The late Joseph (Joska) Blitz of Antwerp, Belgium, was the only survivor of his family to survive the Auschwitz extermination camp during World War II.
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Alan Blitz. “Very few books”
(Photo: Nahum Segal)
77 years after the Holocaust ended, today the son seeks to do historical justice with the Holocaust of the Jews of Belgium, which has been less covered and less written about. To present the story of the Jewish community there and what it went through in the Holocaust, he recently published a comprehensive non-fiction book – the first of its kind in the Hebrew language – in which he details the Holocaust that occurred in Belgium in 1944-1940 and its almost complete oblivion in Israel.
He decided to write the book after the death of his father when he searched for documents in the archives about the Holocaust period in Belgium and discovered that there are almost no books detailing the story of the Holocaust that took place in the country.
Allen’s father, the late Joseph (Joska) Blitz, was born in Poland and in 1929 when he was a 3-year-old boy emigrated with his family to Belgium.
“He was a restless student at school, he had no patience for studies other than mathematics,” says his son, “he was a very talented boy with high abilities in mathematics. He continued his hobby after the war and played for the team until the age of 38. In 1942, his father Haskel was taken to work to build the Atlantic Wall in France, from where he was deported to Auschwitz and did not return home.
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Joseph Blitz upon his departure from the Auschwitz camp in June 1945
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
“My father with his mother and two sisters were deported at the end of September 1942 to the Auschwitz camp in Poland and he stayed in the camp for 28 months. It would have been better for him to stay in Auschwitz in terms of his chances of survival and that is what he did. His work commando. He was in the disinfection commando of the clothes, they were ten people and they fled on the night of January 19, 1945. After the war he returned to Belgium and began to study diamond processing. The release. He fought in the Negev Brigade for a year until July 1949 and returned to Belgium. ”
What was it like growing up in the shadow of a father who was the only Holocaust survivor in his family?
“The subject of the Holocaust was not present at home. If anyone asked a question at home he would get an answer, but it was not on the agenda. He never remarked to the child ‘finish what you have on your plate, because I did not eat at camp’.”
Because it was traumatic for him?
“No. His behavior and the choices he made in the camp were very logical. After the war he made a conscious decision to leave behind his difficult past after he lost his entire family and decided he was rebuilding life. He raised us on the line of independent education, encouraged us to argue and raise Reasons and adopt a critical approach. “
Only when he reached the age of 70 did his father first talk about what he went through during the Holocaust and also went to visit the Auschwitz camp.
“He was interviewed on a radio in Belgium and then the Belgian Ministry of Defense flew him along with other survivors to visit the Auschwitz camp. He was there one day and filmed for television. Next we noticed that his grandchildren, who went on trips to Poland with Hashomer Hatzair, would come to him and ask him questions about The Holocaust and suddenly we saw that he was willing to answer and told details that we children did not know about. At that point we realized he was open and willing to tell his story, so we contacted a man who interviewed 1,400 Holocaust survivors in Belgium and told him to speak directly with Dad And told his story. “
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Book cover
(Photo: Nahum Segal)
Did he forgive the Germans or did he hate them until the day he died?
“In his testimony he talked about them a little. When an incident happened to him with one German or another he said he was cruel but not beyond that.”
Do you forgive the Germans?
“It is not my class to forgive or not, but I can not take the people of today’s generation and say that they have a degree of responsibility. “And to say that he is responsible for the deeds of his ancestors. The one who can forgive is the one who did him the injustice and the vulnerability.”
Have you yourself visited Auschwitz?
“My father passed away in 2010 on the eve of Seder. He died in Antwerp and was laid to rest here in Kibbutz HaSolelim. In the period between the funeral and the discovery of the tombstone, I joined the group with my wife and went to Poland for the first time. “I collected four small stones in memory of his parents and two sisters who perished in the Holocaust and later placed them on his grave. The names of his parents and two sisters are also engraved on his tombstone, that’s what he asked for.”
How was your experience in Auschwitz?
“We are a Blitz hard nut family; we do not bow down in public, but it was a very emotional visit. For it to be emotional one does not have to cry crying with tears.”
Alan Blitz (65) was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He was educated in a Jewish school in the city from kindergarten to 12 and volunteered for a Zionist youth movement. At the age of 18, he immigrated to Israel. This is a group of new immigrants from Western countries in the 70s and 80s. This is an immigration that is not talked about by immigrants who came from developed countries with a higher standard of living than Israel, for purely Zionist motives. “
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The late Joseph (Joska) Blitz a year before his death
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
He immigrated directly to Kibbutz HaSolelim, served in the Armored Corps and after the service went on to study education and history at the Oranim Seminary. For the past 36 years he has been a primary school teacher. 4 years ago he went on unpaid leave to take time to write his book ‘The Hidden Holocaust – Belgium as a Parable’.
“When my father was 70 he started to open up a bit and tell about what he went through in the Holocaust, so I had an idea to go to the archives of the Auschwitz camp museum and ask if they have documents on former prisoner Joseph Blitz and they told me yes. They sent me four documents which is very rare Most of the archive was destroyed during the evacuation of the camp. In the second stage it turned out that the Belgian government opened an archive of the foreign police. In Belgium and I noticed that there are 85 books in the two official languages of the country and in Hebrew there are very few books. In 1998 and it is also written in English. “
Blitz decided to fill this gap and write a comprehensive book in Hebrew about the Holocaust in Belgium. “It has already burned in me. I decided to write the book in a scientific and not narrative style so that in the future Israeli historians can use this book as a starting point. In the book I ask questions and present unanswered problems. “Anyone who wants to get into the thick of things and want to research, has at my disposal my book. If there are historical scientists who want to deal with it in the future, the book exists and exists. In general, Holocaust research in Western Europe is very modest in Israel.”
The book also touches on delicate issues that the historical literature has been modest and has so far avoided dealing with and Blitz has decided that he exposes them. “It is not my job to judge people, but I mentioned the facts that were in my opinion and anyone who reads will have an opinion. For example, Jewish informants who were in the service of the Gestapo in Belgium; there are Belgian historians who do not reveal their identities. I do not feel I should give a special privilege to people who have betrayed their people and betrayed Jews. “
Why was the Holocaust in Belgium hidden?
“The historian Hannah Jablonka found that in 1949 there were 421 associations of various Holocaust survivor associations in Poland from Israel who came to Israel and established survivors’ associations. Europe was not raised at the Eichmann trial. There are two witnesses from Belgium who were supposed to testify and did not bring them, then it continued along this line. Most historians were survivors from those areas in Poland. “Yad Vashem and the Ghetto Fighters’ House are trying to correct and talk about the Holocaust in other countries, but it does not compensate because there is not enough historical literature and it needs to be changed.”
What do you want to happen with the book?
“I am a teacher and I believe that lecturers, teachers, students and pupils should read this book because there is nothing else available. I see its location in libraries, schools and universities as well as in memorial institutions throughout Israel. “Nothing. I want him to have an alternative and he can read about the events in a serious and tested way.”