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 RONELLE GRIER 161: 5/ 2 2003 14 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.