Students from Poland Visit USA

Transcription

1 Newsletter of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust M I S H P O C H A! PO Box 741, Conshohocken, PA Tel: +1 (610) , Fax: +1 (610) wfjcsh@aol.com, holocaustchild@comcast.net, Website: A link among child survivors around the world Spring 2005 MEMBER GROUPS ARGENTINA. Niños de la Shoa de Argentina AUSTRALIA Melbourne Child Survivors of the Holocaust The Child Survivors of Sydney CANADA Child Survivor Group of British Columbia Montreal Child Survivors/Hidden Children Child Survivors/Hidden Children of Toronto CROATIA Association of Child Survivors in Croatia CZECH REPUBLIC Hidden Children Praha Terezin Initiativa GERMANY Child Survivors-Deutschland e.v. HUNGARY. Child Survivors, Hungary ISRAEL. Aloumim YESH ITALY. Figli Della Shoah LITHUANIA. Union of Former Ghetto and KZ Prisoners NETHERLANDS The Hidden Child Association of the Netherlands Association of Jewish War Children Association of Unknown Children POLAND Assoc. of Children of the Holocaust in Poland SLOVAKIA Organizacia Hidden Child Slovensko SOUTH AFRICA Jewish Victims of the Holocaust SWEDEN The Holocaust Children in Sweden SWITZERLAND Swiss Assoc. of Hidden Children-Enfants Cachés UKRAINE All Ukrainian Assoc. of Holocaust Victims UNITED KINGDOM Child Survivors Assoc. of Great Britain UNITED STATES The Hidden Child Foundation/ADL, NY** KTA Kindertransport Association, NY** Friends and Alumni of OSE-USA, VA Bay Area Hidden Children, CA Child Survivor of Orange County, CA Child Survivors of the Holocaust, Los Angeles, CA Yaldei Hashoah, San Francisco, CA The Greater Boston Child Survivor Group, MA Child Survivors/Chicago, IL The Hidden Children/Chicago, IL Rocky Mountain Regional Gathering of Child Holocaust Survivors, CO Holocaust Child Survivors of Connecticut Child Survivors/Hidden Children, Palm Beach, FL Child Survivors of the Holocaust of Houston, TX Hidden Children/Child Survivors of Michigan Hidden Child/Child Survivor Group of Saint Louis, MO Hidden Children of the Holocaust, Bergen County, NJ The Hidden Children of Rockland County, NY The Hidden Children of Westchester, NY Hungarian Hidden Children New York Assoc. of Holocaust Survivors from FSU, Brooklyn, NY Child Survivors of the Holocaust, N.E.. Ohio Child Survivors of the Holocaust, New Mexico Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, Philadelphia, PA Assoc. of Child Survivors in the Wash-Baltimore Area Greater Seattle Child Survivors, WA Oregon Holocaust Survivors, Refugees and Families ** and affiliated groups Students from Poland Visit USA In Washington DC, Polish students who won the national competition meet with Catholic University faculty. REMEMBRANCE FOR THE FUTURE by the Association of Child Survivors in Poland The program Remembrance for the Future, is designed to educate young Poles on the Holocaust and to warn against the dangers of fanaticism and intolerance. The program consists of a series of meetings of our Association s members, child survivors, with school youth and their teachers. In the school year, the program took the form of a national contest in public schools, organized with the National In- Service Teacher Training Centre. The task of the contest was to write a screenplay based on our Association member s war experience. The main award for two winning teams (a team comprises up to five pupils and a teacher) was a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and a trip to New York City. In addition, the top four plays were performed on Polish Television. More than 200 high school students from all over Poland (43 teams of five students led by teachers who took part in workshops in January, 2004) participated in our education program. see President s Letter for more details, next page * * * *

2 2 Mishpocha _ FROM OUR WFJCSH PRESIDENT THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF TIKKUN OLAM In Washington DC, the students from Poland met with a number of educators, Holocaust scholars, and Polish academics. One of their presenters was Father Stanislaw Obirek SJ in above photo. Father Obirek spoke to them about the history of anti-semitism in Poland and the Polish Church, and the need for dialogue today among Poles, Polish Jews and Jews who have an interest in Poland. Dear Friends, In the previous issue of Mishpocha we told you about the project "Remembrance for the Future" which was initiated by our Polish member group. I call it "The Ripple Effect of Tikkun Olam". It was probably the most intensive project we have undertaken, but I am happy to tell you that all of us involved---renata Zajdman, Rene Lichtman, Bieta Ficowska and I feel that it was very definitely worth doing. Rene and I spent weeks agonizing over every minute of an 8 day itinerary beginning with a full day at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and ending with a day at the UN for the Auschwitz commemorations, followed by the viewing of a documentary about the little-known 1967/68 expulsion of Jews from Poland, by Gomulka. The 8 youngsters, two teachers, and one graduate student/intern also visited Gettysburg, were hosted for Shabbat dinner at Georgetown University where they were addressed by a rabbi and a priest. Some of our Child Survivors and members of Generation After (GSI) and third generation joined them as well. Renata was with the group throughout, while Rene joined them in DC and I joined them in NY. This was truly a cooperative effort between Jews and Poles; they were accommodated at the Polish Embassy in DC and transportation was provided by the Consulate in NY, with logistical help from the American Jewish Committee. I must tell you that I was surprised at the interest and help offered by Child Survivors in DC and NY; I think we've come to believe that we must try to be actively engaged in educating about the Holocaust--yes, even in Poland, though I know some of you may want to disagree. We must be actively engaged in fighting anti-semitism, bigotry and intolerance or we become merely bystanders. We must engage in education whenever and wherever the opportunity arises, as it has in Poland within the last few years. We must support our brave Jewish brothers and sisters in Poland who have taken on these projects, and the courageous teachers and students who are coming forward with questions, with a desire to learn. Those of us who met these young people and the teachers saw their dedication, their intense interest in becoming "ambassadors" for teaching about the Holocaust. We learned that these young people have formed significant relationships with the child survivors whom they interviewed for this project over a period of three days. There are now letters, visits, and ongoing relationships. In a kind of de-briefing session just before departure back to Poland, the youngsters spoke about spreading the knowledge of what they had learned over the past year. We have just received some gratifying letters from one of the principals and both of the teachers involved in the project in Poland. They tell us that the students want to go on the March of the Living and they have already committed themselves to further actions as "Ambassadors of Holocaust Education." This effort has been one concrete example of how we child survivors are fighting anti-semitism, in this case in Poland, through education, and hopefully there will be more "ripple effects of Tikkun Olam." Stefanie Seltzer President, World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust * * * * * *

