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THE EVOLUTION OF MEMORY

THOUSANDS OF marchers carry Israeli flags as they walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau Yossi Zeliger EDITOR S NOTE 30 YEARS OF MARCH OF THE LIVING T he March of the Living brings students Holocaust survivors and their families educators and distinguished leaders from all over the world to Poland to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day In Poland their program includes visits to once thriving sites of Jewish life and culture as well as sites of Jewish persecution and martyrdom Then on Holocaust Remembrance Day the students march arm in arm with Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz to Birkenau They are joined by thousands of other people of goodwill of diverse backgrounds and faiths as they march side by side in memory of all victims of Nazi genocide and against prejudice intolerance and hate From Poland many participants travel to Israel the birthplace and homeland of the Jewish People where they commemorate Israel s fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron Remembrance Day and celebrate Israel s independence on Yom Ha atzmaut this year the country s 70th anniversary Since the first March of the Living in 1988 over 260 000 participants from around the world have marched down the same path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau On April 12 2018 some 12 000 people will march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to proclaim WE ARE HERE AND NEVER AGAIN David Brummer

A special Jerusalem Report supplement TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Greetings from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 6 Greetings from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 7 We Will Proudly Keep Their Last Will and Testament By Lt Gen Gadi Eisenkot 8 Confronting the Past President Reuven Rivlin reflects on the 30th anniversary of the March of the Living and Israel s 70th anniversary 10 Holocaust Memory A Daunting Imperative Phyllis Greenberg Heideman and Dr Shmuel Rosenman on the impact of the March of the Living over 30 years 12 Voices from the Past Rabi Yisrael Meir Lau Yad Vashem Council Chairman speaks about the importance of the March By Annika Henroth Rothstein 14 A March Toward Prevention John Farmer and Paul Miller write powerfully about the need to continue education about the Holocaust and genocide and the continuation of the March 16 Always Remember Who You Are Three generations look back at previous marches and look forward to the evolution of memory in the future By David Brummer 20 March of the Living Photo Gallery A gallery of images from the March of the Living over 30 years Front Cover A Student Visits a Jewish Cemetery in Poland during the March of the Living PHOTO BY ROSEMARY GOLDHAR Back Cover March of the Living Participants Celebrate Israel s Independence Day in Latrun PHOTO BY YOSSI ZELIGER 22 Survivors Who Built the State Two nonagenarians who survived European inferno and fought in Israel s War of Independence By Eylon Levy 24 Sigmund Rolat Sigmund Rolat is the founding donor of POLIN The Museum of the History of Polish Jews By Robert Sarner 26 Still Fighting the Fight Eva Schloss Anne Frank s posthumous stepsister has devoted her life to Holocaust education and world peace By Kelly Hartog 28 Angels in the Shoah Jerusalemite Betty Eppel tells her moving story of being hidden as a child in France during the Holocaust By Steve Linde 30 Memorial to Bill Glied A fond look back at the life and works of a March of the Living veteran from Canada who died in February 32 Healing Wounded Memories Amek Adler died on the day that he went to yet another school to teach his story of survival By Eli Rubenstein 34 Born in the Inferno Angela Orosz was one of only two babies born in Auschwitz to survive the war she writes an impassioned piece about the dangers of not learning lessons from the past Editors David Brummer and Steve Linde Business Development Reut Levy Laursen Graphic Designers Daniel Feigel Hana Ben Ano and Noam Elisha MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 3

INTERNATIONAL OF THE LIVING Since 1988 the March of the Living has brought students Holocaust survivors educators and distinguished leaders from all over the world to Poland to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day In Poland their program includes visits to once thriving sites of Jewish life and culture as well as sites of Jewish persecution and martyrdom Then on Holocaust Remembrance Day the students march arm in arm with Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz to Birkenau They are joined by thousands of other people of goodwill of diverse backgrounds and faiths as they march side by side in memory of all victims of Nazi genocide and against prejudice intolerance and hate From Poland many participants travel to Israel the birthplace and homeland of the Jewish People where they commemorate Israel s fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron and celebrate Israel s independence on Yom Ha atsmaut Since the first March of the Living in 1988 over 260 000 youth from around the world have marched down the same path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau On April 12 2018 twelve thousand participants will march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to proclaim WE ARE HERE AND NEVER AGAIN REMEMBER THE PAST ENSURE THE FUTURE

MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 5

Statement from the Prime Minister of Canada It is with great honour that I welcome you to March of the Living commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day Today we peacefully stand together in remembrance for the millions of Jews and countless others who were murdered during the Holocaust and to honour those who survived the Nazi atrocities On this occasion we join those around the world in observing this day and remembering their poignant stories As we reflect on the painful lessons of the Holocaust we recognize that our deeper knowledge of the event strengthens our commitment to never stand silently in the face of violence or hate in any form It is important that we honour the memories of the Holocaust victims by educating successive generations and ensuring that we continue to defend the rights of our fellow humans Thank you to the organizers of this remarkable event and to all students survivors educators and distinguished leaders for being in attendance today Please accept my warmest regards and best wishes for a memorable event Ottawa 2018 6 MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2017

LT GEN GADI EISENKOT leads the March of the Living last year We Will Proudly Keep Their Last Will and Testament O n rare occasions the passing of time does not allow perspective does not heal and cannot offer an explanation to the events of the past Even 73 years after the Nazi killing machine was eradicated the Jewish Holocaust is impossible to digest During that period our people saw great darkness in Europe and in other countries invaded by the Nazis and dared to dream of hope and a safe homeland In the concentration camps and ghettos in the valleys of death in the hiding places and forests our people wandered not knowing what their fate would be A few years later some of them were marching in the lines of the Hagana holding a weapon united as one men and women from all across the world Knowing that the propitious time had come the time to establish a safe home to protect ourselves from any enemy Understanding that the time had arrived to assure that the Nazis wish to destroy the Jewish people would never be fulfilled When David Ben Gurion confidently declared the country s independence the Resistance fighters transi tioned into the Israel Defense Forces and were immediately forced to stand for our future in a battle for our country s independence Several years later the IDF s representatives returned to the death factories and by doing so sent a message of the IDF s strength and supremacy against any enemy Each one carrying a silent promise to remember forever As commanders in the IDF we have the privilege and duty to preserve the memory of the survivors and those who perished to remember and tell the stories of the victims their pain and their hope To educate the generations who did not get the chance to know the people who were there in the uncertainty of Europe in humanity s darkest hour To remember and keep our promise never again The IDF the shield of the Jewish people will forever stand in its obligation to provide a safe haven for the Jewish people a place where we can live our lives where we can create and develop a modern and innovative society that benefits itself and all of humanity despite the complex MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 security challenges facing us We are blessed to have the great privilege of being born in a remarkable time in history a time in which the people of Israel have an independent national home 70 years of independence after 2 000 years of exile In the passage of 70 years of independence the IDF is an operational advanced and leading army whose military strength is known to all his enemy s Our duty to assure the existence of the State of Israel is not only towards our family friends and citizens It is an historic obligation to our people who stood unprotected and were marched to their deaths and to those who escaped The blood of 6 000 000 victims cries out to us stand as the guards we didn t have assure that Jewish blood will never again be abandoned We will proudly keep their last will and testament and continue to safeguard the State of Israel allowing it to prosper and flourish May the memory of our brothers and sisters be a blessing Chief of the General Staff of the IDF Lt Gen Gadi Eisenkot 7

Confronting the Past Embracing the Challenge of the Future Israel s 10th President Reuven Rivlin commends the efforts and achievements of March of the Living over the last 30 years but counsels that the work is not finished F By REUVEN RIVLIN irstly I want to thank all the participants All those who have come for many years and those coming for the first time I want to thank the survivors and the families of the survivors You have all come here to stand at the gates of hell at the gates of the greatest factory of death ever known to mankind You have to come to give a voice to the six million of our brothers and sisters who had their voices stolen by the Nazis and their collaborators The message is clear Never Again Not just for the Jewish people for all peoples never again will we allow humanity to stand by and watch the systematic attempt to annihilate a people Never Again will we allow hatred to go unchecked Never Again will we allow such darkness to arise as we know all too well it tries to again and again This is our duty as Jews as it is the duty of all peoples But of course we have another message as we stand in the shadow of the crematoria whose fires were extinguished now more than seven decades ago after 70 years of the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people s independence in our homeland we say clearly Am Yisrael Chai The people of Israel lives This is a march of living in the place where there was only death This is a bright light in the place where there was only darkness It is a light that reveals all the sins and the crimes committed against our people And it is a light that guides us forward 8 PRESIDENT REUVEN RIVLIN MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018

