Hundreds gather in Tamarac to celebrate Holocaust survival

By Sallie James

Staff Writer

Sun-Sentinel.com
February 28 2005

TAMARAC ˇ Sixty years after the Holocaust, the horrifying memories can still bring tears to Tamarac resident Sonia Weikes' eyes.

"It's something you can't believe would happen in your life," said Weikes, 75, a Polish native whose father, brother and sister were killed during World War II. "You never believed you would survive, and now it's been 60 years."

Weikes and almost 350 other Holocaust survivors packed a dining hall on Sunday at Diamante's Banquet Center to mark the 60th anniversary of their liberation. They swapped stories, they danced and some cried when they spoke about their wartime experiences.

"We are saying `thank you,' to the liberators and the United States of America, for giving us freedom of speech, of worship and opportunity for a better tomorrow," said Miriam Fridman, president of the Holocaust Survivors of South Florida Inc., which was host of the event.

"It's happy but it's sad," said Weikes, of Tamarac. "You were so strong, you had no clothes, you were freezing, and you survived."

For Rose Kaplovitz, who regularly speaks to school children about the Holocaust, the gathering offered a chance to reflect and rejoice with others like herself who had lived through the horrors of the death camps. Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust.

"I come to celebrate our survival, that we have children, that somehow we tried to make up for all the losses," said Kaplovitz, 76, of Coconut Creek, who was 11 when the war broke out. "I teach kids when you hear someone insulting someone or saying something mean, stand up for them, because maybe the next time they will stand up for you."

Kaplovitz's parents, her younger brother and sister, and a 5-year-old niece were killed in the Holocaust. The Polish native was eventually reunited with three sisters.

She is certain she lived because her father told the Germans she was 16 when she was only 14.

"By the wisdom of my father, I survived. I did not outsmart anybody. I did not do anything outstanding to survive," she said. "I just never gave up hope to live. Every day I was hoping tomorrow this would all end."

Lauderhill resident Martin Hoffman, 75, was 15 when he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany by troops led by Gen. George Patton. The teenager had been separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz, where he too lied about his age to stay alive.

"I was told to say I was 18 and I was only 14. So instead of going to the gas chamber, I went to the labor camp," the native of Czechoslovakia recalled. "I was supposed to go to the left and I went to the right."

Over and over, the survivors shared amazing tales of survival and strength. And over and over, they shook their heads in wonder at the serendipity of it all.

By his own account, 81-year-old Henry Schnitzer cheated death no fewer than four times during the Holocaust: When a German soldier who was supposed to shoot him took pity on him for a foot injury; when a German farmer fed him and put him up in a barn; when German nuns hid his identity from hospital officials; and when a doctor who suspected his Jewish heritage chose not to reveal it.

"I was lucky," said Schnitzer, a Polish native visiting from New York. He lost three toes to frostbite.

Holocaust survivor Max Lewin, of Coconut Creek, believes tolerance is the key to the future.

"The most important thing is, humanity has got to learn how to co-exist. Otherwise, we will destroy each other," said Lewin, 77, a Polish native who lost both parents, a younger sister, six aunts and numerous cousins in the Holocaust. "Humanity should learn from their past mistakes."

Sallie James can be reached at sjames@sun-sentinel.com