“It has been said The Newsletter of the Shoah Foundation ® that it is far better to light a candle than curse the darkness. The testimonies videotaped and maintained by the Shoah Foundation have brightened our often dark and troubled civilization with the living presence of survivors whose permanent record of perseverance in the face of evil offers us, and our progeny, inspiration to work toward the highest human good – Tikkun Olam, the repair of our broken but perfectible world.” THE HONORABLE BRUCE J. EINHORN, U.S. IMMIGRATION JUDGE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA PastForward WINTER 2001 ®
Transcript
“It has been said
The Newsletter of the Shoah Foundation ®
that it is far better to light a candle
than curse the darkness. The testimonies
videotaped and maintained by the
Shoah Foundation have brightened our often
dark and troubled civilization with the living
presence of survivors whose permanent record
of perseverance in the face of evil offers us,
and our progeny, inspiration to work toward
the highest human good – Tikkun Olam,
the repair of our broken but perfectible world.”
THE HONORABLE BRUCE J. EINHORN, U.S. IMMIGRATION JUDGE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
PastForwardW I N T E R 2 0 0 1 ®
2 winter 2001Past Forward
Why did you choose to give testimony?”Do you have a message for future generations?”
At the end of every Shoah Foundation inter-view, the interviewee is asked to respond toone or both of these questions. Most survivorsor witnesses express the hope that, by speakingout, they will be remembered and will helpprevent future tragedies by educating othersabout the consequences of hatred. This year,the Shoah Foundation embarks on a new mission—one that enables all interviewees toplay a role in changing the world throughtheir videotaped testimonies.
Since the first interview in April1994, the Shoah Foundation’s archive hasgrown to include testimonies from 51,710Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Eachinterviewee shared his or her own experi-
ences, losses, blessings, and hopes. Recording the testimonies ofthousands of eyewitnesses was, for Founder and ChairmanSteven Spielberg, “a dream that became a remarkable reality.”Now that the Shoah Foundation has completed its original mission of building a vast and inclusive archive, the time hascome to utilize this archive more actively for global education.
Shoah Foundation Embarks onNew Mission
“Our new mission, with its emphasis on worldwide educationto prevent catastrophes such as the Shoah, is as compelling asthe original mission to collect 50,000 testimonies, and it mustalso be pursued relentlessly before it’s too late,” commentedDouglas Greenberg, Foundation President and CEO. He notesthat the Foundation aims to “change not only how peoplethink, but how they behave.”
In order to concentrate resources on the educationalmission, the Shoah Foundation has concluded its interviewingactivities. The core programmatic activity for the Foundation isnow concentrated in the Education Department, which willexpand in 2002 in order to share the testimonies with students,educators, and researchers.
To maximize the impact of its new mission, theFoundation will focus primarily on “underserved” studentsaround the world—those who have not been exposed to thismaterial or whose exposure is very limited. To reach theseyoung people most effectively, the Foundation will form partner-ships with other organizations to support three main strategies.
Products:We will continue to create educational products, such as CD-ROMs and documentary films, for students and for broaderaudiences. These materials will all be developed using the eyewitness testimonies in the archive. Among the first new projects will be a CD-ROM for middle school students, basedon testimonies from child survivors.
Programs:With the help of educational partners, the Shoah Foundationwill build and support new educational programs that advanceits mission, as well as continue existing programs such as thePilot Education Initiative (see page 5).
Preservation and Access:The Foundation continues its commitment to preserve thearchive, in both digital and videotape form, and to provideaccess to it by individuals and institutions.
The Technology Department will aid in the dissem-ination of the archive by streamlining systems and supportingthe larger educational effort. The Foundation will alsodevelop new technological tools, such as a user interface,which will guide end users through the archive at publicaccess sites. A new website at www.vhf.org is up and running,
To overcome prejudice, intolerance, bigotry – and the sufferingthey cause – through the educational use of the Foundation’s visual history testimonies.
““
Artwork created by students in the Portland,
Oregon public schools,as part of the
Shoah Foundation’s PilotEducation Initiative
(see page 5)
winter 2001Past Forward 3
Dear Friends:As I write, the news of the catastrophes at the World TradeCenter and Pentagon is only beginning to sink in. Those of uswho work at the Shoah Foundation, like our many friends inthis country and throughout the world, have been shakendeeply by these terrible events. All of us here are safe, butmany of us have been touched directly by the atrocities ofSeptember 11 and all of us have been indirectly affected inways we can only begin to calculate now.
We join our fellow citizens of the United States andfriends in other parts of the world in extending our condolencesto the families of all those who lost their lives in these senseless acts of terror. As people who live every day with the faces and voices of witnesses to horrors of another kind, wefeel a special responsibility to marshal our best efforts to combat the hatred that seems to have motivated the attacks inNew York and Washington.
Last summer, the Board of the Shoah Foundationadopted a new mission statement which compels us “to over-come prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry–and the sufferingthey cause–through the educational use of the Foundation’svisual history testimonies.” The moral responsibility such amission imposes at this frightening moment in the history ofcivilization is daunting. But all of us here at the Foundationfeel ready, even eager, to shoulder that responsibility and topursue it with renewed commitment and dedication. We lookforward to your support as we undertake this profoundlyimportant effort, and we promise that you may rely upon usto expend all our energies in the pursuit of these high aspirations.
I look forward to telling you more in the future aboutthe new range of educational programs and products we will be creating. In the meantime, the Board and staff ofSurvivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation join me inthe hope that you will help us in working to ensure that violence–and the hatred that spawns it–has no place in thefuture of humankind.
Sincerely,
Douglas GreenbergPresident and Chief Executive Officer
A Letter from Douglas GreenbergPresident andChief Executive Officer
providing the first opportunity to view clips of testimony onthe Internet. Greenberg notes that, due to security concerns,“We won’t put the entire archive on the Internet, but we’llfind a sensible and secure way to share portions of it.”
Cataloguing is still a crucial component of theFoundation’s work. A newly developed and innovative systemwill allow an average-length testimony (about 21/2 hours) tobe catalogued in half a day instead of a week. TheCataloguing team made tremendous strides during asix–week testing period of the new system this fall. Still usingthe evolving thesaurus of more than 23,000 “keywords,” cataloguers now typically watch and index one or two testimonies a day. (At this pace, cataloguing work will be completed in about four years.) Cataloguing will enable theEducation Department, and end users, to find specific informa-tion within the nearly 117,000 hours of videotaped testimony.
Global education work also depends on the strongsupport of the Foundation’s Development Department. “Thisnew mission will require a comparable expansion of ourfund-raising efforts among institutions, corporations, individuals,governments, and other granting organizations,” saysGreenberg. Among the first steps in this expansion was the
hiring of Vice President for Development Steven Klappholz,who has worked with other nonprofit groups, including theSan Diego Jewish Federation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.
All Shoah Foundation staff members and volunteersare working to share the archive with a world that, now morethan ever, needs to see, hear, and experience these testimonies.The survivors and witnesses who contributed testimonies tothe archive found the strength to survive the Holocaust and,later, the strength to share their experiences. Their strengthand survival offer rare and important lessons in hope. Ifthose who view the testimonies take these lessons to heart,then they will fulfill the wish of so many survivors who toldtheir stories so that the world would never know anotherHolocaust.
foundation news
Artwork by student in the Portland, Oregon public schools
4 winter 2001 Past Forward
In 2000, the Shoah GmbH (a nonprofit foundation establishedin Germany by the Shoah Foundation) released its first foreignlanguage CD-ROM, Erinnern für Gegenwart und Zukunft(Remembering for the Present and the Future). It has receivedwarm reviews in the German press and was awarded the GigaMouse by the magazine Eltern for Family (Parents forFamily) during the 2001 Frankfurt Book Fair. Best of all, theCD-ROM is now available in all 500 Berlin secondaryschools, thanks to the organization Computers in Schoolsthat provided 8,000 computer workstations.
