american & international societies for yad vashem · anti-jewish propaganda to the arab world....

IN THIS ISSUEASYV Benefit Gala in Los Angeles..............................................................1,8

The lessons of Bergen-Belsen remain unlearned.........................................2

The origins and onset of the Romanian Holocaust......................................4

The Holocaust without Jews..........................................................................5

Righteous Among the Nations, at home in Israel..........................................................7

Photo highlights from the ASYV Annual Spring Luncheon........................................9

A WWII vacation that saved two Jewish brothers’ lives.............................10

Holocaust haunts Lithuanians as painful past comes to light...................11

When Poland eyed Madagascar as a future homeland for Jews..............15

Swiss under pressure over art that Jews were forced to sell....................16

Vol. 42-No. 5 ISSN 0892-1571 May/June 2016-Iyyar/Sivan 5776

AMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEMAMERICAN & INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR YAD VASHEM

SALUTE TO HOLLYWOOD BENEFIT GALA The American Society for Yad

Vashem (ASYV), in partnershipwith the Jewish Life Foundation, host-ed its third annual Salute to HollywoodBenefit Gala on Monday, June 6th, atthe Beverly Wilshire Hotel, BeverlyHills. The inspirational evening broughttogether 350 new and returningsupporters of Yad Vashem, theWorld Holocaust RemembranceCenter. Emcee Mike Burstynopened the event by introducingsinger Michael Libow, who led theaudience in the national anthemsand Holocaust survivor Jack Nagelfor Hamotzi, the blessing over thebread. Leonard Wilf, chairman ofASYV, kicked off the program bywelcoming all of our guests. Amongthose in attendance were some ofYad Vashem’s most esteemed sup-porters — Sheldon and MiriamAdelson, Patrons of the Mount ofRemembrance; Fela Shapell andthe Shapell family, who, along withDavid Shapell, z”l, are pillars of YadVashem; and Susanne, Edwardand Elissa Czuker. Edward andElissa served as the Gala chairsand worked tirelessly to ensure theevening’s success.

For many years, the Hollywoodcommunity has been an essentialpartner in spreading the mission ofHolocaust education and remem-brance. Starting in 1945, the year thatmarked the end of World War II andthe liberation of the concentrationcamps, films and documentariesstruggling with the incomprehensiblereality that was the Holocaust havebeen produced.

Inspiration for this year’s ASYV Galacame from a new source in theHollywood community. LastDecember, The Hollywood Reporterpublished its groundbreaking story,

“Hollywood’s Last Survivors.” Thewriters inspired us with their treatmentof each survivor’s story, demonstrat-ing great care and respect for everyindividual name, photo and memory.The beautifully written article mirrorsYad Vashem’s personal approach to

telling the story of the Holocaust, andin so doing, furthers our goals ofspreading knowledge of the Shoah tonew audiences.

A t the gala we were delighted tohonor The Hollywood Reporter

(THR), its president and chief creativeofficer, Janice Min, and executive vicepresident and group publisher, LynneSegall. Jeffrey Katzenberg, founderand chief executive officer ofDreamWorks Animation, presentedthem with the Vanguard Award. In hisremarks, Katzenberg said, “Lynne

and Janice have challenged us to dobetter and to be better through thisarticle, which shines a bright light sothat we will not forget these stories.”Peter Flax, principal author of“Hollywood’s Last Survivors,” said,“Hearing these stories is an experi-

ence I’ll never forget. They illuminatethe deep truths of the past and thefuture with intimate details.” THR andits staff are true champions of YadVashem’s mission to restore thememory and dignity of six millionJewish victims and the thousands ofsurvivors alive today.

With deep appreciation for theircontributions, we had the priv-

ilege of celebrating outstandingHolocaust survivors who have workedthroughout their lives to further thecause of Holocaust remembranceand education worldwide. BrankoLustig, Oscar-winning producer ofSchindler’s List, was presented withour Legacy Award by Phil Blazer,founder and president of Jewish LifeTelevision. Branko’s personal journeytook him from Nazi death camps to tri-umph at the Oscars; in 2015 Brankopresented his Oscar for Schindler’sList to Yad Vashem. Actor TonyGoldwyn presented Meyer Gottlieb,former president of Samuel GoldwynFilms, with our Legacy Award. In his

moving introduction Goldwyn stated,“[Meyer] has never failed to speak outso that the sacrifices [of our people]are not lost to the sands of time. He isdedicated to effecting change in theworld, so that the power of love andtolerance can subdue evil.” Both of

these individuals have had aprofound influence in theHollywood community and werefeatured in The HollywoodReporter’s article.

We also had the pleasure ofhonoring philanthropist DavidWiener. A survivor of Auschwitz,David built his real estateempire from the ground up withhard work and determination.David is a true leader in thecommunity — his generosityknows no bounds. AdamMilstein presented David withour Lifetime Achievement Awardand the evening concluded withguests singing “Happy Birthday”to Wiener, celebrating his 90thbirthday, and wishing him ahuge Mazal Tov on his marriagethe day before the event.

These three Holocaust sur-vivors, as well as the others whowere able to join us at the gala,truly enhanced the evening.

Those strong men and women sur-vived under such dire circumstancesand have taught us the meaning ofperseverance and determination. It ison their shoulders that we are able tothrive and hope for a better future.

This message was brought homeafter hearing from Yad Vashem repre-sentative Irena Steinfeldt, director ofthe Righteous Among the NationsDepartment. Irena recounted storiesof inspiring heroes from the entertain-ment industry in Eastern Europe whosaved Jews from the horrors of theHolocaust. The Righteous, along withour survivors, have established afoundation of kindness and charitythat we can only hope to emulate forgenerations to come.

Thanks to our generous supportersand new friends in the community, thiswas our most successful event yet inLos Angeles. We surpassed ourfundraising goal and have set newrecords for the future. We look forwardto planting roots in the community andgrowing our Yad Vashem family.

Presentation of the Vanguard Award to The Hollywood Reporter and its EVP and group publisher, Lynne Segall

(left), and President and CCO, Janice Min (second from right). Presenters Jeffrey Katzenberg, (founder and CEO

of DreamWorks Animation, second from left) and Leonard Wilf, chairman of ASYV (right).

MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE May/June 2016 - Iyyar/Sivan 5776

BY LYN JULIUS, THE JERUSALEM POST

On April 15 the world was mark-ing the 70th anniversary of the

liberation of the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Morethan 50,000 prisoners, mainly Jews,died there — of starvation, overworkor disease or following gruesomemedical experiments. Anne Frankwas probably the most famous victim.She and her sister perished of typhusin the camp just one month before lib-eration.

Among the prisoners liberated onthat glorious day in April were severalhundred Libyan Jews, deported toBergen-Belsen via Italy. A photoexists of these survivors, danglingtheir legs out of a railway carriage onwhich they had scrawled, “Goinghome” and “Back to Tripoli.”

According to The Jews of Libya byProfessor Maurice Roumani, some870 out of the 2,000 Jews in Libyawith British passports were deportedto Italy as part of the “sfollamento”policy to send away foreign nationals.Members of the same family could bedispersed to Morocco, Tunisia orAlgeria — then under pro-Nazi, VichyFrench control.

Two transports of 300 Jews, andanother 120, were shipped from Libyato Naples then placed on cargo trainsto Bergen-Belsen, and arrived on May25, 1944. Jews arriving from Libya inBologna were taken by train toInnsbruck- Reichenau, part of theDachau camp system, in July 1943.

Reaching Bergen-Belsen relativelylate in the war, the Libyan Jews sur-vived. Some were exchanged forGerman POWs. They received pack-ages from the Red Cross andobtained some relief in their workingconditions. They even managed tokeep kosher, exchanging cooked foodfor dry bread. One Jew, Zion Labifrom Benghazi, started a school.

The deportation of Jews from Libyato the northern shores of theMediterranean gives the lie to thewidespread misconception that the

Holocaust touched only EuropeanJews.

Although their suffering cannot becompared to the horrors inflicted onthe Jews of Eastern Europe, Jews inNorth Africa were not spared theimpact of the war. Some 2,500 LibyanJews were shipped by the ItalianFascist regime to the notorious Giadolabor camp. One-fifth died of typhusor starvation.

Neighboring Tunisia came underdirect Nazi control for six months.Some 2,000 Tunisian Jewish men,wearing the obligatory yellow star,

were frog-marched into labor camps.Jews were used as slave labor inAlgerian and Moroccan work camps.And all the while, thousands of Jewsdied in aerial bombardments as theAllied and German armies wrestledfor control.

Arguably, North African states, hav-ing not yet achieved independence,were not responsible for the anti-Jewish measures adopted by theVichy regime and the Italian Fascists.But apart from individuals who savedJews, the sympathies of the Arabmasses broadly lay with theGermans.

Iraq, independent since 1932, wasthe scene of a pro-Nazi coup in 1941,leading inexorably to the Farhud, theIraqi-Jewish Kristallnacht. In this two-day orgy of murder, rape, mutilationand looting, up to 600 Jews werekilled, according to British archivalrecords. The exact figure will never beknown.

The Palestinian Grand Mufti ofJerusalem played a central role inplotting the pro-Nazi coup in Iraq. Inexile in Berlin from November 1941until the end of the war, he broadcastanti-Jewish propaganda to the Arabworld.

He proved more zealous than theNazis in promoting the “FinalSolution” to the Jewish question. Themufti is thought to have been directlyresponsible for 20,000 EuropeanJews murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.

At the end of World War II, the muftishould have been tried as a war crim-

inal at Nuremberg.He was indicted, judged and con-

victed by Yugoslavia for crimesagainst humanity, arising from his piv-otal role in the Handschar andSkanderbeg SS divisions, whichdeported Balkan Jews from Kosovo,Macedonia and Thrace. But the Alliesshrank from offending the Arabs. Themufti remained a hero for tens ofthousands.

Nazi Germany lavished money andpropaganda on the Arab world in thehope of fomenting an anti-colonialuprising. It funded the MuslimBrotherhood, established in Egypt in1928. Its founder, Hassan al-Banna,made the Nazi concept of the Jew asthe epitome of all-embracing evil, over-laid with traditional anti-Jewish Koranicprejudice, the core of the Brotherhood’sideology. By the war’s end, theBrotherhood had a million members.

Shortly after the Belsen survivorshad returned to Libya, the Jews ofTripoli and outlying villages suffered avicious three-day pogrom, whichclaimed the lives of 130 and madethousands of Jews homeless.

How was this possible barely sixmonths after news of the terri-

ble extermination of the Jews ofEurope had reached the Arab world?The November 1945 Libyan riotswere a spillover from disturbances inEgypt in which five Jews were mur-dered. While some blame the clash ofZionism and Arab nationalism, histori-ans report that the rioters in Libya didnot shout anti-Zionist slogans. Themob did not even know what Zionismwas, a Jewish Agency report stated. Itis noteworthy that the Egyptian riot-ers, incited by the MuslimBrotherhood, targeted Coptic, GreekOrthodox and Catholic institutions as

well as Jews.It is common to view the mass exo-

dus and spoliation of a million Jewsfrom the Arab world as revenge forthe displacement of Palestinian Arabsin 1948. A more plausible explanationis that Nazi-inspired blood-and-soilnationalism, and xenophobic

Islamism, which had entrenchedthemselves in the Arab world over thepreceding decade, aimed to destroy,or at best exclude, non-Muslimminorities from public and political life.

In 1947 the Arab League drafted aplan to treat its Jewish citizens as

enemy aliens, before a singlePalestinian Arab had fled.

Barely three years after the end ofWorld War II, Arab League memberstates emulated Nazism with theirNuremberg-style laws, criminalizingZionism, freezing Jewish bankaccounts, instituting quotas, andimposing restrictions on jobs andmovement. Violence and the threat ofviolence did the rest. The result wasethnic cleansing of age-old Jewishcommunities in a single generation.

The ghost of Nazi-inspired, anti-Jewish bigotry was never exorcised:after World War II, the Arab world gavesafe haven to Nazi war criminals onthe run. They became military advisorsand spin doctors of Jew-hatred.

Adolph Eichmann, Nazi architect ofthe “Final Solution,” hoped his “Arabfriends” would continue his battleagainst the Jews, who were alwaysthe “principal war criminals” and “prin-cipal aggressors.” He hadn’t man-aged to complete his task of “totalannihilation,” but the Muslims couldstill complete it for him.

Not only has the virus of Nazi anti-Semitism never left the Arab andMuslim world; it has grown exponen-tially. Muslim immigrants have carriedthe virus of Jew-hatred back intoEuropean countries. Saudi petrodol-lars have financed the spread ofIslamism, with its implicit anti-Semitism, worldwide.

Eichmann would have been pleasedto see that the Arab world is effective-

ly judenrein: there are no Jews inLibya, and no more than 4,000 in therest of the Arab world today. TheMuslim Brotherhood and its localPalestinian branch Hamas, al-Qaida,Islamic State and assorted Islamistgroups still carry the torch for an ide-ology born in the Nazi era.

THE LESSONS OF BERGEN-BELSEN REMAIN UNLEARNED

Jewish Holocaust survivors return to Libya from concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

Muslim Nazis.

May/June 2016 - Iyyar/Sivan 5776 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE

BY IAN JOHNSTON AND ANDY ECKARDT, NBC NEWS

In their search for justice that hasendured for decades, the biggest

challenge Nazi hunters face is time. The knowledge that war criminals

are escaping prosecution throughdeath by natural causes means theirtask has never been more pressing.

