‘Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz’

HOW TO GO

What: ‘Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz 70 Years Later’

Where: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati.

When: Through May 26. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Admission: $14 for adults, $12 seniors age 60 and up, $10 for children ages 3-12.

Tours: To book a tour of the exhibit, call the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center at (513) 333-7739 or visit www.freedomcenter.org.

WORTH THE DRIVE

Arts writer Meredith Moss regularly visits exhibits, museums and theaterical events throughout our region that are worth your time and money.

If you have a suggestion for the series, please contact Meredith: MMoss@coxohio.com Please leave a daytime phone number.

At the age of seven, Steven Cassidy went to an antiques auction with his dad and remembers looking at items that no one else wanted. They were artifacts from the Holocaust.

“I was interested in the human side of these artifacts and my dad would explain,” the Hamilton man says. “I didn’t understand why people hated other people. These victims had done nothing to deserve their death.”

The impact that those childhood conversations had on Cassidy is evident at a dramatic display now on view at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. His collection of Holocaust objects is part of an exhibit that commemorates the end of World War II. Entitled “Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz 70 Years Later,” the exhibition brings together rare artifacts, photographs and the horrifying personal stories of two Auschwitz survivors who now live in Cincinnati — Bella Ouziel and Werner Coppel.

Auschwitz, the world’s most notorious concentration camp, has become a symbol of the Holocaust’s oppression and atrocities. Between 1940 and 1945, approximately 1.3 million men, women and children — most of whom were Jewish — were deported to Auschwitz. Before the camp was liberated by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945, 1.1 million had perished there. Only 7,000 survivors remained when Soviet troops entered the camp.

“If you’re going to collect, I believe your collection should have a meaning and a purpose,” says Cassidy when asked about his unusual — and harrowing — collection. “I use my collection as tools for education. They speak in the absence of direct survivor testimony.”

Among the disturbing items on display are a prisoner’s uniform, a collection of anti-semetic Nazi children’s propaganda books, a sign from a prisoner train bound for Auschwitz, and a Passover Haggadah that was buried and recovered after the Holocaust. A rabbi at Auschwitz told Mr. Coppel he had buried the Hagaddah in a cemetery to prevent it from being destroyed by the Nazis as Jews were rounded up for deportation to concentration camps. Following liberation, Mr. Coppel dug up the Haggadah and used it during his next Passover Seder.

Children’s shoes from Cassidy’s collection were made by prisoners in Buchenwald concentration camp around 1942. While interred in Auschwitz, many prisoners — including Bella Ouziel — were forced to manufacture and sort shoes.

The concentration camp uniform on display belonged to Auschwitz prisoner Leo Willich. After the war, Mr. Willich kept it in his closet for many years. “When I have things that are troubling me, I will go to my little box and pull out my uniform, put it on, look at myself in the mirror, cry for a little while, put it back in the box, and my problems don’t mean anything anymore,” he has said.

Cassidy, who has been visiting schools for more than two decades, says his goal is to educate people about the horrors of the Holocaust and show them what hatred can do. The man who stands 6 foot 2 inches and weights 235 pounds, says he’s always been the last guy anyone would pick on. “But I can’t stand bullies,” he says.

Among his collection of children’s books is “Die Judenfrage im Uterricht” (The Jewish Question in Classroom Instruction). Published in 1937, the book was part of required curriculum for teachers under the Nazi regime in Germany. “It’s shocking that they would perpetuate this state-sponsored racism,” says Cassidy.

The Cincinnati exhibit tells the history of the Holocaust from various perspectives: victim, collaborator, bystander and perpetrator. Visitors follow the two survivors as they share their personal stories on video.

The exhibit, which will be on display through May 26, was curated by the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education in partnership with Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

More about the Cincinnati survivors

Werner Coppel, born in Germany in 1925, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 at the age of 15. Before the camp was liberated, he was forced on a death march but escaped into the woods and hid until he heard news of the camp's liberation on a BBC radio broadcast. Following the war, he eventually moved and settled in Cincinnati.

Bella Ouziel, born in Greece in 1925, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, where she and her sister were separated from the rest of her family. Sylvia and Bella remained together until Sylvia, refusing to eat, was sent to the hospital and then murdered. Before liberation, Mrs. Ouziel was forced on a death march to Bergen-Belsen in Germany and was not liberated until April 15, 1945. Following the war she moved to Cincinnati.

Lessons to be learned

Sarah L. Weiss, executive director of the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, says the Freedom Center is a fitting place to learn and reflect on a period in history when the human spirit was challenged by inhumane cruelty. She says Auschwitz’s history of systematic and organized genocide provides a stark warning and call to action for those today to stand up against injustice, inhumanity and genocide.

“Just what does ‘Never Again!’ mean?” Weiss asks. In an effort to mark the 70th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation, she says she and her colleagues were challenged to think about what happened, how it could have happened and where we are today.

The survivors’ journey

Included in the exhibition are train tickets to Auschwitz — visual reminders of the way in which Jews across Europe were rounded up and deported by the Nazis, packed onto rail cars and forced to stand for days without sufficient food, water or facilities. After arriving at the camp, the prisoners went through a selection process where they were either tapped for forced labor or sent to gas chambers where they were killed by the Zyclon B. gas. Those selected for extermination were primarily children, women with small children, the sick or elderly.

In Cincinnati, visitors follow the two survivors through the exhibit as they share their stories in video interviews. “What should I tell you of the arrival?” says Mr. Coppel. “Doors open up, a lot of hollering, commotion, pushing, shoving, hitting, whips, dogs, and we started walking, and we heard the first command, ‘women and children to the left, men to the right.’ ”

Mrs. Ouziel and Mr. Coppel both recalled receiving their tattoos.

“After they shave us, they gave us the number,” Mrs. Ouziel relates. “My number was 40018 and my sister’s number was the same except 17 and I was 18.”

Says Mr. Koppel: “We had to totally undress. The only thing we were allowed to keep was our belt or our shoes. We were shaven over all of our bodies. We were chased into a shower. And after the shower we were chased across the street into another barrack, and there we were registered as prisoners. And the prison number was tattooed on our left arm.”

Husbands, fathers and sons watched as their mothers, wives, sisters and young sons and daughters were pulled aside, never to be seen again. Years after the Holocaust, Werner Coppel learned the fate of his family: his father was killed in Riga, Latvia, and his mother was deported from Riga to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was slain. The fate of Werner’s brother remains unknown but it’s assumed he was deported to Auschwitz with his mother.

Clarence G. Newsome, president of the Freedom Center, says we must live a life that ensures that the suffering and sacrifice of those during the dark periods in human history are not in vain.

“Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz 70 Years Later’ is a reminder that the unimaginable is possible but that the human spirit can and will prevail,” Newsome says. ” Together, we can secure freedom in all its forms for all people regardless of race, creed or gender and we can defend that freedom against any sinister and evil plot.”