Hope, the One Thing You Can’t Live Without

By Dulcie Leimbach

Nechama Tec, center, a Holocaust survivor, speaks at the UN’s concert event in observance of the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Feb. 3 -- Survivors, Nechama Tec told the audience filling the hundreds of seats in the General Assembly Hall last Wednesday, succeed only through the help of others. No one, this woman of white hair and poise repeated several times, survives alone.

As a 78-year-old Jewish survivor from Poland during World War II, Tec knew firsthand what it took to evade the Nazis. At some point in survivors’ struggles to stay alive, she said, they “only make it through cooperative efforts with others.”

She added, “There was always some compassion, cooperation, mutual help and altruism operating.”

Tec was the keynote speaker at the UN’s Holocaust Memorial Ceremony and Concert on Jan. 27, an event that drew New Yorkers to the General Assembly Hall in the evening, when it normally sits dark and empty. Jan. 27 marks the 65th anniversary of the day that the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, the largest Nazi death center, was liberated.

The UN event, held every year with exhibitions in the UN lobby and panel discussions, observed the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, a designation mandated by the UN in 2005. The evening’s theme centered on “The Legacy of Survival.”

Standing amid the musicians, Tec relayed in accented English her experiences as a survivor, which entailed pretending to be a Polish Catholic and relying on the goodness of others. As an adult, she turned her childhood trauma into scholarly research, focusing on the Holocaust. She is now professor emerita of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Stamford.

Israeli and German Performers

Both the act of remembering the victims while working toward reconciliation was reflected in the evening’s roster of participants, which included the Nuremberg Philharmonic, the Bayreuth Zamir Choir (founded by an Israeli, Issak Tavior, and a Bavarian soprano, Barbara Baier), the Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir and Tec. Martin Ney, a flutist who happens to be the deputy permanent representative of Germany to the UN, also performed.

In keeping with the theme of remembering, a minute of silence was held for Haitians and UN employees who recently died in the earthquake.

The evening’s blend of German and Israeli musicians and speakers resulted in a frank, stirring and somewhat confessional program for the two nationalities 65 years after World War II ended.

“The name of my country will always be linked to this despicable crime against humanity,” said Peter Wittig, the German ambassador to the UN, referring to the genocide and tortures committed by the Nazis against Roma, Jews, Sinti, prisoners of war and others during World War II. Speaking in a soft-spoken but firm voice, he continued: “We must not and will not abdicate our historic and moral responsibility for the Holocaust. This responsibility shapes our foreign policy. This is particularly evident in our country’s relationship with the State of Israel. Its right to exist and the security of its citizens will remain nonnegotiable for us.” The audience erupted with applause.

After a performance of Brahms and other music, Tec told her story of eluding capture as a young girl; kept hidden and abetted by Catholics and other Christians; and enduring anti-Semitic remarks when she had to pretend she wasn’t a Jew. She dived into her life as an adult, immersing herself in her research on the relationships between self-preservation, compassion, altruism, rescue, resistance, cooperation and gender. Her life’s work has included eight books, among them “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans,” which inspired the Hollywood movie “Defiance.”

Hope, she concluded at the UN event, was the one element a survivor could not live without.

Dulcie Leimbach is the publications director of UNA-USA.

Keywords:

Nechama Tec, Holocaust and the UN, Peter Wittig, UN’s Holocaust Memorial Ceremony and Concert, International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, Nazis, Roma, Sinti