"The main idea initiated and developed by Nazi Germany […] was to break down Jewish society into molecules that cannot function, that lose the humanity, vitality and especially the internal solidarity demonstrated in different ways in Jewish life throughout history," Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev stated at the symposium's opening. "However, in the main, the Jewish people did not break down and did not lose their humanity in their response to different and difficult situations in which they found themselves throughout the period. One of the things that characterized the human and communal dimension was preserving their unity with those around them... this was expressed in their willingness to help other Jews, beyond their own immediate families, in a variety of circumstances. It is our duty to instill this knowledge in our own people, in the next generations, and in the entire world".
Shalev explained that the symposium focused specifically on female rescuers, because women displayed an extraordinary strength and an extraordinary willingness to act.
"These stories enrich our lives and constitute a real example to us all – and there are many such examples."
MK Merav Michaeli, who attended the event, said: "Today, 70 years into the amazing rebirth of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, we must allow ourselves to see that even when we were among the worst victims in history, we were able to perceive a place that was not one of victimhood, and even reach out from the inferno, from the horror, and save as many of us as possible… We must understand that the division made by many cultures of Jews only as victims and rescuers only as saviors is simply wrong. Jews were there alongside their sisters and brothers in every way possible. This is part of our healing process, both as a people and as a state."
Haim Roet, Chairman of the Israeli Committee to Honor the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust, endeavored to elaborate on this phenomenon – one that was historically far less prevalent in the public consciousness. With the establishment of the State of Israel, he explained, there was little known about the rescue of Jews by Jews. The Yishuv [Jewish residents in Mandatory Palestine], which had struggled for its independence, generally valued the idea of fighters with weapons. It was hard for them to understand why the Jews in Europe did not fight as they did; how different the conditions were. Roet also blamed the lack of public awareness of the phenomenon of Jewish rescuers during the Shoah on the fact that rescue activities were largely secret even for members of the same organization in order to prevent the leak of information about underground activities; and that rescuers often felt guilty and regretful that they might have been able to save more of their Jewish brethren.
Naama Galil of Yad Vashem's Commemoration and Community Relations Division spoke of a number of women who worked in rescue and aid services, including children’s doctor Anna Braude Heller, who ran a hospital in the ghetto. As conditions worsened in the ghetto, Dr. Braude Heller continued to care for the patients. Despite her ties with German and Polish colleagues, and offers to leave the ghetto, she refused to abandon the children in her care. She was killed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as she took cover with soldiers in a bunker.
Luba Bielicka Blum, a nurse who worked with Dr. Braude Heller at the hospital, continued to run her prewar nursing school in the ghetto. During the mass deportations of the summer of 1942, Bielicka Blum was able to bring about the release of some of the students by virtue of papers claiming they were students of the ghetto's nursing school. She also smuggled her children away from the Umschlagplatz (deportations square) in an ambulance before the deportation. She survived the Holocaust, and passed away in 1973.
Other speakers at the symposium included Dr. Yohai Cohen, also of the Commemoration and Community Relations Division, who discussed Jewish women in various partisan groups. Dr. Cohen pointed out the various roles played by female partisans beyond their duties as fighters that helped save their fellow Jews – often against the direct orders of their superiors and/or while fending off unwanted sexual advances. Dr. Tzila Hershko (Bar Ilan University) spoke about women in the Jewish undergrounds in France, while Holocaust survivor Fanny Ben Ami gave a rare interview. As a 13-year-old, Ben Ami personally rescued a group of 28 other Jewish children, bringing them safely over the border from France to neutral Switzerland; the audience viewed clips from her riveting biographical film.
Historian Dr. Hava Baruch gave a fascinating account of two central Jewish rescuers during the Shoah: Hansie Brand and Gisi Fleischmann. Fleischmann, a Jewish mother of two, was a leader of the Women's International Zionist Organization in Slovakia. She helped many refugees who came to Slovakia, including 336 Jewish men from Prague. With the deterioration of conditions, Fleischmann joined the "Working Group" that endeavored to save the Jews of Slovakia through bribing senior Germans to end the deportations. For a brief period, and for a number of reasons, the deportees were halted, and this encouraged the Group to investigate the cessation of all deportations across Europe in exchange for bribes. Fleischmann met with many senior officials to test the feasibility of the plan, as well as with Jewish bodies continent-wide to discuss its funding, but the Gestapo began to monitor her and eventually arrested her for a period of four months, holding her in harsh conditions. During the period of her activity, Fleischmann received several proposals for her own escape from Nazi-occupied territory, but she rejected them all. In 1944, she was sent on one of the last transports to Auschwitz; she knew exactly where she was going.
On September 6, 1942, Fleischmann wrote to her daughter Aliza in Israel:
"Destiny wished us not to be together... but the same fate also required me to try to relieve this greatest of suffering of our people in its most difficult years… If I survive this grim period, I think I can say that I have not lived my life in vain. Therefore, you must bear the separation, since above all personal suffering stands the Jewish people itself. "
In 1944, Hansie Brand joined in negotiations led by Dr. Israel Kasztner with the Nazi commandant Adolf Eichmann in order to save Hungarian Jewry, in the spirit of the "European plan" formulated by the Slovakian Working Group. Brand was arrested by the Hungarian secret police, but continued her rescue efforts after she was released, joining the Red Cross construction team as Director of the Supply Division. There she helped establish children's homes and promoted the supply of food to the closed ghetto in Budapest. She also helped the starving Jews in Budapest after the siege of the city until its liberation in February 1945.
This article originally appeared in the "Yad Vashem Jerusalem Magazine," volume 88.
