When we arrived in Jebenhausen, we faced the awful truth. Grandma had not survived. A total of thirteen people from our family had lost their lives during those awful years. Our only hope was to find our beloved Christian friend Therese. To our dismay, the war had claimed her life also. When the American soldiers entered the village, they searched many houses for ammunition. Therese heard the knock on her door, but did not open it, fearing for her life. She remained standing behind the closed door. Eventually, an impatient American soldier shot through the door. She died instantly.
THERESE
To honor her I placed a flower on the grave,
Recalling a woman who generously gave.
Her life in danger; she came in the night,
Bringing food and helping us in our plight.
She did not heed the GI’s knock on the door,
A shot rang out; she fell lifeless to the floor.
As before in a distant and strange land,
My grandma’s life snuffed out by an SS hand.
I had prayed for their safety every night,
Now they walk together in an unseen light.
The two were inseparable, each a good friend,
A Christian and a Jew united in the end.
The new owners of Grandma’s house prepared a room for us. When Grandma was deported to Riga in 1941, her house was taken away from us and we were ordered to move into the Jewish houses in Goeppingen. A Christian family received permission to occupy Grandma’s house.
Our return after so many years was greeted by a vase filled with field flowers which stood on the table. The Christian family tried to ease our pain. One day someone brought us a big bowl of whipped sweet cream. Mama and I gorged ourselves until we were sick from it. The years of hunger had taken their toll; our stomachs were not ready to digest this rich food.
We soon found more permanent living quarters in the neighboring town of Goeppingen. The mayor invited us to visit him at City Hall. As soon as we stepped into the Mayor’s Chamber, Mama noticed the Oriental carpet: it was ours. The mantel clock had a familiar chime; it, too, had once been our property. After our deportation to Terezin, all our belongings had been distributed to different Christian families. Some items had found their way to City Hall.
Inge, parents and an American soldier after liberation, 1945.
Inge, parents and American soldiers in Goeppingen, 1945.
The townspeople, fearing reprisal from us, insisted that they knew nothing of the horrors we had suffered. They said they had never hated the Jews and were therefore not guilty of any crime. Why then did they not question the fate of so many innocent people taken away so brutally at the time?
Our home became a famililar place for the American soldiers. They showered us with personal goods and candy. Some ran with their melting ice cream rations to our home so that I could have a special treat.
To my knowledge, I was the only Jewish child survivor in the state of Württemberg. My eleventh birthday was a sensation. I was invited to the local UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) Commission Headquarters. I had but one wish—to receive a new doll carriage, even though I seemed too old for it. I remembered just before my deportation to Terezin how heartbreaking it had been to wheel my light green carriage for two miles to town and give it to another child.
How thrilled I was with my first new outfit, a black and white checked dress sewn especially for me. I felt like an animal let out of a cage. I just wanted to run free and play, instead of studying at school. Papa resumed his textile business and once more began to be successful.
WE HAVE BOTH SURVIVED
As we wandered through the night,
We held on to each other in fright.
Both of us carried on our back,
Few belongings packed in a sack.
While the whips snapped all around,
Only I heard her crying sound.
I held her gently in my arm.
To protect her from any harm.
We both lived through a violent time,
Prisoners, guiltless of any crime.
Even during the greatest despair,
I always knew that she was there.
We calmed and soothed each other,
She was the child, I was the mother.
I felt safe when she was near,
Losing her became my greatest fear.
Now she is brittle, her limbs are worn,
Her clothes are faded with age and torn.
But she still looks at me with loving eyes,
With a warmth that time can’t compromise.
She has been carefully stored away,
With memories of many a yesterday.
I thank her for playtime hours spent,
Hoping she knows how much she’s meant.
