Stories of Survivors

Both my mother, Ursula, and my father, Harry are Holocaust survivors. My father was fortunate enough to come to the United States in 1939, as things were really starting to get difficult for the Jews in Germany. My mother, on the other hand, lived a good part of the war with her mother and father in Amsterdam, on their own until 1942, at which time they had to go into hiding with a non-Jewish family. Unfortunately, the photo below, shows the last time her family was together as a whole. This was the day before her beloved brother, Ernst, was required to report to the Gestapo. Ultimately he perished in Aushwitz.

Last day the Lowenbach was together before Ernest had to report to the Gestapo.

My mother, Ursula, with her brother Ernst, in Hannover, 1938.

In order to honor the memory of those who perished and those who were fortunate enough to survive, so that they will never be forgotten, I have set about to capture the beautiful souls of Survivors I have encountered. Their brief stories are shared below. May the memory of those who came before us forever be a Blessing.

Zofia Evenas

August 24, 2015

Several days ago, Zofia passed away. Sadly, back in 2011 when I photographed her, she was struggling with life, and the horrible memories she recalled from her time in Lublin, Poland during the Holocaust. This town was right next to the Concentration Camp Majdanek. From her home, she would witness prisoners being marched down the street in paper uniforms to the camp, never again to be seen alive. Fortunately, somehow, despite spending some time in Aushwitz, she survived. The photograph pictured above represents a recollection of her Rabbi reaching up and asking his G-d, "Where Are You?", as the Nazi's not only cut his beard, but also the flesh beneath it. Zofia lost her faith in G-d on that day, and never regained it.

Fortunately she has been able to find some peace in life by way of her two beautiful children and five grandchildren. Her concluding words to me after the photo session were "I went to Hell. My life was not a picnic. I wish that all young people who see these photos, no matter what religion, no matter what color of skin, will have a bright future and will help to bring peace into the world.

Zophia, you will be missed. Baruch Dayan Emet, Blessed is the True Judge.

Hanna and Fred Carter

June 18, 2015

I knew Hanna and Fred as a child growing up. Hanna was a childhood friend of my mother's in Hannover, Germany. In 1938, as a 12 year old child, Hanna was placed with her sister on the Kindertransport to The Netherlands, in order to "escape" the Nazi threat to the Jews. It was the last time she would see her parents. My mother, on the other hand, went with her family to Amsterdam.

Hanna, would later hear one last time from her parents before they were deported to Auschwitz Death Camp, where they perished. She was able to survive for a few years by working in a Hotel in Amsterdam, until 1943, at which time she, along with her sister were arrested and deported to Westerbork Camp. They worked there for 5 months in the potato fields until in 1944, they were transported in cattle cars to Aushwitz. They were fortunate enough to have skills which allowed them to work for their survival.

After the war ended, her soon to be husband Fred, whom she had worked with at the hotel in Amsterdam, located Hanna on a displaced persons list. Together they came to the US, and eventually located in San Francisco, where by some coincidence, she once again was reunited with my mother.

Hanna and Fred have two children, Danita and Mark, with whom my brother and I grew up with. As evidenced by the photograph, the two share an enormous love of each other as well as life itself. Three days a week they both go to the gym, which they attribute to being responsible for their longevity. Hanna is 89, and Fred is 93.

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Dr. Jacob Eisenbach

January 17, 2015

At 93 years old, Dr. Eisenbach is a practicing dentist in Anaheim Hills, California.

At 92 years old, Dr. Eisenbach, just retired from dentistry. Photographing him in his office, where he practiced for 41 years, he immediately shared with me his technique for calming himself. He said: “If I face a stressful situation, I stop and think for a moment about my experience under the Nazis. It doesn’t begin to compare”.

Kuba, as his friends called him when he was a youth, lost his mother before the war broke out. His sister who fled their hometown of Lodz to a Soviet occupied village in Poland, was killed during the Nazi invasion. He lost his younger brother and father in Auschwitz.

Despite all of these losses, Dr. Eisenbach would go on to say that his strength would come from remembering his parents’ words, telling him “to never lose hope for a better tomorrow”. I suppose these words served him well as he and his other brother survived Auschwitz and the death train. After hearing of this among many other “challenges”, I truly think it is a miracle he survived.

Today he prides himself on his longevity. Recently he completed a book about his life, which includes a chapter on living a long healthy life. The book is called, Where You Go, I Go. Other than telling me he hasn’t had a cold in 40 years due to taking large amounts of Vitamin C, he encouraged me to read the book to find out the rest of the details. Dr. Eisenbach is a member of my Synagogue. His cheerful attitude is ever present. He is always willing to speak to those who ask about his experiences, and is quick to state he has never lost faith in humanity.

