Liberation stirs memories that resonate today

Tom Kirvan
Legal News, Editor-in-Chief

For students of history, January 27 was a particularly solemn occasion, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in Poland where more than a million men, women, and children perished during World War II.

The anniversary evoked memories of my first visit to the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills several years ago, a tour organized by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman and then U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade. Scores of federal personnel were on hand for the visit to a place that documents the “unprecedented horrific crime” perpetrated by the German war machine.

McQuade, who spent 2010-17 as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, was among those who were particularly moved by the experience that day.

“I was talking with someone on the way in today and she said that the tour will ‘wreck your day,’” McQuade said that June 2016 morning. “Indeed it can, but while it is an incredibly sad experience, it also can be equally inspiring to learn about those who survived the Holocaust and the vital roles many played in changing the course of history.”

Her remarks were echoed by Friedman, a federal judge in Detroit since 1988 who is a frequent visitor to Israel on missions demonstrating his support for the Jewish homeland.

“The Holocaust Center moves me each time I enter its doors,” said Friedman at the time. “It traces the path of evil leading up to and during World War II, and yet it is full of stories of courage and heroism that need to be recognized fully in the years to come.”

In those “years to come,” we have seen a barrage of anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. and across Europe, including several mass shootings in synagogues that claimed a dozen lives. The killings leave us to wonder if we have learned from the tragedy of the Holocaust and gauge our willingness to speak up against injustice in hopes of preventing further genocide.

Such thoughts have a deeper meaning for Jack Gun, a Holocaust survivor who told visitors part of his harrowing life story following that museum tour several years ago.

Gun, then in his early 80s, was just 5 years old when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II.

He was born and grew up in Rozhishche, Poland, part of a Jewish family that included his parents and an older sister and brother. His father helped run a fabric store and a wholesale tobacco business, and also gave a “part of their home over to a Hebrew school for underprivileged children.” He was a “kind and generous man,” said Gun, who counted a Czech farmer, a Christian named “Mr. Yarushka” among his special friends.

In 1941, Gun and his family were herded by the Nazis into the city’s “ghetto,” where food and water were scarce, and danger was ever-present. A year later, the ghetto would be “liquidated” by the Nazis, who marched some 4,500 Jews to their death in front of firing squads. Among those killed were Gun’s parents and sister, while he and his brother escaped the massacre by hiding in a farm hayloft after being alerted of the impending slaughter.

Over the course of the next two years, Gun and his brother would rely on the grace, courage, and cunning of Mr. Yarushka and a worker of his, who provided food and clothing to the two boys while they were hiding in nearby fields and forests. The brothers spent one winter in a makeshift bunker, battling numbing cold, hunger, boredom, constant fear, and infestations of lice.

“Back then, there was no ‘global warming,’ no ‘January thaw,’” Gun said of his own winters of discontent.

Their daily menu consisted of “stale bread and cold potatoes,” offerings that grew increasingly scarce as the winter months dragged on.

After a series of close calls, the brothers were able to come out of hiding when the Russians liberated parts of Poland in the spring of 1944. It was the beginning of a four-year odyssey that would take them to Russia, Austria, Germany, and eventually the United States, where they bounced around from New York, to Pennsylvania, to Detroit.

There, Gun would become proficient in English, graduating with academic honors from Detroit Central High. As a teen, he was the subject of a local newspaper article titled, “He’s a Mere 15 But Has Lived 1,000 Years.”

In many respects, it was an apt headline for a Holocaust survivor who would become a successful businessman in his adopted country, raising a family that in 2016 included two children and six grandchildren.

“I owe my life to my brother and many others,” Gun said. “Without their help and courage, I wouldn’t be here today, telling a story that to many of you seems unimaginable. I can never give enough thanks for what they did and the sacrifices many people made.”