Jack Nortman to be honored at Never Again event

By Marina Berkovich, president

The more time passes after each genocide, even one so well documented as the Holocaust, the fewer the eyewitnesses and the more challenging the education and prevention become to humanity – this is an historically proven fact, not a supposition. Just think back to the Civil War or WWI eras and refl ect on your own reluctance to hear the cautionary tales those survivors and soldiers were so eager to pass on, except the stories encapsulated and embellished in the bestselling novels and Oscar-winning fi lms, like “GWTW” or “A Farewell to Arms.”

Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust has become a worldwide concern, particularly in the USA. Because the prime ethnic/religious eradication aim of the Holocaust were Jews, teaching such lessons is an inseparable part of Jewish history everywhere. The next wave of denial is regrettably upon us. Copouts, like “Holocaust fatigue,” should have no place in our world, with antisemitism on the rise and Jewish children, businesses, houses of worship and homes targeted in acts echoing that of the pre-Holocaust time.

Yet, with only about a third of U.S. states mandating Holocaust education, it is an uphill battle and Jews everywhere are fearful that once the last Holocaust survivor passes, the fragile legacy of this unfathomably senseless cruelty will be written off or distorted.

The Holocaust is an inseparable part of 20th-century Jewish history, woven into our memory and legacy. That is why The Jewish Historical Society has partnered with the Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center to honor Mr. Jack Nortman during a very special NEVER AGAIN event on Sunday, Feb. 6 11:30 a.m. at Hilton Naples. The event committee is comprised of notable locals and is co-chaired by Sandra Lee Buxton and Ellen Seigel.

Mr. Nortman is a child of the Holocaust. His parents were transported to Siberia by the ever so “helpful” Soviets and returned back to their native Poland on the windowless railroad cattle and goods transport car, aka boxcar. Railroad cars, as such, were routinely used by the Soviets and the Nazis to transport human chattel in the mid-20th century in grossly inhumane conditions that assured the demise of a majority of those transported.

More than 60 years later, the Nortman family procured an authentic WWII era boxcar and brought it to Southwest Florida to become the only traveling boxcar in the U.S. Since 2008, over 150,000 people, mostly students, visited this boxcar, which travels with specially constructed removable stairs to allow the visitors this one small convenience that the unfortunate WWII transports did not have.

Small groups of boxcar visitors remain inside, with doors closed, for a few minutes. To most of them, these minutes are life altering as they mentally immerse into the inhuman condition of those who were packed into boxcar transports on their way to the killing camps Nazis built all over Poland, or Soviets deep into Siberia’s eerily similar inhumanity of Stalin’s GULAG.

Now, the Nortman family is assuring the continuity of Boxcar Education through an $84,000 matching grant established for the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center.

The joint fundraiser branch will feature the premiere of The Jewish Historical Society of SWFL’s original production, the next documentary in the SWFL Jewish Pioneers series: Jack Nortman, The Boxcar Education Giant. At the event, we will honor philanthropist, Jack Nortman, for his unfailing commitment to preserving historical accuracy of this education process. The Boxcar will be on the grounds and available for inspection by event attendees.

There are many ways for you to assure the success of this event. The primary benefi ciary of the matching grant is The Holocaust Museum of SWFL.

To purchase tickets for the event and contribute to the Holocaust Museum Boxcar Education Program, go to https:// hmcec.org/calendar/category/event/list/.

For sponsorship of the brunch or advertising in the event program, contact Marina Berkovich, president, The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, 8805 Tamiami Trail North, Suite # 255, Naples FL 34108, telephone 833-547-7935 (833-JHS-SWFL), email: office@jhsswf.org

The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida and the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center are stand-alone section 501(c)(3) not-for-profi t organizations. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.