The Funerals of Heroic Rescuers

atzum-ivan with scarf

As the Righteous Among the Nations grow older, we at ATZUM are mournfully attending more funerals of these heroic individuals. The funerals, often unattended by non-family members, are a last chance to honor the individual and try to bring comfort and support to their families.

In March ATZUM staff attended two funerals. The funerals were entirely different but during both we parted from remarkable women, brought to rest in a special plot for Righteous Among the Nations and their spouses in Tel-Aviv’s Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.

The first funeral was of Shura Gordon z”l, the Jewish spouse of rescuer Valentin Avdenko, from Holon. Shura was an amazing woman, always with a big smile and much warmth. Her funeral was attended by a small group of family. As the majority of the family does not speak Hebrew, Raya Luvitch, ATZUM’s Russian-speaking staff member, was able to translate and help with the arrangements concerning for the funeral. Raya also gave the only eulogy at the funeral, speaking of Shura’s great capacities for warmth, giving and love.

The second funeral, a few days later, was that of Righteous Among the Nations Irena Landau (nee’ Jankiewicz). During the War, Irena, then a young Polish woman of 22, left her parents and siblings and shaped her life around saving Jews. She got a job in a beer factory, making sure her income could support the group of Jews she was helping. After work, at night, she would sneak into the forest with food and other necessities for the Jews under her care, a group that grew rapidly after news of her actions spread. One of these Jews was Jozef Czarny who eventually reached Irena’s care after escaping from Treblinka (Czarny was to become a lead witness in the Demjanjuk trials). During the winters, Irena would find hiding places in different areas, often paying people to shelter the Jews. She would smuggle her people to the hiding places one at a time, under great danger, managing to save a 15 Jews.

Rabbi Levi Lauer, Founding Executive Director of ATZUM, officiated at the funeral. It was very important to the family Irena be buried in a Jewish ceremony, as she cast her lot with the Jewish people not only during the war but throughout her life. Irena married Aharon Landau, one of the Jews she rescued and had three children together. Together with Aharon’s son from his first marriage, whom Irena saved as well (Aharon’s first wife and one of his two sons were killed during the war), the Landau family realized their dream of moving to Israel in 1957.

In addition to the eulogies by family members and ATZUM staff honoring Irena’s heroic actions, love for her husband and modesty, a daughter of one of Irena’s survivors spoke as well. How moving it was to see the people who are alive, whose children are alive, due to the actions of Irena Landau z”l.

ATZUM Mourns Ivan Vranetic

atzum-ivan with scarf

Ivan VraneticATZUM is deeply saddened by the death of Ivan Vranetic, 82 year old rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust who later moved to Israel and became chairman of the Organization of Righteous Among the Nations in Israel. His funeral was attended by family, friends, other rescuers and various public figures. ATZUM staff were in attendance and eulogized Ivan who we had worked closely with to bring aid to Righteous Among the Nations in need.

In 1942, Ivan began giving shelter to Jews in his native Croatia. Because his town of Topusko was on the German border, the Nazis frequently conducted raids which forced Ivan to escape to the forest with the Jews he was harboring. In Israel, Ivan took on the position of chairman of the Organization for Righteous Among the Nations and worked tirelessly to bring help and support to other rescuers who had also made their home in the Jewish state.

May his memory be blessed.

Jerusalem Post – The Human Spirit: Lunch with the Righteous

Reprinted from the Jerusalem Post online
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339420822&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

By: Barbara Sofer

On the patio of Nagish Café, a blind man is drinking coffee with a friend who has arrived in an electric wheelchair. Inside, I’m having lunch with the Righteous Among the Nations, a group of women who all risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. We’re in Ramat Yishai, a small town in the Jezreel Valley, emerald green this winter from abundant rain.
Righteous Among the Nations…

Esther Grinberg-Boissevain Over the past weeks, the probability that we will need to release so many of our malevolent enemies to free Gilad Schalit has weighed heavy on us. In addition, I’ve just finished reading Operation Last Chance, Ephraim Zuroff’s biographical account of his work as a Nazi hunter. Despite the worthy cause, too often mass murderers of our people have succeeded in living out their lives without having to face justice.

