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Apologies for sending this newsletter twice. Several of you contacted me to let me know that the “Subscribe to my newsletter” and the “Donate” buttons were not working. I found a couple of other bloopers as well…If you didn’t click on Chutzpah and Courage, my new 501(c)3, I hope you do so this time so you can read about my ongoing work.
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An Exciting New Venture
LONG TIME ~ NO SEE
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Greetings to old and new friends alike. My absence from sending newsletters has been very long and complicated, so I’ll just say that I’m back in the saddle again, following a time of dedicating myself to family matters that needed my undivided attention.
There is so much to share with you, but I’ll start with the recent commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jan. 27 was designated as an annual event by a United Nations General Assembly resolution on Nov. 1, 2005. The resolution came after a special session was held earlier that year in January, during which the United Nations marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of one the most infamous Nazi concentration camps.
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On Jan. 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by Soviet troops, helping to end the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War, resulting in the deaths of 6 million Jews (including 1.5 million children) and 11 million others, by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. That significant day is recognized with memorial services held worldwide.
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Gadi Shalom (kneeling) and his father, Emmanuel (now Of Blessed Memory) visiting the gravesite of family members in Lithuania. Emmanuel was one of the four little boys I wrote about in Izzy’s Fire.
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Even though I believe we must honor the past, I want to share something in the present, a time of great excitement for the future of my work. Recently I formed a 501(c)(3) organization, which I named Chutzpah and Courage. Those two words exemplify my beliefs as a Christian and also honor the deep respect I have for Judaic history. I have dedicated more than half of my 40 years as a journalist to writing about anti-Semitism, as well as finding ways to stop other discrimination.
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Taking this step seemed like a natural thing to do, since I am now entering my third decade researching and writing about ways to help bring an end to anti-Semitism, discrimination, bullying and bias, especially among school children. I’m so appreciative of your past generosity. Chutzpah and Courage now provides a tax-deductible funding base that will enable me to continue offering programs about my work at schools, in various community organizations and presentations to local, regional, national or international audiences. I couldn’t continue this work without your help.
I have been joined in that endeavor with four very able and trustworthy friends, individuals who have helped me in countless ways over the years and now have agreed to serve as the first members of the board of directors for Chutzpah and Courage. Get acquainted with them, my planned path forward, and also support future work by visiting www.chutzpahandcourage.org.
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I want to do some retrospective reporting in future newsletters, which will be quarterly. I’ll still write about current events, but I’ll look back over my shoulder and introduce you to some very special people whom I have met along the way. Some live in the U. S., some in Europe, and others live in Israel and Canada. The forthcoming stories may go back as far as 2018 or longer.
I realize that it would be more like history than news, but I wanted to share these meaningful events with you, my special friends, knowing that you will rejoice with me over the smallest victory. The past work will also reflect that, although there were no newsletters, I did manage to work sporadically. Your prayers and encouragement, collectively and individually, have been my guiding light. For that, I am deeply grateful.
The COVID-19 virus has curtailed any recent travel and, sadly, has claimed two very special friends whom I loved dearly.
When I heard Alan Zimm recite the names, as well as familial designations, of the 13 family members he lost during the Holocaust, it suddenly became apparent to me how devastating the Holocaust was to individual families. His loss — everyone in his family except one brother —not only broke my heart, but also set me on the path toward writing about the Holocaust. That singular event, which happened during a Kristallnacht ceremony on Nov. 9, 1997, at Emek Sholom Holocaust Memorial Cemetery in Richmond, changed the trajectory of my life and work forever.
