Stanlee Stahl, center, executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, spoke to an audience at The Monmouth Museum about the legacy of righteous gentiles; with her are Dale Daniels, left, executive director of the Holocaust, Genocide, & Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College, and Jane Denny, the center’s education director.
Photo by Jill Huber
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April 14, 2009
The establishment of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in 1986, said its executive vice president in a talk at the Monmouth Museum on March 30, fulfilled the traditional Jewish commitment to hakarat hatov, the recognition of goodness. It acknowledged the “points of light” in the world of darkness that was the Holocaust.
“During the Holocaust, the world went dark, and for some, the darkness never ended,” Stanlee Stahl said. “But there were points of light — the righteous, the non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi genocide. They still say what they did was simply the right thing to do. They were the precious few who had the courage to care and to act, while others looked away.”
Stahl’s appearance was sponsored by the Holocaust, Genocide, & Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, where the museum is located.
On joining the JFR in 1992, Stahl told NJ Jewish News, she found an outlet for the passion she always felt for those who saved Jewish lives during the Shoa.
“There is nothing more wonderful than repaying a debt of gratitude to these non-Jews,” said the South Orange resident. “There are Jews in the world today because these people took a courageous stand and said, ‘There will be no killing of Jews on my watch.’”
JFR provides monthly monetary assistance to aged, financially challenged rescuers deemed Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel. JFR currently supports approximately 1,200 rescuers, most of whom live in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe (there are 16 JFR rescuers in the United States). The foundation also educates teachers and students about the Holocaust and the significance of the righteous gentiles, sponsors study programs and seminars for educators, publishes educational materials, and provides speakers for schools, houses of worship, and community organizations.
The education component is especially important to Stahl.
“Teachers can’t teach what they don’t know,” she told NJJN. “But through education, they learn and then engage their students. It’s a way to preserve the legacy of the rescuers. By sharing their stories, we hope that future generations will be inspired by their bravery.”
‘Indifference can kill’
Four stages of Nazi persecution had the most severe impact on the Jewish population and their rescuers, Stahl told the audience. The identification of Jews through the wearing of the yellow star, the appropriation of Jewish property and the exclusion of Jews from employment and schools, the isolation of Jews in ghettoes, and the targeting of Jews for extermination made it life-threatening for non-Jews to become saviors, she said.
“And the Jews in Poland were not well-assimilated, even though Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe by 1939,” she said. “Most spoke Yiddish, and Polish was their second language. They were easily identifiable, and before the war, most interaction with the non-Jewish community was economic, not social. They were strangers in each other’s worlds.”
Ironically, many Jews felt safe when they were relocated to the ghettoes, where they lived among family and friends, said Stahl, adding that many also thought their circumstances would never worsen.
“But the feeling of safety didn’t last long,” she said. “When liquidation began, some had plans and people who promised to help and hide them. To go into hiding, they needed the help of non-Jews. But many promises were broken, sometimes out of fear of repercussions and sometimes because it was easier to denounce Jews than to risk saving them.”
Those who denounced Jews were rewarded, often with a kilo of sugar, a liter of vodka, or a new pair of boots; those caught hiding Jews usually were murdered, along with those they had tried to help, Stahl said.
The stories of the non-Jews who defied the Nazis are crucial elements of the Holocaust narrative, she added.
“The rescuers stood up to protect a threatened minority,” Stahl said. “And somewhere, sometime, we will all be part of a minority. We must teach that indifference can kill.”
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