Latest news with #Kristallnacht
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Letters to the Editor: One family's journey to the U.S. shows the horrors the country cannot repeat
To the editor: Thank you, guest contributor Karen Musalo, for this article ('The U.S. failed refugees during the Holocaust. Trump's Libya plan would too,' May 19). Yes, we have to be reminded that what President Trump is planning is a repeat of the horrors of the Nazi era and that there are legal procedures today to prevent this. My late husband was on the St. Louis at the age of 7 with his 3-year-old brother, grandmother, mother and father. They were Jewish refugees from Berlin. The father's store burned down during Kristallnacht. My mother-in-law, through friends, found out about getting into Cuba via this voyage when they were refused entrance into the U.S. at that time. Germany convinced Cuba to reject them, after which the ship turned back toward Europe and its concentration camps. Fortunately, there were interventions plotted by the captain, the Jewish Refugee Organization and passengers on the trip to avoid going back. The Vendig family ended up in Belgium, then Vichy France and were finally rescued with help from Switzerland. The family finally got to the U.S. in 1946. They were lucky. Stephanie Vendig, Los Angeles This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: One family's journey to the U.S. shows the horrors the country cannot repeat
To the editor: Thank you, guest contributor Karen Musalo, for this article ('The U.S. failed refugees during the Holocaust. Trump's Libya plan would too,' May 19). Yes, we have to be reminded that what President Trump is planning is a repeat of the horrors of the Nazi era and that there are legal procedures today to prevent this. My late husband was on the St. Louis at the age of 7 with his 3-year-old brother, grandmother, mother and father. They were Jewish refugees from Berlin. The father's store burned down during Kristallnacht. My mother-in-law, through friends, found out about getting into Cuba via this voyage when they were refused entrance into the U.S. at that time. Germany convinced Cuba to reject them, after which the ship turned back toward Europe and its concentration camps. Fortunately, there were interventions plotted by the captain, the Jewish Refugee Organization and passengers on the trip to avoid going back. The Vendig family ended up in Belgium, then Vichy France and were finally rescued with help from Switzerland. The family finally got to the U.S. in 1946. They were lucky. Stephanie Vendig, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times
22-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Holocaust Survivor Hannah Holsten Shares Her Story on the Harvey School Campus
As one of the last living survivors of the Holocaust, Hannah Holsten carries a story that demands to be heard — not simply to inform, but to serve as a warning. Her visit to the Harvey School on Jan. 15 proves the value of these testimonies and the lasting impact they have on those who listen. While survivors are still with us, every student should take the opportunity to hear voices like Holsten's so they are prepared to recognize injustice and stand up against it. Recognizing this importance, the Harvey School made a dedicated effort to bring a first-hand account to its students. In collaboration with the school's Jewish Culture Club, the Harvey English and History departments organized the event to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. English and History Department Heads Virginia Holmes and Jessica Falcon partnered with the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center to select a speaker. From the Center, Executive Director Millie Jasper and Speakers Bureau Liaison Bette Sparago connected them to Holsten, who lived a normal life in Nuremberg, Germany until 1938—when the night of Kristallnacht shattered it all. On the night of Kristallnacht, Holsten shared that the Nazis destroyed all of her family's personal belongings and jewelry store. This was the beginning of the world's descent into unspeakable horror—one that millions would not survive. According to Holsten, what followed was a period of displacement and almost impossible choices that defined her years in the shadows. At the Harvey School, Holsten gave her testimony, stating that she felt an obligation to speak. 'I'm here,' her voice quivered. 'Six million of my brethren are not.' Teacher Nate Alexander and student Benji Cutler recorded her testimony, preserving it as a record presented to the entire Upper School Community on Feb. 11. Observing nearly every student in the room captivated by the gravity of Holsten's words, Department Head Ms. Holmes explained: 'Not only is the content in her story so powerful, but she herself was such a dynamic speaker that the Harvey community was listening to every word she had to say.' Among many of Holsten's reminders was that while it is easy to reimagine history's greatest atrocity as the work of a single individual, it is crucial to remember that Adolf Hitler was legally elected. In other words, he didn't seize power by surprise—he was chosen. Holsten detailed the systemic laws that slowly eroded the rights of the Jewish people until they were no longer humans but problems to be solved. Yet what allowed Hitler to finally claim absolute power, in Holsten's words, was silence. 'Whatever he did, it was in silence,' she reminded the audience. 'No one at all spoke up.' As Holsten shared her story with the Harvey School, she recounted the moments when fate blurred the line between her family's tactics and sheer luck on their route toward survival. After Kristallnacht, Holsten recounts her mother putting her and her brother on a train to Amsterdam. Though they were not allowed to disembark there—this attempt to escape having failed—Holsten's Dutch aunt joined the train and convinced the children to exchange their toys for new ones. Holsten revealed that her mother had hidden jewels inside the toys, hoping that the family could use the jewels to potentially bargain for their survival. The toys fulfilled this wish, and Holsten's father eventually used the jewels to hire new smugglers to begin their escape. Holsten said that the terror of being nearly caught haunted her and her family at every step. Survival during the Holocaust meant being subject to forces beyond one's control, Holsten explained. Transported by new smugglers to escape, her family was hidden in the disguised bottom of a hay wagon. 