3 Mishpocha 3 _ Denver 2004 Conference World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust honors Stefanie Seltzer Co-founder, leader and guiding spirit of the World Federation for her devotion and untiring commitment to the cause of Justice for Child Survivors everywhere in the world, to remembrance of the Holocaust, and to education of future generations about the dangers of bigotry and intolerance. With our deep gratitude. Denver, Colorado September 2004 Stefanie Seltzer receives Award from Denver Conference Co-Chair, Rudy Jacobson. The award reads: The World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of the Holocaust mourns the passing of our dear friend Lou Seltzer, devoted husband, partner and supporter of Stefanie Seltzer. Israel: A Guest from Poland Zelda Kahan Newman (At the time this event took place, about three years ago, the Newmans lived in Israel. Today they live in Riverdale, NY, USA. Their children and grandchildren still live in Israel) My husband and I are members of Servas, an international organization of hosts and travelers. Our names, address, professions, hobbies and contact information appear in a book of potential hosts so that any one who intends to travel our way can ask for hospitality. Over the years we've hosted tens of guests from all over the world, most of them non-jews, and a few of them Jews. We never ask our guests for their religious affiliation; for us it is irrelevant. We do tell them about our affiliation, however. They need to know that as Sabbath observers, we will not answer the phone from sunset on Friday till sundown on Saturday. It often happens, that out guests (once they hear of our strange habits) show an interest in sharing Shabbat with us. We have always been happy to host others on sherbet. So it happened that a young man from Poland wrote us an asking us to host him for a week-end. Naturally, we agreed. As residents of Beer Sheva, one of the few Israeli cities with a dearth of tourist sites, we were used to having guest who are interested in more than surfaces. Some guests were Christian evangelicals, out to trace the Biblical path of Abraham, some were Jewish guests who wanted to find out how (and why) American Jews ended up living in the Negev. This particular young man asked (as many other of our guests had done) if he could accompany my husband to shul Friday night. He was told he could. That night, at the dinner table, he told us his story. As a young boy, he was sometimes taunted by his school-mates who called him a "Jew Boy". When he came home and told his parents about the taunts, they told him it was utter nonsense. "Children say all sorts of ridiculous things", they told him; "ignore it". So he did. He grew up, married, and had a son. Not long before he came to us, his mother had died. On her death bed, she told him she was Jewish. A woman living in Jerusalem had saved her during the war, she said. She gave her son the woman's name and address, and died. This trip to Israel, then, was a quest for this young man. He was trying to find the past that his mother had hidden from him all her life. When he knocked on the door of his mother's savior in Jerusalem, he found he had arrived too late; the woman had just died. All he found were mourners. We were his next stop. He knew nothing about Judaism and wanted to get a taste of what might have been. The next morning when he went to shul once more with my husband, he got an "aliyah" to the Torah. He repeated the strange Hebrew words, as they were told to him, one at a time, feeling connected to the Jewish people for the first time in his life. What did he do with this new slice of identity? We never found out. We've wondered about him, and we can't help wondering how many others there are like him. * * * * * *

4 4 Mishpocha _ DENVER, COLORADO WORLD FEDERATION CONFERENCE HOLOCAUST CHILD SURVIVORS: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD Robert Krell, M.D. Thank you for inviting me to address you. I welcome the opportunity to help initiate the dialogue to take place over the next few days. I hope that the thoughts that derive from my being a child survivor will in some way reflect your thoughts as well. Like you, it took a long time for me to put words to my preoccupations and even longer to offer them publicly. For they remained hidden, safely hidden from view, even from family- no, especially from family. After all, what could we say about our past? What could we say to those we love? That we suffered separations from all those we had loved and who had loved us? That we were living a double life, with multiple identities, unsure which identity was safe or acceptable? That we had an identity for public consumption and another hidden within a wounded soul? That we struggled with diminished self-worth and doubt? That we were enveloped in silence, first enforced from the outside, then self-imposed from the inside? That we were consumed with guilt or grief or both? Who would have listened to us? Who would have understood? When we look back what in fact do we see? Going back to the 1930 s and 40 s we can retrace the origins to a devastating beginning- a disruption of all that is good and decent and predictable in a child s life. And although the war raged for six years, even its end was not the end for us. Liberation did not actually free us. It merely initiated a prolonged period of doubt and uncertainty, the only certainty being the gradual confirmation of the losses we had anticipated but for which we were not prepared. It was a time of the shattering even of hope, in already shattered lives. What to do? How to handle all this? What to make of it all? We mastered silence. First and foremost, we harnessed the skills of silence that were so necessary to our survival. Normally playful, loud, boisterous, demanding, crying, laughing, we were the children who at age two or five or nine, learned to be quiet, courteous, co-operative and respectful. Few of us cried during hiding. And few of us cried after. There was a fear that I have heard expressed many times that if I began to cry I might never stop. Those who were able to cry felt a little better but even they seldom, if ever, cried in public. After all, children might be asked by well-meaning adults why they are crying? And what could we say in response? So we kept silent. None of us wanted to be pitied, we only wanted to be accepted. In addition to the mastery of silence, we discovered how to live a double life, one life of comparative normality alongside a life filled with memories of danger, hunger, fear and