Baltimore Holocaust survivors Felicia Graber and Martha Weiman faced a familiar horror when Hamas attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped Israelis on Oct. 7.
The two octogenarians drew parallels between the deadliest single attack against Jews since the Holocaust and the spike of antisemitic incidents globally, to their own families’ experience fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.
Their sentiments come as the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, which is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. Maryland also recognizes the day as that state’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In Hamas’ ideology and founding documents, there is the same genocidal intent as that of the Nazis, both Graber and Weiman said.
“The Nazis wanted to annihilate all the Jews, and that is exactly what Hamas is doing now,” said Weiman, who is 89 and a child survivor from Germany. “They’re educating children, and that’s what the Nazis did. They are dehumanizing Jews.”
Weiman was frightened and shocked by the barbarism of the attack and the antisemitism that followed. “I don’t remember it being this frightening for quite a while,” she said. “It seems to have been exploding very, very quickly and is so blatant.”
The Nazis used propaganda to win the support of millions of Germans. “This is how it started with the Germans. First there were words and then there were actions: dead Jews, burned buildings and closed businesses,” said Weiman. She was 5 years old when Nazi soldiers stormed her house and arrested her father, taking him to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Her immediate family was eventually able to flee to the United States.
Weiman shares her family’s story of persecution and survival as a speaker to adults and children for the Baltimore Jewish Council’s Holocaust and countering antisemitism programs. A past president of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and resident of Towson, Weiman also serves on the state’s Holocaust Remembrance and Education Commission.
“There’s a collective memory of the past and the present. It all comes together, the threats of annihilation and total destruction,” Weiman said. “I find that hard to believe that this is going to happen to us. But to people who ask me, ‘Why do they always pick on the Jews,’ I say, they’ve always done it since day one. When are we not blamed for everything in the world?”
Weiman added, “Certainly, nobody has attacked me personally. But hopefully that’s not just a matter of time. I don’t think it will be, but I don’t know.”
Graber said she is frightened in the aftermath of Oct. 7. “Never Again,” the phrase associated with lessons from the Holocaust, “died on Oct. 7,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that this is happening. What is happening afterward is even more horrible.”
Formerly a resident of St. Louis, Graber, 83, made Baltimore her home in 2012. She has been active in the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants, as well as the Anti-Defamation League’s Hidden Child Foundation. Graber has volunteered for the BJC’s Holocaust Remembrance Commission.
As a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Poland, Graber survived the war with her mother on false Aryan identity papers. Her father survived in hiding.
“There are anti-Israel sentiments and protests all over the world now,” Graber said. “Even after the Holocaust, we felt the sympathy of the world. Now they just want to eliminate us. It’s just like we have nowhere to go, even in America, the land of the free. We had wonderful relations; we felt safe. Now we don’t. So where is there for us to go?
“The only hope that Jews have is that Israel will survive,” said Graber, who belongs to Agudath Israel of Baltimore and Congregation Tiferes Yisroel.
Graber said she is more careful about portraying her Jewishness. She found a Jewish driver for trips at night, afraid that a ride-share driver might be antisemitic toward her.
“This antisemitism started with Oct. 7 and was made more difficult by the response of the world to blame Israel, instead of blaming the perpetrators,” she said. “The world is doing just the opposite. They are blaming the victims.”
As frightened as Weiman is, she said she worries more about her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“What kind of a world are they living in?” she asked.
