This is a must read for anyone that cares about the world in 2007:
Eva Fogelman's "Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust."
This site is dedicated to excerpts. They just barely begin to scratch the surface of this book that shows us what Humanity looks like. There were too few examples then. Are there any today?
We better start to remember, or it will be too late for us all.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
"How else should one react...?"
"Moral rescuers were people who, when asked why they risked their lives to save Jews often answered, "How else should one react when a human life is endangered?" Their concept of right and wrong was so much a part of who they were and are, that it was as if I had asked them why they breathed."
21,000 Yad Vashem Non-Jew Holocaust Rescuers
"Yad Vashem has honored more than 21,000 rescuers. The criteria used by its awards commission to screen candidates are stringent and controversial. Only non-Jews are eligible. Jews who saved Jews are not recognized by Yad Vashem or anywhere else. To be considered for the nhonor, a person's deed must be above and beyond the simple offer of a helping hand. The good farmers who gave a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread to my father saved his life, but by Yad Vashem's standards, theirs was an ordinary act of charity.
Yad Vashem's recognition commission also screens out those who saved Jews for personal gain. These include people who were anxious to convert their charges to Christianity, people who wanted to adopt a child, and people who were paid or were promised payment in the future. Candidates must be nominated by the person or persons they rescued, or their candidacy must be supported by other documents of witnesses. Each submission must clearly show that the nominee did not participate in Nazi activities or engage in a rescue effort as a last-minute attempt to fashion a favorable end to their war persona."
Yad Vashem's recognition commission also screens out those who saved Jews for personal gain. These include people who were anxious to convert their charges to Christianity, people who wanted to adopt a child, and people who were paid or were promised payment in the future. Candidates must be nominated by the person or persons they rescued, or their candidacy must be supported by other documents of witnesses. Each submission must clearly show that the nominee did not participate in Nazi activities or engage in a rescue effort as a last-minute attempt to fashion a favorable end to their war persona."
Seven year old Helena
"Seven-year-old Helena (Stefania's sister) had grown quite adept at passing slips of paper through the barbed-wire fence unnoticed, but this time she was unlucky. A gang of teenage boys saw Helena take a note from inside the ghetto, and began to chase her.
Frightened, Helena started to run away. Although she could not read or write, Stefania had told her never to let anyone see the little pieces of paper she took from the ghetto. As she ran, she tore up her message and ate the pieces. When the boys caught up to her and found nothing in her hand or pockets, they beat and kicked her so badly she could barely make it home.
For four years after the war was over, Helena was mute. Now in her fifties, she still stutters. The need for secrecy had been impressed on her so deeply, and the trauma of discovery had been so shocking, she could not escape from her habit of silence."
Frightened, Helena started to run away. Although she could not read or write, Stefania had told her never to let anyone see the little pieces of paper she took from the ghetto. As she ran, she tore up her message and ate the pieces. When the boys caught up to her and found nothing in her hand or pockets, they beat and kicked her so badly she could barely make it home.
For four years after the war was over, Helena was mute. Now in her fifties, she still stutters. The need for secrecy had been impressed on her so deeply, and the trauma of discovery had been so shocking, she could not escape from her habit of silence."
Jean's Aunt
"The German directives were clear and the punishment for defying them equally clear. A Pole caught selling bread to Jews outside the Warsaw ghetto, for example, was automatically sentenced to three months at hard labor. Jean Kowalyk, a nineteen-year-old who would later hide seven Jews in the small farmhouse where she and her mother lived, learned early on that the Germans meant what they said. When the Polish village of Zorotowyci was invaded by the Germans, all food became the property of the Third Reich. The penalty for raising cattle or chickens for home consumption was death. Jean’s aunt was caught raising food to feed her nine children. She was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Sixteen weeks later only her clothes came back home."
Johtje Vos was appalled that she risked her son's life...
"To this day, Johtje Vos is horrified by what she did. It was at a time when a member of their rescue network had been arrested. Everyone’s life was in danger. The Voses sat down with their fugitives to decide what to do. In preparation for a move to another hiding place, Johtje Vos had retrieved their real papers. Without warning, the Germans arrived. Aart Vos and the Jews ran for the tunnel. With the children upstairs napping, Johtje Vos realized she could not leave. She scooped up the papers and, desperate for a place to hide them, stuffed them into the pocket of the sweater her son was wearing. “Quietly try to get out of here and disappear with the papers,” she ordered him. He did as he was told. As it happened, no one was arrested, but it was the narrowest of escapes."
Magda Trocme
"Singly and in groups, they saw a need, found an opportunity, and acted. When a stranger knocked on the door of her home in theFrench village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Magda Trocmé’s response was reflexive. This pastor’s wife listened to a bedraggled stranger ex plain that she was in danger. She was a German Jew coming from northern France, and had no place to go. Could she come in? “Naturally, come in, come in,” was Trocmé’s unhesitating reply."
19 year old nursing student
Nowhere is the example of a moral rescuer better illustrated than in the story of Irene Gut Opdyke, who, once she became aware of the plight of Jews, was determined to save them no matter what the costs. For years, Gut’s rescuing relationships were central to her life and to her being.
Irene Gut, as a nineteen-year-old nursing student, had become aware of the plight of the Jews from the moment she pushed back the curtains from the window of the hotel in Radom where she worked as a waitress for the Nazi Major Ruegemer. She had seen the misery of the Jews in the ghetto outside and could not forget that misery. Irene and her sister left food for the Jews, but when the Nazis closed down the ghetto behind her hotel, they could only watch in helpless horror from across the street.
One day she and her sister heard shooting. Major Ruegemer, seeing how upset Irene and her sister were at what they had just witnessed, excused them from the day’s work. As the two headed home, they heard still more shooting.
They followed a group of Gestapo to the edge of town. There Gut and her sister saw a mass of shallow graves. The gestapo stood people in front of the graves and opened fire with machine guns. "The earth was shaking with the breath of those who had been buried alive,” Gut recalled. That day, that moment, Gut made a covenant with God. She asked Him for the opportunity to do something. “I asked God to give me responsibility, to bring me the opportunity to help, even if my own life should be taken," she said.
