The Empty Mirror

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The Empty Mirror

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Stories

David Notowitz:

My documentary film, Carpati, was a great success in NY. I will keep you up to date on its progress as it opens across the country. Below are a few more dates where the film will play. I will have more in the next few months as we get a more complete schedule. Thanks for offering to put the info up on your system.

Carpati will be playing at the Jewish Film Festival in the Bay Area:

    Saturday, July 20, 5:30pm, at the Castro Theater, San Francisco
    Sunday, July 28, 4:15pm, at the UC Theater, Berkeley
    Sunday, August 4, 6pm, Cubberley Theater, Stanford Campus, Palo Alto

It also opens for a regular run November 15 in Los Angeles.

Terry:

I am looking for people to interview who lost their homes. This is for an artwork exploring the connection of home and identity. The project will be global in nature. If anyone is willing to be interviewed, either in person in the NY area or by telephone or letter, please contact me via e-mail at artifice@pipeline.com. This project is being supported by the Research Foundation of City University of New York, where I am a professor. Also, if anyone has any ideas of how I can further my search, it would be most appreciated.

Angela:

In the introduction you state that “for the first time in history, an entire people was targeted for annihilation by a government”. You are forgetting about the Armenians who were targeted for annihilation by the Turkish government in World War I. In fact Hitler used the quote “Who today remembers the Armenians?” to justify his extermination of the Jews. One of the best books that describes this annihilation is “The 40 Days at Musa Dagh”. Here is a section of Compton’s Encyclopedia describing the Armenian Genocide:

The first significant genocide of the 20th century was directed against the Armenian residents of Asia Minor by the Turkish government. This deliberate slaughter began on April 24, 1915, under the cover of World War I. April 24 is still commemorated by Armenians around the world as Martyrs’ Day. The numbers killed are uncertain. The lowest estimate is 800,000 and the highest more than 2 million. The Turkish government has consistently denied that this event ever occurred, but what happened has been carefully documented by outsiders.

I think to accurately help in the war against genocide, it would be best to put as much information as possible in your web page about the subject. Please do not forget the Armenians, for those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

Debi:

When I was in 5th grade we were studying WWII and had a “show and tell” for the students. Although I knew my father, both my uncles and most every adult male from my small town were veterans, and that my father saw things that gave him nightmares, I never knew about the camps. One of the children in my class, his father was an Army photographer when the first camps were discovered. His dad let him bring in his scrapbooks of the camps. I have no recollection of what camps, I just remember the piles of bodies, the ovens with half-burned people, the pits. For the first time, I felt my German heritage and was ashamed even though my family has been in the United States for over a 100 years; I also finally knew why my father had to go to war and why he still served in the military. I in my childish mind thought if I could just learn enough, read enough, talk to enough people, that somehow I would understand how one people could do this to another and could make sure it would never happen again.

That was 40+ years ago and still we slaughter one another, still we say this or that country is not of strategic importance so we don’t care how many people die for ethnic cleansing. I hope your site and your efforts will awake the humanity in us again and know, that no matter if the person looks like us or thinks like us, that the slaughter of people for any reason must NEVER happen again.

God bless you for your efforts – we must all pass the memories on.

Ward G. Davis:

My son is 19, and with a brain injury from a car accident. He is very interested in the Holocaust and why anyone would do such horrible things to any one. I myself being a white male and living in Kentucky all my life do not understand these hates of other people. I honestly do not understand what the words whop, mick, kike, spick, etc. mean. This may sound strange but I lived in a all white neighborhood and never heard these words. My son in a childlike mind does not understand either. Please let us know any information that can help us under stand why people are called such names, with such hate. Thank you for your web site, and answer.

Michael Tucci:

Your organization did a fine job to develop this site. I am writing to get your help and assistance. During WWII, my mother and her two sisters were transported to a work camp named “Fallingbostel” in Germany. This shocker was told to me recently by my cousin living in Dortmund, Germany. My mother died when I was very young, but her memory/life lives on. I want to know more about this particular camp. Where it was located,its history, who/why, and if there’s any documentation/or research available.

The only information I have is the name of the camp “Fallingbostel” and the years she was there (1944-45). If you or someone on your staff can steer me in the right direction,it will be a great help.My mothers maiden name was Dorthea Budnik. I truely appreciate your time and consideration.

Andrew Vitale:

I have family which escaped from Italy before the Germans invaded. Some did not get out and many of my cousins were killed in the gas chambers of Aushwitz and other concentration camps. One of my uncles was on a train to Auschwitz and it suddenly crashed and he escaped through the woods and beat out all the Germans and later died in a plane crash. These are some thoughts of mine about the Holocaust.

Nalora:

10 years ago I sat at the table of my landlady, as she fixed some potato pancakes and served me tea. She was a kind woman, with a thick accent and loving eyes. As she poured my tea I noticed on her wrist a tatoo..just numbers.

I realized I was being served tea by a living miracle. and I thanked God. Peace.

David Lewin:

We are searching for the mother of Betty R. Durkin birthdate is 6/17/46 from Philadelphia, USA.