Recently, German state policearrested a 93-year-old man accusedof being a guard at the Auschwitzconcentration camp. Hans Lipschis isthe first suspect to be facing chargesas part of a drive launched earlier thisyear to track down 50 suspectedAuschwitz guards who are believed tobe living in Germany.

Most of those involved in the murderof about six million Jews in theHolocaust and still alive will now be intheir 90s, a ripe old age for peoplewho carried out one the most heinouscrimes in the history of humanity.

But that doesn’t stop Kurt Schrimm,director of Germany’s CentralInvestigation Center for Nazi Crimes.His agency employs 20 people,including seven focusing on theAuschwitz cases.

“Someday there will be no moreNazi criminals to go after, and thenour organization will shut down,” hesaid. “But until then, we will exhaustall investigation possibilities.”

After years of frustration, Nazihunters have also been given freshhope by a German court’s landmarkruling that has made it simpler toprosecute cases by opening the doorto charges of “accessory to murder.”

Efraim Zuroff, Israel director of theSimon Wiesenthal Center inJerusalem, said he planned to askGerman companies to help fund arenewed campaign to find the remain-ing war criminals and take advantageof the ruling, which came during thesuccessful prosecution of JohnDemjanjuk.

Demjanjuk, an autoworker who livedin the U.S. for years after the war, wasconvicted in 2011 of 28,060 counts ofbeing an accessory to murder andsentenced to five years in prison.

Although he died a free man in anursing home in Germany — he wasreleased pending his appeal — the

court’s ruling that he could be convict-ed on his service record alone was “atotal game-changer,” Zuroff said.

“Until that point … German prosecu-tors could not try a case unless theyhad evidence of a specific crime witha specific victim,” he said.

“Demjanjuk was convicted solely forhis service as an armed SS guard ata death camp,” he added. “As aresult, this opened up a whole newpotential number of people to bring tojustice.”

“Once the Nuremberg trials hadbeen completed [in 1949], the prose-cution of Nazi war criminals neverbecame a serious priority in any coun-try outside of the Soviet Union,” Zuroffadded. “The failure to do more to hold

the perpetrators of theHolocaust accountableis naturally a source offrustration and disap-pointment for me per-sonally, as someonewho has devoted prac-tically my entire adultlife to that mission.”

The Holocaust sawapproximately six mil-lion Jews — about two-thirds of the pre-WorldWar II Jewish popula-tion in Europe — mur-dered to fulfill Adolf

Hitler’s infamous “Final Solution.”Roma Gypsies, Slavic people such

as Poles and Russians, Communists,socialists, disabled people, Jehovah’sWitnesses, homosexuals and otherswere also slaughtered in large num-bers.

Zuroff said that no one really knewhow many people were involved inthe killings, let alone how many werestill alive.

But, asked to estimate, he reckonedthat “probably not more than 10 to 15percent” of tens of thousands of Naziwar criminals had been brought tojustice.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centerpublishes an annual “most

wanted” list, and also rates countriesbased on their willingness to takeaction. Only the United States got thetop rating in 2013; Germany wasamong five countries in the second-highest group.

Zuroff said that “to their credit”Germany was one of the few coun-tries that would bring prosecutions.

In contrast, Austria, which becamepart of Hitler’s Third Reich in 1938,was “horrific, terrible, the worst,”Zuroff said.

“They haven’t succeeded in takingaction against a Nazi war criminal inmore than 30 years. It’s not becausethere are no Nazis in Austria,” hesaid. “There’s a country that until 20years ago … got away with claimingthey were Hitler’s first victim.Austrians played a very leading role inthe murders carried out by the ThirdReich.”

Zuroff said it was “impossible” to getprosecutions in the Baltic countries,“especially in Lithuania.”

“They were the worst because theyhad a vast number of collaborators,”he said. “They don’t like punishingtheir own people and would prefer tothink of themselves as victims ofCommunism and not killers of Jews,which they were. They were outstand-ing killers of Jews.”

Avner Shalev, chairman of YadVashem, Israel’s official memo-

rial to victims of the Holocaust, saidthe survivors “live with the memoriesevery day.”

“Bringing the perpetrators to justicesends an important educational andmoral message to society at large:These kinds of crimes will not be tol-erated, and there are no free passes,”he said. “Although unfortunatelymany of the perpetrators escaped jus-tice, nevertheless each trial sends animportant message.”

Germany and its allies controlledmost of Europe during World War II,including Norway, France, Italy,Greece, the Balkans, Poland anddeep into the thenSoviet Union.

Lydia Brennerswas just nine yearsold when she wascaught up in a hor-rific massacre ofJews in Novi Sad inmodern-day Serbiab y H u n g a r i a nforces in 1942.Nazi-allied Hungaryhad annexed thearea in 1941.

Brenners said shewas forced to gowith her father,mother and sister toa local theater where many Jewishpeople were being gathered. Theywere taken in groups to the banks ofthe River Danube, where they wereshot dead. A total of more than 1,200civilians are thought to have beenkilled, according to The AssociatedPress.

“Slowly we came nearer and nearer[to the end of the line],” saidBrenners, now 81 and living in RishonLetzion, Israel. “Today I know it wasfor killing. Then … I didn’t know,maybe the older people understood.”

“In the row behind me, there was anauntie of one of my girlfriends. I knew

her. She was holding a baby in herhands,” she said. “After a few minutes… [she] burst out with nerves andstarted to shout, ‘I cannot bear it any-more.’”

“The soldiers came and took her,”she said, despite efforts of others whosurrounded her in an unsuccessfulattempt to save her. “She did notcome back from there.”

But then came an order fromBudapest to stop the killing, andBrenners and her family werereleased. They then took the train toBudapest that day and hid in the cityuntil it was taken by Soviet troopstoward the end of the war.

Brenners said years later she met awoman who said she was the child ofher friend’s aunt. The woman was stilltrying to find out how she survived.

Brenners said she remembered anofficer on a horse — who wasaddressed as “Shanny” — overseeingthe massacre and the gendarmesreferring to lists of names when decid-ing who should be taken.

She said “Shanny” was a nicknamefor Sandor Kepiro, a gendarme officeraccused of helping organize thekillings.

Kepiro was given a 10-year prisonsentence over the Novi Sad mas-sacre by a Hungarian court in 1944,but this was overturned afterGermany formally occupied Hungarylater that year, according to TheAssociated Press.

Kepiro, who lived in Argentina afterthe war, admitted he was present andsupervised the identities of thosebeing rounded up, but denied know-

ing they were killed until later, thenews service said.

Kepiro was tried again in Hungarybut acquitted in 2011, with a court rul-ing there was insufficient evidenceagainst him, the AP reported. Theprosecution appealed, saying thejudges’ decision was “unfounded,”and so did the defense, which com-plained the ruling had not actuallycleared Kepiro.

However, Kepiro died in September2011, an innocent man in the eyes ofthe law, a hero to some in Hungary,but a killer who escaped justice toZuroff and his fellow Nazi hunters.

NEVER TOO LATE: NAZI HUNTERS TIRELESSLY PURSUE

50 ELDERLY WAR CRIMINALS

Hans Lipschis.

Sandor Kepiro.

Helmut Oberlander is on the Simon

Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi

war criminals.


B O O K R E V I E W SB O O K R E V I E W SThe Origins and Onset of the

Romanian Holocaust.

By Henry Eaton. Wayne State

University Press: Detroit,

Michigan, 2013. 192 pp. $29.95

softcover.

REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN

According to Henry Eaton in hisconscientiously researched and

engrossing volume entitled TheOrigins and Onset of the RomanianHolocaust, “historians in Romaniahave often characterized their countryas protecting its Jews during WorldWar II and have described wartimedictator Ion Antonescu as a savior,pointing out that he rejected aGerman plan to deport RomanianJews to the Belzec death camp.”How ironic! What a mean-spirited,deceptive mockery of historical fact!Then again, Romanians are not alonein presenting this fairytale-like story oftheir country during the war years.There are others who eagerly worked“shoulder to shoulder” with the Nazisand have, like them, also deftlymanipulated the truth . . . going so faras to label themselves unwilling “vic-tims” of Hitler’s actions and directives.

So what did really happen inRomania? What is the true story?

As Eaton tells it, anti-Semitism wasalways characteristic of this nationfrom its very inception in the mid-1800s. And it would only grow with the

years. The source of it was theRomanian Orthodox Church, whichviewed and consistently presented theJews as Christ-killers, “demonizing”them. Thus, the idea of Jews using theblood of murdered Christian childrenas part of some kind of “ritual” atPassover also found a “ready and will-ing” audience here. Anotherreason for Romanian anti-Semitism was “the growingnumber and commercialprominence of Jews inMoldavia in the mid-1880s.”Interestingly, non-Jews didnot notice Jewish poverty —which was also very much inevidence. These anti-Semites only saw Jews —foreigners in their eyes — astaking their nation’s econo-my “hostage” and“exploit[ing] it at the expense of thenatives.” Finally, as they were frequent-ly pressured by world opinion, whatcompletely irritated the Romanianswas the very idea that the Jews ofRomania be made Romanian citizens!

Because of the above-noted,throughout the years, aside from

suffering from bloodthirsty outsideinvaders, including the Cossacks,Tartars, Turks and Russians, Jews inRomania suffered no less from theirnon-Jewish countrymen. Time andagain the hate-filled rhetoric of theRomanian leadership — indeed, the

country’s “elite” — encouragedattacks on Jewish villages. All kindsof “hostile laws” were passed makingit difficult for Jews to earn a living, getan education, and even dream ofbecoming true Romanians! Soldieringfor Romania during World War I madeno difference. In fact, during the inter-

war years, things goteven worse for the Jewsof Romania! It was dur-ing this time that the archanti-Semite CorneliuCodreanu organized theLegion of the ArchangelMichael, better known asthe Iron Guard, along-side other Fascist “par-ties” that sprang up andwholeheartedly believedthere must be a “solu-tion” to the “problem” of

Jews in their country. Interestingly, “in1930 Codreanu promised to shipJews out of Romania in cattle cars assoon as he had the power to do so.”Finally, King Carol II passed laws in1940 “similar to the Reich citizenshiplaws of 1935 making further drasticreductions in the status of Jews.”Needless to say, it’s not at all surpris-ing that Romania would eagerly andwillingly become an Axis partner.

Eaton goes on to relate how “underthe fog of war” — specificallyGermany’s invasion of Russia —Romanian soldiers, police and even

civilians took the opportunity to “puri-fy” their nation. In other words, inplaces like Iaşi with a large Jewishpopulation, Romanians fell upon theJews in a frenzy of “ethnic cleansing,”falsely accusing them of traitorousacts. Because of that, countless Jewswere dragged to the local police sta-tion, where the Romanians, helped bythe Germans, brutally tortured andfrequently murdered them. Becauseof that, many more Jews were packedonto the freight cars of two trains,more like “ovens,” with no food orwater, to travel for days condemnedto die slowly. Nor did the Romanianmurder of Jews end here. Under IonAntonescu’s leadership, Romaniancommanders would carry out “one ofthe largest single mass murders ofJews during the war in and aroundOdessa on March 22–24, 1941.”Indeed, when it came to murderingJews, Romania was quite the Nazipartner — even as the Germans criti-cized the Romanians’ “sloppiness,”“cruelty and greed” in doing the devil-ish deed!

So why did Antonescu refuse tosend his Jews to the Belzec deathcamp? After all, it did “fit” with his “phi-losophy”! I’ll let Eaton tell it in his book— a must-read for any study of theHolocaust.

Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor ofMedia, Communication, and VisualArts at Pace University.

THE ORIGINS AND ONSET OF THE ROMANIAN HOLOCAUST

In Black Earth: The Holocaust asHistory and Warning, Yale Universityhistorian Timothy Snyder examinesthe origins of the Holocaust in themind of Adolf Hitler and the geopoli-tics of prewar Europe. To restore the“natural order” of the planet, Hitlerbelieved, Jews had to be eliminated,and to eliminate them he first had torender them stateless by absorbing oroverrunning the countries where theylived. “The German destruction ofneighboring states,” Snyder writes,“created zones where ... techniquesof annihilation could be invented.” Inthis excerpt from his book, Snyderwrites about prewar Poland, whereJews made up about a tenth of thepopulation, and proposals to reducethe numbers of European Jewsthrough mass immigration toPalestine or even Madagascar.

Naturally, there were Polish spiesin the Soviet Union in the

1930s, some of them on a ratherunusual assignment. On June 8,1935, Polish military intelligenceordered its officers in Soviet Ukraineto make tours of all the battlefields ofthe Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-

1920. Their task was not to preparesome new campaign, but to com-memorate a past one. Jozef Pilsudski(the former revolutionary and leaderof Poland since 1926) had died themonth before, and a small bag ofearth from each of the battle sites wasto be discreetly gath-ered for his burialmound.

The end of a politicallife reopened the issueof the character of thePolish state. Pilsudski’sauthority had been per-sonal, and the old com-rades (“the colonels”)who wished to succeedhim had to contend withpopular politics at a timeof economic depression.Pilsudski’s old enemies,the National Democrats,chose to exploit popularanti-Semitism to mount a challenge tothe regime that his associates estab-lished after his death. Their encour-agement of pogroms, at the sametime an act of racism and a violationof the law, was understood by both

sides as an attack on the state.

