Portraits of Courage and Defiance

Bo ("Go to Pharaoh…"), Exodus 10:1-13:16

Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
Executive Vice President
Board of Rabbis of Southern California

This Friday, January 27, 2012 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, first established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In its proclamation, the U.N. called upon every member nation to observe this day annually to “honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of the international resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide.” This year’s observance focuses on the theme “Children and the Holocaust,” honoring the memories of 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Shoah.

Earlier this week, the Board of Rabbis/Jewish Federation held a screening of “As Seen Through These Eyes,” an award-winning documentary about remarkable men, women and children who fought the Nazis with artistic gifts—their paintings, drawings, musical instruments and voices.  Following the screening, I was privileged to interview director/producer/writer Hilary Helstein about her film and its compelling portraits of death and destruction, courage and defiance. 

Acclaimed poet Maya Angelou narrates the film, and the title of her autobiography—I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings—punctuates the haunting art, music and narrative of the documentary. We hear the story of Dina Gottleibova Babbitt, personal artist to Nazi murderer Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.” We see the paintings of Karl Stojka, a young artist who served as Mengele’s errand boy and who was one of the only Gypsies to survive Auschwitz. We hear the strains of Henry Rosmarin’s harmonica, an instrument that saved his life during the Holocaust.

And we see excerpts of Brundibar, a Czech opera performed by the children of Terezin for a staged Nazi film. Ela Weissberger played a cat onstage, “the only time we did not have to wear a yellow star” in the camp, she says. Weissberger was one of only two children from the production who survived the Shoah. Her story is all the more compelling in the context of one of her teachers in Terezin, Irma Lauscher. Irma taught Jewish holidays and customs to the children of Terezin. In January 1943, she bribed a guard to smuggle a tree sapling into the ghetto for a Tu B’Shevat celebration replete with songs and dances. The tree was named Etz Hayim—the Tree of Life. 

After the war, Ela Weissberger returned to Terezin along with a few other child survivors. They transplanted the tree next to the crematorium and dedicated a memorial plaque with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “As the days of a tree shall be the days of my people.” (Is. 65:22)  The tree grew to be over 60 feet tall.

The weekly Torah reading is the narrative of Moses’ final entreaties to Pharaoh to “let My people go.” Pharaoh’s steadfast refusal leads to plague upon plague wrought upon his people and his land.  The ninth plague, darkness, was among the most frightening punishments. The Jewish sages teach that this was no ordinary darkness. Rather, it was a darkness in which the Egyptians could not see the suffering of their fellow men and women. The darkness covered their eyes and blinded them to the essential humanity and dignity of all of God’s children.

“There was a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days…but the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” (Ex. 10:22-23)  So too in the thick darkness of the Shoah. Young artists brought light and hope into their lives with the only  weapons they had—paint brushes, charcoal and pencils. They etched and painted portraits of beauty, courage and defiance. May their memories, and the memories of all the children who died in the Holocaust, remain a blessing.