London etc.

As is our custom, Yigal and I take each grandchild to London as a bar- or bat-mitzva present and in order for them to familiarise themselves with their ‘roots.’ These are truly rather farcical roots, as the fact that their grandmother (i.e., yours truly) was born and brought up in England is a quirk of fate and the result of England’s acceptance of a limited number of refugees from persecution by Hitler in the years prior to WWII, and specifically after the pogrom known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.

Anyhow, it’s always nice to give a grandchild a treat. And it’s always nice to have an excuse to visit London. We have in the past taken two grandchildren at a time, doing our best to take any two (siblings or cousins) who are close in age. This time, however, there was no-one near Yoav’s age-group, so instead we took his mother, our daughter, as she was celebrating a special birthday, and we thought that this would make the experience more enjoyable for Yoav, and for us.

That was indeed the case. We tried to do all kinds of fun things in London, starting by going around on an open-topped bus to see the sights (Big Ben caused Yoav considerable excitement), and got off in order to visit the Tower of London and gawp at the Crown Jewels.

We were lucky with the weather and were able to enjoy the city at its best, with the buildings shining in the sun and people looking happy at being able to wear light summer clothes. We had packed umbrellas and raincoats just in case, and sure enough they came in handy on our last few days. The wonderful British summer strikes again!

But young Yoav seemed to enjoy every minute. He especially appreciated the tour of the Arsenal football stadium but he also enjoyed the concert of music by Bach and Vivaldi (including the latter’s Four Seasons) in the church of Saint Martin in the Fields. We also took him to see the wonderful show of The Lion King, which even on our third visit still enchanted and delighted us. It is truly a celebration of all things African, with unbelievably beautiful and talented actors who are also singers, dancers and acrobats. The London Eye gave us a view over the whole city and wasn’t scary at all, even though when viewed from afar the concept appears frightening.

Yigal enjoyed being able to show Yoav some of the priceless objects of historic significance in the British Museum, as well as some of the art in the National Gallery. No matter what others may say, in my opinion Britain has done a great service to world culture by acquiring the treasures of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia, as the forces of Isis would most certainly have destroyed them.

Our visit ended and Dana and Yoav returned to the heat of Israel’s summer, while Yigal and I moved our vacation location to France, where we are currently enjoying a less hectic time and more temperate climate, at least for now.

 

Theresienstadt 1941-1945; The Face of a Coerced Community

This monumental monograph, by H.G.Adler (Cambridge University Press, 2017), to which no book review can hope to do justice, comprises more than 850 pages and constitutes a far-reaching and detailed account, or rather scientific analysis, of the concentration camp that was located in what was known by the Germans as the Protectorate and today is the Czech Republic. The book was first published in German in 1955 and a revised edition in 1960. Only recently has the long-awaited English version been made available to the general public.

The author, who was himself incarcerated in Theresienstadt from 1942 to 1944, was known before his deportation there as a poet, novelist, and scholar. In this book he has produced a seminal work that is generally devoid of personal reminiscences but rather undertakes an exhaustive and objective study of the various aspects that went into the making and maintenance of the camp, focusing systematically on such categories as the history, sociology, and psychology of the camp (or ‘ghetto’ as it came to be called at a later stage). Within each of these major categories there are subdivisions into such subjects as deportations to and from Theresienstadt, administration, population, housing, nutrition, labor, economy, legal and health conditions, to name but a few. Each section, chapter, and category is accompanied by extensive statistical data, original source-material, personal accounts, and documentary evidence.

The somewhat incongruous photo chosen for the cover illustration shows a prisoner wearing a cook’s uniform giving out food in the ghetto courtyard to a newly-arrived transport of Dutch Jews. It seems somewhat strange at first, considering the general insufficiency of food in the camp, but this fits into the façade of normality that the camp was designed to convey. The ‘normality’ of the camp was, however, a sham created by the Germans, who ruled a society based on violence, intimidation, and a set of warped ‘rules and regulations’ governing the lives of the unfortunates imprisoned there.

Adler traces the history of the camp from its initial inception by Himmler and Heydrich as ‘a city peopled by Jews’ to its functioning as a place of imprisonment for thousands of individuals brought primarily from the Protectorate and the Reich. Many of those sent there were considered to be privileged because of their service in the German army in WWI or special social or intellectual status. Adler describes the horrors experienced by those deported there in cattle cars or passenger trains followed by the initial processing procedure. The new arrivals had to undertake a three-kilometer walk to the camps from the railway station of Bohusovice, carrying their luggage and supervised by SS men who often used violence to get their victims moving. Having arrived at the camp the prisoners were instructed to leave their luggage at the processing center (the Schleuse), where wholesale confiscations and theft were rife, perpetrated by both the SS and dishonest Jewish inmates.

