Vol. 35-No.2 ISSN 0892-1571 November/December 2008-Cheshvan/Kislev 5769

“THERE IS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE” “THE VERY WORLD RESTS ELI ZBOROWSKI, Founder and Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem ON THE BREATH OF A CHILD IN SCHOOL” MARGARET SPELLINGS, U.S. Secretary of Education onored guests, ladies and gentlemen of dais, dear Hcolleagues and friends: s the U.S. Secretary of Education, it’s a pleasure for I wish first to offer my heartfelt congratulations to this Ame to honor three champions of education: survivor evening’s three distinguished honorees, who are each Selma Gruder Horowitz; Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad in their own way the embodiment of this year’s dinner Vashem Directorate, and Fred Zeidman, Chairman of the theme – Hope. It is because they believed and hoped United States Holocaust Memorial Council. that they were able to make this world a better place for The Talmud says that “the very world rests on the all of mankind. breath of a child in school.” No one lives by this saying Selma Gruder Horowitz was born in Poland, survived more than tonight’s honorees. the concentration camp, fled to the forests and was ulti- I’ve known Fred for a long time, so I’d like to talk about mately hidden by a Polish woman who has been desig- him first. Fred has never been one for ceremonial nated a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. assignments. Instead, he seeks out the most challeng- Her story of courage and optimism, against all odds, is ing and interesting work, where he can make a real dif- truly heroic. We are grateful for her support of the ference. That’s why, in leading the U.S. Holocaust American Society, and proud to have her as a member of our Executive Board. Memorial Museum, Fred not only commemorates the Fred Zeidman, Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, is a mem- past, he also serves as a voice of conscience for today. ber of a growing generation of Jews who feel a strong connection to the Holocaust as a What that means is that, when you visit the museum, you learn about the tragedies of the pivotal event in Jewish history, even though they do not have family members who were Holocaust as well as the genocide that’s taking place now in Darfur. directly affected by this systematic annihilation of the Jewish people. Mr. Zeidman’s com- I know that Fred and all associated with the museum are proud that 28 million people mitment to tikkun olam is evidenced by the dozens of organizations to which he gives his have visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since it opened. I know he’s time, talents and resources. I am personally grateful to Fred for his expression of warmth equally proud that a majority of these visitors are not of Jewish descent. Because intol- and interest in the American Society for Yad Vashem. erance, hatred, and fear are everybody’s problems. Fred, thank you. General Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, has been a close col- Today, we mark the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the beginning of the league, friend and partner for the past 15 years. It is Avner’s vision, tenacity and creativity that Holocaust. We know that these events may seem long past, but the tensions that creat- has enabled Yad Vashem to become the Global Guardian of Holocaust Remembrance. It is ed them are ever-present. not surprising that his contribution to Holocaust awareness has been acknowledged by a Few understand this as well as survivors like Selma Gruder Horowitz. After surviving Legion of Honor presented by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and that he accepted Spain’s Korowice, Selma came to the U.S. and founded a highly successful company. Today, she Prince of Asturias Award for Concord on behalf of Yad Vashem. It has been a privilege for the serves as President of East Coast Industrial Uniform, a board member of the American American Society to participate with Avner in bringing his foresight to fruition. Society for Yad Vashem, a trustee of Yad Vashem Jerusalem, and a strong supporter of The concept of Hope comes to us from the prophet Jeremiah, who said, “There is hope the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. for the future.” When we hear the story of survivors, we are powerfully aware of our moral responsibil- Today to the date we observe the 70th Anniversary of the Kristallnacht and we cele- ity to challenge prejudice and intolerance. brate the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel. We recall that, since November 9th, That’s why the work of Avner Shalev is so critical. Thanks to Avner, the individual sto- 1938, the infamous Krisallnacht, we experienced increased discrimination, systematic ries of more than three million Holocaust victims are now available online, so that any- dehumanization, ghettos, starvation and deportations to concentration and death camps. one anywhere can hear them. A very few of us survived, to be witness to the tragedy, coined as the Holocaust. Under his leadership, Yad Vashem has embraced new technologies to make sure the When the liberation came, we could not return to our hometowns, to our communities. world’s most comprehensive collection of Holocaust material is also the world’s most They simply did not exist! We became Displaced Persons, many of us still housed in the accessible. He has established an International School for Holocaust Studies, a new camps that once were our prisons, or in temporary makeshift communities. Yet, we made museum complex, and a new library to house more than 68 million pages of documen- the effort to refocus our lives and move on. Now, seven decades later, not only have we tation, plus hundreds of thousands of books and photographs. established ourselves and become productive members of our communities and their The more I learn about Avner Shalev, the more I see why he and Fred have been such institutions, but we are in the forefront in the support of the State of Israel. close partners. Between their two organizations, Fred and Avner have helped provide Today’s Tribute Dinner is honoring a survivor, a witness of the tragedy and the two training for nearly 200,000 teachers. Think of the multiplier effect that will have. Over the Chairmen, heads of the two great institutions working successfully for Remembrance. course of their careers, those teachers will impact millions of students. I could not imag- The teachings of these two great institutions and their activities for Remembrance give ine a more hopeful way to illustrate tonight’s theme of “Tikvah” (hope). us HOPE for NEVER AGAIN. I want to thank all of tonight’s honorees for all that they do to create a more hopeful The presence of a large number of young people in this Tribute Dinner and their active future. I thank them for teaching young generations the values of decency and tolerance. role in our activities is HOPE for a better future, HOPE for continuing teaching the lesson Their wisdom gives us hope for what we can achieve. And I know they and your chil- from our tragedy. dren, and all of us, will continue this work long into the future. IN THIS ISSUE American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner...... 1,7,8-9,16 A map of a Lithuanian town donated to American Society for Yad Vashem...... 3 Rosh Hashanah 1944: A Holocaust controversy...... 5 Romance in the Holocaust...... 6 Yad Vashem honored unheralded Holocaust hero...... 10 A friend in deed...... 11 Holocaust survivors seek congress’s help in court...... 12 Austria accused of shielding Nazi suspect...... 13 Stamp collector’s Holocaust memorial...... 13 The “silent heroes” now have a voice...... 14 Nazi collaborator living peacefuly in Germany...... 15 Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769

ANNE FRANK MUSEUM RESTORES PHOTO COLLAGE JEWISH MUSEUM IN BERLIN TRACES ART STOLEN BY NAZIS he Anne Frank House museum said Britain’s Queen Elizabeth - when she was ewish-owned art seized by the Nazis seized by Nazi officials. Tit has restored 52 photographs and still a princess – and the Dutch royal fam- Jfrom 1933 onwards is featured at a Exhibition organizers said that many of images the Jewish teenager pasted on ily in exile. new exhibition at the Jewish Museum in the confiscated paintings and other treas- the wall of her room to cheer herself up As Anne grew older, she pasted over Berlin. Meanwhile, Germany’s culture ures had still not been recovered by the while hiding from the Nazis. some of the glamor shots with reproduc- minister has called for the “fair” return of lawful heirs of the original owners. The water-stained collage Jewish art. Michael Blumenthal, director of the of celebrities of the day, such The exhibition consists of 15 artworks museum, charged that German art col- as Greta Garbo and the Lane along with documents describing their lectors, dealers and museums had all Sisters, that Anne Frank cre- seizure or forced sale, later changes in profited by being able to purchase art at ated shortly after her family ownership, and ultimate restitution. reduced prices. went into hiding have been Valuable porcelain and book collections He praised Germany’s current efforts to seen by millions of visitors, from Dresden’s intellectual von Klemperer give back the art, but said he was disap- offering them another view family are included in the show. The pointed that heirs had no absolute legal into the mind of the girl best Gestapo confiscated the family’s collec- right to reclaim the artworks. known for her posthumously tion in 1938, placing it in Dresden’s munic- At an opening ceremony, Minister of published diary. ipal art collection and the Saxony state Culture Bernd Neumann called for “fair “Our little room looked very bare at first tions of artwork by Michelangelo and library. and just” solutions in returning the work with nothing on the walls,” Anne wrote in Leonardo da Vinci. Before the Second World War, Nazi stolen by Nazi officials. an entry on July 11, 1942. The pictures, well over 60 years old, Germany made it illegal for Jews to own “More than 60 years after the war’s end, “But thanks to Daddy, who had brought have been undergoing restoration for a art treasures, forcing them to sell them. Germany is unrestrained in its moral my picture postcards and film-star collec- decade. They were removed in October Later during the Holocaust, Jewish prop- responsibility for the restitution of art loot- tion ... I have transformed the walls into 2007 when the wallpaper was taken down erty throughout eastern Europe was ed by the Nazis,” he said. one gigantic picture. This makes it look to be reinforced, and facsimiles hung in much more cheerful.” their place until August. YAD VASHEM TO STIMULATE BELARUS RESEARCH One photo, of Olympic skater and They are now protected behind climate- Hollywood star Sonja Henie, had been out controlled glass that Bekker said would ad Vashem wants to stimulate using archives, and with the assistance of of place since an earlier renovation in the guarantee their preservation for decades. YHolocaust research work in Belarus, museums and schools. The project began 1970s and has now returned to its original The Frank family hid in a cramped secret the country's Israeli ambassador said. in Belarus in 2006. spot, said museum spokeswoman annex above an Amsterdam canal-side "Time is passing," Ze'ev Ben Arie said. Approximately 800,000 Jews perished Annemarie Bekker. warehouse from July 1942 until they were "It's critical to do the work for immortaliza- in Belarus during World War II. Some 200 An investigation of the pictures found that betrayed in August 1944. tion of the names as soon as possible. If ghettos were located there. most were movie stars cut from the Dutch Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen we will not do something now, we will "By now, we have managed to restore women’s magazine Libelle, Bekker said. concentration camp just weeks before it was never do it." only a small part of the names of people Other images include postcards of liberated in the spring of 1945. Belarusian volunteers have compiled that perished in Belarus," said Avner the names of 30,000 Jews that perished in Shalev, the head of the executive board of the Holocaust in the country. the Yad Vashem Institute, at a meeting CLAIMS CONFERENCE INCREASING ALLOCATIONS About 100 volunteers work in 16 areas with volunteers in Minsk. "We want to find he Claims Conference will ence chairman. “These funds are for of Belarus to find the names of victims out new names." T increase its allocations in 2009 by home care, hunger relief, medical $23 million. care, winter supplies, emergency cash HITLER DOLLS FOR SALE IN UKRAINE The decision by the conference's grants and other vital services to Nazi board of directors at its annual meeting victims worldwide.” n Adolf Hitler doll has hit the shelves fascist materials is in July brings the overall allocation for The funds mostly represent the pro- A in Ukraine recently, and the toy illegal in Ukraine, the next year to $193 million. ceeds from the sale of unclaimed manufacturer that produces it says that dolls have reportedly "Increasing Claims Conference allo- Jewish property in the former East similar products may follow, should the already been put up cations is essential to addressing the Germany. The conference also will fund new doll prove to be a success. for sale in local growing needs of Nazi victims as they $18 million in Holocaust education and The Hitler figurine features moveable supermarkets. age,” said Julius Berman, the confer- remembrance projects. arms that enable it to reproduce the Nazi A representative dictator’s infamous salute, and con- for the toy manufac- sumers are able to choose from a variety turer did not attribute GERMANY MAKES LIST OF NAZI-ERA JEWS of outfits, including “early days Adolf” and any political signifi- ermany has compiled a list of some tune of $2.24 million. “wartime Adolf” (A grey double-breasted cance to the doll, G600,000 Jews who lived there from “In handing over this list, we want to tunic, black trousers and simple Iron saying it’s “like 1933 to 1945 and suffered discrimination make a substantial contribution to docu- Cross medal), the Daily Telegraph said. Barbie.” She added that if the company by the Nazis, an index that is to be distrib- menting the loss that German Jewry suf- The box containing the doll features sees high demand for the Hitler doll, it will uted among leading archives to help fered through persecution, expulsion Hitler’s birth date and date of death. Even continue to produce a whole series of toys descendants research the fate of their and destruction,” foundation leader though officially the distribution of racist or inspired by the Third Reich. families. Guenter Saathof said in a statement The government gave the list to Israel’s coinciding with a handing-over ceremo- Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, ny at the chancellery. IRAN LAUNCHES BOOK MOCKING HOLOCAUST VICTIMS Washington’s Holocaust Museum, the The government said the idea for the ran’s education minister looked on Despite an international outcry, the Jewish Claims Conference and the list, drawn up over the past four years, Iwhile a group of militant students Iranian government later in 2006 hosted a International Tracing Service in Bad first arose during negotiations over unveiled a book ridiculing Holocaust Holocaust conference featuring a number Arolsen, Germany. unpaid insurance claims dating back to victims during an anti-Israeli rally in of revisionist historians. Germany’s federal archive drew up the the Nazi era. central Tehran. Inside pages have pictures of bearded list, which the government and a founda- It was compiled using information held The book’s cover depicted a Jew with Jews shown leaving and re-entering a gas tion that oversaw the compensation of in the nation’s federal archive, as well as a hooked nose, dressed in traditional chamber with a counter that reads Nazi-era slave laborers financed to the municipal registries and deportation lists. clothes, drawing the outlines of dead 5,999,999. bodies on the ground. Another picture shows a hospital patient FORMER NAZI TRIED FOR ROBBING STORE covered in an Israeli flag and on life IN PROTEST OF WAR CRIMES TRIAL support, breathing Zyklon-B, the poi- sonous gas used in the death camps. 91-year-old convicted German war But when a woman customer walked in, The education minister, Alireza Ali- A criminal held up a Belgian pharma- he departed with no booty. Ahmadi, was taking part in an official cy shop with a toy gun. He confirmed his war crimes, saying, rally for Qods Day – an annual event The defendant had been convicted in 1968 “They were vile acts, and I did do them.” to show solidarity with Palestinians. of murdering six Jews in Gorlice, Poland dur- Some of the murders occurred in the In recent years – since the election ing World War II and was sentenced to life street, with the Germans shooting people of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as presi- imprisonment. He served 22 years and was in the head at point-blank range. dent in 2005 – the event has grown then freed on grounds of age. However, he contended that his trial in more vocal and angry. He has now been indicted in Nuremberg for the war crimes had been At a Qods Day rally in that year, Recklinghausen, Germany for extortion for unfair because no weight was given to The book comes two years after an Iranian newspa- Mr Ahmadinejad first said that the purpose of robbery in Eupen, Belgium. orders from above. per commissioned a competition of Holocaust- Israel would be “wiped from the The court heard how he took a train from He said the Belgium robbery had been themed cartoons. map”. He has since used similarly Recklinghausen to Eupen in March 2007, an act of protest to attract public attention Written by student members of the Basij aggressive language. walked into a pharmacy and pointed the life- to his point of view militia, the book comes two years after an Tens of thousands of Iranians attended the like toy gun at the pharmacist, 49, saying, “I didn’t care about the money,” he Iranian newspaper commissioned a com- annual parade, waving placards and chant - “Give me all your money. This is no joke.” asserted. petition of Holocaust-themed cartoons. ing “Death to Israel”. November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3