grief. And so it became possible to pursue studies, find work, establish careers, marry and raise families, all the while controlling the companions of the past, with more or less success. Occasionally, our balancing act was disrupted by an unexpected intrusion of the past, triggering a response that had to be fought to bring under control. My latest such intrusion came last September, in Holland. My wife, youngest daughter and I, were visiting my sister Nora, the daughter of my Christian hiders in The Hague. We went to a beach town nearby for lunch and Nora spotted her Uncle, Oom Jan (Uncle John). He was, at age 88, the last living brother of my beloved Vader, Albert Munnik. In fact, the resemblance was strong. He was overjoyed to see his little Robbie. The entire large Munnik family had been aware that there was a little Jewish boy in the family and he shared some stories and answered my questions. I asked him if he was the Uncle who raised rabbits on the rooftop, some of which we ate. No, he said, that was his brother, Harry. So it must have been Uncle Harry we visited shortly after liberation because I recall being on a roof and being bitten by one of the rabbits. Of course, I didn t cry. Not yet. It was not in my repertoire of responses. We said good-bye and hailed a taxi to take Nora back to her home. The women sat in the back and I in the front with a good-natured cab driver. And all of a sudden I began to cry, no, sob and I heard myself trying to explain, half turned in my seat It never goes away, it never goes away. And then it was over. We cannot predict when that other world will intrude to whisk us back into that vale of unexpressed sorrow. Ironically, it is at the happiest of events-weddings, B nei Mitzvoth, graduations that our parallel lives are at the greatest risk of exposure. For the happiest moments bring into stark relief, what might have been and the absence of those who might have been there. And now, 60 years later, when we are indeed losing family and friends, their loss triggers not only the immediate, contemporary grief but also the grief buried in our historical past. My mother died on April 8, 2004 aged either 88 or 89, depending on which of her several birthdates in Poland was correct. She was a courageous woman who did not complain, particularly of her failing health. She admitted to feeling weaker over the years but there was no particular forewarning to her final illness, undetected by her doctors and unsuspected by me. But she knew. And I should have known. For only a few weeks earlier, after her weekly visit to our home for Shabbat dinner, when I brought her home, she thanked me and I kissed her goodnight. This time she called me back. Rob, I ve never apologized to you for giving you away. I m sorry. I was taken aback. Mam, you saved my life. There is nothing to apologize for. My G- D, you did the right thing. None of us would have made it. No, she said, A mother should never give up her child and I am sorry. For complete text, see

5 Mishpocha 5 _ The Hidden Children of Chavagnes en Paillers: Ceremony of Thanks by Odette Meyers translated from the French by Leah Brumer October, 1999 Fifty years after leaving Chavagnes, we expressed our gratitude to the Chavagnais who sheltered us. We recognized them at two events. On October 3, 1999 we held a gathering for the hidden children, our rescue families and the people of Chavagnes. On November 14, 1999, Marie Elise Roger received a medal from Yad Vashem. Chavagnes-en-Paillers is a pretty, small town of 3,000 residents in the northern Vendome region of France. Only recently, we learned that it was a wartime refuge for at least 40 Jewish children. But until 1998, no one spoke of this in Chavagnes. That year I sent a copy of my memoir to the Raffin family. During the war Mossette and Gustave Raffin had sheltered four Jewish girls. In 1994 they had received the Yad Vashem medal. Anick Drouin, a childhood friend of Jacques Raffin, learned about the book "My parents also saved Jewish children," she said. "Can Odette find them?" I placed a notice in the French Bulletin of Hidden Children and our search began. Thanks especially to Ginette Gosley's, we located 32 of the hidden children, all of whom thought themselves the only Jews in Chavagnes. The evening before the October 3 ceremony, the Raffins hosted a private dinner for the four Jewish "daughters" -- sisters Paulette and Suzanne Klaper, their cousin Cecile Popowicz and me, then Odette Melszpajz. Ginette Gosley brought 15 of the hidden children to the ceremony. When morning mass was over, people arrived at the square. The mayor, M. Coutaud, Father George de Guerry who was so helpful in our research, the members of the historical society, Presence of the Past, and other residents had come early. Engraved by the local stonecarver, the black plaque that we had hung on a town hall wall was covered by a white cloth. The fifteen hidden children gathered in a group behind the microphone. Solemn music announced the beginning of the ceremony. The mayor gave a lovely speech, ending with an eloquent call: "That future generations should be moved by the same spirit of generosity and solidarity that moves us today and moved us yesterday." Father de Guerry introduced the three Children who would unveil the plaque. They are all descendants: of Cecile Popowicz, one of the hidden children; of the Chauvets, one of the rescue families; and of Dr. Foucaud's family. A moment of silence. Then, finally unveiled, the simple plaque with its bright letters on a black background, carrying the message our group had chosen: "To the residents of Chavagnes-en-Paillers and its surrounding villages, who from 1941 to 1944, had the courage to welcome and protect children threatened with death because they were born Jewish." Deeply moved, Ginette spoke first. She thanked the individuals and local agencies that helped to organize this event. She reminded us of that duty to always remember both Holocaust victims and those who saved Jewish children. Thanks to them, "despite a government whose acts often went beyond the orders of the occupying Nazis, France has the honor of being a country in which a large number of Jews were saved." It was my turn to speak. Seated before me, in the places of honor, the two lone survivors of the rescue families. I spoke to them. Like all the righteous, they say they did nothing special, they did only what was normal and natural. I explained that ever since the diaspora, Jews were excluded from professions, neighborhoods, countries., and finally, during the Nazi period, excluded from life altogether. But when we arrived in Chavagnes, without the yellow star, we were immediately included in the lives of our rescue families and in the community. Not only were our lives saved but we enjoyed life despite all we had seen as children. We could continue to believe in humanity. It was David's turn. His parents never came back. With great emotion, he said, "While a dark cloud of hate enveloped Europe, rays of the light of love appeared