I OPINION

I CONTENTS

A Yom Kippur Ritual
Linking Generations

AVIVA KEMPNER

E

very Yom Kippur my
prayers and thoughts
are especially with my
grandmother, Helen Ciesla. I
bear her first name as my
middle one.
Of my three grandparents
who died during the
Holocaust, I know only the
date of her death. Growing
up, I was told that cousin
Aaron remembered last see-
ing her alive on Yom Kippur
at Auschwitz.
Although I never found our
the exact date or year, I have
treasured knowing there was

Five years ago I
was able to take
my Yom Kippur
ritual one step
further.

a specific holiday I could use
to commemorate her death as
well as that of all my other
relatives.
So years ago, the Day of
Atonement took on a special
significance for me. On that
day I would mourn the death
of the bubbie who I had never
known. Every year when I
fast on Yom Kippur, I find
myself imagining the
cruelties of life at Auschwitz.
As I sit there without drink-
ing or eating, I force myself to
picture life as a slave laborer
in a state of near starvtion.
And as I light a yahrtzeit
memorial candle in their
memory, I pray for the inno-
cent souls of my grandmother
and family who never lived to
see liberation day in Europe.
Five years ago I was able to
take my Yom Kippur ritual
one step further. During the
summer of 1984 I took a
research trip to Poland for my
film. Although my trip
itinerary was centered in
Warsaw, I was determined to
also visit Auschwitz. In
preparation for my trip I was
told to take chocolate and cof-
fee for presents as there was
a shortage of such items in
Poland.
I was in New York City just
before I left for Poland and
found myself buying an addi-
tional item, a yahrtzeit can-
dle, that I assumed was lack-
ing in modern day Poland,
almost stripped bare of
Jewish identity and souls. I

Former Detroiter Aviva
Kempner is the producer of
the 'Partisans of Vilna.'

decided on the spot that I
would carry this Jewish
memorial candle to
Auschwitz.
During my brief stay in
Poland I visited several
synagogues, which were in
disuse and smelled of cold-
ness and mildew. I pictured
the ghosts of Jews everywhere
— among the streets of War-
saw and Cracow, and even in
Auschwitz.
The afternoon I went to
Auschwitz was a bright and
sunny summer day. As I had
been viewing hours of
documentary footage taken of
starved bodies pressed
against the barbed wire at
this death camp, I was total-
ly unprepared to accept the
visual image I beheld that
day. There were dozens of
Polish families coming to
Auschwitz. They were ' all
healthy looking and well
dressed. No one of course, had
tattered concentration camp
inmate uniforms. I was also
taken aback to see the
various shops that were doing
a brisk business outside the
camp museum. One could buy
flowers and ice cream and
lunch while visiting
Auschwitz. It had the ap-
pearance of a normal tourist
attraction.
All of a sudden I realized
that my instincts had been
correct. I walked around for a
couple of hours to find the
right location. Finally I came
to one of the crematoriums
and took out my memorial
candle — made in Tel Aviv,
bought in New York City, and
carried to Asuchwitz and lit
in memory of my grand-
mother and grandfather, aunt
and other relatives who had
died there. I recited a prayer
for them and all the Jews who
had perished. It was the sole
Jewish candle I saw that day
at Auschwitz among the
thousands of other burning
wicks.
Two days later at the air-
port I met another child of a
survivor who had been at
Auschwitz the day after my
visit. When I told her my
story she confessed how hap-
py she was to come upon my
yahrtzeit candle, burned to
the bottom and still sitting
there, and to feel that a
Jewish prayer had been made
there.
I pledged at the Warsaw air-
port to tell future visitors to
always hand-carry a
memorial candle — for my
grandmother and our collec-
tive memory on Yom Kip-
pur. CI

CLOSE-U P

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60
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Inside Washington
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Obituaries

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84

October 6, 1989
6:48 p.rn.
Shabbat ends Oct. 7 7:47 p.m.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

7