[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 128 (Friday, October 13, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1780-E1781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ERIC KARLAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO DANISH HOLOCAUST RESCUERS FOR HIS BAR
MITZVAH
______
HON. TOM LANTOS
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, October 12, 2000
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of
our colleagues an outstanding young man--14 year old Eric Karlan, who
in his short life has already made important decisions that can serve
as a model for others to follow. His outstanding academic record, his
musical gifts, his athletic prowess, his social activism, and the
leadership roles he fulfills are by themselves exceptional achievements
for a 14 year old.
But what impresses me most about Eric, Mr. Speaker, is his
willingness to acknowledge and honor what is best in the history of
humanity and to demonstrate his appreciation for what is a truly heroic
legacy. I am referring to Eric's decision to celebrate his coming to
manhood through the Bar Mitzvah ritual by going to Denmark to visit
important historic sites as an expression of his gratitude to the
Danish people for rescuing almost the entire Jewish community of
Denmark from extermination by the Nazis during World War Two.
Mr. Speaker, Bar Mitzvah celebrations have too often become
showpieces of affluence, more extravagant than meaningful. Eric's
decision to honor this occasion with simple dignity, remembering the
suffering and hardships of his own people and paying respect to those
Danes who came to their rescue in a time of greatest need, was indeed a
wise and noble choice, and it demonstrates extraordinary character and
maturity in one so young.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Eric for the intelligent choices he has
already made in his life, for his dedication to genuine values, for his
wisdom in following in the footsteps of those who light a candle in the
darkness of the world, and for his understanding and appreciation of
true heroism. Mr. Speaker, I ask that excerpts of Eric's moving
description of his journey of discovery in the footsteps of Danish
heroes be placed in the Record.
My Bar Mitzvah in Denmark
(By Eric Karlan)
My family has always had a reputation for doing
unconventional things. When I received my Bar Mitzvah date at
the age of 11, I was told that I wouldn't be getting a big
party or presents like everyone else. My parents said I would
be able to pick a meaningful place to visit, and select a
charity for any Bar Mitzvah money I might receive. I wanted
to choose a place that would give me a unique Bar Mitzvah
experience.
I read a book called Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. I
learned that the Danish people saved all but 116 of the
approximately 8,000 Jews in Denmark by helping them escape to
neutral Sweden during the Holocaust. This book was instantly
a favorite of mine. It was then that I decided for my Bar
Mitzvah I was going to research this story, and Denmark would
be the destination for my trip.
My parents gave me the opportunity to work with a modern
orthodox Rabbi, David Kalb. Instead of studying the Torah
portion that was near my birthday date, Rabbi Kalb helped me
select a portion that was related to my trip. For our
explanatory style service, I chose Beshallach, the story of
the Parting of the Red Sea. We picked this story because it
was uplifting, involved hope, and most importantly dealt with
the liberation and freedom of the Jewish people. I connected
this to the story of the Danish Resistance and how they
brought the Jews from the clutches of the Nazis into freedom.
Both of those stories shared positive and miraculous
attributes. And both stories shared the water as the avenue
to freedom. In the Midrash, Shemot Rabah, there is a story
about how the Red Sea did not part until Nachshon Ben
Aminadav, walked neck deep into the water. This makes a major
statement that no one can expect miracles to happen unless
someone takes the first step. The Danish people took the
first step and a miracle occurred; all the Danish Jews were
transported to Sweden secretly within a matter of days. In
fact, there is a Disney movie called ``Miracle at Midnight''
that tells the story.
Together, the Rabbi and I retraced the Rescue Route and
learned more and more about the Exodus of the Danish Jews
going to Sweden and what risks were taken. We also learned
how leadership can have such a huge impact on the people.
King Christian X and the Danish Bishop played an important
role, setting a superb example for the Danes and leading them
to do the right thing when they were surrounded by evil.
We arrived early on a Wednesday morning in Denmark and
immediately started to learn new things about the Danish
experience during the Holocaust. As we were telling the
driver on our way to the hotel about what we were doing in
Denmark, he told us another very powerful story about
Denmark's leadership. One day, a Nazi officer came to King
Christian X and told him that if any soldier were to put up
the Danish flag the next morning, he would be shot on the
spot. The King replied that he would be that soldier, and
from that day on, the flag of Denmark flew every day for the
rest of the war.
We visited the Bispebjerg Hospital, where over 2,000 Jews
passed en route to Sweden. The head nurse told us that to
hold the Jews in the hospital secretly was tough. To start,
they had to register the Jews under Christian names. Next,
they would make them look pale by putting powder on their
faces and make them sick by drugging them. She told us that
doctors found out that there was an informer, so they locked
him up in the psychiatric ward. After the meeting we toured
the hospital and the meaningful places there.
