Martyrdom & Resistance, September/October 2012

ID Transcript mare3901_01 "Vol. 39 SN 0892-157 September/October 2012-Tishri/Cheshvan 5773 ELI ZBOROWSKI REMEMBERED (1925-2012) ROCHEL AND GEORGE BERMAN Eli Zborowski was a man of the moment. Throughout his life, when he found a need he could uniquely fulfill, he stepped in without hesitation. Whether leading war orphans to safety, assuring the future of Holocaust education, or making a commercial product available, Eli rose to the challenge. In the process, he enriched the lives of a great many people on four continents. He was a cosmopolitan, at home in Poland, Germany, Israel, and Latin America. He was at ease with politicians and popes, workers and entrepreneurs. In short, Eli was a man for all seasons. Eli's open, liberal, and humanistic character stemmed from the environment in which he was nurtured. He was the first born child of Zisel and Moshe Zborowski who lived in Zarki, Poland, not far from the German border. Moshe Zborowski was a very successful leather merchant and Zisel, a homemaker. Their comfortable one-story brick home was constantly open to those in need. Yeshiva students came daily to join the family for the noonday meat meal, and there was rarely a Shab- bat or a Yomtov that did not include less fortunate members of the community at the family table. As a bright, handsome child who was the favorite among the extended family, he grew up feeling confident and self-assured. His mother taught him to speak a perfect Polish and the importance of gemilat chesed — acts of loving kindness. His father provided him with business knowledge, negotiating skills and moral strength. In the early fall of 1939, following a leisurely fun-filled summer, the atmosphere in Zarki was transformed into full- fledged war. Life was suddenly filled with danger, uncertainty, and restrictions. Eli, only a teenager, became a member of the United Jewish Fighters Organization. His blond hair and blue eyes, a confiscated Polish army jacket, and a false Polish passport allowed him to pass easily as a non-Jew. He distributed the underground newspaper about unfolding events to the small Jewish communities in southwest Poland. As he was familiar with the countryside and neighboring towns, he was later given the responsibility of seeking arms and ammunition for the resistance. Serving as a courier put him in mortal danger. Eli's family begged him to stop. He promised that he would, but he never kept his promise. During the final years of the war, Zisel, Eli, and his two siblings, Marvin and Tzila, were hidden from the Nazis by two Christian families. At this time, Moshe Zborowski was assigned by the Nazis to a work detail. In an attempt to escape, he was shot and was never again seen by his family. Following the liberation in 1945, Eli joined a kibbutz in Warsaw, hoping to make aliyah. Travelling in freight cars, the journey was marked by many starts and stops. In Southern Germany they were stopped by Russians at a checkpoint and kept therefor several wleks^ One of the freight caps carried >| group of 100 teenage war orphans ^ose leader had suddenly disappear^ Without dis- cusslr^this with ariybne, Eli perceived that all the basic anchors of life had evaporated from these children's lives, and he quickly stepped in to alleviate the crisis. He moved into that freight car and became the group's leader, mentor, protector, and father figure. He brought them to the Feldafing DP camp, organized them into a kibbutz, and provided them with shelter, food, and clothing. Within a year he arranged for the group to make aliyah. Eli arrived in the United States in 1952 with his wife, Diana, whom he had met and married in Feldafing. Eli began by selling camera parts door to door in midtown Manhattan, and within a decade he became president of Shaeffer Pen Latin America. Diana, his loving wife for 57 years, predeceased him in 2004. In the mid-1970s he was responsible for opening the door to resumption of diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland following the Six-Day War. Eli was in the forefront of Holocaust remembrance in this country. His remarkable journey led him to organize the first synagogue-based Yom Hashoah commemoration in 1964; found the American Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates and Nazi Victims; establish the world's first academic chair in Holocaust studies at Yeshiva University; publish Martyrdom and Resistance, the first newspaper devoted to Holocaust issues; found and chair (1981) the American & International Societies for Yad Vashem, an organization that has remitted over $100 million to Yad Vashem; and establish the Diana Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Shoah at Yad Vashem. To ensure the memory of the Holocaust in the future, Eli spearheaded the Young Leadership Associates of the American Society for Yad Vashem, a group that will shepherd the cause of remembrance from generation to generation. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Mundlak Zborowski; his daughter Lilly; his son Murry; nine grandchildren; his brother Marvin; and his sister Tzila. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, ""Death is the end of doing, not the end of being."" Eli Zborowski has ceased doing for us, but he will live on in the hearts of the many people whose lives he touched. IN THIS ISSUE Warsaw ghetto liquidation remembered in city. 2 The Boy: A Holocaust Story. 4 Chinese radio seeks Holocaust stories from former Jewish refugees 5 The man who saved 900 Jewish boys inside a death camp 6 Book urges Germans to quiz dying Nazi generation 7 American and International Societies for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner. 8-9 ""Black Sabbath"" and the Holocaust of Greek Jewry 10 The Turkish rescue nobody remembered 11 Playing to live ....12 Dr. Seuss and the Holocaust in France .....13 Pregnant in Auschwitz 16 "