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Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
As Holocaust survivors continue to vanish, one of the oldest in Miami shares her story
Lucy Lowell, who survived the deadliest Nazi concentration camp to build a full life in New York City and eventually settle in Miami Beach, is among the last of an important and increasingly rare group of people. At 103, she's among the oldest living Holocaust survivors in the world. It's a population that's disappearing with each passing year. Just 1,400 survivors are estimated to be alive today over the age of 100, according to a new report. It means that the opportunity to hear firsthand stories of endurance in the face of monstrous evil is quickly passing by. Within the next six years, half of all Holocaust survivors will pass away. And 70 percent will pass away with in 10 years, according to a population projection report from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. The findings are 'a stark reminder that our time is almost up,' said Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference. 'Our survivors are leaving us and this is the moment to hear their voices,' he said. And Lowell isn't even the oldest in Florida. Another Florida survivor, Lithuanian-born Malka Schmulovitz, was recently honored by the city of Miami Beach on her 109th birthday. Schmulovitz was not available for an interview but told the Claims Conference that their experiences must never be forgotten. 'To be one of the oldest survivors alive right now at my age tells me we are running our of time,' Schmulovitz told the Claims Conference. 'We all have a testimony that needs to be shared.' Lowell, for her part, admits trying to put the past behind her as she built a new life in the United States. After decades of staying silent about her experience escaping Auschwitz and surviving the Holocaust — she once turned down interviews with Steven Spielberg's team for his Oscar-winning movie 'Schindler's List' — she has recently decided to share her story. 'At the time, with my husband, we did not talk about it. We wanted a new life, to enjoy each other and [not to] dwell on it,' she said. That change of heart is due, in part, to a recent gift from researchers: long-lost books from Lowell's childhood, including a book of biblical pictures she received as an award for good behavior at her religious school in 1930, when she was just eight-years-old. 'I was shocked,' Lowell said, pausing to reflect. 'I was shocked.' A small and stylish woman with a warm smile, Lowell recently sat in her Miami Beach apartment on Collins Avenue to reflect on those relics, which sparked a flood of painful memories. She thumbed through a book of Jewish philosophy that was given to her older brother Gerhard on the day of his bar mitzvah. Gerhard was later killed in Auschwitz. 'I remember very well — the beautiful party, family… friends. I even remember the dress I wore,' she said, adding that she was just 10 years old at the time. The family books were found in a private collection of 10,000 stolen Jewish books owned by Julius Streicher, a publisher of an antisemitic Nazi newspaper, according to The Sunday Times, and were returned due to the efforts of a project by JewishGen, a resource for Jewish genealogy at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York and the Leo Black Institute. Now, over 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Lowell looks back on a life that was split into two parts — the before and after. She recalled, in an interview with the Miami Herald, the events that changed the course of her life. 'I've always had a good memory. What can I say? I am blessed that I don't have alzheimer's or any of those illnesses,' she said. 'It's still there.' Remembering the 'before' Before the Holocaust, Lowell lived a happy life with her parents and older brother in Berlin. She recalls 'wonderful' childhood memories — vacationing in the summers with her family and attending the now-famous Olympic Games of 1936, where Jesse Owens made history. She loved sports, dancing, and admiring the beautiful things in life — her mother's stylish wardrobe, for example, which sparked an lifelong interest in fashion design. Then on Nov. 9, 1938, with one violent night, the life Lowell knew and loved began to crumble. Nazis set fire to synagogues — including the one attended by Lowell and her family — and vandalized thousands of Jewish homes and businesses, igniting a wave of violence that killed nearly 100 Jews and led to the arrests and deportations of thousands more. The night later became known as Kristallnacht, or 'Night of Broken Glass,' signaling a turning point in Nazi Germany's persecution against Jewish people, moving from social discrimination and propaganda to violence and terror. The next several years would mark one of the darkest times in human history, both for Lowell and millions of other Jewish people around the world. All in all, six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. As conditions worsened for Jews — Lowell's parents made arrangements to live with relatives in New York. But, due to travel restrictions, her family never made it to America. 'The consulates had closed, and we did not make it,' she said. 'The whole living room was packed with boxes and crates and suitcases to ship to America. And we got stuck.' Soon after, Lowell's family received a visit one night from Nazi officers, who deported the Emmerich's to the Lodz ghetto in Poland. 'We had just finished supper,' she said. She heard 'a knock on the door, and two Gestapo officers came. They said, 'We have to evict you, to deport you to Poland. So pack what you can carry, because there are no bell boys.' In Lodz, Lowell's family lived in 'primitive' conditions among dozens of other families in the same cramped, cold barrack. Conditions were so unsanitary, that Lowell's parents both died from illness, possibly typhus, a leading epidemic at the time that killed thousands of Jews living in ghettos. Lowell recalls laying in the hospital bed for weeks with high fevers, her head shaved bald from a lice infection. 