LITHUANIA DROPS PROBE OF EX-PARTISAN HOLOCAUST BABY GETS TO WATCH FAMILY’S STORY ithuania’s prosecutor general two other elderly former partisans, Rachel AS OFF-BROADWAY DRAMA L dropped a war crimes inquiry of a Margolis and Fania Brantsovsky, also will killed enough children and families World War II partisan. be dropped. BY DEBBIE TUMA and JANE H. FURSE, already,” she says. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor gener- The incident in question was a Soviet- DAILY NEWS hen Haller came onstage after al said the 2-year-old investigation of Dr. led ambush of Lithuanian collaborators in opening night performance to oman Haller was born in a Nazi offi- W Yitzhak Arad, the chairman emeritus of the which 38 villagers were killed, including answer questions, joining Irena’s daugh- cer’s basement, hidden with 11 Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in children and a pregnant woman. R ter Jeannie Opdyke Smith, 51, the audi- other Jews in World War II by a Polish Jerusalem, was dropped because of insuffi- Lithuania’s consul general in New York, ence gasped. woman whose selfless act is the subject cient data. The probe interviewed 83 people. Jonas Paslauskas, had acknowledged “I guess they were amazed to see this of a new play starring Tovah Feldshuh. The inquiry stemmed from the publica- previously that negative publicity abroad little baby all grown up,” An appearance at the tion of memoirs recalling partisan activi- had generated second thoughts on the he said. theater by Haller, 64, ties against Nazis and their collaborators inquiry by Lithuania’s highest officials, After the war, Irena Gut served as living proof in wartime Lithuania — activities that including President Valdas Adamkus. moved to Yorba Linda, of the sacrifice by Irena Lithuanian law interpreted as tantamount In August Adamkus came out with a Calif., where she married Gut Opdyke, whose life to genocide. statement indicating that he would push to William Opdyke, a former four-time Tony nomi- It is unknown whether the inquiry into have the inquiry dropped. United Nations staffer, nee Feldshuh portrays and gave birth to Jeannie in “Irena’s Vow,” a play Opdyke in 1957. A PRE-WAR MAP OF A LITHUANIAN TOWN by Dan Gordon at the Haller met Gut Opdyke DONATED TO AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM Baruch Performing Arts years later and recalls Center. ecently, a Boca Raton resident, Mr. and serve to help families with relatives telling her, “I feel like I Seeing the story of RLarry Pomeranz, donated a 6’x 7’ who lived in Kudrika, Lithuania.” have two mothers – one his parents and his hand-crafted map to the American Society pon receiving the map, the that gave me birth and birth come alive on the for Yad Vashem. The map of Kudrika- UAmerican Society of Yad Vashem one that gave me my stage “was for me a Naishtot, a Lithuanian town on the border explored ways of photographing it so that life.” really great moment,” of the former East Prussia, lists the names copies would be available for educational Haller remained in con- said Haller, who heads Roman Haller, 64, is child of a Jewish of each Jewish family residing in the town institutions throughout the United States. tact with Gut Opdyke until a foundation in Munich couple whose crisis is part of “Irena’s before WWII and shows each family’s However, the unique size and nature of her death in 2003. When exact dwelling location. Almost the entire this map created challenges in finding a that aids the restitution Vow,” a play about a Polish woman who rescued 12 from the Holocaust. he came to New York to Jewish community of Kudrika-Naishtot suitable photographer. Most of the labs of property to the fami- attend the premier, it was perished – 190 Jewish families, or 750 that the American Society for Yad Vashem lies of Holocaust victims. his first time meeting her daughter. people, were massacred in a three-day approached lacked the proper equipment “All these feelings came back in my Opdyke Smith said the first time she period, in July and September of 1943. to handle and photograph this document. mind, about what my parents went saw Feldshuh’s performance, “I cried my Mr. Pomeranz told the American Society through, hiding in that basement for eyes out, because I finally got to see her for Yad Vashem the story of the map, owned almost two years.” story come to life.” by his great-aunt, the late Sarah Gventer. Irena Gut, a Catholic forced to work for She said her mom didn’t tell her about her “Sarah Gventer, z’l was my great uncle a Nazi commander, agreed to become the wartime heroism until she was 14 years old, Isaac’s second wife. Some time after her officer’s mistress when he found out she when Gut Opdyke was the random recipient passing, in November 2006, my great- was hiding Jews in his basement – she of a call from a college student doing a sur- uncle and I went through boxes containing begged him to let them live instead of con- vey that asked whether people believed the her effects and came across the map demning them to the death camps. Holocaust really happened. which had been stored away for many One of the many harrowing moments in “I saw my mother get animated and start years. The map was sent to Sarah by a the Off-Broadway play comes when yelling,” said Opdyke Smith. From that Mr. Ralph Goldberg, a relative and a Haller’s parents discover they are expect- moment on, she said, her mom dedicated Holocaust Survivor, who in the early ing a baby. herself to telling her story at schools, 1970’s commissioned a draftsman to cre- They tell Gut they will have an abortion, churches and organizations throughout ate the map. The map lists, to the best of so as not to endanger the lives of every- the world. Mr. Goldberg’s recollection, the name of one else she is hiding. “Her main mission was to tell people each Jewish family within the town, in Map Kudrika-Naishtot, a Lithuanian town on Gut says no. that even one person can make a differ- ence, and that people should never give addition to public buildings, such as the the border of the former East Prussia, donated “This baby will be born, because if this to the American Society of Yad Vashem by Mr. up,” said Opdyke Smith. Synagogue, directions to other cities and baby dies, then Hitler wins and he has Larry Pomeranz the exact dates of the massacre of Jewish men, women and children of the town. However, one lab recommended speak- ROMANIA TO BUILD HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL The Jewish men were killed on July 1st ing with a well known photographers’ omania will press ahead with plans wheel, which has symbolic value for the and 2nd, 1943 and the women and chil- agent, Elaine Korn of Elaine Korn for a national Holocaust memorial, Roma minority. dren on September 16th of that year. The Associates, Ltd. Ms. Korn was deeply R said Prime Minister Calin Popescu “Construction in Bucharest of a memorial map states that it was created as a testi- touched by the story of the map and Tariceanu. to victims of the Holocaust will start soon,” mony to the atrocities, with the sole pur- arranged for the renowned photographer, Tariceanu said work would soon com- Tariceanu said. He gave no specific date. pose that the Holocaust be remembered Charles Nesbit, to photograph it in his mence at the site in the centre of Romanian authorities insisted well into for future generations….” Manhattan studio. Mr. Nesbit, very much Bucharest, the capital, to commemorate the post-communist era that what hap- Mr. Pomeranz continued: “I am fortunate moved by the story himself, offered his some 400,000 Romanian Jews and Roma pened under the World War II regime to state that while the map’s journey en services free-of-charge. Thanks to his killed under a Nazi-allied regime during could not be labeled part of the Holocaust. route to Yad Vashem may have been generosity, the American Society for Yad World War II. In 2004, the government accepted the slow, I am privileged to have acted, albeit Vashem now holds a reproduced copy of “The Holocaust must not be denied or findings of an international panel chaired in a very small and insignificant capacity, the map, as well as electronic copies of forgotten, and it must never be repeated,” by Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel that as a custodian and a messenger by the map on disc. Eli Zborowski, Chairman Tariceanu said in a written statement implicated Romanian civilian and military returning the map to its rightful owners, of the Society will deliver the original map ahead of Romania’s Holocaust memorial authorities in 1940-44 in mass killings and Klal Yisroel. May it serve as a testimony to Yad Vashem in Israel. day, introduced four years ago. deportations. The memorial is to use a design by Some 280,000–380,000 Romanian CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON L.A. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM Romanian-born sculptor Peter Jacobi, Jews died in Romania and Romanian- who lives in Germany. occupied areas, and 25,000 Roma were onstruction began on the Los and persecutions, past and present, It envisions a seven-meter high building deported, about half of whom died, the Angeles Museum of the Holocaust throughout the world. By contrast, LAMH C with a glass roof and metal beams. Light report said. in the city’s Pan Pacific Park. will focus solely on the Holocaust. and shadows are reflected on the floor of Some 800,000 Jews lived in Romania The $20 million project, which broke Some questions have been raised in the black, polished granite. before World War II. Most of the Holocaust ground Oct. 13 and is scheduled to open Jewish community whether money spent on A Star of David sculpture is to be erect- survivors emigrated to Israel, and about in 2010, will include exhibits, a library and Holocaust memorials and education would ed beside the building in addition to a 9,000 Jews now live in the country. an archive in a 15,000-square-foot build- not be put to better use fighting poverty, dis- ing, which will be integrated with the six ease and myriad other causes. stark black granite columns of the existing LAMH president E. Randol Schoenberg MUSEUM TO DISPLAY ART BY HOLOCAUST VICTIMS Holocaust Martyrs Memorial. Holocaust responded that “You can ask the same survivors, or their direct descendants, will question about money given to art and or the first time, a museum in the for- lection, said many of the artists whose serve as guides. music. Life is more than just physical sur- Fmer East Germany, the Dresden works appear in the exhibition, scheduled The new museum is distinct from the vival.” He then quoted Jona Goldrich, a State Art Collections, will display works to open in 2009, did not survive the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of survivor and major supporter of the new from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Holocaust. Roth said he came up with the Tolerance, also in Los Angeles, which museum, that “If you built a monument on Memorial alongside Dresden’s own per- idea after visiting Yad Vashem, and that started as a Holocaust museum but has every street corner in Los Angeles, you manent collection. the exhibit is meant to show the power of now branched out to include genocides couldn’t tell the whole story.” Martin Roth, director of the Dresden col- art in times of suffering and barbarity. Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS EVERY DAY LASTS A YEAR: A JEWISH FAMILY’S CORRESPONDENCE FROM POLAND Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish that the Germans would arranged for them to 15, 1943, Joseph enlisted in the army. Family’s Correspondence from Poland. be no worse to them receive Nicaraguan This made him a citizen and it also took Edited by Christopher R. Browning, than they were in World papers. Perhaps that would him to Europe. There, he believed, he Richard S. Hollander, and Nechama Tec. War I . . . but as we all help them emigrate. But would finally find out what had hap- Cambridge University Press: New York, know, such would not be the papers didn’t work, you pened to his family. He went looking. 2007. 285 pp. $28. the case. needed citizenship papers He went asking. He got some answers y the time Joseph, “validated by the German REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN as to what happened to them . . . but Bhis wife, and a consulate.” the answers were all tragic ones. In hen this reviewer finished reading young boy left in their In the meanwhile, the let- sum, none of his family survived. . . . W the absorbing volume entitled, charge, landed in America ters that are the heart of only he. And he survived only because Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish – by way of luck – Kracow this book, reveal how very of his one exceptionally wise decision Family’s Correspondence from Poland, was long overrun by the grateful his family in to leave Kracow when he did, and the edited by Christopher R. Browning, Nazis. Thus while Joseph Kracow was for everything luck that brought him to America . . . Richard S. Hollander, and Nechama Tec, was fighting for his, his he did for them, even send- efore closing, this reviewer must all she could think of was how one wise wife’s, and their charge’s ing them letters. They Bgive a tremendous amount of credit decision and luck can so dramatically right to stay in America – bring hope at a time when to Christopher R. Browning, Richard S. affect a person’s life . . . they came as undocu- “every day lasts a year”,— Hollander, and Nechama Tec, for their In the summer of 1939, Joseph mented aliens – he found words written by Berta, fact-filled, moving, and powerful essays, Hollander and his wife, Felicia, left himself concomitantly Joseph’s mother, May 26, placed at the opening of this work. Kracow. Why? As his son, Richard, fighting for the survival and emigration of his 1941. They thank him profusely for the Without these essays, the letters that fol- writes in an early section of the book enti- family in Kracow. food he sends, particularly after 1941. low could not possibly be understood or tled “Joseph,” he “may have been prompt- Moreover, even after the battle, he They are forever wishing him well. They appreciated. ed by what he observed during a three- waged to stay in America ended – and keep him up to date on what’s happening Readers of M&R will find Every Day nation trip to Western Europe in 1939. that took a good while – he never stopped in the family . . . even as they keep the Lasts a Year touching, and exceptionally The journey probably provided Joseph fighting for them. He sent them food – worst of their lives from him. They must real. Put simply, the letters speak directly with an ominous glimpse of the future of anything they asked for. He got in touch have thought, “Why tell him?” Joseph to us, reminding us of lives and hopes that European Jewry. . . . [b]y the spring of with people they asked him to find. was already doing all he could, and they once were . . . 1939, there was nothing subtle about anti- (Friends in Kracow often begged that sincerely believed that somehow he Semitism in Germany; it was ugly and favor of the Hollander family). Joseph would save them. Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor of ubiquitous.” His mother, sisters, in-laws, tried to collect moneys owed his family to In the end, however, in late 1941, the Media & Communication Arts at Pace and nieces did not leave. The adults felt somehow help them. Joseph actually letters to Joseph stopped. On March University. AND THE RAGE IS NOT YET OVER BETWEEN MY FATHER And The Rage Is Not Yet Over. By nesses. They are destined one day to Aharon Appelfeld. Zmora-Bitan, Dvir recall who they are and become what they AND THE OLD FOOL: Publishing House, 2008. Pp. 237. In were elected to.” (p.24 my translation). Hebrew. runo’s parents believed in Tikkun A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR Olam through the Communist prom- REVIEWED BY RABBI IZRAEL ZOBERMAN B ise. Soon enough, they too discovered Between My Father and the Old Fool: A the Old Fool,” who is telling the story? haron Appelfeld’s flowing wellspring that their Jewish roots, as well as the new- Holocaust Memoir. By Maier Cahan. Shouldn’t the title read, “Between Me and A of stored creativity on the Shoah found religion of Communist ideology, Adapted into English by Yosef Neumark. the Old Fool?” In the book, a child of continues to both enchant and alert us. would doom them. While handicapped, Mesorah Publications, Ltd. Brooklyn, Maier Cahan presents his father’s story; The book’s telling title, "And The Rage Is and thus granted special powers which 2004, 274 pages. $36.78. the struggle continues through the gener- Not Yet Over", may offer a clue to the the author masterfully creates, Bruno’s REVIEWED BY HILLEL GOLDBERG ations. The Holocaust wasn’t simply an unique phenomenon of the renowned sur- otherwise strong body through exercise, event back then, a piece of history, a begin, and end, in the vivor’s literary and emo- youth and fellow inmates’ bracket enclosing the tional outpouring. embrace, allowed him to sur- Isame place: decimation. years 1939 to 1945, Paradoxically, his style is vive the labor camp ordeal. The title of the appendix of something to measured and guarded as With liberation he demonstrat- this autobiography, “remember,” limited, if shielding the awesome ed sharp business skills, and Between My Father and the possible to bury. The task and challenge of established a prosperous inter- Old Fool, reads, “The ramifications of the sacred remembrance in a national enterprise, reflecting Decimation of the Cahan Holocaust live veil of careful reflection and the drive and success of some Family.” Between the begin- through the survivors expression, which survivors. His core concern, ning and the ending, how- and their children, behooves the Holocaust’s however, was caring for fellow ever, is an odd dialogue, a down through the depth and pain. refugees via uplifting musical conversation between generations. If Cahan Some of the author’s recitals and inspiring Biblical Maier Cahan (the book’s had a dialogue with themes have remained readings in an elegant setting. author) and the Old Fool. the Old Fool, then, of constant. As those assimi- It was his designed plan to The “Old Fool” is a necessity, so did lating Jews who sought reeducating and reawakening Talmudic term for the “evil those who came after refuge in conversion to the shaken survivors, in the inclination,” the yetzer hara. him, who escaped the Christianity only to discover spirit of his loving Christian If I suffer and witness decimation. that neither they nor their teacher, to their true mission as immense suffering, and an he list of the dec- offspring were exempt from the Jews’ noble heirs to a royal Jewish inheritance. urge tells me to curse God, imated of the decreed fate. Or, the precious presence of Bruno’s life took a critical turn when T that is the Old Fool speak- Cahan family is long, as you might imag- some Christians whose deep faith and intact attacked, not too surprising, by an envious ing. When my inner voice tells me steal, ine. That is not surprising. What is surpris- character moved them to reach out to des- and explosive fellow refugee. blaspheme, hurt or fall to despair, that is ing is that Maier Cahan is not on the list. perate human beings in dire circumstances. Unexpectedly and even shocking, per- the Old Fool speaking. As in many Holocaust memoirs, Cahan, at Ironically, Bruno Broomhart, the book’s haps testimony to recent realities and Clearly, during the Holocaust, the Old countless turning points, should have protagonist, was exposed to his spiritual fears, Israel as a safe haven and new Fool had a field day. This book is a mem- identity from no other than his school home is being questioned per Bruno’s been dead. Friends, family, acquaintanc- oir of the Holocaust on two levels: a per- es – all were killed. Time and again, teacher, a monk, whose offer to hide musing, “For myself, if to tell the truth, I’m sonal story of suffering, and a personal Bruno’s family in his convent was concerned about Aliya. At times it seems somehow, he survived. Cahan never quite struggle with God. says so directly, but this is his ultimate declined. “Only the Jews stood at Mt. to me that Israel is a new trap. Again all Maier Cahan struggles from within faith. Sinai, and only in them are deposited the weapon in his arguments with the Old the Jews are together in one place. All In his struggles, he is brutally honest. He voices and lightnings of the divine speech. Fool, who, one might also imagine, did not say that the army is strong, but somehow suffers too much not to be. To our sorrow they have forgotten it, but it seems to me that our army is fragile, lay down and die after the war was over. There is something ajar in the book title. Scriptures has not forgotten, though we susceptible to feelings and too sensitive.” More than forty years after the Holocaust, If the struggle is “Between My Father and should not take lightly these denying wit- (p.186, my translation). (Continued on page 15) November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5