In contrast to those evil persons, I am privileged to be surrounded by these living examples of righteousness and valor. A voluntary organization called ATZUM has initiated the gathering. Officially recognized Righteous Among the Nations are entitled to citizenship in Israel. Over the decades since World War II, 100 rescuers have taken advantage of this right and have moved here. Many have passed away, but currently the country is home to a surviving 29 rescuers and nine widow/ers of surviving rescuers. They were youngsters when their parents stood against the tide of anti-Semitism, risking their children to save strangers.

FORMER NAZIS, according to Zuroff, cannot resist opportunities to boast of their past deeds despite the risk involved. The Righteous are exactly the opposite. Ask them why they or their parents saved Jews, and they proffer a simple answer: “It was simply the right thing to do.”

And the children?

“If a child was caught, chances were less that we’d be shot,” explains Lydia Ivnovana Galita, who grew up in a village near Odessa. At age 12, she waited for dark and then carried food to Jews in hiding in a storeroom. Near Lvov, Jaroslawa Lewicki remembers packing the food in her schoolbag with supplies, walking past the Nazis, and delivering it to a bunker where her family is credited with saving 25 Jews, while hiding two more in their home. She was only nine.

ATZUM volunteers provide services for these aging heroes, making sure they get the health and welfare benefits provided under National Insurance, visiting them and hosting gatherings. They speak little Hebrew. Meeting is getting harder. The youngest rescuer is 74; the oldest is 97.

TODAY’S MEETING place, which has drawn rescuers from the North, is taking place in the country’s first café run by persons with disabilities. The name of the restaurant is a play on words in Hebrew: “Nagish” means both “we will serve” and “accessible.”

Physically, mentally, emotionally challenged men and women work at the café. They’ve been involved in planning the layout with its nonslip tile floors and wide doorways. They cook and serve the quiches, soups and salads that make it a popular venue for locals to do lunch or host parties.

“We wanted something pretty and with good food that could compete on its own merits,” says Hester Grinberg-Boissevain, who is the connection between Nagish Café and today’s lunch guests. She is both one of the project’s prime movers and a Righteous Among the Nations.

Born in Amsterdam, Grinberg-Boissevain and her twin brother Charles were the youngest of six children of Sonia and Robert Lucas Boissevain. Finances forced them first to move to a family cottage on the seacoast in Zandvoort, but their home was taken over and destroyed by the Nazis, and they took refuge in an uncle’s home in Haarlem. In March, 1943, her father brought a Jewish family for dinner at their home in Haarlem. They stayed for two years and two months.

“Never, ever tell a secret or a story to anyone,” was her father’s command. “Even one story to one person can be fatal for all.”

Several months after he brought home the Goldbergs, Robert Boissevain, having been active in the resistance, was forced to go into hiding himself. He was caught and tortured and deported to Buchenwald.

SONIA BOISSEVAIN was left alone to care for her own six children and the four hiding Jews. In the frigid Dutch winter, there was no electricity or heating and very little food. She’d read somewhere that their famous Dutch tulips were a source of nutrition, and sent one of her sons, 13, to drag home 400 kilograms of tulip bulbs. The tulips kept them alive.

On April 12, 1945 – Robert and Sonia’s wedding anniversary – the Americans came to liberate Buchenwald.

“Come, let us go and meet them at the entrance,” Robert Boissevain reportedly told his fellow inmates. On his way there, he collapsed and never reached the fence. Despite the torture, he’d died without revealing any stories to the Germans.

“After the war, we didn’t talk about what had happened in Holland,” said Grinberg-Boissevain. She studied nursing. When she saw the newsreels of the sick and emaciated Jewish immigrants on crowded ships arriving at transit camps or on the shores of Israel, she decided to set sail herself and help. She eventually converted to Judaism, changed her name from Hester to Esther, married a Jewish man and brought up two children in Israel. For most of her career, she worked as a nurse in Ramat Yishai. When she retired, she helped launch the Nagish Café project. What better place could there be for a meeting of such good people?

ACCORDING TO ATZUM’s project director, Yael Rosen, there are three reasons Righteous move to Israel. Some come to enjoy better living conditions, but others have married survivors, convert and come here, or identify with the cause of those they’ve saved and not their own countries where the atrocities took place.

“When teaching about the courage and strength of Righteous Among the Nations, we focus both on their lives during the Shoah, and the lives they later established in Israel, why they came and how they built their lives in the Jewish state.”

Seventeen members of Grinberg-Boissevain’s family served in the resistance during the war. Seventeen men and women work at Nagish Café. Says Grinberg-Boissevain, “Life goes on and we were part of it.”

