This was written as part of a death and dying course at Western Michigan University.
Original Submission Date: April 10, 2020
Overview
Luck played a significant part in physically surviving the Holocaust. Some lived because they were deemed healthier than others; some were in the right place at the right time; some did horrific duties in hopes of prolonging their lives; and some were issued worthless Swedish papers that helped them survive. However, surviving the death camps and working to build a productive and meaningful life took a combination of hope, resilience, and pure grit. The survivors interviewed in The Last Days all built meaningful lives and in their older years told their stories in the hopes that no one would ever endure what they had. In analyzing their stories, I believe that the characteristics that helped them survive and build meaningful lives include a combination of pragmatic resilience, holding on to slivers of hope, and choosing to share their stories.
Pragmatic Resilience
None of the people interviewed in The Last Days were the types of heroes who boldly stood up to the Nazis and protested or fought back. However, that was not an act of cowardice, but an acceptance that to fight back or even to speak up could have gotten them killed. Instead, these mere teenagers and young adults had the inner courage and wisdom to know that in order to have a chance at continuing to live they had to do whatever was asked of them even if it was repugnant. Dario Gabbai was a prime example of this pragmatic resilience. Gabbai was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1922 and was planning to study medicine, but then came the Holocaust and he instead became a prisoner at Auschwitz II Birkenau along with his two cousins (USC Shoah Foundation 2019). All three were assigned to be Sonderkommandos at the crematoriums. He gave a chilling account of his life at Auschwitz in The Last Days where he described helping fellow prisoners strip, then ushering them into the gas chambers. After the lethal gas had done its job, it was his job to remove the bodies and take them to the crematorium. He described people being packed so tight into the gas chamber that when he opened the door they were blue, but still standing including mothers with infants in their arms. Gabbai usually did not tell his fellow prisoners what their fate would be, but he made an exception for two friends who he told where to stand so they would die quickly. There may be some who would consider Gabbai a traitor for helping the Nazis in their slaughter of his people and for not refusing, but I see this as an act of pragmatic resilience as he knew that if he spoke out he would also be killed and that his only choice was to do what he was asked so that he might survive. He said in The Last Days, “A lot of people think that we –working in the Sonderkommando – we were guilty of something, you know, because we were doing such kind of a work. But ourselves, you know, we couldn’t get out of it. If you don’t do whatever they’re asking you to do, they kill you right away” (Transcript The Last Days n.d.).
Another example of pragmatic resilience was demonstrated by Irene Zisblatt who, along with her entire village, was tricked into getting on a train going to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Once the train arrived at the camp, all of her family members were immediately taken to the gas chamber and she was the sole survivor. Her mother had sewn four diamonds into the hem of the dress for her to purchase bread and after she was separated from her family, she took the diamonds out of the hem and instead of putting them in the bag as the guards asked, she swallowed them. She repeatedly retrieved the diamonds from her feces and swallowed them to keep them safe, even though each time she retrieved them she was risking death if she was discovered by the guards. Irene held on to those diamonds throughout her imprisonment and held on to the hope that she might be reunited with her mother. Ultimately she learned that her mother had died in the camp and when she moved to America she had the diamonds made into a pendant that she holds dear because it is the only thing she has that her mother touched.
Bill Basch also demonstrated pragmatic resilience throughout the war. After his father was forced to sell the family store to a gentile, he and his three brothers were each sent to different cities in hopes that at least one of them would survive. He went to Budapest with his mother where he began working as a courier for Raoul Wallenburg. One day he inadvertently exited the sewer in the middle of a courtyard and ended up on his way to Buchenwald. Although he attempted to escape several times, he soon realized that those who successfully escaped were immediately killed and decided he needed to focus on his immediate survival. Once he arrived at the camp, he volunteered to work on repairing the railroad as he knew that prisoners who did not work did not survive (McCune, Schreiber and Lowenstein n.d.). In the spring of 1945, he was one of thousands forced to march to Dachau. Basch went on the march with two friends, one of whom was injured and limping. Once the guards realized that one of the boys had a limp, they pulled him out of line and were going to kill him. Basch and his other friend tried to keep the pledge the boys had made to stick together, but they realized that keeping the pledge meant they would all be killed. This was another act of pragmatic resilience as the boys realized there was nothing they could do to save their friend and they chose to save themselves.
Glimmers of Hope
Alice Lok Cahana survived the Holocaust with her soul intact because, according to her obituary in Chron, even as she was facing the horrors of imprisonment at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen she vowed not to hate those who were imprisoning her. Rincon said that Cahana often told her friends that “If I hate, that means Hitler would’ve won” (Rincon 2017). Cahana also held on to her love of art during the dark days of the Holocaust and even staged an act of subtle defiance when her Nazi captors challenged the children to decorate the barracks for Christmas. With nothing to work with except a broom, Cahana choreographed the 24 children in the barracks into a living menorah and her barracks won the competition (Women Artists of the American West n.d.). Cahana and her fellow Jews also held on to their rituals as much as they could. Cahana told of one Shabbat when Jews of all nationalities gathered in the latrine and sang Hebrew songs and were united in their faith. Cahana continued making art after she moved to the United States and in 2006, she presented her work No Names to Pope Benedict XVI and it remains the only piece of Holocaust art to hang at the Vatican. According to Chron, Cahana’s artist’s statement for No Names says, “None of us can hear six million voices at the same time…And still, all of us who survived took a silent oath, made a promise to tell a glimpse of the story. Not to let the world forget. My art and my writing are my Kaddish for those who did not survive” (Rincon 2017).
