the European Parliament and is widely
viewed as having been "bought" by the
party to try to polish its image.

Cold Hopes

During the campaign, Haider's plat-
form was not openly antisemitic, but
his strident xenophobia raised fears
that antisemitism could become a
byproduct of his rhetoric, particularly
as an undercurrent of the antisemitism
that still persists among some sections
of the Austrian public.
Antisemitism "can be easily aroused
by discussion over art restitution, gen-
eral restitution, money claims and the
like," said Marta Halpert, director of
the Anti-Defamation League's office in
Vienna.
Some Jews
are hopeful
that the current
political earth-
quake — in all
its facets —
may end up
having positive
Has the international
results, includ-
community
ing unmasking
overreacted, or been
racism and
right on target in
xenophobia,
responding to Jorg
and fostering
Haider and his party's
combative new
appointment in
democratic
forces.
Austria's government?
"You have
Give your opinion on
two possibili-
JN Online at
ties — to stay
www.detroit
here and be
jewishnews.com
active or run
away," said
Jewish researcher Peter Bettelheim. "I
am going to try to organize a group of
friends into a political human rights
movement with a clear strategy."
Jews of all ages take part in the
daily demonstrations held to protest
Haider and the entry of his party into
the governing coalition.
White-haired Mira Atlas said she,
too, takes to the streets.
"I don't trust Haider at all, even
though he has made statements now
pledging democratic policy," she said,
as she cut up tomatoes and made
sandwiches for the weekly club she
leads for Jews who have immigrated to
Austria from Russia.
"He is a very powerful speaker, he real-
ly speaks well," she said. "So did Hider.
"I don't really think that fascists can
come to power today, but I am con-
cerned at the situation," she added. "I
don't think it will be like it was in the
1930s — but you never know what
will happen." ❑

`Three Years In Darkness'

Hidden during the war, this Israeli was luckier than Anne Frank.

below or speak above a whisper.
But it was certainly better than
Auschwitz, where my father was
Rehovot, Israel
gassed on the first day he arrived
eventy-year-old
and my sister died a few months
Hanna Herzberg
later.
didn't need the
"We even maintained some
recent Holocaust
semblance of normality," Hanna
conference in Stockholm to
goes on. "I tutored my little
remind her of what hap-
brother and took a correspon-
pened during World War II.
dence course in chemistry —
For like Anne Frank, the
under an assumed name, of
Amsterdam girl who became
course. Then, six months before
the end of the war, German sol-
an international symbol of
diers were billeted in the house
the Holocaust, Hanna hid
with her family in the attic
right next to where we were hid-
of a home during the war.
ing; they were so close, in fact,
that we could hear them talking
Unlike Anne, she never
to one another. Before we could
fell into the hands of the
be discovered, however, mem-
Germans or their collabora-
bers of the Dutch underground
tors, but the former Hanna
Pinas did keep a diary while
took us to other places, where
in hiding.
we remained until Germany's
surrender."
Her 190-page, handwrit-
After the war, Hanna had no
ten document, now stored
in a cabinet at the Israeli
desire to remain in Holland,
"!where," she says, "even those who
retirement home in which
she has lived for the last five
helped Jews did not do so because
years, gives a detailed
they liked them, but because they
hated the Germans. This feeling,
account of what happened
and the Zionist education I had
during that period. Entitled
received at home, persuaded me
Three Years in Darkness, it
begins by telling how the
The former Hanna Pinas, just before she went into hiding. to come on aliya, and has kept me
appendicitis operation
here ever since."
Hanna underwent in
In Israel, she spent several
decades as a lab technician at the
October 1942 saved her life,
Biological Research Institute in
and that of her mother and
brother.
Nes Zion, thanks to her back-
The attack came shortly
ground in chemistry.
before the Germans ordered
Hanna also recalls how the girls
all Dutch Jews to report to
in her Jewish school exchanged
detention centers, which is
photographs so that they would
what her father and older
remember one another should
sister did. Because of
some of them not survive the war.
In fact, Hanna was the only one
Hanna's condition, her
mother decided to remain
who survived.
behind with her two
Hanna's "attic diary" has been
younger children.
published only in the Dutch lan-
— Holocaust survivor Hanna Herzberg
To their good fortune,
guage, though her husband has
precisely at that moment a
prepared a typewritten Hebrew
Protestant woman whose
translation for the archives of Yad
husband had worked with Hanna's
them in their crowded and shuttered
Vashem Holocaust Memorial
older sister came to Hanna's hospital
attic.
Authority and their grandchildren.
bed and offered to hide her family in
Hanna hopes they will eventually
"Life was terrible," she recalls. "It
another part of the northern Dutch
read it. But even if they don't, she is
was boiling hot in summer and
town of Zwolle. Soon thereafter,
content knowing that, unlike herself,
freezing cold in winter. Moreover,
Hanna's aunt and grandparents,
they will never have to spend Three
we couldn't even look out to see
already in hiding elsewhere, joined
what was happening in the street
Years in Darkness. ❑

NECHEMIAH MEYERS

Israel Correspondent

s

"Even those who helped
Jews did not do so
because they liked them,
but because they hated
the Germans."

2/11
2000

31