STUDENT UNCOVERS ROSH HASHANAH 1944: ALLEGED NAZI CRIMINAL student from Vienna has uncovered A HOLOCAUST CONTROVERSY A a suspected Nazi war criminal in thing for a people who will not know hap- reate Sigrid Undset; actress Stella Adler; Germany as a result of his research for a BY DR. RAFAEL MEDOFF piness this New Year, nor next New Year, and the governors of Pennsylvania, university project. Andreas Forster, 27, a nor for generations… Let your govern- Indiana, and Rhode Island. student at the Institute of Political Science very year, on the eve of Rosh ment and your Congress know that vague The public and Congressional pressure at Vienna, taped a video interview with the Hashanah, American political lead- E promises and polite good wishes are not that the Bergson Group mobilized helped 89-year-old man, who allegedly recalled ers, candidates for office, and other VIPs bring about (in early 1944) the creation of participating in the murder of 60 Jewish routinely send the Jewish community their enough. Let them know that we can the War Refugee Board, a U.S. govern- forced laborers in March 1945 in Austria. wishes for a happy new year. Under ordi- accept New Year’s greetings only in the ment agency to rescue refugees from After Forster made the research discov- nary circumstances, such greetings are form of rescue – in the form of a haven – Hitler. The board played a crucial role in ery, he informed his professor, political welcomed in the spirit of friendliness in open the gates of Palestine – so that we saving more than 200,000 Jews. Among scientist Walter Manoschek, that the man which they are offered. can live and the world can have peace.” other things, it financed the work of rescue probably was living in the German state of But not on Rosh Hashanah in hero Raoul Wallenberg in Nazi-occupied North Rhine-Westphalia. Forster and 1944. That year, while Jews around Budapest. Manoschek traveled to Germany, accord- the country dipped their apples in Many more could have been saved if ing to a report in der Standard of Austria, honey to symbolize their hopes for a the Roosevelt administration had taken an and asked the man for an interview. He sweet new year, the American public interest. For example, U.S. bombers spoke with them on camera for several received a vivid reminder that for the repeatedly struck German oil factories hours during three interviews. The man Jewish people, it was, in fact, a bit- adjacent to Auschwitz – but no order was ter holiday. Readers of the New York also was shown eye-witness reports from ever given to bomb the mass-murder Times, the Philadelphia Record, and a trial that took place in Vienna in 1946. machinery. other major dailies opened their Die Zeit newspaper reported that the On September 13, 1944 – just one week morning newspaper to find a large massacre in question took place in the before the “What’s So Happy About This advertisement headlined “What’s town of Deutsch Schützen, Austria – then New Year?” ad was published – a fleet of happy about this New Year?” part of the German Reich. Some 60 96 American bombers struck German oil In the center of the ad was a rivet- Jewish forced laborers were forcibly plants less than five miles from the gas ing illustration of a ragged European assembled and shot by German soldiers chambers of Auschwitz. Stray bombs Jewish refugee child, drawn by the in a forest near a church. The mass grave even accidentally hit an SS barracks and renowned artist Arthur Szyk. was discovered in 1995. the railway line leading into the death “As the Jewish New Year Reportedly, the suspect was a member of camp. Jews serving in the slave labor bat- approached, greetings and messages of The ad was sponsored by the Emergency the Waffen-SS, and his name was known as talions there, including 16-year-old Elie good will” were issued by the various Allied Committee to Save the Jewish People of of 1946. Forster conducted research about Wiesel, watched the U.S. planes dropping leaders, the ad began. The ad continued: Europe, a group led by “Peter Bergson,” a the man in the Federal Archive in Berlin. bombs nearby and prayed that the gas “What’s happy about a Jewish New Year young Zionist activist from Jerusalem. Manoschek told Die Zeit online that he had chambers were on their list of targets. which mourns millions of our people, brutally During 1943 – 44, Bergson’s group spon- the feeling the man “was using me as a spar- Years later, in his best-selling memoir murdered, burned alive, asphyxiated in gas sored more than 200 full-page newspaper ring partner” during the interview, “to see Night, Wiesel recalled: “We were not chambers, thrown, still living, into burial ads, lobbied Congress, and organized ral- what I knew, what was on the record, as if to afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on trenches, while the governments of our lies, including a march by 400 rabbis to prepare for a possible trial.” At first he said he [the prisoners’ barracks], it alone would friendly nations dilly-dallied and split hairs the White House to plead for U.S. rescue did not recall the shootings, but then he said have claimed hundreds of victims on the about matters of rescue? of Jewish refugees. the eyewitness reports might be accurate. By spot. But we were no longer afraid of “What’s happy about this New Year for The Bergson Group also assembled an the end of the interview, the suspect again death; at any rate, not of that death. Every us if one of the foremost democratic allies impressive coalition of supporters from denied having taken part in the massacre. bomb that exploded filled us with joy and [Britain] … still blockades the sole practi- across the spectrum. The 1944 New Manoschek notified the state prosecu- gave us new confidence in life. The raid cal route of escape [from Hitler’s Year’s ad, for example, featured a long list tor in Dortmund. Chief Prosecutor Ulrich lasted over an hour. If it could only have Europe]—through the Balkans into of signatories, including singer Eddie Maass, who heads the Central Office for lasted ten times ten hours!” It was not to Palestine? Cantor; Harvard criminologist Sheldon the Investigation of National Socialist be. The planes did not aim at Auschwitz. It “With three to four million of our brethren Glueck; poet and Academy Award-win- Mass Crimes, told Die Zeit that investiga- was indeed a very bitter Rosh Hashanah. already dead, it is fair to say that good wish- ning screenwriter (for A Star is Born) tions are being “accelerated,” with the first es are not enough. It is fair to say that what Dorothy Parker; Unitarian Church official Dr. Medoff is director of the David S. held on Aug. 15. They have not yet con- has happened to us will go down in history Rev. Albert Dieffenbach; one of the most Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, tacted the suspect, he said. as democracy’s greatest disgrace… prominent Orthodox rabbis in America, which focuses on issues related to Manoschek and Forster hope to present “You have the last chance to do some- Eliezer Silver; Nobel Literature Prize lau- America’s response to the Holocaust. their interview in a documentary film. KRISTALLNACHT REMNANTS UNEARTHED NEAR BERLIN nalist who has a list of wartime-related eBay special,” he said, urging the govern- destruction that took place – about 1,400 BY KATE CONNOLLY, THE GUARDIAN investigations to his name, was researching ment to secure the site. synagogues, other Jewish religious estab- a story on the nearby hunting lodge of the The British historian Martin Gilbert, lishments, as well as people’s homes huge dumping ground for the Nazi Luftwaffe commander, Hermann author of Kristallnacht: Prelude to were completely, or partially, destroyed. destroyed remains of Jewish prop- A Göring, when the local forester, ost of the interi- erty plundered during Kristallnacht has who had been a young boy at ors of the syna- been found north of Berlin by an investiga- “M the time of the Kristallnacht, gogues – seats, cup- tive journalist. pointed out the rubbish dump. boards, pulpits etc – were The site, which is the size of four football Under mounds of earth Svoray taken away as loot. Most fields, in Brandenburg, contains an exten- uncovered the first items within of the interiors of ran- sive array of personal and ceremonial two hours. “The locals of this sacked Jewish shops items looted during orchestrated nation- site have basically been living were likewise taken away wide riots against Jewish property and with this dark hidden secret for as booty by neighbors and places of worship on the night of 70 years,” he said. looters. Other interiors November 9 1938. It is believed the goods Among the items he found were set on fire. It will be were brought by rail to the outskirts of the were glass bottles engraved interesting to see precise- village and dumped on designated land. with the Star of David, ly what the items are.” Yaron Svoray, the Israeli journalist who Mezuzahs, painted window Tanja Ronen-Löhnberg, made the discovery, said it was a happy sills, and the armrests of an educational historian at coincidence that he had stumbled across chairs found in synagogues. Ghetto Fighters’ House, a the artifacts so close to the 70th anniver- He also found an ornamental Holocaust research cen- sary of the pogrom, also known as the swastika. His search contin- tre in Galilee, Israel, said Night of Broken Glass. ues, under the protection of the items’ authenticity had “I wasn’t fully aware of the historical sig- bodyguards after threats to Jewish shops laid waste on Kristallnacht in 1938. been verified. “We don’t nificance of the find until it was pointed out his life. Destruction, which illustrates how the want to falsify history, so we sent histori- to me by a historian,” Svoray told the Svoray has been wary of making his find event paved the way for the Holocaust, ans who confirmed these items belonged Guardian. “We were looking for some- public because the site might attract far- marking the moment when race hate to the time.” thing completely different when we came right treasure hunters. “There’s no treas- became sanctioned by the German state, The center plans to organize a project across all these items and trinkets.” ure as such here, but there’s still the dan- said the size of the rubbish dump was not for German and Israeli children to search Svoray, a private detective turned jour- ger of it turning into some skinhead circus a surprise, considering the scale of the together through the remains. Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER ROMANCE IN THE HOLOCAUST he family was moved again, this And bringing him food – apples, mostly, but And then, the words that would change BY MATT SEDENSKY, AP T time to a ghetto where he shared bread, too – became part of her routine. their lives forever: “That was me,” he said. a single room with his mother, three “Every day,” she says, “every day I went.” Rosenblat knew he could never leave n the beginning, there was a boy, a girl brothers, uncle, aunt and four cousins. Rosenblat says he would secretly eat the this woman again. He proposed marriage and an apple. I He and his brothers got working papers apples, and never mentioned a word of it to that very night. She thought he was crazy. He was a teenager in a death camp in and he got a factory job painting anyone else for fear word would spread and Two months later she said yes. Nazi-controlled Germany. She was a bit stretchers for the Germans. younger, living free in the village, her fam- he’d be punished or even killed. When n 1958, they were married at a syna- ily posing as Christians. Their eyes met Rosenblat learned he Igogue in the Bronx – a world away from through a barbed-wire fence and she would be moved again this their sorrows, more than a decade after they wondered what she could do for this time to Theresienstadt, in had thought they were separated forever. handsome young man. what is now the Czech It all seems too remarkable to be She was carrying apples, and decided Republic – he told the girl believed. Rosenblat insists it is all true. to throw one over the fence. He caught it he would not return. Even after their engagement, the couple and ran away towards the barracks. And Not long after, the kept the story mostly to themselves, so it began. Russians rolled in on a telling only those closest to them. As they tell it, they returned the following tank and liberated Rosenblat says it’s because they met at a day and she tossed an apple again. And Rosenblat’s camp. The point in his life he’d rather forget. But each day after that, for months, the rou- war was over. She went eventually, he said, he felt the need to tine continued. She threw, he caught, and to nursing school in share it with others. both scurried away. Israel. He went to London Now, the Rosenblats’ story has inspired They never knew one another’s name, and learned to be an a children’s book, Angel Girl. And eventu- never uttered a single word, so fearful electrician. ally, there are plans to turn it into a film, they’d be spotted by a guard. Until one Their daily ritual faded The Flower of the Fence. Rosenblat day he came to the fence and told her he from their minds. expects to publish his memoirs next year. “I forgot,” she says. Michael Berenbaum, a distinguished wouldn’t be back. Herman and Roma Rosenblat in their North Miami Beach, Florida, “I forgot about her, too,” Holocaust scholar who has authored a “I won’t see you anymore,” she said. home. The story of the beginning of their relationship during the “Right, right. Don’t come around any- Holocaust is the inspiration for Laurie Friedman’s book, Angel Girl. he recalls. dozen books, has read Rosenblat’s mem- more,” he answered. Rosenblat eventually oir and sees no reason to question it. And so their brief and innocent tryst Eventually, the ghetto was dissolved. As moved to New York. He was running a tele- “I wasn’t born then, so I can’t say I was an came to an end. Or so they thought. the Poles were ushered out, two lines vision repair shop when a friend phoned him eyewitness. But it’s credible,” Berenbaum Before he was shipped off to a death formed. In one, those with working one Sunday afternoon and said he wanted to said. “Crazier things have happened.” camp, before the girl with the apples papers, including Rosenblat and his fix him up with a girl. Rosenblat was unen- Herman is now 79, and Roma is three appeared, Herman Rosenblat’s life had brothers. In the other, everyone else, thusiastic: He didn’t like blind dates, he told years his junior; they celebrated their 50th already changed forever. including the boys’ mother. his friend. He didn’t know what she would anniversary this summer. He often tells His family had been forced from their Rosenblat went over to his mother. “I look like. But finally, he relented. their story to Jewish and other groups. home into a ghetto. His father fell ill with want to be with you,” he cried. She spoke It went well enough. She was Polish and He believes the lesson is the very one typhus. They smuggled a doctor in, but harshly to him and one of his brothers easy-going. Conversation flowed, and his father imparted. there was little he could do to help. The pulled him away. His heart was broken. eventually talk turned to their wartime “Not to hate and to love – that’s what I man knew what was coming. He sum- “I was destroyed,” Rosenblat remem- experiences. Rosenblat recited the litany am lecturing about,” he said. “Not to hold moned his youngest son. “If you ever get bers. It was the last time he would ever of camps he had been in, and Radziki’s a grudge and to tolerate everybody, to out of this war,” Rosenblat remembers see her. ears