our ancestors lived in slovakia for centuries. high mountains and long winters made life difficult...
TRANSCRIPT
Our ancestors lived in Slovakia for centuries.
High mountains and long winters made life difficult but it was our home.
We received both secular &
religious education
At home we received Jewish education but were raised in a democratic spirit of respecting other opinions & views, variety of secular cultures and also different religions & beliefs.
Between 1918 and 1938 our Czechoslovak government wasdemocratic and its laws pursuit mutual tolerance
and democracy. We Jews were fully respected citizens having both equal human
&legal rights as any other citizens. We lived in peace and relative harmony next to each other.
In spite of common anti-Semitism, most people respected each other’s religious faiths & practiced their own traditions
and customs without any serious conflicts with the others.For centuries, neither Czech nor Slovak Jews had experienced
violent and often deadly pogroms as they had occurred almost regularly in neighboring Poland ,
Ukraine and Russia .
We all believed in the coming of Messiah.Some expected Him co come first time
or return the 2nd time
In early 1938, Czechoslovakia was still safe for us
even if many refugees were warning us of approaching danger from anti-Semitic events in neighboring Nazi Germany.
Uncertainty about our future was growing
but nobody could answer our worries.
It made us feel shaky like the “Fiddler on the hoof.”
Fear
Jews were known as literate and hard working people who were peaceful, unarmed and harmless. Helpless and confused, suddenly they found themselves surrounded by violent gangs directed by the government.
In Slovakia we Jews found ourselves trapped among violent
beasts with no easy way to escape
Robbed of our property and jobs, we were starving and constantly exposed to
false accusations, humiliation, daily arrests, harassment, looting and
threats.
The civilized world abroad abandoned the Jews of Europe
and refused to help us. It included the USA State dept.,
British government & others. We became sad and desperate.
One of many terrible nights of terror filled with violence,
broken glass windows ,anti-Semitic propaganda and threats.
Deceived Jews were promised to be“ resettled”.
Self-governed areas“ somewhere in the East” waited for them .
Frequent deportations were carried out orderly
and mostly without major resistance.
Shout or remain silent?
Each of us had to make the decision to become either passive & die,
revolt & become short-lived heroes or try to survive in order to
become witnesses of genocide & preserve it for history & posterity.
Many of us became desperate
Established in Slovakia for centuries ,the Jewish communities kept silently vanishing.
Exemptions for our family started running out as we were to join the last group of deported Jews .
Those unable to endure such harsh conditions joined the MARCH TO
ETERNITY
Even Prophetsamong us cried
Only after the war we learned details about the real destination and fate of our deported relatives.
All we could was remembering them with love and sadness.
Vanished in the flames of the Holocaust.
We mourned and lamented our losses
End of a
family
Each of the six million Jewish victims
had a face and a name. There were
1.5 million children among them.
KaddishKaddish is a Jewish prayer to praise G-d
to honor memory of the dead. It includes Jewish Martyrs murdered
during the 12 years of Nazi rule of Europe and particularly during the Holocaust because they
were singled out for annihilation for the only reason to be born into Jewish families
or for choosing to become Jewish by conversion . Religious denomination or
social status did not make a difference.
Bitter memories turned into art
Memories became
nightmares
In the year of 2006 a large painting of Jeremy Hoffeld depicting deportations of Jews
(with a Holocaust survivor Tibor Spitz in front) was exhibited at the group exhibition in Woodstock, NY.
Hebrew text from the Passover
Haggadah story reads:
“In every generation our
enemies wanted to
destroy us but God always
saved us… ”
Today is the International Holocaust Memorial Day
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
All shown art pieces and paintingshave been created by the
artist and witness
Tibor SpitzThe text was written by Tibor Spitz.Tibor Spitz sent me this valuable material
and his consent to make a series of presentations
about him as artist and witness of the Holocaust.