EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK Exposing The Horror S am Offen talks not from notes but from the heart about the inhumanity he endured in the darkest days of the Holocaust. The Birmingham furrier and Krakow native is now 81. The bounce in his step is gone, but he's spry enough to speak often, and graphically, about the horrors he somehow survived a long time ago. Today, Offen lives in West Bloomfield with his wife, Hyla. They have two children. He and I spoke last week at the Detroit Jewish News offices in Southfield amid the 60th anniversary of the Warshaw Ghetto Uprising, depicted in Roman Polanski's current movie, The Pianist. "It's not an easy task to constantly relive such horrible memories of being in concen- tration camps for almost six years," Offen said. "But it is necessary. While I still can, I feel it is my obligation to educate." It sure is. ROBERT A. Too few attendees of the Detroit Jewish SKLAR community's annual Yom HaShoah, or Editor Holocaust Remembrance Day, observance are younger people who aren't children or . grandchildren of survivors. Locally, our youth, whatever their religion, usu- ally learn about the Shoah by reading Anne Frank: The Dial), of a Young Girl or seeing the Jewish Ensemble Theatre's stage production based on it; by watching-a film or documentary based on the despair; or _by visiting the Holocaust Memorial Center. More than 100,000 schoolchildren visit the HMC in West Bloomfield each year. I'm heartened that the world seems more aware of and willing to learn about Hitler's sadism. Says Offen HMC Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig: "Education is all-important. It's our duty to show the world what humanity can do." • A loose-leaf binder full of testimonials attests to Offen's popularity as a public speaker. Clearly, his reflections on manipulation, torture, distress and death move the children he meets with and their wide-eyed innocence humbles him. "These letters," he said, "emphasize the importance of # what they learned that day — how i t changed their lives and their understanding of what the Holocaust was really like." Student after student talked about how they had no idea the Holocaust was so brutal, so massive or so daunting. Last May, then an eighth-grader at Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor, Kevin Callender wrote: "You are brave to reach back in your memories to teach young adults. You never know -- you might prevent another Holocaust. That is what I'm thankful for. Subhuman Subsistence The Nazis took Offen from a small two-bedroom apart- ment in Krakow and imprisoned him in a nearby Jewish ghetto when he was 18. He survived in German concentra- tion- camps from 1939 to 1945, avoiding execution like millions of Jews and smaller numbers of gypsies, homosexu- als and people derogatively called "cripples." The Nazis forced him to make steel and munitions, and to mine for salt. One of his stops, the Plaszow forced labor camp, was recreated in Steven Spielberg's 1993 movie, Schindler's List. In the camps, Offen lived on a bowl of coffee, a bowl of soup and a piece of bread each day, causing his weight to plummet to 70 pounds at one point. He tells the story of how he had to whip his best friend with a camp guard's steel-tipped whip, and then was whipped by his best friend, so that both were humiliated to the guard's delight. He also tells of Plaszow Commander Amon Goeth who would have two German shepherd dogs attack the first pris- oner he saw each day, then shoot the person dead when he fell. Offen surprised himself when, while fixing a road, the dogs attacked him, but he drew on God's will to repel their gnawing at his weary bones and keep digging. "And for some reason," Offen said, the commander "didn't kill me. I don't know why." His liberation came three months before World War II ended when eight Allied tanks penetrated the hellhole he was locked up in. The liberating soldiers announced simply, "You are free now" — and shared chocolate and other edi- bles before going back to combat. Fifty Offen family members were among the Six Million who died as a result of Hitler's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," but Sam's two brothers, Nathan and Bernard, also survived. "I still consider myself very lucky," Offen said. "It is rare in the annals of the Holocaust that three siblings from one family survive. There were literally hun- dreds of thousands of families that completely per- ished from this Earth, thus not leaving even one per- son to say Kaddish for them." A Captivating Soul I'm convinced that Offen's desire to teach springs from a perspective that only survivors have. So I took the time to chat with him when he came by to tell me he would speak to 1,500 `employees of General Motors at a Yom HaShoah program on April 29 at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center. "This was part of the Cadillac Motor Division's diversity program in con- junction with the UAW," he explained. Offen is easy to admire. Over the years, he has spoken to hundreds of school, campus and community groups in hopes that younger generations will never forget Nazi Germany's attempted genocide of European Jewry. "For humankind's sake," he said, "I pray history does not repeat itself." Offen practices the highest level of tikkun olam (repairing the world) by teaching so passionately about the Shoah despite the emotional and physical pain he suffered because of it. Genocide attempts now are couched in the euphemism "ethnic cleansing," a culture of hate that has swept Kosovo, Sudan, Iraq, Bosnia and other beleaguered lands. A prime example of such hate is the Palestinian terror that's intended to expel Jews from Israel, the Jewish homeland. Engaging and insightful, Offen believes in the ecumenical principle that good people — Jews and non-Jews together — can outsmart evildoers through knowledge and resolve. That's why he's so eager for Detroit Jewry's Holocaust museum — a beacon of enlightenment — to move to new, larger quarters in Farmington Hills later this year. As he put it: "It is in this spirit of never forgetting that the new Holocaust Center is rising — reminiscent of sur- vivors rising from the ashes." ❑ WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE Donate Your Car (Truck, Motorcycle or Motorhome) to JARC • Description: Almost any condition (harmed or dangerous) • Convenient towing available (or drop off at JARC office) REWARD • • Your donation will enrich the lives of men, women and children with disabilities For More Information, call JARC 248-538-6611 1W3 30301 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 100 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 jarc@jarc.org • wwvvjarc.org 5/ 2 2003 5