perked up. She had been in love people, to be tolerant of people, no him saying, “don’t carry a grudge in your It was in Schlieben, Germany, that Schlieben, too, hiding from the Nazis. matter who they are or what they are.” heart and tolerate everybody.” Rosenblat and the girl he later called his She spoke of a boy she would visit, of The anger of the death camps, Herman Two days later, the father was dead. angel would meet. Roma Radziki worked on the apples she would bring, how he was says, has gone away. He forgave. And his Herman was just 12. a nearby farm and the boy caught her eye. sent away. life has been filled with love. HOLOCAUST HAUNTS SURVIVORS; AGENCIES TRY TO HELP early every night, Martin Hornung’s in their mid-60s, but many are much came in the dermatologist’ s chair. After his wife died in 2001, Hornung was Nnightmare unfolds to the same older. There is no definitive breakdown Moscovic needed to have a dime-sized diagnosed with colon cancer. He’s still haunting strains. Of Auschwitz. Of of how many are living independently cancerous growth removed. The doctor lucid, but he struggles with respiratory screaming voices. Of scenes he would and how many receive assistance, but cauterized the area – and the patient problems. On a recent afternoon, he rather not relive in the light of day. many are living below the poverty line began to shake uncontrollably. couldn’t get through a complete thought “I’m almost afraid to go to sleep,” the 86- and in need of help. “The smell - it brought me back,” the 77- without slipping into a hacking cough. year-old retired computer engineer said. “Their capacity for resilience that year-old Moscovic said. “The only way Ann Speier, 85, has long been retired The horrors that revisit Hornung in the they’ve shown since the war is amaz- you really left Birkenau was through the from her dressmaking job, and like dark are common among Holocaust sur- ing,” said Paula David, a social worker smokestacks. “ Hornung, lives in Century Village in Boca vivors, and are a reason why he refuses who has worked with more than 2,000 xperts have seen similar reactions Raton. It’s a popular place for survivors in to enter a nursing home despite his myri- Holocaust survivors in Toronto over the Efrom other populations, including their final years. She, too, is haunted by ad health problems. last 20 years and has studied the spe- war veterans and survivors of genocide in memories. “I try not to think, but I have to,” Jewish organizations worldwide are cific problems of the population as it Rwanda and elsewhere. The flashbacks she said. “It doesn’t go away.” working to keep survivors out of such ages. “The hard part is no matter what are only expected to get worse as these Three days a week, her aide arrives facilities, where the surroundings and rou- we do, we can’t make it OK.” groups age, so caregivers are trying to to take her to the doctor, to help her to impart lessons learned from the tines – strangers in uniforms, desolate lashbacks can come to a survivor at the pool and to assist around the Holocaust survivors. shower rooms, medical procedures - can any time. A fire alarm. A foreign house. Without the help, she said, she F For these Jewish survivors, being allowed exacerbate flashbacks. accent. Standing in a line. Once, David couldn’t exist. to stay in their homes offers a measure of “It frightens them and brings them witnessed a survivor begin screaming on Speier’s vision is nearly gone. comfort and routine as so much else around back to the Holocaust,” said Dr. Jaclynn a High Holy Day as musicians performed. Everything and everyone is just a blur. them changes. Faffer, executive director of Ruth Rales The music happened to have been played The Ruth Rales group provides Hornung a But she recognizes Lila Vaughn, her as murders took place at the concentra- Jewish Family Service, one of the nurse’s aide three days a week, and he also caseworker from Ruth Rales, when she tion camps. groups helping keep survivors out of receives delivered meals. Hornung cared for arrives. She beams. She caresses nursing homes. One of David’s clients slept with hiking his wife – also a survivor – for 10 years as Vaughn’s face. And after some time Hornung wouldn’t even consider moving boots under his pillow to ensure he’d be she slipped into a haze of Alzheimer’s, which passes, the caseworker has a question into a nursing home. “I would kill myself.” able to run away. Another one hoarded along with other forms of dementia, further for Speier. An estimated 93,000 Holocaust sur- bread in his closet so he wouldn’t starve. complicates the aging process of survivors. “Do you want me to leave or you want vivors are alive in the United States, For Alex Moscovic, who survived She grew so confused she would think her me to stay?” Vaughn asks. “I would like and South Florida is home to one of the Birkenau and the horrific medical experi- husband was a Nazi guard. Once, she you to stay all day with me,” Speier largest populations. The youngest are ments of Josef Mengele, a flashback stabbed him in the chest. answers. “It’s so hard. It’s so lonely.” November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7

“PREVENT THE ATROCITIES “THE RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE” FROM EVER BEFALLING AVNER SHALEV, Chairman of tions commenced. the Yad Vashem Directorate and At the end of the formal discussions that night, I saw General THE JEWISH PEOPLE AGAIN” recipient of the American Society Gamassi take aside General Yariv, the head of the Israeli delega- SELMA GRUDER HOROWITZ, for Yad Vashem Leadership Award tion, for a private talk. After the Egyptians departed, General Yariv Recipient of the Yad Vashem for Remembrance confided in me regarding a significant piece of information that Remembrance Award had just come his way: Anwar Sadat wanted to transmit a mes- was born in Jerusalem, part of a sage to Israel’s leaders: I intend to achieve peace. Igeneration that has strived to This news affected me deeply. I realized that if peace would build a new Jewish society in our indeed emerge from this bloody war, it would bring with it a new homeland. We have understood our kind of responsibility for me to bear: The responsibility to educate. responsibility and accepted it. t was as an educator that I arrived in 1993 at my next cross- This led to my serving as a combat Iroads: the decision to come to Yad Vashem. It seems to me that officer in the Israel Defense Forces my decision to take leadership of Yad Vashem was informed and influ- and, I suppose, to my being wounded enced by a certain childhood memory which I shall now relate to you. in the Six-Day War, fighting for my When I was a young boy in Israel, my mother used to prepare gefilte country. Eventually, I came to serve as Assistant to the IDF’s fish for Shabbat dinner. And as she did so, many times – though not Chief of Staff during the Yom Kippur War. always – she would cry. I wanted to discover what had made her cry. As the Chief of Staff’s assistant, my duties then involved partic- One time I found the courage to ask my mother: “Why do you cry? ipating in the secret ceasefire negotiations between Israel and What is so unique about this fish?” To this day I recall being stunned Egypt, west of the Suez Canal, while the Egyptian 3rd Army was by her answer: “Silly, I am not crying because of the fish. I am crying encircled by our forces. I joined the Israeli delegation to what was because of my murdered grandparents, and parents and my sister, to be a fateful rendezvous. We arrived at the designated site in Shaindele. Cooking this fish reminds me of my Jewish home and its no-man’s-land, amidst gunfire, whereupon we waited… and wait- Shabbat that were destroyed.” want to thank Eli Zborowski and ed, and then waited more. There was no sign of the Egyptian del- It took me some time to truly comprehend the meaning of that IThe American Society for Yad egation, led by General Gamassi. Suddenly our field phone rang, exchange with my mother. But gradually I came to understand that I Vashem for honoring me here tonight. and I heard the unmistakable voice of our Prime Minsiter, Golda could not just leave her sister, Shaindele, and her parents out there in My story of survival is similar to that Meir. Literally shouting at me, she demanded to know why we had Poland. This too was my responsibility: To make their existence part of many other survivors. I was in a con- not already met our Egyptian counterparts. It turns out that she of my existence, my being and my identity. This sense of responsibil- centration camp, the camp was liqui- had President Nixon on another line, and he was quite upset with ity led me to Yad Vashem. To teach others, in a wide and up-to-date dated, I was able to escape and find Israel for apparently avoiding the start of the ceasefire talks. variety of methods and formats, about their responsibility. my family in the village where I had After I convinced Golda that we had indeed arrived at the right We all reach critical crossroads from time to time, and make grown up. My family was fortunate spot and that the Egyptians had not, she conveyed my explana- choices. May you and yours, those who are dear to us, and all our enough to be able to pay a Polish tion to Nixon and gained his approval for us to meet Gamassi’s fellow Jews and citizens, find the wisdom and strength to choose woman who used to work for us to hide delegation that evening, this time behind Israeli lines. Fortunately the path of responsibility – the only path that can ensure the us. We were hidden in a hole dug that get-together did take place and the historic bilateral negotia- future of our people and its civilization and that of humanity. under the trough in her barn. The only w ay to get in was by crawling on your elbows for support. Shortly after that, “WHAT WE SHARE EXCEEDS WHAT DIVIDES US” the Ukrainians, who hated the Poles almost as much as they hated the FRED S. ZEIDMAN, Chairman of night, they knew. Humanity knew, and humanity turned away. Jews, burned the village to the ground the United States Holocaust Our two institutions – Yad Vashem and the United States and killed as many Poles as they could. Memorial Council and recipient of Holocaust Memorial Museum – exist for one powerful and endur- We were moved by the Polish under- the Yad Vashem Leadership Award ing mission: to amplify the sound of glass shattering in the night. ground, along with non-Jewish Poles, for Remembrance We work together in efforts that range from education, to research ,to to another Polish village. In the second rescuing the evidence of the Holocaust, to helping other countries t is a privilege to accept this honor village, another Polish woman, an confront their past. on behalf of myself, on behalf of agent of God, hid us until the end of the I Our curators and scholars constantly exchange information and the institution I represent, the United war. This woman, Maria Patchkowska, collections. Our two institutions collaborate at the 25-nation inter- States Holocaust Memorial Museum, has been designated as one of the national task force on Holocaust education, remembrance, and and most importantly, on behalf of the Righteous Among the Nations. research to ensure that other countries face their history honest- sacred cause to which all of us here Although I could go into great detail ly. We work together with the United Nations on Holocaust edu- tonight are so deeply committed. For describing the experiences of my fami- cation and remembrance efforts worldwide. it is that cause – the cause of remem- ly and me during the war, doing so If we do not make a difference in all these areas and more, that brance – which is primary; which tran- would take significantly more time than piercing sound of shattered glass might recede into the night and scends any institution, and which must not only endure, but thrive the time allotted to me, and, l might its lessons, its warnings, will be lost. in this troubling 21st century. add, none of us would enjoy the Now we know that Kristallnacht was not only reported in all Almost eight years have passed since I became chairman of the evening. major papers in the United States. It was not only front page U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. When an old friend of mine The American Society for Yad news. It dominated the headlines. For a moment, it grabbed the was elected president of the United States, I told him this was the Vashem is about looking to the past. world’s attention. And yet, we know what happened, or rather only role I wanted. I suppose that’s because it’s a role for which I But why do we look to the past? Not for what did not happen. We might call this a failure of leadership. feel I’ve been training all my life. the sake of reliving the horrors that we he Holocaust happened for many reasons. Among them was As many of you know, I didn’t have the typical Jewish upbring- experienced, which we do in our the failure of leadership on so many levels and in so many ing. Or, depending on your perspective, I had the very essence T dreams and at all different moments. places – in Germany, in Europe, and here in the United States. It is for of a Jewish upbringing. I grew up in a small Texas town – a place We look to the past in order to look for- this reason that the museum in Washington has taken on leadership with one horse and not too many more Jews. But we had enough ward. The theme of this evening is training as one of its top priorities. Because if we believe in learning to form what our people always have, no matter where we have hope – tikva. Here with me this evening from the Holocaust, we must start with our leaders. That’s why we found ourselves in the world: a community. That, in so many are not only my sisters and my brother educate students from our military academies, train every FBI agent, ways, is the Jewish experience – one that teaches us to draw — those of my generation who sur- work with diplomats from the State Department and will soon teach strength from each other, to kibbitz and kvetch about our differ- vived with me, but also my nieces, my the chief justices in all 50 states. ences, and then eventually set them all aside for the sake of com- nephew, and my great-niece and As we think about leadership today, we know a new president mon purpose. It’s an experience that tells us what we share nephews. They and their futures are will soon assume leadership of our nation at a most challenging exceeds what divides us. those on whose behalf I have dedicat- When I accepted this role, I promised the survivors who are the time, that he will face another type of leader such as the president ed myself in working on behalf of Yad very soul of our museum that I would do all I could to carry forth of Iran. And, we realize that the Holocaust may be receding in Vashem, and who are the hope of their legacy. Of course, that is a weight no one – least of all me – time, but its lessons are only becoming more timely. And, that is future generations of Jews. And on a could bear alone. The great privilege of my service at the muse- why Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial broader level, my hope in being part of um has been to work with a staff, a council and a corps of sur- Museum are so important. For they were born of the past, but the American Society for Yad Vashem vivors and volunteers whose devotion and talent exceed any they can shape the future. The past we know with clarity; the and in supporting its work is that by words I might use to describe them. future remains uncertain. To navigate that future will require keeping the memories alive and by Tonight, as we reflect on the significance of these troubling responsible leadership and the commitment of talented and ded- supporting a strong State of Israel, we times in the context of the Kristallnacht anniversary, one cannot icated people like all of you. If these years at the U.S. Holocaust will be able to prevent the atrocities help but think that the dreadful night 70 years ago was the begin- Memorial Museum have taught me anything, it is that all of you – that so many of us here tonight have ning of the end of so much: Jewish existence in Europe; human- all of us – are up to that noble and vital task. Thank you again for seen in our lifetimes from ever befalling ity’s innocence; the ability to say “we did not know.” As of that this wonderful honor. the Jewish people again. Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769

From L to R: Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Selma Gruder Horowitz, recipient of the Yad Elizabeth Zborowski, Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, United States Secretary Vashem Remembrance Award, David Halpern, Dinner Co-Chair, and Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the of Education Margaret Spellings, Ira Drukier 2008 General Co-Chairman, Gale Drukier, Marilyn American & International Societies for Yad Vashem. Rubenstein, 2008 Dinner General Co-Chair, Barry Rubenstein, Kay Zeidman and Fred Zeidman, recip- ient of the Yad Vashem Leadership Award for Remembrance.

Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem.

Margaret Spellings, United States Secretary of Education, with Sharon and David Halpern, Dinner Co- Chair.

Front row: Celina Zborowski and Paula Mandell. Back row (L to R): Marvin Zborowski, Stella Skura, Members of the Third Generation, including Ofra Biener, Stephanie Lowenthal, Barak Wrobel, Ariel William Mandell. Zborowski, Boaz Zborowski, Eytan and Sivan Noy and friends. November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9

Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate and recipient of the American Society for Yad Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Jay Zeidman, Kay and Fred Zeidman, recipi- Vashem Leadership Award for Remembrance, Joseph Wilf, Ruth Zuria, granddaughter of Avner Shalev ent of the Yad Vashem Leadership Award for Remembrance, Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American and Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem. & International Societies for Yad Vashem, and Ira Mitzner, Dinner Co-Chair.

Members of the American Society for Yad Vashem Young Leadership Associates (from L to R) – Barry Ira Mitzner, Dinner Co-Chair. Marilyn Rubenstein 2008 Dinner General Co-Chair. Levine, Dovid Feld, Rebecca Hanus, Caroline and Morris Massel and Lawrence and Adina Burian.