'We rolled along the countryside—and of course, we were stopped,' Holsten said. What followed was a life-saving twist of fate. According to Holsten, 'The Nazi officers took their pitchforks and put them in the hay. Who was looking after us? Maybe it was God. Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was luck. They did not penetrate us. They were so high that what they hit was really hay—and not us.' When the smuggler transporting them could go no further, Holsten remembers him directing the family toward a bridge—their only path into Belgium and safety. But when they arrived, a troop of German soldiers with bayonets lined the bridge. According to Holsten, another miracle of chance saved her and her family. By sheer luck, the soldiers turned around and allowed them to cross the bridge. 'Was it empathy? Was it [that] they saw a young woman with three children, and they [decided not to] kill them?' Holsten asked the students at the Harvey School—chills permeating the room. Once in Belgium, Holsten recalls her father using their family's remaining money to reach Britain. After a year enduring blitzkriegs there, Holsten's family left for the United States. But Holsten makes clear that they were among the fortunate. Millions—including many of Holsten's relatives—never made it out. Holsten shares that at an age when most children learned nursery rhymes and games, she had endured the art of survival. Eventually, her family was granted entry into the United Kingdom—where she lived in Cardiff before making her way by boat to the United States. Holsten described her current life, explaining that she now lives in Hartsdale as the bearer of her family's legacy— a legacy that defied Hitler's attempts to erase the Jewish people. She has three children, ten grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, and enjoyed a long career in Jewish education, retiring a decade ago. At the end of her story, Holsten recounted a final memory that left students shocked. Her aunt, who had hid in Holland, was betrayed and deported to Auschwitz. Her aunt had a son— a 4-year-old of whom she made the difficult choice to give away to strangers to give her son a chance of survival. These acts of sacrifice defined the Holocaust. Holsten's aunt knew she would not survive— but her son had a chance. Later, Holsten revealed that her aunt endured Auschwitz until liberation. Her husband was not as fortunate and died on a death march shortly before being freed. Incredibly, Holsten shared that her aunt's son survived and lives today in Israel. Yet, the story of his mother and millions of victims reflects the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust. The Harvey School administration now intends on sharing Holsten's story every four years, ensuring that every graduating class hears Holsten's story. As the last living survivors of the Holocaust slowly leave us, the responsibility of remembrance falls on the generations who live long after. Holsten's story reveals that history is never far in the distance— and that unspeakable cruelty and violence may resurrect itself if we dare not confront our silence and complacency. Looking ahead, they remain committed to never letting Holsten's words fade. The act of listening to Holsten's recorded testimony will forever be a part of the Harvey School's graduation tradition, inspiring students to preserve an unspeakable history in the name of shared responsibility— and ensuring that the terrors of the Holocaust never happen again. As we navigate an era marked by rising disinformation, extremism, and social tension, Holsten's story is not just relevant — it's essential. Her testimony serves not just as a remembrance of the past, but as a warning to the present. To ensure that such atrocities are never repeated, we need to continue listening to the stories of survivors while they are still with us and commit to carrying their voices forward once they are gone. Related
Associated Press
27-04-2025
- Associated Press
Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin, dies at 100
BERLIN (AP) — Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin with his wife and infant children and spent his later years educating young people to keep the events alive in memory, has died. He was 100. Klaus Hillenbrand, a close friend who wrote a book about Frankenstein, confirmed the death on Tuesday. He said Frankenstein died on Monday. The foundation that oversees Berlin's Holocaust memorial also confirmed that he died Monday in Stockholm. Frankenstein was born in 1924 in Flatow in what is now Poland but was then part of Germany. Three years after the Nazis came to power, in 1936, he was no longer allowed to attend the town's public school because he was Jewish. With the help of an uncle, his mother sent him to Berlin where he could continue his school education, and he later trained as a bricklayer at the Jewish community's vocational school. He stayed at the Jewish Auerbach'sche Orphanage where he met Leonie Rosner, who would later become his wife. In an interview with The Associated Press in 2018, Frankenstein described how he witnessed Kristallnacht — the 'Night of Broken Glass' on November 9, 1938, when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. They killed at least 91 people and vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1,400 synagogues, according to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Frankenstein, who was then 14, climbed on the roof of the orphanage and saw fire lighting up the city. 'Then we knew: the synagogues were burning,' he said. 'The next morning, when I had to go to school, there was sparkling, broken glass everywhere on the streets.' Starting in 1941, Frankenstein had to do forced labor in Berlin, repeatedly threatened by the danger of being deported by the Nazis. In 1943, five weeks after their son Peter-Uri was born, he went into hiding with his wife, Leonie, as the Nazis were deporting thousands of Jews from Berlin to Auschwitz. 'We had promised ourselves not to do what Hitler wanted,' Frankenstein told the AP. 