Memoirs of a Hungarian resister

February 2, 2011

Memoirs of a Hungarian resister


BY JONATHAN KIRSCH


Every self-published author thinks he or she has something important to say. It’s rare that the reader agrees, I’m afraid, and rarer still when history or literature is enriched by the author’s effort.

I am happy to report that none of these cautions apply to “Rebel With a Cause: The Amazing True Stories of an Urban Partisan in WWII” by Andrew E. Stevens in collaboration with Meir Doron. (See below for ordering information.)

Like other survivors of the Holocaust, Andrew Stevens managed to find a safe refuge in America after the war. The Beverly Hills businessman, whose name back in Hungary was Steinberger Endre — the family name was given first in Hungarian usage — has been active in Jewish philanthropies, including the sponsorship of monuments to the victims of Nazi genocide, but he has remained mostly silent about his own exploits until now.

With the publication of “Rebel With a Cause,” Stevens is finally telling his own remarkable tale of resistance against Nazi Germany and its Hungarian collaborators.

“I haven’t put my story into writing for 66 years because I did not want to deal with the question that has been troubling my mind ever since: ‘Why did they go to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter?’ ” he explains to the reader. “Why wasn’t the Shoah more of a battle?” Now in his late 80s, “at peace with the knowledge that I will soon leave this world,” Stevens feels “called upon to put everything into writing so that future generations will truly ‘never forget.’ ”

The ordeal of Hungarian Jewry is especially heartbreaking because it came at a time when reports of what was happening in the death camps and the killing fields had already reached the West. “During the first years of World War II, we lived in a fool’s paradise in Budapest,” he recalls. “We were buying time and ignored the time bomb ticking in our ears.” Only in 1944 did the Nazis finally turn their deadly attentions to Hungary.

Stevens tells his tale in a parallel narrative consisting of recollections of his return visit to Hungary long after the war and flashbacks to the terrible times when he was “a fugitive in [his] own city,” struggling to avoid the fate that befell so many of his fellow Jews and surviving on physical courage and sheer chutzpah. He managed to escape from the labor battalion in which he was forced to serve, tore off the yellow stripe that identified him as a Jew and searched out the Zionist underground that was finding a way out of Hungary for a precious remnant of the Jewish community.

“This was the moment that defined my own purpose in this terrible war,” Stevens writes. “In the middle of the ongoing catastrophe, I experienced a moment of joy, and finally felt that I had power over my own life.”

Stevens adopted a new identity as a Christian — he donned an eye patch and a bloodstained bandage in order to feign battle injuries as a “wounded war hero” — and undertook a new job as a forger and smuggler of documents. “Each of these documents can save the life of yet another Jew!” he was told by his comrades. Some of these forgeries are reproduced in the book along with photographs of the handsome young man who created them — an archive of documentary evidence and, at the same time, a thrilling war story, full of intrigue and suspense, including a daring escape under fire from the Hungarian fascists who aided the German army of occupation in finding and killing Jews.

Stevens’ testimony includes firsthand glimpses of some famous historical figures, including Hannah Senesh and Raoul Wallenberg. When Stevens asked why he had been chosen to carry documents from the forgery workshops to Wallenberg, he was told: “You and him, both of you are fearless.” Yet Stevens confesses that he is still haunted by memories of the atrocities that he witnessed while making his way through the streets of occupied Budapest, and he has not yet found an answer to his agonized question about the apparent passivity of so many victims of the Holocaust.

“They sneak up on me without warning,” he writes of those memories and those questions, “most of all at night and in my dreams, but also during daylight hours, when I sit down with my family for dinner or spend time with my children, in the middle of a Rotary meeting, or at the height of business negotiations.”

The book that Andrew Stevens has written and published can be approached as an intimate family memoir, as the eyewitness testimony of a Jewish partisan, and as the courageous act of a man who has chosen to confront his own demons. For all of these reasons, “Rebel With a Cause” is one self-published book whose author has earned the right to put his own words into print.

Copies of “Rebel With a Cause” by Andrew E. Stevens in an e-book edition can be ordered from Amazon.com at $9.99 per copy. Hardcover copies can be ordered directly from the author through the following e-mail address: rebelwithacause.as@gmail.com.

Jonathan Kirsch, author and publishing attorney, is the book editor of The Jewish Journal. He blogs on books at www.jewishjournal.com/twelvetwelve and can be reached at books@jewishjournal.com.

