HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS
NEWSLETTER
28123 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248.553.2400 • Fax: 248.553.2433
info@holocaustcenter.org
www.holocaustcenter.org
www.facebook.com/HMCZFC
www.twitter.com/HolocaustMI
www.flickr.com/HolocaustMI
2011 no.3 • 8.11.2011
An Evening You Won't Want to Miss
The Holocaust Memorial Center's
of the Bienenstocks' commitment to
anniversary dinner promises to once
the HMC, we will publish a commem-
again serve as a highlight of our
orative journal, which will be provided
community's social calendar. On
to all attendees and to community
Sunday, September 18, the Holocaust
leaders throughout the metro Detroit
Memorial Center will
area. Opportunities are still
celebrate its 27th anni-
available for congratulatory
versary at Congregation
advertisements.
Shaarey Zedek. The
The keynote speaker
annual dinner is our
will be Sharon Rennert,
largest and most eagerly-
award-winning inde-
anticipated event of the
pendent filmmaker and
year. We look forward
television editor. Sharon is
to welcoming our many
the granddaughter of Tuvia
supporters who will
Bielski who was leader of
have the opportunity to
the famed Bielski Brigade,
Lauren and Sa m Bienenstock
enjoy a full evening of
immortalized in the 2008
fellowship, great food, and fun while
feature film, Defiance. The Bielski
providing vital support to advance our
partisans saved the lives of more than
important mission.
one thousand Jews. Through the use
Our honorees are Lauren and Sam
of film clips and home movies, she
Bienenstock, founders of Bienenstock
will bring a glimpse of her grandfather
Court Reporting & Video, one of the
not only as a partisan, but also as her
largest firms of its type. In recognition zaydah.
Scroll of Honor ticketholders and
advertisers ($1,000 and up) are invited
to a President's Reception followed by
cocktails and a strolling dinner for all.
Reserved tables are available for spon-
sorship and advertisers, and seating
will be available for all attendees. The
program will begin at 7:00 and will
conclude with a dessert afterglow.
Throughout the evening, guests
will have the opportunity to support
the HMC and perhaps win a fabulous
prize. Raffle tickets will be sold for a
chance to win one of three prizes.
The grand prize will be a two-night
stay for two at the Grand Hotel on
Mackinac Island. Enjoy a couple of
nights where the staff is at your beck
and call, the rooms are elegant, the
food is fabulous, and where tipping is
absolutely not allowed!
Second prize is a two-night stay
at the luxurious Townsend Hotel in
Birmingham providing a chance to
walk, window shop (or shop for real),
catch a movie, or enjoy a meal or
midnight snack at any one of a myriad
of restaurants or fine dining establish-
ments.
Third prize is a beautiful 16" pearl
necklace.
Our programs touch the lives of so
many: 85,000 school children, thou-
sands of tourists, families and groups
who come from Canada, the mid-West
and all corners of the world. For many,
this visit is their awakening to the
lessons of the Holocaust. With your
continued support, we can forge ahead
and continue teaching life's lessons and
the new 3 R's: respect, responsibility
and righteousness.
Reserve your tickets NOW!
Contact Selma Silverman at 248. 553.
2400, ext. 12 or selma.silverman@
holocaustcenter.org and ask her about
placing an ad in the journal.
First Ritchie Reunion a Resounding Success
Some came in wheelchairs, oth-
ers leaned on canes and relatives,
but all mustered, for brief moments,
the military strides of their years of
service during World War II. The
Ritchie veterans who attended the
first-ever Ritchie reunion, sponsored
by the Holocaust Memorial Center,
sported the pride of a youthful com-
mon achievement: they, a group of
prevalently Jewish-German or Jewish—
Austrian refugees, helped in bringing
about the Allied victory in Europe.
Their unique linguistic and cultural
insight and their specialized training
at Camp Ritchie, which ranged from
interrogation to psychological warfare
to intercepting enemy communica-
tions, changed the scope of military
intelligence during World War II.
One of their first activities dur-
ing that reunion, shared by a large
group of their relatives and later by the
general public, was the inspection of
an impressive exhibit
on intelligence work
during World War II.
There were exclama-
tions of recognition as
the veterans examined
weapons and equip-
ment not looked
upon in seventy years.
Yet to the surprise
of all involved, much
information emerged
only recently, often as
a result of the research
done for the exhibit:
Only a few military historians
knew that the site and concept of
Camp Ritchie were conceived person-
ally by General George C. Marshall,
the wartime United States Chief-of-
Staff.
A significant number of Ritchie
Boys were subsequently sent to Fort
Hunt, Maryland, to participate in
a clandestine operation known as
assignment "Paper Clips." Some of
Germany's top experts, especially
scientists, were assembled at Fort
Hunt after the war to receive military
clearance to take part in the develop-
ment of United States military science
and weaponry.
It was anecdotally known that
some of the Ritchie Boys were selected
for active roles in military government
and at the Nuremberg War Crimes
Trials. Quite a significant number also
served as investigators of suspected
residents of the United States Zone of
Occupation in Germany and as inter-
Ritchie Boy Richard Schifter smiles in
front of his panel in the new exhibit.
preters and sometimes as preliminary
interrogators of the accused Nazi
officials.
Perhaps the most wonderful
surprise, however, was the ambi-
ance of the reunion, its stage set by
honor guards of Jewish veterans from
Michigan, from Selfridge Air National
Guard Base and by a delegation from
Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Across
seven decades, we became on that
magical weekend — much to the
enchantment of our families — a rein-
carnation of those "Secret Heroes," the
brotherhood of the Ritchie Boys.