The Power of Story

Last week was the beginning of the Yiddish Fest and I attended two very extraordinary events. The first was a talk by Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. I had the good fortune to have heard him at the genealogy conference I attended earlier this year in Boston and was struck by his energy, passion and humor. Even though he touched on many of the same stories, his enthusiasm brought a freshness to them.

If you have read his book Outwitting History, you know something about his story. As a graduate student he began collecting Yiddish books, often as Yiddish speaking elders or their children were disposing of their libraries. Many of his more colorful stories related to rescues that began with a middle of the night phone call on a rainy night alerting him to a dumpster filled with Yiddish books. Food also seemed to be a theme as each stop at a home entailed eating their way through offerings of Jewish delicacies before beginning their labor of book removal. As I listened to the reverence in which these books were held by the original owners, I thought of the groaning shelves of books that I grew up with. While not Yiddish books, I suspect they grew out of that same reverence, something deeply rooted in Jewish culture.

Lansky talked of their efforts to digitize the books to make them widely available. This effort was largely funded by Steven Spielberg consistent with his efforts to preserve both survivor stories and the stories of Jewish heritage. More recently they are working to apply optical character recognition (OCR) to be able to make them searchable. And of course this comes with a story. Lansky was contacted out of the blue by Assaf Urieli, a gentleman who lives in the French Pyrenees and created Yiddish OCR to aid in searching information on his ancestors. He offered this tool free of charge to the Center, a tool which can revolutionize Yiddish scholarship.

So that was amazing lecture number one. Amazing lecture number two occurred the following evening when I went to hear my friend Dora Eiger Zaidenweber together with her grandson Etan Newman launch her father's memoir of his 2 1/2 years in Auschwitz. A crowd of almost 200 people showed up to hear her speak. I've written previously more of this book, Sky Tinged Red, and the unusual story of its discovery. In brief, while it was written immediately after the war, the first portion was not discovered until her father's death in 1960. Dora translated this in the 1980s only to discover it ended in 1942. It was not until 2007 that she found the original handwritten manuscript in Yiddish which recounted the rest of the story. Even more amazing was the fact that Dora, now legally blind, translated it with the aid of a magnifying machine, one letter at a time. So we have a very unusual story of discovery and an unusual story of translation. The story itself is also unusual in that few people survived 2 1/2 years in Auschwitz, witnessing and participating in its creation, the bombing of the crematorium and ultimately liberation. Isaia Eiger was fluent in many languages and as a result was assigned the role of intake scribe.  Because of these responsibilities  he was in contact with many of the people who entered Auschwitz and writes of them, especially those from his town of Radom.

In addition to her father's tale Dora was asked about her own story. Dora was in both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and has shared many of her stories with me in our conversations. We frequently debate the role of personal story. I believe it is the way that most people connect and hence very important. Dora has often opted for more universal themes. I was pleased when a student asked if there was something that stayed with her from her experience and Dora shared two of her most powerful stories. Now that 200 people heard them, I feel that I can share them here as well. Both involve her mother who accompanied Dora throughout the war and was in large part the reason Dora survived.

First Dora recounted her memory of standing naked before Dr Mengele as their fate rested in his hands. Other women had preceded them and the older women were usually sent to one side, to death, and their daughters to the other. The daughters who had escaped the gas chamber often sought to remain with their mother. As Dora and her mother approached Mengele, Dora was behind her mother. Suddenly her mother pushed her in front. Surprisingly both survived the selection even though her mother was in her 40s, an age considered old in that time and place. Afterwards Dora asked her mother why she did that and she replied, " I didn't want you to try to follow me."

The second story showed a similar level of forethought that I hadn't expected. Dora's mother had hollowed out the heels of her burgundy shoes and in each heel she had hidden a small diamond ring. On many occasions they debated if the time had come to trade one of those rings for a loaf of bread, always opting to hold it in reserve. In Bergen-Belsen, typhus was rampant. Dora had become ill and recovered, but was still very weak. One day she was unable to arise for roll call and was taken to the infirmary, a death sentence. Two people shared a bed, 30 inches in diameter, awaiting their place on the pile of bodies that accumulated each day. Dora's mother returned from work and discovered Dora was missing. She went to the infirmary, diamond ring in hand and offered it to the Polish woman in charge in exchange for her daughter.

As you can gather, both Dora and Aaron Lansky are powerful storytellers and I was privileged to witness the power of story in their hands.

Sky Tinged Red

Earlier this week my friend Dora mentioned to me that she had a book for me to read, a typical conversational topic for us. "What's the name?" I asked.

"Sky Tinged Red".

"Sounds familiar" I replied, only then realizing why. "Your father's book", I exclaimed. "You have it!"

A little background....Dora is from Radom, Poland, the same town as my grandfather. She was 15 years old when the war broke out. She spent the war years in the Radom forced labor camp, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. While her immediate family survived, 80% of her family did not, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents were sent to their deaths at Treblinka.

