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0380 3/24/09 8:37 AM Page 22 ESSAY The Kuritzkes Family Torah Earlier this year, on the day I became bat mitzvah, I read from an extraordinary Torah scroll that had endured many decades of anti-Semitism in Europe. This Torah was written in Russia in the 1860s, where it survived the 1905 pogroms and later the Nazi takeover in Germany, due to the courage, determination and good luck of my great great-grandfather Abraham and his son David. In 1905 Abraham decided to leave Kiev with his wife Jennie and five children to move to Germany in order to escape future pogroms in Russia. Before he left, he was entrusted with the Torah that belonged to his synagogue because it was thought that the Torah would be more secure in Germany than in Kiev during the pogroms. Abraham was able to bring his family and the Torah safely to their new home in Leipzig. David and his family packed the Torah in their luggage, along with some clothing, books and his medical equipment. Right: David and Gita Kuritzkes, in a photo In Germany, Abraham worked as a furrier. His son David graduated from medical school in 1926 and became a doctor. Under the relatively liberal Weimar Republic, Jews were permitted by the government to attend university and have various professions. However, when Hitler came to power in 1933, this changed and many restrictions were set upon Jews. David practiced freely for three more years, until 1936, when he was only allowed to treat Jewish proabaly taken in Leipzig, Germany in 1936. patients. By 1938, as a Jewish doctor, he was not permitted to practice at all, which meant that he could not get a job or earn any money to support his family. A few months later, during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, David was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Fortunately for David and his family, they had obtained immigration visas to the United States, after David’s sister Nju and her husband 22 Sig Neumann who had left for the United States in 1933, provided affidavits for them. Thanks to these visas, David was permitted to leave
0380_r 3/26/09 6:35 AM Page 23 Buchenwald after a few weeks. Conditions got steadily worse for Jews in Germany as David and his family prepared to leave. However, his father, Abraham, was 80 years old and much too frail to travel. It was the hardest decision of his life, but David chose to leave his sister Ida (who refused to leave without their father) and his father, Abraham, behind in Germany. He brought his wife, Gita and his children, Alexander and Fedor (my grandpa), with him to the United States. David and his family packed the Torah in their luggage, along with some clothing, books and his medical equipment. The security forces either didn’t check their baggage, or checked it but didn’t know or care about the significance of a Torah brought from Germany to the United States. It was very difficult for David to adapt to the United States after spending forty years of his life in Europe. He moved to Brooklyn with his wife and older son, Alexander, while Fedor, their younger son, lived with Nju and Sig Neumann in Connecticut until 1940, when he moved to Brooklyn to join his parents and older brother. English was a challenging language for David as a native German speaker, but he had to learn it well in order to pass his English language and medical exams. Meanwhile, the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) helped the family during David’s time of study. He passed the exams in the fall of 1939 and opened an office to practice as a doctor. His sons, Alexander and Fedor, found it relatively easy to adjust to the American lifestyle. They picked up English quickly and enjoyed living in the United States. They felt safe in America, compared to Germany, where they had lived in fear of people attacking their synagogue or their home. David, Gita, Alexander, and Fedor had been extremely lucky since they were among the last Jews allowed to leave Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, David’s father Abraham died and his sister BOOK REVIEW continued from page 20 long marriages. Yet other women, particularly nurses, doctors and soldiers, resisted the pressure and remained single for the most part. By mid-1944, the Nazis were in full retreat from the Eastern Front, and the Bielski Otriad was disbanded. In the aftermath of the Russian victory, Tuvia and Zus were in danger of being purged by communist authorities. Relying on their characteristic survival instincts, they and their families quickly fled to Rumania and then on to Israel. Eventually, the brothers made their way to Brooklyn, where they started a trucking business. And they lived peacefully ever after. ■ 23 Caroline Kuritzkes Ida was killed in a concentration camp, shortly after David’s arrival in the United States. The regret that he had left them behind haunted him for the rest of his life. Like many other Holocaust survivors, he never spoke about his own experience in Buchenwald. The Kuritzkes Family Torah that has survived anti- Semitism and persecution in Russia and Germany is a reminder of what our family and Jews all over the world have endured with great courage. It is significant not only to my family history but also to Jewish history, and with it, we will always keep tradition alive. ■ Caroline Kuritzkes became a Bat Mitzvah at Central Synagogue in January 2009. Her interests include basketball, writing and drama. She extends her thanks to her Grandparents Fedor and Thea for sharing the story of the Kuritzkes Torah with her. About the Author Nechama Tec is Professor of Sociology Emerita at the University of Connecticut, Stamford. She is the author of six books, including Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood, a memoir of the Nazi Occupation of Poland. In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen, the winner of the 1990 Christopher Award. And When Light Pierced the Darkness. In 2002 she was appointed to the Council of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by President George W. Bush. Nechama Tech, Defiance. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) What the critics said about Defiance: “Excellent.” David Denby, The New Yorker “A remarkable story of a great leader, as well as of a neglected aspect of WW II.” Kirkus Reviews “Elevating and inspiring...An accomplished and startling work of Holocaust documentation.” Los Angeles Times “One of the most elevating and inspiring stories in the chronicle of death and despair that is the Holocaust...an accomplished and startling work.” Publishers Weekly
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