The Other Schindlers

by Agnes Grunwald-Spier

  12. Ibid., p. 35.

  13. Luitgard N. Wundheiler, ‘Oskar Schindler’s Moral Development During the Holocaust’ in Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, Vol. 13, Nos 1 & 2, 1985–86, pp. 335–56, 340.

  14. Eric Silver, The Book of the Just: The silent heroes who saved Jews from Hitler (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992), pp. 147–8.

  15. Wundheiler, ‘Oskar Schindler’s Moral Development During the Holocaust’, p. 333.

  16. Ibid., pp. 340–1.

  17. Dina Rabinovitch, ‘Schindler’s Wife’ in Guardian Weekend, 5 February 1994.

  18. Robin O’Neil, ‘Schindler – An Unlikely Hero – the Man from Svitavy’, Introduction, p. ix, unpublished MA dissertation on Schindler, 1996, University College London, Dept for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. O’Neil cites his interview with Dr Moshe Bejski in Tel Aviv, 1995.

  19. Emilie Schindler, Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir (New York: Norton, 1996), p. 46.

  20. Emilie Schindler’s obituary, The Independent, 7 October 2001.

  21. Schindler, Where Light and Shadow Meet, p. 58.

  22. Ibid., p. ix.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid., p. 162.

  25. Allan Hall, ‘Widow fights to retrieve Schindler’s original list’ in The Times, 27 April 2001.

  26. Dina Rabinovitch, ‘Schindler’s Wife’ in Guardian Weekly, 5 February 1994.

  27. Steinhouse, ‘The Man Who Saved a Thousand Lives’, pp. 17–8.

  28. Rachel Fixsen, ‘Spielberg’s Hero Died Alone and Forgotten’, Reuters News Service, 10 February 1994 in Oskar Schindler and his List, pp. 250–1.

  29. Testimony of Yitzhak Stern, May 1962, www1.yadvashem.org/righteous_new/germany/germany_shindler_testimony_1print.html.

  30. Martin Gilbert, The Boys (London: 1996), Glossary, p. 482.

  31. Dr Moshe Bejski, notes of telephone conversation with author in Jerusalem, 3 January 2004.

  32. Bradberry, ‘Surrey’s own Oskar Schindler’, 1 March 1999.

  33. Henk Huffener, telephone conversation with the author, 1 July 2002.

  34. Huffener, unpublished memoir written for the author, dated 10–11 May 1999.

  35. Bradberry, ‘Surrey’s own Oskar Schindler’, 1 March 1999.

  36. Huffener, letter to the author, 2 July 2002.

  37. Brenda Bailey, A Quaker Couple in Nazi Germany (York: William Sessions, 1994), p. 36.

  38. Henk Huffener, letter to the author, 21 October 2002.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Ibid., 29 December 2002.

  41. Speech by the Ambassador of Israel on presenting Henk Huffener the award of Righteous Among the Nations at the Israeli Embassy, London, 3 February 1999.

  42. Bradberry, ‘Surrey’s own Oskar Schindler’, 1 March 1999.

  43. Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (London: Viking, 2002), p. 15; and Naomi Shepherd, Wilfrid Israel: Germany’s Secret Ambassador (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984), p. 26.

  44. Erna Paris, Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History (London: Bloomsbury, 2001), p. 72.

  45. Theo Richmond, ‘How German Can you Get?’ in The Sunday Times Culture magazine, 9 March 2003.

  46. Victoria J. Barnett, Bystanders: Conscience and Complicity During the Holocaust (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999), p. 99.

  47. Else Pintus, ‘The Diary of Else Pintus: The Story of a Holocaust Survivor, 1947’, unpublished diary translated by Doris Stiefel (née Pintus), June 1998, and sent to the author, p. 33.

  48. Barbara Lovenheim, Survival in the Shadows: Seven Hidden Jews in Hitler’s Berlin (London: Peter Owen, 2002), pp. 24–6. Photo and citation between pp. 124–5.

  49. Jew Count, http://en.allexperts.com/e/j/je/jew_count.htm, accessed 3 January 2010.

  50. Citation from Yad Vashem, sent by e-mail, 16 December 2009.

  51. Huffener, letter to the author, 6 June 1999, p. 14b.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Ibid., 14 April 2000, pp. 3–4.

  54. Ibid., 6 June 1999, p. 14b.

  55. Tanya Harrod, obituary of Maria Sax Ledger, The Independent, 11 April 2006.

  56. Cipher Caput by Treatment, 1993, www.delerium.co.uk/bands/treatment/delec026.html.

  57. Philip Hardaker, e-mail to the author, 10 January 2010.

  58. Hardaker, telephone conversation with the author, 11 January 2010.

  59. HE Dror Zeigerman, speech honouring Henk Huffener in the Israeli Embassy, 3 February 1999.

  60. Bradberry, ‘Surrey’s own Oskar Schindler’, 1 March 1999.

  61. Claire Keen-Thiryn, e-mail to the author, 23 March 2001.

  62. Keen-Thiryn, interview with the author in Bolton, 21 April 2001, p. 1.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid., p. 2.

