THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, May 4, 1984

Kibbutz and museum in shadow of Holocaust

BY J. CHESKY

Jerusalem — Prominent
on Israel's coastal plain on
the road from Acre to
Nahariya, the Holocaust
and Resistance Museum
serves as a monument to the
suffering of survivors of Hit-
ler's Europe, who came to
Galilee to build a better fu-
ire. It was established
simultaneously with
Lohmei HaGetaot, the
Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz,
where it is located, on April
19, 1949, the sixth anniver-
sary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising.
"The people who estab-
lished the Ghetto Fighters'
Kibbutz had two messages
to convey," says kibbutz
member Gezi Kaplan. "To
ensure that the Jewish re-
sistance and the Holocaust
were not forgotten and to
show the world that people
who emerged from that hell
could develop a settlement
and build a society."
The museum, which is vi-
sited by 250,000 people an-'
nually, has one of the
world's largest archives of
Holocaust materials. It in-
cludes 40,000 photographs,
240 films, many of which
were taken by the Nazis,
and a 60,000-volume li-
brary. In addition, it has
published 140 books and
has made two full-length
films about the resistance
and the flight from Hitler's
Europe.
Because of the expense of
maintaining and develop-
ing the museum, it has been
turned into a national proj-
ect. Half of the responsibil-
ity still remains in the
hands of the kibbutz and ten
members- of Lohamei
HaGetaot and still hold key
staff posts. The central in-
stitution commemorating
the Holocaust and Jewish
resistance is at Yad Vashem
in Jerusalem. The southern
kibbutz of Yad Mordechai is
named after Mordechai
Anielewicz, commander of
the Warsaw Ghetto revolt.
The Lohamei Ha.Getaot
museum recently started an
eight-volume series of tes-
timony by 96 kibbutz mem-
bers who went through the
Holocaust. "Much of the in-
formation in the series has
not even been told to their -
children," says Kaplan.
"Because even though they
put up the museum many of
e older members pre-
\ ,rred to concentrate on the
future, rather than dwell-
ing on the past. Also, the
emphasis here was on the

Physician cited

The American College of
Physicians (ACP) an-
nounced that Dr. Jeffrey
Miles Zaks of Farmington
Hills has been elected to
Fellowship in the 60,000-
member national medical
specialty society.

-

resistance and not the hor-
higher than the average for
rors."
kibbutzim.
Of the 270 members of the
Another possible result,
kibbutz, more than half according to Kaplan, is a
were born after the subconscious preoccupation
Holocaust. Many of them,
with the Holocaust. "In the
like Kaplan, had no connec- kibbutz, you will hear jokes
tion with it. "I came through about the Holocaust, which
my youth movement, Dror, I see as an attempt to reject
along with the group of or block out the past. At the
other Israeli youngsters, 15 same time, the members
years ago," he smiles. "We seem to read an inordinate
were all depressed about the amounts, about Nazi Ger-
prospect both because we many .. .
wanted to go to a new kib-
"I believe the name of the
butz and because of the 'kibbutz, the group that
name. We thought that any founded it and the museum
place called 'Ghetto Fight- have placed a certain re-
ers' had to be a kibbutz sponsibility on the members
where people lived in the to continue to research and
past and no one smiled. In- educate the Israeli popula-
stead, we found a warm, tion about the Holocaust.
friendly atmosphere, where
people knew how to enjoy
themselves and how to re-
ceive newcomers."
Like many other Galilee
kibbutzim, Lohamei
HaGetaot is now financially
successful. Each family has
at least a three-room dwell-
ing with a television. It
grows cotton, tomatoes,
sweet corn, wheat, avocado
and citrus. In addition, it
has a very profitable lives-
tock branch, with 900 head
of cattle, a large poultry run
and fish ponds.
Its only factory produces
electric capacitors for the
Israeli and export markets.
However, it does not export
to or import from Germany,
in accordance with a deci-
sion taken many years ago
by the membership.
Gezi cannot point to any
special problems the
Holocaust has caused to
members' children. How-
ever, he thinks that it might
have made some of the old
timers more conscious of
their children's needs and
desires. "Other than that,
we are a kibbutz like any
other. Our educational sys-
tem is standard."
One possible indicator of
a bond between parents and
children is that 60 percent
of the sons and daughters of
the kibbutz return there to
live after their army serv-
ice. This is somewhat

And the fact that the
younger members of the
kibbutz approved the pub-
lishing of the testimony
series on the Holocaust is an
indication that they will do
so."
If the people of Lohamei
HaGetaot set out to prove
that Holocaust survivors
could build a new society,
their kibbutz is evidence of
their achievement. As for
their museum, it is both an
important educational in-
strument and a symbol of
the connection between the
past, the present and the fu-
ture in contemporary
Jewish life.

World Zionist Press Service

A model of a concentration camp at the Holocaust and
Resistance Museum.

Reg. $24 to $40

• REVELATIONS
• BASS • CANDIES
• BROWSABOUTS
• GRASSHOPPERS

Choose from hundreds of pairs of fine footwear at
a fraction of the original price. All spring colors and
materials.

Israeli group
seeks pen-pals

Jerusalem — The Youth
Zionist Council in Israel has
implemented a pen-pal pro-
gram for Jewish youths in
the diaspora.
Those who wish to corre-
spond with young people in
Israel should write Zvi
Shamir, chairman -
Jerusalem branch, Youth
Zionist Council in Israel, 18
Bezalel St., Jerusalem
94501, Israel. Include your
name, address, age, sex,
hobbies, language of com-
munication and the type of
person with whom you
would like to correspond.

lip

Look for the red dot on additional current styles
marked down for this event.

Murata's

Name Brand Shoes

Orchard Lake at 14 Mile Road, Farmington Hills

4.* -$

it

9 'j

9 b 9.

9;

';

!i•

Mon.-Fri. 10-9
Saturday 10-6
Sunday 12-5

is 4

47

