Holocaust Remembrance Day always reminds me of dear Shelley Tayar, who is now some 87-years-old but still thriving and interested in life, as she has always been. She still manages to make me laugh. Shelley, for years, gathered together as many of the Jewish community in Malta as possible and friends from other religious communities, too, and hosted us to dinner at the Hilton. It was always a happy event with a few Jewish rituals in which we all participated.
This year Holocaust Remembrance Day was held in the recently restored Antoine de Paule Hall at San Anton Palace. I believe this long roofed passageway elegantly supported by numerous stone arches had housed the stables. Similar ones can be found in Verdala Palace.
De Paule was elected Grand Master at the age of 71 and built San Anton as his summer residence. He had a fortune and he used it. Among his retinue he kept a rat catcher, one confessor, one clock regulator and "a man whose sole occupation was the baking of special black bread for the hunting dogs."
Anyway the restoration of this hall has meant that it can now be put to good use since our President doesn't keep any horses and doesn't need stables.
I love the vaulted ceiling and our golden limestone which give this hall the patina of age. My heart bleeds when I see what is happening to our old buildings. In the area where I live I sometimes stop to watch the stone masons destroying houses built in limestone and being replaced by blocks of ugly flats in concrete and aluminum. I find it so very sad and being in a place such as this, full of ambience and the feel of generations of history is in itself most rewarding.
The evening started with refreshments in the area where there is the beautifully kept chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pilar and we sipped our tea or anything else on offer at the same time we were registering. There I met a few friends and acquaintances which in itself was a pleasure. Some I hadn't seen for many years.
We then moved to the Antoine de Paule hall. I managed to get a place at the back. Afterwards I said to myself that I should have gone upstairs as from there I was sure to see the speakers better. Since I am small and the speakers were not on a platform I did find it difficult to follow everything.
This was a President's Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society event and it was the Director General of this Society, Dr Ruth Farrugia, who gave the opening speech. "We ask ourselves why is it still important to highlight the traumatic experiences endured by Holocaust survivors and the tragic end of the millions who perished at the death camps during the Second World War. And to this we answer that without acknowledging history we run the very real risk of repeating the atrocities that shame us and our humanity," was one of the points she made.
After this our President addressed the packed hall. "The interest that has been expressed by our children and young people, at every Holocaust Remembrance, over the last few years, gives me much hope." She said. "These remembrances should always be a statement in favour of peace and inclusion."
After the President's address there was a presentation by the Anne Frank House Representative Dienke Hondius. This was followed by the video interview with Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss the stepdaughter of Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, who had lost two daughters and his wife and who had married Eva's mother Fritzi in 1953. She too, had suffered the loss of her husband and son in the Holocaust. They had the same pain and must have been of solace to each other.
Eva Schloss is part of a dwindling group of holocaust survivors still able to tell their story. As a matter of fact, after she was released from Auschwitz concentration camp she could not get herself to speak about her bitter experience for years. Then in 1996 she started talking "and hasn't stopped since."
She remembers her father one day taking her hand in the concentration camp, and telling her that God would look after her. Naturally, after her unbelievable experiences, having lost her father and brother and seen so much horror, she says in the interview that she lost her faith in God.
On the other hand it is well known that many entered the gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on their lips. Their trust in God remained to the bitter end.
After so much trauma in her young life especially at night when Eva was not busy with her family, images of the concentration camp came back to haunt her. But once she started to speak about them and sharing them then she could let them go. Her most emotional experience, she says, is seeing her mother stripped naked, knowing she was going to be gassed. As a matter of fact her mother was saved from the gas chamber and lived until the age of 93.
Eva remarks that Anne Frank had written in her Diary that after her death she wanted to be immortal "and she has succeeded."
After the video there was a panel discussion. Those taking part were H.E. Gudrun Maria Straga, Ambassador of the F.D.R. to Malta; H.E. Johannes Jacobus Peter Nijssen, Ambassador of the Netherlands; the President of the PFWS, Dr Ruth Farrugia; Birte Hewera, representative of the Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies and Mrs Hader Halevy who left Malta recently with her husband Ambassador Giovanni de Vito and their children. She sang Eli, Eli the work of Hannah Senesh in her beautiful voice. Last but not least the Anne Frank House representative Dienke Hondius.
Father Dionysius Mintoff from the Peace Laboratory was also present. I remember he had come to Mauritius to a conference all those years ago and had visited us. It had been a pleasure to see someone from Malta.
‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ performed at St Michael’s Training College in 1967. The line up: The line up: Henry Calleja, Sylvia Gasan, Philip Grima, Moi, Donald Friggieri, Veronica Carabott, Brother David, my sister Josette, Mario Azzopardi, Josianne Savona, George Said
I am glad that I had decided to go to this event. I have had an interest in the Holocaust since my schooldays as our school library had a good selection of books on the subject. Moreover, in 1967, in my 20s, Brother David who ran the English Language Department at St Michael's Training College, auditioned for the women characters in The Diary of Anne Frank, that year's play. The majority selected had attended the Sacred Heart Convent where drama was one of our subjects. Often the play selected was one of Shakespeare's but not that year. My late sister Josette was also selected. After enjoyable and lively rehearsals we performed the play three times in December 1967. We also had a Celebration Dinner in January. I still have the menu which reminds me that we had eaten Sauce Hollandaise; Pomme-de-Terre Margot and so on.
This play was an experience we could not easily forget and reinforced my interest in the Holocaust. Some years ago I visited Auschvitz concentration camp in Poland with my youngest.
One of my favourite books is Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Dr Frankl, had spent three years as a prisoner in four different concentration camps and learnt there the extremities of human suffering. But he has used his experiences to find ways of healing sickness of mind and spirit. He knows man has amazing powers of endurance so long as it makes sense for him to go on living. "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." I am not very sure that this is always true. There are many who had every reason to live but still kill themselves.
We need to be constantly reminded of the Holocaust, surely the biggest crime to humanity in history. But it is sad to note that there are genocides committed to the present day. "Man's inhumanity to man," is not a thing of the past. It remains with us to this day.
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