On September 11th, 2001, I was standing next to the Empire State Building, watching smoke billow above the skyscrapers, moments before the twin towers fell. Shock and fear overcame everyone around me, and I moved quickly to get as far away from 34th Street and 5th Avenue as possible. All bridges, tunnels, and trains, off and on the island of Manhattan, were closed indefinitely. The phone call I then made to a friend, back in my leafy suburban neighborhood, asking her to retrieve my three children from elementary school, giving her my sister’s phone number in Chicago, “just in case,” is a phone call I will never forget.
When I was a child, I was assured that the Holocaust could never happen again. And here it was. Racism, hatred and war in New York City.
My mother, Ginger, has lived the life of Job. Born into poverty in Berlin, she watched her mother being shoved into a black car by the Gestapo; she became a feral hidden child of the Holocaust along with her five sisters and one brother, known as “The Weber Siblings.” Mom’s life turned around when the seven siblings immigrated to America. The Jewish Children’s Bureau brought them to Chicago and, despite their ability to remain steadfastly together all through WWII, as well as the several displaced person camps and their journey to America, each sibling was dropped off, one by one, to different foster families. Ultimately my mother was adopted and to “better acclimate” to her new family, my grandparents were advised by the social workers to sever ties with my mother’s biological family.
Mom always told my brother, sister and me that we would never, ever, meet her biological siblings, but in 1986, 40 years after her emigration from Germany, that all changed. Mom reunited with Alfons, Senta, Ruth, Gertrude, Renee, and Judith, who had all stayed in touch with each other, and incidentally, always kept tabs on Mom’s whereabouts.
Ten years later, the seven Weber siblings traveled from their homes across the U.S. to reunite once again and celebrate the 50th anniversary of their emigration. They gathered on the front lawn of my mother’s home in front of a massive poster board of The Statue of Liberty for a photo – it was as if they had never been separated.
At the 1996 reunion, our cousin Lynn had put together a massive tome, a scrapbook if you will, for each aunt and uncle, chronicling the family history with amazing photographs and documents. Uncle Alfons wrote a 40-page account of his memories and gave each of us a copy to read. The pieces were starting to come together. Alfons traveled to visit the siblings’ place of rescue in the town of Worin, Germany. Uncle Alfons, Aunt Gertrude, and my mother, Ginger, began to compile the massive amount of paperwork necessary to honor the heroes of their lives, Arthur and Paula Schmidt. They made their application to Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. The application was to honor The Schmidts in the Gardens of the Righteous and posthumously commend them as “Righteous Among the Nations,” a designation for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Shoah. Although Uncle Alfons was alive when the designation was approved, he became gravely ill and died in 2016, six months before the official ceremony in Jerusalem. Ginger, who in 72 years had never wanted to return to Berlin, decided to pick up the mantle of her brother’s research and return to Worin, the town 60 kilometers East of Berlin where she and her siblings were hidden for two years.
It has been 6 years since I accompanied my mother to Worin and much has happened in the world:
2017 - Charlottesville attack
2018 - Amendment to Poland’s Holocaust bill which makes it a crime to ascribe any Nazi crimes to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State
2019 - 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents took place; a 12% increase from 2018 and double the rate since 2016
2020 - QAnon - Twenty-four congressional candidates in the 2020 election have made comments associated with QAnon,
2021 - 2,717 anti-Semitic incidents took place; a 34% increase from 2020.
2022 - Ukraine is invaded by Russia
October 7, 2023 - Hamas attacks Israel
October 8, UnBroken has its World Premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, IN
October 13, UnBroken hosts Shabbat service and Vigil for the people of Israel before its West Coast premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, CA
October 14, UnBroken wins Best Documentary Feature Premiere at Heartland International Film Festival
Since the October 7, Hamas massacre of over 1,400 people in Israel, Hamas supporters and other antisemitic actors have threatened and targeted Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions worldwide.
but when we make our voices heard…together…change occurs:
2017 - The Anti-Defamation League launches Words to Action, an interactive education program designed to empower students to address antisemitism in their own communities and beyond.
2018 - In response to the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the local Muslim-American community raises over $150,000 for the victims & their families.
2019 - President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announces a new task force to combat rising antisemitism in Europe, stating that antisemitic violence represents “attacks on us all.”
2020 - The US Senate unanimously passes The Never Again Education Act, which expands USHMM’s resources and programs in support of Holocaust education.
2021 - A jury in Virginia finds the organizers behind the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville liable for more than $25 million in damages.
2022 - AB 587, a California bill that aims to hold social media entities accountable for acting to curb harassment and hate on their platforms, is passed in the state CA State Senate.
2022 - Deborah Lipstadt is the first-ever appointed member of the cabinet as United States Special Envoy for Monitoring & Combatting Antisemitism
2023 - Biden-Harris administration releases first-ever U.S. national strategy to counter antisemitism.
The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by Robert Kraft, has launched a new national campaign to mobilize all Americans, especially non-Jews, to #StandUpToJewishHate by using the blue square emoji - 🟦 - as a unifying symbol of support.
I choose to focus on the goodness in people by highlighting bold acts of bravery and kindness. I choose to acknowledge those who, with courage, are willing to stand on the right side of history.
My response to the current events in our world today is a Documentary Feature Film called UnBroken.