in the smallest places, like Chavagnes-en-Paillers. As our birth families disappeared in the steam of the trains that led to the crematoria, families here opened wide their arms and hearts." With the ceremony over, the noisy, excited crowd moved to a meeting room in the town hall for a toast. Meetings, reunions, exchanges, questions, answers, laughter, tears, shared recollections. That night, on television we heard that 500 people attended the ceremony. What an extraordinary moment. We felt the simple but complex experience of being truly human, of knowing how to give and receive love between strangers, of staying connected to the shared landscapes of our childhood. How comforting, to thank the Chavagnais who took responsibility for the well-being of these Jewish children, temporarily in their care, who needed love and protection. What a joy to have Chavagnes-en-Paillers once again in our lives! I cherish a quote from Madame Roger, with that pure goodness of spirit of the righteous: "I didn't do anything unusual! I only took in a little guy who had just lost his parents. I loved him and I fed him. Not to do that -- that wouldn't have been normal." Odette Meyers passed away several years ago. * * * * *

6 6 Mishpocha _ FRANCE: MEMOIR OF HELEN KOENIG STEIN Member of Marianne Cohn s Convoy, arrested Annemasse, France, May 31, 1944 I was a little girl of six in I lived in Strasbourg, France, near the German border. We had a pleasant family life, but were aware of the oppression suffered by the German Jews. In 1939, war broke out in Europe. My father was in the French army and my mother, alone with three small children, settled in the center of France near Limoges. All our relatives were dispersed. Once France was occupied, the government issued anti-semitic laws. We lived in fear of being taken away. Many friends had been arrested, and never heard of again. Sometimes a friendly police officer would warn a Jewish friend of a raid and we would hide in a convent or on a farm for a few days. When we were living in our apartment, I was frightened of the doorbell ringing and daydreamed of running away. We had so much stress that often we couldn t eat. We listened secretly to the BBC from London, which gave us the news of Jews being murdered. By the end of 1943, Jewish organizations knew about our fate and set up networks to hide children in farms and with families. They also organized illegal passages to Switzerland and Spain. In May, 1944, my parents made the heartbreaking decision to send my 10-year old sister, our 8- year old brother, and me to Switzerland. We were given false papers. We went to Limoges, where a convoy of 28 children was formed. As we left Limoges, the station was full of Germans. They looked mighty; I was terrified and shaking. In Lyon, we were given hospitality in a convent. After two days, we left Lyon to go to Annecy, which is near the Swiss border. We were 28 kids, waiting on the shore of a lake in a cheerful mood, so near freedom. Our group leader arrived at last. Her name was Marianne. She told us not to be frightened and explained the difference between the Swiss and German guards. We went in the van and traveled to the border. The van stopped and we had to walk a short distance through fields to reach Switzerland. I saw a black car appear and four men with dogs stepped out. Germans. Marianne had self-confidence. She had a Red Cross armband and showed them our false papers. She explained we were from the bombarded city of Marseille and were on our way to a children s home. Somehow it worked, but at three o clock in the morning, the Germans came back. Marianne was questioned and slapped, the boys beaten up. At dawn, we were taken away in a van. I told my sister and brother we are going to die. They took us to a prison in Annemasse. Partisans were being tortured, and we heard their screams. We were put in cells; we sat and slept on straw mattresses. The youngest child was three years old and we all tried to mother her. Marianne gave us warmth and cheered us up. When the mayor, Jean Deffaugt, heard about us, he came to the prison. He arranged for us to get soup every day. He was very kind, and he gave us hope. We were traumatized. He gave us a drink; I think it was egg yolk with alcohol. Marianne was taken away every day for questioning and tortured. She came back, her face red and swollen. She was subjected to hot and cold baths. She was courageous and did not betray her contacts. She told the Gestapo that she had saved 200 children and would do it again. We were told that we would each be interrogated by the Gestapo. My turn came; my heart was pounding. I saw two Nazis, one sitting on a desk with a revolver pointed towards me and the other in front of a typewriter with a whip. He asked my name, my parents address, who organized the journey, who provided the false papers. After each question, he said, Are you Jewish? I was in turmoil and undecided of what to say or not say. Afterwards I was drained by the sadism of that man terrorizing me. I was only 13 years old. The boys had been beaten up. Marianne asked the mayor to plead with the Nazis to free us. They let the younger ones under 14 years old go to a Catholic children s orphanage under German supervision. We had to promise not to escape, as we as well as the mayor would be shot. The older children who stayed in prison had to work cleaning the cells, etc. Marianne knew she was a lost woman. She tried to sustain the morale of the youngsters. She was offered a chance to escape, planned by her two Jewish friends; but she refused. She could not leave the children; they would be shot. During the night of July 7 8, 1944, she was taken away with three other partisans, to a clearing outside of the town. Marianne was beaten with a shovel and killed. She was not recognizable when her friends found her. Two weeks later, the chief Nazi told Monsieur Deffaugt, These children must disappear. I need the space. The mayor pleaded, These children are innocent. They don t stop you from winning the war. I ll look after them. The Jewish organization had sent two Resistance fighters to Annemasse to rescue the children. They met Monsieur Deffaugt in a secret place and asked him to negotiate with the chief Nazi. Their message to the Nazi was this: The German Occupation is coming to an end. If you kill the children you ll pay with your life, as we have your address in Germany. But, if you don t touch them, we will let you escape to Switzerland. At the same time, fierce battles were raging between the Germans and the French Resistance, which was very strong in that part of France. On August 18, 1944, the Germans in Annemasse capitulated. That day, our two partisans came and took us 28 children to Geneva because they were worried that the Germans might recapture Annemasse. The mayor told us we had been in great danger of being shot. Helen Stein (née Koenig) lives in Manchester, England, with her husband. The Steins have two children, 5 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren!.

