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Newsletter of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
Mishpocha!
Winter 2011
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
A link among survivors around the world
President’s Message
European Association of Jewish Child
Survivors of the Holocaust
Friends and Alumni of OSE-USA, MD
The Hidden Child Foundation/ADL, NY
KTA – Kindertransport Association, NY
-----------------------
Aloumim, Israel
Assn. of Children of the Holocaust in Poland
Assn. of Child Survivors in Croatia
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors in Sweden
Assn. of Jewish War Children – Amsterdam
Assn. of Unknown Children, Netherlands
Child Survivor Group of Argentina
Child Survivors Group of British Columbia
Child Survivor Group of Sydney, Australia
Child Survivors’ Assn. of Great Britain—AJR
Child-Survivors-Deutschland e.V.
Child Survivors, Hungary
Child Survivors/Hidden Children of Toronto
Children of The Shoah Figli Della Shoah, Italy
Generaciones de la Shoa en Argentina
Hidden Child Association of the Netherlands
Hidden Child—Praha
Holocaust Children in Sweden
Jews Rescuing Jews, Israel
Melbourne Child Survivors of the Holocaust
Mengele Twins, Israel
Montreal Child Survivors/Hidden Children
Organizacia Hidden Child, Ukryvane Diet’a
Slovensko
Swiss Association of Hidden Children
Terezin Initiativa–International Terezin Assn.
Ukrainian Assn. of Jews Former Prisoners
of Ghetto and Nazi Concentration Camps
Union of Former Ghetto and KZ Prisoners,
Lithuania
YESH – Children and Orphans Holocaust
Survivors in Israel
----------------------
Assn. of Holocaust Survivors from the
Former Soviet Union – Brooklyn, NY
Bay Area Hidden Children, CA
Child Survivor Group of Orange County, CA
Child Survivors, Chicago
Child Survivors of the Holocaust of Houston
Child Survivors of the Holocaust, Los Angeles
Child Survivors of Holocaust of N.E. Ohio
Child Survivors of the Holocaust, New Mexico
Child Survivors/Hidden Children
of Palm Beach County
Children of Holocaust-Survivors
Association In Michigan (C.H.A.I.M.)
Generations After—Massachusetts
Greater Boston Child Survivor Group
Greater Seattle Child Survivors
Hidden Children/Child Survivors of
Greater Chicago
Hidden Children of Rockland County, NY
Hidden Children of the Holocaust
of Bergen County, NJ
Hidden Children of Westchester, NY
Hidden Children/Child Survivors of Michigan
Holocaust Child Survivors of Connecticut
Hungarian Hidden Children – New York
Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, Philadelphia
Oregon Holocaust Survivors,
Refugees and Families
Rocky Mnt. Regional Gathering of Child
Holocaust Survivors
St. Louis Holocaust Survivors and
Descendants
Survivors of the Holocaust–The Last
Generation: Washington/Baltimore
Yaldei Hashoah, San Francisco
Dear Friends
One would think that after 22 years, our conferences
would become somewhat repetitive; old hat—an Americanism we
might use. The fact is that just the opposite is true: each conference
brings new themes, new emotions. Our last two conferences
especially brought more members of the Second Generation actively
into our midst and thus we were able to explore aspects of our
individual histories from a different perspective. From conversations
with my own children late into the night I learned that as much as we think we had
shared with them, there are still unanswered questions; concerns about how they might
have reacted in our individual circumstances of survival, even thoughts about how their
own children might have tried to survive. I think it is the safe environment of our
conferences that allows us to discuss such deeply emotional issues.
I know I speak for all on the Executive and Governing Boards when I express our
appreciation to all the wonderful team members of the Chicago host group. They set
the tone for the warmth and openness of the gathering. Their efforts in raising
contributions also left us with a conference surplus of $40,000! The Executive Board
voted in favor of donating $10,000 of that money to the Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center, which was so intensely involved in sponsoring our
conference.
Todah Rabah once again to the entire host group!
Our conference in Warsaw will, of course, open the floodgates of memory. Many
of us will be going to places of our birth, of our survival, in Poland as well as in other
countries. Many of us will come as families of two and three generations. Our host
committee is headed by Ola and Ania in Warsaw and Max in Amsterdam, who has
made a number of trips to Poland already. They, together with our U.S. conference
committee members, have been hard at work on the many details for this event. This
is a truly monumental effort—but then, each year has been! We have every reason to
believe that this conference will be an outstanding one. Quite a few of you have the
same sentiment, judging by the number of inquiries and reservations already received.