We have located a birth certificate – and that has revealed the family names 3 of her grandparents:

The mother HANNAH (Channa, Anna) KRUEGER born June 1, 1925 in Neustettin, now Poland (Polish name: Szczezinek) East “Pommern” once part of Prussia, now in Poland.)

daughter of MAX KRUEGER, clerk and FRIEDA, nee WAGNER she married in 1945 – presumably in a DP camp, presumably near MUNICH, Germany

Mieczeslaw REISS or REIS (changed to Michael Ricein the USA) date of birth was listed as April 15, 1902 in Lemberg. His home town was Szczurowice, Poland . His father’s name was Meyer and his mothers name was Bela or Bila

Father died in 1956 – (Betty was 12.)

(possibly a former inmate of Mauthausen concentration camp???)

The three arrived from Munich in USA with the aid of HIAS on SS General Eltinge, Arr’d US (in New York) as DPs on June 13, 1949 on community assurances (USNA)

mother returned to Germany (about Sept/Oct 1949 to March 1950) leaving daughter aged 4 with father.

9/29/50 the mother went back to Hamburg to have re-entry renewed by US Consul, but father not heard from her again. wife was hospitalized for 7 weeks and that her reentry permit had expired. Wife wrote that she could not renew reentry permit because at that time she was ill. Now has medical cert. to show to Consul re renewal of reentry permit. Ours to HIAS Hamburg (copy to NY) for report and to offer assistance. File Ref.-HAN-US/Gen./LH

That is all we know.

I would be grateful for ANY lines of thought

  • advice
  • family research
  • alternative addresses.

According to the information given at Standesamt Wolfratshausen Betty’s parents got married on

March 8, 1947
————-
– Mieceslaw REISS
born April 15, 1902 in Lemberg
– Channa Kr”uger
born June 1, 1925 in Neustettin
residing Wolfratshausen – Lager F”ohrenwald
Registration No. 48/47

The fact that they got married in F”ohrenwald – Wolfratshausen although they obviously had the flat in Munich already could mean that the place wasn’t fixed up yet. Maybe they also wanted to celebrate their marriage with friends and relatives.

I am hoping that we can now locate other people from that DP camp – maybe someone who KNEW them??? please – by e-mail to David Lewin.

Alfredo F. Vorshirm:

As a survivor, most of whose family –including my parents perished in Auschwitz — all I can say is: keep doing your good work for the next generations. For me it is natural,easy and inevitable to REMEMBER! But this last generation of us is rapidly disappearing. Will the following know what happened ? This is up to your efforts and those organizations and institutions like yours. I am happy that YAD VASHEM in Jerusalem and the (US) HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM exists. But a common universal effort should be made to erect similar memorial museums in BERLIN,ROME,WARSAUW,PARIS,MOSKAU,BRUSSELS,MADRID, etc., etc. Thank you for letting me express my thoughts and letting off some emotional — everpresent — steam.

The following is my draft of the brief address I’ll be making — upon request — to our small jewish community in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on the eve of YOM HASHOA, in spanish:

Queridos correligionarios: Ante este auditorio,entre nosotros mismos, es muy poco lo que puedo decir que no sea del conocimiento de todos los aqui reunidos y, mas aun, en presencia de los que como yo sobrevivieron el Holocausto y aquellos cuyos familiares no sobrevivieron la Shoa. En este dia que conmemoramos Yom Hashoa, no quiero limitarme a mirar hacia el funesto y tragico pasado que sacrifico un tercio de nuestro pueblo, o sea 6.0 millones de seres humanos; sino hacer una breve alusion al mundo de hoyy las eventualidades del mañana en el mismo contexto. Mientras cada uno de nosotros,activo profesionalmente o ya retirado, se preocupa naturalmente por las rutinarias tareas del diario vivir,los acontecimientos a nivel internacional apuntan cada vez mas hacia una gran paradoja. A la vez que el mundo se achica, que se habla de globalizacion, de la aldea mundial,se levanta de manera amenazadora,en todas partes,el ultranacionalismo y con el el antisemitismo–ideologia esta ultima que algunos gobiernos estan actualmente propiciando su exclusion del contexto de la violacion de los derechos humanos,tal y como fue adoptado ese concepto mediante resolucion de la Organizacion de las Naciones Unidas.No me cabe la menor duda que la Republica Dominicana con su historial y tradicion de amistad hacia el pueblo judeo desde la epoca del ex-gobernante liberal Gregorio Luperon en el siglo XIX, hasta la acojida de casi un millar de judíos que hubieran perecido durante el Holocausto en el siglo XX, si no hubiera sido por la generosidad –unica en el continente– del pueblo dominicano, se opondre a la iniciativa propuesta en estos dias por Iran, Siria y Cuba. Por un lado, no puedo dejar de referirme al pelligro terrorista y antisionista que representa el fundamentalismo i! slamico, financiado por Iran, Libia y la complicidad de Sudan y de Sir (typos are mine: Cybrary)

isaac worthalter frimerman:

my heart aches.
witnesses are leaving
few will remain soon
we shall not forget
pass it on to the next generation

Ken Lewis:

I am not Jewish. My maternal grandfather was. He was a brilliant artist, a master craftsman, and an intellectual giant. He loved me like a son and I worshipped him as a father.