7 Mishpocha 7 _ Belgium: The Rescue of Jewish Children by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel Director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department Copyright 2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority On 20 May 1943, just before 10:00 p.m., the doorbell of the Très-Saint-Sauveur convent in Brussels, Belgium rang. Two armed men forced their way in, shouting Hands up! They were followed by several other armed men and one woman who cut the phone lines, and ordered the nuns to assemble in the Mother Superior s office. The nuns were forced to prepare 15 of their wards Jewish girls who had been hidden under the guise of Catholic children for a journey. In under an hour, the abductors had taken the children, locked up the nuns in the office, and Sister Marie Amélie (Leloup Eugénie) the Mother Superior in an upstairs room. On the way out, to reassure the children, one of the men whispered a few words in Yiddish. Who were these unusual abductors? In September 1942, Cardinal Van Roey, head of the Belgian Catholic church in Malines/ Mechelen, and the Comité de Défense des Juifs (CDJ), a Jewish clandestine rescue organization, encouraged the Mother Superior of the Trés-Saint-Sauveur convent to take 15 Jewish girls into hiding. For nine months, the girls lived in the convent, attending Christian religious lessons. On 20 May 1943, having received information of the Jewish children, the Gestapo raided the premises. Discovering that three girls were absent, they decided to return the next morning to collect all the children at once. It is not to kill them, the head Gestapo agent told the Mother Superior sarcastically, but to unite them with their families. Frantic, Sister Marie Amélie contacted Miss Jeanne (the wartime pseudonym of Ida Sterno, a Jewish activist with the CDJ) for help. She also appealed to Cardinal Van Roey who contacted Elisabeth, the Queen Mother of Belgium, through one of his aides. Elisabeth intervened but failed to persuade the German authorities to alter their plans. Throughout that day, Sister Marie Amélie and her nuns prayed for divine intervention, while also preparing the children s belongings for the following day s departure. That night, before 10:00 p.m. their prayers were answered in the form of an unusual abduction. The leader of the raiding party was 23-year-old Paul Halter, a Jewish commander in the Belgian armed resistance. Earlier that day, he had visited his friend, Toby Cymberknopf. I found him very upset, Halter recalls. He informed me that our friend, Bernard Fenerberg, had learned about the Gestapo s visit to the convent and their intent to return to collect the children. We realized that we only had a few hours and decided to take it upon ourselves to rescue the children. Halter, Cymberknopf, and Fenerberg, were joined by fellow-jews, Jankiel Parancevitch, as well as Andrée Ermel and Floris Desmedt from the Belgian resistance. The six waited for dark, knowing the operation had to take place before the 10:00 p.m. curfew. We forced our way in at gunpoint, ripped out the phone line, and tied the nuns to chairs says Halter. Half an hour after the kidnapping one of the nuns managed to reach the window and alert a passer-by who called the Belgian police. The nuns told the police of the kidnapping and the police carried out their investigation until the next morning, before alerting the Gestapo (giving the kidnappers time to escape with the children). When the Gestapo appeared at the convent the next morning at 11:00 a.m. the children were long gone. From the convent, some had been handed over to their parents, four were brought to Halter s home, and others were taken to Cymberknopf s house. That morning, they had all been transferred to safe locations with help from the CDJ. The Gestapo interrogated the Mother Superior, who said she was certain the men had been sent by the Gestapo. Unable to disprove the nuns story, the Gestapo left and the children were saved. Halter was later arrested and in September 1943 was deported to Auschwitz. After the war he discover that all 15 girls had survived. In 1991, at the first Hidden Children reunion in New York, he was reunited with several of the girls he saved. Sister Marie Amélie, Mother Superior of Très-Saint- Sauveur, was honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations in 2001, as were Andrée Ermel and her parents, Marcel and Céline Ermel (with whom one of the children, Myriam Frydland, was placed). Yad Vashem equally pays tribute to the CDJ, and the four Jews who participated in this rescue operation a unique episode in the annals of the Holocaust in Belgium. * * * * *

8 8 Mishpocha _ YAD VASHEM The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in conjunction with The Jews Rescued Jews Committee TESTIMONY ON JEWISH RESCUE DURING THE HOLOCAUST Name: Madeleine Dreyfus, Place during the war: Lyon/ Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Country: France Information compiled by Patrick Henry, Professor Emeritus, Whitman College, Oregon, USA. Born Madeleine Kahn in 1909, the future Madeleine Dreyfus received her baccalaureate degree in Paris in She married Raymond Dreyfus in March 1933 on the very day that Hitler came to power. Her sons, Michel and Jacques, were born in 1934 and 1937 respectively at the same time that she began studying psychology with Sophie Lazarfeld, a student and disciple of Alfred Adler. In October 1941, when her husband lost his job in Paris because of the Vichy anti-semitic laws, the family passed into the Unoccupied Zone and settled in Lyon. Madeleine began working for the Jewish charitable organization, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (O.S.E.), as a psychologist in late As of August 1942, when Jewish children were being rounded up in the Unoccupied south of France, she began a new and dangerous role. Under the constant menace of the Gestapo, she assumed responsibility for the Lyon/ Le Chambon-sur-Lignon area link in the Garel Network and sought places of refuge in this Protestant countryside for her Jewish children. Several times a month, accompanied by a small group of children (aged from 18 months to 16 years), Madeleine would take the train from Lyon to Saint-Etienne where she would transfer to the local steam engine to Le Chambonsur-Lignon. Some of these children had been given to her by their parents. Just as often, they had managed to escape at the time of their parents arrest. These were extremely dangerous ventures in which Madeleine continuously risked her life. Although in almost all cases the children had false Aryan identity papers, she did not. In addition, she had to