What We Can Learn from the Holocaust

Sir Ivan Proves Heroism Runs in His Genetics

If you never read the book ‘Unstoppable’, you should now. ‘Unstoppable’ is a biography of Siggi Wilzig, Sir Ivan’s father, and talks about his journey from being a Holocaust survivor to a man making millions on Wall Street. Who is Sir Ivan? Well for one thing, he created his name for writing his music but it also makes sense he’s a Sir because he lives in a castle in the Hamptons. What he is really known for is his hospitality to his friends and for recreating John Legend’s song, ‘Imagine’ to honor his father Siggi and what his father went through in the Holocaust. He also has spoken at at least one synagogue to speak about his father, his legacy and the Holocaust.

When I told Sir Ivan that I am also a descendant of a Holocaust survivor, he responded that “We are family”. We are family after all and not by blood but by a bond of similar upbringings, lessons and understandings. When he said that, I instantly felt welcomed and it warmed my heart.

My dad, who just like Ivan was a son of a Holocaust survivor, showed similar traits with Ivan of heroism by speaking out for Holocaust survivors.

My father who passed in 2014, gave a lecture at Mount Sinai, where he worked as a doctor. He spoke about his mother and a woman he met while working who had Multiple Sclerosis. This woman was a twin and was experimented on like a lot of other twins by Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor. The experiments might have contributed early on to her health concerns.

In addition to the fact that Sir Ivan and my father spoke and educated people about the Holocaust, their parents were both filmed and documented in the Steven Spielberg’s tapings for the Shoah foundation. He filmed them telling their stories of survival.

Sir Ivan has taken it a step further by promoting his father’s biography proving himself a humanitarian teaching the world of the horrors of history to make sure it never happens again. The story also motivates each and every one of us to appreciate life because Siggi fought so hard for his. Never have I seen someone more devoted than Sir Ivan promoting the book abut his father.

Every waking moment was a quick decision because every moment was a way to survive. One wrong step and Siggi could have been killed. But he knew how to act smart fast and this quickness is what he used to be a successful businessman. He was a genius at surviving, both his life and his career.

Siggi is a hero in this book by tending to and consoling his friends, peers and those younger than him. His rag to riches story, is what kept his son, Ivan, so humble and kind.

The book ‘Unstoppable’ is straight forward and doesn’t sugar coat anything giving the reader a first hand look on what the Holocaust was like. What would truly be amazing is to use this book for Hebrew school classes as well as English and History classes for regular high schools. No text book is really going to give you a real feel for what people went through than a personal story. If you know anyone that has connections in that field, please email me at [email protected].

To watch the tapings of my grandmother Gloria and Sir Ivan’s father Siggi, please visit the USC Shoah Foundation website, collections.ushmm.org

Here is a bonus article about my grandmother’s story.

My Grandmother: Who Fought for Her Life

Not a day goes by where I don’t think about my grandmother, Gloria. Part of everything I do is to make her proud. She was a Holocaust survivor who told my aunt that the reason she went through all of that was to eventually have me like fate. Everything happens for a reason is what she firmly believed toward the later years of her life. Although, it’s weird to think that without the Holocaust I wouldn’t have been alive because my grandmother would have never have come to American to escape oppression. But it shows me how great and open America for taking in my grandmother and eventually she was to live the American dream.

She didn’t make millions like Siggi but it was also a rags to riches story. She started a hardware business from scratch coming to America having lost everything and starting over.

My grandmother’s family was rich in Poland before the Holocaust. She lost seven of her siblings and her parents in the concentration camps. She thought Harry, her brother, (my great uncle) was dead. She saw him on the streets of Manhattan and her nose started to bleed in shock because she had really thought he was dead.

Harry was in Auschwitz, the scariest and most deadly of all the death camps where Siggi was in also. A couple of days more of being there, Harry would have been killed. But he was saved.

My grandmother’s sponsors to come to America were her old maids when she was wealthy in Poland. She ended up my marrying her maid’s son which was after all, my grandfather.

