A
few weeks back, some of us who have accompanied Eva Mozes Kor and the CANDLES Museum to Poland had a little reunion. Eva and the museum has been making annual trips to
Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau since the mid-2000s. So a hundred some men and
women spent Saturday at the CANDLES Museum and the United Hebrew Congregation
Synagogue. (There were other events that weekend, but I only took part in the
gathering at the museum and the synagogue.)
I
spent part of the morning touring the museum, observing their latest exhibits,
which included a prisoner’s uniform from a concentration camp (may have very
well been Auschwitz) and letters Dr. Joseph Mengele had written to his wife
while he was working at Auschwitz.
The
other part was spent talking with two Holocaust survivors, Agnes Schwartz and
Ida Kersz.
Agnes was from Hungary and was in hiding for the duration of the
war, living as a Catholic. She has written a book entitled, “A Roll of the Dice: A Memoir of a Hungarian Survivor.” Ida lived in Poland and had been
raised believing she was Catholic, and had some prejudices against Jews. She
later learned that she was Jewish. Her essay was included in the book, “Out of Chaos: Hidden Children Remember the Holocaust,” by Elaine Saphier Fox. Both Agnes
and Ida hope to return later this fall to the CANDLES Museum, to speak more on
their experiences.
The
third Holocaust survivor who attended the reunion, was Stan Kalmanovitz. As a
young man, Stan was taken his home country of France and sent to Auschwitz. He
joined the CANDLES Museum at the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau
and has become very involved. Last, but not least, Eva Mozes Kor was there. The
four were able to reminisce in a way that the rest of us could not comprehend.
Near
noon, we headed over to the United Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.
Having been
in more than my share of churches, this was the first time I had ever been in a
synagogue. We had lunch and then were free to explore the building. The
sanctuary (forgive me if that is not the proper word) was like a work of art:
stained glass windows, marble pillars, finely crafted wood. The room off the
sanctuary was a library, devoted to hundreds of books on Jewish history,
literature, fiction, etc. I was in my glory.
That
day was a memory to last a lifetime. I hope that those of us who’ve been to
Auschwitz continue to meet like this.
If
you want to see more of my photos from that weekend, please look me up on
facebook.