Life slowly returned to normal again, but it was still lonely. We took the first opportunity we could to immigrate to America in May 1946. We rode in the boxcars of a freight train to the sea-port of Bremen. The cars had been decorated with tree branches, and on their sides was written with chalk: “God bless President Truman and America.” It was a stormy ten days at sea on the Marine Perch, an American troop transport ship. We arrived in New York Harbor at night. I stood in awe of the blinking lights of Manhattan, which seemed like a wonderland to me. Lady Liberty was especially bright as her lamp’s light welcomed and guided us to a new life. The next morning we disembarked just as the sun rose on a new day.
CHAPTER 8
Afterthoughts
Where were the church and all the good and decent people of the world while this barbarism was going on? The heads of the Christian churches and the leaders of Islam and Buddhism made no protest against this inhumanity. The leaders and intellectuals of the free world did not scream out in protest. Some of the clergy in Belgium and France helped to save Jewish children by hiding them in nunneries and safe houses. Very few of the clergy, however, became involved in this tragedy. Pastor Niemöller of Germany did provide this daring example of the way some people acted during the Nazi era:
In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for me ... by that time there was no one to speak up for anyone.
Murder on such a scale could not be hidden. The stench of burning flesh from the crematoria reached houses miles away. Many people outside the camps knew of these evil happenings, but did nothing to help. There were some exceptions. The people of Denmark, led by King Christian X, saved seven thousand Jews by helping them escape to Sweden. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, saved thousands of lives in Hungary. He devised the protective passport, or Schutzpass, with the Swedish colors and embassy stamp that placed many Jews in Budapest under Swedish government control. Some of the people of Bulgaria and a few heroic individuals in Germany and the occupied countries risked their lives to aid the Jews.
One might ask, did the Jews go like sheep to slaughter? Yes, they were slaughtered, but not without resistance. Most of them were completely helpless. They had few weapons, were broken in body and spirit; tortured and starved to death. Some were branded like cattle with a tattoo on their left arm. Soap was made from fat of their dead bodies, and human skin was used to make lampshades. Children, especially twins, were used for painful and gruesome medical experiments by Nazi doctors.
There were some heroic acts of resistance by the Jews in the ghettos and camps. One of them was the superhuman effort of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April 1943. A small group of poorly armed young Jewish fighters held off the German army for over a month. They did not give up until the Nazis burned the whole ghetto down. Jews were among the first to become partisans (resistance fighters) against the Nazis. There was also resistance of the spirit. Some
children in the ghettos and camps were taught against great odds in illegal classes. Just to stay alive one more day was an immense struggle for the human spirit.
What was the toll of these dreadful years? World War II consumed fifty million lives. A total of eleven million people were murdered by starvation,gassing, phenol injection, shooting, electrocution, torture, experimentation, and disease. Six million of them were Jews: two-thirds of the entire Jewish population of Europe had been slaughtered. The other five million humans so
PEACE
An acorn gives life to a thousand trees,
Many tiny raindrops form the greatest seas.
Nothing is impossible; if only we try,
The smallest tree can reach the sky.
We may differ in thought and ideas,
Every mother cries some salty tears.
If flowers can grow in desert sand,
Hate can turn to love in any land.
All wars must cease
There will be peace
Pick a rose with its thorn,
A world of peace for each newborn.
Let’s share the milk and honey today,
Where there is will, there is a way.
Beat each sword into a plowshare,
We must search our hearts and care.
Together we can survive and win,
The time is now; let us begin.
All wars must cease
There will be peace
brutally slain were Gypsies, Slavs, and people who had been branded enemies of the Nazi state. Germany—one of the greatest, most civilized, cultured, and scientifically advanced countries of the world—became the most barbaric nation in history.
Hitler killed himself in his protected bunker in Berlin as the Allies were closing in on him. Some of his aides were tried by an international military tribunal for crimes against humanity. They were sentenced to die or to serve long prison terms. Many escaped to other countries and were never punished for their crimes.
The philosopher George Santayana wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is our responsibility to be watchful of all our leaders in government. We must speak out against evil and injustice. Let us build bridges of understanding and love to join mankind in every land. My hope, my wish, and prayer is for every child to grow up in peace without hunger and prejudice.