  65. John Clinch, Escape & Evasion Belgium WW2, www.belgiumww2.info, section 7, accessed 28 December 2009.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Guido Zembsch-Schreve, Pierre Lalande: Special Agent (London: Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1998), p. 297.

  68. Leaflet about exhibition to commemorate fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Dora, provided by Claire Keen-Thiryn.

  69. Obituary of Guido Zembsch-Schreve, a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), in The Times, 3 April 2003.

  70. Keen-Thiryn, e-mail to the author, 3 May 2001.

  71. Freddie Knoller, ‘A History of the Dora Camp’ in Perspectives, Autumn 2004, p. 35.

  72. Une base intéressante de 1944 (prisonniers politiques) – Forums Généalogie – www.genealogie.com/v4/forums/recherches-genealogiques-benelux, accessed 28 December 2009.

  73. Evert Kwaadgras, e-mail to the author, 16 January 2004. Mr Kwaadgras is the archivist, librarian and curator of the Dutch Freemasons’ Grand Lodge of the Netherlands, based in The Hague.

  74. Henri Obstfeld, e-mail to the author, 6 May 2001.

  75. Henri Obstfeld, ‘A Bridge Too Far’ in Zachor: Child Survivors Speak (London: Elliott & Thompson, 2005), pp. 89–96 (89–90).

  76. Obstfeld, e-mail to the author, 25 April 2001.

  77. Ibid., 6 May 2001.

  78. Ibid., 1 December 2009.

  79. Ibid., 28 December 2003 (10:34).

  80. Ibid.

  81. Ibid., (18:24).

  82. Ibid., 25 April 2001.

  83. Obstfeld, Zachor, p. 95.

  84. Obstfeld, e-mail to the author, 6 May 2001.

  85. Ibid., 16 April 2001.

  86. Lena Berggren, ‘Elof Eriksson (1883–1965): A Case-study of Anti-Semitism in Sweden’, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol. 34, No 1, January 2000, pp. 39–48 (46).

  87. Museum of Tolerance, Multimedia Learning Center, http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x07/xr0776.html, accessed 26 December 2003.

  88. Matthew Scanlan, ‘The KGB’s Masonic Files Returned to France’ in Freemasonry Today, Issue 18, October 2001.

  89. I am grateful to Evert Kwaadgras for the information provided on Freemasons; e-mail of 16 January 2004.

  90. Evert Kwaadgras, e-mail to the author, 16 January 2004.

  91. Ibid., 12 January 2004.

  92. Ibid., 16 January 2004.

  93. Obstfeld, e-mail to the author, 16 December 2009.

  94. Ibid., 14 September 2002.

  95. Ibid., 1 December 2009.

  96. Marion Schreiber, Silent Rebels (London: Atlantic Books, 2003), Appendix, pp. 269–308.

  97. Ian Black, ‘The Heroes of Mechelen’, the Guardian, 19 June 2003.

  98. Schreiber, Silent Rebels, pp. 242–4.

  99. Hephzibah Anderson, ‘Survivors of heroic raid on train 801’ in Jewish Chronicle, 20 June 2003.

  100. Rose-Marie Guilfoyle, e-mail to the author, 3 August 2004. I am grateful to Ms Guilfoyle who interviewed M. Maistriau on my behalf because she is bilingual and he spoke no English. He was apparently very pleased at my interest in his story.

  101. Paul Spiegel, Foreword in Schreiber’s Silent Rebels, p. ix. Paul Spiegel was the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and was himself saved by being hidden as a small boy by a Belgian family. He
died on 30 April 2004 aged 68.

  102. Steve Jelbert, e-mail to the author, 24 July 2003.

  103. Steve Jelbert, ‘A great escape’ in The Times Play Section, 19 July 2003 (review of Silent Rebels).

  104. Jelbert, e-mail to the author, 25 July 2003.

  105. Schreiber, Silent Rebels, p. 89.

  106. Ibid., p. 90.

  107. Black, ‘The Heroes of Mechelen’, 19 June 2003.

  108. Schreiber, Silent Rebels, p. 4.

  109. Robert McCrum, ‘What ho, Adolf’, The Observer Review, 18 November 2001, p. 2.

  110. Spiegel, Foreword in Schreiber’s Silent Rebels, p. ix.

  111. Simon Kuper, Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe During the Second World War (London: Orion, 2003), p. 137.

  112. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (London: Penguin, 1994), pp. 169–70.