The new regime enjoyed greaterformal powers than had

Pilsudski himself, since it exploited anauthoritarian constitution that hadbeen conceived while he was stillalive. Although most of his succes-

sors were not anti-Semitic by convictionthemselves, they triedto ride out the chal-lenge from theNational Democratsby adopting anti-Semitic public policy.In so doing,Pilsudski’s succes-sors compromisedthe basic moral prem-ise of his politics: thatPoland was a stateand not a race.

In 1935, responsibil-ity for Jewish affairs

was transferred from the Ministry ofInternal Affairs to the Ministry ofForeign Affairs. Jews were no longernormal citizens to be integrated andprotected by the state, but somehowaliens: a matter for the world at large,

objects whose future might be negoti-ated with foreign officials. Pilsudski’selectoral organization, which hadbeen popular with Jews, wasreplaced by a party of power whichexcluded them.

This new Camp of National Unity(Oboz Zjednoczenia Narodowego,OZON), created in 1937, announcedits preference for the emigration ofabout 90 percent of Poland’s Jews.Such policies, regarded as a loath-some betrayal of tradition and princi-ple by much of the Polish center andleft, were meant to prevent thepogroms organized by nationalists.The leader of OZON had a Jewishwife, something unthinkable for aNazi. Nevertheless, by the standardsof previous Polish practice, thechange after 1935 was fundamentaland unmistakable.

The man responsible for Jewish pol-icy was Wiktor Tomir Drymmer, aclose collaborator of Polish foreignminister Jozef Beck. With a back-ground in military intelligence,Drymmer was formally in charge ofboth personnel and consular affairs in

(Continued on page 15)

WHEN POLAND EYED MADAGASCAR

AS A FUTURE HOMELAND FOR JEWS


Attempts to universalize the spe-cific suffering of Jews in the Shoah

go hand in hand with efforts to de-legitimize the Jewish state.BY JAMES KIRCHICK, TABLET

In May, Israel marked HolocaustRemembrance Day, Yom

HaShoah. As has been the custom forover six decades, a two-minute airraid siren was blared across the entirecountry and citizens from all walks oflife interrupted their daily routines fora moment of solemn reflection.January 27 of this year also markedthe decade anniversary of the UnitedNations–designated InternationalHolocaust Remembrance Day, whichmember states are encouraged tocommemorate. Though an Israeli ini-tiative, International HolocaustRemembrance Day has graduallybeen subjected to the universalizingprescriptions of those who wouldwater down the particularly Jewishaspect of the Nazi extermination ofthe Jews.

The evolution of two different daysof Holocaust commemoration and theways they increasingly run counter toeach other are symptomatic of theseizure of Jewish history and suffer-ing for ulterior purposes. This victimdisplacement appropriates the mosttraumatic experience in Jewish histo-ry, pointedly erases the specificity ofthe events supposedly being com-memorated, and then harshly chidesJews for inserting their own particular-istic concerns into the discussion. At acertain point, these phenomenabecome a continuation of a specificform of oppression and erasure ratherthan an antidote to “hatred.”

Imagine a remembrance of slaverythat did not acknowledge the sufferingof African Americans — or a com-memoration of the AIDS epidemicomitting the experiences of gay men.Such acts of dissociation would beinconceivable, the subjects of rightfuldenunciations and outraged protests.Yet in recent years, that is preciselywhat has been going on with regardto the Holocaust and its chief victims,the Jews. In April, Britain’s NationalUnion of Students (NUS) — whichclaims to represent some seven mil-lion students across 600 campuses— debated whether it should evencommemorate Holocaust MemorialDay. That this was a subject for argu-ment is absurd enough; the actual

proceedings were scandalous. “Ofcourse there shouldn’t be anti-Semitism,” said a student speakingagainst the measure, offering the sortof throat-clearing assertion from whichanti-Semitism almost inevitably follows.“But it’s not about one set of people.”

The fracas took place against abackdrop of resurgent anti-Semitismin British higher education and poli-tics. Earlier this year, a co-chairmanof Oxford University’s Labor Partyclub quit after claiming that a largenumber of its members “have somekind of problem with Jews.”Meanwhile, at the same conventionwhere it debated the propriety of com-memorating the Holocaust, the NUSelected as its president a youngwoman named Malia Bouattia, whohad previously opposed a declarationcondemning ISIS, railed against the“Zionist-led media,” and advocated infavor of violent Palestinian “resis-tance” against Israel. Responding tocritics in the pages of the Guardian,Bouattia began by noting that she is

“the first black woman”and “the first Muslim” tobe elected president ofthe NUS; the unspokenpurpose of sharingthese biographicaldetails is that it is there-fore impossible for herto be a bigot.

While the NUS meas-ure endorsing Holocaustcommemoration eventu-ally passed, DartaKaleja, a student atChester University, no

doubt spoke for many of her studentcomrades when she complained, toloud applause, that she wasn’tagainst commemorating theHolocaust per se but rather “prioritiz-ing some lives over others. … In myfive years of UK education … notonce were the genocides of Tibet,Rwanda, or Zanzibar taught to meand my peers.” This is as logically fal-lacious as it is morally obscene; in noway does Holocaust remembranceobviate educational efforts aboutother slaughters. One might expectKaleja to be of Muslim or Arab extrac-tion, given the widespread resent-ment in those communities toward thememorialization of Jewish suffering.She is apparently from Latvia, howev-er, where the locals did an especiallythorough job of wiping out theirJewish neighbors without muchprompting from the Germans.

The vociferous endorsement ofKaleja’s sentiments by a roomful ofleft-wing students demonstrates theconfluence of three distinct types ofHolocaust minimization: the EasternEuropean nationalist attempt to“obfuscate” the extermination of sixmillion Jews by relativizing it as justone of many “genocides” committedduring World War II, the traditionalArab-Muslim denial or diminishmentof the Holocaust as a grossly exag-gerated event that pales in compari-

son to Israeli crimes, and a new pro-gressive narrative that expungesJewish suffering in its account of anamorphous, context-free misdeed —no worse, and holding no more mean-ing, than any other episode of massmurder — inflicted upon some gener-alized notion of “humanity.” Withrespect to the latter, some go so faras to label the Holocaust an instanceof “white on white crime” that,because its victims did not hail fromthe “global South,” is undeserving ofrecognition.

Sometimes, speaking of a Holocaustwithout Jews can be innocuous, theresult of a muddle-headed utopianismthat desperately avoids singling outany one group’s suffering as havingbeen worse than any other’s. WhenCanadian Prime Minister JustinTrudeau omitted any mention of Jewsor anti-Semitism in his first commemo-rative statement for InternationalHolocaust Remembrance Day, it wasnot due to any conscious bigotry on hispart but a sort of purblind, mushy pro-gressivism. Still, it is distressing that thesort of Holocaust revisionism that wasalways the sole province of the far rightand Arab nationalists — simultaneous-ly denying the Shoah while hijacking itto bully Jews as “the new Nazis” — is,in newfangled form, becoming a badgeof progressive virtue.

***

To understand the perverse logicof the Holocaust without Jews,

one must work backward from thepolitical end goal of those pushing it:the delegitimization of the JewishState. For if the Holocaust isn’t aboutJews, then Jews have no claim ontheir history, or reason to fearanti-Semitism, or the need fora state. The complaint usedto be that Jews abused theHolocaust as a shakedown.Now, the Holocaust — atleast as much as it was acrime targeting the Jewsabove all others — doesn’texist at all.

Labeling Muslims “the newJews” of Europe when anti-Semitic crimes are at a post-war high — and almostentirely the doing of Muslims— is a particularly egregious form ofthis confiscation of Jewish history andinversion of reality. (In many schoolsacross Europe, teachers report thatthey have difficulty teaching theHolocaust for fear of reprisals byMuslim students.) So too are thesanctimonious reprimands by soi-dis-ant arbiters of good taste like theAtlantic’s Jim Fallows, who scoldJews for invoking the Holocaust tocontextualize contemporary anti-Semitic incitement.

In this era of hypersensitivity about“cultural appropriation” (which, takento its extreme, has seen college cam-puses erupt in protest over yogaclasses and the serving of bad Asianfood in dining halls), it’s noteworthyhow often the greatest crime in

human history is casually manipulat-ed by those who purport to be con-cerned with “oppression.” But to themandarins of the progressive left, theHolocaust’s meaning is always andnecessarily to be found in its “univer-salism.” According to this historicalinterpretation, the evil of the Naziscan be located in their abandonmentof the European cosmopolitan tradi-tion and descent into bestial particu-larism and nationalism — the veryqualities that Israel, foremost amongthe nations, is charged with embody-ing today. This sleight of hand has themiraculous effect of clouding thecauses of the Holocaust so that anti-Semitism is relegated to a back-ground role, if it is mentioned at all.Harping on the fact of six million deadJews, then, becomes weirdly tribal,even Nazi-like; asserting Jewish peo-plehood is too close to assertingAryan-ness, the disastrous results ofwhich Europeans have been expiat-ing for the past seven decades. Itdoesn’t matter that there is no IsraeliAuschwitz, or anything evenapproaching it; the particularism andnationalism of Israel is enough toimply everything that has followed orat least could follow. Israel is the car-rier of the European disease that wiseEuropeans have transcended throughtheir enormous, Christ-like suffering,and formation of the European Union.

Last November in Sweden, theorganizers of a Kristallnacht com-memoration chose not to invite Jewslest the universal lessons of theHolocaust be marred by the officialparticipation of the people who wereits primary victims. Yet the left-wing

activists who organized the rally hadno problem with Palestinian flags orposters equating the Star of David toa swastika, both of which make annu-al appearances at an event ostensiblycalled to remember the genocide ofJewish people.

Erasing Jews from the history of theHolocaust makes the likening of themto Nazis more palatable. In theupcoming documentary film Let MyPeople Go, Marcel Ophuls promisesto expose modern-day Israel as hedid Vichy France in his classic, TheSorrow and the Pity, telling similarly“unpleasant truths.” Ophuls teamedup with Eyal Sivan, an Israeli filmmak-er self-exiled in Paris who speaksof anti-Zionist Jews as a righteous


THE HOLOCAUST WITHOUT JEWS

Jewish Police controlling Lodz ghetto.

In occupied Poland, Jews were searched as a form of harass-

ment.


S U R V I V O R S ’ C O R N E RS U R V I V O R S ’ C O R N E R

BY BEN FISHER, THE JERUSALEM POST

“She would have lived to 100,but her mission was to take

her brother up to heaven and watchover him,” Jerusalem resident FeliciaMizrachi related about her 94-year-old mother, Sophie Helcman. TheHolocaust survivor died last monthonly days after Sol, the youngerbrother she saved during theHolocaust. The two siblings wereburied in a double funeral inJerusalem.

The intertwined lives and deaths ofSophie (nee Adler-Fleigel) and Soltook a dramatic turn in their home-town of Radom, Poland, when WorldWar II broke out.

The 17-year-old girl promised herparents, who were later killed alongwith one of Sophie’s sisters by theNazis, that she would protect Sol,who was four years younger.

Though she didn’t look typicallyJewish and her Polish was perfect,Mizrachi says that nevertheless, hermother had to wear a yellow star. Shesays that Sophie’s life was saved by arighteous gentile.

Sophie became friends with a Polishgirl who worked in her parents’department store.

She was someone who “didn’tunderstand why Jews were different

and why the Nazis had decided topersecute them,” Mizrachi explains.

SS officers would frequent the storeand flirt with the Polish girl. One SSofficer fell madly in love and came indaily to see her. One day, she propo-sitioned the officer: “If you really love

me,” she said, “there is something Ineed you to do. I need you to get mePolish papers for a girl my age. Noquestions asked.”

Sophie knew nothing of her friend’splan until she received the papers thatallowed her to leave the Radom ghet-to to provide necessities for her fami-

ly inside.

In the ghetto, Sophie fell in lovewith Eliezer Helcman, nine years

older. She decided to trust him andwhile she would take care of businessoutside of the ghetto, Eliezer and Solspent time together inside the ghetto

and grew very close.Eliezer Zev, Felicia’s father, owned

a liquor store in Radom, was well con-nected and was able to bribe a Polishofficer to procure a Red Cross uni-form for Sophie, which she used tofake a medical evacuation in whichSol was carried out on a stretcher.

Mizrachi doesn’t know exactly howher father escaped the ghetto, butnotes that he was owed many favorsby Poles to whom he sold vodka.

Eliezer, Sophie and Sol hid from theNazis for six years, splitting the timebetween Radom and Danzig and thecountryside in between. “In trenches,in ditches, in toilets, in barns, in hay,”Mizrachi says.

When the war finally ended and theywere liberated, Eliezer and Sophiemarried in Danzig. Felicia’s olderbrother Andre was born in Paris afterthe war; then the four of them came toAmerica, where Felicia was born inBrooklyn.

After settling in Brooklyn, Eliezerand Sophie moved to New Jersey.

Sol stayed in New York (after a year-long foray at a kibbutz), but Mizrachisays that Sol was like an older broth-er to her and that the family saw Solall the time. He never married andnever had children, somethingMizrachi calls a “scar of the war.” Sol,who spoke six languages, became atranslator and lived in the same third-floor walk-up apartment in Manhattanfor 50 years.

Sophie and Eliezer helped found thefirst Orthodox synagogue, ShomreiTorah, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey,which Mizrachi says was massivelyimportant in her mother’s life. They


SIBLING SURVIVORS OF SHOAHDIE WITHIN HOURS OF EACH OTHER

A Holocaust survivor twiceescaped with her life after beingpersonally selected for the gaschambers by Auschwitz’s “Angelof Death,” Josef Mengele.BY CAMILLA TOMINEY, EXPRESS

Minia Jay says it was a “miracle”she did not die at the hands of

the evil SS officer, notorious for carry-ing out deadly experiments on prison-ers.

