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The West Point Jewish Chapel Cadet Choir earlier this month had the honor to perform for President Obama at the White House’s Chanukah party. Earlier this year, the talented choir performed at West Point’s annual Day of Remembrance, during a lecture co-sponsored by the Claims Conference, in honor of the Holocaust and its victims. We’ve posted this video of their moving rendition of “Eli, Eli.”
 Yad Vashem stands in Israel not only as a memorial to the Nazis’ victims, but also as a reminder of the responsibility shared by all of us to guard against something like the Holocaust ever happening again. The Claims Conference has been a long-time partner of Yad Vashem, dating back to the founding of the museum. And so I was very pleased to read a JTA report that U.S. philanthropists Sheldon and Miriam Adelson recently donated $25 million to Yad Vashem for educational seminars and teacher training programs at the museum’s International School for Holocaust Studies. Sheldon Adelson, considered to be one of the world’s richest men, is chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and owner of Israel Hayom, a free daily newspaper in Israel. Combined with a $25 million donation from the couple in 2006, the donation is the largest the museum has received from a private donor. I applaud the Adelsons for their generosity and commitments to education and to preserving the legacy of the Shoah and its victims. To help protect that legacy, we have organizations such as the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research, created in 1998 and charged with garnering international support from political and social leaders for Holocaust education, research, and commemoration. I would like to congratulate Serbia, Ireland, and Slovenia, which were recently approved as new members of the Task Force and will join its 28 other member-countries in its important mission. The Claims Conference, as well as the United Nations and UNESCO among other organizations, is a permanent international observer of the Task Force. Serbia is home to almost 800 Nazi victims. Through funding to local Jewish communities there, the Claims Conference provides daily hot meals, homecare, medical programs, and emergency assistance in the country. Ireland and Slovenia, however, are home to only a small handful of survivors and so it is especially gratifying to see their governments involved in promoting international Holocaust education. The efforts of the Task Force, Yad Vashem, and people like the Adelsons, all contribute to the future of Holocaust education. We all share in the responsibility to care for elderly Nazi victims, the most vulnerable segment of our community. The Claims Conference continues working hard to provide every Nazi victim with some small measure of justice and to make certain that no Nazi victim anywhere is forgotten. Shabbat shalom. I want to wish a very special “happy birthday” to Alice Herz-Sommer, who turned 108 last week. According to JTA, Alice is the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor. A professional pianist since she was a teenager growing up in Prague, Alice was sent to Terezin in 1943 with her husband and young son. There, she played more than 150 concerts. Alice continues to play today, according to JTA. I sincerely wish Alice many more years filled with health and happiness. Unfortunately, most survivors are not blessed with Alice’s longevity. A close-knit community of survivors in a New York City apartment building has dwindled over the years, leaving the few remaining survivors isolated and out of touch with their new neighbors, according to a New York Times story earlier this week. The building, one of six in Queens built by SelfHelp Community Services – a long-time Claims Conference partner in survivor care – to provide housing for Jewish refugees, is becoming predominantly Chinese, according to the Times. It is incredibly sad to see this community shrinking, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to the remaining survivors living in the Martin Lande House who are dealing with the changes around them as they lose their friends. Fortunately, the remaining survivors are able to continue living in their homes in dignity, rather than moving into old-age homes. Memories are quite powerful, especially for Holocaust survivors who endured such absolute horrors early in their lives. Such memories can be triggered by the trauma of being taken out of their homes and placed into the confusing and unfamiliar setting of old-age homes, or the most unsuspecting thing, like a name. Indeed, the name of a carnival ride in Florida has triggered outrage among survivors there. According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the ire is directed toward Frank Zaitshik, owner of a rollercoaster called the Zyklon, German for “cyclone” but also the name of the infamous poison used in the Nazi gas chambers, Zyklon B. After hearing the multitude of complaints, Zaitshik agreed to change the name to something that doesn’t stir up such horrible images. Unfortunately, this isn’t first time the word has popped up commercially. In 2002, the Germany-based Siemens wanted to use the name for a U.S. line of appliances such as coffeemakers and, stupidly enough, gas ovens. The trademark request was withdrawn after complaints. As the number of survivors continues to decrease, our responsibility to carry on their legacies grows. We must tell their stories and ensure that the lessons and memories of the Holocaust and its victims are neither forgotten nor diminished. Shabbat shalom. I don’t