Save history by sharing on Passover
It’s a sacred trust to write this column every Passover, which is the eight-day celebration of freedom that began at sundown Friday, because it’s keeping a promise that was made to Eric the day we met, 28 years ago.
He was 87 at the time. Though he would achieve great success in this country, such as developing the beautiful Sharon Memorial Park where he was buried 10 years later,
Eric never forgot the morning the
Nazis — on their mission to “cleanse Austria of its Jews”
— ordered him out of his home for “questioning,” after which they shoved him onto a crowded freight car bound for the concentration camp at Dachau, from which he was later sent to the equally horrifying Buchenwald.
It was a riveting story, and when he was thanked for sharing it, his eyes moistened as he replied, “No, I thank you! You don’t know what it means to someone like me to tell my story to someone like you, because now I know that when I’m gone there’ll be one more person who heard it from an eyewitness.”
Eric’s story has been shared here ever since, especially at Passover because this was his favorite holiday, as he would explain to guests invited to seders at his home.
“Our people have been participating in this ceremony for more than 3,000 years,” he’d note. “Some may wonder why we spend a whole evening doing this, identifying with people of a foreign country who lived in a civilization utterly unrelated to ours now.
“It’s a moral debt we have to all whose suffering was indescribable, ensuring they will not be forgotten.
“If we forget what happened, it could happen again. So I feel a duty to keep warning you, year after year, of the deadly consequences of prejudice, racism, anti-Semitism, all of which endanger contemporary society.
“I am afraid that unless one has witnessed life in Europe under Hitler, in Russia under Stalin, in Iran under Khomeini, or anywhere under any other dictator in the world, the word ‘freedom’ may become an abstraction.
“But it has special significance for me. This freedom we celebrate tonight never came cheap or easy, but for my generation the price will never be too high.”
Though as Jewish as King David,
‘It’s a moral debt we have to all whose suffering was indescribable, ensuring they will not be forgotten.’
Eric would send Easter cards here every Passover. Think about that. He also left instructions for his eulogy at Temple Shalom in Newton to be delivered by the writer who “heard it from an eyewitness.”
What a remarkable friend he was.
In his memory, happy Passover!