Zisblatt chose to hold on to her soul during the dark days when she was experimented on, given little to eat, and living in a living hell. She said in The Last Days, “They didn’t even let us die when we wanted. And then I thought of something. They took away my parents. They took my identity. They took away my siblings. They took away my possessions. There is something that they want from me. And then I thought of my soul. And I said, ‘They’re not going to take my soul.’ And I decided right then and there, I’m going to get up from this mud and I’m going to fight because I’m not going to become ashes.” (Transcript The Last Days n.d.)
Holding on to hope of reuniting with family members allowed many survivors of the Holocaust to continue getting up each morning and doing whatever they needed to do to endure. Unfortunately, for most of the survivors, they learned when they returned to the camps that their loved ones had died. Cahana was one who learned which mass grave her sister was buried in and she was able to hold a service and say goodbye. She said, “Today is the most special day of my life. Finally, the search is over and we now know what happened and when it happened. I brought here my mother’s prayer book and here we will say for you the prayers that’s traditional, and light this candle in your memory and remember you forever, as long as we live” (Transcript The Last Days n.d.).
Sharing their Stories
All of the Holocaust survivors who choose to share their stories believe that by sharing their stories they can help prevent genocides. In addition to sharing their stories in The Last Days, all of the survivors have shared their stories in other forums as well. Bill Basch came to the United States with no money and no family and through his own hard work and determination built his own business and a life for himself that included a wife, who was a fellow Holocaust survivor, and three kids. According to an article at the Virtual Jewish Library, he’s made it his mission to talk to children about the Holocaust in hopes of instilling in them a belief in tolerance. The article quoted him as saying, “In order to survive we must accept the responsibility of being our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Each one of us must do our share of improving our society one day at a time. We all have the ability to defeat evil in our own way” (McCune, Schreiber and Lowenstein n.d.). Renee Firestone also chooses to share her story because it is her way of holding on to the hope that things will change. She was quoted in an interview with The Gazette as saying “There are fewer survivors every year. It is important for us to speak. We have a responsibility to remind the world, to warn the world of what has happened. We have to start teaching our children. We can’t be afraid to tell them. Our children have to know what happened” (Hines-Dochterman 2013).
Tom Lantos came to the United States on a scholarship to study at the University of Washington where he received both a BA and an MA. After receiving his PhD at the University of California in Berkeley, he became a college professor and served as an advisor to several US Senators. In 1980 he became the first Holocaust survivor elected to the United States Senate and he used his position to work tirelessly for human rights. He was quoted in the University of Washington magazine as saying, “My life’s experience taught me. I had seen what a police state does to people. I had to be a part of the policy part, to make things better. I have developed a lifetime love affair with politics and government. I take government very seriously. I have a passion to make sure we prevent others from going through what I did” (MARMOR 1999). Despite his human rights work, it wasn’t until 1995 that he began speaking of what he went through in the Holocaust as a way to educate others, including his own grandchildren. In The Last Days he returned to the railroad tracks that he had been detailed to rebuild during the last days of World War II. He told the University of Washington Magazine, “I did it because I felt the educational value of the film for generations to come would be enormous. It was not an easy or pleasant task but I knew it would be a powerful and gripping reminder of this nightmare that must not be forgotten” (MARMOR 1999).
Summary
Watching The Last Days was one of the most difficult assignments I’ve ever had, especially as we are currently living under a president who shows fascist tendencies. Most troubling for me were some of the scenes of liberation where we saw people who were once proud members of society stripped of their clothing and dignity. However, there was also courage, hope, and resilience in the stories that these survivors told and I find it inspiring that all of them were able to go on to lead productive lives and that they all chose to share their stories in the hopes that we will never again turn a blind eye to the suffering of others.
Bibliography
Hines-Dochterman, Meredith. 2013. “Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone to share her story.” The Gazette. 04 15. https://www.thegazette.com/2013/04/15/holocaust-survivor-renee-firestone-to-share-her-story.
MARMOR, JON. 1999. “Holocaust survivor and statesman Tom Lantos, ’49, ’50, keeps bucking the odds.” University of Washington Magazine. September. https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/holocaust-survivor-and-statesman-tom-lantos-49-50-keeps-bucking-the-odds/.
McCune, Pat, Penny Schreiber, and Joan Lowenstein. n.d. “Bill Basch.” Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bill-basch.
Rincon, Marialuisa. 2017. “Alice Lok Cahana, artist and Holocaust survivor, dies at 88.” Chron. December 8. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-deaths/article/Alice-Lok-Cahana-artist-and-Holocaust-survivor-12417040.php.
n.d. “Transcript The Last Days.” Dorjeshugden. https://www.dorjeshugden.com/letters/transcript-the-last-days.pdf.
USC Shoah Foundation. 2019. “Dario Gabbai, Auschwitz Sonderkommando survivor, dies at 97.” USC Shoah Foundation. March 2017. https://sfi.usc.edu/news/2020/03/27196-dario-gabbai-auschwitz-sonderkommando-survivor-dies-97.
Women Artists of the American West. n.d. “Alice Lok Cahana.” Women Artists of the American West. https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/rueffschool/waaw/Ressler/artists/cahanabio.html.