May 17, 2008
Orthodox Judaism
Rachel Heller writes:
Twelve months after her concentration camp was liberated, Ann Spicer, newly married, was leaving Germany for good. Spicer’s husband snapped a photograph. Spicer’s experience is not unique among the more than 100,000 Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the United States after the war.
Mount Sinai’s staff last year asked members of the L.A. Jewish community to create personalized squares for a quilt that would memorialize the Holocaust, its victims and its survivors.
“We wanted to do a quilt, similar to the AIDS Quilt, to commemorate the Shoah on the 60th anniversary of Israel,” said Len Lawrence, general manager of Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries. Word of mouth carried news of the project across the country.
Contributor Wendy Brogin of Sherman Oaks said she was thankful for the chance to tell the story of how the Holocaust affected her life.
Both her father’s and mother’s families were decimated in concentration camps, but they each found a way to survive, she said. Her father was able to escape Germany through an arrangement to teach tailoring on the Isle of Man.
“The Holocaust almost toppled our whole family, but we survived,” said Brogin, who translated that notion into an embroidered family tree with a chop mark at the base. She, her husband and their three children all helped sew their relatives’ names onto the tree. Preserving the legacy of the Holocaust ensures that future generations of Jews will know the value of their heritage, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple told a packed Kamenir Chapel at Mount Sinai Simi Valley on May 4, before unveiling the quilts to a crowd of contributors, their families and guests. Even if we remember only a name, that is a powerful tribute.”
One square features a burning candle; another, train tracks; one has a dove with an olive branch; and near the blue silk border of the third quilt, a photo transfer of Ann Spicer and her husband, Edward, with the caption: “From martyrdom to freedom.”
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Assembling the vast collection of memories was no easy task, said Marlene Alonge, who designed the quilts.
Alonge, whose husband, Joel, is director of sales for Mount Sinai’s Hollywood Hills site, said she appreciated the chance to learn more about the Holocaust through other peoples’ lives.
“Doing this project, I felt privileged. Lawrence said he hopes the Shoah Quilt project can become a teaching tool for children across the city, and he wants to take the quilts on a national tour to spread the message further.
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