Looking further into the future, we already have a possible venue for 2013; just
started working on that. It will be in Europe (yes, a secret so far!). However, no offer
has come from a host group yet for 2012. If any of you have any ideas of being able
to pull together members of your local group, perhaps working with a local Holocaust
Education Center, University, or Holocaust Museum, please get in touch with one of
us on the Executive Committee.
Yes, we are all getting older—but for the last two conferences we have had
extensive help from wonderful Second Generation members. We have great
confidence in their ability to work with us now and to carry on our legacy.
Shalom and hugs to all of you
Stefanie
WFJCSH, PO Box 98005, Seattle, WA 98139-0005 E-mail: [email protected],
A 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization in the USA
Website: www.wfjcsh.org
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New Era, New Name
ver a quarter of a century ago, groups of us Holocaust
survivors living in the United States, who were
children during those horrific times, got together to
support each other, to share our pain, and to validate the
stories of our survival. We were Child Survivors and Hidden
Children. We became the sisters, brothers, cousins, and the
extended families to replace those we had lost. Because our
Holocaust experiences were mostly different from those
suffered by the older survivors, many of whom were
survivors of concentration camps, our groups did not become
part of any of the organizations of older Holocaust victims
that had already been in existence for a number of years.
Soon our small chapters in cities across the United
States reached out toward one another, then to our siblings all
over the world, including in Canada, Europe, Israel, South
America and Australia. Eventually, the World Federation of
Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust was founded.
When the children of the older Holocaust survivors
came of age, they too connected for support and for sharing
experiences of growing up in a “Holocaust Family”. Soon
Second Generation groups were launched in many cities.
Holocaust survivor groups went on parallel courses for a
long time. As the older survivors were growing less energetic,
they increasingly began relying on their children’s generation
to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust and to speak on
their behalf as well as for the victims. Several individuals of
the Second Generation became involved in shouldering the
responsibility to carry on the legacy of remembering the six
million murdered Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Over time,
their number and their participation has grown.
For many years most Child Survivor groups made little
contact with Second Generation groups, and, in turn, only a
few of the 2Gs had approached the Child Survivors. Gradually things began to change. 2G members became more eager
to take part in the activities of local Child Survivor groups
and they were welcomed. We invited their involvement in our
annual Child Survivor conferences with increasing opportunities for special programs designed to span the generational
divide and encourage communication. More and more workshops and seminars were organized by outstanding 2G
individuals for the express audience of their generation.
The Second Generation’s impact has been felt for a long
time. As far back as the Denver conference and even before,
and then continuing with the Amsterdam, Detroit, Jerusalem,
Alexandria/Washington, and Boston conferences more and
more 2G members participated enthusiastically. These
conferences have finally brought about the chance for the
Child Survivor generation and the Second Generation to get
to know each other.
The conferences also offered an opportunity for 2G
groups and individuals to make contact with one another and
begin forging long-lasting friendships; an alliance that serves
to strengthen their resolve to be fully aware of their legacy.
The Chicago/Skokie conference, Lives to Legacies, was
a significant step in involving all generations. The second
and third generations were a major driving force in
organizing the conference and put their distinctive stamp on
the event.
In recent years the Governing Board of the World
Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust has
been struggling to define the future of our organization. What
will happen to the Federation once we got too old to
continue? Should we stop our work as a “Child Survivor”
organization? Should we invite Second and later Generation
members to become part of our Federation? How will it
change the nature of our organization if 2Gs and 3Gs will be
on our Governing Board and Executive Committee?
We now have our answer: we know that the survivors’
legacy will be well represented in the good hands of the
upcoming generations. And so, at the Chicago/Skokie
Governing Board meeting the World Federation leadership
came to the conclusion that the years of separation between
the Holocaust Survivor Generations should be brought to an
end. We decided to help our organization evolve into
something new, a Federation in which all generations of
Holocaust survivors can participate fully at all levels. And in
all generations, we also mean the participation of members of
the older generation of survivors too, as they already do in
some of the local chapters, and especially in the European
countries.
Therefore, in the spirit of unity and inclusiveness, it was
proposed that the name of our organization be changed to
“World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and
Descendants”. The Governing Board has unanimously and
enthusiastically accepted this proposal.
Confirming that we are going in the right direction, two
Second Generation groups have already joined the new World
Federation. They are the Boston-based Generations After
and Detroit’s C.H.A.I.M.—Children of HolocaustSurvivors Association In Michigan. We welcome them
with open arms and hope that others will follow their lead.
Many of our chapters exist in areas with no formal 2G
groups but individual 2Gs are involved in our groups’
activities. There, Holocaust survivor groups serve as umbrella
organizations for all survivors and families. We encourage
Child Survivor groups in those places to reach out to 2G and
3G people and involve them in their activities. In the United
States, the Saint Louis Holocaust Survivors and
Descendants has been pioneering this approach with great
success. Most European groups also function this way.