In 1999, before beginning work on the CD-ROM,the Shoah GmbH commissioned an extensive focus study todetermine the specific challenges of teaching about theHolocaust in German schools. The study found that in generalstudents did not make much of a distinction between WorldWar II, the Nazi perpetrators, and the victims of Nazism.Instead, schools presented this material as a historical unit withlittle focus on the perspective of persecuted groups. Thestudy also documented students’ desire for integrating filmand other media into classes that often relied solely on outmoded textbooks.
Based on the study’s findings, the CD-ROM pro-duction team resolved to give students immediate, visualaccess to survivors’ perspectives and personal memories—thereby providing both an intellectual and emotionalapproach to Holocaust history. As racial, ethnic, and cultur-al hatred remains an acute threat in Germany today, theShoah GmbH challenges these dangerous attitudes througha greater awareness of the personal suffering caused by prejudice. The resulting CD-ROM combines Holocaust survivor testimony with original documents, explanatorytexts, photos, film clips, and timelines. In addition to Jewishsurvivors, it also includes Sinti and Roma, homosexuals,Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others.
Before using the CD-ROM, German students char-acterized their more conventional history lessons as “a mererecapitulation of facts and dates,” sometimes rejecting thetopic of the Holocaust as “a guilt-trip” or simply “outdated.”After viewing Erinnern, they felt that “you have to read it,hear it, and see it” to even begin to understand this event.Boredom and indifference were replaced by a high degree ofinvolvement. Statements such as “I am very sad and feel likecrying” and “I suddenly understood what the Jews had to gothrough” are testament to their new empathy and awareness.Students come away from the CD-ROM with fresh insight,seeing history not as outdated, dry material, but as deeplypersonal and relevant to their own lives.
Th i rd Generat ion Gains New In s igh t
f rom German CD-ROM
international views
In response to its educational mission, the Shoah Foundationis proud to present the five international films of the BrokenSilence documentary series - Some Who Lived (Argentina), Hellon Earth (Czech Republic), Eyes of the Holocaust (Hungary),I Remember (Poland), and Children from the Abyss (Russia).Completed in 2001, four of these films have already beenbroadcast in their home countries. In 2002, additional air-dates will occur in Argentina, Italy, Nicaragua, and theUnited Kingdom.
National television stations in Russia (ORT Broad-cast) and the Ukraine (Studio 1+1) scheduled broadcasts ofChildren from the Abyss for September 29, 2001 to coin-cide with the commemoration of the 60th anniversary ofthe massacre at Babi Yar. These broadcasts also reachedaudiences in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,and Turkmenistan.
Steven Spielberg addressed these viewers in a pre-recorded video introduction to the film: “These testimonieswill help people remember this period of history because,unfortunately, we still live in a time when racial hatred continues to thrive.” In conjunction with the Ukrainianbroadcast, politicians and human rights activists from thatcountry and Germany, Israel, Russia and the United States,participated in a videocast discussion. Connected via satellitelink by Studio 1+1, these individuals shared ideas andthoughts about the common roots of genocide and terrorism.Anya Yudkovskaya, Shoah Foundation regional consultantin the Ukraine, reported that participants also shared “storiesabout Babi Yar, the Holocaust and other 20th century geno-cides, as well as the terrorist attacks of September 11.”Discussions continued the next day, followed by a screeningof the Foundation’s documentary The Last Days.
In addition to the television broadcasts, a number ofeducational screenings have been hosted by various institutionsin six countries. Among these presentations was a screeningof Some Who Lived at the Amnesty International FilmFestival in Amsterdam.
The Shoah Foundation looks forward to the eventualvideo release of the films and the development of supplementaleducational materials that may be used in further outreachand programs.
I n te r nat iona l Documentar ies Break
the S i lence
Images from the Erinnern CD-ROM
HBO’s Cinemax cable channel will air all
five documentaries in the United States in
April 2002 in honor of Yom Hashoah.
winter 2001 Past Forward 5
The Shoah Foundation kicked off the second year of its PilotEducation Initiative (PEI) in August with a two-day conferencein Los Angeles. The sessions brought together seven adminis-trators from the five participating U.S. school districts andmembers of the Education Department to discuss the program’sprogress and potential.
Despite the common challenges of budget cuts, staffchanges, and the pressure of standardized tests, the districtsremain dedicated to the project. “It is invaluable to have thiskind of contact with the other project directors and the ShoahFoundation staff,” said Bernadette Glaze, Advanced AcademicPrograms Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools inVirginia, who added that she has gained “a fuller appreciationof the challenges that we all face in teaching tolerance educa-tion, both from a pedagogical and a content perspective.”
Launched in March 2000, the PEI combines the ShoahFoundation’s educational resources with the abilities of schooldistricts in Chicago, IL, Fairfax, VA, Long Beach, CA, Portland,OR, and Sarasota, FL, to create classroom programs for fosteringa more tolerant and humane generation of American students.
By the end of the first year, existing Holocaust andcharacter education programs were reviewed, lesson units weredeveloped and implemented, and Shoah Foundation educationalmaterials–the documentary The Last Days and the CD-ROMSurvivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust – were incorporatedinto curricula.
Building on these accomplishments, administrators,teachers, and curriculum writers are refining lesson units, striving to connect the learning objectives to state and localstandards. The revised units will be piloted in classrooms in the2001-2002 school year. Districts will also conduct evaluationsto assess classroom activities and student learning. To furthersupplement their continued professional development sessions,districts are encouraged to explore partnerships with local institutions and to incorporate additional resources includingcontent-specific websites with topics such as the Holocaust,Character Education, Current Events, and Social Justice.
The Pilot Education Initiative is the Shoah Foundation’sfirst formal classroom initiative. “Working with the five districtshas taught us a lot about the unique and varying needs of public
schools and the evolving disci-plines of tolerance and diversityeducation,” said Manager ofPrograms Bonnie Samotin. “Wehope to build upon these expe-riences so that we can servemore students and schools inthe future.”
To lerance Educat ion Program S tar t s
Second Year
The 35th annual meeting of the Oral History Association(OHA) was held in St. Louis this October on a theme related tothe Shoah Foundation’s work: “Bearing Public Witness:Documenting Memories of Struggle and Resistance.” JessicaWiederhorn, Manager of Academic Affairs, co-chaired the con-ference as a representative of the Foundation. Mary MarshallClark, OHA Vice President, invited the Shoah Foundation’sactive involvement because she was “interested in the memorythe interviews in the archive represent and in the technical andhuman skills that were brought to the documentation of theseexperiences.”
The four-day meeting focused on the challenges of col-lecting and documenting memories and histories that reflectsocial and political disorder, trauma, violence, and genocide.The conference drew oral history students and teachers,researchers, and theorists from the U.S. and abroad.Workshops were offered on topics such as the uses of oral history in the classroom and the ethical issues regarding the collection and dissemination of narratives of trauma andoppression in digital and artistic media. A special sessionfocused the events of September 11.
A number of Foundation staff and interviewers partic-ipated in the conference. Plenary speaker Sam Gustman,Executive Director of Technology, spoke of how digitizing oralhistories impacts every facet of a project, from interviewing tocataloguing to distribution. Director of Cataloguing KarenJungblut gave an in-depth demonstration of our cataloguingmethodology. Three Foundation interviewers participated aswell: Zepporah Glass presented a paper on interviewingHolocaust survivors as a child of survivors; Albert Lichtblauspoke about documenting the memories of Austrian-Jewishrefugees; and Elisabeth Pozzi-Thanner chaired a panel onLatvian narratives of migration, dislocation, and war. In addi-tion, two Foundation documentaries, The Last Days and SomeWho Lived, were screened.
