"Flight from the Reich"

On Wednesday, October 13, Robert Jan van Pelt spoke to a room full of educators, students, and members of the community interested in the topics of the Holocaust, genocide, and refugees.

Van Pelt is a world renowned Holocaust scholar and author. He is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Robert Jan van Pelt spoke on this evening about his most recent book, Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946.

We asked those educators wanting clock hours to write up something from the evening's presentation that stood out to them. Below are a few of these reflections. We will continue to add to this post as we receive submissions.

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By Helena B.

Robert Jan van Pelt’s talk revealed the way Holocaust studies has broadened its parameters to encompass the plight of refugees and weave the stories of those who “escaped” into the broader narrative of suffering and endurance. Using passports, visas, and documents as a unifying trope, van Pelt examines the plight of over one million Jews who fled the Reich, were deported from nation to nation, or rebuilt their lives in places as foreign as Shanghai. I appreciated how van Pelt exposed the contradiction of terms that inevitably emerges in a discussion of statelessness, border crossing, and transnational existence. Take, for example, the case of Anne Frank, who holds place in popular thought as a Dutch citizen, when in reality, her family had fled Nazi Germany and sought temporary refuge in Amsterdam. Or the conundrum that if a passport serves as a kind of legal guarantee—as assurance that the issuing country will unconditionally welcome back the holder into its jurisdiction—then a refugee with a passport, by definition, cannot exist. I found van Pelt’s analysis of contradictory terms and paper documents to be a provocative and useful means of grappling with his central question: “Who belongs to this history?”

I was also particularly struck by van Pelt’s analysis of the demographics of the exodus. French and British sponsored kindertransports, for example, were the result of political negotiation more than an acute and abiding sense of moral obligation. According to van Pelt, “We’ll take the children, if it will appease the public and excuse us from dealing with their parents” was the general consensus in British parliament. Moreover, although the Nazis requested that the Slovaks ship only young and able Jews for slave labor in concentration camps, the Slovak “all or nothing, old and young” response was, at least in part, responsible for the Final Solution in the sense that it prompted the Nazis to conduct their first systematic extermination based on age. Finally, young refugees (and young female refugees in particular) had a higher chance of survival and success post-exodus, for it was much easier for them to both secure proper documentation and rebuild their lives in a new place. Van Pelt’s decision to place lesser-examined topics like demographics and family dynamics in the context of diaspora and flight was a fresh approach to Holocaust scholarship. Refugees did not exist as an isolated group with wholly disparate experiences from those who stayed behind and found themselves trapped inside death camps. Indeed, theirs was a trauma with its own particular horrors, but with the same basic and ineffable suffering—the experience of living out terror, suddenly losing everything one knows and everything one holds dear.

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By Erika M.

The lecture given by Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt on October 13th was engaging and informative on the topic of Jewish refugees in the Holocaust.

I studied the history of the Holocaust at university and found my knowledge of the plight of refugees to be very limited. I was totally unaware of the numbers of Jews who escaped through Shanghai and the ease of attaining visas from the Japanese consulate. It was interesting to hear of the bureaucrats who offered escape to Jews in Europe regardless of the mandates from their government.

I often find myself focusing on the larger facts of the Holocaust and the chronological progression of events instead of the stories behind the story. For example, I have read The Diary of Anne Frank and am familiar with Frank’s story of hiding but wasn’t aware of the reasoning behind Otto Frank’s timely decision to escape to Holland before there was the sense of urgency found after 1939. It was with personal stories that van Pelt reiterated the truth that the refugee experience was different for everyone. This truth was echoed by comments from attendees who were the children of refugees.

I also appreciated the stories van Pelt shared including the tale of the Swiss spinster who copied letters between separated parents and children. To me it revealed the goodness of humanity in a time of such darkness with which parents tried to offer as much support and guidance to their children. I now look forward to increasing my knowledge on the topic as I read Flight from the Reich.

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By Keith M.