Gut’s first rescue activity, that of leaving food at the ghetto fence, was motivated by an empathy and a conviction that these were human beings like her, not something “other.’ She saw that these people were suffering, and her sense of humanity compelled her to...."
Irene Gut, as a nineteen-year-old nursing student, had become aware of the plight of the Jews from the moment she pushed back the curtains from the window of the hotel in Radom where she worked as a waitress for the Nazi Major Ruegemer. She had seen the misery of the Jews in the ghetto outside and could not forget that misery. Irene and her sister left food for the Jews, but when the Nazis closed down the ghetto behind her hotel, they could only watch in helpless horror from across the street.
One day she and her sister heard shooting. Major Ruegemer, seeing how upset Irene and her sister were at what they had just witnessed, excused them from the day’s work. As the two headed home, they heard still more shooting.
They followed a group of Gestapo to the edge of town. There Gut and her sister saw a mass of shallow graves. The gestapo stood people in front of the graves and opened fire with machine guns. "The earth was shaking with the breath of those who had been buried alive,” Gut recalled. That day, that moment, Gut made a covenant with God. She asked Him for the opportunity to do something. “I asked God to give me responsibility, to bring me the opportunity to help, even if my own life should be taken," she said.
Gut’s first rescue activity, that of leaving food at the ghetto fence, was motivated by an empathy and a conviction that these were human beings like her, not something “other.’ She saw that these people were suffering, and her sense of humanity compelled her to...."
Alex's nine year old son
"In his interview, Alex did not say whether he had considered the possibility of dire poverty when he decided to keep Jacob and move his family away from the center of town. Probably he chose to trust in his own proven ability to make money. A very important ingredient for coping with stress through the numbing of fear is a sense of personal competence and self-esteem, and Alex had financial self-confidence...
Jacob grew comfortable as a member of the family, tutoring Alex’s daughter in math and reading. He read to Mary from Heinrich Graetz, the great Jewish historian. Life settled down to what passed for normalcy in wartime Poland: Jurek and Jacob slept on the couch, and Mary slept in the bed with her parents....
It had been so for only a matter of weeks when a member of the underground came to beg Alex to take in Jacob’s brother, Sholom.
This was too much for Mela, Alex’s wife. ‘When she had agreed to hide Jacob, she had not known it would mean the unbearable suspense of two Gestapo inspections and a complete uprooting for her family. Now she realized there was a price to pay for rescuing that was below the ultimate punishment—but dear nonetheless.
“You’re playing it very dangerously,” she said to him that night.
“What’s the difference?” Alex pleaded. “It’s the same danger to hide two Jews as for one.”
Alex could see his wife’s determination cracking. He overcame the fear of losing her and the worry about hurting her by deciding to maintain confidence in her intelligence and internal strength. Perhaps, too, his faith in her helped her to stick with her initial decision and not leave him. The next day, Alex accepted Sholom into his growing household.
Sholom, who was nine years old, had been kept for several months on a rooftop. Exposed to wind and rain as well as the neighbors’ prying eyes, he had been unable to so much as sit up while there was still light out. From dawn to dusk he had been forced to lie silently on the roof.
When he came to Alex’s house, he was pathetically skinny and a nervous wreck, starting in terror at the slightest unexpected sound. Alex had nothing to give him but hot soup.
Two months later Sholom came down with scarlet fever, and infected Alex’s own son, Jurek. Luckily, the local doctor could be trusted enough to visit both patients—but Sholom was too sick to be cured at home.
Mela was frantic. She had known taking Sholom would bring nothing but misfortune. Jurek was sent to the hospital, and Sholom remained wasting away at home.
But when Jurek went into the hospital, he did something extraordinary. Jurek took only half of his medication and hid the rest. He took notes, in his fever, on what the doctors and nurses did to cure him. When his mother came to visit, he gave her the medicine and the notes and told her to use them to help Sholom."
Jacob grew comfortable as a member of the family, tutoring Alex’s daughter in math and reading. He read to Mary from Heinrich Graetz, the great Jewish historian. Life settled down to what passed for normalcy in wartime Poland: Jurek and Jacob slept on the couch, and Mary slept in the bed with her parents....
It had been so for only a matter of weeks when a member of the underground came to beg Alex to take in Jacob’s brother, Sholom.
This was too much for Mela, Alex’s wife. ‘When she had agreed to hide Jacob, she had not known it would mean the unbearable suspense of two Gestapo inspections and a complete uprooting for her family. Now she realized there was a price to pay for rescuing that was below the ultimate punishment—but dear nonetheless.
“You’re playing it very dangerously,” she said to him that night.
“What’s the difference?” Alex pleaded. “It’s the same danger to hide two Jews as for one.”
Alex could see his wife’s determination cracking. He overcame the fear of losing her and the worry about hurting her by deciding to maintain confidence in her intelligence and internal strength. Perhaps, too, his faith in her helped her to stick with her initial decision and not leave him. The next day, Alex accepted Sholom into his growing household.
Sholom, who was nine years old, had been kept for several months on a rooftop. Exposed to wind and rain as well as the neighbors’ prying eyes, he had been unable to so much as sit up while there was still light out. From dawn to dusk he had been forced to lie silently on the roof.
When he came to Alex’s house, he was pathetically skinny and a nervous wreck, starting in terror at the slightest unexpected sound. Alex had nothing to give him but hot soup.
Two months later Sholom came down with scarlet fever, and infected Alex’s own son, Jurek. Luckily, the local doctor could be trusted enough to visit both patients—but Sholom was too sick to be cured at home.
Mela was frantic. She had known taking Sholom would bring nothing but misfortune. Jurek was sent to the hospital, and Sholom remained wasting away at home.
