Bearing witness: Portraits of Holocaust survivors
"It is something that we carry," said 87-year-old Judy Rodan. "It is something that cannot be washed off. No pills, no treatments, no psychology or psychiatry. I think I've done it all."
Rodan was hidden at a Catholic convent in Budapest until the end of the war. "All of my immediate family were eliminated at Auschwitz," she said.
Eighty-eight-year-old Miriam Klein Kassendorf spent the war on the run from her home in what was then Czechoslovakia. "My father was grabbed by his elbows, and he was dragged out of our home on a Shabbat evening," she said.
And 95-year-old David Schecter survived not one, but two extermination camps. He talks about it now, he said, because, "It felt that our children need to know."
There is indeed a need to know, but we're losing 8%-10% of our eyewitnesses every year. Of the 200,000 or so left, it's estimated half of all Holocaust survivors will be gone in the next 5-7 years.
"This one woman said, 'What's gonna happen when I'm not here to tell my story?'" said photographer Gillian Laub. "'Who's gonna tell my story, and, like, say, This happened to me. Please believe me? '"
Which is why Laub has been taking photos of as many Holocaust survivors as she can – more than 300 portraits so far, and she's far from done. Of her subjects she said, "There's pride, there's strength and resilience, and there's also sadness. Some people get emotional. Some people feel like, I am here. I am standing here proud and strong."
We witnessed a moment when Kassendorf and another survivor, 89-year-old Stella Sonnenschein met for the first time … fellow travelers on a road neither of them wanted to be on.
"It's our mission, it's our mission; that's why we survived," said Kassendorf. "My father was a rabbi, and he told me that when I grow up, I should tell the world."
"So, we have a job to do," said Sonnenschein. "We have to live a very long time!"
In January 2024, some of Laub's portraits became larger-than-life, when she projected them all over New York City (including on the Brooklyn Bridge) in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Laub didn't ask the city for permission; she just did it, under the cover of darkness – a respectful, yet bold project she called Live2Tell.
"It was really, like, a caper, a renegade guerrilla art project," said Laub.
One survivor, Pearl Field, said, "I'm really impressed one woman went through all of this to keep the Holocaust alive."
Laub said she had no idea what would happen. What did happen was more survivors started to come forward. What drove many of them to Laub's camera, she says, were the events of October 7th, 2023.
Kassendorf said, "I thought, My God, they're doing it again. They're killing the Jews!"
"I was reliving my goddamn past," said Schecter, "and I couldn't shake it for several weeks."
Rodan said, "When I see all this disaster and insanity around us, it's 6, 8 thousand miles away, but it's touching. It's un-nerving."
Israel's response, aimed at eliminating Hamas, has levelled Gaza, displacing nearly 2 million people, which sparked protests in the United States.
According to Laub, "They never saw or experienced the antisemitism that's happening right now in their lives in America."
It comes at a time when awareness about the Holocaust itself is already dimming. "About a third of all Americans say that they've seen Holocaust denial and distortion on social media," said Greg Schneider. He is the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, an organization still negotiating with Germany and Austria for reparations to Jewish survivors. "As survivors are unfortunately leaving us in the greatest numbers, they're mostly concerned about their legacy," he said.
Last month, the Claims Conference released a survey on Holocaust awareness in seven countries across Europe, and the United States. "We were shocked by some of the results," said Schneider.
For example, a large swath of those questioned thought the number of those Jews killed in the Holocaust was 2 million or fewer, not the 6 million who were actually murdered.
And nearly half of Americans surveyed couldn't name a single German concentration camp or ghetto. "So, they couldn't mention Auschwitz as an example," Schneider said. " Half of Americans. So, imagine what will be 20 years from now or 30 years from now, when we don't have Holocaust survivors who can go into schools and tell their stories."
Survey: Growing Gap in Knowledge About the Holocaust, Especially in Young Adults (Claims Conference)
Even Laub herself says she's left the past in the past far more often than she should. "When my grandfather used to talk about being beat up every day on his way to school for being a Jew, it didn't really sink in to me what that must have felt like," she said. "And I feel so guilty now."
