AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR

Vol. 41-No. 2 ISSN 0892-1571 November/December 2014-Kislev/Tevet 5775 The American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner

he 60th Anniversary of Yad Vashem Tribute Dinner We were gratified by the extensive turnout, which included Theld on November 16th was a very memorable many representatives of the second and third generations. evening. We were honored to present Mr. Sigmund Rolat With inspiring addresses from honoree Zigmund A. Rolat with the Yad Vashem Remembrance Award. Mr. Rolat is a and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Meir survivor who has dedicated his life to supporting Yad Lau — the dinner marked the 60th Anniversary of Yad Vashem and to restoring the place of Polish Jewry in world Vashem. The program was presided over by dinner chairman history. He was instrumental in establishing the newly Mark Moskowitz, with the Chairman of the American Society opened Museum of the History of Polish in Warsaw. for Yad Vashem Leonard A. Wilf giving opening remarks. SIGMUND A. ROLAT: “YAD VASHEM ENSHRINES THE MILLIONS THAT WERE LOST” e are often called – and even W sometimes accused of – being obsessed with memory. The Torah calls on us repeatedly and command- ingly: Zakhor – Remember. Even the least religious among us observe this particular mitzvah – a true corner- stone of our identity: Zakhor – Remember – and logically L’dor V’dor – From generation to generation. The American Society for Yad Vashem has chosen to honor me with the Yad Vashem Remembrance Award. I am deeply grateful and moved to receive this honor. A great writer, Milos Kundera, had written that the struggle of man against power is the struggle of mem- ory against forgetting. Yad Vashem is fighting that struggle — against the power of hatred and death. It protects, it cherishes, and it bears the memo- ries of the survivors. It condemns the perpetrators and embraces the vic- tims. For many of them a record in Yad Vashem is the only trace of their existence, for not only they have been Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem Leonard A. Wilf presents honoree Sigmund A. Rolat with the Yad Vashem Remembrance Award. killed, but so have all those who could They are joined by Barry Rubenstein, trustee and Mark Moskowitz, dinner chair. remember them. Yad Vashem lost — enshrines them not as num- Beyond my gratitude for being rec- were the last words I heard him say. enshrines the millions that were bers but as individuals. ognized here tonight, there is a I remembered those words and deeper gratefulness to Yad Vashem they guided me throughout my life, for its tireless effort to resist forgetful- but especially in the last few years. ness and perpetuate memory. For And just last month in a moving and IN THIS ISSUE that is exactly what my older brother glittering ceremony in Warsaw, the The American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner.....1, 8-9, 16 Jerzyk told me in November 1943 president of and the presi- Claims Conference weighs shutting down vs. Holocaust education...... 2 when I was hiding in an attic after the dent of Israel helped us open the ’s foremost unsung hero...... 3 big ghetto in Czestochowa was liqui- Museum of the History of Polish The Nazi doctor who got away with mass murder...... 4 dated. Jerzyk was leaving with five Jews, where our rich 1,000-year his- The day a Holocaust survivor got revenge on his tormentor...... 5 other young friends to fight the tory is painstakingly and beautifully In eye of Nazi storm, Dutch Jews found unlikely refuge...... 6 Germans — he was the youngest, he showcased and preserved for future Lawyers make case for giving Iraqi Jews Holocaust benefits...... 7 was 18 years old. As he embraced generations. But nowhere are my Holocaust experts work to preserve WWII-era items...... 10 me one last time, he told me to brother’s last words to me more evi- “Sobbing at their own funeral”...... 10 remember all I saw — MUSISZ dent than in my dedication to and The cyclist who saved Jews in wartime Italy...... 11 ZAPAMIETAC! — Zakhor. Those support of Yad Vashem. Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775

NAZI HUNTER IDENTIFIES CLAIMS CONFERENCE WEIGHS SHUTTING FORMER GUARDS DOWN VS. HOLOCAUST EDUCATION he Center T has identified dozens of former we should continue to do that. And we The debate about what to do about members of Nazi mobile death BY URIEL HEILMAN, are uniquely qualified to do so.” the Claims Conference once the last squads who might still be alive, and is THE TIMES OF ISRAEL he new vision for the Claims of the survivors dies is not new. pushing the German government for Conference hinges on the orga- Established in 1951 to secure com- special panel tasked with T an investigation. nization’s ability to get material sup- pensation and restitution from examining the governance and The Wiesenthal Center’s top Nazi A port for it from the perpetrators of the , the Claims Conference has strategic vision of the Claims hunter, , told the AP that Holocaust — namely Germany, but negotiated successfully for an esti- Conference is recommending that the in September he sent the German also and companies complicit mated $70 billion for survivors and organization shift its long-term focus justice and interior ministries a list of in the Nazi genocide. If that funding survivor needs over the course of its to Holocaust education and remem- 76 men and four women who served cannot be secured, the Claims existence. brance. in the so-called . The panel was appointed last year The Einsatzgruppen, made up of following a scandal involving the primarily SS and police personnel, fol- Claims Conference’s failure to detect lowed ’s troops as they a $57 million fraud scheme there that battled their way eastward in the early persisted until 2009. It also recom- years of the war, rounding up and mended cutting in half the size of the shooting Jews in the opening salvo of board’s executive committee and the the Holocaust before the death camp number of special board committees. system was up and running. The special panel did not, however, According to the U.S. Holocaust recommend any changes to the com- Memorial Museum, they had killed more position of the Claims Conference’s than a million Soviet Jews and tens of board. thousands of others by spring 1943. Consisting of board members and “In the death camps the actual act of outside experts and guided by murder was carried out by a very small Accenture consultants, the special number of people — the people who panel was charged with reviewing the put the gas into the gas chambers — administration, management and but the actual act of murder in the governance structure of the Claims Einsatzgruppen was carried out indi- Conference, which obtains Holocaust vidually,” Zuroff said. “Almost every Claims Conference representatives meet with German officials during Holocaust restitution nego- restitution and compensation from tiations in Israel in 2013. person in the Einsatzgruppen was a Germany and Austria. The central murderer, a hands-on murderer.” Conference should go out of business question the panel examined was Most of that money has come direct- Zuroff narrowed down the list of once there are no survivors left, what the Claims Conference should ly from Germany in the form of pen- possible suspects by choosing the Schneider said. do after the last of the survivors dies. sions and compensation payments, youngest from a list of some 1,100 “If we’re unable to get money from Three possible courses of action with the Claims Conference acting with dates of birth known to his organ- perpetrator governments, and the were given serious consideration: only as the processor of payments ization, out of the estimated 3,000 survivors have all died, we should shutting down; funding education and members of the death squads. close down,” he said. “We should not and verifier of claims. As each sur- remembrance projects; or shifting its All 80, born between 1920 and try to reinvent ourselves into some- vivor dies, these payments cease. focus to general Jewish educational 1924, would be very old if still alive, thing else.” The Claims Conference also has a programming, helping victims of other Zuroff said. Stuart Eizenstat, a lead Claims bucket of discretionary funding: bil- genocides obtain restitution or pre- “Time is running out,” he said in a Conference negotiator and special lions generated from the sale of heir- serving Jewish cultural sites in the for- telephone interview from . assistant to Secretary of State John less Jewish property from the former mer . “Something has to be done.” Kerry on Holocaust issues, said he’s East Germany. But that bucket, Given the Claims Conference’s suc- Because of Germany’s strict privacy optimistic about getting Germany to known as the Successor cesses at convincing Germany to laws, the Wiesenthal Center has been support the proposed new focus, not- Organization, is expected to run dry increase its funding for survivors, the unable to confirm where the suspects ing that the country already does so by 2020 at its current annual alloca- panel concluded that “to close down live, but Zuroff said that task, and deter- through mandatory Holocaust educa- tion rate of about $118 million to without attempting to leverage its mining if they’re still alive, should be rel- tion in German schools. groups that aid survivors and $18 mil- position and significant experience in atively easy for police or prosecutors. “There’s every reason to think that lion to Holocaust education and the service of Holocaust education Meantime, he said, his office is will- they would be supportive of this,” remembrance. and remembrance would be to miss a ing to assist in any way possible in Eizenstat said. “After all the survivors In 2004, the Claims Conference major opportunity.” coming up with evidence or other are gone, this is the right thing to do.” managed to get Germany to begin to In an interview with JTA, the Claims details. Though survivors are dying, their fund a new area: home care for sur- Conference’s chief executive, Greg “The hope is that as many as possi- overall need for aid actually is rising vivors, including food, transportation Schneider, emphasized that ble will be alive, but there’s no guaran- because of their growing infirmity and and medical care. Berlin has steadily Holocaust education isn’t new to the tee, obviously,” he said. “But every per- relative poverty. The Claims increased the amount of money it pro- Claims Conference: The organization son alive today is a victory of sorts.” Conference estimates that survivor vides the program, from $42 million in currently funds education and Germany’s Interior Ministry had no needs will peak in about two or three 2009 to $190 million in 2013. Last remembrance to the tune of $18 mil- immediate comment, but the Justice years, followed by a progressive year Germany agreed to another lion per year with money obtained Ministry said it had passed the details decline. $800 million in funding through 2017. from the sale of unclaimed Jewish of the letter to the special federal Globally there are an estimated If the Claims Conference board properties in the former East prosecutors’ office that investigates 500,000 living Nazi victims — a cate- adopts the new plan, the question for Germany. Nazi-era crimes. gory that includes not just survivors of Claims Conference negotiators is “The Claims Conference has always A handful of Einsatzgruppen mem- concentration camps, ghettos and whether they’ll be able to get dealt with the consequences of the bers were tried and convicted after the slave labor camps, but also those Germany to move into another new Shoah,” Schneider said of the board’s war, but most have gone unpunished. forced to flee the Nazi onslaught or area — one that, unlike aid to aging mandate for the organization. Kurt Schrimm, the head of the spe- compelled to go into hiding, or who survivors, has no particular expiration “When that meant direct payments cial federal prosecutors’ office, said endured certain other forms of perse- date. to survivors, we did that. When that that they could now be prosecuted cution. About half are expected to die “I believe the goodwill is there,” said meant rebuilding communities, we did under new German legal theory that in the next seven or eight years, Julius Berman, the Claims that. When that meant home care [for service in a Nazi unit whose sole pur- according to a new demographic elderly survivors], we did that. Conference’s chairman. “Their issue pose was murder is enough to convict assessment that was part of the spe- Educating people about the Shoah is more in terms of budget rather than someone of being an accessory to cial panel’s work, and survivors of and confronting all concept. If we do a correct job to murder — even without evidence of some kind or another are expected to deal with consequences of the explain the need, I think we’ll have a participation in a specific crime, as be around for another 20 to 25 years. Shoah. To be faithful to our mandate, receptive audience on the other side.” had previously been required. November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3 THE HOLOCAUST’S FOREMOST UNSUNG HERO Moshe Kraus was behind one of Europe’s skies became saturated matical trick he had devised with the ers as Swedish subjects awaiting the largest rescue operations of with smoke from crematoriums. Some help of the Swiss. How did so many repatriation and thus prevented their the Holocaust. Using his wits, ini- 20,000 Jews who fled the Nazis in thousands of Jews manage to evade deportation. The documents issued tiative and unparalleled courage, occupied countries sought refuge in the Nazis’ awareness? At the core, it by the Swiss consulate in Kraus saved between 40,000 and Budapest, which was considered was a feat of bureaucratic sleight of stated that the Swiss embassy’s 100,000 of Budapest’s Jews. So safe. But in March 1944, after the hand on a massive scale. department of foreign interests con- why has no one ever heard of him? German invasion of , the At the time, a British-issued immi- firms that so and so appears in a col- Nazis began sending Jews from out- gration certificate, simply referred to lective Swiss passport, and should be BY EMILY AMROUSI, ISRAEL HAYOM lying Hungarian towns to extermina- as a “certificate,” granting entry to treated as having a valid passport. n 1986, a 78-year-old man named tion camps in Poland. Within the span Palestine, was viewed as a protective The collective passport included tens IMoshe Kraus died in Jerusalem. of eight weeks, about half a million