As we reached one of the doors, the nurse told us a
fascinating, scary story. Every door with a lock had 16
square panes of glass on it. On each of the doors, one of the
panes of glass was different because when the Nazis broke
into the hospital, they punched through the glass so they
could stick their hand through and unlock the door.
Finally, we reached an office where the chief surgeon used
to work. The office was on the third floor of the building
where we were told that when one of the doctors tried to
escape out the window, he was shot and fell to his death.
After thanking the nurse, we asked where we could find out
even more information and we were directed straight to the
hospital chapel.
At the chapel, we met with one of the people who worked
there. He told us how Jews escaped out of the hospital and on
to the next part of the Rescue Route. He said they would have
fake funeral processions and Jews were transported out of the
chapel right under the Nazis' noses. Before leaving the
hospital's premises, we learned about some underground
tunnels that the doctors now use for work. During the war
though they made great hiding places.
After this, we went to the Grundtvig Church of the Lutheran
Church of Denmark. When the Jews were in need, Grundtvig
Church played a key role in helping them. When the Nazis
declared martial law, the bishop of the church explained the
situation, almost all Christians agreed to help the Jews.
They helped hide the Jews in their homes and the church, and
during the two-year period in which the Jews were in Sweden,
Grundtvig Church hid Torah scrolls and other Jewish family
valuables. After leaving the Grundtvig Church, we made our
way to the beautiful Church of Denmark. This church also
played a key role in helping the Jewish people. During the
occupation, this church's bishop played Hatikvah, now known
as Israel's national anthem, on the church bells. Like
Grundtvig, the Church of Denmark hid Jews, Torah scrolls and
other Jewish valuables.
We had to start early Thursday morning for the long 30-mile
car ride up the coast to visit all the fishing ports where
the Jews escaped. The first fishing port we came to was Niva,
a port where a large number of Jews were sent. To get to
Niva, the Jews had to take trains where they had to sit in
the same cars as Nazis without them knowing. When they
reached the port, they were held in a large tile factory
where they were hidden or acted as workers. At night, there
was, and still is, a tile path that leads from the factory to
the port itself that the Jews followed to get to the boats
safely.
Next up the coast was Sletten, where Sweden is never
farther than two to four miles away. After that was
Snekkersten, a port
[[Page E1781]]
that had the second most Jews depart from. Here we had a
quick memorial service in honor of H.C. Thomsen, an owner of
an inn who hid Jews. He was caught and executed at a
concentration camp, so in his memory and in memory of those
like him, we held the memorial service in front of a rock,
which was marked with a plaque honoring him and surrounded by
flowers.
We continued up the coast to pass or stop at more small
fishing ports like Elsinore and Hornbaeck. As we drove up the
coastline, Sweden was never out of sight. You can only
imagine how frustrating that was for the Danish Jews to have
freedom less than five miles away, yet you could die from
hypothermia just by trying to swim across the water. Finally,
at the tip of the coast, we reached Gilleleje, the site where
the most Jews left and where the most Jews were caught. We
visited a small church where more than half the captured Jews
in all of Denmark were caught. The church hid 80 Jews in the
attic, when an informer tipped off the Nazis and 79 were
caught and sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
From Gilleleje we returned to Copenhagen where a recently
completed ten-mile bridge goes across the water to Sweden. We
decided that touching Swedish soil would be a symbolic end to
the morning since that is where the Jews escaped to from the
fishing ports. We crossed the bridge by car, got our
passports stamped, and returned to the hotel.
We awoke to a gorgeous Friday morning, the day of my Bar
Mitzvah. I was very excited and eager to start the service.
The decision for where my Bar Mitzvah would be held was made
a few days before. It would be in Mindelunden, a memorial
park right outside the city where 106 Resistance members were
killed. It was hard to believe that brutal executions had
ever happened at such a beautiful place. As we walked in,
there was a long wall of plaques with all the people's names
that had been killed, with a little information about them.
Farther on, we found the graveyard. It was an unbelievable
site. There was a magnificent statue near the back with a
Resistor holding up one of his fallen comrades. In front of
the statue were 106 graves, each with a marble plaque on top
identifying the person and their life span. One of the graves
is now covered in heather because later that man was
identified as a traitor. We had a memorial service for all
the fallen resistors at the site.
Past the graveyard we found the execution pit. In the pit
were three stakes and a plaque. This was a very scary sight
and only my mom and my brother went past the plaque to touch
the stakes. We still hadn't done the Bar Mitzvah service and
the decision of where it should be held was still undecided.