Upon returning from the meeting, Jessica Wiederhornremarked, “The Foundation’s work was given great exposure atthis conference. It was a remarkable opportunity to share ourwork with others who are committed to preserving memory,and, in so doing, to gain recognition for our innovation andleadership in the future of oral history.”
Foundat ion’s Work H igh l igh ted at Ora l
H i s to ry Conference
education S T E V E N S P I E L B E R G
Founder and Chairman
G E R A L D B R E S L A U E R
B R U C E R A M E R
M I C H A E L R U T M A N
Board of Directors
D O U G L A S G R E E N B E R G
President and Chief Executive OfficerMember, Board of Directors
Artwork by student in the Portland,Oregon public schools
6 winter 2001 Past Forward
RECENT VISITORS
Ari Zev with Bess Myerson,former Miss America 1945
Doug Greenberg with ProfessorDeborah Dwork, from the Centerfor Holocaust Studies at ClarkUniversity, MA
Doug Greenberg (L)and Daisy Miller (R)chat with CA State
Senator Sheila Kuehl
The Broken Silence team Standing L to R : James Moll, Producer; Pavel Chukhraj, Russia;Luis Puenzo, Argentina; Steven Spielberg, Executive Producer;
Seated L to R: Vojtech Jasny, Czech Republic; Janos Szasz,Hungary; Andrzej Wajda, Poland
From left: Daniel,Prince of Saxony,
with fiancéeChristine
Schnauber; theGovernor of
Saxony, ProfessorKurt Biedenkopf;Doug Greenberg
President of Sydney JewishMuseum John Roth (L) with StevenKlappholz, Shoah Foundation VPfor Development
Shoah Foundation Founder andChairman Steven Spielberg,with Doug Greenberg andDevelopment Board memberDavid Kassie
Ari Zev with Israeli Ambassador tothe U.S., The Honorable David Ivri
winter 2001 Past Forward 7
This December, Steven Spielberg presents the Shoah Founda-tion’s second annual Ambassadors for Humanity Award toDevelopment Board member Eric Greenberg. The awardhonors individuals who embody the Foundation’s goals ofovercoming intolerance through education. This honor issponsored by Bvlgari, who also created the beautiful sculpt-ed-crystal award.
Due to recent events, the Foundation has trans-formed the Ambassadors for Humanity event from a benefitdinner to a national mail campaign. Bvlgari has graciouslyrecommitted its support to broaden awareness of theFoundation’s mission–now more important than ever in light of world events. Through this grassroots campaign,the Shoah Foundation hopes to raise funds to support itseducational work.
Eric Greenberg is a leader in both the philanthropicworld and the high-tech industry. He started two profitableInternet businesses in the last four years and recently receivedthe Albert Einstein Award for Technological Innovation fromthe Jerusalem Fund. Eric founded Scient, an e-business systems innovator in 1997. Eric currently serves as Chairmanand CEO of Innovation Investments, Inc., which holds interestsin various technology companies. He is also Senior Advisorto Red Herring Communications and serves on the board ofseveral private companies.
“The work of the Shoah Foundation is vitallyimportant to educate people against racism and to ensurethat crimes of genocide against humanity cease,” remarkedEric Greenberg in a recent interview. “I am proud to havebeen chosen as this year’s Ambassador for Humanity and tohave the opportunity to help the Foundation achieve itsfundraising goals and educational objectives.”
Susan Crown believes that “When the work is important,you make the time; and the Shoah Foundation is important.”
It’s not easy to find a spare moment in Susan’sschedule: she’s a mother of two; president of the Arie and IdaCrown Memorial, a grantmaking foundation in Chicago; apartner and vice president of Henry Crown and Company, afamily owned and operated investment firm whose holdingsrange from the Chicago Bulls to General Dynamics; a corporateboard member for three Fortune 100 companies; a trustee ofYale University, Rush-Presbyterian St. Lukes Medical Center,the Aspen Foundation, and other philanthropic organiza-tions; and she actively leads the Shoah Foundation’sDevelopment Board in its efforts to broaden support for theFoundation.
Susan first heard of the Shoah Foundation whenSteven Spielberg called her several years ago. He spoke aboutthe evolution of the Foundation and about his hopes for itsfuture. Susan recalls she was “so intrigued by the promise ofthis project that I wanted to be involved.” Since 1998, sheand William Lauder have served as co-chairs, leading the 18-member Development Board. Susan describes the boardas a “generous, intelligent, and committed group.” Involve-ent has been a family affair: her mother, Renee, serves as oneof the Development Board’s honorary co-chairs (along withLew Wasserman and Edgar M. Bronfman); and the Crownfamily generously supports the Foundation.
Susan received a B.A. from Yale and M.A. fromNew York University and pursued her M.B.A. at North-western’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She hasworked as a drug treatment counselor in New York andhelped initiate a fund at Chicago Community Trust to assistthe homeless. From these hands-on experiences, Susanlearned that “change is hard, but it is possible.”
Her hope for the Foundation’s future is grounded intwo strong beliefs: “that there are gifted storytellers whoseexperiences have the power to transform others” and that“people can learn and can change.” Eventually, she wouldlike to see the testimonies in the Foundation’s archive “befiled away in the memories of school-aged children aroundthe world.”
“The Foundation touches me on both an emotionallevel and a conceptual level—using video archives as a teachingtool to broaden thinking is a groundbreaking idea,” saysSusan. “I can’t think of a more interesting, challenging, orrewarding task.”
Foundat ion Names Er ic Greenberg as
2001 Ambassador for Humanity
Commi t ted Co-Cha i r Susan Crown
leads Deve lopment Board
Development Board Co-ChairSusan Crown
Eric Greenberg
Development News
Depar tment Activities Repor t
Partners in History and the FutureD E V E L O P M E N T B O A R D
E D G A R M . B R O N F M A N
R E N E E C R O W N
L E W W A S S E R M A N
Honorary Co-Chairs
S U S A N C R O W N
W I L L I A M L A U D E R
Co-Chairs
S T E P H E N A . C O Z E N, E S Q.E M A N U E L G E R A R D
E R I C G R E E N B E R G
S U S A N H A R R I S
A L A N H A S S E N F E L D
D AV I D K A S S I E
R O B E R T J . K AT Z
B A R B A R A L E V Y K I P P E R
K E N N E T H L I P P E R
S K I P P A U L
A L E X S P A N O S
J E R R Y S P E Y E R
D AV I D H . S T R A S S L E R
C Y N T H I A S T R O U M
S E V E R I N W U N D E R M A N
Members of the Board
M A I L I N G A D D R E S S
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History FoundationDevelopment Department
P.O. Box 3168Los Angeles, CA 90078-3168
U.S.A.
telephone: 818 866 2004fax: 818 866 5241
website: www.vhf.orgemail: fundraising@ vhf.org
Shoah Foundation®
8 winter 2001 Past Forward
G I F T S & P L E D G E S
through November 2001
from M A J O R D O N O R S
F O U N D I N G P A R T N E R S$1 Million & above
Gifts of $10 Million+Steven Spielberg
Gifts of $5 Million+Wasserman FoundationSeverin Wunderman
Gifts of $3 Million+The Samuel Bronfman Foundation:
Edgar M. Bronfman & Charles R. BronfmanNational Broadcasting Company, Inc.Universal Studios Foundation
Gifts of $1 Million+ABC, Inc.The Paul G. Allen Charitable FoundationThe Annenberg FoundationThe Ron Burkle FamilyThe Crown FamilyThe David Geffen FoundationThe Lillian Goldman Charitable TrustThe Hassenfeld FoundationSidney Kimmel & Rena RowanThe Fred Kort Family FoundationMarie Josée & Henry R. KravisKenneth and Evelyn Lipper FoundationOvitz Family FoundationRonald O. PerelmanBren & Melvin Simon and Herbert SimonSony Corporation of AmericaTime Warner Inc / Warner BrosThe Families of Laurence & Preston Robert
TischUnited States of AmericaThe Ziff Family
L E A D E R S H I P P A R T N E R S$100,000 to $999,999
Gifts of $500,000+Burda MediaEMC CorporationLeo & Julia Forchheimer FoundationEmanuel GerardGTE CaliforniaKaren and William LauderAnonymous Donor
Gifts of $250,000+The Abramson Family FoundationThe Barrington Foundation, Inc.Creative Artists AgencyDavis Oil CompanyEric GreenbergVera & Imre HechtRichard Kandel / Theodore & Renee Weiler
Foundation
Lyn & Norman LearLibrary Services and Technology Act, U.S.
