200
9u

130th Season ()

tis

inion

Finding Fyodor

East Lansing

International Tracing
Service archive in Bad
n his fascinating memoir,
Arolsen in June with other
Balaam's Prophecy (1998),
scholars sponsored by the
Israeli diplomat Naftali
U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Lau-Lavie recounted how he
Museum in Washington,
and his younger brother, Israel
D.C., I was drawn, among
Meir Lau (Lulek), after the
other things, to try to find
Nazis sent their father Rabbi
out who Fyodor was. I am
Moshe Chaim Lau to the gas
writing
a book on chil-
Kenneth
at Treblinka, and after they
dren
and
youths saved at
Waltzer
had slaved for over two years
Buchenwald,
knew the Lau
Special
in Piotrkow and Czestochowa,
story,
and
came
equipped
Commentary
Poland, were taken to
with a list of inhabitants of
Buchenwald concentration
the children's block 8.
camp in Germany on Jan. 20, 1945.
There were several Fyodors in the •
Naftali smuggled the young boy
block, but only one turned out to
Lulek, then 7, into the camp in a sack.
have been from Rostov — Fyodor
He learned quickly from a German
Michajlitschenko, a Russian civil
Communist political prisoner that, if
worker, 18, who had been arrested
the boy could be gotten to block 8, a
by the Gestapo in November 1943.
children's block, he would be all right.
This teenager hardly older than many
Naftali Lau-Lavie described how,
other children and youths sheltered in
after they were put temporarily in
the barrack was the person who had
block 52, Lulek was given non-Jewish
watched over little Lulek.
Polish markings for his uniform and
This find, reported by the Associated
moved with help from Red Gustav
Press, reached Israel Meir Lau in Israel,
Schiller to block 8. Conditions were
who told the Jerusalem Post that if
better here than in the other blocks.
Michajlitschenko was still alive, he
Lulek was under the protection of
would wait for him at Ben-Gurion
the block elder Wilhelm Hammann,
airport and seek to have him named a
a former Communist legislator from
Righteous Among the Nations. Not long
Hesse, and a member of the clandes-
after, Irene Steinfeld of Yad Vashem's
tine resistance in the camp, who later
Department of the Righteous con-
would be recognized as a Righteous
tacted me to confirm the evidence. Yad
Among the Nations. Hammann gave
Vashem then searched for and found
the boy over to Fyodor, a Russian from the Michajlitschenko family in Rostov.
Rostow, who watched over him and
Fyodor Michajlitschenko was indeed
made earmuffs to warm the boy.
the man who had shielded the 8-year-
In his recent memoir, Do Not Raise
old boy in the final days of the camp.
Your Hand Against the Boy, Israel
Unfortunately, he had died two years
Meir Lau, who went to Palestine after
earlier in 2006, but his daughter had
liberation and later became the chief
a videotape of an interview he made
Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel, recalls the
during the 1990s during a trip to
shift to block 8 (and the separation
the Buchenwald Memorial and she
from his brother), and recounts the role recalled stories of Lulek when she was
that the angel Fyodor played: "He would growing up.
steal potatoes to cook me hot soup ...";
Haaretz recently reported (Sept. 24)
"he knitted me ear warmers ...";
that, through Jewish contacts in Rostov,
"Fyodor the Russian looked after me in Lau received and watched a copy of
daily life like a father would for a son."
the video. With tears in his eyes, Lau
On the day the U.S. army liberated
told Israeli and Russian reporters that
Buchenwald, the day of his rebirth, Lau Fyodor had protected him from gunfire
recalls that "Fyodor held me close to
during the last days and that he had
him and sheltered me with his body:'
been looking for Fyodor for 63 years.
They walked to the gate together.
Yad Vashem has confirmed it awaits a
Israel Meir Lau never saw Fyodor
copy of the tape and further information
again after Buchenwald although 44
and will put Fyodor's name before the
years later, in the Soviet Union in 1989
Commission on the Righteous.
during glasnost, he told the story to
Soviet leaders, and the story was publi- Professor Kenneth Waltzer is affiliated with
cized widely in Izvestia. But no Fyodor
James Madison College and Jewish Studies
was found, and no one made contact.
director at Michigan State University. His e-
Thus when I was at the Red Cross
mail address is waltzer@msu.edu.

I

Beethoven Sonata Project Concerts 5 & 6

Andras Schiff piano

FRI, OCT 24 I 8 PM
SUN, OCT 26 I 4 PM
Rackham Auditorium

ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM (FRI 10/24)

Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Op. 31, No. 1(1801-02)
Sonata No. 17 in d minor, Op. 31, No. 2 ("Tempest') (1802)
Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3 (1801-02)
Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 (Vaidstein") (1803 - 04)

ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM (SUN 10/26)

Sonata No. 22 in F Major, Op. 54 (1804)
Sonata No. 23 in f minor, Op. 57 ("Appassionata") (1804-05)
Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Op. 78 (1809)
Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 (1809)
Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op. 81a ("Les Adieux") (1809 - 10)

Sponsored by Natalie Matovinovii.

Media Sponsors WRCJ 90.9 FM, WGTE 91.3 FM, and Observer & Eccentric Newspapers.

Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman

pianos

SAT, NOV 8 18 PM

Hill Auditorium

Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso
pianists performing today. Born in Russia, he emigrated to Israel at age
14. He "bucks the stereotype of the Russian soloist as merely a technical
wizard of large sound and emphatic personality. He has technique to burn,
but he also has a chameleon-like ability to subsume himself in the music"
(The New York Times) Returning for the first time since his UMS debut
in 1994, Bronfman is joined by the great American pianist Emanuel Ax,
renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity
but also for the exceptional breadth of his performing activity.

PROGRAM

Brahms
Bolcom
Mozart
Rachmaninoff

Variations for Two Pianos on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56b (1873)
Recuerdos (1991)
Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 (1781)
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940)

Co-Sponsored by Robert and Marina Whitman and Clayton and Ann Wilhite.
Media Sponsors WGTE 91.3 FM, Observer & Eccentric Newspapers,
WRCJ 90.9 FM, and Detroit Jewish News.

6,

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❑

UMS Call or Click For Tickets!

734.764.25381 www.ums.org

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1445490

A52

October 23 - 2008