And the heavens wept: German chancellor, liberators and survivorsgather at Dachau on the 70th anniversary of its liberation

Colorado returns to DachauISIS: We’reresponsiblefor Garland

ViolentEthiopianprotests

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MUNICH — Hundreds gath-ered on a grey, rainy dayto commemorate the 70thanniversary of the libera-

tion of the Dachau concentrationcamp in 1945.

The overcast weather suited thesomber occasion,marking an eventthat was paradox-ically a collectivenadir and zenithin human history.

Among thespeakers were aliberator, threeDachau survivorsand Germany’shead of government, ChancellorAngela Merkel. It was the firsttime a sitting chancellor attendedthe official commemoration cere-mony there.

Located just 10 miles fromMunich, Dachau was one of the firstconcentration camps built by theNazis and the only one that exist-ed throughout the 12 years of Nazirule. It became synonymous withthe Nazi regime because it was“the first, and located in Bavaria,where Nazism started,” commented

DALLAS (JTA) — TheIslamic State jihadistgroup claimed responsi-bility for the shooting

attack on a Texas building hous-ing an exhibit of caricatures ofthe Prophet Muhammad orga-nized by an anti-Islamic organi-

zation.In an audio

s t a t e m e n tTuesday,May5, theI s l a m i s tState,or ISIS,said that “twosoldiers of thec a l i p h a t e ”carried out

the Sunday night attack in Gar-land. Both gunmen were shotdead by police.

It was the first time that ISIShas claimed responsibility foran attack in the US. The state-ment threatened future attacks.

“We tell America that what iscoming is more bitter and hard-er and you will see from the sol-diers of the Caliphate what harmsyou,” the statement reportedlysaid.

A security guard was injuredin the leg in the incident, whichoccurred at the end of the eventat a community center. Therewere no injuries among the 200people in the center.

The gunmen have been iden-tified as Elton Simpson and Nadir

T EL AVIV — A historical-ly disadvantaged blackminority is galvanizedwhen one of its members

appears to suffer brutality atthe hands of police — and theepisode is caught on video. Peace-ful mass protests devolve into vio-lence. Police crack down in anattempt to control crowds.

It’s not Baltimore or Ferguson.It’s Tel Aviv, which was rocked byunrest Sunday, May 3, after avideo of a uniformed Ethiopian-Israeli soldier, Damas Pakada,being beaten by Israeli policemade the rounds online.

Here are four things you needto know about the Israeli demon-strations.

A police beating sparked the protests

The video that triggered theTel Aviv protests shows Pakadaholding his bicycle on an emptysidewalk. A police officerapproaches him, grabs him,punches him and pushes him tothe ground. Pakada then standsup and exchanges words with theofficer.

Chanting Sunday in Tel Aviv,protesters invoked the name ofYosef Salamsa — a 22-year-oldEthiopian-Israeli man who com-

ABOVE: A replica of Dachau’s infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gate; the original was stolen last year.BELOW: Wreaths laid beneath the international monument in memory of the victims of Dachau.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets and apologizes to theEthiopian Israeli whose beating by police sparked protests.

By SHANA R. GOLDBERGIJN Assistant Publisher

By BEN SALESJTA

LOCAL EVENTBMH-BJ ‘reunion’The BMH-BJ annual event celebrating the formal return ofRabbi Yaakov Chaitovsky as itsspiritual leader is Tuesday, May12, 6 p.m., at the synagogue.

IJNreportsfromDachau

ISIScomingto theUS?

Please see ISIS on Page 17

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Why black Israelistook to the streets

mitted suicide in July.Salamsa killed himself four

months after police approached himin a public park and accused himof breaking into a house, then tasedhim before he was released.

The deputy mayor of Salamsa’scoastal hometown of Binyamina,

Please see PROTESTS on Page 17

16 • INTERMOUNTAIN JEWISH NEWS • May 8, 2015

N E W S : 7 0 y e a r s l a t e r

Col.Timothy Conklin of the ColoradoNational Guard.

Dachau served as the prototypefor the hundreds of SS-run campsthat were subsequently built forthe Nazis to manifest their horrify-ing vision.

The INTERMOUNTAIN JEWISH NEWSwas in Germany for the ceremony

with a delegation of Colorado com-munal leaders hosted by the MizelMuseum that was accompanied byactive members of the Coloradoand Oklahoma National Guards.Thecommunity delegation was sponsoredby MDC Richmond American HomesFoundation.

Dachau was constructed in 1933and first used for political prison-ers, including communists and oth-ers who resisted Nazi rule.FollowingKristallnacht, on Nov.9,1938,manyJews were also sent there. Later inthe war, in the throes of the Holo-caust, many were sent fromAuschwitz to Dachau or one of itsclose to 200 sub-camps.