Minia, 90, recalled how Mengelewould be surrounded by an entourageas he picked people to be sent to thecrematorium complex, where ZyklonB, a cyanide-based pesticide, wasused as a weapon of mass murder.

“I was sent to the corner of this darkroom by the crematorium,” recalledMinia, now a great-grandmother.

“We were waiting to die, but then notransportation arrived from the ghettoso the guards couldn’t be bothered togo through the process for just a fewpeople and I was sent back.”

The second time, she said, “Wewere selected naked and I’d lost somuch weight you could count my ribs.I had tuberculosis so I knew I would

be picked.“Mengele pointed at me and said,

‘You, this way.’

“At that moment I could see I wasnot going to leave Auschwitz alive, butI was still a young girl so I decided tosave myself.

“I was watching him like a hawk ashe was continuing to select people.

When he turned, I turned.“I could see this woman at the door,

stopping people from escaping. If shehad seen me I wouldn’t be here today.

“I could see that those who had notbeen selected had been grouped intofives.

“A girl in one of the groups spottedme and put four fingers up — theywere one short. I don’t know how butI managed to stand with her and thenwe were all sent to work in Germany.”

Minia remains close friends with thegirl, Rela, now 80 and living in Israel.

Born in Warta, Poland, in 1925,Minia was 17 when she was separat-ed from the rest of her family and sentto the Lodz ghetto in central Poland in1942.

To this day she still does not knowexactly what happened to her parentsJakob and Freida, and five of her sixolder siblings.

For her, however, being sent to Lodzwas a lucky escape.

She said: “I didn’t want to go. I wasrunning back to my mother and shewas pushing me, saying, ‘Go, go, go.’I never saw her again.”

However, in 1944 Minia was sent to

Auschwitz, where she soon encoun-tered Mengele.

After being liberated in 1945, Miniaand Rela were among 729 youngJewish people offered safe haven inBritain and were sent to the LakeDistrict in a group of 300 children whobecame known as the “WindermereBoys.”

Minia said: “We went from hell toheaven. I didn’t speak a word ofEnglish but the people were so kind tous.

“In Auschwitz you weren’t like ahuman being. I don’t know how wesurvived it.”

Twice-married Minia now lives inGolders Green, north London, andenjoys weekly bridge games at thenearby Holocaust and Jewish Carecenter.

“When I lost my parents it was terri-ble,” she said.

“You didn’t know if you wanted tosurvive.

“Now I have got my daughter, mygrandchildren and great-grandchil-dren. That’s the only thing that keepsme going.”

THE ANGEL OF DEATH CHOSE MINIA JAY FOR THE GAS CHAMBER TWICE

Minia in 1954 with her daughter Denise.

Sophie (nee Adler-Fleigel) and Sol Helcman survived the Holocaust together and died on the same

day some 70 years later.


The Jewish people have a debtthey can never fully repay to thosewho risked their lives to save Jewsduring the Holocaust. But theJewish state has gone some way toprovide for them in their old age.BY NATHAN JEFFAY, THE TOWER

In a Jerusalem apartment, an eld-erly woman misses a roommate

like no other. Together, the two ofthem cheated fate and formed a bondthat would make a Jewish woman anda priest’s wife inseparable.

Galina Imshenik once used her sta-tus as a respectable Christian to shel-ter a young Jewish child, ElenaDolgov, during the Holocaust.Decades later, they ended up togeth-er in Jerusalem.

A set of three pictures on the wall oftheir apartment tells two life storiesand one shared fate. There is a pic-ture of the village in Belarus whereGalina and her husband protectedElena throughout the Holocaust.There is a picture of St. Petersburg,where Elena lived afterwards. Andthere is a picture of Jerusalem, whichthe two women made their home in1992.

During the war, Galina and her hus-band looked after Elena’s every needand even taught her to treat them asparents. Elena’s habit of speakingYiddish was dangerous if other peo-ple were around, and the couple’sdetermination to teach her Russiansaved her life when the Gestapoquestioned them and left with theimpression that Galina and her hus-band were Elena’s biological parents.Six decades later, Elena looked afterGalina’s every need, nursing herthrough a long illness until her deathin 2011.

They shared the apartment inJerusalem for almost 19 years. “It wasa connection like a connectionbetween mother and daughter,” Elenasays, recalling the holidays they cele-brated together — both Jewish andChristian. “Our festivals were her fes-tivals and her festivals became ourfestivals.”

People with stories like Galina’s,individuals who found themselvesdrawn to Israel after rescuing Jewsduring the Holocaust, live dottedaround Israel, rarely telling their sto-ries to the media. All of them were

born non-Jews and therefore freefrom persecution by the Nazis. Butthey put their lives at risk by helpingJews and later immigrated to theJewish state. Galina did so with thewoman she saved, but many othersdid so alone, and since the 1980sthey have been guaranteed automat-ic residency based on their status as“righteous among the nations.”

Around 130 people have come toIsrael via this unusual route, and thestate treats them with reverence. Thepoverty of Holocaust survivors is asource of constant controversy, butthose classed as righteous among thenations receive the country’s averagesalary as a monthly stipend from thegovernment.

Today, only 13 are still alive.

In the northern Israel community ofKiryat Tivon, one wonders what

Robert Boissevain would havethought if he saw his daughter livinghere.

His decision to hide Jews for twoand a half years during the Holocaustcost his children dearly. They didn’tjust go hungry, watching their foodshared with the fugitives, but theywere also told not to play with or even

talk to other children, lesttheir secret slip out.

But none of this both-ered Robert’s daughterHester, who decided inher adulthood that shewanted to help the Jewishpeople once again.

In the early 1960s, the27-year-old Hester, anewly qualified nurse,bought a one-way ticketand boarded a ship toIsrael. “I thought that I cango somewhere with myprofession, and remem-bered that in 1948 lots of

refugees were going to Israel and Irecalled pictures of thousands ofimmigrants arriving in Haifa,” shesays.

As she speaks all these years later,she understates the unusual nature ofher decision: “I said that if I wouldmaybe go and help people with myprofession where they need nurses,like Africa, why wouldn’t I go to Israelwhere they also need people? So Iwent to the Israeli embassy in Hollandand said I want to go to Israel.”

Looking back on it now, she says itwasn’t only about wanting to help, butalso about finding a place where shefelt comfortable. Hester lost a greatdeal in the war. Her home wasdestroyed and her family’s wealthconfiscated. Her father Robert was afearless resistance fighter who endedup in prison and then in the concen-tration camps. He collapsed and diedmoments before liberation.

As well as feeling weighed down byhistory, Hester felt that postwarHolland wasn’t the same country.“Holland changed after the war,” shesays. “It was destroyed and the coun-try had to have a new life. But it was

too organized and I said that I didn’tfeel at home with all this organization,so I’ll go to Israel.”

In the young Jewish state, she cer-tainly found an antidote to over-organization. Arriving on a kibbutz totake up her first position as communi-ty nurse, she found chaos in the clin-ic, “even discovering medicines andbullets in the same jars.” Within daysshe had the placeshipshape, and wasworking far morethan the requiredhour a day, offeringcounseling to “trou-bled” young people.She was sooncycling to two otherlocales to providemedical care andworking in a hospital.She toiled 16 hours aday at four jobs untilshe moved to KiryatTivon and took acommunity nurseposition in the mid-1960s.

When she retired after decades innursing, she made another contribu-tion to Israel, opening a cafe near herhome that was operated entirely bypeople with disabilities. It made peo-ple rethink their relationship to dis-abled people, and gave its staff newskills and confidence. She helped torun the establishment until it closedtwo years ago.

The plethora of stories inHester’s family defies belief.

There was the aunt who saveddozens of Jewish babies by carryingthem away from the Nazis one by onein a backpack, and the banker unclewho managed to siphon off Nazifunds and pass them to Jews in hid-ing. And, of course, the story of herown parents and siblings.

Their role as rescuers began oneafternoon in March 1943, whenHester’s father phoned her motherHelena asking her to prepare dinnerfor guests at the Haarlem housewhere the family lived. That night, theGoldbergs arrived. They were an eld-erly couple and a daughter agedalmost 30 from Russia, who hadcome to Holland through Finland andGermany looking for safety. “Theycame for dinner and stayed for twoand a half years,” recalls Hester,adding that for some of the time thefamily also sheltered a Jewish dentist.

Their neighbors were Nazi collabo-rators, heightening the need for effec-tive subterfuge. Hester’s father wasfighting with the resistance, and hermother had to scrounge for food,devise plans for when soldiers called,run regular surprise drills, and pre-serve peace in the tense household.She sometimes served tulip bulbsinstead of potatoes, and often cycledup to 75 miles — usually on metalwheels uncushioned by tires — to findfood.

After the war, Helena remained in

Holland but visited Israel severaltimes, including a 1980 visit duringwhich she and her husband receivedthe Righteous Among the Nationsaward from Yad Vashem. She liveduntil she was 97, sometimes visitingthe Goldbergs. “I always think eventoday how she did it all,” says Hester.“How she kept us all alive, where shegot the strength from.”

Some righteous among the nationsdeveloped personal connections toJews before or after moving to Israel,and even converted to Judaism.Hester fell in love with a Jewish manon a kibbutz, married him, and optedfor conversion “for the sake of ourkids.” Other children of the “righteous”ended up marrying Jews. But the rightof the “righteous” to live in Israel isautomatic and does not require con-version or Jewish familial connec-tions. Many of them have notchanged their beliefs and traditionssince relocating to Israel.

Jaroslawa Lewicka told her storyfor this article a few days after

Christmas, which she celebrated at achurch near her home in the northernIsraeli city of Haifa. She took part inservices and a festive meal. It was apotluck affair, but she feels the needto point out, for the sake of full disclo-sure, that she didn’t make anything.Her fellow congregants forgave her,since she is, after all, 81 years old.

For decades, Jaroslawa lived undera Communist regime that suppressedreligion. The city where she lives nowis quite a contrast, home to an annualmulticultural winter event calledFestival of Festivals. “Now I live inHaifa, which is a city of three reli-gions, Judaism, Islam andChristianity, and I go to a church witha priest who prays in Ukrainian, andno one bothers us,” she says.

Jaroslawa arrived in Israel in very dif-ferent circumstances than Hester. Itwas economics, not idealism, thatbrought her here. In 1989, a man shehelped save, Avraham Shapiro, invitedher to visit Israel, to meet him after fivedecades, and to visit Yad Vashem,where she would receive a medal as aRighteous Among the Nations. Sherecalls: “When I was here people start-ed asking me about the economic situ-ation back home, and it was very


RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS, AT HOME IN ISRAEL

Elena Dolgov and Galina Imshenik, Jerusalem, 2006.

Jaroslawa Lewicka (right) together with one of the people she rescued.


PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE

SALUTE TO HOLLYWOOD BENEFIT GALA

Leonard Wilf, chairman of ASYV; Phil Blazer, founder and president of Jewish Life Television;

Legacy Award recipient and producer of the Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List, Branko Lustig;

Ron Meier, executive director of ASYV.Presentation of Legacy Award to Holocaust survivor and Hollywood producer Meyer Gottlieb (cen-

ter), by actor and family friend Tony Goldwyn (left) and Leonard Wilf, chairman of ASYV (right).

Ron Meier, executive director of ASYV (left) and Leonard Wilf, chairman of ASYV (right) with

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, real estate developer, and philanthropist, David Wiener.Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson, Yad Vashem Patrons of the Mount of Remembrance, at 2016

Salute to Hollywood Gala.

Fela and David, z”l, Shapell at the 2014 Salute to Hollywood Gala. Fela Shapell and Shapell fami-

ly, Platinum Sponsors of the 2016 Gala, were in attendance at this year’s Gala.

Shaya Ben Yehudah, director of the International Relations Department at Yad Vashem, Rita

Spiegel, daughter of ASYV founders Abraham and Edita Speigel, z”l, Gala Chairs Elissa and

Edward Czuker.


PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ASYV ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON

This year’s sold-out Annual Spring Luncheon was held on May 18th at the JewishMuseum on 92nd Street. The event honored Jaci Paradis for her contributions

to Holocaust remembrance and education and for her unwavering dedication toadvancing our Young Leadership Associates. The guest speaker was Dr. LauraBarbanel, a psychologist, who spoke about teaching the Holocaust to your children.

Jaci Paradis was presented with the American Society for Yad VashemAchievement Award by Chairman Leonard Wilf and Executive Director Ron Meier.She was recognized for her ongoing commitment to Holocaust education and com-memoration which are central to her family. Jaci plans to continue working with theAmerican Societyfor Yad Vashem to reach out to third-generation families to worktogether on a plan to educate children about the Holocaust. “Making sure that theHolocaust remains important to my children is very important. They won’t have thebenefit of speaking with survivors to hear the stories first hand. We need to devel-op a program that will help parents teach their children about the Holocaust in ways

that will make it important and meaningful,” Jaci said. The chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Leonard Wilf, reminded

us of the importance of continuing to raise awareness in the next generation. “It isa wonderful thing to see so many members of the third generation joining us heretoday as we honor Jaci Paradis, an active member of our Young LeadershipAssociates. Jaci’s connection to Holocaust remembrance is deeply rooted. It isthrough dedicated people like her that I know the memories of the Holocaust willbe passed on to the generations to come.

