SPECIAL COMMENTARY

The Warsaw That I Knew

A

GUSTAV BERENHOLZ
Special to the Jewish News

Greg

SHOES

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Staff photo by Krista Husa

Aril 19, 57 years ago, the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
began. The moral impact of
that heroic uprising was
enormous and universal. In remem-
bering that event, I wish to share with
you some memories of the Warsaw
that I knew.
I was born and raised in Warsaw.
My father, of blessed memory, who
was murdered by the Nazi German
beasts, sacrificed everything to give his
children a Jewish education and a Jew-

shtieblach (home synagogues) packed
on the holiday of Pesach. Imagine
the faces of tens of thousands of
Jewish children beaming with happi-
ness. This was Warsaw before the
Holocaust. Such a culturally rich
community (before) infants, chil-
dren, fathers and mothers, zaydes
and bubbies (were) tortured, mur-
dered and gassed in the death camp,
Treblinka, by the Nazis.
To his day, I can see the faces of
my parents and my brother remind-
ing me of what happened to them
and to the 400,000 Jews of Warsaw.
For close to 60 years, I still feel

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Gustav Berenholz at the Yom HaShoah Memorial Academy.

ish consciousness.
How can I forget the preparation
and the beauty of a Pesach at home?
How can I forget my parents working
so hard to make us all joyous and
happy on the holidays?
My friends: imagine a community
with more than 400 synagogues and

Related story: page 31

Gustav Berenholz of Farmington
Hills chairs the executive committee of
the Holocaust Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield. He delivered these remarks
at the Yom HaShoah Memorial Acade-
my Sunday at Congregation B'nai
Moshe in a program cosponsored by
Shaarit Haplaytah of Detroit and the
HMC

empty without them. I loved my
parents and, to this day, I feel
orphaned for no reason other than
the fact that I am Jewish.
I have beautiful memories of the
pre-Holocaust period and emotionally
devastating memories of how that life
and that culture came to such a tragic
end. I will never forget, and will con-
tinue to do all in my power, to make
sure that the world does not forget.
Our memories of our spiritual, glo-
rious past and unimaginable pain and
suffering of our people during the
Holocaust have not faded and cannot
fade. These memories are deeply
ingrained in our very existence.
"Zachor!" Remember! `14m Yisrael
Chail"The people of Israel will forever
stay alive. ❑

A.

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