University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, November 4, 1987
State/Local
7
Survivor of Holocaust hopes to build religion for future generations
By DAYANA YOCHIM
By DAYANA YOCHIM Special to the Kansan
On a cold October day in 1938, Siegfried Lindenbaum said good-bye to his parents in the small Polish town of Zbasyzn. Lindenbaum was 8 years old when he stood on the train station platform that day.
Fearful of a Nazi invasion of Poland, Lindenbaum's parents made arrangements for him and his younger brother, Manfred, to live in England until the threat passed.
"To me, at eight years old, that seemed like a lifetime," he said. "It turned out to be a lifetime."
'D
Documentation is important. Actual victims and witnesses are becoming more scarce everyday. In a few decades all the survivors will be dead and there won't be a record to point to.'
— Siegfried Lindenbaum professor of pharmaceutical chemistry
Lindenbaum's parents, sister and grandfather were killed during World War II.
Last month marked 49 years since Lindenbaum had seen his family. Though he and his brother were able to escape to England, they never learned how their family died.
Lindenbaum has made several attempts to find out what happened to his family. During a trip to Israel in 1983, he visited the Hebrew Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, which contains archives with information about the fate of millions of Holocaust victims.
Although he did not find information about the members of his family, Lindenbaum submitted their pictures and what little information he knew in the hope that other people could provide some details.
Lindenbaum said that by submitting those pictures, he created a memorial to his parents. Otto and Frieda, who otherwise might not have had proper burials.
"Documentation is important," Lindenabna said. "Actual victims and witnesses are becoming more scarce everyday. In a few weeks, you will be dead, lead, and there won't be a record to point to."
Some neo-Nazi groups insist that the Holocaust never occurred, Lindenbaum said.
"Today people can write these bizarre untruths, and there are witnesses to dispute them," he said. "But what will happen one
generation from now? Someone could write that the Holocaust never happened, and there would be no one to refute them."
In an effort to provide a permanent record for future generations, Lindenbaum has contributed two stories about his early childhood to the Prince Jewish Community Center's newsletter.
Lindenbaum said that it was difficult to write down his story because of the emotions involved.
"I felt guilty and angry at myself for not writing this down soon," he said.
Hearing her father relate his personal experiences about the Holocaust has given Lindenbaum's youngest daughter, Beth, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a better understanding of the events that took place in Germany during World War II.
To Beth Lindenbaum, it was not just 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. It was 6 million Jews and her grandparents.
"When the subject of the Holocaust comes up and people treat it lightly, I'm more sensitive to this than most," she said. "It has made me feel very uncomfortable with my religion."
Her father, however, said the experience made his Jewish identity more important than any other.
"I never resented be Jewish," he said.
"At the time, to not be Jewish was to be like them. The worst thing imaginable was that a human being could be like the Nazis."
His involvement in the Lawrence Jewish community reflects his interest in maintaining a solid Jewish base for future generations to build on.
Lindenbaum is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of Hillel, a Jewish student organization at KU. During Holocaust Remembrance Week in April, he gave a talk at the Jewish Community Center. He and his wife regularly attend services there.
Lindenbaum returned to Germany in 1981 to the small town of Unna, where he spent a brief time during childhood. Although it had been more than 40 years, he was able to find his way around.
"The history of that period is almost completely erased." Lindenbaum said. "There are no signs that any of Nazi Germany ever even existed."
Chris Duval/KANSAN
Perhaps it is that destruction of evidence that causes Lindenbaum to emphasize the importance of providing accurate records for the history books.
Once all the survivors like Lindenbaum die, the only proof that will exist is the documents these people leave behind.
"Without this proof and these records to point to, who's to say it can't happen again?" Lindenbaum said.
Lindenbaum hopes that through the existence of permanent records, the next generation will learn to keep its guard up so that there will be no more children like the 8-year-old boy who stood on the train platform that day in 1938.
KU track team member James Copher practices his javelin throwing technique. Copher was practicing Monday near Memorial Stadium for the upcoming track season.
Hieeevah!
Final Hyatt claims are filed
The Associated Press
A legal notice published in September alerted people with remaining potential claims to file them with U.S. District Judge D. Brook Bartlett by Oct. 30.
John C. Aisenbrey, a lawyer for Hallmark Cards Inc., and its subsidiary, Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., owners of the hotel, said yesterday that about 190 claims were filed. He said about two dozen of the claims have been settled from the $500,000 fund recently set up to satisfy the remaining victims' claims.
following the July 17, 1981, skywalks collapse that killed 114 people and injured about 200.
Other settlements and payments to most of those injured finally totaled more than $110 million, according to lawyers and others involved in the case.
The $500,000 fund is separate from a similar, $20 million victims' fund set up by Hallmark and other skywalk defendants in 1982. That fund eventually dispersed about $6.9 million to victims who had pressed their damage claims in trials.
People filing claims under the latest procedure include hotel employees, volunteer rescue workers and others who were at the hotel
The legal notice of the $500,000 fund said that people with claims could wave their right to seek damages or a file a notice with the court that they still intended to pursue their claim through separate legal action. Aisenbrey said that 19 people waived their rights and no one filed a notice that they intended to pursue separate legal action.
Bakkers' preaching concerts postponed
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker have postponed their 18-city preaching and singing tour, a publicist for the deposed PTL television ministry hosts said Monday.
The Bakkers were to have performed at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 5. Only 52 tickets were sold for the Kansas City show, said booking manager Jeanne Calkins. Refunds may be obtained at the place of purchase.
Ticket sales had been "a little slower than we thought," but had nothing to do with the decision to put off the act, scheduled to begin Nov. 17 in Nashville, said Marilyn Ford of BAF Enterprises, the tour producer.
The Bakkers decided the tour would detract from efforts of new management to revive the financially ailing PTL and its Christian theme park, Heritage USA, she said. Bakker resigned from PTL because of a sex scandal in March.
Ford said the tour would be rescued for March and the Bakkers will work on an autobiography in the meantime.
Also Monday, a broker disclosed that the Bakkers have leased a $7,000 a month beachfront home in Malibu. Calif., for the month of November.
The couple plan to search for permanent housing in the area, said broker Barbara Moser.
The Malibu area, about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, is home to such celebrities as Larry Hagman, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Ali MacGraw and Bob Newhart.
Ford declined to provide figures on ticket sales but said hundreds were sold.
"As far as we were concerned it was going along quite normally," she said. "A little slower than we thought, but not that much."
Tickets for shows by evangelical Christians generally sell best nearer to the date of the performance, unlike others such as rock concerts. Ford said.
The Denver Post reported Oct. 23 that 12 tickets had been sold for the Bakers' appearance at the McNichols Sports Arena. Nashville's WKRN-TV said 14 tickets were sold in the first few hours Oct. 19 for the tour opener at the 9,600-seat Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
The cost of the tickets, some of which sold for $20, will be refunded, Ford said.