But when Jurek went into the hospital, he did something extraordinary. Jurek took only half of his medication and hid the rest. He took notes, in his fever, on what the doctors and nurses did to cure him. When his mother came to visit, he gave her the medicine and the notes and told her to use them to help Sholom."
Alex in the Warsaw ghetto
"Alex’s childhood provided him with models of altruism: his mother and grandmother often sheltered and fed wandering Gypsies. His grandparents’ religious faith did not make much of an impression on him, nor does he consider either his mother or himself particularly religious...
The Warsaw ghetto was only two blocks from Alex’s home. He was moved, mostly by simple curiosity, to see the ghetto in spite of the strict injunction against civilian visitors. One of his brothers, a member of the Polish underground, sneaked him in.
Alex was overcome with horror by what he witnessed. It was early in the morning, before the cart came to pick up the dead bodies of children lying on the street. The parents of these young unfortunates, he was told, had long since died or been deported. Corpses of toddlers and teenagers alike swarmed with flies. Alex remembers the flies, vividly.
Alex gave some bread to the desperate children who came pleadingly toward him, but he was overwhelmed by the futility of the act. He came back to the ghetto several times, to engrave the images of dying children on his psyche and to reinspire himself with a fee that something had to be done. At last he told an old friend from Retniki, a chauffeur who had worked for a Jewish family now living in the ghetto, that he would take in a Jewish child.
Alex characterizes the liquidation of the ghetto as the most difficult period of time for him during the war. “You can’t eat,” he says. “You can’t sleep. If you see things like that, you can get sick.” Yet he was only a bystander at the time of the mass deportations, not a rescuer. From an objective point of view, his rescuing experience was infinitely more stressful—because of the intimate losses he suffered while living with the constant fear of his own and his family’s danger.
He was able to block out the terror and sorrow of his rescuing experience by focusing on his empathic feelings for the dying children in the ghetto, and all his repressed grief and fear have heightened the indelibility of those images in his mind."
The Warsaw ghetto was only two blocks from Alex’s home. He was moved, mostly by simple curiosity, to see the ghetto in spite of the strict injunction against civilian visitors. One of his brothers, a member of the Polish underground, sneaked him in.
Alex was overcome with horror by what he witnessed. It was early in the morning, before the cart came to pick up the dead bodies of children lying on the street. The parents of these young unfortunates, he was told, had long since died or been deported. Corpses of toddlers and teenagers alike swarmed with flies. Alex remembers the flies, vividly.
Alex gave some bread to the desperate children who came pleadingly toward him, but he was overwhelmed by the futility of the act. He came back to the ghetto several times, to engrave the images of dying children on his psyche and to reinspire himself with a fee that something had to be done. At last he told an old friend from Retniki, a chauffeur who had worked for a Jewish family now living in the ghetto, that he would take in a Jewish child.
Alex characterizes the liquidation of the ghetto as the most difficult period of time for him during the war. “You can’t eat,” he says. “You can’t sleep. If you see things like that, you can get sick.” Yet he was only a bystander at the time of the mass deportations, not a rescuer. From an objective point of view, his rescuing experience was infinitely more stressful—because of the intimate losses he suffered while living with the constant fear of his own and his family’s danger.
He was able to block out the terror and sorrow of his rescuing experience by focusing on his empathic feelings for the dying children in the ghetto, and all his repressed grief and fear have heightened the indelibility of those images in his mind."
STEFANIA PODGORSKA, age 17
STEFANIA: At the time we come to the quote below, for about 16 months 17 year old Stefania and her 7 year old sister Helena have, starting with just 1, found and provided housing that so far has saved the life of 13 Jews in Poland during the height of Nazi power and control. They have fed, clothed, cleaned, carried waste, protected, hidden, for all that time. Stefania had also discouraged a young suitor she dearly loved for fear a relationship would endanger her 13 Jews.
"In the concluding months of the war, as the Russians advanced from the east inflicting heavy casualties on the German side, an empty building across the street from Sefania's cottage (where they all 15 lived) was converted into a field hospital. The formerly deserted street was suddenly swarming with Nazi soldiers, ambulances, wounded, doctors and nurses. Many of the hospital personnel lived on the grounds - which had been a college campus - and Stefania realized that her situation was now much more precarious.
"One afternoon, two SS soldiers knocked on her door. "You have been ordered to vacate the premises within two hours." They read to her from an official-looking sheet of paper. "This residence has been commandeered by the Third Reich. The penalty for noncompliance is death."
"Two hours! How will I find a place for my sister and me (and 13 hidden Jews) in just two hours?" she cried, but they merely repeated the orders and left.
"For the next hour and a half Stefania ran through every street in town - but she could find nothing that would shelter all fifteen of them. After three years of looting and deprivation, the buildings were in worse shape than ever. There were doorways but no doors; houses without ceilings; rooms filled with the rubble of loose masonry and roofing material.
[In a 1990's interview Stefania recalls] "Just ruins, nothing more. Almost two hours had gone already. So I came home. I started to cry. I said, "How can I leave thirteen people to certain death? I can run out, but these people will be dead. … There was nothing available, nothing. Only twenty minutes left. I came home. I said nothing. All my thirteen came down to me, with the three children. The pressed against me, so tightly, they looked at me. My decision. Will I leave? My decision. Will I leave them or not?
"All thirteen of them said to me, "Run away. You don't have to die with us. We have to, but you don't have to die with us. You cannot help us anymore. Save your life and your little sister and run away, because you still have 10 minutes." Joseph pushed me. They said, "Run away. Don't die with us. You cannot help us anymore. What you could do you did, but not now. Save your life and Helena. Go. Run away."
"And all these people watched me, the children pressed so close I could hear their breathing, my sister too. So I really, I didn't know what to do. I said to them, "Well, first of all, come on. We will pray. We will ask God." You see, I had a picture which I bought as a little girl, of Jesus and his mother, and it always hung on my wall. And I said, "Come on - we will pray. We will ask God."