shield. Anyone in possession of such of thousands of names. In order to You probably don’t recognize the Jews from the Hungarian periphery a certificate was considered a British disguise the fraud, Lutz numbered the name. He was never commemorated were sent to their deaths, at a pace of citizen protected by the Swiss lega- individuals in question between 1 and in any way. He is not mentioned in about 12,000 per day. Entire commu- tion in Hungary, because 7,800 — the number that had already any Holocaust encyclopedias. But nities were wiped out, one after represented Britain’s diplomatic inter- been approved by the local authori- Moshe Kraus is responsible for the another. ests in Hungary at the time. At the end ties. largest rescue operation during the In April 1944, two Five hundred Glass House employ- Holocaust, on a huge scale. German Slovakian Jewish pris- ees who handled these documents industrialist , with his oners managed to were made into Swiss embassy resourcefulness and courage, man- escape from Auschwitz. employees, enjoying all the consular aged to save 1,200 Jews; Kraus and Alfred benefits: they were exempt from saved tens of thousands. Wetzler met with the wearing the yellow star, and some of Historians are divided on the exact head of the Slovak them were allowed to use the number, but the most conservative Jewish Council, Oscar embassy vehicles and the consular estimate talks about at least 40,000 Krasniansky, and gave telephone as part of their “consular” people, and some estimates are even him a detailed account work. Kraus himself traveled in a car as high as 100,000 Jews who of what was happening bearing the Swiss flag, driven by a escaped the Nazis in Hungary thanks at the death camp. Swiss driver. to this daring man. Krasniansky translated The Swiss consulate in Budapest The year is 1944. The Nazis are their account and com- was too small to take on such an stepping up the pace and sending piled a 32-page report enormous operation. Arthur Weiss, more and more Jews to their deaths (the “Auschwitz Moshe Kraus. the Jewish owner of the Glass House, in efforts to quickly complete the Protocols”) providing, for gave Kraus the keys to his enormous extermination of Hungary’s Jewry. A the first time, accurate and detailed of 1943, the Hungarian government factory, and Lutz issued Swiss diplo- spacious glass factory located at 29 information on the methods and recognized the rights of 1,500 holders matic immunity to the building. A Vadasz Street in Budapest is granted dimensions of the Nazi extermination of such certificates. Swiss flag was hung at the entrance. extraterritorial status under the aus- efforts. Vrba and Wetzler said that at Kraus, together with other Palestine “I chose the Glass House because I pices of Switzerland. Some 3,000 that point 1.75 million people had Office workers, approached Swiss feared that there would be a lot more Jews barricade themselves inside this been killed at Auschwitz, and that the diplomat Carl Lutz, who was stationed trouble and I knew that this building building, dubbed the Glass House, for camp was preparing for the arrival of in Budapest as vice-consul and head- could hold a lot of Jews in a time of three months. 800,000 Hungarian Jews, slated to be ed the office that represented British need,” Kraus wrote years later. More and more homes in Budapest killed. interests. Lutz was sympathetic to the STEPPING UP are turned into Swiss “safe houses,” By the end of May that year, Moshe Jews, having served in the Swiss con- THE RESCUE EFFORTS barring entry to Germans and the (Miklush) Kraus had gotten his hands sulate in Jaffa. He and Kraus had the local complicit Hungarian authorities, on Vrba and Wetzler’s report. Kraus idea to turn the 1,500 individual certifi- n October 1944, Horthy is and housing thousands of Jews. The was one of the heads of the Zionist cates into family certificates, including Ideposed and the Pro-Nazi Arrow Swiss embassy grants 40,000 Jews movement in Hungary and he direct- the families of 1,500 Jews in these Cross Party takes power. A ghetto is certificates making them foreign ed the Palestine Office in Budapest. protective documents — 7,800 peo- established in Budapest, and all the Swiss nationals. Tens of thousands of He added his own report to the ple in all. city’s Jews between the ages of 16 additional documents are forged detailing the A month and a half after the Nazi and 40, excluding foreign nationals, while the Swiss turn a blind eye. transport and extermination of the occupation, when ghettos were at are told to report to work camps. Young, brave Jews disguised as Nazi Jews in the outlying Hungarian towns. their peak in the outlying towns, Kraus Hungary’s national radio station officers roam the streets handing out The report named every individual and Lutz, with the help of anti-Nazi announces three times a day that these documents to Jews, and all of from every city and district. He then Hungarian foreign office workers, individuals holding Swiss documents this is orchestrated by Kraus. did everything in his power to dissem- thought up yet another manipulation: are exempt from reporting for duty Among the Glass House survivors inate the two reports. They turned the 7,800 certificates and can move freely during all hours are many prominent Jews, including These documents made their way to back into individual documents, of the day (Jews were forbidden from Moshe Shkedi, the father of former the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, applying them to families as well, exiting their houses for more than two commander of the Israeli Air Force Miklos Horthy, and to all the important allowing them to save about 40,000 hours each day). Major General Eliezer Shkedi. “My political figures in Hungary. An inter- people, all of whom now possessed Thousands of Hungarian Jews father lived because of the Glass national news agency picked up the immigration documents issued by clamor to the Glass House in search House,” Shkedi says. “His parents story and distributed it, and the Switzerland. The International Red of Swiss papers, including Jews and all his brothers were murdered. reports created quite a stir in Cross, Britain and Switzerland recog- already slated to cross the border into The important message is that not Switzerland. Swiss public opinion nized the 40,000 documents. The Germany. A photo taken by an only Christians saved Jews during the applied enormous pressure on Nazis officially recognized only 7,800, unknown photographer during that Holocaust. Jews also managed to Horthy. The pope, U.S. President but Kraus continued his efforts to get time depicts masses of people crowd- save thousands.” Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Nazi recognition for the full 40,000. ing the building’s doors holding out The story of the Glass House is one Minister and “The wait (for a reply) was long, and their arms. of the most fascinating historical Swedish King Gustaf V all sent letters we didn’t know the reason,” Kraus Lutz and Kraus step up their rescue events of that era. Much like the man of protest to Budapest. Roosevelt’s wrote in an article, “until we found out efforts. Beyond the 40,000 certifi- behind the operation, Kraus, this letter to Horthy included a military something very strange: Someone cates, now tens of thousands are event has somehow evaded public threat. As a result, Horthy put a stop had informed the German legation issued forged documents, printed attention and never received the to the deportation of Jews. that the 7,800 documents applied to both inside the Glass House and else- recognition it deserved. Between July and October of that individuals, not families. That some- where on paper stolen from the same printing house that printed the valid A MATHEMATICAL TRICK year, before Horthy was deposed and one was one of us — Dr. Kastner.” the rose to power, Lutz gave the certificate holders documents for the Swiss. The docu- or Hungary’s Jews, the Kraus gave his all to try to include as protective passports or “Schutz- ments provide a sense of security, but FHolocaust started long after many Jews as possible in the mathe- Passes” — which identified the bear- (Continued on page 12) Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS

JEWISH PARTISANS OF THE SOVIET UNION DURING WORLD WAR II of the Soviet such leader was partisan commander sions and taking part in the “blowing taken against the Jews by the Union during World War II. Siedelnikov. During the war his group up of ten enemy convoys.” Germans, helped by eager Ukrainian Compiled and edited by Dr. Jack “blew up scores of German transports, Concomitantly, his devotion to docu- collaborators; and the terror and Nusan Porter with the assistance of and wiped out enemy garrisons.” “In menting it all with his trusty camera — “unbelievableness” of it all to the Jews Yehuda Merin. The Spencer Press: one of his brilliant operations, most always by his side — was no of this town. On the other hand, we Newtonville, Massachusetts, 2013. Seidelnikov succeeded in releasing less! Because of that last, he snapped also read about those Jews that mirac- 624 pp. $34.95 softcover. some two hundred and fifty Red Army singular combat images. Between ulously escaped this hell; how they ran POWs from enemy camps.” We read one mission and another, Glieder also into the forests; how they eventually REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN about Israel Lapidot, another Jewish “filmed the everyday life of the com- became part of partisan groups; the n this absorbing two-part com- leader whose company pany.” In sum “he suc- anti-Semitism found among mixed par- Ipendium, Jewish Partisans of the “derailed twenty-one ceeded in shooting some tisan groups; how difficult it was to live Soviet Union during World War II, com- trains full of German four thousand pictures.” in the forest, what with the lack of food piled and edited by Dr. Jack Nusan troops, laid fourteen After the war, “his photo- and the terrible, relentless cold; and Porter, we have an admirable first-per- ambushes, and account- graphs were integrated” how hard these Jews fought, regard- son sourcebook. In other words, the ed for hundreds of dead into a number of films, less of the odds, to take revenge and, articles offered here are not written by Germans.” They addi- including The Popular most importantly, to survive! people who heard about others or tionally “destroyed their Avengers, for which he Particularly fascinating here is the heard about events. Rather, each and [German] bases, and put received the coveted material about the Kruk Division (a par- every writer knows of what he or she the Ossipovichi-Minsk Stalin Award! tisan company led by the enigmatic writes, because they actually lived and railway tracks out of com- n the second part of man Kruk), along with the family camp experienced it! Moreover, most inter- mission.” We read about Ithis book Porter pres- attached to it. They creatively and fear- estingly, we immediately learn that the Jewish doctors with the ents us with material lessly made mines from the gunpowder first part of this volume is itself a his- partisans, like Dr. gathered more recently, in “huge artillery shells” left by the toric document. Originally published in Melchior, who worked and focuses more specif- Germans. One false move could cost Russian, it was quickly put together not tirelessly to save his ically on “a particular one or more limbs, or death . . . and, long after the war ended. Its purpose: patients, and even went so far as to region of Volynia, Ukraine, the parti- sadly, sometimes did! We learn that to prove to a stubbornly paranoid secure medicines for them — an unbe- sans and the family camp in the area Porter’s father, Irving Porter (Yisroel Stalin, become comfortable in showing lievable feat! We read about devoted of Horodok, Manievich, Lishnivka, Puchtik) was “in charge of this project his brutal anti-Semitic side, how faithful and fearless Jewish nurses like Dossia Kamin-Kashirsk, Rafalovka, Griva along with twenty other men.” and, in fact, devoted the Jews of Baskina. She “was not only a medical and Povorsk.” Much more of the Jewish Partisans concludes with a Russia had been to the Soviet Union nurse” among the partisans “but also a material here is written by Jews. section containing many interesting and to him during the war. Hence, dauntless and expert saboteur. She Porter’s parents and many of their maps, partisan documents, historic hopefully (and as it turned out, impos- took part in blowing up sixteen enemy friends were partisans here. Indeed, photos, and a marvelous “annotated sibly), the eradication of Stalin’s anti- convoys.” contained in this section is Porter’s bibliography on Jewish resistance Semitic thoughts and actions! Especially remarkable is the infor- interview with his father and mother. and related topics.” In short, this Because of this vital life-and-death pur- mation offered in this section about Here we learn about exactly what book will interest any and all students pose, most all the articles here were the Jewish filmmaker Michael Moshe happened when the bloodthirsty of the Holocaust. written by non-Jews, further confirming Glieder. Glieder held a highly respon- Germans came to his parents’ home- their objective reportage. sible leadership position among the town of Manievich; how “the Dr. Cypkin is a Professor of Media, Thus, in this first part, we read about partisans, determinedly and coura- Ukrainian population gave them a fes- Communication, and Visual Arts at Jews who led partisan groups. One geously carrying out sabotage mis- tive welcome”; the brutal actions Pace University. THE NAZI DOCTOR WHO GOT AWAY WITH MASS MURDER The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen pensing death; after the war, he have escaped the net of justice had case stuffed with his memorabilia, to , the Relentless Pursuit of SS became a weakling. he not drawn attention to himself by including travel brochures, old photo- Doctor . When Mengele drowned in 1979 fleeing from the Bundesrepublik, graphs, and sketches Heim had made By and Souad while swimming off the coast of Brazil, whose citizens were all too eager to of his medical condition. In the brief- Mekhennet. Knopf Doubleday he became the most famous Nazi to gloss over his crimes. case they discovered a long article in Publishing Group: , NY, escape judgment for his crimes. But Nicholas Kulish and Souad which Heim, excited like many anti- 2014. 