A view of some of the over 800 guests who attended the 2008 Annual Tribute Dinner. The Skura and Lifshitz families. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM RABBI ISRAEL MEIR LAU APPOINTED YAD VASHEM HONORED CHAIRMAN OF THE YAD VASHEM COUNCIL UNHERALDED HOLOCAUST HERO n November, 9, at its weekly cabi- Holocaust, growing up in Israel and how 20 years and the unexpected help of an El net meeting, the government the memory of his childhood during the O BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, HAARETZ Al pilot to complete the picture. authorized the appointment of Rabbi war influenced him as a rabbi and com- The pilot told Haaretz that he met the son, Israel Meir Lau as Chairman of the Yad munal leader. Dutch policeman who joined the Henk Brink, a few years ago in South Vashem Council. He will succeed the late “I welcome and am delighted by the resistance movement after being A Africa. “I thought I’d invite him to see Joseph (Tommy) Lapid. decision to appoint a man of such high ordered to round up Jews posthumously Israel and meet the guys from my Rabbi Lau was born in 1937 in Piotrków, caliber Chairman of the Yad Vashem received Israel’s highest honor for people squadron, because he’s interested in avi- Poland, the scion of a well-known Council, a remarkable man I have been who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. ation,” he said. “I also told Yad Vashem European rabbinic family. During the early privileged to know personally for many Henk Drogt’s bravery became known years of the war, he was incarcerated in years,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner thanks to the efforts of an El the Piotrków ghetto. In October 1942, his Shalev. “The issue of the Holocaust is Al pilot who heard the story father and brothers, along with the major- close to Rabbi Lau’s heart, and he sees in from the hero’s son, who will ity of the Jews of their town, were deport- Holocaust Remembrance both Jewish receive the honor on his ed to the Treblinka extermination camp, and universal values. Rabbi Lau has 65th birthday. where they were murdered. Lau and his strong, deep ties to Yad Vashem, and has Drogt, who was executed mother managed to already contributed sig- by the Nazis in 1944, was escape the deportation. nificantly to Holocaust already recognized as a In November 1944, dur- commemoration and its hero by former U.S. presi- ing a selection, Rabbi legacy.” dent Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lau’s mother had him ith feelings of Britain and the Netherlands stand close by his broth- “W awe, I thank for his role in rescuing Allied er Naftali who was slat- Prime Minister Ehud pilots who ejected over ed to be sent to a forced Olmert and the mem- occupied Holland. But Israel had never labor camp. Lau’s moth- bers of the government Henk Brink accepts the certificate and medal of honor of er was sent to her who ratified the appoint- acknowledged the circum- Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of his late father, Henk death, but the two broth- ment, for choosing me stances in which Drogt Drogt, from the Chairman of the Commission for the Designation ers were deported to the to serve as the new joined the resistance. On of the Righteous Among the Nations, Supreme Court Justice Czenstochov forced Chairman of the Yad September 22 his son Yaacov Turkel. labor camp and from Vashem Council,” said received the honor naming there to the Buchenwald Rabbi Lau. “As we his father Righteous Among the Nations in about it, but I wasn’t sure they’d name him concentration camp. mark 70 years since a formal ceremony in Jerusalem at Yad Righteous among the Nations.” When Buchenwald was Kristallnacht – the vio- Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Drogt, 23 at the time of his arrest, was liberated by the US lent outbreak that Heroes Remembrance Authority. planning to marry his pregnant girlfriend. armed forces, eight- marked the beginning of Drogt, who was not Jewish, defected in She gave birth to Brink, the son, on year-old Lau (nick- Rabbi Israel Meir Lau appointed the Holocaust - this 1943 with his rifle after receiving orders to September 22, 1943 – one month after named Lolik) was the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council appointment is especial- arrest the remaining Jews in the Drogt’s arrest. youngest surviving prisoner. Following lib- ly meaningful to me. My life experiences Groningen area in northern Holland, “The impression I received was of a eration, Lau emigrated to Eretz Israel on a echo in the walls of Yad Vashem, and are where he served in the ranks of the young man, a doer rather than a thinker, ship of orphaned refugee children. found in the documents and exhibits Marechaussee, the military police. Some who died young,” says the pilot, who is Rabbi Lau has served in many rabbinic therein. I have been privileged to witness of his comrades who also refused the also a reserve Israel Air Force pilot. capacities, among them Regional Rabbi up close Yad Vashem’s activity in Israel order were arrested, and later honored by “My connection to Drogt’s story is mostly of Northern Tel Aviv, Chief Rabbi of and around the world for many years, and Yad Vashem for their actions. as an army pilot,” he added. “Ejecting Netanya and Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Tel I have great respect and admiration for Drogt’s name was omitted from the list behind enemy lines is a pilot’s worst night- Aviv-Jaffe. In 1993 he was elected Chief the Chairmen of the Council and submitted to the Commission for the mare. It must have taken tremendous Asheknazi Rabbi of Israel, a position he Directorate who preceded me. Chairman Designation of the Righteous, because he bravery to risk his life to help those strand- held until 2003. In 2005, he was re-elect- of the Directorate Avner Shalev is the had managed to escape. It took another ed and wounded pilots.” ed Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffe. In 2006, great visionary and builder of Yad Vashem Rabbi Lau was awarded the Israel Prize and I am convinced, from our many years POLISH RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS for Lifetime Achievement and special of acquaintance, that we will work togeth- service to society and the State of Israel. er to continue to support and develop this HONORED AT YAD VASHEM Rabbi Lau’s autobiography, Do Not institution, which is unrivalled anywhere ladyslaw Panczyszyn, a Polish hole under the floor. Raise Your Hand Against the Boy was else in the world. I am dedicated to giving W Righteous Among the Nations who But hiding Rosa placed the Panczyszyn published during the 60th anniversary of my time and energy to fulfilling the com- rescued Jews during the Holocaust, was family in danger from all sides, not only from the liberation of Buchenwald. It tells the mandment “Remember what Amalek has posthumously honored at Yad Vashem neighbors, but also from close family mem- story of his experiences during the done to you in our generation.” Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. bers. Wladyslaw’s sister-in-law, his broth- The ceremony took place in the Hall of er’s wife, strenuously objected to his mar- Remembrance, followed by the unveiling of riage to a Jewish woman, and the family AUSCHWITZ ALBUM IN FARSI ON YAD VASHEM the name of the Righteous in the Garden of feared that she would inform on them. the Righteous Among the Nations. As the risk to the family increased, PERSIAN WEBSITE Born in Lubaczow, Wladyslaw Wladyslaw, Helena and their 2-year-old new online exhibit of the Auschwitz is available here. The entire Album is on dis- Panczyszyn lived with his parents in daughter, Irena, moved to Boryslaw. Once A Album has been uploaded to Yad play at Yad Vashem. Drohobycz. In 1939, he married there his there, Wladyslaw placed his daughter in hid- Vashem’s Persian website. The new In January 2007, Yad Vashem launched Jewish neighbor, Helena Reinharz. In ing with a colleague from work, while Helena exhibit contains background information a site in Farsi, including 20 historical 1941, the Germans captured the area and Rosa hid behind a wall that was built in about Auschwitz, 60 chapters with dozens of where Wladyslaw was living and the mur- a storeroom near their home. pictures and short photos - arranged chrono- der of the Jews began. One day a fire broke out in the Wladyslaw began to work in any way Panczyszyn’s kitchen, attracting a great explanations from the logically, from the rise of possible to help the Reinharz family. He deal of attention and threatening the safe- Album itself, and sur- the Nazis to power until would enter the ghetto to give the family ty of the women’s hiding place. Feeling vivor testimonies, all in the post-war trials. Some money and food, ignoring the danger to that she was endangering his life, Rosa Farsi. 100,000 people visited the his own life. wanted to leave Wladyslaw’s house, but The Auschwitz Album Farsi website thus far. When the ghetto was destroyed, the he insisted that she remain. is the only surviving visu- “In 2007, there were more only surviving members of his wife’s fami- Wladyslaw hid Helena and Rosa for a al evidence of the than 7 million visits to yad- ly were her sister Rosa and a brother who year and a half, taking care of all their process of mass murder vashem.org. Clearly, there was in hiding elsewhere to whom needs during that entire time. at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The photos show the is widespread interest in the Holocaust. We Wladyslaw had been providing food. Carmella Ben Natan and Avi Schweitzer arrival and selection at Auschwitz of believe that making credible, comprehensive Helena’s parents and a younger sister of Israel, children of the late survivor Rosa Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia in information about the Holocaust available to were murdered. Schweitzer, and Irena Gorniak of Poland, 1944. The photos in the album show the Persian speakers can contribute to the fight Wladyslaw decided to take action to daughter of the late Righteous and the entire process except for the killing itself. against Holocaust denial,” said Yad Vashem save his sister-in-law, Rosa. He smug- late survivor, Helena Reinharz More information about the Auschwitz Album Chairman Avner Shalev. gled her into his home and hid her in a Panczyszyn, attended the ceremony. November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 A FRIEND IN DEED aunt Jessie Johnson world-famous musician returned home, “he was still shaken, BY LENNY BEN-DAVID Hatcher, a major influ- and conductor, credited stunned, terrorized and bursting with an ecently, the Associated Press reported ence on LBJ, was a LBJ for saving his life. overpowering revulsion and incredulous Rthat newly released tapes from US member of the Zionist That same year, LBJ horror at what he had seen.” president Lyndon Johnson’s White House Organization of America. warned a Jewish friend, A decade later, while serving in the office showed LBJ’s “personal and often According to Gomolak, Jim Novy, that European Senate, Johnson blocked the Eisenhower emotional connection to Israel.” The news Aunt Jessie had nur- Jews faced annihilation. administration’s attempts to apply sanc- agency pointed out that during the Johnson tured LBJ’s commitment “Get as many Jewish tions against Israel following the 1956 presidency (1963-1969), “the United States to befriending Jews for people as possible out [of Sinai Campaign. “The indefatigable became Israel ‘s chief diplomatic ally and pri- 50 years. As a young Germany and Poland ,” Johnson had never ceased pressure on mary arms supplier.” boy, Lyndon watched his were Johnson’s instruc- the administration,” wrote I.L. “Si” Kenen, But the news report does little to reveal politically active grandfa- tions. Somehow, the head of AIPAC at the time. the full historical extent of Johnson’s ther “Big Sam” and Johnson provided him s Senate majority leader, Johnson actions on behalf of the Jewish people father “Little Sam” seek with a pile of signed Aconsistently blocked the anti-Israel ini- and the State of Israel. Most students of clemency for Leo Frank, immigration papers tiatives of his fellow Democrat, William the Arab-Israeli conflict can identify the Jewish victim of a that were used to get Fulbright, the chairman of the Senate Johnson as the president during the 1967 blood libel in Atlanta . 42 Jews out of Warsaw . Foreign Relations Committee. Among war. But few know about LBJ’s actions to Frank was lynched by a Lyndon B. Johnson But that wasn’t Johnson’s closest advisers during this period rescue hundreds of endangered Jews mob in 1915, and the Ku enough. According to were several strong pro-Israel advocates, during the Holocaust – actions that could Klux Klan in Texas threatened to kill the historian James M. Smallwood, including Benjamin Cohen (who 30 years have thrown him out of Congress and into Johnsons. The Johnsons later told friends Congressman Johnson used legal and earlier was the liaison between Supreme jail. Indeed, the title of “Righteous Gentile” that Lyndon’s family hid in their cellar sometimes illegal methods to smuggle Court justice Louis Brandeis and Chaim is certainly appropriate in the case of the while his father and uncles stood guard “hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Weizmann) and Abe Fortas, the legendary Texan, whose centennial year is being with shotguns on their porch in case of Galveston as the entry port. Enough Washington “insider.” commemorated this year. KKK attacks. Johnson’s speechwriter later money could buy false passports and Johnson’s concern for the Jewish peo- Appropriately enough, the annual stated, “Johnson often cited Leo Frank’s fake visas in Cuba , Mexico and other ple continued through his presidency. Jerusalem Conference announced that it lynching as the source of his opposition to Latin American countries.... Johnson Soon after taking office in the aftermath of will honor Johnson in February 2009. both anti-Semitism and isolationism.” smuggled boatloads and planeloads of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Historians have revealed that Johnson, Already in 1934 - four years before Jews into Texas . He hid them in the Johnson told an Israeli diplomat, “You while serving as a young congressman in Chamberlain’s Munich sellout to Hitler – Texas National Youth Administration... have lost a very great friend, but you have 1938 and 1939, arranged for visas to be Johnson was keenly alert to the dangers Johnson saved at least four or five hun- found a better one.” supplied to Jews in Warsaw , and over- of Nazism and presented a book of dred Jews, possibly more.” Just one month after succeeding Kennedy, saw the apparently illegal immigration of essays, Nazism: An Assault on During World War II, Johnson joined LBJ attended the December 1963 dedication hundreds of Jews through the port of Civilization, to the 21-year-old woman he Novy at a small Austin gathering to sell of the Agudas Achim Synagogue in Austin. Galveston , Texas . was courting, Claudia Taylor – later known $65,000 in war bonds. According to Novy opened the ceremony by saying to A key resource for uncovering LBJ’s as “Lady Bird” Johnson. It was an incredi- Gomolak, Novy and Johnson then raised Johnson, “We can’t thank him enough for all pro-Jewish activity is the unpublished ble engagement present. a very “substantial sum for arms for those Jews he got out of Germany during the 1989 doctoral thesis by University of ive days after taking office in 1937, LBJ Jewish underground fighters in Palestine days of Hitler.” Texas student Louis Gomolak, “Prologue: Fbroke with the “Dixiecrats” and sup- .” One source cited by the historian Lady Bird would later describe the day, LBJ’s Foreign Affairs Background, 1908- ported an immigration bill that would natural- reports that “Novy and Johnson had been according to Gomolak: “Person after per- 1948.” Johnson’s activities were con- ize illegal aliens, mostly Jews from Lithuania secretly shipping heavy crates labeled son plucked at my sleeve and said, ‘I firmed by other historians in interviews and Poland . In 1938, Johnson was told of a ‘Texas Grapefruit’ – but containing arms - wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him. with his wife, family members and political young Austrian Jewish musician who was to Jewish underground ‘freedom fighters’ He helped me get out.’” Lady Bird elabo- associates. about to be deported from the United States in Palestine.” rated, “Jews had been woven into the Research into Johnson’s personal histo- . With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent On June 4, 1945, Johnson visited warp and woof of all [Lyndon’s] years.” ry indicates that he inherited his concern him to the US Consulate in Havana to obtain Dachau. According to Smallwood, Lady The prelude to the 1967 war was a terri- for the Jewish people from his family. His a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the Bird later recalled that when her husband (Continued on page 14) STEVEN SPIELBERG HOLOCAUST ARCHIVE “MAKES ALIYAH” BELARUS REMEMBERS MINSK GHETTO VICTIMS e may be living in something of users. The process takes a few minutes archive on line, but technological, legal “W a bubble, and I don’t mean each time,” relates Yad Vashem CIO and especially financing problems make elarus remembered its Jews who investment bubble – I mean reality bub- Michael Lieber. “After receiving a dona- this a difficult task. Bperished in the Holocaust on the ble,” Tim O’Reilly, a guru of the global tion from Sheldon Adelson and EMC, Lieber says that Yad Vashem computers 65th anniversary of the annihilation of the technology community said. “These are we decided to fly the material to Israel contain about 500 terabytes of archived Minsk ghetto. pretty depressing times in a lot of ways,” in a consolidated storage system, documents, pictures, voice and video Belarusian President Alexander he groused, showing the audience a num- although transferring so much material files. “We are operating an enormous dig- Lukashenko took part in memorial cere- ber of Facebook applications such as the is rather unusual. itization system,” he concludes. mony held at the Yama memorial complex one allowing surfers to toss virtual sheep At present, movie searches can be per- in Minsk, where many of the ghetto vic- at each other, or to drink