Thursday. May30.1991—THE BULLETIN, -r 3
Bamett to explain local HAA at Montreal meet
'Hidden Children' meet In N.Y. to discuss ordeals
••1
-        Jim staff
To escape detection and certain death in a village near Warsaw, Lilliap Nemetz had to hide in a hole near an outhouse for' three days and nights. In another village, she was forced to call her parents, who were holding false identification, ••uncle" and **aunt.''
Nemetz, one of several Vancouver Jews who took part in a conference for children hidden during the Holocaust, said it was **almost a compulsion with me to go** to the gathering, held Sunday and Monday (May 26 and 27) at New York*s Marquis hotel.
Also participating at the First International Gathering of Children Hidden During World War II was Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society president Dr. Robert Krell, who was concealed by acquaintances of his parents in The Hague for three years — untile when he was five years old, the.war ended.
Dr. Krell, now a psychiatrist at UBCs Health Science Centre Hospital, is one of more than 500 former **hidden children** who attended the conference. He participated in a panel on **The Psychological Impact on Being Hidden as a Child** and spoke on '^Hiding During the W^r and After ^ the Fate of Children Who Survive."
"There is a wide variety of hiding experiences,** Dr. Krell said. "The fact that (former *liiddwi^ children*) have hot talked about their experiences
is emotionally wearing for them.**
At most, only 10,000 Jewish children were hidden during the Holocaust and sur-
**When the Germans invaded Hungary in 1944^ my mother was in Auschwitz and my father was in Mauth-hausen,** said Dr Suedfeld,
KRELL
SIGAL
... participants in Firit IntemationalGatherIng of Children Hidden During Wortd War IL
vived, according to Dr. Krell. "As they grew into adulthood, many children became comfortable in hiding and in silence^**
However, UBC psychology professor Dr. Peter Suedfeld, who was hidden in a succession of Red Cross children*s groups during the 1944-45 siege of Budapest, doesn*t believe his experience made him any more shy than usual.
And although he was taken to church every Sunday to bolster false papers indicating he was a Christian, the reli-gion.didn*t rub off on him, he said. "I was always quite clear that it was; pretense, and not for real,** he recalled in a BuU /(p/in interview.
who, was then nme years old. He had been staying with an aunt in the Jewish quarter. When the area was evacuated by the Nazis, he was given false papers.
The Red Cross officially was unaware of any Jewish children in its custody, "but I*m sure they knew,** he commented. "When I arrived at the first children*s group, I wore a big yellow star on my coat.**
His aunt remained in the quarter — which became a ghetto — but survived the war. She went to all Red Cross stations and found her iiephew, who was: reunited with his father; his mother had been murdered.
JFGV MISSION
MEL AMDPfeNNY SPRACKIIAAN, memberi of^dmmlinlty Letid-ershipMiMipii, visit Jewish cemetery in Wamll^
FronliPagel
state-of-the-art robotics, but that science has not developed sufficiently in Israel to require his services. His wife^ was a professional chess-master in the Soviet Union.
One Israeli hsid pointed but to the Rabbi that thousands of Sbviet Jewish doctors have arrived—and will continue to make aliyah—With jobs lacking. The Israeli realized that his own son was in medical school, but that everyone in the country would have to share in order to accept the influx.
"The amount of commitment and involvement is larger hot only in the government, but in the population itself "agreed Phil Levine. a partner in an urban planning firm.
Levine, who had studied at the Hebrew University of J^er-usaiem two decades ago, said that senior Israeli officials and Knesset members were universal in their opinions of absorption during talks with the Federation/ contingent. "Many of them had differing views about how peace was to be attained in Israel, biit all were HM) percent committed to the sacrifices needed for absorption,** he said.
"We didn*t witness detractors. The attitiide was that we*re going to have to share things, but it*s for the common good.** ^
Sprackman noted that mission participants "talked with everybody from hawks to doves** — even with Hanna Siniora, editor of the pro-PLO Arab daily Ai-Fajr.
