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Motherhood
Under Siege

C-g)1Wtee
-

Women, children and the Holocaust: A professor
provides a compelling view of a little-understood topic.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

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34

n a letter sent shortly before she was
deported to Auschwitz in 1942,
Hilde Raymes wrote her two young
sons, living safely in a French home for
children, that she was about to leave for
,,
,,
a voyage.
She said she was unsure exactly where
she was going. She asked her younger
son to be sure to listen to his older
brother. "Perhaps later," she wrote, "you
will know everything."
Now, 62 years later, the words of
Hilde's letter rested upon a large screen
in a conference room at Congregation
Beth Shalom in Oak Park. Holocaust
scholar and author Dalia Ofer of
Hebrew University of Jerusalem stood
at a podium near the screen. An audi-
ence filled with many persons who
already had heard much about the
Holocaust sat in silence, speechless, by
at the letter.
It was Hilde's last correspondence to
her sons. Like so many others, she died
in the Germans' Auschwitz death camp,
her name remembered today only by a
few.
In a lecture cosponsored by the Cohn-
Haddow Center for Judaic Studies, Beth
Shalom and CHAIM (Children of
Holocaust Survivors Assocation in
Michigan), Ofer spoke last week about
"Motherhood Under Siege: The Plight
of Mothers During the Shoah."
She started her presentation with a
series of contradictions and variants,
because it would be impossible to pin-
point one, single reaction of mothers to
the tragedy.
"I could not stop wondering how del-
icate women, who were often ill in the
good days, became strong under these
conditions," wrote artist Ester Luria of
the Jewish women of Kovno.
"Mothers walk away from their babies
like thieves; they leave them in a dark
alley ... or just on the street," wrote

•

Perez Opochinsky, in his diary of life in
the Warsaw Ghetto. No doubt, their
hearts are torn apart.
"Our mother fought to keep us next
to her, under her protecting wings, with
all her might. And the day came that
our nest was destroyed," said Felz Szeps,
who kept a diary of her years in a Nazi
labor camp.

Dalia Ofer: The little details- say everything.

The four central sources on mothers
in the Holocaust include formal docu-
ments, such as notes from the Judenrat
(a Jewish council), diaries, letters and
survivor testimonies, Ofer said.
Further, any study on the subject
must consider the diverse background of
the women: their socio-economic class
(having more money meant you could
buy from the black market, for example)
and the country in which they resided
(some were more cooperative with the
Nazis than others).
Throughout history, many have seen
the ideal Jewish woman in the "Fish. et
Chayih" ("A Righteous Woman"), recit-
ed in homes on Friday nights, Ofer said.
A righteous woman is said to be one
who cares for her children and her hus-
band, and who also is involved in her
community, helping the less fortunate
and giving
ivina
b of her time.

