From an outsider’s point of view, Samuel Kassow had a normal Jewish childhood in New Haven, Conn. On the inside, however, Kassow dealt with fears that few youngsters his age in post-World War II America had to contemplate.
Kassow said he “always felt that it’s possible for the world to end at any time.” And unlike many of his friends, Kassow “did not know what it meant to have grandparents.”
That was because Kassow’s grandparents and much of his parents’ families were murdered during the Holocaust. Kassow himself was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany — his life marked by the Holocaust since day one.
Currently a professor of history at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., Kassow will be the keynote speaker for the Milwaukee community “Yom HaShoah Memorial to the Six Million, Remembrance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and All Resistance” at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue on Sunday, April 14, 2 p.m.
Today Kassow’s professional life focuses on the Holocaust, but it was not always so. Originally a scholar of Russian history, Kassow began teaching about the Holocaust only after his parents died (his father in 1987; his mother in 1994). Before then, he “avoided teaching Holocaust subjects. It obviously bothered me. It was very difficult to deal with.”
But Kassow said he began to realize “it was important to teach it, to give students an understanding of what happened. I also teach Jewish history and I am especially interested in teaching about the Jewish culture that existed before the war.”
Kassow plans to discuss some of those topics when he visits Milwaukee, particularly “how Jews tried to maintain their dignity and their spirit. I will focus on cultural resistance,” he said. “The Germans tried to humiliate the Jews and make them feel as if they were worse than garbage, and Jews did what they could to foil those plans.
“There was a great deal of cultural resistance. Many people participated in schooling and in cultural activities, especially in ghettos like Vilna.” (Kassow’s parents both came from Vilna, Lithuania.)
Kassow said such cultural activities “injected hope” into the lives of the Jews living in Nazi-controlled territory during World War II even though they did not save lives.
Currently Kassow is working on a book about Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto diarist and archivist.
Married with two children, Kassow, like his parents before him, attends an Orthodox synagogue and sends his children to a Jewish day school. He said he is determined to protect his children from the insecurity he felt as a child growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust.
Also speaking that night is Rachel Korazim, head of the Division for Formal Education of the Department of Education in Israel. Korazim will present a special session for educators and other interested people following the program, from 4-5 p.m.
Additionally, Israel Wolnerman, chair of the New American Club and past co-chair of the Yom HaShoah commemoration, and a Holocaust survivor and activist, will be given special honor. Awards will also be presented to the winners of the Holocaust Youth Essay Contest, sponsored by the Habush Family Endowment.
The event is partially funded through the JCC Raye and David David Yom HaShoah Endowment Fund, the JCC Luba Slosberg Memorial Endowment Fund and the Pincus and Bluma Weinstock Yom HaShoah Endowment Fund. Sandra Hoffman is the chair of the commemoration.
For more information, call 414-967-8217.
Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed in Israel and elsewhere on Tuesday, April 9.
MORE STORIES
Loading ...