Little did I think that antisemitism would rear its head in America in 2017.In the past few weeks there have been bomb threats to Jewish organizations,destruction of tombstones in Jewish cemeteries and ah host of incidents that are reminiscent of the dark moments of the past. Through the years I have interviewed many survivors of the Shoah and their stories reverberate in my heart and soul. The cancer that has plagued the Jewish people for centuries cannot be tolerated ,and it is not enough to be repulsed by the recent incidents. Each of us must speak out and embrace our Jewish brothers and sisters and assure them that we unlike those in the past will not be silent
Author: S. J. Tagliareni
Elie Wiesel
THE DAY WORDS FAILED ELIE WIESEL
It was the 1990 March of the Living. Thousands of young people from around the world had gathered on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the ruins of Auschwitz-Birkenau for our closing ceremony.
Elie Wiesel began to speak. The crowd hung on his every word. As he approached the end of his remarks, his voice filled with indignation, then despair:
“How can one not be concerned with anti-Semitism? We were convinced that anti-Semitism perished here. Anti-Semitism did not perish; its victims perished here.
“Children of the Jewish People, do you ever see what I see here? I see so many children and so many parents, and so many teachers and so many students. I see them. Forever will I see them. I see them walking in their nocturnal procession, wandering, crying, praying.
“Forever will I see the children who no longer have the strength to cry. Forever will I see the elderly who no longer have the strength to help them. Forever will I see the mothers and the fathers, the grandfathers and grandmothers, the little school children, their teachers, the righteous and the pious. From where do we take the tears to cry over them? Who has the strength to cry for them?
“Years and years ago, I saw… I cannot tell you what I saw. I am afraid. I am afraid that if I told you we would all break out in tears and we would not stop. I see a young girl…”
And then suddenly, Elie Wiesel shook his head and walked off the stage, unable to share his story. It was just too heartbreaking for him to continue.
For those of us in attendance, it was something we will never forget. Here was the world’s most eloquent witness to the Holocaust, and yet even he could not bring himself to describe in words the awful fate that must have befallen that little girl. At that moment, Wiesel symbolized the dilemma facing so many survivors. Words can never adequately convey the horrors of the Holocaust, and yet how dare one not try?
Standing in the rubble of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Wiesel’s words failed him. And yet, his painful, heart-wrenching silence was more compelling and memorable than anything that even he might have attempted to articulate. The phrase “Silence speaks louder than words,” was never truer than at that moment, standing amid the ruins that saw the deaths of one million of our ancestors.
And then, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and future chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, called upon the Toronto March of the Living student choir (composed of Tara Charendoff, Jillian Stronell, Talia Klein, Jennifer Goldhar, Jenny Lass, Dena Libman, Meghan Bochner and Jennie Blitz, accompanied by guitarist Hartley Weinberg and violinist Jillian Moncarz) to sing Hannah Senesh’s Eli, Eli (“My God, My God”).
Rabbi Meir Lau, himself a Holocaust survivor, sang along softly into the microphone. Soon, thousands of participants – survivors and students, educators and political leaders, from Israel and countries around the world – all joined in, amid the ruins of the crematoria singing the song that reminded us both of the beauty and fragility of life. Where words could not fill the void, music did. And somehow, at least for a moment, we found a measure of consolation.
Among Elie Wiesel’s most memorable quotes is this one: “When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.” That day, when he spoke – but more importantly when he could not – all of us became life-long witnesses to the never ending sorrow of one survivor. n
Eli Rubenstein is the national director
of March of the Living Canada.
Elie Wiesel died in New York on July 2.
He was 87.
Survivor stories
WHO WILL TELL OUR STORIES?
April 19, 2015
We Survivors face a collapsing window of time in which to tell our stories…
We survived for a reason.
Even seventy years later, I don’t take a single moment for granted.
Every man, woman and child has a story. For some it is found in the most unlikely of places, during one of the most horrific of times, where actions of a few meant life versus death. Mine is a story of survival: my own and my family’s. A story that begins over seventy years ago when my world became engulfed by the evils of Nazism, my family torn apart, my life forever changed, and my childhood and innocence ripped away as a nine-year-old boy hiding in a tiny, filthy attic in occupied Poland.
