[yshavurah] (Fwd) Fwd: BAI - Israeli Astronaut
- From: rland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: yshavurah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 07:52:33 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 07:17:11 -0500
From: debra solomon <debsol@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fwd: BAI - Israeli Astronaut
To: randi rothman <rland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Copies to: seenabeth@xxxxxxx
Begin forwarded message:
> From: James Coplan <JCoplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue Jan 21, 2003 11:17:10 PM US/Eastern
> To: BAILSERV@xxxxxxxx
> Subject: BAI - Israeli Astronaut
> Reply-To: James Coplan <JCoplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Received from my "other" synagogue back in Syracuse, NY:
> Jim
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
>>> MY TRUE HERO. By Solly Ganor( Solly Ganor
>>> [solganor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx])
>>>
>>> I don't think there was a person in Israel who didn't watch the
>>> Shuttle Columbia blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in
>>> Florida, yesterday.
>>>
>>> We watched with trepidation and anxiety, but above all pride as the
>>> graceful white shuttle lifted off into the blue Florida sky, trailing
>>> a white plume behind it. For us Israelis, it was a special flight,
>>> because our own astronaut, colonel Ilan Ramon was among the crew, the
>>> first Israeli to enter space.
>>>
>>> For a short while we allowed ourselves to forget our problems, our
>>> differences, even the coming elections, and were united in hailing
>>> colonel Illan Ramon as our hero.
>>>
>>> But for me, there was another hero: someone that was hardly mentioned
>>> in the Israeli media. If it weren't for an American TV station, which
>>> briefly stated that colonel Illan Ramon's mother was an Auschwitz
>>> survivor, I too would have been ignorant of the fact.
>>>
>>> To most us the fact that his mother was a Holocaust survivor from
>>> Auschwitz, would be baffling why I would call her a hero.
>>>
>>> I will tell you why.
>>>
>>> After the collapse of Hitler's Reich and our liberation in the
>>> beginning of May, 1945, I served in the US army as an interpreter. I
>>> was fortunate enough to have learned English during the war, a
>>> language that very few survivors spoke.
>>>
>>> I served in a unit that was attached to the CIC, (Army Intelligence).
>>> We were eleven men, all of them, beside myself, American service men,
>>> who knew a second language besides their native English. Our Job was
>>> to find Nazis hiding among the displaced persons in the DP camps.
>>>
>>> However, we also visited camps were only Jews lived, such as
>>> Feldafing, Fherenwald and more. For a while I was the interpreter for
>>> a colonel Woodhouse, who for some reason was attached to our unit.
>>> Colonel Woodhouse was an English psychiatrist who was sent to evaluate
>>> the mental state of the Jewish concentration camp survivors.
>>>
>>> I will never forget his official evaluation. He didn't keep it a
>>> secret and I was able to read it. "I came to the conclusion that the
>>> trauma caused to Jewish inmates of concentration camps was
>>> unprecedented in its severity and that they would never be able to
>>> live normal lives, get married and have children. " I have known
>>> patients who were subjected to trauma that weren't even a fraction of
>>> the trauma the Jews were subjected to and they were psychologically
>>> disabled for life. Therefore, I see no hope for them."
>>>
>>> Well, colonel Woodhouse, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Ramon, a
>>> Auschwitz survivor, who not only got married and brought children to
>>> this world, but brought up a son that anyone in the world would be
>>> proud of to call as his own, despite your prognosis.
>>>
>>> Perhaps, from the medical point of few he was right, but he didn't
>>> count on the spirit of the survivors. When we were liberated we were
>>> almost naked, bereft of all possessions, clad in a prisoner's striped
>>> uniform and wooden clogs. We owned nothing, not even underwear, socks
>>> or a handkerchief. We were like walking skeletons, all skin and
>>> bones. My schooling was interrupted when I was twelve, and I was
>>> subjected to brutalities that mankind has never known. I was liberated
>>> from the Nazis, but what next? So I stood before a world, I considered
>>> hostile, age seventeen, and I had to make my way through it. And yet I
>>> did it and I did it well.
>>>
>>> I don't know Mrs. Ramon, but today when I watched her son taking off
>>> into space, I am sure that she did more than well. Therefore, Mrs.
>>> Ramon, I salute you. You too are my hero.
>>>
>>> Solly Ganor,
>>>
>>> Herzelia Pituach, Israel =======================================
>>> Naomi Ragen
>>> Please visit my Web page at:
>>> http://www.NaomiRagen.com
>>> and subscribe to my mailing list
>>> by sending an empty email to:
>>> naomiragen-on@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> email:Naomi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>
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>>> with your old address in the Subject: line
>>> To contact the list owner, send your message to
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> To unsubscribe, click on the following web page.
>>> http://cgi.mail-list.com/u?ln=naomiragen&nm=medalia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> ac.il
>>>
>>>
>>> This message was launched into cyberspace to
>>> medalia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~
>> ~~~~
>>
>> Dahlia Mevorach tel : 972-4-8292839
>> Computer Engineer fax : 972-4-8324533
>> Faculty of Mechanical Engineering e-mail :
>> medalia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Technion-IIT, Haifa, Israel, 32000.
>>
>
>
> James Coplan
> JCoplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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