There are many challenges that we face but I think there are three that we face specifically as a people We must work on strengthening the bond between Israel and the Jewish communities around the world We must work especially with the next generation to ensure that we have better understanding better knowledge of one another We cannot just assume this will happen without our efforts and dedication to the task Jewish identity and the centrality of Israel as the historic homeland of our people is something that must be at the top of our agenda The next challenge is indeed the security of the Jewish people and the State of Israel We must stand united against antisemitism We must fight it wherever it is found We must not allow people to hide their hatred of Jews with support for Israel We must not allow antisemitism when it is disguised as anti Zionism And we must not tolerate the denial of the Holocaust or the attempts to change the history of that dark time And when we talk of security I don t just mean physical security Of course this is crucial and the threat of Iran and its proxy armies is a very real danger Israel knows how to defend itself and I have full faith in the Israeli security forces who work day and night to safeguard our borders and our people But we also must look at our economic security and the well being of our society Israel today is made up of four communities four tribes of increasingly equal size with different identities and aspirations We must work to bridge the gaps and build understanding between all these groups economically socially culturally we must work to build shared hope for all the citizens of Israel This is the We have to be clear that no antisemitism indeed no racism or hatred is acceptable We the Jewish people the survivors of the Shoah carry this responsibility perhaps more than any others challenge of Zionism today this is Zionism today And it is a mission in which another tribe the fifth tribe the Jewish communities around the world is also a key partner The final challenge that we must always face with dedication and courage is to help Jewish communities in need around the world I am so proud of all that is done in this important cause in which Israel and the Jewish communities around the world are partners We should expand even further and work even closer together on the great work we are both doing to help others all over the world Jews and non Jews whether it be using technology to promote food and water security in Asia Africa and Latin America or whether it is in disaster relief around the world We can double our impact if we work together BEN GURION always said that to be a realist you had to believe in miracles In Israel we have made miracles an everyday occurrence We have made the desert bloom and hi tech boom We have brought together 70 Diasporas from the four corners of the globe We have developed a modern economy and are a regional superpower We have Nobel Prize winners leading universities and world renowned hospitals We have made peace with some of our neighbors and we have not given up in our search to make peace with others We have become a fact Can I pick one achievement MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 I think the greatest achievement is that even though we saw our dream our 2000 year old dream come true we have not stopped dreaming We have not sat back and said That s it we have Israel We have continued to fight and drive forward to be even better We have to be clear that no antisemitism indeed no racism or hatred is acceptable We the Jewish people the survivors of the Shoah carry this responsibility perhaps more than any others Today antisemitism likes to hide Sometimes it hides as anti Israel and sometimes it hides as pro Israel The best way to combat hatred is always education and getting to know the other And we need to continue to promote Holocaust education especially as we must say goodbye to more and more of the survivors the witnesses of those crimes But we must also fight this diplomatically to stand on the world stage and be very clear that the echoes of the past are getting louder and that Never Again means Never Again I want to pay tribute to the many organizations key among them Yad Vashem and March of the Living who are dedicated to this important task every minute of every day And I think they have shown us how to pass the torch on to the next generation Remembrance and education through experience and understanding Today there are more tools there is social media there are more and more student exchanges and we must continue to harness all the resources at our disposal to be sure that the universal value of Never Again remains just that a universal value But there is no substitute for education testimony and remembrance and that is why March of the Living is such an important event 9

The Next Thirty Years By PHYLLIS GREENBERG HEIDEMAN T he 2018 March of the Living marks thirty years since the first 1500 participants gathered in Poland and marched along the same path of memory which marchers have taken each year since As we again gather in Poland and march together from Auschwitz to Birkenau we are more than merely walking along the 3 2 kilometers that connect these two historical sites of our Jewish past We are marching from our past into our future We are visiting ancestors who rest here on these hallowed grounds and keeping a communal promise to never forget but always remember them their lives and their legacy With each footstep our presence chants a silent but strong and meaningful Hineni I Am Here March of the Living participants learn and feel history where history happened This experience provides a pivotal and transformative moment for many and it is for that reason we are steadfast in our commitment to teach the lessons of history where they occurred I believe that our presence is felt our voices are heard and our commitment to memory is transmitted to those who perished as well as those who survived each year as we make this journey We renew an important statement to the Jewish People we are another generation of survivors committed to helping protect the future By learning the lessons of the past we are strengthened to protect the future By visiting the sites of the past we become witnesses to history with tools of truth as devices of defense Many March of the Living alumni have successfully taken their place as leaders in communities around the world This is a clear tribute to this organization s educational philosophy and purpose which have helped empower them to do so Our belief in the importance of the transmission of memory to the continuity and stability of our future is a message we will continue to teach as we march into the next 10 PHYLLIS HEIDEMAN President International March of the Living thirty years and beyond The role of the March of the Living in the future of the Jewish People rests in our commitment to carry the torch of memory as a means of igniting an attachment to the past as a connector to the future We are in the unique position of educating a committed group of alumni who can lead Jewish communities around the world into the future If knowledge is power then memory is powerful In the fast paced and ever changing times our younger generations face we take seriously our responsibility to prepare them to feel better equipped to face the future By reaching back to their roots and understanding the strength they possess within themselves our alumni expand their horizons embrace new directions and serve as change agents in their classes communities and countries The many individual initiatives and innovaMARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 tive projects we have seen alumni create as a result of their March of the Living experience is true testimony to the power of this thought provoking program The expanding of one s mind using reflections of the past as tools to address the future is a valuable asset for anyone hoping to make a difference We are proud to have been able to provide so many participants with an experience affording them the opportunity to understand the past and contribute to the future We have a firm commitment to continue our mission for many more years to come in the firm belief that the world is a better place because of the March of the Living and the graduates we send out into the world who are indeed committed to making a difference Phyllis Greenberg Heideman is President of the International March of the Living

Holocaust Memory A Daunting Imperative By SHMUEL ROSENMAN T he safeguarding of collective memory is a universal pursuit Every nation religion and culture clings steadfastly to the moments and milestones that define them While episodes of resilience and courage are remembered to restore hope and instill pride more painful chapters those marked by suffering and sorrow are memorialized to promote healing and give pause as well as to ensure that the heartache and horrors of the tragic events in question never again come to pass Holocaust memory encompasses both categories as it is equal parts triumph of spirit and cautionary tale In this darkest of periods in human history countless heroes brave men women and children faced evil in its purest form and emerged victorious These timeless icons of faith and fortitude those both alive and passed on are still capable of restoring our faith in humanity so many years later In diametric opposition stands those who perpetrated one of the most heinous genocides in history vicious hatemongers who wielded intolerance and bigotry to bring the world to its knees Their legacy is a pervasive and undying hatred fueled by ignorance and fear a supremely destructive force with the potential to once again unravel basic human decency and endanger the lives of millions It is therefore our responsibility to educate the younger generation to foster awareness and promote unity In a world that is tech heavy and empathy light we must provide the younger generation with immersive educational opportunities capable of drowning out the competing noise and breaking down the biases prompting action and DR SHMUEL ROSENMAN fostering critical thinking To be successful this mission must be shared by all mankind begin with the recognition that our present is equally as dark as our past and commit to doing whatever necessary to disperse that darkness with the light of education That light is contained within the torch of memory that is carried by the few remaining survivors of the Holocaust who stand proudly among the aforementioned heroes When they share their testimonies with the next generation they also pass the torch which contains the great power to teach the universal values of solidarity humanitarianism tolerance and acceptance Every year the March of the Living serves as a platform for Holocaust survivors to pass the torch to thousands of young men and women from around the world Jews and non Jews MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 alike Recent statistics show that more than 90 of participants felt that the project helped them understand the need to battle anti Semitism and 54 said that the March of the Living experience alone made them more tolerant of other groups in their daily lives Indeed our past can help us heal our present and lay the groundwork for a brighter and more tolerant future As we mark the 30th anniversary of the March of the Living and 70 years since the establishment of the State of Israel milestones of great significance we as educators must acknowledge that time by its very nature rapid and unrelenting is not our friend The number of Holocaust survivors the victims of and witnesses to the systematic state sponsored genocide dwindle with each passing year thus the preservation of Holocaust memory and the transference of its lessons to the next generation is becoming increasingly difficult As such doing so is more important than ever Preserving Holocaust memory is the only way to restore hope in humanity instill Jewish pride in an uninitiated and disconnected generation and ensure that the horrifying events that took the lives of tens of millions of victims of the Holocaust Jews and non Jews alike never again comes to pass To quote Ethics of our Fathers The day is short and the task is great It is a daunting imperative and there is so much work yet ahead of us We can only reach this loftiest of goals together Dr Shmuel Rosenman is the Co Founder and Chairman of the InternationalMarch of the Living an immersive Holocaust education experience that brings individuals from around the world to Poland to examine the roots of prejudice intolerance and hatred 11

RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU stands at the main gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz with the words Arbeit macht frei Work sets you free on February 1 2011 Michal Lepecki Agencia Gazeta Reuters Voices from the Past Yad Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau reflects on his experiences as an ever present at the March of the Living and why the Shoah will never be forgotten By ANIKA HENROTH ROTHSTEIN H e is a man who carries history wherever he goes and he carries it for all of us in a way As an eight year old he was the youngest person to ever be liberated from the Buchenwald Concentration camp and many years later in 1988 he would return to the extermination camps as the Chief Rabbi of Israel heading up the very first March of the Living Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau who has served as Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council since 2008 is a presence in the most positive sense of the word although humble and soft spoken one tends to hang on his every word 12 leaning in to catch every syllable as it drops off the sentence I have come to his home in Tel Aviv to speak about the 30th anniversary of the March he has become synonymous with and his thoughts on Holocaust remembrance in a time where both antisemitism and outright Holocaust denial is on the rise For the first years many survivors participated in the March of the Living fellow child survivors of Buchenwald Elie Weisel being one of them Thirty years later that number has dwindled with only one remaining Rabbi Lau Noah Klieger having been unable to travel to the last few marches and the first question I ask him is what will happen when all Holocaust MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 survivors are gone and how the rest of us can shoulder the responsibility of remembrance The Shoah will always be remembered Lau says in books letters and diaries and the published material continues to grow year after year The books written about the atrocities of the Shoah are living memories and they mean more than any monuments as they evoke feeling and understanding in the reader and influence millions across the world We discuss Holocaust denial and how ironically it was the spark that lit the flame of the March of Living Henri Roques a French agronomist created an international scandal in 1987 when it was revealed that the University of

Nantes in France awarded him a doctorate for a thesis in which he denied the Holocaust In the aftermath MK Abraham Hirchson suggested that the outrageous Holocaust denial had to be met with a response and eventually decided that a symbolic march should be held from the Auschwitz concentration camp to Auschwitz II Birkenau as both an open act of defiance and proof that the Jewish people are not only alive but thriving once again That response became a tradition and now every year more than 12 000 young people from all over the world participate making them living witnesses to history and carriers of memory Rabbi Lau was at the first March along with more than 1 000 other people and he has been on every one since then leading and teaching a new generation What we are trying to do is build a bridge for these young people For many of them their first trip to Israel is at the end of the March with the commemoration of Yom Hazikaron Remembrance Day and the celebration of Yom Ha atzmaut Independence Day We are not only conveying loss and pain but also hope and strength that is the bridge that we Jews walk on and that the March of the Living helps build each year And as Lau points out that bridge is also built between Jews from around the world as they come together for the March of the Living Israelis who attend the March leave Israel and return a little more Jewish Diaspora Jews who go to Poland and then travel to Israel return to their communities a little more Israeli Lau also adds that Holocaust denial in its way helps carry the memory and even reinforce it When our enemies mock or deny the Holocaust so strenuously they actually reinforce the fact that it did happen why else would they use this to hurt us Most people in Iran a few years ago hadn t heard much about the Shoah and they weren t interested then all of a sudden their president is telling them that it is a Zionist plot and never happened For educated and curious Iranians it was an opportunity to ask RABBI LAU with US Vice President Mike Pence his wife Karen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara and Chairman of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev at a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem on January 23 2018 Ronen Zvulun Reuters questions about what he was talking about because it hadn t occurred to most of them before Lau is full of stories and memories and though I wish I could spend the day there sitting with him and taking part of the lessons he so eloquently teaches it is Friday and preparations for Shabbat are already well underway He leaves me however with a poignant memory from when he visited the Holocaust museum in Hungary He was shown around the museum and as his visit ended he asked the curator if he could stand by the exit to see the reactions of a group of non Jewish Hungarian 12th graders when they came out from their tour I saw them when they walked in and they were being kids you know Laughing joking and eating the snacks they had brought from home When they exited their heads hung in sadness eyes to the ground I asked them in English what they thought of what they had just seen and they told me we are to blame It could have been any of our relatives or even us where was the world as this was happening Lau has tears in his eyes when he tells me this and I am trying to fathom the journey he has been on from a child even younger than those in his story standing by the gates of hell to returning as the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish State teaching generations of MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 Jews and non Jews about the crimes committed and the lessons they compel us to learn As I depart the Rabbi s home and leave him to his Shabbat preparations I am reminded of a poem that I heard long ago Let the memorial hill remember instead of me that s what it s here for Let the park in memory of remember let the street that s named for remember let the well known building remember let the synagogue that s named after God remember let the rolling Torah scroll remember let the prayer for the memory of the dead remember Let the flags remember those multicolored shrouds of history the bodies they wrapped have long since turned to dust Let the dust remember Let the dung remember at the gate Let the afterbirth remember Let the beasts of the field and birds of the heavens eat and remember Let all of them remember so that I can rest It strikes me that Amihai in his fluent and playful poetry understood what I am just beginning to grasp that memory is not a document nor a plaque but pieces of everything around us and that the responsibility of remembrance belongs to us all We the younger generation collect the pieces with purpose and with care We collect the pieces of memory and share them with others so that those who once faced the worst that man can conjure are finally allowed to rest 13

A March Toward Prevention By JOHN FARMER and PAUL MILLER I n commemorating its own 30th anniversary as well as the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel this year s March of the Living honors through remembrance the human capacity to rebuild even to flourish after unspeakable horrors But recent events have underscored the March s corollary purpose just as the living must march to remember they we must march also in order to prevent The evidence of resurgent hate is abundant Antisemitic incidents increased by 57 in the United States last year and by 90 in New York City FBI statistics showed an increase in hate crimes for the second straight year with Jews targeted in 55 and Muslims in 30 of the hate motivated crimes Nor is this trend limited to America Hate crimes targeting vulnerable populations have swept across Europe The Community Security Trust in the United Kingdom reported an unprecedented rise in antisemitic attacks in the first six months of 2017 while Germany s Interior Ministry reported over 950 hate crimes committed against Muslims or mosques last year Underlying the statistics of course are the individual tales of violence terror menace a synagogue firebombed in Gothenburg Sweden a merchant and his family assaulted at home in Paris photos of Jewish children from Whitefish Montana posted online on neo Nazi websites openly antisemitic signage posted in the streets of Budapest What can be done Earlier this year we launched the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey to address this question The center s establishment is the culmination of three years of fieldwork focusing on how to improve the safety and resilience of vulnerable populations in Europe and the US Teams from Rutgers were in Paris meeting with security officials when the kosher grocery was attacked and in Copenhagen the day after the synagogue was attacked there and in Brussels in the aftermath of the subway and airport 14 JOHN FARMER PAUL MILLER bombings At the invitation of Belgian officials and community leaders we have conducted police community roundtables in the Sablon and Molenbeek districts of Brussels and have offered assistance to communities from Malm to Whitefish Montana Because vulnerable populations can become easy targets and face common challenges we have encouraged those of varied religious and ethnic backgrounds to adopt the practices of the most advanced Jewish communities in Europe and the US conducting candid self assessments of facilities and personnel hardening potential targets adding value to the law enforcement mission through facilities tours joint training and the provision of intelligence networking with other vulnerable populations forming crisis communication networks and teams taking responsibility for their own preparation and resilience But adoption of best practices in a world that seems determined to forget its capacity for atrocity will do nothing to stem the rising tide of hate intolerance and determined amnesia that is engulfing global politics This is highlighted by the growth in populartiy of right wing nativist parties from Italy to Austria and Germany Our work in this menacing environment has persuaded us that for the world to protect its vulnerable populations it must first remember the consequences of leaving them unprotected And there is no better way to bring those consequences home than to retrace with the living the route taken by so many of the lost along the railroad tracks leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau For that reason the Miller Center at Rutgers has entered into a strategic partnership with the International March of the Living under which remembrance will become a cornerstone of our program of prevention We will select educational leaders from institutions which do not currently offer Holocaust and Genocide Prevention curricula we will offer them an immersive seminar on Holocaust history and on current efforts to prevent genocide and we will take them on the March The multiplier effect of exposure to this experience will be profound reaching out into their communities and through their students to a brighter future The task before us can appear daunting Time is short resources are limited and the storm clouds have gathered The entire project of a global civilization is at risk But the immensity of the problem cannot paralyze us we must focus instead on one community one issue even one person at a time just as we the living will take one step at a time on this year s March guided by the ancient talmudic wisdom that he who saves a single life saves the entire world MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 John Farmer is a professor of law and executive director of the Miller Center on Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers University Paul Miller is an alumnus of Rutgers University and Rutgers School of Law