336 pp. $16.95 paperback. there was another Nazi fugitive who Mekhennet tell Heim’s story in The Semites by Arthur Koestler’s book lasted much longer: Eternal Nazi: From The Thirteenth Tribe, argued that the REVIEWED BY DAVID MIKICS Aribert Heim, who like Mauthausen to Cairo, the Jews were really descendants of the The Eternal Nazi tells the gripping Mengele was both a doc- Relentless Pursuit of SS Khazars and therefore, somehow, did story of the hunt for Aribert Heim, tor and a genocidal killer. Doctor Aribert Heim, and not exist — and that therefore anti- and the German detective who Tall, athletic and good- it’s a horrifying one. Heim Semitism didn’t exist either. If the relentlessly pursued him. looking, Heim served in apparently enjoyed Jewish people were a “colossal verything would have been 1942 and 1943 in the injecting gasoline directly hoax,” as Heim insisted, then their “Edifferent if I had come from a Austrian concentration into the hearts of claims against Germany must also be happy home with people who cared camp Mauthausen, inmates, especially Jews. a fraud, and “anti-Semitism will have about me,” wrote in where inmates called him Sometimes he would cut no meaning,” since the Jews are not the 500-page autobiography discov- “Dr. Death.” After the war, off the head of a corpse Semites. ered after his death. Mengele’s auto- he played for a time on a and, after baking the In other writings found in the brief- biography offers a disturbing specta- German hockey team in flesh off, give the skull to case, Heim compared himself to cle: the pathetic whining of a pam- Bad Nauheim, then a friend or display it as a Menachem Begin, who was about to pered, sadistic murderer, interlaced became a successful trophy. He once told a become Israel’s prime minister. Heim with sermons on racial superiority and gynecologist in Baden-Baden, and 12-year-old Jewish boy, before giving complained that he was being perse- odd little drawings of bunnies and finally escaped to , where, after him a fatal injection, that his death cuted by his fellow countrymen, rather wooden cabinets. Mengele is a prime living in solitude for years and then was merited because the Jews had than honored for his service to his case of the perpetrator’s urge to see converting to , he died in 1992. started the war. homeland like Begin, who had also himself as a sufferer, a common syn- Most of the Third Reich’s evildoers When Kulish and Mekhennet trav- killed innocents. Throughout his final drome among war criminals. In lived undisturbed, comfortable lives in eled to Cairo to investigate Heim’s life years in Egypt, Heim wrote occasion- Auschwitz he was a petty god dis- postwar Germany. Heim too might and death there, they found a brief- (Continued on page 14) November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 THE DAY A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR GOT REVENGE ON HIS TORMENTOR utes later, an SS soldier ordered me was on. I pointed to a house several faced mothers holding babies — my BY MARTIN GREENFIELD to come out of the cellar. I knew what paces down the road: “I think that’s it.” mother holding my baby brother — was coming, and the knowing made it The big black Mercedes was not out and sentenced both to gruesome He survived the savagery of the all the worse. front. deaths. My moral upbringing would Holocaust, made it to America with “Down on the ground, you dog! It took me a moment to make sure I not allow me to become an honorary barely a penny and became a Fast!” yelled the German. He gripped had the right house. member of the SS. world-famous tailor in , his baton and bludgeoned my back. I “The car isn’t here. Looks like the Still, extending mercy felt weak. I dressing celebrities and presi- do not know whether the mayor’s wife house is empty,” I said. “The plan is tried to save face in front of the boys. dents. In his new memoir, Measure watched the beating. Given her cruel- we take our guns and go in through If I couldn’t be a hardened killer, I of a Man, Martin Greenfield tells the ty, why would she want to miss it? On the side door. Then we hide and wait could at least be a car thief. “Where is story of his extraordinary life. In the hike back to Buchenwald, I so I can kill the blond bitch that had the car?” I yelled. this excerpt, he explains how the replayed the scene over and over in me beaten.” “There is nothing,” she said. concentration camps nearly my mind. The boys nodded. “Where is it?!” I barked. stripped him of his humanity at age How could a woman carrying her We crept up to the side door. I slow- “It’s not here,” she said. 16 — and the day he got it back. own child find a walking skeleton sav- ly turned the knob. It was unlocked. I I lowered the gun and stomped out hile at Buchenwald, the SS ing her pets and have him beaten for entered the house quietly, with my of the house and went around back. W assigned me to work in the “You made us come here for noth- munitions factory. But early one morn- ing?” one of the boys huffed. ing after roll call, a soldier placed me “I couldn’t shoot her,” I said. “She on a 12-prisoner team to perform had a baby!” repairs outside the camp in nearby “How many babies did they kill?” he Weimar. quipped. He had a point. Working in the city was a welcome We walked to the large barn behind distraction from camp life. Sometimes the house and unlatched the heavy you got lucky and spotted a potato in wooden doors. There, covered with a field or smuggled a trinket to trade hay, sat the big black Mercedes. “That for food. Either way, it was a chance lying Nazi bitch!” one of the boys to see the sky, escape the stench of yelled. I was livid. I’d spared her life rotting corpses, and confirm that there and she’d lied to my face. was still a world beyond the barbed “Wait here,” I told the boys. I wire. marched back in the house, gun We loaded our gear and marched drawn, and found her. “This time, I’m the few miles to Weimar. The soldiers Martin Greenfield, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, owns and operates Martin Greenfield really going to shoot you,” I said. Clothiers in Brooklyn, N.Y. stopped us in front of a bombed-out “Give me the keys!” She gave me the mansion, home to the mayor of nibbling on rotten animal food? I gun drawn. The boys fell in behind me keys. I jogged back to the boys and Weimar. A big black Mercedes sat out thought. and eased the door shut. We stepped the car. “I got them,” I said rattling the front. The soldiers commanded us to In that moment, my numbness to softly to mute the sounds of our wood- keys in my hand. sift the rubble, clear the debris, and death melted. In its place rose an en clogs on the floor. “Who knows how to drive?” one of begin repairs on the mansion. alien blood lust, a hunger for “Hello?” a voice around a corner the boys asked. I walked alone to the back of the vengeance unlike any I had ever said. “Hello?” “Don’t worry, I do,” I said. We estate to assess the damage. Dusty known. The surge of adrenaline and Just then the beautiful blond woman brushed off the hay and hopped in the piles of broken bricks lay scattered rush of rage felt good inside my with- turned the corner and let out a car. across the yard. Seeing the cellar ered frame. screech. She had the baby in her “Hurry up! Let’s get out of here,” one door ajar, I slowly opened it. A shaft of Then and there I made a vow to arms again. of the boys said. sunlight filled the dank cellar. On one myself: If I survived Buchenwald, I “Don’t shoot!” she screamed. “Don’t hat a sight we must have side of the space sat a wooden cage would return and kill the mayor’s wife. shoot!” W been: three teenage Jews in wrapped in chicken wire. I walked n April 11, 1945, 3:15 p.m., the “Remember me?!” I yelled. “Do striped prisoner uniforms, armed with closer and noticed two quivering rab- OAllies liberated Buchenwald. you?!” machine guns, driving a black bits inside the cage. Physically, I was free. Emotionally, I Her blond tresses shook violently. Mercedes in Weimar, Germany, on “They’re still alive!” I said to myself was in chains. I’d made a promise to She hid her face behind her upraised our way back to the Buchenwald con- with surprise. myself. And I intended to keep it. hand as if shielding herself from the centration camp. We smiled, laughed, Inside the cage were the remains of I located two Jewish boys who were sun. and talked tough like the men we the rabbits’ dinner. I unlatched the well enough to make the walk to “You had me beaten because of the weren’t. cage and pulled out a wilted leaf and Weimar. I told them what the woman rabbits. I’m here to shoot you!” I said, “Did you see how scared she was?” carrot nub. The lettuce was browning did and what I was prepared to do sounding like an SS. one boy said excitedly. “I bet she and slimy, the carrot still moist from about it. We could rummage machine “No! Please!” she quavered. “The made in her underwear!” We chuck- the rabbits’ gnawing. Excited, I wolfed guns from the mountain of German baby, please!” led and drove on. down the lettuce and tried to crack the weapons seized by the inmates and I aimed the machine gun at her “Look!” one of the boys said, point- chunk of carrot in half with my teeth. Americans that lay in piles on the chest. The baby wailed. My finger ing out the window. “Two girls!” I My luck was short-lived. “What are Appelplatz. hovered above the trigger. pulled the car to the side of the street. you doing?” a voice yelled. The streets outside camp were elec- “Shoot her!” one of the boys said. We invited the German girls to take I whipped my head around toward tric with an ominous sense of disqui- “Shoot her!” The woman’s out- a ride. They must have been so mes- the door. A gorgeous, smartly dressed et. A smattering of prisoners in striped stretched hand trembled in the air. My merized by the Mercedes that our blond woman holding a baby stood pajamas ambled in search of non- heart pounded against my chest like a raggedy uniforms failed to give them silhouetted in the door frame. It was camp food. I kept my eyes open for hammer. pause. To my surprise, they hopped the mayor of Weimar’s wife. SS. We gripped our guns and got to “Shoot her!” the other boy yelled. in. This was the closest any of us had “I . . . I found your rabbits!” I stam- Weimar as quickly as possible. “That’s what we came here for! Do it!” been to attractive girls in a long, long mered with a cheerful nervousness. My heartbeat quickened the closer I froze. I couldn’t do it. I could not time. They rode with us a few blocks “They’re alive and safe!” we got to the mayor’s house. Pent-up pull the trigger. That was the moment before we dropped them off. “Why in the hell are you stealing my rage from all I had seen and experi- I became human again. All the old I contemplated ditching the car. rabbits’ food?” barked the woman. enced surged through me. Killing the teachings came rushing back. I had After all, we were driving the mayor of “Animals!” I stood silent and stared at mayor’s wife could not repay the been raised to believe that life was a Weimar’s Mercedes. If that didn’t give the floor. Nazis for the terror they had inflicted precious gift from God, that women us away, the license plates would. But “I’m reporting this immediately!” she on us. But it was a start. and children must be protected. then I thought, What the hell? When’s said, stomping away. My heart pound- We walked a few miles before turn- Had I pulled the trigger, I would the next time you will get to drive a ed in my emaciated chest. A few min- ing down the street the mayor’s home have been like Mengele. He, too, had (Continued on page 15) Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER

A U.S. RABBI LEARNS OF THE NAZIS’ n August 28 1942, the contents Federation of Jewish Communities of diplomat, with a request that the same a WJC official — sent it on to Rabbi Oof what has been called the Switzerland. He in turn informed message be sent both to a British Wise on August 28. Wise contacted Riegner Telegram, which constituted Riegner, in the hope that he would be WJC official and to Wise. Sumner Welles, the U.S. under secre- an attempt to get news of the German able to get word out to the United Three days later, a cable went out tary of state, who asked him not to pub- decision on the Final Solution into the States and Britain. from the U.S. legation in to licize the information until the State hands of the Allies, were received by At the time, it was not possible for Washington, reporting, in telegraphic Department had made attempts to veri- American rabbi Stephen Wise, the private individuals or organizations to style, that “in Führer’s headquarters fy the telegram’s shocking contents. president of the World Jewish send telegrams from Switzerland. plan under consideration to extermi- n late November, Welles called Congress. IWise and informed him that he Historians have since speculated had received four independent state- whether a significant number of ments confirming Riegner’s report. Jewish lives could have been spared According to Wise’s memoir, Welles if Wise had gone public with the infor- told him he himself could not release mation immediately, rather than wait- the information to the press, but said, ing three months to call a press con- “There is no reason why you should ference, as he did. not. It might even help if you did.” Gerhard Riegner (1911–2001) was According to Israeli historian a Swiss Jew who in 1942 served as Yehuda Bauer, Wise did hold a press office manager of the World Jewish conference, but “it received minimal Congress office in Geneva, in neutral newspaper coverage, and his mes- Switzerland. That summer, Riegner sage was basically ignored until the received a report that originated with Bergson group, headed by Hillel Kook a German industrialist named Eduard … went into action.” Schulte, regarding the mass murder The Bergson Group was far more of the Jews. sensationalistic than the socially Schulte (1891–1966) was the head Stephen Wise. respectable Stephen Wise. of a large German conglomerate that Nonetheless, it was not until January did extensive business with the The idea was for Riegner to use his nate at one blow this fall three and 1944 that FDR established the War German military. He had frequent contacts at a foreign legation to trans- half to four millions Jews following Refugee Board, which was charged contact with senior Nazi officers, and mit what he had learned. deportation from countries occupied with the rescue of Jews from occu- because he himself was opposed to n August 8 Riegner visited …. Method execution undecided but pied Europe. Hitler, took advantage of frequent OHoward Elting, the vice-consul prussic acid has been considered.” There are good reasons to believe business trips to Switzerland to pass at the U.S. Consulate