After the war, veterans returned eager for a new life. At the
same time, the older generation searched desperately for
information about family members in Europe. Most searches were in
vain. Alter Blatt, the sexton and Torah reader at Kesher Israel
who lived at 429 Gaskill Street, to the rear of the shul, searched
for his large family. On April 24, 1947, he submitted an inquiry
to the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany, seeking
to find out what happened to three of his five children and his
wife. His inquiry identified Paula (Pesel) Blatt, Rudolph
(Raphael) Blatt, Lilly (Recha or Rivka Leah) Blatt and Helene (Chaie
Tube) Blatt, nee Orenstein, his wife. He indicated that his last
contact with Helene was a letter he received from her from Germany
in which she indicated that "she is awaiting her deportation to
Poland in November 1941." He provided the Tracing Service in
Arolsen with names, and dates and places of birth of this part of
his family. All his children were born in Munich and
Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany in the 1920s and 1930s; Helene was born
in Bochnia, Poland.
The
microfilm copy of the Master File of the International Tracing
Service (Arolsen) in the archives of Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem—indicates the four Blatts were deported "east."
Handwritten notes on the records indicate that as of November 1941
they were awaiting deportation to Poland. The names of Helene and
Rivka Leah appear on a list of those deported from
Frankfurt-am-Main on November 22, 1941, to Kovno. All 2,934
people in that group were executed three days later at the
notorious Ninth Fort in Kovno. In 1942, two of his children from
Munich were in Lublin, Poland. Notes on their records indicate:
"Nobody is known to have returned."
At Kesher
Israel for a number of years, recognition of the death of a loved
one was given expression by the placement of yahrzeit plaques on
two large wooden boards on the eastern wall of the main sanctuary,
the Yaron Chapel. The following small plaques scribed in
handwritten calligraphy hang there today. (Penciled guidelines to
assist the penman are yet visible.)
Chaie Tube Blatt 13 Adar
1942
Isaak Blatt 13
Adar 1942
Pesel Blatt 13
Adar 1942
Raphael Blatt 13 Adar
1942
Rivka Leah Blatt 13 Adar
1942
Between
1947 and June 1950, Alter Blatt learned that his wife, and
daughter, Rivka Leah, were murdered by the Nazis on November 25,
1941. Why did he use the Hebrew day and month of 13 Adar—a date
in the early spring, not November—as the date of their death? He
must have chosen the date because of its symbolic importance.
Speculating, the following explanation is put forth as to why he
selected 13 Adar, which is the date of the Fast of Esther, marked
on the eve of Purim. Since Hitler was often compared to Haman,
his choice of the Fast of Esther suggests an act of defiance on
the part of Alter Blatt. What can be said with certainty is these
plaques have hung in the synagogue for two generations and that
Alter Blatt did search for his family after the Holocaust.[1] For
Alter Blatt, the plaques were all he had. At Rosh Hashanah, he
could not go to a cemetery to visit gravesites. He could stand in
front of no tombstone to say Kaddish. Wrapped up in these small
pieces of wood in the sanctuary of Kesher Israel was a faraway
lifetime of hopes and dreams—death and sadness.
The full
story remains unknown, but what we do know is part of one of the
more remarkable accounts of the Holocaust. Born on March 9, 1891,
in Sieniawa, in the Jaroslaw district of Poland, Alter (Rueben)
Blatt married Helene Orenstein in 1919; the following year they
immigrated to Germany and Alter became a textile merchant. In
1938, in the euphemistic words of the U.S. Department of the
Interior, Alter Blatt was "asked" to leave Germany. He was accused
of "price violation," according to U.S. records. Two of the
Blatt's sons, Isi (most likely Isaak) and Berthold, were brought
to Palestine in 1941, but Alter's wife and three other children
were forced to remain in Germany. Isi died between 1945 and
1950.[iv] Berthold remained in Palestine and was there when
Independence was declared. Alter had eight brothers and sisters;
he lost contact with all of them.
After
being asked to leave Germany, Alter Blatt went to Milan, Italy. In
1940, he was interred [interned] in the Ferramonti Forced Labor
Camp, later an "ex-internment camp" on the Adriatic. When asked
about time spent in the country, he replied tersely: "I was
persecuted" there. As the allied armies stormed through Italy, a
few days after D-Day, Roosevelt issued an order setting up the War
Refugee Board. Fort Ontario near Oswego, New York, a former Army
base, was designated as an emergency shelter by the Board to
receive war refugees from Europe until the end of the war, at
which time they were to be returned to their country of origin.
Roosevelt sent the Liberty ship S.S. Henry Gibbins to Italy to
pick up wounded GIs and bring them back to the U.S. along with
1,000 refugees. On the evening of August 3, 1944, 982 refugees
landed at the port of New York—most of them were Jewish. The next
day they entrained to Fort Ontario where they found safe haven for
the rest of the war. Among these refugees was Alter Blatt. The
emergency refugee shelter at Oswego was the only one of its kind
ever set up in the U.S. These were the first refugees brought to
the United States during the war. [v] At the time, over one
hundred thousand German POWs had already been brought to the
United States.
