***************CAR--RT S(Jf~T*~C--- 1)27 1074 c,,~/Ol/00 BUREAU OF JEWISH ED~CAlI □ N i 30 •::;e-:;:: ·ion·::: S~-~ PJ•·c>vide~ce RI ()29(6·-·34'~4 Rhode Island J _ellv1, .; ,n ll1111l!11!11l,l11l,l11l11l!,ll11,,I.I,! Healthwise HERALD PAGES& 9 The Only English-Jewish Weekly in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts VOLUME LXIX, NUMBER 21 NISAN 22, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1999 35¢PER COPY The Journey Home by Emily Torgan-Shalansky "As I was helping Ida Rae, I she had lived tfuough. "And Jewish Community Reporter thought about my first Passover you who got life instead, What Alice Lok Cahana wanted to after the Liberation," she said will you do with the memories get out. carefully. While recovering in a of that long night," she wrote. Graceful despite her haste, Swedish hospital immediately "Will you listen to casual chat­ she pulled on her jacket and after the war, Alice remembered, ter, Orwill you scream, thatdoes walked through the dooorway she had been delighted to re­ not matter!!" of the East Side home where her ceive a seder invitation from a son and daughter-in-Jaw, Rabbi Stockholm family. Spielberg Approaches Michael and Cantor Ida Rae "I was so excited - can you Over the ensuing decades, Cahana, were preparing a huge imagine?" she said. "I had very Mrs. Cahana, an artist and seder table for relatives and Ii ttle hair and one dress. When I painter, fulfilled her self-issued friends. arrived at the address I challenge by working with Ho­ Once in the car, Mrs. Cahana trembled. I walked up the stairs locaust-related themes. explained why she needed to go instead of taking the elevator At an exhibition of her work out to discuss her testimony as because I wanted to face free­ at the Holocaust Museum in one of five Hungarian Holocaust dom head-on." Houston in the mid-1990s, she Alice Lok Cahana survivors featured in Steven But when she realized that hardly noticed the man in the the guests who surrounded the sneakers and the baseball cap Spielberg's Oscar-winning When Spielberg told Mrs. Spielberg's assistance with her seder table were discussing the who kept asking questions. documentary "The Last Days." Cahana that the five contribut- 53-year-Jong search for her sis­ price of gold on the international . "No one knew that he wa-s "I wanted to speak in a-coffee - ing survivors would be asked to ter, Edith, whom she had last market, she began to cry. Spielberg until we saw the sig­ shop so we would not contami­ testify at the sites of their Holo­ seen in a Red Cross ambulance "A terrible thought then came nature in the guest book," she nate Michael and Ida Rae's cimst experiences, she initially two days after the liberation of into my mind," shesaid. "I won­ remembered. house with such a sadness," she told him she wasn't interested. Bergen-Belsen in 1945. "Edith dered if last year, when the cre­ After a museum docent told said. "I told him that no one was with me the whole time in Spielberg that Mrs. Cahana was Seated in a Hope Street cafe, matorium was at full blast, if wanted to go to Auschwitz twice the camps," she said. "After the originally from Hungary, he the tall, striking, wife, mother, these same people had sat in one lifetime," she said. "But liberation I didn't want to go to called her and informed her that grandmother and artist from around the same table and dis­ then I remembered my poem. I Sweden because I was looking hisShoahFoundationwasfund­ Houston, Texas, seemed com­ cussed the price of gold. I left, had challenged myself as to for her. For years and years, I posed as she crossed her legs and later that night I wrote a ing a documentary by James what I would do with my life." looked for Edith Lok. Every time and stirred her coffee. poem." Moll about the Jews of Hun­ Mrs. Cahana told Spielberg a new list was found or an gary. As executive producer, But at the first mention of the In her "The Shadows at she would take part if she could archive was opened up, I Holocaust, tears screened her Night," Alice challenged her­ Spielberg invited her to partici­ bring her family with her. searched for her. But the an­ eyes. self never to be silent about what pate in the upcoming film. "I wanted my husband, swer was always the same." Moshe, and my daughter, Rina, Shortly before she departed to come," she said. "I wanted for Europe, Alice sent a Jetter I'da Rae and Michael and their about her search for Edith to 'And Should The Wonder son, David, with me. My son, Bergen-Belsen. This time, . the Ronnie, who is a rabbi in archivists responded, saying Toronto, his