When Dr. Walter Ziffer of Weaverville began writing his memoir Confronting the Silence: A Holocaust Survivor’s Search for God, he had no intention of publishing. But with polarizing rhetoric dividing Americans and antisemitic violence on the rise, he felt morally obligated to get his manuscript out there.
“This morning, on the computer, I saw a report about attacks on Jewish communities,” says Ziffer, who is 90. He’s referring to the wave of bomb threats in late February. Asheville’s Jewish Community Center on Charlotte Street was among those affected. “I don’t want to get into modern politics, but things don’t look so good.”
Ziffer’s upcoming book talk on Sunday, April 23, at 7 p.m., at Agudas Israel Congregation, is an attempt to drawn new awareness to the carnage of World War II. Though some 6 million Jews were killed under Hitler’s order, Ziffer says we run the risk of forgetting and then repeating history.
“It can happen here. Our DNA is the same as the Nazis in Germany,” he says.
With many survivors passing away, Jim Stokely — publisher of Dykeman Legacy Press and son of Western North Carolina conservationist and writer Wilma Dykeman — calls Ziffer’s text, “possibly the last great Holocaust memoir.” Stokely says the 200 pages unpack ruthless moments, like when Nazis murdered Lydia, Ziffer’s first sweetheart. “It was perhaps the most traumatic moment when I found out she had been shot,” says the author. “We were in love.”
But there are softer memories, too. Father Tati told hackneyed jokes and Mutti, or mother, laughed every time. Sister Edith had a spitfire spirit and even helped her brother drain a bottle of Malaga wine without their mother’s knowing. (Both got a good whacking for that.)
Ziffer says it was his family’s affection — not God, as so many people insist — that helped him survive. Love and “pure, sheer luck.” — Lauren Stepp
WHAT: Confronting the Silence: A Holocaust Survivor’s Search for God book talk and signing
WHERE: Agudas Israel Congregation, 505 Glasgow Lane, Hendersonville, agudasisraelsynagogue.org
WHEN: Sunday, April 23, 7 p.m.
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