A Story to Remember : Survivor Recalls His Rescue From the Holocaust

In a voice halting with emotion, George Rishfeld of Moorpark told a hushed audience in Ventura Tuesday how he survived the Holocaust: Fifty years ago, his desperate parents tossed their infant son over a barbed-wire fence in Poland, into the waiting arms of a 19-year-old Gentile woman.

The woman, whose father had worked at Rishfeld’s father’s factory in Warsaw, vowed to raise the baby as her own if his parents did not return.

But they did return to reclaim their son. And on Tuesday, he told the story to more than 300 people crowding the Board of Supervisors’ hearing room.

“I remember being with a family of strangers who reassured me that everything would be OK, that I would see my parents again,” he said. “I realize today that with every hug and kiss they gave me, they were risking their lives to save a Jewish child.”

Rishfeld, now president of a marketing firm in Moorpark, said: “I came to believe I was saved from the Holocaust to tell this story so that it would not happen again.”

It was that sort of heroic kindness, along with the horror of the Holocaust itself, that the Board of Supervisors commemorated Tuesday to celebrate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, honoring the memories of the 6 million Jews who were killed.

“It was an episode of darkness to affect all people,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg said as he opened the 90-minute program. “But at the same time, there was a degree of human kindness, mercy and bravery.”

The board and members of the Jewish community, including all nine of the county’s rabbis, also honored Denmark for its refusal to allow invading Nazis to take its Jewish population to concentration camps. The effort to smuggle Danish Jews to safety is credited with saving 8,000 lives.

Dr. Richard Reisman, president of the United Jewish Appeal of Ventura County, praised the efforts of the late Danish king, Christian X, and his people.

“It was a singular and shining exception” to the genocide of the Holocaust, he said.

To thank the Danish people, Ventura County Jewish children participated in a nationwide campaign to write 8,000 letters to Danish Queen Margrethe, granddaughter of Christian X.

Danny Cardozo of Balboa Middle School in Ventura was one of three students who read their letters aloud Tuesday.

“During my lifetime I was always taught negative things about the Holocaust,” Danny read. “Now I know that if the Jewish people ever need a place to go, Denmark will be open.”

Reisman presented Danish Consul General Leif Reimann with a ram’s horn, called a shofar , to thank his people. The shofar, used in ancient times to call worshipers to prayer, is now used during High Holy Days.

“It was the first large-scale human rights rescue in the history of man,” Reimann said of the Danish effort. “Denmark receives this recognition with great humility, but also with great pride.”

The audience of more than 300 people, who lined the walls and spilled into the lobby, responded with a standing ovation.

Afterward, Rabbi Alan Greenbaum led a candle-lighting ceremony, in which six candles were lit in memory of the 6 million who died. As the candles burned, Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren sang the mournful song Ani Ma-amin (“I Believe”). Several in the audience sang along.

The commemoration both opened and closed with a plea to remember the past and make sure it is not repeated.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee warned that racism is still present in the world and in Ventura County. She cited racially motivated disputes and racist literature being circulated on school campuses.

“I am so afraid that the beginnings of the Holocaust are being sown right now,” she said. “We all have to do better.”