[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 140 (Thursday, October 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          YOM KIPPUR HOLOCAUST OBSERVANCE AT TEMPLE BETH DAVID

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                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 9, 1997

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today full of joy and fulfillment 
as my constituents and the other members of Temple Beth David of 
Commack, Suffolk County, prepare to join together to observe a most 
special Yom Kippur service.
  This Saturday, on Yom Kippur 5758, the most sacred of all days in the 
Jewish calendar, Rabbi Leonard Troupp of Temple Beth David and his 
congregants will reunite a sacred Holocaust Torah scroll from the town 
of Dobris, in what was then Czechoslovakia, with Petr Herrmann, a 
resident of that village prior to the Holocaust. Thus, the congregation 
will, in the words of Rabbi Troupp, ``witness the victory over evil and 
glimpse the possibility of God's promise for all mankind.''
  Mr. Herrmann's biography is one from which great novels can be 
written. It is full of adventure, good and evil and is filled with the 
indomitable human spirit to survive and maintain justice, love and 
freedom.
  The Herrmann family lived in Dobris from 1793 until the tragedy of 
the Holocaust. Uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors and even Mr. 
Herrmann's father, Alois, became B'nai Mitzvah as they stood before the 
Torah scroll that now has found a home at Temple Beth David. That Torah 
was a part of their lives that was viciously torn from them in 1939 as 
the Holocaust descended upon Europe. Mr. Herrmann, his parents, 
relatives and friends were taken from Dobris and sent to locations 
whose names evoke the most unbelievable horrors and cruelty that have 
yet been devised: Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Birkenau. Sadly, many of 
the Dobris Jews perished at these death camps.
  On this Yom Kippur, 55 years since he and the Jewish community of 
Dobris were deported, Petr Herrmann will show that he has done more 
than just survive. He and his wife, Jarmilla, will stand once more 
before the Dobris Torah and recite the traditional Jewish blessing that 
gives thanks for having been able to observe and participate in this 
event. He will proudly recite the family names from Dobris--Arnstein, 
Bloch, Bohm, Fleischmann, Frankl, Gluck, Katz, Kosiner, Lederer, Lion, 
Oppenheimer, Pollack and Porges--families that were proud members of 
the Dobris Jewish community; families who are now but memories.
  Mr. Speaker, as we observe this solemn and moving occasion, it is 
fitting that we pay tribute to those self-effacing people who in the 
times of greatest adversity still reflect the compassion and courage of 
our society. I ask all my colleagues in the House of Representatives to 
join me now in commending the efforts of Pamela Gershowitz, head of the 
Dobris Committee at Temple Beth David; Werner Reich, who led the search 
that brought Mr. Herrmann to Commack, Rabbi Leonard Troupp, and other 
members of the Temple Beth David congregation, in recognizing the 
heroic tale of Petr Herrmann, and in welcoming the Herrmann family back 
to the Dobris Torah in Commack.

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