16 - THE .JEWISH POST, Thursday, December 1,1977 •

THE .JEWISH POST, Thursday, December 1,1977 - 17 • ,Winnipeg Pioneers Buried There • " Anne Frank's For otten Frien Transcona's Jewish Cemetery " By KAHANE ' . ' 1930s and had seen the madness Kraler in the diary? (Holland Herald) from its genesis. With the help of siege in the 'Secret Annex'. With door and was confronted by four' To meet the urgent need for a Little isknown of the man who the help of another employee, ment, and a distant rnmble and archives of the Jewish Historical Kugler and a few other workers played such a vital role in caring policemen. Three were Dutch, burial place, several of the rnsh of traffic along Hwy. 59 Society.) in the shop, Frank had long ago Mr. Kleineman (referred to as the fourth, a Nazi officer, ap­ pioneer settlers were approached hangs in the air. A balmy afternoon in a pleas­ for the fugitives and assuring Koophuis in the Diary) and two peared to be in charge. One of At the south end of the begun preparations for his their anonymity. It was, in fact, and David Ripstein responded by Twenty years ago, after a large cemetery are the oldest graves - ant suburb of Toronto, Canada. inevitable move. women in the shop, Kugler the Dutchmen was Maarten van offering a gift of land on Thomas The well-manicured lawns in the Kugler who took part in a plan organized a plan which would Rossum. He was a well-known number of gravestones had been those of the five infants and of The rear, upper two floors of whereby Mr. Frank would have a Street for a cemetery. The infan­ knocked over by weather, and middle class neighbourhood of the house at Pi-insengracht 263 assure security for the eight. collaborator who was executed three pioneers - Muriel Wer­ Weston are verdant after a heavy letter (postmarked from a border ts were buried there, but because vandals, officials of Shaarey ~ theim, Alfred Herman, and Jacob were separated from the main "During working hours, the shortly after the liberation. The of the location . was next to a downpour of rain. Victor Kugler, town) sent to Kugler bidding him group would have to walk without Synagogue met with seven Tuch - buried. during the first part by a stairwell, hidden by a farewell. Nazi was an Austrian named disreputable neighborhood, 4t was descendents of the pioneers year. 77, is gazing out the window of false bookcase. It was in this shoes so as not to arouse the Silverbauer. 'Who 'is, the owner of considered only a temporary his 'small, two-story home, The intention was to give the suspicions of employees who buried in the cemetery and a It. appears that every year af­ 'secret annex' that the Franks, this place?' Silverbauer deman­ burial place, and the immigrants seemingly lost in thought. The Nazis the impression that the were unaware of their secret," ded. I began to give him the ad­ legal transaction was made to ter that no less than three and of- their two daughters, the 'Van Franks had fled the country. It immediatel), began to look for a surroundings suggest that Kugler Daans and son and a dentist says Kugler. "They were not dress of the real owner. But the more desirable location. is preoccupied with the present. was also Kugler who conceived of even allowed to flush the toilet Nazi insisted on knowing' .who would spend' the next two years. and helped build the famous They chose a parcel of land The only hint of the past is an old 'The story, of the, daily tension, during the afternoons. The two was in charge. I admitted it was northeast of the city in Elmwood bookcase, behind which the women, Miep and ElIy, were me. on the road to Transcona and it responsible for buying the dailt "In the back of my mind I was purchased in March 1883 groceries for their charges. This hoped that my Austrian accent-I with $300 in funds collected in Ii was no easy matter in an oc­ was born there-would ingratiate campaign organized by Simon cupied country. Food was scarce me to the Nazi. Bufno chance. I Lechtzier, David Ripstein, and and ration cards were the key to was forced to give them a some of the immigrants. Later a survival. The girls sometimes detailed tour of the warehouse. I " company was formed called had to go to several stores in one tried to control the waveS of Children of Israel Cemetery Ltd. afternoon so as not to attract at­ panic .I felt inside me. I still . '.', One 1882' pioneer, Wolf Mos­ tention with their larger than hoped that it was a routine in­ usual rations." A visit to the old Transcona III 1883 when the cemetery was kowitz recounted the consecra­ vestigation, no different from ' Sifting through his cardboard \ Cemetery yields insight into the consecrated, there were about tion of the Transcona cemetery earlier ones. But my heart sank ill for an article about Jews in Win­ box of photographic memories, when Silverbauer barked:. 'Now hMI beginnings of Jewish community 360 Jews li1 'Manitoba. The first life in Winnipeg. 