in Geneva, The sender, who added the caveat that the could have on information he had picked up to briefed him on what he had been told, that “exactitude cannot be confirmed done more to save Jewish lives dur- intelligence channels there. and asked Elting to send the material by us,” asked for the message to be ing the Holocaust, both militarily and Schulte reported on what he’d heard onward to Rabbi Wise, a well-known transmitted to Wise. through humanitarian channels. But from high-ranking SS officers to Isidor Reform rabbi, president of the World Although the State Department did not to pin the deaths of Jews on the Koppelman, an associate in Zurich, Jewish Congress, and a friend of pass the Riegner Telegram on to Rabbi excessive timidity of Rabbi Wise who passed the information on to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s. Wise, the British addressee, Samuel seems like a case of misplaced Benjamin Sagalowitz, the head of the Similarly, Riegner visited a British Silverman — who was both an MP and blame. IN EYE OF NAZI STORM, DUTCH JEWS FOUND UNLIKELY REFUGE of joy to Walvis’ eyes and wild cries of Approximately 10 percent of Jews whose recent book, Persecuted in BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, excitement from the other family who went into hiding in Limburg were Limburg, was published last year THE TIMES OF ISRAEL members. caught, roughly one-third the rate of ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Walvis was among 2,200 Dutch and Amsterdam. region’s liberation. n her nightmares, Tilly Walvis pic- German Jews who survived the Not only did Jews in Limburg sur- Yet the story of the Holocaust in Itured German soldiers storming Holocaust in Limburg, a narrow sliver vive the war in higher proportions Limburg had remained unrecorded until the house where she was hiding and van Rens and his wife, Annelies, began deporting her children and the painstakingly collecting lists of Jews Christian couple sheltering them. from dozens of municipal archives Walvis had good reason to fear. At across the province. Through their work, the time, her family was living in the the van Rens were able to show that home of Albert and Frederika Santing Limburg had twice as many Jews in hid- in Hoensbroek, a Dutch town in the ing than previously thought. southeastern province of Limburg. n 1933, the Jewish population in Next door lived a family of Dutch ILimburg stood at 800. Two waves Nazis, and delivering the hidden Jews of refugees — Germans before the to the German occupation forces war and Dutch following the German would have meant praises and a invasion — brought the Jewish popu- handsome reward. lation to 2,200 by 1945, according to Fortunately for Walvis, the soldier van Rens. The 46 percent growth who entered the house in 1944 was stands in stark contrast to the rest of American, and he was looking for the Netherlands, which lost 75 per- Westerbork Nazis, not Jews. According to an Monument at transit camp in the Netherlands, from which Jews were transported to cent of its Jews in the Holocaust — a Nazi camps in Germany during World War II. account from the Yad Vashem death rate matched in Western Holocaust center in Jerusalem, of a province near the Belgian and than the rest of the Netherlands, but Europe only by Germany itself, with Walvis sought to assure him they German borders that recent research the region actually had more Jewish 88 percent, according to the Anti- were not hostile, so she told him in has revealed to have been the safest residents after the Holocaust than Defamation League. English that she was Jewish. place for Jews in the Netherlands dur- before, according to Herman van Limburg residents speak a unique “Me too,” he replied, bringing tears ing the Holocaust. Rens, an amateur Dutch historian (Continued on page 15) November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 ITALIAN PRAISED FOR SAVING JEWS IS NOW SEEN AS NAZI COLLABORATOR breeding ground for Fascism; the doc- ing Palatucci started in 1952 when his declared to be Giovanni Palatucci BY PATRICIA COHEN, uments that undermined the account uncle Bishop Giuseppe Maria Courage to Care Day. The of Palatucci’s selfless heroism were a Palatucci used the story to persuade International by-product of that investigation. the Italian government to provide a Foundation has a paean to him on its e has been called the Italian alatucci has been credited with pension for Giovanni Palatucci’s par- Web site. Schindler, credited with helping H saving thousands of Jews ents. The account, she said, gained The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a to save 5,000 Jews during the P between 1940 and 1944 while he was momentum because it seemed to bol- Vatican spokesman, said in an e-mail Holocaust. Giovanni Palatucci, a police chief in Fiume, an Adriatic port ster the reputation of Pope Pius XII, that the Vatican was aware of the wartime police official, has been hon- city that was considered the first sym- whom Jewish groups have described questions raised and had asked a his- ored in Israel, in New York and in Italy, bol of Italy’s new Fascist Empire. (It is as being indifferent to genocide. torian to study the matter. where squares and promenades have now called Rijeka and “If anything, Giovanni n estimated 9,000 Jews were been named in his honor, and in the is part of .) Palatucci represents the deported from Italy during Vatican, where Pope John Paul II A When the Nazis occu- silence, self-righteous- World War II. But experts have noted declared him a martyr, a step toward pied the city in 1943, for ness and compliance of that, although the 45,000 Jews in Italy potential sainthood. example, Palatucci was many young Italian offi- were persecuted, most survived the But at the United States Holocaust said to have destroyed cers who enthusiastically war. Memorial Museum in Washington, the records to prevent the embraced Mussolini in his Still, many scholars portray the tale of his heroic exploits is being Germans from sending last disastrous steps,” Dr. belated claims of some Italians that removed from an exhibition after offi- Fiume’s Jews to con- Indrimi wrote in her letter they went out of their way to save cials there learned of new evidence centration camps. His to the United States Jews as part of an attempt to recast suggesting that, far from being a hero, own death at age 35 in Holocaust Memorial Italy’s Fascist past. “The default state- he was an enthusiastic Nazi collabo- a camp at Dachau Museum. Some of the evi- ment of every Fascist leader after the rator involved in the deportation of seemed to corroborate dence was presented at a war was that ‘I helped the Jews,’ ” Dr. Jews to Auschwitz. his valor. conference at New York Indrimi said. A letter sent to the museum’s direc- But Natalia Indrimi, University last year. Alexander Stille, a professor at the tor by the Centro Primo Levi at the the executive director Perhaps the greatest Columbia University journalism Center for Jewish History in New York of the Centro Primo Giovanni Palatucci. recognition Palatucci school who has reviewed some of the stated that a research panel of more Levi, said historians have been able received was being named in 1990 by documents, said the Palatucci case than a dozen scholars who reviewed to review these supposedly destroyed Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the was a result of three powerful institu- nearly 700 documents concluded that records in the Rijeka State Archives. Holocaust, as one of the Righteous tions, all with a vested interest in pub- for six years, Palatucci was “a willing What they show, said Dr. Indrimi, Among the Nations — an honor roll of licizing what appeared to be a heroic executor of the racial legislation and who coordinated the research, is that those who rescued Jews that also tale: “The Italian government was — after taking the oath to Mussolini’s Fiume had only 500 Jews by 1943, includes Oskar Schindler, the anxious to rehabilitate itself and show Social Republic, collaborated with the and that most of them — 412, or German industrialist who helped that they were better and more Nazis.” about 80 percent — ended up at 1,200 Jews avoid the death camps. humane than their Nazi allies. The The letter said that Italian and Auschwitz, a higher percentage than After receiving the historians’ report, Catholic Church was eager to tell a German records provided no evi- in any other Italian city. The research Yad Vashem said it had “commenced positive story about the church’s role dence that he had helped Jews dur- on Palatucci found that rather than the process of thoroughly examining during the war, and the State of Israel ing the war and that the first mention being police chief, he was the adjunct the documents,” Estee Yaari, the for- was eager to promote the idea of only surfaced years later, in 1952. deputy commissary responsible for eign media liaison, wrote in an e-mail. righteous gentiles and tell stories of Researchers also found documents enforcing Fascist Italy’s racial laws. The narrative of Palatucci’s selfless- right-minded ordinary people who that showed Palatucci had helped the What’s more, his deportation to ness became the subject of articles, helped to save ordinary Jews.” Germans identify Jews to round up. Dachau in 1944 was not related to books and a television movie. Mr. Stille, whose recent family mem- There is no established explanation saving Jews but to German accusa- Recently the Giovanni Palatucci oir, The Force of Things, includes a for how the account of Palatucci’s tions of embezzlement and treason Association credited his otherworldly tale about his Jewish grandfather in heroics took hold, but some experts for passing plans for the postwar intervention for the miraculous disap- Fiume, said, “Palatucci was the bene- say its persistence owed much to the independence of Fiume to the British. pearance of a man’s kidney tumor as ficiary of that.” flattering light it shed on Italy after the The report said it was possible that part of the case being made for saint- An article in the Italian newspaper war. Scholars said the new evidence Palatucci had helped a handful of hood. Corriere Della Sera said that a grow- surfaced in recent years as they people, although it was unclear The Anti-Defamation League ing chorus of historians and gained access to documents. The whether he had done this on the awarded Palatucci its Courage to researchers had called the Palatucci goal of their research, they said, was orders of superiors. Care Award on May 18, 2005, which rescue “a blatant scam orchestrated to understand the role of Fiume, the Dr. Indrimi said “the myth” surround- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in turn by friends and relatives.” city where Palatucci worked, as a LAWYERS MAKE CASE FOR GIVING IRAQI JEWS HOLOCAUST BENEFITS today’s enemies. Police officers sup- hacked to pieces. Women were the government recognize the victims BY OFER ADERET, posed to keep order took off their uni- raped. were damaged of the Farhud as victims of the Nazis, forms and joined in the killing,” she and Torah scrolls desecrated,” granting them compensation and hen the against ’s added. Her descriptions are horrific. according to a brief paper in Hebrew benefits according to the Disabled Jews known as the Farhud W “Pregnant women were taken off about the Farhud at Yad Vashem’s Victims of Nazi Persecution Law. erupted on eve in 1941, Hela buses, their abdomens were cut open Web site. Their claims, which were denied, Saref Kargola was 16 years old. She and the fetuses removed. Elderly “Why? Why? How did it happen that are now being clarified by an appeals lived with her family in central , people were beaten to death in the people who had been guests in committee. “If we do not convince a city in southern Iraq. streets. Entire homes were looted to Jewish homes a day or two before, them, we will appeal to the District “We were at home,” recalled their foundations.” who had worked with them and Court and even to the Supreme Kargola, who died in 2012. “When we According to statistics at Yad admired them, suddenly turned into Court,” say attorneys David Yadid, heard the mob screaming outside, we Vashem, 179 Jews were killed, more monsters? How did they change in Doron Atzmon and Sivan Batsri, went out onto the terrace. We saw than 2,000 wounded, and 50,000 such an awful way?” Kargola asked. experts in the rights of Holocaust sur- many Arabs crowding at Jewish were victims of theft during the A legal struggle that Farhud victims vivors and victims of Nazi persecu- homes, carrying dozens of household Farhud (an ancient word meaning are waging against Israel provides a tion, who brought the lawsuit. objects and furniture in their arms. imposing brutal terror on the subjects possible explanation of the motives. How much were the Nazis involved They emptied the Jews’ homes and of a regime). “Terrible acts of cruelty Based on the professional opinion of in Iraq? took whatever they could carry,” she were carried out during the pogrom. historians, the plaintiffs claim that A look at the professional opinion recalled. Babies, elderly people and women Nazi Germany was behind it. written by the historians recruited by “Yesterday’s neighbors became were murdered and their limbs Accordingly, they are demanding that (Continued on page 13) Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ANNUAL TRIBUTE DINNER OF T

Ron Meier, executive director of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council; Josh Gelnick; Eugen Gluck, trustee of the American Society for Ambassador Ron Prosor, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the , and Leonard Wilf, Yad Vashem, and Yaakov Katz. Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem.

Leonard Wilf, ASYV Chairman, recognizes Righteous Among the Nations and Marc Chagall, whom he saved, by presenting an award to Bella Meyer, the granddaughter of Marc Chagall, Mark Moskowitz, dinner chair, inaugurates the 2014 Annual Tribute Dinner with Leonard Wilf, and James Fry, the son of Varian Fry. They were introduced by Caroline Massel, trustee. Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem.

Jeremy Halpern; Abbi Halpern, Co-Chair, Young Leadership Associates; Gladys Halpern; Sharon Honoree Sigmund Rolat with his family. Halpern; and David Halpern, trustee. November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 THE AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM

Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein, trustees; and Leslie and Michael Adler. Sima Katz, Rita and David Levy, Rebecca Levy and Matthew Levy leading Hamotzi.