wife, Karen, and that although they did not know Happen And I Live On ... ' their four children had to come of Edith Lok, their records as well. I could not have gone shows that an Edith Schwartz stressed the importance of an admission could be gained, it by Cindy Halpern back to those places without had died six weeks after the education. was far too expensive for the son Morris Gastfreund is a Holo­ them." camp was.liberated. caust survivor who tells his life's One of Morris's few memo­ of hard-working Jews. Mrs. Cahana also asked for (Continued on Page 3) story on videotape. I borrowed ries of his father was of him Times got worse. In 1938, his tape from the R.I. Holocaust taking him to Jewish religious many Je_ws were expelled from Museum. It wasn't easy listen­ school at age 3 1/2. His father Germany and dumped on the ing to what he had to say, but as died of pneumonia when Morris Polish frontier. These refugees Orthodox Union Supports Military the daughter of another Holo­ was only 4. His mother, Janet, were provided with food and caust survi'vor, it has become wasleftwithsixchildren to raise. shelter by the Polish Jewish com­ Action Against Yugoslavia my duty to hear every word. But Morris's paternal grandfa­ munity. The Grynszpans were The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Morris's story began in a ther lived with the family and one of the unfortunate. It was the largest mainstream Orthodox Jewish organization in the small city located on the road became a surrogate father to the their son who murdered the United States, reiterates its horror at the continued acts of that connects Warsaw to children. Those were difficult third secretary of the German violence and brutality occurring in Yugoslavia. As reports Cracow. Today, you could-take years, but they survived because consultant in Paris in response continue of murder, expulsion, and genocide conducted by a high-speed train from War­ they worked together as a fam­ to his parents' forced deporta­ Milosevic and his allies, we can only emphasize our outrage saw to Cracow and never notice ily. tion. The murder touched off at this horrific slaughter which evokes that dark period in our this town at all. But in 1916, the Morris,despiteall these hard­ Kristallnacht, the Night of the own history 50 years ago. year of Morris's birth, the main ships, became an avid reader. Broken Glass, in Germany and In the past, we have appealed to the United Nations and to form of transportation was horse Yiddish was the language spo­ Austria. NA TO to intervene decisively and urgently to end the aggres­ and wagon. ken in the home, Polish was the Morris, by now a young man, sion. We strongly support the NATO airstrikes to increase the The town had a large syna­ tongue of everyday life, and was recruited to serve in the pressure on Milosevic and to call a halt to the murder and gogue, one of the oldest in Po­ Hebrew was chanted in prayer Polish army in Galicia. One day cruelty of the Milosevic regime. We stand in strong solidarity land. TheGastfreund family had in the shut. the men were assembled in the with and pray for the NA TO forces and their allies whose lives lived in this town for genera­ Morris completed the sev­ mess hall where the officer in are risked in the defense of innocents and in the effort to end tions. It was a Jewish center enth grade, the highest level charge asked for answers about human rights violations and save lives. where book reviews and lec­ possible. He dreamt of higher Polish history. When Morris We reiterate our call upon the prosecutor of the UN War tures took place. Surrounding education, but such opportuni­ gave the correct answers, the Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to warn Milosevic the town were farms owned by ties did not exist for him. Jewish officer shamed the other soldiers and his followers that they will be held responsible for geno­ Polish peasants. They were the enrollment in the universities for a Jew knowing the answer cide and any other crimes against humanity committed by customers of the Jewish mer­ was restricted. The few who they didn't. The soldiers re­ their forces in Kosovo. chants, tailors,and shoemakers. were pemtitted to attend had to sponded by beating him up. Our community remembers the brutality suffered by our Extended families lived in sit on separate benches, segre­ After three months, Morris was people during the Nazi era and cannot sit idly by as this three-room homes, sleeping, gated from Polish students, for released from duty due to rus slaughter and genocide persist.