This year’s Yom Hashoah is particularly significant to me, as it coincides with the 70th anniversary of the roundup, deportation and mass murder of Slovakian Jewry. Prior to World War II, the Jewish population of the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia constituted a vibrant community of some 90,000 people, including my father’s extended family. This was all to change in March 1939, when Slovakia became a new, independent country and loyal Nazi puppet state allied with Nazi Germany. Its president was Jozef Tiso, a Roman Catholic priest, and its prime minister was Vojtech Tuka, both of whom were deeply religious men. Anti-Jewish measures and laws were immediately passed by the new government, and these were carried out and enforced with zeal by the fiercely nationalistic Hlinka Guard.
Beginning in April of 1942, the rounding up and deportation to Auschwitz of Slovakia’s Jews began in earnest. Tiso actually paid the Germans 500 Deutschmarks, money stolen from Jewish assets and never repaid by Germany, for every Slovak Jew they would take away. By the end of the war, 83 per cent of Slovakia’s Jewish population, or 75,000 innocent Slovak Jewish men, women and children, had been taken to German death camps in Poland and murdered. Among them were my paternal grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
Had the Vatican intervened at the time and reined in Tiso, Slovak Jewry and my relatives might have been saved. If the wartime Pope Pius XII had spoken out against the persecution and killing of Jews, perhaps there would not have been a Holocaust or its scope would have been much smaller. I guess we will never know for sure. Nevertheless, Slovakia will forever have the dubious distinction of being the only country during World War II to have paid Nazi Germany money to deport and murder its Jewish citizens, an unforgettable footnote and indelible stain on its otherwise proud history and heritage.
Ralph Schleichkorn
Montreal
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Canadian Machal volunteers
Army investigators of MIA soldiers from the War of Independence have established that Harvey Cohen and Ed Lugach, two cousins from Toronto, fell at the battle of Malkiyeh (“Yom Hazikaron, 5772,” letters, April 19). They were not waylaid by Arab irregulars near Sarafand. That was my speculation, which proved to be erroneous. The army has decided that their remains were found near the battle site, and they now have been interred there, with a stone that marks their burial place.
There was a vigorous and lengthy investigation that left no stone unturned. I worked with the soldiers who conducted the inquiry, and I have nothing but admiration for their creative and unceasing efforts to amass the facts. Worth noting, however, is that the DNA that might have been conclusive was withheld by their Toronto relatives, it would appear.
Maurice Moshe Sadeh
Montreal
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Misleading credit for CHAT design
I am writing in response to the article “New Vaughan JCC almost ready to open” (April 12). In the article, the design of the adjacent Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto building is attributed to architect Guela Solow-Ruda. I would like to correct this misleading credit for the design. The school was designed by our firm, CS&P Architects, in joint venture with Petroff Architects. As lead architects for the building, I was principal-in-charge from our firm and design principal. Solow-Ruda was design principal from Petroff Architects. CS&P Architects have been honoured to have worked with Tanenbaum CHAT for the past 15 years on both of its campuses and are delighted to be the architects for the new Guttman Family Science Wing on CHAT’s Wilmington campus, which will have its groundbreaking next month.
Paul Cravit
Principal/President
CS&P Architects
Toronto
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Ghetto Shul to merge with Bagg Street
I am incredibly disheartened by the portrayal of the Ghetto Shul in the article “Student-run Ghetto Shul to close,” (April 19). I am a fourth-year student at McGill University, and I have been an active member of the Ghetto Shul community since arriving at the school. I attribute the Ghetto Shul entirely to my renewed interest in religion and my plans to go to Israel next year, partially to further my Jewish education. Furthermore, as a former board member and current active member, I had no idea the Ghetto Shul was “closing” prior to reading this article. To my knowledge, she interviewed only Rabbi Leibish Daniel Hundert, although there are 338 members of the Ghetto Shul Facebook group, a Ghetto Shul website, e-mail listserv and e-mail address just for board members that she could have utilized at any time to contact Ghetto Shul members themselves. The Ghetto Shul is, in fact, not closing. We are merging with the Bagg Street Shul, which was one option of many after a series of meetings among members, some with more than 60 people in attendance. We felt this was the best option considering our financial circumstances and because the Bagg Shul was such a welcoming and accommodating venue.
Jamie Berk
Montreal