  113. Rose Marie Guilfoyle, e-mails to the author, 6, 7 and 10 September 2004.

  114. Robert Maistriau, meeting with Rose Marie Guilfoyle in Brussels, 2 August 2004.

  115. ‘Belgium bids farewell to resistance hero who saved Jews’, Haaretz, 2 October 2008.

  116. ‘Aryanised’ is the term for the compulsory taking over of Jewish property by non-Jews.

  117. Otto Fleming, notes on Mitzi, 21 May 1997.

  118. Otto Fleming, telephone conversation with the author, 12 March 2001.

  119. Dorothy Fleming, e-mail to the author, 12 December 2009.

  120. Otto Fleming, ‘A Jewish Family in Hietzing’, unpublished memoir, December 2002.

  121. Ibid., pp. 7–8.

  122. Ibid., p. 9.

  123. Dorothy Fleming, e-mail to the author, 26 December 2009 (12:46).

  124. Ibid., (13:01).

  125. Otto Fleming, telephone conversation with the author, 25 May 1997.

  126. The area was part of Germany until 1918, when it became Polish.

  127. Doris Stiefel, e-mail to the author, 19 March 2001.

  128. Else Pintus, ‘The Diary of Else Pintus: The Story of a Holocaust Survivor’, 1947, unpublished diary translated by Doris Stiefel (née Pintus), June 1998, and sent to the author, p. 43.

  129. Ibid., pp. 43–4.

  130. Ibid., p. 44.

  131. Judith Marton, The Diary of Eva Heyman (New York: Yad Vashem, 1988), p. 20.

  132. Ibid., pp. 94–5.

  133. Adina Blady Szwajger, I Remember Nothing More (London: Collins Harvill, 1990), p. 164.

  134. Pintus, ‘The Diary of Else Pintus’, p. 45.

  135. Ibid., p. 49.

  136. Ibid., p. 52.

  137. Ibid., p. 58.

  138. Else Pintus, letter to Erich Pintus dated 26 September 1949, sent by Doris Stiefel; translated from the original by Prof. Hamish Ritchie.

  139. Zsoka Mayer, ‘The History of the Mayer Family’, unpublished memoir written by Naomi Szinai’s sister in 1997, p. 1. Sent to the author by Naomi in June 2003. (Elizabeth was known as Zsoka.)

  140. Ibid., p. 3.

  141. Naomi Szinai, ‘My Moment of Truth: A Summernight’s Journey’, 1997, unpublished memoir found in the Wiener Library (K4b (1)H), p. 1.

  142. Naomi Szinai, telephone conversation with the author, 9 March 2003.

  143. Szinai, ‘My Moment of Truth’, p. 2.

  144. Ibid., p. 4.

  145. Ibid., p. 5.

  146. Ibid., pp. 7–8.

  147. Mayer, ‘The History of the Mayer Family’, p. 4.

  148. Mr and Mrs Bela Grunfeld, declaration to Yad Vashem in Tel Aviv, 26 December 1967. Translated from Hungarian by Dr Tom Keve.

  149. Grunfeld declaration.

  150. János Tóth, undated memoir sent by Yad Vashem, 18 February 2004, File No 8588. Translated from Hungarian by Dr Tom Keve.

  151. Ibid.

  152. Ibid.

  153. Dvora Weis, e-mail to author, 2 March 2004, from Department of the Righteous, Yad Vashem.

  154. Hilde Holger, letter to the author, 22 August 2000.

  155. Julia Pascal, obituary of Hilde Holger, the Guardian, 26 September 2006.

  156. Hilde Holger, ‘Hilde Holger History Notes’, unpublished memoir written around 1990, p. 9. I am grateful to Primavera Boman-Behram, Hilde’s daughter, for sharing this material with me in 2009.

  157. Ibid.

  158. Ibid., p. 10.

  159. Primavera told me her cousin Mimi Schwartz told her the number was twenty-five, but Hilde has written fourteen.

  160. Dr Margit Franz, e-mail to the author, 6 December 2009 (21:39).

  161. www.mkgandhi.org/articles/ginterview.htm. Dehra Dun’s most famous inmate was Heinrich Harrer, who after several attempts finally escaped in 1944. He recounted his time at the camp in Seven Years in Tibet (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953) and Beyond Seven Years in Tibet: my life before, during and after (Labyrynth Press, 2007).

  162. ‘Cultural Activities of Delhi I.F.L. Centre’, The Evening News, 13 February 1951.

  163. Franz, e-mail to the author, 6 December 2009 (21:48).

  164. Pascal, obituary of Hilde Holger, 26 September 2001.

  165. Margarita Turkov, ‘When Darkness Prevailed: A Holocaust Memoir’, unpublished memoir dated 2003, sent to the author from Oregon, Pt 2, p. 26.

