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The Chevra Kadisha During the Holocaust and Acts of Terrorism (Rochel Berman)

Added Feb 17, 2016 •

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today we are going to explore the work of this African during the Holocaust and acts of terrorism will talk first about the Holocaust the material I'll share with you includes the heroin during World War II and the response of the survivors interesting Lee in the aftermath of the show up in the sharing that does a company by dignity  well then discuss the role of zaca responders in terrorist attacks in Israel and if you ever watch the aftermath of a terrorist attack they're the men where the orange vests and they're just really all over the place and very heroic and finally Wheels what's the fairy passionate and in tremendous Lee interesting response of Jewish New Yorkers post 9/11 the bomb are the World Trade Center now you guys were how old then 3/4 do any of you have any memory of this at all no okay alright we will send you one so as a prologue first I would like to talk about the relationship of names sanity and dignity now in Judaism we frequently invoked when a boy is born he has a brick me a lot and he when a girl is born she's named in troll is she there we often named in troll she might have a SIM card box we also invoke people's names when we say Amisha para for somebody who's ale and certainly we when we say yes sir we invoke the name of the dearly departed and is you learned in a previous session of this course the Cornerstone of the tahara prayer is the indication of names twice during the prayer during the ritual once at the beginning when we Advocate on behalf of the deceased to the Almighty we mentioned the mate by name and then at turn at the end when we ask Makayla forgiveness for any errors of omission or commission during the tahara so what does this do this positions the deceased as like center stage of everything that were doing and underscores the undeniable identity of that individual in death as in life  identity is the key to dick but the Nazis of course had a very different edict it was their intent to demolish their victims in principal identity Survivor that I spoke to said we were full for stoled to undress  put clothes on one side and shoes on the other the other we then entered a room naked as the day of our birth it was where is it we were tattooed with a number and we were told by the Concentration Camp Commander from this day forward you are only numb you no longer have names you have no identities and no nationalities besides the number you have nothing at all so as we know the Holocaust brought the Jewish people a six million of its shining stars they went to their deaths of course Tijeras without shrouds without Memorial prayers and of course without gravestones the first sign set the war against World War 2 was really tours for the dunes there was the General war and there was the war against the Jews Within figure war and it escalated as the war went along and you'll see from some of the things I can do at first there was more freedom for the Jews but play the end it is totally dissolved so the first sign that the war against the Jews was beginning birthstone November 9th you have a question okay okay thank you I was going to ask that so this Mark than onymous turning point for German and Austrian Jews on that day and kristallnacht as I'm sure you've learned Jewish men star arrested shot and cremated this was 1938 so it was really before the final solution what's the German government practice at that time to return the ashes of the murdered Jews to their relative now since cremation was not permitted by Jewish law Rabbi Menachem Mendel kirschbaum head of a rabbinic family and Frankford turn off that's illegal ordinance that each container of the ashes remembered it was men who were who were shot and then cremated which container of the ashes should be wrapped in a tallit just as we do for a mate normally a man and placed in a casket Sprouts inserted in the casket now as the war progressed an accident the Nazis began to isolate the Jews from the general population Red Bluff Ryan archery was an expert in Jewish law in the Coconut ghetto in Lithuania and when the coast in the ghetto was rated  at the end of the war there were human skeletons and skulls and body parts and Bones just screwing all for wet all over the place so the question became how do we humans eyes the dehumanized so Rabbi archery set Apollo's said after considerable Liberation I Ruled that the corpses found underneath burned buildings should be put together with the loose Earth near them why do you think he said that that's right there my blood there might be flesh that belong to the person and we learned the other day when we were at the funeral home how important it is to vary the sings with the mate  because it was impossible to identify the bones and the limbs as belonging to any particular individual he decided to bury them in a collective grave known as casing that means of course that's right so that they were old together they continue to do that after terrorist attacks and you will hear about that in a little while now for 20 years I was professionally associated with the American Society for Yad vashem and that Association build in me a moral and historical imperative to do three things one is temember the remember the world destroyed secondly course to honor the victims and thirdly to learn from the survivors who came out of the ashes so when I began to write dignity Beyond Death I wanted to know how they maintained if at all separate practices during the war but survivors who know anything and we're willing to talk we're hard to find but because I put stories play request into Publications that Holocaust Survivors ring I did manage to find several people and I'm happy to share a few stories  this was almost six decades after the show up and survivors who were only in their teams in their early twenties remembered having to bury family members or friends I have to point out that I didn't really find anybody who was a member of a because these people either died in the show up or had already died in the 6 in the 60 intervening years so only family members usually children that