We also welcome members of the older Holocaust
survivor generation, those who were adults during the
Holocaust, to join us any time, anywhere, and to participate in
our meetings and events, and, of course, to come to our
Conferences.
In the coming months, the details will be all worked out
and our new name, World Federation of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Descendants will be formalized and
promoted at the Warsaw conference. This, then, will be the
beginning of a new era for the World Federation.
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It is important to note that local chapters are not required to
change their names, although some have already done so.
Each group is an autonomous entity and should function as its
members are most comfortable.
But we also want to bear in mind our purpose that in all
places where Holocaust survivor groups exist, the unity of
our entire survivor family should be ensured and celebrated.
We will all join hands, heads and hearts for the benefit of our
cause of keeping the Holocaust memory alive, fighting hatred
and genocide, and standing up against those who deny that
the Holocaust ever happened.
************
22nd Annual International Conference Chicago, Illinois USA
Lives to Legacies
S
kokie, the Chicago suburb with a sizeable population of Jewish Holocaust survivors, was the site of the
22nd International Conference of Child Survivors, Second and Third Generations, Spouses and Families, on
November 5 – 8, 2010. Over 400 Holocaust survivors, child survivors, and descendants, our families and friends took part
in a weekend of remembrance, reliving heartbreaking memories but finding joy in reuniting with our special child survivor
sisters and brothers. We shared our stories, we looked at our present and our future, learned from each other and from the
“experts”. We got to meet members of the younger generation and they became
acquainted with us. By all accounts the conference was a great success!
The conference was organized by the Hidden Children/Child Survivors
of Greater Chicago group with the help of Chicagoland’s many Second
Generation members, who actively participated both as leaders and members
of numerous committees. Much administrative and managerial help was
provided by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
A number of volunteers from Skokie and other Jewish communities were
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
also at hand to help with registration and various informational duties.
Conference Highlights
Program events included informational speeches, seminars, a rich variety of sometimes emotional workshops, film
presentations, and art therapy sessions. Several speeches dealt with the memories, concerns and issues of the aging Holocaust
community and the role of the Second and Third Generation both as caregivers and hopes for the future.
Dr. Charles Strozier, professor and psychoanalyst gave an account of a series of interviews with a group of Hidden
Children following the terrorist attack of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. As it was to be expected, the horrific
events stirred up dreadful memories in the group and most of his interviewees felt re-traumatized.
Dr. Michael Grodin, Director, Project on Medicine and the Holocaust, Boston University, presented a comprehensive
overview of psychological changes that happen in the later years of Holocaust survivors. He highlighted problems associated
with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as related to aging Holocaust survivors, also touching on the effects of flashbacks
and seemingly innocuous events or situations that can transport survivors back to the horrifying past, for example being at a
crowded railroad station or standing in line at a supermarket. Directing his words to current and future caretakers, Dr. Grodin
cautioned about sensitivity toward special survivor problems, such as grief management and separation anxieties.
Dr. Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation spoke of the significance of the videotaped records of
over eleven thousand child-survivors. Beyond describing Holocaust experiences, these records also serve as evidence of the preHolocaust lives of a vast cross-section of European Jewry.
Professor Peter Hayes, historian and Holocaust educator at Northwestern University, talked about the challenges of
teaching about the Holocaust to today’s young people. His speech is excerpted in this issue; it can be heard in its entirety at our
website, www.wfjcsh.org .
An exceptional treat for us all was the presence and performance of Cantor Alberto Mizrahi. The Athens-born member
of the Second Generation touched our heartstrings with his gorgeous tenor voice as he sang songs in six languages, including
Yiddish and Ladino. Mally Rutkoff, of the Jewish Federation of Chicago gave detailed information about programs headed by
their Holocaust Community Services department. Such great work should serve as an example for other cities with a population
of needy Holocaust survivors.
As always, the seminars and workshops addressed numerous issues so that everyone could find something of interest.
Some of these subjects are so sensitive that many of us cannot discuss them as freely and openly in any other environment
except here, among our peers. A few workshops were the “tried and true” variety that participants always expect to have, such
as “Survivors’ Meeting by Country of Origin” but several new topics were introduced, such as triggers that re-awaken past
trauma; non-survivor spouses and partners examining relationships with their survivor life-mates; and “Aging: Its Challenges
and Losses”. A number of workshops were designed for 2Gs, who discussed how they dealt with the effects of their parents’
experiences, explored ways of carrying Holocaust heritage into the future and delved into such subject such as “Finding
Happiness in the Shadow of the Holocaust.”