Dr. Van Pelt’s presentation allowed me to delve deeper into my own understanding of the mass removal and escape of Jews during the Holocaust. We often hear about the many stories of success in leaving Nazi Germany or Nazi occupation, but, as we discovered from Dr. Van Pelt, the plight of German Jews and Jews in German-occupied lands continued with the lack of interest of many countries, the United States included, in providing safeguard for many because immigration guidelines that limited widespread passage for many Jews, ultimately leading to capture and death within concentration camps. At the heart of Dr. Van Pelt’s stories and experiences is one important fact – we can never let our borders to safety be closed to those in need because of our own fears. Yet, we still see these experiences in the Sudan, in the former Yugoslavia, and in China. These must stop, and Dr. Van Pelt’s book is our own journal into the mistakes that were made by all, even those aiming to help.

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Stephanie N.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt’s lecture on Flight from The Reich: Refugee Jews 1933-1946. The experience in attending Dr. Van Pelt brought to light the refugee experience for Jews over a 13 year period. I think this was an area I had not really studied or been taught before. It was great to have a chance to hear an expert in the topic share his knowledge as well as having the opportunity to purchase his book on the subject.

Learning how a passport was essential to life and how if you did not have one you were in a very bad place without the possibility for gaining freedom in another country. I enjoyed the resources he shared from his book and that the book had elements I had not been taught before. I appreciate having the opportunity to learn more about the Holocaust by attending Dr. Van Pelt’s book talk.

The Man Who Sneaked Into Auschwitz

An unbelievable story. Pilecki voluntarily went to Auschwitz in order to reveal the truth about the camp. Story is also available in audio on NPR.

Meet The Man Who Sneaked Into Auschwitz

September 18, 2010
NPR Staff

This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of a World War II milestone few people have heard before. It's the story of a Polish army captain named Witold Pilecki.

In September 1940, Pilecki didn't know exactly what was going on in Auschwitz, but he knew someone had to find out. He would spend two and a half years in the prison camp, smuggling out word of the methods of execution and interrogation. He would eventually escape and author the first intelligence report on the camp.... Read more.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Thank to our many sponsors for supporting Holocaust education!

Carrots and....the Holocaust?

Eating carrots will improve your vision. True or false?

False.

Carrots are a great source of vitamin A, and it’s true that severe A deficiency causes night-blindness. But there is no proof that eating extra vitamin A, in carrots or other forms, can help eyesight.

This myth has a great backstory, though: During World War II, the British Air Ministry didn’t want the Germans to know about their new radar system so they spread the rumor that the fighter pilots who shot down Nazi planes ate a lot of carrots. The Germans bought it...as did generations of parents.

Talk about propaganda!

You can read more about the story here:
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp.

Kent Teacher, Debbie Carlson, Puts Emphasis on Social Justice

The Holocaust Center is so proud to be working with teachers like Debbie Carlson.

Spurred by Holocaust studies, Kent teacher puts emphasis on social justice in the classroom: Slide show of Holocaust sites

By LAURA PIERCE
Kent Reporter Editor
Sep 14 2010

It was the shoes on a riverbank that brought Debbie Carlson close to tears.

The Meridian Middle School teacher was on a trip to Eastern Europe this summer, and her tour group passed by a bronze sculpture of shoes, lined up on a riverbank. There were work shoes, children’s shoes, ladies’ shoes: a mixture of jobs, genders and ages.

The significance of the sculpture wasn’t lost on Carlson, who happened by this spot in the soft light of a summer day in Budapest, along the banks of Danube River with her tour group, while visiting sites of the Holocaust.

The shoes were the wordless reminder of the men, women and children whom the Nazis or their Hungarian counterparts lined up and shot along the riverbank. The bodies fell into the river, to be swept away by the current, their identities lost to their families and the world.

“When they were exterminating the Jews, they would line them up, and shoot them into the river,” Carlson says, of what she learned happened on that riverbank.

