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