When I was 14 he mailed me a copy of Leon Uris’ “Exodus” and demanded I read it. Like a good son, I did. Then he mailed me ‘Mila 18’ and demanded I read that. Next he sent me Shirer’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ and I read that. Next he sent me Andre Schwartz-Bart’s ‘The Last of the Just’ and it became the kind of book I have carried with me in my mind to this day.

When I was 15 he started sending me books on Treblinka and Auschwitz.

By the time I graduated high school I had the largest collection of books about Jews and the Holocaust in the entire state of Maine. I also had an education that few have been so lucky to get.

My grandfather was determined to have an influence on me. He did!He is dead now and I miss him very much. With his death I lost any contact with the Jewish community and I miss that also.

Thank you for allowing me to return to my roots, so to speak, by this tour of your Web page.

Petra Kingsford:

I am German, blue blood, as they call. Hitler had my Grandparents on my mother’s side picked out to move to the Alsace (now part of France) after the war. He wanted to breed a special race. They were terrified. They told me many things about those times and none of them was happy. I would like to tell you this, most Germans were terrified of the whole organization of terror during those years. At first he seemed the perfect leader but they soon found out they could not trust anyone, or they might lose there family, and/or lives. They learned to adapt and found ways to help each other. Many risked their lives, and many lost their lives helping others. What I am trying to say is this. I am so sorry (and ashamed) this hatred, torture and murdering could have happened. I am apologizing to all who have suffered. I have also suffered, with this enormous guilt handed down to me. Some years back I visited a Konzentration camp in France, it was sheer terror to me, which I will never forget. I thank you for this opportunity to say these things. I have found out, that this is not something people want to hear. But I am truly sorry. I hope there is someone out there who will take note, that there are people like me which truly regret. And just maybe it will ease some of the pain. Thank you for listening to me.

Wayne Dyer:

It was Einstein who is reputed to have said that the most important field of study for man, is man himself. We have today, the technology to wreak havoc on a scale which is unprecedented and the Holocaust stands as the most compelling reminder that man has a dark side to his nature and if we ignore it we do so at our own peril. If any good at all is to come from the suffering of the millions executed in the Holocaust it will be through sites like this that serve to keep us aware of what we are actually capable of.

PBS recently aired a show where a survivor returned to his home village in Bransk, Poland. It was quite fascinating because one of the things which became very clear was that while world opinion has focused on the actions, and in some cases, the lack of action on the part of German citizens, the Polish people reaped considerable economic benefit from the Holocaust and it would appear that few had the courage to help.

I think that this is important because too many people have the mistaken impression that it is some unique character flaw in the German people that made this atrocity possible. This is not the case and in fact a study conducted in the US after the war demonstrated that a randomly selected group of American students, when placed under the right circumstances were capable of “following orders” right up to the point where they would kill and inncent victim.

We would all like to think that it could not happen here or that we would be stronger. I too hope this to be true but I think it is only by remembering what we are capable of that we have any hope of avoid a repitition of it.

Joe McHugh:

Perhaps you could help me. I am working on a unique radio drama curriculum for fifth grade students through a grant from the US Justice Department based on the lives of American citizen heroes and heroines. This curriculum will be piloted in sixty schools in California in the fall. One of the biographies will be of John Peter Zenger, an early proponent of freedom of the press who had his newspapers burned by the colonial government of New York in the 1700s and later served 10 months in jail. As part of the supplementary materials, I want to include information about the practice of book burning throughout history. I’m particularly interested in first-person accounts of book-burning in Germany in 1933 under the Nazis. Any help you could give me in this regard would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Joe McHugh
Nevada County Office of Education
112 Nevada City Hwy
Nevada City, CA 95959
USA…916-478-9618 (hm)

Shari

I was taught in school about the Holocaust. But my interest was selfish to myself at that time. I really didn’t pay much attention. Now I have a child in 5th grade. He is starting to see things in his class about this terrible time in history. I am more mature now and pay more attention to the real events of this mass murder. I have three children of my own and I can’t imagine the heartache those parents went through. I can’t imagine…. I have cried over this alot over the last few day. I watched Schindler’s list. I thought Schindler’s list would be a bad list. Instead it proved to me that there are people in this world that can care. I am not Jewish, I am in my early 30’s. These events happened even before I was born, but I feel such pain from it even know. I just can’t rationalize any of it. I would love to reach out to survivor’s by just listening to them. It’s incredible. I believe that it could happen again with some of the crazy leaders in this world today. Why, Why, Why did this happen? My heart goes to the survivors and the families that have stemmed from them.

Andy Davis At Andy.Davis@index.Com

I am looking for information about an experiment that occured during the holocaust. It was an experiment on the value of love on babies. I think they had a control group and an experimental group where babies were not loved and the result showed that the loved babies lived and more of the unloved babies died or became retarded. I need some info about this topic. If it is possible could you please send me some info about it to my email address. I know it existed, but I am having a very difficult time finding info about it… any help that you can give me, I would be very greatful…

Warren Kahn

My wife’s parents perished at Poniatowa in 1943. I understand that more than 14000 Jews were massacred there, however I find no reference anywhere on any link on the Internet. Sidney Iwens is trying to help me get some information on Poniatowa. Perhaps you, or someone you are aquainted with might know some source of information. If so, I would appreciate hearing from you. Keep up the good work!