"You feel guilty 'cause you didn't ask enough questions?" I asked.
"I didn't. I didn't. I was too young."
Last month, Laub took her most recent Live2Tell portraits to Miami Beach, where Schecter, Rodan and Kassendorf saw themselves as the towering figures they really are … all of them beaming through the night on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. As Laub said, "I was looking and seeking wisdom. I found that light from all of the survivors who became part of this work."
The children of the Holocaust – they are all we have left, those who never had the luxury of a childhood. Gillian Laub has given hundreds of them perhaps one last chance to bear firsthand witness to a brutality the world should never see again.
Speaking at the Miami event, Miriam Klein Kassendorf said, "Who knew that this would be our revenge to the hate, and to Hitler, and to antisemitism and the Nazis? As we say in Yiddish, Mir zenen do... We are here."
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Photographer Gillian Laub
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Follow Gillian Laub on Instagram
Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City
Claims Conference
Story produced by Amiel Weisfogel. Editor: Carol Ross.
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Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Buzz Feed
15 People Who Had Celebrity Or Rich Classmates
We recently wrote a post where people who went to school with celebrities and the ultra-rich revealed what it was like, and the stories were absolutely wild. In the comments, more readers revealed their experiences with wealthy (or famous) classmates, and it's fascinating. Here's what they had to say: "I went to multiple exclusive private schools in the LA area, and there were multiple celebrities and children of celebrities who attended. The most prominent one that comes to mind is when I was in the same class as Emma Roberts in fifth and sixth grade. She was out of school for a few months because she was filming Blow. She was a really nice girl and well-liked overall." "I went to a private high school with a member of the Kennedy family. This person was quite literally high all of the time, reeked of weed, rarely went to class, and broke every single code of conduct rule. Anyone else would have been expelled. It was tough for the rest of us who were highly motivated, hardworking, and just trying to make the most of the opportunity our education could give us." "I met a guy the first week of college who said he was still living with his parents. 'Doesn't that kind of cramp your style?' I asked. 'We have a big house,' he shrugged. It turned out that his father was a billionaire. He was fairly low-key about it, although he bought a new Mercedes every year." "I went to an international school in Asia for high school where the tuition was around $50,000 a year, so most of the kids were wildly rich (or, like me, had parents with jobs at embassies or companies that paid directly for their children's tuition). The kids I went to school with were generally the worst. I once overheard a guy complaining that he had to use all his 'spending money' to fix a table he had jumped on and broken while drunk. This was at a villa in Thailand that his parents had rented and paid for him to fly to for spring break. His spending money was like $3,000 (USD)." "I went to high school with someone who was in the NFL. He's retired now. He was super sweet. I was a freshman when he was a senior. I had my nose in a book, carrying more while walking down the hallway, and LITERALLY ran into him. I thought I hit a wall or a door. The force knocked me down, and all the books I held were scattered. He apologized to ME and immediately bent down to help me gather my books and help me up." "I grew up in a town with many wealthy families, so the public school was almost as snooty as a private school. We also had two private schools in the town. All the kids from one of the private schools looked at us 'townies' like we were dirt. They had uber-wealthy and famous people's rich kids. The other private school was full of rich, genius kids who were generally much nicer. My school was looked down on if you didn't have the newest fashion." "I went to an all-girls Catholic boarding school where some were rich and the others worked on campus to pay their tuition. I was the latter. There was a girl whose father gifted her a Bentley convertible on her 16th birthday. She totaled it within a couple of months, so he bought her another one. This continued until she was on her fifth-plus Bentley, so her dad just arranged to have a private driver ready for her at all times." "In my freshman year of college, there was a geography course taught in a big lecture hall. The TAs would have a few classes of 10–20 each, and I sat in the front of the class, but I noticed a classmate behind and across from me