H.E. Ido Aharoni, Consul General of Israel in New York. Barry Levine and Abbi Halpern, Young Leadership Associates Co-Chairs. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM

HOLOCAUST EXPERTS WORK TO PRESERVE WWII-ERA ITEMS lously handwritten phrase: “Memory Israel’s aging population of less than where they are treated and preserved BY ARON HELLER, AP is the only heaven from which you 200,000 survivors and their relatives. with an attempt to maintain their origi- cannot be expelled.” The goal of the “Gathering the nal feel. Then they go to the digital ith survivors dying in growing It’s the central challenge for Yad Fragments” project is to collect as services department, where they are numbers and their live testi- W Vashem and other Holocaust muse- many artifacts as possible before the scanned, photographed and filed. monies soon to be a thing of the past, ums around the world — keeping the survivors — and their stories — are The scanning provides a secure Holocaust commemoration efforts are memory of the Holocaust alive after gone forever. copy in case the original deteriorates, increasingly focused around preserv- its last survivors pass away. The diary in Gertner’s hands was and allows the documents to be post- ing the belongings that contain their ed online for those unable to visit the stories. museum. In October Israel’s Yad Vashem Gertner said Yad Vashem scans Holocaust memorial held a first-of-its- nearly 20 million documents a year kind workshop devoted to the physi- and has accumulated 350,000 hours cal and digital preservation of docu- of audio and video testimony. Within ments. Over three days, visiting inter- four to five years, all of Yad Vashem national experts discussed the ethical will be digitized, he said. and technical challenges of conserv- But for many wanting to connect ing originals for history’s sake while emotionally, the virtual experience is creating a vast digital archive to make not enough, said Jane E. Klinger, the them more accessible and user- chief conservator at the United States friendly. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The two approaches are not mutu- “In a typical digitization program, the ally exclusive,” said Doris A. focus is to capture information on a Hamburg, director of preservation Yad Vashem archive director Haim Gertner shows a musical score with German lyrics at the Yad page without necessarily capturing projects at the U.S. National Archives Vashem Holocaust memorial archives in Jerusalem. the context of that information and the and Records Administration. he German Nazis and their col- just one such item to be recently context of the page,” she said. “Accessibility is a major goal for so laborators murdered six million acquired. But for such a relic to sur- “If digitization were enough, why is it many institutions, and conservation T Jews during World War II, wiping out vive, the museum can’t allow every that, at least in the United States, in helps to facilitate that.” a third of world Jewry. In addition to visitor to get his or her hands on it. this digital age, museum attendance In the underground Yad Vashem rounding up Jews and shipping them Upon arrival at Yad Vashem, the is increasing overall?” she asked. archive containing stacks upon stacks to death camps, the Nazis also confis- items go through a sorting process. “It’s because people want to see the of original documents, books and cated their possessions and stole They are then disinfected and original. They want to get the material microfilm, its director Haim Gertner their valuables, leaving little behind. scanned for posterity before it is sense of it. Artifacts, whether they are carefully slipped on a pair of white Those who survived often had just a decided whether they are in good documents, manuscripts, photo- gloves before sifting through a pile of small item or two they managed to enough condition to go on display in graphs, bowls from Auschwitz — I see cracked, yellowing pages from a diary keep. Many have clung to the senti- the museum or whether they should them as memory in a concrete form, rescued from a burning on mental objects ever since. be stored in the archives. in tangible form. Somebody can tell . In recent years, Yad Vashem has The institute’s paper conversion lab- you a memory, you can remember The brittle pages were falling apart; embarked on a last-ditch effort to col- oratory is often referred to as the “hos- something, but you can’t really hold it their corners still had traces of soot. lect as many items as possible from pital” for fragile documents and items, or see it.” From it he read the following meticu- “SOBBING AT THEIR OWN FUNERAL” The Destruction of Thessaloniki’s altiel, a doctoral candidate at multifaceted issues. Saltiel also uses BY DR. DAVID SILBERKLANG Jewish Cemetery”; and Dr. Lea Sthe University of Macedonia in the story of the destruction of the Prais’ “‘Jews from the World to Thessaloniki, recounts the story of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki as a cholars often discover new mate- Come’: The First Testimonies of destruction of the ancient Jewish case study on the triangular relations rial that sheds light on historical S Escapees from Chełmno and cemetery in the town that began in between the Jews, the German events, or at times examine docu- Treblinka in the , December 1942, progressed rapidly, occupation forces, and the local ments that have long been accessible 1942–1943.” The springboards for and was completed by the municipal- elites on the eve of the deportations. but have evaded scrutiny. The latter both articles are items that scholars ity of the liberated city after the end of The Greeks in this story had various was the case with Jan Tomasz Gross’s have known — the ancient Jewish the war. More than 500,000 graves options, regarding both the destruc- book Neighbors, first published in cemetery in Thessaloniki (Salonika), were uprooted; gravestones were tion of the cemetery and also the Polish in 2000 (English and Hebrew, Greece, was destroyed during the used as building materials, even deportations to death for which the 2001). The core source for this book, Nazi occupation; and the first testi- until very recently; and Aristotle destruction laid the groundwork. arguably one of the most important monies by escapees from the above- University was built on the ruins of Saltiel uses new documentation from books in the last 30 years on the mentioned extermination camps the cemetery. This is the first article a wide variety of sources alongside Shoah in Poland, was a survivor testi- were by Jakub Grojnowski (Szlamek) to analyze this event in depth, the previously known details to mony that had been available in and Yaakov Krzepicki. Actually, even probing the roles of the main demonstrate clearly that not only did archives since 1945 and a synopsis in the names of these escapees, nei- German and Greek actors behind the local leaders not protest the that appeared in print in two earlier ther of whom survived the Shoah, the cemetery’s destruction and the destruction, but they were also eager publications in the 1980s. But it took there is new information. For, as we subsequent allocation of the land to see it done and jumped into action Gross’s incisive analysis and skilled now know, Grojnowski was actually a and reuse of the tombstones. Local with alacrity. They initiated and ben- writing to bring to our attention the sig- cover name for Szlamek (Szlomo), and regional Greek officials, including efited from the destruction of the nificance of the murder of the Jews of whose family name is uncertain Church figures, were deeply complicit cemetery and subsequently, during Jedwabne by their neighbors. This (Feiner, Wiener or Bajler), and in the desecration and destruction, the deportations to extermination opened the door to a new, ongoing Krzepicki was not Avraham, as near- and even decades later various camps, turned a blind eye to their and important branch of research on ly all publications have heretofore church officials claimed not to under- Jewish neighbors’ fate. The article is Polish-Jewish relations during the war. indicated, but Yaakov. stand why using Jewish tombstones accompanied by damning photos The latest issue of Yad Vashem What have Saltiel and Prais found, as building materials might be objec- showing the desecration in process Studies (42:1, 2014) features two and what light does this shed on the tionable. The roles of these people as well as local attitudes even many such groundbreaking articles: Leon Shoah? during and after the war raise many (Continued on page 15) Saltiel’s “Dehumanizing the Dead: November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 THE CYCLIST WHO SAVED JEWS IN WARTIME ITALY rider triumphed in the Tour it would courier. On the face of it he was about it. If you talk about it you’re tak- BY PETER CRUTCHLEY, BBC show that Italians too belonged to the undertaking the long training rides for ing advantage of others’ misfortunes master race,” says Bartali’s son which he was renowned, but in reality for your own gain.’” e had everything to lose. His Andrea in Jacoby’s film. he was carrying photographs and According to Jacoby, Bartali’s reti- story is one of the most dra- “H “It was a matter of national pride counterfeit identity documents to and cence is a “defining characteristic” of matic examples during World War II of and Fascist prestige that my father from a secret printing press. many of the Italians who were willing an Italian willing to risk his own life to won the 1938 Tour, so he was under All were hidden in the frame and to risk their lives in World War II. save the lives of strangers.” real pressure.” handlebars of his bicycle. Film director Oren Jacoby is Bartali was invited to dedicate his “We’ve seen documentation that he describing , one of the win to Mussolini, but refused. It was a traveled thousands of kilometers leading cyclists of his era — a three- grave insult to Il Duce and a big risk to across Italy, traveling the roads time winner of the Giro d’Italia, who take. between cities as far apart as also notched up two Tour de In the middle of that year’s Tour, Florence, Lucca, Genoa, Assisi, and victories, 10 years apart, before and Mussolini had published a Manifesto the Vatican in Rome,” says Jacoby. after the war. By taking on this role, he put himself at huge risk. At one point he was arrested and questioned by the head of the Fascist secret police in Florence, where he lived. For a period he went into hiding, liv- ing incognito in the town of Citta Di Castello in Umbria. In addition to this, Bartali hid his Bartali’s son Andrea visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel. Jewish friend Giacomo Goldenberg, and Goldenberg’s family. “He didn’t want to be acknowledged “He hid us in spite of knowing that for what he had done: few of those he the Germans were killing everybody helped ever knew his name or what who was hiding Jews,” Goldenberg’s role he had played in their rescue,” son, Giorgio, says in Jacoby’s film. says Jacoby. Gino Bartali competing in the Tour de France in 1938. “He was risking not only his life but Last September he was posthumous- on Race, which led later to Jews being also his family. Gino Bartali saved my ly awarded with the honor Righteous During his lifetime, Bartali didn’t talk stripped of citizenship or any position in life and the life of my family. That’s Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. about his wartime activities. government or the professions. clear because if he hadn’t hidden us, “When Bartali was stopped and It was only after his death in 2000 Italy remained, however, a country we had nowhere to go.” searched, he specifically asked that that details began to emerge, and in which Jews could take refuge, until Approximately 80% of Italian and his bicycle not be touched since the Jacoby fills in some remaining gaps in it surrendered to the Allies in 1943. refugee Jews living in Italy before different parts were very carefully cal- a Storyville documentary film about The German army then occupied World War II survived, partly thanks to ibrated to achieve maximum speed,” Italy’s secret heroes, due to be pre- northern and central parts of the the efforts of Italian sympathizers. the citation points out. miered this year. country and immediately started t’s taken a lot of detective work, by Andrea Bartali says his father Bartali, a villager from a poor rounding up Jews and sending them Ia number of people, to piece refused to view his actions as heroic. Tuscan family, was reaching the peak to concentration camps. Bartali’s story together over the last “When people were telling him, of his career as the war approached. At this point Bartali, a devout 14 years. ‘Gino, you’re a hero’, he would reply: He won his first Giro d’Italia in 1936, Catholic, was asked by the Cardinal Andrea Bartali says that eventually lit- ‘No, no — I want to be remembered retaining the title in 1937. Then — to of Florence, Archbishop Elia Dalla tle by little, his father told him about his for my sporting achievements. Real Italy’s delight — he won the 1938 Tour Costa, to join a secret network offer- actions during the war, but made him heroes are others, those who have de France. It was a moment the coun- ing protection and safe passsage to promise not to tell anyone at that time. suffered in their soul, in their heart, in try’s Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, Jews and other endangered people. “When I asked my father why I their spirit, in their mind, for their had been looking forward to eagerly. His role in the network was uniquely couldn’t tell anyone, he said, ‘You loved ones. Those are the real “Mussolini believed that if an Italian suited to his talents — he became a must do good, but you must not talk heroes. I’m just a cyclist.’” LESS THAN HALF UNDER AGE 35 ARE AWARE OF HOLOCAUST f you’re under 35, chances are percentage (93 percent) of people “a myth and didn’t happen.” And while 26 percent of respon- Iyou’re unaware of the Holocaust. who agree with at least six of those Abraham Foxman, longtime head of dents said they believed six or more So says a new global survey released statements. Those areas, known col- the New York–based Anti-Defamation of the anti-Jewish statements were by the Anti-Defamation League, lectively as the Palestinian territories, League, called the results “sobering.” “probably true,” more (28 percent) which found less than half of respon- are home to more than four milllion “You would think — I would think — said none were true. dents (48 percent) under age 35 knew Palestinians and have long been a that 70 years after the Holocaust, with The survey also “didn’t find a cor- about it. focus of violence and controversy all the marvels of communication, of relation between anti-Semitism and By contrast, 61 percent of those between Israel and the Arab world. greater openness, that [anti- anti-Israel views,” the Journal noted. over 50 said they knew about the Iraq had the highest number of Semitism] would be low,” Foxman told In the Netherlands, for example, Holocaust, during which six million respondents in any single country, 92 the Wall Street Journal. the survey showed 43 percent of the Jews and as many as five million percent, expressing anti-Semitic In the United States, 9 percent of population had a negative attitude Roma, gays, political and war prison- views. Combined, the Middle East those surveyed held anti-Semitic toward Israel, but 5 percent accept- ers, and others were murdered by the and North had the highest num- views, down from 29 percent in 1964. ed six or more of the anti-Semitic Nazi regime in Germany from 1939 to ber of respondents (74 percent) with Laos was the least anti-Semitic coun- statements. 