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Shattering the myth of Jewish passivity, the last surviving partisans tell their stories of resistance in FOUR WINTERS, revealing a stunning narrative of heroism and resilience. “All I owned was a leopard coat, a rifle and a grenade in case of capture…the pillow was the rifle, the walls were the trees and the sky was the roof.” says partisan Faye Schulman, one of over 25,000 Jewish partisans, who fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators from deep within the forests of WWII’s Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Belarus. Against extraordinary odds, they escaped Nazi slaughter, transforming from young innocents raised in closely knit families to courageous resistance fighters.

New York Times Review: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/movies/four-winters-review.html

Ms Magazine Review: https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/06/four-winters-film-review-julia-mintz-jewish-womens-resistance-nazis-world-war-ii/

The post FOUR WINTERS, HOLOCAUST. MOVIE a revealing a stunning narrative of heroism and resilience by Jewish people appeared first on Good News!.

I wish you health, my dear country. The 7th day of the terrible war began. Nothing matters anymore except victory and peace. Except for the lives of our people, nothing matters except Ukraine. For anyone who knows history, some place Russia hit yesterday is Kyiv, a special piece of Europe. It is a place of prayer where the old Kyiv cemeteries commemorate the 100,000 people killed by the Nazis. What kind of person do we have to be to make such a place a target for missiles? You are killing Holocaust victims for the 2nd time. In Soviet times, they built a television center, a sports complex, a park on the bones of the victims of the genocide. To erase the true history of Babi Yar. But why was it bombed? This is inhumane. Now I call to all the Jews of the world: Do you not see what is happening? millions around the world

It is very important that the Jew does not remain silent now. Nazism is born in silence. So what is the result for Russia? The flag of this state will no longer be seen at sports tournaments. The modern world culture will now be closed. Russian goods are being taken off the shelves around the world. Russian banks have been cut off from the global system. Russian citizens lose their savings, all hope. Russian mothers lose their children in a country completely foreign to them. In the 6-day war, about 6 thousand Russian soldiers died. Unless you count the enemy’s losses last night. Exactly 6,000, why? To get Ukraine? This is impossible. Ukrainians, my dears. Rockets, artillery last night

Their shots continued to hit our cities with machine guns. Residential areas were hit. Mariupol, Kharkov, Kyiv, Jitomir and other cities and villages of Ukraine were hit.

We barely slept 7 nights. The time will come when we can sleep, but after this war. After victory. With all your loved ones I ask you to take care. Take care of your siblings. I admire you Ukraine. The whole world admires you, from Hollywood stars to politicians. Today, you Ukrainians are the symbol of invincibility. Victory will belong to Ukraine.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/02/opinion/ukraine-charity-donation-guide.html

#volodymyr #zelenskyy #world #ukraine #health #terrible #war #kyiv #europe #prayer #nazis #holocaust #soviet #victims #genocide #babi #yar #kharkov #jitomir #victory

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How many of us can remember a heartwarming story that was read or hard during the past several weeks?
Well, here’s one: (Thank you to Barry Elkins for bringing it to our attention)
(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In January of 1943, Irma Lauscher, a teacher at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, smuggled a tree into the camp so that the Jewish children imprisoned by the Nazis could celebrate Tu B’Shevat in a secret ceremony. The children used their water rations to nurture the sapling.

Of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Theresienstadt during the Holocaust, fewer than 200 survived. But the tree was still standing when the camp was liberated in 1945, and a sign was placed at its base marking it as a symbol of resilience.

“As the branches of this tree, so the branches of our people!” said the sign under the tree, which survivors named “The Tree of Life.” Lauscher, who survived the Holocaust, eventually was buried alongside the original tree.

In the 1980s, branch saplings were cut from the tree and planted in Jerusalem, as well as in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia to accompany a traveling exhibit of treasures nearly lost in the Holocaust.

Now, New York City — home to the largest community of Holocaust survivors and their descendants of any city outside Israel — will also nurture a descendant of the original tree. Dr. Roger Pomerantz, a Jewish philanthropist who owns a farm in Pennsylvania that holds seven trees grown from cuttings of the original tree, has donated one to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City.

“The Children’s Tree,” as it will be known, will be unveiled to the public today during a dedication ceremony held jointly by the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Battery Park City Authority. Currently 15 feet tall, the silver maple tree will have a permanent home in the park.

“We want everybody in Battery Park City to be able to walk by and see a piece of history,” Jack Kliger, the president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, told the New York Jewish Week. “To not only remember but to understand what resilience means in the face of tremendous odds.”

Calling the project “a labor of love,” Kliger said transporting the tree involved hiring a horticulturist to uproot the tree from Pennsylvania and working with Battery Park City Authority to find the right space for the tree.

As at Theresienstadt, the tree will be cared for by children — in this case, students at PS/IS 276: The Battery Park City School, a public elementary and middle school located just across the street from the museum. In collaboration with the museum, the school will make the tree part of an ongoing curriculum in Holocaust education.

“They were planting a tree that would live in a world that they would not live in, as sort of a physical expression of belief in the future and a form of spiritual resistance,” said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian who was instrumental in the transplant of the tree to New York, of the imprisoned children who cared for the original Tree of Life.

“Now their legacy can continue,” he added.

“Resilience is represented by both humans as well as trees,” Kliger said, comparing their abilities to survive as well as endure such a long, roundabout journey to New York.

Speakers at the ceremony will include Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the United Nations; Theresienstadt survivor Fred Terna; Czech Consul General Arnošt Kareš; and Battery Park City Authority President and CEO B.J. Jones. The student choir at PS/IS 276 will also perform.

The post A tree that survived the Holocaust gains a new life in New York City appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Author: Julia Gergely

The post A Heartwarming Story, Jewish Survival… appeared first on Good News!.

Mission
I am very grateful to have the honor of fulfilling my father’s prophesy in 1944 at the Swiss border when the Nazis were chasing us. I was 4 years old and when he threw me over the barbed wire fence he said, “Save my daughter and she will serve you forever.” It has been a painful, tiring yet inspirational journey in reaching my goal to have a deeper understanding of myself, my purpose in life, in relationship to the world around me. One thing I always hung on to were my father’s words of serving, so I “hung out” with God, asked for guidance, tried to have patience and faith which gave me hope and wisdom to understand that everything is in divine time. You are my voice of hope on earth to ensure that no human being goes to bed hungry, has a warm bed to sleep in, medicine, education, a fruitful and meaningful life, and a way to peace – in a peaceful way. Together, and with God’s blessings…everything is possible.
http://www.estherleon.com/

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