”In her closing remarks, Luncheon Chair Danielle Karten reminded everyone ofthe importance of being involved in the American Society for Yad Vashem and inHolocaust remembrance. “We need to continue to recognize the survivors who arestill among us,”said Danielle. “Holocaust remembrance has to be part of us all andwe have to pass along the stories and memories to our children and they must beprepared to pass them along to their children."

Shelley Paradis, honoree Jaci Paradis, and Joseph Paradis.

Ron Meier, executive director of the ASYV; Jaci Paradis, honoree; and Leonard Wilf, chairman of

the ASYV.

Sharon Halpern, Jaci Paradis, David Halpern and Gladys Halpern.

Daniella Pomeranc; YLA Chair Abbi Halpern; Jaci Paradis, Rachel Shnay and Jessica Mauk.Danielle Karten, Luncheon chair; and Harry Karten.

Three generations — Sara Bergman, Jaci Paradis and Miriam Booso.


REPORT FROM REPORT FROM YAD VASHEMYAD VASHEM

Two Jewish brothers from Paris,Henri and André Herscovici, 11

and 9, respectively, were sent awayfor a vacation in the summer of 1942.The vacation wouldn’t only providethem with fresh air, as their motherwanted, but it would save their lives.

In that same period, their motherand sisters were taken to the Drancy

internment camp and then later toAuschwitz, where they would eventu-ally be killed by the Nazis.

While the Herscovici brothers weresaved from the immediate Nazithreat, they truly owed their lives toPaul and Marthe Coche, the couplethat ran the Santé de l’Enfance pre-ventorium, where the summer pro-gram was that they had attended.

The Coches’ institution for thosewith tuberculosis, at the Château deBeaurouvre in Blandainville, wasopen to all those in need.

The couple were defenders of theideals of social equality, and altogeth-er housed almost 100 students from

Paris in their preventorium.In the summer of 1942, one of the

Herscovicis’ neighbors, a Mme. Roby,wrote to them, saying “A black timelies ahead for you. Under no circum-stances should you return here.”

Seeing the Herscovicis’ despair andhelplessness (their father had joinedthe underground before the rest of the

family was deported andwould only be reunitedwith his sons after thewar), the Coches dideverything they could toprovide for the young chil-dren and to protect themfrom being turned over tothe Nazis and their allies.

Along with Henri andAndré, the Coches helpedhide another 15 or soJewish children, alongwith another Jewish dor-mitory supervisor. The

institution’s adjacent farms providedenough fresh supplies for all the chil-dren during the war, and none of theJews faced any discrimination duringthe three years that they remainedthere until the Allies liberated France.

Paul Coche died in 1953, andMarthe in 1972, and it wasn’t until1999 that Henri, who had made aliyawith his father and André on theExodus 5707 in 1947, was discoveredand approached by Marthe’s children.Henri Herscovici testified on theCoches’ behalf, and Yad Vashem rec-ognized Paul and Marthe Coche asRighteous Among the Nations on May5, 2003.

A WWII VACATION THAT SAVED

TWO JEWISH BROTHERS’ LIVES

BY ARDEN DIER, NEWSER

Roddie Edmonds is the first USsoldier to receive Israel’s

Righteous Among the Nations honor,70 years after he risked his life to save200 Jews. The native of Knoxville,Tennessee, was cap-tured in the Battle of theBulge in late 1944 andheld at German POWcamp Stalag IXA,according to the YadVashem Holocaustmuseum. When theNazis ordered allJ e w i s h - A m e r i c a nPOWs to step forwardon January 27, 1945,Edmonds — the high-est-ranking noncom-missioned officer at thecamp — ordered 1,000US soldiers to do so,regardless of their religion, per the AP.“They cannot all be Jews!” a Germancommander said, per Yad Vashem.“We are all Jews here,” Edmondsreplied, adding soldiers didn’t need todivulge their religion under the

Geneva Conventions. The command-er then put a gun to Edmonds’ head.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you one morechance. Have the Jewish men stepforward or I will shoot you on thespot,’” Edmonds’ son, the Rev. ChrisEdmonds, tells NPR. “They said my

dad paused, and said,‘If you shoot, you’ll haveto shoot us all.’” Thecommander yielded.Chris Edmondsbelieves his dad’s movesaved 200 lives.Edmonds died in 1985and his untold storynearly died with him.How it surfaced is fasci-nating: Some time afterhis father’s death, ChrisEdmonds read an arti-cle about RichardNixon’s purchase of atony Manhattan town-house from a man

named Lester Tanner — who men-tioned that Edmonds saved his life.The son then embarked on a quest tofind Tanner. Edmonds was honoredas only the fifth American to receivethe Israeli honor.

STORY OF HOW US SOLDIER

SAVED 200 JEWS FINALLY TOLD

Marthe Coche, Blaindainville, 1942.

This undated photograph shows

United States Army Master Sgt.

Roddie Edmonds during World

War II.

The Yad Vashem Archives cur-rently house some 125,000

video, audio and written testimonies,all of which enrich our knowledge andunderstanding of Jewish life before,during and after the Shoah.

One such testimony, given to YadVashem in 2009 by Miriam Griver,tells the story of her father, RabbiYehuda Aryeh Meisels, who survivedthe Holocaust against all odds andwent on to be an active rabbi in thePocking-Waldstadt DP camp inGermany.

In 1945, Jewish-American soldierSidney Chachmaister noticed a manlying prone on top of a mound ofcorpses at the Pocking concentra-tion camp in Germany, weakly blink-ing his eyes. This was RabbiMeisels, about whom Griver, chair-woman of Amutat Yesh (Child andOrphan Holocaust Survivors inIsrael) recalled: “In 1942, my fatherwas sent to forced labor becauseinformants claimed he was hiding arefugee from Czechoslovakia In thesummer of 1944, he was deported toAuschwitz, and later put on a deathmarch to Flossenbürg. Two dayslater, he reached Pocking.”

After finding Rabbi Meisels andtending to him, the Americansappointed him the religious authorityof the DP camp. “Pocking had beena forced labor camp. Many Jews

who worked there were murdered,their bodies flung into a large massgrave,” said Griver. “My father decid-ed to move them into a Jewish grave,based on lists he had with him. Littleby little, he made sure that the non-Jews who perished were buried in aseparate place, in a Christian cere-mony conducted by a priest.”

Beyond his work with thedeceased, Rabbi Meisels workedhard to rehabilitate Jewish spirituallife in the camp. He obtained affi-davits and helped the She’eritHapleita — the surviving remnant ofHolocaust survivors — immigrate toEretz Israel. “He aspired not to leaveany Jew on German soil,” addedGriver.

On Rabbi Meisels’ initiative, amemorial was established atPocking for those murdered in theHolocaust. In 1947, when a march ofthe survivors from the Pocking camptook place, a ceremony was held toinaugurate the towering memorial,which bore the names of those mur-dered. Aside from survivors from theDP camp, the American soldierswho liberated the camp and a localofficial were also present. After theDP camp was closed, Rabbi Meiselswas offered a rabbinical position inChicago. However, he declined “toremain in Exile,” and emigrated toIsrael with his family in 1949.

Dutch Christian Zionists who diedas a result of their unrelenting

efforts to save Jews from theHolocaust were recognized by Israelas Righteous Among the Nations.

A medal attesting to the distinction,conferred by the Jewish state throughthe Yad Vashem Holocaust museum,was given by Israel’s ambassador tothe Netherlands, Haim Divon, to MayaSchipper — a granddaughter ofJohanna Engelberta Schipper-Kuiperand her husband, Klaas Abe Schipper.

From 1943 to 1945, the Schippers, apastor and his wife from Schardamnear Amsterdam, endured betweenthem a total of at least four housesearches by German Nazis and Nazicollaborators. In one search, they man-aged to avoid capture by hiding sever-al Jews in secret hideouts in their homeand in adjacent buildings. One of them,Ruth Lilienthal, concealed herself in acloset as Nazi troops searched for her.

Klaas Abe was arrested twice, forseveral months at a time. His healthdeteriorated severely, and he died in

1949 at the age of 42 as a result ofthe abuse. Prior to the war, he organ-ized meetings to protest anti-Semitism, which he considered a sinagainst God’s “chosen people.”Questioned by the Nazis, heexplained his theological motives butbetrayed no concrete information.

While he was arrested and perhapstortured, Johanna was traveling withtwo Jewish children and her own sonbetween safe houses. Her family,which was ardently Zionist, was heav-ily involved in her rescue operation.She smuggled one of the Jewish chil-dren, whom she later adopted, from aNazi-run detention center. A wantedperson, she showed up at theAmsterdam facility, engaged theguards and talked her way in — per-haps thanks to her excellent German.

Johanna Schipper died in 1956 atthe age of 59 from an infection thatdeveloped in a wound that she sus-tained in a vehicular accident whilebringing fake passports to Jews.

RENEWAL OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE

POCKING-WALDSTADT DP CAMP

DUTCH CHRISTIAN COUPLE HONORED

FOR HOLOCAUST-ERA BRAVERY


(Continued from page 6)were one of the first Orthodox familiesin Fair Lawn.

“As a Jewish child in the UnitedStates, I couldn’t understand why mymother was sending Christmas pres-ents to Poland, with Christmas treesand Santa Claus,” said Mizrachi,recalling her mother’s ongoing con-tact with her childhood Polish friend,who had provided her with the papersdecades before. “My mother, everycouple of months, would send hermoney. Even if she had nothing.”

Mizrachi married a Sabra — aGolani Brigade soldier she met inManhattan — and in 1995, after 40years of feeling that she didn’t fit inNew Jersey, made aliya with threechildren and a sheepdog. Her aliyawas the result of her sensing that shehas a higher calling and that she

would honor her parents and her fam-ily killed in the Holocaust by being “liv-ing proof that life goes on.”

Some 16 years later, at 89 yearsold, Sophie made aliya and joined herdaughter.

Mizrachi had tried to persuade hermother to move to Israel earlier, butSophie had been reluctant to leave Sol.

So how did Mizrachi persuadeSophie to make the move? “I told her,the Messiah doesn’t come to FairLawn, New Jersey.”

One day, Mizrachi got a phone callfrom her brother in the States, whotold her that Sol, who had been diag-nosed with stage IV lung cancer, wasnot given much time to live. Sol’s wishwas to be buried next to Eliezer, whodied in 1982 and is buried on HarHamenuhot in Jerusalem.

As Mizrachi absorbed the news

while babysitting her grandchildrenlater that day, the assisted living facil-ity phoned to say that Sophie was notdoing well.

Mizrachi went to the home that nightand slept in her mother’s room. Thewhole night, Sophie fought demons,trying to get out of bed and speakingYiddish. Mizrachi says that Sophiestruggled with the demons because“she felt that her brother was dying,”even though she’d been told nothingof his situation.

Over the next 24 hours Sophie’scondition ranged from feverish anddehydrated to apparently fine, and adoctor placed her under observationthat afternoon.

Mizrachi went home for Shabbat,where she received a phone call fromher brother telling her that Sol had died.

Sol’s body was to be shipped to

Israel for burial, arriving on Monday at1:30 p.m.

Mizrachi’s brother had not intendedto accompany the body, but afterMizrachi let him know that Sophiewas ailing, he decided to fly to Israel.

As Mizrachi spent Saturday nightwith her mother, Sophie began to driftagain into sleepless delirium. OnSunday afternoon, an ambulance wascalled for Sophie, whose conditionhad deteriorated.

When Mizrachi saw her mother, sherealized that she was trying to hold offdying until Sol’s body arrived.

Sophie died Sunday night, just afterSol’s body and her son had arrived inIsrael. After the double burial forSophie and Sol the next day, Mizrachisaid, “She vowed to her parents thatshe would take care of her brotheruntil the end, and she kept her vow.”

SIBLING SURVIVORS OF SHOAH DIE WITHIN HOURS OF EACH OTHER

BY VAIDOTAS BENIUSIS, AFP

Lithuanians are taking an agoniz-ing closer look at their forefa-

thers’ role in killing Jewish neighborsduring the Holocaust, a dark chapterof the Baltic country’s history that washidden for decades.

A series of books and films has trig-gered national soul-searching bymaking the point that whileLithuanians were the victims of Nazi

and Soviet occupation of the country,at times they too were perpetrators ofcrimes. and their victims were Jews.

Best-selling author Ruta Vanagaite,who co-wrote Our People (Musiskiai)with top Israeli Nazi hunter EfraimZuroff, is the latest to spark difficultdiscussions.

Writing the book turned out to bedeeply personal and painful when shediscovered her grandfather had col-laborated with Nazis by working for acommission compiling lists of Jews in1941.

“I want to break the silence, to openup the wound,” Vanagaite told anaudience recently at a bookshop inVilnius, a city once dubbed the“Jerusalem of the North” for its vibrantJewish life before the war.

“A mature nation must know its his-tory so it is not repeated.” the 61-year-old author said.

Two black-and-white photo-graphs adorn the cover of her

book: Jewish cyclist Isakas Nolikaswho represented Lithuania in the

1924 and 1928 Olympics andperished in 1943, and BalysNorvaisa, a Lithuanian lieu-tenant who killed Jews.

Among the emotionallywrenching testimony in thebook, an elderly woman toldVanagaite: “Many peoplewanted to help Jewish chil-dren, but they were afraid.Not of the Germans, but oftheir own.”

