Elisabeth Bomstein, a resident of North Plainfield, New Jersey was honored yesterday for helping Jews escape Nazi persecution in Berlin at the risk of her own life.
Naphtalie Lavie, Israeli Consul General here, presented Mrs. Bomstein with a certificate and medal upon her being named a “Righteous Gentile” by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
“The very fact that we are marking this event shows the tragedy,” said Lavie the ceremony held at the Israeli Consulate. “One person is being honored for being righteous,” a fact that emphasizes how few there were like her, he said.
Mrs. Bomstein kept Ilse Lowenberg and her husband hidden for one and a half years in her “very small apartment,” according to Mrs. Lowenberg, who nominated Mrs. Bomstein for the award. “She had very little food, but she shared it with me and my husband, Mrs. Lowenberg said.
Mrs. Lowenberg was at one point caught and sent to Auschwitz, but was able to escape from the train and return to Mrs. Bomstein, who took her back, Mrs. Lowenberg said. Mrs. Bomstein continued to shelter them even after her own husband was arrested and shot in the leg for harboring Jews, Mrs. Lowenberg added.
Mrs. Lowenberg, now a resident of New York City, said Mrs. Bomstein had also helped other Jews, giving them food and shelter whenever she could. “I would do it again,” Mrs. Bomstein said at the end of the ceremony.
The designation “Righteous Gentile” was set up by the Israeli government to recognize the deeds of individuals and communities during World War II, according to Lavie. “Unfortunately, no communities have been found,” he added.
The purpose of the award is “not just to express our gratitude” to people like Mrs. Bomstein, “but to remind the world of what happened and what can be,” Lavie said.
Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey sent Mrs. Bomstein a telegram lauding her heroism and congratulating her on receiving the award.
Along with yesterday’s ceremony, a tree will be planted in honor of Mrs. Bomstein on the Mountain of Remembrance in Jerusalem.
“There should not be an alley (of trees) for the righteous gentiles, but forests,” said Menachem Rosensaft, chairman of the International Network of Children of Holocaust Survivors and present at the ceremony. “If there were forests, there would not be six million dead.”
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