Michiel F.E. van Reenen

As a Dutchman, all through my youth I was thoroughly educated about the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. But this may not be so for a lot of people. Therefore, this site serves a good purpose. A country like the USA, which, after the war, provided a home for many Nazi criminals because of their scientific qualities, needs education about what it is racial hatred and lack of democracy can lead to. I was very pleased about Steven Spielberg’s movie, ‘Schindler’s List’. It was the first time an American product brought home the actual feel of Europe in bad times, and the overwhelming sense of isolation and fear.

That being a good step forward, this site will surely the process of learning. The Shoah must not be forgotten, particularly since mankind has shown to be capable of repetition. It has already happened again, in former Jugoslavia, and it may, at this moment, be happening in other places. I strongly believe that confronting people with the imagery and eye-witness accounts of horrors like these WILL help to open their eyes and put a stop to it all. I am, however, not at all convinced it will ever stop. Man is a nasty animal. Keep up the good work, you all, and spend some thought on creating a site about modern day varieties of racial hatred and ethnic cleansing. Our children must know. Goodbye.

Paul Craner

I have been learning about how the philosophy of history has been challenged to review its assumptions about what constitutes “truth” by the madmen who want to argue the Holocaust away. I am a musician, and even in our field, the assumptions of what was “handed-down” to us as “facts”, i.e., The Classical period began and ended on these dates, the Romantic era on these, and so on, has been challenged. While in my field, such re-examinations have proven fruitful in understanding the nuances of music-history, I know the issues being faced in the debate between the truth of the holocause and the lies of the revisionists are insidious and hateful.

In defending the truth we are encouraged to look at what we have believed is true, and this seems a healthy process. Yet there are those who would use the opportunity to create a false and demeaning reinterpretation of historical events, and, obviously, this is immoral, and simply untenable as an intellectual pursuit.

I am interested in knowing what work has been done on understanding how the reality of, the historical fact of the Holocaust, and the unfortunate “unreality” of the revisionists, has impacted scholarship in the area of history and historiography–indeed on the philosophical assumptions of what history is and is not. Is there a “scientific method” that can be applied in understanding an event? Must history always be an “interpretation”? If so, who gets to make the interpretation? The Winners? The victims? Must we “defend history”? What weapons do we use?

These are the questions that prompted my visit–and these are the issues which surround my own attempt to understand the fact of the Holocaust. I am only a musician, but I want in my own way, to expose when I can, the lie of those who would seek to revise the historical record.

David Notowitz about Carpati: a New Jewish film completed

I am proud to announce (and I thought you might be interested) that I have put together a new documentary film–this one on the Jewish community of the Carpathian Mountains. The film is called CARPATI.

Myself, the director, and the executive producer most recently did THE LAST KLEZMER. CARPATI focuses on Zev Godinger, a “proste” (ordinary) Jew who has a special friendship with his Rom (Gypsy) neighbors. In 1931 the Jewish community of the Carpathian region (then in Czechoslovakia, today Ukraine) numbered a quarter of a million Jews. Today sixty-five years later there are fewer than 1,500. Zev lives in Beregovo, only 50 miles from his birthplace of Vinogradov.

He had not returned since he was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Now, Zev makes the journey home not only to revisit his childhood memories but to bring a Torah to his boyhood synogogue, which has not had a Torah for many years. Zev’s experiences and unique insights are representative of the rich Jewish culture that once thrived–and is trying to survive–in the Carpathian Mountains.

I hope you can attend. It opens in NY’s Lincoln Center at the Walter Reade Theater on May 24 – June 2, then continues to open at theaters around the country.

I hope you found this interesting, and thanks for your attention!

Joe Roberts

I am impressed with the wealth of knowledge acquired by your staff and contributors. I am a teacher in Clackamas, Oregon and in my Seventh Grade class we have been reviewing the story “ALICIA” which details the struggles and survival of Alicia Appleman-Jurman. We have spent this week listening to several Portland area survivors and this has brought home the ideas and information I have been teaching. It makes the Holocaust come alive and brings the importance of the the episode into their hands as I like to give my student the responsibility of not letting the events repeat themselves.

I am unsettled by some of the sources on the net which deride or in other ways suggest that the Holocaust did not happen or was not as wide spread as we all seem to think. The message of hate is barely hidden in the language and saddens me into thinking that events could so easily be forgotten. I applaud your efforts and stand behind you in your attempts to teach tolerance and an objective look at a historically important, yet utterly inhuman tragedy.

