Miracle Journey

Photo by Glenn Triest

Elsie
Simkovitz
today.

writes of going to the
French consulate for a visa.
She plans to visit her
daughter, Paulina.
Aug. 8, 1945: Bertha is
taken to the hospital with
pneumonia.
July 6, 1946: Together
with 900 other passengers,
she boards a ship for the
United States.
July 15, 1946: She arrives
in New York for a "very
emotional and wonderful
reunion." She is soon on to
Detroit, where she dreamed
of spending the rest of her
days "in the circle of my
loved ones."
It was a dream that came
true. Bertha Weinschenk

lived to be 95; she died in
August 1964. She spent her
last years what she
loved best: looking after her
family.
lsie Simkovitz re-
mains baffled.
Why did the Nazis
do it? And how did
her grandmother chance to
be lucky enough to be one of
the 1,200 transported out of
Theresienstadt?
The latter question will
likely always remain a mys-
tery, but the answer to the
first can be found in a 1945
telegram — once marked
"STRICTLY CONFIDEN-
TIAL NOT FOR PUBLICA-
TION" — that now belongs

E

to a Yeshiva University col-
lection on the Vaad
Hahatzala Emergency
Committee.
The Vaad was a New
York-based group, with
branches nationwide, orga-
nized by the Union of
Orthodox Rabbis of the
United States to help Jews
in Nazi Germany.
In 1945, the Vaad began
working with Jean Marie
Musy, former Swiss federal
council, who was negotiat-
ing for the release of Jews
with none other than
Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler agreed - to an
exchange of 1,200 Jews for
five million Swiss francs.

(Many credit Felix
Kersten with paving the
path for Himmler's conces-
sions. Dr. Kersten,
Himmler's masseur, "had
gained small concessions
from time to time, especially
during severe attacks of
stomach convulsions,"
writes author Nora Levin in
The Holocaust: The destruc-
tion of European Jewry
1933-1945.)
Himmler — who had aspi-
rations of becoming the
Fuhrer himself — apparent-
ly was looking to the future
when he began negotiating
the trade deal. The war was
coming to a close, and it was
obvious the Germans would

lose.
The telegram, sent by the
European Vaad Hahatzala
to its American counterpart,
reads in part: WE MUST
PAY FIVE MILLIONS (SIC)
SWISS FRANCS THAT
MUST BE DEPOSITED IN
THE SWISS BANK TO
THE CREDIT OF MUSY co
WHEN THESE TRANS- a)
PORTS ARRIVE STOP...
WE HAVE CONVINCED ti
THE GERMANS THAT
THE GOOD WILL OF
AMERICA IS MOST
CD
DESIRABLE.
A later report, based on
private conversations with
Mr. Musy, offers more

JOURNEY page 60

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