ATZUM Organizes Gathering of Righteous Among the Nations

RG-gathering

Righteous Among the Nations gathering organized by ATZUMOn Dec. 28th, ATZUM organized a luncheon for Righteous Among the Nations living in Northern Israel. The gathering was in lieu of the annual meeting of Righteous Among the Nations living in Israel, organized by the Tel Aviv municipality and Bank Leumi which many rescuers from the North had been unable to attend due to the distance and their failing health.

The luncheon was held at the Nagish cafe run by physically, emotionally and mentally disabled people. It is part of a social volunteer project organized by Righteous Among the Nations, Esther Boissevain-Grinberg.

The participants came from Haifa, Nazareth Illit, Tivon and Karmiel and
enjoyed a three course meal and the chance to visit with one another. Esther shared with the group the background of the cafe and the steps towards its establishment. ATZUM’s Russian speaking field worker, Raya, translated Esther’s address, as well as the opening and closing remarks, into Russian for the rescuers that do not understand Hebrew.

It was a wonderful gathering – bringing together honorable, remarkable people in a very special setting.

Rescuer Who Saved Rabbi Lau Honored as Righteous Among the Nations

A righteous gentile was added to the honored list of Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem last week. The righteous rescuer, Feodor Mikhailchenko, was posthumously honored for saving the young life of the past chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. Rabbi Lau was a young child when he was separated from his family and incarcerated in Nazi Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp.

Mikhailichenko was a Russian prisoner of war who shared the same barracks as Rabbi Lau. He took young Lau under his wing and tried to secure him food and clothing whenever possible. Rabbi Lau had tried unsuccessfully to locate Mikhailichenko through the years. Not knowing his last name was a huge obstacle in his search. This past year, Rabbi Lau, who now serves as the chairman of Yad Vashem, was notified that a Holocaust researcher in the U.S. had found his rescuer. Unfortunately Mikhailichenko passed away in 1993 but he is survived by two daughters who remember their father telling them about the young Jewish boy he took care of in Buchenwald.

Mikhailichenko’s daughters attended the ceremony at Yad Vashem last week that honored their late father as a Righteous Among the Nations. Rav Lau was emotional when he spoke about the person who saved his life. Pointing to his son and grandchild, Rabbi Lau stated that neither would be here today if not for Mikhailichenko.

Rav Lau has always been extremely supportive of the Righteous Among the Nations living in Israel. With his help, a special plot in the Tel Aviv Kiryat Shaul cemetery was allocated for Righteous Gentiles. Several of the righteous rescuers whom ATZUM assisted were buried there. The memorial in the middle of the plot quotes the Jewish source that states: “Righteous Among the Nations have a place in the world to come”.

A new righteous gentile was added to

the honored list of Righteous Among the

Nations at Yad Vashem Holocaust

Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance

Authority in Jerusalem last week. The

righteous rescuer, Feodor

Mikhailchenko, was posthumously

honored for saving the young life of the

past chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yisrael

Meir Lau.

Rabbi Lau was a young child when he

was separated from his family and

incarcerated in Nazi Germany’s

Buchenwald concentration camp.

Mikhailichenko was a Russian prisoner

of war who shared the same barracks as

Rabbi Lau. He took young Lau under his

wing and tried to secure him food and

clothing whenever possible.

Rabbi Lau had tried unsuccessfully to

locate Mikhailichenko through the years.

Not knowing his last name was a huge

obstacle in his search. This past year,

Rabbi Lau, who now serves as the

chairman of Yad Vashem was notified

that a Holocaust researcher in the U.S.

had found his rescuer. Unfortunately

Mikhailichenko passed away in 1993 but

he is survived by two daughters who

remember their father telling them about

the young Jewish boy he protected in

Buchenwald.

Mikhailichenko’s daughters attended the

ceremony at Yad Vashem last week that

honored their late father as a Righteous

Among the Nations. Rav Lau was

emotional when he spoke about the

person who saved his life. Pointing to his

son and grandchild Rabbi Lau stated

that neither would be here today if not for

Mikhailichenko.

Rav Lau has always been extremely

supportive of the Righteous Among the

Nations living in Israel. With his help, a

special plot in the Tel Aviv Kiryat Shaul

cemetery was allocated for Righteous

Gentiles. Several of the righteous

rescuers whom ATZUM assisted were

buried there. The memorial in the middle

of the plot quotes the Jewish source that

states: “Righteous Among the Nations

have a place in the world to come”.