"First I knelt, then my sister and all the thirteen after, behind me. And I prayed, and I turned to look. All thirteen were in deep, deep prayer. And I asked God not to let us be killed. Help, somehow. I cannot leave this apartment. I cannot leave thirteen people for certain death. I will be alive if I go, but thirteen lives will be finished - children too, and young people. I asked God, "Help, somehow."
"And again I heard a voice, a woman's voice. It was so beautiful, so nice, so quiet. She said to me, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right. You will not leave your apartment. You will stay here, and they will take only one room. Everything will be all right. I am with you." And she told me, "Be quiet. I'll tell you what to do." She said, "Send your people to the bunker. Open the door. Open the windows. Clean your apartment and sing."
"I was like hypnotized. My head was bent down, and I was listening, I was listening and the voice said again, "Everything will be all right." Then it disappeared. I listened a few minutes more, but nothing more came.
"So I got up and said to my people, "Go the attic," exactly like the lady told me. I said, "I will not move from my apartment. I will stay here, so go to the attic and be quiet, very quiet."
"And you see, I was completely different. My people looked at me, all my thirteen, and they thought something was wrong with my mind. But I said, "Okay now, go out, go to the bunker. Everything will be all right if you stay quiet over there."
"And I opened the window and the doors, and I cleaned. I started to sing. I don't know how I became so happy. And all the neighbors came, and they said, "Miss Podgorska, what happened? Why haven't you moved? The Gestapo, the SS will come. They will kill you. This is war, this is the military. They have no mercy for the enemy - and they are our enemy. Go out. We don't want to see you killed. You're too nice, too young to be dead."
"I said, "I have no place to go." They said, "Don't you have a friend? Go stay with her." I said, "No, I will not leave my apartment." And they also thought something was wrong with me.
"The janitor's husband came, and he said, "Miss Padgorska, I will throw you out. Go out, I don't want to see you be killed - I have no place to bury you." And he was serious. … I said, "No, I am sorry, I will not move from my apartment." And he said, "Something is wrong with you," but he left.
"I kept singing and cleaning my apartment, and exactly ten minutes past the two hours an SS man came. He was so friendly. He was laughing to me from a few yards away. He came closer to the window and he said - he spoke a little Polish, very broken but he spoke - and he said it was good that I hadn't moved from my apartment because they would take only one room. This last room, they would take. He said, "Very well, you can stay."
"THIRTEEN JEWISH PEOPLE HAD BEEN SAVED ONCE AGAIN BY STEFANIA'S INNER VOICE."
"…Thirteen people, and their children and grandchildren, are alive today because a teenager ignored the fact that she would be killed for harboring Jews; thirteen men, women and children are alive today because a teenager believed in miracles."
"In the concluding months of the war, as the Russians advanced from the east inflicting heavy casualties on the German side, an empty building across the street from Sefania's cottage (where they all 15 lived) was converted into a field hospital. The formerly deserted street was suddenly swarming with Nazi soldiers, ambulances, wounded, doctors and nurses. Many of the hospital personnel lived on the grounds - which had been a college campus - and Stefania realized that her situation was now much more precarious.
"One afternoon, two SS soldiers knocked on her door. "You have been ordered to vacate the premises within two hours." They read to her from an official-looking sheet of paper. "This residence has been commandeered by the Third Reich. The penalty for noncompliance is death."
"Two hours! How will I find a place for my sister and me (and 13 hidden Jews) in just two hours?" she cried, but they merely repeated the orders and left.
"For the next hour and a half Stefania ran through every street in town - but she could find nothing that would shelter all fifteen of them. After three years of looting and deprivation, the buildings were in worse shape than ever. There were doorways but no doors; houses without ceilings; rooms filled with the rubble of loose masonry and roofing material.
[In a 1990's interview Stefania recalls] "Just ruins, nothing more. Almost two hours had gone already. So I came home. I started to cry. I said, "How can I leave thirteen people to certain death? I can run out, but these people will be dead. … There was nothing available, nothing. Only twenty minutes left. I came home. I said nothing. All my thirteen came down to me, with the three children. The pressed against me, so tightly, they looked at me. My decision. Will I leave? My decision. Will I leave them or not?
"All thirteen of them said to me, "Run away. You don't have to die with us. We have to, but you don't have to die with us. You cannot help us anymore. Save your life and your little sister and run away, because you still have 10 minutes." Joseph pushed me. They said, "Run away. Don't die with us. You cannot help us anymore. What you could do you did, but not now. Save your life and Helena. Go. Run away."
"And all these people watched me, the children pressed so close I could hear their breathing, my sister too. So I really, I didn't know what to do. I said to them, "Well, first of all, come on. We will pray. We will ask God." You see, I had a picture which I bought as a little girl, of Jesus and his mother, and it always hung on my wall. And I said, "Come on - we will pray. We will ask God."
"First I knelt, then my sister and all the thirteen after, behind me. And I prayed, and I turned to look. All thirteen were in deep, deep prayer. And I asked God not to let us be killed. Help, somehow. I cannot leave this apartment. I cannot leave thirteen people for certain death. I will be alive if I go, but thirteen lives will be finished - children too, and young people. I asked God, "Help, somehow."
"And again I heard a voice, a woman's voice. It was so beautiful, so nice, so quiet. She said to me, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right. You will not leave your apartment. You will stay here, and they will take only one room. Everything will be all right. I am with you." And she told me, "Be quiet. I'll tell you what to do." She said, "Send your people to the bunker. Open the door. Open the windows. Clean your apartment and sing."
"I was like hypnotized. My head was bent down, and I was listening, I was listening and the voice said again, "Everything will be all right." Then it disappeared. I listened a few minutes more, but nothing more came.
"So I got up and said to my people, "Go the attic," exactly like the lady told me. I said, "I will not move from my apartment. I will stay here, so go to the attic and be quiet, very quiet."
"And you see, I was completely different. My people looked at me, all my thirteen, and they thought something was wrong with my mind. But I said, "Okay now, go out, go to the bunker. Everything will be all right if you stay quiet over there."