100 permanent residents had nipeg published in 1912 in Der, Kugler pauses, when he comes we'll look for weapons.' l knew Ii! Kanader Yid: across one of the pictures he took The 94 year old burial ground corne in small groups of five to 10 then that there was nothing \',\\ people between 18'18 and 1880 and "We bought the cemetery in a of Anne in the ann~ in 1943. routine about this visit. /~i~ was the first to 'be established in "She was always busy writing in \ ~ i by the time of the first wave of mood of pessimism. We won- - "Silver bauer made straight for ,' Western Canada, and even now, Russian Jewish immigrants in her diary," he recalls, "always the bookcase, tore it loose from though there are no immediate 1882, were considered esta blished inquisitive, sometimes melan­ its fastenings and exposed the family members surviving those members of the community. Getting There choly. secret doorway. 1 realized we buried in it, it is still visited by The Russian immigrants "I often brought her magazinel1 have been betrayed. The Nazis The 'Transcooa' Cemetery is to read~although her mother drew their guns and motioned me located at the rear of 474 didn't approve of that at all. I to climb the stairs ahead of Almay Rd. :' remember Anne would always be them." So ironically, after ser­ Travel east on Nairn to waiting for me at the top of the ving as the pipeline to the out:?jde Hwy.59. hidden stairway,saying nothing world, and protecting the Franks Turn left on Hwy. 59. but the look in her eyes told me and their fellow fugitives for 25 Travel a short distance to that she hoped r had remem­ months, Kugler now had the grim I -\ Almay Rd. bered. -would put the magazines task of ushering in the Nazis. Turn right 00 Almay Rd. in my pocket as if .I had forgotten He recalls:," As 1 entered the Nd,. 484 Almay Rd. it> the them and pull them out all I living room, I saw Mrs., F.'rank residence of the:' TYndall came up the stairs. ' ' sitting there, motioliiess. Family wilo maintain the' "Probably the ,gt¢atest regret 'Gestapo' was all I said,: She cemetery. Park in their ( that otto had during the-years in seemed stunned imd rose,' ~Iued driveway. hiding was that his daughters to the spot. The others soon filed were not able to study at school. ,At the rear of the driveway '. , out of the other rooms. No one ut~ is the beginning of the path So I managed to enrol Anne in a tered a sound, except for Anne's transfer the resp'onsibility to the ten more people were buried until 'This is where Anne Frank of Amsterdam lived' with her family Latin correspondence course. And that leads to _ the cemetery, synagogue. Frank's private world would sister, Margot, who quietly 1933. Frank Druxerman was the during the terrible days of tbe German occupation during World hegin. she did quite well." wept." Perhaps Margot an­ which is about two minutes With funds from the $2100 further. last person to be buried there. War II. It is a museum and national sbrine today, attracting tens And yet, there is little mention As the Franks, along with the ticipated her family's fate. They assets sold to the synagogue .for a of thousands of tourists annually. The house is well preserved. The phone number of the By that time other cemeteries of ~ugler in the photographic Van Daans and Mr. Dussel, ten­ were sent to Westerborg Concen­ sum of $1, the cemetery was Victor Kugler, the "'man wbo helped shelter Anne, and her family, exhibits inPrinsengracht 263. III sely waited for the Allied con­ tration Camp, then on to Ausch­ Tyndall residence, should you brought into its present state of had been established for several was recipient of Nicholas and Hedy Munk Award, worth $10,000, wish to let them know you are years and were closer to ·the a way, Kugler views his action vergence on Amsterdam, Kugler witz (where fou\, million Jews repair. A high iron-wire fence en­ Nov. 14. during the 'war as the natural says he carried on the spice im­ died) and to Bergen-Belsen. All coming, is 222-6239. closure was erected, and the community. The Transcona Cem­ etery was abandoned. response to a friend's call for port and jam preserve business but Otto Frank would perish in markers, originally in an' upright ,Leica camera sitting on a adolescent love affairs, joy and help. "I did it because they were for Mr. Frank. And despite the the death camps only months position, were laid flat and em­ bookshelf. It is the only clue to melancholy so eloquently recor- my friends," he says. Kugler un­ burden borne by Kugler in caring, before the Allies reached them. dered, each of us to himself, bedded into solid concrete foun­ the fact that Kugler is a living relatives and other members, of arrived With little warning in ded by Anne are known derplays the level of intimacy he for the -Franks, Victor and Otto Mrs. Frank, described as almost whose children would be buried dations. part of history. were said to have remained the community interested in their June 1882 - a mass of 260 people there first? And yet at the same throughout the world. The shared with the fugitives and mute after the capture, died at roots. . Today, on approach to the gate Like many other Dutchmen revelations of a young girl, the risks taken, to such an extent somewhat formal business Auschwitz. Otto Frank, himself, - and, despite the 'established' time we dedicated the burial of the cemetery, the low-lying ,during World War II, this associates. Shragge, Wertheim,Paul, Black, community's attempts at relief, ground with a sense of con­ groping her way into womanhood that he neglects to even display, witnessed Mr. van Daan's