'My parents, at least they passed away in a bed and not in Auschwitz,' she said. After she reunited with her brother in the ghetto, the two siblings moved out of the barracks and into a small vacancy. Lowell was able to work various jobs while living in the ghetto. She remembers working in a wheat field, planting and sewing, skills that felt foreign to her as someone who grew up in a big city, and another job working in a Nazi-run factory, making household shoes for soldiers. 'When doing the work, I would pick wheat and eat it, and put some in my pocket to bring back for my brother,' she said. Surviving Auschwitz Then, in 1944, after the ghetto was liquidated, Lowell, her brother and two German-speaking coworkers were forced into crowded cattle cars, bringing with them whatever they could carry with them for the long journey. She didn't know it at the time, but Lowell was being transported to Auschwitz. When they arrived at the camp, soldiers separated the men and women, lined them up and ordered them to march in a long line. Lowell became separated from her brother during this time. 'There was a famous doctor ... His name was Joseph Mengele, and he would direct people, 'you go right, you go left.' There were high fences. They were electric, And we saw one figure there stuck on it, because if you wanted to try to escape ... this was Auschwitz.' Joseph Mengele was one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust, a ghoul who along with other German researchers, conducted terrible medical experiments on prisoners, and selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers. The last time Lowell would see her brother, whom she adored, was in the concentration camp. 'We were stunned,' Lowell said, adding that she didn't know what was happening to her at the time. She remembers being ordered around by Nazis and living in a barrack with 800 other women in bleak conditions. She slept, with other prisoners, on the concrete floor and was given rags to wear as clothing. Lowell was selected with just 20 other women to go and work in a factory, where the director of the company was kind enough to give her knitting needles to make clothes. 'He gave us burlap yarn and I knitted myself a beautiful dress,' she said. 'I had a dress of my mother's in mind, which was so beautiful on her so I tried to knit something just like her dress.' She doesn't know why or how she was selected (her fluent German may have helped), but the assignment may have helped save her life. Then, the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated on January 27, 1945. Lowell was just 23 years old, with no immediate family or home left to return to. In the aftermath of her time in the camp, Lowell relied on the kindness of strangers to get by and slowly, but surely, she built a new life for herself. Lowell ended up moving to Flushing, Queens to live with her extended family. She worked a job in fashion design at an office near Times Square and soon met her late husband, Frederick Lowell, a businessman in New York City who had also survived a concentration camp. She was married at the age of 26 and went on to live a beautiful life in Manhattan, where she helped her husband build a business. Her days were filled with day trips to the Metropolitan Opera, worldwide travel and fun — she was once a champion water skier. Now in Miami Beach, Lowell is an avid reader, especially of the news, and she loves to watch television and visit with friends. She recently shared her story at an event at the Jewish Museum of Florida, where she said people were 'astonished' and wanted to take pictures with her after the event. After spending the majority of her life avoiding the topic of her survival, Lowell wants people to hear her simple yet important message: 'You should not hate people. You should not discriminate ... Yes, you see what happens,' she said. This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
Miami Herald
28-04-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Miami Jewish community marks Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day
Hundreds of members of Miami's Jewish community and its allies gathered in Miami Beach to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday night. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp, ending a horrific chapter in human history. All in all, six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The program, held at Temple Emanuel-El and organized by the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, remembered the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and honored the legacy of the dwindling number of survivors. The event showcased stories from survivors and from second, third and fourth-generation descendants who are continuing to educate the next generation on the consequences of hate. Currently, there are about 220,800 Holocaust survivors living in 90 countries around the world, with half residing in Israel and about 18 percent in North America, according to a new report from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. The vast majority, 96 percent, are 'child survivors' who were born after 1928 and more than 1,400 Holocaust survivors are estimated to over 100 years old. Nearly 50 percent of all Holocaust survivors will pass away within the next 6 years, while 70 percent will pass away within 10 years, according to the report. As Holocaust survivors continue to age and pass away, events like the one at Temple Emanu-El become even more important, allowing the stories of survival to live on. This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
Sky News AU
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Australia to host first-ever Holocaust Survivors' Reunion at NSW Parliament in response to rising anti-Semitism since October 7 terror attacks