70 years of achievements p owered by Keren Hayeso d Keren Hayesod UIA salutes the delegates from the Keren Hayesod world family and all the participants of the 2018 March of the Living Keren Hayesod UIA joins with March of the Living to mourn the six million Jewish men women and children who were murdered under the Nazi regime We stand with you to pay tribute to their memory and to honour the survivors Keren Hayesod UIA serves as a bridge that embodies the unbreakable connection between the Jewish people and Israel Our work is based on the lessons of the Jewish people s history and at their core is the principle of mutual responsibility We are proud to ensure that the Jewish people will always be there for one another We remember the lives forever lost and changed by the Holocaust Keren Hayesod and our supporters were there for the survivors in the aftermath of the war when we helped bring refugees to Israel and absorb them into their homeland Today we are there for those still among us by providing survivors with sheltered housing and ensuring that they can age with dignity Keren Hayesod campaign poster from 1946 To Rescue the Survivors The People of Israel will always be there for one another and Keren Hayesod will always be there to enable this support MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 15

NATE LEIPCIGER and his granddaughter Jennifer Green take part in the March of the Living in Poland Always Remember Who You Are The March of the Living brings together different generations of the same family providing a narrative of life among unspeakable pain and a message of renewal T By DAVID BRUMMER hose words always remember who are were the last ones that Anita Ekstein s father spoke to her as he entrusted her safety to a Polish coworker who had promised to save her It is a mantra that she has lived by since then from being hidden in a Catholic priest s house on the Russian Pol 16 ish border until the end of the war to the beginning of a new life in Canada and now transmitting her story and testimony to the younger generation These trips take a lot out of you she said It is very difficult emotionally and physically and going with my grandchildren to the camps especially Belzec where her mother was killed I love those kids and I want them to know these stories so they MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 can take them on To that end anticipating a time when she can no longer travel on the March the Azrieli Foundation will publish Ekstein s memoir Always Remember Who You Are in 2019 The March of course does not just deeply affect the grandchildren of survivors and even those without such a personal connection continue to ruminate on their experiences and ask questions Ekstein expressed the hope

My mom suddenly burst into tears Look at all of these kids Don t you understand I was not supposed to be here you were not supposed to be here these kids were not supposed to be here Hitler did not win Anita Ekstein that the young adults to whom she has spoken and will continue to do will remember her story and what she has taught them affectionately recalling how a student years after the March reached out to ask for additional information The young people who listen to me and other survivors they will not forget Like Ekstein Nate Leipciger is participating in his 18th March of the Living noting how the emphasis and character has changed over the years When I started the March had a negative note when we went to Poland It seemed that we only went to commiserate and commemorate the demise of our people We did not study the history of who these people were and that there had been Jewish life in Poland for 1 000 years before the Shoah We only talked about how they died not how they lived Leipciger felt that this change of emphasis from death and destruction to also including life and renewal added an important dimension NATE LEIPCIGER and Anita Ekstein celebrate Yom Ha atzmaut in Israel on the March of the Living Courtesy Anita Ekstein and greater texture to the experience Life did not begin and end with the Shoah he said I wanted to talk about my wonderful experiences before and explain that this terrible episode in our long history is not my raison d etre and should not be the mainstay of Judaism Being able to return to the scene of one of humanity s worst crimes with children and grandchildren in tow is a compelling rejoinder to the plan for the annihilation of the Jewish people MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 Leipciger was speaking having just celebrated the bris of his great grandson an event that his granddaughter Jennifer Green recalled did not leave a dry eye in her brother s house It is this message of renewal that Leipciger was keen to stress arguing that thousands of young knowledgeable bright and dedicated Jewish students traveling to Poland highlight the Jewish people s victory over its enemies albeit a very costly one It is a march of life said Leipciger how can that 17

MICHELLE EKSTEIN comforts her grandmother Anita Ekstein Michelle Ekstein Life did not begin and end with the Shoah I wanted to talk about my wonderful experiences before and explain that this terrible episode in our long history is not my raison d etre and should not be the mainstay of Judaism 18 Nate Leipciger make you feel Hitler gave me a oneway ticket to Auschwitz and I came back with thousands of others Ruth Ekstein Anita s daughter highlighted the feeling of surprise coupled with that very palpable sense of having returned from the precipice and defeating evil on one of the marches on which she accompanied her mother The surprise emanated from feeling that she had immersed herself as deeply as possible in learning everything about the Shoah My mom is very vocal and one of the top educators she said there was not a survivor I had not met nor a book I had not read Despite this nothing could prepare Ekstein for the reality of visiting Auschwitz Confronting evil really seeing it was remarkable and it shook me up but being there with all those students was spectacular A moment of high emotion and lasting impact would shortly follow That first year MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 I was there my mom walked arm inarm between me and my daughter from Auschwitz to Birkenau We got to the top of the hill and both in front and behind were kids and Israeli flags as far as the eye could see My mom suddenly burst into tears Look at all of these kids Don t you understand I was not supposed to be here you were not supposed to be here these kids were not supposed to be here Hitler did not win In taking the painful emotional steps of considering how to transmit a survivor s story when they are no longer with us the power of memoir and testimony albeit a more diluted form than first hand recollections is always close to people s thoughts Arla Litwin Leipciger s daughter said that the gentle push to try and encourage survivor s to write and publish their memoirs was a fantastic development while acknowledging that nobody could ever take the survivor s place nobody can make it as poignant as when there is a survivor present The Azrieli Foundation recently published her father s memoir The Weight of Freedom She like many of the second and third generation plan to carry the torch of memory as best and as much as they can and continue to be active in Holocaust remembrance Ruth Ekstein added that an exciting new development was the trialling of New Dimensions in Testimony NDT a collaboration between the Shoah Foundation and the University of Southern California s Institute for Creative Technologies ICT Former Auschwitz prisoner Pinchas Gutter was the first survivor to be filmed using the technology with hundreds of questions about his life before and during

the war asked of him and his answers recorded The Toronto Holocaust Education Center wants to utilize this technology as a way to keep on telling the story It is very weird because I want him Ekstein said of Gutter whose memoir Memories in Focus the Azrieli Foundation published earlier this year but it is quite extraordinary and really captures him What marks out so many survivors is that they are neither hateful nor bitter values and morals they have inculcated in their children and grandchildren For Green her life changing moment appeared when she and her grandfather walked through a gas chamber On exiting Leipciger recognized an elderly Pole who as a younger man had worked at the camp and embraced him not for a second bearing a grudge against someone assuming the best in others even if relations between Jews and Poles who were higher up in the camp hierarchy in Auschwitz may have not been ideal It was beyond inspiring and one of those moments that I could always look back on and ask What would my grandfather do in a particular situation For Michelle Ekstein Anita s granddaughter the time that really brought home what it meant to be a survivor was a visit to Belzec where Anita Ekstein lost all of her family To be able to go that sacred place with my grandmother and hear her give over her story was amazing she said I walked hand in hand with her and we stopped by the monument of first names and found the one which represented her mother then lit a yarzheit memorial candle That moment brought things to life about separating being an Ekstein from being a Jew In wanting to broadcast a message ANITA EKSTEIN stands between two students at the March of the Living to this year s participants the advice from all the interviewees was consistent For Leipciger a crucial element is being able to teach young people at a time when they are sensitive know what education means and can understand the message without traumatizing them Litwin advised the youngsters to be truly present participate as much as they can and really take in the information I have seen people go and shut themselves off afraid of exploding with emotion It is a unique experience and also a privilege to be there Green and Ruth and Michelle Ekstein concurred but added another element to their message They all acknowledged that they were lucky to have grown up in a country where they were free to express themselves as they saw fit in particular as Jews in support of Israel They were aware and perhaps the current political climate in parts of Europe and MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 North America is testimony to this that with freedom and opportunity comes responsibility and obligation They entreated students and young adults to do something positive with the knowledge and experiences they will gain and to also not be embarrassed to ask survivors what may at first seem upsetting questions If you are able to give back you have to give back with your ears and with your love going on the march does that for people For everyone who hears first hand testimony when you come home share the survivor s story and make life choices in light of that Green implored You cannot be a bystander the other part of Never Again is also that it must not happen to anyone anyplace or anytime do not just assume that everything will be okay There is a duty to ensure no other people go through what we went through 19

March of the Living Photo Gallery 20 MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018

MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 MOSHE MILNER MARCH OF THE LIVING PHOTO ARCHIVES PHOTOS BY YOSSI ZELIGER MARGO VINER RYAN BLAU ROSEMARY GOLDDHAR 21

