ilewlsh Presi Serving Nebraska and Iowa Since 1920
VoLLXXI No. SI OmahB
11 lyar, S7S4, AprU 22,1994
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Yom HaShoah
Yom Ha'Atzmaut
a refugee from Bosnia, now attending Park Middle School in Lincoln, lights the Candle of Hope during the Holocaust Commemoration program at the State Capitol on April 13. An estimated 250 attended. More information on page 5.
Members of the Jewish War Veterans snap to attention and salute the colors at the opening of the Israel Independence Day celebration at the Jewish Community Center Sunday. An estimated 500 attended the varied activities throughout the afternoon. See page 9.
Salko Deumic, FSal
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Dr. Spanier speaks on Holocaust
Editor's Note: At the Holocaust Commemoration program in Lincoln last week, Dr. Graham Spanier, chancellor, University of Nebraska, described hU qaest to ^-understand the Holocaust. His general reaiarks follow and his report on a most unusual experience appears on page 5. By Graham Spanier I couldn't be with you at this time last year. Instead, through a combination of circumstances, 1 was drawn to Warsaw, Poland, where 1 attended the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and, nearby, the 50th anniversary of the Treblinka uprising. There is little to see with one's eyes at these places, since the Nazis, soon before the end of their terror, tried in vain to erase, through mass destruction, all traces of their inhumanity. But there is much to see with one's heart and mind, and while at Treblinka I listened to one of the few living survivors of this infamous death Dr.Spamer camp describe his existence there. One needs to huar the story of only one witness to understand why we must remember, why we must never forget, why we must come together on Yom Hashoah, and why we must say "never again." We must never forget that six million Jews and millions of Gypsies, political dissidents, homosexuals and others were sent to the concentration and death camps for only reaioni related to nothing more than personal characteristics — their coloring, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation or geographical happenstance. Thankfully, there nre thousands of witnesses the world over — and, for those of us In my generation, tens of thousands of children of witnassti, who must never forget. This is why, at Treblinka — the death camp whira hundr«di of thouMindi of Jews wero tortured
and murdered — I felt compelled to stand for a time in one of the railroad cars that delivered the Jews to their final destination in the final solution. This is why I have taken that train ride to Dachau to see the barracks, barbed wire, photographs and the names — those lists of names, lists of names, lists of names, under "S" listing Spanier over and over again. This is why I have stood on the ground where Lidice once existed, trying to fathom what could compel a people to completely, literally, wipe a community off the map by killing all its inhabitants and burning everything to the ground. This is why 1 have been to the edge of the ravine at Babi Yar, in the now suburbs of Kiev, where tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of Jews were systematically and brutally murdered and lefl to be forgotten in perhaps the world's most infamous site of mass murder. This is why, in that nearly forgotten town of Katyn near Minsk in Belarus where one-fourth of that country's entire Jewish population was eliminated, I have touched the stones that were once the foundations of homes and closed my eyes to imagine first the peaceful rural life of the Jewish community there and then to imagine the horror they experienced when the command was given to obliterate all the men, women, children, the old and the young. This is why, in the rural northwest corner of Czechoslovakia, I continued my quest to understand this challenge, traveling to the town of Terezin, named Terezinstadt by the Germans. There it a ghastly story there, extremely well preserved. As I found my way around this town, once the home of 3,000 peaceful citizens, later converted to a concentration site for more than 180,000, I struggled again to understand how the world could have allowed the holocaust to happen in the face of increasingly compelling information that it was unfolding. There were unspeakable crimes in ths 35,000prisoner concentration camn known as the Little Fortress in the cfneient crematoria of Teretin whore thousands perished and in the town which became • collecting point fbr Uns of thousands of Jews wh" dia^ at, Auschwitz. It was a period in world history when urns individuals and some nations had the chance to look ahead and make a dinVrencc, but for a time did not not. Certainly the answers are rarely easy. (Continued on page 4) •Mi
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Lincoln completes campaign Herb Friedman, president, Jewish Federation of Lincoln has announced the completion of Campaign '94. Under the direction of Women's Division chairman Helen (Mrs. Abram) Misle, and Men's Division chairman Leio Hill, the community has planned a" Campaign Culmination Gala." The event, chaired by Dr. Rizowy Barbara (Mrs. Allan) Kenyon, will be May 1, 6:30 p.m., at the Villager Motor Inn Ballroom, and is open to the entire Lincoln Federation membership. Dinner will be served. Carlos G. Rizowy, Ph.D., J.D., will speak A practicing attorney in Chicago, Dr. Rizowy specializes in international legal issues and foreign policy. He is a partner in the law firm Levenfeld, Eisenberg, Janger, Glassberg, Samotny & Halper, concentrating in domestic and international business transactions. Born in Uruguay, he later moved to Israel where he obtained a Bachelors Degree from Hebrew University before earning his law degree. He also holds a Masters Degree and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a weekly commentator on National Public Radio (WBBZ) and is a frequent guest on local, national and cable TV programs as an expert on Middle East politics. Fluent in several languages. Dr. Rizowy lectures and advises extensively throughout the United Stoics, South America and Furope on legal and foreign policy issues. Mo is the former chairman of the Political Science Department ond Director of International Studies Program at Roosevelt Univorsity of Chicago. He is a founding member and immediate past president of the Organization of Holocaust Survivors; a member of the executive board of Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry; a member of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League. He also is director and general counsel to the Latin American Chombor of Commerce. Dr. Ftizowy will spenk on HThc Pence Proceii: From Conflict to Reconciliation." For information, contact Barbara Kenyon, 6829 Bariinrn l.niir. I.iiiroln, NK 08r)12, iiliotip -lOZ 423a67N
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