Since the 2005 celebrations, many of the URLs mentionned on the website for that date have been archived by their creators. That is to say that those particular pages are now -- no longer avilable. Sorry for that ...
Survivors celebrate liberation anniversary of concentration camp
From Xinhuanet
WEIFANG, Shandong, August 17, 2005 -- Seventy-year-old David Birch never imagined he could return to the former concentration camp where he lived as a kid some 60 years ago. And he never thought he would meet his old friends from the camp.
"I prayed to God that someday before I die I could come back to China, and here I am," the retired cinema doorman said. "My heart is full."
On Wednesday, nearly 70 elderly survivors of Weishien concentration camp and their family gathered at the former camp site in east China's Weifang city to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation.
The site is now in the compound of a local middle school and a hospital nearby. Most of the internees' dormitories have been torn down, and only a handful of Japanese officials' buildings remain.
It used to be a missionary compound named "The Courtyard of the Happy Way" before the Japanese army turned it into a concentration camp, where 2,008 men, women, and children were herded together by the Japanese intruders between 1942 and 1945.
Most of the adult internees have since died, including R. Jaegher, former adviser of the KMT president Chiang Kai-shek, Eric Linddell, the 400-meter Champion in 1924 Olympics, and Arthur Hummel, who was the American ambassador to China in 1980s.
All the survivors returning to Weifang were children internees at the time. Many of them brought their family members, hoping their special experience a family heritage that can pass down for generations.
"I remember on August 17, 1945, the American flights came and rescued us," David said. "That was the most exciting day in my life. We were all dancing and singing, running out of the camp."
"I remember that day; we were all crazy," said 77-year-old Australian writer Joyce Bradbury. She was brought to tears when she saw the former camp building and the hundreds of middle school students lining up along the road, applauding for their return.
Joyce said she was nine when the Japanese brought her to the camp. They were crammed in small houses, given scarce food, and forced to do labor when they reached 14.
"One time a horse died and the Japanese guards let it decompose until worms grew on it and then fed us with its meat," she said.
But most of the internees said the guards were treated them carefully, without the savagery that they showed to the Chinese. No one knew exactly how many people died in the camp but the number was small, they said.
"I really cannot forgive them (the Japanese army)," said Joyce.
The government still denies compensation to the Chinese.
Stephen Metcalf, the 78-year-old former internee who went to live in Japan for decades after being released from the camp, appealed that the Japanese government should face up to the history and tell Japan's next generation the truth of the war.
The Japanese have made a very great mistake by trying to sweep the war under the carpet, he said. "Indifference can lead to great problems!"
At a public speech representing all the internees, Mary Previte, assembly woman of New Jersey General Assembly said, "We who were interned here to speak the story of our lives: War and hate and violence have never open the way to peace."
#
NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS
New Jersey’s Yom Hashoa observance honors survivors and their liberators
by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Staff Writer
It has been 60 years since that terrible day in late April 1945, when, as a 20-year-old technical sergeant with the US Army’s 4th Armored Signal Battalion, Arthur Seltzer came upon the gates of the Dachau concentration camp.
“I was shocked at what I saw — dead bodies all over the ground… stacks of dead bodies decaying in the sun,” Seltzer said as he addressed a hushed crowd of more than 500 gathered beneath the massive battlements of the USS New Jersey on the Camden pier. “The survivors were walking corpses. Outside of the camp, there was a train of some 40 boxcars. In each car, horrible corpses were lying in all positions, each clad in the pajama-like uniform of the concentration camp.
“The gas chamber doors at Dachau were closed, but the ovens were still burning, and we could smell the stench of the bodies,” Seltzer said. “Veteran soldiers used to seeing death all around were overcome by these sights. My strongest recollection is of the smell of death.
“I told those around me that I was Jewish, and they took my hand and cried,” he said. “It is still very difficult to talk about this. I’ve had flashbacks and nightmares about it over the years,” he added, his voice breaking with emotion. “On this day of remembrance, I speak as a liberator. We must give pause and recall, with a deep sense of loss, all those who perished in the Holocaust.”
Seltzer’s act of witness was the emotional centerpiece of New Jersey’s official Yom Hashoa commemoration at the berth of the USS New Jersey, which served as context and counterpoint for the solemn observance on Wednesday evening, May 4. The program was jointly sponsored by the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education, the Goodwin Holocaust Museum and Education Center of the Delaware Valley in Cherry Hill, and the Office of the Governor, in cooperation with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey, the Battleship New Jersey, and the Tri-County Board of Rabbis.
