also spent the entire war in a forced labor off to a camp - his sisters would not talk about it. His sisters camp. They married in 1946. I was born in 1947 in a refugee were taken away and he fled. He used a gentile friend’s name camp in Alt Otting, Germany, six months before the family and went into the farm area of Poland and worked on a immigrated to Montreal, Canada. Any information from a surviving resident folksdeutch farm with a family with several children. One of the older of Suchedniow would be wonderful. It was a small enough town to suggest daughters on the farm found out he was Jewish and kept that information to that they may have known (or known of) my father’s family. herself. After the war still using he friends name he could not find anyone. He had been shot by the Germans in the closing days of the war and was From Nathan Lichtenstein: taken to Italy for medical care. His mother’s family were from Nowy Dwor, I would be interested in hearing from anyone who may have known my which is where he was born, but registered in Warsaw. This family also father, Henry Lichtenstein (Lichtensztajn), from the DP camp in Bari. He seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth - they were Altzteinsdp was born in Lodz in 1920 and was liberated from Ebensee in May, 1945. (not sure of spelling). His mother’s brother had a farm and orchard in Nowy Dwor. Owing to his age at the time of the German occupation and slaughter, From Lee Diane Goldman Kikel, in Gibsonia, PA: and his current age, all of his memories are fragmented. I hope that this My father Melvin (Mordka, Mietek) Goldman and his family were from information would be sufficient to at least get things going. Again thank Lodz, Poland. His parents were Chaim and Balcia Maria Goldman, siblings you in advance for any help you give. were Rose, Aron, Chaja-Sura, Natan, Josef, and Leon. There is a possibility that Rose survived and she was sent from Auschwitz to Stutthuf in August From Peter Wittman: 1944. My grandfather owned a sheet metal factory at 33 Wolborska Street. Please help me find any relative or friend. I’ve lived alone for years and am The family remained in the Lodz Ghetto until August 1944 when they were hoping to find any survivor of the Wittman family from Hungary or childhood transported to Auschwitz. If anyone has any information about the Goldman friends: Eva Blumenfeld, Kata Kadelburger, Maria Nemes or Robi Ungar. or Seder families (Seder is my grandmother’s family name), I would greatly Email [email protected]. appreciate hearing from you. From Arnold Reisman, a Survivor in Shaker Heights, OH: From Viktor Lewin, in Winnipeg, Canada: Does anyone know of Rose Reisman, born in 1935, and entered the United I am searching for information about my great-uncle, Rachmiel Levine States August 31, 1952 on S/S Nassau? (Lewin). He was my zaida’s brother. His name was Nuske Lewin. Both were Arnold Reisman PhD PE born in the mid-1880s in the eastern Polish town of Losice. After the war, http://www.writersandreadersnetwork.com/html/turkeysmnew_releases.html some of my surviving family members opted for one or the other surname. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product//0977790886/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/ I knew neither one of them but from what little information I have from 002-1252850-7414445?ie=UTF8 family members, Rachmiel came to the U.S. well before the Second World War. I don’t have a date, port of departure or entry. What I do have is that my From Rene Lichtman, a Survivor in Detroit, MI for Eva Weissman (nee parents saw him in 1951 in Chicago. This may suggest that he lived in or Broessler), a Survivor in Lakewood, OH: around Chicago—alone or with relatives. Nothing easy about this one that Please give me information about the World Federation of Child Holocaust is why I so desperately need your assistance. Survivors. I was born in Vienna, Austria; then on a Kindertranport to Holland; survived the war there and am in the USA since 1947. Do you have any From Ellen Kagen Waghelstein in Rockville, MD: information about the few Kindertransports that went from Austria to My family is from the city of Lodz and their family name is Wloch. Holland? Apparently they were alive and corresponding with their daughter Rose, my cont’d on p. 19

