OCR Text |
Show - I - 1 Holocaust survivors in Utah recount the horror (continued from the front) backbreaking work and starvation in the forced labor camps. It was, despite the German penchant for order, a dichotomy that was never fully resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. There was little debate, however, over the fate of those who were unable to work; they were prime candidates for extermination. Some of the worst atrocities Schafir remembers were when the SS raided apartments and took infants from their parents. They simply stuffed the infants in sacks , tied the sacks and threw them outside They simply stuffed the infants in sacks, tied the sacks and threw them outside obviously for the purpose of extermination, he said. Jews quickly learned trades essential" to the war economy to avoid being selected for transport to the camps or for extermination. Two uncles taught young Michael to be a weaver, and he went to work in a private factory making sweaters and socks for German soldiers. Still, the SS periodically raided the factories, culling out workers for labor camps over the protests of the industrialists. On orresudwwd, Michael escaped selection by hiding under an table. He watched the SS soldiers boots and listened as they took workers for transport. In May 1940, Michael went to see an aunt during lunch. After the visit he walked outside of the apartment building and into the arms of the Waffen SS, who were "there to conduct a raid. The soldiers placed him on a truck with 20 other lews and took them to Bismarckhuette, a camp just over the border in eastern Germany. . SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Bismarckhuette was a camp in name only, consisting of only a fenced enclosure and guards. There were no barracks, so prisoners slept on the ground The lews labored six days in a rock auarry or doing construction. On the seventh day they built the barracks. With winter approaching, construction of the barracks took on a sense of urgency. Prisoners were fed once a day after returning from work. Dinner was a piece of bread and a watery gruel that had a potato in it and little else. The food supply was deliberately designed so that prisoners couldnt survive over a sustained period of time. Hunger was absolutely constant. People would kill for bread, even fellow prisoners, he said. It got so that people were so starved, so hungry, some would grab bread out of anothers hands. If they tried to take it back. ..they were hit and often killed. This was a common event. We were totally dehumanized." Michael augmented his meager diet by trading his tobacco rations to other prisoners for precious morsels of food. He was also helped by Jews from Bendzin, who knew and venerated his grandfather and did what they could to make his life easier. Camp routine was brutal. Prisoners arose at .4:30 a.m., gathered outside and stood at rigid attention for roll call, which sometimes lasted for hours if someone was missing. Weakened from hunger and disease, Schafir remembers many eople simply collapsing and being beaten or shot y tne SS guards. Others simply gave up by throwing themselves on the electrified fences or were shot attempting to escape. When roll call was over, prisoners were marched to the quarrv or construction site where they worked until early evening. After marching back to camp, they were fed and did camp chores until lights out, usually about 10 p.m. Even then, sleep was slow in coming. We still had problems with lice; it was terrible, Schafir said. And there were several of us to a bunk, which wasn't really a bed but just a sack of straw. You also had to hide your bread, if to keep it until you had the shoes. If you And dont forget your morning. would take someone shoes didnt hold on to your them. ..The longer we were there the worse it got in terms of personal behavior. ACTS OF HEROISM Michael was moved to Reigersfeld In where he remained until March 1944. At witnessed Reigersfeld Michael, now a the usual acts of human depravity and sadism perpetrated by the SS and some of the kapos prisoners picked out by the SS to enforce work mid-194- teen-age- r, orders and camp discipline. He also witnessed some incredible acts of heroism. One man, a civilian who wore a Nazi party pin on his lapel, came almost daily to the site where Michael worked and furtively dropped a sandwich on the ground. He never spoke to me well-dresse- d and we rarely had eye contact. I dont even know who he was or what was his profession. But if there was any one event that helped me survive physically, it would be this.. .Im sure he knew he was risking his life, Schafir said. On another occasion a contingent of German officers inspected a chemical lant the prisoners were building. The Allies ombed the site with pinpoint accuracy the very next day and leveled the plant. I learned later the officers were not Germans at all; they were British spies, he explained. Events such as these inspired hope for many prisoners. With savage beatings, killings