"And I opened the window and the doors, and I cleaned. I started to sing. I don't know how I became so happy. And all the neighbors came, and they said, "Miss Podgorska, what happened? Why haven't you moved? The Gestapo, the SS will come. They will kill you. This is war, this is the military. They have no mercy for the enemy - and they are our enemy. Go out. We don't want to see you killed. You're too nice, too young to be dead."
"I said, "I have no place to go." They said, "Don't you have a friend? Go stay with her." I said, "No, I will not leave my apartment." And they also thought something was wrong with me.
"The janitor's husband came, and he said, "Miss Padgorska, I will throw you out. Go out, I don't want to see you be killed - I have no place to bury you." And he was serious. … I said, "No, I am sorry, I will not move from my apartment." And he said, "Something is wrong with you," but he left.
"I kept singing and cleaning my apartment, and exactly ten minutes past the two hours an SS man came. He was so friendly. He was laughing to me from a few yards away. He came closer to the window and he said - he spoke a little Polish, very broken but he spoke - and he said it was good that I hadn't moved from my apartment because they would take only one room. This last room, they would take. He said, "Very well, you can stay."
"THIRTEEN JEWISH PEOPLE HAD BEEN SAVED ONCE AGAIN BY STEFANIA'S INNER VOICE."
"…Thirteen people, and their children and grandchildren, are alive today because a teenager ignored the fact that she would be killed for harboring Jews; thirteen men, women and children are alive today because a teenager believed in miracles."
One of the most satisfying periods of their lives...
"Many rescuers told me that this time of terror and mayhem was one of the most satisfying periods of their lives. Nothing they did after ward ever seemed so important or so vital."
Going to be shot for one Jew, might as well hide more
"There was also a rational calculation which supported doing more. As LaFontaine and other rescuers point out, the punishment ‘was the same for small and large illegal acts. Some rescuers figured that as long as they were going to be shot for hiding one Jew, they might as well hide more. Dutch rescuer Wilto Schortinghuis and his wife began by agreeing to a request from a friend that they hide a Jewish doctor and his wife. Soon, a Jewish nurse from the psychiatric hospital where Schortinghuis’s wife worked asked if they would harbor her and her two brothers. “‘If we could have two,’ Wilto said, ‘we could have four or six,’ “Marie Schortinghuis recalled. “The risks were the same.” "
Kowalyk's nine-year-old nephew
"Rescuers never knew if an informer had given the Gestapo intelligence about their whereabouts or if the Gestapo was just pursuing a hunch. ‘Whatever the case, rescuers had to give the performance of their lives. On one occasion, the Nazis burst in unexpectedly at the Kowalyks’ residence. Jean Kowalyk, who lived with her mother, had practically no warning. Her charges had barely enough time to hide before the soldiers climbed the stairs to the attic. There in plain view was a table littered with cigarette butts and cards. Cigarette smoke still lingered in the air. At this dangerous moment, Kowalyk’s nine ear-old nephew spoke up. He confessed that he and his friends had been secretly playing cards and smoking. He pleaded with the soldiers not to tell his mother, as she would beat him if she knew. The Germans promised to keep his secret and left."
Six year old Annie P.
Six-year-old Annie P.'s stepfather told her to set certain strangers into her Bussum, Holland, house after curfew...." Her stepfather never explained further but on his property where they lived he had a nursury and hid many Jews there. The Gestapo had been tipped off by neighbors regarding excess garbage - too much for just Annie's family. They had searched for Jews many time, found none, and were becoming more and more furious.
"One of these occasions, the officer in charge was particularly frustrated by still another fruitless foray by his troops. He questioned Annie: Did she know where Jews wer hiding? Annie said nothing. The German threw her down and kicked her again and again. Still Annie said nothing. She kept the secret. The Jews survived the war, but the vicious tkicking Annie received damaged her spine. Years and a number of unsuccesful operations later, she lost the use of her left leg and required a brace."
"One of these occasions, the officer in charge was particularly frustrated by still another fruitless foray by his troops. He questioned Annie: Did she know where Jews wer hiding? Annie said nothing. The German threw her down and kicked her again and again. Still Annie said nothing. She kept the secret. The Jews survived the war, but the vicious tkicking Annie received damaged her spine. Years and a number of unsuccesful operations later, she lost the use of her left leg and required a brace."
Three fold Holocaust Desicration by US Jews...
...and Christians, Muslims, College Students, Holocaust Museum, Save Darfur, Africa Action, STANDNow, Genocide Intervention Fund....
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.
Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation
Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.
Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation
Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
Sunday, April 8, 2007
John Stenekes
"Stenekes, who was one of sixteen children, had a sister living a few blocks away who was hiding two Jewish children... Finally the anxiety involved in hiding two Jewish children became too much for Stenekes's sister... Stenekes wanted them to stay at his house, but first he needed to consult with his wife. He told Berta that Jacques and Anna were Jewish and what their situation was. His wife did a quick calculation. They were already housing three people. Two more bodies to feed and house was too much, she thought. But Stenekes told her that unless they took the children in they would be killed. Neither spouse's moral conscience would permit that. "We didn't know where else they could go," Stenekes said. "So we took them." They hid them for over two years."
Ukrainian Jean Kowalyk
"Jean Kowalyk began to fathom the Nazis' grand scheme. One of Dowalyk's dearest childhood friends was a Jewish elementary school classmate, Blumka Friedman. Kowalyk had not seen her around the village recently. One day, as Kowalyk was passing the newly built labor camp, she saw Blumka. "What are you doing there!" Kowalyk shouted to her from behind the camp's barbed-wire fence. The question died on her lips as she looked about at the ragged, emaciated forms huddled inside. Kowalyk's father had died in the past year and her two brothers had just been dragged off to the Russian army. The miser she saw in that labor camp resonated within her. Without thinking, and ignoring the nearby Gestapo guard, Dowalyk reached into her handbag and threw her lunch sandwich over he fence to Blumka. From then on, whenever she should, she sneaked food to Blumka and other camp inmates. Even a leg wound, received when a camp guard saw Kowalyk throwing bread and shot at her, did not stop her."