Mr. Zimm and I grew very close over the years and often spoke at programs together, along with his lovely wife, Halina, also a Holocaust survivor. After his death, I was honored when Bill Lohmann asked me for a quote about my precious friend for an article he was writing for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Channel 6 (WTVR) also interviewed me via Zoom, allowing another opportunity to offer my heartfelt respect for Mr. Zimm and his ever-present love for mankind. There was not an iota of anger in him, even though he was the last surviving member of his immediate family when I first met him. I was doubly honored to be asked to attend his memorial service and to participate with his family during Shiva services, held through Zoom meetings as a necessity from COVID-19. The Zimm family will always hold a very special place in my heart. Mr. Zimm became Of Blessed Memory on April 18, 2020, just one month shy of his 100th birthday.
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Nancy Wright Beasley, Alan Zimm, and Inge Horowitz, following one of the annual ceremonies held at Emek Sholom Holocaust Memorial Cemetery to commemorate Jews lost during the Holocaust. Inge served as the president of Emek Sholom Cemetery for 20 years.
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Irena Veisaitė, a resident of Vilnius, Lithuania, was not only a teenage survivor of Kovno Ghetto but also an intellectual, theatre scholar, author and human rights activist widely respected in Europe and beyond. Look for her honors on Wikipedia. I met Irena in Vilnius in 2010, when she attended a dinner and book talk hosted by Anne E. Derse, then the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania. Following a time of my reading from Izzy’s Fire, which was attended by other Holocaust survivors, prominent Jewish leaders and local political dignitaries, Irena said she would like to know me better and asked if I would come for tea the next day.
Simonas Dovidavičius, one of my wonderful guides in Lithuania, was also Irena’s friend, so he took me to her home, a fifth-floor apartment, with no elevator. The 10 flights of stairs exhausted me and I wondered how Irena, then over 80, could master that steep incline. Irena served tea and candy, although she and Simonas are both diabetic. Needless to say, I ate most of the chocolate, a delicacy for which Lithuania is known. Irena spoke so quietly that I had to lean in to hear every word; she never said an unnecessary syllable.
It was late December, between Hanukkah and Christmas, and much colder than I had expected. When I got ready to leave, Irena insisted that my jacket was insufficient, and she offered me one of her lovely, down-filled coats. I tried to refuse, but she won out. I was glad she did. When I left for the airport the next morning at 4 a.m., it was snowing. I snuggled in the coat all the way to New York and treasure it still. Whenever I stick my arms into the sleeves and button it, I feel like Irena is hugging me again. Irena and I stayed in touch over the years, and we shared a final cup of tea, but no chocolate, in her apartment in September 2019, when I was visiting Lithuania for the fifth time. I’m so glad I took her a bouquet of flowers, and recently I had sent her an email, wishing her a Happy Hanukkah for 2020. I’m not sure she ever received it, as I later learned she had been hospitalized for some time. Irena was born in Kaunas and ultimately saved from Kovno Ghetto and raised by a non-Jewish family, after her mother was taken to the Fourth Fort and executed. Irena, an only child, was 92 when she was overcome by COVID-19 and became Of Blessed Memory on Dec. 11, 2020.
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Nancy’s first visit with Irena Veisaitė in 2010
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Simonas Dovidavičius was one of the most amiable individuals I’ve ever known. He always had a gentle smile and a way to find answers to questions, even on a moment’s notice. A mutual friend, Barry Mann (who now lives in Utah with his Lithuanian wife, Virginija, a subject for a future newsletter), introduced me to Simonas via email and told me of his vast knowledge concerning the Holocaust. Simonas was born and lived in Kaunas, where many forts (built by the Soviets during their occupation of Lithuania) were later used by Germans as holding pens for Jews from the surrounding area during World War II. I wrote at length about the most infamous one, the Ninth Fort, in both Izzy’s Fire and The Little Lion.
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Monument and partial wall of Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania
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Simonas became the executive director of Sugihara Foundation: “Diplomats for Life” in 2001. He held that position for 19 years. Below you will see a photo of Simonas talking with me in front of a huge map that showed the railroad route whereby thousands of Jews escaped the Holocaust on fake passports, prepared by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who lived in Kaunas during the war. With the help of his wife, Sugihara is credited for issuing fake visas that saved thousands of Jews, some of whom are still living.