Before
daybreak on January 17, 1946, 92 of the refugees from Fort Ontario
boarded three buses which took them on a short ride across the
Canadian border to Niagara, Ontario, Canada. As a Christmas gift,
President Truman "cut red tape" and directed, although the
refugees had all signed affidavits that they would return to
Europe after the war, they were to be settled in the United
States. "They made the brief journey into Canada because the law
requires that visa applications be made on foreign soil." The
three buses then re-crossed into the United States over Rainbow
Bridge at Niagara Falls. Here the refugees not only saw the Falls
for the first time, but they entered into the United States, this
time not as stateless detainees destined to be sent back to Europe
but as legal applicants for United States citizenship. The
requirement for a passport was waived by President Truman. The
New York Times wrote: "Ninety-two men, women and children from
the Fort Ontario Refugee Shelter found freedom today at the end of
Rainbow Bridge. Some wept for joy; some embraced in mute
ecstasy." Among them was Alter Blatt.
At
Buffalo, the group started to move out to American cities where
they were to be "quartered with relatives or friends." Blatt was
destined to his cousin, Giusse Kaufman[vi], 1123 W. Somerset
Street, Philadelphia; he soon moved to Gaskill Street, then to 621
S. 4th Street, just around the corner from Kesher Israel. On
Tuesday, July 4, 1950, widower Alter Blatt married a widow, Rose
Zass, at Kesher Israel.[vii] Tuesday is the most desirable day of
the week for observant Jews to be married. (In the creation
story, the phrase "ki tov," or "and it was good," appears twice
for Tuesday which transformed that day into the 'lucky' day in
Jewish folklore.) As the 4th of July fell on a Tuesday, Blatt was
twice blessed, once through Jewish folklore and a second time
through American history. The 13th of Adar and Tuesday, the 4th
of July 1950, were obviously selected very carefully. One
signified eternal defiance in the face of danger and death; the
other—luck, and all that is good in mankind: freedom and liberty.
In 1952, Alter Blatt became an American citizen. One of his
sponsors, and a witness on his Petition for Naturalization, was
Rabbi Joseph Hillel Snapir. On the Petition, the last request
prayed that "I be admitted a citizen of the United States of
America, and that my name be changed to Albert Blatt." His
odyssey ended with a new American name; it ended at Kesher
Israel.
A
question could be asked: just how much luck did Alter Blatt have?
His second wife died shortly after their marriage. Four of his
five children and his first wife were swallowed up in senseless
murder. Was any day his lucky day? Yes, he was alive—but for
what? To think day and night of what might have been? Of
grandchildren seen laughing in the arms of other people? To see
the easy smiles of American Jews? To see joy and happiness around
him? Would he have been better off going back to Poland? Was
there a place on earth for Alter Blatt? Perhaps the only place
was the small centered bimah at Kesher Israel where he could be at
peace as the sexton and Torah reader at the shul. We simply do
not know. In her syndicated column, Eleanor Roosevelt—after
visiting the refugees at the shelter at Oswego in September
1944—wrote: "Somehow you feel that if there is any compensation
for suffering it must someday bring them [the refugees] something
beautiful in return for all the horrors they have lived through."
[1] In 1942,
the 13th of Adar fell on March 2. The Hebrew date for November
25, 1941, is 5 Kislev, not 13 Adar. On December 14, 1948, the
Israeli Chief Rabbinate declared the 10th of Tevet as the
universal Yahrzeit for those who perished in the Holocaust when
the date of death is unknown.
[i] Gold
stars within these small banners signify a son or loved one killed
in wartime.
[ii] Record
Book of the South 4th Street Businessmen's Association, January
26, 1942. Acc 2753, 7/P-1/1, PJAC. The Record Book was kept from
1933 to 1944. The Association's jurisdiction extended along S.
4th Street from Lombard south to Washington Avenue. Most matters
that came before the Association involved the relationship between
store owners and pushcart vendors.
[iii] The
synagogue has preserved two framed lists of the names of members
who contributed money during this time to pay off the synagogue
mortgage. (One of the lists is titled: "Roll of Honor. Names of
Donors who contributed to free Kesher Israel synagogue from its
mortgage." Over 60 names of members are included on the two lists
and the amounts they donated. Other synagogues located within
blocks of Kesher Israel were occupied in identical endeavors
during World War II. (See, booklet of the Roumanian American
synagogue entitled, "Golden Jubilee and Burning of its Mortgage,
June 10, 1945.")
[iv] In 1945,
Isi was 20 years old, Berthold 19; both were in Palestine. In
1950, Alter Blatt knew that Isi was no longer alive. It is
possible that the fifth plaque at Kesher Israel, for Isaak Blatt,
dated 13 Adar 1942, is for Isi, although from what we know it
appears that Isi was alive as late as 1945. (In 1945, Alter told
an American representative at Fort Ontario that Isi was then
serving in the Jewish Brigade in Palestine.)
[v] Reading
through Blatt's official Refugee Case file, one is struck by the
language used. On September 18, 1945, Blatt was interviewed by
representatives of the Department of Justice, Department of State
and Department of the Interior. In their Report concerning Alter
Blatt, No. 175-3A, titled "Further Interrogation, Panel III," they
wrote: "This man lost his wife and several children through Nazi
deportations." It almost sounds like Blatt's wife and children
were misplaced through sloppy Nazi deportation procedures. Even
after the war ended these departments did not feel comfortable
using words like murder and kill. Had they "interrogated" all the
Jews, would they have written that 6,000,000 Jews were lost
through deportations?
[vi] The
Kaufman family had four members serving in the Armed Forces of the
United States., two in the Army and two in the Navy: Jakob
Kaufman, Adolf Kaufman, Harold Kaufman and Leon Kaufman.
[vii] The ceremony was conducted by Rabbi
Snapir, the rabbi at Kesher Israel.