Lithuania was home to acommunity of more than200,000 Jews before WorldWar II. But historians contendthat around 195,000 perishedat the hands of the Nazis andlocal collaborators under the1941–44 German occupation,nearly the entire Jewish pop-ulation.

Today there are around3,000 Jews living in the EU

and NATO member state of three mil-lion people.

A state-funded research center hasidentified 2,000 Lithuanians suspect-ed of taking part in the Holocaust,either by killing Jews, by sendingthem to execution or by confiscatingtheir wealth. The study is due to bereleased later this year.

At the same time nearly 900Lithuanians hold the honorary title of“Righteous Among the Nations,”awarded by Israel to gentiles whorisked their lives to save Jewish

neighbors.Critics argue that Vanagaite, also a

public relations guru, exploited theHolocaust to gain publicity and failedto provide any new historical informa-tion.

But Zuroff, who has slammedVilnius for being slow to prosecutesuspected collaborators, insists thatVanagaite’s own soul-searching isvaluable.

There is “a good chance that it willhelp Lithuanian societybecause it is written notin an academic way butin a journalistic way” thatis more accessible toreaders, Zuroff, whoworks at Nazi-huntingSimon WiesenthalCenter’s Jerusalemoffice, told AFP.

Respected Lithuanianauthor Sigitas Parulskiswas among the first to hita raw nerve when hefocused on the genocidein rural Lithuania with hisnovel Darkness andPartners (Tamsa irPartneriai), earning hima local human rightsaward in 2012.

Film and theater directors have alsofocused on the Holocaust, notably themovie Ghetto by Audrius Juzenas.

The Holocaust was either distortedor ignored in Lithuania under fivedecades of Soviet rule. An honestexamination only began after itbecame the first republic to split fromthe USSR in 1990.

The Soviet Union occupiedLithuania in 1940 under Moscow’ssecret pact with Nazi Germany, andlater the Soviets deported over17,000 Lithuanians to Siberia.

Anti-Semitic propaganda blamingthe Jews for Soviet terror became rife.

Germany then drove out the RedArmy when it invaded the Soviet

Union in 1941. Some Lithuanianshailed the Germans as liberators,hoping they would grant Lithuania ameasure of sovereignty.

The Soviets returned in 1944, goingon to deport and exile more than275,000 Lithuanians, mostly toSiberia. Another 21,000 died in ananti-Soviet insurgency.

President Algirdas Brazauskasapologized for Lithuanian col-

laborators with the Nazis during his

historic 1995 speech in Israel’s parlia-ment.

Lithuania’s parliament passed acompensation package in 2011 forJewish communal property seized bythe Nazis and then kept by the Sovietregime.

It marked a milestone for the Balticstate’s tiny Jewish community, but itsleader says a great deal of work is stillneeded.

“There has been a tremendousamount of academic research aboutthe Holocaust, but I think we lagbehind in education,” Jewish commu-nity leader Faina Kukliansky told AFP.

“The history of Lithuanian Jewsmust become an integral part ofLithuania’s system of education.”

HOLOCAUST HAUNTS LITHUANIANS

AS PAINFUL PAST COMES TO LIGHT

Best-selling author Ruta Vanagaite.

The Paneriai memorial in memory of the 70,000 Jews of Vilnius

and its environs killed by Nazis and their accomplices during

World War II.


(Continued from page 7)hard, especially as my parents hadjust died.” She started to find outabout state programs that help the“righteous” relocate to Israel, andfound that there was only one thingstanding in her way: “I couldn’t affordthe airfare.” Shapiro stepped in tocover the expense.

Today she has enough money to aidrelatives facing harsh economic con-ditions in Ukraine. Like others whomoved to Israel after saving Jews,she receives visits as well as practicaland medical assistance from theIsraeli charity Atzum, which has aproject dedicated to helping them. “Ifeel extremely fortunate for the fact Ilive in Israel,” Jaroslawa says. “I don’thave the words to express it.”

She believes it was Christian faiththat pushed her family to hide Jews intheir home, help Jewish refugees,and take food to the ghetto of Zloczownear their home. “It’s the Christianfaith that motivated me and my moth-er, and also concern for our neigh-bors,” she comments.

She was only five or six when shestarted making grocery runs to theghetto, wearing a backpack with foodburied under notepads and school-work. She would slip in through a gapin a barbed-wire fence. Later, whenthe gap was closed, she wouldbrazenly enter through the gate whenguards weren’t paying attention. “Ofcourse there was fear, but theGermans never hit [non-Jewish] chil-dren,” she says. This is why she tookresponsibility for the food drops: hermother had been spotted and beaten.

At home, there were several closecalls, especially when Nazi officialshoped to make use of children whowere too young to fully understandwhat was going on. Once her fatherhid a boy under the sofa, and he wasthere, playing with a toy soldier whilea real-life Nazi officer was in thehouse, oblivious to the danger he andhis hosts were in. The child remarked

afterwards that he had been scared“that someone would step on hishand.”

Yael Rosen, one of the most dedicat-ed volunteers helping the “righteous”with home visits and phone calls, findsPeotr Sanevich’s biography one of the

most moving. “It’s a story of a deepbond that was rediscovered so manyyears later,” she says.

For Peotr, moving to Israel was acase of repaying hospitality. He con-structed a secret hiding place for twoyoung Jews who arrived on his fami-ly’s farm in Ukraine after narrowlyescaping death. He knew what couldhappen if he helped them: An entirefamily from a nearby house had beenburned for sheltering Jews. But fortwo years, he and his family keptyoung Buzya and David safe.

Peotr heard nothing from the Jewshe saved for almost five decades.After the fall of the USSR, however,he started making enquiries. In 1993,the Israeli ambassador to the newlyindependent Ukraine got Peotr backin touch with them. David suggestedthat Peotr move to Israel and he did,together with his wife Olga, and Rosa,the youngest of his six children. Theychose to live in David’s city,Beersheva, in order to be close tohim.

The Negev also became the unlike-

ly home of two other rescuers. Deepin the desert lies Yeruham, a smallcity dominated by the families ofJewish immigrants from Morocco andIndia. Among them lived YekaterinaMovchan-Panchenko and GalinaPanchenko, two Christian widows

whose first encounterwith Jews came in the1940s when they helpedsave two Jewish childrenfrom the Nazis.

The mother of seven-year-old Pavel and one-and-a-half-year-old Ninahad already been mur-dered by the time theyarrived at the Panchenkofamily home in what isnow Ukraine. Yekaterinaand Galina were just 19and 11 respectively, butthey sprang into actionand helped keep the

children safe, fed and healthy.Police came knocking twice,

demanding to see the children, butPavel and Nina were hidden in thecellar. After surviving the war, the twochildren stayed in Krivaya Ruda,where they became parents andgrandparents. But history tookYekaterina and Galina elsewhere,and shortly after the fall of the SovietUnion they moved to Israel and putdown roots in Yeruham, where theylived until they died a few years ago.

Yael Rosen used to work full timewith the “righteous,” directing Atzum’sprogram to care for them. Even sinceshe moved on to a high-pressure jobat a Tel Aviv museum, she still makesvisiting them a priority. Asked why,she responds, “It’s a huge privilege toknow these people and be involvedwith them. They risked their lives tosave Jews and there’s never enoughthat we can do for them — anythingwe do is a drop in the sea.”

She adds, “During the Holocaust,they cast their lot with the Jewish peo-ple and now, they’re doing the same

again — they are part of the Jewishpeople in the good times and in theharder times.”

No family knows the reality of thiscommon fate better than theShuranis. Tzipi Shurani’s parents metunder the most unlikely circum-stances: Her father was a Jewish pris-oner in a Nazi labor camp and hermother lived in a house next door tothe fence. Latzi Shurani had alreadypromised himself that he would marryIrena Csizmadia when the two ofthem dug their way toward eachother, fashioning a tunnel that endedin the Csizmadia basement, throughwhich he and more than two dozenother prisoners escaped. They didmarry, and lived together contentedlyin the Galilee. But when the second oftwo Hezbollah rockets hit their homeduring the Second Lebanon War of2006, Irena suffered a serious stroke,and the active golden years that thepair were enjoying were suddenly tornaway from them.

Nevertheless, they maintained thelove that blossomed in the shadow ofhatred. Latzi died two years ago. Irenais today in a home, unable to reflect onher life, but Tzipi says, “I wish everycouple could be like my father andmother. They would always holdhands, and go everywhere together.”

When “righteous” who moved toIsrael die, their funerals — paid forfrom state budgets — are emotionaland dignified affairs; the starkestpossible contrast to the disdainfultreatment given to gentiles who theNazis caught and killed for helpingJews. Rosen recalls the funeral ofone of the sisters who lived inYeruham. “There was a priest con-ducting the ceremony, other peopleeulogizing her for saving Jews, andthe setting was the Negev where acamel was walking by,” she recalled.“It was very surreal and very movingbeing in the Israeli desert buryingsuch a special woman from theUkraine.”

RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS, AT HOME IN ISRAEL

Yekaterina Movchan-Panchenko receives an award honoring the

Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in 2001.

BY LEORA EISENBERG, THE ALGEMEINER

Six-year-old Abraham Freiburghad fled with his mother and long

entertained the notion that Tati — theYiddish word for Daddy — was onlymissing and that they would soon findhim. But “never again” came too late,because Abraham’s father was nolonger his lively Tati who sang him tosleep in that endearing tone-deaf way.His father was no longer his trustedconfidant. His father was no longer theone who bore Abraham on his shoul-ders or walked to synagogue with him.Abraham learned soon enough that hisfather, Eliezer Freiburg, was dead,murdered at the hands of a Nazi whoseface he had never seen.

Abraham spent the next eight yearsrunning between Hungary, Romania,

Poland and Germany. He was sentaway to live as a farmer’s son on thecountryside. He pretended to be analtar boy in a church to avoid beingidentified as a Jude with a yellow star.He hid for months in someone’s attic,speaking only through whispers. Hewas thrown into jail when he and hismother crossed the border toHungary illegally.

The war ended, and little Abrahamand his mother, Heline, had narrowlyescaped death dozens of times. Therest of the family was not so lucky.Some, who lived in the ghetto, wereshot when walking home. Some wererounded up in faraway places likeBabi Yar and buried with screams stillfresh in their throats. Some had num-bers on their arms. Some came toIsrael. Some never left Poland.

Abraham came to America andchanged his name to Adi. His mother

remarried, and his last name,Freiburg, changed to Eisenberg. Heexcelled in school, became fluent inEnglish, and went to university. Hereceived a PhD in chemistry fromPrinceton, and went on to becomeone of the top 100 most influentialchemists in the world. His son’sHebrew name is Eliezer. This Eliezeralso sang in a lovely tone-deaf way tohis daughter, me, whom he bore onhis shoulders and took to synagogue.

Adi had many grandchildren, onlyone of whom bears the Eisenbergname. He is now eighty-one and isdeveloping dementia. When his sonand granddaughter took him to theHolocaust Museum over the summer,memories flooded back. He recalledhorrific tales of death and darknessthat survivors can know. As soon ashe came home, however, the memo-ries disappeared. Abraham asked his

son innocently, “What did we dotoday?”

Itell you only the story of AdiEisenberg. I could recount stories

about my maternal grandparents,whose families were persecuted forbeing Jewish in the Soviet Union — mygrandmother who was separated fromher parents and put into an orphanagefor a while, my grandfather who had thewar break out on his fourth birthday —both of whom survived the Siege ofLeningrad. I could tell you about mymother who fled Russia to seek refugein America or about my cousin who stillhas his yellow star.

How will we perpetuate their memo-ry? Jew hatred did not die with theHolocaust, but neither did the Jews.We are all the children and grandchil-dren of survivors, whose stories wenow hold and legacies we continue.

Remember them.

REMEMBER THEM


(Continued from page 5)minority akin to anti-ApartheidAfrikaners or members of the FrenchResistance. To capture the full enormityof the Jewish State’s depravity, the twotraveled to Germany to meet with whatRobert Mackey, the blogger then of theNew York Times, called “young Israelidissidents” who had fled the JewishState, in the words of Sivan, “seekingrefuge from Israel’s politics in Berlin.”

For the dwindling true believers in apostnational Europe, it is hard to imag-ine a story that could be more satisfy-ing than Jews fleeing their Nazi-likenation-state for the utopia of Berlin,whose residents have learned the les-sons of their past as the stiff-neckedJews manifestly have not. For anyonenot quite so enamored of the EU, it ishard to imagine a story that at once isso magnificently self-flattering, andlets Europeans off the hook so com-pletely for their repulsive historicalcrimes — while further enabling thedeeply ingrained anti-Semitism thatmade those crimes so deadly.