Dr. Zaiqing Fang:

I am very interested on The History and Culture of Jews. I have only very little books available in Chinese. I want some english or German literature about the history and philosophy and culture of Jews from the very beginning to present. Please help me. In Beijing, it is not possible to get any literatures about Jews in English or other foreign language.
My add. is:
Dr. Zaiqing Fang
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Tsinghua University
Beijing,.100084
China
email_addr = fang@net.tsinghua.edu.cn

J.J.KWAN

I am a Malaysian Citizen of Chinese descent, My grandfather fought the Japanese in China during WW2, Many of my people suffered and died during that time. I have served out my time in the armed forces. I have been under fire before and I know how terrible war can be. I hope that you can do something to show the world the horror of war that it may never happen again.

I live in a Muslim country where all the races and religious groups live together in peace. Mabye you could help to bring greater understanding between different races and religous groups in order that there may be world peace.

Ursula Duba

You’re doing a great job! The more we know about the past, the better! Even though it appears that we haven’t learned from the past recently, I feel we have to go on trying. 50 yrs ago, the whole world said: NEVER AGAIN. Since then, the world has witnessed the killing fields, genocide in Rwanda, the war in Bosnia. We watched it in the comfort of our own living rooms! Since saying NEVER AGAIN obviously doesn’t prevent more massacres and mass murder from happening again and again, I would like to suggest that we have to go beyond wishful thinking and think about mechanisms that we have to set in place to really and truly prevent more genocide and mass murder. I don’t know what these mechanisms are, but since we are a bright species, we should combine our intelligence and creativity and really focus on that. I am a german gentile, born before WWII, and feel that I carry a special responsibility to prevent more suffering of innocent people. i recently published a book called TALES FROM A CHILD OF THE ENEMY which is a collection of narrative poems about being a child during WWII, finding out about the HOLOCAUST and encounters with Holocaust Survivors. For the last 2 years, i have been reading to students in middle and high schools and in colleges and have engaged the students in conversation about our own prejudices, racism, anti-semitism and how we allow ourselves to be intimidated by bullies. Anybody who is interested in a reading, can contact me at : duba@cshore.com. My book can be ordered from TWIN SOUL PRODUCTIONS.

Donald Norman

I have only just arrived here, but from a cursory view of what is available, it appears that you are doing a wonderful and important work. I had only pity for the victims of the Holocaust, and not a little impatience for what I termed “a lack of forgiveness”. I then had the opportunity to attend a summer course at the University of New Hampshire on the History of the Holocaust. This education completely changed my views on the Holocaust. I am now one of the voices that say”never forget”. I understand that remembering the Holocaust is not about forgiveness. It is a warning to all that we are not far from creating Hell in our own back yard. It is about making sur that such a thing can never happen again. But I wonder if we have learned the lesson. We who are so aware of the the Holocaust, could we do nothing about Bosnia, about Cambodia, about that which has not yet begun? Political sensitivity prevented the US involvement in the Holocaust, just as it did in these places, and Rwanda. The other occurances of mass killings in this century can in no way compare with what happened in Europe during the late 30’s and 40’s, but they speak powerfully that the lessons of the Holocaust are too often ignored. For these reasons I applaud your work and I hope that this and other sites like this will flourish, bringing the images, and the frightening truths, of the Holocaust to all in this most democratic of mediums.

Cynthia Crane

I am writing a dissertation centering on “Mischlinge” (“half-breeds) who were, according to Hitler, half Jewish, and half Christian. While on a Fulbright, I spoke to women who were daughters of such a mixed marriage – they survived but one of their parents or grandparents was killed in the camps. I would like to discuss this topic and receive any information from others out there, especially those who were in Germany at the time.

Mark Berry

I am touched, ashamed, and excited by the presence of the Cybrary on the Internet. I am touched by the dignity and compassion demonstrated in the presentation of these important records of our inhumanity against one another. I am ashamed – as one of Germanic (specifically Swedish) descent and as a follower of Jesus Christ – by the treatment of my Jewish brothers & sisters and my failure to better appreciate the roots of anti-Semitism and to speak out against it (or any other forms of racism) when possible. I am excited that an undertaking such as this has been accomplished and I pray for your work will continue as a testimony to others. Please let me know if I may be of service in any way. I have been blessed through the review of your materials and look forward to sharing them with my children. May God bless you all.

Natasha J. Paust:

I think this a wonderful way of connecting with each other. I am trying to verify if Rosa Agnes Paust in Munich is my mother and if she is a holocaust survivor who was hidden by Christians, and later migrated from Seehausen to Munich, as I believe she did…during the mass exodus from Berlin to Munich in 1953…the year I was born and placed in a Kinderhaus….I was born in Pahl, outside of Munich. I have Rosa’s ph.# and address but have been afraid to contact and would like to find an appropriate mediator to answer these questions, for obvious reasons…I was also born illegitimately and am sensitive to her experience re: that as well…as she was 17 years of age. Help! I am low-income and don’t have the resources available to contact a bunch of organizations. I want to try before Rosa dies if she hasn’t already….I will be very appreciative of any input. COS’s who are patient can snail mail me @ 369 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, Ut. 84111. The only thing I’d like to see is a site where COS’s can chat…have I missed it? Well, thanks so much for your time. Hope to hear from you soon. Tasha Paust (my birth name was Geraldine )

Ingrid

Thank you for this site. I was born in Austria in 1939.I discovered the Shoah when I was about eight, in a magazine, and ever since I have felt that my life and that of my generation of German and Austrian gentiles was purchased with the lives of those who were murdered and whose children and children’s children would never be born. How many parents remained silent when their neighbors disappeared? Silent because they wanted to protect themselves and their children? I am in the process of writing the story of a survivor from Warsaw who lived through the horror in Lublin and Auschwitz as a boy, and whose entire family was murdered. After fifty years the wound in his soul still bleeds . . .At least sites such as yours on the web are a witness to the truth and remind the human family that we must never forget!

