WOMEN'S

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN

MSU's Shoah Breakthrough

Professor identifies gentile man who saved
future chief rabbi of Israel during Holocaust.

F

Jerusalem Post

fifteen scholars concluded a two-week probe June 26
of an untapped repository of millions of Nazi records.
Among the striking revelations was the identification
of the man who rescued Yisrael Meir Lau, now the chief rabbi
of Tel Aviv. He was Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi from 1993 to
2003.
It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-
private archive administered by the International Tracing
Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust
survivors, victims' relatives and historical researchers.
The opening of the files to scholars followed a series of sto-
ries on the archive by the Associated Press, which was the first
news organization to be granted extensive access to the long-
restricted files.
German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless mil-
lions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual
people as she studied small labor camps — which existed in
astonishing numbers.

The Rescuer
Lau had said his rescuer was a person
called Fyodor from Rostow. Kenneth
Waltzer of Michigan State University found
it was Fyodor Michajlitschenko, 18, arrested
by the Gestapo in 1943, who gave the small
boy ear warmers and treated him like a
father in Buchenwald's Block 8 until the
Rabbi Lau
camp's liberation.
"A lot of us found the collections here, approached in the
appropriate way, really opened up new significant scholarly
lines of inquiry;' said Waltzer, who is director of his East
Lansing university's Jewish Studies department.
Lau, who was 8 when Michajlitschenko took him under his
wing, told Israel Radio on Friday that until the latest revelation,
he had never known his rescuer's full name and that he had
been looking for him for 63 years.
"He knew I was Jewish boy, protected me with his body and
would steal potatoes for me said an emotional Lau.
"I always admired him for this; he continued, adding that if
Michajlitschenko comes to Israel, "I will wait for him at Ben-
Gurion Airport and make efforts to ensure he is bestowed the
`Righteous Among the Nations' title'

The Impetus
The research project was organized jointly by the tracing ser-
vice and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington,
which brought scholars from six countries to begin assessing
the significance of the archive, the largest col-
lection of Nazi documents.
The 50 million pages stored in this central
German spa town since the mid-1950s previ-
ously had been used by Red Cross staff to
respond to inquiries about missing persons or
the fate of family members, and later to docu-
ment compensation claims.
Professor
With the population of survivors quickly
Waltzer
shrinking, the 11 countries that govern the

DESIGNER

CLOTHING COLLECTIONS

ACCESSORIES

.

archive agreed in 2006 to widen access to the files. It took
another 18 months for all 11 to ratify the required treaty
amendments before the archive could open.
Reto Meister, the archive's director, said he still gets 1,000
inquires a month asking for personal information. Now, the
archive is also getting dozens of academic inquiries or visitors
every month, he said.
The gray metal shelves and cabinets contain 16 miles of
transport lists, camp registries, medical records, forced labor
files and death certificates of some 17.5 million people sub-
jected to Nazi persecutions.

A New Look
Taken together with written and oral testimonies and the tran-
scripts of war crimes trials, the dry data at Bad Arolsen add
texture to the known picture of the Holocaust, from the first
concentration camps created within weeks of Hitler's rise to
power in January 1933 to the defeat of Nazism in May 1945.
"It was much more than I expected:' said Trouve.
"I've been working on concentration camps for 15 years. We
know there was forced laborers in Germany — millions of
them;' she said. "But then you go through these lists. You see the
farmer employing so many people. You see the factory employ-
ing hundreds of people. Everything was blurred, but suddenly
you have a clear image
Jean-Marc Dreyfus, of Manchester University in Britain, said
the archive "won't utterly change our view of the Holocaust, but
it will be very precious for researchers to complement and pur-
sue new research:'

HANDBAGS

SHOES

E

❑

New Board At Tamarack

Tamarack Camps has announced its slate of officers and candi-
dates to fill board of directors seats.
The election will be held at the agency's annual meeting on
Aug. 3, at Camp Maas in Ortonville.
Shelley Hutton has been nominated to
serve as president. Vice presidential candi-
dates are Alan Hurvitz and Howard Morof.
Darren Findling was nominated as secretary
and Michael Lippitt as treasurer.
Nominees slated for their first two-year
term on the board of directors are: Tracy
Aronoff, Edward Hersch, Dr. Daniel Klein,
Marty Maddin and Kathi Moss. Returning
Shelley
board
members slated for a three-year term
Hutton
are Frank Ellias and Phyllis Pilcowitz. Mark
Nakisher will begin as a YAD (Young Adult Division) liaison.
Dr. Beth Swartz served as chair of the Tamarack Camps
Nominating Committee. Additional committee members were
Rachel Ellis, Dr. Nelson Hersh, Michael Lippitt, Robb Lippitt,
Donna Maddin, Phyllis Pilcowitz and Vicki Solway.
Nominations of persons as candidates for directors may also
be made by not less than five members of the board of direc-
tors in writing, such nominations to be delivered to the secre-
tary by July 25.
Tamarack Camps, established by the Fresh Air Society, pro-
vides enriching Jewish camping for children and families, inde-
pendent of financial ability; to help build a vibrant community.

TENDER

271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212

MONDAY—SATURDAY 10-6
THURSDAY 10-8

CLOSED SUNDAYS 'TIL SEPTEMBER

tenderbirmingham.com

July 3 • 2008

A23