Acceptance of the inadequate and poor quality rations constituted the next step in the process of ‘acculturation,’ and many new arrivals were unable to tolerate the meager and unsavory victuals. Adler likens arrival and processing at the camp to birth, a passage from one state of being to another, and one that is generally accompanied by crying. He describes the mental anguish and process of debilitation experienced by new arrivals, and by elderly persons in particular, many of whom rapidly descended into mental conditions akin to dementia and/or hysteria, as well as a form of apathy that soon led to death.

Accommodation and sanitary conditions in the camp were substandard in the extreme, disease and vermin of all kinds were rife, and the overcrowding meant that privacy and hygiene were simply out of the question. Certain individuals were able to benefit by being appointed ‘room elders’ or even ‘camp elders,’ and in many cases, according to Adler, these Jews exploited their superior position for personal gain and comfort. Welfare and medical departments were set up, supposedly to care for the prisoners, but there was little that could be done in view of the paucity of the equipment and medicines available. Work of one kind or another was required of all prisoners, and those who complied with this were given extra rations. The threat of inclusion on one of the Transports to an unknown destination in the east (usually Auschwitz and the gas chambers) was ever-present.

In one of the last chapters of the book Adler describes the vibrant cultural and artistic life that prevailed in the camp, perceiving it as an illusory way of escape from the grim reality of the situation. Most of the camp’s leading artists, musicians, actors, and writers were deported to Auschwitz and murdered there as the end of the war approached. This was also the fate of many of the ‘camp elders’ who had previously benefited from the preferential treatment accorded to them by the SS. The overall impression given by this book is of the prevalence of depravity and misery that seems to have been an almost inevitable adjunct of the general situation in the camp.

In addition to an index, the book also includes a chronological summary of the salient events on a day-by-day basis, as well as two hundred pages detailing sources and literature. Special credit should go to Belinda Cooper, whose translation from the original German reads fluently and well. As an account of an abominable episode in human history, this book constitutes a milestone of objective dedication to recording every aspect of this ‘experiment in evil.’

Heartbreaking and Inspiring

The history of the Herzog Hospital (formerly known as Ezrat Nashim) goes back to 1895 and the establishment of a society to provide care for the chronically ill. Since then the facility has expanded both in physical terms and in its medical scope. In the 1960s it moved to its new building in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighbourhood, and added specialized care for geriatric patients to its psychiatric wards.

In May this year I was privileged to be present at the official dedication of the new Samson Medical Pavilion, which greatly increases the number of beds in the hospital as well as incorporating additional medical services. In recent years the hospital has added the treatment of children needing constant respiratory care to its spheres of treatment, and the new wing provides extensive state-of-the-art nursing in this field.

In addition to Mrs. Karen Lewis, the daughter of the donors, Dr. Heinz and Dr. Edith Samson, various dignitaries addressed those attending the dedication ceremony, which took place on the fifth floor of the new wing. Not all the floors have been opened and are in use as yet, due primarily to lack of funds.

After some words of welcome and warm praise for the hospital’s dedicated staff from its CEO, Dr. Yehezkel Caine, the first speaker was the Minister of Health, Rabbi Yaakov Litzman. He emphasised the importance the Ministry attaches to meeting the needs of Israel’s growing elderly population, and the important role played in this by the Herzog Hospital. The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, stressed the crucial contribution to medical research made by Jerusalem’s many start-ups in the field of life sciences, and Isaac Herzog, leader of Israel’s Opposition Labour Party and the grandson of Rabbanit Sara Herzog, for whom the hospital is named, spoke of his family’s close association with it. He also made a point of mentioning Israel’s seminal role in medical research and services, noting that a recent edition of The Lancet was devoted entirely to medicine in Israel.

Following the affixing of a mezuzah by Isaac Herzog and the cutting of the ribbon by Mrs. Lewis, the attendees were divided into small groups and given a tour of the new facility. My group was taken round the department for children with respiratory problems. In some cases these are genetic in nature and in others the result of accidents or illnesses of various kinds. Almost all the children in this section, which encompasses several well-equipped wards as well as cheerfully-decorated communal areas, are attached on a more-or-less permanent basis to respiratory equipment of various kinds. The intake consists of infants as young as three months of age and upwards, and some of these remain in the ward until they reach adolescence, when they are moved to another department. Both Arab and Israeli children are cared for, and in many cases their parents establish warm friendships as they attend to their bedridden children.

Passing one ward we heard lovely music. We peered in and saw a young flautist standing by one of the beds, playing for the young patient. As we proceeded along the corridor we encountered another person carrying an accordion, evidently about to perform for other young patients. Petting animals are brought in from time to time, and therapies of various kinds (e.g., music, hugging, movement) are also part of the treatment provided. A cadre of devoted volunteers plays an important role in helping to care for the children and brighten their lives.

While it broke my heart to see the cribs where tiny babies are hooked up to heart-lung machines, oxygen and other items of medical equipment, there is no doubt that the hospital does work of the highest importance. The caring dedication of the ever-cheerful staff is both inspiring and admirable, providing an additional source of pride in Israel’s medical achievements

(This article first appeared in the July 2017 edition of the AJR Journal,)