Honouring a Holocaust hero

WHILE Yad Vashem applies strict criteria to accord the title of Righteous Among the Nations, there were countless other non-Jews, as many Holocaust survivors will affirm, whose acts of self-sacrifice were responsible for saving Jewish lives during the war.

She may not have the official title but Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) survivor guide Moshe Fiszman attributes his survival, and that of many other inmates of the Vaihingen am Enz (Wiesengrund) concentration camp in Germany, to the late Baroness Irmgard von Neurath.

Baroness von Neurath died in 1965, her courage never having been formally acknowledged, much to the dismay of Fiszman. Given his close association with the JHC, the museum decided to honour the late Baroness on behalf of Fiszman, writing to her daughter, Wendergard von Staden, who still lives in the German town where the concentration camp stood.

“The JHC in Melbourne, Australia wishes to place on record its gratitude and indebtedness to your late mother, Baroness Irmgard von Neurath, whose courage and compassion proved instrumental in saving lives of Jews incarcerated in the Vaihingen am Enz concentration camp during the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust,” the letter, signed by JHC president Pauline Rockman, read.

“We have been told of the care and humanity which your mother showed during that dark period of history by a Holocaust survivor, Mr Moshe Fiszman, who has served as a volunteer guide at our centre and Holocaust museum for several years¬† … While the memories of starvation, brutality, ruthlessness, disease and the deaths of scores of people on a daily basis remain with Mr Fiszman, his indebtedness to your mother, which he shares with many others who may not have survived but for her, has endured, despite the passage of time.”

Enclosed along with the letter was a certificate of appreciation that stated the Talmudic passage about the importance of saving a life.
Shortly after sending off the package, the centre received a note from von Staden.

“It is with great emotion that I read your letter of September 20, which the mail brought this morning — and opened the envelope with the framed certificate of recog nition dedicated to my late mother,” she wrote.

“I wish I could tell her about the Jewish Holocaust Centre at the other end of the world — and of Mr Fiszman who, after so many years, still remembers her.

AJN STAFF