who was being asked for autographs and quietly signing a few for other students. I didn't recognize him, but I realized that he might have been a basketball or football player (this was a Division A school)." "Went to high school with someone who became a bona fide supermodel and married into royalty. In school, she was kind, quiet, and nerdy. She did well in class and was very, very low-key (came from a middle-class family). Great things happened to a great person; no notes." "In the '70s, my mom attended a prestigious private high school in Los Angeles, but was given scholarship funds to attend. We have a family story: My mom started wearing a UCSD sweatshirt after visiting her sister at UC San Diego. She lost it, and the next day, she saw it being worn by Jamie Lee Curtis!" "My bestie is actually pretty rich. She would never act like it, except when we go to the mall together, and she buys, like, 10 different things from Lululemon that all cost $100. Her house is huge, but she is the sweetest person alive." "My high school was one of the top 10 in income and testing in the country. Still, many kids went to private schools nearby in the same suburb. 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New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Fashion model learning to be a man after being pushed to transition at age 15: ‘I was really crazy on the hormones'
In Catholic churches across Manhattan and Brooklyn, Salomé captivated the congregation, uplifting the faithful with her soulful singing and skilled organ playing. The New York Archdiocese Organist Training Program enrollee's musical gifts had her booking gigs across the city. But for years, Salomé's bashful smile and angelic voice concealed a secret — one not even known in the shadows of the confessional. She was a he; Salomé was born Miles. His story is one that's becoming all too familiar: A child with unconventional interests, swayed by strange ideologies on the Internet, is hustled by doctors into a life of medical dependency — only to find himself questioning everything years later. 8 Miles Yardley, aka Salome Evangelista, walks the runway at New York Fashion Week in 2023. Getty Images 'They very quickly put me on hormones without really any discernment. Looking back, if I were a doctor, I would think this is a much larger decision than the kid thinks that it is,' he tells The Post. Miles Yardley, as his female persona Salomé, arrived in the Big Apple in 2022 from his native Pennsylvania. He (then she) quickly became the toast of New York's downtown fashion scene. Yardley signed a modeling contract, was featured in a Marc Jacobs perfume ad shot by famed photographer Juergen Teller, exhibited for Enfants Riches Déprimés, and strutted Fashion Week runways for designers Batsheva and Elena Velez — all while singing in parishes and mentoring Catholic schoolchildren in music. Soon Yardley was a regular bohemian socialite, a fixture on podcasts, even flown to Romania to meet the Tate brothers, with virtually everyone unaware of Salomé's secret. 8 Yardley signed a modeling contract soon after moving to NYC in 2022. @DollPariah/X But a deepening Catholic faith and a medical scare led Yardley to question how he'd been living his life. Just as quickly as he'd burst onto the scene, early this year Yardley gave it all up and ditched Manhattan's trendy underbelly for a fresh start in sunny California. 'I had to move to LA to detransition because I was like, I don't want to have this conversation with people. I don't want to tell the people hiring me or the parents of the students that I teach that I'm actually a man. I just couldn't deal with that,' Yardley, now 27, tells The Post from his new home in Los Angeles. At 15, Yardley found himself a patient in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's gender clinic. He'd been late to start puberty and had interests in singing and dancing. Classmates began to ask if he was gay or a girl. He'd never heard of transgenderism. 'I had not questioned my own identity before other people started asking me questions and putting that on me,' he says. After only his second appointment, a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia doctor put Yardley on androgen blockers and later estrogen therapy, calling him 'the perfect example' of a transgender child. 8 Yardley left NYC for California to detransition. 'I was like, I don't want to have this conversation with people. I don't want to tell the people hiring me or the parents of the students that I teach that I'm actually a man. I just couldn't deal with that,' Yardley told The Post. John Chapple for NY Post 'I thought that there would be less social friction for me if I looked like a female because so many people were assuming me to be that way. And I was not super comfortable with people assuming I was gay,' Yardley says. For many years, everything seemed fine. He graduated from high school, taught music at a West Philadelphia Catholic school, and enrolled in Temple University to study music. In fact, he felt that being transgender gave him an edge. As a singer, his voice remained a soprano. He then met an in-crowder from New York who persuaded him to move to the city and pursue modeling — 'but only if you lose 20 pounds.' 