Editor’s Note: Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon, Feb. 19, for Holocaust survivor and educator Rose Schindler, 93, at El Camino Memorial Park. As a member of the New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors, which was headquartered at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Schindler was among a cadre of survivors who regularly related their experiences surviving the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews. Born as Rose Schwartz in Czechoslovakia on Dec. 29, 1929., she was herded into a cattle car with other members of her family and Jewish townspeople of Seredne and shipped to Auschwitz. Not yet 15, she lied about her age, telling the Nazu guards she was older. Able to work, she survived on a starvation diet and was liberated on January 27, 1945. She subsequently met Max Schindler, another survivor of the Holocaust, and the two were married in 1950. They immigrated to New York and moved in 1956 to San Diego, finding close friendships among other Holocaust survivors here. When her son Steven was in middle school in 1972. his class read “The Diary of Anne Frank,” prompting Steven to tell his teacher that his parents were also Holocaust survivors. Invited to speak to the class, Schindler reluctantly agreed, and showed how her arm had been tattooed at Auschwitz while recollecting her experiences. After that first appearance, she told her life story to generations of school children as well as adults, up until three weeks ago, when pancreatic cancer resulted in home hospice care. Her story and that of her late husband Ma was memorialized in the book, “Two Who Survived.” In the following article Rabbi Mathew Marko of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, in his funeral oration, told of the place in history that Rose Schindler occupies.
By Rabbi Mathew Marko
SAN DIEGO — Merriam-Webster’s first definition of “history” reads:
“A chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes.”
Jewish history, so often one of loss and suffering, has always been written by us, ourselves. This goes all the way back to the time of Exodus where we re-count and remember our oppression as slaves to Pharaoh.
They say history is generally written by the victors. And so, it’s fitting that we chronicled that saga, as it ended in our great freedom and birth as a nation. And while archeological evidence tends to support the Exodus narrative, it doesn’t show up in any Egyptian records. The most profound testament to its truth is that we’re still here. Where are Pharaoh and those Egyptians now?
But we’ve also been meticulous in remembering our greatest losses. In the Book of Eicha, Lamentations, Jeremiah tells of our destruction at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. It speaks in disturbing detail how Jerusalem was sieged, the people cut off and starved out, our Temple burned to the ground, and our tiny remaining population carted off in slavery. But we survived, returned, and wrote our history. Where are the Babylonians?
Several centuries later, we suffered an even greater calamity delivered by the Roman Empire. We fought valiantly, but once again our cities and Temple were destroyed, and the remnant of our holy nation was scattered across the globe. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded this too as part of our unique history. We survived, and again, eventually returned. Where is the Roman Empire?
Why is it about Jews, as opposed to pretty much every other civilization that’s ever been – why is it that Jews actually record and tell of their own destruction? And it’s not just in Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Josephus. We see it in the Talmud, in Medieval writings about the crusaders, the inquisition, and pogroms. Do other cultures record their own destruction, or is this really just a Jewish thing?
Here in lies the difference. Most defeated societies just don’t have the capacity to write history after their downfall. Why? Because they didn’t survive. They’re gone. They just disappear from the historical record. The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Assyrians, Moabites, Philistines, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans…all tried to destroy us. They’re all gone, and their history is written by others.
It was an Englishman who wrote “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in 1776. Why? Because there weren’t any Romans around to give the post-mortem. And if there was such an account written by a Roman, it didn’t survive. Which means the civilization wasn’t vibrant enough to preserve its own history.
The very fact that we Jews can gather today is because of Rose Schindler and those like her. Our standing here is a testament to just how durable she was, and how resilient Jewish civilization is. Rose could record her story and tell it over and over again because she survived it. And we can tell it today because we’re still here.
Look around you. Right here. This family, this community only exists because of people like Rose, and like Max.
It’s not just that we’ve remained Jewish for thousands of years despite so many attempts to wipe us from history. What’s truly remarkable is the continuity of our intellectual and social and communal tradition. That our ways and beliefs are robust enough to produce a Rose, a flower who can withstand the worst history could throw at any people, and yet still have the heart, the courage, the decency, and the spirit to continue, to thrive, to build, to live, and to tell her story. And tell it she did – not out of bitterness or despair, but out of hope and light.
And as Jews we owe it to Rose to not just tell our history. We also must listen to it, hear it, and learn from it. We’re the ones who define our history. Rose writes our history. And like so many others among her, the epilogue is always and eternally the same… עם ישראל חי/Am Yisrael Ḥai/The Jewish People Live.
Say it with me. Am….Yisrael…Ḥai!!! The People of Israel live!
Thank you, Rose. Thank you. זיכרונה לברכה Your memory is a blessing.
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Rose Schindleer is survived by her children: Roxanne Schindler Katz (Norm), Ben Schindler (Amy), Steve Schindler (Amy), and Jeff Schindler (Rachel). Grandchildren: Shannah Katz, Nicki Katz, Scott Schindler (Jessica), Leigh Schindler Shenhav (Giora), Ariana Schindler, Alex Schindler, Moriah Schindler, Joey Schindler, and Jonny Schindler. Great-grandchildren: Max Shenhav and Nova Shenhav.
Beautiful and true