Allen Edel

As many of us know, Chiune Sugihara was heroically responsible for saving more Jewish lives (6000 estimated) in the Holocaust, save Raoul Wallenberg. Unlike other righteous gentiles who were lionized after the war, Sugihara was disgraced by his government, and was not even revered by Jews for almost 30 years.

I met his son, Hiroki, last night. He was here in Sacramento showing a rough-cut video docu-drama about his father, and to sign the English translation of his mother’s book.

Hiroki thinks that many Jews don’t understand that, unlike other diplomats who issued visas to Jews, his father acted against the direct orders of his government in issuing visas. He had to publish the book and produce the video himself, because Hollywood and the New York publishers (many of whom are Jewish) told him that the public has been glutted on Schindler, so there is no market for it.

The proceeds from the sale of this book will go toward creating a foundation whose purpose will be to illustrate, through photo exhibits, book signings, lectures, and slide shows, how one man’s humanitarianism did indeed make a difference during the Holocaust.

Below is some info on how to obtain his book. Please feel free to post it on other internet sites.

—————————————————————————- —

VISAS FOR LIFE
by Yukiko Sugihara
Translated by Hiroki Sugihara
(167 pp.,illustrated)

Send order form and check, made out to Edu-Comm. Plus to:
Edu-Comm. Plus
Hiroki Sugihara
236 West Portal Avenue #249
San Francisco, CA 94127

Name:_______________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________

____________________________________________________

Phone/Fax:__________________________________________

Quantity: Regular:______________ @ $26.00 each

Autographed:__________ @ $36.00 each

Add $3.00 shipping and handling per book.

Stacy Peeler

We are a group of six eighth graders doing a National History Day project on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. We have interviewed Yehuda Bauer, Simha Rotem, Tzvi Nussbaum, other survivors and many historians. We are interested in obtaining Nuremburg transcripts for General Stroop’s trials. Also, any other suggestions would be of great help. We think this a winning topic and a story that should be told. Thank you! Cybrary was very helpful. Hope to hear from you.

Marianna

I am very interested in the subject of the rise of Nazism in prewar Germany, as a tool to fight the current interest in groups here. I had the personal heartbreak of finding that my husband had secretly joined the National Socialist Party of Canada. He is now a former husband. My family fought in the Danish underground and housed under Nazi occupation an enemy of Hitler’s. This under great personal risks. I am currently looking for evidence that Hitler attended the University of Liverpool possibly in 1918 or 1919, this to settle a bet. I’d appreciate any leads on that that you can provide.

Bob Brownlee

I found this web site to be fascinating. I came to this site seeking information on a photographer by the name of Lee Miller. Do you have any idea if such an individual exists and if so did he photograph events concerning the Holocaust?

Michael Brown:

I’ve been given a scrapbook which belonged to my grandmother. In this book is a collection of things which were sent to her from American soldiers who were in Germany. There are not many things, a few postcards, a note saying “some pictures I got when we found a few live germans” with 10 small photos, and some nazi armbands. The one thing in this book which really confuses me is a yellow cloth triangle with a skull and crossbones on it. I can not figure out what this is. I have also posted the image on to my home page (https://www.slip.net/~michaelb/ ) under “my grandmothers scrapbook”. Please let me know if you have any ideas…I am so curious as to what it is.

Janet Nussbaum

It’s very important to me that my children understand that the Holocaust is about THEM. Their greatgrandparents died in Teresienstadt, Buchenwald, and in the Warsaw Ghetto. Had their grandfather/grandmother not fled Germany/Poland, the children would never have been born. They must recognize that they are “witnesses” to the horrors of Nazi antisemitism.

Steve

I’m doing research for a friend whose Grandfather was executed at Gross Rosen. Her grandmother has never spoken about the Holocaust until we started doing this research. She said they received a box of ashes and some personal effects but were warned to not receive them and were too frightened so they sent the boxes back. Even now she shudders with the memory. I have visited your page many times and each visit is haunting.

Cera Maugey

I never knew much on the Holocaust until June 1995, when I purchased a copy of Anne Frank’s diary. Since then I have read many books on the Holocaust, mostly personal memoirs, and I also attended The Holocaust Education Week in Toronto, and had the opportunity to hear moving accounts of survivors. I have opened my ears, eyes and heart to this period of history, which was perhaps the most horrible time in the history of mankind. I still have many questions, which I need answered, and I certainly feel Web pages like this, and other sources of information, could help me in my quest for these answers. I also feel there is a absolute need for information on the Holocaust, as many people out there are ignorant about the subject, just as I was, and still many more who do not care, and don’t want to know, it is to these people, we need to reach out to. I was born in India, and moved to Canada six years ago. I am Indian by birth, but my ancestry is a mix between Indian and European blood. I am very interested in the Jewish culture and people, as I discovered a few months ago, that some of my relatives are Jewish, and now live in Israel. You can imagine my suprise and joy. Thank you for a very informative web site.