Australia will host its first-ever Holocaust Survivors' Reunion in the hope that it will become an annual event. The reunion is the brainchild of survivor Eddy Boas in response to rising antisemitism since the October 7 terror attacks on Israel in 2023. Mr Boas says he hopes up to 150 survivors will attend the in-person lunch at NSW Parliament on June 1, while others will be able to join via Zoom. The 85-year-old, who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a child, said he came up with the idea early last year after seeing unprecedented levels of antisemitism in his adopted country. 'Holocaust survivors were in angst and I can tell you, I don't get scared too often in life, but I started to think about all this antisemitism that suddenly broke out in Australia, which I would have never expected in my life to see,' Mr Boas told Sky News. 'I know what antisemitism is all about. I had never experienced antisemitism [before] in Australia.' Australia has one of the largest communities of Holocaust survivors in the world – about 35,000 emigrated here in the aftermath of World War II. Last year, there were 2,500 living survivors recorded in Australia, according to the Claims Conference, a non-profit which helps secure compensation for Holocaust survivors around the world. Mr Boas says while states have held smaller events for survivors, it's his understanding that this is the first national reunion of its kind. And one surprising topic will be off the table. 'One of the things that I made sure of, we were not going to talk about the Holocaust,' Mr Boas said. 'I want this to be a joyful luncheon. We all know about the Holocaust. 'Let's celebrate living in Australia. We've all – majority, I can't speak for everybody – have had a good life in Australia. I certainly have. 'I pretty well feel sure that most Holocaust survivors feel like I feel – that Australia, at one stage in our life, was the greatest country in the world. 'Unfortunately, today, with all this antisemitism going on and the [Federal] government not doing anything about it, no matter what they say, it's getting worse even today.' The reunion is being supported by NSW Premier Chris Minns, who will give a speech alongside Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon. 'This will be an important opportunity for Holocaust survivors to reflect, to remember, and to reunite,' Mr Minns told Sky News. 'With the number of Holocaust survivors falling as each year passes, moments to come together like this take on an extra significance. 'Holocaust survivors have made major contributions to NSW, Australia and the world. 'Their stories of survival are as important today as they have ever been.' Mr Boas says he is grateful for Mr Minns' support. 'We had a good talk about antisemitism and we had a talk about the luncheon,' Mr Boas said. 'He has allocated a grant to us to hold it, which I'm really pleased about. He is a terrific premier.' Mr Boas urged survivors to contact the Australian Association of Holocaust Survivors if they have not yet received an invitation.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A photographer spotlighted Holocaust survivors by pairing them with celebrities in moving portraits
Photographer Bryce Thompson paired Holocaust survivors with celebrities in intimate portraits. The "Borrowed Spotlight" project aims to leverage celebrities' fame to amplify survivors' stories. Celebrity participants included Cindy Crawford, Barbara Corcoran, Sheryl Sandberg, and Billy Porter. Fashion photographer Bryce Thompson has worked with supermodels and shot numerous magazine covers and ad campaigns. For his latest photo series, he trained his camera on a different subject: aging Holocaust survivors. The "Borrowed Spotlight" project pairs celebrities and business leaders with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, capturing heartfelt moments of connection and amplifying their testimonies to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate. Famous participants who lent their public platforms to the project include "Shark Tank" star and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, supermodel Cindy Crawford, and actors Jennifer Garner, Billy Porter, and David Schwimmer. The photos are on display for a limited time at Detour Gallery in New York City, but are also available as a coffee table book. Proceeds from the book and print sales benefit Holocaust education and resources for survivors. Take a look at photos from "Borrowed Spotlight." Fashion photographer Bryan Thompson took intimate portraits of celebrities meeting Holocaust survivors for a project entitled "Borrowed Spotlight." Thompson didn't introduce the celebrities and survivors before the photo shoot so that he could photograph their first moments meeting each other. "This initiative paired celebrities and notable individuals from diverse industries with survivors not just to spread the message but to engage directly — listening, questioning, and sharing in these profound experiences," he wrote in the coffee table book's introduction. The project aims to leverage celebrities' fame to amplify the stories of aging Holocaust survivors. Around 220,850 Jewish Holocaust survivors are still alive today, and most are over 85 years old, according to the 2025 Global Demographic Report on Jewish Holocaust survivors published by the Claims Conference. Photos from "Borrowed Spotlight" will be on display at Detour Gallery in New York City through April 27. A full list of the exhibition hours can be found on Borrowed Spotlight's official website. The "Borrowed Spotlight" coffee table book retails for $360, with the proceeds going to Holocaust education programs. Proceeds from a private auction of prints from the series will also be donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and SelfHelp, an organization that provides trauma-informed care to Holocaust survivors in New York. Cindy Crawford wrote the foreword to the photo book and posed with 98-year-old Ella Mandel. Crawford wrote that meeting Mandel, who was 13 years old when German forces invaded Poland in 1939, was "profoundly inspiring." "She shared the heartbreaking losses she