As usual, we all went down to Heat cafe for breakfast. This time Flip Delmonte of the Netherlands joined me for breakfast. I told him how much he reminded me of his childhood friend, Gert-Jan de Kleer.  Gert-Jan de Kleer was a close friend of mine for many years, and he was a wonderful actor as well as a great artist. Sadly, Gert-Jan died in 1998 - I still missed him. I was delighted to meet Flip, Gert-Jan's childhood friend and got to know him.

We all walked to Humboldt University, but I noticed most of us were tired. Tired not because of late nights or whatever reason, but tired because the subject matter of the conference was getting to us. We were ready for what would come today, now that we knew each day there would be something just as heavy as yesterday's.

The first of today's 9 speakers was John Hay, a Deaf British man who was a senior Lecturer at University of Wolverhampton in England and was a die-hard history buff.  His lecture was about the evacuation of Deaf children in England during World War 2, and I certainly looked forward to this speech because I once heard a story that the late Dorothy Miles told in my Deaf Playwright class 29 years ago. Hay presented his lecture beautifully, in conjunction with history. He started with how Poland was invaded by Germany on September 1st, 1939 - a date most of us do know. Well, on September 3rd, 1939 the British government, after being quite alarmed by this invasive action, decided to protect children. One of the first steps they undertook was to move Deaf children in groups to places that they thought Nazis would not know about, but some of their decisions were strange: 1) one place in Scotland was obviously the wrong location, since German planes flew over it - Deaf children even waved at those planes! and 2) the Deaf children of London's ITA (Jewish School for the Deaf) were evacuated to a regular school of the Deaf (whose children were moved to a different location)!? Hay was correct, these decisions were pretty strange. Hay pointed out how funny Deaf children were at creating signs - for example, the location of Deaf children at Goring was signed as "Goering", the Nazi chubby man because these names sounded the same. Another interesting fact Hay presented was the fact Donaldson's School for the Deaf in Edinburgh became a prison camp for German POWs. For many of these Deaf children, life in those relocations was almost like camp: playing solider, swimming and helping out with farming and so forth. These children received nearly no education at all. All these facts fit the story Dot Miles told in my class, except the fact during the war German planes hit the building not too far where she and her Deaf classmates were - they were sleeping and the floors vibrated horribly, causing them to wake up - they looked out the window and saw this amazing blaze. They had no idea this was war, this was a danger to them.

The second speaker was Douglas Bahl, a Deaf American from Minnesota who was also a die-hard history buff. I knew Bahl from before, when he gave this marvelous lecture about Olaf Hanson, a Deaf architect from Minnesota, at Deaf Way II. I looked forward to another marvelous lecture, and indeed he did a great job of giving his lecture in Gestuno. His subject was about the Deaf Kindertransport, and he first became interested in this subject at the 1994 DHI conference. He was curious about what happened to these Deaf Kindertransport, who they were and how did they fare. He was stunned to find out there was almost no information on these Deaf Kindertransport, so he decided to do the research himself. First of all, he explained that there were over 10,000 German Jewish children who were transported out of Germany for safety between 1938 and 1939. However, none of them were Deaf. Deaf Jewish children were not accepted at most places, even in America. The principal of the ITA school in Berlin knew this fact, and his name was Dr. Felix Reich. He was a hearing German Jew who tried to figure a way to move his Deaf students to safety. He contacted the ITA in London, who agreed to take in 10 Deaf children to their school. This was the first step, he thought - unfortunately as soon as he stepped on the ground in England with the 10 Deaf Jewish children, the British government had him arrested immediately because they mistook him for a German spy! At least these 10 children were safe in London, and Dr. Reich was planning to go back to get more Deaf children. Sadly, this did not happen and the rest of the Deaf students at the ITA -Berlin school (all 146 of them) were taken by Nazis and killed in camps. Bahl rolled off the names of these 10 children, and he smiled because one of them was in the audience - an Anne Senchal - he invited her up on the stage. She moved many of us to tears, because she was emotional in her speech. She really wanted to thank Dr. Reich, and she said she felt so badly for him because after his arrest he never returned to teaching or working with Deaf schools out of extreme guilt. He died in England around 1967. Such a lovely lady. Bahl ended his lecture with this: "I will continue researching and interviewing, and when I am done I will put all of this into a book."