It is this month, during a time of remembrance when the world commemorates seventy years since the end of the Holocaust, that I pause and reflect on my own survival and find myself asking, “Why me? What was so different about me that I had the luck to survive? What drove me to find the courage to escape the ghetto when my entire town was being liquidated? Why did I not give up when a local farmer told me to turn myself in because there was no future for people like me? How did I find the strength, while hungry, cold and filled with fear, as I crawled on bare hands and knees through three feet of snow to arrive at the place that would become my hidden refuge for two years? Why was my sister Sarah discovered, pulled from her hiding place and taken to Treblinka to be murdered? Why did only two children from my town of 2,000 children survive? Why was it my sister Irene and me?”
There are many stories to share, every Survivor with their own unique experience. Every Survivor having confronted the darkest depths of hatred with determination, courage and resilience. Every Survivor grasping to a hope that perhaps they would be saved, believing in their hearts that they were meant to do something greater. Like many Survivors, I have to come to believe that we survived for a reason. Even seventy years later, I don’t take a single moment for granted. Instead of deciding to let hatred consume me and direct my actions in life, I decided early to let hatred go and move forward. I believe that I survived to do what I have been doing for the last 20 years – to tell my story, in memory of my family and the millions of Jews whose own stories were silenced by the Holocaust. I survived to share my pain so that others can connect with a life and history that they will hopefully never have to confront.
Seventy years after the Holocaust, we Survivors face a collapsing window of time in which to tell our stories. But as decades pass, I have also come to believe that we cannot be the only ones to tell our stories. Because this generation will determine our future, Survivors must pass the torch to them today so that they can protect our legacy for future generations.
When I speak to children every day at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, I ask that they take away two ideas from my story. First, you must believe in yourself. It is essential to love, appreciate and respect yourself above all. With this, you will discover that you are stronger and smarter than you think you are. Second, I want children to learn that prejudice and indifference will only lead to hatred and violence that will impact innocent lives, including their own. As the decision makers of tomorrow, our children must engage in the creation of new stories that speak to a more hopeful world that doesn’t echo our past.
Posted by Aaron Elster | Holocaust Survivor and Vice President, Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
Respecting the rights of all
I have tried to refrain from posting anything political because candidly I have friends whose positions are all over the lot. However the tone of this presidential campaign has reached the point where the rhetoric needs to be dialed back to a more civil discourse. Last night in Chicago the pot has boiled over, and I fear that we are headed towards months of civil unrest and confrontation.
It is easy if you are in one camp or the other to find blame, but the reality is that there will be bloodshed and violence if we don’t find ways to disagree within the bounds of respect and reverence for the rights and responsibilities of our democracy.
The candidates need to understand the power and influence of their speech, The pushing and shoving of last night in Chicago will eventually lead to acts of violence where someone will be seriously harmed.Strong verbal disagreement is the foundation that makes us special, but so is respect for all who are on opposite sides of the fence.
I hope the candidates will recognize that their words have consequences, and those that find the words offensive find ways to protest that respect the rights of those who have every right to peaceful assembly.
Holocaust poems
Marked: Poems of the Holocaust by Stephen Herz is probably one of the best poetic introductions to the Holocaust. In language that is clear and resonant, Herz tells us what we need to know in images and lines that we will not soon forget.
Here are two poems from the collection (“Morgen Früh” and “Whatever You Can Carry”) and several stanzas from “Shot,” followed by an interview with Mr. Herz regarding Marked, its genesis and intentions.
POEMS
Morgen Früh
Do you know how one says never in camp slang? Morgen früh: tomorrow morning.
—Primo Levi
Will you wake on a plank of wood with six others, wash your face in your morning coffee, and go to work in the mud?
Tomorrow morning. Will you go to the latrine when they tell you, or be shot at roll call because you did it in your pants?
Tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning the boils and pus and lice will be gone, the blue tattoo will fade from your wrist, the green dye will fade from your eyes, the sweet singed smell will fade from your nostrils.