“This is the third year of moving the statewide Yom Hashoa observance to different areas of the state,” said Paul Winkler, executive director of the Holocaust Education Commission. “This year is a special event in that it’s the 60th anniversary of the liberation. The event this year is honoring the liberators, the veterans, and the survivors.”
Highlights of the 80-minute program included remembrances by Fred Spiegel of Howell Township, a survivor of the Westerbork, Sobibor, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps; the presentation of the commission’s Hela Young Award to Jack Shevlin of Monroe, a longtime volunteer with the Holocaust survivor community in his township; and a tribute to Christian rescuer Giovanni Palatucci, who gave his life in the course of saving thousands of Italian Jews during World War II.
In addition, Acting Gov. Richard Codey sent a letter acknowledging the occasion as “an excellent opportunity to honor the survivors of the Holocaust and the veterans of World War II, whose efforts continue to serve as an inspiration for us all.
“By committing ourselves to the deeper understanding of our history, we become more keenly aware of and can more easily act to prevent atrocities against mankind, such as the Holocaust,” Codey wrote. “Remembering the Holocaust offers an opportunity to reflect on the moral responsibilities of individuals, societies, and governments.”
Several state legislators were also on hand to lend their voices to the occasion. “It will be important, for every year for the rest of our lives, to remember the most horrific event in the history of the world,” Sen. John Adler of Cherry Hill (D-Dist. 6), New Jersey’s senior Jewish senator, said in an interview. “Now, it’s wonderful to remember it in South Jersey at this patriotic site to contrast the ideals of America with the horrors of the Shoa.”
Assemblywoman Mary Previte of Haddonfield (D-Dist. 6) arrived at the event brimming with memories of the three years she spent as the young child of Christian missionaries in Weihsien, a Japanese concentration camp in China’s Shantung Province, during World War II.
“I don’t think people realize there were children caught up in the horror of the war,” Previte said in an interview. “We must never forget the horror in all parts of the world. When we forget, these kinds of things are going to come again and again.”
Previte’s comments struck a chord that reverberated again and again during the evening. “I think it is very important that we continue remembering and conveying to the younger generation what happened to prevent it from happening again,” said Holocaust survivor Shelley Zeiger, a Trenton businessman.
“It’s so important to support this because there are fewer and fewer survivors today,” observed Herb Gilsenberg of Monroe, a member of the Holocaust Education Commission and former director of special events for former Gov. James McGreevey. “When those raw memories disappear, I wonder whether the horror will be remembered.”
Commemorating Yom Hashoa at the site of America’s largest and most decorated battleship, in honor of the veterans who liberated the camps, is truly a special occasion, noted Philip Kirschner, chair of the Holocaust Education Commission. “The liberators not only liberated the camps, they also bore witness to what occurred there,” he said. “Many of them have gone on to speak about what they saw. I think it’s an observance that really is merited.”
Robert Richter of Oaklyn, state commander of the Jewish War Veterans, also called the observance “a very special occasion.”
“The theme of this particular Holocaust commemoration is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps,” Richter said. “I think it’s something that needs to be done. There’ll be no one to tell the story firsthand. The liberators are dying off, and some of them have fascinating stories. We have to do whatever we can to honor them. Unless you were in their shoes, there’s no way of knowing how bad it was.”
Sometimes, said survivor Fred Spiegel, you can only convey the tip of the iceberg about how bad it was. “After such a long time, you sort of detach yourself,” said Spiegel, author of Once the Acacias Bloomed: Memories of a Lost Childhood, an account of his years in three concentration camps as a young German child. “It’s like telling somebody else’s story. I often think: Did this really happen? Did it happen to me? It’s a long time ago.”
Nevertheless, we must remember, Seltzer told the gathering. “Given the continued genocide in the world, I don’t think people have sufficiently learned the lessons of the Holocaust,” he said. “Each year, we need to have this remembrance of the Holocaust and remember what it did to our world.
“As we remember those who died in the fires of hate,” he said, “we must carry the lessons to the next generation to ensure that the horrors do not repeat themselves. We cannot and must not let this happen again.”
#
Marilyn Silverstein can be reached at msilverstein@njjewishnews.com.
Copyright 2005 New Jersey Jewish News. All rights reserved. For subscription information call 973.887.8500.