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JPEF Brings Programs to South Africa - First Stop, Cape Town

The trip so far has been very exciting -- both for JPEF and me personally. South Africa is a beautiful country and I feel lucky to be here. I arrived in Durban, after a very productive week in Cape Town. There I met with Richard Freedman, the director of the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, and his amazing staff who were so grateful that JPEF was in town with our exhibit. It has up at their Centre for a week already, and I was in town to teach their docents on how to present tours of the exhibit, show local teachers on how to teach with our materials, and give a couple lectures to groups of students.

Here is link to some of the programs from the Holocaust Centre regarding my visit.

My first program was with 350 students from Herzlia High School -- a Jewish school in the hills above the city. I gave a PowerPoint student presentation and showed JPEF's "Introduction to the Partisans" video to a very engaged audience. I then had some excellent questions -- including one 12th grader who asked  why I could be proud of the partisans as they were killing people. This opened the discussion that when people are resisting genocide they do not have many choices -- boycotts, hunger strikes, and work stoppages would not have stopped Hitler. We discussed the concept of "tactics" when resisting, and how the tactic chosen to resist needs to match what people are resisting. For instance, when Dr. King and Gandhi were fighting for civil rights they chose non-violent resistance and were successful.  Violent resistance is only a last resort. This will be a topic for a future JPEF study guide. 

Students at Herzlia High School in Cape Town watch JPEF film, "Introduction to the Partisans"

I also spoke to a group of educators, using our "Living and Surviving in the Partisans" and "Women in the Partisans" curriculum and films as the basis for the workshop. The educators  appreciated the connection between the partisans resisting and those who fought against Apartheid. Our work has special meaning here. One educator said, "Maybe be one could draw a comparison of the partisans and those of guerilla fighters in SA [South Africa] and let learners debate the importance of resistance."

Through our new relationship with the Holocaust and Genocide Foundation JPEF will now have the opportunity to get our materials into the country's official 15 hour curriculum on the Holocaust  taught to all 9th graders. This can ultimately effect millions of young people here. There is still a lot of work to do to make this a reality. We are excited at the opportunity.

JPEF Executive Director Mitch Braff with Jewish partisan Martin Breslin and Richard Freedman, Executive Director of the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation at Faye Schulman exhibit at the Cape Town Holocaust Centre

I also spoke to a smaller group of students from the school -- running our "Ethics of War" program where we read JPEF play "Conversation in the Woods" .

Students from Hetzlia read the JPEF short play, "A Conversation in the Woods"

The big presentation I was here to do was for the UN Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations to almost 200 people. I was honored to be the keynote, with UN Information Director from Pretoria giving a message from the Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the UN before I spoke. The theme the UN chose this year was on women in the Holocaust, so I tied everything to our Faye Schulman exhibit and showed clips from our "Women in the Partisans" short film in addition to video clips from Faye. It was a great match for our material.

Richard Freedman conducts UN Holocaust Program at Cape Town Holocaust Centre with local survivors.

The exhibit will attract hundreds of people to the Centre. Already several classes are making special trips to see the exhibit -- both private schools and State schools. They will also use our materials and discuss the partisans as part of future tours of their permanent exhibit which is quite impressive in itself.

Here is panel they had set up with our material outside of where the exhibit is staged.

This is some of the feedback that was written after people saw the exhibit...

Tomorrow night I am the keynote at a Holocaust program in the port city of Durban, then I teach teachers and docents Monday. Tuesday I am off to Johannesburg to do much of the same, but will stop at a State school to speak to 150 kids there as well as a Jewish High School. 

Our exhibit will be touring the country though March and will reach a few thousand people. The programs I am doing with teachers and staff of the Holocaust and Genocide Foundation will ensure  the history and life lessons of the Jewish partisans are taught in South Africa for generations.

I want to give a special thank you to our funders and to curator Jill Vexler who made this all possible. Of course, we would not even be here unless it was for the generosity of Faye Schulman, who has trusted us to take her beautiful photographs to the world. Thank you Faye.

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Jewish Partisan, Frank Blaichman's book is Published in Poland

Jewish partisan commander, Frank Blaichman, recently had his book, Rather Die Fighting, published in Poland.