Institute of Museum and Library Services via the CA State Library, through a partnership with USC
The Maurice Marciano Family FoundationMax PalevskyTurner BroadcastingRobert & Mary Ellen ZemeckisAnonymous Donor
Gifts of $100,000+Merv & Thea AdelsonHoward & Roberta AhmansonThe Jacob and Hilda Blaustein FoundationBlum-Kovler FoundationBvlgariCorum Time Pieces, Inc.Sandy & Steve CozenRena Rowan-Damone and Vic DamoneDDB Needham Worldwide
Communication Group Inc.Douglas Foundation (including proceeds from
the book, The Broken Mirror)The Eastman Kodak CompanyRoland Emmerich and Dean DevlinThe Feintech Family FoundationBill and Melinda Gates FoundationSusan Harris & Paul Junger WittRobert J. & Jane L. Katz FoundationThe Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg FoundationThe Kemp Family FoundationKathleen Kennedy & Frank MarshallSol KerznerKingWorld ProductionsBarbara Levy Kipper & David Kipper William B. & Sheila Konar FoundationJohn & Janet KornreichThe Levy-Markus FoundationPeter B. LewisTed Mann FoundationSusan & Morris MarkMaxell Corporation of AmericaRon Meyer & Kelly ChapmanSamuel I. Newhouse FoundationPacific Theatres FoundationMr. & Mrs. Murray Pantirer,
Mr. & Mrs. Abraham Zuckerman and Dr. & Mrs. Charles Feldman
Norman and Mary Pattiz FoundationSkip PaulPepsiCo FoundationThe Pratt FoundationBruce M. Ramer & Madeline Peerce and
Harold & Eileen BrownMichael Recanati / Ira StatfeldWilliam F. Reilly / K-III CommunicationsFredric D. & Rikki Rosen Family FoundationThe Leo Rosner Foundation Courtney Sale RossRobert Russell Memorial FoundationSaban Entertainment, Inc.Sara Lee FoundationSouthern Wine and Spirits of America, Inc.Alex G. SpanosJerry I. Speyer & Katherine FarleyJudy & Michael SteinhardtCynthia StroumAndrew TobiasUnisysGary & Karen WinnickMortimer B. Zuckerman & Marla PratherAnonymous Donor
S P O N S O R I N G P A R T N E R S$10, 000 to $99, 999
Gifts of $75, 000+Breslauer & Rutman LLCGary Goldberg & Diana MeehanTom Hanks & Rita WilsonInterscope Records / Jimmy IovineRuss Solomon / Tower RecordsUniversal Studios, Inc.Anonymous Donor
Gifts of $50, 000+Herb & Lani AlpertThe David & Andrea Baum FoundationHarvey Belson / Ben Arnold- Sunbelt Beverage
Co. of S.C.Frank Biondi & Ron MeyerLinda BurrowsCastle Rock EntertainmentCharmer Industries, Inc.Joan & Joe CullmanThe Joseph Drown FoundationFisher Brothers FoundationBruce & Gretchen JacobsenRikki and Barry KaplanGershon Kekst / Kekst and CompanyPaul & Susanne KesterNicole Kidman & Tom CruiseLeonard & Evelyn LauderMr. & Mrs. Ralph LaurenBlanche & Irving Laurie FoundationMr. & Mrs. Richard LeventhalGeorge LucasNancy & Howard MarksMattel, Inc.Carol & Bill MechanicPeter MortonWalter F. Parkes & Laurie MacDonaldSumner Redstone, Jonathan Dolgen and
Sherry LansingRepublic Bank California N.A./ Republic
National Bank of New YorkThe Marilyn & Barry Rubenstein Family
FoundationKenneth & Wendy RubyEva & Mickey Rutman and Joyce Klein &
Jerry BreslauerRichard & Esther ShapiroThe Skirball FoundationTed & Carole SlavinJay Sunday SontagThe Sam Spiegel FoundationBarbra StreisandHoward Stringer, John Calley and Lucy FisherWilliam & Jerry UngarHarvey Weinstein / Co-Chair, Miramax
Film Corp.Robin & Marsha WilliamsCynthia & Bud Yorkin2 Anonymous Donors
Gifts of $25, 000+James Alevizos and Capitol-Husting Co., Inc.Roger & Julie BaskesJack and Becky BenaroyaRussel & Terry BernardJoan & Allen and Robert & Elisa Spungen BildnerArthur M. Blank Family Foundation
Block Distributing Company, Inc.Neil BluhmDr. Leon Bromberg Charitable Trust FundAlexandra Brookshire & Bert GreenDavid Brown & Richard ZanuckThe Dalkowitz Charitable TrustJ. Morton DavisDiscovery Communications, Inc.Hilda & Harry EisenEpstein / Rubenstein FoundationFederal Express CorporationRichard A. & Susan P. Friedman Family
FoundationFurman Selz LLCSaul and Karen GamoranRob and Sarah GlaserBrad & Anne GlobeJames & Andrea GordonGQ Magazine on behalf of David & Sybil YurmanJill & Brad GreyGuardsmark, Inc.Bill & Carole HaberThe Hite FoundationHoffberger Family Fund, Inc.Bruce & Martha KarshJonathan & Debbie KleinPatty & Jonathan LazarusDan and Stacey LevitanMajor Brands, Inc.: Robert Epsten, David
Vittor, Todd Epsten & Bradford EpstenMr. & Mrs. Karl MaldenMorgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co.Morton Capital ManagementAnn & Jerry MossPaul Newman & Joanne WoodwardScott and Laurie OkiTed & Hedy Orden / Thrifty Oil Co.Jack & Connie OstrovskyRhea Perlman & Danny DeVitoLionel I. PincusPritzker Family FoundationBurton & Judith ResnickTony Ressler & Jami GertzGreg & Jeri RiceDonna & Joe Roth / California Community FundTom Rubin / Focus MediaMartin SeligMelvin & Betty Sembler Philanthropic FundCharles & M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Inc.Lorraine & Sid SheinbergLinda Grobman Silverberg & Dr. Alan SilverbergSam & Althea StroumSimpson Thacher & BartlettVirginia & Alan B. SlifkaThe Slovin FoundationJames & Joanne SmithThe Grant A. Tinker FoundationUnicom CorporationUnion Beverage CompanyWeeden & Co., L.P.Frieda & Judd WeinbergIsak & Rose Weinman FoundationRobert WeinsteinRichard WittenWolfensohn Family FoundationGloria & David L. WolperMarie and Gary Zwerling3 Anonymous Donors
S U R V I V O R S O F T H E S H O A H V I S U A L H I S T O R Y F O U N D A T I O Nrecognizes with gratitude the support of our Major Donors.
