"What Is The Lesson To Be Learned From The Holocaust?"
By Silvia Cattori & Hedy Epstein
11 January,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Hedy Epstein, is a German Jewish Holocaust survivor, born in 1924,
whose parents were sent to Auschwitz in 1942, where they perished.
In 1948, Hedy Epstein went to live in United States. In 2003, she
decided to make a trip to Palestine. Shocked by the oppression that
the Israeli government is imposing on the Palestinians, she is, since
then, devoting herself to make it known to the world. In the interview
she gave to the Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori, Hedy Epstein speaks,
with her gentle and mild voice, about her last travel to Palestine
after a moving visit to one of several concentration camps to which
her parents were deported. And she said: "I would like to dedicate
this interview to the children of Gaza, whose parents cannot protect
them or send them away to safety as my parents did when they sent
me to England in May 1939 on a Kindertransport” (1)
Silvia
Cattori: In 2004, after the humiliating and dehumanizing
abuse you had to undergo at Tel Aviv airport, where you had to get
undressed and were internally searched as you explained it to me in
our first conversation (2), you were very upset and you declared:
"I will never return to Israel". But since then you have
been back four more times. Last summer you were there again. How was
it possible?
Hedy Epstein: I have never felt such anger after
what happened to me and the friend travelling with me at the Ben Gurion
airport in January 2004.
While on
the plane, still full of rage, I wrote on every page in the magazines
provided by the airline "I am a Holocaust survivor and I will
'never again' return to Israel." I sometimes pressed so hard
on the paper with my pen, that I tore the page. It was one small way
to vent some of my anger.
After I returned home, still very angry, traumatized, I decided to
get some counselling, which helped me to work through my anger and
allowed me to plan my next trip back to the West Bank just a few months
later, in the summer of 2004. I have been back every year since then,
a total of five times since 2003. I have gone back because it is the
right thing for me to do; to witness and to let the Palestinians know
there are some people who care enough to come back and stand with
them in their struggle against Israel's occupation. Palestinians have
asked me upon my return home, to tell the American people what I have
seen and experienced, because the American people don't know what
is happening, because the media does not inform them. I made a commitment
to do so and have taken every opportunity to honour this commitment.
Silvia Cattori: What was your interpretation of the fact that the Israeli officers treated you in such a brutal way?
Hedy
Epstein: They tried to intimidate me, to silence me, hoping
I would never come back. Though momentarily they may have succeeded,
ultimately they did not. To quote General McArthur, an American army
general, who said "I shall return", I have returned four
times since the January 2004, event at the Tel Aviv airport, on my
way back from Israeli occupied territory, and will continue to return.
They will not be able to stop me. And, so, I plan to aboard ship to
Gaza in a few months.
Silvia Cattori: Was it not too traumatic for a sensitive
person like you to go back to the West Bank and see the Isreali soldiers
humiliating, threatening, killing, and destroying Palestinians lives
and properties?
Hedy Epstein: As an American I am a privileged person.
I am very much aware of this and feel uncomfortable wearing this cloak,
especially when I am in Palestine, conscious of the fact that I can
come and go any time I want to, a privilege denied the Palestinians,
who have great difficulty in moving from one place to another, restricted
by road blocks, check points, the imprisoning 25 foot high wall, by
young Israeli soldiers who can decide who can pass and who cannot,
who can go to school, to the hospital, to work, to visit family and
friends.
I have seen the long lines of Palestinians at the Bethlehem checkpoint. I spoke to a 41 year old man, who told me he works three days a week; in order to get to work on time, he gets up at 2:30 A.M. and arrives at the checkpoint at 3:15 A.M. to wait in line, a long line, with others, for the checkpoint to open around 5:30 A.M. He has to come this early because many people line up. Sometimes the Israeli soldiers allow no one to go through. He would like to work full time, but there are no jobs in Bethlehem.
During each of my five visits I have spent some time in Jerusalem.
I have been painfully aware how increasingly its current size and
boundaries share very little with the city's historic parameters,
Israeli only settlements, such as Har Homa and Gilo are referred to
as Jerusalem neighbourhoods. East Jerusalem is dotted with Israeli
flags flying from homes from which Palestinians were "removed,"
thus judaizing the area more and more.