Tomorrow morning they’ll give you back your ovaries, give you back your children, give you back your old wool coat with the yellow star, and you’ll give them back the paper cement bag stuffed under your dress.
Tomorrow morning you’ll run a comb through your long black hair, tie it with a bright red ribbon, and someone will smile and say: Good morning, Lena.
Tomorrow morning there will be no more ashes to fill the swamp, to dump in the river, to fertilize the fields. No more ashes to spread on the paths like gravel under the boots of the SS.
Tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning.
—Morgen Früh.
Whatever You Can Carry
Twenty-nine storerooms were burned before theliberation of Auschwitz.
In the six that remained they discovered 348,820 men’ssuits, 836,255 women’s coats, more than seven tons of human hair andeven 13,964 carpets.
—Michael Berenbaum: The World Must Know
“You will work in the factory, work in the fields, you will be resettled in the East, bring whatever you can carry.”
So our dresses, shirts, suits, underwear, bedsheets, featherbeds, pillows, tablecloths, towels, we carried.
We carried our hairbrushes, handbrushes, toothbrushes, shoe daubers, scissors, mirrors, safety razors. Forks, spoons, knives, pots, saucepans, tea strainers, potato peelers, can openers we carried.
We carried umbrellas, sunglasses, soap, toothpaste, shoe polish. We carried our photographs.
We carried milk powder, talc, baby food.
We carried our sewing machines. We carried rugs, medical instruments, the baby’s pram.
Jewelry we carried, sewn in our shoes, sewn in our corsets, hidden in our bodies.
We carried loaves of bread, bottles of wine,,schnapps, cocoa, chocolate, jars of marmalade,,cans of fish. Wigs, prayer shawls, tiny Torahs, skullcaps, phylacteries we carried.
Warm winter coats in the heat of summer we carried. On our coats, our suits, our dresses, we carried our yellow stars.
On our baggage in bold letters, our addresses, our names we carried.
We carried our lives.
Shot (excerpt)
shot in the synagogue
shot up against the wall in the headlights of the truck
shot in the farmyard by the dung heap
shot in the hospital, the maternity ward
shot in the city, the town, the shtetl
shot in their houses, in the streets, in the market square
shot in the cemetery
shot in the warehouse after machine-gun muzzles were pushed through holes in the walls
shot in the roundups trying to escape
shot in bed
shot in their cribs
shot in the air, the baby thrown over its mother’s head
shot because they stole a potato
shot because they were betrayed for a kilo of sugar
shot because they weren’t wearing the yellow star
shot because they were wearing the yellow star
shot by the Einsatzgruppen
shot by the Reserve Battalion of the German Order Police
shot by the Gestapo Firing Squad
shot by the Waffen SS and the Higher SS
shot by the Hiwis-Ukrainian, Latvian, and Lithuanian volunteers
shot by the Hungarian Fascist Nyilas, the Arrow Cross
shot by the Polish police and Polish partisans
shot by the Croatian Ustasa
shot by the Romanian army, police, gendarmerie, border guard, civilians, and the Iron Guard
shot by the Wehrmacht
shot by old men in the German Home Guard
shot by young boys in the Hitler Youth
shot in Aktion after Aktion as if it was “more or less our daily bread”
shot in the search-and-destroy mission, the Jew Hunt
shot in the “harvest festival,” the Erntefest
shot in order to make the northern Lublin district judenrein
shot in Zhitomir, Poniatowa, Józefów, Trawniki
shot in Lomazy, Parczew, Bialystok, Kharkov
shot in Bialowieza, Luków, Riga, Poltava
shot in Międzyrzec, Khorol, Kremenstshug
shot in Slutsk, Bobruisk, Mogilev, Vinnitsa
shot in Odessa, Lvov, Kolmyja, Minsk, Rovno
shot in Majdanek and Brest-Litovsk
shot in Neu Sandau and Tarnopol and Rohatin
shot in Dnepropetrovsk
shot in Kovno, Pinsk, Berdichev, Tarnówshot in Kamenets-Podolski
shot in Krakow, Szczebrzeszyn, Siauliai
shot in Stolin, Kielce, Lutsk, Serokomla
shot in Drogobych, Luga, Delatyn
shot in the Warsaw Ghetto
shot in the ravine of Babi Yar
shot in Bilgoraj, Nadvornaya, Stanislawów
shot in David Grodek, Janów Podlesia
shot near Zamosc
Auschwitz
Seventy years ago the world had its first view of Auschwitz one of the killing factories where the Nazis murdered countless innocents.The images of emaciated survivors and mounds of human corpses shocked anyone with an ounce of human compassion.Through the years I have had the privilege of speaking with and interviewing survivors and their families, and those moments live in my soul.It is one thing to see the carnage on a newsreel, but actually listening to the horror first hand has a lasting impact.