While walking back from the execution pit, we passed an
open field with a tree near the side. Since the tree was
approximately halfway between the pit and the graveyard, the
choice was made that the Bar Mitzvah would be under the tree.
The service lasted about fifteen minutes and included my
Torah portion, some prayers, texts that Rabbi Kalb (who had a
Notre Dame hat on) personally selected, and the Israeli
national anthem ``Hatikvah.'' It was a wonderful service and
ended with the Rabbi picking me up on his shoulders and
dancing around.
Our congressman, Jim Maloney, had arranged a meeting for us
with the United States Ambassador to Denmark to discuss my
Bar Mitzvah experience. After passing through the gates of
the embassy and getting our passports checked, we were
finally greeted and led up to the Ambassador's office. The
Ambassador's name is Richard Swett. We found out later that
his in-laws were survivors of the Holocaust.
Another man from New York named Gabriel Erem, owner of the
magazine Lifestyles, was already there and wanted to stay to
hear about my experience. Gabriel had heard about my story
and seemed very interested. We sat down in the office and I
started to explain everything that had led up to the trip and
how it had been going so far. We retraced the Rescue Route on
the maps the Ambassador had up in his office and told almost
all the stories we learned. Questions were exchanged from
both sides about the Bar Mitzvah. A while later it was time
to go, but not before we got one more surprise. The
Ambassador had extra tickets to the Danish premiere of ``The
Last Days,'' a documentary film made by Steven Spielberg
about five survivors of the Holocaust.
The Grand Theater was busy with people coming to see the
premiere. We started to talk to the people in front of us and
soon found out that when they were three and four, they were
two of the Jews who were taken by boat to Sweden. A few
minutes later, the Ambassador entered and went up to the
podium to make his opening speech. He mentioned lots of
important people, the survivors that were present that night,
his co-workers, his wife and in-laws, etc. And then near the
end of the speech, he spoke about my story and me. As soon as
he finished my story, he introduced me and had me stand up in
front of all the people. That made my night! Soon after the
moment of glory, the documentary began.
The documentary was very impressive and moving. After it
ended, the survivors all went up to the podium and made a
little speech. As we stood up to leave, Renee Firestone, one
of the four survivors present that night came up to wish me
``Mazel Tav.'' After meeting her, a man came up to introduce
himself to me. He was not one of the survivors, but a student
in Copenhagen at the time of the war who rowed Jews to Sweden
in October of 1943. His name was Munch Nielsen, and I didn't
realize I already knew about him till my Rabbi told me so. In
some of our notes, we had quotes from him. This was very
cool. Following that, we met up with Gabriel Erem, who
introduced us to Congressman Tom Lantos, the Ambassador's
father-in-law, and another one of the survivors in the movie.
After a quick chat, we all went to the reception.
The first thing I wanted to do was go over and thank the
Ambassador for making my Bar Mitzvah day the best. I went
over to him and his whole expression changed. A nice smile
came over his face and he told me to follow him because there
were some people he wanted me to meet. First he introduced me
to the Israeli Ambassador in Copenhagen. The next person I
met was his mother-in-law Mrs. Annette Lantos. She was also a
survivor of the Holocaust, but she was not in the
documentary. She was very sweet and made a big fuss over what
I was doing.
Then the Ambassador introduced me to Irene Weisberg-
Zisblatt. As soon as she saw me, she smiled and said, ``It is
such an honor to meet you.'' I responded the same way and we
both laughed. Out of everyone, she was the coolest and the
most interested in my story. Around her neck were diamonds in
the shape of a teardrop. In the movie, she said that those
diamonds were from her mother and anytime the Nazis went to
check if any of the prisoners had anything, she would swallow
them, and then when she went to the bathroom, she would fish
them back out, clean them off in the mud and swallow them
again. And now, they were around her neck in real life, which
was very hard to believe. Irene, the Rabbi and his wife, my
family and myself all talked for the longest time.
People started to leave and my exciting day started to come
to a close. We wrapped up our conversation with Irene, said
good night to the Rabbi and his wife, and headed back to the
hotel after a perfect ending to a great Bar Mitzvah day.
Imagine celebrating your Bar Mitzvah one morning in a World
War II Resistance memorial park and ending the day with
actual survivors that eluded Nazi death.
I can't speak for other countries, but I know in America
the schools only teach the negative and scary things about
the Holocaust. Even though that was really what most of the
Holocaust was, the Denmark story should be taught everywhere
as well. It is positive and uplifting, gives hope and sets
the example for remarkable leadership, brotherhood, and
respect for humanity. The Danes should be admired for their
gallantry and I am glad I did what I did for my Bar Mitzvah.
____________________