German Christians aid Holocaust victims

From the Jerusalem Post.

On a breezy morning in Haifa, beneath billowing clouds, a four-story structure is enclosed in scaffolding and adorned with signs in both Hebrew and English: This hostel for Holocaust survivors was established with the generous help of the Christian Embassy.

Construction workers scurry in and out, and groups of senior men and women watch all the activity with subdued curiosity. In the midst of the building site, the sounds of hammering, drilling and shouting are almost deafening as cement is spread, flooring is laid, and instructions are shouted – in German.

When a sprightly, smiling elderly man enters the building, he is hardly noticed at first. But before long, a group gathers around him, soon to be engaged in a lively conversation. Although he seems to be a gifted storyteller, in all the noise it’s hard to hear what he is saying. Then suddenly he rolls up his sleeve, displaying the fading blue number tattooed on his forearm.

Yosef Kunstlich is 84 years old. He came to Israel from Poland in 1945, but his route was tragically circuitous, passing through the death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He remembers being marched through deep snow for two weeks – he was just a 14-year-old boy at the time. He recalls working long hours in a dark mine, deep inside Poland. After witnessing indescribable horrors, Kunstlich finally arrived here at 17. Almost immediately he was enlisted in the new Israeli army, and soon he found himself fighting in the War of Independence in both Haifa and Galilee.

In the 1950s he married and started a family. But Yosef Kunstlich never forgot what he had seen and suffered. For a lengthy period of his adult life, he kept a vow that he would never speak to another German person – his abuse at the hands of the Nazis had been brutal and unforgivable. He would not waste his words on Germans. Yet on that late February morning, Kunstlich was surrounded by German construction workers, and they were chatting and laughing with one another like old friends.

The change in Kunstlich’s attitude took place, in part, because of a heartwarming project sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) which will soon provide “assisted living” housing in Haifa for more than 80 Holocaust survivors. When asked what he thinks about the home being constructed by German workers, Kunstlich shakes his head in amazement. “Who would believe they would come here and work to build this place?” he says. “I myself want to come and live in this new home!”

For several years, ICEJ has been involved in outreaches to Holocaust survivors, including an Adopt-a-Survivor program that provides essentials to cash-strapped elderly, sick and impoverished men and women throughout the country. In 2009, it also contributed more than $250,000 to Yad Vashem, funding a Christian desk and other programs.

Of the organization’s cooperative venture with Yad Vashem, ICEJ’s international director Juergen Buehler says, “We decided to have a Christian desk in the place that remembers the most dark and bloody and horrible part of Christian history with the Jewish people. And I think for Yad Vashem to want to establish a Christian desk is a sign that something is changing in Christian and Jewish relations.