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    George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million
    George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million
    George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million
    Ebook160 pages1 hour

    George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million

    By Catherine Gong

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    About this ebook

    After interviewing a Holocaust survivor who took clandestine photographs of the Kovno Ghetto at great risk, a graduate student stumbles over a diary chronicling the same time and place during Nazi occupation. She soon discovers that photographer, George Kaddish is one of only two known Jewish photographers who recorded ghetto life, but most importantly she learns that hope and humanity still exist.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateFeb 24, 2009
    ISBN9781499083576
    George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million
    Author

    Catherine Gong

    Catherine has presented her research at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Tom Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, Columbia University in the City of New York, and Stanford University. Unwittingly, a graduate student stumbles over a photo collection which chronicled life in a Lithuanian ghetto during the Holocaust. While cataloging this time capsule and navigating through its grim, visual narrative of deprivation, she discovers a diary recording the same location and time. She is thrust into a world of brutality through a boy’s diary and photographer’s lens but more importantly, she discovers that hope and humanity still exist.

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      Book preview

      George's Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million - Catherine Gong

      George’s Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million

      Catherine Gong

      Edited by Michael Berenbaum

      Copyright © 2009 by Catherine Gong.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Cover photo of George Kaddish (Zvi Hirsch Kadushin) is featured with the kind permission of Beth Hatefutsoth, Photo Archive, Zvi Kadushin, Tel Aviv.

      Featured excerpts reprinted by permission of Kodansha America, LLC. Excerpted from LIGHT ONE CANDLE by Solly Ganor published by Kodansha America, Inc. (1995).

      Featured photography of George Kaddish reprinted with kind permission of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum unless otherwise noted.

      Featured photography of George Kaddish reprinted by kind permission of Beth Hatefutsoth, Photo Archive, Zvi Kadushin, Tel Aviv unless otherwise noted.

      Rev. Date: 10/20/2014

      Xlibris

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      539080

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      A Prefatory Note

      An Unexpected Search

      His Body of Work

      Faces and Names

      George Kaddish: Kovno’s Son and Europe’s Son

      Faith in God and Life No Matter What

      George’s Kaddish: A Legacy of Resistance and Our Responsibility

      Doing is Becoming… Becoming is Doing

      Thanks…

      Note

      Recommended Reading

      Notes

      Bibliography

      Photography Credits and Notes

      I thank Professor John Felstiner for donating my book to the Stanford University Cecil H. Green Library and archive.

      And I am grateful to Annette Lantos for donating my book to the archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Tom Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

      Due to their commitment, visual memory of that which happened endures.

      And for James and my Mother who remind me to remain vigilant.

      Reviews for "George’s Kaddish for

      Kovno and the Six Million"

      Catherine Gong’s George’s Kaddish: For Kovno and the Six Million, is a welcome addition to Holocaust literature and history. Gong’s ability in matching clandestine photos taken by Kaddish in the wartime Kovno Ghetto with passages from Solly Ganor’s work, Light One Candle, is a fresh approach to Holocaust research. Gong triumphs as she not only allows us to see the photos of the victims but to also hear their kindred voices as well through the written word. Gong’s work is beyond a doubt, one of the finest studies using firsthand photographic evidence, of life in the Kovno Ghetto during the German occupation. It makes for compelling reading and is a lasting testament to Kaddish’s mission to document the suffering of his fellow ghetto residents, through photographs, so that future generations will never forget. It is a narrative to remember.

      -John R. Dabrowski, Ph.D. (Colonel, US Army, Ret.),

      Chief Historian, Missile Defense Agency,

      Author of To Sup With the Devil

      The scores of pictures alone, in George’s Kaddish by Catherine Gong, make this book a treasure. Gathered from multiple archives and sources, the hidden-camera photographs by George Kaddish reveal the deep inner workings of one ghastly ghetto during the 1941-44 genocide of Europe’s Jews. Catherine Gong links picture after picture with sources such as survivor testimony, archival collections, and conversations with the photographer shortly before he passed away, thereby uncovering and recovering the photographed individuals who disappeared in those years, as well as the ghetto’s strategies for survival, from infirmaries to orchestras, its struggle to maintain humaneness against inconceivable savagery. When the author states, I’m a Chinese-American and… stories from China, the old country, haunted me, we can understand her remarkable dedication and doggedness in bringing George Kaddish’s historical photographs to the forefront and surrounding them with corroborating evidence. Her manner is fresh, urgent, honest—I know no one like her—and her unique view of a rare photographer makes a fine contribution to our understanding of those times.

