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Michael Gruenbaum

ARTICLE ON MICHAEL GRUENBAUM

By: Michlean J. Amir, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , Washington , D.C.

Theresienstadt, as it was called by the Germans, or in Czech, Terezin, holds a unique place in the annals of the Holocaust. Although a great deal has been written about it, even librarians do not agree on a subject definition for these materials. Was it a concentration camp or a ghetto? Neither describes it correctly for it was somewhere in between, and the Germans use it successfully as a “model” in their effort to impress the Red Cross and cover up the real purpose of the place.

Terezin was, relatively speaking of course, a more humane place than others where some Jews survived for lengthy periods and art and culture thrived for a while in this worldly setting. Relationships among the inmates became very close, as together they tried to survive the ever-increasing threats of deportations East. Impressive descriptions of the survival of various groups in this environment have been written, to which Nesarim (Eagles) is a new addition.

Thelma Gruenbaum, the wife of one of the Nesharim, of whom there were initially forty, successfully interviewed the ten surviving ones. These were members of a group of young boys whose leader, Franta, was an incredible educator and father figure. He succeeded in teaching the young boys in his “program”, as education per se was forbidden, and inculcating in them self-confidence and faith in their survival. They became a close, cohesive group, with values and a strength that enabled those who survived to overcome the loss of many close relatives and other terrible traumas and go on to build normal lives and successful careers in various professions. Over the years they were able to reconnect and include in their friendships wives and children. They communicated informally and separately over many years and then in 1992, fifty years after they became inmates of Terezin, they met for a reunion followed up by several more.

The book includes portions of ten interviews with the author’s introduction and a summary and conclusions. All of it makes for very interesting reading about the lives of these individuals before, during, and after the Holocaust. It belongs in any collection of Holocaust literature, even a high school library, as the Nesharim were young boys. It would also be an asset in synagogue libraries as there generally are members with special connections and interests in Terezin or the Holocaust in general.

Review of the NESARIM book in the May/June 2005 issue of the newsletter of the Association of Jewish Libraries