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The role of art was explored in discussion groups, both as a weapon of persecution and an instrument of healing. One
seminar brought to light how Nazis fought against free artistic expression and especially modern art. Labeling the works
“degenerate art”, they persecuted avant-garde artists whose ranks included several Jews, Marc Chagal among them. On the
opposite end of the spectrum, the healing capacity of art was utilized in a hands-on workshop that drew on art as a tool of
therapeutic value to help victims communicate nonverbally about the horrors they could not get themselves to express in words.
Movies as reflections of Jewish life in the U.S. and elsewhere were discussed and viewed in a seminar; another venue
showcased full-length features, which ranged from documentaries about Holocaust survivors, hidden children, and lost Jewish
cultures to commercial films related to the Jewish experience, such as Gentleman’s Agreement and Chaplin’s Great Dictator.
Intergenerational communication was the goal of several programs that brought together Survivors and members of the
Second and Third Generation in order to listen to one another and to share their feelings and concerns. In an especially moving
tribute Matt Silberman, teen-age son of conference organizer Renee, and one of the youngest participant, proclaimed that the
Holocaust will “always be part of my life.”
Aging and losses were an oft-visited theme of workshops for survivors, while Second Generation members explored how
they can care for elderly or ill survivors with sensitivity and compassion. 2G seminars also investigated ways of keeping the
Holocaust histories of their parents alive through telling their stories to audiences.
Europe Yesterday and Today: Jewish Issues and Concerns— members of an international panel spoke of
unrecognized Jewish heroes of the Holocaust, provided insightful personal information about Holocaust experiences in the
former Soviet Union, and reported on anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli propaganda in Western-European countries. An
informative seminar run by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also addressed current problems of anti-Semitism in European
countries and made us aware of anti-Semitism in the United States and of the League’s activities to combat it.
In the evenings we let go of all our cares; sang and danced to the tunes of two excellent Klezmer bands.
Post-conference tours comprised of a visit to the very impressive new Holocaust Museum and Education Center and a fullday coach tour discovering Chicago’s Jewish Roots. Both tours were pleasant and informative, led as they were by very
capable guides. We would be remiss if we did not mention the outstanding lunch at Manny’s Deli, one of the greatest eateries
we have ever had the good fortune to visit.
Thank You
We sincerely thank all who took part in managing and coordinating the Conference, the Chicago Conference committee,
the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, all the organizations and individuals who contributed with financial and
in-kind sponsorship. A big Thank You to all the speakers, panelists, and seminar and workshop leaders and coordinators who
participated, as always at these conferences, volunteering their time and expenses to ensure that we had a profound and
meaningful experience working through some issues that are still unresolved for many of us. And we especially thank YOU, all
who came to meet with old friends, make new friendships, reminisce, laugh and cry, and rejoice in being together again.
**********
Conference 2011, Warsaw, Poland
August 19—August 22 2011 is the date of our 23rd International Conference in Warsaw, Poland. It will be held in the fivestar Marriott Hotel in the center of Warsaw. To make on-line hotel room reservations, click on the link below (or copy and paste
the link on your Internet page):
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/wawpl?groupCode=TGCTGCA&app=resvlink&fromDate=8/16/1
1&toDate=8/25/11
You will be directed to the hotel's home page with the room rate code already entered in the appropriate field. The
negotiated group price will be valid August 16—August 24 2011. The number of rooms in the hotel is about 400, we
recommend that you book your rooms as early as you can.
Many of you had asked for information about organized side-trips in connection with the conference. The Warsaw
organizing committee sent us some recommendations about travel consultants in Poland to handle various individual travel
requirements. Please note that they differentiate between travel within Poland and travel outside of Poland.
For trips within Poland, the recommendation is Furnel Travel; for outside of Poland they recommend Isram Travel.
Please note that Furnel and Isram work together.
The two travel agencies, wishing to introduce themselves and their services, have posted the following get-acquainted
messages to prospective conference attendees:
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Message from Furnel Travel for services inside Poland
For services in Poland, attendees should contact Furnel Travel directly. Especially for “roots searching”, direct contact is
essential as people often do not know the proper spelling of places they wish to visit and we have to be precise. Also, they may
wish to change plans on the spot and that would be easier if they agreed on itineraries, rates, etc directly with us from the
beginning.
We plan to put together a manual with suggestions of places to be visited and rates, so they will have something to choose from.
Anything else they may need would be on request.
Furnel Travel would thus concentrate on services in Poland. With questions, please contact: Ms. Krystyna Flis, email:
[email protected] , phone (48)222449991.
