Inside                             

Auschwitz………………2

Contest………………….3

CSUN……….............4

Liberation……………….5      

William Elperin

President

Michael Bazyler

Vice President

Susan Golant

Vice President & Secretary

Sam Rubinfeld

Vice President

Steve Hitter

Vice President

Rosemary Elperin

Financial Secretary

Mike Zelon

Treasurer

The “1939” Club

8950 W. Olympic Blvd. #437

Beverly Hills, CA 90211

(310) 491-7802

Email

the1939club@aol.com

Web Site

www.1939club.com

Wiesel Dedicates Samueli Library       

Elie Wiesel dedicated the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University on April 11, 2005, exactly 60 years to the day that he was liberated from Buchenwald. The Samueli Holocaust Library was made possible by a generous gift from Susan and Henry Samueli, in memory of Henry’s parents both of whom were Holocaust Survivors.

The Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library is on the top floor of the new Leatherby Libraries building in the heart of the campus. As you step from the elevator, the visitor is greeted by a beautiful memorial to the children who perished in the Holocaust. The memorial, called the Tree of Life, was donated by Liz Leyson, in tribute to her husband, Leon Leyson, one of the youngest Schindler’s List Survivors. Both are members of the Club.

Tree of Life Memorial

Elie Wiesel with Curt Lowens  at Dedication of Samueli Holocaust Library at Chapman

Inside the Library is an exhibit area depicting the various phases of the Holocaust, along with artifacts from that time period. Many of our members, including Isabelle and Cantor Szneer, Felicia Haberfeld and her son, Judge Stephen Haberfeld, and Curt Lowens contributed their personal artifacts for the exhibit.

The Library also houses a Holocaust research center, The “1939” Club Survivor’s Video Testimony Alcove (containing about 70 video testimonies of our members taken in the early 1980’s at UCLA), computers for research, the Roger’s Center on Holocaust education, offices and a conference room.

Across the hall is a beautifully appointed Survivor’s Room, where students can meet with Survivors, and learn valuable lessons.

The director of the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library is Dr. Marilyn Harran. The Library is open during business hours and by appointment. For more information call (714) 628-7377.

Page …….2            The “1939” Club E-Mail Newsletter                      

"I swore never

 to remain silent

whenever and

wherever human

beings endure

suffering and

humiliation. We

must always take

sides.”

            Elie Wiesel

Websites of interest

Jews in America

Forward Newspaper

Holocaust Chronicle

Claims Conference

Jewish Federation

Survivors of the Shoah

The Righteous

Yad Vashem

USHMM

THOUGHTS ON A VISIT TO AUSCHWITZ

By Hanna Rubenstein

On a cold and dark day in March of 1985, my sister and I set out on a visit to Auschwitz. We were with a group of American, mostly non- Jews, on a tour of Poland. All the horror stories I heard never prepared me to what I was about to experience.

We stopped at the city of Oswiecm (Auschwitz) just on the outside of the camp walls. There was a small café, and we sat down for lunch. How can I eat, I wondered? I tried to imagine life before the War. What was it like? Then I tried to imagine the everyday sort of life that took place here during the War. Were people passing by here, I thought to myself. Did they hear screams; did they smell the flesh burning?  How could they just go on living a normal life knowing what they knew? They had to know. The smell must have been unbearable. Some of the people in our group chose to stay behind and not visit the museum. They said they could not take it. Who can? How could the victims?

We entered the camp through the same gate which I saw so many times in the old movies “Arbeit Macht Frie”. What was it like for them; how did they feel? Did they really believe it would be all right? And then I saw the showers.  I felt faint. Just to imagine what it must have been for them sent chills through my spine. We then proceeded to see what was left of the ovens. How terrible; why did the Allies not bomb the ovens? They knew the locations. So many questions went through my mind. Did this really happen here? Am I dreaming? Is this a nightmare I will wake up from?

The earth was cold and covered with snow. I was dressed with boots and a warm heavy coat. Did they really walk around barely dressed freezing to death? Were the Germans this inhumane? Could they really do this? The earth felt still soaked with blood. I thought I heard a voice crying out to me; I could see hands grabbing my boots and voices saying “do not forget me, do not let my death be in vain.”

So many questions left unanswered.

After that visit, I made a vow to do my best to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust, and to commit my life to the preservation of Judaism. I vowed to be patient and kind to all survivors and to never judge their behavior.

I ask all children of Survivors to join me in our efforts to continue and perpetuate the memory of all those who perished in the Holocaust.

(Hanna Rubenstein is Second Generation and President of Congress of Jewish Survivors, a Holocaust organization based in Los Angeles.)

Page …….3       The “1939” Club E-Mail Newsletter   

VIEW ENTRIES

Holocaust Art and Writing Contest

Photo from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Courtesy of National Archives

The “1939” Club in partnership with Chapman University and the Samueli Foundation sponsor an Annual Art and Writing Contest. Last year over 3,000 Middle and High School students participated. The following is this year’s subject for the contest:

Read the account of a Holocaust perpetrator, witness, or rescuer.  Explore the moment of decision that transformed this individual into a perpetrator, rescuer or witness. 