Auschwitz and the other camps did not happen overnight, they began with racial speech and labels, and ultimately led to the gas chambers.Millions all over the globe still experience the pain and cruelty that bias fosters and Auschwitz is a reminder of where those words spoken with hatred can lead. Never again ,not only for the Jews,but for all oppressed people should be a slogan that makes us speak out for those who have no voice.
Growth of Anti Semitic groups
I was in Europe in the Spring and had the opportunity to speak with Jewish groups in Munich,Rome and Venice.It was shocking to hear the concerns of Jews in all three cities about the wave of violence toward individuals and Jewish centers. One person told me that”this time I have my suitcases packed and will leave immediately.”Have we learned nothing from the reality of the Shoah? It is the responsibility of the non Jew to openly confront this cancer wherever it raises its head.It is not merely a Jewish issue, but one that must be addressed by every person of good will.Never Again must be more than a slogan,it must be a call to action today.tomorrow and all the days to come
Why the anger?
It appears that everyone is angry .Republicans are angry,Democrats are angry,Independents are angry and those with no political affiliation are angry. We well know that anger is a secondary emotion, so what are the real sources of this anger? I believe the prime veins are a sense of powerlessness and frustration.Despite the group or political leaning people are tired of do noting politics. Unfortunately this anger blocks reason, and is used against all the groups. Politicians live and die with playing he blaming game, and so our anger is unfocused and unlike the reaction to 9/11 we achieve no significant change by battling citizens with diverse opinions.
We have so much in common in our aspirations for our country, but we lose impetus and power because our anger blocks the road to common ground.Many of my friends differ at first glance with me on a host of issues ,but there is not one doubt that if we were in charge at the end of the day we would find understanding and agreement.Our separateness caused by the system is the barrier that must be crossed. Politicians are not today ,tomorrow or ever going to be serious about Infrastructure,fair taxes,stemming violence,creating freedom and justice for all despite race,religion,belief or sexual preference. It.It is up to us.It does not say that we are to be led by the blind and the political deaf.It says we are are a government of the people,by the people and for the people.
Their lives matter
Recently someone asked why I a non Jew spent so much time and effort on speaking and writing about the Holocaust.My reply simply was that for me the persons victimized by the Nazis are not some mere historical statistic that should be mentioned and then forgotten.They were innocent men, women and children and to me their lives matter to this day. To forget them is to ignore the value that their lives had and continue to have in our memory.I have heard it over and over again that it is time to move on and stop talking about them but my response is always the same.We must keep them in our hearts and minds so tr that uly “Never again “will be more than a slogan
The never ending deniers
Every day on the internet I see an avalanche of materials that deny some aspect or event of the genocide.They praise Hitler and speak only of his early days and how beloved he was by the German people.They often take one aspect out of context and use it to speak about a Jewish conspiracy that exaggerates the numbers. They deny the gassing and intimate that the Jews in many ways deserved to be drummed out of European society.They completely ignore the testimony of those who performed the atrocities who not deny what happened. It is a crime in Germany to deny the Holocaust.
I have literally met with over one hundred and fifty survivors and their families for the last forty years and the stories are real and the facts of the Holocaust are not deniable to anyone that is objective. Those of us who have seen first hand the suffering and wanton murders of a people can not be silent, and must pass on the truth to the younger generations so that this hatred of the Jewish people can never spread again.
S. J. Tagliareni 