Newsletter

Holocaust survivors are old. Soon none of us will be left. A baby in 1938, when the Holocaust started, would now be over 70 years old, and most of us were not babies in 1938. Consequently, the group of survivors that meets on the second Friday of every month at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center is a mature group – except for one member who is the child of survivors. About 10 of us are regulars representing six European countries. All of us are now American – although as we tell our stories in English we speak with diverse accents.

Survivor Lucy Smith organized our group. It all started about two years ago when a member of Mount Zion Temple died. Several survivors received a frantic call from the Temple asking us to attend the funeral so that there might be a minyan (the quorum of 10 required for a formal Jewish prayer service). Apparently this elderly woman, a survivor of the Holocaust, no longer had an adequate support system. Lucy decided it was time to gather the remaining few survivors, both as a support group and as a resource for the community.

Each of us tells of different experiences. Max tells the story of when he was a little boy in Romania. All the Jews in the district were ordered to go to a certain house adjacent to the river. He describes how, hand in hand, he and his grandmother walked toward the address. As they were walking along the river a strange man they had never seen before – and who Max never saw again – asked where they were going. When the grandmother told him the address, the man said, “No! No! You really don’t want to go to that house.” So little Max and his grandmother returned home. That night all the Jews who were in that house were drowned in the river. Max shows photos of recent sculptures of many shoes along the river with a huge plaque commemorating that day. Max survived other Holocaust experiences and he attributes it all to good luck and good health.

We’re amazed at how many ways one could have lived through those years. Some managed to survive the concentration and labor camps. Others hid in the woods, joined the resistance or lived false identities. However, our members discuss more than the hard times. We explore our experiences coming to “the land of milk and honey.” We argue about Israel. We discuss movies about the Holocaust years. Occasionally we have guests who provoke discussions about a wide range of themes. When Ellen Kennedy, interim director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, visits we explore what we can do to stop the genocide that continues to this day. Each of us laments that “never again” didn’t happen in our life time. And yet we see the world with hope. What can we teach others about survival, about new beginnings, about possibilities?

We’ve started to record our meetings because the conversations are so provocative. Member views are interestingly diverse and the stories of survival are fascinating. The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has helped to find typists so that the recordings can be put to paper. Volunteers, primarily students, are learning about a history they might otherwise have missed.

Our survivors group welcomes new members. For more information contact Fred Amram at
612-378-2335 or at amram001@umn.edu. We’re a friendly collection of warm people – although becoming more elderly with each passing day.