Upon returning to his office two weeks later with a copy of his photograph, he referred to me as the best photographer he had ever worked with. I am convinced what won him over was that I captured his wonderful smile. This was not such a difficult task.

Natalie Gold, born Natasha Weinstein

March 28, 2011

Natalie, photographed with her father, Leon.  Photographed for the Rodgers Center of Holocaust Education, Chapman University. — Natalie, photographed with her father, Leon. Photographed for the Rodgers Center of Holocaust Education, Chapman University.

Natalie was born on July 26, 1940 in a Polish Ghetto called Radzimin. She was probably the only surviving child in this town, as about 14,000 to 16,000 Jews were taken from Radzimin to Treblinka on the day of Simchat Torah, 1942. Fearing immediate death, Natalie and her parents escaped the Ghetto, and went from one place to another hiding from the Nazi's. As options began to disappear, Natalie's parents realized there was only one option left to save her life, and that was to abandon her. They dressed her in a warm coat, put a cross around her neck, and a sign which indicated she was a child of a war widow who was no longer able to feed her. They left her on the doorstep of a police station and hid in a doorway until a man came to pick her up.

Shortly thereafter, Natalie's parents had to split apart as well. Four and 1/2 years later, when the war ended, Leon, Natalie's father, located her at a Catholic convent. The following years were difficult despite being reunited with her father. Natalie was deeply confused as to her identity, being raised in a Catholic environment during her formative years, yet now receiving an immense amount of love from her father who had survived the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

In 1947, Natalie moved with her parents (her father remarried) to France. Natalie furthered her identification as a Jew by joining a Zionist organization called Hasher, and dreamed of going to Israel to live on a Kibbutz. Her father though would not allow it, and ultimately, the family moved to the United States.

In 1961, Natalie married a second generation American man from Kentucky. His name was Alan Gold. She had two children in quick succession. Natalie has since become a Psychotherapist., and is a member of the Survivor group entitled "The 1939 Club". In 1990, she became Bat Mitzvah, with 6 other childhood survivors. This solidified her full commitment to Judaism. Today, she lives with an enormous sense of responsibility in order to make sure her lucky survival counts. Natalie wants to make sure the dead are not forgotten, and she works toward creating a world in which there will no longer be children who lose everything to which a child is entitled.

Max Webb

Max Webb, born on March 2, 1917 in Lodz, Poland, is a survivor of a series of camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. His physical strength kept him out of the gas chambers, as the Nazis preferred to use him for hard labor. Yet, beyond his physical fitness, Max survived on the strength of his wits, hustling for a piece of bread with the same moxie he would use decades later to develop property in Los Angeles.

Along with his best friend in the camp, Nathan Shapell, Max started Shapell and Shapell Homes, and ultimately became a billionaire.

Despite losing both of his parents and four sisters in the Holocaust, Max, was not one to ever live in fear. He lived one second at a time. Before his mother died, Max had promised her that if he survived the war, he would do everything he could to insure Judaism would also survive. For the past six decades, Max did just that. He dedicated millions of dollars to multiple causes including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

I photographed Max in his office towering over Beverly Hills, which had more memorabilia on the walls than many museums. My challenge was to pull him away from all this and photograph him against a simple background in order to capture his spirit. When Max saw the first image come up on the computer monitor which I had connected to the camera, Max just smiled and said in his German accent, “I like this”.

Leon Weinstein

Leon Weinstein, recently passed away at the age of 101. He was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, and a hero.

In 1941, when his daughter Natalie was only 18 months old, Leon and his wife realized that they may not survive the war, but were determined to ensure that their daughter would. In order to give her a chance, they fixed a metal crucifix to a necklace and hung it on their daughter. On a piece of paper, they wrote some fiction: “I am a war widow, and I have no way of taking care of my daughter. I beg of you good people, please take care of her. In the name of Jesus Christ, he will take care of you for this.”

They bundled up Natalie and dropped her off on the front step of a lawyer’s home. Walking away, he could hear her whimper, but forced himself not to look back until he crossed the street. At that time he saw a man step out of the apartment building and read the note. Cradling Natalie in his arms, the man walked half a block to a police station and disappeared inside. Leon and his wife expected they would never see their daughter again.

Leon speaks of this, among other Nazi horrors, so they are never forgotten. He spent the years following this horrendous day in the Warsaw ghetto resistance. Leon said, “If we were going to die, we would do it standing proud, on our feet, making a statement to the world. We would take as many of those bastards as we could kill”.

After the war, Leon found out that his wife and all extended family had been murdered; his only hope now was to find his small daughter. After six months of searching, Weinstein passed a convent, catching a glimpse of a bony four year old being carried by a nun, and recognized the child as his own. Ultimately, Leon achieved what tragically so few managed: to be reunited with his child. Natalie had survived against all odds, and so did Leon Weinstein.