typically point out high school graduations in this blog, but a very special student received his degree this month and I have to wish him an equally special “mazel tov.” Howard Chandler began his schooling in Poland but his education was interrupted in fourth grade when the Nazis invaded his country and eventually forced Howard and his family to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. According to the Associated Press, Howard, the sole survivor of his immediate family, immigrated to Canada after the war and worked as a jeweler until he retired. He has spoken often to students at Eastwood Collegiate Institute, a public high school in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, which in gratitude granted him an honorary diploma earlier this month. Howard’s childhood was interrupted, his family ripped away from him. This achievement is an honor not only for Howard, but also for his family and each of the 6 million victims. For somebody who suffered and lost so much to have lived a successful life and then receive the degree he was denied so many decades ago, is as if the 6 million are collectively shouting out to Hitler, “You did not win! We live on!” Yasher koach, Howard. It is memories like these that become important to survivors. Unfortunately, as survivors age and pass away, we lose not only direct witnesses to one of history’s darkest chapters, but in many cases we are lose their personal treasures, which can also tell us so much about the culture before, during, and after the Holocaust. Realizing the educational value of some of their belongings, survivors are beginning to sort through their possessions and donate meaningful items to museums. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for example, has prepared a calendar highlighting 12 “extraordinary ordinary objects, each with an unforgettable story to tell.” The survivors themselves are our best window into the days of the Holocaust, but what they leave behind can also paint a picture for us. These generous donations will ensure that that while the survivors pass on, their legacies will live on.
As waiters rushed out orders of hot wonton soup, some of the guests clapped along to the violinist playing upbeat Jewish music, while others were lost in conversations about their children, their daily lives, and the Chinese feast before them. For the 100-some Holocaust survivors gathered at Brooklyn’s Shang Chai restaurant earlier this month for the Jewish Community Council of Canarsie’s survivor appreciation luncheon, the annual gathering was like a family reunion.  They are like extended family to each other, organizers said of the Nazi victims who came to the JCC of Canarsie's survivor appreciation luncheon. “A lot of survivors feel the need, at least once a year, to have a common bond with someone else who understands,” said Rabbi Avrohom Hecht, the JCC’s executive director. “They don’t even have to talk about being a survivor. This is their extended family. They have very small families of their own so this is really their family.” Only people who went through the Holocaust can really understand what happened, says Nissan Krakinowski, who depends on housekeeping services he receives through the JCC. Originally from Lithuania, Mr. Krakinowski was in his early teens when he lost both his parents and was sent to Dachau. He speaks at local schools about his experiences, and is amazed when young students respond so emotionally to his story. But you cannot really tell people what it is to be afraid, he says, and it is only when he is with other survivors that he feels he is among people who truly understand. “I have a common language with them,” he says. “They understand me and I understand them. If I was in Dachau and they were in Auschwitz, all of us had the same conditions; all of us had a death sentence.” The JCC reaches out to some 700 Nazi victims in the Brooklyn area, providing counseling services, support groups, nutrition classes, meals on wheels, and social services. The JCC also provides help to Nazi victims applying for Medicare and Medicaid; aid from local survivor-support agencies, such as Blue Card, which also receives Claims Conference funding; and Claims Conference compensation programs. Claims Conference funding to the JCC helps it provide a number of these services.  Some 100 Nazi victims gathered at Brooklyn's Shang Chai restaurant earlier this month for the JCC of Canarsie's annual survivor appreciation luncheon. Leonid Barakon came to America in 1979 with his two children. Originally from Odessa, Ukraine, Leonid’s mother was evacuated with her two younger children to Tashkent after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, while Leonid’s father was killed while serving in the Soviet army in Leningrad. In 1944, Leonid joined the Soviet army and learned to drive tanks. After the war, he became a cabinet maker, a trade he continued in the United States. Now, he volunteers with the JCC, driving people to the center and also helping with meals on wheels because, he says, people are in need. “I love this work,” he says. “We just feel very fortunate that we can help the survivors,” Rabbi Hecht says. “They’re very special people. And we’re really grateful that they built the communities that we’re in 50 years ago when they came here. The synagogues, schools, everything, it’s because of their efforts.” For more about the JCC of Canarsie’s programs, visit www.canarsiejcc.org. |
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© 2010 Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany |
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