We believe that it is very important that clients use one supplier in Poland and for all other destinations. This would secure the
same procedures and same standards for everyone. Furnel and ISRAM would make sure that clients using the same services
pay the same rates, get standardized confirmations, information and payment condition.
Monika Skrodzka
Vice President
Furnel Travel International
____________________________________
Message from Isram Travel, for travel outside of Poland
My Name is David Gilinsky, I will assist your participants with travel arrangement anywhere in Europe and the USA. Please
feel free to give out my e-mail and 1-800 number; we do have special prices for hotels and services all over Europe.
Please make sure they ask for me and state that they are part of your conference. Should you have any questions, please don't
hesitate to contact me
David Gilinsky
Isram/Flexi World Wide Travel
233 Park Avenue South, 10th floor
New York, NY 10003
Tel: 212 507-9333 ext. 9231
Toll Free: 800 541-3523 ext. 9231
Fax: 212 370-1476
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
**********
As of now, plans are formulated for the following tours: (Click on the name of the tour for more details)
Private Tours
Group Tours (minimum of 20 people)
Sit In Bus Tours (small groups, minimum of 10 people)
Warsaw
Lublin Krakow
Warsaw
Krakow
Krakow
Krakow
Lublin
In the upcoming months more information will become available about the conference. Regular updates will be published on
our website, www.wfjcsh.org, in new editions of this newsletter as well as in the World Federation News Update flyer. You can
also send email to [email protected] with your questions.
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Rabbi Schneur Zalman Schneerson—An Unrecognized Hero
In a panel discussion, titled Europe Yesterday and Today: Jewish Issues and Concerns Chana Arnon presented the dramatic
story of Rabbi Zalman Schneerson, an orthodox Jewish rescuer, who saved the lives of more than one hundred children in the
south of France during the German occupation. The following is a shortened version of Chana’s article, which can be found in
full at our web site www.wfjcsh.org..
Z
alman Schneerson was a Chabad rabbi,
who never gave up “his religious
principles, his adherence to the letter of
the Halakha, his missionary drive.” He was “not
shy of speaking French with a strong Russian
accent” and retained his red beard and side
locks, as well as “his Hassidic garb”.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman Schneerson, a cousin of
both the 6th and the 7th Lubavitcher rebbes, was
born in Belarus in 1898. After being ordained
from the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Russia, he spent a few
months in Palestine then moved to France. In Paris Rabbi
Schneerson founded the Association des Israelites
Pratiquants (AIP) (Union of Orthodox Jews), which
"provided material relief to needy Jewish refugees…founded
Hebrew schools and synagogues, set up kosher soup kitchens
and distributed clothing and money."
In the summer of 1940 Rabbi Schneerson moved to the south
of France where he turned his efforts to taking care of
orphaned or abandoned Jewish children. “This was the
beginning of a struggle of life-and-death with the forces of
evil, which was to continue until the last days of the war.”
The rabbi and his family moved to Marseille, where “he
established the new center of his AIP organization and
scraped together the money for the arrival of new child
refugees.” He rented a large home in the countryside to
accommodate the growing number of children who “shared
the pain of being torn away from their parents”—most
parents having been interned or deported due to the policies
of the Vichy government.
Rabbi Schneerson considered the children’s religious
education of utmost importance. But he also valued matters
of joy and elation at holidays such as Purim or Simchat
Torah, as shown in a 1943 letter:
Dear students, bless you! Shalom and beracha,
I have one request to make of you – to be as happy as
you can during the holidays…. The matter of joy is very
important, especially during these trying times, to lift up
the soul from its downcast condition….
This letter, and others, show “the complex nature of the
rabbi's personality” and his concerns for the children, for their
spiritual well being as well as their physical survival.
In the following two years the rabbi devoted most of his
energies “to moving his charges from one region to another to
whisk them out of the worst danger areas.” In addition, there
were financial hardships: even as the number of children
needing shelter had grown, support from outside
organizations has greatly diminished. For most of his
operations Rabbi Schneerson had used his own finances.
The arrest of six children was a forewarning and even
though these children were later released, it was arranged
that over a hundred people, most of them children, were
moved to the southwest corner of France near the Pyrenees.
But as Jews were rounded up at increasing speed in Axisoccupied Vichy France, the children were evacuated to the
Italian-occupied area of France, to an eighteenth-century
Chateau, that “seemed to come straight out of a fairy tale.”
Rabbi Schneerson and the children began preparing for
Pesach in early spring and planted wheat for flour to bake
their matzos. The boys harvested the crops and the girls
ground the wheat into flour with tiny hand mills. From pieces
of cloth they’d sewn bags to hold the flour. When they had to
flee to a new home the children carried the flour in backpacks. “The illegal goods thus transported could well have
ended in arrest, with disastrous consequences”…but the flour
reached its destination without anyone having been arrested.