Cantor Leopold and Isabelle Szneer

Holocaust survivors Leopold and Isabelle Szneer still maintain a zest for life and a belief in humanity.

During their teen years, the couple faced untold peril and lost many relatives at the hands of the Nazis. Yet, they carried on, using their faith to survive. Leopold spent five weeks in Dachau, yet fortunately was freed by the Red Cross after it was determined he was underage. In 1938, he joined the “Kindertransport” to Belgium, a rescue effort to get children safely out of the country. Isabelle, who was originally from Belgium, spent most of the war in hiding.

After the war, in 1946, Leopold met Isabelle, and they were married a year later. Today they still speak at many local universities, synagogues and schools. They use their firsthand experiences as a learning tool to show others what happens when hatred and prejudice are allowed to permeate a society.

“Everyone who survived is a miracle,” Leopold says. “There was hunger, fear and pain. I prayed every single day, and even today I pray every day. You have to have faith. It helps to overcome obstacles.”

Eva Schloss

Eva Schloss survived escape from her homeland in Austria, two years in hiding, capture by the Nazis on her 15th birthday, nine months in Auschwitz death camp, and the death of her beloved father and brother.

My mother, Ursula, grew up with Anne Frank. In fact she is mentioned in Anne Frank’s Diary. On a personal note, I was fascinated to meet Eva because her mother was married to Otto Frank, the widowed father of Anne. Shortly into our photo session I learned that Eva knew my mother. “Of course I knew your mother”, Eva told me, “we all grew up together in Amsterdam.” I immediately had chills upon hearing this.

Forty years after the end of World War II, Eva began to share her story. She has written two books and spoken to more than one thousand audiences about her experiences. She joins many other survivors who work tirelessly to end the violence and bigotry that continue to plague our world.

Eva’s message is that life is precious and fragile, and that the creative spirit is stronger than fear. She speaks of the immeasurable power of good, and that love makes a difference.

A student who heard Eva speak stated: “ I realize I should not judge people. Now, I give everyone a chance and try to learn something from everyone I meet. I look at people for who they are, and not how different they may look. Even a stranger can change our path in life and help you become a better person.”

Philip Bialowitz

While traveling in Poland a couple of years ago, I met Philip Bialowitz, who while living today in the United States, still travels the world to tell his story. He is a survivor of Sobibor death camp, where of 250,000 Jews who were sent there, less than 50 survived. Due to his older brother Simcha (Hebrew, meaning joy) who was a pharmacist, Philip survived because he was able to assist his brother. Later, when he feared his time was near, Philip and a few others planned a daring and precisely planned revolt that killed SS officers and allowed roughly half of the camp’s 650 remaining Jewish prisoners to flee through minefields and machine-gun fire into the surrounding forest. Only forty-two of them are known to have survived until the end of the war.

Earlier in the war, Philip was taken to a cemetery and was among 4000 Jews who had been lined up on the side of a mass grave. He jumped in when the bullets started to fly. “I fell down and pretended I was dead. I made myself room to breathe. Many people were screaming. I couldn’t help them. I lay there a few hours, and after a safe time managed to get out”.

Philip was an interesting character. I told him I wanted to photograph him with a cardboard sign, on which he should write something he wanted passed on to future generations. Although he liked the idea, he insisted that he be paid highly in order to be photographed (he gives all his donations to charity). I managed to get him to pose for 50 dollars. Little did I know at the time that Philip was a “celebrity” among survivors. His photo, when seen by others, has opened many doors for me. Philip told me it would. He told me I was now a “witness”, and that sharing this photo would be part of a global effort to insure “this (the Holocaust) will not happen again”. Honored to have met him, I think the 50 dollars was a bargain.

Nathan Langer

The first of many survivors I have had the honor to photograph, Nathan Langer was a dear family friend. He was an incredibly kind and gentle man who founded Langer Juice Company.

In 1939, Nathan and his family who were winemakers, were taken to concentration camps. Nathan eventually was motivated to escape after learning of his father’s death. After going into hiding, he ended up being the only survivor in his immediate family.

While on one hand, he would later tell his children and grandchildren that he had achieved the American Dream, on the other hand, Nathan carried an enormous amount of sadness and bitterness over his devastating losses from the war his entire life.

At one point during our session, as I do with many survivors I photograph, I asked Nathan to share something he may wish to pass forward. He immediately ended the photo shoot at this point, not wishing to discuss anything from the past. If there is one survivor whose anguish still shows in his eyes and clearly the depths of his soul, it would be Nathan.

While his photo session left me quite shook up after it came to an abrupt ending, I am grateful that his photograph became the start ofmany to follow, including my work for the Chapman University Holocaust Studies Program. Nathan passed away just a year ago. I hope he is resting in peace.