TOGETHER 18 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008 From Roni Seibel Liebowitz, a genealogist, in Scarsdale, NY for Joanna From Henry Gleisner in Oxford, MI: Podolska: Since I noticed that someone in your group A journalist, author, teacher, and researcher in Lodz, Joanna Podolska, is hailed from Temesvar, I’d like to ask for actively involved in writing about the history of Jews in her city. She has some information about some cousins that already authored or contributed to a number of publications on this topic. I visited as a child with my mother around She is looking for follow-up information about two people who worked 1935. The name was Eisner. I do not with Rumkowski in the Lodz Ghetto. DORA FUCHS was secretary to remember the husband’s name, but his wife Rumkowski. A great deal is known about her. She moved to Israel after the was Margot. Their son was named Franz, who should now be approximately war. Is she still alive? How can she be contacted? ESTERA DAUM, born 82 years old, if he survived. The family was quite prominent, owning large 1918, was steno-typist and second secretary to Rumkowski. Rumor has it tracts of forests and a sizeable sawmill and lumber business. The Eisners that she also survived the ghetto and camps, but this has not been confirmed. had at that time a chauffeured Buick automobile, which, for Temesvar, was Does anyone have information about her? certainly somewhat unusual. Roni Seibel Liebowitz Lodz Archive Coordinator, JRI-Poland, http://www.jri-Poland.org From Susan Proskauer Brubaker in Sugar Land, TX: Lodz ShtetLinks http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Lodz/index.htm I am looking for information about Fred Levine (or perhaps Levin). He Lodz Area Research Group (LARG) came over from Germany (Bremerhaven) on the General R. M. Blatchford in http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Lodz/LARG.htm 1952. My parents, Herman and Hertha Proskauer, were on the same ship Belchatow ShtetLink http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/belchatow/ and settled in Houston, Texas. Levine went on to Los Angeles, California. I Belchatow Yizkor Book Project believe he became well-known there in the entertainment business but I am http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Belchatow/Belchatow.html not sure how, perhaps in radio. My mother last had contact with him when he telephoned her several years ago to say he might be returning to Germany From Peter Whitmore, a Survivor in Edison, NJ: for retirement and that he was not well. My father was from Oppeln or Opol— I read with great interest your survey on “where we come from, etc.” and I now part of Poland. I hope to find out information regarding his imprisonment noticed your listing of two people who come from BILGORAJ. I wonder if and which camps he was in. I believe he was in Auschwitz and I know that you or I could get in touch with them to see if they or anyone else from he was in Theresienstadt from papers sent to me by the Holocaust Museum Bilgoraj knew of the name: Yitzchak Weichmann. That is the name of my in Washington. He spoke about being moved around to be used as a laborer late grandfather and all I know of him is that he has lived in Bilgoraj. My during his imprisonment. He was one of the few survivors of the sinking of the late father’s name was Leib and he had a brother whose first name was Cap Arcona in April/May 1945 in Lubeck Bay. So I believe he may have also gone Shabtai. I know it’s a long shot but, maybe, it is worth a try. My own name to Neunegamme. I know that Fred Levine knew my parents very well so I hope he was:Pinchas Weichmann and I was never in Bilgoraj; I only know of it from is still alive and that I can get in touch with him. hearing it from my late father. From Esor Ben-Sorek in New York, NY: From Viktor Lewin, a Survivor in Winnipeg, Canada: My father was born in Debreczyn and I am interested to know more of its I am a second generation survivor. I am currently involved in the Losice history. I have the Debreczyn Memorbuch and have met with landsmen in Israel. Memorial Project. My concerns involve the rededication of the pre-war Jewish cemetery in Losice, the creation of a memorial to honour the long history of From Sandrine Rebibo in Jerusalem, Israel: the Jewish community of Losice, connecting with as many survivors and I am a 3G (mother’s side)—my mother’s family lived in Saloniki, Greece, children of survivors as I possibly can and to assist individuals to connect and Izmir, Turkey. All the Saloniki relatives perished. Finding out some with friends and family members with whom they have been out of touch. information has been a very long process; my mother lost her parents when Please have a look at the Losice website: www.zchor.org/losice/losice.htm. she was a very young child and had almost no information at all. Besides my personal interest, I am also working with Mrs. Cynthia Wroclawski in the From Lauren Lebowitz, a 3G in New York, NY: Hall of Names Department, Yad Vashem. I met a wonderful Holocaust survivor today who is a friend of my grandfather. His name is Arie Letzter and he is from Kolbuszowa, Poland. I offered to From Esther Kirshenbaum in Philadelphia, PA: help him do a search for his family. He last saw his family in September of I am trying to locate anyone who may recall my maternal grandmother, 1939 before he ran away to Russia and was taken to Siberia. Their names Chana Steinovich, married to Joel Lewentman, from Kazimiertz, Dolny, are: Siandle/ Sheindel Letzter, Gittel Letzter, Mendel Letzter. He believes Poland. The family owned a bakery in Kazimiertz. My mother, Yetta (Ita) that they perished at Belzec but perhaps one survived? Or perhaps someone Lewentman, left Kazimiertz in approximately 1929 (my mother’s siblings on allgenerations knew them or is familiar with his hometown? were Froim, Mottel, Deborah,Brenda, Ruchelea).