control these mostly foreign children to get them through police inspections in the train stations and on the trains. She had to keep them from speaking Polish, German, or Yiddish and make sure that they called their friends by their French names. For a little more than a year, from September 1942 to November 1943, Madeleine made these trips, finding shelter for well over one hundred Jewish children. She would return often to visit the children she had placed, to bring them clothing, medicine, food tickets, and letters from their parents who, for safety reasons, never knew where their children were hidden. As of November 1942, Madeleine was pregnant with her third child, Annette. I was pregnant, she has written, and continued my work as well as I could. Annette was born in Lyon on August 29, Very shortly thereafter, writes Raymond, my wife resumed her trips back and forth between Lyon and Le Chambon. In September 1943, Raymond s sister-in-law and two of her children were arrested and deported. Raymond begged Madeleine to stop her illegal work: I begged my wife to stop this dangerous activity now that she was responsible for three small children, two months, six, and nine years of age, all without false papers. Madeleine asked Raymond to wait since there was no one to replace her. On November 23 rd, Madeleine received a phone call from the father of a child she had hidden at the School for Deaf-Mutes at Villeurbanne. The school served as a location where children were hidden before being dispersed into homes, religious institutions, or into Switzerland. The caller was distraught because he had heard that there was going to be a Gestapo raid at the Institute. Madeleine called there and the woman on the phone encouraged her to come to the school. It was impossible for Madeleine to know that her respondent was being held at gunpoint and had been instructed to respond in that manner. Madeleine walked into a trap but managed to warn her family and O.S.E. immediately. She was sent to Fort Montluc in Lyon where she spent over two months in the Jewish women s prison from whose window she witnessed the execution of many resisters. At the end of January 1944, she was transferred to Drancy where she would spend the next four months. Even from Drancy, she was able to have Jewish children saved in the Grenoble area. In May 1944, Madeleine was deported to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northwest Germany where 40,000 inmates would die of starvation and disease. Even in Bergen-Belsen, where she would spend eleven months, Madeleine was concerned with others. She tried to raise the morale of her companions and organized daily delousing sessions to help stem the typhus in the camp. She and her companions received only between six and seven hundred calories a day. It was a situation designed to spread terror and to crush individuals by slowly destroying everything that made them human. Nonetheless, as she reports, survival was contingent upon camaraderie. Very small groups of three or four women would stay together and help one another maintain morale and reestablish their humanity. They would share food, assume social roles, make an effort to speak about art and literature, and reassure themselves that they were still human beings. After eighteen months of prison and concentration camp incarceration, Madeleine was liberated and repatriated on May 18, She continued her practice, as an Adlerian psychologist, gifted in dealing with children, teaching, and family situations, until her death in * * * * * *

9 Mishpocha 9 _ Address to Yad Vashem Conference, 2004 JEWS RESCUED JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST Chana Arnon, Jerusalem, Committee on Jews Rescued Jews The phenomenon of Jews rescuing Jews during the Holocaust was just as widespread, if not more, than the allied event of Gentiles coming to the Jews rescue. With the realization that the hate campaign they were subjected to was materializing into what later became known as genocide, the Jews started a self-rescue campaign which included emigration, protection by means of forged documents, and inducement of officials in their countries to desist from Nazi collaboration. The emigration movement started in the country where Jewish persecution took its inception in the early thirties: Germany. German Jews emigrated to Palestine, other European countries, the US, and South American in large percentages. Those who couldn t obtain visas or certificates or who simply didn t have the money to leave were desperate to have at least their children saved the cruel fate. The Kindertransport, initiated by the Dutch Gertrude Wijsmuller, took more than 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria to England where they survived the war. Mrs. Wijsmuller was later awarded the title of Righteous Gentile, conferred on her by Yad Vashem, but her Jewish counterparts, and especially Mrs. Recha Freier, who worked out of Germany, were never honored in a similar fashion in this country. In Nieuwlande, a village in north-east Holland, and its surrounding villages, three hundred Jews, among whom one hundred children, were saved by brave Netherlanders. Their leaders were two resistance workers, Johannes Post and Arnold Douwes, who received the honor of Righteous Gentile, and a third hero, a young Jew by the name of Max Nico Leons. At Yad Vashem, the monument honoring the whole village, which has names of more than a hundred rescuers chiseled in stone, Nico s name does not appear, although he risked his life for years just as the others did. Jan Post was caught by the Germans and executed, while Arnold survived into old age and Nico is still alive. The Jewish Nico and his Gentile colleagues collaborated for one purpose: to save as many Jews as they could. In Chambon-sur-Lignon in southern France and its surrounding villages five thousand Jews found shelter from persecution. Their rescuers were the local Protestants and the Jews who were active in rescue in southern France, in Marseille and in Nice and many other places. The Jewish rescuers brought their charges to Chambon, equipped with forged documents including food cards and money. The teamwork and mutual assistance was striking, but only the Gentiles were awarded the honorable title of Righteous. The fact that there were Jewish survivors at all, after five long years of war, is often times thanks to Jewish initiative, cunning, thwarting, and daring that have one thing in common: the overriding concern for the lives and wellbeing of others, be they brothers or strangers. The many instances of Jewish rescue, self-rescue and rescue of others, at times total strangers, are