I have seen a few Holocaust survivors over the course of years, including Elie Wiesel, Eva Schloss, Marthe Cohn, and now, yesterday, Dr. Jacob Eisenbach. The latter three on that list have been the result of events organized by Eternal Flame, which is trying to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, doing their part to make sure that we never forget.
Dr. Eisenbach was raised in Łódź, Poland, in the years before World War II and the Holocaust. At the time, Eisenbach told us, Łódź was the second largest city in Poland, with a population of roughly 700,000. Roughly half of those, a bit over 300,000, were Jews. Today, he tells us, there is not a single Jew left in the city.
Eisenbach came from a family of roughly 100 people, but only two survivors remain - him and a cousin of his who now resides in Australia.
Eisenbach recalled the experiences of the war and the Holocaust, and the story of how his sister was one of the Jews who escaped the Łódź Jewish ghetto and made it into the Ukraine, to Lviv. However, when the Germans broke the Non-Aggression Pact that they had made with the Soviets and invaded there, they took out the roughly 100,000 Jews still living in that city, including Eisenbach's sister.
When he found that his name was one of the ones to report to the trains that were taking Jews away, he decided not to report, but to go in hiding. His brother remained with him in hiding, and they were indeed able to hide for a little while.
He himself remained in Łódź, remaining upstairs in a space that was padlocked. He recalls one time late at night (I believe he said it was April), when he heard the approach of two heavy boots heading upstairs. There were two policemen, and one of them, seeing the padlock, suggested that there was no one there, and thought it would be best just to walk away. But the other one, whom Eisenbach referred to as the "bad cop," was insistent that they should find a crowbar and search more thoroughly, which they did. At first, the space seemed empty, and once again, the good cop suggested that they had looked, but that the place was empty. However, the bad cop insisted they search every inch, and in the end, they found Eisenbach and his brother hiding inside of a corner of the place.
They authorities had discovered him, and so now, he had to take one of the Nazi trains. However, his brother, who was not on the list, decided that he would go with him. By that point, they were the only two members of their immediate family left, and they only had each other, so his brother said that they had to stick together. What he said specifically was "Where you go, I go." That became the title of Eisenbach's book.
They authorities had discovered him, and so now, he had to take one of the Nazi trains. However, his brother, who was not on the list, decided that he would go with him. By that point, they were the only two members of their immediate family left, and they only had each other, so his brother said that they had to stick together. What he said specifically was "Where you go, I go." That became the title of Eisenbach's book.
It seemed to be bad for them. But as it turns out, however, as scared as they were, the bad cop's discovery of them wound up being a blessing in disguise. The Germans liquidated the Jewish ghetto Łódź only months later (I believe he said August), and he and his brother surely would have died.
Still, at that point, Eisenbach said that he was sure that he was going to die, that they were going to be taken to the infamous showers, which were really gas chambers. However, the train went to a munitions factory instead. By that point in the war, the Russians had stopped the German advance inside of the Soviet Union to the East, and were advancing well into the borders of the Nazi German Reich itself. Meanwhile, in the West, British and American forces had landed in Normandy and were rapidly advancing towards Germany as well, employing the very same blitzkrieg tactics that the Nazi German military had used. So, with desperation setting in, Germans were pulled out of their civilian jobs and sent to the front to fight, which left much needed jobs open. And the Germans decided that those jobs needed to be filled by the remaining Jews, which was how Eisenbach wound up there.
It was a plant, but it was also a concentration camp. However, they were able to survive the war. He remembers that for years, the guards atop the wall and utilizing the searchlights had been a constant presence, but one night, they simply vanished. The Russian offensive was now very near, and they had been warned to run, which they did. For Eisenbach, that meant he survived the Holocaust, had survived the war.
He actually had met his future wife in the camp, and they got married and had children after the war. His brother continued to serve in the Polish army, in charge of a unit of 10,000 men. However, despite changing his name to sound more Polish, he went to a city where they discovered he was a Jew. One day, one of the anti-Semites was waiting for him in his home, and shot him dead. This happened fully two years after the end of the Holocaust.
Eisenbach had gone to Frankfurt-am-Main to study, and he eventually became a dentist. A few years later, he and his wife went to the United States, to California, and he opened up his dentistry business there, staying in business for 65 years!
During the question and answer session, Eisenbach received one question in particular that stuck out in my mind. It was whether or not he ever lost faith in humanity. Other Holocaust survivors had, at least for a while. As Elie Wiesel suggested, it was difficult to remain optimistic or keep your faith intact when you see something as evil and horrific as the chimneys of Auschwitz.
He took his time in answering this question, and asked the audience if they had heard of what the King of Denmark, Christian X, had done. When Hitler took over Denmark, he obviously wanted to force Jews there to wear the yellow Star of David, to identify them as Jews. Christian X, however, not in a position to refuse such an order, decided that he and his family, and indeed many, many Danes, would also wear the yellow Star of David, making identifying Jews much more difficult. Then, he organized for Danish fishing boats to take Jews across the water, just miles away, to Sweden, which remained an unoccupied, neutral country, and many Jews were saved, out of the reach of Hitler and the Nazis. He mentioned Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman and diplomat, who took it upon himself to take in, and save, thousands of Jews. And he also mentioned Chiune Sugihara, a diplomat of Japan - a country officially allied to Hitler's Germany, also took in thousands of Jews, against the wishes of his government. He was fired, and lived out the remainder of his life in poverty. Yet, he saved the thousands of Jews that he gave visas to. He also mentioned Pope Pius XII's condemnation of the Nazi persecution of Jews, at a time when the Vatican was completely surrounded, and essentially dominated, by major fascist nations. With such examples of human goodness, Eisenbach asked, who was he to lose faith in humanity?
Yet, he also recounted the ships that were turned back, full of Jews trying to escape Germany, and that many of these ships did return to Germany, with the Jews inside facing certain death. He mentioned one American official, Cordel Hull, who had a role to play in turning these ships away. Also, Hull had a part to play in not destroying the train tracks to Auschwitz, and the gas chambers, when American planes were bombing German fuel sources just a few miles away. He said that Cordel Hull might not have worn a swastika on his arm or given the Nazi straight-arm salute, but he nonetheless was responsible for the deaths of possibly one hundred thousand Jews, and had blood on his hands.
So, the challenges in continuing to believe were real, and there are extreme examples both for and against.
Overall, an interesting and informative evening. I took my own son to this event, as this might be the last chance for him to see a Holocaust survivor, and to understand that this was not just printed words in some history books, but real historical events that affected millions of people.
Indeed, it might never be more urgent than right now to remember these stories of real life people who suffered through incredible hatred and discrimination, lest we should ever let it happen again.
I have seen a few Holocaust survivors
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