During my last visit, in August 2007, I only had time for a brief visit with my dear Palestinian friend, and her husband in Ramallah. During prior visits, I and some of my American travel companions were their houseguests for several days, basking in their hospitality, typical Palestinian hospitality, which is unlike any other I have ever experienced anywhere. The wife, ever cheerful in the past, seemed downcast, though she did not complain, simply stating "Life is more difficult since my husband is no longer working." In a conversation later, alone with her husband, he stated that he left his job in order to go to school and study. There is truth in both statements, but the husband's comments reflect an effort to salvage and maintain some of his dignity.
I also visited and stayed overnight with my Palestinians friends and their children in Bethlehem. The TV, which is always on, at one point caught our attention. There was a story about Jews from all over the world, immigrating to Israel. There were many small Israeli flags waving and welcoming the new citizens of Israel arriving at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. A big banner in the background spelled out in English and Hebrew "Welcome Home".
As the story continued, we all stared at the TV, silently. Then one of us, I don't remember who, broke the heavy silence, asking no one in particular "What about the return of the Palestinians?"
At the regular weekly non-violent demonstration in Bi'lin, as the teargas tossed at us by young Israeli soldiers, choking us, as we all ran to get away from it, I overheard a conversation between two Palestinian boys, one saying to the other "I don't want to die" "Nor do I" said the other. Their fear has stayed with me. What will happen to them? What is their future?
And yet, despite the almost hopelessness of the situation that might
never change, Palestinian people are amazingly strong. Even though
the Israeli oppression goes on, and gets worse, with new types of
military oppression, the Palestinians have not given up; they are
going on living there.
They are
an amazing, resilient people. They will never give up. The Israeli
may kill many of them, destroy their homes, destroy their lives, but
they will never be able to destroy their hope for a different way
of existence, for a better way of living together.
No matter what the Israelis do, they cannot take away the hope and
the dignity of the Palestinian people. The Israelis have the power,
the Palestinian people have dignity and despite all odds, still have
hope. The Israelis have the airplanes from which they drop bombs in
Gaza, they have bulldozers made here in the United States, not far
from my home, they can do all those things, but despite this imbalance
of power, the Israelis will never be able to destroy Palestinians'
hope and dignity.
Silvia Cattori: For the Palestinians in Hebron or
Nablus, to see a Holocaust survivor travelling in such precarious
conditions to express to them her love and solidarity, is it not something
very unusual and touching?
Hedy Epstein: I feel it is important for the Palestinians
who are not allowed to leave Palestine, who are living under the Israelis
military occupation, in such horrendous conditions, to know that there
are people in other parts of the world who condemn the Israeli oppression,
who care enough to come there, and to share their difficulties and
sufferings, even if it is for a very short time.
I am impressed again and again to discover that Palestinians know
so much more about what is going on in the world. They are better
informed than the American people.
Most Palestinians I have met have asked me to tell the American people
what I have seen and experienced, because the American people do not
know, because the media does not inform them. I have made a commitment
to do that. I have given talks at high schools, universities, churches,
community groups, in the United States, as well as in Germany (in
German). I urge people to go to Palestine to see and experience life
there. It is a life changing experience. They will come back a different
person, more aware, more sensitive and hopefully challenged to make
a difference.
Though I am not a religious Jew (I consider myself a secular humanist),
I know a little bit about Jewish tradition, which teaches that: "We're
permitted neither to give up hope, nor to abandon the work we've started,
even if we cannot complete the task ourselves".
And so, the situation, especially in Gaza, is so awful, I feel I must
continue to be a moral voice, must continue to have the courage to
take a public stand against Israel's crimes against humanity and the
misinterpretations provided by the media. Israel would not be able
to carry out its crimes against humanity without the United States,
the world, permitting it to do so and the mass media, which, with
few exceptions, dehumanizes Palestinians and instills fear, ignorance
and loathing of them and their culture.
Having met Palestinians, experienced their hospitality, warmth, dignity
and even humor, it is incumbent upon me to bring their voices, their
experiences to anyone who will listen to me, to bear witness about
the Wall, the land confiscations, the demolished homes, the violation
of water rights, the restrictions of freedom of movement. The future
of peace cannot be awaited passively, but rather from commitments
and struggles for justice. There is no peace without justice.
Nadav Tamir, the Israeli Consul General in Boston, wrote in the Boston
Globe newspaper in November 2007 "This is no longer an issue
of being pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli, but rather a confrontation
between those who prefer peace and those who prefer bloodshed. It
is time to choose sides."
Silvia Cattori: You said that you plan to be aboard
ship to Gaza in a few months (3)?