winter 2001 Past Forward 9
Gifts of $10, 000+Alan & Arlene AldaHarriet Ames Charitable TrustAndersen Consulting, LLPAnheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.Aon CoporationArthur AndersenPatrice AuldBarbara & Jon AvnetAdrienne BaranowitzBaxter International, Inc.Jerry Baron, Max Behm & AssociatesRebecka & Arie BelldegrunMichael, Melissa, Ilana, Lev & Joshua BerenbaumEdward and Janine BiskindLeon & Debra BlackBloomberg NewsBMG EntertainmentBritannica.comNadine & Bill BronDavid Brown / Helen Gurley BrownB S M G WorldwideBurger King CorporationCalcined Coke Corp.Maria CantwellChannel One NetworkJosephine ChausMichael CooperThe Cypress Fund LLCThe Davidson FoundationClive J. Davis FoundationMax Delfiner Memorial FoundationDeutsche Asset ManagementNeil DiamondMarcia DiamondGandolfo DiBlasiDreamworks SKGThe Durst FoundationAlvin & Joan EinbenderThe Einhorn Family Foundation
Lois and Richard England Family FoundationJ. Epstein FoundationErnst & Young LLPEssential Dental SystemsEuropean UnionElias & Monica Fasja Felissimo Universal Corp. of AmericaMrs. Avery FisherMs. Nancy FisherAlphonse Fletcher, Jr.Michael J. Fox & Tracy PollanPhilip FriedmannPeter & Adrienne FritzDaniel & Elie GazzarLawrence M. Gelb FoundationGoldring Family FoundationKeith GrinsteinMr. & Mrs. Charles GwathmeyHachette Filipacchi MagazinesHelene HahnThe Halpern FamilyStephen & Eleanor Hammerman FoundationWilliam & Jane-Howard HammersteinRichard Harriton/Bear Stearns Securities Corp.HBK InvestmentsAlbert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable FoundationSteven HolzmanIATSE - Local 44IBM CorporationMichael JacksonJenner & BlockQuincy JonesMayer & Morris Kaplan Family FoundationSandi & Alan KassanLouis KestenbaumLinda KlonerLester KnightMichael KrasnyFred KrehbielMathilde & Arthur Krim
Oliver LarminieU.S. Senator Frank R. LautenbergDr. Gail LebovicCharles LeeFrancine LeFrak & Rick FriedbergElaine & Kenneth LeventhalMitchell S. Levey FoundationStuart & Sheri Levine Family FoundationLawrence LevyMark LevySydney & Frances Lewis FoundationAdam Lilling – Pentagon Inc.Lawrence & Dana Linden Family FoundationTheresa & Warren LittlefieldL’Oreal USA, Inc.Doreen & Meyer LuskinMaestro Lorin MaazelJoseph and Florence Manaster FoundationJames MarcusBruce R. McCawRon & Diane MillerIra and Diane MillsteinMinow Family FoundationJack & Nancy MishkinThe Steven T. Mnuchin FoundationNBC EntertainmentBruce & Nancy NewbergFrederick Charles NixOaktree Capital Management L L C
Ethan & Monica PennerPhilip Morris FoundationJeffry M. & Barbara Picower FoundationPlum FoundationRichard PortogalloThe Louis and Harold Price Foundation, Inc.PricewaterhouseCoopers LLPPrudential SecuritiesRadio City Productions, Inc.Albert & Audrey RatnerDenise Rich
$1 Million & above
Gifts of $5 Million+EMC CorporationSybase
Gifts of $3 Million+Andersen Consulting, LLPSilicon Graphics Computer Systems
Gifts of $1 Million+ADIC/SonyMaxell Corporation of AmericaQWestSony Electronics, Inc.UnisysUnited Parcel Service
L E A D E R S H I P P A R T N E R S$100,000 to $999,999
Gifts of $750,000+Alias
Gifts of $500,000+The Eastman Kodak CompanyGang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, Inc.McKinsey & Company
I N - K I N D D O N A T I O N SSurvivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation recognizes with gratitude the support of our Major In-Kind Donors.
Gifts of $250,000+EquantFore SystemsGTE CaliforniaAnonymous Donor
Gifts of $100,000+Breslauer & Rutman LLCImpossible, Inc.Nextel
S P O N S O R I N G P A R T N E R S$10,000+ to $99,999
Gifts of $75,000
RogueWave Software, Inc.Tycoon Enterprises
Gifts of $50, 000+American Power ConversionGateway 2000Gibson, Dunn & CrutcherIntergraph CorporationRelational Data Systems
Arthur & Toni RockGary RoseMarshall RoseRose K. Rose, Ph.D.Mr. Leslie RuddAllan & Paula RudnickJeffrey Salaway & Toni RossScott & Lori SaleJack & Anita Saltz Foundation, Inc.Florence & Irving SandorfScott M. & Ellen G. SassaMr. & Mrs. Paul Schoen and FamilyPaola & Mickey SchulhofSilicon Graphics Computer SystemsMr. & Mrs. Larry A. SilversteinThe Steinberg Family Fund, Inc.Marcia & Neil StraussSun InternationalHarry Thomason & Linda
Bloodworth-ThomasonElaine Trebek-Kares & Peter KaresTycoon EnterprisesUSA Home EntertainmentViacom International Inc.George WeinbergerGerald L. and Kathleen A. Weiner FoundationBarry WeissJane & Stuart Weitzman Tom & Jill WernerWilf Family FoundationFred Wilpon / Sterling EquitiesJames & Linda WimmerKaren & Stan WinstonEd Winter / U30 GroupRichard and Lili Zanuck FoundationAaron Ziegelman FoundationHans ZimmerBarry & Jan ZubrowRoy J. Zuckerberg Family Foundation4 Anonymous Donors
F O U N D I N G P A R T N E R S
If you wish to change the way your name is listed, please contact the Development Department: 818 866 2004
The Shoah Foundation recognizes with gratitude donors worldwide who have made gifts ranging from $1 to $9,999.
“Because my wife was in Bergen-Belsen and I was in a forcedlabor battalion, we have unfortunate memories [of the
Holocaust] and we appreciate what StevenSpielberg is doing with the Shoah Foundation. Itwas important to us to do something for thefuture; anything to do with children.” ImreHecht, originally from Budapest, explains theirmotivation for supporting the Shoah Foundationwith a generous charitable remainder trust.
His wife Vera Hecht, born Vera Leb inOsorhel, Romania, recorded her testimony forthe Shoah Foundation in 1995. She went toschool in Budapest where, in the spring of 1944,she boarded a train hoping to flee to Palestine.Instead, this train of Hungarian Jews was divertedto Bergen-Belsen. In December 1944, Vera wasamong the 1,684 Jews from the original trainwho were sent to Switzerland, thanks to theintervention of Zionist leader Reszo Kasztner.
In 1950, Vera and Imre met in NewYork and married just two weeks later. Together,they built a business that exported textiles to
Europe, and later began investing in real estate. Today theHechts divide their time between Florida and New York, whereImre serves on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of JewishHeritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Imre is also anaccomplished sculptor and painter, and together the coupleestablished a children’s music school in Florida.
Imre credits his continuing hope for humanity to “thefact that I was always optimistic… that was what enabled meto escape from the forced labor battalion [and make it to]Romania, where the Joint [American Jewish Joint DistributionCommittee] gave me soup and a suit, and then to this countrywhere everything is possible.”
The Hecht’s charitable remainder trust gives the ShoahFoundation new possibilities by providing funds for theFoundation’s future. A charitable remainder trust (CRT) pro-vides income to the donors for life, or a term of years, afterwhich the remainder of the trust is distributed to a charity.With a CRT, you can provide for family, gain an immediateincome tax deduction, reduce estate taxes, increase incomefrom assets, and possibly eliminate capital gains taxes.
The Shoah Foundation offers a variety of planned givingopportunities that can be tailored to your personal needs andbudget. For more information about planned giving, pleasecontact the Foundation’s Director of Planned Giving, EricGrodan, at 818-866-9110.