Building a State in the Shadow of the Holocaust S BY EYLON LEVY ome moments in history are so decisive they remain etched in our memories forever Uri Avnery remembers the moment of Israel s declaration of independence precisely because it struck him as inconsequential at the time Avnery then a 24 year old Hagana fighter was busy preparing for an assault on an Arab village near Ramle when he was urgently called to the kibbutz canteen We listened to part of David Ben Gurion s speech he recalls until we reached the only point that interested us the name of the new state The moment Ben Gurion said a Jewish state to be known as the State of Israel we said goodbye and got back to work That night Avnery s unit captured the Arab village Israel was invaded by a coalition of Arab armies and Avnery was transferred south later the same night For a few fateful days the only thing that stood between the Egyptian army and Tel Aviv was a few Givati companies nothing more he says We knew that we were in the middle of a battle for life and death he adds So there were no outpourings of celebration in Tel Aviv That s a myth Those are stories made up later He recalls having been woken up on November 29 1947 by the sound of public celebrations after sleeping through the UN vote to partition Palestine But on the day of the declaration of independence the celebration was very small We were he says all very worried Avnery now 94 went on to serve in the Knesset and be a pioneer of the Israeli Left As far as we were concerned there was no importance to Ben Gurion s speech he recalls We knew that the 22 state would be established if we won and wouldn t be established if we didn t win and it wasn t obvious at all that we would win He felt a genuine fear that the nascent state would not survive but it won because its fighters had their backs against the wall TWO THOUSAND miles away Noah Klieger was desperately trying to reach the Promised Land A survivor of Auschwitz the 21 year old Frenchman was stranded in Belgium because the ship he had hoped to board to Palestine never reached Marseille He heard Ben Gurion s speech with a delay because the radio in Antwerp did not carry the speech live The news did not come as a surprise to him because of the UN partition vote months earlier but the occasion was nevertheless momentous I was so happy I could have kissed everyone even in the street remembers Klieger now 91 He departed for Genoa the next day to board a ship to the newborn Jewish state but waited for three weeks to make aliya with 200 other Jews because boats could not dock in Israel until the first cease fire One year after being turned back from the shores of Palestine by the British aboard the Exodus Klieger was home in the Jewish state And only three years after facing imminent death at Auschwitz he was fighting for his survival again having been recruited as an infantry soldier on arrival He did not have a gun for the first few months until there was weapons shipment from Czechoslovakia Fighting alongside other Holocaust survivors in a Palmach unit established by a French commando he fought in Ramle Lod and Beersheba going as far south as Eilat after its liberation This time I was not fighting for my MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 NOAH KLIEGER shows his Auschwitz number tattoo Government Press Office personal survival he stresses I was fighting for the survival of the Jewish nation for the future of the Jewish nation Unlike Avnery however Klieger never thought Israel might not survive the Arab invasion I realized when I was in the war that the native Israelis together with the 120 000 newcomers would never give up We were going to win the war because we had to win the war THE STATE of Israel declared independence on May 14 1948 three years after the end of the Second World War and the liberation of the camps in Europe In later years Israelis would connect

the two events on an indivisible continuum interpreting the state s establishment through the lens of from destruction to resurrection But at the time Avnery recalls the Holocaust did not loom as large as it does in hindsight The truth is that people didn t think about the Holocaust or the Jews in Europe until the Soviet army captured the first extermination camp recalls Avneri who had fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1933 During the war the Yishuv Jewish community in Palestine was more preoccupied with a possible German invasion than whatever was happening in Europe They knew of a Holocaust but did not believe the stories yet And the Jews of Palestine were so single mindedly focused on independence Avnery says that once it was clear the British would leave they thought of nothing else It was a very heavy blow to the Yishuv he recalls speaking of the first reports from the death camps But the Yishuv was already busy with the war against the British The Holocaust played a much smaller role in our consciousness in Israel than it seems today It was a difficult thing a terrible thing but less important than our struggle for independence On reaching Israel Klieger indeed found a gulf in understanding between native Israelis and Holocaust survivors They didn t know how to handle us They called us soaps he says with a wry laugh because they heard that the Germans made soap with the fat of our victims which is not true by the way The influx of Holocaust survivors was a collision of two worlds They were a different people they were a people born free he says For years we were not free at all but they were always free For Klieger the story of Israel s rebirth was inseparable from the destruction of European Jewry I became a Zionist in Auschwitz he recounts In Auschwitz I realized that should I survive and I was convinced I would not survive I would become an active Zionist helping to rebuild a new Jewish state after 2 000 years This time I was not fighting for my personal survival he stresses I was fighting for the survival of the Jewish nation for the future of the Jewish nation duced a veritable pantheon of artists he argues with no successors in modern Israel But the change he notes with sorrow was inevitable the unavoidable result of expanding a tightly knit ideological community to include millions of immigrants from different cultures Klieger paints a rosier picture of Isra Noah Klieger Klieger also promised himself that he would make it his life s mission to tell the world about the Holocaust After Auschwitz he reported on trials of Nazi war criminals in liberated Europe a farce in later years he participated in an astonishing twenty seven processions of the March of the Living in Poland ISRAEL HAS changed beyond recognition over the past 70 years and these two veteran citizens could not be farther apart in their reactions to the change If one of the fallen from 1948 were to rise from the dead and see the country today he would go back to his grave says Avnery We wanted a completely different country from the one that was created He complains of the death of the founding generation s pioneering and volunteering spirit decries the closure of the kibbutzim and laments the failure of efforts to forge a radical new secular Hebrew nation It s a different society today it s corrupt money grabbing every man forhimself and it s deeply divided he notes If anyone back then had predicted the manifold corruption scandals in modern Israel Avnery says they would have been considered mentally ill Today people use elitist as a curse word he states But the whole Yishuv was elitist They wanted to create a completely new culture Israel s founding generation pro MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 URI AVNERY in his army uniform from the War of Independence in 1948 Wikipedia el s health at 70 The Jewish state is such a success story he says that much of the hatred toward it is motivated by jealousy that it grew so strong so quickly Israel has become one of the leading countries in the world he says his eyes almost audibly glistening over the phone No country in history has ever done it We did it Because we wanted to do it and because we were forced to do it We have never had a quiet day We have developed a country that can be proud of itself in all respects Eylon Levy is a correspondent and news anchor at i24NEWS 23

A MAN AND HIS MISSION Philanthropist Sigmund Rolat may have survived the Holocaust and left Poland 72 years ago but part of him will forever remain in his native country where he continues to work for Jewish Polish reconciliation By ROBERT SARNER D espite living through such dark times and suffering unspeakable tragedy at the hands of Nazi Germany Holocaust survivor Sigmund Rolat has taken the higher road Despite witnessing humanity at its most evil in his youth in wartime Poland he is an incurably positive thinker In speaking with him it s hard not to be impressed by his lucidity and constructive outlook I ve been an optimist all my life says Rolat 87 a retired businessman who lives in New York I ve been very very lucky Someone who has been lucky should be an optimist I m also hopeful I have reasons not to be so hopeful but I m always trying to look at the bright side of things Luck hope and optimism are not what most people would attribute to someone who lived through the Nazi killing of his mother father and brother and other horrors linked to the genocide of his people That Rolat maintains such an upbeat attitude that he s translated into multiple actions to make the world a better place is a measure of the man Much of his philanthropy is in his native Poland where he lost so much in his early years His initiatives are aimed largely at reconciliation and building a better future by helping people learn from the past Among his contributions is Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw Rolat was instrumental in its creation not only due to his significant financial donation Located on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto it showcases a thousand years of Jewish life that flourished in Poland until 24 SIGMUND ROLAT I ve been an optimist all my life the Holocaust Polin opened on April 19 2013 the 70th anniversary of the largest act of Jewish resistance to the Nazis the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising For me the museum is a dream come true says Rolat who visits Poland several times a year Today with the current situation sparked by the recent Polish legislation about the Holocaust I d say the museum is even more important than before Rolat is referring to the dispute over the new Polish law which makes it illegal to accuse Poland of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany including the slaughter of six million Jews Jewish organizations in Poland MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 say the legislation which was enacted in February has caused an increase in xenophobia and anti Semitism I m upset by what has happened lately with the new law says Rolat But I still think that somehow this will be resolved if only because it s in everyone s interest that it be worked out I believe the Polish government will do what s necessary and will do it soon Although I doubt they will scrap the law altogether I hope they will at least change the wording with the proper corrections to make it acceptable to us Rolat is the driving force and chief funder of a project in Warsaw which is

