Spirituality Pain Of Their Own Holocaust survivor reflects on being a child survivor of the Holocaust. time and he ended up spending an entire day hiding deep below the hay. Special to the Jewish News "I will always remember how my father smelled at the end of that day. aisy Miller could have These are the memories child sur- been a statistic — one of vivors have," she said. "Our memories the 1.5 million children are very visceral and emotional, and to perish in the we've carried them with us." Holocaust. But, at age 4 or 5, her life Because of the lack of validation she was spared because she and her entire and other child survivors received for family went into hiding in several their Holocaust experiences, long into Italian farmhouses. adulthood, these children On Oct. 21, Miller remained silent. But their told her story to a group silence was broken in the of eager listeners at late 1980s, when they Temple Israel. began forming groups. "I am a child sur- Miller helped form vivor," Miller told the the first children's survivor audience. "The fact that group in Los Angeles. I am here today is quite "It's important to recog- a miracle because so nize all the experiences of many children were the war," she said. murdered during the "Children in particular Holocaust." came out of the war com- She is also the associ- pletely alone in many ate director for annual cases. They had no par- development for the Log ents, no grandparents Angeles-based Survivors Daisy Miller and no siblings. Many of the Shoah Visual child survivors were sent History Foundation, an off to distant relatives or organization founded by strangers. Some reported life after the Steven Spielberg to preserve the testi- war was often worse than life during monies of Holocaust survivors and the war." witnesses through video recordings. In addition to hearing about The foundation has collected 50,000 Miller's experiences, the Temple Israel testimonies from 57 countries. audience heard about the work of the As a child survivor, Miller said she Shoah Foundation. In particular, carries a burden other survivors never Miller explained how the organization had to bear. Frequently she hears, is not only collecting testimonies but "You were a child. You couldn't possi- also working hard to make sure these ble remember the atrocities," or "We video documentations don't just sit on adults knew what was going on and a shelf. therefore we suffered more." She explained how the foundation Miller, now 63, does have memo- has a catalogue system that allows ries, vivid ones of her years in hiding. users to sit at designated computers She remembers being unable to cry and search for videos based on key out loud. She remembers being words, including names of people or unable to go outside for any reason. names of cities and towns. She remembers the few times she was "Once my generation dies, there allowed to leave the small room where will be no one here to tell these stories she and her family hid. And she except for the Shoah Foundation and remembers one occasion when the other organizations that have also col- Germans were nearby. She remembers lected testimony," Miller said. that her father was in the barn at the JENNIFER LOVY D ❑ 64 Rabbi Nevins Leads Israel Trip Torah Tapes Enlighten Adults Rabbi Daniel Nevins and his family will lead a trip to Israel this summer, July 7-21. The itinerary high- lights include two days in the Tel Aviv area, three days tour- ing the Galilee and Golan Heights, Shabbat in Safed, six nights in Jerusalem with excursions to the Dead Sea, and cele- brating Shabbat in Jerusalem. The trip is appropriate for adults trav- eling alone as well as for families. Several b'nai mitzvah will be marked in the course of the trip. An informational meeting will be held at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7. Anyone from the community may attend. For information, call Rabbi Nevins, (248) 851-5100 Adult learners whose work and/or family preclude them from taking advantage of regular Jewish education classes are invited to learn - at home or on the go by borrowing drivetime Torah audiocassette tapes from Eilu v'Eilu, the adult Jewish learning proj- ect of the Michigan Conservative movement. The Torah tape library is in the offices of the Jewish Theological Seminary Great Lakes Region, suite 310, Max M. Fisher Federation Building in Bloomfield Township. There is no charge for borrowing the tapes. For information or a free catalogue, call Eilu v'Eilu, (248) 593- 3490. Barbara Wiener, her parents, Libby and Abe Asner, and her sister Cheryl Gold. Historical Video Chronicles Town Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Temple Beth El and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan co-hosted the recent showing of the video chronicle of Eishyshok, "There Once Was a Town." The video was a travelogue made by a group of survivors and their fami- lies, which included Yaffa Eliach, the creator of the Tower of Life in U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Barbara Wiener of West Bloomfield, her father Abe Asner and sister Cheryl Gold, both of Windsor, made the trip to Eishyshok. The video was narrated by Ed Asner, Abe's cousin.