10 winter 2001 Past Forward
Sur v ivor s Imre and Vera Hec h t
Make Generous P lanned Gi f t
Clintons Solicitors In-kind gift of pro bono legal services
Creative Artist Agency $100,000 unrestricted gift
Nathalie and Gladys Dalkowitz Charitable Trust $25,000To catalogue testimonies from San Antonio, TX
Neil Diamond $10,000 unrestricted gift
Joseph Drown Foundation $50,000 To support the Education Department
Filemaker Inc. In-kind gift of computer software
Saul & Karen Gamoran $25,000 unrestricted gift
Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation $10,000Grant to catalogue testimonies from Houston, TX
Impossible Inc. In-kind gift of professional services associatedwith launching the new Foundation website
The Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation $15,000To underwrite Pilot Education Initiative costs in Chicago
Library Services and Technology Act, U.S. Institute of Museum
and Library Services via the CA State Library, through a
partnership with USC $180,000To catalogue testimonies recorded in California
Kenneth Lipper $10,000 unrestricted gift
Morton Capital Management $25,000 unrestricted gift
Rose K. Rose $10,000Unrestricted gift from a survivor who provided testimony
The Leo Rosner Foundation $25,000To underwrite Pilot Education Initiative costs in Florida
Skip Paul $100,000 unrestricted gift
David Strassler $50,000 unrestricted gift
Werner Family Foundation $10,000 unrestricted gift
The Shoah Foundat ion Thanks Recen t
Major Donors
Artwork by Imre Hecht
Another painting by Imre Hecht
Development News continued
The Shoah Foundation thanks the L E O R O S N E R F O U N D A T I O N for helping to underwrite the cost of this newsletter.
winter 2001 Past Forward 11
Your year-end donation will help support the important work of the Shoah Foundation—developing educational programs and materialsbased on the Holocaust testimonies in our archive. There are a numberof ways you can contribute.
Cash Dona t ionsAll donations from U.S. residents are tax-deductible to the fullextent allowed by law. Gifts may be made by cash, checks(payable to the Shoah Foundation), or credit card. A phonerepresentative can accept your donation by credit card (Visa,MasterCard, and American Express).
Pledges
You may wish to make a gift to the Foundation that is paidover several years, following a payment schedule that is mostconvenient for you. These payments may be made via check,credit card, or appreciated securities.
Apprec ia ted Secur i t ies
By contributing stocks or other assets that have appreciated invalue, you could save significantly at tax time.
Matching Gif ts
Your gift to the Shoah Foundation could double in value ifyour employer has a matching gift program. Please ask yourhuman resources or community affairs office for details.
Planned Gif ts
You may make a planned gift through such vehicles as lifeinsurance, bequests, testamentary gifts, or charitable trusts.Planned giving can help you reduce or avoid state and inheri-tance taxes. We encourage you to speak with your financialplanner about planned giving.
Memoria l or Tr ibute Gi f ts
If you wish to honor or memorialize a friend or family memberwith your gift, the Foundation will be pleased to mail aTribute Card.
In-Kind Gif ts
The Shoah Foundation accepts gifts of goods or services thatfulfill programmatic needs. Please contact the Developmentdepartment before sending an in-kind donation.
The National Science Foundation, an independent U.S. government agency that promotes science and engineering,awarded the Shoah Foundation a $7.5 million grant todevelop speech-recognition software for cataloguingHolocaust survivor testimonies whose multilingual aspectspose special research challenges. The NSF grant, distributedover five years, will support the development of a computersystem that could review the tapes and recognize importantwords and phrases. Of the grant, $1.5 million goes to theShoah Foundation, while the remainder will fund theresearch efforts of Johns Hopkins University, IBM, and theUniversity of Maryland in the automatic processing of videofor search and retrieval in online systems.
IBM will focus on preparing speech data andresearching Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systemsfor English, while Johns Hopkins University will focus onresearching Eastern European transcription efforts, thedevelopment of Czech ASR systems, and initial feasibilitystudies for developing a Czech language thesaurus. TheUniversity of Maryland will focus on design activities in thefirst year of the project, and move personnel costs to lateryears in order to provide sufficient funds for the trainingdata annotation effort at other sites.
“As the Shoah Foundation’s diverse archive is digitized, we now have a unique opportunity to partner withexperts from IBM, Johns Hopkins, and University ofMaryland, with the support of the NSF, to further knowledgeof automatic cataloguing of digital libraries for theHolocaust survivor and witness testimonies, as well as anyother collections that we wish to learn from, process, andmake available through video and audio information,”remarked Sam Gustman, the Foundation’s ExecutiveDirector of Technology.
The National Science Foundation organizes programsthat invest over $3.3 billion per year in almost 20,000research and education projects in science and engineering.The Shoah Foundation is one of 309 organizations to receivegrants for computer science and applications.
technology
NSF Awards Foundat ion $7 .5M for
Tec hno logy Researc h
For more information, please contact:
Steven KlappholzVice President for DevelopmentShoah FoundationPost Office Box 3168Los Angeles, CA 90078–3168Phone 818 866 2004
Bill Byrne, an associate research professorin the Johns Hopkins University’s Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering,one of the team developing a speechrecognition system for Holocaust interviewsconducted in the Czech languagePhoto by Will Kirk
The Shoah Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the U.S. and has affiliated non-profit organizations in several other countries. A copy of the Shoah Foundation’s audit-ed financial statement may be obtained by contacting the Foundation’s Chief FinancialOfficer at P.O. Box 3168, Los Angeles, CA 90078-3168.
YOUR YEAR-END GIFT
MAKES A DIFFERENCE
On October 17, 2001, the Sydney Jewish Museum openedthe exhibition Crossroads: Shanghai and the Jews of China,which chronicles Shanghai’s Jewish communities before,during, and after World War II. The exhibit features originaldocuments, artifacts, photographs, and a video that includessegments from five Shoah Foundation interviews. Theseinterviews were conducted with survivors who fled to Chinafrom Nazi-occupied Europe and eventually immigrated toAustralia.
Through the personal stories of Jews who lived inShanghai, the exhibition examines the different Jewish com-munities in that city, their lifestyles, their relationships withboth the Chinese community and the occupying Japaneseforces, and their postwar experiences (with a special focuson those who immigrated to Australia). Crossroads is opento the public at the Sydney Jewish Museum until March,perhaps longer, with a possibility of traveling to other loca-tions around the world.
The Shoah Foundation would like to thank the vol-unteers and staff of the Sydney Jewish Museum, includingmuseum President John Roth, CEO Toby Hammerman,Project Manager Alan Jacobs, Curator Jane Wesley, andProject Coordinator Robyn Gerber. Also, the ShoahFoundation’s Regional Consultant in Sydney, EvaScheinberg, was instrumental in facilitating our participa-tion in this exhibit. Both Eva and the Foundation’sMelbourne Regional Consultant, Pauline Rockman, attend-ed the exhibition opening.
Paul Engel, one of the survivors whose testimonywas featured, passed away in July 2001. His wife Eva andson Roger were moved by this exhibition that Paul had longchampioned. After viewing the video, Roger felt it demon-strated that “the best way to learn history is not from booksbut from the people who lived through it.”
12 winter 2001 Past Forward
Sydney Exhibit Features Shanghai Survivors’ Testimonies
Shoah Foundation Australian Regional Consultants Pauline Rockman (L) and Eva Scheinberg (R),with survivor Gerta Jellinek at the opening of the Crossroads: Shanghai and the Jews of Chinaexhibit at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Survivors whose testimonies are included in the Crossroads exhibit:Dita BeranPaul EngelGertrud JellinekHans MuellerMarcel Weyland
Interviewers who conducted these interviews:Suzy Coleman-HiltonDasha GildenDawn GraycePatricia WollfordMary Ziegler
Videographers who filmed these interviews:Joanne ParkerDavid PerryScott Williams
In Australia, the Shoah Foundation gathered 2,478 interviews, conducted by 157 interviewers and videotaped by 28 videographers. In addition,the Foundation archive includes 308 interviews with survivors who lived in Shanghai during the war.We thank all who contributed to this tremendous achievement.