Hedy Epstein: Oh yes, definitely. There is nothing
which can stop me. I am determined to go and I am going to take swimming
lessons, just in case. The "Free Gaza" boat could not go
last summer for different reasons. I think it is important for all
of the people who are invited on the boat, to take that chance to
show to the world what Israel is really doing in Gaza and to express
their intention to break the illegal siege.
The Media is so controlled - probably by Israel as well – that,
whatever the power that be in United State or in Europe, they never
convey what is really happening every day on the ground; how much
suffering is caused by the extreme oppression, what is happening to
the people, not only in Gaza, but to a lesser extent maybe to the
people in the West Bank. The world needs to know, and if we can be
that medium, to let the world finally know what is happening, then
it is important for us to play that role.
Silvia Cattori: While most countries are isolating
the Hamas authorities in the Gaza strip, and cutting them off from
the most essential humanitarian aid, the Hamas takeover in Gaza does
it not represent an obstacle for you to go there?
Hedy Epstein: No. Hamas was elected in a democratic way, there were neutral observers there and they did not find anything wrong with these elections. They have been democratically elected. As you know, Israel and the United States wanted this election but they where hoping for a different outcome. They did not like the fact that Hamas won the election. For that reason, they are attacking Hamas and do not want to recognize it and they are carrying out a sort of collective punishment against the 1.5 million people in Gaza. There is a huge humanitarian crisis. The Israeli army controls all the exit points from Gaza to Israel, to Jordan, to Egypt. In fact they control the air, the sea and the land.
Almost nothing is allowed to come in, and nothing is allowed to go out. Gaza is essentially an agricultural community. Farmers in Gaza, who grow flowers, strawberries and tomatoes for instance, spend a lot of time and energy and money to grow these products and cannot sell them! And so the flowers wilt and the strawberries and tomatoes spoil.
The Israeli
government pretends that it no longer occupies Gaza. But that is not
true.
Silvia Cattori: For those people who do not know,
or do not want to know, what the Israeli government is really doing,
your voice is of utmost importance. Indeed, a person like you, who
can give testimony about the Nazi oppression and about the present
Zionist oppression, able to look at the facts with a very honest spirit,
is very rare!
Hedy Epstein: I do not make comparisons between Nazi
oppression and Zionist oppression; though, I have been accused of
doing that. Instead I speak of the lessons learned from the Holocaust.
I credit my experiences as a Holocaust survivor as the leading influence
behind my efforts to promote human rights and social justice. For
me "remembering is not enough", which is the title of my
autobiography, published in German, in Germany in 1999, under the
title "Erinnern ist nicht genug." (4) Remembering also has
to have a present and a future perspective.
What is
the lesson to be learned from the Holocaust? I know what it is to
be oppressed. Nobody can do everything, but I feel that it is incombent
upon me to do as much as I can, to do the right thing, to, in this
case, stand with the Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli
oppression, under which they exist and suffer every day and night.
Why did I survive? To just sit here and say: yes, the situation is
bad, somebody shsould do something about it. I firmly believe that
each and every one of us, including me, has to be that someone, who
tries to improve the situation.
And this
is not to say that the sufferings of the Palestinians are more or
less important than the sufferings of the people in some other places.
But I have only so much energy and so much time each day. Rather than
dispersing my energy here and there, I decided just to concentrate
it on the Israeli and Palestinian issue.
Silvia Cattori: On your way to Palestine, you went
first to France to visit one of the concentration camps to wich your
parents were deported? Was it your first visit?
Hedy Epstein: Let my clarify. In 1940, on 22 October, all the Jews from the area of South West Germany, where I come from, were deported to the concentration camp, Camp de Gurs, located in the foothills of the Pyrenaen Mountains, in what was then Vichy France, which collaborated with the Germans. Men and women were separated by barbed wire. In late March 1941, my father was transferred to Camp les Milles, near Marseille. In July 1942, my mother was transferred to Camp de Rivesaltes, near Perpignan.
In September
1980, I visited Camp de Gurs, the Dachau concentration camp (my father
was there for four weeks after Crystal Night or the Night of the Broken
Glass in 1938) and Auschwitz. In 1990, I visited Camp les Milles,
where my father was until his deportation to Auschwitz via Drancy
(a transit camp near Paris).
Until August 2007, I was not able to visit Camp de Rivesaltes, where
my mother was, for about two months in 1942, until her deportation,
via Drancy, to Auschwitz. And, last summer, with friends, I went to
visit Camp de Rivesaltes for the first time.