and starvation a cruel fact of life, any event that helped one make it through one more day was welcome. More typical of life in the camps, Schafir said, was an experience that resulted in the death of a friend. As they were marching back to camp from work one evening they were stopped by the SS and searched. On one middle-ageman, with whom Michael had struck up a friendship, they found a new shoelace on one of his shoes. They suspected that he had traded something to get the shoelace. ..The SS also found some mundane, minor things on two other prisoners. All three of them were hanged, and we had to witness it before our food was distributed. Obeying rules, however, was no assurance of survival. The SS guards didnt need an excuse to maim or kill. The prisoners, especially Jews and Slavs, were considered inferior and disposable. They were often killed for no reason. Schafir recalls SS guards at the top of the quarry shoving Jews over the edge to their death 300 feet below. There were no rules..., he said. The one thing you learned was to stay out of eyesight as much as possible. When you go to the bathroom, stay as long as you can. It was a survival tactic to stay out of sight. high-rankin- g d advanced, Bleckhammer was evacuated and the prisoners marched west on foot. In January 1945, 5,000 prisoners left the camp n for the forced march to the concentration camp. Michael was one of 1,500 to survive. Most fell by the wayside and were beaten or shot to death by the guards. From the prisoners marched west from camp to camp before the advancing Russian army. Schafir remembers it as a period of total chaos. Roads were choked with German refugees, food was scarce, and many SS guards deserted. On April 1, in a camp in former East Germany, Michael lay on a cot and waited for death. Weighing only 75 pounds and suffering from dysentery, he was no longer able to work a ticket for extermination. I heard a commotion outside. ..but I was so weak I was unable to get up from my cot to see what was going on, he said. Then a tall American soldier he looked to me like he was 10 feet tall came into the barracks. He picked me up in his arms, carried me to a jeep and drove me to an American Army field hospital. For Michael, the war was finally over. Gross-Rose- Gross-Rose- n, 1 DEATH MARCHES By late 1944 it was clear the Germans were losing the war. Michael was in Bleckhammer, a camp where he remembers being strapped to a table and given 25 lashes. As the Russian army ar DID CHRISTIANITY FAIL? one-wa- y BALM OF GILEAD Even though Americans liberated the camp, the area was turned over to the Soviets because of the Yalta Agreement. Michael left and walked the many miles to the British Zone of Occupation in Germany. Returning to Poland wasnt much of an option. I had no reason to go back to Poland, he said. There was nobody left to go back to. His mother, brother and grandparents were numbered among the six million plus Jews murdered by Nazis. Understandably, he was very bitter and admits to having looked at every German as a murderer. The hospital healed him physically. It was Ann, a British Quaker volunteer, who helped him to resolve his inner turmoil. She not only taught Schafir English, but helped him to look at each German as an individual. This enabled me emotionally to stay with Germans, live with Germans and go to school "Lurking behind AN EYE FOR AN EYE In this atmosphere, the prisoners themselves often learned to act in ways totally at odds with their upbringing. The normal standards of human conduct and decency were suspended. One example, cited by Schafir, was the fate of a German civilian who was a war veteran and walked with a cane. The prisoners didnt know what his function was. All they knew was that when he walked by they were going to get whipped or hit. During one Allied air raid, the man limped toward the bomb shelter reserved exclusively for the Germans. He took refuge in a hole fillea with construction timber when he realized he couldnt get to the shelter on time. A bomb exploded nearby, and the timber caught fire. I walked by at the end of the raid and I heard someone yell for help," Schafir said. I looked down and saw him. He begged me to help him out. But when I saw that it was him, I just walked away and let him burn to death. Later, at Buchenwald, Michael was one of about 30 prisoners who saw and recognized a French Jew they knew from a previous camp. The man had been especially cruel as a kapo in an effort to improve his lot and standing with the Germans. We walked into the barrack and saw him. There was no organization, no talk; nobody said a thing. We all just pounced on him simultaneously and killed him. ..We stayed on him until he was dead. with Germans, he said. After learning English, Schafir worked as a paid interpreter for the British. His wages paid for private tutors and enabled him to graduate from nigh school in 18 months. He was then admitted to the University of Goettingen medical school, where he was the only Jew in a class of 