Biographical Profile of Elie Wiesel

This document is an invitation from Chancellor and Mrs. Mark S. Wrighton of Washington University in St. Louis. It cordially invites the recipient and their spouse or guest to a reception and luncheon buffet. The event is held in recognition of the 2011 Honorary Degree Recipients and the Honorary Grand Marshal. The reception is scheduled for Friday, May 20, 2011, immediately following Commencement, with a short presentation at noon. The venue is Whittemore House, located at 6440 Forsyth Boulevard. Nancy Galofré is listed as the RSVP contact with an email address and phone number.

Isadore Hollander, born 1920 in Paris, returned to Bendin (Będzin), Poland with his Polish parents and older sister in 1923. He describes in detail the pre-war Jewish community. Following his father’s death and mother’s re-marriage, he lived, from ages 11 to 15, in an orphanage operated according to Janusz Korczak guidelines, which he describes in detail. During this period, he joined a Zionist youth group. He mentions growing antisemitism in Poland. After September 1939, he ran from town to town, to avoid forced labor, until captured and sent to work in a coal mine in Jaworzno near Krakow. He escaped to Russian-occupied Poland, living in Lvov at the beginning of 1940. To avoid imprisonment for “illegal” business, he registered for work in Russian. Assigned to Stalino coal mine in the Donbas region, he escaped to Rovno and describes religious life there, winter, 1940-June 1941. After the Rovno Ghetto was established, he escaped from slave labor with help from former Polish soldiers. He lived with 10 other Jews in nearby forests until 1943, having minimal contact with Polish partisans, due to mutual suspicion. He later served in the Polish Army. His eye-witness account of German-evacuated Majdanek and detailed description of his life as a Polish soldier includes revenge he and other Jewish soldiers took on Volkdeutsche Poles. At the end of the war, he returned to Bendin and met his future wife. He details their escape from Poland and life in Deggendorf DP camp in Bavaria. They emigrated to Philadelphia in 1947. See also the interview with his wife, Anni Hollander.

Bernice Fishman (birth name Bronia Graudens) was born in Vronki, Poland in 1934. Her father owned a clothing store. Bernice and her mother fled to her mother's parents in Staszow in 1939. The Staszow Ghetto was established in 1940. Jewish children were educated clandestinely. Bernice and her brother were sent to live with a Polish farmer before the ghetto was evacuated. Her grandmother joined them later. Her grandfather and her father were sent to the Skarzysko concentration camp and her mother was hidden by a neighbor. Bernice, her brother, and her grandmother left the Polish family to go to a town that was supposed to be a sanctuary for Jews but were caught by the Polish police, imprisoned for a week, and told daily they would be shot. Her parents bribed somebody to get them out of prison. Bernice describes how she, her brother, and her aunt and uncle were hidden by a succession of Poles in Ogrodzenie, posing as Catholics. She was always hungry, in fear of being discovered, and pretty much on her own. Her four year old brother died because they were afraid to take him to a doctor. Bernice got sick and walked to a Catholic hospital where she received care. In 1945 Bernice was reunited with her parents who rented an apartment in Kielce that they shared with four other Jewish families. Her mother gave birth to a girl. Bernice describes how her family managed to survive despite constant fear of Polish antisemitism. She relates how Poles threw ten Jews from a moving train her father was supposed to be on. While she was hiding with the Kuchatays, Bernice had to pose as a Catholic, go to Confession and receive Communion, but never forgot she was Jewish. After the war, Mrs. Kuchatay found the family and threatened to sue unless Bernice converted legally. To avoid going to court, the family fled to Bytom with the help of Bernice's uncle who was in the Russian army. A few days later all the Jews in their former apartment were killed during the Kielce pogrom. After several months in Bytom, they were smuggled into Czechoslovakia. From there they went to a Displaced Persons camp near Stuttgart, Germany. Bernice attended a school for Jewish children where classes were conducted in Hebrew. Her father obtained an apartment in a house owned by a former member of the Nazi party. Bernice briefly reflects on the different behavior of Poles, Russians, Czechs, and Germans toward Jews. The family emigrated to the United States in 1950, sponsored by Bernice's cousin who was an American citizen. Interviewee: FISHMAN, Bernice Graudens Date: May 29, 1991

Eva Cutler, née Frederich, was born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary, the second child of a cultured, Jewishly emancipated family. She describes her family’s change from being unaware of existing Hungarian antisemitism and of Nazi persecutions of Jews elsewhere, to growing dread under government imposed restrictions, almost secret attempts to emigrate, along with continuing disbelief. She tells of varied attitudes of Hungarians under German occupation and help given by some non-Jews, even a German administrator. Her brother was inducted into a work brigade and later her father was taken away. In the fall of 1944, Eva—along with many other young Jewish women—was herded out of Budapest. She details horrendous conditions and brutality during the death march to Bergen-Belsen. She witnessed a mass execution of men. A German army officer helped her walk so she could keep going. Some townspeople offered food to the marchers, others abused them. She mentions a brief encounter with Wallenberg at the Austrian border, where he saved those who had Swiss or Swedish protective passes or said they had. Eva arrived at Bergen-Belsen in January 1945 after enduring a prolonged cattle car ride. She describes how survivors suffered from continued deprivation and illness there and also had to cope with hostility from Polish and Czech Jews already there. After liberation in April, she learns that her parents survived in Budapest and her brother is presumed dead. Eva was sent to Sweden for recovery and rehabilitation by the Red Cross. She praises the excellent medical care and kindness she experienced there. She came to the United States in 1946. Her parents came to the United States via Canada, after Eva attained U.S. citizenship. She closes with an account of her return to Hungary after 37 years and stresses the brotherhood of man.

Bernard S. Mednicki was born in 1910 in Brussels, Belgium, the youngest of four children in an orthodox Russian Jewish family from Kishinev. His father served in the Russian army until the 1903 pogrom, when he deserted and moved his family to the West. Bernard attended a cheder and public school in Brussels, where he experienced some antisemitism. He was apprenticed to an orthopedic technician, became a Belgian citizen in 1928 and was married in 1931. In 1933, he became active in the anti-fascist Socialist Party and anti-fascist resistance. He describes the German invasion on May 12, 1940. Assuming Christian identities, his wife and children fled to Paris and he travelled through southern France until they were reunited in Riom. He details extensively the travails of fellow refugees, his work with the French resistance during 1941-1942 in Clermont-Ferrand, and sabotage activity with the Maquis in the mountains near Volvic. He relates smuggling goods and other survival techniques to obtain food for resistance families. He travelled with his wife and children to Paris, aided by American soldiers, remaining until 1946, when he returned to Brussels. He found his sister’s three children, who were hidden during the war in a convent and a monastery. He arrived in the United States with his wife and children in 1947. His Memoirs: Never be afraid: A Jew in the Maquis, were published posthumously in 1997. See also interviews with his son, Armand Mednick and with his nephew Charles L. Rojer. Interviewee: MEDNICKI, Bernard S. Dates: April 27 & 30, 1982