"On night... Kowalyk answered a knock at her door. There stood Dr. Berger. "He came into the room and grabbbed my mother and started to kiss her and cry," Kowalyk remembered. "Pleas help!" he kept saying. "Please save my life." Kowalyk agreed and told him to return the following night. She then ran to her brother's house and told him the situation. He, in turn, called on their sister's husband, and the two of them built a double wall to escape from the attic which was to his hiding place. The next night a grateful Dr. Berger arrived. Jean and her mother had his hiding place reacy. A few minutes later, however, they heard a knock on the window. To Kowalyk's horror, there stood nineteen other lice-infested Jews seeking shelter. Dr. Berger had mentioned their offer to a few friends. Kowalyk pulled them indoors and then dashed to her brother and sister for help. Between the three of them, they found hiding places for all nineteen."
"On night... Kowalyk answered a knock at her door. There stood Dr. Berger. "He came into the room and grabbbed my mother and started to kiss her and cry," Kowalyk remembered. "Pleas help!" he kept saying. "Please save my life." Kowalyk agreed and told him to return the following night. She then ran to her brother's house and told him the situation. He, in turn, called on their sister's husband, and the two of them built a double wall to escape from the attic which was to his hiding place. The next night a grateful Dr. Berger arrived. Jean and her mother had his hiding place reacy. A few minutes later, however, they heard a knock on the window. To Kowalyk's horror, there stood nineteen other lice-infested Jews seeking shelter. Dr. Berger had mentioned their offer to a few friends. Kowalyk pulled them indoors and then dashed to her brother and sister for help. Between the three of them, they found hiding places for all nineteen."
Most People were UNAWARE
"In fact, most people were not aware. Although it is difficult for rescuers to understand, other people saw the situation differently. They did not see the world the rescuers did. Like a horse shielded from sights to the left or the right, most bystanders were equipped with blinders... The kept their vision narrow to protect themselves and allow themselves to focus on surviving...."
"The ability to see clearly, to strip away the gauze of Nazi euphemisms and recognize that innocents were being murdered, is at the heart of what distinguishes rescuers from bystanders."
"The ability to see clearly, to strip away the gauze of Nazi euphemisms and recognize that innocents were being murdered, is at the heart of what distinguishes rescuers from bystanders."
The Price of Holocaust Rescuing
"No one knows for certain how many non-Jews risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust There were nearly 700 million people in Nazi-occupied territories Only a tiny fraction of them were involved in rescue activities Moreover rescue activity demanded utmost secrecy Lives depended on it Many rescuers were discovered and killed. Some sheltered a Jew for a night; others hid several people for years. Some made single, one-time gestures; still others were part of an anonymous network that searched for hiding places, papers, food coupons, and money for Jews. The parting words between some Jews and the Christians who saved them were: “Promise me that you will never tell anyone my name. Don’t ever write to me. Good luck.”
"Two-thirds of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe was wiped out, and most people had done nothing to stop it."
"At a time of worldwide upheaval, when civilized norms were held in suspension a few individuals held fast to their own standards. They were not saints nor were they particularly heroic or often all that outstanding. They were simply ordinary people doing what they felt had to be done at that time With a few exceptions—such as the highly publicized rescue efforts of Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg who saved more than 30,000 Hungarian Jews—they were people who were easily over looked. Conscience and Courage aims to correct this historical oversight. It tells their stories and, in doing so, undertakes to explain why these people became rescuers."
"The act of rescue was an expression of the values and beliefs of the innermost core of a person.
It is a core nurtured in childhood, which came to expression during the Holocaust in the act of rescue, and then continued in the postwar years. Saving Jews came from that inner core and became part of it. This rescuer self was and, over the years has continued to be, an integral part of their identity."
"The Good Samaritan went on his way after a night; a rescuer could not. No one knew how long the war would last. In some cases, an offer to provide a safe haven for one night stretched into months and sometimes years of nerve-racking tension. The unsettling and terrifying conditions of war added more pressure to an already intense situation. Fear of discovery loomed over the rescuers’ every action and haunted their every thought. Some of the rescuers’ charges were difficult people who, under the best of circumstances, would have been hard to live with. They complained to their hosts and quarreled among themselves. Sometimes it was the rescuers who were unbearable. Underlying these tensions was the rescuers’ awareness that they had voluntarily put themselves and their loved ones in grave danger. They sometimes wondered: Should they continue to place their children’s lives in peril? Should they continue to serve their family meager rations so there was enough food for those in hiding? Should they continue to risk their lives when their children were dependent on them?"
"In different places and different accents, I heard these same sentiments time and again. It is what a seventeen-year-old Polish girl who hid and fed thirteen Jews in her apartment said. It is what a men who underwent financial ruin and death of his own son felt. And it is echoed in the sentience "Someone came who needed help, we did not think about the risk" uttered by a Danish fisherman who ferried a boat full of Jews to safety."
"Heroics came at a price... "The Gestapo figured that I might have something to tell them... They put my hand between two bars and they broke all five bones. From then on all they had to do was pinch it and I would tell them anything."
"They saw a need and wanted to help. Ona Simaite ate only potatoes and cabbage in order to have food to give to the Jews. Elizabeth Heims, a German Quaker from Munich, died in concentration camp trying to protect the Jewish orphans she was hiding. The citizens of a dozen villages in the south-central French regions of Vivarais-Lignon and the Cevennnes conspired to hide approximately 5,000 Jewish children and hundreds of families from Nazis. In Assisi, Italy, Franciscan monks cared for 200 Jewish fugitives."
"On October 15, 1941, the German authorities passed a law requiring the death penalty for all Jews who left the ghettos without permission. The same punishment applied to "persons who knowingly provide hiding places for Jews." Any christian who learned that a Jew was breaking this law had an obligation to report the crime of be subject to the same punishment. This law was widely publicized and determinedly implemented. In the town square of Lodz, a Christian mother and father and their children were hanged next to the Jews they had harbored."
