Shelter Rock Jewish Center marked the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” widely considered the start of the Holocaust, Sunday evening, Nov. 9, with a candle-lighting ceremony and a guest speaker who survived the Holocaust.
Arnold Newfield, born in February 1942 at the Westerbork concentration transit camp in Holland, recounted his family’s survival story.
His parents and two brothers had fled Vienna, only to be rounded up with the Jewish population after Germany captured the Netherlands in May 1940. The family was later sent to the Ravensbrück death camp, while Newfield’s father was sent to Buchenwald.
Despite severe illness caused by the brutal camp conditions, Newfield’s mother used her resourcefulness to keep her children alive and fed. Fellow prisoners, including Romanis assigned to manage the kitchen, and even some SS officers, occasionally assisted the family.
Newfield said his survival involved numerous surprises and coincidences, often aided by his mother’s wise actions.
Holocaust victims. The two children represent younger generations who must pass on the story. Photo provided by Shelter Rock Jewish Center
After the war and their liberation by British troops, the family reunited in Holland and, in 1947, joined Newfield’s mother’s half-sister in the United States. Her husband, an American intelligence officer, had located them.
Newfield has shared his story with schoolchildren and adults, including through the Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College.
In his honor, Shelter Rock Jewish Center made a donation to the center, supported by the Edith and Ernest I. Rothschild Education Fund at the synagogue.
Founded in 1958, Shelter Rock Jewish Center once had more than 100 Holocaust survivors among its members. Today, only a handful remain, most in their 90s.
For Sunday’s ceremony, “second generation” congregants whose late parents were survivors were invited to participate, along with two children representing the next generations who will carry the memories forward.
Hazzan Larry Goller presided over the candlelighting ceremony, where six candles were lit in memory of the six million Jewish victims.
Elie Wiesel, the great memoirist of the Holocaust, wrote: “When a witness tells the story, the listener becomes a witness too.”
Shelter Rock Jewish Center’s president Susan Pavane said after Newfield’s talk that his six grandchildren are the truly wonderful legacy of his story, and that all the survivor stories must continue to be passed on to new Americans and young people.