Anton Polischuk ז”ל

We are deeply saddened to inform you that Anton Polischuk, grandson of  Righteous Among the Nations Viktor Polischuk’s, passed away July 7th at Hadassah Ein-Kerem in Yerushalayim. Over the past few weeks Anton’s condition deteriorated drastically despite Hadassah staff’s untiring, wonderfully directed and remarkably devoted efforts to restore Anton’s remission to enable a bone marrow transplant. The aggressive return of his cancer was uncontainable and Sunday Anton knew his death was approaching.

After fighting so hard for many years and especially the last five months he was able to find the final strength and courage to say goodbye to his fiancé and mother at his bedside. They are returning home to Ukraine with his body and ATZUM has arranged that final journey for Anton.

We wish to express our gratitude to those who generously contributed to this struggle to try to save Anton’s life. His unanticipated five month hospitalization and surgeries, intensive care treatments and chemotherapies were made possible by your caring. By so doing you honored the last wish of his heroic Righteous Rescuer grandfather; afforded his family the assurance they did all possible for their only child; brought support to his fiancé; and allowed Hadassah to gain crucial experience with a course of treatment that may well help save the life of a bone marrow transplant patient in the future.

Update on the Condition of Anton Polischuk

ATZUM is deeply grateful for the generous contributions we have received to date to assist our efforts in trying to save the life of Anton Polischuk, grandson of Righteous Among the Nations, Viktor Polischuk. ATZUM has raised $69,760 of the $97,000 required for Anton’s medical costs.

Anton is in treatment at Hadassah Hospital, Ein-Kerem in Jerusalem. After an extensive search worldwide, a suitable bone marrow match and willing donor were located. Unfortunately, in the interim Anton’s leukemia unexpectedly returned. Hadassah’s hematology and bone marrow transplant departments are making valiant efforts to restore his remission and then proceed with the bone marrow transplant. Together with you we pray for Anton’s speedy recovery.

Urgent Plea for help to save a life

When Righteous Among the Nations rescuer Viktor Polischuk discovered his grandson Anton had leukemia, he turned to ATZUM for help. Viktor, together with his family saved Jews during the Holocaust. Now his grandson is critically ill and needs a life saving bone marrow transplant.

ATZUM is reaching out to raise the funds needed to try to save Anton Polischuk’s life. We cannot imagine a more fitting tribute to a grandfather who risked all to save a Jewish family and allow future generations to come to life.

Read a translation of the article published in Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot about ATZUM’s efforts to  save a life .

To make a tax deductible contribution see:

http://atzum.org/contribute/

Please mark your contribution for “Anton”.

Righteous Among the Nations, Ivan Vrantetic, Meets the Pope in Jerusalem

Ivan Vranetic meets the Pope

photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

On May 11th, Righteous Among the Nations Ivan Vranetic met Pope Benedict XVI at the Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance in Jerusalem.

A Catholic born in Yugoslavia, at the age of 17, Ivan saved the lives of over 20 Jews in his home town. In 1963 he moved to Israel and in 1970 was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance as a Righteous Among the Nations for his part in saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Ivan serves as the chairman of the Organization of the Righteous Among the Nations in Israel.

ATZUM is in touch with Ivan on a daily basis, visits him regularly and has catered to a variety of his needs. When speaking to groups about Righteous Among the Nations, ATZUM always shares Ivan’s story as a sample of true heroism and inspiration.

Upon meeting the Pope this week in Jerusalem, Ivan stated that he was deeply moved and honored by the opportunity to meet the pontiff.  He added, “I want the Pope to bring peace to the world. I have always wanted peace all my life. That is why I did what I did.”

Ivan was only a teenager when he put his life on the line to save the lives of escaped Jews who had found their way to his town. Ivan was rarity in a town that largely supported the Nazi-allied militia. Ivan found hiding places for these Jewish escapees as well as securing for them food and other necessary items.

For many years Ivan remained in contact with the holocaust survivors that he rescued. Included in these contacts was a woman that he rescued. He eventually married her in Israel 20 years after the war.

Ivan says that it is hard to understand what it was like during the Holocaust years for someone who didn’t live through that time. He remains greatly disturbed that so much racisim still exists in the world.

When asked what made him risk his life to save others, he cited the upbringing his parents gave him. He was not just driven by a religious obligation to do the right thing, “it was something else”, Ivan explains.