Dora's father had the unusual distinction of surviving two and a half years in Auschwitz, a place where a few months was unusual. Isaia Eiger was an accountant in Radom where he also directed the Jewish orphanage and was active in the Zionist movement. He was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 along with 200 leaders of Radom. There he was part of the resistance. His survival hinged on his ability to speak seven languages. He became the registrar, taking information from the many people who arrived in daily transports. In this capacity he learned about subsequent events in Radom and how his family was faring. When Dora and her mother were sent to Auschwitz in 1944, her father was there to greet them. He was able to help them get indoor work as seamstresses during the harsh winter, furthering their own odds for survival.

Of those seven languages, Dora's father chose Yiddish as the language for this memoir. At that time Yiddish was the language of many Jews throughout the world. The memoir was written immediately after the war when memory was fresh, but it was not until his death in 1960 that Dora discovered three copies typed in Yiddish. In the intervening years Dora raised her family. It was not until the early 1980s that Dora took on the task of translating this memoir.  To her dismay she discover that it ended abruptly in 1942. She searched in vain for the other portion of the memoir. In 2006 her nephew brought over more of her father's papers that were in the files of her late brother. No typewritten pages were to be found.

It was only as she began to box these materials for Yad Vashem that she discovered the entire handwritten memoir. There it was hiding in plain sight. Busy searching for typewritten pages, they had missed these narrow yellowing pages, not recognizing them for what they were.

Once again Dora began to translate these pages. This was more challenging than before as Dora is now legally blind. Nonetheless she is quite indomitable. A lack of vision might slow her down, but not stay her from proceeding. With the aid of a magnifying machine she could examine each word. Letter by letter she transcribed it, building sentence after sentence. At this stage she couldn't read a sentence for context as it wouldn't fit on the screen at a magnification level sufficiently large for her to read. It took almost a year of painstaking work for her to complete the translation.

Almost seventy years had passed since it was written. Time for two generations to come of age, great-grandchildren her father had never known now stepped in to bring his story to fruition. Her two grandsons Etan and Jonah took the lead, driving the effort forward to share the legacy and story of their great-grandfather. I suspect there is a little "beshert" (Yiddish for fate) at work here, the pages waiting patiently to be discovered when the time was right.

I saw pieces along the way, serving as Dora's eyes as we read through the names list verifying spellings. Many of the names were familiar from my work on the Radom KehilaLink (Jewishgen.org ancestral website). Sometimes I felt as if I knew the residents of this town but soon I would know them through the lens of her father's experience.

Among the range of survivor accounts, this is an unusual and important book. There are not many people who were members of the resistance in Auschwitz and survived to tell of it. Even more rare is a two and a half year perspective on the camp from the inside. Isaia Eiger was a well educated and thoughtful man who tells his story for future generations, "a memorial to former comrades" and an "indictment of the murderers".

You can find some excerpts of the book on-line. You can learn more about it or purchase a copy on-line.

The Jewish Quarter and the Camps

On our first day in Cracow we met up with Bartosz, my fellow student from the Vilnius Yiddish Institute who lives here. He took us around the former Jewish district, much of which surrounds our hotel. We are located on Szeroka Street which is surrounded by three synagogues. Ironically, while there are many synagogues that survived in Cracow, there are only about 200 Jews. Many of the synagogues have been converted to cultural centers that have exhibitions related to Jewish history in Kazimierz. In the quarter where we are staying there are many Jewish themed restaurants and Klezmer bands that play regularly. An hour away is the Auschwitz camp as well. Thus the area often attracts visitors of Jewish heritage.

Jews originally settled in Cracow as early as the 13th century, but in 1495 were expelled from the city. It was at this time that they took up residence in nearby Kazimierz which already had a small Jewish community. The area is named after King Casimir who legend has it loved a Jewish woman named Esterka. The story parallels the Purim story of Esther and is often offered as an explanation for Casimir’s support of the Jewish community.

Our first stop of the day was at the Rema Synagogue, built in the 1500s by Rabbi Isserl in his wife’s memory. It has had many renovations over the centuries. The synagogue takes its name from Rabbi Isserl’s son Rabbi Moses Isserles who was known as the Rema. As is true of many of the synagogues, it was looted by the Nazis and used as a warehouse. The Nazis used Cracow as the capital of Poland and this may have resulted in a reluctance to burn synagogues, especially as they are often in close proximity to other buildings.

The synagogue is quite small, but is used for regular services today. Adjacent to the synagogue is the old Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was severely damaged by the Nazis. In 1959 over 700 tombstones dating back to the 1500s were discovered buried beneath the surface. These tombstones were re-erected, but not necessary near the burial site itself. Fragments of damaged tombstones form a striking mosaic on a wall that surrounds the cemetery.

As we walked through the area we noted a prayer house on Jozefa street with two Stars of David designating its function. This street once had two names, Zydowska (Jew Street) and Catholiska (Catholic Street). Also on Jozefa is the High Synagogue, now an exhibition hall with a photography exhibit. Originally built in 1560, this synagogue was looted by the Nazis and now has no interior furnishings. You can still see the ark and fragments of paintings and text on the walls.

The Popper Synagogue is a few doors down from our hotel on Szeroka. It was originally built as a private prayer hall for the family of Wolf Popper in 1620. Today it is used as a cultural center.