"It took a determined effort to penetrate the propaganda, to be aware. Those who became rescuers made that effort. Their heightened sense of empathy overrode Nazi propaganda and their own instinct for self-preservation. They saw these victims of Nazi persecution as people different from themselves perhaps, but still part of the same human community."
"Rescuers framed the question in other terms: "Can I live with myself if I say no?"
"Those who took responsibility were not hindered by how that help wold endanger themand their family. All they though about was thea someone was in trouble. Of course they would help."
"Two-thirds of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe was wiped out, and most people had done nothing to stop it."
"At a time of worldwide upheaval, when civilized norms were held in suspension a few individuals held fast to their own standards. They were not saints nor were they particularly heroic or often all that outstanding. They were simply ordinary people doing what they felt had to be done at that time With a few exceptions—such as the highly publicized rescue efforts of Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg who saved more than 30,000 Hungarian Jews—they were people who were easily over looked. Conscience and Courage aims to correct this historical oversight. It tells their stories and, in doing so, undertakes to explain why these people became rescuers."
"The act of rescue was an expression of the values and beliefs of the innermost core of a person.
It is a core nurtured in childhood, which came to expression during the Holocaust in the act of rescue, and then continued in the postwar years. Saving Jews came from that inner core and became part of it. This rescuer self was and, over the years has continued to be, an integral part of their identity."
"The Good Samaritan went on his way after a night; a rescuer could not. No one knew how long the war would last. In some cases, an offer to provide a safe haven for one night stretched into months and sometimes years of nerve-racking tension. The unsettling and terrifying conditions of war added more pressure to an already intense situation. Fear of discovery loomed over the rescuers’ every action and haunted their every thought. Some of the rescuers’ charges were difficult people who, under the best of circumstances, would have been hard to live with. They complained to their hosts and quarreled among themselves. Sometimes it was the rescuers who were unbearable. Underlying these tensions was the rescuers’ awareness that they had voluntarily put themselves and their loved ones in grave danger. They sometimes wondered: Should they continue to place their children’s lives in peril? Should they continue to serve their family meager rations so there was enough food for those in hiding? Should they continue to risk their lives when their children were dependent on them?"
"In different places and different accents, I heard these same sentiments time and again. It is what a seventeen-year-old Polish girl who hid and fed thirteen Jews in her apartment said. It is what a men who underwent financial ruin and death of his own son felt. And it is echoed in the sentience "Someone came who needed help, we did not think about the risk" uttered by a Danish fisherman who ferried a boat full of Jews to safety."
"Heroics came at a price... "The Gestapo figured that I might have something to tell them... They put my hand between two bars and they broke all five bones. From then on all they had to do was pinch it and I would tell them anything."
"They saw a need and wanted to help. Ona Simaite ate only potatoes and cabbage in order to have food to give to the Jews. Elizabeth Heims, a German Quaker from Munich, died in concentration camp trying to protect the Jewish orphans she was hiding. The citizens of a dozen villages in the south-central French regions of Vivarais-Lignon and the Cevennnes conspired to hide approximately 5,000 Jewish children and hundreds of families from Nazis. In Assisi, Italy, Franciscan monks cared for 200 Jewish fugitives."
"On October 15, 1941, the German authorities passed a law requiring the death penalty for all Jews who left the ghettos without permission. The same punishment applied to "persons who knowingly provide hiding places for Jews." Any christian who learned that a Jew was breaking this law had an obligation to report the crime of be subject to the same punishment. This law was widely publicized and determinedly implemented. In the town square of Lodz, a Christian mother and father and their children were hanged next to the Jews they had harbored."
"It took a determined effort to penetrate the propaganda, to be aware. Those who became rescuers made that effort. Their heightened sense of empathy overrode Nazi propaganda and their own instinct for self-preservation. They saw these victims of Nazi persecution as people different from themselves perhaps, but still part of the same human community."
"Rescuers framed the question in other terms: "Can I live with myself if I say no?"
"Those who took responsibility were not hindered by how that help wold endanger themand their family. All they though about was thea someone was in trouble. Of course they would help."
Simcha Fagelman
"AT SIX IN THE MORNING on March 20, 1942, Simcha fagelman was already hard at work in the village bakery of Illya, a Byelorussian town a hundred miles east of Vilna. On this snowy, freezing March morning, he counted himself lucky that he had a warm, indoor job baking bread. Even so, the twenty-six-year-old Jew could not shake a sense of dread. Like a low-lying fog, a sense of doom hovered in the streets, seeped into doorways, and crept into the back of his mind...
At 7 AM. that day, members of the German Gestapo burst into the bakery searching for Jews who had slipped through their roundup. At that moment, Simcha happened to be screened from view by a
oven. “No Jews here,” his Russian supervisor told the Germans confidently. The soldiers left. Without a moment’s hesitation, the Russian baker hustled Simcha up to the attic, locked him in, and hid the attic ladder...
Simcha Fagelman owes his life to the courage of a Russian baker and the generosity of farmers who shared their own scarce food to help a fellow human being. Simcha never forgot them. Neither did I. Simcha Fagelman is my father."
At 7 AM. that day, members of the German Gestapo burst into the bakery searching for Jews who had slipped through their roundup. At that moment, Simcha happened to be screened from view by a
oven. “No Jews here,” his Russian supervisor told the Germans confidently. The soldiers left. Without a moment’s hesitation, the Russian baker hustled Simcha up to the attic, locked him in, and hid the attic ladder...
Simcha Fagelman owes his life to the courage of a Russian baker and the generosity of farmers who shared their own scarce food to help a fellow human being. Simcha never forgot them. Neither did I. Simcha Fagelman is my father."
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Three fold Holocaust Desecration by US Jews..
...and Christians, Muslims, College Students, Holocaust Museum, Save Darfur, Africa Action, STANDNow, Genocide Intervention Fund....