A 1942 Chinese identification documentfor Piotr (Peter) Sapir, then seven yearsold. Polish-born Peter fled with his familyto Shanghai and later immigrated toAustralia, where he recorded his testimonywith the Shoah Foundation in 1995.
winter 2001 Past Forward 13
Paul Engel is probably the only Austrian Jew who survivedthe war by selling yahrzeit candles to the Chinese. Usually litby Jewish families on the anniversaries of a loved one’sdeath, long-burning yahrzeit candles were introduced toShanghai by the Engel family, who fled there from Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1939. As he spoke English (the commonlanguage between Chinese locals and European refugees), itwas teenaged Paul’s job to convince shopkeepers to carry hisfamily’s homemade perfumes and candles. At first theShanghai storekeepers did not believe that a candle couldburn for 24 hours, but after Paul gave them a sample candle,they were sold.
Just a year earlier, the Engels’ comfortable middle-class life was changed forever by the Nazi annexation ofAustria. For sixteen-year-old Paul, it meant his Christianfriends crossed the street to avoid him; he had to transfer toa Jewish high school; and, most agonizing at the time, hecould not play in the championship soccer game. DuringKristallnacht, the November 1938 pogrom against Jews inGermany and Austria, the Engels’ apartment was ransackedand armed men took Paul’s father away. Fortunately, he wasreleased by the local police after signing a document promis-ing to leave the country within three months.
The Engels wanted to go to Palestine, but couldsecure only one visa, which went to Paul’s brother, Robert(Yehuda). (They thought they would reunite within a fewmonths, but it was ten years before they saw each otheragain.) In January 1939, the rest of the family traveled to theport of Trieste “with our hearts in our throats, because youweren’t safe until you crossed the border.” After the long seajourney to Shanghai, trucks took them to the Embankment,a building where the Committee for the Assistance ofEuropean Jewish Refugees provided aid to newly-arrivedrefugees. Soon the Engels moved into a tiny flat in a devas-tated area of the city. From their kitchen, they produced can-dles and colognes based on the recipes they had used in their
“All I can say is I felt very, very happy andvery, very secure in Austria. Nobody wouldhave believed that a thing like this could happen. We should always guard against thisand never be too sure that things won’t change.Any madman could come along and change thewhole destiny of a nation, or even the world.That’s why [since the war] I’ve never taken anything for granted. Most of us living here [in Australia] don’t know how lucky and howhappy we are to be here.”
Paul Engel’s closing words from his Shoah Foundation testimony,recorded June 2, 1995 in Bondi Junction, Australia
From the Archive:
Paul Engel Found Sanctuary in Shanghai during the Shoah
From left: Paul Engel during hisShoah Foundation interview in1995; Paul Engel’s permit to leavethe Hongkew ghetto (and thebadge he had to wear on his lapelwhen outside the ghetto); HansMueller during his 1995 ShoahFoundation interview
continued on page 14. . . Marcel Weyland’s leaving certificate fromthe Shanghai Jewish School
Today, it is hard to spot signs of a once-flourishing Jewishcommunity in Shanghai—yet, for a decade this Chinese portcity was home to Yiddish theatres and Viennese coffeeshops, German-language newspapers, and even the presti-gious Mir Yeshiva.
The first physical evidence of Jews in China areHebrew documents from 718. However it wasn’t until the1840s, when China opened to foreign trade and ceded HongKong to the British, that the area’s Jewish communities reallyflourished. Shanghai especially had a bustling internationalcommunity; the city was composed of three areas: theChinese metropolis, the French Settlement, and theInternational Settlement, which was governed by foreignconsuls, including Britain, Japan, and the U.S.
By the mid 1930s, Shanghai had two main Jewishpopulations: a small Sephardic community from Baghdadand several thousand Russian Jews who had fled the 1917Revolution. When the Nazis gained power, Jewish refugees,mostly Austrian and German and later Polish, floodedShanghai, swelling the city’s Jewish populace to nearly30,000 (25% of the non-Chinese population). Refugeesflocked to Shanghai because it was one of the few destinationsthat did not require a visa. Helped by established wealthyJewish families like the Kadoories and the Sassoons, theserefugees lived fairly peacefully until Pearl Harbor, and thesubsequent Japanese occupation of all sections of Shanghai.
After the war in the Pacific began, the Nazis putpressure on their Japanese allies to deal with the Jewish“problem” in China. In 1943, the Japanese established aghetto for “stateless refugees” in Hongkew, in the Chinesesection of Shanghai. In Hongkew, conditions were crowdedand harsh. Disease and hunger were rampant, but manyrefugees continued working outside the ghetto, or ran theirown businesses, cafes, or theatres within the ghetto walls.
Once liberated in 1945, most Jewish refugees leftChina for Israel, the United States, or Australia—as PaulEngel and Hans Mueller did. Friends in Shanghai, theyremained close in their adopted homeland, where, decadeslater, their Shoah Foundation testimonies are featured in anexhibit at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
A Brief History of Jews
in Shanghai
14 winter 2001 Past Forward
the U.S. army and a paper company, but the 1948 communistrevolution brought hard times, and Paul became more desperate to leave. Luckily, a German friend from Hongkew,Hans Mueller, was engaged to a girl whose family hadsecured Australian visas before the war. Immediately after thewar, Hans’ fiancée in Sydney sent for Hans, who laughinglyremembers, “I was a male war bride!” Not long after, Hanssponsored Paul’s bid to come to Australia.
Once he had his visa, Paul decided to visit his parentsin Austria first. Berths were hard to come by, so anotherfriend arranged for Paul to be an “escort officer” on anInternational Refugee Organization boat. That was how Paulbecame responsible for 600 Jewish refugees on a coal steamerbuilt to hold 120 people. During the 62-day journey toNaples, Paul steadied the passengers through hunger, lack ofmedicine, and endless meals of mutton. Finally, he reachedVienna, where despite his reunion with family, he felt veryuneasy. He was glad to leave for Australia, where he ran amenswear business with his friend Hans for several years. In1952, Paul married Eva Stern, who also escaped Viennabefore the war, and they raised two children. Paul retired in1984, but kept busy with part-time work, music, and manyphilanthropic ventures. Toward the end of his 1995 ShoahFoundation interview, Paul sums up: “For every bad thing inlife, there is a good thing. If Kristallnacht and my father’sarrest had never happened, we probably would have stayedin Austria… and probably suffered the same fate as a lot ofour relatives.”
On July 18, 2001, Paul passed away at age 79. “He’sleft such a void,” says Eva. But Paul Engel left a legacy aswell. Not just for his family and many friends, but for everyonewho will view his testimony.
From the Archive (continued)
Paul Engel with his wife Eva
Vienna parfumerie. Eventually, they opened “HoubetParfumerie” in the International Concession, contributingregularly to a fund that provided food for the refugee camps.
In 1943, the Engels had to close their store andmove into the “Designated Area for Stateless EuropeanRefugees” in Hongkew, “the slums of Shanghai.” Althoughthe sordid conditions bred widespread dysentery andtyphoid, Paul stresses that they were all very fortunate whencompared with the situation in Europe. There were no indoorsewers, hot water, or stoves and no time for Paul to continuehis schooling. Still, thanks to a Russian friend of his father’s,Paul obtained a permit to work outside the ghetto. Althoughhe had to face Goya (Hongkew’s despotic Japanese ruler)every month to renew it, the permit allowed Paul to continueservicing the candle customers, providing an essential life linefor his family.
Isolated from the outside world, the Hongkew community was unaware of the concentration camps and thefate of their loved ones who had remained behind in Europe.Via Russian radio, they found out that Hitler had beendefeated in the spring of 1945. Still, there was no change inShanghai until that summer, when an Allied aerial attackkilled 32 refugees and many Chinese. Then, on the morningof September 2, 1945, the Japanese soldiers who had ruledthe Hongkew ghetto suddenly disappeared, “as if swallowedup by the earth.” The next day, Paul and 17,000 other Jewishrefugees were liberated by an American goodwill mission.Only years later did the world learn that the Germans hadstored canisters of lethal gas on Tsungming Island, the proposed site of a Nazi death camp not far from Shanghai.