I found and why person Arnold Shay actually he lived in Boca and he had read this call Arnold Shea an 82 year old survivor from Benzene Poland was in his early twenties when he had to bury his father and he describes the difficulty he encountered  you said my father was a tailor and a highly respected member of the kadisha and when the war broke out we were no longer course allowed to engage in any religious activity so taharas work formed an only special instances  the night that the Germans came to take my father he was already in bed and he said I where you're planning to take me and you won't take me alive with a rifle but they broke his chest as my mother looked on Wesley when I saw that my father was spitting blood I walked Towards the bed to help him and to help him but the Derm German struck me with the same rifle butt and I passed out when I came to the Germans were gone and my father was but still alive a few days later while I was sitting at the machine in the tailor shop making Nazi uniforms I was informed set my father was a very close to death and that I should go home immediately course couldn't get a pass to leave so I took off of my yellow star  and I sneaked out the back and I began to walk home fortunately arriving undetected I got home to find my mother standing in the hallway crying knowing that my father's death was in 10th December kadisha had already arrived one member of the several rough sholem pleaded with my mother to stop crying so she wouldn't set my father as I approach my father's bed he stretched out his hand to me and wrapped it in mind and he died there after this was April 28th 1942 and he was 46 years old my mother Softly uttered Baruch Dayan Emet blessed be the true judge now of course performing to Harrah's and was forbidden. Because my father I've been a member of the Pharaoh two of the men risk their lives and perform the ritual very very of the ritual on the only table in our one basement home in the ghetto the men brought in the Torah boards and let me stop for a minute do we talk about the hole boards at last session let me tell you what they are so that you will understand this most funeral homes have a Mech but you did see the Mikvah in the harbor room at Levitt Weinstein most don't have so one of the rules is for the tahara is that the body is in the water has to envelop the person so we have narrow boards that we put underneath the body to raise the body off of the gurney that when we pour the water the Cascade of water and does envelop the mate so they have I brought in the taharah boards WhatsApp  and I feel buckets from the outside spigot they washed him covered him with a sheet and returned him to the bed now we learned yesterday this is a custom that I have known about to that I'm surprised that didn't put him on the floor but for some reason Ino tard to know the fact that they did it at all was miraculous the time Locker person that's a hitter's word the mocker the person who made who sold the top roofing could have sold the shrouds but of course the Germans had not allow instead he gave me a piece of linen showed me how to cut it as it's the custom I sold them by hand without Knott's not talk about this the other day the reason you don't put knots is that you want to talk reason to be in permanent so that the body goes back to the dust you know from dust to dust  it was a single sac-like garment my help me dress my father on the bed when we were finished and I went to the you. That's a German imposed Jewish Council collect that a whole bunch of Jews to make sure that things were done the way the Germans want so the yurok didn't always have such a good relationship with the with the rest of the Jewish people because they felt they were working for the Germans banana case that you didn't Rock he needed them he needs to go to the uterine Rock in order to get a permit to bury him it took about 4 days during which time my mother and I slept on the floor because we only had one bed I obtained a tasket from a grave digger and we carried my another three miles to the cemetery at the cemetery this ever uncovered his face and Blake place the broken shards which we had what about the other day on his eyes and on his mouth I could only get a permit for 6 people to go to the cemetery so there was no nevertheless I recited kaddish I consider this just like holy it makes them look holy pause there was people never this is totally original research because people never talked about their Deborah experiences and and I know that Arnold Shay gave testimony to the Shoah Foundation nobody thought to ask him about it he never talked about it there was kind of a  culture of not talking about it and that's why cuz we're going get now people are shocked but pleased that we are doing it so what was the response after the war by the survivors to things like fabric some some survivors became involved in every condition following the war the directly in response to their wartime sperience they were also motivated by the great values that Hassett had played in their pre-war homes  as a young girl in her upper middle-class home in Hungary Elizabeth Nest found delivered holla and gefilte fish every Friday afternoon after the poor families in her town for their Shabbos meal this is not spam survived the ghetto and several concentration camps and settled and is this where she was recruited for the heaven Trevor kadeesha I want you to know that I interviewed her on the phone but subsequently had speaking engagement about this in Kansas and I have this close to meet her personally she responded because she viewed it as an the flaccid she thought her upbringing in a home that was very committed to doing this spot the hardship she endured during the Holocaust  she said to me as a Survivor I felt very guilty that I am alive and so many of my members are not I sometimes see my family in the deceased person for whom we are doing at the Hara it's almost if I was offering the victims a kindness that they were not afforded her when they met their horrific deaths why hasn't happened wasn't happy about my involvement in the in the Sarah Survivor distance from watch more than I was during the war he wanted to protect me from death  I never told him where I was going when I get went out do