Closing a circle with Herzog
Close to 75 years ago, olga Grossman (now Olga Grossman Shalmon) was on her way to england from her native Czechoslovakia, and stopped off in ireland en route. there, she and other jewish children who were in her group, were greeted with open arms by the person she believes to have been the chief rabbi of ireland at the time, namely rabbi isaac halevi herzog.
But she was a young girl, who did not really know who was who, or otherwise her memory may have been playing tricks with her, because herzog moved to israel in 1936. however, in olga’s mind, the man who greeted the children with open arms was herzog. indeed, after the war, he and his younger son yaakov went to europe to search for orphaned jewish children in order to bring them to the jewish homeland.
it’s also possible that rabbi herzog, who was a very close friend of president eamon de Valera, was visiting ireland at the time.
one of the goals that olga Grossman shalmon had in life was to meet the latter-day isaac herzog and close the circle between him and his grandfather. Grossman-shalmon is a holocaust survivor. more than that she is a survivor of auschwitz, who together with her twin sister Vera was subjected to the cruel experiments conducted by the notorious dr. josef mengele, who had a fetish for twins.
the sisters olga and Vera Grossman were born in Czechoslovakia in 1938 to an affluent couple, Charlotte and yitzhak Grossman. in 1944, along with other jews, the family was rounded up by the Nazis and deported to Birkenau and from there to auschwitz, where yitzhak Grossman was immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Fearful for the safety of her children, when someone had called out to check if there were any twins, Charlotte Grossman had pushed her daughters forward, shouting that she was the mother of twins. the problem was that they weren’t identical, and the Nazi soldiers did not believe her, and beat her. But mengele intervened, saying that he would find out for himself.
he came every day to inject the subjects of his experiments. sometimes, he brought a tiny piece of chocolate. on two occasions the sisters and their mother were taken to the gas chambers on the pretext that they would be able to shower. When a door closed on them with a bang, they didn’t know what was happening.
all they knew was that they were left standing there for a long time, fearful, but not knowing why. eventually the door was opened, and they were yelled at to come outside. With hindsight olga presumes that the gas canisters malfunctioned or were empty.
When she met with president Isaac Herzog last week, he received her graciously, as he does every person who comes to see him, but he has a special soft spot for holocaust survivors. she told him of her experiences in auschwitz and of how she, her mother and sister went back to Czechoslovakia after they were liberated. their mother remarried, gave birth to more children and in 1949, left for israel.
in the interim rabbi dr solomon schonfeld, who before and after the war organized rescue operations for jewish children, said that Czechoslovakia was not a good place for two girls, and arranged for them to go to england via ireland. in london, they were sent to an ultra-orthodox family and after a while, all but forgot how to speak Czech.
it worried them that they had not heard from their mother. it later transpired that she had sent them several letters, but they had not received any of them. however, after a couple of years, they set sail for israel and were reunited with their mother at haifa port.
When she was 18, olga married israel air Force officer Rafael Shalmon with whom she had two children Lea and Tzali, who accompanied her to the president’s residence. olga told the president that she could still see the image of his grandfather before her eyes.
■ aNtisemitism is one of the oldest ongoing hatreds in the world and it didn’t start with Christianity, according to noted historian professor Yehuda Bauer. it started long before that. they hated jews because they were different, worshipping a single God that no-one could see, when most people still worshipped idols.
Bauer was speaking at the Vert hotel in jerusalem on tuesday night at a dinner hosted by the World jewish Congress and the israel Council on Foreign on the eve of the seCCa (special envoys and Coordinators Combating antisemitism) forum, hosted by the WjC, in cooperation with israel’s ministry of Foreign affairs and the european Commission. the forum was timed to coincide with holocaust remembrance day.
still feisty at age 96, Bauer, speaking with passion, said there had been no antisemitism in China or india where jews were regarded as just another group, but there was a lot of antisemitism in europe and america despite the fact that jews, who currently number around 15 million people, are just a tiny part of the world’s population.
While antisemitism endangers jews, it also endangers society as a whole, he asserted.
World War ii was the result of antisemitic ideology. it broke out because of hatred of jews. altogether, 29 million people were killed in that war, declared Bauer.
“is that not a good reason to oppose antisemitism?” he asked, as he reiterated that antisemitism is dangerous not just to a small, jewish minority but to the world. it is no longer limited to europe, he said. “antisemitism is a global issue.” Because so much antisemitism is expressed through electronic media, Bauer proposed that electronic media be used to identify antisemites, and not just for the sake of protecting jews.
“an attack on jews is an attack on society,” he stated. “don’t look at an attack on a synagogue or on some jew (as dangerous). look on it as an attack on humanity,” he urged. “We are fighting against the illiberal trend that controls the world more and more.”
prior to Bauer’s address, for which he received a standing ovation, guests were welcomed by iCFr president, Dan Meridor,a former cabinet secretary, mK and minister, said that antisemitism is not just the fight of jews. it is often a fight by national and internal parties who are in a competition of interests versus values. too often, it’s interests rather than values, as can be seen in the war in ukraine, said meridor. “antisemitism is part of that huge fight.”
Following meridor was minister for social equality Meirav Cohen, who speaks excellent, almost unaccented english. While the Knesset is in the throes of an upheaval with people rebelling against their parties or being expelled from them, Cohen publicly asked meridor to return to the government, which he left in 2013.
speaking of her meetings with holocaust survivors, Cohen said that the stories they tell her, remind her of the shortcomings of individuals and nations. “if we forget what happened 80 years ago, we share the moral responsibility for all atrocities in the world,” she said.
among the people attending the dinner, were Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of deputies of British jews; Katharina von Schnurbein, european Commission coordinator on combating antisemitism; Miguel Moratinos, high representative for the united Nations alliance of Civilizations (uNaoC), a former foreign minister of spain and a former ambassador of spain to israel; ambassador Colette Avital, who is a member of the Boards of WjC -israel/iCFr and chair of the Center of organizations of holocaust survivors in israel; Nazi hunter and historian Efraim Zuroff, who is the director of the simon Wiesenthal office in jerusalem, and international human rights activist and former Canadian justice minister
Irwin Cotler who later tweeted: “pleased to participate in the international meeting of special envoys and Coordinators Combating antisemitism, which begins in jerusalem today.”
meeting on the eve of yom hashoah – an important moment of remembrance, reminder and learning from and acting upon the universal lessons of the holocaust - i look forward to engaging with my colleagues about how best to preserve and protect holocaust remembrance, and to combat global antisemitism.
Forum participants came from diverse nations on six continents, as well as from key international bodies, such as the united Nations alliance of Civilizations, uNesCo, the Council of europe, the organization for security and Cooperation in europe (osCe), and the organization of american states (oas).
among the subjects they discussed over the next two days was holocaust distortion, which has become a matter of increasing concern.
seCCa first met in Bucharest in june 2019, under the patronage and with the participation of the romanian presidency of the Council of the european union, in cooperation with the WjC. in october 2019, the WjC executive Committee adopted a resolution confirming that the WjC would regularly convene international meetings of seCCa.
also attending the dinner was Ines Demiri, the Charge d’affaires at the embassy of Kosovo, which is the only european embassy in jerusalem. Kosovo and israel established diplomatic relations just over two years ago, in the immediate aftermath of Kosovo’s independence, and the embassy in jerusalem was opened soon after.
demiri, who had been working on israel-related issues for more than a decade, was chosen to head the embassy, albeit not as ambassador, though in israel she has been unofficially given the title, if not the rank. she loves jerusalem and she loves israel. “it’s not just my profession, it’s my passion,” she says.
■ uNless you are elected or appointed to another official state or government position after having served as president or prime minister, it seems that your name gets dropped from the list of acknowledgments. listing many of the people sitting in the front row at yad Vashem on Wednesday night, both president isaac herzog and prime minister Naftali Bennett acknowledged the presence of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is now opposition leader, but did not mention former president Reuven Rivlin or former prime minister Ehud Barak who were both present.
in fact, rivlin sat next to Netanyahu, which protocol may have dictated, but it’s doubtful that either was happy about the seating arrangement.