“The only one not surprised was the rabbi, who, as a
believing Jew, had been sure of a happy ending.” They baked
the matzo, according to the strictest halakhic rules, in an
outdoor oven that a friendly farmer allowed for their use.
Times were getting more and more difficult; food was scarce
and the children went hungry. During Pesach they existed on
matzos, some nuts, fruits and vegetables.
The rabbi and his group were in constant danger from the
Nazis and their sympathizers. Although he believed that God
would save them, more rational voices prevailed and the
children were taken further south, to Nice, where many
Jewish refugees fled seeking safety. But the Germans invaded
the city and thousands were rounded up and deported.
Once the move to Nice had proved to be a mistake, heroic
efforts were made to smuggle the children back to the
Chateau. The rabbi and his family remained in Nice in hiding
until after the Jewish holidays.
During the winter of 1943/44 some of the children were taken
back by their parents, some were spirited to Switzerland.
Those who were still in the home were sent to hiding places
in five locations in the area. One of these hiding places was
raided one night and sixteen boys and one woman, the mother
of two brothers in the group, were arrested and deported.
“This was the worst of the calamities visited upon the
Schneerson children.” Only one of those boys who were
deported survived the war.
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The same day that the raid occurred, Mme. Sara Schneerson,
the rabbi's wife, was arrested in La Manche, near where the
rabbi and some students had found a hiding place. She was
taken to French Militia headquarters, interrogated and
tortured, but she withstood the ordeal courageously without
giving away any information about the whereabouts of her
husband or their daughter, Hadassah. From then on, until the
liberation in August 1944, the children, adults, and the rabbi
and his family were hidden at different places in the area.
After liberation the Schneerson family returned to Paris,
taking some of the survivors with them. Some of the orphans
remained in the last home; several adults stayed behind to
take care of them. In September 1946 the youth home closed
its doors.
The exact number of children saved by Rabbi Schneerson, his
family and helpers, cannot be definitely confirmed. However,
the number is estimated by some to be well over one hundred.
************
Surviving the Holocaust in Belarus
Esther Lupyan
Panelist, Europe Yesterday and Today: Jewish Issues and Concerns
The true history of the Holocaust in the former Soviet Union is still being written today.
During the Soviet rule little was made public about the murder of tens of thousands of Jewish
inhabitants of those Soviet states that were under German occupation. For decades after the
Holocaust, Jewish survivors kept silent about their ordeals, fearing reprisals from Stalin’s
government; most even had to hide their Jewish identities.The Soviet state made them believe
that their suffering was just part of the fate of all Soviet citizens during World War II.
The truth is now slowly coming out. For example, it is now known that in Belarus, a state that
was once a thriving center of Jewish culture, an estimated 90% of the Jewish population of
roughly one million was murdered during the Nazi rule between 1941 and 1944.
As more Holocaust research is focused on the slaughter of Jews in that part of the world,
some survivors are finally able to face the pain of exploring their family’s history and are
stepping forward to talk about it. Esther (Esfir) Lupyan, a Jewish child survivor from
Belarus and member of the Hidden Children/Child Survivors of Michigan group, wrote this
story, which she shared during a panel discussion at the Chicago/Skokie Conference.
M
y life is just one example of the many Jewish lives
that were destroyed by the Holocaust in the Soviet
Union. For a long time I’ve kept all the sad
memories to myself but today I speak publicly to tell what my
childhood life was like in the Minsk ghetto from 1941 to
1943 and then, for nine months in the Byelorussian forests.
I was five years old when the Germans occupied Minsk. It
was a beautiful summer. My mom sent me to summer camp
in the green woods near Minsk. We happily played in the
clearing. All of a sudden, our teachers gathered us up and put
us on trains, direct to the Minsk railway station. My short
happy childhood was suddenly over, at the end of June 1941.
Before the war I lived with my grandparents, my mom Bella
Kaplan-Muroch, her brother Isaac, and Gregory, my 10-year
old brother. With the German occupation our lives changed
forever. First, we were ordered to leave our house and move
into the Jewish Ghetto. My family could not take furniture
and other needed things including my toys, my three-wheel
bicycle, books. In the ghetto there was no food, no clean
water, no fuel or wood to warm up the house, no medications.
We were suffering from hunger and sickness. The only thing
that helped us was that my brother Gregory, who did not look
Jewish, sometimes got out of the ghetto by crawling under the
barbed-wire fence and made his way to the Russian district
where he begged for food or exchanged some of Mom's
things like a watch or
bracelet, for something that
we could eat. I remember
that he brought me candy
shaped like beans.
