This Week
`Not On Our Watch'
Holocaust service stresses remembering so the slaughter won't happen again.
at the hands of the Nazis, even though he had
been offered the opportunity to escape to safety.
Special to the Jewish News
"Janus Korchek walked without fear," said
Gorman. "He believed you had to nurture chil-
ore than 400 people demonstrated
dren with love and kindness."
their vows to remember the Six
Dr. Charles Silow, president of CHAIM
Million Jews slain in the Holocaust
(Children of Holocaust Survivors of Michigan),
as they pinned black mourners' rib-
urged every survivor to have his or her picture
bons on their clothing and filed into the Jewish
taken for display in the new HMC,
Community Center in West
which is currently under construc-
Bloomfield for the annual Yom
tion and due to open this fall on
HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance)
Orchard Lake Road north of 12
service on April 27.
Mile Road, in Farmington Hills.
Members of the local B'nai Brith
In his keynote presentation,
Einstein Lodge, founded by Holocaust
Rabbi Rosenzveig noted that many
survivors, stood at the entrance doors
foreign countries now are recogniz-
reading aloud the names of-men,
ing and admitting their roles in
women and children killed by the
allowing the genocide to occur,
Nazis during World War II. Co-spon-
including the United States, whose
sors were the Holocaust Memorial
silence he referred to as "less than
Center and Shaarit Haplaytah (an
noble."
organization of Shoah survivors).
"The farther ime are historically from
Survivors were chosen from the
the
Holocaust, the more the world
audience to light nine candles. Six
realizes the impact it had," he said.
were for- the Six Million Jews killed
"This universal lesson has no match in
during the Holocaust; one was for the
human history. The facade of civiliza-
Israeli soldiers who have died fighting
tion was found to be an empty shell,
for freedom; another was for the sur-
rotten to its core."
vivors who have -passed away since the
Rabbi Rosenzveig stressed the
Holocaust, and the final candle was
importance
of teaching future genera-
for the U.S. soldiers who have per-
tions about the Holocaust, but he cau-
ished throughout our history.
tioned, "Education alone does not
The candle lighters were Brenda and
Guarantee a better world."
Herman Marczak, Esther and Bendet
Paula and Sol Gringlas of West Bloomfield lit candles in remembrance.
"No people were better educated than
Lewkowicz and Zelda and Joe
the Germans, and look what they did,"
Klaiman, all of Southfield; Ben Fisk
he said.
and Helen Jutkiewicz of Oak Park;
Following the memorial service,
Ruth and Mark Webber, Zita and Leo
attendees were invited to light candles
Weber, Irma and Zyga Allweiss, Jack
and place them around the Eternal
Gun, Ann Harris, Rose and Sidney
Flame in the adjacent HMC.
Neuman, Minnie and Sam Berman
Survivor Ida Waksberg of the
and Esther and Simon Tabachnik, all
Fleischman
Residence in West
of West Bloomfield.
Bloomfield
lit
a candle with her son,
Following the candlelighting cere-
Dr.
Morry
Waksberg
of Beverly Hills,
mony, representatives of several
Holocaust survivor Erna Gorman told of Janus Korchek, a non Jew slain by the
Calif., who came in to attend the annu-
Holocaust-related organizations spoke, Nazis for standing by Jewish orphans. Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig gave the keynote
al event.
with the keynote given by Rabbi
address. Cantor Earl Berris of Congregation ffnai Moshe helped lead the service.
Dr. Waksberg remembers meetings
Charles Rosenzveig, founder and direc-
at the home of his mother and her late
tor of the HMC.
husband, Jack, during the early plan-
Several of the speakers related the
ning
stages
of
the HMC.
"The
French
still
haven't
learned
that
they
events of the Holocaust to the current situation in
"We
wanted
to
make sure that people knew what
should
not
be
appeasing
a
tyrant
who
is
out
to
the Middle East.
happened, and that the lesson would make it impossible
destroy Israel," he said.
"I go to this event every year," said Zyga
for something like that to happen again," said Dr.
Erna Gorman, a member of the Hidden Child
Allweiss, who survived six years in concentration
Waksberg. "As more time passes, more people will lis-
Foundation, a program of the Anti-Defamation
camps during the war. "The Holocaust Memorial
ten."
League (ADL), told the story of Janus Korchek, a
Center is a part of me, and I always enjoy hearing
Adam Cohen, an ADL member, put it well: "One
little-known non-Jewish hero who ran an orphan-
Rabbi Rosenzveig speak."
day,
the last remaining Holocaust survivor will be
age
where
many
Jewish
children
resided.
When
the
"Saddam Hussein is like the Haman (the villain
gone,
and we must always remember. It's not
children
were
moved
to
the
Warsaw
Ghetto,
in the story of Purim who tried to exterminate the
going to happen again on our watch." ❑
Korchek stayed with "his" children until his death
Jews) of today," said Alan Zekelman, "but this
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time we went in as heroes, we didn't wait to act
like we did in World War II."
Zekelman, who lives in Bloomfield Hills, co-
chaired the program with Saul Waldman of Keego
Harbor.
Dr. Steven Grant, past HMC president, talked
about the anti-Semitism in France, both during
World War II and today.