300 mostly German war veterans. He arrived in the United States in 1951 on scholarship. After graduating from Tulane University medical school in 1955, a two-yeresidency ana a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Schafir set up private practice in Northern California. He ana nis wife, Dixie, moved to Utah when he retired in 1987. anti-Semit- e, Groups preaching that the is a hoax are much for real, said Dr. Ronald Smclser, a history professor at the University of Utah. Smelser said these groups, once thought to be kooks are now gaining a stronger voice. Smelser, a renowned expert on the Holocaust, said there are many reasons why groups which deny the Holocaust are gaining attention. In todays climate, thanks to some entertainment, such as Oliver Stone's JFK, People are really not much in a position anymore to judge whats truth and whats fantasy. When you have two legitimate positions, people give credence to each side. Smelser said that confusion has left many easy prey to the propagandists who are now couching their rhetoric in reasonable language. At one time those who preached against the Holocaust recognized as "kooks who John Birchers, or Ku Klux members. Smelser said now supposed experts, are speaking out against the Holocaust. One such expert, Arthur Butz, a tenured professor (in electrical engineering) at Northwestern University, went public with his fanaticism in his were were Klan some In the years since his liberation, Schafir has analyzed the Holocaust. The answer to why the murder of 12 million people was allowed to cradle of happen in Europe tne was important to him. Western Civilization Since Christian teachings are the foundation for much of the Wests values, Schafir attributes much of what happened and is happening to a failure of Christianity. The question is: Did Christianity fail? And you have to come to the conclusion that it did, he said. A lot of the teachings are excellent, but the good teachings never fully took hold. For example, you have to ask yourself how slavery could be practiced in this country when the people who came here were persecuted Christians. An important key in preventing future holocausts, he believes, is for teachers of Christianity to take more responsibility and analyze what they are teaching. Understanding the Why? of the Holocaust is not a matter of assessing blame for Schafir. But he believes knowing the answer to that question is every bit as important as simply remembering that the Holocaust took place. People must be respected as human beings, even though they may be different, he said. A human being is unique, and every human being is precious. so-call- the scholarly language of denial is a racist, hate-fiilepolitical agenda." d Journal of Historical Review. Smelser said the journal is complete with footnotes and photos denying the Holocaust Butzs followers are purported to be honest scholars. But if you look, lurking behind the scholarly language of denial is a racist, d political agenda." Smelser said todays experts are old fashioned taking their message to the 90s. They play on peoples credulity e, hate-fille- and ignorance. That ignorance has lead to a new rise of fascism. Smelser said the one positive thing that Communism may have done was to have "kept its thumb on fascists. Now with the fall of communism, fascism is once again visible around the world. Weve seen it in Bosnia. Its coming out again." Smelser said he had hoped the terrible destruction of World War II fascism would have burned out, but it really never left. Although there are many fanatical groups, they are as yet not a monolithic force. Each has its own agenda with ideological bias. The only thing they have in common is Holocaust denial. In today's politics, if sympathy for the Jews can be removed, the b l, forces could gain power. With the Holocaust out of the picture, it lessens the anti-Israe- pro-Ara- support for the state of Israel, said Smelser. He said he has not seen a lot of activity in Utah. There are groups active on campuses in other states and I suspect well see it here, especially with the Aryan Nations group in Idaho. The best defense, said Smelser, is knowledge. If someone asks if you know about the Holocaust and you answer No, they can tell you anything they want about it. Being educated and aware of the historical truth is as good of armor as I can think of, he said. Smelsers years of study and lecturing on the Holocaust has cemented his knowledge of its reality. Those who deny it are not worth my attention," he said. He praised Steven Spielbergs Schindlers List. Its a very powerful movie. It is indeed what happened. Smelser said the movie could do more good to get the message out than 20 years in the classroom. Smelsers message the Holocaust was real. Were at a critical juncture. The deniers are emerging just as the eyewitnesses are dying out. Could the Holocaust be repeated? Smelser quoted a major scholar of the Holocaust, Raoul Hillberg, who answered the question, Anything's possible. |