[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.

     

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