WILL HISTORY’S LESSONS EVER BE LEARNED?
by Anastasia Economides
Queens Chronicle
d=20407906&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=57 5596&rfi=6
Feb 4 2010
NY
When introducing herself, Dola Polland, 88, didn’t say her name.
Instead, she pulled up her left sleeve and revealed a small tattoo:
A18683. "A" stood for Auschwitz, she explained. The serial number
identified her as a once Jewish prisoner in Nazi concentration camps
during World War II.
Polland and her husband of 53 years, Adolf Polland, were two of a
handful of elders honored as Holocaust survivors at the Jewish Center
of Kew Gardens Hills last week.
It was the first Queens event observing International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. About 150 people attended
the evening ceremony.
The United Nations recognized the commemoration in 2005 as paying
tribute to those killed and those who survived one of the worst ethnic
cleansings in human history.
Jan. 27 marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, where an
estimated 1.1 million people were killed. Roughly 90 percent of
victims were Jews.
There are approximately 240,000 Jews in Queens, according to the
Queens Jewish Historical Society.
This year’s theme at the center was universal communication. Jeff
Gottlieb, president of the Queens Jewish Historical Society, said the
goal is to educate people of the terrible consequences of genocide
in order to prevent future ones.
"Instead of just the Jewish experience, we focus on others torn apart
by hatred," he said.
Sitting in the same pew at the synagogue, Polland’s longtime friend,
Regina Lewis, 90, introduced herself in the same manner, by lifting
up her sleeve. Both women came from the same Jewish ghetto in Krakow,
Poland, but never met until after the war, in Queens. Both now live
in Kew Gardens Hills.
A petite woman clad in a fur coat with clean polish on her nails,
Lewis was easily startled by noise during the event. Even applause
from the audience made her jump. Polland said it is a side effect
her friend developed from the war.
Lewis recalled the day the Soviet forces freed her and the few others
left in the camp. She was 25 years old, with a shaved head and a
hand-me-down dress that dragged on the floor when she walked.
"It was chaos. I saw the electric gates open. And I ran," she said,
smiling. "I don’t know where to, I just ran."
Polland was not as fortunate. During an attempt to vacate Auschwitz
before the Red Army arrived, she and other prisoners were taken to
another labor camp in Germany.
"We walked for two and a half weeks. I didn’t know what time it was
or what country I was in. Every day was the same," she said.
Polland was transported to yet another camp in Germany, whose name
she can’t remember, and worked as a welder before she was finally
liberated.
For those who can only relate to the Holocaust from history books,
leaders of the Queens Jewish Center invited speakers of various
cultural backgrounds to talk about other genocides that have occurred
around the world.
Asian-American John Tandana, vice president of the United Nations
Association, greeted everyone with a "Shalom" and wore a white
yarmulke. He spoke of the 1915 Armenian genocide and the Japanese
occupation of Manchuria, where millions of Chinese civilians were
worked to death.
"If we confronted these tragedies before, maybe Hitler would have
thought twice," he said.
Professor Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, a native of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, highlighted the more recent genocides in Rwanda, Congo, and
Darfur. He described the horrors still taking place in Africa.
The phrase "never again" resonated throughout all the speeches,
including that of World War II veteran Michael Priesler, 90, of
Richmond Hill. A Roman Catholic survivor of Auschwitz, Priesler was
a member of the Polish resistance. He was imprisoned from 1941 to
January 1945.
"The SS men told me in order to be released I had to die first,"
he said.
The frail, red-cheeked veteran emphasized that though he is of a
different faith, he wore the same striped uniforms as the Jews.
Preisler beamed with joy as he repeated over and over, "I am so happy
the murderer is finally dead. Now we can breathe a bit better."
Entertainment was provided throughout the evening from renowned Jewish
cantor Sol Zim, who sang of the sufferings during the Holocaust.
The principal message was distilled in the final words of City
Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Laurelton): Peace can be achieved
through universal understanding.
"In the end, there’s one race — the human race," Sanders said.