  166. Ibid., pp. 1, 4.

  167. Ibid., pp. 6–7.

  168. Ibid., p. 10.

  169. Ibid., p. 11.

  170. Ibid., pp. 12–13.

  171. Ibid., p. 14.

  172. Ibid., p. 17.

  173. Ibid., p. 37.

  174. Margarita Turkov, e-mail to the author, 11 December 2003.

  175. Ibid., 9 December 2003.

  176. Lea Goodman, autobiographical letter to her niece Laura, May 1992, p. 1.

  177. Lea Goodman, ‘In Slovakia and in Poland’ in Zachor, pp. 75–7.

  178. Goodman, autobiographical letter to her niece, May 1992, p. 4.

  179. Ibid., p. 3.

  180. Robert Rozett, ‘From Poland to Hungary, Rescue Attempts 1943–44’, Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 24, 1995, pp. 177–93, cited in Goodman, autobiographical letter, May 1992, p. 5.

  181. Goodman, letter to the author, received 8 January 2010.

  CONCLUSIONS

  Now that we have read the narratives about the rescuers and the people they saved, in this section I would like to compare the rescuers, the wider issues of rescue and also show the relevance of their courage to the world in which we live today.

  COMPARING THE RESCUERS

  We have seen that the rescuers came from varied backgrounds. We find that some rescuers, such as Józef Barczynski and Dr Ho, had experienced hardship in their youth. Barczynski’s family had been displaced and he therefore identified with the Jews. Dr Ho had grown up at a time when the Chinese were badly treated, so he too could empathise with persecuted Jews.

  The Italian Costagutis, Mitzi and the Stenzels all helped people they knew and felt a loyalty towards, either because of previous relationships or living in close proximity. This can also apply to János Tóth who certainly was consistently good to Jews without even considering his own position. The Costagutis knew the people they helped because they were neighbours in Rome. They were not particularly pro-Jewish and some of those they assisted were early members of the Fascist party, so the rescue was really based on their neighbourly relationship and humanitarianism.

  Vali Rácz also had mixed motives: loyalty to Jews because she had worked amongst them for years, but also great compassion for those who needed help. Her daughter described her as brave, humane, generous to a fault and having total self-belief.1

  A significant division between the rescuers was that some of them had reacted specifically to the horrors of the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler, Varian Fry and Jaap van Proosdij are three rescuers who fall into this category. Oskar and Varian were older than Jaap, who was only 21, and their earlier lives had not marked them out as people who went out of their way to help others. They performed amazing deeds for Jews in those desperate times, but altruism was not significant in their lives before or afterwards. B
oth Oskar and Varian are now dead, but Jaap van Proosdij admitted to me, ‘I don’t know whether I am an humanitarian’,2 saying he was more likely to help individuals or families than a nation of people in crisis. Although Fry has been called the ‘American Schindler’, these two men came to their rescuees from different directions:

  Schindler was a sensualist and an opportunist who stumbled upon a humanitarian duty he could not ignore, although to begin with he probably did try to ignore it. Fry was a sensitive, even prissy individual, an aesthete and an epicure who was driven by idealistic motives to perform a humanitarian duty. Schindler’s was the profiteering escapade that went awry once he discovered by chance that life was more important than money. Fry’s was a deliberate mission that entailed a change of character (though he drew on resources he already possessed). Despite the differences between them, both men lived for a time at the very limit of their abilities, where they found their personalities at last fulfilled. What Thomas Keneally wrote of Oskar Schindler – ‘The peace would never exalt him as had the war’ – was also true for Fry.3

  Many of the rescuers were known to be helpful to others all their lives. Charles Fawcett continued to help those in crisis, in spite of recurrent bouts of TB, until he was too frail. In the 1956 Hungarian revolution he rescued many Hungarians and later flew to the Belgian Congo and helped 250 Europeans escape. In the 1980s he was in Afghanistan filming Russian crimes against the Afghans. Henk Huffener also gave his time to help people after the war, assisting both Chileans and West Indians in London in the 1970s. John Schoen’s father was always having people turn up at his door wanting work, and Soeur St Cybard continually aided those in difficulties – she was like a social worker in the area. These were people who continually took responsibility for others who needed their help. They gave it willingly and unstintingly all their lives.

  Many rescuers regarded their time in the war as the most significant in their lives. Carl Lutz, Varian Fry and Mary Jayne Gold, the wealthy socialite who funded Varian’s work in Marseilles, all agreed on this:

  Those 13 months in Marseilles were the most important of his life and he was never again so fulfilled. Mary Jayne Gold died on 5 October 1997. One of her friends said at her funeral that she ‘felt that only one year in her life really mattered and it was the year she spent in Marseille’. He added: ‘She was a very shrewd woman whose heart was on the right side of issues and who at a crucial turning point in history understood what was called for.’ That obituary could speak for Varian Fry too.4