Tova Cohen

A former student of mine introduced me to Tova, a wonderful lady who was living in a retirement home when I photographed her. Unlike some other survivors, Tova willingly recalled many of her experiences during the Holocaust, including her time at Auschwitz when she was 12 years old. She spoke in particular of her rebellious nature, enduring 25 lashes by a Nazi guard without making a single sound by “eating her hands” to keep from screaming.

After being sent to numerous camps, she survived the Nazi onslaught, yet found herself without family upon being liberated. After the war, Tova went to Israel for 10 years and ultimately came to the US and became a nurse.

Tova had some “good” moments during the war which left her with a positive attitude. In one camp, a guard told her that she reminded him of his daughter. He would bring her bread. Also, Tova was on Schindler’s List, whom she credited with her survival . Tova concluded our session by stating: “people should be good to one another, no matter what nationality. Be nice to people”.

Arthur Weil

Arthur Weil

“No number burned into my arm/Just all around the inside of my skull”.

Arthur Weil, “Almost Holocaust”, 2002

A retired school teacher, Mr. Weil escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 as one of 1400 children of the Kindertransport. He was born in Hannover Germany, the same town that my mother was from. Both of his parents survived the war, but most of his family was killed.

Now Arthur spends his time writing poetry, examining all facets of life while paying tribute to them with wit and wisdom. His words inspire the reader to look at life in a new way, to pause and appreciate, and always, to chuckle.

When I arrived, Arthur was not at his home. After a 20 minute wait, Arthur pulled up with a car load of groceries from Costco. I helped him bring them all inside. He was a normal guy, living life. If not for me pushing Arthur to speak of his past experiences, he is one to immerse himself in his life today. He gave me copies of many of his books, in which the poem below, among countless others, is to be found.

Despite recalling some tough times during our visit, Arthur said; “ Often, I remind myself how lucky I am to be alive. I dedicate my books to the 9 million who perished in the Nazi concentration camps.

Spend each day

Life for all of us is brief

Days wanted, stolen like a thief

It's up to you and me

To fill each day with worth and glee

Result in happiness and inner satisfaction

For how we spend this day

Is our choice and our own election

By Arthur Weil

Ellen Nebel nee Weinberg

My first conversation with Ellen was on the phone. It lasted for almost two hours. Ellen is lonely and loves to chat. Our visit went the same way. We spoke of her experiences of the Holocaust for many hours. Despite the length of the time we spent together, I considered every moment shared with her an honor.

Ellen, also came from Hannover, Germany, the hometown of my mother. Like Arthur Weil and Hanna Carter, she too was placed on the Kindertransport from Hannover to Amsterdam. Eventually Ellen, along with her brother Peter, was evacuated to England on May 14, 1940, which was to be the final rescue mission of the Kindertransport effort. During this time, Ellen’s parents and grandmother managed to travel to Istanbul on the Orient Express. Years later, Ellen would be reunited with her mother.

Throughout the photo session, Ellen shared many items of memorabilia, including her immigrationVisa which is pictured in the photo. She laughingly said it was referred to as an “alien” document. It was odd to see her as she looked many years ago, and to imagine what might have been going on in her mind at the time the earlier image of her was taken.

During her later years, she would spend many years playing the piano. Her mother was a concert pianist. She doesn’t take any medication, perhaps result of eating well and doing yoga.

Marthe Cohn

The other day, I photographed a Holocaust survivor with an incredible story. Her name is Marthe Cohn, who is now 95 years old.

Marthe Cohn, was a 20-year-old Jewish French girl when the Nazis invaded France in 1940. Her life then took a turn so extraordinary it could have been pulled straight from a Hollywood movie script. While the rest of her family fled south, Marthe decided to fight back. After graduating from nursing school, she joined the French Resistance, and because of her perfect German accent and Aryan appearance, she was recruited to be a spy. Armed with forged identification papers, she infiltrated German territory under the guise of a German nurse desperately searching for a fictional fiancé – by that time the Nazis had executed her actual fiancé.

During the next year, Cohn mingled freely with Nazi troops, on many occasions caring for injured Nazi soldiers in order to maintain her cover. She gathered invaluable information on troop positions, which she secretly relayed to Allied commanders. Her intelligence gathering was instrumental in allowing the Allies to break through the Siegfried Line – a line of defensive forts and tanks built by Germany in northern France – and enter German territory in 1945, leading to the end of the war. When, at the age of 80, Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Médaille Militaire, not even her children knew to what extent this modest woman had faced death on a daily basis while helping defeat the Nazi empire. At its heart, this remarkable story is the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.

G-d Bless You, Marthe and thank you so much for sharing your incredible story with me.