march stones are almost invisible in the , unassUming man ignored Nazi in the most trying of circumstan- his numerous photos of the 'But the structure, formality to the gas chambers. At the end Ripstein, Pierce, FranlUurter, there was great difficulty in­ solation, knowing that we would grass. Even once within the Vineberg, Zimmerman, Kluner, 'ldicts to abide by their "final ces have been shared in a score ,J rranks-many of them never and daily routine came to an of the war, Peter van Daan was tegrating a group almost three now have a dignified Jewish grounds, it is difficult to discern solution" for the Jewish people. Bronfman, Tobias, Coppleman - times their own size. resting place. We borrowed these are some of the family the total number of graves until Risking his own life, he hid, for During 'the winter of 1882, the several ' sleighs with horses, the entire area has been 'sur­ two years, a group of eight Jews names engraved on the 105 head­ immigrants llved in government seated ourselves close together stones to be found today in the veyed on foot. in an office annex in Amsterdam. " j sheds near the mouth of the and took with us eighteen bottles The markers, made of granite The only difference between , " cemetery, memorials to some of 'AsSiniboine River, and conditions of liquor. We had· decided to \ ' the most, proIIlinent' pioneer or limestone, and less often of Kugler and many other Dutch­ • were so harrOwing, five infantS measure off the grounds properly marble, are small and often men during the war was that one .. families of the early Jewish died of malnutrition and ex­ 'in preparation for eventual need. community. posure. narrow. Most inscriptions are of those eight fugitives was a 14 11111 When we arrived at the Elmwood written in English, though a few - year old girl named Anne Frank location we got off the sleighs are in Hebrew and Rumanian. whose diary preserved a legacy and in parties we circled the area !n some areas of the cemetery of her life and death. Ill'll as if to lay official claim to the ' depressions can be made out in Casting IPs mind back 35 years, place. Mter, this procedure we the ground but there are no Kugler recalls the events in Am­ I recited a number of chapters out markers. This may be due to sterdam between 1942 (when the of Psalms, we sang Hymns and ' vandalism or to the fact that Franks began their hiding) and partook of the liquor each man some graves were once marked the end of the war. . . shouting 'Le-chayim!' We then by hut-like wooden structures "It was a warm day in July, danced on the snow-covered field which could have been destroyed 1942. I went to work as usual at and completed thereby the by weather. Prinsengracht 263 .. 1 was working dedication ceremony. Several These 'ohelim' or tabernacles with Otto Frank (Anne's father) months later, in June' around the were customery in the old coun­ in a small, spice importing Shavuot Festival, we transferred ' try. About four feet long, two feet business. To my surprise that the bodies of the infants from the wide, three feet high, and slant­ day, Otto was waiting for me at old site to the new and the roofed, they marked but did not the door. 'The time has arrived to Hebrew Cemetery. oJ' Winnipeg cover the full length of the grave. go into hiding,' he said to me." begarr to serve its purpose." At one end of the ohel a wooden A day before, the FrankS had Kugler (alias' Kra!erl; '/ hid them becau~e they were myffiends' A nne piell/red by Kugler: 'She was always busy writing' In 1883, the land was still bush marker was erected and it was been ordered to deliver their 16 . • and 'open prairie. Today, the lettered in Hebrew to' com­ year old daughter, Margot, to a of foreign languages, made into a seen by the outside world. Indeed abrupt end on August 4, 1944. cemetery still sits quiet and un­ taken on a forced march with the memorate the deceased. collection pomt for shipment to Broadway Play and depicted in II it's only out of pride in his h6bby Kugler remembers the events SS, and was never heard' of disturbed, and the approach to it Germany. Otto Frank was one of major motion picture. At least ("Photography has been my' is along a grassy path through a (One of these markers still of that summer morning as if. again. From Auschwitz, Mr. remained in 1957 when the the few who Uilderstood the truth 60,000 people a year visit the lifelong passion") that he can be they had happened the week DusSj:!l, the dentist was shipped to wooded lot. But the area around behind Nazi' lies of 'routine quarters where the young girl hid persuaded to show his scrapbooks" it ,has been taken qver by resi­ cemetery was repaired, and it is before. "I was ,sitting at my of-, a Canip in Gerinany where he 01 population relocation' and and Kugler proteeted her. But replete with rl;lre photos of Anne dential and industrial develop- now stored in th,e basement the fice desk. There was a loud knock died. Chesed Shel Emet, as part of the' ' 'humane work camps'. He had what of the role of 'and family. Victor got to know the 'at the door. I' looked at my wat" And the-lives of Anne, Margot, lived in Gernumy during the' Kugler-referred to as Mr. Franks well during the quiet ch. It was 10:30. I opened the and Mrs. van Daan, deemed