From Rosian Zerner in Newtonville, MA: From Judy Tydor Arick: After WWII I was in Italy at two Hachshara style places for children— I would very much like to know what happened to my grandmother, Irene Selvino and Avigliano. A book has been written about The Selvino Children Grunwald Tydor, and her two daughters, my aunts. Their names were Yoland but I cannot seem to find anything about Avigliano—even when I researched and Ella. I don’t know if my aunts were married. Their last names would in Italy. It may be because we were being trained for the Haganah and it was have been Tydor. The family lived in and around Kassa, or Kosica. I was a secret place, however that is just speculation. Avigliano was liquidated when told that Irene Tydor died in 1934, but I’m not sure about that either. My all the other children went to Israel. Might there be someone in your father, Ferdinand, left Hungary in 1923 and died in 1987. If you know any readership that was in these places with me, knows others who were there, or details about this family, I’d be most interested. knows something about these two places? I have little recollection and would appreciate whatever information comes my way. Thank you so very much. From Patricia Wilson in Ra’anana, Israel: Seeking information on the following family members: KAPELUSZNIK - From Lipman Radzik (written by Sandra Kirsch in Carefree, AZ): Mordechai and Baila (nee MICHALEVICH) originally came from Odessa I am trying to help Lipman RADZIK, an 86-year-old Auschwitz survivor. He but they moved to Lodz abt. 1910. They had six children, Sarah, their first believes that he is the only member of his entire family to have survived the child, was born in Lodz in 1913, shortly afterwards Mordechai and Baila Holocaust. His family came from Zuromin, Poland and nearby communities, who ran a junk business in Lodz, moved to the town of Kolo, where their such as Biezun. It is certainly true that all members of his immediate family other children were born—Malka 1917, Yedel 1921, Lola 1925, Bluma 1927 perished, but I am wondering whether some of his extended family may and Rifka 1929. They lived on Ulica Zenica. Lola appears to be the only have escaped. Lipman’s father was Abram RADZIK; Abram RADZIK’s surviving member of her family, after the war she tried to return to Kolo but brother was Jakob and his sisters were Chawa, Rojza Laia, and Pessa. Pessa was persuaded not to do so as it was too dangerous. Eventually she married married Icek Alter SOKOLOWER. Lipman’s mother was Malka ZENDEL in 1946 and in 1951 immigrated with her husband and daughter to the United from Mlawa. It would be a great mitzvah to connect Lipman Radzik with States. any living relatives.

January 2008 visit our website at www.americangathering.com TOGETHER 19 Special “Matzevah Marker” Available for Survivors’ Graves Survival has placed upon us the SURVIVOR. This simple, yet dramatic, responsibility of making sure that the maker will re-affirm our uniqueness and Holocaust is remembered forever. our place in history for future generations. Each of us has the sacred obligation Our impressive MATZEVAH marker is to share this task while we still can. now available for purchase. It is cast in However, with the passage of each year, solid bronze, measuring 5x7 inches, and we realize that time is against us, and can be attached to new or existing we must make sure to utilize all means tombstones. The cost of each marker is for future remembrance. $100.00. Additional donations are A permanent step toward achieving gratefully appreciated. this important goal can be realized by Let us buy the marker now and leave placing a unique and visible maker on instructions in our wills for its use. This the gravestone of every survivor. The will enable every one of us to leave on most meaningful symbol for this this earth visible proof of our miraculous purpose is our Survivor logo, inscribed survival and an everlasting legacy of the FPO with the words HOLOCAUST Holocaust.

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For years we have been disseminating our publication, Together, free of charge to An survivors, descendants, and the Jewish community at large. It has been our contribu- tion to the clarion call to “never forget” and to offer our readers as much information Appeal as we can gather to reflect the current state of affairs of Holocaust-related issues. But as with all things, our resources dwindle. And so, we have come to ask for support to Our from our readers to help defray the costs of production and mailing. Please make a meaningful, tax deductible contribution payable to the “American Gathering” and Readers forward it to the address below. Thank you.

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TOGETHER 20 visit our website at www.americangathering.com January 2008