THE PROPOSED Monument to the Righteous in front of the Polin Museum not without controversy It entails creating a monument to Polish gentiles who risked their lives literally to save Jews during the Holocaust He s commissioned noted Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan to design the monument which will be erected next to the Polin Museum Critics in Poland and abroad reject its location in the heart of the city s former ghetto as inappropriate They argue that given the magnitude of what happened there during the Holocaust it should be reserved for the memory of Jewish suffering not Polish heroism I ve been surprised by the opposition to the monument and I must say with great regret that 95 of it is from my co religionists says Rolat who began planning for the project many years ago They say what I m trying to do is sacrilege because of where the monument is going I maintain that it s because of where it will be built that so many people especially young people will see it and learn about these wonderful men and women who risked their lives saving a Jew or Jewish family Because of its proximity to the museum people will see it in the proper context Part of his motivation stems from his gratitude of his non Jewish Polish nanny Elka who refused to abandon Rolat and his family and was killed by the Nazis While some of his opponents may be vociferous many people are in favor of the monument which is slated to be unveiled later this year or early next year I support this initiative says Toronto based Eli Rubenstein longtime National Director of the March of the Living Canada the Holocaust education program which brings youth to Poland and Israel every year We need to give our young people positive role models by which to lead their lives So much of their time in Poland is spent visiting death camps and other sites of mass murder by the Germans We also need to show them there was another side one that s extraordinarily noble courageous and inspiring We must never cause our young people to lose hope and this monument will help restore their hope in humanity after what they ve seen in Auschwitz and similar places In recent years due in part to Rolat s MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 influence the March of the Living has expanded its program in Poland It now includes visits to the Polin Museum and meetings with Polish teens and Poles connected to the saving of Jews from the Nazis Sigmund was very persuasive in causing us to broaden our minds says Rubenstein He encouraged us to also focus on Poland s rich history and culture and the Jewish life that thrived there for so many centuries and on the small but growing Jewish community in Poland that s attempting to revive Jewish life there Born in Czestochowa 220 km southwest of Warsaw Rolat spent the Holocaust in his hometown s ghetto in hiding and in a forced labor camp After the war orphaned he moved around Europe before immigrating to the United States in 1948 and eventually becoming a highly successful businessman Today despite his advanced age Rolat remains committed to his charitable and Holocaust related work in Poland and elsewhere Much to the lasting benefit of Jews and non Jews alike far and wide 25

A Life Devoted to Holocaust Education and World Peace E By KELLY HARTOG va Schloss the late Otto Frank s 88 year old stepdaughter moved slowly but purposefully onto the huge stage at The Los Angeles Theater and lit a candle in front of 1 100 people who had packed the downtown venue to hear her story The way that we the Jewish people have responded to adversity and atrocity is by doubling tripling and quadrupling down on who we are We have sought to elevate the condition by kindling light said Rabbi Moshe Greenwald Greenwald the Chabad rabbi of Downtown Los Angeles organized the event that flew Schloss in from London on the 70th anniversary of the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank Since 1986 Schloss n e Geiringer has been traveling the world sharing her Holocaust survival story After lighting the candle Schloss settled into a chair center stage to chat with Erin Grunwell who created the Freedom Writers project You could hear a pin drop in the auditorium as Schloss spoke of her and her family s personal connection to Anne Frank While the Franks fled Germany for Holland in 1933 Schloss s family fled Vienna and headed to Amsterdam in 1938 My father took an apartment in an open square in Amsterdam Schloss recalled There was nowhere in the area for children to play so after school all the children would come and play in that square One day a little girl came and introduced herself and said her name was Anne Frank Over the next two years Schloss and Anne became firm friends They were only a month apart in age Schloss was born on May 11 1929 and Anne on June 12 She remembered Anne as a person who was very sure of herself She wanted the attention of all the 26 EVA SCHLOSS One day a little girl came and introduced herself and said her name was Anne Frank other children and she was called Mrs Quack Quack at school because she never stopped talking Schloss recalled those years fondly saying they played regular childhood games skipping and hopscotch but today you all walk around with your mobile phones she quipped But when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 things changed quickly In the summer of 1942 both the Frank and the Geiringer families went into hiding While the Franks managed to stay together and in one place until they were captured Schloss s family would move six times and right from the start Schloss and her mother went with one family while her father and her 16 yearold brother stayed with another family Nonetheless there were some extraordinary parallels in Anne and Eva s lives Both families were ultimately MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 betrayed Eva s family in May 1944 and the Franks in August of the same year Both were ultimately sent to Westerbork transit camp and then on to the Auschwitz Birkenau death camp although Anne and Eva never saw each other Anne and her sister Margot were among those who were moved from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen less than six months before the war ended and died of typhus just weeks before the camps were liberated By some miracle Eva and her mother were never moved nor were they forced to go on a death march and were liberated from Auschwitz If Anne had managed to stay in Auschwitz she would be alive today Schloss said AFTER HER liberation in 1945 it took almost six months for Schloss and her mother to return to Holland where

IF ANNE had managed to stay in Auschwitz she would be alive today If you hate you ll become a miserable person They won t suffer but you will Eva Schloss they eventually reconnected with Otto Frank She learned her father and brother had perished at Mauthausen When he heard his daughters had died Schloss said He was 57 and he looked ashen He was a really beaten man Schloss said she was still deeply depressed and full of hate at losing her father and brother and Otto Frank would come regularly to visit Schloss and her mother He said If you hate you ll become a miserable person They won t suffer but you will Several days after learning of Anne s death Schloss said Frank arrived with a small parcel in his hand It was of course Anne s diary Otto started to read a few sentences Schloss said but he would just burst into tears It took him three weeks to read it Schloss said she initially didn t want to read Anne s diary It was published in Dutch in 1947 but at that time I was too preoccupied with my own sorrow It was only much later that I read it and realized how much wisdom she had even though she was so young She writes about women s rights and humanity and different religions It could have been written by a 30 year old person Schloss said it was clear Frank was lonely and that her mother was lonely MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 He would come to their home and talk with Schloss s mother about getting Anne s diary published I was a difficult teenager with a lot of problems Schloss said My mother and I didn t talk about what we went through even though we were close It was Frank who convinced Schloss to go to school even though she didn t want to He said A good education is the only thing that nobody can take away from you It was also Frank who felt Schloss could become a photographer and gave her his Leica camera and sent her to London to work in a photographic studio In London Schloss met Zvi the man who would become her husband Initially she turned down his marriage proposal because he wanted to move to Israel and she didn t want to be so far away from her mother It was only when she learned that her mother and Frank had fallen in love that she returned to her suitor and said Okay you can marry me now The Schloss s were married for 62 years and raised three daughters in London Otto Frank and Eva s mother were married for 27 years He was 17 years older than my mother Schloss said but I d never seen a happier marriage Schloss continues to travel the world devoting herself to Holocaust education and global peace She has written two books and has had a play written about her life Asked about the current plight of the planet Schloss said discrimination antisemitism and racism around the world is completely inhuman My husband used to say there is only one race the human race War is the most terrible thing it ruins people s lives Asked what people can do today to make the world a better place Schloss said Start with yourself with your own family The family is the most important link to a decent world 27

Angels in the Shoah Jerusalemite Betty Eppel recalls how she and her younger brother were hidden during the Holocaust by a Christian couple on a French farm S By STEVE LINDE itting in her warm Jerusalem home Betty Eppel exudes beauty intelligence and optimism what the French call joie de vivre as she tells the moving story of how she and her younger brother Jacques were hidden in the home of poor Christian peasants on their tiny farm during the Holocaust I believe there s an angel who s smiling at me and looking after me she says My brother who is two years younger than I am and I were lucky to be taken in by this wonderful couple Victor and Josephine Guicherd who had no children They gave us so much love and taught us such a love for life Eppel was born Berthe Lewkowitz on April 19 1935 to parents who had gone to France from their native Poland They lived in Valenciennes in northern France where her father worked as a furrier She recalls that her parents Schmuel and Perla spoke Yiddish to each other but French to their two children After her mother gave birth to a second boy Maurice Michel six yearold Berthe Betty started going to a Catholic school where the nuns were very kind to me One of them removed the yellow star from my jacket before I entered the school so that no one would know I was Jewish In the summer of 1942 two years after the Nazis occupied France her father took her and her brother to stay with a young couple in a nearby town Her parents with the baby visited them there on September 7 on Jacques s birthday 28 Years later Betty would learn that the Gestapo took her parents to Auschwitz on September 11 Her father managed to escape picked up his two children took them on a coal barge and left them with a man named Nicola who together with their aunt their father s sister took them on a long walk to the village of Dullin which had about 90 residents and left them with the Guicherds Even though I missed my mother we had a beautiful life with the Guicherds for the next three years Betty says Victor taught me how to take care of about a dozen cows and about birds and animals flowers and trees and Josephine taught me how to cook She was a wonderful cook They were very poor We had no water but we would wash once a week before going to church It was a kind of paradise the years I spent there were the happiest of my life until I got married and had my own children in Israel When German soldiers came to Dullin Victor hid the two children in a hollow wooden breadbox called a petrin in French Dullin was only five kilometers from Izieu where SS units under the orders of Klaus Barbie and acting on information provided by French collaborators rounded up 44 children and their seven supervisors at a Jewish orphanage and sent them by train to death camps Most were murdered at Auschwitz Victor and Josephine Guicherd looked after us from September 1942 until the end of the war Eppel says Under their assumed surname Leroy MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 BETTY EPPEL standing left visits Josephine and Victor Guicherd in France in 1986 David Eppel which their father had ordered them to use the children were taught in local schools by nuns and a priest and Eppel walked across the field to study piano from an Italian teacher after falling in love with a Bach cantata played by one of the nuns They helped their adoptive parents with farm work for almost three years until their father who had also survived by hiding arrived at their home WHEN THE war ended my father came to pick us up but we didn t want to go with him We didn t know him anymore but we were forced to leave the Guicherds It was one of the hardest days in our lives My father took us home and wanted us to be more French than the French so he sent my brother and me to one of the best boarding schools where I studied English Latin and German After graduating from high school she studied art in Valenciennes but felt miserable and lonely and resisted her father s demands that she work for him She later moved to Paris where she began working as a window dresser at Le Bon Marche When Jacques who was a medical student saw a boat trip to Israel being offered by the Union of Jewish Students they jumped at the opportunity