Germans and policemen
stormed around the city
conducting roundups, or
oblava. Policemen would
burst into houses yelling for all to get out. Sometimes they
killed whomever they saw. I remember the day my
grandparents were ordered to the Central Plaza. All the
people on the Plaza that day were killed, including my
grandparents. My aunt and my ten-year old cousin Mikhail
were killed when they were out on the street after curfew. My
relatives on my father’s side were murdered during one of the
Nazi raids in 1941.
In our house there was cellar. When we heard “raid, hide”,
we all jumped into the cellar. It was always dark and cold
there and I was always shivering with fear. We had to keep
quiet until the heavy steps above us were gone; then we knew
we were safe.
I don’t remember all my family members, but I know that
some of my cousins were very talented musicians and poets.
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The Germans needed workers who were young and healthy.
My mom, her girlfriends, and my 19-year old uncle Isaac
were sent to work. Actually they became slaves. They worked
from darkness to darkness having only a small bowl of thin
soup and piece of bread once a day. My mother and her
girlfriends worked as cleaners in rail station facilities. Isaac
worked in mechanical shop, where he and other men repaired
broken weapons coming from the front. My brother Gregory,
who was 12 by then, went with Isaac to his workplace. Isaac
and Gregory tried to hide parts of weapons. Both became
members of the ghetto’s underground group; they helped
people get away from the hell. Isaac escaped from the ghetto
as soon as he had a weapon. With a weapon he could join a
guerrilla detachment in the forest and fight against the enemy.
Sadly, he was killed in battle. My mom learned the fate of her
brother after the war. The official paper said that her brother,
my Uncle Isaac, was brave and perished as a hero.
My brother Gregory became a mature independent teenager.
My mother did not even know that her son secretly became
member of the underground group. I learned much later about
my brother's activity in the ghetto. He was a brave boy, very
smart. Friends called him Dare-Devil, sorvanets in Russian.
One day when Gregory returned to the ghetto from one of his
trips to the Russian District sneaking under the fence, a
policeman grabbed him and reported him to the Gestapo.
Gregory was arrested. They severely tortured him but
Gregory did not betray the names of underground members.
He died a real hero. Mom lost her son, I lost my brother.
Names of my uncle Isaac and my brother Gregory Kaplan are
mentioned in the book Minsk Ghetto by Gershon Smolar.
So, Mom lost all immediate relatives except me. She did not
know what to do with me, where to find a safe place for me..
At the beginning of her slave labor she could take me to the
work place. But later the Germans gave strict orders that
parents were not allowed to take children with them, or else
they will kill the child. I remember women put me between
them and covered me by long skirt. We walked together step
by step and the guards did not notice me. But this became
extremely dangerous and mom decided to leave me in a
Russian orphanage, not far from the ghetto. But I cried and
refused to stay and so she took me back with her.
In the fall of 1943 the word spread that the Red Army was
coming soon. But Germans were eager to finish with ghetto
and annihilate all Jews. One gloomy October day they began
to push all weakened Jews to the railroad station. It was
noisy, people cried. Everybody knew this was the end. My
mom grabbed my hand and we ran into the building where
she worked. In the chaos nobody noticed us. We walked into
the kitchen and through the door that led to the platform.
Then we walked a short distance along the rails. Suddenly, a
man in civilian clothes jumped out of a ditch. He looked at
my Mom, tore off her yellow “Jew” patch from her coat. He
told us to hide in the nearest haystack, wait until darkness,
then continue at dawn trying to avoid people. We did that and
reached the forest. We ended up wandering in the forest with
many other refugees for nine months.
In the forest, we met many Jews who managed to flee from
the ghettos of Belarus. Mom was looking for guerilla groups
to fight with partisans. But no group wanted to accept her
because of me, still a small child. Also she did not have a
weapon. Also anti-Semitism reigned in the forests among
Byelorussian partisans. I remember some of them called my
mom a spy because they did not believe that a Jew could
escape from the Ghetto. We wandered from place to place,
from one group of refugees to another. Sometimes we slept in
empty bunkers that were abandoned by partisans. A few
times mom knocked on the door of houses in the villages near
the edge of the forest. Sometimes a woman gave us some
milk with bread, but she would not allow us to stay the night.
I remember many times that we ran away from policemen or
Nazi collaborators who tried to kill us. We spent many nights
around bonfires; people helped each other survive.
The Red Army liberated Belarus in July 1944. Mom and I
returned to the destroyed city of Minsk. She found the family
of her cousin and they gave us a place to stay for a while.