'So we went into hiding.' Together with their baby, the couple spent 25 months in hiding in Berlin. A second son, Michael, was born in 1944, during their time on the run. They stayed with friends or in bombed-out buildings. Up to 7,000 Berlin Jews had gone into hiding, but only 1,700 of them were able to survive. The others were either arrested, died of illness or perished in air raids. In 1945, when Berlin was liberated by the Soviet Red Army, Frankenstein's children were among the youngest of a total of only 25 Jewish children who had survived in Berlin. Before the Holocaust, Berlin had the biggest Jewish community in Germany. In 1933, the year the Nazis came to power, around 160,500 Jews lived in Berlin. By the end of World War II in 1945 their numbers had diminished to about 7,000 through emigration and extermination. All in all, some 6 million European Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. After the collapse of the Nazis' Third Reich, the Frankensteins immigrated to what was then Palestine and later became Israel. Eleven years later, in 1956, they moved to Sweden, where they settled for good. Later in life, Walter Frankenstein returned to Germany several times a year. He often talked to schoolchildren about his life and in 2014, he received Germany's highest honor, the Order of Merit. He was also an ardent fan of the Hertha Berlin soccer club. As a teenager he went to its games, and when Jews were no longer allowed to visit the stadium he would listen to reports of matches on the radio. In 2018, Frankenstein became an honorary member of the club with the membership number 1924, his year of birth. Every time Frankenstein traveled to Berlin in his later years, he brought along the small blue case containing the Order of Merit. Inside the case's lid, he had attached the first 'mark' he got from the Germans: the yellow badge, or Jewish star, that he had to wear during the Nazi reign to identify him as a Jew. 'The first one marked me, the second one honored me,' he said.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Holocaust victims, survivors honored at remembrance ceremony
Nov. 9, 1938, was Karl Reiser's birthday, but Reiser didn't spend that night celebrating. He spent the night hiding for his life as mobs descended on Vienna, burning and pillaging Jewish-owned stores, homes and synagogues. 'The synagogue where my grandparents were married was burnt to the ground by 11 a.m.,' said Cindy Silverman Chronister, Reiser's granddaughter, said of the aftermath of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. Before Kristallnacht, Reiser, like all Jews in Nazi Germany, had already been forced out of his job, banned from public spaces, and made to carry a passport stamped with the letter 'J.' But despite the abuses he suffered at the hands of the Nazis, Reiser was able to escape what Kristallnacht foreshadowed. He and his wife Mathilda Reiser fled to England in 1939 and eventually made their way to the United States. Those who did not survive the ensuing genocide were honored at a ceremony April 23, which is Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day. 'Today we celebrate our survival and our strength, even as we honor our lost,' said Vicki Haller Graff, program director at the Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks. 'Tonight we remember real people…We will take inspiration from their resilience, and the strength of those who stood up for each other in the most difficult of circumstances.' The service at the Jewish Cultural Center in Wyomissing featured a lighting of memorial candles by the descendants of holocaust survivors. One of those descendants was Silverman Chronister, of Sinking Spring, who shared the contents of a box of photos she said her grandparents never spoke about. The photos depicted memories from the Reisers' time in Vienna and their escape to England, the story of which Silverman Chronister relayed. Cindy Silverman Chronister shares stories and photos depicting her grandparents' escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna. (Keith Dmochowski – Reading Eagle) She noted that Karl Reiser was able to escape through an emergency rescue mission to Kitchener Refugee Camp in Richborough, England. Silverman Chronister said she thinks Reiser was chosen for the mission because he was an electrician, and the former military barracks had no electricity or running water upon his arrival. '(Jewish refugees at Kitchener) could not be employed, nor would England provide any financial assistance,' Reiser said. 'These refugees were forbidden to speak their native language, and my grandfather was expected to work long hours maintaining the camp.' Mathilda Reiser was eventually able to escape Vienna as well, but not before being left penniless by the Nazis, who charged her an exorbitant departure 'tax' and stole her luggage. 'She arrived (in England) with almost nothing, no money, no English, and no one to help her,' Silverman Chronister said. Six weeks after Mathilda Reiser fled, World War II broke out, and all immigration was halted. 'Had my grandmother not obtained a job in England, and her visa not come when it did, I might not be standing here today,' Silverman Chronister said. In 1932, there were 200,000 Jews living in Vienna, but in 1942, only 800 remained. Silverman Chronister noted that her grandparents rarely spoke about life in Vienna, but through her own research, she was able to discover eight of her great grandfather's relatives who were killed in concentration camps. Even after enduring tragedy, the Reisers refused to abandon the values of 'tikkun olam,' meaning 'repairing the world,' a Jewish concept that emphasizes social action. 'After the war, they sent care packages to their struggling non-Jewish friends in Vienna,' Silverman Chronister said. 'They donated to Jewish causes and honored their murdered family members by supporting memorials at concentration camps…In choosing compassion, they showed that even in the face of darkness, kindness is a form of resistance.' The ceremony also featured a reading of the names of Holocaust victims who have family members in the local community. 'In a time when antisemitism is rising around the world, and voices of division and intolerance grow louder, our presence here is an act of resilience,' said Brian Chartock, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks. 'It is a statement that memory matters, and that justice, compassion and dignity are not negotiable.'