We arrived in Haifa and we were sent to a French speaking kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev and I really liked the atmosphere of freedom and work When we left I felt very strange like an umbilical cord had been cut Eppel had made friends with a woman on the kibbutz and who had lost both her parents in the Holocaust and that woman persuaded her to return She returned to Israel in 1964 as a tourist with just enough money to study for four months at Ulpan Akiva in Netanya She then met an Italian painter who introduced her to Batsheva de Rothschild who employed her in her Tel Aviv arts and craft shop called Batsheva She also started her dance company and I got to know some very famous people including David Palumbo Martha Graham and Abie Nathan I began to have confidence in myself that I could really do things It was such a fantastic time Although she lived in Tel Aviv she met David Eppel a journalist from Glasgow who worked for Israel Radio at a party in Abu Tor Two weeks later I met Marc Chagall when he opened his mural painting in the Knesset and we had a long conversation she recalled He asked if I was seeing anyone and I told him that I had met someone who had just interviewed him the night before on the radio at the Knesset David Eppel Ah he s very nice Chagall said At the end of the conversation he took my hands in his and said to me in French Mademoiselle I wish you lots of luck in life Following the interview she felt like one of the characters in Chagall s paintings floating in the sky with elation I rushed to the telephone and told David I did a much better interview than you did Betty and David married soon after in Tel Aviv on March 20 1966 and had two children Yaron and Michal who are today both married with six children between them EPPEL VISITED the Guicherds several times the first time on her own and later in 1986 with her husband who recorded Victor in French a recording she still has In it when her husband asked Victor if Betty or Jacques had been any trouble he reveals his big secret No neither of the children was any trouble but the others There were others Oh yes Oxenberg Nicola and Barr It turned out that the harvest laborers that he employed had also been Jews Why did I do it I did it for love not for a medal Eppel presented the Guicherds with a certificate from Yad Vashem acknowledging them as righteous gentiles In a letter he wrote later to Yad Vashem Guicherd explained in French that he could not attend the ceremony at which Eppel planted a tree in his honor because his wife was not well and he too was not up to the journey Referring to Betty and Jacques he wrote We did our best to educate them to give them instruction and in one word to love them Guicherd gave Eppel his father s ornate longcase clock an item that had always fascinated her and the large metal key to the barn where she and Jacques once played The key now hangs on the wall of her Jerusalem home where the clock chimes cheerfully every half hour She stayed in touch regularly with the Guicherds until Josephine s death in 1984 and Victor s in 1988 at the age of 90 Her father died in France in 1990 at the age of 86 Eppel discovered the fate of the rest of her family only after her son Yaron s bar mitzva Serge and Beate Klarsfeld such wonderful people published their book and someone came here from Yad Vashem to let me know that my mother and brother had died in Auschwitz For many years I did not know and was always looking for them I also discovered about six years ago at Yad Vashem that my mother s parents and siblings and her entire family had been gassed in trucks in Poland not by the Germans but by Poles This is why the latest law passed in Poland makes me so upset It s so awful Her brother Jacques lives with his family in Paris where he practices as a doctor Eppel who taught French for many years to diplomats at the Foreign Ministry now volunteers at the Israel MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 VICTOR GUICHERD S clock hangs in Betty Eppel s house David Eppel Museum which she adores I love talking to interesting people and introducing them to the beautiful art we have here Her husband David died on March 31 2006 Approaching his 70th birthday he took ill after representing Kol Yisrael s English News at an event at the old Palace Hotel now the Waldorf Astoria to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Israel Radio In the years before he died he was able to record his and his wife s stories on a website hiddenroots org for posterity Steven Spielberg s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation recorded her testimony in detail and she received a signed letter from Spielberg thanking her Far into the future people will be able to see a face hear a voice and observe a life so that they may listen learn and always remember he wrote Today Eppel takes her own children and grandchildren to visit the tree at Yad Vashem she planted in honor of her saviors What s interesting is that they later put a train from Poland there in front of the tree So there s life and death I believe that an angel has looked after me and I hope that this angel will look after this country and create peace here for all the children of Israel 29

Memorial to Recently Fallen Marchers Bill Glied A beloved Holocaust survivor the Canadian businessman who traveled on several Marches of the Living passed away in February By ELI RUBENSTEIN H e was so determined as we all are to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to generations of people said fellow survivor and March of the Living educator Max Eisen We both knew that our time is short and we tried to educate people relentlessly We accepted speaking engagements no matter how many times they asked him or myself It is so hard to lose a friend We are so few and we thought you know we would never die We have gone through all these horrible things we thought that we would just keep on going You know the good years that we had here they just went by so fast He was as we say in Hebrew Stronger than a lion and swifter than an eagle This is the memory I will hold onto We ll have to pick up where he left off On May 8 2018 the Toronto Jewish community will honor the more than 100 Canadian survivors who have participated in the March of the Living since its inception in a gala event also marking the March s 30th anniversary The last speech of the evening was to be given to Bill when he would read from his stirring poem I Am a Jew that he shared with students on the 2016 March of the Living The words which some March of the Living students now read at their Passover Seder read in part I m a Jew because I believe that all human beings are created in the likeness of God and therefore all racism is foreign to me because I have an obligation to help and be hospitable to 30 strangers to visit the sick and most of all to make peace between people I was at Bill and his wife Marika s home just a few days prior to his passing he and his daughter Michelle presented to me a fascinating Holocaust education initiative for students they had created together for a time when survivors would no longer be able to share their stories in person They wanted to find a way to enable others to tell survivors stories a way to preserve the survivor personal testimony model that has such a strong impact on students today Then we Marika Michelle and myself discussed Bill writing his memoir something that he had thought about but was reluctant to do By the end of the conversation I think we may have convinced him to do so We were going to tape his full story then transcribe it Sadly that will not happen reminding me of the words from a Bialik poem There was a man and he exists no more His life song was broken off halfway He had one more poem And that poem is lost Forever Eynat Katz who participated in the very first March of the Living in 1988 with the Toronto delegation wrote the following after Bill s funeral on February 19 It was a very strange and difficult day for me a day that is difficult to encapsulate in mere words It was exactly 19 years ago to the day that we buried a special man my Saba grandfather Moshe Gutman a Holocaust survivor and the most special MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 man I have ever had the privilege and honor of knowing and being loved and raised by Today I attended the funeral of another such special man William Bill Glied also a special Saba or as his family referred to him Papa also a Holocaust survivor Both of these special men were Auschwitz survivors They both endured horrible atrocities and lost their families their friends and loved ones Yet they both managed to survive and re create a life for themselves and to proudly raise a strong Jewish family AS I sat today in the funeral home listening to Bill s three daughters and eight grandchildren eulogize I could not believe the strikingly parallel lives that both of these incredible men had lived I will never forget standing next to Bill in the Birkenau concentration camp and sharing part of my Saba s story with him when all of a sudden I noticed that Bill s face went white Bill made the connection of exactly who my Saba was even remembering the time they desperately searched for food together during one of their forced labor assignments It sent chills down my spine and I was saddened that when I returned to Toronto I could not share that experience with my Saba as he was no longer with us Both of these incredibly courageous men survived Auschwitz and became self made businessmen They married strong women the loves of their lives and each brought three daughters and eight grandchildren into this world Though my Saba was fortunate to live long enough to meet his first great grandchild he passed away shortly after that