Saving Darfur, Multiple Steps at a Time
Coalition's Lobbying Blitz Is Credited With Spurring Bush's Sudan Sanctions By Jeffrey H. BirnbaumWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, June 1, 2007; Page D01]
Day #93 Darfur Vigil at Sudan Embassy DC.
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
Saving Darfur, Multiple Steps at a Time
Coalition's Lobbying Blitz Is Credited With Spurring Bush's Sudan Sanctions By Jeffrey H. BirnbaumWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, June 1, 2007; Page D01]
Day #93 Darfur Vigil at Sudan Embassy DC.
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Three fold Holocaust Desecration by US Jews..
...and Christians, Muslims, College Students, Holocaust Museum, Save Darfur, Africa Action, STANDNow, Genocide Intervention Fund....
Bush Intensifies Pressure on Sudan, Michael Abramowitz and Debbi Wilgoren, Washington Post, May 29, 2007
Bush Looks To Intensify Pressure On SudanBy Michael AbramowitzWashington Post, May 29, 2007
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
Bush Intensifies Pressure on Sudan, Michael Abramowitz and Debbi Wilgoren, Washington Post, May 29, 2007
Bush Looks To Intensify Pressure On SudanBy Michael AbramowitzWashington Post, May 29, 2007
NO?!?!? "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a. Certainly risking and sacrificing NOTHING for the Darfuries while 21,000 RISKED EVERYTHING for Jews in Europe is "hateful."
WE HAVE UNTIL JUNE 30, CONTROL OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, TO RESCUE & RESTORE DARFUR. JOIN A BRIGADE OF PEACEMAKERS, NOW, OR IT IS TOO LATE.
SEE: A Hunger For Justice : Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation Delphine Schrank, C01 (Post) Washington Post, April 14, 2007
Our U.S. InActivism is a desceration of the Holocaust that must stop:
9 year old sacrifices his scarlet fever medicine for Jewish boy
VS
U.S. college kids forgo one of their luxuries for one (1) day in year 4 of Darfur genocide.
6 year old girl does not reveal Jews despite kicking that leaves her paralyzed
VS
20 college kids have festive 1 hour rally in front of the Sudan Embassy in year four of Darfur Genocide. Fun for all! (there is not more laughing and smiles at a frat party.)
17 year old girl and 7 year old sister risk all, caretake 100% saving 13 Jews for 3 years
VS
Human chain planned of April of year four of Darfur Genocide....
Stenekes risks lives of wife and children to house two Jewish children
VS
Churches, synagogues and suburban yards sport Save Darfur signs in year 4 of Darfur Genocide
etc... etc... etc........
Outrageous my assertion about Desecration? It is not. Read this site - Holocaust Rescuers from Eva Fogleman's, "Conscience & Courage: Non Jewish Rescuers of the Holocaust." We've lost all perspective - we've lost our humanity. If you still want to crucify me after you read this site, well go right ahead.
DESECRATION #1 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) MAKE A MOCKERY OF "NEVER AGAIN" WITH DARFUR INACTIVISM: When Lebanon abducted 2 Israeli Soldiers, how many postcards were sent and how many Banners were hung on Synagogues? When Jews want something they act, Jews lay down their lives for what they want. NO JEWS HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. (Are Reeves or Steidle Jews?) 21,000-80,000 NON-JEWS LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS FROM THE HOLOCAUST - AND THE LESSON WAS THAT 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 SHOULD HAVE!!! US JEWS DESECRATE THE 6 MILLION OF THE HOLOCAUST BY MAKING A HYPOCRITICAL SHAM, PAYING ONLY LIP SERVICE TO THOSE 6 MILLION THEN AND TO DARFUR NOW.
DESECRATION #2 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) DEFILE THE MEMORY OF THE NON-JEWISH RESCUERS: The inhumanity, deceit and hypocrisy we show is beyond belief. 21,000 risked their lives, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S LIVES for years to save Jews. Today, we pay even more respect to we inhuman, cowardly creatures in the US that hang banners outside of our Churches, or conduct 1 hour demonstrations, or send $.25 post cards, or hold a meeting, or fast from luxuries for a day. Please explain, how could we better desecrate the incredible heroism and self sacrifice of the Holocaust Rescuers than the way we are equating their sacrifice with the meaningless, self serving, time-killing, risk free, cost free, conscience free InActivism of SaveDarfur.org, et al?!?!?!?
DESECRATION #3 - JEWS (AND CHRISTIANS...) TRAIN OUR YOUTH TO INSURE AGAIN AND AGAIN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN FOREVER: Through the incredibly despicable equating of today's totally cowardly, non-rescuing Darfur InActivism with the superhuman heroism of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers, our children are being traumatized and inhumanely programmed. They think they are actually doing heroic activism!!! Gerry Fowler, Samantha Power and Nick Kristof are filling their heads with utter nonesense about what a wonderful job they are doing. All evidnece to the contrary - Holocaust Rescuers, Civil Rights activists, Anti Vietnam War activists.... My God, how can we do this to our children? What is to become of them? They have no idea how inadequate, cowardly, inept, weak, and inappropriate is their action in year four of a genocide, and it is the fault of we adults.
See updates at all sites: DARFUR'S LAST HOPE: Brigade of PeaceMakers: for Darfur. JOIN NOW SAVING DARFUR, EARTH, OURSELVES: Jesus, God, Good...
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Holocaust Rescuers
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: Peace and Nonviolence
REAL ACTIVISM LOOKS LIKE THIS: David Dellinger
4 DARFUR HEROES; 21,000 FOR HOLOCAUST: Darfur Dying for Heroes
HUNGER STRIKE: Stand with Darfur: Sudan Embassy
WE'RE PROOF OF NO GENOCIDE: Darfur Genocide a Fraud
Actions 6/06 - 1/07: Stand With Darfur White House II
Actions 5/06 - 6/06: Stand With Darfur White House
Actions 7/05 - 5/06: Rescue Restore Darfur
Saturday, April 13, 1991
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