By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Just two days before his 95th birthday, Holocaust survivor Ben Midler will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Sunday, June 25th, at a day game between the San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals. Involving the Jewish Federation of San Diego and a range of synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout the county, the day has been designated by the Padres as “Jewish Community Day at Petco Park.”
Midler told San Diego Jewish World that although he had never played baseball before, “I will be able to do it.” He said he has been practicing pitching, first with daughter Nurit Kotick, and afterwards with another daughter Ellen Winters. He said he has been practicing “almost every other day” and “it is getting okay.”
Winters and another daughter, Tova Stein, along with their husbands Mark and Rich respectively, will accompany the widower Midler to the Sunday game during which the Padres typically wear camouflage jerseys in honor of the American military. Daughter Nurit will be visiting with one of Midler’s grandchildren that day.
Midler said he is a fan of the Padres team but does not have a favorite player. He explained: “I haven’t been watching them too much because lately I’ve been speaking to the Army, and I’ve been over to Israel.” With the Friends of the Israel Defense Force, he traveled to Poland to visit former German Nazi concentration camps and then spent four days in Israel.
“I’m all over; I never stand still,” Midler said. “I’m a Holocaust survivor, and we should never forget and have a positive attitude.”
Midler wrote a memoir about his life, The Life of a Child Survivor from Bialystok, Poland, in which he told of being captured as a teenager by the Nazi Germans. He was sent first to the Majdenek Concentration Camp, and later to Bliszen, Birkenau, Oranienburg, Sachsenhausen, and Ohrduf, from which he was liberated. He later tried to go to British Mandatory Palestine but was captured and incarcerated in Cyprus for six months with other undocumented Jewish migrants.
After finally making it to Palestine, the Polish-speaking Midler was there when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence. Midler subsequently fought in a Palmach unit during the Independence War and later met and married Esther, an Egyptian Jew who spoke mainly Arabic. The family immigrated to the United States in 1959, with Midler working in a dairy and later owning an auto parts store, before retiring in San Diego County. He currently resides in Carlsbad.
Asked if he was at all nervous pitching in front of a stadium crowd that typically surpasses 40,000 people, he responded, “I think I’ll just go over there and no problem.”
A frequent lecturer at schools and civic groups, he added: “I am a miracle survivor because I went through six camps. God gave me life to live, and I promise anytime anyone wants to talk to me, to listen, I am here.”
A year-long exhibit at the Rancho San Diego County Library on Holocaust Survivors who made their homes in San Diego County includes a life-size cardboard portrait of Midler.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
A wonderful article about an incredible human!