Yad Vashem

Hanna Landow lost her entire family in the death camps of Poland before coming as a young girl to the even younger state of Israel 40 years and five wars ago. Life has taught her not to trust, or forgive, or forget. "I do not believe there will ever be any real forgiveness, any real friendship, any real love between Arabs and Jews," she said this week as she led a group of Soviet immigrants through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum that is Israel's most poignant and powerful reminder of the reason for its existence.

Eli Zborowski, a survivor of the Holocaust who made it his mission to ensure that it would never be forgotten, founded an American organization to support Israel's official Holocaust memorial and raised more than $100 million for it, died Monday of cardiac arrest in Queens. He was 86. Mr. Zborowski started the American and International Societies for Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial, in 1953, a year after he arrived in the United States as a penniless Jewish immigrant from Poland with little knowledge of English.

Marion H. Baer Reet, 71, who worked to see that a French woman was honored for helping to protect Mrs. Reet's grandmother from the Nazis during World War II, died Thursday at her home in Huntingdon Valley. With letters and personal contact, Mrs. Reet labored to make sure that the woman be recognized for the risk she took sheltering the grandmother. Mrs. Reet's diligence paid off about six years ago when Yad Vashem, the Israeli museum and memorial of the Holocaust, formally recognized the woman, Alice Schneider, as one of the "righteous of the nations.

"I survived because a Polish family took me into their home, at the risk not only of their lives, but their children's lives as well. " These words of Kim Fendrick, a Jew who was saved during the Holocaust by non-Jews - or so-called righteous gentiles - could have been echoed by several of the people who attended a presentation about the righteous gentiles Thursday at the Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill. These survivors were among 150 children and adults who attended a lecture and slide show on the Holocaust and on the efforts of the righteous gentiles.

The sun shone brightly as my husband and I boarded a train at the Tel Aviv railroad station. During the Ottoman Empire, the Turks built train tracks that brought passengers from the ancient seaport of Jaffa to Jerusalem. We were on our way to Jerusalem on that historic route to connect to our past. Our train moved out slowly as we sat back in our seats and looked out of the large windows at the view that surrounded us. The route wrapped around the history and beauty that the words "route to Jerusalem" suggests.

Pope John Paul II, who witnessed the tragic events of the Holocaust as a young man in Poland, yesterday toured the Yad Vashem memorial and, on the verge of tears, described his personal grief and that of the church at the murder of six million Jews. The Roman Catholic Church is "deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and in any place," the Pope said during his visit, the first by any pontiff to Israel's Holocaust museum.

Whether or not Kurt Waldheim is guilty of participating in atrocities against Jews in the Holocaust, he certainly was insensitive to their memory. When Mr. Waldheim was secretary-general of the United Nations, he visited Yad VaShem, the memorial in Jerusalem to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. In respect for their memory, all visitors are required to put on a skullcap. Kurt Waldhiem refused, and Gideon Hausner, former attorney general of Israel who tried the case against Adolf Eichmann, was so startled and disgusted that he was considering walking out on Mr. Waldheim.

It wasn't until Manli Ho wrote her father's obituary for a Boston newspaper five years ago that she began to ask questions about the 96-year-old's life. Although Feng Shan Ho had been a great storyteller, his daughter began to realize there was much she didn't know about his career as a diplomat for the Nationalist Chinese government. That professional life included a posting as consul-general in Vienna in the late 1930s as thousands of Jews were fleeing the Nazis. Today, though much formal scholarship remains to be done, some have called Ho the "Chinese Oskar Schindler" for issuing visas allowing Jews to flee Vienna to Shanghai or elsewhere.

Rice repeatedly says no to a run for president Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, pressed by several TV program questioners on the latest gossip about her in Washington, said repeatedly yesterday that she had no intention to run for president. "I do not intend to run for - no; I will not run for president of the United States," Rice said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "How is that? I don't know how many ways to say 'no' in this town. I really don't. " Rice was also asked about having described herself as "mildly pro-choice" on abortion in a Washington Times editorial.