Amanda Lewis

I still find it hard to believe that there are people that do not know about the horrors of the Holocaust. Because my Father is a Jew and my Mother an Episcopalian, I knew from an early age about the Holocaust. I will never forget my sophomore history class with students watching the liberation films asking “Did that really happen?” We must never forget, nor should we let the people who stood by off of the hook. We must know that we will never stand by again, and let genocide continue with the guise of “We did not know.”

Brian

It is difficult to comprehend. It causes very deep confusion and anger to know it all happened not so very long ago. I may return but it is too depressing to view. Their faces are our faces. The fear/terror at watching my children tortured and shot would destroy my soul. I have hope there is a God and I say I believe but if I was God I would have parted the heavens and saved those mothers and fathers and children. I see no learning purpose in such a thing.

Darlene

I am an older non-traditional student at the University of Idaho. I took an honor’s class last semester, Fall ’95, entitled “Legacies of the Holocaust”. Most, rather all, of my research for my last paper was taken from your site, the Nizkor project on the revisionists, and Lipstadt’s book “Denying the Holocaust”. My focus was the “handholding” that goes on between the Nation of Islam and the revisionists. What a sorry lot! Anyway, I found all of the information associated with the Cybrary instructive, informative, and straight forward in its truth. I included a poem from one of the children in the Imagine” section in the essay, also. I truly appreciate all the work that has gone into developing this project. Keep up the good work.

Kelly Green

I like your web site. I wish it had room for projects like my fourth graders have. Two years ago we started collecting 6,000,000 pop top tabs off of soda and beer cans to represent the victims of the Holocaust, and also to give elementary aged students a concrete, visual representation of the number “six million”. So far we have collected 903,000, including pop tops from Pres. Bush, Steven Spielberg, and a letter from Pope John Paul II. We are hoping to get letters from survivors as well. If you could help us get information about our Pop Top Holocaust Memorial on the internet, I’d be very grateful,and so would my students. Our school doesn’t have access to the net, but I do.

Note: Look for this project at the Cybrary in the coming months.

Serge, A Survivor

I was born in 1929 in Paris; my dad was arrested by the Germans on July 1 1944 and deported to Auchwitz on July 31st 1944; he never came back. About 15 other people from my father’s and mother’s side i.e most of my uncles, aunts,cousins were also arrested between 1941 and 1944 and sent to concentration camps: nobody came back. In France about 100,000 jews were sent to concentration camps and less that 2000 came back.. I was in hiding and worked in farms and with a corn thrashing company from1942 to 1945 and was lucky.

Aviva Groberman-Hermannoff, a teacher

As a an educator I feel that not enough is taught about the Holocaust in schools today. Especially young Jewish students. Parents try to shelter their children from the painful past. I remember when I was 7 years old my parents made aliya to Israel. All of a sudden I was exposed to Holocaust Day. In Israel it is a big thing. I saw horrible things and yes it was shocking, but it rooted in me the importance of never forgetting who I am. There is not enough in the curriculum in Toronto and even in the Jewish day schools about the Holocaust.

Judy Cohen

The Holocaust ended 50 years ago and yet relatively so little has been written about the special plight of the women in the Holocaust. I know only of one book which excellent and deals with this important subject,called: “Different Voices” edited by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth. I wish there would be more interest in doing research work in this area. Can you suggest other books in this field? If yes, would you give it a lot publicity. Thanks.

Kymberly Smith

I am heartsick and frightened hearing the hate speech going on in America’s Congress and, especially, House of Representatives. Bigotry, anti-Semitism, and intolerance seems to be coming back into fashion. The insensitiveness toward Bosnia is staggering, unbelievable. It seems further insult to the Jewish people by disregarding what they have to teach us. They have educated us, unthinkably firsthand, about what hate can do. Yet, the world seems, right now, to be trying to put those lessons aside. I am not a Jew, and perhaps because of that, I may be guilty of comparing the Holocaust to other events too lightly. I don’t know, I just want the suffering to stop. How many more lessons could we possibly need?

Steven Dembo

I am very interested in everything related to the Holocaust. My father-in-law assisted in the liberation of Dachau, and became disabled from several weeks spraying DDT on the survivors. I have an uncle who escaped from a train destined for Auschwitz. He then served in the French underground. He has spoken and written extensively re: his experiences and his videotaped testimony resides in the USHMM in DC. I have a fairly reasonable collection of Holocaust related artifacts – heavy in the document and philatelic areas.Thanks for your page!

Scott Stratten

May no one ever go through hell on earth again. Love to all who died and survived…Peace

A Survivor

My father was put in Schutzhaft in 1934 after Nazis attacked our home and were held off by him with a small pistol. My Mother bribed him out in late 1935. We were finally able to leave Germany for the U.S. in October 1938. Many of our remaining relatives were not as fortunate. Neither my interest nor my survivor’s guilt have ever waned.

