A Night of Remembrance

By Emily Raij

Tropical Storm Nicole may have postponed the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida’s Kristallnacht Commemorative Program for a few days, but when the community was able to gather at the center on November 13th to hear beautiful music and poignant stories from three local Holocaust survivors, it was easy to forget about bad weather.

The program commemorated the November pogrom, commonly called the Night of Broken Glass, which marks the Third Reich’s rise in terror against the Jews on November 9, 1938. Glass littered the streets of Germany as Jewish businesses, buildings, and synagogues ere destroyed.

Before the evening’s honorees were introduced, new Holocaust Center CEO Tali Dippold spoke about the Center’s mission and its increasing importance amidst the recent rise in anti-Semitic and other hate crimes, particularly in Florida. The community then paid tribute to the Holocaust Center’s founder Tess Wise, who passed away on October 23, with a moment of silence.

“Her vision to create an educational facility where everyone could learn the importance of speaking out against prejudice of any kind is critical at this moment in history,” said Talli.

Living History

After several poignant tributes to victims of the Holocaust, Talli introduced the panel of survivors — Harry Lowenstein, Suzanne Schneider, and Hal Gottschall — to share their stories.

“We know that one of the most powerful experiences is to hear from a Holocaust survivor,” Talli said.

Harry remembered the day he and other Jewish children were expelled from their school in advance of Kristallnacht. He recalled seeing Torahs lying burned outside of a synagogue and being given a Jewish star with “Juden” (“Jew”) written on it.

“You were considered like a rat, like Vermin,” Harry told the audience. “It was very devastating.”

From 1939 to 1941, Harry attended a new school in a Large Jewish children’s home, but the school closed and his family was sent a notice that they were being resettled to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia. After a year and a half in the ghetto, Harry and his father were taken to the men’s concentration camp at Kaiserwald, and his mother and sister went to the women’s camp. His father fell ill soon after their arrival and was sent back to the ghetto. Harry never saw him again. On March 10, 1945, Harry was liberated by Russian soldiers in Poland.

Suzanne explained that her father was a physician in Poland, and a patient of his offered to help hide him and his family after he cared for the patient’s baby granddaughter, who was born blind. Suzanne’s family was hidden in a chicken coop attached to a one-room cottage.

“We were in a chicken coop all day long with the chickens — those were my playmates”, Suzanne said.

They remained hidden for an estimated nine months until the Russians liberated them in March of 1944. Suzanne recorded her story for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation digital library and went to Krakow, Poland, with her family to meet descendants of the farmers who hid her. That family was honored at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, as Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Hal was four and living in Holland when he and his mother were sent to the Schouwburg Theater, which served as a Jewish holding center after Nazis invaded the Netherlands. His father had died shortly before Hal was born. Fearing deportation to a Nazi deportation camp, Hal’s mother searched for a way to escape. She found a nurse who was willing to help hide them — but not together. Hal’s mother was sent to live in hiding in Amsterdam while Hal as sent to live with a Christian family in the Hague from 1943 to 1945.

“I came to live with these people were the most wonderful people that you could possibly imagine”, said Hal. “They treated me was one of their own.”

Hal considers himself very lucky, not only because of his loving wartime family but because of two other incidents. One was escaping unharmed after a bomb dropped through the roof of his house and directly onto a chair he had been sitting in only seconds before. Another moment of luck occurred while he was attending a funeral. Hal and one group of mourners walked one way while the other half walked a different way. Minutes later, a bomb fell on the other group.

As a final example of what Hal considers good luck, he and his mother were reunited after the war. In 2000, Hal went to visit his surviving foster sisters in Holland and got the affidavits needed from them and their neighbors to certify that his foster parents deserved to be included in the Righteous Among the Nations.

Lights in the Darkness

Mixed with the harrowing stories, beautiful memories were shared during the Holocaust Center event, as well. While on a crowded train to the concentration camp in December of 1941, Harry remembers someone had thought to bring Hannukah candles and began lighting them while singing “Ma’oz Tzur,” or “Rock of Ages.” Harry and everyone else joined in.

When Talli concluded the panel discussion by asking why it is important to remember the lessons of Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, the speakers mentioned the need to fight the hatred and Holocaust denialism that exists today — but to also remember the helpers and the hope.

“People call those who help others upstanders,” Hal explained. “Yes, there was horror, but we should never, ever forget there were decent people who risked their lives. I often wonder if I would have had the courage to do what my war parents did for me.”

The program concluded with Kol Ram, Orlando’s Jewish a capella group, singing “Halkikhah L’Kaiseriah".” The song is more commonly known as “Eili, Eili” (My God, My God), based on a poem written by Hungarian poet and Jewish resistance fighter Hannah Szenes, who parachuted into Yugoslavia during World War II and was captured and executed in 1944. Her poetry and actions are a reminder that upstanders have always existed and will continue to serve humanity as long as their stories are shared.

The gathering at the Holocaust Center in Maitland featured songs and touching tributes to those who lost their lives during the Holocaust.

Story was originally published in print in Spring 2023.