virtual beer. “You formed based on a limited number of tims are buried. “A small part of have to ask yourself - are we working on search keys: names, dates and places. In Belarusian Jews survived (the war). They the right things?” addition , there are some rudimentary were killed only because they were The disenchanted O’Reilly would tags that the Holocaust fund has added to Jewish,” Lukashenko told. probably have liked the joint project by the movies, allowing viewers to skip The president promised that Belarus Yad Vashem and the global storage between sections of the movie. would remember the Holocaust victims. company EMC, which are collaborating The movies currently have no tran- He declared that a great memorial will be on bringing more than 200,000 hours of scripts. Lieber says that Yad Vashem is created on the site of the former video to Israel. The images include considering the possibility of making use Trostenec death camp was located, 52,000 interviews with Holocaust sur- of voice search tools, but although they where thousands of Jews and people of vivors, prepared and stored by the have consulted with a number of leading other nations were killed by the Nazis. Steven Spielberg. Shoah Foundation Institute, a Steven technology companies in the field, no sat- “New generations haven’t forgotten what Spielberg creation at the University of As part of the project, a number of EMC isfactory solution has been found. “The happened in the middle of the last centu- Southern California (USC). representatives came to the Shoah type of material we are dealing with pres- ry,” Lukashenko said. The testimonies will be added to a Yad Institute to copy all of the testimonies over ents difficult hurdles for voice recognition The head of the Belarusian Jewish com- Vashem collection of about 10,000 a period of a few weeks – more than 200 software, because of the emotionality in munity, Leonid Levin, told JTA that the accounts that have been filmed on video terabytes – to archive systems that were the material and the plethora of lan- ceremony is the first time that the since 1989, and some 5,000 films dealing then flown to Israel. guages. Programs that do an excellent job Belarusian government has paid so much with the Holocaust produced all over the he movies are now available for transcripting news reports have a lot of attention to the memory of Holocaust vic- world. The collections will be made acces- TVideo on Demand viewing at the difficulty when operated on the types of tims. “Mourning ceremonies take place all sible to the public. Yad Vashem viewing center, founded interviews that we are dealing with. over the country. It is the first time that The collection at USC is archived on three years ago. Lieber says that the cen- Witnesses telling their story can suddenly people speak openly about the tragedy of analogue recordings with limited accessi- ter’s top priority is to get the material onto halt under a deluge of memories. In these the Belarusian Jews,” Levin said. bility. Only the catalog of movies and a rel- the Internet. “Initially, we will use cases, the system, which analyzes breaks More than 800,000 Jews were killed atively few minutes of video are available YouTube, so we can at least post sections in speech, separates the first part from the in the country during World War II. on-line. “The USC has robotic systems of the interviews” he promises, noting that continuation. For the viewer, the section About 100,000 Jews perished in the that pull out recordings requested by Yad Vashem would prefer to put the entire ends at the height of the tension. Minsk ghetto. Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS SEEK CONGRESS’S HELP IN COURT camps. Of 2,166 passengers on one appeals court to apply it to the railroad another lawsuit in New York seeking com- BY JAMES BARRON, train, for example, 536 died on a three- case, which was dismissed. pensation from France for property taken THE NEW YORK TIMES day trip to the Dachau death camp in “The evil actions of the French national from Jews. railroad’s former private masters in know- Not all of the plaintiffs in either of the be Dresdner remembers the train ride, Germany, according to the lawsuit. The railroad countered that it could not ingly transporting thousands to death New York cases had been railroad pas- remembers being “jammed in, stand- A be sued in American courts because of camps during World War II are not sus- sengers themselves. One of them, ing for days and days” in a boxcar. It was the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of ceptible to legal redress in federal court Mathilde Freund, 92, said her husband, August 1940 in Vichy France. He was 11. 1976. The law was passed to prevent for- today,” the appeals judges wrote. Fritz, had been arrested when he left their “We had no food, no nothing,” said Mr. eign governments from being sued in The survivors went back to the Supreme hiding place near Lyon. He was impris- Dresdner, who had fled his native American courts and to give the force of Court in 2005. The justices declined to oned and taken by train to Compiègne, Belgium, only to be captured by French law to principles that the federal govern- hear the case. France, where he was held for several authorities and put on the train. “They took ment and the courts had long followed. Harriet Tanen, a Manhattan lawyer who months before he was moved, again by all our belongings, our suitcases, except The railroad also said it was entitled to represents many of the survivors in the for what we were carrying in our pockets.” immunity under American laws in effect lawsuit, said the 2004 decision was dis- The train was bound for Rivesaltes, a during World War II. turbing because it left them with no village in southern France where there recourse. “The railroad has never denied what it did,” she said. “They’ve just said, ‘You can’t sue us.’ That’s wrong.” he Senate bill, introduced by TSenators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is tai- lored specifically to the railroad case. The bill says that American courts “are and should be a proper forum” for the railroad Mathilde Freund, with her husband, Fritz. case. A similar bill was introduced in the Her husband, who had served in the French House. Army, was killed in the Buchenwald concen- “S.N.C.F. has continued to evade tration camp in Germany in 1945. responsibility through minutiae and loop- holes in the law,” Mr. Schumer said. The train, to the Buchenwald camp, in bill says the immunity law “was not intend- Germany. Mrs. Freund said he was killed Ruth Schloss in Woodside, Queens, left, and at age 13 with her parents, who were sent to ed to bar suit against the S.N.C.F.” there on Jan. 31, 1945. Auschwitz. The railroad “knew what was going on,” she says. Andreas F. Lowenfeld, a professor at “He was so hopeful that he would sur- Judge David G. Trager of Federal the New York University School of Law, vive,” said Mrs. Freund, who lives on the was a squalid camp for foreign Jews District Court dismissed the case, saying who argued the railroad’s appeal in 2003, Upper West Side. “He wrote me letters rounded up by the Vichy government. the railroad was an entity of a foreign state called the proposed change in the immu- and cards from Buchenwald. The last card For seven years, he and some 600 and covered by sovereign immunity under nity law “an attempt to get, in effect, I received was only seven lines. He was other survivors of Nazi Germany and the 1976 statute. In 2003, a federal another bite.” hopeful he would return and we would Vichy France have been trying — so far appeals court reversed Judge Trager’s “The basic idea is this litigation doesn’t have a wonderful life.” unsuccessfully — to hold the national decision and sent the case back to the belong in the United States,” he said — a Another survivor, Ruth Schloss, of French railroad accountable in federal lower court after ruling that the question was point that he said the appeals court had Woodside, Queens, said, “The railroad court in Brooklyn. Now they have turned whether the State Department of the 1940s made clear. He added that officials of the forced my parents to be deported; they to Congress, pinning their hopes on a bill would have sanctioned the litigation. railroad had “made an elaborate historical knew what was going on.” that would permit their class-action law- The railroad appealed to the Supreme study, and they have made a variety of As for Mr. Dresdner, he escaped from suit to go forward. Court. The high court took the case, but compensation and payments” in France. Rivesaltes and was smuggled to Italy, They filed suit against the railroad, sent it back to the appeals court in 2004 In 2006, a French administrative court in where he hid in monasteries until Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer, after ruling on another case, one that Toulouse ordered the railroad to pay President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 2001, stating in court papers that the involved the heir to an Austrian Jewish art $80,000 to relatives of four people who announced that 1,000 Jewish refugees railroad had carried more than 72,000 collector who was suing the Austrian gov- had been taken by train to a transit camp would be admitted to the United States. Jews and thousands of others to Nazi ernment for the return of six Klimt paint- at Drancy, near Paris, from which Jews Mr. Dresdner was sent to Oswego, N.Y. camps. The court papers also said the ings that her family had owned before the were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Mr. Dresdner, who lives in Brooklyn, railroad must have been aware of the war. The court said the heir’s suit against That was the first time the state and rail- accused the railroad of trying to prolong horrendous conditions on the trains Austria and its national museum could road had been found liable for their role in the case. “In another 10 years, there won’t because it cleaned and disinfected the proceed. A week after issuing that deci- deporting French Jews. Also in 2006, be any survivors to talk to,” he said. cars after taking the prisoners to the sion, the Supreme Court instructed the many survivors’ and victims’ families filed “They’re trying to wait this out.” NAZI HUNTERS TURN HISTORIAN ore than 60 years after World War he ever put behind bars. Office of Special Investigations, recommends they use camp inmates to MTwo ended, Nazi hunters are running The Austrian’s purges in a Polish ghetto Rosenbaum has unmasked Nazis who build the V2.” out of targets and increasingly becoming his- included shooting 40 children in an settled inconspicuously into suburban Disgraced, Rudolph surrendered his torians who shine a harsh light on dark fam- orphanage and offering a false amnesty to America, as well as knocking prominent U.S. citizenship and returned to Germany. ily secrets. “It’s hard to keep prosecutors Jews living underground only to order citizens off their pedestals. “I remember he died on New Year’s day,” here,” said Kurt Schrimm, who leads them stripped and executed. When Rosenbaum discovered Arthur says Rosenbaum. “He spent many years try- Germany’s department for prosecuting Nazi After paying 500,000 Deutschmarks to Rudolph around 1980, the architect of the ing to rehabilitate his name. war crimes. “I tell them when they start that an informant, Schrimm traced Saturn V rocket that put man on the moon ringing war criminals to justice is the prospects of prosecution are slim. Schwammberger to Argentina, which was one of America’s most celebrated Bgetting ever tougher but Schrimm The suspects are getting older. It’s more extradited him in 1987. adopted sons. rebuts criticism from Nazi-hunting institu- tion the Simon Wiesenthal Centre that about finding out and explaining what In his initial interviews, Schwammberger But during the war, Rudolph had managed convictions are too low. “The results are happened.” appeared to be a gentle, grandfatherly fig- a “hell-like” underground factory in Germany bad and they are going to get worse,” he For many Germans, the search for ure. He told Schrimm he had turned to where slave workers built the V2 rocket, says. “They will have more cause for dis- Nazis in their family ends in the small “the Pope” for help in escaping the Rosenbaum says. Prisoners were tortured, appointment next year. “But that is no western town of Ludwigsburg. advancing allied forces. killed and, on one occasion, forced to watch reflection of our competence or willing- Hundreds of thousands of index cards Over the course of his trial, he emerged a mass hanging of inmates. ness. I can’t pull witnesses out of a hat.” fill the cellar of the former prison. Each as a sadist who once encouraged his dog After the war, Rudolph and others were Setting history straight, however, offers card carries a name and often a list of to maul a man to death. hired by the U.S. military and brought to some compensation. Schrimm recalls a war-crime prosecutions. A librarian leafs During the hearings, Schrimm received a their new home under a secret program meeting with a frail Jewish woman he vis- through the indexes, looking for names visit from a 17-year-old girl: “His grand- called Project Paperclip, formerly known ited in New York who had lost her family to put forward by callers researching family daughter had read it in the newspapers and as Operation Overcast. Schwammberger’s executioners. “I’ve told members they may have never known. wanted to know firsthand if it was true,” In German archives, Rosenbaum dis- the story to my children and my grandchil- For Schrimm, the face of one such bewil- Schrimm recalls. “She was totally shaken.” covered a report signed by Rudolph dren, she said. “I’ve waited 45 years for dered teenager is as vivid a memory as orrecting history has also become describing a visit to an aircraft factory someone from Germany to express an that of her grandfather, Josef Can important part of Eli using forced labor. “He writes that this is interest in hearing it. Now that you have Schwammberger — the “most brutal Nazi” Rosenbaum’s work. Head of the U.S. great from the security perspective and come, I can die in peace.” November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 AUSTRIA ACCUSED OF SHIELDING NAZI SUSPECT the country is a safe haven for suspected Asner's indictment alleges he actively citizen. Later, they claimed the statute of BY WILLIAM J. KOLE, AP war criminals. enforced racist laws while police chief in limitations for his alleged crimes had Haider's impassioned defense of Asner the eastern Croatian town of Pozega in expired. ilivoj Asner caused a stir just by show- has only reinforced that impression. 1941-42, and sent his victims to a Croat- Austria eventually conceded that Asner ing up at a soccer game: The frail 95- M aider, who brought run death camp. The was not an Austrian citizen, which normal- year-old is ranked No. 4 on a leading list of the Freedom Party Wiesenthal Center ranks him ly would have opened the way for his most-wanted Nazi war crimes suspects. H into Austria's coalition gov- No. 4 on a list of 10 top Nazi extradition. But in 2006, independent Now Austria's most notorious far-right ernment in 2000 on a plat- fugitives. experts declared Asner mentally unfit, and politician, former Freedom Party leader form tinged with anti- Asner has maintained his they did so again in April. Joerg Haider, has touched off an even Semitic and xenophobic innocence, and in an interview Among those challenging that assess- bigger scandal by praising Asner as a undertones, is the gover- aired on state-run Croatian tel- ment is Gerhard Tuschla, a reporter for "treasured" neighbor who should be nor of the province of evision, declared: "My con- Austrian public broadcaster ORF. Tuschla allowed to live out his days in peace. Carinthia where Asner science is clear." said he recently interviewed Asner, who "This could only happen in Austria," lives. "I am ready to come to face began living under the name George Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter for the "He's lived peacefully the court in Croatia, but I'm Aschner after fleeing Croatia for Austria in Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The among us for years, and not in the best health," Asner 1945, and found him to be "a jovial, Associated Press. he should be able to live said, adding that if the judges whiskey-drinking old man." Officials in southern Austria, where Asner out the twilight of his life were honest, "they would "We suspected from the very beginning lives openly despite being indicted for crimes with us," Haider told the have to acquit me." that he might have been faking it-making against humanity in his native Croatia, con- newspaper Der He acknowledged he partici- a specific effort to appear as unfit as pos- tend the retired police chief is mentally unfit Standard. pated in deportations of sible," Zuroff said. "That might be easier for questioning, extradition or trial. Milvoj Asner. "This is a nice family. Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, but to fake than physical issues." But Asner's recent appearance at a "fan We really treasure this family," he was insisted the deportees were sent to their Austrian authorities have angrily denied zone" near his home in the southern city of quoted as saying. homelands and not to camps. they are giving Asner safe haven. Klagenfurt – where he reportedly looked fit Such praise is unconscionable, said Zuroff, Austria's Justice Ministry said it is Manfred Herrnhofer, a federal court and lucid as he and his wife watched Croatia who has been pressuring the Austrian gov- reviewing a request from Zuroff to make a spokesman in Klagenfurt, said officials are play in the European Championship – has ernment to arrest Asner and hand him over fresh assessment of Asner's physical and merely trying to comply with complicated some questioning whether this alpine coun- for trial as part of "Operation: Last Chance" – mental state and prove he is suffering extradition guidelines "and in no way are pro- try with a tortured World War II past is shield- an effort to bring aging top suspects to justice from dementia as experts have ruled in tecting a suspected Nazi war criminal." ing him from justice. before they die. the past. "Austria is a constitutional state, not Asner stands accused of persecuting "This is clearly a reflection of the political Without a new evaluation declaring him Guantanamo. We don't toss our principles hundreds of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies atmosphere which exists in Austria and physically and mentally fit, "our hands are overboard for political gain," he said. and dispatching them to their deaths in which in certain circles is extremely sym- tied," said ministry spokesman Thomas The affair comes just as Austria takes over WWII-era Croatia, which was ruled by a pathetic to suspected Nazi war criminals," Geiblinger. the chairmanship of the Task Force for Nazi puppet regime. Zuroff said. roatia demanded Asner's extradition International Cooperation on Holocaust "Austria has the habit of closing its Asner, he added, "has never showed in 2005, the year he was formally Education, Remembrance and Research – a eyes," renowned Nazi hunter Serge C any remorse for actions which affected indicted. But the Austrians demurred, first 25-nation panel dedicated to maintaining the Klarsfeld told French television. the fates of hundreds of people." on the grounds that he was an Austrian memory of Nazi atrocities. The Asner case, he said, is fresh proof STAMP COLLECTOR’S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL a parcel wrapper. “I wanted to show all the victims and all the Lawrence agreed to sell him his collection. “I BY MATTHEW HEALEY, In addition to being displayed online, the resisters, through their mail,” Mr. Lawrence felt like I had taken the collection as far as I THE NEW YORK TIMES collection will be shown to the public, said. “I tried to include every sort of anti-Nazi could. And I’m 65,” Mr. Lawrence said. beginning next year in Skokie, Ill., at the activity, and treat them all heroically, whether A well-known stamp auctioneer had hen Ku Klux Klan violence spiked new headquarters of the Illinois Holocaust they liked each other or not.” advised Mr. Lawrence to keep the collec- across the South in the 1970s, W Museum and Education Center, which He continued to trail the Klan and neo- and a hitherto unknown group in was set up in part as a reaction to neo- Nazis around the United States, offering his California began publicly denying that the Nazi activities in that suburb of Chicago in collection at community centers, schools and Holocaust had ever occurred, Ken the 1970s. The center advocated suc- churches as evidence of what could happen Lawrence decided to fight back — using cessfully for an Illinois state law requiring if white supremacists prevailed. his skills as stamp collector. education about the Holocaust in schools. ventually, in 1992, Mr. Lawrence Painstakingly, over 30 years, he The collection will also travel around the started exhibiting his collection to researched and assembled a collection of E country, including stops in Santa Barbara, fellow stamp collectors as well, garnering postal memorabilia documenting the range Calif., and Billings, Mont. awards at philatelic gatherings from Ohio and depth of horrors of what he termed “the Mr. Lawrence, a longtime civil rights to Washington to South Korea. His collec- Nazi scourge.” He gath- tion includes rarities like an envelope from ered items that showed not a letter sent from Dachau in 1933, shortly just the persecution of after the concentration camp opened; a Jews and Communists but certified-mail receipt for a prayer book also other groups deemed sent to a Jew in a French camp; a postal undesirable by the Nazis, checking account receipt with a crude A letter and a post card sent from Ukraine to like gypsies and the dis- anti-Semitic cartoon indicating payment Austria. abled, not just in Germany for a Nazi propaganda newspaper; the only tion intact rather than breaking it up to sell. but across Europe. known letter from Rabbi Leo Baeck, leader Mr. Spungen said he had originally The award-winning col- A fragment of a pillaged Hebrew scroll, used by a German soldier of German Jewry, when he was held in the planned to use part of his fortune to buy lection, containing some to wrap a parcel for mailing. Theresienstadt ghetto; cards from two previ- an “Inverted Jenny,” one of the rarest of 250 letters, postcards, postal documents, activist and writer, began gathering the ously unlisted camps in Romania; and mail American stamps, which has an airplane leaflets and other materials, has now materials in 1978 “in response to the sent to a Nazi doctor on trial for war crimes misprinted upside down. But he said he been sold to the Spungen Family sudden appearance of Holocaust at Nuremberg in 1945. changed his mind when he saw Mr. Foundation in Illinois. That foundation, in deniers.” He recalled in an interview Mr. Lawrence described the biblical Lawrence’s collection. turn, has sought to expand the collection recently that he used to show his first scroll used as a parcel wrapper, which “I admit I knew next to nothing about the and continue to use it for the educational acquisition, a 1943 letter from 21-year- recounts part of the tale of David and Holocaust, and now I’m playing catch-up,” purposes that inspired Mr. Lawrence, of old Eduard Pys, who had arrived at the Goliath, as “the most viscerally disturbing he said in a recent telephone interview. Spring Mills, Pa. Auschwitz concentration camp on the item” in the collection. “Some scholars Among the items he finds most compelling Daniel Spungen, a board member and very first transport in May 1940, to chil- have told me it is among the most impor- are a piece of mail documenting sex slavery spokesman for the foundation, said dren in Mississippi and tell them, “David tant surviving evidence of Nazi desecra- at the Buchenwald concentration camp and recently that his acquisition of the collec- Duke says this never happened.” tion,” he said. fake British banknotes made by Jewish slave tion represented a “life-changing” experi- Having little money to spend on his The Philatelic Foundation, a nonprofit laborers during the Nazis’ program to under- ence for him. He is retiring from his job collection, Mr. Lawrence used his con- organization, has produced a DVD docu- mine the British economy. with the family business, a manufacturer tacts with writers and activists in mentary about the collection, and Mr. Mr. Spungen said that while the collection of ball bearings, and devoting himself to Eastern Europe to solicit additional Lawrence, who is being retained by Mr. as a whole was insured for a million dollars, further development of the collection, material. One item is a telegram from a Spungen to advise him on further develop- and the scroll used as a parcel wrapper which includes rare letters from concen- member of a wartime Communist ment of the collection, is planning a book. could be worth as much as half a million dol- tration camp inmates, postal documents resistance group that was given to him Last year, after a chance encounter with lars on its own, “the educational value to illustrating Nazi activities and a Hebrew by a friend in East Germany. Mr. Spungen at a collectors’ event, Mr. future generations is incalculable.” scripture re-used by a German soldier as Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 THE “SILENT HEROES” ART COLLECTION TO RETURN NOW HAVE A VOICE TO ITS RIGHTFUL OWNERS new memorial center in Berlin pays 1,000 Jews from Nazi camps by hiring them he Jewish Museum in Prague is Hana Volavková, who were Jewish A tribute to the thousands of German to work in his factories. Tabout to return a modern art collec- scholars working for the Central Jewish gentiles who risked everything to save Some of the lesser-known stories are tion, stolen by the Nazis during the Museum at that time, were able to Jews from persecution by the Nazis and just as moving. Holocaust, to the descendants of the orig- select some art for the collection of that documents the stories of those who Michalski looked slowly at the photos on inal owner. The art works were collected museum. That was obviously not open sometimes spent years in hiding. display, picking out his parents — Lilli and by Prague Jewish lawyer Emil Freund to the public, as it was meant to be The “Silent Heroes” memorial center Herbert Michalski — as well as himself who was deported to Poland by the Nazis used for Nazi propaganda purposes.” opened to the public amid a new focus in and his brother, Franz. in 1941and died in the Lodz ghetto a year n the 1950s, the paintings were trans- recent years on the legacy of the “good illi Michalski was born Jewish but later. The heir to the 32 paintings, Mr Iferred into the National Gallery, where Germans” — individuals who resisted Lconverted to her husband’s Freund’s great-great nephew, who was they remained until 2000. Just months Hitler, were labeled as traitors by the Catholicism. Because of that, she was traced by the museum, would not be enti- before they were to be returned to the Nazis and were often tled to the art pieces under Czech law, but Jewish Museum in Prague, however, 13 shunned after the war. the director of the Jewish Museum in of the 32 paintings were declared part of “Their accomplishments Prague, Leo Pavlát, says that where pos- the country’s national heritage by the were totally forgotten, and sible, all stolen property must be returned. Czech Culture Ministry. this is an initiative to bring “As a Jewish institution, we feel a duty to That means, among other things, that the them back into our memory,” deal squarely with all rightful owners or 13 paintings in question cannot be sold or said Johannes Tuchel, the children of those who could be entitled even taken out of the country without the director of the German to acquire objects stolen by the Nazis dur- ministry’s approval. The Director of the Resistance Memorial Center ing the war. Of course, we wouldn’t like to Jewish Museum in Prague, Leo Pavlát, Foundation, which is behind keep anything that doesn’t belong to us, believes this was a calculated decision. the new memorial. and that’s why we do all we can to ascer- “I think it’s absolutely unfortunate About 5,000 Jews were tain possible owners of the objects we because I think that once the objects con- able to survive the war in have in our collection.” fiscated by the Nazis have their owners, hiding in Germany. It is not The Jewish Museum’s curator, Michaela these objects should be given back in any clear how many people Hájková, who initiated the search for Emil case and without any restrictions. That’s Freund’s relatives, says that besides the why we protested, in a legal way, against were involved in helping Visitors view exhibits at a new memorial center honoring value of the individual paintings, the art the decision to declare the paintings we them, Tuchel said. Germans who sheltered Jews. Research suggests that for collection is also precious in that it shows are talking about cultural assets of the each person in hiding, about 10 people able to initially escape deportation to a what kind of art people collected before Czech Republic. We even sued the the Second World War. Culture Ministry, buy we lost the case, and aided him or her. death camp, even though the Nazis The 32 paintings to be returned to Emil so now we cannot change the decision of Peter Michalski, whose family went into began rounding up many of her relatives Freund’s heirs are only a fragment of the Czech justice.” hiding in 1944, said it was a long overdue in 1941. But by 1944, the risks had original collection. Mr Freund’s entire The heirs of Dr Emil Freund are expect- tribute to the Germans who helped people become too great and the family went into property was confiscated and only some ed to collect their heritage by the end of like him escape death. hiding. Several Germans aided them, of the paintings in his possession were the year. Meanwhile, the Culture Ministry “Where would you be now if these peo- most prominently a colleague of Herbert’s handpicked for the war-time, Nazi-con- has offered to buy the 13 paintings, pro- ple hadn’t existed?” he asked contempla- named Gerda Mez, who eventually trolled Jewish museum in Prague. tected as cultural monuments, reportedly tively while looking at an exhibit focusing helped them leave. “In 1942 or 1943, Dr. Polák and Dr. at a fair price. on his family’s plight. “The answer is sim- Michalski said it was important that peo- ple: We wouldn’t be.” ple like Mez are recognized, so others can The three-room exhibition has many multi- see their sacrifices. “These people are no media displays in English and German — longer alive but their relatives still are.” A FRIEND IN DEED audio accounts, touch-screen computers Yad Vashem memorial recognizes more (Continued from page 11) The American and British drafters of the focusing on 18 aspects of survival, and com- than 22,000 gentiles across Europe who fying period for Israel , with the US resolution opposed Israel returning all the puters with more details on those in hiding helped Jews escape the Holocaust as State Department led by the historically territories captured in the war. In and their rescuers. There are also personal “Righteous among the Nations.” Among unfriendly Dean Rusk urging an even- September 1968, Johnson explained, “We photos, diaries and letters. them more than 450 Germans. handed policy despite Arab threats and are not the ones to say where other The best-known subject is Oskar It is also not known how many people acts of aggression. Johnson held no nations should draw lines between them Schindler, whose story was told by Steven were caught sheltering Jews, which could such illusions. After the war he placed that will assure each the greatest security. Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film “Schindler’s have meant execution or deportation to a the blame firmly on Egypt: “If a single It is clear, however, that a return to the sit- List,” which showed his efforts to shield concentration camp. act of folly was more responsible for uation of 4 June 1967 will not bring peace. this explosion than any other, it was the There must be secure and there must be FROM AUSCHWITZ TO CHICAGO, arbitrary and dangerous announced recognized borders. Some such lines decision [by Egypt ] that the Strait of DETAILED HOLOCAUST LETTERS SURVIVE must be agreed to by the neighbors Tiran would be closed [to Israeli ships involved.” he faded papers hint at stark details Scourge: Postal Evidence of the and Israeli-bound cargo].” oldberg later noted, “Resolution Tin the lives of Nazi concentration Holocaust and the Devastation of ennedy was the first president to G242 in no way refers to Jerusalem , camp inmates. Europe.” Kapprove the sale of defensive US and this omission was deliberate.” This weapons to Israel , specifically Hawk anti- Letters secretly carried by children The Florence and Laurence Spungen historic diplomacy was conducted under aircraft missiles. But Johnson approved through the sewers of Warsaw, Poland, Family Foundation, based in Northbrook, Johnson’s stewardship, as Goldberg relat- tanks and fighter jets, all vital after the during the 1944 uprising. A 1933 card Illinois, recently bought the collection and ed in oral history to the Johnson Library. “I 1967 war, when France imposed a freeze from a Dachau camp commander outlin- has added to it. must say for Johnson,” Goldberg stated. on sales to Israel. Yehuda Avner recently ing strict rules for prisoner mail. A 1943 “The insured value of the collection is $1 “He gave me great personal support.” described on these pages prime minister letter from a young man, who spent time million, but the educational value to future Robert David Johnson, a professor of in Auschwitz, to his parents. generations is incalculable, “ said Daniel Levi Eshkol’s successful appeal for these weapons on a visit to the LBJ ranch. history at Brooklyn College, recently wrote The more than 250 World War II postal Spungen, a board member of the founda- in The New York Sun, “Johnson’s policies documents — cards, letters and stamps tion, in a statement. Israel won the 1967 war, and Johnson stemmed more from personal concerns – — have been acquired by an Illinois foun- he exhibit includes a handwritten worked to make sure it also won the his friendship with leading Zionists, his dation from a private collector and will Bible scroll in Hebrew that was used peace. “I sure as hell want to be careful T belief that America had a moral obligation soon be on permanent display in a muse- by a German soldier to mail a package. and not run out on little Israel,” Johnson to bolster Israeli security and his concep- um in suburban Chicago. There are also documents sent to a Nazi said in a March 1968 conversation with tion of Israel as a frontier land much like “These artifacts underscore the very doctor on trial for war crimes at his ambassador to the United Nations, his home state of Texas . His personal personal dimension to this catastrophe, “ Nuremberg. Arthur Goldberg, according to White said Richard Hirschhaut, executive direc- Lawrence, the former vice president of House tapes recently released. concerns led him to intervene when he felt tor of the Skokie-based Illinois Holocaust the American Philatelic Society, meticu- Soon after the 1967 war, Soviet pre- that the State or Defense departments Museum and Education Center, where the lously collected the documents for more mier Aleksei Kosygin asked Johnson at had insufficiently appreciated Israel‘s exhibit will be housed next year when the than three decades. His project was the Glassboro Summit why the US sup- diplomatic or military needs.” museum opens. sparked by claims that the Holocaust ported Israel when there were 80 mil- President Johnson firmly pointed “It now will reach an exponentially larger never occurred. lion Arabs and only three million American policy in a pro-Israel direction. audience and serve as a genuine tool for He has since showcased the collection Israelis. “Because it is right,” responded In a historical context, the American emer- education and learning,” Hirschhaut said. across the country, garnering awards. the straight-shooting Texan. gency airlift to Israel in 1973, the constant The Holocaust memorial exhibit The exhibit, which can also be viewed The crafting of UN Resolution 242 in diplomatic support, the economic and mil- belonged to longtime postal memorabilia online, will travel to Billings, Montana, in November 1967 was done under itary assistance and the strategic bonds collector and activist Ken Lawrence of December and Santa