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November 17, 2000/Heshvan 19, 5761, Vol. 53, No.8
Holocaust lessons for today
MARTY LATZ
Special to Jewish News
Hannah Pick-Goslar, Anne Frank's best friend from ages 4 to 13, "didn't believe it" when the Germans began rounding up Jews. As this Holocaust survivor told me after speaking to some 800 Greenway High School students and then 100 or so residents at Kivel Geriatric Center, "We couldn't believe that a people with culture and Beethoven would invent gas (to kill people).... It was too crazy."
Of course, the world also failed to believe the Nazis would do what they did.
But today, the world is listening to Hannah Pick-Goslar, whose story is recorded in Alison Leslie Gold's book, "Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend."
Pick-Goslar is relating parts of that story during an Anti-Defamation League-sponsored speaking tour of the United States. She teaches some important lessons.
The first relates to the world's disbelief that Germans would do what they did. Lesson? Timely facts must nearly always be disseminated in life-and-death circumstances, especially when the truth runs counter to common beliefs or assumptions.
For instance, it's hard to believe that Palestinians knowingly would send children into the line of fire at violent protests. Yet objective evidence points to instances of strategic use of violence and relative disregard for children's safety. This must be more aggressively publicized in the battle for world opinion.
Secondly, Pick-Goslar spoke despairingly of the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust, noting that she and others prayed to save a group of children. "The answer from heaven was 'no," she said. "And they went straight to the gas chamber."
Of the current crisis in the Middle East, she said that while Israel is "not living in peace, at least we can defend ourselves." Lesson? Taking the religious, moral and ethical high ground is not always enough. We must be able to defend our principles through use of strength consistent with these principles.
Thirdly, Pick-Goslar described that in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the Germans gave children under age 3 just two glasses of milk a week, "exactly the difference between life and death." Lesson? Many of us take for granted an abundance of food, medicine and shelter. We live with luxury unattainable in most of the world.
Finally, Pick-Goslar is speaking to many schoolchildren about her experiences as a child in the Holocaust. Lesson? While everyone needs a basic understanding of the facts surrounding the Holocaust, kids especially need this education. History books are one thing. Personal accounts are another.
Consider this. Pick-Goslar told us of her last contact with her childhood friend Anne Frank. It was February 1945, shortly after Pick-Goslar learned Anne had not escaped to Switzerland, as she had been led to believe when the Frank family went into hiding. Instead, she found Anne, then almost 16, on the other side of a high, impenetrable fence within the Bergen-Belsen camp. The two friends arranged to have a short conversation, and Pick-Goslar was able to throw a packet of food over the fence to Anne, who was then very ill. Shortly after their meeting, Anne died, the camp was liberated, and Hannah Pick-Goslar moved to Israel.
The women's stories live on. So should their lessons.
Marty Latz is a Valley attorney and negotiations consultant. Respond to Latz@negotiationInstitute.com.
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