Perhaps the most beautiful synagogue was the Tempel Synagogue from the 1860s for the Reform Jewish community. It is the only synagogue from this time period to have survived the Holocaust in Poland without significant damage. It is similar to those synagogues that we saw in Budapest in its Moorish design and the use of decorative gold paint in its designs.

Other synagogues in the area include the Old Synagogue from the 15th century with a twin nave structure and the Izaak Synagogue from 1638. The Kupa Synagogue was originally built in the 1640s. This synagogue was recently restored and has astrological symbols around the room.

As we explored the area, we ducked into a courtyard that dated back to the first half of the 16th century. Directly behind it stood a monastery, underscoring the fact that the Jewish community and the Catholic community co-existed in Kazimierz.

Plac Nowy, the former market area is located in the middle of Kazimierz. It contains a round building which used to be a kosher butcher and still sells meat although no longer kosher meat. Surrounding it are stalls selling produce.

We then crossed the river to the area of the Ghetto during WWII. The original residents were moved out for the creation of the ghetto and moved back after the liquidation of the ghetto. We walked to a nearby park where we found a section of the ghetto wall. It is scalloped like a series of attached tombstones, somehow a fitting metaphor for what the ghetto represented. Children’s playground equipment sits in front of it in the park, presenting an odd juxtaposition.

We also stopped at Plac Bohaterow Getta (Ghetto Heroes Square) which is where Jews were gathered for deportation. In the corner of the square is a small museum which once housed a pharmacy which was a place of aid for the Jews by its Christian owner. There were several powerful films that captured the Jewish community prior to WWII and the movement of the Jews from Kazimierz to the Ghetto. Images of Jews carrying such household furniture such as chairs to the ghetto were quite striking particularly juxtaposed with a memorial of a series of bronzed chairs in the plaza, derived from such imagery.

A brief walk took us to the factory of Oskar Schindler of Shindler’s List fame. We were able to see very little as they are currently renovating the space for exhibitions. We concluded our tour by stopping at the new Jewish cemetery. Bartosz pointed out that many of the tombstones have candles, which is not a Jewish tradition. This arises because the person being buried may well be the last person in the family who identified as Jewish. Younger generations were not familiar with Jewish traditions so adopted the traditions of their Catholic neighbors.

During the course of our day we had many interesting discussions with Bartosz on anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and the impact of the Communist regime on Poland. Bartosz told us that while learning English wasn’t prohibited under Communism, there were no English teachers because people could not travel abroad. It was a very insular society. As a result the generation that came of age during Communist times frequently does not speak English. He noted that after the fall of Communism there were suicides of Russian teachers as the demand for their services dropped precipitously.

He noted that Poland was not affected in the same way as some other Eastern bloc countries because it had been an independent nation previously. Thus for example, it did not have the communal farms that one found elsewhere. We also discussed countries such as Lithuania which he felt had to be viewed in the political context. While anti-Semitism does exist, they are also struggling to forge a national identity. Through my eyes it seems the two get easily intermingled.

We also discussed some of the historical events that affected the Jews of Cracow. In 1968 there was an anti-Semitic campaign by the government from which many Jews had to immigrate. About 20,000 Jews went to Sweden or Denmark, not Israel as they were not religious.

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Today we spent the day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place that has been thoroughly documented so there is not much new to share about it. In many ways we found Madjanek more affecting as it was fairly deserted when we arrived. No guides and tour groups walked around the premises. That allowed each person to react directly rather than filtering it through a guide. At Auschwitz the belongings of the prisoners were safely behind glass and failed to create the visceral recoil from the smell of leather that we experienced with the thousands of shoes at Madjanek. The sheer volume of people who go through Auschwitz requires the kind of organization which they did quite well. At the same time, it detracts from the personal experience that one has in a less structured and more private environment.

A few facts….
An estimated 1.1 million Jews were in Auschwitz with the next largest group being Poles (140-150,000). The walls of the buildings we first entered had the faces of many of the Polish prisoners who perished. The average life span in Auschwitz was 3 to 6 months. Of those who entered Auschwitz about 10-20% were selected for work. The rest went to the gas chamber directly. Of the total 1.3 million who passed through Auschwitz only 200,000 survived. Prior to the war Jews represented 10% of the Polish population and totaled 3 million. Our guide guessed at most there might be 20,000 today. Of those that survived, many emigrated to Israel due to anti-Semitism after the war.

Auschwitz-Birkenau had a section of the camp they maintained as a showpiece for the Red Cross. Families were kept together in it and not required to work. Eventually they too went to the gas chamber. We saw a small crematorium at Auschwitz that was partially reconstructed. In Birkenau we saw the ruins of the crematorium and gas chambers that the Nazis destroyed to try to hide their tracks.

And a few of the things that moved and disturbed me…a small pink ballet slipper in a display of thousands of children’s shoes, yards of textile woven from human hair, an enormous pile of pots and pans that were brought by the women to prepare for their new life. Despite all that we saw, it is still difficult to grasp the ability of people to inflict genocide and yet it continues.