what the Hara I didn't want to upset him I simply told him I was going out with the ladies  so what are we I'm away from her from hearing the stories first of all the older the survivors were at the beginning of the war the How likely they were to adhere to Jewish tradition and in my ears and working with survivors I did work with hidden chill and many of them were hidden when they were very young and Christian families and they came away from the 6th dance with much less nitish kite than kids were older like let's say anywhere from 15 to 4 in their early twenties because for them they had already a pattern and an attachment to Judaism whereas The Hidden for example new very little and they were being hidden by Christian families and so they were very add you know continue to go to church for Christmas Mass after the war I came away with a lot of them bivalence so I just wanted to point out that the survivors I talked to we're older and already had in the turn it to Judaism that I'm astounded by is that despite the unimaginable restrictions and the danger in the horrific conditions many Jews who experienced the Holocaust were determined to offer whatever maybe they could to those that perished and many continue to provide crescent roll on this even after the Holocaust I'm going to stop now for a minute before we talk about terrorist attacks just to see if there are any questions or any comments or any reflections hard stuff to listen to but it did happen to our people  for the math phrase on you is there any way to unbury those bodies and give him a proper burial attempts to do that you know it's a lot of people were talking about in terms of mass Graves but I would call reading just recently about a French priest who specifically for this Define the mass Graves and to dig them up but you know after so many years they are so deteriorated that decomposed it would be hard to find out which one of you is very to properly I'm very dominant either either so I think so yeah and I think I do know of people who shortly after the war went back to hometowns and entered their relatives and rebury them in Israel what's a fairly common thing anybody else yeah bathroom seal of bodies on having fun  how would you ask for mithila I think it was ask it generally and I don't really know if Michelle is asked for for a mass grave I suppose a prayer could be made out since this is all men hug for a mass grave I think they asking of Makayla is some  is incredibly important incredibly important important for us to survive I would I would make some adjustment to the prayer and I would ask that's what I would do asking forgiveness and I don't know if you were at the funeral home but they got the team doing the tahara there's around the casket after the May 8th is in the casket to ask for forgiveness for errors of omission or commission and end we always use the person's name  okay alright we're doing okay in terms of time I want to talk now about terrorist attacks in Israel and then I'm going to talk about 9/11 random and repeated terrorist at Terror attacks in Israel also attempt to rob the Jewish people if they're identity terrorist attack on innocent civilians leaves in its wake what she said the human flesh and array of body parts and often cannot be identified the redness randomness of the Vic in fact sends the message that their identity is unimportant any Jew will do among the first line respond where is the terrorist attacks in Israel are members of the zaca the disaster victims identification and as I mentioned before these are the people that you might seen on television in in the orange vests and they're usually the first people to come forward and I called soccer when I was writing the book and asked if I could speak to one of their volunteers and they put me in touch with mottice listen to Rayleigh who travels between Israel and the United States and he explains how he became involved in soccer as I stopped for a traffic light in Jerusalem I noticed the bus just ahead of me a terrorist appeared and began shooting into the bus even though I was not trained I was just an ordinary citizen out of my car and began taking the injured out one of the injured that I took out was a 12 year old girl who died in my arms Asaka volunteer came up to me from behind and told me that every drop of blood on my clothes turn the pavement have to be retrieved so it could be buried with her my clothes were full of blood and there was blood on the pavement the girl was taken to the identification Center and then to the funeral home for burial I had to go home to change my clothes and to surrender my blood-stained garments to the funeral home for burial with a child since I got involved I felt obligated to be present when the family was notified so I could tell them how it happened I have company two of those Arc of volunteers when we got there we knocked on the door and nobody answered  we decided to try the door anyway when we opened it there was people gathered and they started singing Happy Birthday in honor of the girl's 12th birthday  they thought you was on her a home and was this was supposed to be a surprise usually soccer comes with a few people one of them is a psychologist so that they can deal with the probable trauma you can imagine this kind of shock some families become enraged throwing things in hitting so that at least two or three people are needed to handle whatever comes up in this instance we chose to call out a family member to inform her the person was a cousin of the victim  the screen the whole family came running out there was just unbelievable chaos of yelling screaming and total shock we stayed for an hour and what does condom down and to help with funeral arrangements  the funeral of course took place the same day I was supposed to leave for it for the United States that night but change my flight so that I could end the funeral  this instance totally change my life I feel that there is nothing more important than helping moussaka in whatever way I can it's interesting to note and I think I mentioned this the other day that does show clanora what's the code of Jewish law that any Jew assassinated by a non-jew should be buried in the clothes he or she as the time that they were murdered as a demonstration