Mid-Atlantic Natives Join NY Holocaust Survivor on Her First Return to Auschwitz

Photo Credits: Shahar Azran.

BALTIMORE – Holocaust survivor Bronia Brandman, 86, of New York returned to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps on April 27 for the first time since her liberation, accompanied by a delegation of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) supporters from Maryland and Virginia.

Joining the delegation were Mid-Atlantic FIDF supporters Larry Burman, Robert Burman, FIDF National Vice President and delegation chairman Robert Cohen, FIDF Mid-Atlantic Chairman and Baltimore Chapter Founder Bill Fox and his wife Myra, Harry Gildenhorn, Ken Goldblatt, Stuart Halpert, Avi and Berly Hershkovitz, Jeff Holtzman, Rony and Tova Natanzon, Ronnie Silverstein, and Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Maryland; and David Goldberg and Kathy Magnuson of Virginia.

Brandman was born in Jaworzno, Poland, and watched two of her sisters being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Except for her older brother and cousin, who also live in the United States, her entire family perished in the Holocaust. She has one daughter and two grandchildren in Israel. Brandman, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and had vowed never to return to Poland, decided to come to Auschwitz as part of the FIDF “From Holocaust to Independence” delegation to Poland and Israel for the first time since the Red Army liberated the camps in 1945.

“I came to Auschwitz in 1943 as a child of 12. My parents and four siblings were consigned to the gas chambers. The daily bestiality and dehumanization was beyond words, and the world’s silence was deafening,” said Brandman. “I never wished to return to that place of our degradation and annihilation, but to return in the presence of our noblest, the bravest of the brave – our IDF soldiers, allows my spirit to soar with pride and hope.”

Brandman’s return to Auschwitz was among the highlights of the FIDF delegation to Poland and Israel. Chaired by FIDF National Vice President Robert Cohen, the 10-day trip, April 24-May 3, spanned Jewish history, from its darkest moments to its most triumphant. Israeli soldiers and Holocaust survivors accompanied the FIDF supporters across Poland, starting in Krakow, once home to more than 60,000 Jews.

The delegation began with a reception featuring a speech by IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot. During the reception, Israeli Holocaust survivor Miri Amir was reunited with Miroslawa Gruszczynska, the woman whose family hid her from the Nazis in Poland during World War II. The delegation then traced the Jewish community’s steps from the city’s ghetto to the Buczyna forest, where the Nazis executed more than 800 children, before visiting the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps.

The entire delegation then flew on an Israeli Air Force (IAF) transport jet from Poland to Israel, where they met with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Reuven Rivlin, visited IDF bases, commemorated Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, and celebrated Israel’s 69th Independence Day.

“This historic delegation traced the modern history of the Jewish people through the eyes of Holocaust survivors and IDF officers,” said FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir. “It told the story of our near extinction in Europe, the creation of a Jewish homeland, and the new generation of Jewish defenders of the Jewish people who safeguard our legacy today. By marching together into the dreadful Auschwitz-Birkenau camps with IDF soldiers and the survivors who somehow endured that torture, we sent a powerful message to the world that we remember, and that the Holocaust cannot and will not ever happen again. ‘Never again’ is not a platitude; it is our people’s solemn promise.”

“This mission was one of the last opportunities for these survivors to return to Auschwitz and tell of its horrors,” said Cohen. “It was a rollercoaster emotional experience for everyone involved. We passed through the gates of hell, ignoring the false promise that ‘work sets you free,’ where countless Jews suffered from unimaginable cold, hunger, and despair. We were surrounded by those who survived within the camps’ walls, and also by those who make sure they are not forgotten – the brave soldiers who protect their legacy: the State of Israel and the Jewish diaspora around the world.”

A video of Bronia Brandman’s first return to Auschwitz-Birkenau may be viewed here: https://youtu.be/SMW8pwu0OXo.

Photo #1: (From left) Mid-Atlantic FIDF supporters Stuart Halpert, Harry Gildenhorn, Larry Burman, Ken Goldblatt, Tova Natanzon, Rony Natanzon, Robert Burman, IAF Commander of Aerial Defense Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, FIDF National Vice President Robert Cohen, FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir, FIDF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Ari Dallas, David Goldberg, Ronnie Silverstein, Myra Fox, FIDF Mid-Atlantic Chairman and Baltimore Chapter Founder Bill Fox, Berly Hershkovitz, Jeff Holtzman, Avi Hershkovitz and Kathy Magnuson.

Photo #2: (From left) Miroslawa Gruszczynska; IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot; Holocaust survivor Miri Amir; and FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir, on April 24.

Photo #3: (From left) IAF Commander of Aerial Defense Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich; Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Giselle “Gita” Cycowicz; FIDF National Vice President Robert Cohen; Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Bronia Brandman; and FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir walking through the entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau, beneath the infamous sign that reads “work sets you free,” in German, on April 27.

Photo #4: (From left) Mid-Atlantic FIDF supporters FIDF National Vice President Robert Cohen, Larry Burman, Ken Goldblatt, Robert Burman, Jeff Holtzman, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, Stuart Halpert, FIDF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Ari Dallas, Harry Gildenhorn and David Goldberg in front of an IAF F-15 fighter jet at an Israeli airbase on April 28.

Photo #5: (From left) Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat; Holocaust survivor Bronia Brandman; and FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir at the Western Wall on the eve of “Yom Hazikaron,” Israel’s Memorial Day, April 30.

Photo #6: American FIDF supporters and IDF soldiers honored Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror at a memorial in Latrun, Israel, on “Yom Hazikaron,” Israel’s Memorial Day, May 1.

Photo #7: The FIDF “From Holocaust to Independence” delegation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on “Yom Ha’atzmaut,” Israel’s Independence Day, May 2.