Buchenwald trip has personal meaning for Obama aide

[babylonsister]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-buchenwald7-2009jun07,0,1066118,full.story


Buchenwald trip has personal meaning for Obama aide

Chris Usher / For The Times

Caretakers at Buchenwald helped Josh Lipsky, 23, collect information about his grandfather Samuel Smulowitz, who had been a camp cook.

Josh Lipsky volunteered to help prepare for President Obama's visit to the concentration camp, where his grandfather had been a prisoner. There he makes a connection with the man he never knew.
By Christi Parsons
June 7, 2009


Reporting from Dresden, Germany -- The clock at Buchenwald was stuck at 3:15. The White House advance guy noticed, and put it on the list of things to fix.

The 23-year-old laughed at himself when he learned the clock's hands were deliberately frozen, marking the exact time the concentration camp was liberated in 1945.

During the week Josh Lipsky spent getting Buchenwald ready for his boss' visit to the camp Friday, the clock would come to mark something other than schedule, precision, his own readiness.

He would live a little in that moment trapped in time alongside the grandfather he never knew -- and would know himself better when he left.

snip//

When Obama took his place -- beneath the clock proclaiming the time to be 3:15 -- Lipsky knew the exact number of paces between Obama and the bank of cameras, where he also stood. He listened there, 21 steps from the president. He did not check his watch as the president spoke of a song written by Buchenwald prisoners with lyrics that pledge, "We will say yes to life."

"These individuals never could have known the world would one day speak of this place," Obama said. "They could not have known that some of them would live to have children and grandchildren who would grow up hearing their stories and would return here so many years later to find a museum and memorials and the clock tower set permanently to 3:15, the moment of liberation.

"They could not have known how the nation of Israel would rise out of the destruction of the Holocaust and the strong, enduring bonds between that great nation and my own.

"And they could not have known that one day an American president would visit this place and speak of them and that he would do so standing side by side with the German chancellor in a Germany that is now a vibrant democracy and a valued American ally.

"They could not have known these things," he said. "But still, surrounded by death, they willed themselves to hold fast to life."

After the speech, friends saw Obama pull Lipsky into a hug. Asked about it, Lipsky said he didn't want to disclose the details of the private moment.

He packed his bags and flew back to Washington on Saturday. He wanted to see his mother in suburban Maryland right away. He wanted to fill in the gaps of the story for her. He wanted her to know what it meant to him.

"He worked in the kitchen," he said before he left Germany for home. "I am his grandson. And I came here working for the president of the United States, and that's a powerful thing for me."

[lamp_shade]

1. Oh my... eyes burning.

[rosesaylavee]

2. Beautiful story.

Thank you for posting.

[rasputin1952]

3. Stories like this, bring to life the times of those who were treated

with scorn and death.

I grew up in NYC, with quite a few Holocaust survivors in the neighborhood, rarely, if ever, would they talk about those days of unmitigated horror.

When I read of the survival of those who had faced the carnage, and the small things they did to alleviate some of the suffering, "lining his clothes with potatoes for the hungry", I am reminded of the humanity of the few...the nobility of the human spirit, the fact that we can face the worst humanity has to offer, and persevere.

I am glad this young man has a chance to fill in some of the holes in his family history.

[Cha]

6. Yes, that had to have been

beyond special for him.. Josh Lipsky.

[rasputin1952]

7. The whole article read like an O. Henry story to me...

pain, irony, loss...and it all comes together in the end as the love of two individuals beats all the odds and becomes a lifelong reality. The sacrifices made, the chances taken and the final meet up on a trolley...it was an amazing story, and I think Josh finally has some answers. He can be very proud of his Grandparents...and if I were in his shoes, I'd have to wonder just why things worked out the way they did. There are times when just calling it "chance" is too easy. A lot of work, luck and cunning went into the survival of both of them...and then to meet again, after being seperated...hard to keep a dry eye thinking about this odyssey of two souls...:)

[Cha]

10. Speaking of not a dry eye..

I just read the whole story because of your post.. I just knew it was beyond Special for Josh even reading the OP.

"After the speech, friends saw Obama pull Lipsky into a hug. Asked about it, Lipsky said he didn't want to disclose the details of the private moment.

He packed his bags and flew back to Washington on Saturday. He wanted to see his mother in suburban Maryland right away. He wanted to fill in the gaps of the story for her. He wanted her to know what it meant to him.

"He worked in the kitchen," he said before he left Germany for home. "I am his grandson. And I came here working for the president of the United States, and that's a powerful thing for me."

[rasputin1952]

11. Isn't that incredible...

I found many parts of the story very compelling. I wonder what went through his head when he stood where his Granfather had stood in the kitchen? The spiriting away a few potatoes to feed the starving, the courage that was necessary to do some of the things he did...how many of us would measure up?

One of my neighbors, when I was growing up, said that every one in the front rank one day, was taken off and shot. Normally, he stood in the front rank for Roll Call, because that rank was generally taken off for work outside the camp...he exchanged w/another in the 3rd rank, becasue his fellow prisoner was going berserk being confined, and wanted to go outside the gate...jsut once. That one time, cost him his life, Who knows how the hand of fate will deal at any given time...:(

By the time I was 7, I knew some of what happened...and had learned the call...Never Again.
I have lived it as long as I've been alive, fighting the ignorance and the authority that can so easily destroy.

Josh has some pieces of the puzzle.



And from Martin Niemoller:

[Cha]

12. It's one of the very

saddest eras of history and to have something come full circle like this in a positive way with our new President as Josh Lipsky says is very powerful, indeed!

[kath]

4. 23 years old and working for the President! Wow.

What a lucky, lucky guy to have landed such a job.

And what a moving story.

[Cha]

5. My eyes are

glistened from reading the sweetest tribute.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. What a moving story. I'm sure there were moments like this with other..

administrations, but for the life of me, I don't recall hearing about them. Twenty three years old, and working for the POTUS. He must be a really special young man, and he's quite cute too.

[BlooInBloo]

9. :)))))))

[boppers]

13. ...another grandson of the Holocaust, here.

It means incredible amounts to us every time we learn even a tiny little bit more.

[Cha]

14. This latest must be

very poignant for you, boppers.