For Carlson, the sculpture was a consciousness-raising moment – one of many she experienced on the three-week trip... Read full article and see the slide show

George Elbaum - New Member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau

George Elbaum is a new member of the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau. He lives in San Francisco and travels to Seattle frequently. His memoir, Neither Yesterdays Nor Tomorrows, can be found on Amazon or borrowed from the Holocaust Center. The book can also be read at http://www.scribd.com/.

(See previous blog post "New Books" for information on George Elbaum's memoir.)

'Paper Clips’ helps S.F. man recall his Holocaust ‘Yesterdays’
Thursday, September 16, 2010 by marinell james
JWeekly.com

Warsaw, 1942: A 4-year-old Jewish boy is hiding under a table in a factory where his mother sews uniforms for the Nazi army. Soon, this arrangement becomes unsafe. The mother dyes her hair blonde, obtains the papers of a deceased Polish woman and changes her name. She smuggles her son out of the ghetto into the countryside, where she pays a Polish family to keep him safe in their home.

George ElbaumThe boy’s mother tells him that his name will now be Jerzy Kochanowski. It’s the first of several Polish names he’ll have during the war as he passes from one hiding place to another. For his protection, he will be raised as a Catholic, unaware that he is a Jew. His mother will visit when she can, sometimes not for a month at a time. San Francisco, 2010: The boy is now a 72-year-old man. Long ago, he moved to the United States and reclaimed his original Jewish name, George Elbaum. He has made a successful life for himself in business, been married 36 years, is a father and a grandfather. For six decades, he kept memories of his wartime childhood at a “safe emotional distance.”

But last year something happened that led Elbaum to finally close that chasm of time and memory.

While he and his wife were watching “Paper Clips,” a movie about schoolchildren in Tennessee who created a Holocaust remembrance project, he had “an epiphany.”

“The scenes where the children and the teachers were crying as they listened to the stories of survivors really hit me,” Elbaum said.

His wife sensed it and asked him, as she had in the past, if he’d write down his own memories. “I was surprised to hear myself say, ‘I’ll do it,’ ” he said. Read complete article.

New books to check out!

New resources available to borrow from the Holocaust Center's library. For more information, or to borrow books, please email Janna at admin@wsherc.org.

Would you like to help the Holocaust Center AND purchase a riveting read? If so, please first go to www.wsherc.org and enter the title or key word into the Amazon search box on the homepage. Amazon will donate a small percentage of your purchase to the Holocaust Center.

Bendavid-Val, Avrom. The Heavens Are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod. New York: Pegasus, 2010. Print.

A novel about the town of Trochenbrod, previously known as the setting of "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foers. This time, Trochenbrod is brought into the light by Bendavid-Val, touching upon the memory and history behind a booming town erased by the Nazis yet determined to stay in the hearts and minds of those connected to it forever.

Black, Gerry. Jewish London: An Illustrated History. 2007 ed. Derby, England: Breedon Books Publishing Co Ltd, 2009. Print.

Photos and written history of the long-time contribution that Jews have made to London.

Choko, Isabelle , Frances Irwin, Lotti Kahana-Aufleger, Margit Raab Kalina, and Jane Lipski. Stolen Youth: Five Women's Survival in the Holocaust. New York: Yad Vashem & Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Project, 2005. Print.

The stories of five women who survived the Holocaust.

Curators, The. Treasures of Jewish Heritage: Jewish Museum, London. 1 ed. London: Scala Publishers, 2006. Print.

A published written and pictorial journey through the Jewish Museum in London.

Elbaum, George J.. Neither Yesterdays Nor Tomorrows: Vignettes of a Holocaust Childhood. London, UK: Createspace, 2010. Print.

George J. Elbaum's look back into his childhood and time spent in the Warsaw ghetto, with other families hiding, and his life during and after the Holocaust.

Greenman, Leon. An Englishman in Auschwitz (The Library of Holocaust Testimonies). 2001. Reprint. Portland: Mitchell Vallentine & Company, 2010. Print.

