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SORROWFUL WORDS WON'T REPLACE SURVIVOR'S MEMORIES OF
HORROR
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By JOHN CHADWICK, Staff Writer
Date: 03-24-2000, Friday
Section: NEWS
Edition: All Editions -- Four Star B, Three Star B, Two Star P, One
Star B
Recalling her days as a Jewish schoolgirl in Poland, Holocaust
survivor Gina Lanceter said she never had any doubts as to how
antisemitism spread throughout the land.
"The parents learned it from the clergy, and then instilled it in
their children," said Lanceter, of Montclair. "They used to call us
Christ killers." On Thursday, Lanceter was faced with what once seemed
unimaginable to her: A Polish pope visited the Holocaust Memorial in Israel and
said the Roman Catholic Church is "deeply saddened" by Christian
persecution of Jews throughout history.
"I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish
people who -- stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity were
murdered in the Holocaust," the pope said. But for Lanceter and other
survivors, the spectre of the Holocaust is too strong to be shaken. They harbor
deeply ambivalent feelings toward the pope's pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On one
hand, Lanceter said any recognition of the Holocaust, particularly from an
influential world leader, helps to strengthen the legacy of the 6 million Jews
who perished in the Nazi genocide during World War II.
At the same time, she can't help but wonder why the pope didn't visit Israel, or
speak out forcefully against antisemitism, earlier in his papacy. "This
pope saw the Holocaust with his own eyes, and yet he did not speak out earlier;
that is very puzzling," Lanceter said. "The church didn't do anything
during the Holocaust." When Lanceter was 13, her family, along with
millions of Polish Jews, was rounded up and placed on trains that took them to
death camps. Lanceter was saved by her parents when they forced her to jump from
the window of one of those trains. She later found out that her parents
were killed at the Majdanek camp. Lanceter wandered for days before heading back
to her hometown and discovering it in flames. She ended up in a forced-labor
camp where people were shot at random. "We didn't know minute for minute if
we would live or die," she said. She eventually escaped in 1943, but the
memories remain. "After so many years, it's very vivid. I still wake up and
scream," she said. Clara Levy, a survivor living in Passaic who also lost
most of her family, questioned how much impact the pope's pilgrimage will
have on the masses. Levy said antisemitism was so ingrained in Eastern Europe
that it is difficult to imagine any change. "The teachings have to start in
the home," said Levy. "The [Polish] children were taught that we were
monsters. They held us responsible for what happened 2,000 years ago."
But Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a
resident of Bergen County, sees the papal visit as a worthy culmination of a
series of steps taken by the pope to improve relations between Christians and
Jews.
Foxman, who as a toddler was hidden from the Nazis by a Polish nanny, said Pope
John Paul has accomplished a series of firsts, including labeling antisemitism a
sin, visiting Auschwitz, and extending diplomatic relations to Israel.
"To what extent that filters down depends on the local bishops and
priests," Foxman said. "But if [the pope] says it, and he acts it,
it
does make a difference."
This article contains material from The Associated Press.
Keywords: WORLD WAR II. JEW
Copyright © 2000 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
JOHN CHADWICK, Staff Writer, SORROWFUL WORDS WON'T REPLACE SURVIVOR'S
MEMORIES OF HORROR. , The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 03-24-2000, pp a23.
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