His parents returned to Vienna in 1947, but Paul felt“I’d rather rot here than go back to Austria.” He worked for
Left: Dita Beran’s Chinese wedding
certificate (she and PaulBeran were marriedNovember 1946 in
Shanghai). Right: an inoculation document
issued to Gertrude Jellinekby the Chinese after her
liberation in 1948
winter 2001 Past Forward 15
In August 2000 and again in October 2001, the ShoahFoundation received funding from the U.S. governmentthrough the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) tobegin cataloguing the testimonies of Holocaust survivors andwitnesses living in California. The Foundation is partneringwith the University of Southern California (USC) on thisproject to speed public access to the California testimonies inthe Foundation’s archive.
The grant recommends that the Foundation workwith an outside advisory group to explore appropriate usesfor the California Collection. This diverse advisory groupmeets twice a year to hear reports on our progress and askquestions about the future of this collection. (To date, 160testimonies are catalogued for the California Collection.)
In addition to Shoah Foundation staff, the committeeincludes USC representatives Lynn O’Leary-Archer,Executive Director, Archival Research Center (ARC); JoEllenWilliamson, ARC’s Associate Executive Director; and librarianMarje Schuetze-Coburn. Rick Moss, formerly of theCalifornia African-American Museum, and Paul Apodaca,American Studies Professor at Chapman University, also haveserved on the advisory board. The other committee membersare Leda Ramos, Marilyn Schmitt, and Bruce J. Einhorn.
In a state known as a immigrant haven, theFoundation values the participation of artist and educatorLeda Ramos, Art and Culture Director at the CentralAmerican Resource Center. There, Ms. Ramos established theMemoria Histórica Community Archive in order to preserveand document the cultural heritage of Central Americanimmigrants. She is “inspired by the work being done at theShoah Foundation to reclaim histories and narratives…and[to bring out] the voices of immigrant communities.”
After a long teaching and research career in art history, Marilyn Schmitt took up a second career with the J.Paul Getty Trust’s Information Institute in 1983. There, sheaddressed the automation of research materials in thehumanities, a central concern of the Foundation’s archive.For her part, Dr. Schmitt comments that “the ShoahFoundation’s program, and its staff, [show] extraordinarydedication and competence. They are creating an unprece-dented resource with great imagination, and I am happy tohave had this chance for a close-up view.”
A well-respected U.S. Immigration Judge, the Honorable Bruce J. Einhorn is former Chief of Litigation forthe Justice Department’s Nazi War Crimes prosecution unit, anda frequent lecturer on hate crimes legislation. Judge Einhorn,who has advised the Shoah Foundation on several projects(including The Last Days), became involved because hebelieves that education is vital in overcoming prejudice.
Diver se Commi t tee Adv i ses Foundat ion
on Cal i for n ia Tes t imon ies
THE AUSCHWITZ JEWISH CENTER (www.ajcf.org)Oswiecim, PolandExcerpts of testimonies from Oswiecim-born survivors arefeatured in Remembering Oswiecim, a permanent exhibitabout prewar Jewish life.
CENTER FOR DIVERSITY EDUCATION (www.main.nc.us/diversity/)Asheville, North Carolina, United StatesOctober 15 to November 15, 2001 (ongoing in area schools)The Center’s international traveling exhibit, Anne Frank: AHistory for Today, will be augmented and localized withscreenings of testimonies from five North Carolina residents.Later, the testimonies will be incorporated into a Holocausteducational program that will travel to local schools.
JOODS HISTORISCH MUSEUM (www.jhm.nl/)Amsterdam, NetherlandsIn October 2001, the Joods Historisch Museum opened acomprehensive collection of more than 1,000 ShoahFoundation testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesseswho were born or have resided in the Netherlands. This permanent collection will be available for both viewing andsearching via the Biographical Search Tool, which was developed by the Shoah Foundation. (An article about theShoah Foundation Visual History Collection at the JoodsHistorisch Museum will appear in the next PastForward.)
MUSEO STORICO DELLA LIBERAZIONE DI ROMA, VIA TASSO
(spazioweb.inwind.it/nb/viatasso/mostra.htm)Rome, ItalyTestimonies from five survivors and two rescuers are featured in a permanent exhibit about Jewish life in Rome,the Racial Laws, deportation, and liberation.
MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE – A LIVING MEMORIAL TO THE HOLOCAUST
(www.mjhnyc.org)New York, New York, United StatesSince the museum’s opening in 1997, a permanent exhibitabout Jewish life before, during, and after the war has includedexcerpts from Foundation testimonies.
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER’S MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE
(www.wiesenthal.org)Los Angeles, California, United StatesPhotographs and summaries from testimonies of child survivors are featured in the museum’s “Passport” program.
VERZETSMUSEUM (www.verzetsmuseum.nl)Amsterdam, NetherlandsA traveling exhibit on the return and reception of Dutch warvictims features audio segments and quotes from Dutch sur-vivors’ testimonies.
Test imonies f rom the Archive…
Seen around the Wor ld
The Shoah Foundation works with museums and educational institu-tions around the world to enrich exhibits and provide public accessto our archive of visual testimonies. Here are several places aroundthe world where you can view some of the Foundation’s interviews.
Douglas Greenberg and Denise Citroen,Regional Consultant in the Netherlands,
at the opening event at the Joods Historisch Museum
From my work with the Foundation, I havederived the strength tobelieve, as Anne Frankwrote, that ‘people arebasically good,’ and asWilliam Faulkner wrote,that humanity may sometimes be ‘defeated,but never destroyed.’”THE HONORABLE BRUCE J. EINHORN,U.S. IMMIGRATION JUDGE
“
®
Department 1101Post Office Box 3168Los Angeles CA 90078-3168U.S.A.
Please forward all changes of addressto the Shoah Foundation®
He touched people with his kindness, his music, and his message. He was a soft spoken man who always had time to share a joke, a warm smile, and a friendly greeting of "Hey, guys!" His name was Henry.
Born on October 7, 1925, in Czeladz, Poland, Henry Rosmarin survived several concentration camps duringWorld War II. At one of the camps, Henry was ordered to play a piece by Schubert on his harmonica. Hedid, and was awarded a piece of bread. Henry attributed his survival to this little harmonica, a preciousitem he had taken with him when he was deported from his home.
After the war, Henry was reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Janet (Jadzia) Jakubowitz. The two weremarried while in a displaced persons camp. They came to the United States in 1948, where Henry foundwork as a salesman. The Rosmarins raised two sons, Marvin and Harry.
Among the first to be interviewed by the Shoah Foundation, Henry remained involved by dedicating his time and efforts to our organization. Over the years, he worked as a reviewer, a volunteer, and a research assistant. A lover of languages, Henry enjoyed using his skills in Polish, German, and Yiddish. Segments of his testimony have been viewed by hundreds of people, who saw the clip as part of a tour of theFoundation. Henry also participated in many Foundation fundraising events, moving audiences with his powerful story of survival and his soulful harmonica playing.
Music was Henry's passion–he loved to sing and his harmonica was always with him. But when Henry spoke ofwhat was most meaningful to him, he talked about people. The Shoah Foundation and its staff meant theworld to him. The students he impacted during classroom visits were an inspiration to him. And all of us whointeracted with Henry were uplifted and heartened by his company.
Henry passed away on August 28, 2001, in Van Nuys, CA. He lived through the darkest time of modern history, yet amidst the pain and immeasurable loss, hemaintained a love of life, and hope for a better world
We will always remember his music, his miraculous spirit, and his very dear friendship.
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