AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM Vol. 43-No. 1 ISSN 0892-1571 September/October 2016-Tishri/Cheshvan 5777 LEADERSHIP MISSION VISITS POLAND AND ISRAEL er, eager to share the special experi- presence of the third generation was life for centuries. BY ISAAC BENJAMIN ence together. a strong influence on the entire group. Outside of Wroclaw was the Sixteen young adults represented “Seeing all the young people on this Wolfsberg forced labor camp. Built as n the summer of 2015, supporters the American Society’s Young trip has been an inspiration. Their a series of tunnels underneath a small from the American Society for Yad I Leadership Associates as the third vitality and enthusiasm all along the mountain, it was where thousands of Vashem first began discussing a Jewish prisoners were forced into prospective mission to Poland and hard labor. As the group walked Israel. Understanding its unique sta- through the damp tunnels, Yad tus as the world’s preeminent Vashem guides recounted the story of Holocaust institution, the American Naphtali Stern, a prisoner at Society considered such a trip an Wolfsberg. Trading his rations for a exceptional opportunity to reflect on pencil stub, Stern wrote the Rosh the importance of Holocaust remem- Hashanah service from memory onto brance in the 21st century. A little scraps torn from bags of cement. more than a year later, the 31 Stern survived the Holocaust and Americans on the Leadership Mission later in life donated his cherished joined their international partners in prayer book to Yad Vashem. Later on, this unforgettable profound testament each participant received a replica of to Yad Vashem’s crucial role as the the “Wolfsberg Machzor,” its tattered World Holocaust Remembrance edges a reminder of the unimaginable Center. struggles the prisoners of Wolfsberg Fifty-five passengers were greeted faced. at the Copernicus Wroclaw Airport in t was a bright Friday morning Poland on the morning of July 6th by when the Leadership Mission trav- the large banner welcoming them to I eled to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Meeting the 2016 Yad Vashem Leadership at the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei Mission. For these friends and sup- gate, local Polish guides joined the porters of Yad Vashem, the Yad Vashem staff in leading the group Leadership Mission was a weeklong through the barracks that make up the journey to trace the Jewish experi- Auschwitz Museum. Block 27 is ence in Poland and the Holocaust specifically curated by Yad Vashem before flying to Israel for a rare, as a permanent exhibit to commemo- behind-the-scenes exploration of Yad rate the loss of Jewish life. Block 27 Vashem. holds the monumental Book of The Leadership Mission had a Names — a collection of the names of defining spirit throughout the trip: millions of Holocaust victims. Many three generations of Yad Vashem members of the group were able to supporters joining together on this find the names of their murdered rela- memorable journey. From octogenari- tives among the 4.2 million names. ans to teenagers, the group The Leadership Mission was embraced their different perspectives allowed unparalleled access at as a bond to a shared heritage. Many Auschwitz. As Dr. Mengele’s torture Mark Moskowitz, trustee of the ASYV board of directors; Ron Meier, executive director of the site, Block 10 is not open to the pub- of the participants were visiting ASYV; and Roger Sofer, of Houston, holding the Torah at the ceremony in Auschwitz. Eastern Europe for the first time. lic. As the Polish guides unlocked the way has been so moving to witness.” Others were making their first trip generation on the Leadership dusty padlocked door, several mem- he Leadership Mission began in bers were too overcome with emotion back since escaping to survival more Mission. For American Society board Wroclaw, a city once known as and trepidation to step inside to see than seventy years before. Several member Mark Moskowitz, who came T Breslau. They were led by Bente the stark hallways left untouched for generations of families came togeth- with his nephew Sam Gordon, the Kahan, a Norweigian-Jewish immi- decades. In Birkenau, one railroad grant who has spearheaded the effort car stands alone on the abandoned to restore the White Stork Synagogue tracks as a symbol of the millions of IN THIS ISSUE as the local Jewish community’s cul- deportees. For the Leadership Mission, Auschwitz guides opened Leadership Mission to Poland and Israel.............................................1,9,10 tural center. Around the city are signs the usually closed sliding door of the The last Nazi hunter........................................................................................2 of the once-thriving Jewish communi- vehicle. As they were led up the oth- Ukrainian Holocaust perpetrators are being honored................................3 ty and its tragic destruction at