      -Mary Felstiner,

      Professor Emerita of History, San Francisco State University,

      Author of To Paint Her Life: Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Era

      Catherine Gong’s tribute to the Lithuanian Holocaust survivor George Kaddish (Zvi Hirsch Kadushin) includes the photos he took in the ghetto of Kovno during the occupation by the Germans in the l940s at great risk. It’s an astonishing story that Ms. Gong has unearthed as we can see from the pictures that speak with a terrible eloquence of the near-unbelievable lives of the Kovno Jews. Catherine Gong reached George Kaddish in Florida shortly before his death and has rescued his story and his photos from obscurity in her memorable tribute to this heroic Holocaust survivor.

      -Stanley Poss, Ph.D.,

      Professor of English, Emeritus,

      California State University Fresno

      One of the most powerful forms of Holocaust resistance was the enormous struggle to maintain personal dignity and human kindness. In the darkness of the Kovno ghetto, George Kaddish took clandestine photographs to celebrate his doomed neighbors and condemn the atrocities of their tormentors. These photos are at once disturbing yet life-affirming, repellent yet deeply moving; their publication alone is a minor triumph. In unearthing this lost chronicle, Catherine Gong has accomplished a remarkable work of both scholarship and service. She has remembered the rememberer, and said a prayer for the man whose life itself was a prayer for the six million.

      -Zac Unger,

      Brown University;

      Firefighter,

      Oakland Fire Department;

      author of Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman

      For George Kaddish who gives us much to learn, to

      Yehuda Zupowitz who sacrificed everything for us to see, and for Solly who gives George’s images a kindred voice.

      Acknowledgements

      Holocaust history has always gripped me. It teaches that the strength of the human spirit is unrelenting. My family and friends have also held me tight throughout my process of learning, doubting, believing, and finally completing. Now, it is with utmost humility that I offer my thanks to those who helped me with my book.

      I thank Rabbi Abraham Cooper at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance for preserving a dear man’s legacy and appreciate the assistance of Caroline Waddell at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Zippi Rosenne and Aviva Heller of Beth Hatefutsoth. I thank George Birman for introducing me to a great man and Pola Birman for her hospitality. I thank Professor Jill Shapiro and Professor Diana Bowstead of Columbia University for their inspiration and patience. Barnard has been good to me too—I will forever cherish Professor Peter Juviler’s warmth. I am especially grateful for Betty Guttmann who not only gave me syntax and pointers but kindness. Betty’s enthusiasm, energy, and our love of chocolate pulled me through. I am grateful to Michael Berenbaum who remembers my long mourning and whose work, The World Must Know gave me the encouragement to open every book and turn every page during my research. And I am very thankful for Solly Ganor’s published memoir, Light One Candle. Mr. Ganor’s words communicate, with kindred eloquence, the horrors of both the Kovno ghetto and the Holocaust.

      Naturally, I associated the acts of studying, recording, and discovering with this project but when intimidation and fear came unexpectedly, Professor John Felstiner of Stanford University pushed me out of my many hiding places where I cowered, stammered, and shivered. Whether I was writing on the west or east coast, Professor Felstiner’s spoken and written words dried my eyes and wiped my face. With every scrape, bump, and bruise, Professor Felstiner bandaged me and stood me up. Despite his long-standing preference for me to address him by his first name, I can never think of him as John but will forever think of him as teacher.

      For spiritual guidance, I thank Mrs. Annette Lantos. I met Annette while working for her husband, Congressman Tom Lantos, who served California’s 12th District before he passed away. Even though I primarily worked for him and his staff, I also became the recipient of Annette’s wisdom. Annette’s elemental, yet magical way of looking at our world will be with me forever. Despite being a Holocaust survivor, Annette never identified herself with victimization. On the contrary, Annette teamed up with her husband, Tom (who was also a survivor) and championed human rights for all. Annette’s steely determination matched her husband’s and her actions impacted Capitol Hill and the world. Witnessing and recalling Annette’s contributions inspired me throughout this project when I doubted myself.

      This journey required basic provisions and I have many to thank for my necessities. I survived in D.C. under the protective eyes of Dean Heyl and thank Rudolf Rohonyi for his warm kitchen. I also needed humor. Studying wartime atrocities can be sobering and John Dabrowski knows this. As a historian and author himself, John taught me that research requires Jack Benny. Thanks, John! Moreover, I am grateful to Mr. Richard S. Matlock whose august demeanor is a model to follow. Mr. Matlock’s wisdom will continue to guide me beyond Columbia University’s classrooms. And lastly, I thank my father and mother, James and Hazel Gong; and my brother, Michael. I am the product of my family’s sacrifice.

      -Catherine

      A Prefatory Note

      Over the years, survivors, family, and friends have contributed their knowledge to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to provide the names of the people and places George Kaddish photographed. Since these individuals came from different areas of eastern Europe, very often, the same person’s name was spelled differently, or depending on their relationship, many contributors referred to some of George’s subjects by a nickname or in an informal way.

      When I first started writing, my reflex was to impose a consistent spelling for each person’s name throughout the photo captions, diary, and testimonies I reference in my book but my approach soon changed. By imposing one way

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