Welcome! I hope I bring a spot of calm and happiness into these uncertain times. I blog about my photography adventures, flowers, gardening, the importance of chocolate in a well lived life, or anything else on my mind.
Yes, what we call The Holocaust happened. We still have living survivors - some 245,000. 95% of them were children. It will not be that long, sadly, before most all of them are gone.
We are already forgetting. What happens when they are all gone and we have no living witnesses?
We must not hide history, even if it's painful. We deny it at our peril. The type of hate that led to the Holocaust is on the rise. People are angry and frustrated. They are frightened for the future They want someone in power that can fix it. Someone with a lot of power.
That usually doesn't end well.
I've blogged about this before, and part of this post is taken from a post I wrote in January, 2023.
I
read about the Holocaust as a young girl. I knew Holocaust survivors -
they were the parents of some of my friends. It wasn't spoken about,
but I breathed it in with each breath. And those books, geared to young
children? Some were published by Scholastic. They included pictures,
too. Yes, perhaps not the worst pictures, but these children's books
were never hidden from me.
It
didn't wreck me. Rather, my parents hoped that I would be in an adult
where hatred of Jews and other minorities in this country would
disappear.
That world has
never existed, and it's getting worse. It's acceptable once again to
show hate. Incidents of hate continue to rise both here and in other
countries. It isn't just the Holocaust.
I
am horrified at the efforts to silence the teaching of certain parts of
our history here in the United States, because, if anything needs to be
taught in our schools (besides reading, writing, arithmetic and life
skills one will need as an adult) to every child, it is history -
including the history of how and when evil seemed to triumph for a time,
and why. It happened in Europe in the 1930's and 40's. It happened
here in the United States from time to time.
These are universal
themes, this hating of "the other".
Just
to be clear, "that other" may be your co workers, your friends, members
of where you worship, your family (and maybe you don't even know all
about your family), the people who grow and harvest your food, your
medical professionals, your childrens' friends, the military people and
first responders who protect you.
We must teach our children well, even as we adults confront this rise in hate.
"Never Again"begins with "Never Forget". I think those 245,000 survivors of an actual event would agree with this.
There aren't too many singers who are the lead story on the NBC Nightly News, but last night, Tony Bennett was the lead story.
Bennett also closed out last night's NBC Nightly News.
That happens even less. Lead and ending both, but Tony Bennett deserved it.
Tony Bennett, beloved singer and champion of the Great American Songbook, died yesterday in his native New York City at the age of 96, two weeks before his 97th birthday. Sadly, he was suffering from Alzheimer's at the time of his death.
Like me, the man born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, was a native of Queens, one of the boroughs of New York City. We knew him as Tony Bennett thanks to another great, Bob Hope.
There are going to be many music bloggers paying tribute to Tony Bennett today, and, yes, I'll include some of his songs, but there is something I found out in reading his obituary that I had never known.
Bennetto's father, who was described as having a great, powerful voice, died when Bennett was only nine. Bennetto helped to support his family with his voice from around the age of 12.
Bennetto was drafted into the military during World War II when he turned 18 in 1944, and became an infantry rifleman. His unit was sent to Europe to replace troops lost in the Battle of the Bulge. He would entertain troops with his singing, but also saw combat. He was nearly killed his first night out on the line, and faced death more than once in his combat career. This article details his war experience.
In March of 1945, his unit entered Germany and helped to end the war, sometimes fighting house to house. At one point he was able to attend a Bob Hope USO show (shows that entertained the troops) where he first heard Bob Hope singing and entertaining.
His unit was then assigned to liberate a concentration camp 30 miles south of Dachau concentration camp. The experience stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Bennetto stayed in Germany after the war and entertained troops as part of a musical unit, but was reassigned after he was caught eating with a black soldier he had known in high school. (This was a big no-no in the segregated military.) That also stayed with him.
In 1949 there was another encounter with Bob Hope - this time, Hope heard him singing in a nightclub in Manhattan, asked Benedetto to tour with him, and renamed him.
Oh, about that experience after he was caught eating with a black soldier? Bennett (influenced by Harry Belafonte) participated in the Civil Rights movement, and marched in Martin Luther King's third march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in 1965 Bennett also refused to perform in South Africa due to its apartheid policies.
Bennett also performed in seven decades. His last concert was in 2021, with Lady Gaga. Alzheimer's had already taken hold several years earlier but he came to life during the concert and performed with her unobtrusive help.
Many Americans would not associate people of the Jewish faith with the Southern state of South Carolina. If you are one of these, prepare for the story of Max Heller.
Spouse and I visited Greenville, South Carolina in February of this year. Walking around downtown, I started to see plaques.
There were so many, all clustered together I decided to read them. I was immediately plunged into the story of Max Heller: immigrant from Austria, escapee from the Holocaust, businessman, city councilman, supporter of integration and eventually Mayor.
This mostly come about because of a chance meeting when Max Heller was 19, in 1937. He met a young women from Greenville at a dance and she gave him her address. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Max Heller was born in 1919 in Vienna, Austria. Growing up in an orthodox Jewish household with his older sister, his mother told him stories of her experiences with pogroms in Poland. His father owned a textile business but suffered during the Depression.
When the Germans occupied Austria in 1938, Heller's family knew they had to get out. Heller bought a German/English dictionary and wrote the young woman from Greenville, Mary Mills, whom he had met at that fateful dance. She agreed to help him get to the United States.
Mary helped get him and his family out, and also obtained jobs for him and his sister at a shirt factory once they reached the safety of Greenville. Much of Heller's extended family wasn't so fortunate. Between him and his wife (more on her below) they lost some 90 relatives in the Holocaust.
Every good story has to have a love interest. Enter Trude Schonthal, a young woman whom Max had met at a summer resort (back in Austria) when she was 15 years old. Trude's family lost their home in World War II, and ended up as refugees in Belgium. In 1940, she made it to the United States and settled in Greenville, where she met up again with Max Heller.
Max Heller married Trude Schonthal in Greenville on August 2, 1942.
Eventually, Max Heller became Mayor of Greenville. Many say he was responsible for the renewal of downtown Greenville I showed you in my "D" A to Z post. He fought for the desegregation of Greenville and led the way for the creation of Greenville's mass transit system. He also continued to battle antisemitism where he found it.
Trude Heller participated in many community and religious
organizations and won South Carolina's highest civilian honor, The Order
of the Palmetto. Also, Trude became a Holocaust educator and gave
talks to thousands of people, passing along her experiences and fighting
Holocaust denial.
And Mary Mills, the woman who helped get Max and his family out of Austria? Apparently she remained friends with Max Heller but I can't seem to find any more information on her.
An amazing history that we all should know about.
"J" day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: Exploring South Carolina and the Eastern United States.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday (although I admit, this wasn't exactly wordless).