the hands of the Nazis. The last stop was erwise gated-off stairwell to the At the gates of Birkenau, a name for a name.................................................4 Birkenau watchtower, the expansive at the former site of the largest syna- American Holocaust survivors struggle “to finish in a decent way”..........5 grid of barracks came into view. For gogue in Wroclaw, burned down on In Poland, searching for Jewish heritage......................................................6 Jessica Glickman-Mauk, a grandchild Kristallnacht. The group recited kad- The Holocaust told from the perspective of a teddy bear...........................8 of survivors and mother of three In a Nazi legacy, a son’s love is tested by mass murder...........................12 dish at the lone surviving wall of the young children, “it was a sight I will Belgian nobles meet Jews saved by their relatives in Holocaust..............14 synagogue, a monument to the com- never forget. I want my children to Save the date: ASYV Annual Tribute Dinner................................................16 munity that was a center for Jewish (Continued on page 10) Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE September/October 2016 - Tishri/Cheshvan 5777 THE LAST NAZI HUNTER pendent Lithuania” for collaborating these days is “one-third detective, War Criminals Master List, M-Z.” BY STAV ZIV, NEWSWEEK with the Nazis and participating in the one-third historian, one-third political From this base, the loud but jovial Holocaust, Zuroff tells Newsweek. lobbyist,” with countless hours spent Nazi hunter fields phone calls with fraim Zuroff has accomplished “I realize how difficult it could be for tracking down witnesses, poring over tips on suspects through his Emuch in his long career, but Lithuania to admit its complicity,” he archives and convincing governments Operation Last Chance initiative there’s one thing he’s particularly told Vanagaite in Our People. “It took to take action. Imagine Indiana Jones (financial rewards for information proud of: he’s the most hated Jew in France 50 years to acknowledge its and the Temple of Doom with the hero leading to the arrest or conviction of Lithuania. His Lithuanian friend Ruta guilt. Germany had no choice. But for spending 98 percent of the movie in Nazi war criminals), follows up on Vanagaite agrees: She called him a your sake and your children’s sake, his school’s library. promising leads and works with part- “mammoth,” a “boogeyman” and the the sooner you face this honestly, the Zuroff never set out to become an ners who can scour archival material “ruiner of reputations” — and that’s sooner the healing process will start.” object of contempt in Lithuania or the in the languages he can’t handle. He just in the introduction to a book they “If it took France 50 years, it will take world’s last Nazi hunter. He grew up went to Copenhagen last summer to co-authored. Lithuania 50 years as well,” said in the Brooklyn borough of New York submit an official police complaint Last summer, in a journey that Vanagaite. — Brighton Beach and Flatbush — about a Danish SS volunteer who helped cement his notoriety, Zuroff “No, it will take you 90 years,” hoping to become the first Orthodox remains alive and unpunished. Since set off across the Lithuanian country- replied Zuroff. “Because your crimes Jew to play in the NBA. Though he the number of living perpetrators has was named for his great-uncle, Efraim dwindled in recent years, Zuroff Zar, who was murdered in Lithuania increasingly spends time writing op- during the Holocaust, Zuroff’s career eds about Holocaust denial and anti- as a Nazi hunter began only after he Semitism, speaking with the press made aliyah, Jewish immigration to when these topics are in the news Israel, in 1970 and completed his PhD and giving lectures at universities and in Holocaust history. conferences. In the early 1980s, he worked in “You have to start from the premise Israel for the U.S. Justice that it’s almost impossible to prose- Department’s Office of Special cute a Nazi these days,” he says, his Investigations, which was formed in large frame folded behind his desk 1979 to probe and prosecute war and graying hair usually topped with a criminals. Since 1986, Zuroff has kippa. Many of Zuroff’s critics think it’s directed the Israel office of the Simon time we stop prosecuting Nazi collab- Wiesenthal Center, a human rights orators — most of them are dead or organization that combats anti- too old to stand trial, they say, and Semitism and is named after the some argue it’s vindictive to dwell on Holocaust survivor and legendary events so far in the past. Zuroff scoffs Nazi hunter who died in 2005. Since at such talk. “First, the passage of he operates through a nongovern- time in no way diminishes the guilt of mental organization that has no the killers,” he says, launching into his Zuroff protests at an annual procession honoring the Latvian Waffen SS unit.