WE SHALL NEVER FORGET
Out of ashes our spirits rise,
Tears rain down from the weeping skies,
We have suffered and endured the fire,
Immense horrors and miles of barbed wire.
History’s greatest evil and hell,
We all bear witness, we are here to tell.
The world was deaf, where was the light?
There seemed no end to the long, long night.
CHORUS: We will always remember, WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!
Trumpets of joy sound freedom’s call,
Love for God and man, above all,
WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!
Minds were dulled by bombs of hate,
Only the hero cared about our fate,
We saw the truth, it began to unfold,
You may kill the body but never the soul.
Here we are with honor and pride,
A new generation at our side,
The silent voices join us today,
Never, never again, we hope and pray.
(Repeat CHORUS at will.)
Words by Inge Auerbacher
Music by Rosalie Commentucci
Timetable
Suggested Further Readings
Altshuler, David A. Hitler’s War against the Jews. New York: Behrman House, 1978.
Baer, Edith. A Frost in the Night: A Girlhood on the Eve of the Third Reich. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
Baldwin, Margaret. The Boys Who Saved the Children. New York: Julian Messner, 1981.
Bernbaum, Israel. My Brother’s Keeper—The Holocaust through the Eyes of an Artist. New York: Putnam, 1985.
Frank, Anne. Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Pocket Books (reprint), 1971.
Green, Gerald. The Artists of Terezin. New York: Schocken, 1978. Kantor, Alfred. The Book of Alfred Kantor. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Katz, William Loren. An Album of Nazism. New York: Franklin Watts, 1979.
Meltzer, Milton. Never to Forget. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Orgel, Doris. The Devil in Vienna. New York: Dial Press, 1978. Reiss, Johanna. The Upstairs Room. New York: Crowell, 1972. Richter, Hans Peter. Friedrich. New York: Dell, 1973. Rossel, Seymour. The Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981. Rubin, Arnold P. The Evil That Men Do. New York: Julian Messner, 1977.
Schoenberner, Gerhard The Yellow Star: The Persecution of the Jews in Europe, 1933—1945. New York: Bantam, 1973.
Volavková, H., ed. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Avon, 1972.
Ziemian, Joseph. The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square. New York: Avon, 1977.
Acknowledgements
My most heartfelt thanks go to my beloved parents, who cheered me on and gave me much valuable advice and support in completing my manuscript.
I am immensely grateful to my editor, Denise Johnstone-Burt, whose expert guidance, intellect, talent, and love for humanity are shown in this book.
My most ardent thanks go to Distinguished Professor Randolph L. Braham of the City University of New York for sharing his scholarship and for his encouragement. Without his inspiration, friendship, and support, this book would never have been written.
I am indebted to Sharyn November, Nancy Paulsen, Ron Buehl, Iris Rosoff, and Diane Arico for believing in me and opening the doors to the publishing field.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dear friends Else Bakke, Orest Dutka, and Mollie Kramer of the New York City Public Library, who helped me so much in spirit and research in completing this book.
Many thanks go to authors Judy Blume and Herman Wouk for lending a helping hand.
I am deeply grateful for and will never forget the help given me by Art Raymond, of radio station WEVD, who was the first to bring my writing to the attention of a large audience.
My thanks go to composers Rosalie Commentucci-O’Hara, with whom my dream began, and to Barney Bragin, James Donenfeld, and Sol Zim, who added so much talent to my words.
I am grateful for the permission to reproduce photographs from the Kulturamt-Stadtarchiv, Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, State Jewish Museum in Prague, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Appreciation goes to Dr. Karel Jindrak for his English translation of the Czech folk song “Spring Is in the Coming.”
I would like to thank the following for their help: Dr. Kurt Maier, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith, the American Jewish Committee, Benjamin and Vladka Meed of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and filmmaker Emanuel Rund.
I am thankful to many people, too numerous to mention, whose omission is no measure of the help they gave me in achieving an important point in my life.
1
work means freedom
2
Grandma
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Memorial
4
Sabbath
5
Holiday bread
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