Other items in today’s column include:
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SAN DIEGO — In a second day of Holocaust observance, the Jewish Federation of San Diego County sponsored a webcast on Monday featuring Steven Schindler in San Diego and Nicole Nocon and her daughter, Antonia, in Cottbus, Germany, the home town where Schindler’s late father, Max Shindler, was arrested as a child by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp.
Working on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to commemorate the life of Max Schindler, who survived his Holocaust ordeal as well as the lives of the millions of Jews who perished, Schindler and the Nocon family have created an organization known as “Generation E” — E signifying Empathy– to make certain that the Holocaust is neither forgotten nor permitted to reoccur.
Nocon, is the granddaughter of two members of the Nazi party. Her parents, who were born during the war, disclaimed any responsibility for the Holocaust, saying that as children they had nothing to do with it. Members of her own generation, she said, while free of any guilt, nevertheless feel a responsibility to make certain such a situation does not arise again, which is why they encourage teaching about the Holocaust in the schools. As part of this, they are participating with San Diego in The Butterfly Project, which seeks to create a painted, ceramic butterfly to memorialize each of the 1.5 million children who were murdered by their Nazi captors.
Cottbus, in the former East Germany, has seen a rise in anti-Semitism, with members of a right-wing party demonstrating against Holocaust remembrance. Other groups, such as the Green Party, hold counter-demonstrations, Nocon and Schindler recounted during the webcast.
Two years before Max Schindler died in 2017, he returned to Cottbus with his son, Steven, and wife, Rose, a Survivor who continues to lecture in San Diego County about the Holocaust. While there, he spoke to school children at the Bewegte Grunschule, who were moved to meet their town’s last Jewish Survivor from the World War II period. “It’s horrible to think these people were starved and murdered and there was no compassion,” one child told interviewers during the Schindlers’ visit. Considered a visiting VIP (very important person), Schindler was invited to sign the town’s Golden Book, in which the signatures of prominent persons are collected. The town also has placed commemorative stones in front of important venues in the Schindler family’s lives, including where Max had lived as a child and where his uncle had a store.
Rather than being bitter over the fact that Nocon was descended from Nazis, Schindler said that her struggle to tell him about her ancestry– and the fact that she trusted him to understand the impact this had on her — helped to create a “powerful bond” between the two of them. In a sense, he said, she and he “both had to reconcile with our families’ pasts — as victims an perpetrators.”
Antonia, a school child, mostly listened during the web exchange, but said she felt “great to be connected to kids in San Diego and all around the world” who have participated in The Butterfly Project.
In San Diego, the Jewish Federation’s Holocaust commemoration schedule also included a Monday evening Internet memorial service lead by Rabbi Scott Meltzer of Ohr Shalom Synagogue and Rabbi Ralph Dalin, the community chaplain, and two presentations on Tuesday: a 1 p.m. discussion about “Sharing Our Families Stories'” by representatives of The Butterfly Project, and a 3 p.m. lecture by Talia Schauder, a high school student, who has given presentations around the county about the Holocaust experiences of her grandfather, Paul Schauder. On Sunday, the first day of the Jewish Federation’s programming, Ben Midler, a survivor, told of his life and answered questions from viewers via Zoom.
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Rabbi Michael Berk, emeritus rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, writes in Times of San Diego his reaction to those who would “liberate” cities and states from coronavirus restrictions at the possible expense of others’ health.
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Donald H. Harrison, editor of San Diego Jewish World, takes this occasion along with his wife, Nancy, to wish their grandson Shor a very happy 19th birthday. Harrison may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Don – thanks for your steadfast reporting of everything Jewish in San Diego and for writing about Nicole’s and my work. Fortunately for me, Nicole saw in meeting me the opportunity to confront her family’s past. Someone else may have responded differently but for me, it was a like a door opened to forgive – something my parents could never do (and who could blame them).
What we have learned is that teachers of younger students in Germany are very eager to inform their students about Germany’s horrific past. Holocaust education is mandatory in Germany, but it is tailored for older students and is not designed to connect students with memories of individuals who walked the same streets as these kids do today. Connecting students with these memories of survivors and victims of the Holocaust, many of whom were the same age as our students are today, inspires an empathetic response and encourages action. And while we teach with the lessons of the Holocaust, the learning is designed to protect against not only anti-Semitism, but the rights of immigrants, people of color, sexual orientation, religion – you name the difference.
As soon as one group, however they’re defined and wherever they live on this blue planet, is offered less freedom and less opportunity than another, then every group is at risk. We are much more similar than we are different. We all hope for a safe and joyful life for our families and for our children. As soon as we realize that we are one humanity and better together than we are apart, we will have the chance to achieve our greatest potential.
Thank you again – Kol Hakavod
Steven