Reunion of Holocaust Survivors
Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 17, 2003; 2:00 p.m ET
Thousands of Holocaust survivors, rescuers and their children gathered in Washington, D.C. this month for the largest reunion since the opening of the national Holocaust Museum in 1993.
Post staff writer Debbi Wilgoren wrote short profiles of 10 survivors who attended the reunion, and co-authored with staff writer Susan Levine an article about the reunion that was headlined 'We Have Not Forgotten You.'
Wilgoren will be online Monday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET to field questions and comments.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
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Debbi Wilgoren: Good afternoon, everyone. Reporting and writing about the reunion of Holocaust survivors earlier this month was a fascinating and deeply moving experience. I look forward to discussing the reunion, and the survivors themselves, in today's chat.
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Arlington, Va.:
In regards to the holocaust, do the survivors feel that justice was served against the Nazis? Are many active in organizations the help oppressed people and refugees in war torn countries?
Debbi Wilgoren: Great questions, Arlington. Thanks. Although it is impossible to speak for all the survivors, those who I met did express some bitterness about Nazis involved in the Holocaust who managed to escape prosecution by fleeing to South America or elsewhere. At the same time, they were almost uniformly grateful and appreciative for the opportunities they and other survivors had to build new lives in the U.S. and Israel--even though the United States was not always welcoming to Jewish refugees during and after the war. As for continued activism, I'm not sure. I did hear several survivors express deep concern about attempted genocides that have occured in Africa and the Balkans in recent years, and also concern about political intolerance and extremism in this country and elsewhere. But I gather that most survivors have focused their civic energies on building strong Jewish organizations here and in Israel.
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Washington, D.C.:
Are there still events for the reunion that the public can take part in?
Debbi Wilgoren: No, the reunion was the first weekend in November. But the Holocaust Memorial Museum is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and events related to that celebration are ongoing. The museum's website, www.ushmm.org, should have details on special exhibits and other events.
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Washington, D.C.:
During your coverage, what was the general sentiment among the survivors? Were the people gathering so that their grand children would remember what they experienced? Were there any of the families or friends that were reunited after so many years?
Debbi Wilgoren: The mood in the enormous tent that was set up across 15th Street from the museum was at once festive and laden with grief. Old friends--bound by having survived some of the most unspeakable horrors ever known to man--were joyful at seeing each other, and at the same time emotional as they remembered all those they had lost, and what they themselves had endured. The presence of their children and grandchildren added to the celebratory feeling -- in our article, we likened it to a wedding or a bar mitzvah. There were even groups dancing the hora. The feeling was one of triumph, and also defiance -- these men and women had done more than survive, they had created whole new Jewish generations, strong and thriving. I think the survivors very much wanted their grandchildren to know their heritage, and they also wanted to celebrate with those grandchildren.
As for one-on-one reunions, my colleague Susan Levine and I observed some connections among people who had not seen each other in many years, and I am sure there were many more. Most, but not all, of the survivors who attended are active are active in some of the many survivor organizations, so I don't know if there were many reunions of people who literally had not seen each other since they left the concentration camps or the ghetto some 60 years ago.
Some U.S. Army veterans came to the reunion and met survivors of the camps they'd liberated, which was moving to see. Even more poignant were the message boards set up in one area, where people posted notices seeking information, in many cases about familiy members who vanished without a trace during the war.
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Bethesda, Md.:
Is it true that survivors were charged to participate in this ceremony?
Debbi Wilgoren: The reunion of survivors and their families that was held at the museum on Sunday, and which drew more than 7,000 people, was free. But a dinner at the Washington Convention Center Saturday night, with former Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, cost $75 per person, according to museum officials. 4,000 people attended the dinner, and more wanted to go, but there was no more room.
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Maryland:
Have there been other reunions over the years or was this the biggest ever? Aren't there other states or organizations that sponsor these holocaust commemorative events?
Debbi Wilgoren: There have been many other reunions -- there was a much larger one in Washington in 1983. The difference, of course, is that so many more survivors were alive back then. This event was the largest gathering of survivors in years, and it was billed as the last time so many survivors are likely to gather. Since so many survivors are now in their 70s and 80s, that billing seems warranted.
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Washington, D.C.:
Have there been attempts to create a documentary or archive on the survivors?
Debbi Wilgoren: Yes, many. I'm no expert on these projects, but Steve Spielberg is compiling an enormous collection of videotaped oral histories, called the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project (www.vhf.org). The U.S. Holocaust Museum (www.ushmm.org) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (www.wiesenthal.com) also have significant archives on survivors and their experiences.
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Long Beach, Calif.:
Greetings, I was curious as to how
you feel about the recent declassified documents that prove Prescott Bush was cloaking Nazi assets, after Pearl Harbor, and
was involved in a huge coal mining operation
just outside of Auschwitz. Seeing that many
of the WWII era documents are just now being declassified, should the entire history of the Holocaust be rewritten, or do we simply
look the other way? Thanks
Debbi Wilgoren: I don't think any Holocaust scholars are likely to look away from any new information on the subject, which strikes me as one of the most thoroughly, exhaustively researched in history. It will be interesting to see what happens as more documents are declassified. That research may be the next generation of what the public knows about the Holocaust, especially as the number of survivors able to talk about their experiences continues to diminish.
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Washington, D.C.:
Has the Holocaust museum decided to incorporate the reunion as part of their historical archive? Will we see more events of these kinds sponsored by the museum?
Debbi Wilgoren: That's a great question, but one the museum will have to answer. Again, I think that the likelihood of a large reunion of survivors 10 years from now is not great, simply because of the passage of time.
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Debbi Wilgoren:
Thanks for all the good questions, folks. I've got to run. Look forward to chatting again on another topic sometime soon.
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