Months later Mom found a letter from my father. He sent
many letters to find out what happened to his family. In
January of 1945 we traveled to the city of Vorkuta, in the
north of the country, to join him. It was then that we found
out that he was arrested as dissident by Stalin's regime even
before the war started.
Often, when workers returned after work they saw corpses on
the ground, with letters that said “he or she helped partisans.”
My mother passed away in 1985. My father Tsalia Kaplan
passed away in Italy, on the way to USA. I came with my two
children and 2-year old grandson to Michigan in 1989.
**********
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Pictures from the Conference
The Chicago/Skokie Conference Organizing Committee
Dr. Michael Grodin
Award for Myriam Abramowicz, filmmaker
Cantor Alberto Mizrahi
Audience at a Seminar
Solomon Schechter Choir Singers
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Scenes from the Dining Room
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About the Claims Conference
Stefanie Seltzer’s Letter to the World Federation Membership
Dear Friends,
I write to you as your World Federation President and also as one of two delegates from the WF to the Claims Conference
(CC) Board.
I was invited to join the Claims Conference Board as an individual observer in the mid-1990s by Rabbi Israel Miller, then
the long-time president of the CC, and I have been on the board ever since. I have been in that second position of WF delegate
since 2009 when the WF was given membership on the CC Board. Haim Roet, a well known Israeli, was the other delegate
from 2009 until this year, and Max Lezer from the Netherlands has taken that seat after Haim resigned.
I write because of the recent revelations of fraudulent claims filed with the Claims Conference. While the fraud was
discovered by the CC, allegations appeared in the press pointing to the slowness of the process by which the fraud was exposed.
A cloud was also cast over the procedures used by the CC and, thereby, over the CC itself. A second issue is the more recently
published report by Jeffrey Gruder QC (Queen’s Counsel), a British attorney, commissioned by the British Board of Jewish
Deputies, in which Gruder evaluates the actions of the Claims Conference regarding potential heirs of Jewish properties in East
Germany. I want to address briefly these matters and other issues related to them.
I begin by agreeing that the Claims Conference should always operate in an atmosphere of openness and accountability. I
regret that this has not always been the case. I disagree, however, that the CC Board is a “rubber stamp”, giving authorization or
approval automatically. I have often been, along with others, a voice of questioning and even dissent. I applaud the fact that the
Claims Conference uncovered the fraud and reported it to the FBI, but I ask, with others, why it took the so long to do so, and I
believe that here is an opportunity for them to demonstrate much needed openness, transparency and accountability.
Regarding the issue of potential heirs to the properties in East Germany, I agree that it would have been more open if the
Claims Conference had published the list of properties so that potential heirs could have filed claims. Remember, however, that
the CC is facing a growing group of aging and indigent survivors who had and still have needs that could be met only with the
money that comes from the proceeds of sale of the properties. As a result of this urgent situation, the CC moved up the deadline
for filing claims for these properties, but it should have explained more clearly why it was doing so.
The Claims Conference faced a clash of moral values then: the rights of those heirs against the needs of the aging
survivors. I agree, in retrospect, that the CC chose correctly by beginning to disburse the funds to the survivors. Had they not
done so, we might now be witnessing dragged-out court proceedings with a few heirs as claimants while needy survivors live
and die in squalor. Once again, however, more openness from the CC about this process would have done much to vitiate the
arguments of Jeffrey Gruder and Isi Leibler.
My final point concerns the Claims Conference itself. This body is the best means we have for dealing with the needs of an
aging survivor community. Rather than either turn to or invent a different entity for offering the vital services now provided by
the CC, new procedures by the CC need to be implemented. Those new procedures must ensure that the CC is operating in an
atmosphere of openness, total transparency and with due regard to accountability. We made a decision long ago to stay in the
Claims Conference and fight for reforms and change from within, and we will continue to do so. It may be that, given the
serious criticisms being leveled at the CC, we may now find some allies for our position.
The Claims Conference has long been a respected partner in difficult negotiations with Germany. The most recent
negotiation resulted in $140 million in additional funds for Homecare service subsidies and the expanded Ghetto pension fund.
The CC continues to work with the German Government in negotiations leading to more funds that benefit survivors, and has
their confidence as the entity for disbursement of funds to survivors. The Claims Conference has also been and continues to be
fully supported by the United States Government.
I trust that my remarks help you understand better that the aims of the Claims Conference are noble but their work is
incredibly difficult, given that they must handle billions of dollars. Despite this, they have delivered a very high percentage of
that money to the target group, the needy aging survivors of the Holocaust.
Stefanie Seltzer, President