Catherine Gong - Georges Kaddish for Kovno and the Six Million

Georges 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

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Contents

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 Georges Kaddish for
Kovno and the Six Million

Catherine Gongs Georges Kaddish: For Kovno and the Six Million, is a welcome addition to Holocaust literature and history. Gongs ability in matching clandestine photos taken by Kaddish in the wartime Kovno Ghetto with passages from Solly Ganors 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. Gongs 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 Kaddishs 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 Georges 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 Europes 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 ghettos strategies for survival, from infirmaries to orchestras, its struggle to maintain humaneness against inconceivable savagery. When the author states, Im a Chinese-American and stories from China, the old country, haunted me, we can understand her remarkable dedication and doggedness in bringing George Kaddishs historical photographs to the forefront and surrounding them with corroborating evidence. Her manner is fresh, urgent, honestI know no one like herand 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 Gongs 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. Its 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 Georges images a kindred voice.

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 mans 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 tooI will forever cherish Professor Peter Juvilers warmth. I am especially grateful for Betty Guttmann who not only gave me syntax and pointers but kindness. Bettys 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 Ganors published memoir, Light One Candle . Mr. Ganors 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 Felstiners 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.