1
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Friday, May 25, 1984
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JINGLES
THE MAGIC CLOWN
Available for Children's
Parties
THE DETROI 7,1E-1V/11 41- N1W
: I- S-1
IAMWAY PRODUCTS
Mack Pitt
100% Guaranteed
Delivered
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NEWS
and his
Orchestra
661-9065
plus
Disco
Holocaust survivor details
struggle to resist the horror
Music just for you!
358-3642
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BY HELENA FLUSFEDER
Jerusalem — Tales of
war-time heroism, Nazi
persecution of the Jews and
life in the Warsaw Ghetto
have been recounted before.
Now, Israeli youth can read
in Hebrew about the war-
time experiences of a
Jewess who lives between
two worlds — that of the
ultra-Orthodox Belzer
Chasidim and the secular
world.
Between Two Worlds, by
Sandra Brand was pub-
lished in Hebrew in
January by Eked. Her prey-
vious book, I Dared to Live,
describes her life during the
war — in order to survive
and to help other Jews.
While she was born into a
family of Belzer
Chasidim, cebelled and mar-
ried into an assimilated
Jewish family. She later
"felt torn between the ethics
and morals of my father who
truly believed in God and
truly believed the Belzer
rebbe could help him
spiritually" and the wide
world outside the confines
in which she now lived.
Following the outbreak of
war in 1939, the Polish
Jewish community quickly
got a taste of the Germans,
in the three weeks before
Stalin and Hitler made
their pact to divide Poland
two. It was later, during
the Russian occupation of
Poland, that Mrs. Brand
went to Lvov to work.
Although Brand had been
reproved by Csg:ethodox
members of the community
for marrying a man who had
not been approved by her
parents, they turned to her
for help to try to prevent
their synagogue from being
burned by the border Ger-
man police. Not only did she
speak excellent German,
but she had been successful
before in dealing with the
Germans, when they had
come to requisition textiles
from her family's business.
Her life changed in 1941
after an incident with a
friend of hers who was
editor of a Polish-Jewish
newspaper. He had written
political articles against the
Hitler regime from 1933
onwards and knew he would
be arrested when the Ger-
mans invaded. He showed
Mrs. Brand a cyanide cap-
sule which he kept in case
It was while she was
encouraging him to regain
the will to live that she de-
cided to acquire forged
Polish-Catholic papers and
go to another city. From this
time onwards, she gained a
new identity: she became
Cecylia Szarek.
She bought papers from a
Polish friend, went to War-
saw and got a job as a
Polish-German translator.
She had arranged with her
husband that when she
found a -job for him and a
place for their child, she
would come back for them
(in Zloczov).
However, when she re-
turned in 1941, they had
been deported. She tried to
convince herself that her
husband would have left
their son with a Polish fam-
ily and she searched for
them again after the war,
only to discover that they
had both been amongst the
first to be deported.
In Warsaw, two Germans
came in her apartment one
evening to search for a
Jewess from Lvov — "they
meant me." While acting as
their translator, Mrs. Brand
was overlooked as a suspect.
However the policemen
took various valuables
away. She was persuaded by
others in the building that it
would be in place to com-
plain to the police about the
"robbery."
It was there in the Ger-
man criminal police, while
fearing for her life, that she
met Rolf Rechter who "be-
came my- great friend and
saint." He was to join the
Polish underground and
was responsible for saving
many Jews, both from Po-
land and later in Russia
when he helped Jews to
evade capture by getting
them to masquerade as Tar-
tars (who were also circum-
cized).
One incident in the War-
saw Ghetto involved a man
called Weinstein who,
thinking she was a Gentile,
asked Sandra to enlist Re-
chter's help in trying to re-
scue 25 Jews from the Urn-
shlagplatz — the place
where victims from the
Ghetto were assembled be-
fore being sent to concentra-
tion camps.
Rechter said they were
workers from the factory
where Mrs. Brand was em-
ployed for although the fac-
tory was in the Warsaw
Ghetto, the merchandise
was sent to a German fac-
tory on the Aryan side. She
was afraid to admit that she
wanted to save the Jews she
agreed to help. In the proc-
ess, she was arrested by two
Germans and at first she
thought Rechter had bet-
rayed her.
Finally they managed to
release 22 people. Far from
betraying her, Rechter,
having ascertained that she
was Jewish, gave her a let-
ter in case of an emergency,
putting her under his pro-
tection in the German
police. At great risk to him-
self "he helped me smuggle
money to the Ghetto, and to
bring and take messages
from the Ghetto," Mrs.
Brand said.
She recalled the occasion
when she tried to smuggle
money into the Ghetto bt
both she and Rechter were
arrested. Somehow she ex-
plained to the authorities
that she had a permit to
check the merchandise for
her company before it left
the Ghetto. She had asked
Rechter to accompany her to
the Ghetto, she said, be-
cause she had heard it
wasn't safe. They were
eventually released. Rech-
ter was later sent to Russia
for punishment since he had
been socializing with a Pole.
On his return, Mrs. Brand
became the intermediary in
smuggling weapons and af-
fidavits for the under-
ground.
Forty years later, with
the "guilt feelings" of a sur-
vivor, Mrs. Brand neverthe-
less gives the impression of
a woman with a mission: to
describe the events of the
war, to be herself, to honor
her past and to pay deserved
tribute to Rolf Rechter.
Happy that her books have
now been published in He-
brew, she still has a strong
connection with the king-
dom of the Belzer rebbe_. In
Between Two Worlds, her
chapter on this is the one
"that touches most people,
not only the Orthodox but
also assimilated people.
Somehow I caught the at-
mosphere of that kingdom
in Belz," she -said.
Her recent visit to Israel
celebrated the publishing of
this book — and also the fact
that Rolf Rechter, -who was
killed on order of the Ges-
tapo, was officially honored
in Jerusalem's Yad VaS-
hem recently as a "right-
eous Gentile" for his brave
acts on behalf of European
Jews.
World Zionist Press Service
Tourism chief
hits U.S. Jews
.
Tel Aviv (ZINS) — Av-
raham Sharir, the Israeli
Minister of Tourism,
criticized American Jews in
a recent Haaretz article.
The Hebrew daily quotes
Sharir as saying that 85
percent of American Jewry
has failed to make even one
trip to Israel, claiming that
such a trip "is not interest-
ing or is too expensive."
Building drive
San Francisco (JTA) —
Members of Sha'ar Zahav,
the first homosexual con-
gregation of San Francisco,
have raised more than
$200,000 to complete the
purchase of a synagogue.