The American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Spring Luncheon
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AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM Vol. 41-No.5 ISSN 0892-1571 May/June 2015-Iyyar/Sivan 5775 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON his year’s sold-out Annual T Spring Luncheon was held on May 13th at the Jewish Museum on 92nd Street. Over 200 people attended the event, which honored Danielle Karten for her contributions to Holocaust remembrance and education. Our guest speaker was Alyson Richman, an accomplished author, who spoke about her new book The Garden of Letters. Also featured on the program were Co- Chair Daniella Pomeranc and fea- tured speaker Rachel Shnay, who are active members of our Young Leadership Associates. Danielle Karten was presented with the American Society for Yad Vashem Achievement Award by Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem Leonard Wilf along with American Society Executive Director Ron Meier. She was recognized for her com- mitment to Holocaust commemo- ration and remembrance, which are central to the Karten family. She continues a longstanding family tradition of being actively involved in the American Society for Yad Vashem, which is being passed on to her children — Jonathan, Sharone and Izzy. Rachel Shnay delivered a Ron B. Meier, executive director of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Danielle Karten, honoree; and Leonard A. Wilf, chairman of the American description of the emotional trip Society for Yad Vashem. she took to Poland with her ted her grandfather’s picture her family’s amazing story of sur- Chairman of the American grandfather, in which they visited among those on exhibit in the vival in the Holocaust. From her Society for Yad Vashem Leonard Auschwitz and her grandfather’s New Museum. grandmother’s daring escape Wilf, spoke about the 70th hometown. Rachel also told n her closing remarks, from German-occupied Poland to Anniversary of the end of WW II. those gathered about her first trip IDaniella Pomeranc told those Siberia and her grandfather’s He reminded the Luncheon atten- to Yad Vashem, where she spot- gathered at the Luncheon about dedication as a partisan, dees of the importance of remem- Daniella’s family’s commitment brance, education and commem- to Yad Vashem has been passed oration to ensure that those, who IN THIS ISSUE to the third generation. perished in the Shoah, will not be ASYV Annual Spring Luncheon.........................................................1, 8-9, 11 The chairman of the American forgotten. This year’s Luncheon An old Holocaust secret newly told...............................................................2 Society for Yad Vashem, Leonard program included a special pres- I pretended to be German to survive the Holocaust..................................................3 A. Wilf, reminded us of the impor- entation by Rachel Shnay and The Jewish Kulturbund Theatre Company in Nazi Berlin............................4 tance of raising the awareness of remarks from Daniella Pomeranc Through hell and back....................................................................................6 the next generation. He praised about their experiences as grand- The lost children of the Holocaust.................................................................6 the co-chairs of our Young children of survivors. It gives us Lost in the rubble of Warsaw..........................................................................7 Leadership Associates, Abbi great pride to know that members Old Nazis never die..........................................................................................7 Halpern and Barry Levine, for of the next generation are dedi- Letters from Jewish liberators.....................................................................10 their efforts to reach out to the cated to Holocaust remem- The Holocaust hero TV producer who exposed the Nazis’ true evil..........16 third generation. brance. Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2015 - Iyyar/Sivan 5775 EX-AUSCHWITZ GUARD DESCRIBES CAMP IN CHILLING DETAIL arrival as chaotic, with Nazi guards “Everything was going very fast. survived the camp, were injected with. BY DAVID RISING, yelling orders, dogs barking and fam- Yelling, crying, pushing; even dogs Groening showed no reaction to THE TIMES OF ISRAEL ilies being ripped apart. But Groening, were barking. I had never experi- Kor’s statement, and his attorney, 93, maintained the opposite, saying “it enced anything that fast or that crazy Hans Holtermann, said his client former SS sergeant described was very orderly and not as strenu- in my entire life,” she told The would try to answer what questions in chilling detail how cattle cars A ous” on the ramp at Birkenau. Associated Press before addressing he could, but he didn’t believe that full of Jews were brought to the “The process was the same as the court. Groening knew