The other day, I read an interesting article that I would entitle The
World According to Yisrael. Yisrael
who? Yisrael Kristal. He’s 110 years old, a retired confectioner,
living in Haifa, Israel. You’ve probably
never heard of him.
You probably have
heard of Alice Herz-Sommer, who was also 110, a pianist living in
London. She died on 23 February. When she did she was unofficially the ‘Oldest
Living Holocaust Survivor.’ She was
incarcerated in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during the 1940’s.
Well, with the
death of Herz-Sommer, Yisrael Kristal takes her place. He spent time in the Lodz Ghetto before begin
transported to Auschwitz Camp. He was
liberated by the advancing Red Army and returned to Lodz. In 1950, he left Poland to live in Israel.
Of course, all
of these deaths, and reports as to who’s still living, are of particular
interest at this time. After all, we’re
approaching the 59th anniversary of the end of the contemporaneous
events of the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust. Not all the survivors of the Holocaust who
remain alive are 110 years old, but we are painfully aware that even the
youngest survivors are getting up there in years. As you remember, I buried a 92-year-old
survivor last week. Her son, at 73, must
be one of the youngest survivors still alive.
He accompanied his parents to Westerbork Camp as a toddler.
We’re losing
them every day. And that is a matter of
concern. After all, when there are no
eyewitnesses left, how much stronger will be the position of those who, despite
the extensive archival evidence, continue to assert that these events did not
happen? At least today, we still have
survivors who are able and willing to tell their stories. And that makes a big difference.
So it’s
important to keep track of the remaining survivors. And to read and repeat their stories, as much
as we reasonably can. There is a
sameness to the stories, and yet each one is different, unique. The stories of Herz-Sommer and Kristal are
two good examples of this.
Both survivors
used their vocational skills to help re-create their lives after the Holocaust. The sign Arbeit Macht Frei on the
gates of Auschwitz can be taken for the absurdity that it is in that
context. But there is really truth in
the principle that labour liberates.
Productive work does give meaning to our lives. Think of those who are idle, and how empty
their lives can to be. Those who have
productive and meaningful work, can stand up to and overcome a lot. This, whether that work is making sweets or
playing piano concerts. Both are
worthwhile and both Herz-Sommer and Kristal used their work to help them
overcome their suffering under the Nazi madness.
Also, both
survivors went to live in the State of Israel within a few years of
liberation. This, out of a conviction
that the Jewish state was the future of the Jewish people. Israel was and is the antithesis to the European
continent which, in the 1950’s, still lay in ruins. Even today, after Europe has arisen from the
ashes, it feels soulless. One gets a
sense of living in the shadow of a lost world.
Israel, despite all its challenges, feels alive and ripe with promise
not yet realised. It is the embodiment
of the Jewish spirit, which was obliterated in Europe. Herz-Sommer eventually left Israel for
London, to be near her son, who was a concert cellist there. But before she passed away, she told an
interviewer that her almost 40 years in Jerusalem, were her happiest years.
Each of our two survivors, perhaps inevitably,
has something to say about the relative ease of our material standard of living
today. Each one, in their own way,
chides today’s younger generations for being ‘spoilt’ and taking for granted
the incredible comfort in which we live.
Each one observes that this comfort, and our taking it for granted,
creates an essential weakness of will.
That it makes us far too vulnerable to feelings of deprivation and
despair should some circumstance force us into a lower standard of living.
Finally, each
of the two gave advice that I, being in the middle of a weight-loss plan, can
appreciate. Asked the secret to their
longevity, each said more-or-less the same thing. They counselled moderation in all things,
including eating. Herz-Sommer said: “My recommendation is not to eat a lot, but
also not to go hungry. Fish or chicken
and plenty of vegetables.” Kristal
offered: “It isn’t good to eat too
much. A little less is better than a
little more. It’s not good to have a
full stomach.” Of course, the moderation
they were counselling extended into other areas, not just food. And most of us accept the principle even
though we can find it difficult to live up to all the time. If we wish to see the age of 110, perhaps it
would be good to try harder.
I’d like to
make one more point. There’s an
expression, for which Herz-Sommer was a walking advertisement, and which
Kristal still embodies. That which
doesn’t kill you, can make you stronger.
The Nazi hate machine tried very hard to kill the Jewish people and
others. But about half the Jews
survived. Of those who did, those who
were never able to transcend their experience lived, and continue to live,
haunted lives. I spoke about this phenomenon
last Friday night. But those who have
found within themselves the strength to move past their suffering, to allow
their experiences to strengthen them, went on to live happy and meaningful
lives, And long lives as well. May we all have the constitutions to take in
whatever sufferings life deals out to us, and overcome. And live long healthy
lives. Shabbat shalom.
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