Savoring a Life Turned Golden

Her dress was blue and simple. His suit was cut from a dyed G.I. blanket.

Still, as Menachem and Rachel Arieli describe it 50 years later, it was a wonderful wedding. American soldiers, part of the occupational forces in post-war Germany, brought rare treats--wine, beer, chocolate, cigarettes. The other guests, like the bride and groom, had survived the Nazi genocide. They brought hope.

And then the newlyweds set out to build, or rebuild, their family.

Menachem Arieli and the former Rachel Birn were first cousins once removed; his mother and her grandfather were sister and brother. Home for their large, extended family had been the city of Sosnowiec, Poland, not far from the German border. Then came the blitzkrieg and all that followed.

Rachel was one of seven children before the war. She and brother Peter were the only survivors; their parents and siblings all died in the camps. Menachem’s parents, a brother and a sister were killed. Another sister survived; her husband and child, just 3 months old, did not.

Rachel spent much of the war covered in soot working in a chemical plant in Gleiwitz, part of the Auschwitz camp network; the tattoo on her left forearm is the number 79240. Menachem fled from ghetto to ghetto but toward the war’s end was captured. He had survived seven months in Dachau when Allied forces liberated the death camp.

They weren’t sure who among their family had survived. The displaced persons camps were the next stop. Rachel put notices in Jewish bulletins to announce the fact that she was alive. In time, she and Peter found each other. Later they would be reunited with Menachem in the German city of Bamburg.

In the tumult and grief of the times, Menachem and Rachel saw each other in a new light. Others found love as well. Among the guests at their wedding were Menachem’s niece, Esther, and an American soldier named Bernie. Later they would be married. And in time, Rachel’s brother Peter would also marry a survivor of the camps.

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Menachem and Rachel looked to the future. Post-war Germany was no place for the young couple. Anti-Semitism in Poland foreclosed thoughts of returning to Sosnowiec. In 1948 they set out for the new land of Israel, bringing with them their infant son, Mark.

Menachem served in the military and worked as a plumber. Rachel had a second child, Hana. But the family encountered trouble in Israel, then a developing country with poor health care. Rachel spent long periods in the hospital.

By then Peter had immigrated to America. Whenever he visited, his sister was ailing and his brother-in-law, he says, “would work like a dog but could barely feed his family.”

Come to America, he told them.

And so after 12 years in Israel, they did so, moving near Peter in San Jose. Coming to America, Rachel said, “was like heaven.”

The year was 1961. Menachem and Rachel found jobs at Levi Strauss. Menachem worked 25 years before retiring.

Mark married and gave them three grandchildren. Hana married and gave them two more.

And when their 50th anniversary arrived, it was Hana and her husband, Michael, who hosted the celebration in their Calabasas home last weekend, with all the family and friends. Peter and his family were there. So were Bernie and Esther.

There were about 60 guests, and about half had survived the Holocaust. So in making her toast, Hana acknowledged the struggle that so many had shared, but emphasized the need to celebrate the sweetness of life. This time, her mother was able to wear a beautiful new dress, a gift from her husband.

The next day, when the couple--Menachem is now 76, Rachel is 75--sat down to talk about their lives, they did so with understandable reluctance.

Small kindnesses were recalled in detail. There was the time in occupied Sosnowiec that a Polish girl offered Menachem a bone with a bit of meat to eat. Menachem paused; to take it, he feared, would incur the wrath of the soldier standing nearby. “Go ahead,” the soldier said, without looking his way. “I’m not German. I’m Czech. It’s OK.”

The horrors they prefer not to discuss.

“Some people give lectures,” Rachel said. But she and her husband have a hard time talking about it all. Her voice rose with emotion. “You can’t express the sorrow, the pain we went through. . . . I can’t explain how it is to be so helpless.”

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Later, Menachem added: “I hope the world sees that what happened in Bosnia, it should not happen. Religion is not made to hate.”

So the conversation turned to more pleasant subjects, like the wedding 50 years ago and the golden anniversary party and their children and their children’s children.

It’s hard to think of the family they created without thinking of the family they lost.

Rachel boasted about her Hana--”so energetic, so full of life.” Hana’s grandmother was like that, Rachel said. Yes, Hana reminded Rachel of her own mother.

And from Rachel’s smile, you could tell this was a very happy thought.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.