endured: her sister, her father, her mother, and another sister — all gone. She was the only survivor in her family," Crawford wrote. "She told me how, at her lowest point, her friend's brother told her, 'No more death. We're getting married.' They did, and they built a life together in the United States." Thompson photographed tears streaming down Kat Graham's face as she listened to Yetta Kane's story. Kane's blonde hair and blue eyes, which the Nazis viewed as traits of a superior race, allowed her to work as a courier for Jewish resistance groups known as partisans when she was 8 years old. "We're here to tell the story," Kane told Graham, an actor best known for her role on "The Vampire Diaries." "That's what's important." Scooter Braun sat down for a conversation with Joseph Alexander, 103, whose number tattoo from a concentration camp was visible on his arm. Born in 1922, Alexander endured the Warsaw Ghetto and 12 concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau, before he was liberated in 1945. He was the only surviving member of his family out of his parents and five siblings. Alexander visited Dachau in 2023 to mark the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. "I want to be in this shape at 103," Braun said as he sat with Alexander. Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg shared a tender moment with George Elbaum. Elbaum's mother helped him evade Nazi persecution by paying Catholic families to take him in and conceal his Jewish identity. "It's an amazing thing to go through what you've been through, or to see life and be able to be an optimist," Sandberg told Elbaum. "It is the only way I survived it," he said. Tova Friedman told Barbara Corcoran that she survived Auschwitz at age 6 because a gas chamber malfunctioned. "We, the survivors, have an obligation not only to remember those that were slaughtered so ruthlessly, but also to warn and teach that hate begets hate and killing more killing," Friedman said. Thompson photographed Billy Porter with Bella Rosenberg, who was one of only 140 Jews to survive from her Polish hometown of 20,000. Porter, a Broadway star, wrote on Instagram that Rosenberg's story "is a powerful reminder of what can happen when hate goes unchecked and why we must remain vigilant in protecting the most vulnerable in our society." "If you don't tell your story, people won't know," 95-year-old Gabriella Karin told Jennifer Garner. A 25-year-old lawyer hid Karin and her family for nine months in his one-bedroom apartment across the street from a Nazi outpost. Thompson hopes that the photo series helps combat modern antisemitism and all forms of prejudice and hate. "These survivors stand as living testaments, urging us never to forget that empathy and action are often the difference between life and oblivion," Thompson wrote. Read the original article on Business Insider
CBS News
23-04-2025
- General
- CBS News
Brooklyn organization aims to uplift Holocaust survivors through song on Yom HaShoah
They survived the unthinkable. Now, a new campaign out of Brooklyn is making sure Holocaust survivors – and their needs – are not forgotten. Timed with Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI) has launched a music-driven social media campaign called #iStandByYou, centered around an original song titled "Stand By You," performed by Hasidic singer Shulem Lemmer. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the needs of Holocaust survivors, many of whom are now elderly and homebound. "That cause to me spoke very, very deeply," Lemmer said. "I'm a grandchild of Holocaust survivors ... Most of the people I grew up with in school, they're all children of Holocaust survivors." The campaign launches as the Claims Conference releases its first-ever population projection for Holocaust survivors. Of the estimated 245,000 survivors still living worldwide, half are expected to pass away within the next six years. Yom HaShoah began Wednesday at sundown, a solemn reminder of lives lost and those still holding on. "We have to share that story" Many rely on the services provided by the JCCGCI's Holocaust Survivor Support System. "We try to be a one-stop shop for Holocaust survivors ... to provide anything and everything that they might need to live comfortably, to live with dignity, to live with joy," said Zehava Birman Wallace, the program's director. "That's the least that they deserve." JCCGCI says its Holocaust Survivor Support System is one of the largest in the world, serving over 4,000 survivors in the New York area. The program offers transportation, housekeeping, case management and home attendant services, among others. A portion of the proceeds from Lemmer's song will go back to JCCGCI to continue supporting these vital services. "We have to share that story," Lemmer said. "The younger generation has probably not even met a Holocaust survivor and probably won't meet a Holocaust survivor to tell the story directly." "There was no place to go because the world didn't open the doors" Toby Levy, a 91-year-old Brighton Beach resident and Holocaust survivor, is one of the thousands receiving support from the JCCGCI. Born in Khodoriv, modern-day Ukraine, Levy survived thanks to a Polish woman named Stephanie Struck, who hid her and her family in a barn. "We were nine people in a place of four feet by five – head to toe, head to toe," Levy said. She added, "There was no place to go because the world didn't open the doors. The world didn't let the Jews in. You know what they did? They closed the doors with locks. And threw the keys away." Looking back on the Holocaust, Levy described it as a departure from previous generations of persecution. "Somehow we knew this is not the usual hatred of Jews," she told CBS News New York's Hannah Kliger. "This was different." A lifetime later, and an ocean away, her life today is surrounded by photos of her two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren – testaments to resilience. Have a story idea or tip in Brooklyn? Email Hannah by CLICKING HERE.