Hazem Nasereddin

I am a Palestinian muslim. I feel sad and sorry for what happened to Jews in Europe and other places of the world. I condemn what happened and hope people stop killing inoccent civilians.

Israeli and Jewish, Name Withheld by Request

First thanks for the Cybrary. I have a small issue I would like to bring to you. I have read the page under Facts – the Jews and was left with a disturbing feeling. I’m a Jew, my mother and father are jewish. I speak hebrew. I served in the Israeli army. I know the Bible. I know the tradition. I care about Israel. Members of my family were killed in the Shoa. I’m proud of being one, heck it is just what I am etc. etc. But I’m strongly opposed to religions of all kinds, to blind faiths and to people who try to force their view of rightness on others. In all the above I’m a pretty good representative of the *majority* of young Israelies. But reading some sections of that page I had the feeling that it was written by a religious jew, why jews observe shabat etc. I may be wrong. The fact is that most people who define themseleves as Jews are not very religious and many are observant only to a small extent and this includes most Jews who live outside Israel. Jewishness and being jewish is evidently a more complex issue than just following the rituals of religion. Many of the Jews killed in the Shoa were not very religious. I would love to see the writer of the facts about who are the Jews rephrase it a little as to not to exclude people like me from our nation. Thanks again.
I attended a Holocaust Symposium past spring, and I have to say it changed my life. I am only 16 and yet I feel guilty for the things that happened to the people in the Holocaust. The images found in here make me cry, and I am so sorry for these people. I am proud of people that now speak of their experiences in the Holocaust, and am remorseful for those who it hurts to think about it. Genocide frightens me, and deniers of the Holocaust sicken me. How ignorant are some people?
I have a Web page, and can provide hot links and text to support the on-going effort to document the history of this event. As a Jew, I feel that the “revisionists” (or deniers) could have an influence on future generations with their propoganda. Steven Spielberg has done wonders with his time and energy to help get the messages out there. My family did not have to first hand endure the tortures of the Holocaust, however, I remember the stories my grandfather told of Bolshevik Russia, and why they left early this century. Anyway, I plan to point to some pertinent sites, and let me know if there are others things to do….
I am just making contact to acknowledge the work you are doing. My parents are from Poland, and were both in camp. I think about how it was for them a lot, and read as much as I can, as well as hear their stories.I am now 43, and think about what/how to talk to my children of 7, 9 and 11 years, so that the no one – no matter how many generations into the future – no one forgets. Good luck with the project…..(from Australia…)
I have not had time to properly read through your page but I wanted to comment on the witnesses section. I think it is wonderful that you have included this!! Resisters are consistently left out of the history of so many peoples. It is important for students to learn about the resisters for 2 reasons.They should have a full, accurate picture of the people they are studying. Second they need to believe that the world does not need to remain as we know it now. Positive change is possible. Thank you for your efforts.
I like what you are doing. I am the granddaughter of survivors, and am impressed with what you are doing. My Grandparents are dying, but I was fortunate to have gotten their stories on tape. BTW they aren’t technically Holocaust survivors–they survived the war in hiding in Vichy France. Grandpa was a member of the French Resistance. Anyway, I appreciate your work.
Chet and Bobbi:

It took me back to my adolescence just before the end of WWII. Although, many years have passed, I remember being in the third grade and a new young man came to our school and also joined our Hebrew School. His name was Robert ____ and this was in Miami, Florida. His sister’s name was Marta. Anyway, he was from Czechoslovakia and was a survivor as was his sister. I remember the number on their arms and the empty looks in their faces. He told a horror story of being awakened as a 3-year-old child in the night and the soldiers came. Shot their father in front of their eyes. Tied and gagged his grandma and tied up and raped, then shot their mother. The children were taken to a camp with the rest of their relatives from the village and he doesn’t remember anything else until he was on the boat to America.
Shari:

For me, the holocaust means pain. Loss. Wondering if someone I see on the street is related to me, but I’ll never know. So many of my family were scattered. Lost. I want to remember always and I want to convey the memories to my children without the horror, though I know it’s inevitable.
Andreh

“Holocaust” I know what it means. As an Armenian, we had one before; may be a more primitive one, but at least the first one in history. And I know your rage since I have my own as well. We are brothers…. let us never stop forgetting it, but the courage to forgive! God bless all of us…Andreh
Harold Gordon: Visit Harold at the Books by Survivors

I was a child survivor from Grodno, Poland. I have recently written a book entitled “The Last Sunrise” It is the true story of a ten year old Jewish boy who survived almost (5) years in Nazi Concentration Camps with a positive attitude, healthy in body and mind. The contents defines positive goals achievable by letting go of anger and resentment. “The Last Sunrise” was nominated for National Book Award for 1993 and is currently available at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and at the Simon Weisenthal Center Museum of Tolorance Museum Shops.

I would like to contribute whatever you see fit of my writings.
Respectfully yours
Harold Gordon

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