Barbara, California, Johnson’s scrutiny. The call for “secure between the two countries can all be cred- Pennsylvania. It was called “The Nazi later in the winter and recognized boundaries” was critical. ited to the seeds planted by LBJ. November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 NAZI COLLABORATOR FLED ARREST, LIVING PEACEFULLY IN GERMANY ailide’s conviction for war crimes to prison, a fact Zuroff says contributes to there to Frankfurt, took a train to Zwickau BY ASSAF UNI, HAARETZ Drelied on documents and testimony rising anti-Semitism in the Baltic country. and arrived in Kirchberg.” Lithuanian citizen convicted of col- concerning a certain October 1941 night, Last month, Dailide opened the door to He claims he suffers from chronic back A laborating with the Nazis and perse- when Dailide arrested 10 Jews who were his apartment and invited this Haaretz pain and arthritis, and that he takes med- cuting Jews during World War II is living attempting to escape from the ghetto, and correspondent and a local reporter to ication for high blood pressure. peacefully in a small town in Germany. another occasion on which he arrested come in. Dailide’s wife, who suffers from A spokeswoman for the Lithuanian court As a member of the Nazi-sponsored two Polish Jews. What happened to those Alzheimer’s and cancer, was reclining in said in response: “A medical board that Lithuanian Security Police, Algimantas he arrested is not known, but it is safe her bedroom. Taking care of her is one of convened for two years ruled that Dailide arrested Jews who were trying to to assume they were murdered, along the reasons Dailide has remained free. He Dailide’s state of health does not allow for escape the Vilna ghetto and handed them with 94 percent of said he uses a tube his incarceration.” over to the Germans. He lied about his Lithuanian Jewry, which to feed her. She said she would need to check wartime activities on his U.S. immigration numbered 220,000 peo- Dailide insists he whether the court had refrained from reex- application after the war, was stripped of his ple before the war. is innocent. The amining him. American citizenship in the 1990s, and was Dailide’s name surfaced documents used ow is it that someone convicted of ordered deported in 2003, following an in documents found in against him are Hcollaborating with the Nazis can live investigation and legal proceedings that last- Lithuania’s archives, which misleading, he con- in Germany? ed more than a decade. Dailide fled arrest were examined after the tends, based on a A German lawyer who specializes in Baltic state won independ- colleague’s erro- immigration cases explained that the and settled in Kirchberg, Saxony, where he Algimantas Dailide has been living ever since. ence. The Vilnius court neous record in European Union’s Nice Treaty gives Dailide is in ninth place on the the rejected Dailide’s protestations of innocence, October 1941. In the other case, he had everyone – even if convicted – the right to Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most recent and ruled he had lied in his testimony. signed an arrest warrant on behalf of a choose where to live. The treaty stipulates list of the 10 most wanted Nazis. A Vilnius Despite that, the court refrained from sen- policeman who was illiterate, he said. that Germany can deport an EU citizen court convicted him of war crimes in a trial tencing him to prison, as is permissible by He recounted his escape to Germany in only if he or she is causing “significant that began in 2005, but he has remained law. The prosecution appealed this leniency, 2004, when he was afraid U.S. authorities damage” to the public. Dailide apparently free. Last month, a high court in Lithuania but the appeal was rejected. Jewish organi- were going to arrest him. “I took my car, does not meet this criterion. ruled that he would not go to prison, part- zations say this is typical of Lithuania’s packed a few things and fled the house. I Dailide’s neighbors became familiar with ly because of his frail health. refusal to punish Nazi collaborators. slept in motels and used phone cards to his story six months ago when a local Dailide, 87, lives with his wife in a mod- Efraim Zuroff, who heads the contact my family. A neighbor drove my paper ran a photo of the house under the est apartment at Torstrasse 13, across the Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, called wife to meet me periodically. A priest from banner, “War Criminal in Kirchberg.” A street from the town hall. His name is on the court’s failure to sentence Dailide to Cleveland contacted a priest in Toronto, store owner in the adjacent building said the mailbox and intercom at the entrance. prison scandalous, “and attests to the who agreed to put me up. I didn’t use she was shocked at first, but calmed down Dailide’s German-born wife, whom he met manner in which the Lithuanian govern- credit cards, I put our house up for sale, after she inquired into the details. in 1945 after escaping Lithuania, has rela- ment refuses to deal with the past.” and I managed to cross the border into “He didn’t shoot anyone, right? So he tives in Kirchberg, a town of 7,000 in what More than a dozen Lithuanian collabora- Canada using my Lithuanian passport. My collaborated, so what? Everyone collabo- was formerly East Germany. tors have been tried, but not one has gone wife met me in Toronto, and we flew from rated in that period,” she said. BETWEEN MY FATHER AND THE OLD FOOL: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (Continued from page 4) the war, but he was also bereft of whatev- ond, infinity after the train had passed, returned from work, his friend’s bed was Cahan dedicated a Torah scroll in memo- er slim support he had had during the war. Cahan found himself a prisoner, with empty. “I felt as if part of me had died,” ry of his family. Dancing. Banqueting. Subtly interwoven in this narrative is a guards beating him and everyone around thought Cahan. “Somehow, I had consid- Inspirational speeches. It was quite an totemic reminder of all that Cahan once him. “Toss all your personal belongings ered the discovery of the tefillin a portent event. The hour grew late, and Cahan felt was, and still hoped to be; at once a sym- into the pit!” the SS officer shouted. of good things.” Meanwhile, where were as if he would float away. bol and a concrete weapon against the Cahan resisted. No luck. His backpack, the tefillin? They were gone. Suddenly, a familiar voice said to him, Old Fool. This was tefillin. containing his father’s tefillin, his last link At the last moment, just before the war “Maier, think about it for a minute.” It was the A death train passed. It carried the to his father, was tossed in. was over, Cahan astonishingly met his Old Fool. “All these beloved people to whom Jewish faces of Vishiva, of Sighet, of “So look what you’ve come to, Maier.” Uncle Shloime. The relief and joy were you’ve dedicated this Torah scroll, why did Strimtua, of Satmar, of Dragomiresti, of He heard a familiar voice. It was the Old mixed with a choice, dictated by the they deserve to die? Wouldn’t it have been Bayna, of Grossverdan. As the train came Fool. “Apparently, your God has no further Germans: Stay in the camp or go on the better if they were all alive to share this cele- slowly into the bend, there were out- need for you….He didn’t even let you road, and whoever will go on the road will bration with you today? Better for them and stretched hands. And voices, moans, keep your tefillin. Why are you still so loyal be given two loaves of bread, margarine better for you. For whom is it better that they groans, wails. And the choking smells of to Him if He doesn’t care about you?” and even some fruit jam. Those who stay are dead? For whom is it better that they suf- unwashed bodies, of stagnating feces and “I wanted to respond with a sharp behind will receive nothing. Shloime took fered so horribly?” puddled urine. Suddenly, a black object retort,” writes Cahan. “I wanted to devas- the rations and went. Cahan stayed. The Old Fool had dogged Cahan even came flying through the air. It was one tate the Old Fool with ridicule and sar- “Uncle Shloime, I’ve had too many in 1988, forty-three years after liberation. tefillin; the wheel of the train had crushed casm, but he was gone. He had cleverly brushes with the Angel of Death on the What was Cahan’s counterargument? one side of it. Cahan picked it up gently, faded away after delivering his seditious road. I’m staying here. Whatever hap- “For a moment, my anger flared, but kissed it, caressed it. little speech.” pens, happens.” then I leaned back and listened to the “I crumpled to the ground as the tears Later, in a concentration camp, where Uncle Shloime went, after tearful strains of the music. In my mind, I was gushed from my eyes and great heaving there was neither soup nor vegetable nor farewells. once again dancing in the street, holding sobs wracked my body,” writes Cahan. “I flour, Cahan and his friends figured out a Cahan survived. on tightly to the Torah and crying like a cried for the poor, miserable passengers way to exchange their puny rations for a Shloime did not. child, and I no longer heard the Old Fool. of the train, innocent victims of the pair of tefillin. They did so at the cost of omehow, after liberation, Cahan Life, I decided, was a choice between unspeakable evil that had broken loose not only their rations but also of their Slearned the fate of his relatives, his anger and joy. I chose joy.” from the nethermost bowels of Hell and health and their bodies. They were friends, his collaborators, and it was all the appy ending. But I cheated. I gave was running rampant among my people. I whipped and punched when they were same. Somehow, he located his sister’s old Hno evidence of how agonizingly dif- cried for my father, my stepmother, my discovered with the tefillin, which a Nazi apartment, thoroughly vandalized. ficult it was for Cahan to reach that beloved brothers and sisters, my grand- trampled until they were nothing more Somehow, amid the debris, he found a crum- moment of joy. His memoir is no story- parents, my uncles and aunts, my than a shapeless black mass. pled photograph, and removed the caked book. The brutality he survived is impossi- cousins, for all the people that had popu- “So what do you have to say now, mud and dirt. It showed his sister hugging ble to grasp. One evening he was beaten lated my life and were now stuffed into Maier?” It was the Old Fool again. her baby, smiling from ear to ear. Now dead. so badly that one cannot understand how these cattle cars on their way to an And again, in another camp, still later, “I kissed the photograph and burst into he went on. At one point, he makes three unthinkable destination.” there was a man lying on the ground, a tears. I had cried often during the previous friends. All of them suffered unspeakably, Still, he hugged the crushed tefillin. It wasted shadow of a man. His eyes “held year. I had cried in pain, in agony, in frus- but at least they had each other. An infini- was unusable, and he buried it with digni- a look of resignation and such profound tration, and in sorrow. But now I cried with ty later, dragging himself across a field of ty. He felt strangely comforted. peace that I knew he was halfway to the an emotion I could not identify. Perhaps I bodies, Cahan trips over his three dead t the time, Cahan was still in pos- next world,” writes Cahan. The man pulled could say it was a sense that I myself had friends. Not only was his family decimat- A session of his father’s pair of tefillin. from his pocket, with great effort, an died a little through all my suffering and ed, but so were the people whom he met They were all that remained of his father, object wrapped in rags. It was a pair of the loss of my most beloved, and that for in various camps and other places of tor- but, perhaps precisely because of that tefillin. In secret, Cahan and a friend the rest of my life I would only be a shad- ture who helped him survive. By the time tragic account, they meant more to Cahan donned the tefillin in the forest, at pain of ow of what I should have been. the war ended, Cahan was not only bereft than even the inherent sacredness of the death. Then his friend fell sick and Cahan “I slipped the photograph into my pock- of the support system he had had before tefillin themselves. One, or maybe a sec- helped him put on tefillin. When Cahan et, squared my shoulders and left.” Page 16 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2008 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5769

GEORGE W. BUSH: EHUD OLMERT: “GREAT SUFFERING CAN AWAKEN EVEN “WE NOW HAVE A HOMELAND GREATER LOVE” AND A SANCTUARY” send greetings to those gathered t gives me great pleasure to send warm Ifor the 2008 American and Igreetings to the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem International Societies for Yad Vashem on Annual Tribute Dinner. the occasion of your Annual Tribute Dinner. The Holocaust is a powerful reminder Sixty years ago this year, the State of of what happens when good and Israel was born out of the ashes of the decent people ignore acts of evil. Holocaust which ravaged the vibrant and Across Europe, millions of people were glorious Jewish communities of Europe. forced from their homes into concentra- The scattered and battered remnants of tion camps and many innocent lives European Jewry slowly began to recover were taken by acts of hatred and preju- from the horrors inflicted upon them, and dice. It is impossible for us to make began to rebuild their destroyed lives. sense of such violence and suffering, They did so with hope and optimism, and yet it is important to remember these with the establishment of the State of Israel in atrocities, honor the courage of the vic- 1948, the Jewish people were guaranteed that tims, and confront anti-Semitism and they would never again suffer such atrocities – intolerance wherever it is found. we now have a homeland and a sanctuary. I appreciate the American and While we celebrate the hope of a brighter International Societies for Yad Vashem, future for the Jewish people, we must still this year’s honorees, and all those ded- never forget the Holocaust and the events icated to preserving the legacy of wit- and cultural norms which allowed it to occur. nesses, survivors, and victims of the Yad Vashem plays a critical role in ensuring Holocaust. Your good work demonstrates that great suffering can awaken even greater that the lessons of the Holocaust are taught and passed on to the younger generations, love and that we must never take freedom for granted. educating them about the past so that it is never repeated. The support and dedication Laura and I send our best wishes. May God bless you, and may we never forget. of the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem help make this possible. ANGELA MERKEL: DONALD TUSK: “GERMANY IS FULLY CONSCIOUS “TRAGEDY OF HOLOCAUST SHALL BECOME OF ITS RESPONSIBILITY” THE ULTIMATE LESSON FOR THE FUTURE” o everyone attending the Annual he date of 9th November is of symbolic yet TTribute Dinner of the American and Ttragic significance. This day reminds of the International Societies for Yad Vashem I disastrous events of the Kristallnacht, the Night send heartfelt greetings. I would also like to of Broken Glass. It marked the beginning of the warmly congratulate this year’s honorees, systematic eradication of Jews, and served as a Selma Gruder-Horowitz, Fred Zeidman and prelude to the Holocaust that was to follow. In Avner Shalev, all of whom have made an Poland, the memory of the tragedy of the entire outstanding contribution to Holocaust Jewish People has remained extraordinarily remembrance. strong and vivid. The Holocaust atrocity took a Seventy years ago today, on the night of heavy toll of three million of our Jewish citizens, November 9, a campaign of hate and and hundreds of shtetls disappeared from the destruction was launched against Jews right map of Poland forever. Those people, who had across Germany. The Shoah was an unpar- been creating and enriching Polish culture for alleled crime against humanity. It cannot and centuries, were bestially murdered. must not ever be forgotten. However, this year we also celebrate the 60th Germany is fully conscious of its responsi- anniversary of the establishment of the State of bility. Anti-Semitism, hatred and intolerance Israel. The country, created and built by those must be nipped in the bud wherever they are who survived, is a strong and stable state today. found. The German Government is likewise For the generations to come, Israel constitutes a strongly committed to upholding Israel’s guarantee that this tragedy, which tried so immutable right to live in peace and security. severely the Jewish People during the WWII, The fact that today, sixty years after the shall never happen again. founding of the State of Israel, the ties between Germany and Israel are closer than ever Unfortunately, the contemporary world is infected with the anti-Semitism disease. before is to me a cause of joy and gratitude. Almost all governments and societies in the world have to face it. Therefore, the tragedy I offer my best wishes to everyone at the Annual Tribute Dinner in New York, as well as to of Holocaust shall become the ultimate, most important lesson for future; it is also a chal- the Yad Vashem Societies, for the continued success of the splendid work they are doing. lenge posed to education of young generations all over the world.

Martyrdom & Resistance International Society for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. Eli Zborowski, Editor-in-Chief MARTYRDOM AND RESISTANCE U.S. POST Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Editor 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR, PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. *Published Bimonthly by the NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 PERMIT NO. 10 International Society for Yad Vashem, Inc. Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor New York, NY 10110 (212) 220-4304 EDITORIAL BOARD Eli Zborowski Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski William Mandell Sam Halpern Isidore Karten** Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet** *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates, and Nazi Victims **deceased