Today’s progressive narrative ofthe Holocaust without Jews is

not altogether different from the lastgreat leftist attempt to deny the truthof the Shoah. After WWII, the SovietUnion and its puppet Communistregimes in Central and EasternEurope solemnized the Nazis’ victimsas “anti-Fascists,” lumping in togetherthe six million Jews who were, by dintof their birth, singled out for execu-tion, alongside the Communists and

socialists who were targeted becauseof their political disposition.Emphasizing the specifically anti-Semitic nature of the Holocaust,Communists worried, would workagainst their political purposes, as thepopulations over which they ruledwere quite anti-Semitic themselves —and had by and large looked away, oreven eagerly participated, as their

Jewish neighbors were carried off tothe gas chambers. Ever amoral, theCommunists utilized anti-Semitism inmuch the same way Muslim regimeshave exploited Jew-hatred to mobilizediscontented populations; from the1952 “Doctors’ Plot” to the infamousSlansky trial that same year toPoland’s 1967–1968 Jewish purge,Communist authorities raised thephantom menace of nefarious Jewish

power, usually under the guise of“anti-Zionism.” In his 1971 study Anti-Semitism without Jews, Hungarian-born Austrian writer Paul Lendvaidetailed the cynical ways thatCommunist governments incited theirpeople against imaginary Jewishthreats in lands almost entirely deplet-ed of their Jewish populations — andhow those conspiratorial hysterias

spoke to a deeper societal sicknesshaving little to do with Jews. “The veryfact that what we are witnessing isessentially an anti-Semitism withoutJews is an all the more alarmingsymptom of moral pollution and politi-cal disintegration,” he wrote. “Thefewer Jews there are, the more thefight against racial hatred becomesprimarily, almost exclusively in theinterest of non-Jews.”

If anti-Semitism without Jews is amarker of “moral pollution and

political disintegration,” then so too isthe Holocaust without Jews an indica-tor of ethical rot. The lessons of theHolocaust are indeed universal, andJews — contrary to the anti-Semiticstereotype of a selfish people hungryfor the world’s pity — have been atthe forefront of applying its lessons tolatter-day manifestations of bigotry,intolerance and genocide. The UnitedStates Holocaust Memorial Museum,for instance, has an entire centerdevoted to the prevention of geno-cide, and practically no commemora-tion of the Holocaust — be it a book,a film or a religious service —lacksmention of contemporary strugglesagainst injustice.

Yet the Holocaust’s universal mean-ings are not inconsistent with anappreciation of its singularity, both interms of process (the first and onlytime a modern state carried out anindustrial-scale, mechanized massmurder with the aim of exterminatingan entire people) and victims (primari-ly, but not exclusively, Jews). Indeed,these unique aspects of the Holocaustcomplement one other in distinguish-ing the event from any other crimeagainst humanity. Without independ-ently acknowledging both the univer-sality and the historicity of theHolocaust, we will fail to understandwhat happened, and to whom — andhow to prevent such a tragedy fromever happening again, to anyone.

Hitler Youth members overseeing Jews made to scrub the streets in Vienna, Austria, 1938.

THE HOLOCAUST WITHOUT JEWS

The oft-repeated notion thatJews went willingly to the

slaughter during the Holocaust iscompletely unfounded, a Holocaustcommemoration activist told TheAlgemeiner, citing a number of docu-ments which were recently uncoveredby his organization detailing eyewit-ness accounts of Jews fighting back.

Jonny Daniels, founder and execu-tive director of From the Depths,which works with Holocaust survivors,Jewish communities in EasternEurope and the Polish government topreserve the memory of theHolocaust, said that one of severalprojects he is engaged in includestranslating firsthand accounts thathave sat untouched for years inPoland’s governmental archives.

Daniels said his organization has“uncovered remarkable documenta-tion that shows thousands ofaccounts of ‘fighting back’ from eye-witnesses” throughout the Holocaust,which he is working on cataloging,translating and publishing.

Recently, Daniels and his teamcame across an old Communist-eradocument written in the late 1940s.The document turned out to be aneyewitness account from a Jewishmale in his 20s of an emotional tale ofsurvival from the Warsaw ghetto

“which happened almost 73 yearsago to this very day,” Daniels said.

Daniels shared the story publicly forthe first time with The Algemeiner:

A group of Jewish boys blockadedthemselves in a building inside the

ghetto and were shooting at Naziswalking past. One of the little-knownways the Nazis would enter the build-ings of the ghetto was by using ahuman shield, a Jew. One of the sur-vivors told of the time that while block-aded inside the room, they suddenlyheard a knock on the door. Sitting qui-etly, the boys heard the sweet oldvoice of an elderly Jewish man calm-ly call out to them in beautiful, poeticYiddish: “My children, the time hascome. I am knocking on this door ask-ing for safe passage. Alas, behind mestands a group of Amalek (evil peo-ple). Shoot me and then kill them.Better I die by the bullet of Jewishheroes than by the bullet of evil.” Theyoung men did just that. By giving hislife, the old pious Jew saved thoseyoung Jews fighting, allowing them tolive another day.

According to Daniels, “this story isperhaps the most harrowing ofaccounts we have ever uncovered.”

Other remarkable testimonyuncovered by From the Depths

shows how many Jews worked toensure that their last moments onearth would not be spent in vain. Inone case, eyewitness accounts tell ofmalnourished and downtrodden Jewsgetting off the trains at the Treblinkaconcentration camp after being told it

would “be a better place,” Danielsrelated. “They realized that this wouldbe their final stop and they foughtback, taking sadly a futile standbefore they were murdered.” In othercases, “Jewish women refused to bestripped naked, paraded and oftenraped by their Nazi tormentors.Instead, they would attack the Nazisand, in some accounts, even kill theNazi bastards before they were mur-dered themselves.”

“One of the questions I alwaysheard growing up and which wasactually asked in one of my first inter-views in Poland over two years agois, ‘Why didn’t the Jews put up moreof a fight? Why did they go like sheepto the slaughter?’ After a few years ofliving the subject, speaking with sur-vivors, saviors and eyewitnesses, Ican unequivocally say that the Jewsfought back,” Daniels said.

The uncovering of these stories ofheroism and survival by From theDepths highlights an important issuefacing the future of Holocaust memo-rialization, Daniels said. “The sameway we are losing survivors of theHolocaust, so too are eyewitnessespassing away at a rapid rate,” he said.“We have a handful of years left tointerview and speak to these peoplebefore it is too late.”

HEAD OF HOLOCAUST RESEARCH GROUP

REVEALS SHOCKING NEW TESTIMONY FROM WARSAW GHETTO

Warsaw ghetto uprising monument at Yad

Vashem, Jerusalem.


Charles Aznavour’s family hidJews in their home during theGerman occupation of Paris inWorld War II, French-Armeniansinger reveals in new book.BY AVNER SHAPIRA, HAARETZ

“Iknew the chains/I knew thewound/I knew the hate/I knew

the hurt/ the thirst and hunger/I knewthe fear/from one day to the next.”

So go the lyrics to CharlesAznavour’s song “J’ai Connu,” from his50th studio album, released in 2011.The song, told from the perspective ofa Jewish prisoner in the Nazi concen-tration camps, doesn’t describe thesinger’s direct experiences duringWorld War II. But Aznavour, who willcelebrate his 92nd birthday later thismonth, did have some personal aware-ness of some of the horrors depicted inthe song, as the son of refugees whosurvived the Armenian genocide andrebuilt their lives in Paris after losingmost of their relatives.

Although Aznavour’s life has beenextensively chronicled, up to now hehas said very little about an especiallyhumane and heroic chapter in his andhis family’s life: their decision to shelterand save Jews, Armenian desertersand underground activists in theirhome during the German occupation ofFrance during the war, and theirinvolvement in anti-Nazi activity.

Now Aznavour has decided to tellthe whole story, in Hebrew, in a self-published book, Matzilim (Tzadikim)Ve’Lohamim (Righteous Saviors andFighters), by genocide researcherProf. Yair Auron. The latter spoke atlength with Aznavour and his sister,Aida Aznavour-Garvarentz, who toldhim about their lives under theGerman occupation and what ledtheir family, especially their father, totake part in rescue missions despitethe many risks. The book, which willalso be translated into French andArmenian, recounts a specific case,but offers a moral lesson on humanbehavior under conditions of wide-spread terror, and political and ideo-logical violence. Above all, it is themoving story of survivors of onegenocide who, at great personal risk,felt compelled to help victims ofanother.

In an interview conducted by email,Aznavour emphasizes the commonthreads that bind the Armenians andJews.

“We come from the same pain andthe same suffering, and without theannihilation of the Armenians in 1915-1918, the annihilation of the Jews in theHolocaust would not have been possi-ble, because the Germans learnedfrom their predecessors,” he writes.

He cites what Hitler told the com-manders of the German army inAugust 1939, on the eve of the inva-sion of Poland, as he tried to dispeltheir anxiety over the use of extremeviolence: “Who talks about the annihi-lation of the Armenians anymore?”

Auron says German officers who

were involved in the command of theTurkish army in World War I andsigned orders to expel the Armenianslater served in high-ranking positionsin the Nazi leadership and took part inthe annihilation of the Jews.

Aznavour says he knew many Jewswhen he was a child in Paris.

“We grew up together in the LeMarais district, where many refugeesand immigrants — including many

Jews and Armenians — lived in theperiod between the two world wars. Myfather’s stall in the market was next tothe stalls of some Jewish vendors.

“Armenian peddlers, including myfather, looked after the stalls of theJews after they were arrested in themass deportation of Parisian Jews[“the roundup”] in July 1942. So takingin and hiding Jews in our home duringthe war was a very natural thing for usto do: they were our neighbors andfriends,” he adds. “We had a lifetogether. We were there for them andthey were there for us.”

In his three previous autobiographi-cal works, Aznavour made very littlemention of these acts of salvation. Hetold Auron he didn’t think they were sospecial and didn’t want to be perceivedas immodest. But the professor con-vinced him of the importance of tellingthe story. Now the singer says, “I’mvery proud of my family’s story and thebeautiful, noble humanity of the act ofrescue. Nothing makes me happierthan to think that my dear parentssaved people’s lives.”

BURNING THE UNIFORMS

Aznavour was born in Paris onMay 22, 1924, not long after his

parents first arrived there. His father,Mischa Aznavourian, was born inGeorgia in 1895 and lost his entirefamily in the Armenian genocide. Hismother, Knar Baghdasaryan, wasborn in Izmir in 1904, and only sheand her grandmother out of her entirefamily survived the genocide.

The couple fled Turkey on an Italianship that brought them to Thessaloniki,Greece, where their eldest daughter,Aida, was born in 1923.

The family had many Armenianfriends in Paris, among them a couplenamed Mélinée and MissakManouchian. The latter was the military

commander of the underground groupknown as L’Affiche Rouge (The RedPoster), which was the first to carry outarmed resistance actions against theNazis. Aznavour’s family aided thegroup on many occasions and also hidthe Manouchians for several monthswhile they were being hunted by theFrench police and Gestapo.

The first time the family hid some-one during World War II was when a

friend of Aznavour’s father broughthis brother to them — a RomanianJew who lived in Germany, wasaccused of subversion and was sen-tenced to death. He had managed toescape to France disguised as aGerman soldier, and he knew that theGestapo was after him. He foundrefuge in the family’s three-roomapartment at 22 rue de Navarin, inParis’ ninth arrondissement. At thestart of the war, Aida recounts in thebook, “We understood that the Jewswere going to be the victims of brutal-ity. We looked upon the Jews withsadness and sorrow. We knew whatgenocide was.” She says her parentsshowed no hesitation in taking in theJewish refugee, “even though it wasclear that if the Nazis found this manin our house, they’d kill us right away.We told him that our home was hishome, and we treated him warmly,like a good friend who had to extendhis stay. For a few days, he even sleptin the same bed as Charles.”

SHELTERING 11 REFUGEES

AT A TIME

The two Aznavour children, whowere 16 and 17 at the start of

the German occupation in 1940,pitched in to help, not knowing thenthat they would go on offering shelterto strangers. But then a woman cameto the family, asking them to hide herJewish husband, whose name wasSimon. He had escaped from theDrancy internment camp, where theJews of Paris were sent before beingsent to the concentration camps out-side of France.

For a while, the family also shel-tered another Jew, and later on theirapartment also served as a hideoutfor Armenians who’d deserted afterbeing forcibly drafted into the Germanarmy.

Aznavour and his sister say therewere days when 11 refugees were allhiding in the family’s apartment simul-taneously. They hid in different cor-ners of the house, and at night had tosleep on the floor.

The family prepared false papers forthem, and one of the tasks assignedto the two children was to burn thedeserters’ German uniforms and dis-pose of them far from the house.

How aware were you of the politicalsignificance of hiding wanted peoplein your family home? How aware ofthe danger were you?

Aznavour: “My parents knew thedanger was there every day, but mysister and I only grasped it later. Wewere ‘crazy’ young people. We wereliving out our youth and we followed inour parents’ footsteps. Only after thewar did we realize how great the riskreally was.”

Auron dedicates a large part of hisbook to the activities of L’AfficheRouge — whose story is barelyknown in Israel, despite significantJewish participation in it.

The group, which was associatedwith the French Communist Party andwhose members were mostly immi-grants without French citizenship,was active in 1942–1943 as part ofthe French Resistance, and carriedout armed attacks against the Frenchpolice and Gestapo, inflicting casual-ties among the Germans.

It was named after the red propa-ganda poster the authorities distrib-uted against it, which included photo-graphs of 10 members who wereapprehended.

The group had about 200 members;67 were arrested, including 34 Jewsand three Armenians. Of the 23 whowere sentenced to death, 12 wereJews and two Armenians, includingMissak Manouchian.

When Manouchian was arrested,his wife found refuge with her friendsthe Aznavours, after other friendsrefused to take her in. Aznavour sayshis parents’ close friendship with theManouchians was part of the specialkinship shared by Armenian sur-vivors. He has vivid memories of thecouple from his childhood — “Missaktaught me to play chess,” he recalls.

He says that although his parentsdidn’t officially belong to theResistance, they aided much of theunderground’s activity. His motherhelped a group transport weaponsthat were hidden in a baby carriage.