of the sacrifice they made out of Shannon they are for those who lose their lives in terrorist attacks and Israeli soldiers who died in combat are buried in their blood-stained while prayers are recited their bodies are not disturbed by washing or dressing depending on the men hog fabric of the fabric conditioner they may Place talk with him over the body  prior to the bombing of the World Trade Center felt in the United States that this happens far away it's never going to happen to us we stayed glued to our televisions and then we go and have dinner well this changed in a very big way with 911 Mass disasters place identity in Peril so desperate with a people on the top floors of the World Trade Center when they knew their death was coming many wrote their social security numbers on their arms because they thought maybe that's the only way their bodies would identified rescue workers home the tons and tons of Rebel Rebel for the smallest shreds identity since most of the bodies were reduced to Ash there were very few proper burials and course very few taharas the row ansible brought in refrigerated containers to the New York medical examiner's office and as we have learned the other day from the time death to the time of burial there isn't Judaism an obligation to guard the body the practice Coach mirror is performed by individuals the read passages of songs as they sit with the deceased now in New York Armand Osgood who is already in elderly at the time of 9/11 he was a longtime member of the server condition of congregation ohav zedek on in Manhattan on the west side undertook to organize mirror for those that perished in 911 people were desperate to be of help and before long he had 200 volunteers to sit at the medical examiner's office for almost a year okay there's only one thing I wanted show me what is a 911 only 4 minutes a 911 volunteer who was about your age when she undertook to do this if I was a junior in college When September 11th happened and the day that it happened everyone was trying to figure out what we could do and soon after for those of us who were constantly trying to figure out what we could be doing it became clear that during Shabbat there was a need for someone to do shmira to watch over the bodies address traditional and Orthodox Judaism until until they're buried and during the week they had people who could do it for over Shabad most people don't live in that area of Manhattan and they reached out to the students at Stern college for women and when I was and I was at a student leader at the time and they said would you you know on help with this being bought with us and I said put me on the list I said of course the world has changed overnight and here was something where we could we could make a difference and we could tell us who lost their lives and that was really meaningful so it's interesting that this isn't something that I was trained for and it's nothing I never learned about in school never learned about it you know kindergarten through 12th grade and college it was something that I was never a part of the curriculum and so we to that there was a sort of folder that had basic instructions as to what schmear at is and what we could be doing in there was a shelf of books including two he leans on and and the first time was a little uncomfortable you know you're trying to figure out where you should say it in and you trying to you know it's before our is and you want to be deleted stay the whole time where you're praying on behalf of these souls and praying for for their souls to be redeemed can you and all the sorts of things but it is a long time so I think that there was I think it's a sort of what's what's great about Shiraz you power of tax and that your eyes are saying the taxes you can think about the stories of the tax you can think about the lives you can think about you know sting an entire Jewish people and and those were a lot of the thoughts that I came into mind also what happened to me and also a number of other people who do senior I was B there are other half lives really are as well as the sun came out you would see different sort of Chaplin's different Christian affiliation to sort of walk by and say what's going on and they were so attached because we weren't just praying for a Jewish Souls no paying for anyone who lost their lives and and they how to be very powerful that we were working you out all lives and and that Anna and the importance that we gave to the The Vessel tell our bodies and entering for them until they're able to be properly buried I did speak to the chaplains and I found some of those conversations to be quiet in some of that stayed a little bit past my shift because they wanted me to meet to talk about our religions and and how they intersect are don't and how our community was dealing with September 11th and then and the crisis of faith in some ways and and you know how how to build you know some camaraderie amongst people of different faiths and they're also sometimes you know either of people who for visiting you are again we wanted to be helpful or victims and stuff you know the families of the victims who are coming to visit who came with chaplains what are some challenging in a very good way but important conversations and I'm I think it was such a cutie such Shadows really sing I was a real thing nation of God's name that we were there 24/7 for for many months I think it was over a year so very important I think it was one of us things that we could be doing and I felt very proud to be a part of a group of women as a part of stern college for women who work limited too  to be spending our time in the right way and making a difference and making and letting people know can you don't want to do this order thing because of the credit that that you got on the other hand I was very proud that the institution was so supportive a mile and made it very where that of course women could do this and he also said of course you douche mirror offer for every soul everyone is created Patel MLK many image of God and is very proud of his day 15

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The Chevra Kadisha During the Holocaust and Acts of Terrorism (Rochel Berman)

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