inspiring. They range from organized Jewish rescue based on an existing infrastructure as in France to daring activity as in the family camps in Russia, to the bribery of officials in Slovakia and to the Zionist youth movement (religious and secular) rescue in many places, notably Hungary. They range from the rescue of thousands to the rescue of single individuals. It has to be remembered that if there were Jews alive at all after the Holocaust, it was just as much thanks to other Jews as to non-jews. The as sheep to the slaughter premise is an erroneous one whose refutation is still waiting to be recorded. The Committee on Jews Rescued Jews (CJRJ) was founded to document, publicize, and very often anonymous Jewish heroes about who too little is known among the public in Israel and elsewhere. DEFINITION The group that calls itself the Committee on Jews Rescued Jews sets its terms of reference at attempts at rescuing Jewish lives. Not taking into its ken armed resistance, sabotage, or espionage, it focuses rather on the many thousands who were active in the twilight world of document forgery, the finding of safe havens with Christian resisters and locating escape routes to neutral countries. Rescue as Resistance, as the title of a book by Lucien Lazare aptly phrases it, is the motto of our group. We chose this framework because many in our group were either on the receiving or the bestowing end of this rescue work and it was felt that it was an aspect of the Holocaust that had not been adequately covered in all the copious literature on the subject. Not only had the subject not been adequately exposed, it also left a gap in the perception of the process of mass murder that went on in the years in Europe and was directed mainly against the Jews. The Jews were vastly outnumbered by the hostile forces in their countries of residence and those forces often collaborated with the occupier in the persecution of the Jews, yet thousands and tens of thousands of Jews resisted at the risk of their lives. Many of those rescuers were caught and paid dearly for their efforts. The fact that there were Jewish survivors at all, after five long years of war, is often thanks to Jewish initiative, cunning, thwarting, and daring that have one thing in common: the overriding concern for the lives and wellbeing of others, be they brothers or strangers. This then is our definition of a Jewish rescuer. * * * * *

10 10 Mishpocha _ Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz QUEEN ELIZABETH MEETS HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Henri Obstfeld On January 27, 2005, Holocaust Memorial Day which this year also commemorated the 60 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a large number of child survivors who were in occupied Europe during World War II, attended a private reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at St. James s Palace. There were some 600 survivors and a few liberators present in several imposing rooms where we were offered refreshments. Some of us had received information that we would be presented to either the Queen or the Duke. For this purpose, we were placed in the centre of the room, in groups of ten. Eventually, the Duke appeared, followed by the Queen. Some said the beracha on seeing a royal personage. I, surrounded by nine lady-survivors, had the pleasure of being presented to the Queen. We had found out that men bow their head and ladies make a little curtsey. As I bowed my head, the black-gloved hand was proffered and I shook her hand. The Queen asked me where I came from. I mentioned that, as a four-year old child, I had watched the Airborne Landings near Arnhem (where I was hidden) in September The 60 th anniversary of this event had been commemorated only a few months ago. She said: That must have been exiting! I was lost for words. I always explain that the adults then present, had been exited. So I replied that I could not remember. Meanwhile, she had started to talk to one of the ladies in my group. There was an official photographer present, but very few pictures were taken during this private occasion. After the reception we made our way to the Palace of Westminster. The large, centuries old hall was full. A stage had been erected at the front and there were lots of television cameras. This National Event would be recorded and broadcast on BBC television later that evening. Eventually, the Queen and Duke arrived, accompanied by the Prime Minister and the Leaders of the Parliamentary parties, their wives and other ministers. One of our members, Susan Pollack, had been taken back to Auschwitz a few weeks earlier, and a film had been made of her return. Her film was shown in between contributions by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a reading from Primo Levi s If this is a man and from the diary of Anne Frank. The proceedings were introduced by Lord Winston, an eminent Jewish infertility expert and presenter of medical television programs. Among other participants were the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sachs, our member Paul Oppenheimer, and a well-known Jewish actor. The Prime Minister gave a short address. A further musical contribution was made by a Gypsy ensemble. A flame, kindled at Auschwitz, was brought in by Susan Pollack. After the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh each lit a candle, sixty survivors of which a dozen are child survivors, followed. Altogether an impressive and moving occasion. * * * * * * * Statement Regarding the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan From the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust The World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust, the largest group of Child Survivors in the world, calls for an end to the unfolding genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. People are being systematically made homeless, raped and murdered. This is happening with the apparent approval of the Sudanese government. Worse, the world community is standing by and doing little or nothing. The World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust sees this and we are aghast. Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust just six decades ago? Then, Jews were the victims and a world stood in silence. Today Darfur echoes the European Holocaust of the 1940's. We cannot let such a tragedy occur again in our own lifetime. We call upon all nations to take immediate steps to put an end to the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Darfur. We call upon nations to act with moral conviction, courage and with speed to intervene in Darfur. We call upon our elected officials to take practical steps to bring an end to this catastrophe. We call upon the Security Council of the UN to condemn those who are perpetrating these acts. And, given the unique place of the Jewish people as victims of prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination, we call upon all our fellow Jews to join with others to help end the suffering of the people of Darfur. Our concern is for saving innocent human life, no matter what faith, ethnicity or race. We must not be insensitive to the suffering of our fellow human beings. We must not be indifferent. We dare not remain silent. January 1, 2005 The Executive Committee of World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust President: Stephanie Seltzer Officers: Steve Adler, Alex Buckman, Natalie Gold, Rudoph Jacobson, Max Arpels Lezer, Marianne Kronenberg, Rene Lichtman, Henri Obstfeld, Esther Posner, Rosian Zerner * * * * *