My dad suffered knowing his mom was once starving and he had become a stomach doctor to help people because of it. But luckily my grandmother was in a labor camp and not a death camp. She had some hope for survival. Although she was starving, as she said in her video for the Shoah Foundation, she felt guilty for eating a crumb and not giving it to one of her family members.

I hope to work more in politics since my family is very political. The reason she went through all of that at least had some good in that it gave her and I opportunities in America, the best and most accepting place in the world in my opinion at least. I feel like I want to do some good in her honor and make her proud from up above. Unfortunately, she died when I was really young like about 8 years old. She didn’t talk about the Holocaust when I was a child because I was too young to understand. She also made it a point to move past it (never forgetting) and make the most of enjoying the rest of her life. I was complete joy in her eyes and a fresh start. I really wish I would have known her when I was older and could understand. I would tell her how much I appreciated her, would have listened to her inspiring story and would have asked her many questions. I wish I met Siggi Wilzig also.

We keep saying that we should never let the Holocaust happen again but unfortunately it has happened again and again. Genocide by discrimination has happened in Darfur, Rwanda and Iraq. There was a Christian genocide with Isis that the Trump administration had to deal with and took care of. We thought that there would be more of cry about killing Christians because most of the world is Christian.

Unfortunately antisemitism still exists and surprisingly I’ve experienced it myself. My grandmother went back to Poland in her elder years. She saw it in ruins unlike the beautiful, prosperous place she grew up in. She saw antisemitism graffiti of swastikas and awful remarks.

I have experienced antisemitism and I’ve seen racism first hand. My old friend’s dad when I said my grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, said “what’s her number?” trying to be funny but I didn’t find it funny at all. I also dated a guy who ended up being antisemitic. He wore an SS bolt that the Nazis used to wear. He couldn’t believe he fell in love with a Jew. I’m a Holocaust survivor’s grandchild who dated someone who became a new nazi. It is unreal.

When I visited Paris with my mom, we went to a very Jewish area and a cab would not pick us up because it was obvious we were American Jews.

My grandmother had a funny line and she had issues if my father married a non Jew just like Siggi with Ivan. After all if a man marries a non Jewish woman, there kids are not consider Jewish. You really are only considered Jewish if your mom is. She said if my dad married a non Jew, she wouldn’t get mad. She wouldn’t get upset. She would go to the top of a building and go “wooo” and jump off of it basically. She was joking of course but was serious about my father marrying a Jewish woman. But my dad did end up marrying a Jew which is my mother. A lot of Jews especially Holocaust survivors feel like the Jewish traditions would be lost if people don’t marry Jews because they feel like a non-Jew wouldn’t raise a kid Jewish and keep up the traditions. Survivors of the Holocaust fought for their lives for being Jewish. They want the religion and culture to stick around which Hitler tried so hard to remove. They don’t feel as assured that a non-Jew would convert and it would expand and promote our religion because we lost so many.

I also saw racism first hand when I campaigned for John Catsmiditis for New York City mayor. I asked one man to sign the petition and he asked is John was Asian. He said because of the Vietnam War that he was in, he wanted all the Asians gone. Unfortunately, with the Covid pandemic coming from Asia, Asians have been scapegoated and blamed similarly to the way Jews can be scapegoated and it’s not their fault.

Another guy when I was campaigning said he didn’t like Greek people like John Catsimiditis. I asked him why he felt that way when I found him at a bar playing poker with Greek people. He said that it didn’t matter because he wanted all of them gone.

What we can all learn from Siggi and my grandmother whom I referred to as “Pompom” is to be respectful and understanding to people of another background and to be sensitive of survivors and immigrants because they’ve been through a lot. I hope that people learn from my writing and get inspired to do good and give back. Some people are in less of a position to give back so I hope they give as much kindness, understanding and compassion as they possibly can. A little kindness goes a long way and contributes little by little to the whole world and peace. That was my grandmother’s tactic, Sir Ivan’s , my dad’s and Siggi’s, I try my best as well. Hopefully kindness is an important thing you take a way from my writing along with giving back. If you want to donate to Holocaust survivors please visit https//www.zachorfoundation.org Unfortunately a lot of Holocausts survivors are displaced and poor and in need of help. A lot of health issues can also come from being in camps or experimented on.