Helen Handler’s most vivid memory is of the boots. Those shiny, black boots.
Separated from her family, stripped naked and lined up at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Handler, then 15 years old, found herself in front of a Nazi SS officer.
“As small as I was then, I was face-to-face with his boots,” Handler said on Tuesday. “He was dressed in a uniform and nonchalantly pointed left and right, pulling out people from the line. He was smiling, as if he was God.
“And you know what? At that moment, he was. He decided on life and death.”
Handler was removed from the line — her mother and two brothers were not — which saved her life but exposed her to continued atrocities. Her late-in-life mission is to teach the Holocaust lessons that still need to be taught.
Though the 82-year-old Phoenix resident speaks softly, her anti-hate message clarions and thunders. She will speak at the Jan. 8 fundraiser for the proposed Holocaust & Tolerance Museum in Chandler.
“We — the survivors — won the war, and not because the Nazi Germany was disarmed,” Handler said. “We survived. We got married, had children and grandchildren. And we never talked to them about hate or vengeance. We didn’t put a gun in our children’s hand to send them out to kill and be killed. We put books in their hands, and they went and filled universities in this country and all over the world.”
Born Ilona Ackerman in the former Czechoslovakia, Handler withstood the horrors of Auschwitz and Birkenau and was part of a death march before she was one of 7,000 prisoners freed by the Soviet army in January 1945.
After being hospitalized, primarily due to tuberculosis, for five years, she was transported to Canada. She married a fellow Holocaust survivor and had a son, moved to Detroit and then Phoenix, where she operated a drapery store at MetroCenter before retiring.
Handler and other Holocaust survivors will be gone soon, she said, so it is critical for new generations to take up the awareness torch. She believes that the Chandler Holocaust Museum — a 4.6-acre project slated to be built next to the East Valley Jewish Community Center at Alma School and Ray roads — will be a vital local resource.
“You cannot look to and live in the future if you never turn back to see the horros of the past,” Handler said. “In some respects, killing has become entertainment. We are losing respect for human life.”
The fundraiser — which will feature a screening of “Rene & I,” a documentary of twins who survived experiments by Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele, “The Angel of Death” — will be the initial money push for what will be one of five Holocaust museums in the country.
There is no construction timetable. Chandler has pledged a development agreement for as much as $2 million to improve infrastructure around the museum.
Former Tempe mayor Neil Giuliano is a strategic advisor to RSP Architects, who will supervise the project, and will be a big help in fundraising, said Steve Tepper, Jewish Community Center executive director.
“I wish we could break ground today,” Tepper said. “We need this museum now, but we need to do our due diligence and continue to build an effective case for support. …
“Soon, my children will not be able to hear from a Holocaust survivor first-person, and that takes away the effect of some of the message. That makes a museum like this all the more important.”
SethCold posted at 5:09 am on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
What a moving and true story this lady has to share with those who have ears to hears and eyes to see. This will never happen again!. Praise the Lord!
PeacefulCat posted at 7:57 am on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
May we all learn from Mrs. Handler how to survive and become a peaceful and wonderful human.
Peace and Clarity
Marcus Gallio posted at 8:26 am on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
"We are losing respect for human life.”
Totally agree. Today's Movies, Music, TV and Video Games glorify just killing, especially to the 6-16 years of age group. Nip that in the bud and the street killings should go down.
Accuracy posted at 9:49 am on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
In memory of the innocent victims of the Holocaust, the "Strong message" by Helen Handler is so true about survivors of what (German Chancellor Adolf) Hitler called the "final solution" and it is good that she shares it with others.
Since the defeat of Germany's Third Reich much of the world's population may have forgotten about the genocide of six million Jews.
But as difficult as it is to look back at this time in history, people who recognized the importance of documenting the atrocities have sought to ensure that the Nazi regime will never be forgotten and many believe the modern State of Israel was birthed from the ashes of the Holocaust's crematoriums.
EmperorSmith posted at 12:32 pm on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
I can not fathom why my old brethren did that.
Slabside posted at 2:24 pm on Wed, Dec 29, 2010.
My heart goes out to this woman. We must never forget this episode in history as it can manifest itself again when people let their government become too powerful and start governing contrary to the will of the people.
Pansie posted at 4:54 pm on Thu, Dec 30, 2010.
To Accuracy - that is the trouble with people today - like you - you think that ONLY JEWS have been killed in mass. Well Buddy, guess again, the Ukrainians were exterminated, the russians were exterminated, Poles were exterminated etc. and not one of them may have been JEWISH. I am tired of hearing about the poor JEWS when the truth is, there were more INNOCENT PEOPLE eliminated than the JEWS. The JEWS JUST MAKE MORE NOISE AS USUAL. Now, MY MOTHER who is now 84 was in THAT WAR and taken from HER FAMILY by the French when she was just 12 years old to work in the munitions factory. SHE IS NOT JEWISH. She worked putting powder into the bullets until her hand became infected and then they took her hospital where she spent 6 months healing. When she was healed up she was sent to be a housekeeper, nanny, babysitter to a GERMAN FAMILY whose name I will not mention. They told her they would pay her so that she would have money when the war was over. Guess who never got a penny from them? Guess what she did get ? A train ride to Birkeneau and then to Auschwitz. A train ride FULL of innocent people all hungry and thirsty and many dying along the way. NO, my mother rarely mentioned this part of her life while we were growing up, not because of HATE but because she was just not able to talk about it until now. It would be nice IF FOR A CHANGE - THE JEWS were to INCLUDE ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WAR when they speak of it and not just THEM. There is a word for those people who love to talk about themselves and IF the shoe fits then you should wear it. There were more than just the JEWS affected by the war, GET USED TO IT. And, the next war will not be the same since it will be nuclear so chances are what these people went through will never ever happen again. Same as the depression and crash of the 30's. Why? Because there was no such thing as CREDIT CARDS. People paid in CASH ONLY so how will it be the same? It will probably be even worse.