1945. anti-Semitic views. , at 56 per- try, according to the poll, with a frac- The Anti-Defamation League survey The poll, which included 53,100 cent, had the lowest of any country in tion (0.2 percent) expressing stereo- comes after an annual report, interviews in 96 languages in 101 that region. typical views. released by Tel Aviv University and countries, found about a quarter of Elsewhere, Greece had the highest n terms of global anti-Semitism, the European Jewish Congress in the world’s population believes some percentage, with nearly seven in 10 Ithe poll wasn’t all bad news. Less April, which found anti-Jewish attacks negative stereotypes about Jews are people (69 percent) claiming some than a quarter of respondents in west- fell by nearly 20 percent in 2013. “probably true,” including “Jews are agreement with Jewish stereotypes. ern Europe (24 percent) expressed However, the same report conclud- more loyal to Israel than [their home] The poll also found that 28 percent anti-Semitic views. Another poll, ed anti-Semitism — in the form of country” and “Jews have too much believe the number of Jews who died released by the Pew Charitable “visual and verbal expressions, power in the business world.” in the Holocaust has been greatly Trusts’ research center, found favor- insults, abusive language and The survey found the West Bank exaggerated. Four percent of global able views of Jews are on the rise in behavior, threats and harassments” and the Gaza Strip had the highest respondents said the Holocaust was Europe. — is on the rise. Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 THE HOLOCAUST’S FOREMOST UNSUNG HERO (Continued from page 3) people back to Budapest.” “It was a miracle from above that “On Shabbat we would hold a col- in some cases they are recognized as In November 1944, the systematic 3,000 people were able to fit inside lective Kiddush and everyone sang. forgeries by the authorities and their extermination of Jews left outside the that building. The conditions were not During Hanukkah we lit candles. We holders are sent to the extermination safe houses begins. Death marches to good, but it was Holocaust deluxe weren’t sad together, but each one of camps. the Austrian border take 2,000 Jews to compared to what the people on the us was sad by himself. Everyone had When Eichmann and the S.S. seek to their deaths each day, in the blistering outside were going through. I lived in one suitcase that served as a closet bring all the Jews in the Budapest ghet- cold. Kraus and Lutz debate whether a niche between the office and the top as well as a partition from the person to to prepare them for transportation to or not to continue issuing Schutz- floor, together with several other peo- sleeping on the other side. extermination camps, Kraus approach- Passes, because if they were to issue ple. Everyone tried to keep them- “The youngsters who were out es Lutz and asks him to grant addition- more papers than they were allotted, selves occupied, so they wouldn’t go dressed as Nazis also made sure al houses extraterritorial status. Lutz the trick would likely be discovered, completely crazy,” he says. there was food, and we got food from purchases 76 houses in Budapest and jeopardizing the entire operation. In “There was a cellar for Orthodox the Red Cross. Peas, mushrooms, gives them Swiss immunity. the end they decide to keep going. Jews. They studied Torah in there cans. The sanitary conditions were Thousands of Jews possessing Swiss Clerks and youth movement mem- without stopping. There was an attic rough — there were only four or five documents are given refuge in these bers work entire nights signing certifi- for the Hapoel Hamizrachi party. bathrooms for 3,000 people. People safe houses. These houses are seen cates. Kraus’ people and members of There was a cellar for Hashomer stood in line for the bathroom for as Swiss territory in every respect, and the Swedish and Swiss legations go Hatzair with counselors for children hours. We bathed once a week. Men their inhabitants are protected from out into the streets, handing out life- and lectures for adults. There was no bathed in the yard in subzero tem- being deported or taken to work saving papers with the ink still wet. shortage of lecturers, professors and peratures, and the women used one camps. The Red Cross provides them They go to the death marches and doctors among us. I remember some- pail filled with ice water in a corner. with food and basic supplies. hand out Schutz-Passes. The one handing out fliers about choir Once a week it was obscured with a Lutz’s daring plan is adopted by other Hungarians are forced to release rehearsals.” curtain. diplomats hailing from neutral coun- another group of people every time. Friedman helped affix photos to “Every day in the afternoon we had tries. Swedish diplomat Raoul Holocaust researcher Dr. Ayala printed certificates. “The documents a Bnei Akiva meeting. We sang and Wallenberg turns 28 houses in Nadivi explains that “it made no differ- didn’t provide absolute protection, but talked about Eretz Israel. We heard Budapest into Swedish territory, hous- most of the Nazis that all the Jews in Europe had been ing 4,500 Jews. The Spanish, honored them. There murdered. All my relatives in Poland Portuguese and Vatican legations were instances, how- and Vienna. My mother’s eight sib- arrive at a similar agreement with the ever, when they tore lings. We never knew if we would sur- Hungarian authorities: is allowed the paper into pieces vive. Every day was a surprise. We to hand out 1,500 certificates, Portugal and took the Jew.” asked ourselves questions. We knew 700 and the Vatican 3,000. Signs are Didn’t the Nazis that we had a job — to keep the fire posted on the safe houses declaring notice that tens of burning and go to Israel to build a that they are under the protection of the thousands of Jews Jewish life.” legation and that foreigners are not became Swiss Meir Friedman met his wife after the allowed to enter. All the houses protect- nationals right under war, at a Bnei Akiva chapter in ed by foreign legations are dubbed an their nose? Hungary. Together they moved to “international ghetto.” “Maybe they did Israel as part of the youth movement, Kraus purchases another factory, a Jews near Moshe Kraus’ Glass House. notice, but they and later married and had three chil- textile mill, and rents the football ence who received [the documents]. couldn’t change extraterritorial laws. dren and many grandchildren and association headquarters that shares Young, old, men, women, they gave They wanted to show the world that great-grandchildren. a wall with the Glass House in order them to whomever they could.” they respected international law. n February 1945, with the libera- to house the thousands of Jews he According to Kraus’ own account, “On December 31, members of the tion of Budapest, it became clear aims to save. Some 3,000 people up to 60 or 70 thousand people were Arrow Cross entered the Glass House I that more than 100,000 Jews in the crowd into the Glass House alone, in the safe houses. “It emerged that compound in order to take us to the city had survived. Several days sleeping side by side, head to toes, only 32,000 Jews were in the ghetto, Danube. I will never forget it, because before the liberation, the owner of the not daring to leave the building for while there were some 150,000 Jews of the bitter cold. We were outside for Glass House, Arthur Weiss, was any reason. They sleep in every avail- in Budapest at the time,” Kraus wrote two hours, until the Swiss embassy able space, in cellars, in hallways, on after the war. “That is when the intervened and they were forced to let caught and murdered by the Nazis. tables, in attics. On Shabbat they all authorities decided to start looking for us go back in. Apparently the ruling His wife and son survived, and moved hold a collective Kiddush. the missing Jews.” rabble wanted to be seen as a legiti- to the U.S. after the war. Youngsters belonging to the Zionist The attacks against the remaining mate government, so they respected Carl Lutz was one of the first to be youth movement become Kraus’ assis- Jews become worse. The Nazis start the Swiss.” awarded the title “Righteous Gentile” tants. Pinhas Rosenbaum, a young taking Jews to the banks of the Friedman’s wife, Vera (Zipora) by Yad Vashem. In 1965, Israel Hungarian Jew at the Glass House, Danube River, stripping them of their arrived in Budapest from Vienna at issued a medal in his honor, and a gets his hands on an Arrow Cross uni- clothes and shooting them to death. the age of 5, shortly after street in was named after him. form and goes out in disguise every Their bodies are then thrown into the Kristallnacht. Her father was taken to Moshe Kraus moved to Israel and day to hand out dozens of Schutz- river. a work camp, and she and her moth- ran an institution for young boys. He Passes to Jews. Tova Singer, a 12- er hid with relatives in the city. When married a Holocaust survivor from “WE SLEPT ON THE TABLES” year-old girl, takes a forged document she was 11, the Arrow Cross rose to Budapest. The two had no children. stating that she is Christian, and helps he Arrow Cross tries to enter the power. The Swiss government honored transport orphan children from the T Glass House and the other safe “One day, Pinhas Rosenbaum came Kraus for saving 30,000 Hungarian ghetto to Red Cross orphanages. houses several times, under the pre- to us dressed as a Nazi officer. We Jews. eir Friedman, a Glass House text that they are looking for forged were startled. We didn’t know who he At the end of the war, when the Msurvivor, recalls how the docu- documents, but they retreat after Lutz was. After the guard left the building, Jewish Agency told Lutz that he would ment disseminators became bolder steps in, asserting the buildings’ diplo- he immediately started speaking be inducted into the Jewish National and bolder as time went by. “Dr. matic immunity. Yiddish so that we wouldn’t be Fund’s “Golden Book” of honor and Shendor Unger, one of the Zionist Meir Friedman was 18 years old scared. He took my mother and me to that a ceremony would be held to bureaucrats, took a consulate vehicle when he entered the Glass House. In the Glass House,” she recounts. honor him, he thanked them, but and drove alongside the death march the spring of 1944 he and his family “The front of the building was informed them that it was Kraus who from Budapest to Vienna. Those who fled from northern Hungary and head- impressive and unusual. It was made should receive the honor, because were able to say their names were ed to Budapest. “Lutz was a true entirely of glass. Inside were offices, a without him, the operation would have provided with documents on the spot, righteous gentile. After all, he would yard and warehouses. People slept never succeeded. As the ceremony in the car. They filled out a form and have had to be blind not to see on huge tables, and beneath them. neared, Lutz wrote the JNF again handed it to them. In 90 percent of the through the maneuver that Kraus and Twenty people on the table and asking them to recognize Kraus’ con- cases, the Hungarians had no choice the Zionist youth movement had another ten below. There were fami- tribution. But then, at the lavish cere- but to honor these papers. Another undertaken. Lutz pretended not to lies in every corner. We lived on the mony, no one mentioned Kraus. Only car that followed the march took those know,” Friedman recalls. ground floor.” Lutz praised him again and again. November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 LAWYERS MAKE CASE FOR GIVING IRAQI JEWS HOLOCAUST BENEFITS (Continued from page 7) elsewhere.” He added, “There was no “They made an effort to emulate and Germany responded with indiffer- the parties provides a fascinating expectation, and certainly no order, adopt the extremely anti-Semitic slo- ence. It was only toward the end that glimpse into the historical debate from the German government to the gans and tendencies of the Hitler they agreed to send limited assis- about Nazi Germany’s influence in Iraqi government to carry out any gov- Youth,” wrote Professor Michael tance, which contributed nothing to Iraq and the suffering that the Nazis ernment activity inside Iraq, and cer- Eppel, former head of the Department the administration in ,” he caused to Jews living in Arab coun- tainly not one of violent incidents or of Middle Eastern History at the wrote. tries, far from occupied Europe. killing of Jews.” University of Haifa. This youth move- The historical material includes min- The historical documents in ment later participated in the pogrom, utes of a German military discussion, archives in Israel and abroad were together with other groups. “The influ- the Nazi foreign ministry’s correspon- collected for the plaintiffs by ence of Nazi Germany was the decid- dence, British army intelligence Professor Yitzchak Kerem, an expert ing factor in directing anger on the reports and the report of the inves- on Spanish and Oriental Jewry. In his street toward physical attack, a tigative committee established in Iraq professional opinion, he wrote, “The pogrom against the Jews,” he wrote. after the pogrom. The Iraqi prime min- deciding factor in the outbreak of the “The Iraqi politicians who encouraged Farhud was Nazi it and handed out weapons to the incitement against worked-up crowd were among Iraq’s Jews, which Germany’s strongest supporters, and was carried out by they were very strongly influenced by the Nazi regime the spirit of Facscism and .” through the represen- Dr. Toby disagrees. “Of the many tatives and agents it factors that created the hostile atmos- appointed.” phere toward the Jews inside Iraq, the He draws a firm German one is at the bottom of the conclusion. “The list. It was marginal, perhaps almost Farhud must be seen negligible, in comparison with other as an integral part of factors,” he wrote, adding, “The mere Hela Kargola. the Holocaust that existence of propaganda is not Indeed, the German attempt to help the Nazi regime enough... to base a conclusion about the Iraqis fight the British failed. On Violence in Iraq before the Farhud. brought on our peo- a link, expectation or intent by the May 29, 1941, after the British ister, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani; the Mufti ple.” He calls the Farhud “the Germans to carry out an act against reached the gates of Baghdad, al- of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini; Kristallnacht of Iraqi Jewry.” the Jews inside Iraq.” Gaylani fled from Iraq. The Jews and his book ; Historian Dr. Nissim Kazaz, an Another figure at the center of the thought that the danger had passed, the Nazi radio station that broadcast expert on Iraqi Jewry whose father claim is the Iraqi prime minister at the and on the morning of the Shavuot from Berlin and had reception in Iraq; was killed in the riots, claims that the time, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, who festival, June 1, 1941, they emerged and the Fascist youth movement that pogrom was “indisputably” the result seized power in a coup in 1941 and wearing their holiday clothing to wel- mirrored Germany’s all of “ongoing anti-Jewish incitement by established a pro-Nazi government come the pro-British ruler, who had play major roles in the material. the emissaries of Nazi Germany and that lasted for two months — the returned to Iraq. But Iraqi troops set The plaintiffs claim that the riots the Arab leaders who joined with pogrom took place immediately upon upon them, and within hours Jews against the Jews in Iraq were “a direct them.” He said, “The participants in the fall of this government. were being attacked all over the city result of incitement and deliberate, the pogrom were organizations, mili- Professor Kerem collected testi- and in other places as well. organized German-Nazi propaganda tary people and police officers monies proving that al-Gaylani’s gov- “‘Farhud, ya ummat Muhammad!’ whose purpose was to make the Jews steeped in Nazi ideology beside the ernment had been funded by the (Farhud, O nation of Mohammed!) hateful to the Arab inhabitants of Iraq rioters, whom had been incited by Nazis. In a telegram sent on May 21, was the cry of the mob when the sig- and motivate them to strike at the Nazi Germany’s lackeys in Iraq.” He 1941 from Baghdad, Dr. Grobba, nal was given to murder and rob the Jews.” Attorneys Yadid and Batsri are also believes that the victims of the Germany’s ambassador in Iraq, Jews,” Hela Kargola later said. convinced that “the Germans were Farhud should be regarded as “insep- writes that he transferred tens of thou- “Thousands, regardless of gender, directly linked to the people who arable from the victims and those sands of gold ingots to al-Gaylani. age or status, took part in the celebra- fueled, instigated and organized the affected by the Holocaust of Alongside that, he gives an update tion of slaughter and theft.” riots, supported them and directed European Jewry.” about al-Gaylani’s request for 80,000 Were the Nazis behind the pogrom, them.” They add: “The broad scope of o understand the Nazis’ influ- more gold ingots and mentions the or was it a spontaneous outbreak of the riots... and other historical T ence in Iraq, we must return to agreement that was about to be frustrated Iraqis? Researchers differ. sources prove that there was a direct- 1932, the year the British mandate signed between Germany and Iraq, In the heat of the dispute, an embar- ing hand behind the riots — the hand ended there. Dr. , an as part of which the Nazis would grant rassing situation has been created in of Nazi Germany.” They see Iraq as a Orientalist and German diplomat sta- a loan of one million gold ingots to which the state is being asked to satellite and a vassal state of Nazi tioned in Iraq as Germany’s ambas- their allies in Baghdad. defend the strongly pro-Nazi Dr. Germany. sador, established the Nazi hold oney and propaganda were not Grobba. In his professional opinion, But on the other side of the barri- there. Before that, he had served in Mthe only things the Nazis pro- Dr. Toby wrote that Grobba “was not cade is the the German consulate in Jerusalem vided to Baghdad. They also sent of the sort of people who were sworn Rights Authority at the Finance and fought on the Palestine front dur- weapons to Iraq in an attempt to help Nazis,” but rather “a professional Ministry, whose officials claim that ing . Among other activi- the Iraqis fight against a common diplomat who evidently stayed in Nazi involvement in Iraq was margin- ties, he acquired the newspaper Al- enemy — the British. Professor office when the Nazis came to power, al, meaning the case of Iraqi Jewry is Alam Al-Arabi, in which he published Kerem found evidence of that in the not because of strong faith in Nazi not like that of other Jews subject to an translation of Mein Kampf archives of Germany’s Foreign ideology.” Nazi rule. The Authority says that the and other essays containing anti- Ministry and Defense Ministry. He Dr. Kazaz, the plaintiffs’ expert, was riots were caused by other factors, Semitic propaganda. He sent Iraqi says that in the minutes of a meeting irritated to read these assertions. such as traditional hatred of Jews, a officers and intellectuals on trips to of the supreme German command “The truth is that Dr. Grobba was a fight against supporters of the British Germany as guests of the Nazi party. from May 7, 1941, it is written that professional diplomat serving his and support for the Palestinian He also gave financial support to “Hitler decided to assist Iraq in every country and his homeland. And let us national struggle. nationalist youth groups in Iraq and possible way, including sending arms, say that he was ‘not of the sort of peo- “Germany did not go out of its way provided them with Nazi propaganda ammunition, money and military aid.” ple who were sworn Nazis,’ by Dr. to infiltrate Iraqi territory and establish materials. A delegation from the Al- Dr. Toby interprets this differently. Toby’s definition. The question still a physical or ideological foothold Fatwa nationalist youth movement “The Iraqis were courting the remains: what kind of Nazi does Dr. there,” writes Dr. Yaacov Toby of the even visited Germany in May 1938, Germans enthusiastically and beg- Toby think he was? And even if we University of Haifa in his professional attended the Nazi party conference in ging for their political, financial and work on the assumption that he was opinion. “Berlin’s affairs were directed Nuremberg and returned to Iraq military assistance. Throughout most not a sworn Nazi, he still remains in toward the European continent, not armed with anti-Jewish messages. of the period under discussion, the category of a Nazi.” Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 THE NAZI DOCTOR WHO GOT AWAY WITH MASS MURDER (Continued from page 4) ditches, many asserted that only a few and in this way they augmented their ed in absentia and his livelihood al coded letters to his family in leading Nazis had real blood on their fathers’ crimes. Yet Rüdiger Heim seized. He was forced to move to a Germany, but even his fellow Nazis in hands. After Ulm came the 1960s: the comes off rather well in Kulish and small room in one of Cairo’s many Egypt didn’t know him. As Kulish and Eichmann trial, the Frankfurt Mekhennet’s book: He deplores anti- run-down hotels, where he became Mekhennet remark, the irony of Auschwitz trial, and the explosion of Semitism and is haunted by the friends with the landlord’s children Heim’s life is that, had he stood trial in rage from left-wing terrorists who German guilt for the Holocaust. He and tried to teach them English and West Germany, he probably would announced that postwar Germany was just can’t believe that his own father French. (Heim was a fluent speaker of have gotten only a few years in still a Fascist regime. (America and did what history says that he did. both languages, along with Arabic.) prison. German sentences for Nazi Israel were also Fascist, according to His landlord and his dentist started criminals like Heim were notoriously the Red Army Faction, who wound up *** talking to him about the Muslim faith, light, and acquittals were easily had. spreading Nazi guilt too thin and dis- hen Heim landed in Egypt in and soon Heim was reading the Most Nazi perpetrators were not tried placing it onto its victims.) W 1963, he found himself on Quran. Heim embraced Islam in 1980 at all. By telling Heim’s story, The welcoming, even familiar ground. and took the new name Tarek Eternal Nazi shows how long it took President Nasser, if one trusts his Hussein Farid. for Germany to fully reckon with its own words on the subject, was as His conversion might have been sin- Nazi past — a good 30 years. true a disciple of the Nazi cause as cere, but perhaps he merely wanted a *** had ever lived. “During the Second better disguise, afraid that Aribert Heim or the most part, we think that World War, our sympathies were with was now a household name, and that Fthere are two kinds of perpetra- the Germans,” Nasser told the the law was closing in on him. tors of war crimes. There is the ordi- Deutsche Nationalzeitung in May ulish and Mekhennet show that nary man (or, very rarely, woman) 1964, adding that “The lie of the six Kthe search for Heim was really who lapses into, or becomes habituat- million murdered Jews is not taken the work of one man: Alfred Aedtner ed to, killing, and there is the brutal seriously by anybody.” Wehrmacht (who was aided by the famous Nazi monster. There might be some cases General Wilhelm Fahrmbacher pre- hunter Simon Wiesenthal). in between, though, and Heim could pared the Egyptian army for its effort Aedtner was a Wehrmacht veteran be one of them. Unlike Mengele, who to destroy Israel in 1948, and Wilhelm who, after he became a police detec- was a psychopathic torturer through Voss, a former SS weapons expert, tive in 1964, tirelessly pursued and through, Heim is in some ways a developed the Egyptian missile pro- German war criminals at a time when more doubtful instance, and therefore gram. , a convert to most of his fellow Germans wanted to a more important one. He was sup- Islam known as Omar Amin, served forget or excuse the “excesses” of the posed to be particularly evil because Dr. Aribert Heim. Nasser as an anti-Semitic propagan- Third Reich — or protect the perpetra- he talked to his victims sympathetical- The terrorists were blood-soaked dist. Von Leers was famous for his tors. The nondescript Aedtner was a ly before he killed them. But perhaps fanatics, but they did get one thing lavish dinner parties, where his wife mild, well-dressed aficionado of he was just being ambivalent rather right: In postwar Germany, prominent Gisele strutted about in primitive-look- schnitzel and beer whose steely drive than sadistic: an even more frighten- ex-Nazis thrived at all levels of society, ing gold jewelry and hinted that she to bring Nazis to justice is never com- ing idea. including the highest echelons of gov- was the reincarnation of a Bronze Age pletely explained. Aedtner is the other Olga Lengyel, a survivor of ernment. The Nazi past eventually priestess. The circle of old Nazis in protagonist of The Eternal Nazi, and Auschwitz, remarked that less than became the defining mark of German Egypt was riddled with spies. he is every bit as significant as the 10 percent of the SS men there were national identity. At least in West Because of the CIA’s partnership with vampiric entity of the title. Heim plays sadists; in fact, she couldn’t remem- Germany, starting in the 1980s, every ex-Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen, that ageless near-mythic figure, the ber a German who had not saved schoolchild saw pictures of emaciated many of the SS men in Egypt drew evil man with a clear conscience, someone at some point. Yet most corpses and was told that all Germans American paychecks. The most unrepentant to the end. The stolid people were not saved but murdered, were responsible for the horror. The intriguing figure in this crew was Aedtner is simply a professional and sadism mixed readily with occa- meaning of being German, the school- Wolfgang Lotz, who was actually a called to a task. sional gestures of sympathy. The children learned, was that Germany blond, blue-eyed, German-born Jew It is just as unclear to Aedtner’s son recent, groundbreaking book by the could never do anything like that masquerading as a Nazi. Lotz in fact as it is to Kulish and Mekhennet why historian Wendy Lower, Hitler’s again. But in the 1950s and ’60s the worked for . Wary of this Aedtner was so dedicated to prose- Furies, delves into this ethical confu- conscience-struck teaching of German treacherous atmosphere, Heim had cuting Nazis, a job that meant travel- sion. Lower’s focus is on German guilt had not yet begun, and Nazi his- minimal contact with the other ex- ing all over Europe to take testi- women who committed atrocities in tory existed mostly in what fathers Nazis in Egypt; in this as in so much monies, tracking down endless hints the East; and some of them seem to refused to say to their children, what else, he was a man alone. about potential witnesses, and fol- have been rather kind in some ways. husbands concealed from their wives. In February 1979 broke lowing up tantalizing rumors that The reader keeps coming back to the Some children rejected their fathers the story that Dr. Aribert Heim, a Nazi almost never panned out. (Heim incident of one woman, Erna Petri utterly; some demanded to know war criminal whose location was was, over the years, said to be in (the only one of Lower’s subjects to more; and some loyally made excuses unknown, was supporting himself by Spain, Chile and a number of other serve time for her murders), who first for Nazi misdeeds. profits from his Berlin apartment places where he never set foot.) gave food to a hungry group of Like Mengele’s son Rolf, Rüdiger building; the money was being chan- Aedtner’s son says, “He wanted to Jewish boys and then shot them in Heim shielded a murderer: He visited neled through Heim’s sister. In order get them,” the Verbrecher, the Nazi the back of the neck, just as Hitler’s his father secretly, kept his where- to avoid getting in trouble for tax eva- wrongdoers, and that desire made soldiers had done to over a million abouts concealed, and funneled sion, to show that the building’s prof- him work endless frustrating hours. Jews on the Eastern front. Is it really money to him so he could evade jus- its went to Heim and not to her, the The authors think that maybe true that things could have gone tice. (German law declares that a sister had to prove that he was still Aedtner’s dedication to hunting either way? Lower’s research is defendant’s family cannot be prose- alive. So, Heim provided an audio- Nazis “grew out of nothing more than superb, but her account hits the cuted for obstructing a criminal case tape in which he attested to his own an ingrained opposition to suffering, expected wall: How can an ordinary in this way.) But Rüdiger protected his existence and to the fact that he was and he could never get over the human being permit herself to do father in part because he thought he still in hiding, living off rent paid by extreme, almost limitless suffering such terrible things? still might find out something that he German citizens. that the Nazis had caused.” There is no way to tell Heim’s story needed to know. Both Rolf Mengele A political firestorm erupted. Heim’s If this was it, then Aedtner’s simple without describing the atmosphere of and Rüdiger Heim wanted to — had tenants were outraged, along with the reaction accomplished something postwar Germany. Kulish and to — see and know who their father rest of the German public. Millions of more than all the elaborate theories Mekhennet adeptly portray the silence really was and what he had to say for Germans had recently been shaken about Nazism put together. Aedtner and repression that surrounded Nazi himself. The answer, in both cases, by the vastly popular American-made would never have put it this way, but crimes. Until the 1958 Ulm trials, in was nothing, yet both sons shied mini-series Holocaust, which brought he probably agreed with the sen- which the massacres committed by the away from the judgment that every home the horrors of the Nazi geno- tence from the Book of Job inscribed SS were widely publicized and civilized reader demands. The sons of cide, and they were newly enthusias- at Birkenau, which gives these words Germans were forced to confront pho- Mengele and Heim denied their tic about war-crimes trials for aging to the Nazis’ victims: “O Earth, cover tos of soldiers shooting naked women fathers’ victims what the victims need- Nazi offenders like Heim. Within not up my blood, and let my cry and children and throwing them into ed most, to see these men on trial, months, Heim was tried and convict- never cease.” November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 “SOBBING AT THEIR OWN FUNERAL” (Continued from page 10) ered comparative analysis of the two the honeyed speech really calmed words and carried out the child’s wish. years after the Shoah. testimonies highlights the authors’ dif- down and once again began to believe He led the child outside to his father r. Prais, a veteran researcher at ferent Jewish approaches. Whereas that they were in a work camp… and who took him in his arms and kissed DYad Vashem’s International Szlamek’s account focuses on his fel- people regained their places, like chil- his soft cheeks and sat him back Institute for Holocaust Research, low gravediggers in compassion and dren in a classroom.” down on the ground. The little rascal, analyzes two remarkable documents mourning, Krzepicki’s expresses out- Still, Krzepicki did show some sym- now calm, went back into the bar- — the wartime accounts of Jakub rage against the Jews’ surrender and pathy for children and women in racks with the Ukrainian and Grojnowski and Yaakov Krzepicki, helplessness on the way to the camp undressed himself. His last wish had escapees from the Chełmno and and in it. His comments are insightful, been fulfilled. Treblinka extermination camps, sometimes harsh, always searing. “I could not allow myself to think respectively — as recorded for the Krzepicki was deported from about this. I had neither the time nor “Oneg Shabbat” underground archive Warsaw to Treblinka on August 25, the head for it, nor could I take it to in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942. 