The story of Leon Greenman, an Englishman living with his family in Holland during the early years of the Holocaust, abandoned by the British Consulate once war came, and without money or nationality papers. He and his family were taken to Auschwitz, and his wife and young son were gassed upon arrival. Greenman tells his harrowing tale of survival through Auschwitz, Monowitz, and the Death March to Gleiwitz and Buchenwald, where he was eventually liberated.

Levy, Debbie. The Year of Goodbyes: A true story of friendship, family and farewells. New York: Hyperion Books, 2010. Print.

A collection of writings by Jutta Salzberg and her friends out of her autograph book in Germany during 1938. Debbie Levy, Salzberg's daugher, has created a narrative and has rounded out the story of her mother's last year in Germany.

Mittelberg, David. Between Two Worlds: The Testimony & the Testament. Israel: Devora Publishing, 2004. Print.

David Mittelberg's novel is one in two parts, the first being his father's memoir and recollections of the Holocaust, and the second being his own thoughts as a second generation Holocaust survivor. Mittelberg negotiates his father's story and the found knowledge of the family that his father lost in the Holocaust, influencing him to become a better son in an effort to make up for the son that had been lost. Through this, Mittelberg bridges the gap that many second generation survivors face.

Ozsvath, Zsuzsanna. When the Danube Ran Red (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust). Beirut: Amer Univ Of Beirut, 2010. Print.

A memoir written by Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, a Hungarian Jew, about her childhood in Budapest during the Holocaust. Ozsvath highlights her experiences living in the ghetto and the trials that her former nanny, Erzsi, faced for helping Ozsvath's family survive.

Stein, Larry. The Really Fun Family Haggadah (Hebrew Edition). Bilingual ed. Highland Park: Ruach Publishing, 2000. Print.

A fun, educational, and family-friendly Haggadah.

Zangwill, Israel. Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People. 1892. Reprint. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998. Print.

A novel that originally gave nineteenth-century British middle class Jews and non-Jews an inside look into the people and culture of the Jewish ghettos in London.

Meet the Shemanski Education Intern - Charlotte Campbell: A little bit about myself

September 15, 2010

Good morning!

Rounding up my morning at the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, I have decided that I should explain a little about myself as the new Education Intern. My name is Charlotte Campbell and I am going into my final year at the University of Washington. I am overwhelmed with feelings of excitement, nervousness, and the unbearable feeling of not being a student at UW anymore. How I will miss the large lecture halls of my general education requirement classes and the small seminars of my upper-division electives filled with interesting ideas and lively debates. And let me tell you, history majors absolutely love to discuss, so there were quite a few fiery conversations. To get to the point, I’m a history major in the Department of History and am also receiving a minor from the Samuel & Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program through the Jackson School of International Studies.

As many of you may be asking yourselves, “What will she do with these fields of study?” Well, I am not wholly sure, but I am certainly looking forward to learning more languages—German is on the forefront as I am taking it this year, but I’m also itching to learn Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, and many more—as well as to further my study of the Holocaust and other genocides in a graduate school program. I am not sure which one as of yet, but I suppose I’ll choose that path when I come a little closer to it.

I can, however, touch briefly upon where I have been. I was born and raised in an old mill village that sidles up next to the Blackstone River—one of the most important rivers in early textiles and American Industrialization—and was named for President Abraham Lincoln. Yes, I grew up in the town that almost every state has, Lincoln, except this one happens to exist in Rhode Island. My years were spent going to public school, riding horses, and doing an assortment of other activities, as one might imagine. After eighteen years of living there, however, I decided that it might be time for change and so I applied to schools outside of New England. With an auspicious letter that arrived in Spring of 2007, I became a proud member of Husky Nation and a fortunate human being. My past three years have been filled with great classes, exceptional people, and an increasing ability to write quality papers at mind-blowing speeds.

