On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Al Katz would be awed

The images and words were intense, but it was impossible for those in the room to stop looking or listening.

The viewers saw grainy photos of a compound of buildings topped by a machine gun tower and surrounded by not one, but two sets of barbed wire fence.

They saw pictures of trains arriving to that compound of buildings where one of Poland’s most notorious Nazi camps for exterminating kidnapped European Jews, called Sobibor, was a well-oiled cog in the entire Holocaust, in which roughly 6 million Jews, young and old, were murdered.

They saw photographs taken from outside the barbed wire of adults and children whose own clothes were gone, replaced by striped pajamas or smocks. The adults and children wore what looked like leather or wooden clogs and no socks. Their gaunt faces were blank, empty of the slightest sign of a smile or a hope.

In all, 250,000 Jews were killed at Sobibor.

The handful of people watching and listening Monday were taking part in the 2017 Holocaust Remembrance Day at The Al Katz Center for Holocaust Survivors & Jewish Learning Inc., at 5710 Cortez Road W., Bradenton, in the Cortez Commons.

The photographs, handouts and video were part of a powerful 90-minute presentation on Sobibor delivered by Beverly Newman, co-director with her husband, Larry, of the Al Katz Center.

They listened as Larry Newman read a quote from Thomas Toivi Blatt, “We knew our fate. We knew that we were in an extermination camp, and death was our destiny.”

When the program was over those in attendance could hardly move.

“It’s heartbreaking to watch, but we want to show our support,” said Sarasota’s Lisa Canfield, who attended Holocaust Remembrance Day with her parents, Dr. Ellis and Anita Woolf.

The Woolfs, who are from England, lost many extended family members in the Holocaust, including one of Anita Woolf’s uncles.

“He was a footballer,” Anita Woolf said. “He was one of those who Josef Mengle used for medical experiments. He died at Mengle’s hands.”

Mengle is often called Angel of Death for his cruel medical experiments on people in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Rev. Jim Stecher of LoveJoy Fellowship in Bradenton also attended the program and sat across from the Woolfs and next to a bust of Moses.

“I believe it is incumbent on every Christian to stand with the Jews,” Stecher said. “That’s why I am here today.”

Al Katz would be in awe

Al Katz, who survived the Holocaust and often would scream in his sleep due to his memories, had a relative in Indianapolis who sponsored him to relocate there after World War II.

Although it was a huge part of his life, Katz never once talked about the Holocaust to his daughter, Beverly, who is now the co-director of the Al Katz Center.

“It was too painful for him,” Beverly Newman said.

Katz moved to Manatee County, and his daughter and son-in-law cared for him until his death about seven years ago, never knowing what would happen next.

“My daddy would have never honored himself,” Beverly Newman said looking around the former call center which is home to the center she and her husband started in 2012 and keep running on donations from the public. “I honored him.”

“He would be very proud today,” Beverly Newman said, choking back tears.

The center, which presents educational programs in schools, has about 100 programs yearly, like the one Monday, focused on not just the Holocaust but a myriad of Jewish subjects.

Information: 941-313-9239, www.alkatzcenter.org.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 5:42 PM with the headline "On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Al Katz would be awed."