FRED SCHWARTZ, SPEAKING ABOUT HIS AUSCHWITZ JEWISH CENTER FOUNDATION1
The keynote speaker for the evening was the philanthropist Fred Schwartz, who after a a 1991 visit to Auschwitz mobilized the financial and spiritual support of others, so that he was able to purchase an old synagogue in the town of Oswiecim, where Auschwitz was located.
The Nazis stored munitions in the synagogue, and the communists who later took over Poland turned it into a carpet warehouse.
The synagogue, which once belonged to a Hasidic sect and was used as a place for men to study Jewish ethics, has been restored, with Torahs donated by groups in Ohio and Long Island. Tourists attend services there, since there are virtually no Jews left in Oswiecim.
A building next door to the synagogue has been turned into an educational center, where last year six cadets from U.S. service academies learned first-hand what went on at Auschwitz. Next month, 12 more cadets will go.
The filmmaker Stephen Spielberg gave the group testimonials from 79 survivors from the town of Oswiecim from his Shoah project. Recordings played at the center stop at Sept. 1, 1939, before the first Jews were herded into cattle cars for the trip to Auschwitz.
"We celebrate life," said Schwartz.
Schwartz and his Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation also are celebrating the discovery last summer of ritual items that were buried beneath Oswiecim's Great Synagogue, which the Nazis blew up as soon as they arrived.
Schwartz said the find represents "the only Jewish ceremonial objects that transcend the Nazi era without being touched by Nazi hands."