'I think I benefited from the [trans] identity in terms of being a model, being a socialite, a party attendee in New York City, and it was a cool, cosmopolitan, artistic thing to be doing with your body,' Yardley says. 'I had entered a different world, where everyone thought I was really cool.' In April 2024, Yardley was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma — a type of brain tumor — and has hypothyroidism. Both conditions have suspected links to hormone therapy. 8 A 15-year-old Yardley was put on androgen blockers after just two visits to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's now suing the hospital for malpractice. JHVEPhoto – At the same time, Yardley was becoming closer to people at his church, which he found a welcome reprieve from the cattiness of couture life. 'I realized that I'm hurting myself. I'm poisoning myself. I'm sterilizing myself. The normal things that bring meaning to normal people's lives I'm shut off from because I can't have children in this state. I can't do the normal things that bring normal people meaning,' Yardley says of the moment he began to question the experts and trans ideology. 'When you're 15, you think, 'Well, I'm a weird person. I don't need to worry about that.' The long-term consequences were unimaginable to me.' Since quitting estrogen in January, he's come to recognize other negative side effects. 'I was really crazy on the hormones,' he said. 'I was mentally unstable and cognitively impaired. And generally fatigued, tired, not strong at all in ways that I'm only now coming to really understand.' 8 A deepening Catholic faith and medical issues led Yardley to question his transition. John Chapple for NY Post Yet the path has been a solitary one. The medical establishment abandoned Yardley on this new journey to live authentically. While doctors were all too eager to put him on life-changing medications, there's no protocol for what to do if a patient stops treatment. When that happens, doctors seem to simply lose interest. 'I've asked multiple doctors for advice, and they don't know what to do,' Yardley says on stopping hormone treatment, a process that 'makes you feel [physically] awful. It's been difficult.' 'They just say, 'You should ask someone else.' At a certain point, how many other people can I ask before I just figure it out on my own?' Even before President Trump's second term — in which the backlash against childhood gender transitioning has been swift and damning — the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Australian state of Queensland had moved to ban or restrict puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.x In a landmark June ruling, the US Supreme Court upheld a state ban on so-called gender-affirming care for minors. This month, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into more than 20 doctors and gender clinics for minors. The nation's largest youth-gender clinic, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, closed up shop Tuesday, citing the Trump administration. 8 In April 2024, Yardley was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma — a type of brain tumor. He also has hypothyroidism. Both conditions have suspected links to hormone therapy. @DollPariah/X The White House also just announced it will cut federal funding for hospitals that provide minors with gender-transition procedures. Yardley has joined the fight, although he's never thought much of himself as an activist. He's suing the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for medical malpractice. Yardley's hair is now cut short and dyed a brassy blond. He says both old friends and strangers are sometimes confused about how to address him — a problem he never had when he lived as Salomé. 'I've tried to enter the men's restroom a few times, where someone was like, 'Hey! The women's room's over there!' ' he says. 'It was super awkward. Nobody ever redirected me as a woman.' He doesn't know yet if his medicalized youth has rendered him permanently sterile. But it's not all gloom. 8 Yardley says doctors have been of little help as he's detransitioned and stopped taking hormones. John Chapple for NY Post At his new home, Yardley has started a band, Pariah the Doll (he's calling the debut album 'Castrato'), and launched a clothing line, Eunuch for the Kingdom. He'd like to meet a nice Catholic girl and settle down — but he's also preparing for a life of celibacy, should it come to that. 