Eli Zborowski, a survivor of the Holocaust who made it his mission to ensure that it would never be forgotten, founded an American organization to support Israel's official Holocaust memorial and raised more than $100 million for it, died Monday of cardiac arrest in Queens. He was 86. Mr. Zborowski started the American and International Societies for Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial, in 1953, a year after he arrived in the United States as a penniless Jewish immigrant from Poland with little knowledge of English.

The Boardwalk between New York and Kentucky Avenues in this gambling resort - near a condo high-rise, an amusement pier, and a row of shops - may seem an unlikely place for a Holocaust memorial. But if the planned monument causes even a fraction of the 10 million people who stroll by each year to reflect on the horror and its consequence to mankind, it is exactly where it should be, said Rabbi Gordon Geller of Temple Emeth Shalom in Margate, founder and president of Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial Inc. "You have to go where the people are," he said of the 60-foot stretch of walkway donated over the summer by the Atlantic City Council.

The Rev. Franklin H. Littell, 91, of Merion Station, a Methodist minister widely acknowledged as the father of modern Holocaust studies in America, died Saturday at home after a long illness. Mr. Littell dedicated his life to Holocaust research after spending nearly 10 years in postwar Germany as chief Protestant religious adviser in the U.S. high command. He was the first American scholar to offer courses on Holocaust and genocide studies, and at Temple University he established the nation's first doctoral program on Holocaust studies in 1976.

The sun shone brightly as my husband and I boarded a train at the Tel Aviv railroad station. During the Ottoman Empire, the Turks built train tracks that brought passengers from the ancient seaport of Jaffa to Jerusalem. We were on our way to Jerusalem on that historic route to connect to our past. Our train moved out slowly as we sat back in our seats and looked out of the large windows at the view that surrounded us. The route wrapped around the history and beauty that the words "route to Jerusalem" suggests.

Rice repeatedly says no to a run for president Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, pressed by several TV program questioners on the latest gossip about her in Washington, said repeatedly yesterday that she had no intention to run for president. "I do not intend to run for - no; I will not run for president of the United States," Rice said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "How is that? I don't know how many ways to say 'no' in this town. I really don't. " Rice was also asked about having described herself as "mildly pro-choice" on abortion in a Washington Times editorial.

When the Nazis stormed into Brest-Litovsk in 1941, 26,000 Jews resided in the Polish/Russian border town, more than a third of the total population. Upon liberation three years later, fewer than 20 were known to have survived. My father's three daughters (my half-sisters) were not among them. Today marks the 60th anniversary of their murders. In the summer of 1939, my father came to visit his brother and the World's Fair in New York City. When Hitler invaded Poland on Sept.

It wasn't until Manli Ho wrote her father's obituary for a Boston newspaper five years ago that she began to ask questions about the 96-year-old's life. Although Feng Shan Ho had been a great storyteller, his daughter began to realize there was much she didn't know about his career as a diplomat for the Nationalist Chinese government. That professional life included a posting as consul-general in Vienna in the late 1930s as thousands of Jews were fleeing the Nazis. Today, though much formal scholarship remains to be done, some have called Ho the "Chinese Oskar Schindler" for issuing visas allowing Jews to flee Vienna to Shanghai or elsewhere.

The Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and choirs from the participating congregations of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of the Main Line will perform together at 3 p.m. Feb. 10 at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Bryn Mawr. Part of the proceeds from the concert will benefit the Interfaith Hospitality Network, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Federico J. Piantini will direct the orchestra and choirs in a concert of traditional music that will include works by Mozart, Ruther and Faure.

Pope John Paul II, who witnessed the tragic events of the Holocaust as a young man in Poland, yesterday toured the Yad Vashem memorial and, on the verge of tears, described his personal grief and that of the church at the murder of six million Jews. The Roman Catholic Church is "deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and in any place," the Pope said during his visit, the first by any pontiff to Israel's Holocaust museum.