11 Mishpocha 11 _ FINDING LOVED ONES Dear Ms Skotnicka-Zajdman, In a recent issue of Mishpocha I saw an article by Margarita Turkow, and I communicated by with Joanna Sobolewska-Pyz at Dzieci Holocaustu, to ask about her, as we knew each other as children in the Warsaw Ghetto, and I had often thought about her and wondered what had become of her. In replying, Joanna suggested that I should get in touch with you, as you knew Margarita, and gave me your address. Would you be so kind as to ask Margarita (whom I used to call Marita for short) whether she remembers me, and whether she would be interested in communicating with me? My name was Halina Pokorna: I am now Halina Sand, and live in London. I saw Marita once after the war, in Otwock, where I survived, with my family, in hiding. I will just add that I still speak and write Polish, but my computer is not so talented.. I apologize for contacting you like this, out of the blue. Yours sincerely, Halina Sand Middlesex UK * * * * * Renatko, I have just read the letter from Halina and am terribly moved. I am writing this to ask if either of you have her e- mail address. I got her street address and telephone number from the forwarded letter and will call her as soon as I calm down and figure out the time difference, but would love to be able to her immediately, if possible, and her e- mail address is not shown in the forwarded letter. We were neighbors (half a flight of stairs) and friends in the Ghetto and I saw her more than once after the war as her parents invited me to spend weekends in Otwock. I have often thought of Halinka but knew of no way of finding her. So grateful to you, Rene, for having published that excerpt which resulted in such unexpected reconnection! Wow! I'm so looking forward to renewing our friendship... Margarita Dear Rene, * * * * Trains Author Finds Family I'm writing to share my joy I've just found Family, I thought I'd lost, and I am overwhelmed with feelings. As you know, I survived alone. I knew that before the Holocaust, I'd had a large extended family, and I had hoped that someone had survived. Yet, despite my efforts, I found no one. Then, in years after the start of the war I'd found two cousins on my mother's side. And now, two weeks ago, I'd received a letter from a cousin who had just found my testimony on the web side of the Holocaust museum in Yad Vashem. I've learned that my father had five brothers and two sisters. Some had left Poland before the war landing in Israel and USA. My two first cousins - Beniek and Srulik - survived the Holocaust and live in Israel. Beniek has been visiting his daughter in Florida so I flew there to meet him. We had a teary reunion - Daniel and Iris drove from NYC; David flew in from Boston. I will write another epilogue to TRAINS. Miriam Winter * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * RESTITUTION The Claims Conference is not involved in the administration, implementation or processing of Social Insurance pensions for the German government or its social security institutions. The Claims Conference continues to press the German authorities and parliament for a broad interpretation of the Ghetto Pension law to benefit as many survivors as possible. To learn more about the ZRBG eligibility and background, consult the Claims Conference Handbook and Supplement on the website, The Handbook is available in English, German, Hebrew and Spanish. * * * * * * Records of more than 3,000 World War II-era Swiss bank accounts were published on the Internet in an effort to return hundreds of millions of dollars to Nazi victims or to their descendants. Survivors and heirs now have six months to file claims to the accounts, opened during the Nazi era at Credit Suisse or UBS AG. For more information: or or CRT-II - Claims Resolution Tribunal - Deposited Assets. Remember to check names of other family members, as you may be an heir entitled to make a claim. (compiled from Generation After newsletter). * * * * *

12 Mishpocha 12 _ THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: A HOLOCAUST CHILDHOOD By Gerda Bikales Ten years ago, Gerda Bikales penned her childhood memoirs of surviving the Shoah. Now it has been published under the title Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death: A Holocaust Childhood. Henryk Grynberg, a child survivor and acclaimed prize-winning writer on the Holocaust, has praised the book as a gripping memoir [that] illuminates the fearsome experiences of a Holocaust child survivor with the intelligence and wisdom of an adult s retrospection. Of particular interest is the author s concept of the hiding child, as opposed to the more familiar hidden child...we were not so much hidden children as hiding children, whose only available survival technique was silence and self-effacement. We were left wholly outside the legal and social protections of the communities we found ourselves in not hidden but, on the contrary, widely exposed to every danger, and forced to fend for ourselves. The book narrates the story of one such exposed child, on the run in Germany, Belgium, France and Switzerland. It is a memoir about a dangerous journey, undertaken without a clear road map or a safe destination in view. That the journey was completed successfully is entirely due to the imagination, daring and mutual devotion of the three protagonists whose uneasy relationships are at the heart of the story. Published by iuniverse, Inc., 200 pp. ISBN (Hardcover), ISBN (Soft-cover), ISBN (E-book) Through the Valley, is now available online from Amazon.com and through Barnes and Noble stores. * * * * AMSTERDAM 2005, see website: Contact Holocaustchild@comcast.net for information * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *