Story from the Holocaust brought to life
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » Mark Biederman is the son of two survivors of the Holocaust, a husband, a veterinarian and a storyteller; and what a story he has to tell.
In his book, Schindler’s Listed: The Search for My Father’s Lost Gold, Biederman describes what it was like for a boy born in midtwentieth century America to dive, full throttle, into the horrors his parents witnessed first-hand during World War II and literally have a pot of gold found at the end of the rainbow.
Biederman made a presentation on his book last week as part of Clifton Park Chabad’s annual Kristallnacht memorial observance.
Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, took place in Germany during the night of Nov. 9, 1938. This was the start of a statedirected policy of violence against Jews. Their synagogues, businesses, homes and schools were burned and vandalized and nearly 100 Jewish residents were killed.
Biederman’s Nov. 11 presentation was given at the Clifton Park Senior Community Center and drew 75 people.
As with many of those who survived the events of World War II Biederman’s parents had never spoken openly with him about what happened. They never discussed their past or how they came to America.
As a child growing up he knew only that his parents spoke with accents while the parents of his Jewish friends did not. When the other children had birthday parties there were many grandparents and aunts and uncles but for Biederman there were none. When he asked why he was told the Germans had killed them all.
Upon finding what he took to be a valuable coin in his change he showed it to his father announcing it would make the family rich. His no nonsense father brushed him off with a throwaway remark that the family had buried a fortune in Poland as the Germans closed in.
After his father’s death and finally getting his mother to open up about the family’s past, Biederman recounted how he was told the tale of the coins was true and that his father and a friend had gone back at one point to get them. The home was now occupied by a Polish family and seeing the men outside shot
at them killing the friend. The father never returned.
At his presentation last week Biederman described his 20 year journey to find the coins.
From his eager youthful start with a few letters (never acknowledged) to the Department of Vital Records of Lodz, Poland, Biederman took his audience through the early denials of his visa requests, the eventual granting of the visa, his trips to Krosno, Poland, the unwelcoming atmosphere he faced, the chance meeting between his mother and a friend from the old country, locating his father’s correct address in Lodz, Poland, the grandiose scheme to gain access to the backyard, an unsuccessful meeting with a news producer from Fox News, and the eventual discovery of the gold coins by that same news producer with the assistance of the Polish government.
Along the way Biederman learned about his family, himself, and Geopolitics.
“Krosno is a city that is 700 years old,” Biederman said last week, “and it looks like there has been very little upkeep since it was built. When I finally made it to the Department of Vital Records I was told there was nothing there for people like me, Jews. I was told to go home.”
When he tried the local post office, where he hoped old records might show his father address, the woman led him outside, reentered the building, locked the door, and turned a sign in the window to read closed.
After the movie Schindler’s List was released and with advances in the Internet Biederman began searching different websites connected to the Holocaust. On his first ever Internet search he sought information on the Holocaust and in particular the real list from Oskar Schindler. When he found it his father’s name was listed third.
As he dove deeper into his research Biederman learned of a secondary source, a survivor from the work camp where his mother and grandmother had been sent. She recalled his mother refusing to let her mother go into “the other line” upon their arrival by train and her screams and energy drew the attention of Dr. Joseph Mengele.
Mengele, according to the woman, needed a cook and allowed the two to live and work outside the Auschwitz camp cooking for him.
Once the gold coins were discovered, exactly where Biederman’s father said they had been buried, they became the property of the Polish government and are exhbitited in a museum. However, in an effort to ease the American’s pain at losing a fortune, the government opened up its vaults and began sending him photo copies of his parents’ documents.
Through them he learned that the rabbi, shown in the Steven Spielberg movie avoiding execution when his Nazi interrogators’ guns jammed, later married his parents.
Looking back on his 20 year odyssey Biederman said he’s glad he was not given a visa early on in his quest because he doesn’t know what kind of trouble he might have got himself into. For others who want to search as he did he passed on some advice.
“I would say go see what you can learn but be prepared to be disappointed,” he said.
Biederman’s book, “Schindler Listed”, was published in May by Academic Studies Press. It is available in hard copy and paperback on Amazon.