By: Erica J. Mandell

Some Jews (observant and maybe-not-so-much) live in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.  There’s even a Chabad there.  But you might not exactly say that Scotch Plains has a big “Jewish community” like Lakewood, or Crown Heights–or even Highland Park.  So I thought it’d be a good idea to show up at the Holocaust Remembrance event held on malave malke income tax day at Malcolm E. Nettingham Middle School in Scotch Plains and show my moral support. I needn’t have worried. The parking lot was full when I arrived.

The headliner for this gig, so to speak, was Fred Polak, who shared the story of his parents’ meeting (when his father was married to someone else), their separation, survival of the concentration camps and ultimate reunion after the camps were liberated.  Details had been preserved through letters between his parents. (The story has been portrayed in the documentary, Steal a Pencil for Me (2007), written, produced and directed by Mich`ele Ohayon.) Who doesn’t like a suspenseful love story, right?  As enjoyable as Mr. Polak’s presentation was, it was just the tip of the iceberg last Wednesday evening.

Fanwood Memorial Library and the teachers and students of Westfield Public Schools and Scotch Plains-Fanwood Public Schools, with the assistance of Kean University’s Holocaust Resource Center, had together prepared a very engaging exhibit of photos with clear, factual explanations: understandable to non-scholars yet informative even to those well-versed in history.  They made vivid and meaningful both the timeline of political and public events leading up to and through the Shoah and its devastating personal impact on real people, unique individuals who lived through it–-or who did not.

In my short breeze-through, I caught a photo of Hindenburg and Hitler in 1933, with a caption explaining how Hitler was given the authority to enact laws without legislative approval.  The photo and ID of a man accused of homosexuality was paired with the story of how he used his connections in the theater to survive.  An excerpt from a Nazi manual which listed marriages prohibited for “true” Aryans revealed bigotry’s sweeping reach–- from the Romani people (“Gypsies”) to Afro-Germans.  Viewing this exhibit, one could not escape the parallels to our own time, its personal impact nor the universality of the message.

Many local students were present, several of whom read their heartfelt poetry for us.  They seemed to be from multiple backgrounds, not necessarily Jewish.  As I age, it gives me some solace to see youth of every color and heritage, who “get it” and are carrying it forward.  We also celebrated the few survivors, and a number of offspring of survivors who have passed, who were able to be there.  May all those remaining continue to live and be well.

Last but not least: My forebears would turn over in their graves if I failed to mention the video of children singing a song of the resistance fighters–- in the original Yiddish!

Erica J. Mandell is a senior citizen who is still working, BH, and lives in NJ, not that far from Scotch Plains