TRAVEL THE FREQUENT FLIER SILVERSEA
TRAVELIFE MAGAZINE
SURVIVING THE
HOLOCAUST CHRISTINE CUNANAN retells a fascinating escape out of Nazi Germany
I
was late for dinner that night. When I walked into the home of H.E. Effie Ben Matityau, the Ambassador of Israel, the party to welcome a group of Holocaust survivors and their descendants was at the tail-end and everyone was seated around the living room exchanging memories over tea and coffee. All Holocaust survivors – and, indirectly, their descendants – are unique for having experienced one of the most horrific mass exterminations that humankind has ever known. But the motley assortment of sprightly ladies at the ambassador’s home that night – some with indistinguishable accents forged from years of wandering the globe in search of a home after World War II; and others with an unmistakable American twang – was of particular interest to me. They were alive today because they, or their kin, had escaped the chaos of Europe by fleeing to the Philippines.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
One can only imagine the desperation that brought about this decision to sail to what was then a strange and backward country and make a life there. At that time, you see, the Philippines was one of only a handful of countries that had bravely risked Hitler’s wrath and accepted fleeing Jews. For the Jews, it was hard enough to get travel documents to escape German-occupied Europe; but it was almost impossible to find a country that would allow them to stay.
A STORY WAITING TO BE TOLD Just as I stood up to go home, as I had an early flight to catch the next day, Ambassador Effie came up and said: “You can’t leave yet. You have to hear the most amazing story of the Holocaust.” Intrigued, I sat down again, and Ambassador Effie brought over a stylish lady with smiling eyes, and practically commanded me: “Listen to her story. She has never told it yet.” Celia Tischler Black, who goes by the name Topsy, began her tale very casually, catching me completely off guard. “My mother had
“My mother had a sister who we all called Tante Elise,” Topsy began, “and Tante Elise was married to a man we called Uncle Martin.”
a sister who we all called Tante Elise,” she began, “and Tante Elise was married to a man we called Uncle Martin.” “When the Holocaust began, Uncle Martin called my father one day and said: ‘You have to get out of Germany for they will kill all the Jews.” And with what she imagined was some ingenuity, her Uncle Martin managed to procure travel documents for their family, enabling them to travel as far as Italy by land, where they boarded a boat for Asia.
UNCLE MARTIN SAVED THE DAY All her life, Topsy had known that her Uncle Martin had been instrumental in saving the family from certain death in Germany; but it was only on her father’s deathbed that she learned that dear Uncle Martin was actually Martin Bormann, often called the third most powerful Nazi of the Third Reich. Bormann was Hitler’s private secretary and then later he became effectively Hitler’s deputy, gatekeeper of crucial access. No information reached Hitler without passing through Bormann, and it turns out that this Nazi had gone out of his way to save a family of Jews.
ANALYZING A MURDERER’S MIND I left the party thinking about how someone who was so much a part of the Nazi killing machine could so calculatingly murder hundreds of thousands of Jews, while secretly saving one family – albeit his own. What went on in this man’s mind as he willingly slaughtered a race and yet also strove to save a few members of it? “What became of Martin Bormann?” I asked Topsy and Ambassador Effie. Both shrugged their shoulders. He was supposed to have died in the last days of the war, but since then there have been sightings of him in places as disparate as Paraguay and Russia. “For all we know, he may have escaped to South America like so many other Nazi officers,” Ambassador Effie mused. And, ironically, with Martin Bormann’s help, one Jewish family escaped Germany and lived to tell his tale. n
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