United Nations Pays Tribute to Women of the Holocaust

United Nations Pays Tribute to Women of the Holocaust

January 24, 2011 (MMD Newswire) -- On 27 January 2011, the United Nations Department of Public Information will honour women at the sixth annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust in a ceremony, to be held in the General Assembly Hall from 10 a.m. to noon.

This year's observance will focus on the theme "Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion", and will pay tribute to the bravery and ingenuity of the women who faced Nazi persecution with strength and dignity during the Second World War. "Jewish women performed truly heroic deeds - in the face of danger and atrocity - they bravely joined the resistance, smuggled food into the ghettos and made wrenching sacrifices to keep their children alive. Their courage and compassion continue to inspire us to this day," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Hosted by Kiyo Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, the ceremony will open with a message from the Secretary-General. Statements will be made by Vice-President of the General Assembly; Francisco Carrión, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations; Susan Rice, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations; and Meron Reuben, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Lenore Weitzman, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at George Mason University, who has devoted her career to advocating for women's issues. She co-edited the book Women in the Holocaust (1999), and is now completing a book on the "Kashariyot" - the young women that served as secret underground "couriers" for the Jewish resistance movements in the ghettos.

Also featured in the memorial ceremony will be Nesse Godin, a Holocaust survivor, originally from Lithuania. As a child during the Holocaust, Mrs. Godin survived a ghetto, concentration camp, four labour camps and a death march. Mrs. Godin has dedicated her life to teaching and sharing memories of her horrific experience and serves as a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Ádám Banda, a renowned concert violinist from Hungary, will perform, and Cantor Yaakov Lemmer, Chief Cantor of the Congregation Anshe Sholom, will recite the memorial prayers. Three young students from the United Nations International School, Tinglan Cao, Boteng Maluke, and Gabriela Ruiz Pez, will read excerpts from a diary and letters of women who perished in the Holocaust.

In the afternoon, there will be a panel discussion held by B'nai B'rith International, entitled "The Survivors, 1945-2011: Struggle and Perseverance" and a round table organized by the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation, entitled "A World Without Nazism - A Global Goal for Humanity Today and the Sixty-fifth Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials". This event is co-sponsored by the United Nations Department of Public Information, the International Human Rights Movement "World without Nazism" and the American Forum of Russian Jewry.

The week-long events in New York will include the opening on 24 January of the exhibition "The Memories Live On", which features drawings of Auschwitz made by an unknown prisoner of the concentration camp. This exhibition is sponsored by the International Auschwitz Committee in Germany, the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oswiecim, Poland, the German Resistance Memorial Centre in Berlin, Germany, the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations and the United States Permanent Mission to the United Nations. The exhibition "Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life", curated by Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, France, will also be displayed in the United Nations Visitors' Lobby. This exhibition, based on the diary of a young Jewish girl, documents the persecution of Jews in Occupied France during the Second World War (see Note No. 6291).

Other events include a screening on 25 January of the documentary film Daring to Resist, produced and directed by Barbara Attie and Martha Goell Lubell and distributed by Women Make Films. The film recounts the stories of three young Jewish women who found unexpected ways to fight back against the Nazis. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Frank Blaichman, a former partisan, whose presence was made possible with the help of the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, and Bonnie Gurewitsch, an archivist and curator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York City.

Around the world, United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) will also commemorate the Day with screenings of this film, memorial ceremonies and educational activities with local schools. The United Nations Holocaust Programme and the Mémorial de la Shoah produced a travelling exhibit in English, French, Russian and Spanish, which will be hosted by Information Centres in Bujumbura, Dakar, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow and the United Nations International Service in Vienna. For more information on the Mémorial, please visit www.memorialdelashoah.org.

In line with this year's theme, the United Nations Holocaust Programme also produced an educational study guide and companion DVD for high school students, entitled Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion, to help youth better understand how the Holocaust affected women. The materials were developed in partnership with the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, and the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. The study guide and DVD can be downloaded from the Holocaust programme's website and will be available in all United Nations official languages. For more information on these partners, please visit www.yadvashem.org and www.usc.edu/vhi.

All guests must pre-register to take part in the events at New York Headquarters. Photo identification will be required and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Please see the Programme's website www.un.org/holocaustremembrance for registration details and www.un.org/media/accreditation for media accreditation.

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via http://www.mmdnewswire.com/united-nations-pays-tribute-to-women-of-the-holocaust-21477.html