"Within our own group, there was an incredible diversity. We becamepur own Knesset!^
Irvine found that since he was last in Israel, the country has developed immensely^ especially in and around Jerusalem. "You really feel the change.**     ■ ■-■r::.;;v>^
When Community Leadership Mission members travelled from Poland to Js^ they left Franlrfurt via Luf^ thansa, Germany*s national airiinCi "You*ve got to realize ^ that after the Americans, the Germans are the largest single source of tourism 1^^ Israel,** Eisman coniqiehied, "Ger- ^ many does a Imlpr Isra
■ saidv,^;..;^^^;;,-'
While this year*s Combined Jewish Appeal ^mpaign is seeking a 20 percent overall increase in cbntributiohs, the mission raised $219,065 for the CJA ^ an^ 80 percent increase in personal giving oyer the $ 121,471 participants contributed last year.
**Everyone on our mission set the pace for the forth-coming CJA,^ing over 20 percent (more),*^ said JFGV campaign associate Randy ^ Tischler, part of the local contingent. _ .
"Financial commitment is an important part of Federation missions, aiid this oiie was no exception,** Tischler explained. He added that the forthcoming 1991 CJA will have to raise $5 million, or a 20 percent overall increase, "in orderto meet the burgeoning needs of our own growing community and the historic challenges in Israel.** ^
Ruth Sigal, a registered psychologist and director of UBCs Women*s Resource Centre, had a much more recent reunion. During the Federation mission to Israel, which ended two weeks ago, she found seven other child Holocaust Survivors, most of them "hidden children,** who attended the same school for displaced persons in Munich in 1951. At least one planned to attend this week*s conference in NewYork.
Sigal, who was eight when World War II ended, lived in a ghetto in Shavler, Lithuania for three years : until 1943. When a kinderakzion was launched to remove children from the ghetto, she hid with a Catholic family with whom her parents were acquainted. Sigal survived because another child did not.
"There was only a limited amount of space. They had a place for a child they knew, but she was killed. By a miracle, a place opened up.**
Her parents survived, having escaped two weeks before the A:JmferaA:zio/i. But her four-year-old sister was taken.
Nemetz, whose parents entered the sewers to become among the few to escape the Warsaw Ghetto, also had a four-year-old sister who was killed. At Dr. Krell*s sugges-HIDDEN CHILDREN— Page 9
*We don*t have any secrets,** says Hebrew Assistance association, secretary Shirley Bamett. "It*s just a little hard work.**
Though she downplays the organization*s success; Bar^ nett, its founder, will present a paper on its behalf at the International Hebrew Free Loan Convention in Montreal next month. The gathering at the Queen Elizabeth
BARNETT ... "Ifs Just a little hard work.**
hotel, which coincides with the Conference of Jewish Communal Workers, will attract participants from more than 50 cities between June 2 and 5.
Bamett said convention organizers asked her to
explain "the how to*s of how todo it**after leamingthait the HAA had received more than 100 percent of the money pledged to it during a 10th anniversary capital fundrais-ing campaign last year, "it was remarkable,** she told The Bulletin this month. "We canvassed towarda $100,000 goal, and got $103,000. ^ "Everybody sent in iheir money — and a couple of thousand more.**
The association was founded in 1979, but for the next decade, its directors consider it necessary to approach the Vancouver Jewish community for funding, she explained. However, the 10th anniversary campaign displayed a different approach from that used in most other Jewish communities, according to Bamett.
Rather than merely asking for a straight donation, "We asked people to sponsor a loan for $3,500,** she said. "Or we asked people to share a loan for $1,700, or fund an emergency loan for $500.**
Bamett believes that part of the HAA*s achievement in fundraising may lie in its lack of office overhead, keeping administration costs and other expenses taa minimum. In addition, she recalled, "We only went to the community when we projected the need was coming.**
Of feringa loan sponsorship plan was also a drawing card, said the HAA secretary. "We gave people specific reasons to hang their donations onto.**
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