Former Ambassador Alan Lukens,who as part of the 20th ArmoredDivision liberated Dachau, said that“Dachau was a symbol of infamy butalso hope for the future.” Recallingthat momentous day 70 years ago,he said to the survivors, “I’ll neverforget your excitement and ours . .. They couldn’t crush your spirit.”

Scores of wreaths were laid rep-resenting German government,Ger-man Jewish communities, thecountries of the victims of Dachauand German political parties.

Two American generals laid thewreath for the United States, whichwas preceded by a stirring rendi-tion of the Last Post bugle call.

The generals,H.Michael Edwardsand Robbie L. Asher, are with theColorado and Oklahoma NationalGuards, respectively, whose states’units helped liberate Dachau 70 yearsago.

On April 29, 1945, the day of lib-eration, the Seventh Army’s 45thInfantry Division,which incorporat-ed the Colorado and OklahomaNational Guards,was led by the leg-endary Gen. Felix Sparks.

Known as the Thunderbirds, the45th fought tirelessly for over 500days, from Sicily up through Italyand then France before entering Ger-many and ultimately freeing theDachau inmates.

The unit suffered high losses indecisive battles,such as Anzio in 1944,and was replaced fully several timesthroughout the war. By the timethe 45th reached Dachau,Sparks wasthe only original member division.

A t the infamous Germancamp, the division firstencountered a death train,filled with corpses. Sparks

had received orders to divert to theconcentration camp en route toMunich, but neither he nor any ofhis soldiers knew what to expect.Most had no idea what a concen-tration camp was, and certainlynot of the horror residing within itsbarbed wire fences.

Lone Tree, Colorado resident andHolocaust survivor Jack Adler wason such a train when he was liber-

ated by the Americans.Three US Army divisions took part

in the liberation, the 20th, the 42nd“Rainbow” Division and the 45th“Thunderbird.”

Denverite Sid Shafner, whomthe IJN interviewed earlier this yearon the 70th anniversary of the lib-eration of Auschwitz, was with theRainbow Division when it took partin the liberation.

To this day, there is a collegial

rivalry between the two units as towhich liberated the camp. The 45thwas the first to arrive, but it wasthe 42nd that later the same day for-mally accepted the surrender.

Having come upon the deathtrains, members of the 45th wereso shocked they instinctively soughtimmediate retribution against theSS guards still present in the camp.Several SS men were executed onthe spot.

Sparks was soon after court-mar-tialed;Gen.George Patton, then mil-itary governor of Bavaria,dismissedthe charges immediately, accordingto Alex Kershaw’s The Liberator, apage-turning historical account ofSparks’ grueling and unheard of 511days in battle.

On the evening prior to theceremony, a group of libera-tors — representing all threeArmy divisions — gathered

at the home of the American Con-sul General in Munich.

Hermann Cohn, a Jewish libera-tor with the 42nd whose son, Dr.Robert Cohn, lives in Denver andaccompanied his father on thismomentous journey, told the IJNthat his division wasn’t the first toenter Dachau. He recalled comingdown the road in a tank and seeinga US Army jeep coming in the oth-er direction.“We liberated the camp,”Cohn was informed by the approach-ing troops.

“What I remember from Dachauis coming in the gates and the bod-ies stacked up,” says Cohn, now 93and based in Chicago. “The sight Isaw that day, I’ll never forget it.

“They had burnt hundreds ofbodies that they didn’t have time .. . dead bodies were stacked outside.”

His morbid recollection was echoedby other liberators and survivors;at the commemoration on Sunday,May 3 at the concentration camp,Jean Samuel,a French survivor, saidthat in Dachau “there were piles ofcorpses and people who looked likecorpses.”

Hermann Cohn was both a sur-

vivor and liberator. Originally fromEssen, Germany, he fled to Hollandfollowing Kristallnacht after beingbeaten up.

A survivor at the reception, BenLesser of Las Vegas, thanked the lib-erators for the pivotal role they playedin determining his fate. “You gaveme life,and for that I thank you againand again.”

P rior to the larger commemo-ration where Merkel spoke,religious ceremonies were heldacross the camp. Many

Catholic priests were imprisonedat Dachau as were other religiousopponents of Nazism.

At the ceremony held at the Jew-ish memorial site, leaders of Ger-many’s Jewish community decriedthe increase in anti-Semitism in Ger-many, but were defiant about theirplace in German society,a sentimentechoed later at the larger gather-ing by Merkel.

