In his welcoming remarks to those gathered on Monday night, April 24, at Teaneck High School for the community’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration, Bruce Prince, co-president of the Jewish Community Council of Teaneck, expressed alarm at the rise in hate crimes in our communities, citing a recent climate of intolerance and divisiveness. In commemorating the results of the heinous crimes against humanity perpetrated during the Holocaust and the superhuman attempts by heroic individuals to overcome and survive, we are part of a worldwide mission to obviate hate and oppression wherever they are perpetrated.
Ironically coinciding with worldwide commemorations of Yom HaShoah, the ADL this week came out with statistics citing a serious spike in anti-Semitic incidents across the globe. Locally, as compared to 2016, when 122 incidents of anti-Semitism were reported for the entire year, so far in 2017 we have already witnessed 63 incidents.
Featured speaker Mark Schonwetter recounted his tale of survival as a 6-year-old child together with his mother and younger sister. Shunted from one Polish rural farmhouse to another, sleeping in attics, horse stables, underground, tiny spaces and, once, even beneath an active pigsty, Schonwetter’s mother kept her children safe from capture by the locals and the Nazi roundups. Through his mother’s quick wit and the kindness of Polish neighbors who had worked alongside his father on their farm, the three Schonwetters made it to liberation day. Upon returning to their village of Brzostek, which had once been home to 500 Jews, they realized they were three of only 15 who had survived the atrocities of the war. In 1957, the family emigrated to Israel and eventually to the U.S. Schonwetter purchased the Lieberfarb Jewelry Company and, through the same grit that had stood him well during the war, was able to develop it into a successful wedding ring and bridal company that he headed for over 40 years.
Attending the commemoration with Schonwetter were his wife and two daughters. His daughter Ann Arnold, who co-authored with her father “Together: A Journey of Survival,” a book about his courageous saga, addressed the audience as a representative of the second generation. She recounted her family’s return to their little Polish village in the 2000s to re-trace their grandparents’ and father’s past. Fully expecting a hostile reception from the locals, they were received with warmth from Polish villagers who remembered her father and grandfather well. They shared their sympathy and horror at what was done to the family.
In 2009, an English professor of history undertook the project of restoring the Jewish cemetery adjacent to the village. At the ceremony marking the completion of the project that included reconstructing 33 headstones, including that of her great-grandfather, over 600 local people attended. When commended for such an outpouring of support, the mayor of the town responded, “We don’t want thanks. This is the right thing to do!”
Arnold’s message to the assembled was that “with tolerance, respect and perseverance, we can make our message of kindness overshout messages of hatred.”
The commemoration honored the memories of the relatives of more than 160 local families who had perished in the Holocaust. Six memorial candles were lit by survivors, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as the realization of the dwindling numbers of survivors was evident by the few represented in the audience.
By Pearl Markovitz
