6Mfor6M

We got to hear Holocaust Survivor, Ela Weissberger, speak Thursday night at the LA Museum of the Holocaust, where I’m a docent. She was an engaging speaker. Ela is one of the subjects of As Seen Through These Eyes, a film by Hilary Helstein, who also runs the LA Jewish Film Festival. As Maya Angelou narrates this powerful documentary, she reveals the story of a brave group of people who fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil stubs, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. These artists took their fate into their own hands to make a compelling statement about the human spirit, enduring against unimaginable odds. There are also other documentaries and features under way that are based on Ela’s unusual life story. Ela performed as “Cat” fifty-five times in Brundibar, the children’s opera in Theresenstadt, (or Terezin) ghetto in Czechoslavakia during the Holocaust. As a result, Ela was one of only 100 survivors out of 15,000 children at that camp.

Ela Reunites w/ Terezin Baby

The surprise of the evening was when one of the attendees asked Ela a question and indicated that she had been born in the camp. Ela responded that she only knew one pregnant woman, and said her name was Ishmar (sp?). The woman cried, “That’s my mother!” Ela looked dumbfounded as she realized that a baby of a family she knew during that terrible period had survived and made it to the U.S. Later she told us, these kind of coincidences happen to her all the time.

Yesterday, we attended the LA Opera Camp performance of Brundibar. Brundibar tells the story of a young brother and sister trying to buy milk for their sick mother. After witnessing an organ grinder earning money by making music in the town square, they decide to do the same thing but the greedy and unkind organ grinder drives them away. Ela told us that the mustache-sporting organ grinder was representative of Hitler. She said all the kids knew what the opera was really about and wasn’t sure why the Nazis allowed them to continue performing it, but they did. The Nazis filmed the performance as part of the propaganda films they were shooting to deceive the Red Cross as well as the rest of the world.

Brundibar performed by the LA Opera Camp

At the end of yesterday’s performance, Ela, who is one of only 2 remaining original cast members, got on stage and spoke to the audience and then sang along to the final song with the cast of local children.

I called my friend Henry Oertelt’s older brother, ninety-six year old Kurt Messerschmidt today, to ask if he had seen the children’s opera while he was at the camp and related the story of Ela’s reunion with Ishmar’s baby. He said that it was a miracle that the baby survived the conditions of being born into the camp. He had heard of it, but never seen Brundibar. He wished me well with our An Unbroken Chain film project and told me he was enjoying his summer. We were both sad as we remembered Henry, who died only this January at age ninety. Big Brother Kurt felt Henry should have cut back on his speaking sooner so that he might have had more energy and possibly lived longer. I don’t know, though. I think some of the Survivors who speak at the museum have more energy than anyone I know. Eighty-one year old Ela is a great example of that high energy. We were even told that she still loves to go dancing into the wee hours.