Dr. Josef Schuster, the presidentof the Central Council of Jews inGermany, a nationwide umbrellaorganization, urged that it be com-pulsory that every German studentvisit a concentration camp.

For Schuster, as well as Dr. Char-lotte Knonblauch, president ofBavaria’s Jewish community, the evi-dence that such education is neces-sary was exemplified on April 30,when a neo-Nazi demonstrationagainst the opening ceremony of amuseum documenting the history ofNational Socialism in Bavaria waspermitted.

“Right wing extremists haven’tdisappeared merely because the

media decided not to pay atten-tion,” Schuster said, criticizing bothgovernment and media for not beingmore vigilant against neo-Nazis andother racist groups.

“The past is not over,” warnedKnoblauch.“It’s not even in the past.”

Both Jewish leaders also madeclear their view on anti-Semitismmasquerading as criticism of themodern state of Israel, anothersentiment, once again, later echoedby Merkel.

“It’s the same age-old stereo-types of Jews that are passed downgeneration to generation,”said Schus-ter. “No one is born an anti-Semi-te,” he said, emphasizing the needfor society-wide commitment to coun-tering anti-Semitism and what heand Knoblauch said was risingracism in Germany.

On the site of the former roll-callground of the camp,Germany’s Chan-cellor Merkel delivered a stirringaddress, thanking both the libera-tors and survivors, and reflectingon the abominable chapter in Ger-many’s history.

The inmates at Dachau and at themany other Nazi concentrationcamps were “persecuted, torturedand murdered by the Nazis becausethey thought differently,believed dif-ferently, lived differently” from theNational Socialist ideology. “Or,simply, because they existed.”

Over 41,000 people died at Dachau.Like the representatives of Ger-

many’s Jewish community, Merkelwarned of growing anti-Semitismin Germany and the anti-Jewishhatred present at anti-Israel demon-strations.

The root of the increased attackson Jewish institutions, as well ason Charlie Hebdo, said Merkel,“is murderous Islamic terrorism andanti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews.”

She urged vigilance and said itwas incumbent on all Germans“not to close their eyes or ears tothese attacks,” nor ignore the real-ity that identifiable Jews are today“molested, threatened and attacked.”

The highlight of the ceremonywas three powerful testi-monies from Holocaust sur-vivors.

Jean Samuel, the French survivor,recalled that April 29, 1945, wasthe “most beautiful day . . . I had adeep-felt happiness because thenightmare was over.”

Vladimir Feierabend, from Prague,remembered the day similarly:Whenthe Americans came, he said, “wewere able to take a deep breath.We were not a number anymore.We were humans.”

For Abba Noar, a Lithuanian sur-vivor now living in Israel, the dayof liberation was tinged with greatsadness. “For many,” he said, recal-lig the demise of family membersin camps and ghettos, “the Ameri-cans came too late.”

Noar spoke flanked by two of hisgreat-grandchildren,embodying theresiliency of the survivors and ofthe Jewish nation.

He cited the much-known Tal-mudic saying that if one saves alife, it is as if one has saved the world.If that’s true,he said, then the Naziskilled billions of worlds.

The Nazis, he warned, “were peo-ple, like you and me. And that’s thehorror of it.The commandants playedwith their children,while at the sametime they were sending thousandsto the gas chamber.”

For Jack Adler, the Dachau andAuschwitz survivor from Lone Tree,the ceremony was the “best part ofhis trip.”

This was his first time back inDachau,although he joins the Marchof the Living in Poland annually.He also speaks regularly on the Holo-caust to school classes.

It was very important for him toreturn to Dachau,Adler shared withthe IJN at the ceremony,because herecently found out that his father,from whom he was separated in aDachau subcamp,Kaufering,died onMarch 25,1945, just weeks after theirseparation.

“I never had a chance to saygoodbye to him. So it was an innerfeeling of accomplishment, to be ableto say goodbye to him.”

Regarding closure,Adler says thathe cannot “visualize closure fromanything so horrific.” Returning toDachau was “just something I felt Ishould do.”

Shana Goldberg may be reachedat shana@ijn.com.

More photos of her trip can be foundon the IJN’s Facebook page.

Survivor:‘You gave me life’

Liberator: ‘A symbol of infamy, but alsohope for the future . . . they couldn’tcrush your spirit’

Merkel: ‘We mustremain vigilant’

Gen. H. Michael Edwards, Adjutant General of the Colorado National Guard, speaking with Lone Tree resident and Holocaustsurvivor Jack Adler at the commemoration ceremony, May 3.

DachauColoradoNational Guardliberated campDACHAU from Page 1