It was only later in his life that Jack Simony’s grandparents, Holocaust survivors who were in Auschwitz, told him a little about their harrowing experience.
“My grandparents lived on the same block in Boro Park, so I was raised with them,” Simony told The Jewish Press. “My grandmother lost half her family, and my grandfather lost his first wife and two children. They were murdered in Auschwitz. At the shul I davened in, 50 to 60 percent of the congregants were Holocaust survivors. It was something living and tangible; it was my family, neighbors and friends. I didn’t view it as something far away, or a long time ago. My grandparents warned me that the world would forget.”
Witnessing the troubling rise in global antisemitism, Simony remembered his grandparents’ warning. That spurred Simony to become a board member of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF). Located in Oswiecim, Poland, the NGO sponsors Holocaust education as well as anti-hate and cultural training. Since 2000, The AJCF has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors. Their flagship program, called the American Service Academies Program (ASAP), takes cadets and midshipmen from all branches of the military to key sites in Poland where they learn about Holocaust history and related contemporary moral and ethical considerations.
Simony said it is an important program, as the cadets who take part are “the future leaders of America.”
One former leader, who was brought to Poland by the ACJF in September 2022, was former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was given the AJCF Fighting Hatred award.
Some of his comments were shared on social media, and Simony said he was “deeply impressed” by Schwarzenegger’s words.
“I walked through the camp at Auschwitz where 1.1 million men, women and children were ruthlessly murdered simply because they were Jewish,” Schwarzenegger said in a video posted online. “It was horrifying, the feeling of the millions of voices that were silenced decades ago, begging you not to just look at their shoes but to spend a few hours in them, to imagine you were actually there…I’ve talked a lot about my father and about the broken man I was surrounded by when I grew up in Austria after the Second World War. I’ve seen enough people throw away their future for hateful beliefs…It is easier to hate than it is to learn, but easier isn’t better…”
Aviva Miller, U.S. director for the AJCF, also said that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visited this past January for the 78th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. She recounted that he said the best cure for antisemitism is coming to Auschwitz. She also said that visitors have included representatives of all religions, and students from Israel, Europe, and around the world. Miller, who first found out about the organization when she was speaking to those making a documentary about it, believed so strongly in the mission of education that she took a leadership role.
Miller explained that she saw antisemitism when her family left the south side of Chicago, which had a large population of Jews, for a suburb that did not. She remembers being a little girl in the 60s and when her father pulled up to a country club, she saw a sign that said “No Dogs! No Jews!”
“Dogs were more prominent than Jews,” Miller said.
She added that when her father inquired about purchasing a home, they were told of a “restricted area,” meaning they did not want to sell property to Jews, and she was frightened to hear that.
Both Simony and Miller said they are keenly aware of the rise of antisemitism, with Simony calling it “terrifying” that there were physical assaults on visibly identifiable Jews, simply due to their religion.
Simony explained that the Oswiecim Synagogue, which was used by the German Army as a munitions depot during World War II, was purchased and restored by the AJCF, which was turned into the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation. Today, it is the last remaining Synagogue in Oswiecim, Poland.
“This shul is where people come and daven on their way to, or having just visited Auschwitz,” Simony said. “The shul has sifrei Torah and siddurim to be able to accommodate all denominations. There are grandchildren of survivors that come and some that say they want to have their bar mitzvah here and want to lain – it’s very powerful. I can’t tell you how much emotion and kavana they have.”
Tomek Kuncewicz, director of Auschwitz Jewish Center, said he focused on Jewish History at Brandeis University, where he graduated in 2000. Born in western Poland, he now lives in Krakow. Kuncewicz, who is not Jewish, said running the center for more than a decade was extremely important to him and that it has been extremely rewarding to educate people.
“I had a grandmother who had very fond memories of life before the Holocaust and had Jewish friends,” Kuncewicz said. “I think very often people who come are surprised to learn there was a town that existed that had a very big Jewish population before the camp was built, and it was a typical town. Often people imagine that it was sort of an end of the world kind of place. But it happened next to a town that existed for many centuries before Auschwitz that had a vibrant community where Jews lived in relative harmony with Christians.”
He also said people are surprised to learn that a small community of survivors returned after the Holocaust to live in the town.
“For them, this was their hometown, and they distinguished between the site of Auschwitz and the Holocaust and the town,” he said.
AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson, who walked Auschwitz with Schwarzenegger, was born in Austria, and his parents met in Auschwitz. The chairman’s daughter, AJCF board member Brianne Bergson-Gluckstern, told us that people who visit Auschwitz and the Auschwitz Jewish Center find that it is a “transformative experience.”
She said it is important that people be educated so as not to repeat mistakes of the past.
Simony said the emotional experience of visiting Auschwitz is unparalleled.
“When you walk into a gas chamber in Auschwitz you will see fingernail marks scratched in the wall at all heights, then you will understand the culmination of hate,” Simony said.
He added that the ASAP program that brings military cadets and midshipmen has about 20 slots, but he hopes in the future they can bring more.
Miller said that the organization has not only trained large numbers of instructors but is also working with schools and institutions. She said she has seen countless people empowered by visiting Auschwitz, and she believes education is critical in combatting hate.
“Auschwitz is the site of the worst hate crime in human history,” she said.
More information about AJCF can be found at www.ajcfus.org.