Once again, I feel that fortune has smiled upon me, being privileged enough to become part of the Holocaust Center’s fabulous team. I look forward to sharing with you my increasing knowledge of the Holocaust and genocide through the resources here, as well as what I’m learning in my classes. I am hoping to spread the word on worthwhile Holocaust films to watch as I am taking Popular Film and the Holocaust taught by Professor Richard Block and to perhaps share some interesting tidbits and information from my Jewish Cultural History class taught by Professor Martin Jaffee. Who knows, maybe some German will get tossed in as well!

Stay tuned for a new list of recommended books and see what else is going on through the Holocaust Center by clicking the Programs and Events tab by the top. And as always, thanks for reading!

Signed,
Charlotte R. Campbell
History Major, Jewish Studies Minor
University of Washington Class of 2011

Teachers in the News

A Summer of Learning
“The whole point is to activate kids,” to get them past the horror and “to understand that they are global citizens and can make a difference.” Jo Cripps is a Seattle Public Schools teacher who was a Memorial Library summer fellow at New York’s Holocaust Education Network in July.

http://www.jtnews.net/index.php?/columnists/item/7860/C7


Teaching the Teachers
Teachers Tammy Grubb and Debbie Carlson describe their experiences and impressions from the Holocaust Center's trip to Budapest and Prague in the JT News.

http://www.jtnews.net/index.php?/news/item/teaching_the_teachers/

Between the Two Rivers: A Story of the Armenian Genocide - BLOG!

Aida Kouyoumjian, author of Between the Two Rivers: A Story of the Armenian Genocide, a book describing her mother's experience during and after the Armenian genocide, has a blog!

http://armenianstory.coffeetownpress.com/

Learn about the book, read reviews, and more...

Between the Two Rivers is available to borrow from the Holocaust Center's library or you can find it on the Amazon.com - it is on the best seller list!

Please Note - if you link to Amazon through the Holocaust Center's homepage - use the Amazon search box - Amazon will donate a small percentage of your purchase to the Holocaust Center!

80+ teachers dedicated a summer day to learning about the Holocaust & genocide

Over 80 teachers attended last week's intensive one-day teacher seminar at Seattle University: Perspectives on the Holocaust, sponsored by the Holocaust Center and the USHMM, in partnership with Seattle University.

Sessions included "Nazi Ideology," "Propaganda," "Guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide," and a special presentations by Carl Wilkens, a witness to the Rwandan Genocide and Henry Friedman, a Holocaust survivor.

"I came today because I want to teach this very hard subject better. This day was powerful - I know my unit will be better because of it."

(image below: Carl Wilkens)

"I liked the connection with other genocides."
"The entire workshop was outstanding!"

"I am amazed by the wealth of resources available to me...for free!"

"This was one of the most amazing professional development workshops I have ever attended!"

School Regulations - studying genocide in Massachusetts and Texas

School Can Exclude Materials Disputing Armenian GenocideBy ANNIE YOUDERIAN
Courthouse News Service

(CN) - Massachusetts public schools can exclude material disputing the Armenian genocide in guidelines for teaching human rights, the 1st Circuit ruled in a closely watched case.

A Turkish cultural group had objected to a draft of the guidelines, which referred to "the Armenian genocide" and stated that the "Muslim Turkish Ottoman Empire destroyed large portions of its Christian Armenian minority population" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Turkish government has denied that the mass killings in 1915 constituted genocide, instead linking the tragedy to deportations during a brutal civil war. Most Armenians insist that the killings were part of a planned, systematic extinction of between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenian Christians. Read more...


New standards for Holocaust, genocide studies in TX high schools
By LESLIE CONTRERAS SCHWARTZ
Jewish Herald Voice

The Texas Education Agency has set new state standards for Texas social studies and history classes that include the teaching of the Holocaust and other genocides in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills criterion.

The new standards, which are now mandatory for the first time, were proposed and created by the effort of the recently formed Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, with help from Holocaust Museum Houston and the Houston Independent School District. The standards went into effect in June. Read more...