'Having spent 10 years in the female role, I don't really know how to be a man. That's a scary jump for me,' Yardley tells The Post. Still, he holds no ill-will toward those who set him off on this course — and that includes his own mother. 'I wouldn't even say that she was supportive of it. It was just, like most parents, she trusted doctors because if you are a boomer, like she is, you have no reason to distrust doctors. Their legitimacy is pretty firm in your mind as someone of that generation. So I don't blame her.' 8 A bright spot in Yardley's new life has been starting a band called Pariah the Doll. The debut album is 'Castrato.' Spotify As for those doctors, Yardley is surprisingly merciful. 'I don't believe, as a Christian, that people are setting out to do evil for evil's sake. I don't think anyone has that in their heart,' he said. 'But I think it has a lot to do with an overreach of professionals and a lot to do with money. Hospitals make a lot of money from these procedures. They benefit from having lifelong patients, which is what transgender people are. You need the hormones to maintain the identity.' If he could go back, would he change any of it? 'There's no way to live your life without making mistakes or going down the wrong path,' Yardley says. 'My life would be totally different if I made different decisions at 15 years old, so I can't really conceive of a different path. I don't live in a regret state. In many ways, I'm extraordinary lucky.' He does, however, wish that doctors would learn to be more open-minded. 'If you're a gender-nonconforming kid, you should be allowed to be yourself. I think that was the biggest problem. I didn't feel like I could be confident in who I was. And if that person happens to like singing and dancing and cooking and Barbie dolls, who really cares? You can be a boy who likes that,' Yardley says. 'At the time, nobody in my life told me that was possible.'
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Netanyahu's son claims Joe Rogan refused to have father on his show: ‘Years of antisemitic propaganda'
Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son on Friday claimed Joe Rogan refused to host the Israeli prime minister on his show and has promoted 'years of antisemitic propaganda.' Yair Netanyahu, 33, took aim at the popular podcaster after Rogan gushed over scandal-ridden Hunter Biden, arguing he could be president. 'Great wake up call for conservatives to remember Joe Rogan is not a conservative,' Netanyahu's son wrote in a post on X. Advertisement 4 Joe Rogan hosting his podcast 'The Joe Rogan Experience.' PowerfulJRE/Youtube 'He gave platform to every single neo Nazi antisemite on this plant (sic), but he refuse to have my father on his show, because he knows that he doesn't stand a chance against him, and all those years of antisemitic propaganda will go to waste.' Representatives for Rogan did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment. Advertisement On Wednesday's episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast, Rogan had played a clip from Biden's bizarre interview with 'Channel 5' host Andrew Callaghan, when the former president's son discussed his illegal drug use. 'He's smarter than his dad when his dad was young,' Rogan said of Hunter. 'And he could be president. How about that?' 4 Yair Netanyahu slammed Joe Rogan in a social media post Friday. @YairNetanyahu/X Advertisement Yair Netanyahu, a onetime podcaster himself, was quick to call out Rogan's comments as proof that he isn't a true conservative and accused the host of platforming antisemitism. Rogan has found himself in hot water on the subject several times over the years. Most recently, Rogan faced backlash after he hosted Darryl Cooper on his podcast earlier this year. 4 Yair Netanyahu and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. AP Advertisement The self-styled historian has been accused of Holocaust revisionism and downplaying Nazi crimes. Rogan brushed off his critics as 'paranoid' Jews. In 2023, Rogan made a jab on his podcast about Jews being 'into money.' 'The idea that Jewish people are not into money, that's ridiculous. That's like saying Italians aren't into pizza. It's f—ing stupid,' he said. 4 President Trump and Yair Netanyahu. @YairNetanyahu/X Yair Netanyahu, who is known for coming to his father's defense online, has his own fair share of controversies. His Facebook account was slapped with a 24-hour ban in 2018 following a series of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian posts. 'Do you know where there are no attacks, in Iceland and Japan. That's because there are no Muslims,' he wrote in one post. Advertisement In another, he wrote: 'There will never be peace with the monsters in human form known since 1964 as 'Palestinians.'' Earlier that same year, the prime minster's son, then 26, was caught on video outside a Tel Aviv strip club drunkenly boasting about his father and making risqué comments about women.
