Posted on 11/09/2008 7:19:22 PM PST by Dubya
When Ben D’Lugin was in his early 20s, his country was at war and his people threatened. But when word of Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews and others arrived in Wilmington, he said the Jewish community here responded.
“Our whole community that was of age went into service,” said D’Lugin, who spent nine months on the European front, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a small concentration camp.
“I wouldn’t go through that again for a million dollars,” D’Lugin told a crowd at the Temple of Israel in Wilmington Sunday. “But I wouldn’t take a million dollars for the experience.”
D’Lugin was one of several of his generation who spoke Sunday at The Spirit of Resistance and Survival: A Tribute to Holocaust Survivors and World War II Veterans.
Rabbi Harley I. Karz-Wagman said the event was to honor veterans and hear testimony of some of those who suffered under the Nazi regime. He said he hoped the event would remind people not to allow cruelty to go unchecked in the future.
“We can stand by and watch all the horror of the world, or we can fight back,” Karz-Wagman said. He cited the genocide in Sudan and domestic violence in the United States as modern-day examples of evil that people should speak out against.
The Tribute
The ceremony was held on the 70th anniversary of Kristalnacht - a night in 1938 when German Jews realized their lives would never be the same.
Young Germans, working for Adolph Hitler, took to the streets smashing homes and centers of the Jewish community. Hospitals, businesses, synagogues and schools, were smashed, looted and burned - the beginning of a Nazi reign of terror that would culminate in the mass murder of millions.
That night, Howard Strauss, heard a banging at the door and ran into his mother’s bedroom. A young German barged in and held a revolver to his mother’s head.
Soon after, the family fled Germany, and Strauss, who died of cancer in 2007, eventually settled in Wilmington, according to his friend David Weiss, who read from Strauss’ journal during the service.
Alfred Schnog, 77, also of Wilmington, watched the looting from a hotel room window in Cologne, Germany. His family fled for Holland the next day, using his father’s business as an excuse to get out. The trip would help Hitler’s Germany, Schnog’s father told Nazi guards.
But a German guard ordered Schnog and his twin brother to wait behind. His mother pulled a knife from her purse and threatened to kill her children and herself if her family was separated.
Schnog told the audience of about 200, that his mother’s willingness to die saved the entire family.
Others weren’t as lucky. Bronia Merlin, 88, showed the number that was tattooed on her forearm when she was a teen at Auschwitz - one of the largest concentration camps. She survived, she said, because she spoke German and could beg for her life and promise to work.
Of Merlin’s family, only she and a sister survived.
“We have to tell how many of my friends are already dead,” she said. “The new generation should know what kind of monster Hitler was.”
In addition to remembering the horrors, the ceremony, held two days before Veteran’s Day, honored the soldiers who fought in World War II.
Fred Sternberger, who was a gunner in a tank, said he used to lie on the tank’s floor and take orders from a commander who kicked him in the helmet to get his attention. Wearing asbestos gloves, he dumped shell casings out a small window of the tank.
“The hatches were shut,” said Sternberger, 84, of Wilmington. “It was a no-no to stick your head out.”
The Effect
Several in the audience said they attended the tribute to hear history first-hand.
Kate Carter, 32, said she majored in history in college and tries to keep learning. Honoring veterans of both past and present wars is important, she said, and remembering tragedies is a step toward ensuring something similar doesn’t happen again.
Jerry Stephens, 74, said as a Christian and an American, he wants to know the sacrifices others have made for his freedom.
Morton Salk, an 89-year-old World War II veteran, said he was pleased so many came to hear stories from long ago.
“We don’t talk about it very much, but it’s nice to know there’s an underlying interest,” Salk said. “Everyone says, ‘Never again.’ But we know very well it could happen again,” he said. “We have to be vigilant.”
Staff photo | David Reynolds
Rabbi Harley I. Karz-Wagman and Bronia Merlin talk at a tribute for Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans Sunday at the Temple of Israel in Wilmington. Merlin, 88, was at Auschwitz, one of the largest concentration camps of World War II. She and a younger sister survived, but the rest of her family was killed. Merlin said she still has nightmares 60 years later and that it's important for young people to learn about the holocaust.
We remember the infamous anniversary of Kristalnacht and vow vigilance against such attacks in the future.
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