This Week Reunion In Washington For aging survivors of the Holocaust, the future means remembering the past. MATTHEW E. BERGER Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington elen Potash stood in front of a cattle car at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's permanent exhibition, but she would not ven- ture forward. "I went through it once," the Holocaust survivor said. "I am not going again." She went around it instead. Potash was one of more than 2,200 Holocaust survivors who came to Washington this weekend for a reunion, part of a yearlong marking of the museum's 10th anniversary. There have been Holocaust sur- vivor reunions before, but this gath- ering focused more on the future than the past. The survivors here spoke candidly about their advanc- ing age and said they looked to their heirs to tell their stories. More than 4,000 children, grand- children and great-grandchildren joined the survivors on the unusual- ly warm November afternoon, learn- ing about their family members' experiences and pledging to keep the memory alive. "It's an incredible lineage we all share," said Helen Burstin of Washington, who came with her parents, both survivors. "It's a remarkable thing to walk into this tent and see 6,000 people connected to survivors." "It was very emotional, very grati- fying and absolutely awesome," said Eva Weiss, 74, of West Bloomfield, who lost 75 members of her family in the Holocaust. Weiss was reunited with Margit Feldman of Bridgewater, N.J. The two came from the same area in Hungary, survived Auschwitz, Plaszow and Bergen-Belsen together, and arrived in the United States on the same ship. They lost track of each other until this August, when Weiss read Margit: A Teenagers Journey through the Holocaust and Beyond," a book written by Feldman. Weiss was among 40 survivors and family members from the Detroit area to make the trip to Washington Her reunion with Feldman was filmed by the museum as part of a 11/ 7 2003 18 Elie Wiesel joins children in burying a time capsule marking the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's 10th anniversary. From left are Fred Zeidman, chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; Benjamin Meed, president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors; Ruth Mandel, the commission's vice chair; Brad Blakeman, deputy assistant to President Bush; and Sara Bloomfield, the museum's director. documentary. "It was really emotional and terrif- ic and everything we thought it was going to be," said Carol Walters, Weiss' daughter, who joined her mother with three other family members from Detroit. "I was afraid it was going to be very depressing and, of course, there were depressing moments, but the end was so uplift- ing." At times, the event resembled a wedding, with survivors and their families dancing the hora to Israeli folk music in an enormous tent nicknamed "Survivor's Village." Later, there was a sing-along in Yiddish. "It's totally overwhelming," said Rabbi Jay Miller of San Mateo, Calif., watching the dancing from the sidelines. He was on vacation in Washington and happened to find himself amid the festivities. He was one of the few in the tent whose family had not been directly affected by the Holocaust. "The smiles on people's faces are an expression of vitality and com- mitment to life," said Rabbi Miller. "I wish there was a way I could translate this to people when I go home." Drawn To Museum In one room, survivors offered their artifacts to the museum; others related oral histories into tape recorders and to transcribers. Images from the museum's database flittered across a bank of computer monitors. Survivors researching the fate of their families used the computers; alongside each terminal stood a box of tissues. Joan Weiss of Marlboro, N.J., brought her 18-year-old daughter to the reunion, even though her father, who survived the Holocaust, did not make the trip to Washington. "This is something I have waited for all my life," she said in the archive room. "I've been waiting for something special, to find someone who knew my parents or a relative we didn't know about." There were to be no new revela- tions for Weiss, just an educational experience for her daughter, Natalie. "We shouldn't forget it ever," said Natalie, a high school senior. "We need to keep talking to our chil- dren." Many of the survivors were view- ing the museum for the first time. Some said they had always longed to come here, and found the reunion a great opportunity. Other said they avoided the museum, but felt a yearning to see it at least once. "I felt this time I had to go," said Eddie Weinstein. "Because I am get- ting old." Weinstein wandered the tent, slowly, with a cardboard placard resting on his chest, attached to a string around his neck. It read: "I am looking for people who escaped from Treblinka." "I didn't find one person," said Weinstein, whose story of escape from the German extermination camp has been documented in a book, Quenched Steel. Nessie Godin, a survivor from Lithuania, volunteers at the muse- um once a week. She says it is her responsibility to those she survived in the camps. "I wasn't any smarter and I wasn't any stronger," said Godin. "The wonderful Jewish women who held my hand, gave me hope and maybe a bite of bread, they told me that they should never be forgotten and to tell the world of this hatred." She said the reunion and the museum shows the world that Hitler did not win. Burstin says that children of Holocaust survivors have obligations to their parents and their experi- ences. "We want to make it clear to our kids and our kids' kids and everyone who knows us that this is part of our heritage," she said. Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel told the audience that amid the joy of the occasion is a void of sadness for the faces that were left behind. "Your presence — our presence — here today is our answer to this silent question," he said. "We have kept our promise. We have not for- gotten you." ❑ Jewish. News Staff Writer Harry KirsbaUM contributed to this report.