Woman finds boat she believes rescued her father from Nazis
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Florida Holocaust Museum is a place that reminds visitors of the inhumanity of which mankind is capable. Two Pinellas County women who lost grandparents to the Holocaust are helping to bring a message of humanity to the museum.
They also have parents who escaped the Nazis due to the heroism of people in Denmark. When the Nazis prepared to round up that nation’s Jewish population, Danish fishermen ferried them to Sweden.
“This story can give people hope,” Irene Weiss said.
It’s why she and Margot Benstock worked to acquire one of the escape vessels for the museum. The museum financed the purchase and the fishing boat is now in a Largo warehouse being restored for display.
They didn’t know it when they acquired the boat, but it might be the one that saved Benstock’s father.
“I am not 100% sure yet,” Benstock said. “But it is very possible. The boat went the same route as the boat that took my father.”
Benstock’s father, Max Fisch, was born in Berlin and raised there until 1936 when he was 16 and the Nazis had risen to power. His parents were contacted by the Hechalutz, an international organization recruiting Jewish youth to relocate to Palestine.
“My grandparents said, ‘Please take my son,’” Benstock said. “They took him and others to farms in Denmark to learn trades so ... they could work when they got to Palestine. In 1938, a selection did go to Palestine, but my father remained in Denmark” with plans to later go to the Middle East.
That same year, her paternal grandfather was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Her paternal grandmother was later taken to Auschwitz. Neither survived.
“My dad was an orphan and didn’t even know it yet,” Benstock said.
In late 1938, as a teenager, Weiss’ father, Werner Cohn, was sent from Chemnitz, Germany, to boarding school in Denmark for safety from the Nazis. Her mother, Rosa Cohn, was 14 when she was sent from Austria to Denmark in 1939.
“It was ... when Austria had been invaded and children ... were being taken to work camps,” Weiss said. “She stayed with a family in Denmark who was very good to her. Her parents and brother were later taken to Auschwitz and killed, and she was orphaned.”
Germany invaded Denmark in 1940. Three years later, the Nazis began preparations to round up Denmark’s Jewish population. Warned of the pending imprisonments, the nation worked to save as many of their citizens as possible.
During a three-week period in October 1943, 300 fishing boats smuggled out more than 7,200 Jews and 500 family members who were not Jewish. That was more than 90% of Denmark’s Jews.
Often, the passengers were hidden below deck and underneath fish. Benstock’s father sailed from Køge, Denmark, to Skanör, Sweden.
Her mother, Ester Fisch, who was born in Denmark, was ferried from Gilleleje to Höganäs. Her maternal grandparents escaped on a different boat to Sweden, but Benstock does not know the details.
Weiss’ father was taken from Copenhagen to Sweden. Her mother almost did not make it out of Denmark.