GREAT LAKES YACHT CLUB
OPEN HOUSE
SUNDAY, MAY 16

A Survivor's Story

TRIUMPH

from page 6

Join us for a complimentary lunch and
explore our facilities starting at 11:00

Great Lakes Yacht Club is a family oriented club founded in 1952 by
members of the Detroit Jewish Community. Our members now include
diverse backgrounds, both sail and power boaters, young and old, active

and social.

If you are a boater seeking a better place to call home, you owe it to
yourself and your family to consider GLYC membership and the advantages
of our facilities which include extensive landscaped areas, clubhouse and
restaurant, supervised swimming pool, full service wells, 30-ton haulout
and on-grounds storage. We have an active racing program, weekend
rendezvous and boating activities, and social events for the entire family.

If you and your family are interested in meeting the Great Lakes
family, please call our office for reservations. 810-778-9510.
Near 9 Mile and Jefferson in St. Clair Shores.

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11GAIMRWWNICIIIMECTS4, DESIGNERS & BUILDERS

1999

doing in the adult line, he said he
A New Beginning
looked the guard straight in the eye as
Two-and-a-half years later, David
his father said he was 14.
Bergman found himself living in a
"I was tall for my age, and I guess
foster home in Cleveland.
the guard believed him," he said.
After graduating from high school
"The guard sent me to an adult work-
in Cleveland in 1950 and enlisting in
ing line with my father." Seven days
the Air Force in 1952, he was sent to
later, on a cattle train to Plaszow,
Bremerhaven. His duty, ironically,
David celebrated his bar mitzvah day;
was protecting the Germans, his one-
his father passed around a bottle of
time captors, from the Russians, his
wine that he had sneaked on board..
one-time liberators.
In Plaszow, his father worked as a
He moved to Detroit in 1958,
tailor, while David worked on the
where he took night classes at
stone mountain.
Lawrence Tech. He married his wife,
"Many times, I wanted to cry from
Sharon, in 1961, a year
the pain, from the diffi-
after meeting her at a party
cult work," he said. "I
it in Detroit. Sharon was a
knew that if I cried, they
-21 student at Wayne State
would know I was a boy.
University while David was
I had to project that I
78' an electrical engineer at
was an adult. "
Tocco Inc., the industrial
He remembered work-
manufacturing company
ing side by side with a
that had transferred him to
non-Jew, a criminal
Detroit from Cleveland.
working a one-week sen-
He started a new career
The gates of Auschwitz. in insurance in 1976.
tence.
"The following week
According to his wife,
he was waving goodbye to me as a free
David began to discuss his past only
man," he said. "I didn't commit any
after they married. The talk happened
—/
crime and my time there was until
through sculpture.
death or liberation."'
"He had a knack for copper sculp-
All David thought about was sur-
ture," she said. "He started putting a
viving.
lot of his experiences into the artwork.
"Part of survival is the ability to
"When he decided he had done
mix illusion with reality," he said.
enough with his sculptures, he started
"The illusion meant that while I
writing about his experiences on
was going to work, I visualized that
nights that he couldn't sleep and in
I'm walking home to my family. This
his spare time."
gave me strength. Yet, I had to be
After David had written some
cognizant of the reality of what I saw
books and made some videos, he
and not lose myself. I had to balance
started contacting local schools to see
between the two.
if they were interested in seeing them.
"When I saw people getting weak
Then word of mouth began to spread.
from work, I tried to get them to
Now retired, David and Sharon
visualize."
spend most of their time in Florida,
• Some would listen to him, pick
but still have a sparsely furnished
themselves up and. continue.
home in Oak Park.
"Others would say, 'you're just a kid
He suffers from sleep apnea, a disor-
with just a wild imagination, and we'll
der that briefly stops his heart while he
never make it out alive,"' he said.
sleeps. The past still haunts him, but
"Those with that attitude became weak-
he won't let go of it either, teaching the
er and weaker, and that was the end."
lessons he learned to schoolchildren.
After returning from work in
Plaszow one evening, David was
`Let Me Show You'
dragged to a wire fence enclosure with
Although
he doesn't speak as often as he
some other workers and told they
once
did,
David
Bergman knows how
would be shipped to another camp
to
handle
himself
in a school setting.
that night. David's father found him
His
soft-spoken
manner
drills home the
before he left, and they said goodbye.
point of the nature of the human race.
It would be for the last rime.
"Based upon my experiences, before
David worked in three other camps
we even begin to talk about the
before finding liberation in the Tyrolean
Holocaust, they must clearly under-
mountains of Austria in May 1945. At
stand in their minds that people are
age 14, with no immediate family, he
capable of extreme cruelty and extreme
was another of the hundreds of thou-
compassion," he said. "Once they can
sands of "displaced - people" wanderi ng
accept the idea that both sides exist, I
through war-ravaged Europe.

....

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