A life-long learner's education continues in Budapest and Prague

By Larry Kolano

Larry Kolano is a retired middle school social studies/U.S. History teacher from Longview's Cascade Middle School. For over 40 years he has read and studied books and viewed films covering different aspects of the Holocaust. His formal Holocaust education training includes classes and seminars sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, B'nai Brith, Facing History, and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. In 2005 JFR awarded him an Alfred Lerner Fellowship. In addition to attending presentations in classroom settings, he participated in the JFR's summer Holocaust trip to Germany and Poland in 2008. For three years he served on the Holocaust Center's education advisory committee. Even in retirement, he conducts Holocaust presentations to civic groups and elementary/secondary classes. Larry currently resides in California.

[Photo by Larry Kolano: Memorial on the Danube. Cast iron shoes.]

For most of my 30 year teaching career I taught my students the basics of the Holocaust. Both teenaged and adult students were amazed by the inhumanity displayed by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945. As a life-long learner, I continue to explore different aspects of the Holocaust.

In 2008 I journeyed to Dachau, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz with other Holocaust scholars. In 2010 I travelled to Budapest and Prague to learn about the treatment of Jews in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Experiences of the Jewish people differed from those who lived in the German Reich, Poland, the Ukraine, and other occupied territories. Until 1944 Hungary's leaders allied themselves with Germany and successfully refused to comply with Nazi requests for Jewish "special actions" and "relocation." When faced with Hungary's defection, after the Red Army crossed its border, German troops invaded and Nazi racial laws implemented. With the assistance of Hungary's anti-semitic Arrow Cross, hundreds of thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent off to Auschwitz or they were simply killed where they were housed awaiting transport. Others were herded to the banks of the Danube, shot, and their bodies thrown into the river. A memorial comprised of bronzed shoes now exists at one of the execution spots along the Danube.

The Holocaust in Hungary was new to me. I had heard of Raoul Wallenberg's efforts to save Jewish lives, but I had never read about or heard about the collection of horrors inflicted on the Jewish population living in and around Budapest. After preparing for the trip by reading The Siege of Budapest, Kasztner's Train, and Hunting Eichmann and experiencing the European tour associated with the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and Museum Without Walls, I have a much greater understanding of the Holocaust as it developed in another occupied country.

Rafle du Vel d'Hiv

Buses waiting at the entrance to the Velodrome d'Hiver, where almost 13,000 Jews were assembled before being transported to Drancy and other French transit camps. Paris, France, July 16 and 17, 1942.
— Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris. Photo from USHMM.

July 16th and 17th mark the anniversary of the Rafle du Vel d'Hiv - the massive roundup of Jews in Paris, France in 1942.

Yad Vashem describes:

On July 16-17, 1942, in one of the most brutal and overt deportation operations, thousands of French police gathered up 12,884 Parisian Jews-including families with children, and irrespective of sex, age, and physical condition-and placed them in the Velodrome d’Hiver stadium without any provisions whatsoever. In several locations, children were separated from their parents. The victims were loaded aboard cattle cars and sent to Drancy en route to Auschwitz.

This deportation evoked the first substantial manifestations of opposition to the Vichy regime among several segments of the French population. It was impossible to keep the arrests of the Jews secret, and the brutality invoked in separating families was fiercely protested. The fact that most of the arrests were made by French police prompted charges against the force concerning collaboration with the Nazi regime on the part of France and its institutions, particularly with respect to the murder of Jews in this country.

During 1942, nearly 30,000 Jews were deported from Paris. (USHMM)

Susan Redd, a long-time French Teacher, scholar of the Holocaust in France, and member of the Holocaust Center's Education Advisory Committee comments:
"Thank you for posting this sad anniversary of the round-up of Jews by the French 'milice,' who gave more than demanded. The Nazis only requested 12,000 male Jews, but the enthusiastic antisemitic militia gave families of Jews, besides confiscating things of value from them."

Roundup of Jews. Paris, France, ca. 1942.
— YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York. Photo from USHMM.

