Learning from the past ~ lessons for today - Holocaust Education ...

Holocaust Memorial Day 2009
Leon Litvack
Many people in
Ireland know some
details about the
Holocaust, but most
won’t know what it’s
like to be a child of
Holocaust survivors.
Leon Litvack grew up
in Canada, the
Leon Litvack
adopted only child of
a Jewish couple, both from Radom in south-eastern Poland.
His mother, Pola, was the youngest of a modern Orthodox
family; she was sixteen when war broke out in 1939. She was
soon rounded up and put into one of the city’s two ghettoes,
where she witnessed her own mother being shot by the
Nazis. When the ghetto was liquidated Pola was deported to
Majdanek concentration camp and then to Auschwitz. There
her prisoner number was tattooed on her forearm: A17074.
On two occasions Pola was selected for death in the gas
chamber but twice she managed to escape. As liberation
became imminent, she was forced to endure one of the
Death Marches – 800 kilometres on foot ending in
Czechoslovakia. It was there that she was freed by the
Russians in 1945.
Sam Litvack, Leon’s father, also came from Radom. When the
Germans marched in, he was also placed in one of the
ghettoes, along with his two brothers. The three were
deported through a series of seven labour camps, ending up
in Mauthausen. Anticipating the Americans’ arrival, the
Germans decided to herd the prisoners into one of the huge
underground caverns the prisoners themselves had built for
the storage of munitions, shoot them and seal the opening in
a vain attempt to destroy the evidence of their activities.
Somehow, the prisoners managed to resist and most survived.
After the war Pola returned to Poland but found none of her
family. Eventually she ended up in Canada, where she met
Sam, and they were married. Like many Holocaust survivors,
they had each found a partner who could comprehend what
had happened to them. Their shared experience of pain and
suffering was also a source of comfort.
After bearing two stillborn children, Pola and Sam adopted
Leon at birth in 1960. Leon was a prized possession – a gift
from God. As such he was cherished and loved, and
constantly reminded of his good fortune compared with
their deprivation. Leon was intensely aware, from his earliest
memories, of his parents’ suffering. He was brought up in the
Jewish faith and culture, of which the legacy of the Holocaust
was a huge part. The Holocaust was an ever-present reality.
According to Leon, pain and loss became central
components of his identity and he developed added strength
to try harder and do well.
As parents of an adolescent, Pola and Sam took great interest
in their son’s life. They were more worried, more prohibiting
and more careful than non-survivor parents. Leon suggests
that his mother’s intense interest in him growing up was
influenced by the deprivation of her own adolescence;
through him Pola enjoyed years that were lost to her.
Leon came from Canada to Northern Ireland in the 1990s
and still lives there. He considers that, compared to other
countries, the impact of the Holocaust on the national
psyche in Ireland has been slight. However, it remains a large
part of his own life.
I have discovered
in recent years
that my mother
dealt very well
with death. I think
it was because she
had seen so much
of it – primarily
during the war,
when her own
mother was shot
before her, and
then with the
deaths of many of
her elderly friends
and family. There
was passionate
Pola Litvack
involvement and commitment in every area of my life, but it
was just a wee bit out of proportion. As my mother aged, I had
an intense desire to protect her from a complex world that looks
for the quick fix, the easy solution, but it was just not that simple.
Yes, the Holocaust has had a lasting effect on me, but growing
up with survivors was not bad: it was powerful, zestful, never
indifferent, and our family home was always filled with love.
Dr Leon Litvack is Reader in Victorian Studies at
Queen’s University, Belfast
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