In a letter, dated August 9, 1942, my father told me: "Tomorrow I am being deported to an unknown destination. It may be a long time before you hear from me again..." In a letter, dated September 1, 1942, my mother told me exactly the same. And, then, I received another postcard from my mother, dated September 4, 1942, in which she writes: "I am travelling to the East and sending you a final goodbye..." These were the last communications from my parents.
When, in
1956, I learned that my parents were sent to the Auschwitz concentration
camp, in Poland, I could only assume that, after they had spent almost
two years in the concentration camps in France, they were physically
in a very bad condition, and that they were probably sent straight
to the gas chamber upon their arrival there.
Silvia Cattori: What was your feeling?
Hedy Epstein: I was amazed at the immense size of
the camp, which could house 30,000 people, and its deplorable condition.
Some of the barracks no longer exist; others are falling apart, roofs
missing, walls falling down, and wild vegetation everywhere. Desolation
everywhere. Wind turbines nearby stood like sentinels, watching over
the demise of what was once home to a hapless people, to my mother.
From correspondence with my mother at the time she was there, I knew
in wich two barracks she was housed. One barrack I never found; it
probably does not exist anymore. The other one, barrack number 21,
I found it.
The entrance to the barracks is elevated, making entry difficult. But, as though to invite me to enter barrack Nr, 21, a wooden board was leaning up to the entry. With the help of my friends I was able to maintain my balance as I tip-toed, like a ballet dancer, into the barrack. I touched the walls, maybe where my mother might have touched it, I picked up some of the debris to take home with me, tried to imagine what it must have been like for my mother. Later, I left the barrack at the opposite end, jumping out and into an overgrown area, stopped by thorny growth, holding me in place. One of my friends poignantly remarked "The building doesn't want you to go away".
Silvia
Cattori: Was the visit of Camp de Rivesaltes beneficial to
you, since it made you closer to the soul of your beloved mother?
Hedy Epstein: I felt very close to my mother when
I was there; I imagined how she moved around in the camp, what it
was like for her. She was there from July to September 1942, a time
when it is very hot. I remembered that my mother suffered from the
summer heat when we were still living together in Kippenheim. It was
very hot when I visited this camp. As so often in my life, I was reminded
of the "unearned privileged" life I lead. Thanks to my parents'
great unselfish love, I escaped what they had to endure. By sending
me to England on a Kindertransport in May 1939, my parents literally
gave me life a second time.
Silvia Cattori: It was a very moving visit for you,
wasn't it? A come back to a very sad period of your life, away from
your parents!
Hedy Epstein: Before I left Germany on a Kindertransport
to England, my parents gave me many admonitions, to be good, to be
honest, always ending with "We will see each other again soon."
I believed that we would see each other again soon, whether my parents
believed that, I will never know. My parents and I corresponded directly
with each other until England declared war on Germany on September
3, 1939. Then it was no longer possible to correspond directly with
each other. Instead we exchanged 25 word messages through the Red
Cross.
After my parents were sent to the camps in Vichy France, we could
correspond directly with each other again. However, my parents were
allowed only to write one page, per person, per week. I could write
as much and as often as I wanted to. My parents never wrote about
the horrible conditions under which they were forced to "exist,"
I learned about that only after the war was over.
Thinking back on that time in England, I was a very sad little girl,
not allowing myself to really get in touch with my feelings and fears.
As I told you, each of my parents in their last letters to me before
their final deportation (to Auschwitz), each of them wrote: "It
will probably be a long time before you hear from me again"
How long is a long time? A week, a month, a year, ten years! Since
I wanted so very much to be reunited with my parents again, I kept
on telling myself: "A long time is not over yet, I have to wait
some more". I was in denial. I was not able to accept the inevitable,
my parents' demise. That was really a psychological game I played
with myself, it was a way for me to survive, a self-preservation mechanism.
It was not until September 1980, when I visited Auschwitz and stood
on the place, called "Die Rampe" (The ramp), where the cattle
cars arrived in the 1940s, the people were forced to get out and Dr.
Mengele and his cohorts made a selection as to who will live and who
will die (in the gas chambers), that I was able to accept the fact
that my parents and other family members did not survive. That is
a very long time to be in denial. Perhaps the denial was in lieu of
the usual mourning process.
Silvia Cattori: Thanks for this moving interview.
1) http://www.kindertransport.org/history.html
2) About
Hedy Epstein's abuse by Israeli security officers: http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0165.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/cattori06072007.html
3)
http://www.counterpunch.org/cattori06072007.html
http://www.voltairenet.org/article150755.html
4) http://www.unrast-verlag.de/unrast,2,18,5.html