A PORTRAIT of Bill Glied Hasnain Dattu Both of these extraordinary men lived by strong values and morals embodying the concept that we and only we are responsible for every single one of our actions In fact both spoke of and taught those around them what they believed to be the core values and principles that we should all be guided by These values and way of life included our obligation to give charity to be hospitable to visit the sick and elderly to comfort mourners and most of all to love thy neighbor They taught their families to appreciate the little things in life and to always believe in themselves These men were wise and taught us so many life lessons yet they both had very little formal schooling and were never given the opportunity to return there and study again Yet both were avid readers and acquired knowledge through books and lessons from day to day life Neither one of them defined their lives as being Holocaust survivors That was not their legacy as both survived because of the type of men that they were their strength inner wisdom eternal optimism and hope Wide shoulders friendly ears and good advice were always available as was an alternate perspective to each problem we faced They both knew the precious value in the everyday in every single experi ence and were grateful for every little thing around them Being with family and surrounded by friends and loved ones was what they always wanted They cherished every moment and showered love on all those around them They taught us by example Both believed that each day was another opportunity to go out into the world and do good deeds MY SABA taught me to never walk by a homeless person without acknowledging them looking them straight in the eyes sharing a kind word and sparing some change I vividly remember walking down the streets of Ramat Gan holding my Saba s hand and watching his quiet and kind demeanor He would always carry loose change in his pocket and invariably asked me to drop a few coins into each cup or outstretched hand we passed by Whether it was to buy a drink and or a falafel for someone in need or to help an elderly person cross the street my Saba always took the time to teach me by example I remember being so proud to be known as Gutman s granddaughter It warmed my heart when I would go to buy a falafel all by myself and the owner of the falafel stand would tell me that I did not have to pay for my portion as I was Gutman s grandMARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 daughter My Saba s last name Gutman was most befitting as he was indeed a good man My Saba taught me the importance of our Jewish homeland to love and respect the Land of Israel To stand up for Israel and to always take action as needed to protect it No one will ever know all that both my Saba and Bill went through during the Holocaust we cannot even begin to imagine what they witnessed and endured during those horrible years The experiences that both these men shared with us were but a mere drop in the ocean But we do know that none of us would be here today if they were not the strong hopeful optimistic believing and committed Jews that they were until their dying day My Saba went to the synagogue daily and continued to pray and believe in God until his last breath These morals and life lessons that both these men taught us will always inspire me guide me and will forever be my source of optimism activism and strong belief in a better tomorrow To Bill s family I remember someone sharing with me the following Those we love don t go away They walk beside us every day Unseen unheard but always near So loved so missed so very dear 31

AMEK ADLER center stands with young participants during March of the Living Jessica Taylor Healing Wounded Memories I By ELI RUBENSTEIN n February 2006 more than 200 Toronto students gathered at a winter retreat in central Ontario for a weekend Shabbaton in preparation for their two week journey to Poland and Israel on the March of the Living During Shabbat services when the students recited the Shema the words stirred the most painful of memories inside Amek Adler one of the survivors accompanying the travelers 32 I was about 14 years old and was a slave laborer in a concentration camp set up by the Nazis near Radom Adler told the hushed gathering One day the Nazis learned that a young man had escaped the camp They rounded up the escaped man s remaining family a mother and father and two girls and one boy ages seven to 14 forcing them onto their knees in front of the rest of the camp inmates who had been assembled to witness their punishment The Nazi he had a black patch over one of MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 his eyes then shouted to the prisoners This is what we do to the family of someone who decides to escape Then he shot each family member in the head once then back over them again to ensure they were all dead As the parents and the children slumped over each proclaimed the words of the Shema on their lips before they died Since then each time I hear the Shema Adler told us that is the picture that comes to mind That poor family the parents and the children on their knees reciting the Shema as they

said to him and all present Amek you shared with us a very personal and difficult memory but with your permission we are now going to try and heal that memory We are all going to sing Shema Yisrael many times over so the picture you will have in your mind from now on whenever you hear the Shema will be of Jewish children marching towards a brighter future Then the entire group of teenagers and chaperones broke out into a spirited rendition of Shema Yisrael singing it perhaps 20 or 30 times before launching into a medley of other Jewish songs Adler s nephew fellow survivors and their grandchildren joined him and the Marchers kept singing around them as if their singing alone could carry the world into a better future A few weeks later Adler addressed the group briefly You know it is working I was in synagogue last week and I heard the Shema being recited and for a moment I saw the image of the family in Radom but after only a few seconds it was replaced by all of your smiling faces A memory that once seemed inconsolable had received redemption were being executed I can t get it out of my head We all listened in stunned silence wondering what it must be like to carry that kind of burden that constant memory for an entire lifetime But something even more remarkable was about to happen during that weekend On Saturday evening the lights were dimmed a braided candle was lit and all of the Marchers formed a circle in middle of the dining room to sing Havdala in unison One of the rabbis invited Adler into the center of the circle and AMEK ADLER participated in the March of the Living a number of times but mobility issues made it difficult for him travel to Poland in recent years In the spring of 2017 the Azrieli Foundation published his Holocaust memoir Six Lost Years With his freshly minted book in his hand Adler went on a speaking tour of Saskatchewan sharing his story with Canadian students in far flung places many who were likely hearing a Holocaust survivor for the very first time On April 24 Holocaust Remembrance Day just a week after his 89th birthday Adler told his story to a group of young people in Humboldt Saskatchewan On his way to Regina Saskatchewan for another speaking engagement he was rushed into emergency surgery and died on the operating table Bill Glied a Holocaust survivor March of the Living participant and close friend of Adler who also recently passed away remembered Adler saying When I die I want to MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 be doing a mitzva That s exactly what Adler was doing on the last day of his life Cathy Mills a Saskatchewan teacher who was present at Adler s final speech shared her condolences with the Azrieli Foundation Could you please let Amek s family know that he spoke so well and made such an impact on the students and teachers gathered there she wrote His final day on this earth was productive and inspirational That is a legacy of which to be proud In his last speech Adler said The story cannot die We are dying We won t be around so hopefully the new generation can tell the next generation Amek we promise you this as long as there is a March we will always tell your courageous story Your story will never die AMEK ADLER rocking the microphone on a March of the Living Jessica Taylor 33

Born in the Inferno Angela Orosz was born in December 1944 one of two babies who survived in Auschwitz In this letter she highlights the perils of not learning history s lessons are silent when thousands are killed in Africa as long as they can blame Israel and the Jews for all that is bad in the world By ANGELA OROSZ M y children have always rolled their eyes when I told them that the Holocaust could happen again Nevertheless today more than ever before I am convinced that it can happen again Why is that Because the world has not learned the lessons of the Shoah Some people have but by no means all Since 1945 we have seen more genocides Murders have been committed by the thousands hundreds of thousands in Rwanda in Srebrenica and in so many other places Moreover antisemitism the oldest form of racial hatred thousands of years old is still alive There are still people who believe that all Jews are rich that the Jews are too influential that Jews run Hollywood the media or Wall Street I come from Hungary The government there recently ran a vicious campaign against George Soros He is Jewish 87 years old and he does not agree with the government s policies It is shocking but we are in 2018 and these things continue to happen There is a new kind of antisemitism out there Today when you want to say something against the Jews you say something negative against Israel You accuse Israel of doing the same to Palestinians that the Nazis did to the Jews You call it a racist country an apartheid state A shorthand way of expressing hatred of Jews today is by bashing Israel As somebody who was born in Auschwitz who lost her father and many other family members there forgive me if I do not remain silent when peo34 ANGELA OROSZ guiding during the March of the Living Margo Viner ple say such awful things about Israel Of course you can criticize certain things about Israel or about Canada or any other country there is Even Jews are criticizing Israel but so many statements about it cross a line that must never be crossed For example there is a movement called Boycott Divestment and Sanctions BDS They put into question Israel s right to exist It really is that simple They are silent when it comes to mass murder in Syria They are silent when it comes to Hamas human rights abuses in Gaza They MARCH OF THE LIVING APRIL 2018 SURVIVORS OF the Holocaust people who went through the worst that can happen to any human being and who were incredibly lucky to survive helped to build the state of Israel We survivors are so proud of what Israel is today Most Jews around the world are proud of Israel Israel is a wonderful country It is not perfect I know but it is much better than so many people think it is It is a world leader in science and in technology It is a democratic country which one cannot say about all the countries in that part of the world It is the only Jewish country in the world A place where Jews are the majority and where a Jew in everyday life faces neither discrimination nor the prospect of being looked down on Israel is a country that yearns for peace and not war We do not choose if we are born as Jews as Muslims or as Christians We cannot choose our parents or our upbringing However we can try to be fair We can try to be open minded and not full of prejudice That is why I want to ask you a favor Always try to be fair Remain open minded Remain curious Make up your own mind Do not put people into boxes based on their religion or their appearance Finally please prove to people such as myself to all those who think the Holocaust can happen again that we are wrong It must not happen again Never again It is your job to ensure it does not

INTERNATIONAL OF THE LIVING On the occasion of our 30th Anniversary International March of the Living thanks all of its generous sponsors survivors group leaders staff educators volunteers partnership organizations alumni and participants from around the world for making the March of the Living a reality for thousands of students International March of the Living 2 West 45th St Suite 1500 New York NY 10036 Tel 212 869 6800 Fax 212 869 6822 Email motl motlmail org Website www motl org