January 2005 VOL. XXXII No 1
ljtoday
Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January, marks 60 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps. In accord with this year s theme of Survival, Liberation and Rebuilding Lives, Stephanie Brickman of Sukkat Shalom Edinburgh looks at the life of a 90-year-old member of her community
A joy forever
From Poland to Palestine Ida Skubiejska is a survivor in every sense of the word. Born Ida Tintpulver in Bedzin in Lower Silesia in Poland in 1914 into a middle-class Jewish family, the eldest of three daughters, by the summer of 1939 she graduated a Master of Philosophy from Yagellon University. Having completed training for war emergency at the University s Medical School she became an officer in the International Red Cross. Soon the Nazis were marching into Poland, and Ida and her sister Hanka set off for Romania, saying goodbye to their parents and sister Helena. They found themselves in the path of the Soviet Army and were deported to the sub-arctic Taygar Forest. This saved their lives. Conditions were harsh: they were treated like prisoners of war and made to work in the forest. In 1940, when interned Poles were released, Ida headed south to enrol at the Polish army headquarters in Buzuluk. Thousands of released Poles were sent to Guzar, south of Samarkand, on the Afghan border, in the shadow of Hundu Kush Masif. There were epidemics of typhus, typhoid and dysentery in which thousands died. Ida did her best to help but the
regiment was working with nothing. The evacuation of the Polish Army to Persia, across the sea on ancient Russian ships, brought Ida to Pahlevi, Persia (now Iran), where the British Army was waiting with tents, shavers, good food and hygiene and a warm welcome . She then worked in Tehran in the British Army Hospital, Polish Section. While in Tehran Ida found a camp of Jewish refugees children and young mothers who had come from Russia as Army dependants. They needed to get to Palestine but the only land route was through Iraq and passage was denied to Jews. It was October 1943, and Ida convinced a sea captain from Liverpool to sail them across the Arabian Sea to Aden and from there to Suez on the Red Sea. She says: At Suez, a long, elegant passenger train was waiting for us, commanded by the Jewish Palestine Service (British Army), who controlled all transport during the war in the Middle East, and they were wonderful. We crossed the desert and a day later Continued on Page 2
Rabbi Pete Tobias (right), of The Liberal Synagogue Elstree, joins Roman Halter, who designed the synagogue s new Ark Doors and Ner Tamid, at a consecration ceremony in November. The doors are made from bronze and inlaid with stained glass, which is lit from behind. Roman told the congregation that in the small Polish village where he grew up, the synagogue was the centre and everyone took pleasure in its adornment. As a concentration camp prisoner during the war, he learned to work in metal, a skill that enabled him to survive the Holocaust. Later, in England, he trained as an architect, and has enjoyed once again being able to beautify a synagogue.