Reflect upon a situation in your own life where you faced a moment of decision that resulted in your becoming a perpetrator, a rescuer, or a witness.

With your own moment of decision as your starting point, create an essay, poem, or work of art that captures a moment of decision which resulted in an individual becoming a perpetrator, rescuer, or witness.

Click on the links at the side bar to read last year’s winning entries and to learn more about the contest

Page …….4              The “1939” Club E-Mail Newsletter 

Yiskor Bikker

 Holocaust Memorial

Books

Now on line

The New York Public Library in partnership with the National Yiddish Book Center has digitized Yiskor Bikker. They are available on line and many have been translated into English.

Yiskor Books

Click Here

Holocaust/Jewish

Studies Programs

• CSUN

• UCLA

• Chapman

• USC  

• Claremont

Page …….5                 The “1939” Club E-Mail Newsletter 

Save the Date

Sunday

February 26, 2006

53^rd

Installation

Guest of Honor

Judge

Edward Korman

Presiding Judge

U.S. District Court

Eastern District of

New York

 *

Presided over the Swiss Banks

Litigation

Yearbook to Feature Liberation Stories

(This year’s yearbook will feature liberation stories from our survivor members. Below is the liberation story of Sally Wasser, one of our past presidents.)   

April 15, 1945 will remain as one of the most memorable days in my life.  It was a moment in time that has lasted a lifetime.  It was the day my sister Rachel and I were liberated from Bergen Belsen Concentration camp in Germany.  My days there were endless, filled with hunger and little hope, just the basic human desire to survive and keep close to my sister. There was no point in even asking why this place existed or what happened to the life I had known with my wonderful parents and sisters and brother.

Suddenly we heard a voice that seemed like an angel coming from above. The voice spoke in English with a British accent and the sound resonated throughout the camp. It was Rabbi Hartman, fonder of the London Synagogue, chaplain of the British troops saying, “You are all free!”  We were not sure what we were hearing.  It was a voice of humanity, something we had not heard for years.

In the days just before the liberation, there was an unusual routine to the camp.  We were not sent out to do any work.  There was no food, and illness was rampant.  We, of course, had no idea what was going on and that the Germans were losing the war.  We only knew that our situation was becoming worse than the days before.  And then we heard those wonderful words. Survivors who were lying on the ground, near death, heard those wonderful words and wanted to stand and reach for the sky in gratitude. Some actually dropped to their death.

We could not speak any English, but we desperately wanted to thank those British soldiers. We did not have gifts, nor any flowers to present to them. So we found among ourselves one person who could translate.  We finally found our voice and shouted, “Long live the British army!”  What a sight we must have been! Human skeletons cheering the army. Rabbi Hartman tried to feed the hungry, but they were too sick to eat.  There was a lot of dysentery and typhus.  My sister Rachel was one of the more ill.  She could not move. Rabbi Hartman created an emergency clinic.  I was chosen to help in this clinic in the early days of the liberation. This simple act of helping one another was our first return to civilization  -----  to once more utilize our minds and energy for the betterment of human existence rather than just surviving.

Page …….6               The “1939” Club E-Mail Newsletter  

Donate Your

Books

Donate your books relating to the Holocaust to the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library and dedicate them to family members who perished in the Holocaust.

 Call (310) 491-7802

Become a Member

You don’t have to be a Survivor; you don’t even have to be Jewish!

Membership Form

Click Here

Bergen Belsen was liberated at the same time as other camps.  It was a confusing time. Where should we begin in putting our lives back in order?  Everyone started to dream of seeing loved ones. A few days after the liberation, a friend had rushed over to me .  “Sally, Sally,” she shouted, “you’re brother is at the gate!”  This was truly a hallucination. I ran like never before. I hadn’t seen my brother in two and a half years, yet, there he stood on the other side of the barriers, beautifully dressed in a leather jacket and white scarf, leaning on his bicycle with his brilliant blue eyes smiling at me. He had been liberated earlier and had heard that there might be women from his home town in Bergen Belsen.  He traveled with a friend who as a fellow survivor of forced labor. That friend later became my beloved husband, Harry Wasser.

Even though we were all free, life was treacherous in Germany. The survivors remained in Bergen Belsen, taking over the better barracks and creating a small city. We started life anew. I was married in Bergen Belsen.  There was no money for gifts, so everyone brought flowers and all were invited. You could not imagine that a place of so much horror and death could become a place of such beauty and celebration.

The most ironic part of all was that it was in Bergen Belsen, a place where the Germans tried to annihilate the Jews, where I give birth to my firstborn, Martin.  This was a true tribute to those who did not survive.

I was reunited with Rabbi Hartman at the 40^th Anniversary of the Liberation at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.  I lit the memorial candle with my grandson Jeremy at my side. We have never forgotten those who perished or the families we loved so dearly.