1942 and escaped on September 13. heart. Something in me always Grojnowski’s was the first report on His Yiddish testimony was recorded warned me: Steel yourself, don’t let Chełmno, and whereas Krzepicki’s by Rachel Auerbach for Oneg yourself fall apart.” was not the first to reach the ghetto, it Shabbat from December 28, 1942 to He also related how the older is by far the most comprehensive and March 7, 1943. Auerbach then fled women met with their fate. “Some detailed testimony on Treblinka (323 the ghetto to the “Aryan” side and sur- sought consolation in God and pre- handwritten pages). The little that vived, while Krzepicki remained in the pared themselves to die with God’s was published of Krzepicki until now ghetto and fell in the Warsaw ghetto name on their lips. Some pleaded for is only a small fraction of the full doc- uprising on April 22, 1943. help, prayed for a miracle, a rescue; ument, and as Dr. Prais shows, has rzepicki’s testimony leads us Pages from the wartime account of Yaakov others had given up all hope.... The missed most of who he was and what Kstepwise along the twisting path Krzepicki, who escaped from Treblinka. women’s sobbing was reminiscent of he had to say about Treblinka and the of the deportees’ consciousness, from the sobbing that one hears at funer- Treblinka. One story in particular rat- Jews transported to the camp. the lack of clarity following their abduc- als. Here people were sobbing at tled him: “A boy of about eight years, Dr. Prais’ article is the most exten- tion to the unbridled, stark horror of the their own funeral.” who had come with his father, was sive discussion of Krzepicki’s critically camp at which they arrived. He is deri- The story of Greek attitudes toward important testimony to date, while her sive and contemptuous of their cling- standing there pleading. He did not their Jewish neighbors, as reflected in precision and insight carry the discus- ing to scraps of hope based on the want to undress until he had said the destruction of the Jewish ceme- sion of Grojnowski’s testimony well false information fed them by the goodbye to his father. His father was tery in Thessaloniki, and Krzepicki’s beyond what earlier scholars have Germans. His observations are often standing on the other side of the insight into the heart-wrenching achieved. Krzepicki’s full testimony is laced with bitter sarcasm, as when he door, unable to reach him. He was scenes at Treblinka are deeply dis- analyzed here for the first time, and describes an SS man’s speech prom- under one guard and his son under turbing and leave us with many ques- the innumerable crossed-out words ising newly arrived Jews that they another. But a miracle happened to tions. It is to be hoped that these arti- and lines, corrections and marginal would work in their trades. “Some peo- him. A Ukrainian corporal who was cles will encourage new research into additions make that analysis all the ple began to applaud the German. The standing in the barracks made a these important insights into human more challenging. Dr. Prais’ multilay- majority of the Jews who had heard move. He had understood the Polish behavior arising from the Shoah. THE DAY A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR IN EYE OF NAZI STORM, DUTCH JEWS GOT REVENGE ON HIS TORMENTOR FOUND UNLIKELY REFUGE (Continued from page 5) thing I read decades after my show- (Continued from page 6) understanding the high mortality rates Mercedes? down at the mayor of Weimar’s house dialect and share a proud tradition of elsewhere and to challenging the So I drove the car all the way back proved to me that in the end, in this tight-knit communities with little notion that Dutch Jews went like to Buchenwald. In fact, I drove life or the one after, God ultimately anonymity — characteristics that van lambs to the slaughter. straight through the camp gates. Only achieves justice. Rens believes contributed to their will- “Unlike in Amsterdam and the north- A friend shared with ingness to take risks to save Jews. ern Netherlands, where most Jews me an article from a “When you betrayed someone to were rounded up by police who 1945 issue of Life death in Limburg, everybody knew showed up one night unannounced at magazine about Nazi and it carried different social implica- their doorstep and simply took them suicides following the tions than in Amsterdam,” van Rens away, Limburg Jews received more war. Here is a portion told JTA. time before they needed to report for of what it said: “In the The sentiment was so strong that deportation,” van Rens said. last days of the war the Limburg police had virtually stopped In 1942, Limburg Jews under 60 overwhelming realiza- proactive attempts to track down received 24 hours to report to police. tion of utter defeat was Jews by 1943, at a time when special More than half didn’t show up, instead too much for many bounty hunter units were stepping up opting to go into hiding. A few months Germans. Stripped of efforts to catch Jews elsewhere in the later, older Jews were given a week to the bayonets and bom- Netherlands, among other countries. report to police. Then, too, more than Residents from Weimar avert their eyes as American forces make bast which had given In Amsterdam, a group known as half went into hiding. them walk past a pile of corpses at the Buchenwald concentration them power, they the Henneicke Column received 7.5 “So the perception of Dutch Jews camp. could not face a reck- guldens for every Jew delivered to the being too docile, too obedient, clearly this time, the irony of the slogan oning with either their conquerors or Germans. The price was later upped doesn’t hold up because when they emblazoned across the gates — “To their consciences. These found the to 40 guldens. The group is believed were given a chance, even if just 24 each what he deserves!” — made me quickest and surest escape in what to have been responsible for the hours, to save themselves, most laugh. Germans call Selbstmord, self- deaths of 8,000 to 9,000 Jews. made serious attempts to escape the Prisoners stood motionless and murder . . . In Hitler’s Reich, In addition to offering refuge, Nazis’ claws,” van Rens said. “For me stared as we coasted into camp. They Germans stopped killing others and Limburg also promised Jews a path it was an encouraging discovery.” must have assumed an important dig- began killing themselves. In out of Nazi-controlled areas altogeth- Van Rens’ research has generated nitary or the mayor of Weimar himself Weimar, the mayor and his wife, er. The area is not as densely popu- new interest in the Holocaust and won would step out of the fancy car. When after seeing Buchenwald atrocities, lated and flat as the rest of the praise from some of Holland’s leading they saw our striped prisoner uni- slashed their wrists.” Netherlands, and its limestone caves experts on the Holocaust, including forms, they rushed us. “How did you That day at the mayor’s home, lead across the border to Belgium. In Johannes Houwink ten Cate of the get a Mercedes?” someone asked. God pricked my conscience. In so addition to those who hid in Limburg, Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and “Well,” I said, smiling, “we just got it.” doing, He spared me the guilt and approximately 3,000 Jews passed Genocide Studies, or NIOD, who called Throughout my life I had heard that shame of killing the mayor of through the province on their way to van Rens’ research “beyond question.” everything happens for a reason, that Weimar’s wife. Spain and Switzerland. “No one had the patience to conduct God’s ways were mysterious but pur- I didn’t need to kill her. She did it Van Rens also discovered another such detailed research before,” ten poseful. I believed that. But some- for me. difference that he believes is key to Cate said. “It’s drudgery.” American & International Societies for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE U.S. POST 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 PERMIT NO. 9313

Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org Society ** ** Editor Editor-in-Chief (212) 220-4304 for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for Ron B. Meier, Ph.D, Ron B. Meier, New York, NY 10110 NY York, New EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL *Published Bimonthly by the American by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates, and Nazi Victims **deceased Eli Zborowski** Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski** Mandell William Sam Halpern** Isidore Karten Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet November/December 2014 - Kislev/Tevet 5775 2014 - Kislev/Tevet November/December period, “but at the same Marseille He taught creative writing at CCNY creative He taught Andy Marino aptly biographer Fry’s The article concludes: If [Fry] was without honor in his own Sometimes I wonder if my father’s I have trouble imagining he would But there is more to it than that, I much of throughout Unfortunately, for a year. He latched on as a He latched on for a year. for Coca-Cola, but writer/consultant turned one of his was fired when he account of the taunting into a reports board of stupidity of the company’s directors. He finally exhausted the of his second wife, who patience a divorced him in 1967. He died of just a few weeks later, heart attack shy of his sixtieth birthday. described what it was about Fry that at heroics and so made him so deft bad at regular life: “He felt terribly of scared and isolated,” Marino writes the time he found himself exhibiting a sort of nothing-to-lose daring that thrilled him. He was acting very unlike him- self, and he was getting to like it.” was He understandable. it’s country, impossible to work with, mentally us troubled, locked in himself. But let not forget that he was a prophet, too, way to pre- and put himself in harm’s vent the future he saw unrolling before him. Not the ideal person, the kind that maybe. But certainly every generation everywhere has always had too few of. paradoxically troubles were mental of the secret of his success as a part rescuer. have volunteered for the mission in France if he had had a family and even a moderately successful career in 1940. think. One thing I remember about and which is obvious from my father, the article I just read, is that he loved to fight battles, big and small. For him, righteous indignation was like a drug, and he was addicted. his life, he let this addiction lead him to behavior that was harmful to him- to others. In ordinary self and often life, it is not healthy to fail to recognize that some battles are not worth fight- ing. It is not healthy to treat every person with whom one has a dis- agreement as if he or she were the embodiment of evil. , representative of representative The New Republic MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Marseille When Fry was deported by Vichy As the Varian Fry. Varian where he wrote, in December 1942, an extraordinary document called “The Massacre of the Jews,” the first piece of journalism to give hard evi- dence that Hitler had launched a pro- gram to exterminate the Jews of Europe. nent European writers, artists, intel- nent European writers, artists, lectuals and politicians specifically most of by the , targeted them Jews. They included Heinrich the historian Mann and his nephew, Golo Mann; Lion Feuchtwanger; the Hitler biographer Franz Werfel; Konrad Heiden; Marc Chagall; and the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. authorities in September 1941, his life His ended. Soon fell apart. he was fired from Emerescue, after, with his which had grown impatient his insistence particularly intensity, that only he understood the refugee problem in France. (Correct, as it turned out: He was never replaced.) He served for a few months as assis- editor at tant which he was honored. which he was honored. the New York–based Emergency York–based the New (Emerescue) Rescue Committee August 1940 to September from refugees from 1941, Fry aided 4,000 was responsible for the He Hitler. escapes of from 1,200 to 1,800 promi- Annual Tribute Dinner Tribute Annual . Policy Review during the war, but also during the war, , because we have already

The American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Societies & International American The articipating in an event like this in articipating causes a mix of emotions for me. causes a mix of emotions

Marseille I’d like to read some passages from I’d like to read some passages Varian Fry may be the great Another reason that events like this like Another reason that events the liberty of making a few I’ve taken He received a medal from the I’ll read the beginning and end of the I’m proud of my father for his actions I’m proud of my father I think it does a good job of summa- P “HE LOVED TO FIGHT BATTLES, BIG AND SMALL” AND BIG FIGHT BATTLES, TO “HE LOVED an article about my father that does a an article about my father that does great job of capturing these contradic- tions and describing what a complex The article is a review person he was. of one of the biographies of my father. It was written by Christopher Caldwell and appeared in II American civilian hero of World War — although by the time the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, his political activities against Axis had ended. In 1996, he the American to be became the first Among Nations by named Righteous Holocaust Vashem Yad Israel’s Americans memorial — although few know of the dangerous activities for cause mixed emotions for me is that I cause mixed emotions for me is that know that my father did not work alone. He could not have done what he did without a network of collabora- These tors and co-conspirators. included Jews and others on the list who voluntarily enemies Nazis’ up opportunities to leave passed France and escape danger so that get and help others they could stay out. minor corrections, but the words are almost all Caldwell’s. French government in a small cere- he mony just a few months before died, but other than that, few people he had much attention to what paid his done until around 20 years after death. I know this was deeply disap- pointing for him. article, and skip over the long middle time in that describes his part Marseille heard about some of that today. in France during the war, but I also the war, in France during much obtain regret that he didn’t own lifetime. recognition in his rizing not only the remarkable things my father achieved in his 13 months in the troubles he had in the rest of his life. JAMES FRY: Page 16 Page