CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
ROBERT AND JANET:
NOWY TARG (POLAND) HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
Last year, on my birthday, I both lost a friend and gained a friend.
I was privileged to meet Robert (Reibeisen) Mendler, the last Holocaust survivor in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I was privileged to write an article on him in the Westmoreland County Historical Magazine and to continue his story on this blog.
I was privileged to spend the afternoon of December 8, 2009, in his company (see link at end of post).
I was also privileged to be the person who informed him that he was not the only survivor of his hometown, Nowy Targ, Poland. The survival of Janet Applefield, also a Nowy Targ, Poland, Holocaust survivor, was a revelation to him.
Thus, enroute to his funeral, I made an impromptu decision to try to speak.
I asked my husband, Monte, who was with me, if I should do this. After all, I knew nothing about Jewish funerals—this was my first experience. I did not have the time to consult with Janet, on whose behalf I wanted to speak. Somehow, though, I felt that she wouldn’t mind.
When I arrived at the synagogue I fear I made myself obnoxious, asking different persons if I could speak. Even so, I was given permission, and I was invited up to the podium during the service.
Here is what I shared at Bob’s funeral:
Everyone here is (more…)
Kristallnacht Service 2013 at Seton Hill University (PA)
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CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
Hug for Carolyn a. k. a. “Bink”
KRISTALLNACHT 75TH ANNIVERSARY
SETON HILL UNIVERSITY
GREENSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
November 12, 2013
Burning synagogue on Kristallnacht in Nazi-Germany
When Fritz Ottenheimer was asked what the most terrifying experience in his life was he didn’t have to think long.
“Kristallnacht.”
Ottenheimer and three other Holocaust survivors, Yolanda Willis, Shulamit Bastacky, and Solange Lebovitz, were acknowledged during the interfaith Kristallnacht memorial service at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Synagoge of Siegen, Germany, burning during Kristallnacht (9 November 1938) in Nazi-Germany
Ottenheimer was 13 on November 9-10, 1938, when, across the Third Reich, 267 synagogues were burned, 700 Jewish businesses were looted, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and 91 Jews met death.
Early in the morning of November 10 a synagogue was blown up near his home. A few hours later there was a knock on the door. Two Gestapo were there to arrest his father.
Jews are being forced to walk with the star of David during the Kristallnacht in Nazi-Germany in the night of 9-10 november 1938
“How could that happen?” he wondered. His father had committed no crime. “We did not know what was happening to us. I felt hurt, helpless, (more…)