A recent novel, Sarah's Key, has highlighted this experience and has become a popular read among book groups.

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 4

Terezin Reflections - Chapter 4

By Rachel Nathanson

From June 24 - July 4, 2010 the Holocaust Center, in partnership with Museum Without Walls, organized a Holocaust study trip to Budapest and Prague. Frieda S., a survivor from Terezin, and her daughter Dee (also the Co-Executive Director of the Holocaust Center) participated in the trip and shared the group invaluable first hand experiences. Eva, a survivor of Terezin who had been in the barracks with Frieda, met up with us. Below Rachel Nathanson, one of the Holocaust Center's board members and a participant on the trip, describes some of sites and shares her thoughts on the experience of visiting Terezin.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Although much has been recorded of the Terezin history, the flood of 2002 that ravaged much of Central Europe, gave rise to new discoveries. Due to the flood, a storage room within a private home’s yard was damaged by the almost five-foot high waters. All of the stored goods were then removed, leading to the discovery of what was clearly a hidden synagogue. This small room (about 15’ by 15’), with no windows, lost the inscriptions along the walls due to the floodwaters, but the ceiling painting remains. The prayers, written high along the walls, beg God to return from his anger. The remaining words of one damaged prayer now say, “If I forget thee…”

The Red Cross Visit
The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin to see what Hitler called “a city for the Jews”, a city he created to supposedly protect them from the horrors of war. The village area was spruced up and an illusion that this was a working, lovely town was made complete. Stores were filled with goods, bakeries overflowed with food, and the inmates carefully instructed on how to “play act” for these visiting outsiders. Children were given candy to hold but told not to eat it and upon a successful ruse for the Red Cross, the candy was cruelly stripped from their fingers by the guards.

A film, made by Jewish filmmakers within Terezin, shows the theatrically happy lives being lived by all the inmates. Playacting included a soccer game with cheering crowds, young women sharing their knitting projects, and other manufactured scenes. With the film complete, the filmmakers and many of those participating in the film were promptly sent to Auschwitz to eliminate their knowing complicity.

Survival
Frieda and Eva were blessed to have lived. Their survival was helped by so many small factors: the fact that as “mischlings” they were transported later and treated slightly better; that they were given the job of working the fields for the officers which allowed them to sneak a little food while in the fields and bring a few items back to the other girls; that they were strong and young – and determined.

Frieda tells the chilling story of so many girls getting shipped out on the trains and she wanted desperately to get out of Terezin. She managed to trade some things to get one of the “transport cards” for a train, not realizing she would be sealing her fate to leave for Auschwitz. The guard at the train saw her and noted that she reminded him of his own daughter. She begged to get on the train and he told her he would “break her legs” if she ever tried to get on the train again, and sent her back. What amount of guilt did this man have that he could choose just one girl, save just one soul?

Three months before the war was over, Frieda’s father, who was Jewish, and brother were also transported to Terezin. As the Soviet fighting came closer to Terezin in 1945, the Germans fled, destroying bridges and roads behind them. Frieda’s father did not hesitate. He stole a horse and cart and filled it with as many children as could fit and took them out of Terezin to Prague. What would normally take 12 hours, took 5 days.

When the Soviets reached Terezin, they had to quarantine the area due to the rampant outbreak of Typhus. Adding to the tragedy of this chapter of history, many of the remaining inmates died of typhoid fever, even though “liberated” from the camp.

I started this long account by saying I have a 15-year old daughter. I could not help but think of my own daughter when learning about Frieda and Eva’s experience (as only 2 of so many). How could I have handled her being taken from me at such a young age for several years? We learned that Frieda’s mother travelled many days to stand outside the fortress walls in hopes of catching a glimpse of her daughter, just to know that she was still alive. I stood with chills, thinking about her mother. I could be her mother.

In the end, the only thing I can do is bear witness to the story. Let this horrendous time in our history never be forgotten. I am ever so grateful for what I have.