There was little separation between Simonas’s personal life and his work. He loved both and worked hard to broaden his knowledge in the field of Lithuanian Jewish history, while maintaining and supporting the local Jewish community. Nomeda Repšytė, a mutual Lithuanian friend who shared my guide duties with Simonas, sent me the link to his obituary. It was just three months after Simonas had prepared coffee and chocolate for me, a member of Brandermill Rotary Club, Arvydas Sasbrinkas, a member of the Kaunas Rotary Club, and Poul Dengsoe, a member of Dragsholm Rotary Club in Denmark. (I’ll also cover this subject more fully in a future newsletter.)
To paraphrase from an article that Nomeda sent me: “[Simonas’s] kind heart has stopped beating on a day which precisely marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Sugihara Foundation: “Diplomats for Life.” My friend became Of Blessed Memory on Dec. 14, 2019.
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Simonas Dovidavičius explaining the rail route of Jews escaping Kaunas, (depicted by the red line on the map) armed with false visas distributed by Sugihara.
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Nomeda Repšytė was a guide for Nancy in Lithuania. Over the years, she became a special friend.
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Chiune Sugihara – Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews by giving them fake visas.
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I have struggled to find the words to honor a couple who has helped me from literally going under many times, with their encouraging words and with their financial support for over two decades. I will just borrow from what I shared with Bill Lohmann, who wrote about them in the Times-Dispatch. I sent Bill an email to let him know that Neil November had passed away in 2018. The next year, Bill sent me an email saying that Sara Belle, too, had passed away, and he asked me for a quote to use in an upcoming tribute. Bill had no way of knowing that I was in Lithuania at the time and that, Patricia Low, Sara Belle’s niece, had not had time to notify me of her death.
Here is what Bill wrote:
“A few hours before she learned of Mrs. November's death, Nancy Wright Beasley stood before an audience at the Jewish Public Library in Vilnius, Lithuania, and talked about how much the Novembers had meant to her and the debt of gratitude she owed them.
"‘Without their help, I would not have had the courage to become an author and playwright,’ said Beasley, who credited the Novembers with supporting her travel and research for two books and a play based on the Holocaust.
“‘For 20 years, their constant belief in my work never faltered, and after Neil's death, Sara Belle continued to encourage and support me in every way,’ Beasley wrote in an email. ‘My heart is on its knees right now and I feel broken, but I know that tomorrow I will have to dust myself off and start anew, knowing that they are together again and watching over me still.’"
My beloved friends, Neil and Sara Belle, became Of Blessed Memory respectively on March 2, 2018, and Sept 18, 2019.
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Neil and Sara Belle November and Nancy Wright Beasley, attending one of the many ceremonies held in Richmond, Virginia, where Sara Belle was honored as a patron of the arts.
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When I began this work more than 20 years ago, I wasn’t sure how important it was for me to write about a long-ago time that demanded intense research covering an extremely difficult subject, to say nothing of the personal emotional toll it would take on me to stay true to the subject. My mother gave birth to four children during the war years. I’ve always thought it a tad coincidental that I, the last child, was born at 4:45 a.m. on Sept. 2, 1945. Later that day, General Douglas MacArthur signed the peace treaty with Japanese officials aboard the USS Missouri, solidifying an end to all aggression.
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The Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 (National Museum of American History)
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Given the recent civil unrest, the intensified racial injustices and the unspeakable breach that took place at our revered U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, I am more committed to this endeavor than ever. With your support, I promise to continue working even harder, determined to influence our youth to be more understanding of each other, thereby shaping our future and striving hard for a more peaceful world. I appreciate your help and support as I try to do this.
I’d like to hear from you. Let me know if you like or dislike this newsletter, or have ideas for future work. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts (nancy@nancywrightbeasley.com). I would also appreciate your continued prayers, as I know they have kept me going through some very tough times.
Nancy Wright Beasley
Author, Journalist
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