The third speaker was a strong-minded Deaf man from the Netherlands named Jan Backer. I had enjoyed meeting him on the first day and had a chance to chat with him each day since we had a mutual friend: Joke Bloem, the sister of my dear late friend, Gert-Jan de Kleer. His lecture was about Deaf Jews in Amsterdam during the World War 2, especially his personal experience with them. Jan Backer explained that he was born Deaf in 1935, in Amsterdam. He went to a school for the Deaf called J. C. Ammans School for the Deaf in the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, and that there were 15 Deaf Jewish children and 2 Jewish teachers who were a part of this school. In 1942 for him, it was like they all disappeared. He said it was hard for many children at the school, and they constantly wanted to know where these children were. He never forgot those children - he showed several slides of class photos - marked x were the Jewish Deaf children, gone. He knew as he got older he had to do something about this so that people won't forget. He decided to make this beautiful, beautiful documentary called "Silent Sorrow" - the story of forgotten Deaf Jews of Amsterdam, murdered ones and survivors. He showed clips from the film. The stories that flowed from within the clips blew us away. For me, it was the story of Flip Delmonte, the very fellow I had been chatting with all week. His story is almost surreal: "When I was 9 years old, I went to a Deaf event with my hearing parents. Deaf people there stared at me and said that I was the son of Deaf Jewish parents and that I looked just like my Deaf Jewish brother. My parents were embarrassed and took me away, they said it wasn't true. Well, a few years later, after Deaf people pestered them, my mother told me the truth: I was indeed the son of Deaf Jewish parents who were murdered in camps! My older brother survived, but died years later. Apparently the Nazis came in my house and took everyone away - someone who was watching the house counted and realized the Nazis missed me. That person decided to be brave and go in the house after the Nazis left and looked for me - I was still in the crib, sleeping! That man took me and put me under his shirt and carried me away to a safe house, who later gave me to a childless couple. I was speechless! I am so lucky, though, that I had the most loving parents, and all those Deaf Dutch friends of my parents who were able to tell me stories about my Deaf parents and Deaf brother."  Flip was certainly very lucky that he was a Deaf baby, because obviously he slept through all that commotion, and that whoever that fellow was knew how many lived in his house! I have goosebumps crawling all over me now. Jan pointed out some survivors in the audience, other than Flip. Whew.

The fourth speaker was Mark Zaurov himself, who concentrated on Deaf Holocaust and what Deaf Holocaust truly means. He opened his lecture with what Deaf Holocaust truly means, and the history of the word holocaust, which used to be spelled as holokaust. Generally, holocaust as a word / symbol meant total destruction by fire as well as genocide. So, if we added Deaf to holocaust, what does Deaf Holocaust mean? Zaurov asked the audience. He pointed out the previous meaning of just the word holocaust. He said because of this meaning, we cannot include sterlized Deaf victims during the WW2. Deaf Holocaust means all those Deaf Jewish or other Deaf who perished in the camps or on Hitler's orders. Next, Zaurov showed how Deaf Holocaust created a hole in the Deaf community of Europe - many of its Deaf Jews were prominent in sports, education and other related fields. Zaurov showed film clips of interviews he conducted with survivors and had a good question: what is the true number of Deaf Jews killed in the Holocaust - by his estimate, approximately 6,000. But there are no exact numbers. Zaurov's greatest point comes from this, "There are culture concerns about our Deaf. We must look to the history of Holocaust in order to preserve our Deaf history." I believe he means we cannot look the other way if our Deaf peers are being killed, we must do something to unite and help. Look at what happened to certain areas of Europe when Deaf Jews were taken away, where Deaf identity withered to a mere leaf.

Part Two of DHI Conference, Day 4 will be continued with my utmost apology. I forget I have a life: a single parent with two smart children who keeps me very busy! Someone once said to me, "You are blessed to have two smart children." Actually, it's almost a curse to have two smart children!! Even though on some days I bemoan why me, I love my kids dearly!