When Manouchian was arrested, hesent a postcard to Aznavour’s mother,telling her that her son would bringhonor to the Armenian people andglory to France. His words helpedreassure his mother and planted hopefor her son’s future success.

Auron says there were many otherArmenian families, like the Aznavourfamily, who saved Jews during theHolocaust. Twenty-four of them havebeen recognized by Yad Vashem asRighteous Among the Nations, butthere were even more.

AZNAVOUR’S FAMILY SAVED JEWS FROM NAZIS

A portrait photograph of the Aznavour family in the 1920s. Charles’ father, Mischa (center), is next

to his wife, Knar.


(Continued from page 4)the Foreign Ministry. He was also thehead of its emigration office, chargedwith arranging the exit of citizens.Poland’s official position was thatEuropean maritime empires shouldeither permit Poland access toresources in their overseas coloniesor allow Polish citizens to migrate tosuch places. This analysis had a forcethat went beyond Jewish policy. At atime when rural unemploymentexceeded 50 per cent, Warsaw waspushing for the right of all of its citi-zens to emigrate. In the case of Jews,Polish diplomats pointed to the dra-matic consequences of frozen migra-tion routes. Before the First WorldWar, roughly 150,000 Jews leftEurope each year; in the 1930s thefigure was a small fraction of this. In“trying to find an outlet for its surpluspopulation” the Polish governmenthad “in mind the Jews first of all.”

The question of the settlement ofEuropean Jews was a general

European one, in which Poland occu-pied a position somewhere betweenthe Nazi one (Jews must be eliminat-ed, and emigration seemed the prac-tical way to achieve this) and theZionist one (Jews had a right to astate, which would have to be createdfrom an existing colony).

The question of where EuropeanJews might settle had been opensince the 19th century, and very dif-ferent sorts of politicians and ideo-logues proposed the same places.The island of Madagascar, a colonialFrench possession off the southeastAfrican coast in the Indian Ocean,was introduced to the discussion bythe anti-Semite Paul de Lagarde(actually a German namedBoetticher) in 1885. This idea couldbe considered with greater or lesserhostility or sympathy. It had support-ers in Great Britain and, of course,among Germans, including the Nazileadership. Only in French could onesay “Madagassez les Juifs,” but notall of those who considered the ideain France were enemies of the Jews.Zionists also considered Madagascar,although most rejected it.

Polish authorities also allowed them-selves to be tempted by the prospect ofcolonizing Madagascar. The idea ofsettling Madagascar with Polish citi-zens was first raised in 1926; at thattime the idea was the emigration ofPolish peasants from the overpopulat-ed countryside. A decade later, afterPilsudski’s death, the idea returned in aJewish variant. Beck proposed the emi-gration of Polish Jews to Madagascarto French prime minister Léon Blum inOctober 1936, and Blum allowed thePoles to send a three-man exploratorydelegation to the island.

The representative of the Polishgovernment thought that about50,000 Jews could be settled immedi-ately — a significant number, but notone that would have affected the pop-

ulation balance in Poland. The dele-gate from the Jewish EmigrationAssociation thought that 400 familiesmight settle. The agricultural expertfrom Palestine thought that even thiswas too much. The inhabitants ofMadagascar rejected any settlementfrom Poland. French nationalists, fortheir part, were concerned that thePolish colonization project would suc-ceed and that the island wouldbecome Polish. Meanwhile, the pro-Madagascar propaganda of thePolish regime backfired: when toldthat the island was suitable for colo-nization, Polish nationalists demand-ed “Madagascar only for the Poles!”

Beck and Drymmer expressed aspecial interest in the future of

Palestine, a former Ottoman posses-sion that was under British authority.The decline and fall of the OttomanEmpire had been a lesson for manyEuropean statesmen. Whereas Hitlertended to see the creation of Balkannation-states from the OttomanEmpire as a positive example of mili-tarism, Poles understood the samehistory as national liberation thatwould spread from Europe to Asia.Whereas European territories takenfrom empires after the First WorldWar generally became nation-states,Asian territories tended to becomepart of the French or British empires,sometimes in the form of “mandates”from the League of Nations. Thesewere places judged not ready for sov-ereignty, and thus allotted to the greatpowers for political tutoring.Palestine, taken from the defunctOttoman district of South Syria, wassuch a mandate. Although the territo-ry had a rather small Jewish minoritywhen the British took control in 1920,British policy presented Palestine asa future Jewish National Home. Thiswas in line with the hopes of Zionists,who hoped that one day a deal for fullstatehood could be struck.

Hitler’s Jewish policy forced all ofthe powers to clarify their position onthe future of Palestine. About 130,000German Jews emigrated in the years

after Hitler came to power, some50,000 of them settling in Palestine.Their arrival reduced the demograph-ic advantage of local Arabs, who tend-ed to consider Palestine as part ofsome larger Arab homeland. Thinkingthat a continuation of Jewish immigra-tion could lead to the success ofZionism, Arab leaders organized polit-ical action: first riots in April 1936,then the formation of strike commit-tees and a general strike that lastedthrough October. This meant that1937 was the moment of truth for theEuropean states with a declared inter-est in the future of Palestine: GreatBritain, Nazi Germany and Poland.

London at first reacted to the Arabdisturbances with a proposal for thepartition of Palestine. When this led tofurther political chaos, the Britishrestricted Jewish immigration to aquota. As the world was seen fromLondon, Palestine was only a tiny partof the vast Arab and Muslim territoriesof the British Empire. Pleasing Jewsover Palestine could mean alienatingMuslims throughout the Near Eastand southern Asia.

Berlin specified in 1937 its own atti-tude toward Zionism and a possibleState of Israel. Palestine hadappealed to the Nazi regime as aplace where Jews could settle so longas this had no clear political implica-tions for the Near East. But in spring1937 the German consul inJerusalem was concerned lest thecreation of a State of Israel fromPalestine weaken Germany’s positionin the world. The German foreign min-ister circulated the official position toall embassies and consulates thatJune: Jewish statehood in Palestinewas to be opposed, as a State ofIsrael would become a node in theworld Jewish conspiracy.

The Polish position differed fromboth the British and the German.London favored Jewish statehood (atsome distant and undefined point) butopposed much further Jewish migra-tion for the time being. Berlin opposedJewish statehood, but wanted Jews toleave Germany as soon as possiblefor some distant and undefined place.Warsaw wanted both massive emi-gration of Jews from Europe and aJewish state in Palestine. In public thePolish foreign minister and otherdiplomats called upon the British toease immigration restrictions and cre-ate a Jewish National Home as soonas possible. The Poles had very spe-cific ideas of what such an entityshould be: “A Jewish, independentPalestine, as large as possible, withaccess to the Red Sea.” This meantboth sides of the River Jordan; in pri-vate, Polish diplomats even raisedwith British colleagues the issue ofthe Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt. In1937, the Polish armed forces beganto offer arms and training to theHaganah, the main Zionist self-defense force in Palestine.

WHEN POLAND EYED MADAGASCAR

AS A FUTURE HOMELAND FOR JEWS

The offices of Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer in

Gdansk, circa 1935. An anti-Semitic poster in

the window reads “Die Juden sind unser

Ungluck!” (“The Jews are our misfortune.”)

France is to pay $60 million to

mainly American victims of the

Holocaust who were transported by

train from France to Nazi death

camps during the Second World

War.

The two countries issued a joint

statement announcing the coming

into force of a compensation agree-

ment drafted in December 2014 after

years of legal wrangling. The settle-

ment creates a fund to compensate

thousands of non-French citizens,

their spouses or descendants who

were not covered by a settlement pro-

gram that France put in place in 1946.

“The United States will administer

and distribute this amount to eligible

Americans, Israelis and other for-

eigners and their families who were

not entitled to make claims under the

existing French program,” the state-

ment by the State Department and

the French foreign ministry said.

“In turn, the United States will

ensure an enduring legal peace for

France with regard to Holocaust

deportation claims in the United

States,” it said, alluding to lawsuits

brought in the US against the French

state rail company SNCF.

Requisitioned by the Nazi regime in

Germany, SNCF trains transported

76,000 Jews across France to the

death camps from 1942 to 1944.

About 3,000 survived, according to

the rail company.

Lawsuits brought in US courts

nearly cost SNCF its commercial

contracts in the United States. There

have been calls for SNCF itself to

compensate US victims. But the

French foreign ministry argued in

December that the SNCF was an

instrument of the deportation but had

never been held responsible.

“It is the responsibility of French

authorities to assume the conse-

quences,” it said, noting that SNCF

was not part of the negotiations that

led to the compensation agreement.

FRANCE TO PAY INTO

COMPENSATION FUND

FOR US VICTIMS OF

HOLOCAUST

The Shoah memorial in Paris, which lists the

76,000 Jews deported from France during the

Holocaust.

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Martyrdom & Resistance

Ron B. Meier, Ph.D.,

Editor-in-Chief

Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A.,

Editor

*Published Bimonthly by the American Society

for Yad Vashem, Inc.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 AmericanFederation of Jewish Fighters, CampInmates, and Nazi Victims**deceased

A bequest to the American Society for Yad Vashem

helps keep the memory of the Six Million alive...

Please remember us in your trust, will, estate plan or with the

planned gift. It’s your legacy... to your family, and your people.

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bequest to ASYV, please contact Jonathan Gudema at

212-220-4304

BY CATHERINE HICKLEY, THE ART NEWSPAPER

Pressure is growing on Swissmuseums to accept that works

of art sold by Jewish refugees to helpthem escape from the Nazis wereforced sales, and that the worksshould therefore be returned to theirheirs. Speaking in Zurich last month,Ronald Lauder, the president of theWorld Jewish Congress, proposed aplan of action, which he described as“long overdue.”

Lauder said he had turned his atten-tion to Switzerland after CorneliusGurlitt bequeathed his entire collec-tion — some of which had been loot-ed from Jews by the Nazis — to theBern Kunstmuseum. The museumhas said it will refuse to accept anyGurlitt works with tainted or unclearprovenance, and that they will remainin Germany for further research.

Whereas the German governmenthas pledged to return any art inGurlitt’s hoard that had been “lost dueto Nazi persecution,” Swiss museumshave traditionally rejected claims forwhat they term fluchtgut (flight assets)— art sold by Jewish refugees to fundtheir escape or to start new lives afterlosing the rest of their possessions,their homes and their livelihoodsunder the Nazis.

One of Lauder’s demands was thatSwitzerland treat fluchtgut claims inthe same way as claims for looted art.“Could it possibly make any differ-ence if the painting was taken off thewall by a Nazi or if its Jewish ownerwas forced to sell that same paintingto one of Hitler’s art dealers for almostnothing?” he asked in his speech atZurich’s Kunsthaus.

The argument has simmered for

decades. The heirs of the Jewish arthistorian Curt Glaser, for instance,approached the Kunsthaus about afluchtgut painting in its collection inthe 1990s. Suspended from his joband evicted from his Berlin apartment,Glaser had escaped Nazi Germany in1933 for Switzerland. After theSecond World War broke out, hepleaded with the Kunsthaus directorto rescue an Edvard Munch paintingstill in Berlin by purchasing it. Glaserwrote saying he would view any offer“from a different perspective than

before the war.”The painting, Musicon Karl JohanStreet (1889), stillhangs in theKunsthaus. Glasersold it “for a ridicu-lously low price,”s a y s D a v i dRowland, the NewYork–based lawyerwho representsGlaser’s heirs.“And, of course, heused the funds toflee Europe. Theproblem has beenthat the Swiss have

been unwilling to recognize fluchtgutcases.”

The Swiss culture minister IsabelleChassot pointed out last year that thecountry is the only one to draw a dis-

tinction between fluchtgut and art lostdue to Nazi persecution, and calledfor the latter term to be applied. Manyin the Swiss museum community andart trade oppose that.

“Fluchtgut cannot be treated thesame way as art that was sold inGermany and Austria,” says MarcFehlmann, the head of collections atthe Deutsches Historisches Museumin Berlin and the former director of theOskar Reinhart Museum inWinterthur, Switzerland. “The Jewishrefugees who sold art in Switzerlandhad full access to the proceeds, andSwitzerland was a free country. Whyisn’t Ronald Lauder talking about theart that was sold by refugees in theUS and the UK?”

A fluchtgut case has, in fact, aris-en in the UK. In March 2012,

the Spoliation Advisory Panel issueda recommendation on a claim for 14watches and clocks at the BritishMuseum that a Jewish refugee hadsold at Christie’s in London in 1939.Though the panel found the condi-tions of the sale met the minimumrequirements for a forced sale, it saidthe price was not under value andthat the moral strength of the claimwas insufficient to warrant restitutionor compensation.

Even though the UK fluchtgut claimwas ultimately rejected by the court, theclaimants could appeal to an independ-ent panel in Britain; in Switzerland, nosuch body exists. Another of Lauder’sdemands is that Switzerland establishsuch a commission.

“Each case has to be looked at indi-vidually,” says Olaf Ossmann, a

Swiss lawyer who specializes in Nazi-looted art. “Was the sale voluntary?Would it have happened without theNazi regime? Did the seller get themoney? Did he get a fair price?”

SWISS UNDER PRESSURE OVER ART

THAT JEWS WERE FORCED TO SELL

Edvard Munch, Music on Karl Johan Street (1889).

Curt Glaser sold his Munch painting, which was trapped in Berlin, for a

“ridiculously low” price to the Zurich Kunsthaus during the Second

World War.

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