Mengele. Auschwitz death camp, the people Auschwitz I. The only difference was Her two older sisters and parents roening guarded prisoners’ stripped of their belongings and then that there were no trucks,” he said were taken directly to the gas cham- baggage on the ramps, but his most led directly into gas chambers. G during the second day of his trial. bers, while she and her twin sister, main task was to collect and tally Oskar Groening is being tried on “They all walked — some in one both 10 at the time, were ripped away money stolen from the new arrivals 300,000 counts of accessory to mur- direction, some in another direction… from their mother to be used as human and then send it to Berlin — a job for der, related to a period between May guinea pigs for notorious which the German press has dubbed and July 1944 when around camp doctor Josef him the “Accountant of Auschwitz.” 425,000 Jews from Mengele’s experiments. Hungary were brought to While he previously testified he was “All I remember is her the Auschwitz- Birkenau “horrified” by individual atrocities he wit- arms stretched out in complex in Nazi- occupied nessed, he suggested his daily despair as she was pulled Poland and most immedi- thoughts were more pedestrian, like away,” Kor remembered. ately gassed to death. when the guards heard a train loaded “I never even got to say During that period, so with Hungarian Jews would be arriving. goodbye.” many trains were arriving “If this is Hungary, they have bacon Kor, who now lives in that often two would have to on board,” he remembered thinking. Indiana, is one of more wait with closed doors as Though he had been investigated than 60 Auschwitz sur- the first was “processed,” twice before and no charges were vivors and their families Groening testified at the brought, Groening was indicted under from the US, Canada, Lueneburg state court. a new line of German legal reasoning Israel and elsewhere who Though he was more reg- Former Auschwitz-Birkenau guard Oskar Groening as a young man in an SS that anyone who helped a death camp uniform; and now. have joined the trial as ularly assigned to the function can be accused of being an co plaintiffs as allowed under camp’s Auschwitz I section, he said to where the crematoria and gas accessory to murder without evidence German law. he guarded the Birkenau ramp three chambers were.” of participation in a specific crime. times, including one busy 24- hour No pleas are entered in the German Thomas Walther, who represents Groening, who worked for an insur- shift. The main gas chambers were system, and Groening said as his trial many co plaintiffs, said he and his ance company after the war, has testi- located at Birkenau. opened that he considers himself clients were happy Groening agreed fied as a witness in other Nazi trials. “The capacity of the gas chambers “morally guilty,” but it was up to the to testify, but suspected he was with- Outside court, Kor said she wished and the capacity of the crematoria court to decide if he was legally guilty. holding many details. Groening would use the trial to try and were quite limited. He faces between three and 15 years “There is an ocean of truth, but with dissuade “misguided young people” “Someone said that 5,000 people in prison if convicted in the trial, which many islands of lies,” he said. today from becoming neo -Nazis, but were processed in 24 hours, but I did- is scheduled through July. Kor, the first coplaintiff to address the she was still satisfied with his testimony. n’t verify this. I didn’t know,” he said. va Kor, 81, was one of the Jews court, described her experience and “I’m going to take whatever confes- “For the sake of order we waited until Ewho arrived at Auschwitz in asked Groening whether he knew sion he gives — it’s better than no train 1 was entirely processed and fin- 1944. Though she doesn’t remember Mengele or details about files he kept, confession,” she told reporters. ished.” Groening personally, she said she in hopes of learning more about what “Maybe this is the best thing he has Auschwitz survivors describe their can’t forget the scene. diseases she and her sister, who both ever done in his life. Isn’t that sad?” AN OLD HOLOCAUST SECRET NEWLY TOLD Israeli brothers Avraham and tions that they never dared to ask. references to it in historical literature. the residents are responsible for their Peretz Hassid knew not to question Their mother Shoshana had been And if little has been written about actions towards others,” the article their Greek-born mother Shoshana through enough, they told them- Corfu, there is almost nothing about quotes one of the elderly residents as about what happened to her during selves, and they had no desire to hurt the nearby island of Ereikousa. A sin- saying. “We all belong to one family, the Holocaust, but an American her further. gle article was published in Israel in and we are all cousins.” author with her own family secret Shoshana took her secrets with her The old man was not quite right.